Inane Ramblings

Sneaking Under The Lisbon Treaty Radar

2008-06-04T15:09:00.004+01:00

By now everyone on this Island of ours, on the western side of Europe, has heard about the up coming referendum to ratify the Treaty Of Lisbon. From what I've read on different web sites and on foreign news channels, most of the people in the EC are aware of the referendum here too as we are the only county in the EC which is holding a referendum to ratify the treaty. The other countries current governments have the power to ratify the treaty without consulting the voters.

The Treaty is, apparently, a huge document of wishie-washie beaurocratic gobbledy-gook. I haven't read it, nor would I attempt to. Instead I bided my time and got the booklet from the Referendum Commission.

Most of the debate on the referendum has been about how the treaty will be good or bad for Ireland, depending on which side you're listening to. The booklet is fair in it's presentation of the things and just presents the facts in a fairly easy to read manner - not an easy thing to do considering the subject manner.

I read the booklet carefully, getting to grips with each part. Most of the treaty seems to be concerned with making the EU fairer for all the member states and giving new member states an equal say. This involves Ireland having to give up some of it's voting power. This is what most of the "Yes" and "No" campaigners have been going on about.

But then I hit one small line which actually said what the change to our constitution will be. THIS is what we're being asked to vote on. THIS is the change that is being proposed and it's not just about the Treaty Of Lisbon.

To quote the booklet...

This means that any national government may veto
such a proposal. If the European Council does agree a
proposed change, any national parliament may prevent
these changes coming into effect. Under the proposed
amendment to the Constitution of Ireland the approval of
the Dáil and Seanad will be required for Ireland to agree
to such proposed changes. Such changes would not
require a referendum in Ireland.

The piece in bold is what hit me. By voting "Yes" to change the Constitution of Ireland, the government want us to not only ratify the Treaty of Lisbon, but they also want to make sure that they don't have to ask us about any future EU treaties.

This came as a surprise to me as I haven't heard anyone, in any media let people know about this. I presumed I must be misreading it, so I looked up the wording of the change to the constitution. It says

8° The State may exercise the options or discretions provided by or under Articles 1.6, 1.9, 1.11,
1.12, 1.13 and 2.1 of the Treaty referred to in subsection 7° of this section but any such exercise
shall be subject to the prior approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas.

I don't think I've misinterpreted it.

If the change is passed this will be the last referendum we have on anything to do with the EU. The last members of the voting public which can ratify or reject EU treaties will be gone. I guess the government figure something that important can't be left to idiots that voted them in in the first place.

Girls Can't Skim Stones

2008-05-29T12:59:00.005+01:00

While surfing the other evening I came across this ball which bounces on water. It's called a Waboba. It looks pretty cool. You can see a video of it in action here.
While I was starting to watch the video, the Better Half came into the room and started watch it too.

"Can you do that thing with stones bouncing on the water?" she asked me.

"Skimg stones?! Of course I can" I replied, "I'm a guy."

"I can't" she said.

"No" I replied "because you're not a guy."

"My father can" she said.

"Duh! Of course he can. He's a guy!"

She was a bit confused now and seemed to be toying with the idea of accusing me of being sexist. Me!? Sexist?! I wasn't being sexist, I was just stating a fact of life.

Girls can't skim stones!

She didn't agree, so I did a quick straw poll and found that 100% of the women in room could not skim stones. Not convinced by these hard facts I tried some research on the topic on the internet. What better place to find hard evidence than the web site for the World Stone Skimming Championships which take place on a little island off the coast of Scotland called Easdale.

The results of the 2007 championships speak for themselves. The winner of the women's event, from South Africa, skimmed her stone 29m. Second was 26m and third 23m.

The Better Half thought that this was evidence that they could skim stones, but I had to point out that these were basically statistical anomalies. Freaks if you will. After all these were fully grown women at the peak of their stone skimming careers taking part in the world championships, and yet the winning distance in the under 10 boys competition was 24m. A puny young boy! He would have come third in the women's competition. The boys in the 10-15 years section got much better distances than the best of the women.

To further demonstrate my point there was only one girl in the girls under 10 years section that managed to skim a stone! One! In the whole world!

I did another straw poll at work, and again found that 100% of the female responses were that they couldn't skim stones, but her boyfriend could.
She put it down to the wrist action of fellas and that girls couldn't be arsed.

Girls can't skim stones! Okay - maybe there's some evidence that girls can skim stones, but I it's a bit like girls peeing standing up. They can do it but it's not a pretty site and they'll be wet after.

Crysis Crisis

2008-04-17T17:06:00.008+01:00

Last Christmas, my ever thoughtful Better Half, did her ever vigilant research into the latest computer games to find something that she thought was good and that I'd enjoy. She came up trumps yet again and on Christmas morning I unwrapped Crysis.

Crysis was one of the most eagerly awaited and talked about games last year. It was going to push PCs and their graphics cards to whole new limits. It set a new benchmark in graphics. Great game - IF your PC and graphics card could handle it. Therein lay the problem. My graphics card just didn't have the power that could handle it. The game would have to wait.

Hardware
Over the past few months I'd have a look at graphics cards. Mostly I'd think they were too expensive and then forget about it again for a few weeks. Every so often, the Better Half, would ask if I'd checked out new graphics cards and that I should get one. This process repeated several times until just over a week ago.

I spotted a very good card (GeForce 8800GT in case you're wondering), and it was on sale. 33% off! It was more than I had planned spending, but it would probably do me for much longer than the card I had been considering. Finally I bit the bullet and ordered the card. As the card was PCI Express, I knew it would need a 6 pin power connector. My power supply didn't have one, so I ordered a converter cable from eBay.

A few days later the card arrives. I opened the box and had a quick read of the instructions, especially the power requirements section. They strongly discouraged the use of the power cable converters. The only think for it was to order a new power supply unit (PSU).

Checked around a few sites. Found a 650w PSU at a reasonable price so I ordered it. I was hopeful that it would arrive before the weekend so I could put in. (Insert your own rant about courier companies here - I'm sure you have one.) I got the PSU on Monday.

Monday evening. Better Half is out visiting. The Yoddler (sort of a yodelling toddler) is asleep. I get to work.

I removed the old graphics card and PSU. Took them outside and cleaned them with an air duster. Took the rest of the PC outside and cleaned it with the air duster. Put in the new PSU. Put in the graphics cards. Connected up all the power cables. Reconnected keyboard, mouse, audio cables, USB cables, network cable and power cable. Then I hoped it would all work first time. Surprise, surprise - it did! I then made some changes to the BIOS settings, and installed the latest drivers etc for the graphics card.

Total time to disassemble and reassemble: About 2 hours.

It was getting late so I figured I'd leave installing Crysis until the next night.

Software
One night later. I got to the PC at 9ish in the evening. I started to try to remove the plastic wrapper from the game box. It didn't want to come off and put up a brave fight before finally relenting. It was so hard to get it off, I figured that would be the hardest part of the game installation.

I popped the DVD in the drive. The autorun program started, and I clicked on install. I chose where I wanted it installed to and let it go to work. It chugged along, copying files from the DVD to PC (as they do) and updating the little progress bar on the way. All went fine until it popped up with an error message saying that the sounds~.pak file was corrupt. Being the friendly sort of error message it offered me some choices - abort, retry or ignore. I chanced retry. It chugged on as before (still updating the progress) and then repeated the error message.

I clicked retry (again). While it was busy, I decided I'd copy the DVD to the hard disk, and then try to install from there when it was done. While that was going on I started surfing a little to see if this was a common problem. Apparently it is.

At this stage the error message had appeared another couple of times. The copying of the DVD to the hard disk was going to take a while (it was estimating over an hour since the install was attempting to run as well). The possible solutions I'd found involved installing from the hard disk (as I was going to try) - or that the memory in the PC might be a little dodgy. Either way, it was now over two hours since I started installing the game, so I left it alone and went to bed.

Software Day 2
In the morning, the error message was there again, but the DVD seemed to had copied. That evening I attempted to install from the hard disk. It proceeded as before and then threw up the same message.

"It has to be the memory then" I thought. I powered down, turned the tower on its side and opened it up. I took out two sticks of memory and powered it back up. I tried opening the offending file from the hard disk using WinRAR. Same error - it said the file was corrupt. I powered it off again, and then retried with each stick of memory individually, with the same result every time. I could only conclude that I was unlucky with buying 4 dodgy sticks of RAM, or else there was something wrong with the DVD itself. I assumed the latter and put all the memory back in and rebooted.

Then, for some reason, I figured I'd try and open the file with WinRAR from the DVD. It worked. I copied the file (again) from the DVD to PC and reran the installation. It got further and then gave the same message but for a different file. I tried opening that file from the DVD with WinRAR and it succeeded. I decided to give the installation one more go from the DVD, and it worked. All the way, no problems. No tries. Just a simple, normal install.

Inconclusive Conclusion
The only difference between that install and the first ones was that the tower was on it's side, and not upright. This means that the DVD was spinning on its side instead of lying flat. Of course, that shouldn't make it difference, but I assume it could have. I didn't uninstall and reinstall to test it.

All in all it probably took over 5 hours to just get the game installed. On the plus side, that's still faster than installing Windows 95 from floppies!

Technology Drives Amok

2008-04-08T12:07:00.003+01:00

Funny how things go. Hadn't read a casual blog about a GPS in ages, then when I'm going to wrote one, Grandad does one, and Michele posts a cartoon on one. Loads of room on the bandwagon so I'll post anyway.

I was going to family party the other night. Since I was planning on having a beverage or two, I arranged to stay at my aunt's house and travel with them to the party. Her hubby, UncleM, has a humongous Land Rover and all it's bells and whistles have bells and whistles.

UncleM and myself head to the car (it's a bit like saying an aircraft carrier is a boat) and he tells me to get in the front. In the dashboard is fairly large screen with the names of lots of radio stations on it. He touches a button on it, marked TV, and RTE1 comes on. "Not a bad picture" he remarks, as AuntyM struggles to heave herself up the considerable height into the back of the car. We pull off, the picture disappears for safety reasons, so he changes it back to the radio.

On route to the party we are to pick up CousinP. Going through the city centre, UncleM is playing tour guide and showing me the sites, obviously taking the mick as I've know the place since I was a kid.

From the back of the car we hear "Take such and such a road" as AuntyM gives directions to CousinP's house.

We're stopped at traffic lights. "Have you seen the Sat Nav?" askes UncleM. He hits another button and a map is displayed on the screen.

"In 200 metres turn left" says Sat Nav. "I don't know where's it's going. Can't remember what it's set to" says UncleM. "She's got a lovely voice. I've asked her out but she ignores me" he says.

"Go straight to the end of this road" says AuntyM.
"In 400 metres turn right" says Sat Nav.
Uncle Mike turns left.
"Where are you going?" says AuntyM.
"In 200 metres turn left" says Sat Nav.
Uncle Mike turns right, onto a narrow little road, which has just enough room for one normal sized car at a time. He navigates the road and finally arrives to CousinP's house, Sat Nav all the while giving different directions to some unknown location.

"I must read the manual on it" remarks UncleM, while CousinP is trying to figure out an elegant and appropriate lady-of-her-age manner to negotiate the climb into the back.

As we start to leave the housing estate CousinP says "Turn left here and go to the end of the road".
"Turn left" agrees Sat Nav.
"Why didn't you turn left?" questions AuntyM as UncleM goes straight across the intersection.

"In 400 metres turn left" says Sat Nav.
"That's right" remarks CousinP. "What's that voice?" she asks.

"That's the Sat Nav" says AuntyM. "Turn left at the lights".

UncleM turns right and heads to the next roundabout while receiving helpful comments like "See you've gone backwards to go forwards".
"At the roundabout take the third exit" barks the Sat Nav.
"That Sat Nav is a little loud" says CousinP.
"It is loud" says AuntM.

"I don't know how to shut her up" says UncleM.

I presumed he was talking about the Sat Nav, but I might have been wrong.

Oh, we did make it to the party.

The Signs Were There...

2008-04-01T12:29:00.008+01:00

I was watching Match Of The Day 2 the other night when the highlights of Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle came on. Spurs were playing at home, and despite going ahead in the first half, they crumbled and lost 4-1.

Spurs have already qualified to play in Europe next season, for the UEFA cup. They won't qualify for the Champions League, and they won't get relegated. They really don't have anything to play for and seemed to be concentrating on just getting to the end of the season and then enjoying their summer holidays. The signs were there for all to see.

The commentator on the game was interviewing the assistant manager afterwards. He'd seen the signs and put it to the assistant. He denied this was the case. He mustn't have seen the signs...

Edit: check the advertising SIGNS

The Correct Way To Drown The Shamrock

2008-03-20T23:15:00.001Z

The Good Old Days

2008-03-12T00:05:00.005Z

Back when men knew how to handle women...

Notice that the rope is tied around the ladies' waists, but the men are only holding it...

A Rose By Any Other Name....

2008-02-28T23:30:00.005Z

I like the specials in Lidl. I've mentioned this before. I'm nearly always tempted by something there - luckily I do talk myself down most of the time, and I've avoided having a house full of stuff that I don't use or need (just one room of same).

Today they had gardening stuff. Not really my cup of tea, but I had a look none the less since I was there. I could not believe my eyes. They had, for the meagre price of €5.99, Zinc Plant Pots.

The description from their sheet and web site reads as follows

Zinc Plant Pot

* 12L rustic style plant pot with wooden hand grip
* Size: Ø 29cm, height 25.5cm
* Price per item

To me, a gardening dunce, it looked like a bucket. I had to ask my more experienced better half what she thought it was.

"Bucket" she replied.

"'Tis not", I chortled, "'tis a Zinc Plant Pot!"

"It's a bucket", she retorted, "There's even a great big label on the side saying bucket".

There was.

Marketing say Plant Pot, everyone says Bucket....

Setanta Sports Not So News

2008-02-26T21:16:00.006Z

While recently trying to find out the latest score in a soccer match I had the great idea of checking it on Setanta Sports News. If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing the channel, I'll try and describe it. It's one of those news channels which try to fit as much information as they can on the screen at one time. A combination of news tickers, vidi-printer, league tables, and the bit of screen that's left is used to switch between the presenter and score updates.

While waiting for an age for the latest score from the Champions league games, I was being bombarded with the latest scores from reserve games of the lower leagues. The score ticker then switched to the Scottish Premier league, which had one game in progress. At the same time, the ever excited and enthusiastic host gave some insightful and informed information to the same game while the latest score was flashed onto the screen.

You have to wonder where they get their latest scores from....

New Original

2008-02-09T22:47:00.000Z

Of course it's a silly title for a blog, and it makes no sense whatsoever but I didn't make it up!

Shouldn't it have to be old for a while before you'd claim it as original?!

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

2007-11-30T14:36:00.000Z

During the summer there was a promotion where you could get Setanta Sports free for two months. Sounded like my type of deal, so I took advantage of it and signed up. The deal was you got the entire package of channels for August and September. It coincided with the start of the new season of the Premier League, and the rugby world cup so there was plenty to watch. They took my details, enabled the channels and said someone will give me a call near the end of the two months to see if I want to sign up for longer.

Two months later, while watching the Ireland v France rugby game, I get a call from them! In the middle of the game. I quickly told them it was a bad time i.e. I'M WATCHING THE GAME! What type of sales person would call to sell their sports package at the same time as you're watching one of the key games they were showing?!

A few days later, someone called again at a less sensitive time. They asked me what I thought of the service and would I like to sign up. I was honest with him and said I hadn't watched it much over the two months. I'd seen a few rugby matches but maybe only two soccer games. I just didn't have the time since many of the games they show are at 3pm on Saturday. So I said I wasn't going to pay €18 a month for channels that I wouldn't be watching.

The guy said that since I was already with them, he could give them to me for €9 a month for 3 months. I thought about it and hummed and hawed, all the time he was being a bit pushy, almost Mrs. Doyle type, saying "You know you want it" "It's only €9" go on go on go on. I caved in and signed up. Sure it's only €9, and I'll have the games around Christmas.

He told me if I wanted to cancel at any time, just call. You also had to give a months notice.

Two of the three months has gone by, and I noticed in my diary that I had a note to call and cancel. So I called yesterday.

I got through to customer service. The guy asks some questions to confirm who I was, and then updated my details before asking me how could he help me.

"I want to cancel my subscription"
"Why do you want to do that"
"'Cos I don't watch it enough, and I'm not going to pay €18 a month for something that I'm not going to watch"
"Ok. I'll have to put you through to an accounts manager to have you disconnected. You'll have to give him this reference number"

So he gave me a number and then asked did I have the phone number, if I wanted to call them again. I was wondering why I'd want to call again but anyway...

"Yes. It's 0818 20 30 40"
"No" says he. "It's..." and proceeds to give me the UK number. I interrupted him and told him I was in Ireland.

"Of course you are. Sorry. The number is 0818 20 30 40!
...
"That's the number you just gave me. Sorry"

Then he transferred me.

The new guy asked for my number. I said that I wanted to disconnect and I was giving my months notice and that I had a reference number. I read out the number.

"Sorry what was the number? I couldn't hear it. You're breaking up."
I repeated it.
"No. Sorry. Can't hear it"
I repeated it.
"No. Sorry. It's very bad"
I read out the first couple of letters
"Yeah."
I read the next couple
"No. Sorry. You're breaking up"

My end of the line was fine. I could hear the guys around him perfectly well as they talk with enthusiasm about who would get the Scottish managers job. I was starting to see why I might want to call back...

"Can you hear me now?"
"Yes that's much better"

I was a wonder how well it improved considering I didn't do anything (since I was calling from my desk phone)
I repeated the number and he managed to hear it all! Wonder of wonders.
He proceeded to ask me some questions to confirm who I was. This was followed by
"Why do you want to disconnect?"
"I don't watch it enough and I can't justify paying €18 a month for something I don't watch"
"Do you know what you get for €18 a month?!" he said with great bravado.
"Yes. The same channels that I'm not watching for €9 a month"
"Why don't you watch them?"
"I don't have the time"
"Why don't you have time?"
"Because I have a life"
I think that the line must have mysteriously gone bad again because he replied
"Is it work?"
I wonder if he use to work with the Samaritans or some other counselling service.
"Yeah" I told him. Anything at this stage to get him to disconnect me.

Then finally he agree to disconnect me in 30 days time.

Phew.

As a friend of mine said after
"People who think nothing is impossible have never tried to cancel a Readers Digest subscription".

Wii Fit

2007-11-30T14:31:00.000Z

The Wii Fit has been released in Japan. It'll be some months until it's available in this neck of the woods, unless you want to buy it the Japanese version (and have a Japanese Wii to play it on). If you do then it's currently available from Play-Asia. About €130.

More Soaps in Your Eyes

2007-11-20T00:40:00.000Z

So you don't want to remodel the entire bathroom just so that you can watch TV while having a shower, and you're more of a bath person anyway. Or you can afford to stay in hotels which have television sets in the bathroom. Or there's nothing you like more than watching your soaps while white water rafting....

Never fear - those fine people at Sanyo have just the thing for you. A waterproof LCD portable LCD television.

The battery goes for 7 hours on a charge - you should be good and wrinkly by then!

It's available, in Japan from November 21st - just in time for Christmas. More information from I4U.

Red Means Hot

2007-11-12T09:46:00.000Z

What do you get for your bathroom that has everything - coloured water of course.

Here's a little gadget for lighting up the water coming from the tap (faucet). It will normally light it up in blue, but once the temperature hits 32C (89F) it goes red.

Perfect for those late night trips to the bathroom. Even better for teaching kids that the water is too hot for them. $20 to possibly prevent a nasty scalding - how could you not buy it?

Now if only they made them for taps outside of the US.

The Coolest Cooler

2007-11-10T22:16:00.000Z

The perfect device for Santa to get around to check on who's being naughty or nice.

It only does 14mph/24kph, and he may need the optional back rest.

Look closely and you'll see that it also has a cup holder. 24 cans on the inside and one in the holder.

If you want one you can buy them from here

It's Official - He's Normal!

2007-11-08T22:27:00.000Z

In case you haven't heard, Michael Jackson, formally known as Wacko-Jacko, has given his first real interview for ten years. Ebony magazine has the scoop. (For those who don't know the magazine, their goal is to provide a unique and engaging forum to explore the impact of the world on African Americans and the impact of African Americans on the world.)

The executive summary consists of mostly two points.

1) He is, apparently, normal. Hard to believe, but there it is.

2) His peaches and cream complexion is the whitest to ever grace the cover of the magazine.

Find out more from the Ebony web site

What could you make with....

2007-11-02T13:59:00.001Z

What could you make with some second-hand aluminium (from a crashed 747), an engine from an old Honda Civic, and some seats from an old Toyota?

Have a look here for one guys entry.

Halloween Police

2007-10-31T16:04:00.000Z

I caught a piece of a topical discussion program today on Clare FM. I gather they had been discussing illegal bonfires and fireworks. The caller that I had heard had the novel idea that since banning the bonfires and fireworks hasn't made them go away, that those in charge should "Ban Halloween".

I can just see it now. Kids bobbing for apples behind darkened windows. Police on the look out for illegal pumpkins.

Trick or treating in disguise!

Wireless Photo Uploading

2007-10-31T09:46:00.000Z

If you're one of those people that just can't wait to upload your photos for the world and your family to see, and your camera takes SD memory, then Eye-fi might just have the memory for your memorys.

It's a 2GB SD card with a built in wireless card. You first connect it, via it's own card reader, to your PC, and configure where you want it to upload the photos. It can upload to your PC, or to a website such as Flickr or Picasa.

Once that's done, pop the card into your camera and start shooting. When the camera is in range of your wireless network the card will upload the photos. No need for any cables or card readers - and if you're not saving to the PC, no need for that to be on either.

A great little idea which is sure to make life a little easier. It should also massively increase the amount of poor quality, badly focused, red-eyed photos which really should have been deleted photos on the internet. There'll probably be a lot of ones which accidentally get past the censor as well.

Too bad it's only usable in the U.S. at the moment

Not tonight, I'm washing my keyboard

2007-10-19T10:12:00.000+01:00

This should be a requirement for all keyboards and mice - they should be dishwasher safe. It's a great idea. I read it first here and if you want to buy one check out the maker.

They were originally designed for the medical professions where several people are using the one PC. Nasty germ gathering potential there. So thinking of nasty germ gathering, they'd be idea for any family with young kids that love banging on the keyboard while eating toast. Of course that will usually mean banging the keyboard WITH the toast (while watching the Hippo and the Dog singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight").

Bah Humbug

2007-10-15T12:19:00.000+01:00

I'm already fed up with Christmas, and the clocks haven't changed yet. I'm all for consumerism but give me a break. Some stores are still selling off their summer clothes and yet they have already started putting out their Christmas stuff. I'm well aware of global warming but I don't think Ireland has turned into Australia. It's just not right!

The Christmas stuff is just popping up all over the place. The Better Half spotted a large Santa, hiding behind some vampires and witches in the local SuperValu on Thursday. It was followed by noticing the shopping centre has their Christmas lights up. "At least they're not on yet" I commented to the Better Half as we covered from our initial shock of seeing them.

"It's not dark yet" she replied.

Where will it all end? Why do they bother even taking them down anymore? They should just do like in Grandad's village (he just lives there, he doesn't own it.)

While on a brief visit to Atlantic I noticed that they had their Christmas stuff on display. The Better Half pointed out that it was roped off so that you couldn't buy it. I can only guess that's to prevent the rush of shoppers trying to get the best looking artificial trees.

Fit Update

2007-10-11T12:09:00.000+01:00

Some time ago I mentioned a new device/controller for the Nintendo Wii, called the Wii fit.
Good news is that Nintendo have now announced that it will be on sale from December. More good news is that the price is about €53. Bad news is that they've only announced the date for Japan. No news for the rest of the world yet.

More info from here.

Nomination for a Darwin award

2007-10-09T09:51:00.001+01:00

If you're going to work with electric cables make sure you have a a phase tester. This guy hadn't. Mind you I don't know where you'd get one that can handle 10,000 volts.
Shocking.

Soaps in your eyes

2007-10-05T09:59:00.000+01:00

I like gadgets. (I might have said that before.) But even I know when to say enough is enough.

While having a slight fix of gadget related reading, I read this about a TV for the bathroom. It seems specifically designed for use in the shower. Putting aside the fact that you would probably have to remodel, or at least re-tile the bathroom so that you could run the cables for the TV, I just find myself asking why?!

Why would anyone want to watch TV while having a shower? What is so important that you couldn't afford to miss it while cleaning yourself? How much of it can you really watch while water and shampoo cascade down and get in your eyes? Will people that wear glasses have to keep them on in the shower.

It comes with a remote control!!! WHY?!

Answers on a postcard, or to the comment field...

When is a metre not a metre?

2007-10-02T11:40:00.000+01:00

I recently purchased a new watch. My previous one has seen 12+ years of active service and was starting to have a couple of problems. The previous watch is water resistant for 50 metres, but the new one is water resistant to 100 metres. This wasn't a feature that I was looking for on either watch, but it's handy to know that you don't have to worry about it getting wet during the course of a normal day.

It is a feature that I've wondered about. Who needs a watch that will work in 50m of water? Nevermind 100m - or 200m or even 1000m. Just to put it in context, most swimming pools might have a deep end of 2m or 3m. A diving pool with a 10m board might be up to 5m deep. The Royal Navy in the UK have a tower for practising escaping from submarines. This allows them to do 30m ascents. The world record for free diving is 214m!

I was on the Seiko web site, and while perusing their FAQ I found this useful information about water resistance in watches. Basically, a watch which is resistant at 50m is only resistant at 50m if it's not moving. The watch should be static and the water should be static. If either of them is moving then the pressure is different and there could be leakage.

Q: What exactly does the water resistance description on my watch mean?

A: The Water resistance relates to pressure as measured in the equivalent of a static tank of water at a given depth under water. But please note, the faster an object is moved in or against water, the greater the pressure on the watch. For that reason, a watch that is water resistant
to 30 metres may leak if exposed to water coming forcefully from a tap, or worn whilst viourously swimming or diving, as the increased pressure may exceed the designed resistance.

So according to them, your cool watch which is good to 30m (the same distance as you might escape from a submarine, as you do), mightn't last washing the dishes if you have the tap on too high.

I know I don't need it but...

2007-09-29T00:52:00.000+01:00

I like gadgets. I'm a man. We like gadgets and tools. That's how Lidl and Aldi get us to go in there in the first place. How can you NOT buy a kango hammer at those prices!?! I got a soldering iron the other day. It was €7. How could I not buy it?! I might need it one day. Actually, I did need it one day, but that was about two months ago. I resolved the problem without one. But it might happen again and this time I'm prepared.

Since my ethnic make-up dictates that I have to be informed about the weather, and offer an opening to a conversation on it at any time; (Now reread the opening two sentences of the first paragraph so I don't have to type them again. I'm lazy like that.) I have a digital clock and indoor/outdoor thermometer, also from Lidl, for just such situations. It sees more use than the soldering iron, but it's early days on that front.

Now I'm just waiting for them to start selling these babies! I'll start forming a queue now, 'cos you'd never know when you might need it - and when you do, I'm sure the first thing you'll do is go look at it and see what it says!

A New World Record

2007-09-26T14:05:00.000+01:00

You may be unaware that a new world record for the "World's Biggest Swimsuit Shoot" was just set on Bondi Beach. Over 1000 women in bikinis.

I must admit, that being a hot blooded sexist pig of a male, it one of the photos from the shoot that got my attention, and not some attention grabbing headline. Having admired some of the artistic photos, I did a text search and was interested to find this article on it.

The article is from a respected Australian news site. The whole record itself, I guess, is an example of the Australian beach and outdoors lifestyle. It's a different outlook on things. To further reinforce this difference in outlook, the news site posted the article in the SPORTS section!

I'm still looking for their Spot the volleyball competition.

Lazy Blog Browsing

2007-09-25T09:56:00.000+01:00

The saying is that a picture tells a thousand words, so just imagine how many words from blogs you can get through just by looking at the photos that are posted on them. You can do this by using the Play function of Blogger at play.blogger.com

It's a nice little function which basically runs a slideshow of the latest images which have been uploaded to Blogger. You can get quite a mix of things popping up. From great photos, to not so great photos, to kids drawings, to medical diagrams, to pie charts etc. If you spot something that interests you all you have to do is click on the image and you'll be taken to that blog.

Grab a coffee, put on some music, and click on play.

What could you make with....

2007-09-19T22:53:00.000+01:00

I like to think that I can be inventive; that I can think outside the box; solve problems in different and novel ways. As a child I enjoyed making things from left over bits and bobs - or course there was never an empty washing up bottle, spool of thread or egg box to be had but that's a whole different blog. Things from craft books and television programs. Of course most of them never worked out (but if you don't have the parts what do you expect). I digress.

So what you make with the following: a bottle of detergent, a piece of wood and a rubber glove. If you have time, you can also use a vacuum cleaner - but it is optional.

Me, I haven't come up with anything. I probably could, if given enough time and if my head wasn't still trying to figure out what this guy was trying to make with them. It's like a puzzle where you have a rough idea what it should be but you just can't see how it all goes together.

I wonder if he'd seen the device in the make and do section of one the magazines?

Practice yar ABSeas

2007-09-18T16:58:00.000+01:00

Grab a grog you lubber, and look lively.

Tis almost that most sacred of days..... arrrrr....

TLAPD!
Sail on over here arrr....

All the Wikipedia!

Mild case of death

2007-09-17T15:55:00.000+01:00

I just read an article where a Venezuelan man, who was in a car accident, was declared dead and sent off the morgue, where he duly came to when they started performing the autopsy (as you do).

I'm sure it was a huge shock for the guy. Massive relief (I presume) for his wife, who was on the way to identify the body and finds him sitting in the hallway.

I wonder how the pathologist felt when his patient moved and started to scream?!

At last, useful technology

2007-09-16T22:43:00.000+01:00

I just read some good news that the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has agreed a new specification for Home Network Communication Protocol over IP for Multimedia Household Appliances.
What this means is that different household appliances will be able to communicate with each other.
Loads of practical uses such as the washing machine sending a message to your television when it's finished washing the clothes.

Of course, the television will probably reply it's got nothing to do with it, and that it should contact the clothes drier or the washing line. Then they'll start talking about the game that's on the TV and nothing will get done.

How to be a good father

2007-09-14T16:36:00.000+01:00

As a fairly new father myself, 1 year and a week to be exact, I'm familiar with the daunting confusion that can present itself when a child comes along.

In Japan, apparently, it can be even more confusing for fathers, since they're mostly never at home with kids. They're too busy working to support their family. Their partners end up doing all the raring and most of the men don't realise what's involved.

So some guy has come up with an exam to show fathers just how much is needed to be know about fatherhood. They can pay for the pleasure of answering 50 questions and then find out if they'd be a Super Dad, or not. Great idea. Might open their eyes a little I thought. Until I read that one of the questions is
Who played the father in "Kramer v's Kramer"?
Obviously movie trivial is VITAL when raring children - you don't want your kids to catch you out with a trick question.
More on this here

Progressive thinking

2007-09-13T11:03:00.001+01:00

I recently had the idea that the state (or even just my employer) should give parents the day off for their child's birthday. A novel idea, which has been well received by anyone I've mentioned it to (which hasn't included any members of government, or my employer).

But now I read that one province in Russia, that forward thinking saviour of democracy, has gone one better. They're giving people the day to make babies! Yes, the whole day - not just an extra ten minutes at lunch.

AND. If you (or your partner) happen to give birth in 9 months time, on Russia's national day, 12th of June, you'll win a prize!

Read all about it here.

Impulse Buy

2007-09-07T12:02:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine (lets call him Wayne) is clearing out his CD collection at the moment due to space constraints. These things happen when you get a kid, and ANOTHER arcade cabinet.

He has boxes of CDs which he's bought over the years, but due to space constraints, and the fact that he has them all ripped to his PC, he's letting them go. It wouldn't all be to my taste, but there were a few titles which tempted me. Dunno why, since I have them already as downloads. An other I just thought, "might have be nice to have it but I'll probably not listen to it". One other that I wanted, as it's an excellent live CD. So there were 4 titles I wanted - kind of.

The one I wanted, didn't have the CD in the box. He doesn't know where it is but he'll have a look. This set me back and took the gloss off my impending spending. The "might be nice...probably not listen to it" didn't look so nice now. The other two, I figured, nah, I have them downloaded already. So I didn't take any.

That's the kind of shopper I guess I am. Almost impulsive, but then I think about it. Will I actually use it? Will what I have at the moment do the job? Is it just a waste of money that I could spend on something that I really want/need. And then I change my mind.

I'm the total opposite of Wayne. He is a marketer's dream. He has to have things. And stuff. Gimmicks, fads, special collector editions - he's the man.

For example, in one the boxes, there was a CD by a band I hadn't heard of. Didn't pay much attention to it. Went through a few more CDs and found the same one again. The only difference - the second one was a collectors edition with a second CD in it.

OK, maybe he really likes them - so much so that he's now selling them off - and just wanted to have a comprehensive collection of them. A bit like his Bob Dylan collection. I think it's safe to say that he has the complete back catalogue of Dylan on CD and is now selling it. I'd say there was about 40 different Dylan CDs in the different box. Including The Best Of...

Me, I would have just just bought The Best Of... but I guess that's the type of shopper I am.

It's kinda like, different

2007-08-23T17:07:00.000+01:00

An adventure in couscous.

Couscous. A word many people are familiar with. A food product fewer are familiar with. But ask them what it is and you'll usually get the same answer.

"Ahm..."
or
"It's kinda like rice. Or pasta."

Of course it's neither, but I'm sure that you knew that already as by now you've gone and looked it up in the Wikipedia (all hail the mighty Wikipedia).

Anyway, one day while foraging for food on the weekly hunting and gathering trip to the local Dunnes, I went in search of couscous. Naturally I headed to the area of the store which contained the pasta and the rice (due to the dried wheat based goods nature of the product - not because it's kinda like rice. Or pasta). The rice section was a couscous free area, and the pasta section (dried and fresh) proved likewise. I returned to the hunting party empty handed.

Then, during an inspirational moment, I returned to same area and tried a different tactic. I asked one of the guys stacking shelves in the area if they had couscous.

"Couscous?!" he pondered, "that's rice isn't it!?" he exclaimed.

"No, it's not actually" but failing to have a mobile device with the entry from the Wikipedia (all hail the Wikipedia) my words were in vain, and I foolishly followed him to the rice section, where I watched him search in vain. With that, I followed him to the pasta section with similar results. Again I returned to hunting party empty handed.

Desperate times can make people do desperate things, and I wasn't going home now without couscous. Inspiration dawned again, and the party headed around the corned to Tesco, and straight to the dried wheat type goods which are some what healthier for you section. There was a selection of 3 (three) different types of couscous. A box of instant couscous was quickly felled and the party returned to base camp satisfied with the days outing.

Some days later during lunch, the Better Half hands me the box and asks me if I notice anything strange with it as I'm "good at that sort of thing". She's too polite to call me pedantic that early in the day.

Not one to shirk a challenge, I read the serving suggestion recipe on the back of the box. I studied the photo. Nothing there, so I read the instructions on the side of the box.

The instructions from the side of the packet are:

HOB METHOD
1) Place unopened bag of rice into a large pan containing 1 litre (1 3/4 pints) of boiling water. 2) Remove from heat and allow to stand for 90 seconds allowing grains to swell. 3) Lift out bag by loop and drain well before opening bag and serving
TO MICROWAVE
Serves 2, (650 Watt or 750 Watt) 1) Place unopened bag of rice into a non-metallic bowl. Add at least enough boiling water to cover bag. 2) Cover and cook on full power for 90 seconds (650 Watt and 750 Watt) 3) Lift out bag by loop and drain well. Allow to stand for 2 minutes before cutting open bag and serving.

So what did we learn from this adventure

Most people don't know what couscous is
It's not just an Irish problem (the guy I asked in Dunnes wasn't Irish. Of course it might just be that their on the job training is so good that they teach them the answers that the customer wants to hear).
The problem isn't just with Joe Bloggs, or Joe Dunnes, it's also with Joe Roma Foods (the makers of the couscous). Read their instructions again and you'll see that twice they called the food stuff rice (which is twice more than they called it couscous). On the plus side, I've since re-examined the carton and there is no mention of pasta.
Cooking instant couscous in the microwave, in boiling water, takes 2 minutes longer than just putting it in boiling water.

Epic Journeys

2007-07-26T16:23:00.000+01:00

When I started this blog thingy, I noticed the link at the top of the page which said next blob. I followed it a couple of times, in the interest of knowing the neighbours. One of the first I came across, and I've been following it since, is Annie's European Bike Adventure. To summarise, she's cycling from London to Istanbul. As if that isn't enough of a challenge, south eastern Europe is currently in the grips of a massive heatwave with temperatures of 40C+. Seems to be an interesting (and exhausting way) to see the vast differences in countries and people across Europe.

Last weekend I met a guy with a somewhat similar journey in mind. He's planning on driving from Dublin to Bangkok. He said that some years ago he bought an old Mercedes for £100 (€127 in new money) and just recently he's started doing it up. The logistics of such a journey are quite large. From visa restrictions, customs (some countries don't want people bringing in cars), to security. He still doesn't know to go through Pakistan or to go via the middle east - if he can get permission to drive through Saudi.

It's a huge journey, but he's got a lot of advice from some guys that drove from Dublin to Sydney, in an old BMW. The car started first time, every time in temperatures from -40C to +40C. Something the owner afterwards advertised for BMW.

He's considered taking the easy way out, and taking the bus. Yes. The bus. There's a bus that goes from London to Sydney. (If you want to go check this out.)

In the sense of adventure and exploration, I'd love to do any of these trips, but I don't think I'd manage the return journey.

Huh?!

2007-07-24T09:46:00.000+01:00

I over heard a group discussion in the canteen today. One of the guys (lets call him John) was mentioning he was buying something which was Lord of the Rings related. John mentioned that another guy we know was also buying it (lets call him Sam), and that that guy, Sam, had an advantage since he was teaching himself elvish.

Yes, elvish. (No, not a strange dialect of English as spoken by Elvis.)

I think it was a master stroke of tactical speaking where John, having realised that all his creditability was quickly disappearing having just mentioned that he was buying LOTR merchandise, had to cover himself. The best way to do that was to hang someone else out to dry, so Sam got it.

I did a quick google on elvish, and it's a scary world out there. Not only do some people have time to learn elvish, but people have time to put up vast detailed web sites on the language. I think that you'd struggle to find such detailed information on any other language (except probably Klingon - which I think Sam may also be learning).

Anyway, the jaws dropped in the canteen, accompanied with a chorus of whats, whys, and huhs. Immediately one of the women got up to leave (probably too much geek in the conversation) when she asked a more pertinent question...

Who will he talk to?

Hmmmmmm......

2007-07-18T17:23:00.000+01:00

Apparently this image has caused offence to some people

I guess they wanted to see Homer without the underwear...

Buyer Beware

2007-07-18T12:21:00.000+01:00

Last weekend saw the first offical HD television broadcast in Ireland. It was limited to the trial recipients (and people in the transmission area with the hardware capable of receiving it). According to the reports it looked fantastic. One thing that it did highlight, however, was peoples lack off understanding surrounding digital TV, HD TV and HD Ready.

According to someone on 2FM, all that was needed to watch it was a HD TV. They thought that the idea of being able to watch the game in HD was so great, they were going to go and buy a new TV. They were wrong, and worse, they may have encouraged others to go out and part with their hard earned cash.

Technology is great. There's tons of cool gadgets and toys these days. The marketing people are finding it hard to keep up. I guess that's why they get together to come up with standard labels for things. It makes it easier on the customer to spend their money, while making an ill-informed purchase. Such as spending €1000+ on a TV which has a HD Ready sticker on it, without ever checking if it is capable of receiving and/or displaying HD television.

I've heard of people buying HD DVD players, not realising that there was a difference between a DVD and a HD DVD.

Lots of people have queued up at Lidl and Aldi for their large HD televisions - many without doing much research, apart from that's a good price for 40".

Have consumers become victims of their own success? Do they have too much money? Why do they gladly part with large chunks of cash, without understanding what they are buying?

Most people wouldn't go and buy a sandwich without looking to see what was in it. Why don't they do the same with modern consumer electronics? If you don't know what something can do then find out. Google is your friend!

If you want to buy something, know what you want it to do. Have some basic criteria that it has to fulfil. If it doesn't meet them don't buy it. If it does more, do you need the extra features? Will you use them? If not, look for a more basic model. Have a budget and stick with it. It's exciting buying new toys, and it's easy to get caught up in the moment. Hold yourself back, the next band wagon is right behind - and it's got better features.

Dish Network

2007-07-15T23:35:00.000+01:00

For the last few months I've been reading up on satellite dishes, television aerials and the likes, with a view towards finally getting things set up the way I want them.
During the course of my reading I've come across an interesting thread on boards.ie which has photos of crazy dish and aerial installations. Dishes mounted using baling twine, swallow spit and bit of bluetack. That sort of thing.

The Better Half came home the other night from a neighbours house. She could barely keep herself from laughing while she recounted the story to me. The Polish guys renting the house next to our friends had got a satellite dish and had attached it to the small wall bordering the two houses. I gather it was more balanced on it than mounted, and it was almost in our friends sitting room. So they asked them to move it - they obliged. Sadly I hadn't heard of the initial installation in time so that I could get a photo, and contribute to the thread.

However, in relocating the dish, they guys presented another photo op, which was the cause of The Better Half's merriment. The description recounted to me was akin to A satellite dish on a broom handle.

Personally, I think it's more like an ultra modern for sale sign. Maybe they should sell advertising space on (to replace the large sticker which is on it).

By the way, for anyone that may be interested, the cable from the dish runs along the lawn and straight in the sitting room window.

The guys renting the house a couple of doors away have a mini, camping style, satellite dish mounted to the drain pipe. I bet they feel embarrassed!

While I'm talking about dishes.... the next morning I travelled to work, parked the car and as I got out I spotted something on the floor of car next to me. I found it quite humorous. So much so that I had to take a photo, and tell everyone I could about it. Please excuse the quality of the photo, but it was raining.

That is a dish (or a bowl) with a spoon, and if the photo was of better quality, you'd also see some milk in the spoon and dish.
This raises so many questions!

What sort of traffic would you have to be in to cause you to eat breakfast cereal?
What type of cereal is best suited for eating while driving?
When do you pour the milk? Before you leave the house or while seated in the car?

In defence of the owner of the car, while it was messy, I didn't notice any stray rice krispes, coco-pops, or any other cereal stuck to the rear-view mirror or else where.

One Size Wii Fits All

2007-07-12T16:04:00.000+01:00

As someone who's into gadgets, games, technology and the likes, I was interested to try out the Nintendo Wii. I borrowed one for a few days some months back. The games that came with it were pretty basic, but fun. And in some cases tiring. I was working up a sweat after boxing for about 20-30 minutes on it. I think the controllers are a great bit of innovation and a great step in the right direction. While the others are concentrating on the graphics, Nintendo have concentrated on the interaction.

Now they have released a video of the latest controller for the Wii, called the Wii Fit. It looks like a cross between a step for aerobics and an electronic weighing scales. Seems that after some initial calibration for the user, it can figure out the body position according to how their body weight shift on the scales. (See the video here on I4U)

On it's own it looks cool. It can help to teach the user the correct method for performing exercises, and work up to learning yoga. The video shows some basic dance mat style game, which will probably be the initial run of games released for it, but if they combine it with the nunchuck controllers what will be next?!

How about using them together for a first person shooter. Having to actually crouch/prone/jump while playing with a gun in each hand would definitely immerse a player in a game. What about a version of Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia which would use them! If that doesn't get you fit, there's no hope.

Of course it could also lead to scores of people showing up at A&E who have twisted their ankles, or tripped and fallen head first into their large screen plasmas! Still, it's all about the game play experience.

It might be so good that I might be tempted to buy one.

Eventually.

What's In a Name

2007-07-11T12:12:00.001+01:00

So there I was, yesterday, after making the life changing decision to start a blog, and immediately I was presented with the million dollar question (didn't that use to be $64,000?! - inflation I guess)
I had to come up with a name for the blog!

That's not fair. I couldn't come up with a decent subject, how the hell should I be expected to come up with a name?!! That's not on!

So I narrow the subject matter to inane ramblings about nothing in particular, so I went with the title of "Inane Ramblings". I then have to come up with the name for the URL - Xxxxx.blogger.com
I tried "inane" - it was gone
I tried "ramblings" - gone

Blogger suggested that I go with "inanerambings" so I listened and went with it, and entered the seedy underworld of blogging and proceeded to experience the joys of posting a blog (as mentioned elsewhere).

I was happily playing around with various settings, adding bits and bobs, tweaking here and there - all the time oblivious to the fact that there was a typo desired URL - I'm missing an L!

What's blogger to do? (Not that I'd consider myself a blogger - since I only started this thing yesterday. Unlike the veterans of the bloggesphere which rule the name space that I attempted to inhabit. Check them out... I'll even put the links in at the bottom to save your calloused fingers from hitting even more keys or risking a typo)

So do I up sticks and find a new URL - one without a typo in it? (just as I was getting comfie around here) or stay put (I don't want to risk loosing my audience - after all it was she that pointed out the typo to me in the first place). So while entertaining the notion of moving site, I decided to explore the waters and try a few different URLs, just to see what's available. Much to my surprise - not much. I tried quite a few and most were occupied - or at least taken. To add to my disappointment most resemble the blogs of my originally desired namespace.

http://inane.blogspot.com/
http://ramblings.blogspot.com/
http://inaneramblings.blogspot.com/
http://whatsinaname.blogspot.com/
http://404.blogspot.com/
http://nogoodname.blogspot.com/
http://uniquelydifferent.blogspot.com/
http://rhubarb.blogspot.com/
http://rhubarbrhubarb.blogspot.com/
http://whoreadsthiscrap.blogspot.com/
http://pagenotfound.blogspot.com/
http://boring.blogspot.com/
http://postnoblogs.blogspot.com/ - a nugget - a blog that's (almost) up to date - it has more than one post
http://goodnamesgone.blogspot.com/

I found one or two names (with a little help (thanks!)) which I might consider changing to at sometime - if I keep doing this. But for now, with that if in mind, and combined with the frustration of trying to find a name that wasn't taken, I'll stay put. Since it might just be the name that a serious blogger wants. I wouldn't want to add to the misery.

Inane Ramblings

2007-07-10T15:30:00.000+01:00

inane
Pronunciation: i-'nAn
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): inan·er; -est
Etymology: Latin inanis
1 : EMPTY, INSUBSTANTIAL
2 : lacking significance, meaning, or point : SILLY

ram·ble
Pronunciation: 'ram-b&l
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): ram·bled; ram·bling /-b(&-)li[ng]/
Etymology: Middle English, probably alteration of romblen, frequentative of romen to roam
intransitive verb
1 a : to move aimlessly from place to place b : to explore idly
2 : to talk or write in a desultory or long-winded wandering fashion
3 : to grow or extend irregularly
transitive verb : to wander over : ROAM
synonym see WANDER
- ram·bling·ly /-b(&-)li[ng]-lE/ adverb

Get the idea?

Typical!

2007-07-10T14:55:00.000+01:00

There I was - first go at this lark, and as they say first impressions last. Well it's not been a good one. Typing away, happy with what I'd put down, I figured what the hell - I'll click on save and then publish my first post to my new blog! I go for it and then get told that
Could not contact Blogger.com.
Isn't that just dandy! Doesn't it inspire one to pour their heart out is reams and reams of bits and bytes, happy in the knowledge that nothing can go wrong - the assurance is there with the little highlighted message
Now Blogger saves your drafts automatically!
Go! Write! Create! Express yourself! Nah forget about 'cos we can't save it.

Computers. The internet. Blogs. All just a fad I tell you! They'll never catch on.

Who Writes This Crap

2007-07-10T14:10:00.001+01:00

I always wondered who'd bother their arse writing a blog. I mean what's the point? Having an online diary?! Why?

Worse than that, who'd be bothered reading it?!

I still don't know the answer to these questions, but I figured I'd get on the bandwagon (except I'm so late at this stage, that I reckon the band have left) and see if I can't find out the answer to one or two of the questions.

The few blogs that I can say I've read, or taken a peak at now and again, are interesting to me, 'cos the have subject matter that interests me. This is the key to a successful blog; an interesting subject. This blog doesn't have one.

Maybe it does. I don't know. I guess I'll have to have a look back at some stage and see if that question is answered as well.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. I think that I'll get a cuppa before I set out!