March 2008 Archives
ORDB was shutdown ages ago (end of 2006!). Why the hell are people still using it on their mail servers?
Make sure your mail server isn't using it!
Make sure your mail server isn't using it!
I'm more than a little peeved by the price difference between the US and Ireland / UK.
Can someone please explain how the Onkyo DX-C390 (a 6 disc cd changer) is listed on the Onkyo USA site with a RRP of $219 while pricing for it in Ireland seems to be more than double that at EUR350!
Can someone please explain how the Onkyo DX-C390 (a 6 disc cd changer) is listed on the Onkyo USA site with a RRP of $219 while pricing for it in Ireland seems to be more than double that at EUR350!
I'm planning on spending a few hours over the weekend tidying up my home cinema cables and getting rid of empty boxes.
I finally took delivery of the speakers that I'd ordered a couple of weeks ago and the amount of packaging was simply insane. Fortunately we lease a warehouse and have a rather large recycling bin, so getting rid of all the rubbish won't be a problem
I finally took delivery of the speakers that I'd ordered a couple of weeks ago and the amount of packaging was simply insane. Fortunately we lease a warehouse and have a rather large recycling bin, so getting rid of all the rubbish won't be a problem
As I've mentioned a couple of times, I recently made the "move" from Windows XP Pro to Mac OSX for my office desktop. I've been using a MacBook Pro laptop for several months.
For my MacBook Pro I didn't envisage doing huge amounts of word processing etc., so I couldn't justify the expense of a Microsoft Office license and opted instead for Neo Office, which is an OSX port of Open Office.
However for my main work desktop I felt that investing in the Mac version of Office was a worthwhile investment.
Before going any further I should explain "how" I use Office (or similar) products.
I am not one of those people who spends their entire day buried in Excel or Power Point. I may produce a certain number of documents every week, but I don't need to do anything fancy with them in terms of formatting. The last time I did anything vaguely complicated with Word was when I was preparing my thesis in university about ten years ago.
On an average day I might receive several Word documents that I need to be able to read, edit and possibly print or distribute to colleagues, clients or suppliers. Since so many of them have made the jump to the latest version of MS Office being able to read their documents even on XP with Office 2003 was getting difficult. Of course this could be solved by installing a number of tools to enable the reading / conversion of the newer formats.
I am a heavy email user. In fact most of our staff would be classed as heavy email users, with Paul and I being the heaviest users in the office. When I say "heavy" I refer to two things primarily:
When I'm in the office, however, I need to be able to access ALL of my mail easily and quickly.
Entourage, which is the Mac OSX version of Outlook is a nice client. It suffers from the same issues that its Windows counterpart, in that it eats RAM and CPU cycles, but it works very well overall. The integration with Exchange is pretty seamless, though there are a couple of minor niggles like the cert warning I get every day as our server's SSL cert doesn't match its hostname. It's not a major issue and I simply dismiss the warning.
It handles most of the common tasks without issue.
The only thing I'd like to see is tighter integration with OSX, as Mail App, which is the Apple default mail client, can now do all sorts of funky things with the contents of emails.
The other issue I've encountered is really annoying.
It happened again today, which sort of spurred me on to writing this :)
For some reason MS Office maintains some sort of database related to Entourage and other MS applications on your Mac. This isn't explained and I can't find any clear documentation on it. (The Microsoft Office for Mac site is woefully lacking in documentation anyway, so it's not much of a resource to begin with)
The only reason I mention it at all is that mine gets corrupted. Since I can't find any clear documentation on it I'm completely at the mercy of the unhelpful error messages and the rather useless repair tools that seem to go round in circles telling me what I already know - "Houston we have a problem"
"Would you like us to fix it?"
"Yes please"
"Ok. Mind if we check it?"
"Work away"
"It's broken"
"I know"
"Mind if we check it?"
Huh? Didn't it already tell me that? So round and round it goes until eventually I scream in despair and our poor overworked Windows admin ends up recreating the entire thing from scratch ....
Excel seems to work pretty much as advertised. I haven't had any reason to do anything fancy with it so I can't comment on advanced functionality.
Powerpoint also seems to work as advertised. Again, like with Excel, I haven't had any reason to do anything complex with it yet and I probably won't. Anyone who has had the misfortune to attend a talk I've given can contest to my lack of Powepoint skills :)
Word, however, simply fails to deliver.
The one "advanced" function in Word that I need to use on a semi-regular basis is the letter wizard. For some demented reason the OSX implementation of this relatively basic functionality just fails to deliver.
On Windows you simply run the wizard once and fill in your contact details etc., The next time you need to produce a letter of some kind you can choose from your previously entered
data. The OSX version happily "forgets" that you've ever used it.
It also doesn't "like" the idea of the user tweaking the letter elements after you start editing, so if you want to change the layout style you will suffer.
Not only does it not "like" the idea of a change it simply "forgets" that you ever used in the first place and happily inserts all the data in duplicate.
What that means is that you will literally end up with two "letters" in the one document. I won't pretend to understand the inner workings of Office, but I would have thought that this was a fairly commonly used function.
I am not an Office "power user". The only reason I got Office was to make certain things that bit "easier" and unfortunately that doesn't seem to be happening.
While all the native OSX applications seem to work without causing me issues or heartache, making the transition from Windows to Mac quite painless, the one bit of Microsoft technology that I decided to keep is causing me pain.
I am seriously tempted to dump Microsoft's Office for Mac in favour of Neo Office and replace Entourage with Mail App (especially if the stupid database problem keeps happening).
I don't want to dump a product that I have paid for however. So I'm left in a dilemma.
For my MacBook Pro I didn't envisage doing huge amounts of word processing etc., so I couldn't justify the expense of a Microsoft Office license and opted instead for Neo Office, which is an OSX port of Open Office.
However for my main work desktop I felt that investing in the Mac version of Office was a worthwhile investment.
Before going any further I should explain "how" I use Office (or similar) products.
I am not one of those people who spends their entire day buried in Excel or Power Point. I may produce a certain number of documents every week, but I don't need to do anything fancy with them in terms of formatting. The last time I did anything vaguely complicated with Word was when I was preparing my thesis in university about ten years ago.
On an average day I might receive several Word documents that I need to be able to read, edit and possibly print or distribute to colleagues, clients or suppliers. Since so many of them have made the jump to the latest version of MS Office being able to read their documents even on XP with Office 2003 was getting difficult. Of course this could be solved by installing a number of tools to enable the reading / conversion of the newer formats.
I am a heavy email user. In fact most of our staff would be classed as heavy email users, with Paul and I being the heaviest users in the office. When I say "heavy" I refer to two things primarily:
- the volume of mail we receive
- the number of filters and rules we use to organise the huge number of emails
When I'm in the office, however, I need to be able to access ALL of my mail easily and quickly.
Entourage, which is the Mac OSX version of Outlook is a nice client. It suffers from the same issues that its Windows counterpart, in that it eats RAM and CPU cycles, but it works very well overall. The integration with Exchange is pretty seamless, though there are a couple of minor niggles like the cert warning I get every day as our server's SSL cert doesn't match its hostname. It's not a major issue and I simply dismiss the warning.
It handles most of the common tasks without issue.
The only thing I'd like to see is tighter integration with OSX, as Mail App, which is the Apple default mail client, can now do all sorts of funky things with the contents of emails.
The other issue I've encountered is really annoying.
It happened again today, which sort of spurred me on to writing this :)
For some reason MS Office maintains some sort of database related to Entourage and other MS applications on your Mac. This isn't explained and I can't find any clear documentation on it. (The Microsoft Office for Mac site is woefully lacking in documentation anyway, so it's not much of a resource to begin with)
The only reason I mention it at all is that mine gets corrupted. Since I can't find any clear documentation on it I'm completely at the mercy of the unhelpful error messages and the rather useless repair tools that seem to go round in circles telling me what I already know - "Houston we have a problem"
"Would you like us to fix it?"
"Yes please"
"Ok. Mind if we check it?"
"Work away"
"It's broken"
"I know"
"Mind if we check it?"
Huh? Didn't it already tell me that? So round and round it goes until eventually I scream in despair and our poor overworked Windows admin ends up recreating the entire thing from scratch ....
Excel seems to work pretty much as advertised. I haven't had any reason to do anything fancy with it so I can't comment on advanced functionality.
Powerpoint also seems to work as advertised. Again, like with Excel, I haven't had any reason to do anything complex with it yet and I probably won't. Anyone who has had the misfortune to attend a talk I've given can contest to my lack of Powepoint skills :)
Word, however, simply fails to deliver.
The one "advanced" function in Word that I need to use on a semi-regular basis is the letter wizard. For some demented reason the OSX implementation of this relatively basic functionality just fails to deliver.
On Windows you simply run the wizard once and fill in your contact details etc., The next time you need to produce a letter of some kind you can choose from your previously entered
data. The OSX version happily "forgets" that you've ever used it.
It also doesn't "like" the idea of the user tweaking the letter elements after you start editing, so if you want to change the layout style you will suffer.
Not only does it not "like" the idea of a change it simply "forgets" that you ever used in the first place and happily inserts all the data in duplicate.
What that means is that you will literally end up with two "letters" in the one document. I won't pretend to understand the inner workings of Office, but I would have thought that this was a fairly commonly used function.
I am not an Office "power user". The only reason I got Office was to make certain things that bit "easier" and unfortunately that doesn't seem to be happening.
While all the native OSX applications seem to work without causing me issues or heartache, making the transition from Windows to Mac quite painless, the one bit of Microsoft technology that I decided to keep is causing me pain.
I am seriously tempted to dump Microsoft's Office for Mac in favour of Neo Office and replace Entourage with Mail App (especially if the stupid database problem keeps happening).
I don't want to dump a product that I have paid for however. So I'm left in a dilemma.
Frustration is getting two out of three boxes from your delivery when the missing box contains ALL the cables
Yet another offer!
This time it's HP Ireland's online photo service (Snapfish) that is offering 40 free prints to new users.
Go to the special new user site to take advantage
This time it's HP Ireland's online photo service (Snapfish) that is offering 40 free prints to new users.
Go to the special new user site to take advantage
Ross from Tucows is a keen cyclist (and photographer) and is taking part in a charity cycle later this year. He's looking for a blogger to help promote the event and get them lots of coverage.
More details on his site
More details on his site
Just browsing DVDs on a Friday, as one does, and came across this special collector's edition of Hellboy.
Now I'm not going to tell you that Hellboy is a great film, but you have to appreciate that the boxset is pretty cool.
You can still find a few on Amazon marketplace and possibly eBay.
If you're into this kind of thing you should check out my gadget blog
Now I'm not going to tell you that Hellboy is a great film, but you have to appreciate that the boxset is pretty cool.
You can still find a few on Amazon marketplace and possibly eBay.
If you're into this kind of thing you should check out my gadget blog
It must be something to do with the long weekend, but I've been getting emails about special offers and sales all morning ...
Anyway the latest one I've got is from CD Wow who are running yet another sale for the next few days
Enjoy :)
Anyway the latest one I've got is from CD Wow who are running yet another sale for the next few days
Enjoy :)
AllPosters are doing another one of their free shipping offers for the next few days.
I just bought a framed Fifth Element poster and saved myself about 20 euro on shipping costs.
The coupon code is: TRMP
I just bought a framed Fifth Element poster and saved myself about 20 euro on shipping costs.
The coupon code is: TRMP
On the link addition / submission page for search.ie there are instructions on how to add a link. It includes information on what kind of things will help to either get your site listed or banned permanently.
The Jobs.ie employee who tried to add jobs.ie to the directory yesterday obviously cannot read or is simply too lazy to do so.
Which part of this sentence is unclear?
If you're going to submit sites to directories reading the submission rules / instructions doesn't take much effort.
Why don't people get this?
The Jobs.ie employee who tried to add jobs.ie to the directory yesterday obviously cannot read or is simply too lazy to do so.
Which part of this sentence is unclear?
Three categories. NOT FORTY categories.
If you feel your site belongs in more than one category please use the control key to add it to up to three categories.
If you're going to submit sites to directories reading the submission rules / instructions doesn't take much effort.
Why don't people get this?
I came across this earlier this evening.
I don't use certain types of language in my own writing and have mentioned this more than once in the past, but can a company offering a blog hosting service suspend a site for language use?
Where exactly do you draw the line?
What exactly is "offensive"?
Thoughts on a postcard ....
I don't use certain types of language in my own writing and have mentioned this more than once in the past, but can a company offering a blog hosting service suspend a site for language use?
Where exactly do you draw the line?
What exactly is "offensive"?
Thoughts on a postcard ....
I'll be a guest on Domain Masters tomorrow evening where I'll be chatting with Jothan Frakes
The show is on live at 7pm EST, which works out as being midnight Irish time unless my calculations are off.
I've been on the radio a few times in the past, but this is the first time I'll have been on an internet only radio station - Webmaster Radio
As the show's name suggests, the topic of conversation will be domains and the domain name industry.
I'm really honoured to have been invited, as it's one of the few online radio stations that I ever listen to.
The show is on live at 7pm EST, which works out as being midnight Irish time unless my calculations are off.
I've been on the radio a few times in the past, but this is the first time I'll have been on an internet only radio station - Webmaster Radio
As the show's name suggests, the topic of conversation will be domains and the domain name industry.
I'm really honoured to have been invited, as it's one of the few online radio stations that I ever listen to.
This is another one of those "I know this, but I can never remember how" type things.
I'm currently reconfiguring a machine on the other side of the globe, so I want to get it to work to IST instead of EST.
A quick google brought up a rather complex way of doing it which sounded really wrong to me, so I refined my query and found the sane solution in the Ubuntu documentation.
Simply run the following command as root (or using "su"):
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
And just follow the instructions.
No silly reboots or other craziness required.
To keep your server's time in sync with the rest of civilisation setup a cronjob to poll an ntp server once every 24 hours:
/usr/sbin/ntpdate yourfavouritentpserveraddress
Problem solved :)
I'm currently reconfiguring a machine on the other side of the globe, so I want to get it to work to IST instead of EST.
A quick google brought up a rather complex way of doing it which sounded really wrong to me, so I refined my query and found the sane solution in the Ubuntu documentation.
Simply run the following command as root (or using "su"):
dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
And just follow the instructions.
No silly reboots or other craziness required.
To keep your server's time in sync with the rest of civilisation setup a cronjob to poll an ntp server once every 24 hours:
/usr/sbin/ntpdate yourfavouritentpserveraddress
Problem solved :)
Cancelling a PayPal subscription if you are a buyer isn't that hard, but if you are a merchant it's far from obvious.
We ran into the issue a few times in recent months, so we contacted PayPal's support team. They happily informed us that the only way a subscription could be cancelled was if the buyer cancelled it from their end.
Of course a lot of buyers either don't know how or simply forget to do it, so we were still getting calls about the issue.
I called Paypal again this afternoon and spoke to a very helpful guy in their Dublin offices who walked me through the steps to cancel a subscription from the merchant's end.
It's quite simple once you know how.
Login to your Paypal account and click on the "History" tab.
In the "show" dropdown choose "subscriptions" and set the start date to some date in the past. You may need to go back quite a bit, as the history section only shows the subscription creation date and not any subsequent payments from the client.
Once you've found the subscription you want to cancel click on the "details" link. You should now see an option to "cancel subscription". Then click on it and confirm that you really do want to cancel the subscription.
You should receive a confirmation email within a couple of minutes.
Now if only they'd told us that when we first asked!
We ran into the issue a few times in recent months, so we contacted PayPal's support team. They happily informed us that the only way a subscription could be cancelled was if the buyer cancelled it from their end.
Of course a lot of buyers either don't know how or simply forget to do it, so we were still getting calls about the issue.
I called Paypal again this afternoon and spoke to a very helpful guy in their Dublin offices who walked me through the steps to cancel a subscription from the merchant's end.
It's quite simple once you know how.
Login to your Paypal account and click on the "History" tab.
In the "show" dropdown choose "subscriptions" and set the start date to some date in the past. You may need to go back quite a bit, as the history section only shows the subscription creation date and not any subsequent payments from the client.
Once you've found the subscription you want to cancel click on the "details" link. You should now see an option to "cancel subscription". Then click on it and confirm that you really do want to cancel the subscription.
You should receive a confirmation email within a couple of minutes.
Now if only they'd told us that when we first asked!
Social networking sites were in the news this week again with AOL's purchase of Bebo for $600 million. Maybe the new owners might get round to fixing bebo.ie, which is still pointing at the "cover story" used by its previous owners.
Closer to home Vaveeva is reported to be in trouble and looks like it will be shutting its doors permanently.
The site is currently unavailable, so whether or not it comes back or not remains to be seen.
Last year there was some mention of them faking their online numbers, while they also took
liberties with one of Krystian's photos.
Can all of these various social networking sites survive?
Or are they all trying to be snapped up by some big media giant?
Closer to home Vaveeva is reported to be in trouble and looks like it will be shutting its doors permanently.
The site is currently unavailable, so whether or not it comes back or not remains to be seen.
Last year there was some mention of them faking their online numbers, while they also took
liberties with one of Krystian's photos.
Can all of these various social networking sites survive?
Or are they all trying to be snapped up by some big media giant?
I've always wanted to play around on the stock market, but I never have enough cash to do it.
Being able to buy a single share in a well known company strikes me as pretty cool.
One English company I came across does just that and offers you the chance to buy shares in companies such as Playboy, Starbucks and Dominos. Considering how much I've spent with Dominos over the last couple of years I'd almost expect a couple of shares for free, but I digress.
The shares would make a really nice present for someone awkward
Being able to buy a single share in a well known company strikes me as pretty cool.
One English company I came across does just that and offers you the chance to buy shares in companies such as Playboy, Starbucks and Dominos. Considering how much I've spent with Dominos over the last couple of years I'd almost expect a couple of shares for free, but I digress.
The shares would make a really nice present for someone awkward
Until yesterday evening I had never had any reason to configure multiple services on the same port, so I'd never had any reason to delve into the configuration changes to make this happen.
In order to get this working you have to have more than one IP address available.
In my case I have 3 assigned to the server in question. The main IP is used for serving most of the sites, while I had one assigned to it for running a particular service.
Up until now Apache was happily listening on all IP addresses / interfaces so the Apache configuration directives were quite simple. Simple is always best, so long as it works. The more complicated you make it the more likely you are to run into issues.
In the original Apache config I was using virtual hosts that relied more on DNS than apache to decide what was being served:
<VirtualHost *:80>
The "*" means that it is listening on all IP addresses / interfaces for connections.
Moving a service to a specific IP means that the configuration has to be changed to avoid conflicts, so all the Apache VirtualHosts need to be told which IP to use:
<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80>
where you replace the "xxx" with the IP you are using.
In my innocence I presumed that this would fix everything up, but I hadn't counted on one small but important thing. Apache was configured at a higher level to listen to ALL Ips and interfaces.
The Listen directive is now required, as I'm using the latest available version of Apache for my OS:
The one which dictates which ports to use and which IPs those ports are assigned to is aptly named ports.conf
The default setting is:
To force it to only use a couple of your IPs you need to explicitly tell it which ones to use:
With that final change made I was able to get both servers up and running on the same machine using the same port, but different IPs.
Now if only I could get the service to work the way I wanted it to I'd be happy
In order to get this working you have to have more than one IP address available.
In my case I have 3 assigned to the server in question. The main IP is used for serving most of the sites, while I had one assigned to it for running a particular service.
Up until now Apache was happily listening on all IP addresses / interfaces so the Apache configuration directives were quite simple. Simple is always best, so long as it works. The more complicated you make it the more likely you are to run into issues.
In the original Apache config I was using virtual hosts that relied more on DNS than apache to decide what was being served:
<VirtualHost *:80>
The "*" means that it is listening on all IP addresses / interfaces for connections.
Moving a service to a specific IP means that the configuration has to be changed to avoid conflicts, so all the Apache VirtualHosts need to be told which IP to use:
<VirtualHost xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:80>
where you replace the "xxx" with the IP you are using.
In my innocence I presumed that this would fix everything up, but I hadn't counted on one small but important thing. Apache was configured at a higher level to listen to ALL Ips and interfaces.
The Listen directive is now required, as I'm using the latest available version of Apache for my OS:
The Listen directive instructs Apache to listen to only specific IP addresses or ports; by default it responds to requests on all IP interfaces. Listen is now a required directive. If it is not in the config file, the server will fail to start. This is a change from previous versions of Apache.On Ubuntu (and probably Debian, though I can only guess) Apache's configuration files are split up into manageable chunks which reside in /etc/apache2
The Listen directive tells the server to accept incoming requests on the specified port or address-and-port combination. If only a port number is specified, the server listens to the given port on all interfaces. If an IP address is given as well as a port, the server will listen on the given port and interface.
Multiple Listen directives may be used to specify a number of addresses and ports to listen to. The server will respond to requests from any of the listed addresses and ports.
The one which dictates which ports to use and which IPs those ports are assigned to is aptly named ports.conf
The default setting is:
Listen 80As no IP address is specified the server will listen to any available.
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
Listen 443
</IfModule>
To force it to only use a couple of your IPs you need to explicitly tell it which ones to use:
Listen xx.xx.xxx.xxx:80You can add IPv4 or IPv6 addresses in with ease.
Listen xx.xx.xxx.xxx:80
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
Listen 443
</IfModule>
With that final change made I was able to get both servers up and running on the same machine using the same port, but different IPs.
Now if only I could get the service to work the way I wanted it to I'd be happy
I don't mind admitting that I have a serious addiction to DVDs.
The only problem is paying for them!
Of course the beauty of the internet is that you don't have to restrict yourself to buying from your local shop. You don't even have to restrict yourself to Amazon or Play.
The downside with ordering anything online can be the shipping cost and possibly customs duty if you're unlucky enough to get caught for it.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of research into the various options for buying home cinema equipment, dvds, hd dvds and blu ray discs. If I get a chance I'll put some of what I've learnt into a coherent post, but in the meantime I thought I'd mention a couple of pretty cool sites I came across.
EzyDVD, which is based in Australia, carries the normal selection of DVD, HD and BluRay titles you would expect, but also has a really impressive selection of "Exclusives" (the link to them on my Godfather post was eaten by FF3 beta!)
DVD Therapy. UK based shop that carries a very eclectic selection of hard to find HD discs. From what I can gather the people behind the shop are film nuts! If you're serious about film this is one worth looking at. Pricing is pretty good on a lot of the titles as well. Shipping costs are based on weight. Pricing in Sterling.
Store4.They seem to have a fairly comprehensive selection of titles. Pricing in Sterling. Free shipping.
DVDi. It may not be the most attractive site on the internet, but the free delivery worldwide is a nice USP.They also have pricing in a variety of currencies including Euro, which saves a lot of flipping backwards and forwards to xe.com.
4CheapCDs. Very similar to DVDi. Free shipping to Ireland and pricing in Euro
SelectCheaper. Incredibly ugly site, but the shipping cost of 50p per DVD is hard to beat (unless you opt for a shop offering free delivery obviously)
DeepDiscount. Nice selection of titles. The pricing on some items is good, but the shipping cost isn't that attractive.
AxelMusic. Very attractive site and easy to navigate (unlike some of the others). The really nice feature that makes this site a true winner is their region-free blu-ray section. They seem to have truly embraced the web and offer RSS feeds and even a Mac desktop widget. Pricing in Euro. Delivery pricing is based on weight.
If anyone has any other recommendations please let me know.
Now where did I leave my credit card?
The only problem is paying for them!
Of course the beauty of the internet is that you don't have to restrict yourself to buying from your local shop. You don't even have to restrict yourself to Amazon or Play.
The downside with ordering anything online can be the shipping cost and possibly customs duty if you're unlucky enough to get caught for it.
Over the last couple of weeks I've been doing a lot of research into the various options for buying home cinema equipment, dvds, hd dvds and blu ray discs. If I get a chance I'll put some of what I've learnt into a coherent post, but in the meantime I thought I'd mention a couple of pretty cool sites I came across.
EzyDVD, which is based in Australia, carries the normal selection of DVD, HD and BluRay titles you would expect, but also has a really impressive selection of "Exclusives" (the link to them on my Godfather post was eaten by FF3 beta!)
DVD Therapy. UK based shop that carries a very eclectic selection of hard to find HD discs. From what I can gather the people behind the shop are film nuts! If you're serious about film this is one worth looking at. Pricing is pretty good on a lot of the titles as well. Shipping costs are based on weight. Pricing in Sterling.
Store4.They seem to have a fairly comprehensive selection of titles. Pricing in Sterling. Free shipping.
DVDi. It may not be the most attractive site on the internet, but the free delivery worldwide is a nice USP.They also have pricing in a variety of currencies including Euro, which saves a lot of flipping backwards and forwards to xe.com.
4CheapCDs. Very similar to DVDi. Free shipping to Ireland and pricing in Euro
SelectCheaper. Incredibly ugly site, but the shipping cost of 50p per DVD is hard to beat (unless you opt for a shop offering free delivery obviously)
DeepDiscount. Nice selection of titles. The pricing on some items is good, but the shipping cost isn't that attractive.
AxelMusic. Very attractive site and easy to navigate (unlike some of the others). The really nice feature that makes this site a true winner is their region-free blu-ray section. They seem to have truly embraced the web and offer RSS feeds and even a Mac desktop widget. Pricing in Euro. Delivery pricing is based on weight.
If anyone has any other recommendations please let me know.
Now where did I leave my credit card?
The Godfather trilogy, or at least the first two parts, is fantastic and has a wide following.It's hardly surprising that there are some nice variations on the boxset presentation, but none would seem to be on a par with this timber box with lacquer finish and velvet lining.
All I can say is "wow!", followed by "Where's my credit card?"
Full details
Nice to see this nice BIG warning on the login page for AIB personal banking:
I downloaded a copy of Firefox 3 (beta) for linux earlier this evening to see how it was. I've been having very annoying issues with Firefox 2 on Ubuntu locking up randomly, so I was hoping to see if the new version would help.
Unfortunately there isn't an official Ubuntu release as yet, but you can easily use the standard download for linux.
I'm trying desperately to be impressed and find something to "wow" about, but so far it's left me completely underwhelmed.
If anything its "enhancements" are simply annoying.
They're mostly aesthetic and may simply be a case of them being different to what I'm used to.
As you start typing in an address into the toolbar it tries to "suggest" addresses from your "history" but in so doing it takes up loads of screen estate and invariably gets it wrong.
Of course it's a beta release, so you'd have to be really dumb to expect it to work properly! Beta software is meant to have bugs. Ideally they should be squashed before the software is made available to the general public.
Whether I'll keep playing around with this version or revert to the older one is something I'm not 100% sure about just yet.. We'll see
Unfortunately there isn't an official Ubuntu release as yet, but you can easily use the standard download for linux.
I'm trying desperately to be impressed and find something to "wow" about, but so far it's left me completely underwhelmed.
If anything its "enhancements" are simply annoying.
They're mostly aesthetic and may simply be a case of them being different to what I'm used to.
As you start typing in an address into the toolbar it tries to "suggest" addresses from your "history" but in so doing it takes up loads of screen estate and invariably gets it wrong.
Of course it's a beta release, so you'd have to be really dumb to expect it to work properly! Beta software is meant to have bugs. Ideally they should be squashed before the software is made available to the general public.
Whether I'll keep playing around with this version or revert to the older one is something I'm not 100% sure about just yet.. We'll see
One of my pethates (I seem to have a lot!) is blogs that aren't
actually blogs. All they seem to have is the person's Twitter updates
and maybe their latest saved links.
Either blog or don't.
I don't mind if you don't post that often, but if I wanted your Twitter updates I'd just subscribe to that instead.
Either blog or don't.
I don't mind if you don't post that often, but if I wanted your Twitter updates I'd just subscribe to that instead.
Whoever is behind this comic strip obviously isn't paying the crazy data rates some providers want to charge ....
Taken from JoyOfTech
Taken from JoyOfTech
I tend to keep odd hours and travel quite a bit, but I don't like leaving the house too empty ie. I'd like to give people the impression that it is occupied even when I'm not there.
I had been looking for some kind of timer that would allow me to have lights come on at random times, but I haven't had much luck in finding one. All the timers I've come across have fixed times, though I'm sure there must be a random one out there...
I did, however, find an alternative solution today.
The unit is photosensitive and should switch lights on at dusk and off at dawn. It's not much bigger than a standard ceiling light fitting and can be easily plugged in to a standard lamp socket.
I'll be testing it out over the next few days, but it's such a simple device it should just work
I had been looking for some kind of timer that would allow me to have lights come on at random times, but I haven't had much luck in finding one. All the timers I've come across have fixed times, though I'm sure there must be a random one out there...
I did, however, find an alternative solution today.
The unit is photosensitive and should switch lights on at dusk and off at dawn. It's not much bigger than a standard ceiling light fitting and can be easily plugged in to a standard lamp socket.
I'll be testing it out over the next few days, but it's such a simple device it should just work
While doing some shopping in Aldi this afternoon I spotted this sign.
I know that vendors have to be careful, but do they think we're all stupid?
I buy a lot of DVDs. Most of them are retail ie. not ex-rental, so they are designed for home use.
Why do I have to sit through adverts for bars of chocolate? If I could skip them I wouldn't mind, but any attempt to skip them fails miserably.
One of the reasons I buy DVDs is to avoid adverts on TV and now the DVD distributors are making extra money from forcing me to watch their adverts.
Why do I have to sit through adverts for bars of chocolate? If I could skip them I wouldn't mind, but any attempt to skip them fails miserably.
One of the reasons I buy DVDs is to avoid adverts on TV and now the DVD distributors are making extra money from forcing me to watch their adverts.
A bunch of us headed down to Kilkenny this morning for Creative Camp which was held in Kilkenny Castle.
In typical fashion I forgot:
Oddly enough quite a few people seem to have recognised me from the Playboy photos... I wonder why...
Since I forgot my camera I won't be able to post any photos until George, or one of the others, provides some.
(Note to self - putting the camera out the night before might have been a good idea)
The event was well attended and the organisers did a great job.
Where to next?
In typical fashion I forgot:
- My camera
- Business cards
- Freebies to give to people
Oddly enough quite a few people seem to have recognised me from the Playboy photos... I wonder why...
Since I forgot my camera I won't be able to post any photos until George, or one of the others, provides some.
(Note to self - putting the camera out the night before might have been a good idea)
The event was well attended and the organisers did a great job.
Where to next?
According to Techcrunch both Microsoft and Google are making serious advances on Digg
If Google were to buy it how long before they manage to break it?
If Google were to buy it how long before they manage to break it?
One of the things that annoys me with marketing is the abuse of language.
In some instances, however, I can understand why they have done it.
If you take a word that is normally associated with a particular type of situation and conditions and juxtapose it "correctly", you can achieve a very subtle goal - value where there is none.
The usage of the word "accreditation" is a good example. You can find a number of definitions of the word, however the meanings will all overlap to some degree:
In the realm of online business a lot of companies lack competency and those that may be competent would have difficulty proving it through objective means.
You can't become "certified" or "accredited" in the same way that an accountant can pass certain exams or a solicitor / barrister / lawyer can.
You might be able to show yourself to be a "good citizen" by the company you keep, so joining some industry groups or getting your name associated with certain things can lend a certain "weight" to your presence.
However, when it comes to "accreditation" the lines really need to be drawn.
You can be an accredited registrar (be that with ICANN, Eurid, Nominet or one of the other registries).
Paying a membership to join RIPE or INEX does not give you accreditation.
Trying to put a spin on your membership is pointless and won't fool anyone.
In some instances, however, I can understand why they have done it.
If you take a word that is normally associated with a particular type of situation and conditions and juxtapose it "correctly", you can achieve a very subtle goal - value where there is none.
The usage of the word "accreditation" is a good example. You can find a number of definitions of the word, however the meanings will all overlap to some degree:
accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presentedSo there is always an underlying current of competency which has been proven to some degree.
In the realm of online business a lot of companies lack competency and those that may be competent would have difficulty proving it through objective means.
You can't become "certified" or "accredited" in the same way that an accountant can pass certain exams or a solicitor / barrister / lawyer can.
You might be able to show yourself to be a "good citizen" by the company you keep, so joining some industry groups or getting your name associated with certain things can lend a certain "weight" to your presence.
However, when it comes to "accreditation" the lines really need to be drawn.
You can be an accredited registrar (be that with ICANN, Eurid, Nominet or one of the other registries).
Paying a membership to join RIPE or INEX does not give you accreditation.
Trying to put a spin on your membership is pointless and won't fool anyone.
I've got a few invites to Hellotxt and Jaiku available if anyone wants them.
Hellotxt is a nice little idea.
Their description sums it up:
Hellotxt is a nice little idea.
Their description sums it up:
HelloTxt is an aggregate of microblogging services through which the user can insert their messages on all main microblogging services in a simply and simultaneous way.Of course the downside to it is that it makes it all that much easier to spam the universe with your microblogging messages!
I got my order from Despair.com earlier this morning.
The tshirts come individually bagged, so it would be very easy to give one away as a gift.
The invoice, however, is a work of art.
There's a fantastic overprint in a really ugly font declaring that it was "inspected by valued employee #90125"
The number for customer service is brilliant - 866-Woe-Is-Me
Very cool!
The tshirts come individually bagged, so it would be very easy to give one away as a gift.
The invoice, however, is a work of art.
There's a fantastic overprint in a really ugly font declaring that it was "inspected by valued employee #90125"
The number for customer service is brilliant - 866-Woe-Is-Me
Very cool!
Sky are expanding the number of HD (high definition) channels on offer and will be adding Sky Movies Premiere and FX to the lineup.
It's still not a good reason to make the move as you end up seriously out of pocket:
I'm already paying out over EUR50 a month to Sky for Sky Movies which I rarely watch.
More info here
It's still not a good reason to make the move as you end up seriously out of pocket:
- Sky HD box is yours. It costs EUR299, but if it breaks you have to pay for fixing it / replacing it
- Install fee of EUR45 regardless of whether you're an existing Sky customer or not
- EUR15 monthly fee
I'm already paying out over EUR50 a month to Sky for Sky Movies which I rarely watch.
More info here
Well it isn't really, but I did finally get to post photos of Playboy centrefolds to the company blog ....
We'll be heading over to Creative Camp in Kilkenny on Saturday if you want to popin and say "hi"
Hopefully I'll get to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones ...
We'll be heading over to Creative Camp in Kilkenny on Saturday if you want to popin and say "hi"
Hopefully I'll get to see some familiar faces and meet some new ones ...
The first two HD DVD discs that I ordered arrived this morning, so I'll be enjoying HD tonight.
That is if I can hook up my HD DVD player to the rest of the kit .... Hopefully the new TV stand will arrive .. otherwise there may be lots of screaming and gnashing of teeth
That is if I can hook up my HD DVD player to the rest of the kit .... Hopefully the new TV stand will arrive .. otherwise there may be lots of screaming and gnashing of teeth
If you want a nice bit of memorabilia from last weekend's Irish Blog Awards and help charity at the same time, then check out this ebay auction
Over the last couple of months I've acquired several digital audio and video devices and plan to get more. In an ideal world hooking them all up would be easy, but we don't live in an ideal world!
The main issue is that there simply aren't enough inputs and outputs available to allow you to daisy chain multiple HDMI capable devices together. You might be able to connect them together using other connection types, but that seems to defeat the object of having HDMI gear in the first place.
If you're confused by the terminology checkout the HDMI FAQ which explains in detail what it's capable of.
In any case the solution is to use a switch which is able to take in multiple HDMI sources and route them to the correct devices ie. amplifier, upscaler and TV
The device which seems to be the most adequate for the job is the HDMI switch from Octava
The main issue is that there simply aren't enough inputs and outputs available to allow you to daisy chain multiple HDMI capable devices together. You might be able to connect them together using other connection types, but that seems to defeat the object of having HDMI gear in the first place.
If you're confused by the terminology checkout the HDMI FAQ which explains in detail what it's capable of.
In any case the solution is to use a switch which is able to take in multiple HDMI sources and route them to the correct devices ie. amplifier, upscaler and TV
The device which seems to be the most adequate for the job is the HDMI switch from Octava
If you're based in Ireland there is a UK vendor who supplies them with the correct power supply etc., I ordered mine from them earlier today and it has already shipped!
Unfortunately the HDMI cables are not cheap, so you should shop around a bit. A few people have suggested Maplins, but I found some reasonably priced ones on Dabs as well.
Hopefully my new TV stand will arrive in the next couple of days, as the current one is way too small and trying to change any cables around is a truly painful experience.
Unfortunately the HDMI cables are not cheap, so you should shop around a bit. A few people have suggested Maplins, but I found some reasonably priced ones on Dabs as well.
Hopefully my new TV stand will arrive in the next couple of days, as the current one is way too small and trying to change any cables around is a truly painful experience.
As I mentioned recently I've switched from Windows to Apple on my work desktop.
I was using Entourage for email, but switched to the Apple Mail client the other day - mainly due to Entourage's poor performance (I may come back to that).
One of the nice features of Apple's Mail App is that supports RSS. I've been using Thunderbird for a long time, so I naturally assumed that a commercial product would at least be able to match Thunderbird in terms of features.
Sadly it can't.
The one major flaw is that you cannot import OPMLs. You can only add single RSS addresses.
Yes there are work arounds, but they're not sane. They may work, but they do not strike me as worth the effort. I'll simply stick to using Bloglines instead.
The question that begs to be asked is how a company like Apple missed a key feature like this.
Oh well ...
I was using Entourage for email, but switched to the Apple Mail client the other day - mainly due to Entourage's poor performance (I may come back to that).
One of the nice features of Apple's Mail App is that supports RSS. I've been using Thunderbird for a long time, so I naturally assumed that a commercial product would at least be able to match Thunderbird in terms of features.
Sadly it can't.
The one major flaw is that you cannot import OPMLs. You can only add single RSS addresses.
Yes there are work arounds, but they're not sane. They may work, but they do not strike me as worth the effort. I'll simply stick to using Bloglines instead.
The question that begs to be asked is how a company like Apple missed a key feature like this.
Oh well ...
You'd have to be living on another planet to have avoided the current runup to the US presidential elections.
If you want to freak out your friends you can now get a Barack Obama mask or even a John McCain one.
Of course if you did get one of those masks, would you have any friends left?
If you want to freak out your friends you can now get a Barack Obama mask or even a John McCain one.
Of course if you did get one of those masks, would you have any friends left?
Netscape is now officially dead.
It's kind of sad to see it go, but I guess it was inevitable. While it may have been one of the dominant browsers back in mid 90s I can't even remember the last time someone mentioned using it.
I think Netscape was the second browser that I used. The first one was of course Mosaic
Nowadays my primary browser on Linux, Apple and Windows (which I rarely use) is Firefox.
Farewell Netscape. You served us well
It's kind of sad to see it go, but I guess it was inevitable. While it may have been one of the dominant browsers back in mid 90s I can't even remember the last time someone mentioned using it.
I think Netscape was the second browser that I used. The first one was of course Mosaic
Nowadays my primary browser on Linux, Apple and Windows (which I rarely use) is Firefox.
Farewell Netscape. You served us well
