Michele Neylon :: Pensieri

Spartacus - Lots of Blood.. and Silly Tshirts

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:34:32 PST

Spartacus Blood and Sand isn't going to be showing in Europe for a while I suspect ..

For those of you who have been able to see it the tshirts it has inspired so far are quite amusing.

Who'd have thought that you could get so much inuendo into a simple Latin word like "ludus" ....

More info here

Home Cinema Discussion Forum Live

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:47:00 PST

As part of my "let's use those domains" plan I finally put a new Home Cinema Discussion site live at the weekend.

I picked up the domain about a year ago, but it had been sitting "gathering dust", so I'm happy to see it's now in use .. hopefully the site will get some traffic and attract a few active members in the coming weeks / months...

Now where did I leave that list of domains?

Irish Blog Awards 2010 Nominations Closing

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:36:05 PST

Remember the Irish Blog Awards?

Well nominations have been open for the last couple of weeks BUT they are closing this afternoon.

So if you haven't had a chance to nominate your favourite Irish blogs (and bloggers) now is the time to do it under one of the many categories.

The event will be held later this year in Galway.

Carlow Business Directory Now Live

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:11:00 PST

I'd have to be the first one to admit it. I have an annoying habit of registering domains then forgetting about them or simply not having the time / energy to do anything meaningful with them.

So I love it when I'm actually able to get something up and running on a domain that is functional and hopefully of some use. Emphasis on hopefully!

A few months ago I picked up carlow.biz. It was available, though it was registered a few times in the past to other people.

So with the aid of Forbairt Media's graphic skills, the new Carlow business directory is now live.

Yes - it's still a work in progress (the design is still being tweaked), but if you're based in Carlow and have a site that should be included please submit it! It won't cost you anything.

For the SEO types ...

All the links are clean, direct links.

And of course it's hosted by Blacknight.

Getting Friends With Flowcharts

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:35:22 PST

Over the last couple of weeks several people suggested that I watch "The Big Bang Theory", which is an American comedy (if you, like me, weren't aware).

I finally succumbed and "gave it a go" and am now totally hooked.

One of the shows main characters, Sheldon, seems to get some of the best and funniest lines (and scenes).

Sheldon isn't very good with human interpersonal relations (and that's putting it mildly!), so when he had to become friends with a colleague from work he decided to apply logic and a flowchart to the "problem".

The result was hilarious.

So what you say.

Well I'm into my "geeky" and "funny" tshirts, so I came across this one over on ThinkGeek :
I'm not sure how well that would look on a tshirt, though I'm willing to give it a try!

If you're "into" crazy tshirts there's even a site dedicated to the tshirts worn by Sheldon in the series!

Mafia Wars Going A Bit Too Far?

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:40:57 PST

Like a lot of people I've been playing Mafia Wars on Facebook for quite some time. You can usually check your progress once or twice a day, which probably takes a couple of minutes at a time.

Yes - it is addictive

No - Nobody will ever win.

But it's still semi-amusing and keeps me vaguely entertained.

However they may have gone a little bit too far now with their latest addition - SMS notifications.

If you are a player based in the US you will be able to signup to get alerts when you are attacked etc., which means that you will never really have any peace from the game, which I don't think is a particularly good idea for the players. For Zynga, of course, the more time people spend on their platform the more money they will earn.

Here's what the offer looks like:

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I still see it as being a bad move.

Donate Donate Donate - You Know You Want To!

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:55:21 PST

You'll have to excuse the cross-posting, but as this is for a good cause I'm not going to be that apologetic.

Following on from the tragedy in Haiti we (Blacknight) have organised a collection in aid of Médecins Sans Frontières

To make it that bit more interesting we've added a little twist - if we raise enough money we'll discount domains. The more we raise the bigger the discount.

More details here or just go and donate here

Risque Facebook Tshirt

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:12:53 PST

I am a big fan of funny tshirts.

It's not a secret.

Some of the tshirt captions and graphics that people come up with are sheer genius.

One of the latest ones from Tshirt Hell is a quite playful, yet risque, Facebook influenced one:

Grab it here

Taming The Beast

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 07:35:24 PST

I stopped shaving a few weeks ago. It wasn't a conscious decision to grow a beard or anything like that. I simply didn't shave for a few days and a few days became a few weeks.

I'm now looking more and more unkempt (my sister thought I looked a bit like a Taliban, but that's another story)

So yesterday while messing around with my Mac I decided to take a mugshot of myself and update my Facebook profile.

The reaction was pretty amusing. A random change has led to a silly amount of activity on my "wall".

But, as you can see, while the beard itself may not be too bad (that's obviously a matter of opinion) it definitely needs to be tidied up.

So I asked around for recommendations for beard trimmers. One brand name kept on being mentioned - Wahl. I'll have to admit I'd never heard of them, but it transpires that they are "the" brand for beard trimmers (who'd have known?).

Amazon stock several of their products, so I ordered one last night:

I probably won't take delivery of it for a few days, as Amazon are reporting delays with shipping due to the bad weather.

So why did I choose that particular model of beard trimmer?

What caught my eye was the range of options.

The device comes with four different blades which would appear to give you the options for both beard trimming and also handling shaving your head. Since I haven't been to a hairdresser in over 10 years I've no interest in starting now!

Once I've got the trimmer and put it through its motions I should be able to give a more comprehensive review.

Beardyman SuperMarket

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:15:49 PST

I don't watch The Late Late that often, but I'm glad I watched it last night. Beardyman is truly incredible.

Beardyman is an amazing beatboxer, so if you like music you will love him!

Here's a video of him doing his thing in a supermarket:

The Ideal SIP Client For Mac OSX?

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:24:30 PST

For the last few months we've had a SIP / VOIP setup in our offices.

My experiments with accessing the system using a SIP client on my iPhone were disastrous.

However I hadn't had any reason to do any proper experiments with using a SIP client on my desktop until today.

I'm currently using "Telephone", which is functional, but not exactly amazing.

So what SIP client software would people recommend for use on Mac OSX?

Snow Kills Off Ireland

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:39:53 PST

Snow Covered Cars, originally uploaded by blacknight.

When I lived in Veneto you were used to snow. Over there it was normal. People had winter tyres and / or chains. Veneto didn't come grinding to a halt when there was a bit of snow.

How about Ireland?

Well Ireland does come to a grinding halt.

The short trip from the office to the house this evening was horrendous. Trying to drive when you have zero traction is not "fun". Losing control completely for a few seconds on black ice is scary.

So how long will this last?

Just Because You Are Famous Doesn't Mean Your Opinion is Sane

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:00:52 PST

Bono, the lead singer of U2, is well known for "mouthing off". I normally ignore his tirades, but his most recent one, which was published in the New York Times, has irked me.

While Bono is entitled to his opinion, as is everyone else, there is a danger that someone as well known as him may be listened to. When his opinion piece is interpreted as "gospel" by some then there is a real danger that someone somewhere might mistake Bono's rambling thoughts for sanity.

Let's look at some of his "wonderful" thoughts:

The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files.

Huh? That paragraph doesn't even make any sense.

But it gets better ..

A decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators -- in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can't live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us -- and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.

Two problems with that.

Who gets the lion's share of the profits from record sales? It's not the creator, unless the creator also happens to be the record label ...
"Rich service providers"? Most ISPs aren't awash with "swollen profits" and Bono's claims about ISPs is an obvious reflection of his total ignorance.

We're the post office, they tell us; who knows what's in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America's noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China's ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it's perfectly possible to track content.

Again, Bono's ignorance is simply amazing.
First off, attempting to draw parallels between child porn and file sharing. Is he nuts?
Yes, it is technically possible to track content, but what Bono forgets is that in order for an ISP to do so they have to infringe users' rights.

Bono's hypocrisy seems to know no bounds. Doesn't he spend a lot of his time going on about human rights? So "nasty" countries must be made to behave, but if Bono's bottomline is potentially impacted we can throw the rulebook out the window?

If he actually had a clue, which he patently doesn't, he'd realise how drawing parallels between China's content filtering and oppression makes him look much dumber than normal.

What's even more amusing (and bemusing) is that Bono doesn't see any issue in advocating for content filtering to benefit record labels in an article that also goes on to repression.

Maybe Bono needs a dictionary ...

You can read his really misinformed and hypocritical article here

Gearing Up For 2010

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:34:40 PST

I could lie and say that I've made a load of New Year resolutions, but I haven't.

2010 is now upon us and I'll be back to my "normal" schedule come Monday.

What does that mean?

I guess I'll be spending quite a bit of time on conference calls this year, as I've ended up on several policy groups within ICANN.

Of course policy work is wonderful and interesting, but it doesn't pay the bills, so I'm hoping that some of the stuff we've been working on behind the scenes will "go live" sooner rather than later.

Having goals helps me to focus, so I will be paying a lot more attention to the registry reports that I have access to. Most of the registries, such as .me, .tel etc., provide their registrars with very detailed breakdowns of their account activity.

I also have to admit that I've become quite addicted to RegistrarStats.

On a more personal level.

The number of close relatives I have in Ireland is shrinking. My sister is off travelling in Asia before heading on to Australia to do a post-grad. One of my aunts is still in hospital in Cavan, while the other hasn't lived in Ireland for over 30 years.

Since I seem to accumulate silly numbers of dvds, blu ray and CDs I really do need to find a saner way of organising them. Spending 45 minutes looking for a CD or DVD is not my idea of fun!

Books are also another issue. While I don't have the quantities that other relatives have I really do need to get more bookcases before they takeover all the available surfaces in the house.

Last year I started doing screencasts for the company, so I'd like to do more of those this year. I'd also love to do a few podcasts, so persuading a few friends / victims to talk to me "on record" may be on the cards .. though I really need to sort out the practical side of that all first.

What I am NOT looking forward to.

Monday morning.

Slightly Tasteless Yet Amusing Christmas Tshirt

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:54:19 PST

Tshirt Hell keep coming up with more outrageous tshirts. While this one is quite amusing, although a bit crude, I'd wonder who could actually wear it: