I thought I should write something to tell you a bit about what I’m doing. Today’s post will be about the music side of things. I’m playing with two lovely people who live in Dundalk. Andrew Grafton and his girlfriend Trudy Maguire. Their full time musicians who play every kind of music from rock to classical to jazz, to the blues. Trudy even sings in a quire and is an active participant in the Irish accordion association. Andrew is kept busy as he is probably one of the most talented videographers and sound engineers on the east coast. He’s also one of the nicest guitarists I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing music with.

About a year ago we began playing music together. I originally stood in for another musician as he was traveling quite a lot but as time moved on we began to get together more and more. About two months ago we finally settled on a name for the band on the way to the airport for the last of a string of gigs around St. Patrick’s Day. The name is Eitleán. This is Irish for Airplane. For those of you outside Ireland, this is pronounced etchelawn. Yes, it’s a funny way of thinking up a band name but it has stuck and it suits the nature of the band because we’re all messers when you get right down to it.

We have been working on a new CD for the past few months as well and we’re hoping that will be released very shortly. In anticipation of the launch and in an effort to raise awareness of the band we have been hitting social media networks. You may now find us on Facebook, Twitter, Sound cloud and our Eitleán website which is still in the process of being built.

This is the part where I ask you to get involved. Listen to our tracks on sound cloud, follow our twitter account and like our page on Facebook. Eitleán music is definitely here to stay and hopefully this is just the start of what is to come.

Social networks

• Eitleán on facebook:
  Visit our facebook page.
• Eitleán on twitter:
  Follow @EitleanMusic
• Listen to some tracks from our soon to be released album:
  Follow Eitleán on sound cloud.
• The Eitleán website is still under construction but it will be a central resource for all Eitleán news shortly:
  Visit the Eitleán website.

For the less technical people out there, basically what I’m talking about here is running a Windows computer inside a virtual machine.

You need a more basic description? No problem. Try this. Let’s say you have one large computer. Virtual machines are machines that run inside this big computer. Think about it as if it was a building. This building might have ten different companies. True, each company could probably have its own building but there’s no need. It only needs a certain amount of space. An entire building would be over kill. So, the one building hosts all of these guest companies. Just like one large server can host dozens or hundreds of virtual machines be those workstations that users work with or servers that run the companies IT systems. Having one building hosting all these smaller companies cut down on the space required the cost of maintenance and the cost of power. When you hear the word hypervisor, I am basically talking about the building or the large server that hosts all the virtual machines or companies. When I talk about a guest, I am talking about the companies in the building i.e, the virtual machines. Get it?

• Building = Server / Hypervisor
• Company = Guest or virtual machine

Ok. I’m glad we have all of that cleared up. You can take a break for a few seconds before I move on to the next part because it’s going to get a little technical again. Don’t worry. You’ll understand it now that you have a grip of the basics.

For one reason or another, I spent some time yesterday tackling the problem of how a blind person can independently and efficiently access a Windows 7 PC that has been virtualized using a thin client. A thin client for those of you who aren’t aware of the term is a basic PC. It has very limited storage, limited RAM and a low power processor. The idea of this machine is to give a user a platform from where they can access a virtual computer. All it does is start a cut down version of Windows and provide the user with a log in box to start their virtual system.

There is one barrier to accessibility when using thin clients. No additional software can be installed ordinarily as there isn’t enough space to facilitate it. This means installing a screen reader isn’t an option. Even a pen drive version of Jaws won’t work because it requires the installation of a mirror driver. Fortunately, NVDA will work very well. Just download the portable version and run it. If I was to make one suggestion it would be to put NVDA to sleep automatically when the PC over IP or the RDP client started as it can get a little confusing when modifier keys such as caps lock are pressed. I know this can be done using scripts though and it is something I would look at doing if I was using this as my workstation every day.

So, you can now use the thin client to log into your workstation. That’s the first hurdle out of the way. Now what?

With VMware you can log onto virtual machines using two protocols. RDP which is Microsoft’s remote desktop protocol or PC over IP which is the protocol used by VMware. PC over IP is more efficient for a number of reasons but in later versions of RDP Microsoft have gained some ground. I won’t explain the benefits over PC over IP in this post but very quickly, PC over IP is less bandwidth intensive so the experience of remotely using a virtual machine is a little smoother.

You’ll be happy to know that relaying sound back to the thin client is supported by both of these protocols however you won’t get instant feedback like you would if sitting at your own PC. The delay is in the realm of about fraction of a second but if like me you expect instant responses from a screen reader this fraction of a second may as well be an eternity.

Relaying sound back to the thin client is very important. Jaws, my preferred screen reader crashes every time it is started in a virtual machine using the PC over IP protocol. Without fail, it refuses to run. NVDA on the other hand runs very nicely in a virtual machine using the PC over IP protocol. Of course, using NVDA sound mapping to your thin client is vital which is why I made the point earlier.

Unfortunately, there you have it. What I’m saying in a very long winded way is, yes, you can access a virtual machine using a thin client if you’re stuck but I wouldn’t think it’s usable every day. The sound lag is just too pronounced. NVDA’s ability to work in this environment should however be recognised and commended. Jaws, a leader in screen reading software seems to fail badly.

Please don’t’ take this as an endorsement or a criticism of any screen reader. I am simply stating what I have found to be the reality here. I have written this post to highlight this area and to show that improvement is required. More and more organizations and companies are moving to virtual desktops to replace physical machines as they provide significant cost savings. I have a genuine fear that assistive technology companies are not aware of this trend and blind computer users such as me will be left clambering to keep up with my sighted colleagues. I strongly believe that it is vital that companies such as Freedom Scientific, NV Access and GW Micro listen to users and when possible, utilize their experience and expertise. I for one offer it freely.

Systems used are:

• ESXI 5.0
• VMWare view 5.0
• Windows 7 X64 and 32 bit.
• Thin client running a cut down version of Windows XP.
• 1GB network connection.
• Virtual machine had two processors and 4GB of RAM.
• Thin client had 1GB of RAM and 1 processor at 1.5GHZ.

I should finally note that I do not see RDP as a viable solution for accessing virtual machines using a thin client. Especially for screen reader users. If by some stroke of luck you get Jaws running on your thin client, you would then use Jaws on your virtual machine to tunnel the data back to your locally running instance of Jaws on the thin client. That’s fine, however, what if like me your a system administrator and you will need to establish connections to other remote systems from your virtual machine. You will not be able to use Jaws to establish a second or third connection as you are already using jaws through one RDP session. Drawing on an article from IBM this seems to be a viable solution for some researchers however from the perspective of someone who both administers and uses a virtual environment every day, I would not be able to depend on RDP due to this limitations. PC over IP is a protocol designed and optomized for he VMware virtual platform. We should be able to use it.

I think or rather, I hope a new revolution in web accessibility has been reached. It’s in the form of a device I originally publicly discredited as being nothing more than an oversized iPod. Yes, I’m talking about the iPad. I think this big touch screen is actually the most enjoyable interface I have ever used for browsing the web. It’s so nice to be able to explore the layout of a website. Getting a sense of where the navigation links are, where the content starts and where the form fields are located for example is so much nicer than remembering that to find the content on my favourite website, I press h three times to jump to the third heading then I press down five times to move past all the junk. Just like I assume a sighted person reads through the timeline on Facebook very quickly by glancing at specific parts of the screen, I can glance at different parts of the screen with my fingers. I know, it’s very different still but it is probably the closest I have ever been to actually reading a site in a similar way to sighted friends.

It’s also a lot less keyboard commands to remember. For obvious reasons of course.

I recently designedthe website for Computer Support Services from the ground up. Compared to the work of professional web designers, my attempt at design is basic at best but I’m quite proud of it. I regularly checked my layout using the iPad. Making sure I aligned things correctly was so much easier using a touch screen interface. I’d make a change to the style sheet and as soon as it was saved, I’d have a feel of the iPad to make sure I hadn’t broken something and then when I was happy that everything was still in the right place, I’d look for the new component that I’d added. For example, if you look at the twitter feed at the bottom right of the Computer Support Services website. I wanted to give that just enough space to let it stand out but I didn’t want to overwhelm the bottom of the home page. Finding that balance was made a lot easier by exploring the size of the section by touch.

If you haven’t tried browsing the Internet using an iPad, I’d encourage you to give it a shot. If you tried it before and you aren’t convinced, spend some time with it. If you want specific tips drop me a comment.

I should also mention that I’ve written this blog post using wordpress on my iPhone and I finished it using the iPad. The wonders of modern technology ay?

The band is only on the go for about six months now so the number of gigs etc. that we’re getting is still quite low. Plus, I’m working full time so I’m not giving it as much attention as I would like. Still, it’s keeping me entertained. The other two are full time musicians. It’s what they do every day so as you can imagine, they have their fingers in quite a lot of pies.

So, as I was saying, I spent the entire week playing music. From a session in Macs in Dundalk on Friday night the 9th of March right up to the last gig on Sunday the 18th of March. I won’t bore you with all the details. The highlights were playing in the airport on Thursday and Friday morning to greet tourists and emigrants returning to Ireland, the Brilliant session on Friday night, the four or five sessions on St. Patrick’s day and the very enjoyable day I spent with the other two in a modern and very well run recording studio in Dundalk on the Sunday.

While working in a job that seems to constantly have me stressed or worried over something, music is the one thing I can fully depend on to get rid of all apprehension. I don’t remember the last time I was so relaxed. Two weeks in a hot country wouldn’t distress me like that week did. I’ve often thought of playing music full time but I know I never will. I’m one of the luckiest people in the world. I work in an industry I really love and when I’m finished work, I get to entertain and teach people with a hobby that I love just as much. It’s a very rare opportunity. I wouldn’t want to jeopardise the enjoyment I get from playing music by having to depend on it as an income.

Before I finish, I better tell you how we came up with the name Eitleán. We had been discussing suitable names for months. Trills and triplets, the button folk, bits and pieces, Folken trad and probably dozens of others but nothing was really sticking. We had one hour to come up with a name on Friday for a recording that the Dublin airport authority wanted to prepare so while driving up the M1 and throwing the most stupid of names around for the craic someone asked what the Irish for air plane was. And so a name was agreed!

I chose the title of this blog post because for a very short time I got to see through the eyes of full time musicians. I was absolutely amazed by the amount of work they put in. Before they turn up to a gig the preparation is quite obvious. You practise, test out the gear, tune instruments, clean everything so it’s presentable and all that kind of thing. What you don’t see is the conversations at 4:30 in the morning about a YouTube video that has just been found with a style that makes you think of a song or a tune in a completely different way. You don’t really see that the band they are playing on Wednesday night with is completely different to the band their playing in on Thursday night and between Wednesday and Thursday they may have played at a funeral, a corporate event or simply a family reunion. I know that one full time musician is in three full time bands and he’s in about four or five session groups. He could be playing hard rock on Mondays, Spanish guitar on Tuesdays, pop on Wednesdays, Country on Thursday, classical on Friday jazz on Saturday and Irish traditional tunes on Sunday. Between all of this he might need to learn twenty songs for the next week and prepare a new composition for a film. It is simply amazing that these people get to have a life at all. The life of a musician is very busy and very demanding. Even as a musician myself, I wasn’t aware of the amount of work a full timer puts in.

define(‘WP_PROXY_HOST’, ’192.168.0.1′);
define(‘WP_PROXY_PORT’, ’8080′);
define(‘WP_PROXY_BYPASS_HOSTS’, ‘localhost’);

Of course, it goes without saying that you need to change the host IP address to match your proxy.

So, what’s happening? Good question. I’m not sure where to start. Fortunately, I’m still working. Recent stats released recently have put unemployment in Ireland at 14%. That’s the highest levels in twenty years I think they’ve said. So, the fact that I’m part of the lucky ones is definitely something to be happy about. In fact, I am very happy because I’m very fortunate to be doing reasonably well when the rest of the country seems to be suffering. Work is still actually really enjoyable. Sure, I go in some mornings and the last place I want to be is sitting in the office but I’m glad to say that after four years the job is still challenging and the environment I work in is quite decent as well.

Outside of work things are going just as nicely. I’m playing a lot of music at the moment. I’m teaching people on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I’m practising with a band on Thursday and I’m usually playing at a gig and a session a few times during the weekend. I’m fortunate to be playing a lot of music with two good friends of mine. One plays the guitar and the other the accordion. Both of them sing as well so they add a great variety to the music.

When I’m not at work or playing music, I’m working on technology projects or working for local companies. I’ll tell you a lot more about this shortly. Again, it’s interesting, demanding and challenging so I’m loving every moment of it.

Of course, a few things aren’t going so well but that’s only to be expected and accepted. If you don’t have the bad you can’t appreciate the good as they say.

I have a few meetings this afternoon. They are going to make a few plans start moving in the right direction. Hopefully in about a month I’ll be able to tell you more. In fact, hopefully a month from now I will be able to fill you in on a lot of things that are about to change.

How are you?

I find it a little ironic that a year later; I’m posting another picture up here for you to see showing Ike waiting to be assigned to someone else. I really really hope it works out for him. He’s an amazing worker. I can’t say how much I miss walking with him. You just wouldn’t believe how comfortable it is navigating around Dublin city with him specifically. Freddie, my first guide dog was brilliant in so many ways and in more ways than not, his personality suited me more than Ike’s but wow; Ike had an amazing way of walking that felt completely natural. It shouldn’t bother me still but I really hate that it came to this. Firstly if I’m to be completely honest, I hate it because I start every day with the cane dreading every moment when out with that stick but secondly because I miss Ike’s work. I know this might seem heartless to those of you without a guide dog or who knows maybe those of you with a guide dog might think so too but I know that I will be able to draw a line under my trials and tribulations with Ike when I train with another dog. Until then, I’m going to remain a bit bitter about it.

Sorry. I shouldn’t but I can’t help it.

Using the cane, I’m getting a little bit freer in environments that I’m used to. Nassau Street is no longer as much of a challenge. I have to say though, walk fast and walk purposefully seems to be the best option. Sorry for people who might occasionally get in my way but it seems to be the best way of getting people to take notice. I wish pedestrians would learn! I can’t see you! You can see me! MOVE! While walking up Dawson Street now, I find that I can follow the gutter going up the centre of the path but if I just take my time people seem to stand right in my way! I called into a coffee shop last Wednesday on South Fredrick Street. They had a big sign outside their sheltered area and it was in the perfect spot for me. It always marked the centre of the path. They moved it though and my cane kept getting stuck under the plastic partition that surrounds their outside chairs. I think they might have moved it because they apologised a few times after I walked into it in the morning. The problem is though, although it looks like I’m walking into it, I’m deliberately finding it with the cane. It’s my landmark on south Fredrick Street that marks when I need to out dent away from the shop fronts so as I miss the plant pots. I’ve learned with experience. Especially when it’s raining, I don’t want to be anywhere near those stupid plants. They hit me right in the face! Then, when I pass the display, I hit the metal railings. After they finish, I take exactly ten steps and turn directly left. It’s important to take ten because if I take less than 10 I won’t align straight to my next landmark and I could end up going straight down the centre of another road. Yeah, I’ve done that. Humiliating. Anyway, it’s ten paces across south Fredrick Street. I’ll meet a skinny metal pole. I turn directly right and take fifteen and a half steps from there. That will get me to the steps of the office and the centre handrail will be directly on my right or if I’m off a little bit then the left handrail will be right beside me. I have this stepped out because if I follow the wall I can occasionally hit someone sleeping rough and I don’t like to bother them. I also find that there are a few bikes parked at the railings so I can’t follow them too closely so staying in the centre of these paths is my only efficient route. This is the level of detail I have taken on board to help me navigate independently and efficiently using the cane. Don’t get me wrong either, this level of detail wasn’t found overnight. I made some stupid mistakes and I battered my ribs off bike handle bars first. As they say, necessity is the mother of all invention. Just wish they’d stop moving my landmarks. You know where I cross after ten paces? There used to be a part of that path missing. They fixed that during the time I worked with Ike though. It took me ages to find that crossing point again. Why do they have to go around fixing stuff! A you can hopefully see, although I’m still very miffed about what happened with Ike, I’m struggling on and thanks to some great friends it’s probably a little easier this time around in some ways.

Try this: Sunday I do a gig. I arrive home at 1AM. 6AM the alarm goes off and I’m in the office by 10 to 8. I work for the day but I stay a few hours longer because I need to be in Dublin for 8PM for another gig. I leave the office at 7PM and make my way to the venue. We set up and perform for two hours. I finally return home at 11:30PM. At 12AM I finally get to bed. At 6AM, the alarm goes off and the process starts all over again.

I’m sure you can therefore excuse me if I’m a little more sluggish than usual today. I just don’t seem to be able to focus on anything for a decent amount of time at all.

It will pass… But, while I’m waiting, I’m trying to continue to work. This is not going well. I’m making stupid mistakes.

This morning I tried to configure a few simple firewall rules. I added the port, the IP address and saved it. For some reason, it wouldn’t work! I looked at the confer files for the system. Everything looked fine! I checked the systems firewall. It was allowing the traffic. I checked to make sure that the services weren’t listening for specific address. No, everything was fine there as well. I checked the certs to make sure they were associated with the right domain. Again, all was fine. I ran port scans inside and outside the network, the ports looked open inside the network but they were closed from the Internet. I rebooted the firewall. Still nothing! I rebooted the server. Still nothing! I searched around the Internet for a solution. For some reason no one else was having the same problem. Finally, I looked at the firewall rule again. I had entered the wrong IP address! Fine. I’m an idiot. These things happen. Saved the rule again, ran a port scan, it still didn’t work. The port as still closed. I just couldn’t’ figure this out at all! I tried moving the service to a different port in case there was a conflict. No, it just wouldn’t work.
You know what the problem was? It’s so simple you’ll agree that I’m completely stupid. Yes, I didn’t enable the rule. I kept looking at it and missing the fact that the checkbox for enabled was unchecked. Stupid stupid stupid stupid!

So, please excuse me if I’m a little slow today. I’m blaming it on the lack of sleep and the very busy days.

The line-up this time began with a lovely relaxed piping recital by the renound Uilleann piper Mick O’Brian. HE played in city hall for 45 minutes to a room filled with people who genuinely appreciated pure Irish traditional music. Mick is a versatile musician and he seems to be comfortable playing in any setting but he excels when letting his pipes reach their full potential by filling a particularly big room such as that in Dublin’s city hall. His masterful playing of the chanter, drones and regulators is why Mick can captivate an audience for 45 minutes when playing solo. Yes, you read correctly. He had no backing at all. It was just him on his own on stage for 45 minutes. If I had one complaint for this gig it would be that the volume of the amplification could have been increased a lot more. It didn’t do his playing any favours. The highlight was the slow air he chose at the start. I have a recording of that somewhere so check back for an update to this post in a day or two. He also played a tune, or a combination of tunes called the fox chase. This is probably the most complicated arrangement to play on the pipes but showing his skill yet again, he pulled it off easily.

The second gig on Wednesday night was in the idyllic setting of Christ church cathedral in Dublin city centre. From 8PM we were entertained for two and a half hours by the very interesting Safire and Michael McGoldrick. The night began with Safira and their very unique style. They play modern contemporary versions of classical and traditional music from around the world. Two sisters both playing the fiddle they bring a great energy to their performance. My personal opinion is that it wasn’t the time or place for their type of music but I’m very sure there’s a market out there for them. They have just returned from a year and a half in America and their style of entertainment and performance reflects this without a doubt. They use backing tracks for all of their pieces but they were so loud that it was impossible to hear where the backing track started and where it ended. It was impossible for me to determine what parts the sisters were actually playing because their music was so intermingled with the music played by the backing track. I If was sceptical I’d wonder if they were actually playing at all. I don’t want to be harsh or mean. I’m sure their great musicians but I would have liked them to demonstrate their music without the safety net of a backing track. Even for one tune. Finally, I would say that sex sells and it seemed that that’s the kind of thing they were trying to put out there so maybe I was completely clueless because although their dresses was described to me, I obviously didn’t get the desired effect. In saying that, a man sitting near me didn’t seem all that impressed either. Seriously, I know I’m being more negative than usual but I honestly wish them well. I would go to them again but only to give them a second chance as if I was in their position I wouldn’t like to be judged by the outcome of one gig.

The last performance of the night was by Michael McGoldrick on flute, whistles and pipes, John Joe Kelly on bodhran and Ed Boyd on guitar. A climactic thrill from the start to the finish this gig was something I had been looking forward to since the last time I heard Michael McGoldrick playing in a quiet venue during the Fleadh in August. Amazing! Shocking! Exhilarating! Brilliant! Energising! These are only some of the words that I would use to describe their performance. Every single one of them played well. By the time Jerry O’Connor joined them for a few tunes near the end of the gig the huge church was humming with the thrill of music. It was either the thrill of music or the feedback from the speaker in front of me. Either way, there was a hum or it wasn’t off Michael McGoldricks feet after he took his shoes off on stage. Sorry, you won’t get that unless you watch a few of the videos on this post. John Joe Kelly’s bodhran solo lasted about five minutes and he captivated and ensnared every single person for every single second of it. The applause given after it reflected it and Michael even commented afterward that it was without doubt the best response John Joe had ever received after a solo. I personally think it was one of the best solo performances he’s ever given and he definitely deserved the recognition.

It was lovely to hear Michael McGoldrick on pipes for a change. He only played a set of two tunes but it was still a rare pleasure. Did you know he is a lefty? Forgetting his amazing talent for playing, he has an even more amazing talent for picking tunes. The tunes he played on the pipes were excellently chosen and the change between each tune was just perfect.

We didn’t get back until 1AM on Thursday morning and getting up for work was very difficult but I still feel energised and yes, although some will laugh, even inspired after listening to such brilliant music played by master musicians.

On Saturday we travelled to Dublin to take in more music from trad fest. Saturday was more sessions than gigs though and it was nice to visit the Palace bar in Temple bar to play music with people from all over the country. The best thing about this kind of event is tunes are heard that are more prominent in other parts of the country but are almost forgotten in Dublin and Louth.

One of the best things on Saturday night was walking around Temple bar between sessions and finding a group of young teenagers sitting on the steps of Temple bar square playing a few tunes. A few feet away, a young girl of no more than six was playing a few tunes as well. I love to see that kind of thing. Young kids enjoying the friendly atmosphere and getting fun out of the music.

Again, please remember to check back soon. It takes a while to prepare each video so I haven’t got them all done just yet but I’ll upload as many as I can over the next few days. You can also visit my Youtube channel for more videos.