Saturday, December 16, 2006

Rawr

Shannon is here.

Unfortunatly I was ill before she arrived and still am.

No more need be said at the moment.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Wooties!

Woohoo!
I have my new computer. Granted its my Christmas present, but Im sorry, there was no way I was letting it sit in boxes for the better part of a month.
I shant bore you all with the specs, suffice to say, its yummy. Also I learned not to play games with a head cold. The larger monitor and better resolution on City of Heroes coupled with illness resulted in a size headache. I couldnt cope.

In other news Shannon sent me a link recently that pretty much consistently had me laughing my ass off.
On teamspeak.

Seems my giggles and fits are most amusing for all the lovely folks there. Damn them :P
http://overheardlines.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Tis the season

It's the first of November and thus Hallowe'en is officially over.

So now we may begin looking towards Christmas and all that holds.

I will be doing Christmas cards this year. Some of you I have addresses for, others I do not. If you want to sling an address my way, send it to the Gmail.

Other than that, here's to one holiday down and one to go.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Life in motion.

Art is a tricky thing.

Is it the painted masterpiece? What is a masterpiece?
Is it the wrought metal and carved stone? What makes a sculptre?

Sometimes art is as simple as a moment of time frozen for all to see. An artist friend of mine found this site enjoyable. I have to say I am impressed too. Thus I bring it to you to peek at.

http://pedestria.joshmillard.com/

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Fear me blogosphere

After a long and difficult association.... Skytel Ireland has finally become useful.

I know in an office of only apparently 5 people it can be hard to deal with customers on an individual basis but some of their mistakes were elementary.

  • They use a previous and slightly harder to find version of the softphone for computer dialing than what they link to. This renders their support screenshots useless.
  • They are either bogged down suddenly at times or dont take account of workload. Just don't say you'll call and then don't. It's bad for business.
  • The main reason we couldn't get the software to work? They put leading zero's in all the stuff we were supposed to enter and never told us to remove them. Heck why even put them in if you know they aren't supposed to be there?

Still after all that we now have a VoIP system at home so I can call whomever I please.

As with all things though there is a snag. Until we either fork out the €100 for their Sipura ATA or find another cheaper one, we cant make calls unless the computer is on and things like ohhh say Teamspeak or games are off. We did get a VoIP usb connector from Maplins, but they are obsessed with Skype. Yes it works after a fashion, I can now use the walk around phone, but its not quite what we wanted.

In a week or two we will have the perfect system. Walk-around phone -> ATA -> Clearwire wireless modem -> Skytel's Unlimted World calling package.

Who wants a call?

Friday, September 15, 2006

Pick your side

My brother and I are odd, or so I like to think.

We cant really be called fanboys of any one games system. They all have ups and downs. Now though, for most people the battle is about to start.

We'll use American dollars for the ease of comparison, but anyone needing a currency calculator can check www.xe.com/ucc

Right now the Xbox 360 is out there. It comes in two flavours, core and premium with if I recall correctly $300 and $400 price tags.
The 360 has been out now for almost a year and has gotten alot of fans. Halo 3 itself is likely to do for the 360 what Nintendogs did for the DS, in my little poorly informed opinion.

Coming November, we have the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation 3.

The Wii will retail at $250. It will have a technical game in it, showing off what the Wii can do. Its aimed at a mass market with new and innovative games, web access, old game downloads and sd expansion.

The Ps3 will retail at $600. In this you will get the Cell processor, some of the best hardware on the market and the new BluRay disc system.

For alot of people there is division. For people like my brother and I, there is no war. We are techadopters. We'll easily end up with all three machines in a year depending on the must have titles. Pick your side ladies and gents. Your wallet is about to take a beating.

Final thought.
  • Nintendo just wants to have fun. Everything about this release points at being above the competition.
  • Microsoft wants to be loved. This is their new baby and they worked hard to make it good.
  • Sony wants to crush you all with a giant techno-wang

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Never again!

Yesterday in work I had my phone on silent. I figured it was proper seeing as I was doing CATI work as opposed to filing or such.
I received a call. For those who may not know, yesterday was the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek. The call, which went to voice mail, was from Mr Richard Bowen, in charge of BBC's World Have Your Say, inviting me to talk on the program about the comments I left at the BBC news site when they asked for such about Star Trek.

Here's the problem. At roughly the same time, one of the managers in work rang home looking for me and was told I was in work. They came downstairs and found me, so I dismissed the voice mail from an unknown number as either work seeking me, or David calling to say work sought me. Thus I ignored it until today when I got a second voice mail.

Thus my 15 minutes of fame in Star Trek have sailed on by. A pity really but entirely my own fault for my laziness.

Moral of the story? Never again will I put the phone on silent. Vibrate for the win!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Stargate fans unite

Sci-Fi America has cancelled Stargate SG-1. Before there is any panic, they have renewed Stargate Atlantis, but SG-1's 10th season shall be it last....for now.

MGM are apparently looking for alternative options but for now its up to the fans.
Much how fans brought us Serenity and the Peacekeeper Wars, lets see what we can do here.
www.SaveStargateSG1.com

Exerpt below from www.Gateworld.net

The goal of the Save Stargate SG-1 campaign is to support the future of Stargate SG-1, be it in an eleventh season, a feature film, or a TV movie or mini-series.What can you do?Join the campaign today! Fans of the show are encouraged to:
a) write a letter or send a postcard to SCI FI Channel
b) call or fax SCI FI Channel
c) send e-mails to SciFi.com
d) spread the word to other viewers offline
e) watch the show live on SCI FI Fridays (as TiVo-delayed viewings have contributed to ratings erosion)
f) support the series' new iTunes downloads
Mail letters and postcards to:
Mark Stern
Executive Vice President
Original Programming
NBC Universal / SCI FI Channel
100 Universal City Plaza
Bld. 1440, 14th Floor
Universal City, CA 91608
Bonnie Hammer
President
NBC Universal / SCI FI Channel
30 Rockefeller Plaza,
New York, NY, 10112

Monday, August 21, 2006

Le chat

Helen, with whom I work, recently got a new place. Sadly the landlord would not permit her to keep her cat. As such she looked around everyone she knew to try get her cat, He-man, a home.

I've got him now. Le chat shall be called Khan henceforth.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Luck? Pah!

As my father said to me earlier, there are now better odds of an Irish person winning on the Euromillions lottery than the National Lottery.
While this is true, dont everyone expect to cash in. I won.
10 Euro.

Still Im not complaining, Im surprised I won anything at all. Woo for me! :D

Match : 2 + 1 Stars
Total Winners : 781822
Irish Winners : 24084
Prize : €10

Monday, July 17, 2006

Yo Blair get Hezbollah to stop this sh*t

So what if everyone and their monkey has this already. I am saving this for future generations or if I feel like ranting about what a daft git Bush is.

Blair/Bush exchange: transcript
Bush: Yo, Blair. How are you doing?
Blair: I’m just...
Bush: You’re leaving?
Blair: No, no, no not yet. On this trade thingy...[INAUDIBLE]
Bush: Yeah, I told that to the man.
Blair: Are you planning to say that here or not?
Bush: If you want me to.
Blair: Well, it’s just that if the discussion arises...
Bush: I just want some movement.
Blair: Yeah.
Bush: Yesterday we didn’t see much movement.
Blair: No, no, it may be that it’s not, it may be that it’s impossible.
Bush: I am prepared to say it.
Blair: But it’s just I think what we need to be an opposition...
Bush: Who is introducing the trade?
Blair: Angela [Merkel, the German Chancellor].
Bush: Tell her to call ’em.
Blair: Yes.
Bush: Tell her to put him on, them on the spot. Thanks for [INAUDIBLE] it’s awfully thoughtful of you.
Blair: It’s a pleasure.
Bush: I know you picked it out yourself.
Blair: Oh, absolutely, in fact [INAUDIBLE].
Bush: What about Kofi? [INAUDIBLE] His attitude to ceasefire and everything else ... happens.
Blair: Yeah, no I think the [INAUDIBLE] is really difficult. We can’t stop this unless you get this international business agreed.
Bush: Yeah.
Blair: I don’t know what you guys have talked about, but as I say I am perfectly happy to try and see what the lie of the land is, but you need that done quickly because otherwise it will spiral.
Bush: I think Condi is going to go pretty soon.
Blair: But that’s, that’s, that’s all that matters. But if you... you see it will take some time to get that together.
Bush: Yeah, yeah.
Blair: But at least it gives people...
Bush: It’s a process, I agree. I told her your offer to...
Blair: Well...it’s only if I mean... you know. If she’s got a..., or if she needs the ground prepared as it were... Because obviously if she goes out, she’s got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just talk.
Bush: You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over.
Blair: [INAUDIBLE]
Bush: [INADUBILE]
Blair: Syria.
Bush: Why?
Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing.
Bush: Yeah.
Blair: What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if we get a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way...
Bush: Yeah, yeah, he is sweet.
Blair: He is honey. And that’s what the whole thing is about. It’s the same with Iraq.
Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Assad and make something happen.
Blair: Yeah.
Bush: [INAUDIBLE]
Blair:[INAUDIBLE]
Bush: We are not blaming the Lebanese government.
Blair: Is this...? (at this point Blair taps the microphone in front of him and the sound is cut.)
Transcript provided by Sky News

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Busy bunny

I have been a busy bunny.

Between working 6 day weeks and spending my hours of relaxation reading, gaming and talking to Shannon, I have really neglected any blogging I used to do. This is quite likely to change when Shannon gets here as I am probably going to game less but natter more.

That would be the time for the news of course.

  • Shannon is all booked up and due here in June
  • Work continues well with a new task opening up on our nations roads.
  • Sarah may be visiting after exam times
  • I really need to sit down with a calendar, calculator and a plan to figure out when and how I shall visit Canada.

Beyond that there isnt anything wild or wonderful in my life at the moment. Not that I am complaining, I'll leave that off for when I wish to blog about nonsense.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Squeal like a wage slave.

Ive been working hard as of late. Due to my shambling in near enough 6 o clock I've neglected things like blogging and so on.

Still time for an update.

  • My laptop died :( It can possibly be repaired and I hope so. I've alot of memories invested in and saved on it.
  • I have gone up to a higher wage in work.
  • I got my father and my brother jobs with me, and then my father goes and gets hired by a sales place that turned me down:P Go figure.
  • I have set my mind to visiting Canada after the repeat exams this August. I have things to do and people to visit and look funny at.
  • I have decided its time for new technology. I want a Creative Zen Micro and a Sony Vaio laptop.

That is about it for the real life aspect of everything. Online? Well nothing much though each day the urge to write a science fiction story grows. I resist though as I know in my heart it would be rubbish.

Still I'll try to update more.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Nowt so strange as folk.

[00:16] Jonathan: I, a telephone interviewer, was doing my job. My subject agreed to be interviewed. I, a telephone interviewer, began my oral/aural questionaire. The respondant, a male in later life, a farm man to be sure claimed not to know of B.O.C gases (his own supplier) during the standard "do you know who is in the market" question.

[00:17] Hope: lol, ok.

[00:17] Jonathan: I, beleiving the fault lay with me, as apparently those with more regional accents seem to beleive I occasionally say B L C instead of B O C, I changed tack and actually called out the full name of the company and its full original name.

[00:17] Jonathan: The respondant, still on a phone interview, claimed not to know the name on the grounds that he was......... illiterate.

[00:18] Jonathan: Having not actually asked him to read anything, I in a moment of confusion asked him to hang on a brief moment while I consulted the supervisor

[00:18] Jonathan: instead I got "oh ye bollox. cant ye just piss off and leave me be?"

[00:18] Hope: lol!! [00:19] Hope: Aww.

[00:19] Hope: Poor Jonathan.

[00:19] Jonathan: I was more bemused than offended.

[00:19] Jonathan: How the hell is a lack of literacy a valid arguement against an over the phone spoken interview?

[00:19] Hope: I suppose it must have sounded pretty funny.

[00:20] Jonathan: and if it is so bad that it renders you unable to understand who is supplying you Oxy Acetaline, used for welding, how in the name of sweet zombie jesus did you get a mobile phone

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Four Thousand Five Hundred and Eighty Four

Today was my first day off since starting the new job.
Already has the new time I get up started to affect me.

I thought I was sleeping in. I made it a point not to get out of bed long after I had actually woken up. I was attempting to show the world I was still lazy. It was only sodding 11am when I got out of bed in the end.
Oh well. Lets aim for later tomorrow. Though seeing as dad throws on a pot of coffee whenever he gets up nowadays, Im sure I wont stay asleep for long.

As for other news, I am going to storm the American Embassy and demand information. What it takes for an American to work in Ireland, and what I need to ensure my anal virginity remains intact next time I go through Customs in America. I swear, they're looking at me weirder and weirder every time.

I saw a fox today :D The little critter came right into the back garden and had a merry old poke around before sitting down for a rest. Sadly we had no scraps to throw him but I am going to get a tin of dog food in to keep for such occurences. Hopefully he will become a regular visitor.

Other than that, David finally uninstalled McAfee from the desktop pc and put on AVG Antivirus free edition. He left it to me to update it and run it.
The final tally of infected files? 4854.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Moving in

So a place has been obtained, and in we move.

Not a thrilling entry this by any stretch of the imagination. Still its nice to have our own place after all this time.

Now to win the lottery tomorrow and buy several houses.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Sweet Zombie Jesus its snowing in Dun Laoghaire.

Proper snowing, not that slightly mushy rain.

You have no idea how surprising this is for me.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Wherever you hang your hat

Today I go to look at places to live. I'm not calling them homes as well they are temporary at best. This time next year with any luck, Ill be studying for up and coming exams and wondering exactly what to do with myself after graduation.

It's been a long time since Ive had a home. It's no ones fault really. Such is the way of things.

Still, it'll be nice to have somewhere to hang my hat.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Happy Valentines

Happy Valentines Day one and all.

I hope you all either spend it with your special someone or at least smile for someone today.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Ya-hellno

So I use Yahoo. I've been on the service for nigh 9 years so far.
I've met some good friends through it, become great friends with others thanks to its convenience.

Their recent ad campaign has been just a little...well insulting.

I was talking to my friend Hope, and she had her webcam on. I will actually add the photo here later if she agrees. Just below her video feed as a delightful little ad.
"Rather be looking at someone else? Yahoo! Personals".

Now I can understand advertising your services. It has to be done to attract users, but to play off the concept of "they're ugly, come join here and get yourself a tastier version" is just insulting.

In Yahoo! Mail we have ad's for the messenger service. That wee program that has served me so well for so long.
The set up is this, two people are talking and demonstrating yahoo's picture sharing system. There is a joke made and the smiley face shows the lady has gone offline.

So once again they support the idea of "If they're ugly, hide, you dont need to be a nice person".

If you don't like someone online for their looks. That's your choice. Not everyone can be to everyones taste. If you don't like them however, based on that one criteria, have the guts to say as much or at least to make a go of the friendship if not a romantic one.

Doesn't hurt to be honest.
If it does, there is the block feature, one I wholeheartedly support.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Obeying the laws of Thermodynamics

For my first official bloglet I have only one thought in my head.

Why is it my grandmothers house always conspires to be colder inside than it is out?
I have heard people blame the thick concrete foundation (we dont build our houses out of wood like those sissy American houses). I personally put a little bit of blame on these "patio doors" as I can feel the cold bleeding the heat from the room there.

But still, outside there is frost on the ground and I get the feeling I'd be warmer out there. When I get my physics degree, I'm coming back to experiment on this house.

That and steal that beanbag I've had my eye on for almost two decades.

Bots.

Who falls for this anymore?

Take anyone who has been online (Yahoo specifically) more than ohhh a month and I am sure they've had a porn bot im them randomly.
My problem is, who falls for that nonsense? Who talks to a little script thing (always with bad spelling) that is trying to pretend to be not a bot and very very horny? It's daft.

I am sure the ad industry would get more mileage out of hiring a bunch of webmonkeys to sit online and actively chat to people and entice them to the site. It's like on Ebportal a ways back when it worked. Dejavu was someone who posted and chatted a bit. For no reason she mentions in the inevitable forum "Post your pic thread" that she has nudie photos on her own forum site, but you have to sign up.

One can only imagine it was innundated with horny gaming geeks vying for a glimpse of nipple and giving out their email address in the process. Ah well, if it works right?
Take a hint from the cam whores all ye who run bots, most people arent stupid enough to fall for the bot, but I'd bet there is alot of click traffic to be made in seducing geeks.

I'm sure that wasnt the point I wanted to make when I came in here. Still here's the im.

[23:45] slhutomaximo: hi... anyyone there?
[23:46] bahrae: dont say "Oh you're there....hi"
[23:46] slhutomaximo: oh your there :) ho...
[23:46] bahrae: ok thats a new bot response
[23:46] slhutomaximo: bott? whats that? some kinda insult or something?
[23:46] slhutomaximo: a/s/l (age sex locatioh)?
[23:47] bahrae: thats standard at least. and that. Good bot. Quickly jump to the bit where you pretend you're alive and horny
[23:47] slhutomaximo: oh you mean one of those auto talk things or something right.. lol. well if you were in my apartment right now id llift up my skirt for you and i think youd be convinced real quick
[23:47] slhutomaximo: im 27/f/USA. was lookin at your profile. thought you might like to chat.
[23:47] slhutomaximo: so whaat have you been up to bahrae?
[23:47] bahrae: And thus I have my blog for tonight. But wait, we all know there is a blush emote coming
[23:48] slhutomaximo: cool. i was just hangin out watching tv.. i was getting kinda horny :) (*blushes)
[23:48] bahrae: victory! Damn bots.

On the box tonight

I just watched Battlestar Galactica.

This is nothing unusal. I watched the original, I watched the miniseries launch and followed the reimagined new series ever since. Of course I do have a bit of bad luck with always travelling right around the time new episodes put in an appearance, but thats another matter entirely.

Dark sci fi is nothing terribly new. It's been around for quite some time. Occasionally it works, othertimes not so much.

The problem I have at the moment is America's current obsession with "reality" tv and its inability to cope with complex ideas.

Take the recent bunch of "alien" shows. We've got Threshold, Invasion and Surface.

The premise? Bad storm. Aliens come to Earth. Bad things ensue.
All bleedin three of them. Ok the aliens in question are slightly different. Threshold has an Oddessy 5 feel (the aliens are among us). Surface is well limited to the water. Invasion I havent really bothered with.

Having looked at all three and polled my sci-fi and physics friends.....Threshold wins out. It's smart, makes you think, has a nicely convoluted plot line while still having straight forward aspects for the casual viewer.
Naturally it was cancelled. America cant be having with smart teeeeveee.

So the question remains, how is it Battlestar Galactica gets away with its trinity?
Smart, dark, sci-fi.

It doesnt. Look at any praise for it, what is the one word that keeps coming up? Drama.
It seems to survive in the American tv market, you either have to transcend the genre and become something else, or be dumb.
You cannot be both smart and sci-fi. Ohhh no thats not what they want.

Lost is another show that runs on the same idea. It has many plot lines, it has mystery and it has a huge following. Because it is billed as a drama and not the sci-fi fantasy it really is.

I really do despair for sci fi in this instance. It can't be itself and be cutting edge. America demands it's simple, or in some form that they can delude themselves into beleiving it isnt sci fi.

If we can have smart television, why cant we have smart television with spaceships?

Starting out

I personally have a tendancy to use my MSN Space as a blog. It's handy for me seeing as I use MSN 7 and so on. Mostly its a nice mobile favourites page with the linking and a handy photo albumn.

As for actual literary merit? Well everyone knows I talk nonsense.

Still perhaps I can change that. At any rate Ill be reposting some of my favoured entries from that site to here and also seeing if I have the slightest glimmer of blog ability here.

Doubtful but then again, who cares?

Without further ado, I'm Jonathan and I will be ranting here.
http://spaces.msn.com/members/OrtusSapienta