Worst Christmas Song Lyrics

I have been listening to lots of Christmas songs on Christmas FM.

And I have managed to spot the worst ever Christmas lyric.

It is in "Little Saint Nick" by the Beach Boys.

Here is the line:

"Christmas comes this time each year"

Unbelievable. Unforgivable.

Royalties from Christmas Songs

In 2011 I named my top 3 Christmas songs (here).

In 2012 I named my fourth favourite (here).

On his radio show this morning, Ray D'Arcy mentioned how much money Christmas hits were making for their composers every year. Mind boggling!

Some stats are available here.

Here is a list of how much money the top songs have generated so far THIS YEAR:

"Merry Xmas Everybody", Slade - £526,494
"Fairytale Of New York", The Pogues - £397178
"All I Want For Christmas Is You", Mariah Carey - £357431
"Last Christmas", Wham! - £310,148
"Mistletoe and Wine", Cliff Richard - £101,187
"Do They Know It's Christmas?", Band Aid - £80,233
"Merry Christmas Everyone", Shakin' Stevens - £55,344
"2000 Miles", The Pretenders - £46,624
"Stay Another Day", East 17 - £31,073
"Stop The Cavalry", Jona Lewie - £13,617

So get your thinking hat on, get in front of the piano, and see what you can come up with!

Impressive Quality Assurance Process

I spotted the product below for sale in my local pharmacy.

If I was manufacturing a product with labelling in a language which I could not read, then I would be sure to hire someone who could read that language to check the text before doing a production run.

But maybe that's just me.

Certainly this manufacturer did not feel that this was necessary.

Escape from Cable TV

I mentioned in a previous post that I decided to escape from the waste of money that is cable TV in Ireland (where I was paying over €30 per month for a "basic" package of about 13 channels - none of which were digital, none of which were HD, and only a few of which were even in stereo!!)

As I mentioned, a large part of the rationale for the escape was that we now turn to Netflix instead of TV.

The second key was the availability of Saorview (or Freeview if you happen to live in or close to Northern Ireland).

At the front of my house (which faces south towards the Three Rock transmitter) you can pick up a perfectly good Saorview signal by connection a metal clothes hanger to any of my TVs (including the small Samsung TV which I use as my computer monitor). The same is not true of the back of the house unfortunately where a proper aerial would be needed.

So I did the following:

• Bought an aerial from TV Trade (€15 plus VAT plus postage)
• Bought a signal splitter in my local hardware shop
• Cancelled UPC
• Put up the aerial in the attic facing south
• Connected the aerial to the signal splitter
• Connected the outputs of the signal splitter into the existing cables running to the sitting room and the playroom

Result: I have the following TV stations free-of-charge on our 2 TVs:

• RTE ONE (HD)
• RTE TWO (HD)
• TV3
• TG4
• RTE NEWS NOW
• 3E
• RTE JR

Plus 8 digital radio channels.

All free. Forever.

And when I got it working first, only RTE TWO was in HD. Then a few weeks ago, RTE ONE went HD too. And no extra charge!

In summary:

• No monthly charges
• No external aerial/dish
• No "box"
• Just free TV forever
• Perfect complement to Netflix

Asimov's Foundation Series

I read (and very much enjoyed) the "The Foundation Trilogy" by Isaac Asimov when I was a kid.

I heard, years later, that the "trilogy" was expanding.

I decided recently to read the full series. I was amazed to discover that the series now consists of 7 books.

When looking into the best order in which to read the "trilogy", I discovered that opinions differ. But all agree that more than 7 books are involved!

Follow this link to find some conflicting opinions/advice.

Asimov himself set out (in "Prelude to Foundation") an order in which the books should be read. But then he went on to add "Forward the Foundation" to the series!

So the order I am going to use is neither the order in which they were published nor the order recommended by Asimov himself. Instead it is the one set out by a user named "Ojisan642" at the link above. It is:

• I, Robot
• The Elijah Baley series
• The Caves of Steel  
• The Naked Sun
• The Robots of Dawn 
• Robots and Empire 
• The Galactic Empire trilogy
• The Currents of Space 
• The Stars, Like Dust 
• Pebble in the Sky
• The original Foundation Trilogy:
• Foundation
• Foundation and Empire
• Second Foundation
• Foundation's Edge
• Foundation and Earth
• Prelude to Foundation
• Forward the Foundation

So 15 novels in all! I just completed the fourth book this morning. Enjoying them very much so far.

And if I want to read more after that, he claims (at the end of the fourth book) to have "published over 260 books."

And WikiPedia goes further to claim that he has "written or edited more than 500 books."

What an unbelievable achievement!

Appraise versus Apprise

I was writing the phrase "I will keep you apprised of the situation" in an email the other day when I was forced to check whether it is "apprised" or "appraised". It is the former of course.

"To apprise someone" is to inform him/her of something.

"To appraise someone" is assess his/her value.

Very, very different.

To remember the difference, it is useful to remember that we can get an item of jewellery "appraised".

Last Man Standing

Was on my way to the train station the other morning when I saw the scene below in Malahide village.

I thought little of it until I suddenly imagined that I had just arrived at the end of a massive bin fight and that the victor had just emerged (maybe I watch too many action movies!)

The thought made me laugh out loud. And then I went back to take this photo.

I call it "Last Man Standing".

Christmas FM Returns

It's here again!

On Thursday last (28th November) at 8AM, Christmas FM began broadcatsing for 2013.

And we were all tuned in and waiting.

The station broadcasts on 94.3 in Dublin and other frequencies around the country.

And world-wide on the Internet.

The charity this year is Aware which is an extremely worthwhile cause. You can donate €2 by texting a dedication to 50300. You need to include "xmas" followed by your message. All of the money goes to the charity.

Now we're really in the Christmas spirit!

Design Oversight in Scratch 2

There is a problem in Scratch 2 where you cannot easily differentiate between variables that are global (shared by all sprites) and those that are local to the current sprite.

In the old version these were separated by a dividing line.

The screenshot below shows the three types of variable that are available in the online version.

Cloud variables have a cloud icon to differentiate them. Local and global variables look the same.

The workaround which can be seen in the screenshot is to make the variables visible temporarily on the screen. Then local variables are prefixed by the name of the sprite of which they are members.

Scratch 2 Offline Editor

I mentioned in a posting back in May that Scratch 2 had been released without the offline editor.

Well this has been rectified now and the editor can be download from here.

It is still described as "Beta Version".

The only thing I have spotted that you can do in the Online version and not in Offline version is to declare and access "Cloud variables".

Here is an image of the offline client:

Pompeii by Bastille

Pompeii by Bastille is one of the best songs this year.

I always assume (from the rich sound) that a lot of production had gone into it.

I was surprised, therefore, to find how very good this acoustic version is.

Just four guys and one guitar (oh, and a guitar case!)

Breaking Bad - Emmy Awards

What a show Breaking Bad was!

Here is a summary of the 9 Emmy awards it won:

2008:

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Bryan Cranston

Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series
Lynne Willingham

2009:

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Bryan Cranston

Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series
Lynne Willingham (edited by)

2010:

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Bryan Cranston

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Aaron Paul  

2012:

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Aaron Paul 

2013:

Outstanding Drama Series

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Anna Gunn

Breaking Bad - Star Tweets

The image below shows the tweets sent by Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as the final episode aired.


I'm sure they will miss it too!

Breaking Bad - Series Finale

Just watched the series finale of the Emmy award-winning Breaking Bad.

The episode is entitled "Felina" which, as Vince Gilligan pointed out on Talking Bad last week, is simply an anagram of "finale".

I am very happy with the ending. I won't say (for fear of spoilers) how many of my wishes came true, but I thought it was excellent.

I can't believe it is all over! What will we look forward to watching now?!

Perhaps, like Firefly and The X Files, it will come back on the big screen!

It was a completely ground-breaking, one-of-a-kind show. And I will miss it.

Alison Moyet touring in Ireland (and Europe and the UK)

Alison Moyet is playing in Cork this evening, in Belfast tomorrow, and in Dublin the day after that.

But her website indicated that all of these three places are in the "UK".

I wrote to the webmaster about it. I made three suggestions:

1. Put Ireland in a category of its own
2. Put us in with Europe
3. Change the "UK" category to "UK and Ireland".

He very kindly apologised, selected the third option, and fixed it in a flash.

It problem may seem minor to some, but I think its important to get these things right.

The photo below shows how it used to look. The new version is here as I write.

Gabrielle - Twitter

Gabrielle is on Twitter as GabrielleUK.

Here is what she tweeted just after the new version of Dreams was played for the first time on BBC 1Xtra at 8PM this evening:

Gabrielle - Dreams

Just listened to the new version of Dreams by Gabrielle.

It was played by MistaJam on BBC Radio 1Xtra for the first time just after 8PM.

In fact he played it twice.

She teamed up with Naughty Boy for this version. It is beautiful.

And Gabrielle's voice is as beautiful as ever.

Her new album will be out in November.

When is a charity not a charity?

The following flyer came through our door a while ago. I took a copy of it before I dropped it in the recycling.

I think that anyone who saw this would initially assume that it was from a charity. But on closer inspection there is no evidence that it is.

The note uses the following words and phrases:

• Clothing Appeal
• Developing World Clothing
• communities who need urgent help
• support single mothers
• Let's care about others together.

They even include their "Co.Ref.No". But, of course, that is not the same as a registered charity number.

On closer inspection they don't claim to be a charity. But I wonder if anyone might have been unintentionally mislead by this flyer?

IMDB plugs Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I had to take a picture of the IMDB homepage today.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt appears in 5 different photos and his name appears 4 times!!

I don't think I've ever seen anyone so prominently featured!

Check it out for yourself:

Steve Ballmer Resigns

On the August 23, Steve Ballmer announced that he will step down as Microsoft CEO within 12 months.

There are a number of surprising things about this announcement.

The main one is that he wasn't forced to step down years ago. Anyone who say the video below would agree with me. Imagine having to treat that person as your boss!

The second is that it's going to take up to 12 months to find his successor! Why?! Couldn't they just walk down the corridor until they find someone who's acting bizarrely!

The one thing that wasn't surprising about the announcement (widely covered in the media) is that the stock price jumped 7.3% on the announcement. Why should that surprise anyone?

Microsoft finally buys Nokia

In September of last year I blogged about the Nokia/Microsoft alliance and I said that the former must be "waiting and hoping that Microsoft will step in and buy the company".

Well it took another year but this September it was announced that  Microsoft has agreed a deal to buy Nokia's mobile phone business for 5.4bn Euro.

To be honest I don't think the deal is a good idea. I think Nokia was a great company in its day but that day has passed. I just don't think it can get back from where it is now.

In fact I think that commentators who say that buying Blackberry would have been a better idea are right. Better to buy a company that is sick than one that is on life-support.

Johnny Cash - Hurt

I was never a huge Johnny Cash fan, but I challenge anyone to watch this video and not be moved by it.

The song was written by Trent Reznor and released by Nine Inch Nails in 1994.

Johnny released it in 2002. Johnny's wife, June Carter Cash, appears in the video. They married way back in 1968. He passed away in 2003, 4 months after her.

It's amazing when a song, a singer, a life, a relationship, and a video can come together to create something so perfect.

Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman

Wichita Lineman was written in 1968 and released by Glen Campbell in the same year.

I have always loved it. It's a song about love, and loneliness, and phone lines!

The lyrics are quite strange. Some of them really are about phone lines, like this one:

And if it snows that stretch down south won't ever stand the strain.

I saw an interview with Glen some time ago where they spoke about the impact that Alzheimer's disease is having on him. It was very moving, of course, but it was amazing to see that (at least at that time) this horrible disease had left his music alone.

Billy Idol - Eyes Without a Face

I happened to hear "Eyes without a face" on the radio a few weeks ago.

What a fantastic song. I have no idea how many times I have listened to it since then. I have played it on Grooveshark. I have watched/listened to it on YouTube.

Here's a link to Steve Stevens talking about how he came up with the chord structure (starts at 1:15).

Included below is a video of Billy and Steve performing it live in Chicago in 2006.

They've still got it! And Billy still has the snarl!

Only 1 Episode of Breaking Bad Left!

Watched the penultimate (love that word) episode of Breaking Bad the other day. Can't wait to see how it finishes next week.

As I mentioned previously, Vince Gilligan says that he and the writers are happy with the ending. So I hope we will be too.

In the Emmy awards the other night, Breaking Bad won:

• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series - Anna Gunn
• Outstanding Drama Series 

So as I wait for the final episode, I only have two wishes:

• I want to see Jesse come out of it all OK
• I want to see Todd and his crew come to an awful end!!

Here is Anna Gunn accepting here award:

Goodbye to Cable TV

I have had cable TV in my house since 1993. Through a series of acquisitions and name changes it has been supplied by Cablelink, CMI, Chorus, and most recently UPC.

And all that time it has been an analogue signal, and not a very good one (picture quality was poor and, unbelievably, most of the channels were in mono!)

When the Irish TV channels went digital last year, UPC continued to send me a crappy analogue signal. I guess I didn't care all that much at the time.

Then Netflix opened my eyes to the joys of (fairly) HD picture quality. So I decided that the time had come to go digital.

I called up UPC. The person explained that I could go digital (basic package) for more-or-less the same monthly cost. That was the good news.

The bad news was that:

• I would have to continue to pay extra for my second outlet
• I would have to pay an installation charge for a decoder. But I wouldn't own the decoder: if I left them and didn't return it then I would have to pay for it.
• The straw that broke the camel's back was when I asked if the signal would be HD and she told me that I would have to pay extra for that too for both the box and the monthly charge!

So I told her to forget about it and I started to plan my escape from the complete waste of money that is cable television. Those guys really need to wake up and smell the coffee. Don't they know that you can access a huge catalogue of movies and TV shows via Netflix. And the sound/picture quality is excellent. And you can access it from as many TVs and devices as you like at no extra charge!

More about my escape anon.

Bought another Viera TV

When it came time to replace our second TV a while ago, I plumped for a Panasonic TX-L32E5B32" Smart VIERA LED TV.

I guess that's a reflection of my complete satisfaction with our main Panasonic Viera TV.

The main differences between the two are:

• Smaller (32" versus 42")
• No built-in Wi-Fi
• No 3D

The great thing about it from my perspective (and I don't think I fully realised the importance of this when purchasing) is that it has the same remote control and the same functionality as the main TV.

It has built-in support for Internet (including Netflix and YouTube apps) albeit with no Wi-Fi. I plugged in my existing media player via USB and it worked right away. And the Panasonic TV Remote app on my Android phone works just as well as it does with my main TV.

The only thing that doesn't work (and I haven't figured this out yet) is that I can't use the "Media Server" option to access media on my laptop. It sees the laptop OK but when I try to access it I get a "Connected to the server failed" error message.

All in all I'm very happy with it.

3D or not 3D

We bought our 3D TV in November of last year.

I remember debating at the time if 3D was just a gimmick.

Well, I have watched quite a few 3D movies between then and now. Recent ones include:

• Dredd
• Iron Man 3
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• World War Z

So I can say with certainty now that I still get a kick out of 3D. It adds an extra dimension to TV viewing (pun unavoidable). I'm definitely glad we went for it.

Atheism to be taught in Irish schools

It has been announced that Atheism will be taught in Irish schools.

I'm trying to imagine what the curriculum for this will look like.

How do you teach people about NOT believing in something? How long would that take?

The answer, apparently, is that "there will be a module of 10 classes of between 30 to 40 minutes from the ages of four upwards".

Amazing.

Perhaps they intend to tackle the main religions one-by-one.They could do them in descending order of populatity:

• Why Christians are wrong
• Why Muslims are wrong
• Why Hindus are wrong
• Why Buddhists are wrong

Having said all that, the "Why Scientologists are wrong" one would be quite entertaining when they get to it!

Karate Competition

Portmarnock Kenpo Karate hosted the IKKU Junior Kata Championships at the weekend.

The event involved 8 different grouping and the competitors went through their "forms" in 3 different areas.

I helped out by projecting a screen showing what was going on "now" and "next" in each of the 3 areas.

I just used PowerPoint to manage the screen.

In fact there were three slides: one to welcome people to the event; a second to show the activities in the 3 areas; and a third to show the names of the people who came first, second, and third in each category.

This photo shows how the screen looked from the far corner of the hall. Although the photo doesn't show it, it was actually possible to read what was on the screen from that distance.

In future venues it would be nice to (a) be able to show the screen more centrally and (b) to project onto a white wall (the walls look blue in the photo but in fact they are really a shade of green!)

Emmy for Claire Danes!

I read in the news that:

Claire Danes won a second consecutive Emmy for outstanding lead actress in the Showtime drama, Homeland

 You've got to be kidding me!

By the end of Season 1, Homeland had degenerated into complete farce. I didn't watch any of Season 2. And Danes's portrayal of Carrie Mathison was one of the most bizarre things in the show.

It's a complete mystery to me what the people who voted for this award see in this show.

Here's a nice photo of Danes overacting in the show:

I have no sympathy for the movie studios

I mentioned in a previous post that services like Netflix are killing downloading. And I mentioned in other postings that outlets like HMV and Xtravision are being killed by Netflix, Grooveshark, etc.

People don't buy DVDs any more.

But the reasons I have no sympathy for the movie studio in this are:

1) DVDs have always been ridiculously overpriced (as were CDs). DVDs are cheap to manufacture and distribute and the prices being asked for "new releases" was obscene. I have lots of DVDs but the vast majority were purchased when they were "3 for €20" or similar

2) I started watching "Broken City" on DVD this evening. It was a "previously viewed" copy bought by a friend of mine. It starts out by showing adverts for other movies. And then it show normal adverts! And you can't skip away from them!

And I remembered all of those anti-piracy adverts that you would see on a DVD which you had purchased telling you that "you wouldn't steal a car, etc." And you couldn't skip away from that one either. And this on a DVD for which you had paid your own money!!

So I have no sympathy for movie companies as sales of DVDs tank. Serves them right. I hope and trust that Netflix are only paying them a tiny fraction of what DVD sales were bringing in.

Dublin are All-Ireland Football Champions

I watched the football final at home at the weekend. Fantastic to see the Dubs take the title once again!

It wasn't a great game, but the Dubs really asserted themselves in the second half and came out worthy winners.

Fantastic achievement.

As I was at home (unlike at the semi-final) I had to resort to taking photos of my TV!

The photo is of the fabuolous Stephen Cluxton preparing to accept the Sam Maguire Cup. Although the fantastic Bernard Brogan was awarded man-of-the-match I'd say that Cluxton was a close second. And I think that Mayo keeper Rob Hennelly also did an outstanding job: making 3 great saves to keep his team in the game right up to the last minute.

Speaking of the last minute: I'll never understand why Mayo decided to take settle for a point at the end of added time - effectively conceding the game. Very strange.

Central Bank Regulation?

I mentioned surprising radio adverts in my last post.

At the end of the KBC Bank advert (and all bank adverts) you can still hear those immortal works: "KBC Bank is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland".

I blogged about this over a year ago but shame has still not forced the CBI to withdraw the requirement for this phrase to be included in radio advertising.

Maybe that's pretty much all that they do and they need to keep doing something.

Today, by coincidence, the CBI announced that it has completed a review of the Anglo Irish tapes and that it "was not obliged, nor did it intend, to make any further statutory reports to An Garda Síochána or the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement."

This news item implies that the tapes were reviewed by the CPI after they were released by the Irish Independent. You would imagine that they would aleady have listened to them. Or maybe not.

Perhaps the staff in the CBI found it hard to listen to the deregatory way they were referred to in the tapes. They were referred to as "buddies on Dame Street" and generally painted as being less than competent. Some would argue that there might be some truth in in both of these things.

KBC Bank looking for new customers

I was surprised to hear a radio advert yesterday from KBC Bank looking for students to open accounts with them.

I found it surprising given all the publicity the bank has received recently in relation to pursuing Stephanie Meehan to pay the residual interest or capital on the balance of her mortgage for her apartment in Priory Hall.

Stephanie appeared on the Late Late Show a few weeks ago and spoke very movingly about the circumstances surrounding the suicide of her partner Fiachra Daly in July. RTE did not allow her to name KBC Bank on the show but the bank was subsequently named widely in the media.

KBC Bank had written to her following her partner's death to inform her that she would still owe them almost €17,000 after her partner's life insurance policy had been redeemed!

So I'm not sure if:
1) KBC thinks that students don't read the news
2) KBC thinks that students aren't able to remember the news a few weeks later
3) KBC thinks that students don't care about their callous behaviour

Shame on them.

Shyamalan does it again

I have blogged previously about the fact that each movie which M. Night Shyamalan directs seems to score lower than the previous one on IMDB.

Well his new one ("After Earth") has managed to come in with a score of 4.9 which puts it below everything else except "The Last Airbender".

Amazing.

Amazing that he keeps getting the opportunity to direct movies!

Needless to say I'll be giving that one a wide berth.

Alright versus "All rIght"

I was going to write the following an email the other day when I paused to wonder if I should use "alright" or "all right":

I see what you mean alright but...

Turns out that the use of the word "alright" is frowned upon. This is confirmed here and here and here.

But I was unwilling to write "I see what you mean all right but...". That didn't work for me. The words "all right" seemed to be endorsing the view that I was about to contradict. So I restructured the sentence to avoid it.

If I ask someone what they thought of a movie or a meal and they say "it was only alright" you know that they weren't very impressed. I don't think "all right" works as well here (obviously you can't see the spelling when people are speaking to you!)

The first link above does explain that the following two sentences could be interpreted as meaning two quite different things:

• The figures are all right (they are all accurate)
• The figures are alright (the are satisfactory)

And most of the links seem to admit that there is a more towards alright (even though it is still "unacceptable")

So for me the word "alright" is "all right".

Upcoming Referendums

I speculated in a previous post that the upcoming referendum on abolishing the Seanad might be called "The Get Rid of Those Useless Old Fogies in the Seanad Referendum".

Well it turns out that the Government doesn't care which way we vote on the two referendums.

According to the Referendum Commission's website, they will be called:

• The Seanad Referendum
• The Court of Appeal Referendum

No emotive or manipulative wording in sight!

Making a hames of something

I love the expression "making a hames of something". I find myself using it quite regularly.

It means to try to do something but to make a mess of it.

Maybe I like it because I know it's a very Irish expression

An example of usage would be: "I was trying to assemble it but I think I've made a complete hames of it".

Here's an excellent article which explains the expression and also explains what "hames" are.

Fanfold Paper

I mentioned fanfold paper in a previous post.

Wikipedia tells me that it is also known as continuous stationery, continuous form paper fan-fold paper, sprocket feed paper, burst paper, tractor-feed paper, and pin feed paper.

I thought is was consigned to the history books.

Imagine my surprise then when I was on a client site the other day and I saw the invoice below on someone's desk. I just had to take a photo!

The photo wasn't great to begin with (not sure why) but I have blurred some parts of it in order to avoid breaking any confidentiality.

Unique Street Sign

I spotted this street sign in Hatch Lane in Dublin and I had to take a photo.

It has been made to look like a normal street sign.

I know nothing about it but I found the following on the web:

“All I want to do now is walk through walls.”
Gary Baseman’s quote was machine carved into a wood and hand-painted to look like a metal Dublin street name sign. It was installed on Hatch Lane in the early hours of a cold Dublin Thursday.
Thanks to Art from Artisan for carving the sign.

It's lovely to round a corner and see a subtle and unexpected piece of art.

The REAL Beautiful Game

Recently I have watched:

• Dublin v Kerry - Gaelic Football - All Ireland Football Semi-Final - Live in Croke Park
• Cork v Clare - Hurling - All Ireland Final - on TV
• Ireland v Sweden - Soccer - World Cup Qualifier - on TV
• Ireland v Austria - Soccer - World Cup Qualifier - on TV

And I realise something that had never occurred to me before:  there is very little that is "beautiful" about soccer.

Now I know that Ireland does not have a great soccer team at the moment. And that is obviously a factor.

But Gaelic football and hurling have MUCH more skill that soccer. And there are more scores. And the games are MUCH faster.

Soccer is full of kicking the ball aimlessly up the pitch. And misdirected passes. And back passes. And awful shots on goal.

In Gaelic football and hurling, you see guys from impossible angles, often while evading a defender and even while turning. The skill levels are through-the-roof. It's quite amazing.

The problem with soccer is, of course, that you have to keep the ball at your feet. As I think about it, this is really silly! Most players can't shoot accurately, can't pass accurately, and haven't got the skill to take on and pass a defender.

This video shows the last 8 minutes of the Dublin-Kerry game. It starts with Dublin 1 point behind. Judge for yourself!

Ireland beaten by Sweden

Just finished watching Ireland being beaten 2-1 by Sweden in the World Cup qualifiers.

Looks like we won't be going to Rio. So depressing.

Richard Dunne got the man of the match award afterwards. And he was indeed our best player.

But the best player on the field by a long chalk was Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimović. He was a real game changer.

So this seems to mark the end of the road for Giovanni Trapattoni. I don't think many will look back on his time in charge with any great fondness.

So the question now is who will replace him?

Breaking Bad and Talking Bad

Season 5A (as Vince Gilligan calls it) of Breaking Bad is off and running.

4 episodes gone and 4 more to go! Thanks heavens Netflix are showing the episodes so quickly after the ar in the States.


An extra bonus for these last episodes is a programme called "Talking Bad" which Netflix is also showing where Vince Gilligan, cast members and guests discuss each episode after it airs. This adds a new dimension as you get to see other people discussing what is going on (or seems to be going on).

How will it all end? Who knows?!

But I watched the first episode of Talking Bad an Vince Gilligan said that he and the writers are very happy with the ending.

My main concern is that things work out well for Jesse...

Dublin beat Kerry in the 2013 All-Ireland Football Semi-Final

I was fortunate enough to go with my family to see Dublin play Kerry in Croke Park at the weekend. What a game!

The Irish Independent described it as "two outstanding football teams in one of the greatest games of all time".

As a Dublin supporter, the game was nail-biting for most of the 70 minutes.

At half time we trailed by 1-9 (12) to 3-5 (14).

With 20 minutes to go we took the lead for the first time since the 4th minute and we were literally jumping for joy.

With 2 minutes remaining on the clock the sides were once again level.

And then Kevin McManamon score a goal and we all went wild once again. Eoghan O'Gara scored another goal but even before that the win looked safe.

So now we meet Mayo in the final on the 22nd. I'll be watching this one on TV but I can't wait.

Here's a picture I took before the game started. Our seats were high in the Davin Stand but our view was excellent.

Seamus Heaney - Beloved National Treasure

As I look back, I see that I have used the word "genius" more often than I would have expected in by blog. I have used it for people like Prince, Hugh Laurie, Michael Jackson, Jimmy Carr and Trevanian.

But never has the appellation been more appropriate than when applied to Seamus Heaney, who left us at the weekend.

There is nothing I feel entitled to say about him or his work except that I am a great admirer.

I feel a certain connection to the man in that, like my father, he was born in County Derry, went to school in St. Columb's, and moved to Dublin as an adult, and lived out the rest of his life here.

RTE showed a very good documentary on his life and his work at the weekend. In addition to his gift with words, he seems to have been a very nice man.

Included below is a video showing him reading his poem "Digging" at various stages of his life. A joy to listen to. He certainly did use his "squat pen" well.

Netflix Profiles

Netflix have added profiles to their service so that all 5 of us in the house can have our own profiles and can watch stuff without affecting each other (in terms of history or recommendations).

A great idea.

Obviously this worked right away on the web interface.

Imagine my surprise/delight when it started working a few days later on my Panasonic TV. Without me having to do anything. Genius!

It hasn't appeared on my Android phone yet (not that I use it for watching Netflix) but I know it's only a matter of time.

Kindle Paperwhite Case

I was lucky enough to receive a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas.

Recently I started bringing it to work on the train and I quickly decided that I needed a case to protect it.

After some searching on the web I decided on the Fintie Flip Folio case. One of the reviews is here.

Unfortunately I couldn't source it locally and Amazon.co.uk don't stock it (although Amazon.com do). The official Amazon cover from the former would have cost me over $36 euro.

In the end I bought it directly from the Fintie website (€13.57 plus shipping).

I'm very happy with it. I especially like the fact that the Kindle switches on and off automatically as you open/close the case.

Even though there's a range of colours, I chose the black version like the picture below.

Irish Referendum Naming

I mentioned in a recent post that I had written to Referendum Commission to give my opinion that using words like "Children" and "Stability" in the names of referendums was adversely affecting their ability to inform the Irish public impartially about the ins and outs of the issue.

The first response I got stated that:

• They have "no role in the naming of the proposed bills"
• I should instead contact the "sponsoring Departments".

Do I hear the sound of hands being washed?

I replied saying that "realistically speaking I am not going to contact the sponsoring Departments" and asking if "you could give the Departments guidelines/feedback to help them understand that they are making your job difficult/impossible by selecting names which may, in and of themselves, influence voters".

The reply I got was as follows:

"Unfortunately I cannot assist you further with this matter, however, I will forward your emails for further consideration by our relevant officials".

Definitely the sound of hands being washed!

The Casino and the Fry Model Railway

In May of last year I blogged about the fact that The Casino was to come into public ownership and to rescue the Fry Model Railway (which had left Malahide destined for Busáras). All thanks to the generosity of local benefactor Michéal Gaffney who left money in his will for this express purpose.

A leaflet come through our door today with the following update from the local TD:

• A purchase proposal has been made to the representatives of Mr Gaffney's estate
• Once approved, funding will be made available to Fingal County Council for the purchase and the development

So the wheels seems to be turning slowly but at least they are turning. Things still seem to be on target for "Summer 2014".

You can see a "virtual tour" of how the model railway looked in its old location at the Castle here.

Geisha Restaurant in Malahide

I was saddened when Cruzzo's restaurant closed at the end of 2011. It was a nice restaurant in a fantastic location. Popular, as this article says, for "christenings, birthdays and weddings" (not to mention Communions and Confirmations).

So it was nice to hear that Geisha opened there a short while ago and my wife and I went for a meal to see what it was all about.

The unfortunate truth is that we were not all that impressed.

There are a lot of restaurants in Malahide. And a lot of them are VERY good. So it is a competitive environment.

While the good was fine, Geisha falls down in a number of specific areas:

1. The menu is too small and too familiar
2. The waiting staff are not experienced enough and the service suffers as a consequence

The food seems to have a strong Thai inclination (something of a surprise given the name), which puts the restaurant head-to-head with Siam Thai. And Geisha suffers by the comparison, I'm afraid.

I'm afraid Geisha will not be around for very long.

Garinish Island, Glengarriff, Co Cork

We went to see the fabulous Garinish Island when we were on holiday in Kenmare last year.

I mentioned it in a blog post but I called it "Garnish Island".

Apparently that is an acceptable spelling but according to the OPW, who look after the island, the correct names are:

Irish:

Oileán na gCuileann, Garinis

English:

Illnaculin, Garinish Island

Here is my ticket from the visit:

Irish Referendum Commission

The role of the Referendum Commission is explained as follows on their website:

The role of the Referendum Commission is to explain the subject matter of referendum proposals, to promote public awareness of the referendum and to encourage the electorate to vote at the poll. The Commission is an independent body. Since 2001 the Commission no longer has the role of putting the arguments for and against referendum proposals.

It is my contention that they are failing in their duty to be impartial.

Here is a list of recent referendums in reverse chronological order:

• The Children Referendum
• Fiscal Stability Treaty
• Judge's Remuneration and Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries 2011
• Lisbon Treaty 2009 
• Lisbon Treaty 2008 
• Irish Citizenship Treaty of Nice 2002

The older referendums had neutral names. The penultimate one had the word "stability" in it. This raises the question (which I discussed in a previous post) of who would vote against something as obviously good as stability. The referendum was approved.

The most recent one was even worse. Who in their right mind would vote against "Children". Again this referendum was approved.

I have written to the Commission to bring this to their attention. Hopefully we will see referendums with more neutral names in the future.

The next one is to be about the proposed abolition of Seanad Éireann. Perhaps they will call this one "The Get Rid of Those Useless Old Fogies in the Seanad Referendum".

Turbo C Memory-Resident Utilities, Screen I/O and Programming techniques by Al Stevens

My last post talked about Borland Sidekick and Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs.

In the late eighties I bought a book by Al Stevens which provides some of the information you would need to write your own version of Sidekick.

Specifically it dealt with writing programs which could generate on-screen windows (stacked, layered, etc,) and also how to create TSR programs.

I liked the book so much that I still have it after all these years. I learned a lot about writing C code from this book.

I searched on the web and I couldn't find an image for it so I scanned the front and back covers of my own copy and you can see them below.

I did see on the web that you can but the book from Amazon. The price which is printed on the back of the book is $24.99. One of the listings gave the condition as " Used - Very Good. Very nice Copy - almost no wear". The price quoted was $369.98 plus shipping!

So if anybody would like to send me $400 or so then I would be happy to give you my copy, which is also in very good condition!

Borland Sidekick

I mentioned Borland Sidekick in my last post. Sidekick was an early (1983) Personal Information Manager (PIM) application. It had a phonebook, a calendar, a notepad, a calculator and various other utilities.

The genius of sidekick was that you could access it instantly by holding down two keys on your keyboard: I liked to use the two shift keys.

This doesn't sound like much these days but you must remember that we are talking about the time of DOS, when you had to stop running one program if you wanted to run another one!

Sidekick's secret was that it was a "Terminate and Stay Resident" (TSR) program. So when you ran it, it appeared to finish and you were returned to the command prompt but it fact it was still running and could be brought up instantly using the 2-key combination.

I thought TSR programs were so cool. I got one of my team to write one which allowed us to send printouts to a printer in another building (and you could still use the PC attached to the printer for other things of course). I wrote one myself later when I worked in Lotus Development. It addressed a problem which Lotus Freelance had on some platforms.

I would include Sidekick in the list of the programs which influenced me most because it showed that PCs were not just "one thing at a time".

The 10 Most Influential Software Programs

A blogger took it upon himself to try to name the 10 most influential software programs ever.

Here is his list:

1. SABRE (IBM, 1964)
2. Maze War (1973)
3. Adventure (1975)
4. VisiCalc (VisiCorp, 1979)
5. WordStar (MicroPro, 1979)
6. Hypercard (Apple, 1987)
7. Photoshop (Adobe Systems, 1988)
8. Lotus Notes (IBM, 1989)
9. Mosaic (NCSA, 1993)
10. Minecraft (Mojang, 2009)

I think it's a really good list.

I am particularly impressed by his inclusion of Hypercard and Lotus Notes.

The omissions as I see it are:

• Sidekick (Borland, 1983)
• Turbo Pascal (Borland, 1983)
• PageMaker (Aldus, 1985)

PageMaker was the product that made companies want to buy a Mac. I was working in just such a company. I fell in love with the Macs, of course (I had an Apple II at home by then) and spent the rest of my time there trying (without success) to convince my manager than I should switch from an IBM clone to a Mac.

I discovered Hypercard on the Mac and (even though I only ever played with it) I thought was very exciting product with huge potential.

Turbo Pascal (which I never used although I did use Turbo Basic) brought tremendous innovation in the area of the Integrated Development Environment (IDE): the forerunner of today's Visual Studio and Eclipse.

People are Awesome

One of my recent posts showed how people can be lucky.

The video below shows how people can be awesome!

Bet you can't watch it without replaying some parts!

Bus Strike but you can't use the Bus Lanes

Dublin Bus have been on strike but the Department of Transport has let us all know that we CANNOT use the bus lanes.

During the bus strike in 2000 people WERE allowed to use the bus lanes.

The logic now is that the lanes must be kept free for taxis and private buses.

This is crazy. People are being forced to use their cars but they cannot avail of the bus lanes which are now even emptier than usual.

This backs up my theory that bus lanes were not created to make bus travel faster. They were created to make driving more annoying and so to drive people out of their cars.

The things that are annoying about bus lanes are:
1) They reduce the space available for other road users
2) They spend most of their time being empty
3) People are continuously driving up them and then cutting out in front of people who stay out of them

If bus lanes were intended to REALLY help the situation then people who are willing to car pool would have been allowed to use them years ago. But they're not - they're just there to annoy drivers.

Luckiest People 13 Video

I blogged about Part 12 of the "Luckiest People Compilation" previously.

Part 13 is available now and also has lots of WOW and OMG moments:

Blocking websites

I happened to try to access the Pirate Bay website the other day and I got the following message from my ISP here in Ireland:

This happened on foot of a High Court order in June to 6 ISPs ordering them to block access to the Pirate Bay. The action was taken by EMI, Sony, Warner Music and Universal.

I think this is very foolish for a number of reasons:

1) As I pointed out in a previous post, downloading is dying. People can get music and movies on demand from services such as Grooveshark and Netflix.

2) The Pirate Bay is just one Torrent site. There are many others.

3) Anyone who wishes to access the Pirate Bay can do a simple web search for a "pirate bay proxy" and can access it that way.

Starting to feel a bit like China around here.

And as usual the lawyers are laughing all the way to the bank.

Terminator Salvation

I re-watched Terminator 4 the other day. I thought I must have missed something the first time I watched it as I could remember almost nothing about it. I was wrong: it's simply that there is nothing worth remembering.

I think the main flaw is that the two stories (Marcus Wright/John Connor) are not woven together well. At some stages the movie would flick back to what was going on with John Connor and I would be surprised that he was still in the movie!

I read some reviews which rightly point out how surprising it is (given the legacy of the previous movies) that it lacks strong female characters.

All in all a bit of a damp squib.

The current IMDB ratings for the 4 movies are:
Terminator 1: 8.1
Terminator 2: 8.6
Terminator 3: 6.4
Terminator 4: 6.7

That's about right.

And I see that Arnie is working on a fifth movie! No mention of James Cameron unfortunately.

Casino Marino

My last few posts were about things to see in Dublin at at specific time of the year.

This is one about something you can see any time.

We went to see the Casino Marino few weeks ago.

This "little house" was built by James Caulfeild, the 1st Earl of Charlemont, in the late 1700s.

The building is lovely and the staff are very friendly and informative.

The weather was lovely the day we were there and we had a picnic in the grounds (something the staff encourage).

My favourite part of the story is about the tunnel that was used by servants to go back and forth to the main house so that the family and their guests would not have to see them. Different times indeed!

It's a little gem well worth seeing, slightly off the beaten track. A family ticket is only €8.

More information about location and opening hours is available here.

This is a photo my wife took inside the building:

Dublin Castle Sand Sculptures

In my last post I mentioned that we try to go into Dublin city every year to catch the Street Performance World Championship.

Another trip we have been doing for years (although we missed it last year for some reason) is to see the sand sculptures in Dublin Castle. It has been going on for 11 years apparently (there are photos on display going back to 2006).

The first 3 sculptures were to be finished today and the fourth between the 10th and 14th August.

The sculptures are to be demolished on the 29th so there is still plenty of time to see them as I write.

Congratulations to the Office of Public Works and Dublin Castle for sponsoring this event.

Here is a picture I took yesterday of the work in progress:

Street Performance World Championship 2013

Last year I blogged about the SPWC 2012. I mentioned what a great day (or two if you like) it is and that "Cirque No Problem" (whom we didn't see) had won. Well we went back in to Merrion Square again this year and again the weather was extremely kind.

Our favourite act (Mario - Queen of the Circus) was not present this year unfortunately.

We made a point of seeing Cirque No Problem and it is easy to see why they won last year. They are absolutely brilliant. We would have voted for them if we could (the winner from the previous year is not in the competition).

The other acts we saw were:

• Alakazam
• Senmaru
• Nigel Blackstorm
• The Chairmen (briefly)

I think Senmaru (whom we had seen a few years previously) is incredibly talented but I suspect that because he makes the (almost) impossible seem easy (and because he says "very easy" at the end of each piece!) that people do not realise just how impressive his act is.

Congratulations to Laya Healthcare for sponsoring such a great event.

Here is a clip of them performing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in last year's competition (we watched this from a better angle this year but unfortunately we didn't video it):

Last DVD purchases

Two of my recent posts have mentioned Bruce Lee and buying DVDs in Xtravision.

To pull these topics together somewhat, my last DVD purchases in Xtravision were:

• Game of Death
• The Big Boss
• Fist of Legend

I already own the following discs starring Bruce Lee:

• Fist of Fury (aka "The Chinese Connection")
• Enter the Dragon
• Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey

Fist of Legend, of course, is a Jet Li movie but it is also a remake of Fist of Fury.

So while these were my last DVD purchases, they will not be my last: obviously I still need to buy The Way of the Dragon to complete my Bruce Lee collection.

It is interesting to note, by the way, that IMDB include Game of Death in the list of movies for which Lee was the writer, producer and director, but not in the list of movies for which he was an actor. 

Xtravision closes in Malahide

I blogged some time ago about the HMV outlet in the Pavilions shopping centre closing and how the centre had lost a "creche for men".

Well, the Xtravision outlet in Malahide closed a few months ago and now the village has no creche for men either!

All my favourite shops are closing!

I didn't really rent movies from there very often: I did buy DVDs though.

I searched the Xtravision site just now and the closest outlet seems to be in Artane.

In fairness I can't really understand how any Xtravision outlets are remaining open. Services like Netflix are killing demand for renting and buying movies. Basically they are cheaper and more convenient.

Still, I will miss the shop.

Candy Crush Saga

I love and hate the game "Candy Crush Saga".

What I love is the game itself (I'm on level 53).

What I hate is the way it is constantly asking you for money!

A few simple examples:

• Before each level you have the option to buy "boosters" (with real money)
• At the end of each failed game you can pay for extra time
• Between certain levels you have to do one of three things to progress to the next level. One of these (which is free) and involves solving three more levels. But you have to wait 24 hours after completing one level before you can try the next level! And if you want to avoid the 24 hour delay then you have to pay!!

Google Play contains the following warning about this: 
"Please note Candy Crush Saga is completely free to play but some in-game items such as extra moves or lives will require payment. You can turn-off the payment feature by disabling in-app purchases in your device’s settings."

I think the number and nature of these incentives to pay is disgraceful. I hope everyone resists the temptation to buy these "in-game items".

Trevanian's Daughter

I have previously mentioned my favourite author and book: Shibumi by Trevanian (Rob Whitaker).

Whitaker's daughter Alexandra is also an author. Here is a link to her website.

Alexandra collaborated with Trevanian on his last 2 books: Incident at Twenty-Mile and Crazy Ladies of Pearl Street.

The really good news is that she is going to complete his unfinished work: Street of the Four Winds.

The only bad news (as a Trevanian fan) is that she seems to be working on another novel ("set in Spain") in the interim.

Hopefully we will see SOTFW before too long.

Sugar Ray Leonard talks about Bruce Lee

It amazes me to realise that I have not blogged about Bruce Lee to date.

Bruce Lee was the most amazing martial arts star of all time. He may never be matched.

Here is a clip from YouTube of Sugar Ray Leonard (another hero of mine whom I have mentioned previously) speaking highly of Bruce:

Master versus Students

In my last post, I had a link to a video which shows what I believe to be the genuine superiority of a master over his students.

The video below shows something else.

It shows how unintended collaboration between master and students can lead a master to believe that he has powers which he does not.

This particular "master" has a rude awakening when he comes up against an opponent who is not a believer.

The quality of the video is poor but still worth seeing:

Kyuzo Mifune - Judo Master

I happened upon the video below while surfing on YouTube one day.

Kyuzo Mifune (who was a 10th Dan at the time the video was taken apparently) fights a series of 7 much younger opponents ranked between 6th and 8th dan.

In each case he allows the opponent to try to throw him at least once before he finished the bout.

The way he avoids being thrown is so brilliant that it made me laugh-out-loud!

The man was a genius.

Apparently the video was made in 1948 and Mifune was 73 years old (although I find it impossible to reconcile these two facts with the report on Wikipedia that he was born in 1883). But his age certainly makes his performance all the more amazing.

The full video is available here.

Grammar nazis

My series of recent posting on words and phrases makes me seem to be something of a "Grammar Nazi".

Here are links to 2 funny sketches on this topic. For some inexplicable reason, they both seem to have similar endings!

Mitchell and Webb
CollegeHumor

IT crowd - no damp squib!

I mentioned the phrase "damp squid" in a recent post.

Reminds me of the completely hilarious screen from "The IT Crowd".

I think it's the second funniest passage from the whole series. Completely brilliant.

You can see it here:

Administrate versus administer

Speaking of "registrate" (which I did in my previous post) I heard someone use the phrase "administrate a server" the other day.

Now I think that people "administer a server".

Turns out that "administrate" is a valid word so I guess it's a matter of taste.

You would definitely administer justice, or administer medicine, but you could potentially administrate a server.

I wouldn't though. I'd just administer it.

Registrate versus register

My eldest was talking the other day about the fact that we have not completed her registration for the next year in school. She asked us if we could "registrate" her as soon as possible.

Obviously we shared the wisdom of our years' of experience in speaking English and told her that the correct word is "register".

I looked up some online dictionaries and I see that there is a word "registrate" which means: "to select and combine pipe organ stops"

Live and learn.

Other online dictionaries tell me that it is also a transitive verb meaning to register.

Live and learn again!

Raze to the ground

I mentioned the "The top 10 misquoted phrases in Britain" in my last post.

One that didn't feature (probably just because it isn't used very often) is the difference between "raised to the ground" (wrong) and "razed to the ground" (right).

My guess is that anyone who hears the phrase "raised to the ground" must be pretty mystified as to what it might mean (much like the phrase "damp squid"!)

Averse versus adverse

Have you ever heard anyone use the phrase "I wouldn't be adverse to that". I hear it quite regularly.

Of course, the person means to say "averse to that".

Turns out it is in "The top 10 misquoted phrases in Britain" as reported by the "The Telegraph" newspaper. It comes it at number 8.

The full list is as follows:

1) A damp squid (a damp squib)
2) On tender hooks (on tenter hooks)
3) Nip it in the butt (nip it in the bud)
4) Champing at the bit (chomping at the bit)
5) A mute point (a moot point)
6) One foul swoop (one fell swoop)
7) All that glitters is not gold (all that glisters is not gold)
8) Adverse to (averse to)
9) Batting down the hatches (batten down the hatches)
10) Find a penny pick it up (find a pin pick it up)

Aside from #8, my personal favourites are #1 and #2.

Here is a picture of a very damp squid:

Broaching the subject

I had occasion to write the phrase"broach the subject" in a mail the other day and I began to wonder about broach versus brooch.

I guess that was because I had seen the word "brooch" so many times recently while reviewing my friends' (Alex and Loreto) new website.

The word "brooch" is a noun with only one meaning: "An ornament fastened to clothing with a hinged pin and catch".

The word "broach" can be a noun or a verb and is used in the phrase "broach the subject" as well as in other contexts.

Here is a picture of a rather nice brooch which (at the time of writing) is available from the aforementioned website: