Category Archives: Random

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The joy of sharing

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According to Mike Walsh’s Futuretainment, the original Sony Walkman was designed to have 2 headphone jacks. This makes me feel a little less guilty and shy about owning one of these.

Sharing is often a good experience. Sharing your tunes with someone can be heaps of fun. Take a magical mystery tour through someone’s iPod on shuffle and revel in the tales of why and when you both bought that same obscure album. Brilliant fun.

3.5mm splitter in Maplins: less than a fiver. Exposing a closet Gareth Brooks fan: priceless.

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Dolly Mixture 11.01.10

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A stew cooked by @darraghdoyle with recipe from @donalskehan - reviews to follow

Donal Skehan‘s stew = win.

Open evening this Thursday at the Dublin Institiute of Design. Pop in and you could win a wee course.

Been looking at web app development frameworks for Safari on iPhone lately. If you want something other than Dashcode, check out the iUI Framework and JQTouch. May blog properly about this later on in the week.

You’ll be able to submit nominations for the 2010 Irish Blog Awards soon. Blogging may be dead but long live the Blog Awards.

My buddy Jenn combines two of her loves, writing and good beer, to create a new beer blog fresh from Colorado.

Via Damien, “No, Your First Impression Isn’t Wrong: Android ISN’T As Nice As The iPhone“. Read here and no, this isn’t Andriod bashing nor iPhone ass-kissing.

Finally, congratulations on getting through the first week of the year – arguably the most difficult first week of any new year we’ve had in a long time :)

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Dublin fails to cope with bad weather yet again

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Snow days (2/3)
Dame St, 7pm

There’s a running joke down home in Clare about how Dubs can’t handle any sort of negative change in weather, be it rain, wind, sleet or snow. In almost 8 years of living in the capital I’ve often chimed in with it. The first sign of a rainy day and it seems that every car-owner in town has to drive to work.

I grew up on the Atlantic coast which usually gets far more of a raw deal weatherwise than the east side of Ireland so maybe I’m just a thick-skinned culchie. However, in fairness to my fellow Dubliners, today’s bitter weather would put the most hardened weatherbeaten bogman to the test.

That acknowledged, it shouldn’t have had the dramatic impact on life in the city that it did today. By 5pm this evening our capital city had effectively shut down. Dublin Bus instructed drivers to pull over and abandon services until further notice while some Luas services were curtailed and Dublin Airport’s only runway had to close due to heavy snowfall and ice. Dublin Bus then tried to run a seriously limited service where it could. A city saturated with taxis didn’t have a cab in sight on most streets. Just before 7pm Dublin Bus decided it was stopping all bus services around the capital leaving thousands of commuters, myself included, somewhat stranded in an icy cold city centre that felt like 4am on New Year’s night without the merriment.

Snow days (3/3)
Dublin City Council clearing ice from paths

Yes, the roads were bad but really so severe that they had to pull the entire bus network out of action? Am I being too harsh in expecting more from our capital city?

I’ve seen and heard stories of people stuck on the M50 and other routes for hours, others walking home even as far as from the city centre to Blanchardstown (insane!). In comparison to some I probably did pretty good. I had offers of couches and spare beds near town if my attempt to get home failed, for which I’m hugely grateful. My only options aside from that was to slide the 4km home or try getting a taxi. I was very lucky that the latter worked out and I was happily turning the key in my door by 8.30. But…

What about those who were still standing at bus stops unaware of what was going on?

What about those who couldn’t find let alone afford a taxi home?

The whole thing reminded me of a Saturday in August 2008 when Dublin was hit by heavy rain and flooding turned into a similar chaotic mess. I sat for nearly an hour in a taxi and had to resort to walking home with my paper-bagged goodies so bad was the traffic.

Yes, these are extreme weather for our country but they’re not so extreme by international standards. I can’t understand why I hear more debate and argument about why it happens rather than what we should do when it happens.

Fail to plan, plan to fail. Dublin, you’ve got some work to do.

Snow days (1/3)
Fresh snow greets me at home
Random

Dublin Bus service changes as result of snow

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Noticed the DublinBus.ie website is under a lot of pressure so here’s what I managed to grab while it was momentarily playing nice:

Last updated at 17.25, via Dublin Bus website:

Dublin Bus are currently starting to resume limited service on main corridors where possible. In some areas buses may not be able to access suburban estates and are likely to stay only on main roads. We advise customers to travel as early as possible but to be aware that the bus services are severely disrupted not just due to the adverse road conditions but also due to traffic congestion and accidents during the last number of hours. Dart are providing an enhanced service and both Dart and Luas will honour Dublin Bus tickets.

Due to high volumes of traffic to dublinbus.ie we have been experiencing problems with the site for which we would like to apologise and are making every effort to rectify

Last Updated 12:45

Curtailments currently in place;

3 – terminating at Viscount Pub, Swords Road

7 – from City Centre to Cherrywood only

11/a/b – not serving Wadelai, terminating at DCU

13 – not serving Sillogue and Ikea

13a – not serving Shangan, Coultry and Ikea

19 – not serving Tolka Estate

20b – not serving terminus at Maryfield

27b – not serving Castletimon

37 – not serving Blackhorse Avenue

38/a – not serving Ballycoolin Industrial Estate using Ballycoolin Road

40d – not serving Ballycoolin Industrial Estate using Ballycoolin Road

and not serving Blanchardstown Corporate Business Park, terminating at shops on main road at Tyrellstown Estate.

42b – up the Malahide Road turning right onto Tonglegee Road then right onto Springdale Road and back to normal route.

44b – to Blue Church in Kilternan only

50- not serving Killinarden Heights

51 – starting from Molloys in Clondalkin Village

51b/c – not serving Dutch Village/Woodford using Monastery Road

54a- via Wainsfort Road not serving Fortfield Road. Going up Blessington Road, not serving Kiltipper and terminating at The Square Tallaght

56/a – not serving Ballymount and Kingswood

65 – to Blessington Roundabout not serving or Ballymore Eustace

65b- not serving Killinarden Heights

66a – not serving Captains Hill

69 – not serving St. Johns Wood Estate

79/a – not serving Spiddal Park and Parkwest, terminating at Cherry Orchard Hospital

102 – not serving Forest Road

120 – using Fassaugh Avenue to 121 terminus

122 – using Quarry Road and terminating at Halfway House pub, Navan Road

123 – via Philipsburgh Avenue

140 – not serving Ikea, turning at Jamestown Roundabout

145- not serving Kilarney Lane, Herbert Road and Kilbride Lane. (Operating Up & Down Kilarney Road)

150 – not serving Millgate Drive

151 – not serving Adamstown, at Griffeen turning right and going to Superquinn Lucan

185 – from Bray to Enniskerry not serving Shop River

220 – not serving Ballycoolin Industrial Estate using Ballycoolin Road

238 – using Ballycoolin Road

Random

Dolly Mixture 05.01.10

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Quite proud that this shot made Pix.ie’s longlist for 2009 Photo of the Year. I took it with my compact while cursing and dreaming of a Canon 450D. Hopefully that dream will become reality this year.

2FM has a new schedule and Rick is slotted in from 12 till 3. So far so good, velvety voice.

The first Irish Stew Championships hits Sligo this March as part of the ‘SÓ Sligo‘ festival.

Andy Clarke on why ignorance is bliss and continues to sing the praises of designing ‘in the browser’.

I want to learn to dance this year. Just no idea what type. Dance Ireland kick off all sorts of lessons this month.

Mr. Mulley is giving an workshop in Online PR on Jan 23.

Got a good business development and online head on you? Come work at X Communications.