May 10 2009
I read an interesting article about the Irish Government attempting to indirectly tax all computers with Internet access earlier this week. If this is true, I think that it would be a disastrous decision for Ireland!
The full article is New Irish Internet Tax?, and there is more discussion in New Irish Internet Tax?.
Comments Off on Irish Internet Tax
May 09 2009
I recently came across a useful Irish income tax calculator called taxcalc.eu.
It has been updated recently to reflect the continuously changing income tax rates. However, I cannot attest to its accuracy :o
Comments Off on Irish Income Tax Calculator
May 08 2009
I remember that when I first read that Firefox was going to introduce a spell check option I thought that it was a bad idea because it was just unnecessary bloat. Now I use the spell check feature all the time, and I think that it was one of the best enhancements ever!
I have installed several dictionaries from Dictionaries & Language Packs, and I normally use English (British) as my default language.
However, recently I have noticed that the spell check is not always catching all of my mistakes :( Sometimes, if I change language to another, and then revert back to English (British) it correctly identifies the misspelt words. However, this does not always work :(
I do not know why this is happening, but it has caused me to edit a number of my posts to correct the spellings :o It is really annoying!
Since I am writing about the spell check in Firefox I will also highlight a really useful tip! Firefox does not by default spell check text in text fields (single line text boxes). However, this can easily be changed as described in either Quick Tip: Spell Check Firefox Text Input Fields or How to Enable Spell Check in Text Fields in Firefox.
Comments Off on Firefox Spell Check
May 07 2009
I recently wrote that I intend to start using either Ubuntu or Kubuntu as my desktop operating system in Ubuntu or Kubuntu. Since then I have downloaded the 9.04 version of both operating systems. I installed both of them simultaneously on my main computer as guest operating systems using VMware. I also installed each of them as the main operating system on a spare computer that I have. Both operating systems install very easily with very little user interaction, and they both correctly identified all of my hardware. That impressed me, because I often hear horror stories about Linux and hardware!
After using both operating systems for the last few days I have come to the conclusion that they are both excellent. However, I need to choose only one of them! So ultimately I am going to choose… (drum roll) … Ubuntu!
My reasons for choosing Ubuntu are mainly:
The greatest appeal of Kubuntu was the lovely KDE interface. I thought that the default GNOME interface was very bland, but luckily it is very configurable. I will blog about the changes that I made to it.
I found solutions to all of my initial problems online. The Internet really is great for these things! However, there are some deployment type issues that I do not know how best to deal with them.
My current intention is to keep using Ubuntu as a guest operating system until I feel confident enough to wipe my hard disk and use it as my host operating system! I will keep blogging about my progress here!
Comments Off on Ubuntu or Kubuntu – The Verdict
May 06 2009
A friend, with whom I previously work on LBSs, recently told me about a new realisation of the FriendFinder LBS. This realisation is developed by a German company, and you can read more about it in aka-aki.
Interestingly, privacy does not appear to be a major concern in relation to this LBS, as noted by my friend ;)
Comments Off on German FriendFinder
May 03 2009
I read earlier in the week that General Electric has developed a 500GB optical disk! Wow! I remember being really impressed when 700MB CDs became available! That seemed huge at that time! I have since learned that when considering data storage whatever number seems huge at any given time will quickly become small :o
To read more about this see Optical disc offers 500GB storage.
Comments Off on 500GB Discs
Apr 29 2009
Sometimes URLs can become very long, and this can be problematic in certain circumstances. I usually notice then when I send or receive an email containing a URL, but the email software forces a line break in the middle of the URL. Therefore, the link cannot be clicked :( I am also notice this in Twitter, because the URL can consume a lot of my valuable characters!
Luckily, there are several websites that allow you to rewrite a long URL as a short URL.The websites that I am aware of are (in no particular order):
I have not used any of these enough yet to determine which is best!
Apr 28 2009
Tonight I had to use the eflow website for the first time. I am lucky that I do not have to ever suffer the M50! This is a motorway that almost circles the capital city (Dublin), and it is the busiest road in Ireland. There is a toll to pass one bridge on the motorway, and until recently you could pay the toll at the bridge using cash. I have never understood why you could not pay using your credit card like most of the EU! Recently a barrier free system was introduced, and infrequent travellers must now pay the toll online within 48 hours.
This morning some Spanish friends of mine arrived in Ireland. They rented a car at the airport, and the set-off for the west of Ireland. I was talking to them this evening by phone to determine if they had passed the toll bridge on the M50. I know that they travelled on the M50, because they told me that they were on a road that looked like a motorway except everybody was parked. Yup – that is the M50 :( However, they were not sure if they crossed the toll bridge.
As a precaution, I got the registration number of their rented car, and I visited the eflow web site. My expectation was that I should be able to enter the registration number, and that the website should tell me what was due. This however is not possible!
Indeed, the website is so bad that I can enter any random Irish registration number and pay for any small number of trips!
So I paid the toll in the end for the rented car, even though I am not sure if it was due or not.
Next I thought that I would phone eflow to try and confirm if the toll was due or not. Unfortunately, eflow only advertise a 1890 phone number. I detest these, as I describe in Say No To 1890!. The national number provided on SayNoTo1890 went to voicemail because it was after 17:00 when I phoned, even though the eflow website states that customer service is open until 23:00 :(
Comments Off on eflow Website
Apr 27 2009
Yet another employee getting into trouble with her employer due to the information she published on Facebook – ‘Ill’ worker fired over Facebook.
And still there will be more…
Comments Off on Employee Privacy on Facebook
Apr 26 2009
I read an interesting article during the week that described how Google Latitude was used to locate, apprehend, and arrest the thief of a stolen purse! I guess that this is great advertising for Google! To read the full article see Google nabs purse snatcher.
The most interesting thing that I learned from this article is that the telcos charge the police for this location information, and the charge varies depending on how fast the police want this information! I wonder if this only occurs in the US, or if it occurs in the EU also.
I am surprised that the telcos are not required to supply this location information free-of-charge due to either freedom of information (the mobile phone owner’s location information) or emergency services legislation!
Comments Off on Google Latitude Used to Retrieve Stolen Purse
