donal's blog

Back in July 2008, Facebook added the ability to take content you published elsewhere on the Internet and make it available to your friends on Facebook. I really liked this design and made use of it despite the flakiness of Facebook's implementation. Yesterday, Facebook informed users that they were killing this feature on 22 November 2011. Websites killing off features is nothing new but I'm disappointed for a number of reasons...

Just made some changes to the layout of my blog thanks to some new features provided by  Blogger... Main changes are: Cleaner layout for users New mobile-optimised layout Removal of stale links and broken content Really like the new features and the much improved tools for bloggers. The writing and editing environment is much better than what existed before.

So looks like UPC have been found not complying with Regulation 17(4) and Regulation 17(5) of the Universal Service Regulations. The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) have notified them of this non-compliance this week so we have to wait and see what happens... It is unclear from ComReg's notification if it was the price increases on 04 Jan 2011 or the changes to terms and conditions that have resulted in UPC's non-compliance. It's worth noting that the media have been reporting that it is related to the price increases but there is evidence that UPC have been changing their T&Cs on their website without notifying customers for some time too. :/ The regulations in question are: An undertaking referred to in paragraph (1) or a provider of electronic communications services referred to in paragraph (3) shall, not less than one month prior to the date of implementation of any proposed modification, notify its subscribers to that service — of the pr...

1. Click on account in the bar above. 2. Click on "Account settings" (or just go to https://register.facebook.com/editaccount.php ) 3. look for the "Download your information" section. 4. click on "learn more" 5. click on "Download" 6. wait for the email from Facebook. 7. download the zip file with your data. 8. PROFIT!! Note: you can't download information by other people (including their email addresses). There are some workarounds but personally, I'm not that fussed about this limitation. Getting *my* data out of facebook is much more important. Thanks facebook! Took you a while but this makes me a little happier. :) original blog entry: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=434691727130 boot note: I was originally going to post this as a facebook status update but the length was too long (720 characters vs the 420 character limit). so now it's on my blog which will propagate to facebook... =)

Date: 20 June 2010 Description: Described as a moderate walk in the Lonely Planet guide, I found this tougher at the start than I had expected (about the same intensity as the steep section of Lough Bray). After some messing around at the start (we failed to locate the gravel path Gary had mentioned and end up scrambling up the river bed), we finally hit the ridge and took the shortest path up (straight up!). We found a forest road that brought us up to 350-400m approx and then followed a grass path up to 500m approx (nice stroll). The final climb to the first peak (677m) was strenuous but not too bad. Following the saddle over to the 698m peak was straighforward. Heading over to the reservoir was also fine. The guidebook indicated that finding the path through the heather was a game of luck and our findings agree (even from the top of Camaderry we saw no visible paths down towards the streams). Instead, we headed over to the reservoir perimeter road and then followed the stream back...

Had to laugh when I saw this in the Irish Times ( link ) yesterday: Madam, – A moderate levy, imposed each time the word “like” is used redundantly, would surely resuscitate the Celtic Tiger. – Yours, etc, The levy would be impossible to implement in Cork, like...

So I got roped into trying to help folk here buy pre-sale tickets for snow patrol this morning... the issue? The link in the email they sent didn't work... here's the link they sent: http://zaphod.uk.vvhp.net/click/1934040-103838/zaph%0A+od.uk.vvhp.net/v-v/36df2d5ea6eba5242b7de32917-1934040 here's what they meant to send: http://zaphod.uk.vvhp.net/click/1934040-103838/zaphod.uk.vvhp.net/v-v/36df2d5ea6eba5242b7de32917-1934040 It looks like the link got mangled by the software they use to create the mailouts for the fanclub. %0A equates to a CR and the + to a space. Of course, ticketmaster are frustrating fans further because none of the Irish dates are available this morning... From the looks of the 2 dates visible in the system, they got the start date of the pre-sale wrong (20 Aug and not 19 Aug). Got to wonder why we pay them so much when they can't get stuff like this right... UPDATE @ 12:35: Looks like ticketmaster resolved the pre-sale issues this morning fans can ...

There was a question on RTÉ's Questions and Answers programme this week regarding facebook and privacy on the Internet. The responses from the panel were not well informed - they confused the issue between privacy afforded to users of a service by the service provider and the issue of keeping your data private from the general public. The two issues are totally different and need to be addressed separately... How service providers can use the information you upload to their service is very important. We're all familiar with the tick boxes on marketing boxes letting you opt in or out of the ability for them to use your data to pass on to partners and 3rd parties (the majority of companies require you to opt out - default is opt in). Many online service providers use data from their users to improve the service and I personally do not have an issue with them doing this as long as they are transparent about how they are using it. With regards closing an account, it is reasonable ...

A report from the European Commission in October indicates that Irish youth have the lowest interest in Science & Technology news compared to other Europeans... The level of interest in science and technology news was the highest in Portugal and Greece – with 86% and 85%, respectively, of respondents who said these topics appealed to them. These two countries showed the smallest difference between the level of interest in science and technology news compared to news items about culture and entertainment. Interest in the former, on the other hand, was the lowest in Ireland and the Netherlands – with only a slim majority of respondents showing interest in these scientific topics (53% and 54%, respectively). Full link: http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/flash/fl_239_sum_en.pdf

I just noticed that the company behind the M4 toll are misleading consumers with their 01 December 2008 price increases... From the http://www.eurolink-m4.ie/ website: Due to the increase in the rate of VAT, from 21% to 21.5%, effective from 1st December, as announced by the Government on Budget Day 14th of October, our prices will rise from the 1st December. If you then check the prices you'll find that the price of a car increases from €2.70 to €2.80 (an increase of over 3.7%)! However, they aren't increasing the rates for all vehicles... bad form! UPDATE-1: some background available over at boards.ie . still doesn't justify the 10c increase though...

Hard Working Class Heroes '08 is on 12-14 September and competes with the Fringe festival. What's more, ticket prices are up some 100% since 2006. A weekend ticket through ticketmaster.ie is €44.98. According to nialler.com (currently down), the weekend ticket price in 2006 was just €22.50 (if bought directly from the festival folk). Single-day tickets have also seen a similar increase. In 2006, "80 plus bands from Ireland with six acts from Canada largely represent the indie / indie rock genre with a very small amount of artists classed as other genres such as electronica (not a gritty Irish hip hop act in sight)...". In 2008, the approach to band selection hasn't changed much and I would argue that you're comparing like-with-like. Yes - they have added some additional elements like a photo exhibition, but this hardly justifies the large increase. Ticket prices are rising dramatically and it just doesn't make sense... MCD and Aiken claim that the live ev...

so Facebook have launched a redesigned interface for their site. Seems to have uncluttered some stuff and first impressions are good! The nicest feature I see is that you can now link your external blogs, photo galleries, etc to your activity stream. This is a killer feature and means that you can use multiple providers but have one central source for all your friends... now to see if it works! :) update @ 15:26: this feature doesn't appear to be working right now. I've logged a bug with Facebook and monitor. If it does pick up the new postings it will be a very nice feature! update @ 15:33: this actually isn't a new feature but appears to be around for some time. Unfortunately, I can't get this blog added but i was able to add my youtube profile. :) update @ 18:25 (06 aug 2008): seeing if facebook have fixed the issue on their end.

just finished uploading a video from Ian's gig in early May. Enjoy!

sinéad likes to spell her name with a capital 'S'. sinéad can beat me at mario kart wii (but only on the luigi circuit). sinéad will defend cork with much gusto. sinéad will... * the stream of conciousness ends here because sinéad battered me. :P

F1 is back with a bang... and the changes for the 2008 season have had a dramatic affect on today's Australian GP... Just 7 cars finished the race which saw plenty of driver mistakes. Both Ferrari drivers had bad days with both Massa and Raikkonen making mistakes which saw them in the gravel pit. Indeed, Massa's demise was probably related to the collision which put Coulthard out on lap 26. Raikkonen missed breaking zones, spun his Ferrari while trying to take Timo Glock. The pundit's conclusion on the Massa / Coulthard collision is that Coulthard should have left Massa more room... I disagree! Coulthard was quite right to keep his position and Massa probably overcooked it just a tiny bit. He definitely didn't deserve to be taken out as he was having a good race. Timo Glock's spectacular spin on lap 44 robbed Kovalainen of 2nd place but resulted in Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Alonso being line astern after the 3rd safety car. This resulted in some good overtaking... K...

I happened to be flying through New York's JFK airport last sunday and got delayed over an hour on landing and again on departure. The pilot of our flight mentioned that there was some sort of security incident but there was no mention on the JFK website or in any of the main news sites... We could see a LOT plane in a secluded area of the airport surrounded by a bunch of police / security vehicles and it looked pretty serious... It turns out, the flight had the Polish Prime Minister (Donald Tusk) on it and someone had phoned in a bomb alert for the flight (it turned out to be a hoax). the only websites to report this news (which delayed 100+ flights) appear to be polish websites (and 2 of the new york papers)... very little mention of it in the mainstream news... http://www.poland.pl/news/article,Polish_PM_opens_visit_to_the_United_States,id,318420.htm http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/human-interest/?id=77632 http://www.nypost.com/seven/03102008/news/regionalnews/polish_pm_in_jf...

yep - one step closer to minority report style interaction with your PC... http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/03/wiimote-re-purposed-for-glove-based-multi-touch-system/ i want one... :)

in no particular order, these are my top 11 events of 2007 (couldn't choose 10!)... eating sushi in a real japanese restaurant in downtown tokyo (january) google ski trip to the italian alps (january) Weekend in Ballydavid, Co. Kerry for Siobhán Begley's art exhibition (may) Seeing R.E.M. at the olympia twice in one week even if they exclaimed "THIS IS NOT A SHOW" (july) kayaking near sigulda in latvia (september) Sligo hiking / clean-up weekend with folk from Google (october) Lewis Hamilton almost winning the F1 championship (october). Seeing The Frames at the Grand Opera House, Belfast (october) Seeing Ryan Adams in Munich (november) Handing off my first huge project as a project manager more or less on time (november / december) going to the christmas market in munich with berny (december) hopefully 2008 will be a much longer list... :)

Last sunday, Rafael (a colleague from Google) and myself went hiking in Glendalough (following the white route up along the ridge and then back along the valley to the visitor centre). We were fortunate to find a gap in the rain over the weekend - it was lashing rain and extremely windy at 3am and more rain showers arrived towards the end of the hike at 2pm (kudos to www.met.ie having rain radar on their website and to O2/Vodafone for coverage in the area). We warned a few hikers setting out later than us that heavy rain was on the way (particularly 2 folk who didn't look particularly well kitted out) and I'm guessing they got rather wet on top of the ridge. Overall - has a great time on the hike and it was really good to get out and about early on a sunday (loads of people had a similar idea).

I just had a read of an interesting report by DCC on Apartment Living - they served nearly 200 schemes across the Dublin area and looked at a number of items regarding management of the schemes. The 2 areas that interested me were the fire standards of apartment schemes and noise complaints. Fire standards for apartments are extremely low with poor signage and equipment. Noise is a large percentage of complaint to management companies but only 6 (yes 6!!) complaints were made to DCC in relation to apartment complex noise. The full report (which includes the checklist they used) is available here: http://www.dublincity.ie/Images/Apartment%20Living%20Part%202%20Oct%2007_tcm35-57039.pdf The checklist might be useful for folk renting/buying apartments so do check it out - page 116.