Dé Céadaoin (Wed), Márta (Mar) 31st

First SPAM now SPIM ???
Not being an instant message user this is the first I have heard of SPIM...i.e. "unsolicited commercial instant messages". Well it seems that while the fight against SPAM continues Spim Is On The Rise so it looks like there's another battle looming.
It also seems that "70% of spim involves pornography"...I think I need to start using an instant messenger, for research purposes of course! more..
maca @ 08:18.

Don't Blame File-Sharing For Slumping CD Sales
A study at the University of North Carolina has concluded that "file sharing" is not responsible for the slump in album sales!

It's still illegal of course, but maybe you don't need to feel so guilty!?!
more..
maca @ 08:10.

Dé Máirt (Tue), Márta (Mar) 30th

Usless IP banning
Good article here on Why IP banning is useless, for those of you running forums or blogs who are not familiar with how the aul banning IP's thingy works.
more..
maca @ 04:43.

Dé Luain (Mon), Márta (Mar) 29th

English Police treatment of Irish people
This article on the treatment of Irish people by British police is an interesting read. I really didn't think this kind of thing went on anymore.
Sure i've heard stories over the years about harassment and so forth but on numerous trips to the UK I have never even seen a hint of this.

more..
maca @ 12:27.

Bloody Sunday Development
interesting Bloody Sunday inquiry developement!
It appears the inguiry might get access to previously confidential lawyers' files!!
Apart from the cost and time issues what effect could this have on the ruling? What sort of new information could come to light... stay tuned! more..
maca @ 11:59.

Royal row...
I'm having a royal row on Slugger about the decline of the Irish language. Some people are really opposed to the language and any efforts put into it, others simply don't see the point of trying to keep the language going while there are others who understand the value but are not willing to spend the time or money on it.
That's why I take a more extreme view, to try and create a balance...

makes for interesting discussion... more..
maca @ 10:38.

Loss of our language..
By any chance is someone a member of IrishAbroad.com? They have an article in their member section about Irish, stating that "the loss of our traditional language is no bad thing".

I wonder if this is similar to the one linked to on Slugger. Will investigate! more..
maca @ 07:56.

Dé Domhnaigh (Sun), Márta (Mar) 28th

6 Nations Standings
Just for the record, the final 6 Nations standings:

(Won/Lost/Points)
FRANCE 5/0/10
IRELAND 4/1/8
ENGLAND 3/2/6
WALES 2/3/4
ITALY 1/4/2
SCOTLAND 0/5/0

we'll be top next year. more..
maca @ 01:42.

Mixed day for Irish rugby
Damn...what a day for Irish rugby, joy followed by tragedy.

Ireland beat Scotland in Dublin to will the Triple Crown!! Fantastic win even though we didn't play as well as we should. All credit to Scotland for upping their performance from previous games. France win the 6 Nations!

This great news was followed by the very very sad news of a young Irish player who died in Durban.
18 year old Ulster lad John McCall was injured during Irelands' Under-19 Rugby World Cup game against New Zealand. He received treatment for a time at the stadium but died later in hospital.

Sincerest condolances to his family and friends.
A sad day for Irish sport indeed. more..
maca @ 01:00.

Dé Céadaoin (Wed), Márta (Mar) 24th

Projects...
Sorry, work distracted me for a minute...

PHP Projects - Ongoing and Planned

emControlPanel
"control panel" script which allows storing of administrative links, storing of bookmarks, code database, tasks/to do list, notepad and quick email form.
All of the main components are in place but we are tweaking design and functionality. Should be ready for release in a month or two, taking our time.

emTemplate
template creator script based on the CSS templates which can be downloaded from our site. Users can select one of the templates, enter their own content, change the presentation & formatting and the script outputs a downloaded template ready for use.
This is still in the early stages. It's an easy one to do but takes a lot of tedious dogwork. Won't be ready for a couple of months.

emTasks
Just a basic to do list type script. We haven't started this yet but all we need to do is take the Tasks component from emControlPanel, stick a new face on it and hey presto....well something like that. Time 2-3 months before we get around to it.

emQuickMail
Very basic script to allow you to send emails from the web. Designed so we can send web mails quickly without having to log in to the webmail account. Again we just need to take the component from emControlPanel. Extra feature on this is that it can be launched from a single button in IE. time 2-3 months.

emNetSearch
Search bar which lets you choose your search engine from a drop down list and send a query to that search engine. The script is complete, we just need to get it "packaged" and work on some basic documentation. It's very low priority so it won't be released for a few months.

emHelpDesk
A basic help desk system which allows customers to submit help tickets via the web. Email requests need to be handled by an Admin. The admin can assign requests to different departments, customer service reps can answer requests, close requests, reassign requests etc. Customers can log in and view the status of their requests.
Not started - but the layouts etc have been designed before when I was doing a Cold Fusion version of this script. Summertime before we start working on this.

emProjectManager
The latest idea, a basic project manager script to be used as a basic info protal to track progress on projects and manage team members etc. few details worked out yet and it will be months before we start this.

Sin é. That's about it for now, we'll come up with lots of new ideas soon gan dabht!


PS there's 2 more small applications which we made before and haven't released, a file download script and auto-reply form processing script. I had forgotten about those.. more..
maca @ 11:32.

Bing!
Just as I made that last post and mentioned giving you some details of the projects, I thought of a new one, a way of tracking progress on projects such as the ones we are working on...this will take some thinking about.... more..
maca @ 10:35.

No inkling...
I've lost interest in posting recenty. Much too busy at work and too lazy in the evenings. Not much news for ye anyway. PHP scripts are coming along, although we keep thinking of new features to add to the Control Panel script, and as we're working on those we're delaying the CSS Template script. And now we've decided to take the Tasks section from Control Panel and make it into a mini-appplication on it's own.
I'll summarise the scripts shortly...just for your info... more..
maca @ 10:33.

Dé Sathairn (Sat), Márta (Mar) 13th

Sir Winston
Just came across this quote from Churcill...thought it was interesting

Winston Churchill had this to say about the Palestinians in 1937: "I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

I know he is respected by many but personally I find that a disgusting racist comment. But it's not surprising he would say such a thing since he considered the bombing of civilians in wartime to be the norm or 'in fashion' more..
maca @ 10:30.

Dé Céadaoin (Wed), Márta (Mar) 3rd

Mobile Games
Anyone got any good sites for mobile phone games? I was surfing for a few hours yesterday trying to find some good j2me games for my *new phone* but with little success. Found a few but nothing good.
And MP3s? I need to find sound files in MP3 format...not sonds, just sound snippets. I have lots in .wav format but they are useless! more..
maca @ 11:26.

Dé Luain (Mon), Márta (Mar) 1st

Beo
Tá Beo! ar fáil anois! It's a good aul read check it out, especially Rannóg na bhfoghlaimeoirí for us not so fluent speakers. more..
maca @ 09:55.