Ronan’s Blog

A friend of mine has just opened up this new Montessori in Dublin 15, it looks really good !

Kindle Montessori, Dublin 15

Finally got around to breaking the seal on GTA IV last night and sat
down to play it for a good few hours.

First Impression: I don’t like it !

Firstly the new controls were terrible, I’d only ever played it on the PS2 &
PSP before and never on the XBox 360, so that could be different, but
switching the options to Classic controls soon fixed that.

Some of the new effects are great, and I love the new way of avoiding
the cops, but one function that I used to use almost every minute on the
PS2, was pressing L2 & R2 at the same time to fix the in-car view to be
straight ahead, pressing the right analog stick to do this not is a
pain!

The cell phone is good, and I like the way it has built in “trip-skip”
as introduced in Vice City Stories on the PSP.

I just found all the game to be far too dark, almost impossible to see
anything at all, its too polished, they are trying to make it look more
real, but its loosing the feel of a game, with the lack of bright
colours and obvious targets and certain simplicity.

I found myself yearning (first time I’ve ever used that word i think) for
the bright lights of Vice City with its smaller buildings and more
obvious roads, turns and directions.

Also, any time that the on-screen instructions appears, I simply could
not see which button the instruction was indicating that I should press,
it seems that you really must have a large HD TV in order to watch it -
My standard 28″ widescreen TV is obviously just not good enough.

Disappointed.

(Will I have to pay €1200+ on a new TV to be impressed - I wonder)

This has long been coming. I’m sick of being told to turn off my MP3 player or PSP on planes, dispite already having the Wireless capability turned off.

My new iPhone ans an “Airplane Mode” which turns off phone operation, bluetooth and WiFi functionality, but airlines in Europe still demand that they are turned off. Airlines in America usually say that laptops can be used but request that Wireless capability is turned off during take off and landing.

Technically there is no reason for these devices to be turned off on a plane… Irritation wise though, it looks as if we are about to get a new kind of airplane nuisance; coming in just behind the screaming baby, but ahead of the constant seat recliner will be the loud business call dealer, who is just so important that they can’t stay off their phone for just a few minutes.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Approval for mobiles on aircraft

Mail a brick to junk mailers using paid postage - Creative tips with dealing with spammers and bulk mailers

I really like this… Think I’ll give it a go !

Look at 5 across, 5 down
Alumni - Class of 1993 : Electra Independent School District

Google Maps now seems to think that the 39B Bus Route in Dublin is a Subway !

A package arrived for me today from Oracle.

e11.95 Cash on Delivery.

I had no Idea what it was.

Turned out to be about 12 CD’s - Various Oracle products 11g & 10g Database
and other software. All of which is freely available to download - Most
of which we had already.

PLUS - there is a “Commercial Invoice” with the CD’s for $60

I never ordered anything !

I wonder if this is how Oracle makes money ?
By just sending out random cd’s to their partners and charging them ?

I finally sold my old car last weekend and this week bough my new car … And She’s a beauty !

2003 BMW 320i Sports Coupé, 22,500miles, 2200cc Engine, M-Tec Trim, the works.

€7500 VRT when I brought it down from Northern Ireland, got my new Irish Plates fitted today and Tax paid … All-in-all I probably saved about €3000 by buying outside Ireland and Importing.

Picasa Web Albums - Ronan - New Car

29th May 2007 - Eircom announces €240m group operating profit

30th May 2007 - Eircom announces the cutting of 900 Jobs

A report in today ’s Newspaper has claimed that the amount of natural resources off the west coast of Ireland could rival some of the world’s largest oil production locations. An estimate €450billion in Oil alone is thought to be there.

If and when these Oil fields begin yielding and profits are paying tax at the 25% margin, this will be an enormous boost to the Irish Economy. Reduced National debt, improved infrastructure and health services will probably be the expected investments for these new taxes. Then who knows what will happen in the future, Kerry to become the next Dubai ?!

Lets just hope Ireland never gets accused of having WMD’s !

Ireland on the verge of an oil and gas bonanza - Independent.ie