James Galvin

Slashdot links to these survey results which show a 24.1% usage rate of Firefox in Europe. I’m happy to see that Ireland emerges slightly above average, with a rate of 24.9%, and experiencing a hefty increase. Slovenia grabs gold, with a score of 44.5%, followed by Finland on 41.3%. For some perspective - the UK came in at 18.0%, while North America has 15.1%.

When you consider that other browsers like Opera and Safari must surely rack up at least another 5% between them, there is no justification in this day and age for Internet Explorer Only websites and login systems, which unfortunately are all too common. I don’t have a copy of Windows, and lately I have had to borrow somebody else’s PC to get access to some sites which choose to exclude half of Slovenia and a quarter of the rest of the world. Hopefully these developers will wake up to the fact that Firefox is no longer just a thorn in the side like their old pal 640×480, and restricting to IE only is simply unforgivable. In the meantime, does anyone know a quick fix for emulating Internet Explorer 7 in Linux?

John Connolly’s new book, the Unquiet, should be hitting the shelves in Ireland this week. This will be the sixth in a series of mystery novels, from the former Irish Times journalist, centered around a haunted private investigator, Charlie Parker. Connolly has faced some flak or ‘breaking the rules’ of crime fiction, straying too close to the border of fantasy/horror in the vein of Stephen King.

The Charlie Parker novels are gripping and horrifying - always a great read. As the series developed, however, the supernatural elements became a bit too pronounced for my liking, and I sometimes found myself thinking that it was getting a bit ridiculous. I have no problem with the horror genre, and I’m a big fan of fantasy, but one thing that doesn’t go down well in crime fiction is the realisation that this is much too far-fetched. A murky gothic overlay enhanced the early half of the Parker series, but by the time the Black Angel came on the scene, it was so steeped in mysticism that I felt that JC had lost the run of himself.

I hoped that The Unquiet would see a return to a more orthodox style, but from the synopsis, I get the feeling that ancient, big-stomached shapeshifters smelling of earth and raw meat will yet again feature prominently.

Someone is funding Merrick’s hunt, a ghost from Parker’s past. And Merrick’s actions have drawn others from the shadows, half-glimpsed figures intent upon their own form of revenge, pale wraiths drifting through the ranks of the unquiet dead.

The Hollow Men have come . . .

John also hints at next years offering, “The Reapers”:

The next novel, to be published in 2008, will be called The Reapers. It’s pretty much an Angel & Louis novel, and I think it will be a little lighter in tone that most of the earlier books.

Read: the killer chooses not to drug his victims to prolong their torture, as he guts them alive.

I would get one of these if I had a few thousand quid to spare (via Boing Boing):

This box contains the items considered necessary for the protection of persons who travel into certain little known countries in Easter Europe where the populace are plagued with a peculiar manifestation of evil, known as Vampires… Professor Ernst Blomberg respectfully requests that the purchaser of this kit carefully studies his book. Should evil manifestations become apparent, he is then equiped to deal with them efficiently… Professor Blomberg wishes to announce his grateful thanks to that well known gunmaker of Liege, Nicholas Plombeur, whose help in compiling of the special items, the silver bullets,etc., has been most efficient. The items enclosed are as follows…

1. An efficient pistol with its usual accoutrements
2. A quantity of bullets of the finest silver
3. Powdered flowers of garlic (one phial)
4. Flour of Brimstone (one phial)
5. Wooden stake (Oak)
6. Ivory crucifix
7. Holy Water (one phial)
8. Professer Blomberg’s New Serum

I suppose I’ll have to settle for one of these cool MacBook covers instead. Tough choice, but I would lean towards Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave”.

I spent some time today setting up a new TV the old fashioned way, scanning through the frequencies with the remote control. I confess that I was gripped by an eager anticipation as RTE 1 materialised on the screen - a residue of the excitment from the old days when one guy would be up on the roof adjusting the aerial, while the fella in the living room shouted up the chimney whenever the blob of dots on the screen began to resemble Gay Byrne. Somehow its still a surprise when TV3 and TG4 pop up on the box.

If you had asked me in 2001, I would not have predicted that six years later we would still be fiddling with bunny ears and coat hangers in Ireland, trying to tune in Network 2 without losing RTE 1. In the rising tide of media centre PCs and wifi enabled gaming consoles, surely this next six years will see major changes in the way we watch the television. TV over the internet has been a long time coming, but at last, it is safe to say that we’re nearly there.

The first step is modernising is increasing the definition, and just about everyone I know bought a HD-ready LCD TV this year, but none of them have actually gone so far as to watch anything in high def. Extra hardware requirements and monthly subscription costs for a couple of HD channels on Sky renders that service impractical. And with BlueRay still volatile in its infancy, I expect that only those of us rich enough to own a Playstation 3 will be experiencing that in the short term. This is why I see Zudeo Vuse, from Azureus, as being a great service. “A radically new way to discover and watch popular TV shows and hard-to-find videos - Hi-def and full screen” is exactly what the doctor ordered, and with BBC having pledged tons of content, this is a resource that is destined for very big things.

There has been plenty of news lately about Babelgum - a next generation TV provider with a Long Tail philosophy who recently set up shop in Dublin. Babelgum sounds promising, but it has been overshadowed a bit by Joost who are that bit closer to launch. I was pleased to receive my Joost invitation today, apparently they have been very busy fine-tuning it for me. They’ve even given me this here image which makes me so proud:

There’s no Linux version just yet, but they have released a client to run on my new Macbook Pro. I had a very quick tour of the software earlier, and it is impressive to say the least. The problem with beta software is that it doesn’t always work, and this is exactly what is stopping me from examining the service further. The Joost support forums are hopping at the moment with people unable to connect, and unfortunately one of them is me. First impressions - it looks great, but in a country where our ISPs think 128k upload is standard for broadband, do we have the bandwidth for it? I’ll come back to that…

Tonight saw a momentus occasion in the history of Waterford soccer, as they were stripped of the title “worst team ever to play against Manchester United in a European fixture”, which they have held since 1968. Thanks to BBC News for that interesting tidbit.

“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.”

Announcing the blogger code of conduct, courtesy of Tim O’Reilly from O’Reilly Media (those computer books with an animal on the cover). The media has latched onto this story like never before - it made the front page of the NY Times yesterday, and I’ve seen it springing up in a bunch of newspapers this side of the Atlantic, including on BBC news. I have been struggling all evening, tormented by the claims that the man behind this is from Cork - but now I see the wealth of publicity resulting from this attention-seeking gimmick, and the limitless potential for spin-offs and follow-ups exploiting the willingness of clueless journalists to spout a few internet buzzwords, and I am convinced that this can only be the work of a Kerryman with a dodgy birth cert.

On the internet, bad publicity does not exist. The bottomless well of negativity reacting to this beacon of stupidity must surely be overflowing by now, but as it spreads like an incredulous fungus, each backlink will only serve to feed the absurd monstrosity at the source. What worries me is that, against the tide of common sense, Tim O’Reilly is building up a legion of followers supporting the new measures. It reminds me of a Derren Brown act where where he told a bunch of people to walk to one end of the room. Those that did, stayed, those that didn’t, were sent home. This was his first step in filtering the most malleable of the group who would be susceptible to his tricks. One might suspect that Tim O’Reilly is assembling his own private army, a horde of enthusiastic do-gooders still trying to figure out whether two legs are good or baaad, as they proudly display their eye-catching “Civility Enforced” insignia that somebody found in the Microsoft’s ClipArt archives from 1997.

I don’t think there’s any need to delve into the details as to what exactly is wrong with the code of conduct, since I’d probably be preaching to the converted. Damien has a good summary of the response around the place, and it is refreshing to see that there aren’t so many people kitting out in their camouflage and sheriff’s badge just yet. I particularly like this guy’s response.

I’m always cautious using the word ‘blog’ in describing this site, and cringe outright at the mention of a ‘blogosphere’. The internet is so full of people trying to make their own definitions - I just want to update my website with cool stuff. Does this mean I go back to having a homepage again?