the foobar zone

What with my recent move to Mac-istan, I'd really like to be able to ditch my last two remaining PC dependencies, namely Visio and an accounting package which generally works well and has some remote comprehension of the vagaries of the irish tax system.

The "Nigel effect" is a term I've heard used occasionally in the context of British businesses dealing with Irish businesses.

One in 10 web pages laced with malware - Google, screamed the The Register, in one of its characteristic gutter-press style headlines.

Now, you've always got to take El Reg with a pinch of salt. God bless them in there: sometimes they write stuff worth reading, but other times you're left scratching your head and asking yourself why in bejaysus they write such a load of complete bollox. Tabloid headline syndrome or something? Sure looks like it to me.

Off and on over the years, I've used a variety of email systems. Elm and Mutt were early favourites, and it took me until 2001 to go beyond text based systems. it wasn't that I had a great liking for text based systems, just that the GUI MUA's at the time were pretty trashy.

I'm a firm believer that it being 2007, it should be possible - nay, easy - to pay bills on-line using a credit card. So it's a little surprising to come across systems which don't yet accept credit cards on-line.

Fallon & Byrne is the latest in up-market eating experiences. Situated in the old telephone exchange in Exchequer Street, Dublin, there are three floors of gastronomic delights. There is an extensive wine cellar in the basement, and a restaurant on the first floor. The ground floor hosts a high quality delicatessen, with rows upon rows of temptation. Every time I go in there, my eyes engage in an orgy of indulgence, and to date I haven't managed to escape without at least a small quantity of delectable fare.

Yesterday's report from the Internet Service Provider Association of Ireland about illegal use of the internet makes an interesting read. Far from being the sort of sensationalist and inaccurate trash you regularly get to read in the media, the ISPAI's report provides a sober and well-written analysis of their hotline's activities in 2006, and most importantly of all, the analysis is backed up by lots of interesting figures.

For us europistanis, it's mightly irritating that by default, Macs come with a US style keyboard attached to them. It's irritating that there are pathological differences between latin-1 style keyboards in the first place, but who made the decision to swap keys like @ and "? What misery you have wreaked on the world?

[this article originally written in 2000, before the widescale implementation of dsl and other broadband technologies]

Lots of people ask why I regularly let off steam about dialup SMTP as a method for downloading email from their ISP. Here's a quick outline of my main gripes about it.