Feckoff.net

Sweden is to introduce a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants tonight, much like our own ban.
Go go smoking Gestapo!

Smokers are jokers, sin sticks, etc.

Interesting visitor stats for this site.

Web Browsers
Internet Explorer (all versions): 929 (56.2%)
Firefox (all versions): 648 (39.2%)
Netscape (all versions): 13 (0.78%)
Mozilla (all versions): 22 (1.3%)
Konqueror (all versions): 15 (0.9%)
Safari: 19 (1.14%)
Opera (all versions): 7 (0.42%)

It is nice to see Internet Explorer’s dominance being steadily eroded by Firefox.

Countries of origin:
37 different countries recorded
USA: 448 (27.1%)
UK: 428 (25.9%)
Ireland: 408 (24.7%)
EU: 154 (9.3%) (Mostly Carlow IT, really should have been detected as Ireland)
Canada: 67 (4.05%)
Germany: 32 (1.9%)
Ukraine: 17 (1.0%)
Netherlands: 14 (0.8%)
Australia: 9 (0.54%)
Hong Kong: 8 (0.48%)
Finland: 8 (0.48%)
Spain: 8 (0.48%)
France: 5 (0.3%)
Mexico: 4 (0.24%)
Japan: 4 (0.24%)
Italy: 4 (0.24%)
China: 4 (0.24%)
Denmark: 4 (0.24%)
All others: 27 (1.63%)

Operating Systems:
Windows XP: 1253 (75.8%)
Windows 2000: 182 (11%)
Windows 9x/Me: 87 (5.26%)
Windows NT: 12 (0.72%)
Windows 2003: 1 (0.06 %)
Linux (various flavours): 66 (3.99%)
Mac OS X: 41 (2.48%)
Mac (other): 9 (0.54%)
FreeBSD: 2 (0.12%)

Wow, that was really interesting!!11!

Another RTE news commentary, this time on how Pope Benedict and the Italian Bishops (hey, that sounds like a 1950’s band) have stuck their oar into a referendum on relaxing Italy’s fertility laws.
Instead of urging Catholic voters to vote against the proposed changes, he asks them to abstain from voting. What-the-fuck? Seriously, wouldn’t it be a bit smarter to vote against the changes than to abstain?
Or is it the fact that they’re afraid that people won’t vote against the referendum, thus making them all look like pillocks? If they ask people to abstain they can claim that it is a protest and they can claim that all the apathetic people who don’t vote are on their side.

To the Catholic church: Please bugger off, politics is none of your business.

In a follow up to the attempted Lusk post-office armed robbery, in which two of the scum got shot dead by armed Gardaí, Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has said, according to RTE News, that “Gardaí would react to ensure public safety”.

I hope this means that Gardaí are willing to shoot and kill more of the thieving criminal scum.

Today I was driving home from Carlow to Kilkenny with all my stuff after finishing college. When I was roughly half way there, my bloody exhaust pretty much *fell off*. I had planned to stop into the dealer from which I bought the car on my way home, in order to get them to check the funny noise the exhaust had been making.
Anyways, the exhaust came off in the middle of nowhere, and the car sounded like a tank. Fortunately I had a wire coat hanger in the car, so I was able to use this to tie up the exhaust, as it had broken off and was dragging along the road. That was enough to get me to the dealer’s garage, about 10 miles down the road. Funny looks were attracted all around by the ridiculous noise of the broken exhaust.
The car is 5 years old, but I only bought it at the end of February – I’m glad of the warranty the dealer gave with the car, as this is the third time I’ve had it back to him, although the previous two times were both very minor things (faulty speaker and broken passenger door check strap).
After enduring my spleen-venting in their general direction, the maintenance people at the dealer’s agreed to fit a new exhaust under the warranty straight away, as I made it fairly clear when I was raging at them that I need to car to go to work on Monday. I’m just damn glad this did not wait to happen until after the warranty period.

Click for full version
It broke where the pipe above connects to the eh… shiny thingy on the left.

This is excellent. Windows media codecs required though.
Even if you’re not into the whole Half-Life 2 thing, its worth a look.

I saw “Chain Reactions” on RTE for the second time this evening, and I have to say it was actually very good, certainly one of the best self-produced pieces of television they have come up with. The programme is presented by Simon Delaney of “Bachelor’s Walk” fame. This week it focused on the erosion of state censorship and the eventual legalisation of contraceptives in Ireland, kicked off by the appointment of the late Brian Lenihan to the post of Minister for Justice in the early 60’s.
Last time I saw it, it was about how Ben Dunne’s coke-and-hookers extravaganza in Florida brought about the chain of political scandals and tribunals of recent years. Unfortunately, tonight’s episode was the last in the series of six (Why is it that whenever RTE produces anything worthwhile it is usually only in small doses like this?).

If RTE could produce more programming of this calibre, I’d be much happier to pay my licence fee. Highly recommended.

I kind of buggered the site up with an attempted software upgrade a little while ago. This is what happens when you mess around with this stuff after a few drinks!
Its mostly fixed now bar the image at the top, but that can wait.

Today I gave my final project demonstration. I am now finished as a student and I will join the rat race on Monday!

Click for full version
I am impressed; I have never heard a car audio system this loud.