return to pearse

A few things I’ve noted from looking at my website stats for the last 30 days (though the blog’s only been active for about 20) on Feedburner and StatCounter:

Firstly, it seems 39% of you use Firefox. According to the W3C, thats above average. Though apparently the amount of Internet Explorer users is above average too.

Not surprisingly, XP is the most popular OS, though there was one visitor who had an Intel Mac. Fight the power, unknown visitor.

I was surprised by the amount of people with screen resolutions larger than 1024×768. Must be all these Widescreen laptops Dell is selling. I’m clearly behind the times, though not as far behind it seems as the two of you who have an 800×600 resolution.

Most of you are from Dublin and the outlying areas, with the occasional out-of-towner from America.

Surprisingly, it seems quite a lot of you are Ambulance Drivers sent here by a link to the Garda Communication post on the Irish Ambulance forum

Anyway, I thought all that was pretty interesting even if you, the average reader, didn’t. Doesn’t matter because the average reader only looks at that post and then heads off on their merry little way.

Photo from Friday night at James’ house.

It’s actually vodka in the Bud bottle. Apparently you leave it like that for a few hours and the pineapple "drinks" the vodka. The pineapple was served the following night at Darran’s party.

More photos from the night

Sorry about the lack of life here. I’ve been busy.

So, without any further ado, first photos posted here from my new 400D:

Dewey

Rocky

More to come soon

PC World reports that

Microsoft, Google, [Yahoo, and Vodafone] will develop a code of conduct with a coalition of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to promote freedom of expression and privacy rights.

This seems to be quite related to these companies’ policies relating to censorship and monitoring of internet activities in China and similarly restrictive areas.

It’s good to see large corporations like these seriously considering their moral responsibilities and valuing peoples’ reservations about their conduct, and, as engadget reports, working with some very well supported and respected non-profit groups such as

the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School, Business for Social Responsibility, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders.

Doubts have been expressed over how this code will be policed and enforced, but overall it looks like a step in the right direction.

If you’re looking for the more recent ‘Mr. Campbell’ Garda video, it’s here, but do feel free to have a look around here first

After the original Garda Communication post by gingerpixel, the hilarity that is two confused Gardaí went rocketing round the tinkerweb until the inevitable happened:

Animated by Ian Kenny, there is apparently a high-res non-YouTube version on his website, though I haven’t seen it as his server seems to have taken a pounding.

P.S. Whatever you do, don’t claim you did it. As Blogorrah points out, it could land you a €63,000 fine or 5 years in an overcrowded prison.

(via)

Well that was the biggest purchase I’ve ever made.

About 5 minutes after I clicked “Submit” Dad got a phonecall from AIB asking if he was aware of a large online credit card transaction. We were pretty impressed by this responsiveness, even at 7pm on a Friday evening.

Hopefully, it should arrive early next week. Also impressive is that, after the order is shipped, Pixmania will allow me to download the user manual so I can read up on the camera before it arrives, which is cool, seeing as Canon make you pay to download a user manual if you lose yours, or didn’t get one with your product. I’m guessing the reason they make you wait until the order has been shipped is so you don’t order, get the manual for free and then cancel, or maybe read the manual, see the camera is missing a feature you thought it had, and cancel.

Oh well, hopefully this means more (and better) photos being posted here.

Wasting some time on YouTube recently, I got sucked into the adventure of following ‘related video’ links.

Started off with the excellent David O’Doherty:

(Other Recommended Songs)

Which led on to David Kitt:

Which led, via some Jape videos, to The Redneck Manifesto:

Also Recommended

Top of the World on flickr

The first of (I hope) many photos here.
Taken in September near my house.

Three Apologies:

1. Not a lot going on here

This whole new blog thing isn’t getting off to an amazing start really is it?

My excuse:
I’m in 6th Year with important exams coming up in a few months.
Of course, I’ve also been making excuses to myself for not preparing for those exams.

2. Lack of Photos

The blog promised to be at least sometimes a photoblog. That still hasn’t happened.

My excuse:
Everything’s Broken.
I’m currently down to my camera phone at the moment, with my good camera away being repaired, and the charger for my old one being broken.
I’d post some old ones, but the computer packed up recently and I had to reinstall Windows. I’m restoring the photos from backups now.

3. Apology in Advance

If you happen to be watching the Leinster rugby match tomorrow, you may notice some weirdos playing music in the stands. One of them will be me. I’m perfectly happy to humiliate myself at a public event (especially when I’ll be getting paid, taking me ever closer to the magical €753.50 mark.), it’s those who will be forced to listen I feel sorry for (hence the apology).

Anyway, just to blow your mind before then: this.