Irish Webmasters

Make my day

2008-10-07T10:13:49+00:00

I am really pissed off today. I’m not depressed or anything, though the cold and rain isn’t helping.

I just feel like a bit of violence.

I know all about depression.

Anyone who has worked in a semi-state organisation like RTE will know all about depression.

Depression is when the Black Crow sits on your shoulder, and the world is a dark and irrelevant place. You sink into a swamp of apathy, and you haven’t the mental energy to see outside your own misery.

It is a dark and a horrible place.

No. I’m not depressed.

I just want to kick someone in the nuts.

I crave the pleasure of forcing an SUV into the ditch.

I want to see Sarah Palin locked into a room with forty sex starved Alaskan oil workers. [Let her talk her way out of that one]

I want to see Mary Harney become a victim of our wonderful health service.

I crave blood.

I desire mayhem.

I lust for a bus load of tourists and a stinger missile.

Today is a day for inflicting merciless pain on the first person to call to the Manor.

God help the postman.

Irish Banks In UK

2008-10-07T08:10:51+00:00

Hitwise published a pretty fascinating post showing how UK traffic to banking sites has been affected by Ireland’s banking guarantee.

Well worth a read to see what impact Ireland’s moves is having on the UK banking market, and, from an SEO-perspective, what people are searching for:

irish banks
anglo irish banks
irish banks interest rates
allied irish banks
allied irish banks gb
irish banks in uk
list of irish banks
irish banks in trouble
deposit money irish banks
irish banks at risk

AIB look to be doing very nicely according to those stats, and it’s unusual that people search for their full name rather than the acronym. Maybe AIB don’t use ‘AIB’ in the UK?

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Monday musing

2008-10-06T09:44:18+00:00

When I was a kid, I hated Mondays.

Monday was washday. My mother would fire up the gas boiler in the annex to the house and pile the weeks washing in. Mountains of steaming sheets and shirts. I still remember the smell to this day.

Monday was also reheat day. The Sunday dinner was always reheated for Monday, or served cold.

Then of course, Monday was the start of the school week. It was the day I remembered all the homework I was supposed to have done over the weekend. I used to work out which teacher gave the severest punishment and try to do his homework in about five minutes flat. It’s not easy doing four foolscap pages of an essay in five minutes. It take slightly longer than five minutes to do fifteen calculus problems, when you’re not too sure how calculus works. Five minutes to translate a chapter of Latin? Forget it! The bastards always gave us a ton of homework for the weekend. Monday was always the day I fell ill with a temperature [the old thermometer held against the light bulb trick] or a stomach ache. My mother never believed me though and I was always thrown out the door.

When I started work, Mondays weren’t too bad. The panic had gone out of the moment as the only homework I had to do was my Travel and Subsistence claims. They were easy enough. Think of a number between two hundred and three hundred. Double it. Add a random number. Multiply by four, and that’s my mileage for the previous week. The forms were a pain in the arse to fill in though.

Then there was the girl in the office who seemed to spend the weekend watching all the programmes on television that I hated. She would get very excited about them, and as none of us liked the programmes, she would have to give us a blow by blow and line by line account of each programme so that we would know what we missed. If I hated Big Brother and Friends before, I despised them after that.

Then I retired.

I like Mondays now.

I like every day of the week now, and as Monday is a day in the week, there is no reason not to like it.

I used to look forward to Fridays, but I don’t any more. All the days are as good as each other, and frankly I wouldn’t know what day of the week it was if it weren’t for my watch. I often have to refer to that to see if it’s Tuesday or Saturday. I like that. I’m not regulated any more. A calendar or a clock doesn’t dictate my life. As long as I remember which day to put the bin out, I couldn’t give a shit.

Am I the only person who likes Mondays?

Bleak house

2008-10-05T09:56:16+00:00

Yesterday I drove down a local road that I haven’t used in a while.

As a kid, I used to walk that road at dusk. It was a great place for bats. There was one stretch that was thick with them, and I loved watching their aerial acrobatics as they chased insects.

The last time I drove that road, the bats were still there. I caught glimpses of them as I drove.

It’s a quiet rural road that doesn’t carry that much traffic. There has never been any accident there that I know of. I have never heard of anyone being killed or even injured.

It now has street lights along it. Why? I don’t know. So much for the bats.

There are quite a few new houses there too.

I don’t know what the houses are like because they are all surrounded by high stone walls. Of course they also have high gates that are electronically controlled. At least one of the houses I passed had masts at each corner of the garden with security cameras on. There must have been at least four cameras, covering the outside and inside of the wall.

Who are these people?

They move to a very scenic part of the countryside, presumably to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of country life and then they build prisons to live in.

I have lived here for a long time. The boundary of my property is fenced, but that is purely to keep the dog from wandering onto the road. It is easy to climb over the fence. My front gate is an ordinary gate that anyone can enter. I don’t believe in living in a house where my friends and neighbours have to stand in the road waiting for me to press a button. I don’t think people should be humiliated and forced to talk into a metal grille while standing in the rain.

Many’s the time I have gone to sleep leaving the garage door wide open. I have slept while the front door was wide open. I occasionally forget to lock the back door or lock the car.

In all the time I have been here, there was one attempted break-in. They got as far as damaging a window, before Sandy scared them off.

So what the fuck are all these security cameras for?

What is going on in the heads of these people that they are so paranoid?

Are the gates and cameras there to deter or to impress? I suspect the latter.

An aspect of Irish society that I despise is the need for ostentation. Are we so insecure that we have to shout about our status from the rooftops?

Ireland is now awash with SUVs being driven by people bedecked in Armani and Gucci. Electronic gates that used to be the preserve of embassies and the like and now all over the place. The tiny cottage across the lane from me now has electronic gates that would rival those in Wheatfield Prison.

What the hell has happened to us?

Thank God for the recession.

New Hosting and Domain Statistics Site Launched

2008-10-04T14:30:57+00:00

John McCormac has been collecting and processing statistics on domain registrations and hosting for as long as I can remember. He is probably best known for Hackwatch and WhoisIreland, which produces monthly reports for the Irish hosting and domain industry.

John's latest project has been in development for several months and offers an alternative to some of the existing domain statistics sites already on the market.

What makes it different is that HosterStats cares about ccTLD data.

Sites like WebHosting.info and DomainTools all but ignore ccTLD data and give a rather skewed perspective of non-US based providers.

With Hosterstats you can easily check the DNS history on any .com/.net/org/info/mobi/eu/asia/co.uk or .ie domain name.

While the site isn't the prettiest at present it is incredibly functional and nice and fast to load, so you get the information that you want quickly and easily.

It will be interesting to see what John plans on adding in terms of features in the coming weeks and months.

The spy who came in from the cold

2008-10-04T10:16:24+00:00

All good things must come to an end.

The guinea pig has lost his freedom.

He has, however gained a warm home and a good supply of food, so the little bugger had better not complain.

He hasn’t uttered a squeak since he came in. Not a warble or a bubble. I think he’s depressed. I’ll give him some Prozac later.

In the meantime, there is the question of what to do with him. Our K8 is going to try to introduce him to her pair. If they get on, then that’s fine. If they don’t, then I’ll look after him. I confess I have grown quite fond of him over the last ten days or so. He looks quite tasty too.

There is another problem – his name.

I called him McCain, but I don’t think it’s fair to call him after such a freak. I was going to call him GP. That’s short for Guinea Pig and bears no relation to his medical qualifications, if any. I’m not sure about that though.

I’m stumped.

Any ideas?

Do you own a Bluray Player?

2008-10-03T12:31:14+00:00

I'm curious.

Do people own bluray players yet?

Or are you all still waiting for something....

Please vote on the poll

Not Wilde about Irish Ferries

2008-10-03T09:28:40+00:00

A couple of years ago, Irish Ferries ran a competition.

They had bought themselves a new ship to sail between Ireland and France, and the competition was to think up a name for it.

They wanted a name that implied luxury and speed. The name also had to reflect the Irish/French link.

I entered for the competition. I can’t remember my suggestions, but they were damn good, and I should have won.

They never gave the result of that competition, but they did name their ship – Oscar Wilde.

Luxury? Speed? Irish/French connection? There is logic there somewhere, but for the moment it escapes me.

I had my first trips on the Oscar Wilde, and I was impressed.

It is a very nice ship. It has bars, cinemas, games rooms, a restaurant, cafes, a shop and lots more. It is quite luxurious.

The cabins impressed me the most. On previous sailings, our cabin was the size of a wardrobe with bunk beds so there was no room to move inside. I have had roomier accommodation in Mountjoy. The new cabins have beds, one of which doubles as a comfortable sofa. They even have television. Very comfortable. I noticed there were a couple of containers welded onto the superstructure, presumably accommodation for immigrants, just to make them feel welcome.

Unfortunately, a ship is just a lump of steel. It has to be run by a company, and here is where the trouble starts.

The staff [crew?] on the ship were very friendly and efficient. I have no complaints there.

What I do complain about is the rip off factor. Jayzus! They are masters at it.

How would you fancy a cup of tea? It will set you back something like €2. For that you have to serve yourself with a paper cup, boiling water and a tea bag. If you want a large cup of tea, you pay something like 30c extra, for a little bit more boiling water. Fucking expensive water.

Food is excellent quality… if you are used to eating in truck-stop cafes, that is.

The Guinness wasn’t bad, but that was €4.50.

Of course they have the fucking smoking ban on board. They have a big thing against smokers.

You can buy enough alcohol in the shop to float the ship. They encourage you to buy as much as possible. You can only buy 40 fags though. Or two packs of tobacco. Another piece of logic that has me stumped.

On the return journey, I was sitting having a pint. There was a very attractive girl working in the lounge, and she spent a lot of time standing and counting. She looked puzzled as her finger pointed from table to table and she whispered numbers to herself. I asked her what she was doing. ‘Counting the chairs’ she replied. I can’t imagine they have much trouble with people stealing chairs, and I would assume that the number of chairs in the lounge was that same all the time. ‘Why?’ I asked. She put on a very helpless expression and told me that her manager told her to. She looked very frustrated, as people kept moving the chairs around. This sounded very like a bucket of steam or glass hammer job to me, so I told her to tell him there were 128. She looked impressed. ‘Are there?’ she asked, looking very relieved. ‘I haven’t a clue,’ I said, ‘and I’m damned sure the manager doesn’t know either.’

Will I travel on Irish Ferries again?

Yes.

They are the only company that sail direct to France on the days that I want to sail, and from the port I wish to use.

I’ll be bringing my own food though.

Is Grain Good?

2008-10-03T03:30:55+00:00

When using film I often throw my hat at
any effort to control grain.

Set out on a sunny day with an ISO 100 film,
the Celtic Sky suddenly darkens and photos are
returned moody and full of grain.

Set up a good shot, full of cloud and drama,
having chosen ISO 400, and the sun blazes through
brightening and causing crazed effects.

Buying a second film camera is one solution?

No wonder people in Northern climes are so moody...

Swedish Registry To Release Geographic Names in December

2008-10-02T18:21:58+00:00

The Swedish domain registry has announced its plans to release roughly 4 thousand geographic domain names in December. In common with several ccTLDs a block list forbidding their registration had been in place, however the registry's board voted earlier this year to allow the domains be registered.

The Swedish registry will also be transitioning to a more modern business model early next year with the establishment of a formal registry / registrar style relationship.

New Domain History Site www.hosterstats.com

2008-10-02T13:29:17+00:00

I’ve launched a new domain history website www.hosterstats.com It covers the DNS history of over 210 million domains covering com / net / org / biz / info / mobi /asia / ie / eu /co.uk domains. The historical DNS database covers domains back to 2000. There is also the statistical history for each Top [...]

Apologies

2008-10-02T11:52:18+00:00

I am sorry.

I am terribly terribly sorry.

You see, I was having myself a nice mug of tea, and a slurp of it went down the wrong way.

Unfortunately it was rather a large slurp.

I had two choices. I could quietly choke to death, or I could cough. It was a tricky decision, but I decided to cough.

Coughing when you have a mouthful, a throatful and a lungful of tea is not a good idea, especially if you are working with a laptop on your lap.

It was a gusher.

It took a while to clean all the drops, dribbles and puddles off the screen and keyboard [Hint of the day – regurgitated tea is quite good for cleaning keyboards].

The it occurred to me…….

I was connected to my site at the time, so a lot of the tea will have ended up there.

Anyone visiting my site is going to find they have tea leaking out of their screens.

If it’s any consolation, it is freshly made, so you can collect it and drink it if you like.

But if you don’t like tea…

Sorry!

"Louise Michel" picks up screenwriting award at San Sebastian

2008-10-02T10:48:28+00:00

Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine (photo) have picked up the Best Screenplay award at Spain's 56th San Sebastian Film Festival for "Louise Michel". Their third feature, the film stars Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Benoît Poelevorde and Matthieu Kassovitz (who also co-produced) in a goofy tale of a hit-man and his client chasing an unscrupulous company boss. The film will screen at the London Film Festival (October 15-30) and open in Belgium on December 24. Overall winner at San Sebastian was the Turkish film "Pandora's Box" by Yesim Ustaoglu (co-written by Selma Kaygusuz), which also won Best Actress.

For details, check the 56th San Sebastian Film Festival.

ICANN Slaps Joker.com and DNS.com.cn

2008-10-01T23:08:05+00:00

If you have rules and regulations but don't enforce them then there's little point in having any rules or regulations in the first place.

One of the criticisms that is often levelled at ICANN is with regard to compliance issues. There are a number of areas where ICANN accredited registrars maybe flounting the rules, but if nobody does anything about it then none of the registrars will have any incentive to actually comply.

According to the latest ICANN news alert notices have been sent to both Joker.com and DNS.com.cn for WHOIS policy issues.

All ICANN accredited registrars are bound under their contract with ICANN (the RAA, which has been under review for over a year) and if ICANN deems it necessary they may actually lose their accreditation for non-compliance.

In the last 12 months there have been a number of registrars who have lost their accreditation, though none would have attracted the level of media attention of Registerfly. That a relatively large European registrar such as Joker would be subject to this kind of "wake up call" puts things in a whole new perspective.

What would be the impact on the European internet community if one of their own were to lose their ICANN accreditation?

RIP: Telex and jazz musician Marc Moulin

2008-10-01T10:05:21+00:00

The news of Marc Moulin’s death has come as something of a shock in Europe. The legendary composer and producer is perhaps best known for his work with the pioneering synth-pop group Telex. But that was only one small part of the man’s achievements, as he also had numerous hits as a producer and writer in France, ran a very successful radio channel for some time and was also a distinguished jazz musician and playwright. A bit of a Renaissance man, of the old school…

Moulin created his first jazz trio in Brussels in 1961, and gradually earned himself a reputation as a pianist playing for visiting American jazzmen. He later admitted that he simply couldn’t face a life of playing “Stella by Starlight” and turned his attention to free jazz, notably with guitarist Philip Catherine. Placebo, in the early seventies, saw him strike out in more experimental waters, blending jazz with fusion and prog rock (also featuring one of the early Moog synthesizers). In a trend that he would use again later, the album “Sam Suffy” (recently re-released by Blue Note) was a jokey tribute to black music styles.

Silly pop
In the dizzy days of post-New Wave, electronics provided Moulin and friends Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers with the format to create silly pop tunes such as “Twist à St Tropez” and “Moscow Diskow”. The silliness, if not the music, reached a high point when Telex represented Belgium in the Eurovision and flopped miserably. Many of Telex’s tracks have been remixed by DJs such as Carl Craig, Stacey Pullen, Maurice Fulton, i:Cube and Juan Atkins over the years.

In 1999, he was contacted by the jazz label Blue Note, eventually releasing “Top Secret” in 2001. It mixed electronic music with hazy cool school aesthetics. “Early modal jazz with early modal house,” as he described it to me in an interview at the time. It was followed in 2004 by “Entertainment” and in 2007 by the album “I Am You”.

His later career bridged the gap between jazz and - for want of a better word - pop. Despite what august reviewers might think, Moulin didn’t really see them as antagonistic. “Maybe because jazz came from dance music originally,” he opined.

The relatively low musical output is disguised by the fact that Moulin also successfully wrote and produced, notably for Lio, Sparks, and the French crooner Alain Chamfort. In later years, he also wrote plays and articles and appeared regularly on radio chat shows.

Marc Moulin died of cancer on September 26, 2008. For an interview with him from the time of “Top Secret”, visit Marc Moulin Top Secret.

Marc Moulin on iTunes US:
Marc Moulin on iTunes IK:

Hissy fit

2008-10-01T08:55:24+00:00

I hate cities.

When I was a kid, I used to love taking a trip into Dublin.

I used to love wandering around Grafton Street basking in the smell of freshly roast coffee beans from Bewleys. Invariably there was that unique smell of roasting hops wafting down from St James’ Gate where they were brewing the Guinness. That smell epitomised Dublin for me. Maybe that’s where I got the taste for the stuff?

Another place I used to haunt was the quays. I loved watching the cranes at work unloading the ships and barges. There were always coal ships being unloaded so everything got covered in a fine layer of black dust. There were the massive Guinness kegs [Guinness again!] being loaded for export. There was always a bustle on the quays; a sense of foreign intrigue and mystery.

All that is gone now.

I had to go into the city yesterday. Apart from the Blog Awards last year [which don’t count because they were a night time affair] it’s about six years since I was there. I would have been happy to leave it for another twenty years, but I was overtaken by circumstances.

First of all, I had to get the DART in.

The DART is a train full of clichés.

They were all there.

Firstly there was the tosser who insisted on sitting beside me as if it was the last seat. He was a tosser because he had one of those fucking music things that went ‘tiss tiss tiss’ all the way.

Then there was the Mobile Phone User. This was a woman across from me who had her ring tone on full volume. The phone rang three times. Each time she yelled ‘HELLO HELLO HELLO’ into the phone before cutting off the caller. She then called the caller back and gave her a running commentary at the top of her voice for the rest of the journey.

There was of course the DORT user. This is the person with the D4 accent who thinks she is God’s gift to men. In fact she was a right slapper. She made the mandatory phone call to her pal to tell her she was on the DORT and would be soooo late, and could they meet in Ornotts?

We arrived more or less on time, and I then had to walk.

I noticed several things straight away.

Is it a rule that everyone has to carry a paper cup of coffee? It seems to be.

Is it a law that everyone has to have earphones?

Where the hell did all the beggars come from? They too were collecting in paper coffee cups. Whoever makes those cups is laughing all the way to the bank [assuming it hasn’t gone bankrupt]. Actually, don’t answer that last question. I know the answer – Eastern Europe. Every lamppost seemed to have its own resident, slumped at the bottom, holding out a dirty cup.

The city is dirty, noisy and so full of traffic that it’s damned dangerous trying to cross any road.

I hate it with a passion.

Next time I have to go into the city, I’m going to throw a hissy fit. I’m going to grab onto the door frame and refuse to let go.

From now on, I’m keeping to the mountains.

Is Film on the Way Out?

2008-10-01T04:39:07+00:00

Discussions about the increasing unavailability of
some film types are beginning to fill the Web.

White Balance and In-Camera Settings

2008-10-01T01:58:29+00:00

In-camera colour casts can be a bit gimmicky...

but they offer the possibility of a drama
and very vivid colour.

US Presidential Elections On CafePress

2008-09-30T20:14:58+00:00

I don't buy much on Cafepress shops due to the shipping costs, but some of the US presidential stuff is very amusing and quite tempting. I know my mother or sister would get a kick out of some of these:
You can find loads more over on Cafepress

IIA NetVisionary Voting Opens

2008-09-30T19:16:26+00:00

Image by Kovis via Flickr

Voting in the IIA Net Visionary Awards has opened, so head on over to their site to place your votes

If you're feeling generous vote for me!!

There's an interesting selection of people on the shortlist this year, as there is every year. Of course, as usual, some names are very familiar, whereas others don't mean anything to me!

Colour Tones and Exposure

2008-09-30T16:08:04+00:00

Liberté

2008-09-30T08:18:16+00:00

The town of Sarlat in France is an amazing place.

It is a very old town, and what makes it so special is the way it is preserved.

It is a town for walking, as it is a warren of narrow streets meandering their way around, crossing each other and providing endless vistas of beautiful buildings and quirky corners.

It is one of those magical places where each corner gives no hint of the wonder it conceals.

The narrow laneways and streets all flow together at one point to provide a town square.

Herself, of course, had planned our visit to coincide with market day. This occurs twice a week, and the town fills to capacity. Parking is a nightmare and the narrow streets are filled to capacity with the crowds. The square is the main focus of the market, and this is filled with bright stalls, and an amazing number of shoppers and sightseers.

No sooner had we arrived in the old part of town, than Herself disappeared. I don’t know where she went, but it was probably a shop. This was the chance of a lifetime. She would never find me in the crowds or the catacombs of the back streets.

At last.

I was free.

I spent a happy couple of hours taking photographs. I cad a couple of coffees and treated myself to lunch. I planned my solo journey home to Ireland, and thought up a very convincing story for our K8. It was a lovely day, and the crowds were friendly.

I found the biggest fuck-off church doors in the world!

Yup! Those mothers are made of steel!!

I have never bothered doing the lottery, because I know the odds. The chances of wining are just too small.

The chances of meeting Herself were equally small, but the Gods conspired. I trapped her in a photo. She trapped me in a nag.

My dreams of freedom faded, but I suppose all good things must come to an end.

One consolation though, was that she had made a fortune from lifting wallets and purses.

Topical tip: 10cc in “Wall Street Shuffle”

2008-09-30T08:03:37+00:00

“”

They seem like more innocent days. Here is the British group 10cc with their 1974 hit “Wall Street Shuffle”. And if you’re looking for further proof of the power of a good lyric, 10cc provide it once again.

It’s hardly surprising that the group knocks the greed of Wall St, and I’m surprised more radios are not playing the track these days. Wall Street is not exactly a moving target when it comes to slamming dodgy ethics or morals.

Do the Wall Street shuffle
Hear the money rustle
Watch the greenbacks tumble
Feel the Sterling crumble

But the funny thing is that the track shows the power of a good lyric (and some people’s blindness to irony, apparently), as there are numerous finance blogs and articles called “Wall Street Shuffle”. So they are associating themselves with the criticisms raised by the song. Odd, in a Gordon Gekko “greed is good” sort of way.

The song itself is a mid-tempo “classic” rock with a pretty unremarkable melody. It’s the words that do it.

Oh, Howard Hughes
Did your money make you better?
Are you waiting for the hour
When you can screw me?
`Cos you’re big enough
To do the Wall Street Shuffle
Let your money hustle
Bet you’d sell your mother
You can buy another
Doin’ the….
Doin’ the….
Wall Street shuffle…

The song is credited to Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman.

Forget the Flat Earth... It's the Flat Sky That Needs a Rounded Approach

2008-09-30T08:02:42+00:00

The prospect of taking photos for the next few months out of doors has put me on edge.
I always know a recession is on the way when I start having picnics in wintery weather.
Be prepared for many photos dealing with our ever changing
grey,cloudy skies.

However thanks to a poster on Flickr, I'm getting prepared for the challenge.

Has the time come to redelegate IE namespace?

2008-09-29T19:33:43+00:00

I've written extensively about the IE namespace and its current registry operator - IEDR in the past. While I've always tried to be fair and balanced in my coverage of the issues facing the IE namespace I'm afraid my patience with the current registry operator has worn thin.

While things may have improved over the course of the last few years it is becoming abundantly clear that the current registry operator is probably not the best organisation to manage the ccTLD in the future.

Comreg (the Irish Communications regulator) organised external consultants to conduct a comprehensive review of the IEDR's operations at every level. Although the report was submitted to Comreg before Christmas 2007 it still has not been published and is unlikely to see the light of day at this juncture.

More recently Comreg requested feedback based on the unpublished report's points (the logic behind this kind of thing escapes mere mortals, so you're not alone if you thought that was a weird thing to do!), yet nothing has been published.

Of course Comreg's track record in terms or regulating the various industries within its remit hasn't exactly been stellar, so maybe we shouldn't be so surprised.

So what is the current situation in IE?

If you were to rely on their annual report for that kind of information you'd probably end up with a rather twisted version of events.

At present there is no policy development process within IE.

While policy can change there is no clear way for stakeholders to propose changes or follow their development.

If a policy proposal is made and in many cases this appears to be provoked by something "upsetting" the registry operator, then the IEDR may pay lip service to consulting stakeholders. However consultation in their eyes and consultation for everyone else are often at odds with each other.

One recent change that has had a very negative impact on stakeholders was the registry's unilateral decision to practically do away with "conditional acceptances". That a domain could be "provisionally accepted" in the first place is a reflection of the archaic and unwieldy rules and procedures in place.

If you query how things operate you are most likely to get a rather inane response about how things have always been that way or that nobody "considered" a particular issue to be important enough to deal with.

Most of the ccTLD's registration rules are ambigous and open to subjectivity.

Since the "awarding" of a domain name relies almost entirely on the registry's staff subjective interpretation of the policies the end result is that prospective registrants and registrars are constantly locked in an unending game of "Russian roulette", though in many respects it's even worse, as you don't know how many chambers have been loaded.

In this kind of environment, with vague rules and no policy development, the incumbent registry operator now wants to introduce even more bureaucracy.

According to a small note in their most recent newsletter they intend to introduce an "appeals process":
The IEDR will shortly begin a consultation with the local internet community on the formation of a formal appeals process.

This formal appeals process would allow persons to:
a) appeal the IEDR's decision to reject an application for a new .ie domain name
b) appeal an already registered domain name
c) appeal the suspension or deletion of a .ie domain name

We will be circulating a consultation document for your consideration over the coming days

Eventually the IEDR provided more information on their proposal:

The IEDR would like to receive your views on the formation of a formal appeals process.
This formal appeals process would allow persons to:
a) appeal the IEDR's decision to reject an application for a new .ie domain name
b) appeal an already registered domain name
c) appeal the suspension or deletion of a .ie domain name

We would like to suggest adopting a two stage approach to the process. The purpose of this
approach is to reduce the number of inquiries escalated to a formal appeal and minimise the costs incurred by the appellant and/or the registry. The first stage of this approach would involve the IEDR being given the opportunity to review the appeal internally and respond. Our aim is to address the appellants' issue wherever possible at this stage, however if this is not possible or the appellant remains dissatisfied with our response they could then choose to initiate the second stage of process by opening a formal appeal which would be brought before an expert/panel of experts for a decision.

Currently, the IEDR receive very few appeals and do not feel that the introduction of a formal
process should increase the number received in any way (see (1) below). The purpose of this
consultation is to ensure that the formal process is structured to reflect the needs and
considerations of the local internet community.

While the idea behind this is obviously inspired by the Nominet DRS and similar solutions there is no way to easily transplant that kinf of sytem into the IE namespace. Other ccTLDs are much more member-driven ie. the stakeholders have some say in how the organisation is developed and run (AFNIC, Nominet, DENIC etc.,) while IEDR is a private company with zero accountability. The lack of clear and unambiguous rules and processes mean that both registrants (end users) and companies fulfilling the registrar role (there is no such role currently defined) face a very high degree of uncertainty. If any appeals process were to be introduced it would be a fiasco.

Fundamentally the IE namespace is in serious trouble.

The organisation currently in charge of managing the namespace may have muddled along for the last few years, but it is showing itself to be severely lacking on both technical and non-technical aspects of the ccTLD's management.

The archaic rules and procedures are stifling development not only of the namespace but of online business in Ireland.

This morning, for example, all public facing web services related to the IE namespace were completely unavailable for a period of approximately two hours. During this period whois, the API and all other web services were completely unavailable.

At no time did the registry make any effort to contact its registrars to explain the downtime and when an "explanation" was finally provided it was incredibly vague and unhelpful. A gTLD registry operator has to meet SLA requirements. Why doesn't this kind of thing exist for a ccTLD?

For a ccTLD registry in a developed country this kind of technical ineptitude is worrying.

So what could, or should, be done?

The main area of contention is in regard to the rules and regulations. At present those rules and regulations are not helping anyone, least of all the user community that the ccTLD is meant to serve. It would make a lot more sense to do away with all registration restrictions apart from maybe an admin contact address restriction.

The IEDR has long argued that its position as a "managed" registry gave it certain advantages, however most registrants do not gain any tangible benefits from these supposed advantages.

With simpler rules there would be less manual intervention required by both the registry operator and the registrars which would improve the turnaround time on new registrations and also help reduce the cost to end users significantly (the average cost at present is approx 25-30 euro before sales tax). The cost that end users pay for a domain registration will always be affected by the amount of manual intervention (if any) that the registrar's staff has to make to get a domain registered and / or manage it on an ongoing basis.

The other area that needs to be addressed urgently is the total lack of properly defined relations between the registry, registrar and registrant. At present there are no official "registrars", as the IEDR has not drafted any form of registrar contract. This puts all three sides in a legal minefield and issues can and will arise, although querying this sort of legal issue with the registry will not get a favourable response.

Maybe things will change dramatically if and when Comreg publish their report, however if they don't then maybe it is time that the management of the registry be put up for public tender or simply redelegated entirely.

IEDR Comreg and IE Namespace

2008-09-29T15:01:24+00:00

I'm really tired of the shenanigans involving the IEDR and the IE namespace, so I wrote this rant.

Feedback welcome (on that site :) )

IEDR Completely Offline

2008-09-29T11:18:03+00:00

The IE Domain Registry is currently completely offline with all services down:
whois
api
all web services

UPDATE: Services are now available again

In-Camera Flash Adds a Touch of Starlight

2008-09-29T11:46:17+00:00

Ingratitude

2008-09-29T09:37:40+00:00

I went for a couple or three pints last night.

It was a pleasant evening.

At closing time, I was finishing my pint, and Pullit was going around collecting glasses when he found a bag under the bench in the corner.

We examined it, and found that some tourist from Canada had left it. We knew they were Canadian, because all their stuff was there. There were passports and other documents, money and their return tickets. They had even left their credit cards. Some people are very careless.

We pondered this for a while, over another pint. Normally, we would divide the spoils and leave it at that, but we both agreed that Canadians as a species are harmless enough, so we decided over another pint to do the decent thing.

This morning, I nipped down to the post office and posted the whole lot back to their home address. I took enough of their cash to pay for it, so I wasn’t out of pocket.

I’m proud of myself. I felt good. I had done a Very Good Deed.

I just had a phone call from Pullit.

The Canadians have just turned up and are furious that the bag has gone back to Canada.

I can’t get over the ingratitude of it.

You wonder why we shoot tourists here?

A bridge too far

2008-09-28T09:45:58+00:00

There used to be a railway between the village we stayed in in France, and the town about five kilometres away.

I know this because there is the remains of a station in the village, and there is a magnificent five arch stone bridge that spans a valley.

One day, I was driving into town and was following Roger’s instructions on the SatNav to the letter. We were driving down a valley when I first saw the railway bridge. It’s a beautiful structure. I was driving under it, when to my surprise, Roger told me to turn right. For once, I ignored him, as I would have smashed into one of the arches. There was no road there - just the railway a long way over my head. I put it down to Roger’s quirky sense of humour and he soon got over it and brought me into town.

One night, I was coming back from town, and had decided to find some alternative routes. Roger brought me through some back streets and up some hills, when suddenly I found myself on this stretch of road I hadn’t encountered before. It was absolutely straight and level and ran for about three kilometres. It was lovely to drive on, and I got up a good speed.

I was pissing along, when the road narrowed slightly and low walls appeared on each side. Roger demanded that I turn left. Why? There was no turning, just walls.

I stopped the car out of curiosity, and got out. It transpired that the French in their infinite wisdom had converted the old railway line into a road. They are too sensible to fart around with light rails systems or anything like that. They just slap down a layer of tar and voila - a road. I found myself standing on top of the stone railway bridge, that was now a road bridge. Way down below me, on the bottom of the valley floor was the other road that I had driven in the past. So Roger wanted me to turn left onto that road? The little shit! Does he not know that driving a car off a bridge sixty feet high is going to cause some damage?

He has tried these tricks before.

He keeps trying to get me to drive the wrong way down one way streets.

Once or twice he has tried dumping me into a river,

But driving me off a bridge is going too far.

About sixty feet too far.

Yellow Sunlight, Yellow Flowers

2008-09-27T13:53:07+00:00

Guinea Pigs

2008-09-27T10:24:53+00:00

According to Wikipedia…..

Guinea Pig

The Guinea pig (also commonly called the cavy after its scientific name) is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia. Despite their common name, these animals are not pigs, nor do they come from Guinea. They are native to the Andes, and while now extinct in the wild, they are closely related to several species that are commonly found in the grassy plains and plateaus of the region.

WRONG

The Guinea pig (also commonly called the cavy after its scientific name) is a species of rodent belonging to the family Caviidae and the genus Cavia. Despite their common name, these animals are not pigs, nor do they come from Guinea. They are native to the Andes, and ~~while now extinct in the wild,~~ they are closely related to several species that are commonly found in the grassy plains and plateaus of the region. They are also to be found in the mountains of Ireland, in the area known as Head Rambles Manor.

I don’t know where the little bugger came from but he is living in my hedge.

So far, he hasn’t bothered me [or Sandy]. He has, however devoured two of the neighbour’s children and an oil-delivery man. It would also explain the mysterious disappearance of several cattle from the neighbourhood, and how a local vegetable farm lost its entire crop in one night.

I don’t mind him living there, though he never asked for permission first. I don’t like squatters on my land.

He has also taken to greeting me when I come in the gate which is cute in a funny sort of way.

I have called him McCain, because he runs and hides whenever there is trouble.

He’s a nasty little bollix.

A topsy turvey world

2008-09-26T11:52:34+00:00

[written while I was still over there]

One of the things that strikes me about France is their propensity for doing things back to front.

The most obvious and immediate example of this upon driving off the ferry is their habit of driving on the wrong side of the road.

I have no problems with this and frequently do it myself in Ireland, especially after a belly full of Guinness. I don’t know whether it is the wine or not, but they all seem to drive on the wrong side here. My one fear is that I will come across someone sober who will actually be driving on the right side, but so far, we have been lucky.

Another aspect of French life is their habit of putting light switches in upside-down. We all know that you press the switch down to turn a light on, but here they have to be pressed up. They surely must find this irritating. I know I do. So in the interest of European solidarity and cordiality and all that crap, I have spent the last few days rewiring the house. As part of this job, I am replacing all their sockets, as the house we are in has only old fashioned two pin sockets, and Herself is bitching that her hair dryer doesn’t plug in. It is only right that everyone conforms to a standard, so now our house has beautiful three pin sockets, and all the switches have to be pressed down to be turned on.

As part of the rewiring project, I couldn’t help but notice that they had two sockets in the bathroom.

Everyone knows that live sockets in a bathroom are extremely dangerous, and in fact are illegal.

I therefore did the owners of the place a service and removed the sockets, and all the associated wiring. I’m sure the owners will be delighted when they are not arrested if their building is ever inspected. The fact that their gable wall fell down during the renovations is surely a small price to pay for not going to gaol for a lengthy period.

Another thing that seems to be upside down is their Interweb.

I have tried connecting quite a few times, but never get anywhere. Each time, I have asked for assistance, and they look at my screen and say "oh! I have never seen that before!" or words to that effect. It is annoying to say the least, not least because my laptop tells me that if I could connect, I would have speeds of 16Mb which is a hell of a lot faster than I can get at home. I could view my nude pictures of Paris Hilton five times faster!

Writing this, an idea has occurred to me….

Maybe the next time I try to connect, I should hold my laptop upside down?

Polarising Filter

2008-09-26T11:31:06+00:00

Taken without a circular polarising filter
today's sky looked bleached and without interest.

This has been a great investment.

I got to buy a new lens cleaning cloth AFTER
the session spent cloud watching.

Be Prepared is an old motto worth repeating.

Maxlock - Protect Your Domains

2008-09-26T09:34:07+00:00

Moniker has launched a new service to help domain holders protect their domains from hijacking and other issues.

Maxlock, which retails at $59.95 per domain per year is aimed at offering domain holder peace of mind, as very stringent security checks are used to validate account changes:

Unauthorized transfers - often times a result of shared accounts, employee errors, high-jacked email accounts, automated transfers or pushes by domain marketplace distribution networks - represent a significant risk to businesses and can cause substantial damage to business operations and revenue

MaxLock presents a robust and effective solution to this ongoing challenge in online business. Unlike a standard registrar lock, with MaxLock^TM, domain assets cannot be transferred or pushed to another account without a thorough off-line validation and account verification process performed by the Moniker security team.

Monte Cahn, head of Oversee's Aftermarket and Registrar Division, said the division will continue to emphasize development of products and services that give domain registrants, buyers and sellers the confidence to bring business to Oversee. "Safety for domain assets is critical, and MaxLock^TM is the best service available for anyone who wants iron-clad protection for their names," he said. "Over time, Oversee's companies will continue to make available the tools anyone involved in the industry needs to conduct business efficiently and safely."

Mactivate - thumbs up

2008-09-25T17:15:49+00:00

I’ve just been really impressed by the customer service over at Mactivate in Dublin. My Macbook battery packed up while I was working remotely and their service department couldn’t do enough for me. They set me up with a brand new battery and told me to come back on Monday when they’d have a replacement ready for my other one. I’m not sure they were impressed to see Vista running when the laptop powered back up but Ill be back on Monday for my other battery, a copy of OSX Leopard and another drool at all that gorgeous Apple hardware.

Nearly too good to eat

2008-09-25T10:06:47+00:00

We decided to go for a drive, because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

There is a place called Carlux which intrigued me, partly because of its location [in a valley] and partly because it sounded like a car wash. We decided to head there.

It is a lovely little village, and in an area where most of the villages are lovely, that is something.

I stopped the car to take a couple of photographs and herself started muttering about coffee. She had spied a place just up from where the car was parked.

I was dispatched to see if it was, in fact the kind of place that sold coffee, and it wasn’t. That didn’t make a squat of difference to herself, and she decided to explore for herself.

We walked up to it and found it was a barn that had been converted into a shop selling local produce, from cakes and wine to carved stone and paintings. I pottered, she bought.

At the back of the barn was a small restaurant and Herself demanded lunch. I wasn’t in the least bit hungry, but I wasn’t going to start a fight that early in the day.

One thing I have to explain about the Peregord region of France - if you don’t like omelettes or duck, you are fucked. If you are a duck then you are thrice fucked, as they don’t seem to eat anything else.

We looked at the menu and Herself decided on omelette and I decided on duck [confit de canard. What else?]. We sat ourselves out on a little terrace which literally overhung the valley. We ordered and waited.

When the meals arrived, I can honestly say I was at a loss for words. I am not a ‘wow’ person, but this was a ‘wow’ moment.

I have never seen such a colourful or appetising plate in my life.

The menu had blandly stated "Confit de canard avec crepes et pomme de terre Sarladaise". This was a bit like describing Constable’s Haywain as "a bit of a painting".

Along with the duck, which was beautifully cooked and very tender, I got the promised mushrooms and Sarlat potatoes which are potatoes thinly sliced, deep fat fried and then sprinkled with crushed garlic. I also got a load of salad which was beautifully dressed along with a lot of fruit, like melon, grapes and raspberries which were garnished in a delicious syrup. The whole thing was topped off by a flower!

It was possibly the nicest meal I have ever had, bar none. I ate every scrap, but Herself stopped me eating the duck bones and the flower.

It was truly an experience. Even the building itself was fantastic.

Of course, the more mercenary amongst you will be muttering about the cost.

€12.

Beat that!

Watery World

2008-09-25T04:18:57+00:00

The BBC has taken to watery metaphors literally like the proverbial duck.
Every morning I turn off some new thought for the day that involves floods
of biblical proportions or reminders that the waters are so high we
cannot cross o'er.

It's possible to have too much of a good thing,
so I've concentrated on photographing water in its
place... fountains, waterfalls, the sea on a nice, calm day.

However I've also returned quite often to Kyle Tunney's
wonderful photos of the 49th Liffey Descent.
The canoists must have been thrilled with this Summer
and opportunities for skilled shooting the rapids.

Perhaps if a cure has been found for this personal hydrophobia
I'll turn out next year to get some shots of the Fiftieth Anniversary?

Tradition and Stupidity

2008-09-25T00:44:49+00:00

Despair.com (who I mention far too much!) have released yet another tshirt that brought a smile to my face: