Broadband In Ireland Finally Gets Moving
June 28, 2008 (6 Responses)
THE IRISH BROADBAND market got a much needed shot in the arm today with the announcement that ComReg (the Commision for Communications Regulation) has directed Eircom to slash its LLU line share pricing by 65 percent, effectively droppng the wholesale price for LLU line share from €8.41 to €2.94 for other operators in the broadband market. Read more
EU: Avoiding Microsoft is “Smart Business Decision”
June 10, 2008 (One Response)
IT’S NO SECRET that Microsoft has had its fair share of grief from European Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes, but in perhaps her strongest speech to date she has recommended European businesses and governments to use software solutions based upon “open standards” going forward. In other words avoid Microsoft! Read more
CyberWar 2.0: China Is On The Offensive
May 5, 2008 (No Responses)
MANY MOONS ago I wrote an article about the first real (publicly at least) Cyberwar instance, that being the concerted electronic attacks on Estonia’s infrastructure. That was an interesting story in itself, but the key point is that it was a wake up call for the West, for NATO and for just about every country with an electronic infrastructure.
The message was clear - Cyberwar was a real threat, not just a clever term in some obscure science fiction novel or military think-tank paper.
Since then most governments have been rushing to shore up vulnerabilities and create cyber-defence agencies for both offensive and defensive options. China however seems to have been a busy little aggressor in this department.
However it turns out that Estonia was not really the first real Cyberwar because China has been on the offensive for over 18 months now. Read more
New Security Camera Can Basically Undress You
April 16, 2008 (5 Responses)
It used to be X-RAY Specs and Laser Vision, but actually technology has finally caught up with the sci-fi predictions. Enter the ThruVision T5000 Camera, a technological marvel that is being deployed in UK Airports to help in the fight against terrorism by essentially looking ‘through’ your clothing to see what you might be hiding underneath.
You read that right… the camera has the ability to basically undress you in real time and see what lurks beneath.
The camera is based on Terahertz radiation, commonly called T Rays. T Ray is a very high frequency radiation, more than a hundred times higher than micro-wave, T Rays easily permeate fabric, paper, wood, plastic and smoke with the exception of metal or water. This allows it to go through the clothes people are wearing and detect any weapons or even narcotics carried by the person. T Rays, unlike X Rays present no health risks for human beings.
The camera is also equipped with a normal video surveillance camera to allow security personnel compare images to determine what objects peaople are concealing. The camera is already in use in London’s Canary Wharf financial area and in London’s busy Piccadilly Circus, and of course the potential to roll it out to airports is obvious, although the range is limited enough currently at 25m.
I guess it won’t be long before we’re in a situation where these types of cameras are deployed all over the place.
Technical Issues
March 30, 2008 (2 Responses)
SORRY FOR THE MESS folks, but we’re experiencing some technical issues at the mo. To kick things off I had to go through a process of elimination to resolve some LCP synchronisation issues with my broadband (which eventually turned out to be dodgy cabling producing lousy Signal to Noise (SNR) ratios) and this took a few days to correct and stabilise.
At least now I’ve got a decent connection going which should enable me to take advantage of the ADSL2+ upgrades due in my areas later this year.
Then to make things worse - in a fit of what I can only assume was temporary insanity - I upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress on my site instead of waiting a few weeks after the initial release for everyone else (read: guinea pigs) to test it on my behalf.
I can only blame it on the drugs; I’ve been sick as a pig all weekend and doped up to the tits on various kinds of good stuff trying to get over it.
Anyhoo - bottom line is that I’ve still got some technical issues I’m trying to resolve with this latest upgrade, most notably the fact that none of my ‘pages’ of content are displaying correctly. Posts are ok, but pages do not load, even though they are all there in the database as normal.
So folks, if you notice anything else out of whack please do let me know and I’ll try to get everything back in working order ASAP.
Welsh Jedis On The Moon & Israeli Laser Defence Class Action…
March 15, 2008 (5 Responses)
THESE WELSH JEDI lot are a forward looking bunch; I’ll give them that at least. Whether you think they’re whackjobs or take them seriously the UK Church of Jedi actually exists, presumably as a subset of the Jedi Church itself, and most recently they have made the headlines because they selected a rather interesting place to build their latest church, not to mention forming a new Galactic nation state. I refer of course to the story that some Welsh Jedis decided to create a space colony on the moon.
Yep. You read that right, on the moon!
Of course the first step in such an enterprise is to purchase some real estate, which they have in fact managed to do. Actually, they’re not just interested in buying the land (a one acre site apparently), they are also in the process of setting up a new Jedi nation up there as well. You see the moon is classed as being in ‘international waters’ (although I challange anyone to find water up there!) so legally speaking there is nothing to stop them forming their own galactic state up there.
The two brothers at the head of the UK Jedi Church organisation have gone ahead and set up a government, constitution and royal family of the sovereign state as well. The nation is called The Galactic States of Jediism and they have also nominated their own capital city on the moon called Testa City.
What beats me is how they can fit all this into one little acre of real estate… still it could set an interesting precedent if we ever manage to, you know, actually colonise the moon… although why anyone would want to at this point is a bit of a mystery to me.
Still, it’s not as weird as the next item, because quasi-religious sci-fi enthusiasts doing their thing on the moon is at least ‘out there’ somewhere, a possibility that might be a problem in the future sometime if we ever go back to the moon, where as this next item is closer to home but just as weird. Read more
Did You Know Your Teeth Can Save Your Eyesight?
February 28, 2008 (One Response)
I KNOW THIS SOUNDS PRETTY INSANE, but it’s actually true. It’s a procedure called Osteo Odonto Kerato Prosthesis (OOKP), and it’s just saved the eyesight of a very lucky Irish man called Bob McNichol.
The story begins a couple of years ago when a freak accident involving hot liquid aluminium exploded into the eye of of Bob McNichol from Mayo. He lost his eyesight as a result and assumed that’s the way things would stay, which I think you will agree is a fair assumption given the circumstances.
After doctors in Ireland said there was nothing more they could do, McNichol heard about a miracle operation called Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP) being performed by Dr Christopher Liu at the Sussex Eye Hospital in Brighton in England, and that’s when the story gets really weird.
You see the principle behind this procedure is pretty wild. It’s a technique which the Italians pioneeredback in the 1960s (I’d love to know what they were smoking when they came up with this one!) which involves creating a support for an artificial cornea from the patient’s own tooth and the surrounding bone.
In this particular instance his son, Robert, donated a live tooth so that the surgeons in England could perform the procedure on his father. The medical types gave the procedure a 65% chance of partial success, and wouldn’t you know it the crazy thing actually worked.
McNichol’s right eye socket was rebuilt, part of the tooth inserted and a lens inserted in a hole drilled in the tooth. The first operation lasted ten hours and the second five hours; they basically built a new eye socket and foundation based upon a tooth extracted from his son, and now McNichol (senior) has enough eyesight to watch TV and generally get around again.
I guess the thing that pisses me off the most about this amazing story is that the Irish doctors just gave up on him, and weren’t even informed enough to know that there were other potential options out there less than a few hundred miles away over in England.
Still, it’s a happy ending for the McNichols and will provide great hope to others out there who find themselves in a similar - if unfortunate - set of circumatances.
All you need is £40,000 in your pocket, probably access to the Internet, a willingness to do the legwork yourself and a ticket to England it seems.
