SOPA – so far, so crap

There’s a very good mashable on this SOPA/PIPA in which a fellow programmer managed to unravel the spaghetti loops behind the meaning of SOPA.

As a fellow protestor, and showing my support, I have tweaked this site to show the message to stop the craziness by hapless fools who put together a string of meaningless rubbish and legalese in this upcoming act.

Appallingly bad!

This has come to my attention, this site.. that has left me gob-smacked and flabbergasted when I read what seemingly looks like an innocent competition to find the best mobile and web application….of course any willing developer would think that there’s a prize or a reward for showcasing their talent…. sponsored by the ‘Irish Independant’…. Read more »

Happy New Year

The title says it all… Hope you have a peaceful, prosperous 2010.

Here’s hoping that this year will be buoyant for the IT side of things.

Thanks to those who are reading my blog and hope to make this more enjoyable.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing sounds interesting, in fact, I had a discussion with Hamza (you know who you are!) on IRC about the merits of cloud computing within the Healthcare sector, and I mused about how big the potential of cloud computing could be, think of a single unified healthcare application accessible by doctors in France, Spain, UK, Germany, Italy (and so on…) but then realized the danger lurking -

• Would a French doctor access a UK doctor’s records and vice versa?
• There would be big implications on the storage of such confidential data that the responsibility of ensuring the data is safe and protected. What would happen if the data was hacked into and the confidential information about their patients were leaked?

- now that is a big worry despite the big advantages of Cloud Computing, but, there is always a BUT… it is fine and dandy to point out “Oh yeah, we’ve got the security nailed down, with firewalls etc”, but it could be the “next target” by malicious hackers to break into and crack….

The big question on my lips is who would be responsible for such a security breach of data used in this Cloud Computing healthcare application? It seems to me, there must be a proper means of disseminating the pros and cons of Cloud Computing to the Healthcare professionals to make them aware of it and to learn the implications of keeping passwords safe etc.

It is no good writing down the passwords on the post-it note and stick it on a computer screen (which is a very common exercise – I was an System Administrator for a hospital, and that was a common sight in the corridors of the administration building, bright yellow post-it notes stuck on the monitors!!!!)

Hilarious entry about Moon landing in 1969…

At last, it’s there for everyone to read… Read more »

Testing post…

Interesting gem of a link

This link to a blog by Scott Hanselman that lists every tool (free/opensource) that power users should use…Ok the link is a bit old, but by gosh, there’s a lot of extremely useful tid-bits in there…Note: Windows only….

Windows 7 RC + IE 8

Oh dear, it looks like the browser failed the Acid 3 Tests

Yet more pics…again they open up in a new window/tab…

• Win 7 with IE 8..

• Win 7 and IE 8 failing the acid3 test

Windows 7 RC

Ok, I have downloaded Windows 7 RC via Microsoft’s website and it was fast – 2 hrs, well fast enough for me! I proceeded to install it within VirtualBox (which had an upgrade recently to 2.2.2) Installation took about 45 mins after 3 failed attempts which was due to the allocation of disk space, minimum disk space is 7 Gb! Huh! Linux/FreeBSD is less than that!) and now have it running with VirtualBox guest additions included. Resolution is at 640×400. Every now and then a pop-up appears telling me it is low on disk space….the links below open up an image on a new window/tab.

Here’s the thumbnail views:

• first picture demonstrating the Windows 7 desktop.

• A Windows 7 ‘About’ screen
  

Welcome…

Hello and welcome to my blog! This blog is going to be about programming, humour, life etc….