Apparently my sort are "in denial" (that the potato famine was a 'genocide') because my sort's purpose was to ethnically cleanse Ireland of its 'indigenous' people.
Despite the fact that I am actually descended from Ireland's indigenous people, this is a supremicist attitude if ever there was one. The author of this bigoted and ignorant attack against me believes that the potato famine was part of an elaborate plot to eliminate the population of Ireland. Involved in this plot were those Scots (and let's ignore shall we the fact that Scotti, from whence the word Scot comes, means 'Irish') who were granted land during the plantation of Ireland.
Apparently I'm in denial of the "fact" that the potato famine amounted to a "genocide", though I am part of that conspiracy to rid Ireland of its 'native' population!
Article to continue (ie: subject to change and revisions)...
Saturday, 14 April 2007
Sunday, 1 April 2007
Microsoft needs to pull its finger out
So being a 'fan', if you will, of video games, I decided to look at the trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV as it was advertised today on the MSN home page. After clicking on the link I was told that I needed to install a piece of software called Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and then reload the page.. for which I was offered a place to click in the Firefox browser I was using!
After a grumble and firing up Internet Explorer, I was presented with basically a slide show of still images from the game. I watched through to the end, thinking perhaps it will actually move once it replays. It did. For a couple of seconds. Followed by another slide show in exactly the same positions as the first showing. The sound worked fine both times.
As I type this, I've been letting it repeat. Its not much better now than it was the second time - in fact its exactly the same as it was the first time.
It strikes me that, if it is required that one has to open this page in a specific browser - notably Microsoft's own browser, then it should work on any system with a Microsoft operating system installed. I mean, surely that's not too much to ask!
Now I'm far from being a stranger from technical issues with regard to computers - I have worked as a PC Technician and studied 'Computing' at university. But I simply couldn't be bothered having to go through the process of finding out exactly what is wrong with this driver, or that driver, or this plugin or that plugin, or this video codec or that video codec in order just to see a bloody avert for a game!
I'm a techie. If I'm having problems then others will undoubtedly be having problems also. But others wouldn't necessarily know the first thing about how to fix a problem like this. Some will probably phone their tech support or retailer of their PC at £1-50 per minute.
My PC is well above average for a home user, and still rates above entry level for a desktop.. or thereabouts. I haven't bought Microsoft's new OS, Vista yet - frankly I don't have the confidence in them to trust it yet. There's security and backwards compatibility and bugs galore that will probably take an age to sort out.
I appreciate the complexity of modern software suites of course. I appreciate also the added complexity of third-party add-on software and hardware components. But Microsoft, and other companies too, need to look at a lower Lowest Common Denominator or something. This is but one of a string of annoyances that has led me to waste time posting this in place of wasting time attempting to fix whatever problem it is I have with a video not playing in Microsoft's Internet Explorer!
Of course, I have Microsoft's MSN Messenger.. what do they call it now? MSN Live Messenger? Anyway, I have that running too currently. Frig knows if that huge resource hog has anything to do with it!
/endrant
After a grumble and firing up Internet Explorer, I was presented with basically a slide show of still images from the game. I watched through to the end, thinking perhaps it will actually move once it replays. It did. For a couple of seconds. Followed by another slide show in exactly the same positions as the first showing. The sound worked fine both times.
As I type this, I've been letting it repeat. Its not much better now than it was the second time - in fact its exactly the same as it was the first time.
It strikes me that, if it is required that one has to open this page in a specific browser - notably Microsoft's own browser, then it should work on any system with a Microsoft operating system installed. I mean, surely that's not too much to ask!
Now I'm far from being a stranger from technical issues with regard to computers - I have worked as a PC Technician and studied 'Computing' at university. But I simply couldn't be bothered having to go through the process of finding out exactly what is wrong with this driver, or that driver, or this plugin or that plugin, or this video codec or that video codec in order just to see a bloody avert for a game!
I'm a techie. If I'm having problems then others will undoubtedly be having problems also. But others wouldn't necessarily know the first thing about how to fix a problem like this. Some will probably phone their tech support or retailer of their PC at £1-50 per minute.
My PC is well above average for a home user, and still rates above entry level for a desktop.. or thereabouts. I haven't bought Microsoft's new OS, Vista yet - frankly I don't have the confidence in them to trust it yet. There's security and backwards compatibility and bugs galore that will probably take an age to sort out.
I appreciate the complexity of modern software suites of course. I appreciate also the added complexity of third-party add-on software and hardware components. But Microsoft, and other companies too, need to look at a lower Lowest Common Denominator or something. This is but one of a string of annoyances that has led me to waste time posting this in place of wasting time attempting to fix whatever problem it is I have with a video not playing in Microsoft's Internet Explorer!
Of course, I have Microsoft's MSN Messenger.. what do they call it now? MSN Live Messenger? Anyway, I have that running too currently. Frig knows if that huge resource hog has anything to do with it!
/endrant
Friday, 30 March 2007
Sham/shame/Shamrocks - why the name?
I created this blog in order to respond to a blog that was limited to "team members". I feel that such propaganda as appears to exist on this particular blog should not go unanswered.
So here is the response I had attempted to make to the above blog:
You ought to keep up with current events, never mind historical ones. The PSNI always employed Roman Catholics. From the minute the Royal Ulster Constabulary was created (from the Royal Irish Constabulary), it held 1,000 places specifically for Roman Catholics, out of a mandate for 3,000 in total. That roughly reflected the population ratio at the time (in terms of religious make-up). I believe through its history, the police force in Northern Ireland had anything from 8% to 12% Roman Catholics. However, many boycotted the force simply because it was a government institution (as most police forces are throughout Europe).
Another reason the numbers were so low was because of the IRA, as you rightly pointed out. Intimidation of RCs and murder of Roman Catholic police officers dissuaded RCs from joining up in all but the smallest of numbers.
Thankfully though, for the last five or six years, RCs have been free to join and representation has already increased to the highest it has been in the history of policing in Northern Ireland.. since the RIC anyway.
The glib attitude you take to Paisley's speech ignores completely the fact that so many have died or suffered at the hands of Sinn Féin. If you feel that Paisley has something in common with leaders in apartheid South Africa, then that is but one side of a coin which carries on its obverse the similarity between the likes of Gerry Adams and Adolf Hitler - both used ideas of racial superiority and attitudes of fascism.
'Shamrocks' appears to be a male from Los Angeles in the United States of America. I'm tempted to say, "Who'd've thunk it?!"
So here is the response I had attempted to make to the above blog:
You ought to keep up with current events, never mind historical ones. The PSNI always employed Roman Catholics. From the minute the Royal Ulster Constabulary was created (from the Royal Irish Constabulary), it held 1,000 places specifically for Roman Catholics, out of a mandate for 3,000 in total. That roughly reflected the population ratio at the time (in terms of religious make-up). I believe through its history, the police force in Northern Ireland had anything from 8% to 12% Roman Catholics. However, many boycotted the force simply because it was a government institution (as most police forces are throughout Europe).
Another reason the numbers were so low was because of the IRA, as you rightly pointed out. Intimidation of RCs and murder of Roman Catholic police officers dissuaded RCs from joining up in all but the smallest of numbers.
Thankfully though, for the last five or six years, RCs have been free to join and representation has already increased to the highest it has been in the history of policing in Northern Ireland.. since the RIC anyway.
The glib attitude you take to Paisley's speech ignores completely the fact that so many have died or suffered at the hands of Sinn Féin. If you feel that Paisley has something in common with leaders in apartheid South Africa, then that is but one side of a coin which carries on its obverse the similarity between the likes of Gerry Adams and Adolf Hitler - both used ideas of racial superiority and attitudes of fascism.
'Shamrocks' appears to be a male from Los Angeles in the United States of America. I'm tempted to say, "Who'd've thunk it?!"
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