Happy New Year from Cork !
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Friday, December 30, 2005
Monday, December 26, 2005
Tesco Ireland ignore Data Protection Duties
Tesco really brown me off.
On 11 October I made a request to them for my personal information using this template from the Data Protection Office. The required 40 day response period came and went so I made a formal complaint to the Data Protection Office and I'm still waiting for my information 76 days later !
It shows a few things really - Tesco are too arrogant to bother complying with legislation (look at their unweighed fruit and improperly tagged shelving) and the Data Protection Office is too toothless to enforce it.
Here is an article in the Guardian about Tesco and their data-mining.
The Data Protection Office and Comreg really fouled up as well in relation to the opt-out feature of the National Directory Database - they publicised the fact that you could register not to receive spamming phone calls. However they failed to publicise the fact that for around a month any requests made were not acted upon and affected customers had to re-register their preferences. Its becoming obvious that the so-called consumer champions are nothing but a fig-leaf and the legislation is framed for the Industry's benefit and not for ours..
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Every little helps - me ****
Tonight I went to Tesco in Mahon Point to get a few things - milk, fruit, nappies - nothing special, no "must-have" toy, no seasonal goods; just normal everyday products. Guess what ? Tesco didn't have any size 5+ nappies in stock ! None at all. I wasn't looking for eco-friendly hand-woven size 5+. I wasn't looking for VanHistelroyers Finest Diaper. No, I was looking for bog-standard Pampers.Now nappies aren't perishable. Tesco can still sell nappies after Christmas at the same price - they're not like Christmas puddings or brandy butter.
But can one of the largest retailers in the world have one of the most staple of staple goods in stock ? No. Why ? Maybe its because Tesco Ireland's management seem to be unable to manage themselves out of a wet paper bag. They don't respond to queries, complaints or even fulfill their legal obligation to respond to requests made under the Data Protection Act.
So I legged it to Dunnes . Dunnes had nappies. Where Tesco had gaping empty shelves, Dunnes had people stacking shelves. Where Tesco had yet again their non-existent managers Dunnes had managers walking the floor able to answer queries.
The difference - maybe Dunnes have managed to grasp that if you don't keep the basics in stock people won't shop with you or maybe it's that Tesco are an arrogant British company which couldn't give a fiddlers.
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Monday, December 19, 2005
What way did your MEP vote ?
tuppenceworth.ie has an article on how Irish MEPs voted in the recent Data Retention vote. Worth having a look ---> How your MEP voted
Monday, December 12, 2005
On a more serious note..
Interesting note on www.mulley.net regarding Michael Mc Dowell's latest fascist plans. At this stage this guy is becoming almost a parody of a right-wing politician. The worst thing is that it all goes under the banner of the so-called war on terrorism which is designed to excuse all sorts of infringements of our rights...
Meet your new stalker...
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Friday, December 09, 2005
Day of protest
Day of protest
Originally uploaded by despod.
This picture is of Connolly Hall with speakers from various unions. The protest was in support of Irish Ferries workers
Golden Spiders
Cork City Council won a Golden Spider award for their website. Its not a bad site but it has one problem - it doesn't look all that good (or work all that well) in Firefox.
Makes you wonder just what these so-called awards are worth. In fact it reminds me a bit of the farce that used be the "Doras" awards given by Tinet.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Baggage
In Stansted at the moment. Massive security queues , massive checkin queues.
What strikes me most is the amount of baggage some people bring with them - for some it looks like they have enough for their extended families and neighbours.
Travel
In cork airport at the moment. How things have changed over the years - now we have flights to Warsaw and Budapest as well as the more traditional routes. I wonder how busy are these routes - this mornings flight to Budapest had 35 on board which one would imagine didn't do a whole lot for Malevs bottom line.
The metal detectors seem to be set very sensitive at the moment - I beeped coming through and I was wearing my usual airport friendly clothes and everything metal was in the daybag. I just had a pat-down but the woman in front had to go through a few times.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Mahon Point
Went to Mahon Point this morning at around 10.30 - even at that hour it was beginning to get full. We got coffee - plain black coffee in BBs isn't bad at all - and a minute later there was a massive queue for it.
I'm sure mananagement will be happy to see that people were spending - there were plenty of shopping bags around. I noticed Debenhams had a 10% off sale - thats the third of fourth they've had over the last few weeks. Last week they had a 20% off day and a couple of weeks previously they had a 20% off weekend or something like that. I wonder are their sales very slow in MP or is it a chain-wide promotion ?
Interesting site outside Debenhams was a small plane advertsing a local flying school - it immediately drew the boys attention. It would be something I would like to do sometime. Maybe for the big 40.
The Barfleur is due into Cork sometime this evening from Cherbourg in an interesting attempt by a freight-company to drum up business (or help out) out of the Irish Ferries dispute. I think its the first time a Brittany Ferries vessel has been here in December and I also think it might be the Barfleur's first visit to Cork. Who knows it might become a regular thing - I'm sure the Port could do with the business.
Friday, December 02, 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
3G or not 3G
The cameraphone has been changed again ! The last time for a while unless Santa brings a mega-pixel jobby.
I'm now using a Motorola E770v which is a 3G Vodafone phone. It has the usual 3G stuff - 2 cameras etc etc. It's handy that it has Bluetooth and expandable memory - boys those transflash cards really are very small. Handily it can be charged from the USB port using a normal mini usb cable which ties in nicely with all the charging gizmos I have for the Blackberry. The best part of it was the price - ?99 incl. ?100 credit ! Its currently 149 but for a while last week it was displaying on Vodafone's site at 129 but when you went further it came in at 99 - a nice bargain. You can download free GAA content which is ideal now that the championship season is over ;-( and Sky news also offers a download. Obviously there is also paid content downloads but I'm not too interested in that.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
The burning of Cork
RTE had an interesting documentary tonight about the burning of Cork by British Crown Forces. It was disturbing to see a city being destroyed by a part of the supposed forces of law and order. Witness reports from the night reminded me terribly of Kristallnacht - police standing idly by, police starting fires etc. Of course Kristallnacht is rightly widely condemned but the sacking of Cork seems to have been generally ignored.
It was also shocking to be reminded of the murder of democratically elected Lord mayors - in both Cork and Limerick - by these self-same forces.
Interestingly neither of us remember learning about this in school but we have it on DVD now so the boys will know about it.
The Cork Corporation website has some info here
It was also shocking to be reminded of the murder of democratically elected Lord mayors - in both Cork and Limerick - by these self-same forces.
Interestingly neither of us remember learning about this in school but we have it on DVD now so the boys will know about it.
The Cork Corporation website has some info here
Monday, November 28, 2005
Friday, November 25, 2005
More changes
I have changed my phone again. I now have a K700i which has the added features of Bluetooth, panorama shots, larger screen and more memory. I would like to get the K750i but its out of my budget !
The shots in Cobh were taken with the new phone and the shakiness is due to the strong wind at my back. One of the photos shows a navy ship standing off from two Japanese tuna boats - I wonder did it arrest them or are they just in for supplies ?
Taking a panorama is simple just like any other camera you take the first shot and the screen for the next shot has an overlay of part of the last shot which you cover, this makes it fairly seamless. Of course if you can have an identifiable object at the extreme right of the shot it makes lining up much easier.
Friday, November 18, 2005
I'm back !
Got an email from Blogger saying the blog has been whitelisted so now I'm back in action. I'll release all the delayed posts. It's a pity it didn't happen before I went away but better late than never.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Notre Dame
Notre Dame
Originally uploaded by despod.
Editing posts is a pin - my pics are still on flickr www.flickr.com/photos/despod
Paris. Dupleix
Sitting here in a bistro with a coffee. It has started to rain and the evening rush is in full swing with people coming in off the metro for a quick one before heading home.
The hotel is a few mintes walk around the corner. Its no great shakes but its clean. The area is a normal residential area with bakers, fishmongre, wine shop, butcher etc.
Next stop will be the Champs and a visit to FNAC
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Go to flickr for my pics
Until the issue with my blog being marked as spam please go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/despod to see my pics.
I've changed the cameraphone to a K300i and I think the pics are better. The holidays in France were shot using a Sagem My-V56(sort of darkened the pictures) and the Cobh shots up to Mahon Point were taken with a 6610i which I thought suffered from a fisheye effect. The K300i seems to be the best screen in the sun as well.
On a side note - I wish blogger would unmark my account so that I could post via email.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Blogger / Blogspot and spam
Having a bit of a pain in the neck at the moment because Blogger have marked this blog as spam and I have to manually approve all of my posts by logging in and enetering those funny verification codes.
That would be all well and good but I usually post by email and I was wondering why posts weren't showing up when I was testing a new cameraphone.
Their help files were rubbish and it took a trawl of another forum which pointed back to Bloggers own blog and an onscure entry about how to resolve verification issues. Putting this fairly high in their help files especially in the "post via email" section would have been a great help.
Anyways the upshot is that I have to wait for a human to review the blog and accept that its not an automated splog but rather a genuine site.
I hope its done before tuesday when I go to Paris..
Saturday, October 29, 2005
And there's more
Its rough out and the wind on deck is fierce.
All around the ship are pale and pasty faced children who have got sick or are just about to. Our lads are hale and hearty so they must have their sealegs.
Heard a Brittany Ferries guy talking to some people and saying they will have more of these cruises next year but will probably charge a but more - today cost 30Euro for the five of us.
Jazz cruise part 2
Well visibility may be poor and the wind may be blowing a gale but we are on the move and due back at 14.45
The ship is quite full and there are plenty of excited children around. Some people (including the guy driving on in front of me) seem boy to have been on the ferry before. Needless to sat the dominant accent is Cork boy .
Just passing haulbowline at the moment at a fair old clip. Maybe they will forget to turn at Roches Point !
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