Sunday, April 29, 2007
Nokia Smart2Go - not too smart ??
I loaded up the Nokia Smart2Go service on my E50 a few days ago. This is a mapping service (vaguely similar to Google maps on the Blackberry) which also does routeplanning and (for an extra charge) navigation. You can use it standalone or connect it to a bluetooth GPS receiver.
I downloaded the Irish & Brittany maps and had a prowl through them. The French one had our holiday spot so passed muster. The Irish one had the newly opened Ennis ByPass and the Fermoy ByPass which is quite impressive.
So I did a quick routeplan from Home to Ennis. Routeplanning was quick enough, it will present decent maps to look at (small screen though). However it had a fatal flaw - coming in from the Southern Road instead of turning left onto South Terrace it had a right turn (against the traffic) follwoed by a drive up by the Jehovah's and then onto the South Link Road. Problem is that (a) you can't go right there and (b) that road leads to a footbridge over the South Link. So "Nul points" there. I checked the mapping and its by both Navteq (best Irish maps) and TeleAtlas (poor Irish maps) and that led me to another thought...
I used have a Navman SatNav with TeleAtlas maps which missed out a lot of teh roads around Passage West etc. It also suggested the old railway line from Rochestown Road to Skehard Road as a viable route in the car. I reported this error to TeleAtlas at the time but guess what they still show it as a viable route. So it looks like they got Navteq maps to expand coverage (Passage West) but kept the base TeleAtlas routing.
IT's a pity because overall the product is nice but does show that just because the satnav says "Turn Right" doesn't mean you should blindly obey it.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
The blue/black shirts show their beliefs.
So Cork has to put up with an incinerator.
But the burghers of Poolberg has Mr Minister Fascist himself on their side seeing as he has said the PDs won;t go into a government that alllows the Poolbeg incinerator.
And there we thought that Micky Mc Hitler was only worried about us....Of course remember that Micky will reveal confidential date via Dail privilege if it helps to inflict trouble on his opposition eg Sinn "IRA" Fein.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Heathrow security.
Unfortunately I joined the shoe-removal queue which also was the slowest xray queue.
So we're took off our shoes dutifully out our stuff into the tray and walked through the metal detector to the not-so-dulcet tones of Mrs Security Woman : "stuck with your stuff , do you expect me to push them through for you ?"
Both the girl in front of me and I ignored her because as far as I'm concerned that's her job and that's why the bloody thing is blocked off - to prevent us untrained shoeless folk from pushing stuff through too fast.....
But hey we are so much safer now stripped of our shoes and water.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Beware of the Hilton !
I'm staying in the Hilton Metropole in London at the moment and they have a nice scam whereby if you move a bottle in the minibar you will get charged for it.
I happened to see the sign hidden in the minibar and went I checked it out I had been charged for drinks I didn't have (at Hilton prices I'm unlikely to use it) so I had to sign a note that I didn't drink them.
The annoying part is that I have already paid for my room so would have probably just used the express checkout and not known anything until the card bill arrived.
So not only do they have expensive beer to which they add a service chbarge of 10 percent but they scam you on the minibar as well !
Monday, April 16, 2007
Saturday, April 14, 2007
How not to advertise an event.
I was in the barbers yesterday and whilst waiting I picked up a two-week old copy of the Cork Independent (I had finished the Sun and the other rags at that stage). In the paper I saw that there was going to be a Titanic Commemoration ceremony today in Cobh with a band, choir, wreath-laying, free afternoon in the Heritage Centre etc.
So off home I went (after my bazzer) and told herself. So off she went and did some googling and after that we checked the Internet. We couldn't find anything on the Heritage Centre site. We couldn't find anything on the Cobh Chamber of Commerce site. We couldn't find anything on the Cork/Kerry Tourism site and nothing on the Bord Failte site. The only reference was a one-liner on the Sirius Arts Centre site as they were holding a concert tonight.
We went out and the crowd was small. There wasn't anything in the window of the tourist office or the heritage centre to let people know that there were things going on.
After the ceremonies I buttonholed the head of Cobh Tourism and told him of my woes and the inability to find anything out and he said that he would do his best to advertise the Lusitania commemoration (in three weeks) in a better fashion.
It's a pity because the ceremonies were moving. There was a cafe orchestra playing in the Heritage Centre and admission was free. Our visit to the heritage centre showed us that there was a new "hotel" section dealing with the liners in their latter years and it's well worth a visit.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
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