I have to agree with EirePreneur and Brian Greene. I used to just think that it was “Oirish” that I could receive BBC Free to Air but not RTÉ and that RTÉ would get their act together eventually, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. Rather than just wringing our hands about it, what, if anything, can we do about it? Who could we lobby?
All posts by j0n
The Earth Jim, but not as you know it!
Welcome to 2007
If you made it this far into 2007 without loosing a loved one, good for you, but please spare a though for those that didn’t.
EI2WRC Weather Station
In October I Posted that we (SEARG) had put an APRS Weather Station on the air, just behind the College in Waterford City. Mark, EI7IS has been working on integrating the output into the club web site, so now it is visible at http://www.searg.com/WXstation.php. If you find it useful, please do let Mark know.
Temperature/Dew point
<IMG SRC="http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/temp.cgi?call=EI2WRC&last=120&xsize=300&ysize=200&units=metric"
Barometer (millibars)
<IMG SRC="http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/baro.cgi?call=EI2WRC&last=120&xsize=300&ysize=200&units=metric"
Good home wanted!
For a “Mirage” coloured 2002 Opel Astra Pearl (with AirConditioning), just went over 55,000 Miles over the weekend (collecting a new TV for my Dad). We’ve seen a lot together, and she will be missed.
Bar Camp South East
TomC tells me that Bar Camp Ireland – SouthEast is taking place here in the ArcLabs Research and Innovation Centre. Hopefully I’ll be able to attend and ask some stupid questions, and learn something in the process.
Does what it says on the Tin!
I’ve had the pleasure to receive a new MacBook Pro for work, though I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the task of migrating all my data. I have to say Apple’s Setup Assistant has to be one of the most useful pieces of software ever! So far, the only casualty has been xchat. I remembered Bernard mentioned Babbel a while back, so I’ll give that a whirl instead.
Back up and running in less than 2 hours, thank you Apple!
Antarctica
Spotted on MT Utility World.
“Here’s a cool, in fact probably downright cold, Antarctica blog. It’s by David Ruth, a sculptor who has received an NSF grant to study ice textures and forms. He’s a good writer/photographer, and this should be an outstanding blog all season.”
The pictures are fantastic, well worth a look.
SEMRA Training Weekend
As part of the requirements gathering process for the GAISS Project (Geograpically Aware Information Support System), which is an Enterprise Ireland funded, proof of concept phase project. Kristian and I spent last weekend as observers (mostly as observers, though the argo pictured below did get (ab)used for a short time) on an excercise run by the South East Mountain Rescue Association.
This was to allow us to see both in practice and, later on Saturday, on paper, how their processes operate. To that end, we learned lots, and were completely exhausted by the end of the day.
Remarkably, all SEMRA personnel are volunteers, and give up much of their time in order to hone their search skills in order that you and I have some hope of survival if we get lost or injured on the mountains in the South East of Ireland. What is more remarkable still is how well organised and efficiently they operate given that they are so few in number and are all voluntary.
IEEE Podcast on Amateur Emergency Communications
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) feature Amateur Radio emergency communications in the October 2006 Spectrum Radio podcast which is available here.
Though US focused, it is interesting nonetheless. Personally I’m involved in the Amateur Radio Emergency Network (AREN) in Ireland which is Voluntary Emercency Communications arm of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society – IRTS.