…. and Apple sues other companies for copying its technology!

Reading this article about people telling the world that they will be out and that their house will be vacant for any opportunistic thief has confirmed my dis-interest.

The article is here.

This is the website the article refers to.

I had a Toyota Avensis a few years back and I always had great time for the brand. I believed the ‘best built cars in the world’ tag.

That was until I had braking problems with the Avensis.

Nine times out of ten everything was fine but it was the one time out of ten when things got a little bit hairy.

My problem was always at a reasonable speed. I’d be coming up to a turn or a top and I’d happily press my brakes but the car would keep going as if it was sliding on a gravel surface …. speed was not a factor.

I went to my Toyota dealer …. ABS braking they said kicking in …. a system that took me further than I wanted to go? Not a hope …. I was told that there was nothing wrong with the car …. ’twas my imagination.

Try blaming imagination when the car is sliding its way towards the back of another! I lost total confidence in the car and was only too glad to change it …. and change it I did … a lot sooner than I’d have expected to.

Up until then I had owned two Carinas and that one Avensis.

I changed makes totally …. I’ll never again buy a Toyota.

With all this negative publicity I feel my braking complaint those few years ago has been vindicated.

Wonderful!

The Department of Education may start to lease computers from IT companies for use in schools if they cannot afford to buy them during the recession.

The Sunday Tribune can reveal that education minister Batt O’Keefe met a number of leading IT firms last week to negotiate a ‘computers for schools’ deal as the downturn takes hold.
The government’s pledge to invest €252m in information technology for schools in the National Development Plan 2007-2013 is under threat and the minister is understood to be exploring alternative ways of providing computers for primary and secondary schools.

O’Keefe met with representatives from Apple, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft last week, in the midst of the controversy over education cuts contained in the budget, in a bid to find “innovative” ways of providing computer hardware for schools.

The education minister will meet with representatives from Dell, Intel and Lenovo (formerly IBM) in the coming days as he attempts to hammer out a deal with the IT industry.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, O’Keefe said: “I recognise the integral importance of information technology in the learning process in primary and second level. The straitened economic times in which we live will demand affordable and innovative solutions to enhance our IT capacity in schools around the country.

“I have started a process in which I have asked the industry for their input and expertise and they have responded very positively. The industry is now looking at a number of options and will come back to me in the very near future with ways that show how we can work together in the interests of the children in our schools.”

The government invests millions of euro each year in teacher-training programmes in IT and claims that more than 90% of all schools have access to broadband. But unless O’Keefe can negotiate a deal with companies to provide computers for schools, that broadband provision will be rendered useless.

Broadband ….  What’s that?

We have a satellite on our wall but download/upload speed in no better than dial-up. I’d go so far as to say that dial-up is faster.

ICT in schools is a joke.

Thomas Edison lit us up with a workable electric light in his workshop on this day in 1879!

Now John Gormley wants us to embrace those new fangled CFL bulbs.

Thanks Mr. Edison and good night!

The mini-laptop is the latest craze to hit the techie world and I want to be part of it.

The whole concept is to have a machine that is compact, light weight, easy to carry and will do basic email, word and browsing.

I’m a Dell fan and I love the look of their new Inspiron Mini 9. A flyer came to the school today and I want one. I was never one to keep a diary. Now I have a chance to own a diary sized machine that could excite me almost as much as Bessy (see last post!).

Taking my heavy Dell Precision laptop to Kerry and further afield has never been a great idea …. too big, too heavy and too awkward to use on a confined table top (table tops always seem to get smaller when one is way from home). I could easily bring the Mini 9 into McDonald’s, order my ‘Go Large’ meal and my McFlurry and have lots of room on my table to eat, drink and surf at the same time. Single man heaven! Yeah …. bring it on.

Back to the Mini 9.

The specs are as follows:

Processors:

• Intel^® Atom^TM Processor (1.6GHz, 512KB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
  

Operating System:

Choice of ~

• Genuine Windows^® XP Home Edition SP3
• Ubuntu Linux 8.04 with custom Dell interface

I have no experience of Ubuntu …. anyone care to enlighten me?

Graphics

• Intel^® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 950

LCD Display

• Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
  

Hard Drives

• Up to 16GB configured with a Solid State drive

Optical Drives

• None

Ports

• USB 2.0 (3)
• Integrated 10/100 LAN (RJ45)
• 15-pin VGA video connector
• Audio jacks (1-line out, 1 mic-in)
• 3-in-1 Media Card Reader
• AC adapter connector

Power

• 4-cell 32WHr Li-Ion Battery

Camera

• Integrated 1.3MP webcam

Wireless

• Wi-Fi Options – 802.11g mini-card

• Bluetooth^® Internal (2.0) mini-card
  

Externally Accesible:

• USB 2.0 (3)
  
• Integrated 10/100 LAN (RJ45)
  
• 15-pin VGA video connector
  
• Audio jacks (1-line out, 1 Mic-in)
  
• 3-in-1 Media Card Reader
  
• AC adapter connector

• Width: 9.13″ (232mm)
• Height: 1.07″ (27.2mm) front / 1.25″ (31.7mm) back
• Depth: 6.77″ (172mm)
• Weight: Starting weight of 2.28 lbs. (1.035 kg)3(8.9″ display, 4 cell battery). Weights will vary depending on configurations and manufacturing variability

Most programs e.g. Macromedia Dreamweaver, come in portable format which means they can be run from a pen drive without being installed …. great for saving valuable space. There’s even a portable version of Microsoft Word and Firefox.

A slim external hard drive could carry all my essential programs. It’s even possible to get a program that will use a pen drive for additional RAM so that wouldn’t be a problem. Lots of research to do.

It’s so small it will fit nicely into my over night bag …. and Paddy will be more accessible to the world than ever!!

Essay writing competition for primary school pupils sponsored by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and organised by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation!

Theme: My School: Making a Difference (my arse)

“To mark International Day of Persons with Disabilities on 3 December 2008 the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform is once again sponsoring a competition for Irish primary schools. This is part of an EU wide initiative to raise awareness of people with disabilities in society. The INTO has agreed to organise and administer the competition.”

Come on now …. let’s all enter … maybe then we can implement an IT Policy in our school.

What a load of crock. The Government has abandoned IT investment in our schools and my union sees fit to be the running boy …. ‘organise and administer’ …. bloody clowns. Get real INTO … either get the DES to invest in our schools or stay out of it.

It’s like the flurry that’s on in schools these last few months to get interactive whiteboards up on walls. No DES funding and at approx. five thousand euro each they ain’t cheap. So what are schools doing? Fund raising, begging, bagging etc. etc.

Our Education System has gone down the Swanee … (and the Recession has noting to do with it).

On an aside note … I see John Carr, the General Secretary of the INTO, is retiring/giving up in 2010 …. small loss he’ll be. I remember him calling to my door canvassing for a vote …. he had a list of promises/priorities …. I voted for him …. and what has happened since … have a guess … the INTO motto during his reign was …. ‘INTO ~ Serving Education’ … conditions of service got worse for teachers … paperwork went through the roof … and the fat cats got fatter.

All I can say is …. by John … don’t look back.

How Stuff Works ….. this site will do its best to show you how things work!

Just like Ronseal …. it does exactly what it says on the website!

I hate people who don’t approve my comment when I’ve taken the time to comment on their blog!

I wouldn’t mind if I had blasted them out of it but I hadn’t!

It’s good etiquette to acknowledge a comment on a blog also …. I’ve made multiple comments on some blogs …. other people’s contributions have been acknowledged while mine have been bypassed!

I shall not be commenting there again!

The experiences above were on Irish based blogs!

Funisia Dorothea a long, thin, rope-like organism that lived on the sea floor about 570 million years ago has been identified as the first animal on Earth. It is thought that it reproduced in a way similar to modern corals and sponges.

Funisia Dorothea, a rope-like organism that lived on the seabed up to 570 million years ago is, according to scientists, the first creature on earth to have had sex.

It did ‘it’ 30 million years before any other creature. (Think of the monetary value of that discovery if they had copyrighted/patented it!).

They anchored themselves in flocks on the shallow seabed of what’s now the Australian outback. If they couldn’t do it sexually they did it asexually by forming buds that grew into animals. They had it every way!

Funisia dorothea covered the sea floor during the Neoproterozoic period. This ‘period lasted 100 million years and ended around 540 million years ago. Wow!

The creatures reproduce by floating eggs and sperm in the water. The fossilised remains reveal that the creatures formed buds that grew into animals, research has found.

The scientist that discovered this creature named it after her mother Dorothy because her mother accompanied her on the digs, cooked thge meals and looked after the children.

There is no truth in the rumour that the mother’s sexual life had any influence over the scientist’s decision to name the organism after her!