Tom Doyle :: TALK

We had a problem today in the office with a new laptop that is running windows vista.

Whenever we tried “ipconfig /release” or “ipconfig /renew” - we would get an error “The requested operation requires elevation”.

We finally found the solution, instead of simply opening a command prompt like before, we now need to run the command prompt as administrator.

To do this, all you need to do is go to:
All Programs > Accessories > right click Command Prompt and click Run as administrator!

I hope this helps you !

A few months ago, someone told me about these new boxes doing the rounds that allow anyone with an analogue NTL connection to get all the digital channels without a monthly rental fee. I was intriqued.

So I set it as my mission to find out more.

After much research I found out what they were called - ”Starview Boxes”. The going rate for one of these boxes in my area ranged from €250-400. So my next mission was to get my hands on one of these and see if they actually worked.

After much more searching on eBay (2 mins) I was able to find a starview box for €140 including delivery from the UK. The starview box was delivered to me within a couple of days.

I was like a child with a new toy when it arrived, the anticipation of seeing if that little silver box could actually get ALL the channels FREE was just too much to bear (just trying to make the story more interesting there…).

I got clear instructions in the email on setting it up. It told me how to get access to a hidden menu on the system that allowed me to set a setting that unscrambled all the scrambled channels. Menu -> 1570 etc…. and hey presto, I had access to all the channels that NTL provide on their digital service including all paid for stations.

As a paid for customer of NTL, I was shocked that it was this easy, but thought “no way, it can’t be true….. Maybe it’s because I already had digital that it worked for me”.

So I went off to try it in my mothers who only ever had the analogue NTL. Without changing a setting, it worked from the minute I plugged in the box. Now it must be noted, use of the box is illegal, but apparently selling the box isn’t….

Already, NTL have tried to rescramble the signal, but the box picked up the change and was working again within minutes…..

If I was NTL right now, I’d be seriously worried. Apparently in the UK, they now have boxes that will allow you to get a free broadband connection in a similar fashion.

Surely NTL can stop the use of these boxes? Are they even trying? How long can this continue? The popularity and knowledge of these boxes grow everyday….. they need to do something before they lose all their digital customers!

Ok, 3 days to go and I’ve finally have enough. I listened to the radio on the way into work today and I just decided that not one of the politicians from the top 2 parties are worth voting for. In fact, not one of the most likely parties to be in government are worth voting for.

This morning we had Richard Bruton from Fine Gael and Brian Cowen from Fianna Fail,  went head to head on Newstalk 106.

It’s no wonder students don’t vote! They are only coming out of school where this thing goes on all the time and they feel they have now matured into men and women…. only to find this type of childish bickering actually still happens in the world of politics.

My god, the word “immature” does not even fit the description of Mr. Cowen’s display. He was like a teenager in a school debate, looking for any opportunity to make it out that he was not the one being confrontational and that Mr. Bruton should calm down, when in fact, it was his immaturity and constant lying that simply royaled Mr. Bruton into a lashing out.

Mr. Cowen I have to say annoyed me, yet I would agree that Mr. Bruton did himself no favours either. Mr. Cowen refused to admit that only 5 months ago he was refusing to touch stamp duty and only weeks before the election he announced new plans for stamp duty.

I am no fan of any party right now, at this stage I’m sick and tired of the lot of them. Why in a nation that is intelligent enough to be at the forefront of software development etc, are we still so naive to vote for such out of touch, self obsessed wasters that are our government and potential government today????

The only reason I will vote on Thursday now is to uphold my democratic right…. as far as choice goes….. I don’t think we have any.

Ask.com are about to embark on a marketing campaign in the hope of gaining a larger share of the search engine market.

Investing over $100million in the marketing blitz, CEO Barry Diller says “We have a number of ways to tell people about Ask, its tools, and why it should be used (and) why you should make a change from Google”.

I don’t know about you, but I still don’t believe Ask.com can compare with the results that google provide, but I do hope Google can some day have a real competitor in this market….

An interesting Ask.com advertising campaign can be seen here >>

I just happened to wander on to the IEDR website today while checking out whois information on registered .ie domain names when I first noticed the heading on the top of every page.

The first one I noticed was:

To an ordinary joe soap, I imagine they would automatically think that their website would be more secure because they have a .ie domain name, which is quite ludicrous. To me it’s obvious that they are talking about this from a consumer point of view, but that’s not obvious from a joe soap’s point of view.

The next one:

I’d like to know the “Best Websites” they are talking about. ….

And the next:

Ok, I can agree with this one at least……

So to the next one…. :

Hmmmm….. I’m sure a lot would disagree with that statement!!!

But the one that really got me……:

Well what can I say???
Ok, there are some cases where you could possibly achieve a higher search engine ranking with a .ie, in particular the “sites from Ireland” section in Google. But this is such a broad statement that I can already predict the phone calls we will get…… “I read on the IEDR website that if I have a .ie domain name we will get higher search engine rankings and they’re only €50, so why would I pay you?”

This type of statement clearly won’t help the industry…….

The general election is just around the corner. On the 24th of May, most of us will be heading to the local polling station to give our vote to policiticians that only seem to pop up out of the woodwork when the elections start.

This time round, I’m not too sure who I’ll vote for. I think it’s time for a change in government, yet, I don’t really know who else I’d like to be in government…… Each party just seems to be as bad as the other…..

Interestingly, Dardoz is also in the same predicament as me and he found a nice little site to help you see which side of the fence you sit on….

http://www.politicalcompass.org/questionnaire

My results looked like this:

We can compare this with some past leaders below:

And then you can compare it with some Irish policital parties, to see where your values sit best…..

Now you don’t need to listen to the bull your politicians are selling you!

“If it’s not broke…. don’t fix it”, I’ve always believed in that old saying. There are cases where improvements can be made however, but I do feel that Google got it righ from the start and they shouldn’t tinker with something that quite simply…. works….

However, I came across this today, Google testing a new layout and it looks like this:

Although the added features may be quite handy and much more accessible, it’s the simplicity of the existing search that most people like.

If you want to play around with this new layout, you need to enter the following into your browsers address field:

javascript:document.cookie=”PREF=ID=9d04e374b01fd77c:TM=1177187296:
LM=1178229339:DV=AA:GM=1:IG=3:S=Iiqx5SsQA0p79zvy;path=/; domain=.google.com”

Enjoy!