Yes I have been tempted by the Beast of Redmond. But the price point is crazy, just because it’s a new console doesn’t mean you charge on average €70 per game. Screenshots like this make it oh so tempting though.
Month: March 2006
Two-Stage-to-Orbit 'Blackstar' System Shelved at Groom Lake?
Aviation week have an interesting story on the secret “Blackstar” project.
Now facing the possibility that this innovative “Blackstar” system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we’ve learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into “black world” history, known to only a few insiders. U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery. It could be a victim of shrinking federal budgets strained by war costs, or it may not have met performance or operational goals.
And apparently it might have had space based weapon potential:
THE SPACEPLANE’S SMALL CARGO or “Q-bay” also could be configured to deliver specialized microsatellites to low Earth orbit or, perhaps, be fitted with no-warhead hypervelocity weapons–what military visionaries have called “rods from god.” Launched from the fringes of space, these high-Mach weapons could destroy deeply buried bunkers and weapons facilities.
[via Digg]
Blogging minister worries Whitehall
It looks like this has made some people nervous:
DAVID MILIBAND, the politician tipped as a future Labour leader, is to become the first member of the cabinet to set up a web log in which he will publish views that go beyond his ministerial brief.
The launch of the “blog”, disclosed in a leaked letter, is likely to cause concern among colleagues of the communities minister, who fear that he may encroach on their departmental territory.
The letter, circulated around Whitehall by Rory O’Donnell, his private secretary, makes it clear that Miliband intends to address “the policies of other departments” and publicise his views on a range of subjects.
Miliband, a former Downing Street head of policy, is to launch the blog next month providing he wins the agreement of cabinet colleagues.
His spokesman said yesterday that his blog would be an “innovative way” of gauging reaction to government policy, “not racey details of his breakfast habits”.
Providing he wins the support of Cabinet colleagues. It would definately be an interesting read if he gets it off the ground. [Hat tip to reader Niall]
More new Irish blogs
It grows and grows.
Dan Buckley over at Domestic Despair (A Cork man too)
A Kevin Myers-watch blog
An Irish ice-cream blog
Copernicus over at the Midnight Court
I wonder though, besides aggregators like POTB, how we are going to manage to read all the new blogs. I do use RSS aggregators myself (Thunderbird) but as time goes on its getting increasingly difficult to keep track. There have been attempts to categorise blogs by subjects, by tags, by technorati rank, but is there another way? How do Irish bloggers keep track of their favourite blogs?
Oh I remember back in the day when there were only a handful to keep track of, life was so simple back then…..YAWN.
On another note I have noticed a sudden increase in visitors from China, recently ranking higher than visitors from Canada. I can’t explain it.
Is McDowell taking the piss?
The Irish Times reports that Minister for Justice Michael McDowell presented the Criminal Justice (Mutual Assistance) Bill 2005 to the Seanad as Gaeilge. You can read his speech on the Oireachtas website here. If, like me, your cupla focal means you can’t make head nor tail of what he is saying, then you are with the majority of people who live in Ireland.
The Irish Times notes:
In presenting the Bill to the Seanad, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell delivered his speech in Irish, though he did circulate a copy of it in English to senators.
Denying that Mr McDowell had tried to hoodwink senators on the Bill’s contents, his Progressive Democrat colleague, Senator John Minihan, said: “Is somebody seriously trying to argue that we would not pay attention to it because it was in Irish?”
However, the decision by the Minister to speak in Irish is unusual, though he has been known to do so on occasion during Seanad contributions. “Most people would be more inclined, even if they could not speak Irish, to pay more attention to it in Irish. People should really give us some credit,” Mr Minihan said.
Under the legislation, other EU states will be able to apply to the Minister for Justice for permission to set up intercepts on people living in the Republic, while the State will equally be able to seek co-operation from other countries.
However, EU states, including Ireland, will be able to act in other jurisdictions without permission if they are trying “to prevent an immediate and serious threat to public security”.
On the substantive issue, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Why all these intrusions?
Could any Irish-speaking bloggers go to the effort of translating this?
The text is after the jump. Continue reading “Is McDowell taking the piss?”
Buy Bebo now
I know if I had some spare change I would be buying Bebo.
Apparently it has gone relatively unnoticed in Silicon Valley, at least according to this report.
But over here I have never heard or seen anything like it. Anecdotally, just walking around UCC in the past week I overheard at least a dozen conversations that mentioned Bebo, where students never normally seem to talk about any other social networking site (besides MySpace), or indeed any other thing to do with the Internet. And that includes blogging.
So what is it about Bebo? I have no idea. But it sounds like everyone from 16 up is using it, and the recently added every school and university in Ireland.
Expect a buy-out from a bigger player soon.
Ask maps
A new competitor to Google Maps, a little slower though. The directions for Ireland work way better…
As I expected…
| You are a Social Liberal (70% permissive) and an… Economic Moderate (50% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid |
Who reads this blog anyway?
If you are reading this please leave a comment…maybe include how you found my blog, and what made you stay(if you did).
Curiosity!
By the way I will be keeping this as the first entry for a few days…
The Irish blogosphere continues to grow
Another new Irish blog, this time from a friend of mine, Dan Buckley. I expect great things. Expect a modified template shortly.