Author Archives: Donncha

Airtricity – switch now?

Airtricity are running an advertising campaign on the radio currently in an effort to get businesses to switch to them from the semi-state monopoly electricity generator, ESB. They offer to save you 10% off ESB prices and they’ll freeze your energy prices until 2010. That’s very attractive considering that the ESB is getting yet another price increase this month from the rubber stamping regulator. Unfortunately when you click “Switch now” on their site all you get is an error message:

XSLTransform Error

XSLTransform: Unmatched end tag.
File: VCFile(N/E:0:[website]::/ireland/switch_to_airtricity/switch_now/index.xml)
Line: 288, column: 18
Context:

Oops. That’s a pity because I wonder if I qualify as a small business being a self-employed person working at home. I’ll have to check back later.

Body of Joseph Mullally found

Twenty year old Joseph Mullally went missing last December 14th after he was last seen outside The Brog on Oliver Plunkett Street. An extensive search for the last several weeks went on involving volunteers and emergency personnel turned up nothing until this morning at 10am when 4 of the searchers found his body at the quayside in Tivoli, downstream of the city.

More on PRC, Breaking News, and RTE News.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

dsc00039-m.JPG

Irish traffic to drive on right

The Irish Government will start the process of converting our traffic system to a right hand drive one in the next few months. The current system of driving on the left is a legacy of British rule in this country but now that we’re part of the EU this change is finally taking place. Grandad has more details on his blog.

I expect this will be a welcome change for tourists and foreign travelers to our shores, especially Polish people who will no doubt start businesses teaching people to drive on the wrong other side of the road.

Initially, all buses and articulated vehicles will move to the right to allow for a period of adjustment. Car owners may opt to make the switch themselves on an individual basis, depending on their level of confidence.

Starting on the 1st of August, all motorists outside city limits will be required to drive on the right. And finally on the 1st September, all city traffic will make the transition.

Cannot load mysql extension. Please check your PHP configuration.

A friend recently had a problem configuring a new server. He installed PHP, Apache, MySQL and phpMyAdmin but when he launched it he got the following error:

phpMyAdmin – Error
Cannot load mysql extension. Please check your PHP configuration.

If you’ve installed all of the above more than once you’ll know what is more than likely wrong. The MySQL PHP module isn’t loaded. First of all, you must find your php.ini. It could be anywhere but if you create a small php file with the phpinfo(); command it will tell you where it is. Common places include /etc/apache/, /etc/php4/apache2/php.ini, /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini or even /usr/local/lib/php.ini

Edit your server’s php.ini and look for the following line. Remove the ‘;’ from the start of the line and restart Apache. Things should work fine now!

;extension=mysql.so

should become

extension=mysql.so

Irish Blog Awards on March 3rd

The second Irish Blog Awards will take place on the 3rd of March in Dublin. Damien wants to know if you’re going so leave a comment on his post if you’re interested. I have yet to make up my mind but there’s already a number of comments left and it will probably be even bigger than last year!

If your company is looking for exposure in the blogging community, there are a number of sponsorship slots still left to fill. More details on the page linked above.

Videojug – life explained on film

Videojug explains how to do the most common things in life but also a few things you may not have thought about such as passionate kissing and how to ask a woman on a date. How to be the perfect boyfriend is hilarious! In just over three minutes you too can have a blissfull relationship! Of course, for the girls, there’s how to be the perfect girlfriend too. Ladies, be sure to watch it! (via Ray D’Arcy’s show)

Besides the above videos, there are also more practical videos on changing a tire, how to unblock a toilet and where would we be without how to suck an egg into a bottle.

If that’s not enough, there’s also Expert Village. Phew.

Continue reading “Videojug – life explained on film”

Saddam Hussein should have rotted in prison

Why didn’t they let him rot in prison for the rest of his life? I can’t imagine that conditions in an Iraqi prison are anything to write home about and he wouldn’t have been popular with most other prisoners. Instead they hang him and he becomes a martyr. Nothing good will come of taking another life. No right thinking person could support what he did to the Iraqi people but things are definitely going to get worse now that he’s dead.

saddam-hanging.jpg

More coverage including a video of Saddam walking up to the noose, surrounding by black-masked men in what looks like a spartan concrete bunker on Hotair and Google blogsearch.

An uncensored video shot in the same room doesn’t stop where the CNN one above does. It’s on Google Video already and I found it on The Whistleblower. It’s too gruesome for me to embed here so if you really want to watch it click the link.

More on this boingboing post.

Some bloggers on WordPress.com seem to be going mad for the video of Saddam’s hanging. Sheesh!

todays-hot-picks.jpg

How to confuse the police

What happens when someone rings two police stations at the same time on two phones and they hold the phones together? Claire has the answer. Must have been a meteorite hit the lines but they’re alright in Westport and Castlebarr.

Gammagoblin has made a Google Video of the phone call!

The Red Cardinal found another video with animated Gardai conversing created by Ian Benjamin Kenny.

Frank thinks the Gardai were busy dealing with meteorites on the line when a certain memo came from Interpol. Oops.

Close

Ad-blocker not detected

Consider installing a browser extension that blocks ads and other malicious scripts in your browser to protect your privacy and security. Here are a few options.

  • uBlock Origin is a free, open source, ad blocker for your browser.
  • Use pi-hole if you have a spare Raspberry Pi on your network.
  • Set the private DNS settings on your phone to dns.adguard.com to block adverts and trackers.