Like many of us, Jeremy’s started doing his own homebrew financial planning. I’ve been budgeting using OpenOffice Calc since October and it’s been a great boon while trying to figure out if I can afford a house. (I can, just about!)
Anyway, scroll down the comments on that page – I posted a very brief outline of setting up a budget spreadsheet. I want to start writing a larger article soon to post here on buying a house and budgeting is a major part of it!
Stoppie!
A guy was doing “stoppies” on his motorbike outside the office a few minutes ago. ‘Course he had finished doing them by the time I thought of grabbing the camera, but it’s ready now in case he tries again. Zoom is handy.
(For those that don’t know, a stoppie on a motorbike is a wheelie on the front wheel ..)
He’s not the only one doing wheelies of course!
Damn, he’s gone.
Oh yeah, watch out Galway.. Italian friend of mine, Andrea, is visiting at Easter and me and a few lads might be joining him up there! 🙂
Speeding tickets down 100,000
Interesting spin on this story from RTE..
Niall Doyle, Corporate Affairs Manager, Irish Insurance Federation, says that the drop is due to fewer check points on Ireland’s roads
While the Garda Superintendent, John Farrelly, says that the figures are down because driver behaviour has improved.
Hehe. who to believe?
Irish Car Tax List
Here’s a handy list of the motor taxes payable in this country. There’s a popup on the page but you’re using Mozilla or a popup-killer aren’t you? 🙂
Hmm.. I need a “boring but need to know” or “When In Ireland” category don’t I? This post and the last one aren’t exactly earth-shatteringly interesting or exciting but definitely worth knowing. Oh sorry, half of you have stopped reading already. Those that get here, pat yerselves on the back for being persistent!
Are you paying too much for health insurance?
No, this is not a spam! I read a comparision between VHI and Bupa in the Irish Times Health supplement this morning and it’s worth mentioning here.
It appears that 50% of Irish people have private health insurance, but that only 6% of them ever change their insurance provider. Of those that do, most cite cost-savings as the main reason for the move. I’m one of those 6% and that’s the reason I moved to Bupa too.
A PDF file comparing both services is available from the Health Insurance Authority on this page but it’s not very friendly and hasn’t been editorialised. I’ve no idea where the original article is on the Irish Times website. Check out the dead-tree version for that!
Ask an Irish woman about drink?
So, TodayFM have a competition to name as many “things” as possible in 15 seconds. Most people don’t get more than 10, some are lucky with 12 or 14.
What happens when you ask an Irish woman to name as many alcoholic drinks as possible in 15 seconds? She gets 30..
Kernel Source Here!
It looks like Microsoft went after Linux kernel downloaders. Unintentionally perhaps, but there was a lot of users looking for the Windows source code, so perhaps Microsoft were desperate. Like the original author, I also wonder why nobody figured out how to break open a partially downloaded tar.bz2 file within 3 to 4 days..
Getting cheap calls in Ireland
On the advice of a friend last December (Thanks Wendy!) I signed up to VarTec, a company offering cheaper phone calls from land lines.
I got the first bill yesterday morning and I’m very impressed.
A 28 minute call to Madrid only cost me €1.85! A 47 minute call to a mobile cost me just over €6! If I made the same mobile call from my mobile, it would have cost me around €14, It looks like EsatBT are reasonably competitive too when it comes to calls within Ireland, but it’s hard to judge the quite different products from each company. On the face of it, Vartec still looks cheaper than either EsatBT or Eircom for mobile charges, but more expensive for local/national at off peak periods. Especially if you go for one of the “flat-rate” packages. Vartec does better at international calls however, as they have the same rate no matter what the time of day.
Digital Camera Support for UN*X
From the ILUG mailing list, this page looks like a very informative paper on general digital camera and computer use as well as driver support for various Unix systems. Worth reading the first few paragraphs even if you don’t use Unix.
Back in Google Ryan!
Yay! I’m on the front page of a search for Ryan Tubridy again! Ooer!
Needless to say, if you’re reading this a week from now it may have changed again, so please ignore this blatant attempt to mention Ryan Tubridy as often as possible. Who? Mr. Tubridy? Ryan you say? Not Gerry Ryan? No? Ryan Tubridy..
Yes, I’ve had my shots, please don’t take me away.. those night vision goggles aren’t mine! They’re not!
Aaaaarrrrrrgh!