Friday, October 13, 2006

Dog Microchipping

My dog Bailey got micro chipped today, its the first time I have micro chipped a dog, I believe its important because recently my dog was stolen and 6 weeks later still no sign of her. Maybe if she was chipped there might be a chance of getting her back.

Chipping is quite painless for dog, it involved putting a needle into the dogs neck/bag. The needle is wider than a normal needle so there is a little blood but not too much. My details are sent off with the serial code so if any vets, dog wardens or rescue centres find the dog and scan him they can contact me immediately.

There has been a spate of stolen animals in the area in the last few week. We live in a quiet area with less than 20 houses on our road and already 5 dogs have been taken and 2 horses. Only this week my neighbour came out to see 2 teenagers lifting her dog out of the garden and luckily she asked them what they were doing, and got the dog back.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Java Conference

A group from the software development class and myself and Philip Bourke (lecturer) went to the java conference in Cork. It was a great conference, Simon Ritter from Sun gave some talks on open sourcing java and about the new versions of java i.e SE6 and SE7. It was very informative and fun too. Adrian spoke about Spring product. There was alot of people there from the industry too. Can't wait for the next one..

Social Networking

Todays world is so different to when I was growing up. Nowadays we have online friends, we game online, talk online have cameras and microphones connected to our pcs and generally can talk to anyone around the world. This technology is very cheap all you need is a pc connected to the internet and all these services are completely free. I use msn messenger to text my brother in uk, to see his kids on webcam it means I can keep up to date with them without travelling over and back. I also use it to keep in contact with old work colleagues and friends.One of mates lives about 1 mile away but I talk to her online more than I get to meet her. Its quicker its free and dead handy. Theres bebo and myspace I have accounts on both but don't use them anymore, I have found lots of people who I personally have no interest in wasting my time talking to. Skype is pretty similar but there are a few people who I would chat to there. I know one person who lives in Italy and I regularly talk to him on skype via text and the odd time plug in microphone and talk. So is it a good or bad thing social networking, there are parts of it that are excellent and save alot of time and money. I enjoy relaxing at home watching tv whilst talking to friends online. I can do several things at once which for me is great. On the other hand I have found that some unsavoury characters do try to contact you and annoy you but it is very easy to ignore them. I use the internet for what I like and the parts I do not like I keep away from.

Internet for over 50s

Recently a few of my parents friends have gotten presents of laptops for their birthdays. I have been called on to teach them the basics like getting online emailing etc. Its great to see the joy in their eyes when they manage to surf for information and realise how fast it is to search information online compared to previous methods.

Virtual World of Politics

Election Blogging

I think its great that politicans are blogging online. It helps to get more information on latest news, you get to see information that you need quite simply. In todays latest news about same sex marriages, I can get more insight into what way the politicans are thinking and by looking at various blogs, it allows me to give comments via blogs to politicans directly. It also allows the politicians to show their personality to the general public. It allows different people to interact in a central area about the latest issues with direct access to politicans.