Category: Personal

  • My desk

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    Tom Raftery
    in

    Pat tagged me to put up a photo of my desk. I had to do a lot of tidying up before taking this photo (just out of sight is a large mound of papers/cables/etc which had to be swept off the desk :-)  ) – here it is in all its glory!

  • Airport security has become a joke

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    Tom Raftery
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    I was reading a post of Dennis’ recently about the stupidity of airport security regulations and their inconsistent implementation recently and I got to thinking. First you couldn’t bring guns on a plane, so the terrorists innovated, Then you couldn’t bring box cutters, nail clippers, scissors on planes, so the terrorists innovated Then you had…

  • Irish government fails to invest in education

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    Tom Raftery
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    I visited a primary school today and spent over an hour talking to the principal about the school’s IT requirements. God I’m depressed after it. The school has a few computers with Internet access and the principal is enthusiastic about ICT (he has the children writing html in Notepad from as young as 8 years…

  • Irish Blog Awards nominations

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    Tom Raftery
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    I’m both deeply honoured and humbled to have been nominated for several Irish Blog Awards. The competition is stiff and I am up against many more deserving blogs/podcasts than my own. Judge for yourself – listed below are the categories in which I have been nominated (twice in the best podcast category). I have italicised…

  • Climate change

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    Tom Raftery
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    Not really tech-related I know, but I was appalled over the weekend when I read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change‘s (IPCC) summary report (pdf) on climate change. The summary report is a 21 page document summarising a four volume report yet to be released. It is the work of over 1200 scientific authors and…

  • Cork's Bodega Bar sold – to be closed!

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    Tom Raftery
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    This is the inside of a Cork institution, Cork’s Bodega Bar on Corn Market Street. The Bodega is a superbly appointed bar, with good food, a fantastic, multi-cultural atmosphere, and it is incredibly child-friendly. I’m sitting here in the bar, in shock, as the staff have just informed me that the bar (and the associated…

  • Why do I blog?

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    Tom Raftery
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    That is the question Darren Barefoot is trying to get answered in his short 16 question survey. There are prizes for participating in the survey and even more prizes for mentioning the survey in your blog (ahem!). I’m not 100% sure why I do it but I imagine there’s a 12 step program… Via Eoin

  • On the mend

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    Tom Raftery
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    Thanks to everyone who enquired after Enrique’s health (he was hospitalised last Wednesday week, the same day we buried my mother). He had borderline bronchial pneumonia and the day after we got him home from the hospital he developed the Winter Vomiting Bug – presumably having been infected in the hospital. He’s in good company…