Jamie’s Weblog

I had a good time at BarCamp Cork today, part of the recent movement of unconferences.  Basically, Foocamp was an invitation only conference so BarCamp was set up as the alternative scene, and these have been happening around the world since.  The sessions are all decided on the day with good ol’ fashioned post-it notes [...]

I’ve been quite depressed and restless lately. I’m not really sure what the problem is although there are plenty of good candidates. Anyway, for over a week I’ve had an overwhelming desire to plonk down a wad of cash on some extravagant piece of electronics: an XBox360, 20″ monitor, headphones for the gym, [...]

I’ve been stuck in a rut with ShutterScouts recently. I started out creating a basic template, moved onto the domain model and coded the basic user authentication system. So far, so good, so easy(ish). But then I really wanted to support OpenID — I’d done it for one of my other sites [...]

boards.ie is opening up their archive of 10 years of discussions as part of an SFI-funded competition. boards.ie has an enormous breadth of discussion and whilst much of it is inane, it’s also a great resource for Irish-specific subjects or even just local product reviews.
So what might I do if days were longer, work [...]

Random thoughts that deserve more than a Twitter, and that I need to get off my chest (to no one in partcular, just blogging catharsis):

When people ask me how I am, I say “I’m fine“. When they ask me if I’m in pain, I say “No“. But the truth is that I haven’t [...]

A few months ago I gave up on Facebook. My page is still there but I don’t update it any more since the only 4 “friends” I have probably already know what’s going on in my life. To be useful you would need a bigger network of friends but that seems to cheapen [...]

My old N73 had a broken ‘1′ key so I took it back to the O2 shop. As in was still under warranty they swapped it straight away for a new phone. Pretty good service. Fortunately, they didn’t have another N73 in stock so I was offered an E65 instead. It’s [...]

The Prince Lionheart Slumber Bear sounds like the typical over-hyped nonsense targeted at new parents:
The Original Slumber Bear contains the ONLY actual intra-uterine, recorded womb sound to help lull your [...]

Norah was born yesterday, 5 weeks early by emergency c-section but both mum and baby are doing well now. She’s 6lb 3oz and a good healthy baby — although she’s in ICU until her lungs are ready for the big bad world.  More photos in the gallery.

I’ve never understood Halloween and I’ve always hated it.  Surely it’s just legalised blackmail perpetrated by your neighbours’ children?  In my dreams, Halloween goes something like this:

There’s a knock on the door. I open it to find a pack of children wearing a collection of €1 “scary” masks and/or a collection of old sheets with [...]