Darragh Ó Héiligh blog and accessibility guides

My father left his  first comment to my blog yesterday.  Well done!!!!!

He had one suggestion.  Leave an audio tribute to Ronnie Drew.  I think it's a great idea so here it is.  Even if your not in to Irish music, you should have a listen.  The pipes are a powerful instrument.  Ok.  I'm bound to say that considering I'd spend every minute of the day on them if I had the option.

Listen to the recording directly via this link.

is a strange name isn't it? It caught my attention though so I gave it a look.  You should too.  It's by a new comer to the Blogging scene by the name of Vicky.  She's new at this game but she's doing well.  Go on over and post a comment to show her that people actually read these things from time to time.

I’d say that the one thing Emma will miss from working with Nikon via Stream is being able to borrow photography equipment.  So far in the past few months she’s borrowed the D3, the R1C1 kit, countless lenses, the SB800 (although she has the SB600) and a few very cool macro lenses.  Couple that with her already nice array of camera technology such as the D 50, the D 200 and a few lenses as well as two external flashes, a tripod and a monopod, at times she goes around like the bag lady, bags resting across both shoulders, stands in each hand and her main camera dangling over her neck.  That’s only when she’s at home!  When she’s doing weddings she’s worse!  Then she’s got spare batteries and more speed lights! Anymore and she’s going to look like a Borg, one of the cybernetic alien things from star trek!

Two days until we’re off for ten days and Emma finishes with Stream!

I'm liking The Script at the moment.  Well, more specifically, I think their drummer is cool. 

http://www.thescriptmusic.com/

The man who cant be moved was good but the song "We cry" is even better.

Since working in Stream, Emma has worked on the level one support team for Nikon photography, she’s managed and administered the cache back promotion and finally she’s been promoted to level two corporate support handling complex camera issues for Nikon professional customers. 

As she puts it herself, “Two years ago I had an interest in photography and I’d just been given a D50.  Now the pro’s who work with this stuff every day are coming to me for help!”  The high standing in which she’s held in Nikon and within Stream is a testament to her ability to attain a high degree of knowledge ability across the entire range of technology she has expertly supported.

Three days and we're both off for a week and a half and Emma leaves Stream!

Ronnie Drew was an infamous musician that made a particularly prominent mark on the Irish music scene.  Both as a solo artist and as part of the Dubliners, he was a respected singer by everyone who had anything to do with Irish music.  Recently, he had fought a tireless battle with cancer that finally ended on Saturday. 

I was very fortunate to hear Mr.  Drew at his last public performance a number of months ago in the Helix and even though the cancer was ravaging his body, his determination to continue and his love of the music he performed was easy for everyone to see.

My most heartfelt condolences go to Ronny Drew’s family.

Four days left!   Then not only is Emma leaving Stream but we're both off work for a week and a half!  Fabulous!!!!!!!!!!

I remember when Emma went for her interview.  It was the Monday after the big gig in Drogheda.  She met me in a small restaurant type place in the East point business park and we had some lunch and discussed what I'd been telling her about Stream for the previous week. We went over common interview techniques and questions and I told her about the team and the person who would be interviewing her later that afternoon.  She was nervous but quietly, I think she was confident too. 

During the interview, a bloke I worked with, Ray decided to take her mood off the nervousness for a minute by making faces at her through the window in the door.  She came out laughing historically beaming at her success but threatening to kill Ray if he ever did it again.  A few months later actually we laughed about that with her manager over a pint or ..... Two.

The first day Emma started with Stream, she was left sitting with two other new starters in the canteen.  One of these people is Fergus; a guy that I originally thought was as rough as sand paper.  Just goes to show you.  Never judge a book by its cover.  Fergus turned out to be a great friend to Emma and a real source of knowledge that she benefited from for over a year while they worked closely together.  Even now, Fergus and Emma remain great friends and I'm sure it will continue long after she leaves Stream. In saying all that, he backs a really useless football team.  Just goes to show you.  Some people no matter how much you tell them just won't learn.

First K8 then Grandad! 

This post this morning from Head Rambles when listened to via a screen reader is just halarious.  Go listen to it.  It's just brillient.   If you don't have a screen reader then get one.

Visit www.freedomscientific.com and download jaws. 

When you've finished installing it, press insert down arrow to listen to the post. 

Maybe it's just that I'm easily amused this morning.

Congratulations Emma!

Five days and counting.

ON Wednesday the 20th of August 2008 Emma will break from the poisonous clutches of Stream!

Four months ago I finally broke free after four years of service to the same company.  I have to say, that after four months in this job, I couldn't be happier.  I most definitely made the right move.

Five days! That’s 40 working hours!    If you want to get really obsessive over it, it's 2400 minutes!  In seconds that's ................ no.  I'm not going there.  

My girlfriend is ok with me having another bird!  she's even ok with it living in the same house as us!

Beat that!

This morning, after working here for almost 5 months now, I had to pass a risk assessment. HR organized a woman to come over and look at my work environment, the other parts of the buildings that I need to visit regularly and the type of work I do. 

Fair play to them really, they have approached things much better than the last company I worked with.  Their very careful though.  That can be a good or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. 

The funny thing is, compared to working with my father years and years ago in his factory; this place is like walking in a field with absolutely no obstructions for miles! Picture a furniture manufacturer’s factory with a huge conveyer system spanning the entire lower level, a spraying booth with a water filtration system, a heating tunnel, a section with work benches placed at random places at even more random angles, large cutting and drilling machines, and that's only on the bottom floor!  Upstairs there was a long CNC machine, a few saws, a massive flat sander and other machines that I can’t even think of at the moment.  Now picture me, a blind person walking around there often with a locker, head or foot board from a bed, a few side rails again, from a bed or a frame from a chest of drawers in my hands.  Obviously, when both hands are busy carrying something you can’t use a cane, and if something had just been sprayed, if you knock it, you may as well just die because the person who's sprayed it is probably bound to kill you sooner or later. 

Come to think of it, people often wonder why my mobility is so good.  It's because I wasn't given a choice! Walking around that place when there were 23 people working there with machines working in every direction, you had to build up a very clear awareness of what was around you. Actually, don't take it from me!  Hopefully Emma will respond with a comment describing the place. 

It's therefore funny that they send someone over to make sure I can get around a building or two with a few boxes from time to time.

Do one thing today... Go over and read K8's post.  I'd try to describe it but I could never do it justis. 

Yesterday as you probably saw from my previous post was Emma's birthday. I had a few things planned.  The flowers delivered to her office was the start on Friday morning, a quiet night in doing absolutely nothing on Friday night,  Saturday morning I did the traditional giving the present thing, then on Saturday evening I'd arranged for a few of her closest friends and her parents to come down to Drogheda to see her.  It worked out really well.  Different to how I'd planned it actually but still, really well.  First, her mother arrived.  But, we walked up the road to meet her.  Emma still didn't know she was coming until she saw her mother walking toward her.  Second was her Father,  she knew he was coming so no surprise there.  Then two friends that are from rogheda arrived followed shortly after by a friend from Dublin.  I'm telling you.  Surprises are hard to organize!  You can be assured of one thing.  At least half the people you ask to come will have other things on!  Anyway, I think the small number of people worked out better anyway. We sat talking in the house until around eleven then I dragged them out to the local pub where we were the last ones to leave!  Sorry, it's a family tradition in the Ó Héiligh's at this stage.  We don't drink much but we're regularly the last ones to leave.  I think everyone enjoyed them selves. 

Today, it's just Emma, her mother and my self left.  Her mother doesn't get down to drogheda much so I'm leaving them to go into town for a few hours. 

I'm going to sit here, relax for a few hours and play some music.  I've got a beat in my head that's not quite reached the surface yet.  It's been swimming around there for days now after I got inspired by a youtube recording I heard during the week.  I have some work to do on my laptop before recording another audio tutorial for the installation of OpenSuSE 11 however although I've wanted to do it since Thursday night, it can wait for a few hours. 

I hope your all enjoying this fantastic relaxing bank holiday.

It's Emma's birthday tomorrow the 2nd of August. 

She'll possibly stab or shoot me with something for releasing this vital piece of information onto the wacky world of the web however hay, it's worth celebrating!

So, to celebrate, I've started by sending a huge Bo cay of flowers to her office this morning.  To add to it, I got two people in her office to make sure they arrived to her desk and they even took pictures for me to post up here!

As you can see, emma is very photo shy.  Which is very funny considering she works with them every day of the week!

There's no where you can hide!  Here's Alex, a guy who works with her holding her head so she cant escape!

Ah finally.  She's now excepted that she's going to get her picture taken and she's showing her self and the flowers to the camera willingly.

We should feel privlidged! Another picture where she's relaxed and showing her face! 

Glad you liked them

Happy birthday.

The cost of assistive technology for people with any disability is very high.  Everything from Magnifiers to Screen readers to Braille displays to light displaying door bells to synthesizers for people who cannot speak to memory training devices are very expensive.  Furthermore, there is a lot of choice in this market in some areas.  Equipment or alterations that suit some people will not suit others even though their disability may be the same.  For this reason, it is often very difficult to know what you need.  People comfortable with researching technical reviews and asking questions on public forums are fortunate as they can get a better idea of what is capable by using assistive software or hardware however nothing beats actually using it.  It's very similar to when someone is buying a car.  You can read reviews, talk to other owners but nothing beats getting to know it during a test drive.

The day of test driving assistive technology is finally here!

Thanks to www.try-it.ie, you can now look through their extensive resource of assistive hardware or software for a wide range of disabilities and if it's in stock you can apply to try it.  The idea is simple but the effect is powerful.   There is a lot of choice out there but unfortunately the majority of people don't take advantage of it.  Outspoken for Mac OSX 10.5, Orca in Linux", Window Eyes in Windows are three examples of screen readers for visually impaired people that most people haven't even thought of trying as their comfortable with Jaws and Windows and until now the facility hasn't been there to do this without spending a lot of time or money.  I'm sure that people with other disabilities are the same!  They get use to one adaptation or assistive technology and because of the cost involved with testing new options they cant justify trying anything else. 

Unfortunately my experience in adaptive technology is focused on the narrow field of visual impairment however the resource on www.try-it is not.  I would urge any of you who know anyone with a disability to take a look.  Tell as many people as possible about this and make it a resource that is used.  As they say.  Use it or loose it.  It's your choice.

www.try-it.ie

From the dogs perspective.

Christ that was some weekend!

Friday night, they took me to a pub in Clontarf that I hadn't been to in months.  Unfortunately though the friendly Chinees barmade wasn't there so no one offered me water in a pint glass for a change. I also didn't get half as much attention!  I got to see the people I use to work with before Darragh move jobs to the buildings with all the steps.

Saturday, they left me outside in the back yard while they went to the recycling center.  Thank god!  They didn't get home until 4AM on Friday night and the crazy humans were back up at 10!  NO ACTUALLY, EMMA GOT UP at 7 FOR A MINUTE!  COME ON PEOPLE! A DOG NEEDS HIS REST! ON Saturday night though, the two of them sat outside from half six until ten o clock and I got more attention from both of them than I've ever had!  I think the last time Darragh rubbed me like that on my back was when I was sore a few months ago!  It was funny! I felt fine!  I don't know what all the attention was for!   I didn't mind though. I moved around in circles until I got dizzy so he could rub every part of me. On Sunday, I wanted the same attention but they were busy so althought they gave me a few rubs, it wasn't as nice as Saturday.

ON Sunday afternoon after deciding not to buy a Cockatiel because the one in the shop was too old to be taimed or trained, they baught me to the beach!  Oh, that was definitly the highlight of July for me!  I've asked Emma nicely to send them to Darragh so he can post them. 

This morning it's back to work and all the stuff associated with it.  I have a small rant here now.  Sorry if you dont' care about the hardships suffered by guide dogs but I don't get enough oppertunity to write on this so now is my time to rant.  They've installed these new shiny machines that DArragh tells me are for ticket validation in Pearse station.  The problem is that their too narrow!  I cant walk through them the way I was trained to walk while guiding Darragh without scraping him off the right side!  I hate this!  It's not fair!  He hasn't given out to me yet because I think he understands that I'm doing my best but what do they expect a dog to do!  Just another inch!  That's all I need to work properly!  I even rub up against it my self to give him more room because if I didn't he'd walk straight into the side of it but that's all I can do!  This morning I curved in to his right so he'd slow down and I therefore had more time to judge the size properly but it doesn't matter what I do to stop it!  THere just isn't enough space!  Of course, we could use the wheel chair accessible opening but that's all the way over at the far wall.  Darragh tells me that we need to get out of the station as soon as possible or we'll have to stand at the lights for too long and we'll be late for work so I don't think he wants to go over that far! 

That's my rant over.  For now. 

Here are the pictures that Emma took of me yesterday.

Darraghs' walking out into the water with his hands in the air and I'm jumping along side him trying to get it out of his hands!  Their just a bit too high though! He's a crewel little ********** at times!

As you can see, I'm really jumping!  My paws and everything are out of the water now trying to get the ball out of his hands but I just cant get high enough!

Humans are silly aren't they?  Darraghs' still wearing all his clothes and he's up to his knees in water!  I'm still trying to get that damn ball though! 

Darragh's finally thrown the ball!  I'm running after it out to sea!  Ah, that's why he's almost up to his waste!  he's making me go out far enough so I'll swim!

The balls here!  It's at my paws! Pick it up! Pick it up!  Come on come on come on!  what are you waiting for?

Here's the toy!  Can we go play?  Please?

I'm looking at the ball!  I'm going to get it darragh!

I'm going to get it!  Look how wide I can open my mouth!

I'm practically flying I'm running so fast!  I'm going to get it!  It's in my sights!  I'm going to get it!

It's in the air!  I'm going to get it!  Now, where's the best place to leap from. 

It's up there!  How the hell am I suppose to get it way  up there for god sake!  Really these humans have unrealistic expectations. b

I'm nearly there!  I've almost got it!  It's near my nose!  I can smell it!

I'm running!  The balls just an inch from my nose!  It's so close I can taste it! 

bb

I got it but then I lost it again!  Stupid dog mouth!  It bounced out again!

I've finally got it!  It's in my mouth!  I'm running back to Darragh!  Not too fast though.  I'm tired after all that jumping and swimming.

So there you have it!  That was a lot of pictures wasn't it?

Sorry if your reading this post and your not a dog lover.  You'll not really get the humer behind it.

Yes people, the bomb hit Drogheda. On Sunday the  20th of July 2008, we spent the day minding a four year old child.  Otherwise known from that day forth as the bomb. Why?  Because he's powerful, distructive and causes mayhem when he strikes.  OH, I really hope his parents don't ever read this post. 

The pictures here depict a nice quiet qute little child just sitting watching the TV.  Believe me, before this he was beating me black and blue with a light saver! OH, he was also shooting me with a camera trypod and electricuting me with some audio cable that he picked up as well.  I got him up at half seven, showered him, had to accompany him to the toilet every time, made sure he had breakfast, got him dressed and kept him entertained for as long as I could.  The child was absolutely crazy and so full of energy!  anyway, I'm not going to discribe it any more.  Look at the pictures that Emma has finally sent over to me...... A week later!  Oh and listen to the audio post from Saturday night.

Emma always names these for me before she sends them over which is really nice of her.  Because well, I'd have absolutely no idea what each file was showing!  She could be showing me naked or something.  Hay, nothing would surprise me!  That camera is used just when people least expect it!  Be very afraid people!

Anyway, getting back to it, this picture is called Angel face.  I assume it's showing Adam, when he's sitting still for a minute.

A great way of taking a breather for a minute is to use the power of TV!  Or in his case, Transformers DVD's! I have to say though, the way he asked me to sit down was completely out of character.  He grabbed my hand and asked in this tiny soft voice if I'd sit down for a few minutes with him.   Hahahaha.  A few minute later he was trying to stab me with a toy car!  Don't be fooled! 

I have others, but I don't want to completely shame the poor little child. I'll hold them until he's much older and blackmale him or something equaly as crewel.

After that fabulous weekend we've just had, I've even more pictures coming up later.  When Emma sends them to me again.  Hint Hint. 

After a nice productive but relaxing Saturday, I Dragged Emma kicking and screaming over to the computer room to record an audio post wih me.  It's very random, relaxed, informal but friendly and informative....... I hope......

Either way, have a listen.  Let us know what you think.  What should we call the bird?

Oh, sorry, I will get around to make that stream properly. As it stands at the moment, you may be prompted to save or open the file. Just hit open. It will play almost right away depending on your connection.

I'm having a really quiet Saturday so far.  I've to go to Dublin soon but I've been taking the oppertunity to play some music before I go.  I decided to quickly record another track for the Bodhran.  I do this regularly to find parts that I want to improve on.  I haven't done it for the pipes or the whistle in a while though so I'll have to start back at that again.  I thought it would be an idea to stick the recording up here.  If nothing else, just as an excuse for a post.  I've not written in a while.  actually, I have but I haven't posted it yet.  I wrote on the train on Thursday night on the way home but things have been so busy at work lately  didn't have achange to take it from the laptop yet.

Anyway, if you want the track, click here.

This weekend we had a few friends stay with us.  I must say, I really enjoyed it!  Friday, we got back to the house at around 8, had a really fabulous meal and just sat in with a few drinks for the rest of the night.  The plan was to go out but there’s still plenty of alcohol left over from the party a month ago.    On Saturday, Emma went into Dublin city with one of them and my self and a fella I’ve known for the past 21 years spent most of the day sitting in the back yard drinking.  That’s very unusual for either of us to do but it was a nice change!

Oh, actually before that, we ventured in to town because I had a few things to do.  On the way down one of the steepest hills from Duleek street to the Dublin road just beside Millmount, we heard a kid on a bike scream as he was flying out of control down the hill.  There was absolutely nothing either of us could do but fortunately he stopped him self by hitting a parked car.  Fortunately he wasn’t badly hurt!  When I heard him stop I ran over and picked him up off the bike.  He was jammed between two cars but the bike was so big he couldn’t even reach the ground so he hadn’t a hope of getting off.  Not only that, he certainly wouldn’t have been able to manage it while walking down the hill.  So, I told him to bring my dog while I wheeled his bike down to the bottom of the hill.  The bike was so big I even had to struggle to hold it a few times.  Really, this hill is very steep!  So steep that most car drivers won’t use it.  There are even railings on the foot path to make sure people don’t loose buggies or prams while walking down it!  It’s hard to describe it more than that.  Plus, this little fella was only about six or seven! If even that.  He said he was meeting someone in town but although I wasn’t sure he was telling me the truth, I let him go when I thought he was safe enough.  The thing is though, where the hell was his parents!  Who in their right mind would let a small child out on a bike that size!  Even more importantly, they know that there’s a crazy hill around that area.  Why would they let him near it!  Really, if I wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have needed to stop as quickly and there’s no doubt.  He would have lost control and went straight onto the main Dublin road.  At that time on a Saturday it was very busy so he’d likely have got hit by something. 

Anyway, aside from that, as I was saying earlier, it was really nice to just relax and sit outside on a nice day.  It was entertaining actually; we had a lot of alcohol over from the party so we had to mix a lot.  Neither of us got that bad though.  I’d a gig to do that night in Dundalk so it all tied together well.

It goes something like this:

Stranger: Hay how’s it going Darragh! 
Me: Oh great!  Life’s good!  And you’re self?
Stranger: Ah not so bad! Blah blah blah blah
Me: Excellent.  Long time no see.
Stranger: Yeah, I’ve been keeping busy.  You know the way, it has to be done.
Me: Oh absolutely.
Stranger: Turning to the person I’m possibly with: Oh, by the way, I’m john.  You are?
Me: Thinking to my self. Oh thank god! John is his name!
Me: Sorry John, I’m terrible with introductions! 

Now, I don’t mean to be rude or complacent or anything like that, I am just really terrible with names!  After a month in this place I was slightly unsure who was sitting over to my right!  It’s a horrible affliction.  People think being Blind must be bad.  Try walking up to someone on the street, having an entire conversation with them, walking away thinking to your self: “Who the hell was that!”

That’s not to say that I don’t try to remember.  I just forget easily!

In saying that, give me something technical to remember and I’ll say it back to you in a year!  My brain laps that stuff up. 

So, to all you people out there whose name I’ve forgotten: My sincerest and most heartfelt apology!  It’s nothing personal.

Actually, they have special schools for Blinders and deaf people; they really should have special communities for forgetful people.  They all could wear name badges or something! Although, if there were Blind people there it could lead to some very awkward situations.

That’s it. I’m writing no more as I’ll get my self into even more trouble.

I've decided that it's time to take the bull by the horns.  I'm going to learn to drive.  I'm tired of public transport, I'm tired of walking in Irish weather and I'm tired of leaving half an hour before my train leaves to walk to the train station.

So what I'm blind.  What's that got anything to do with it!

There are thousands of stupid drivers out there.  One blind one won't make much difference will it?

And if I do hit someone, I promis to try to make it a tourist, a stupid person, a Politician or a blind person.   I hate that bunch with their canes and their dogs. Who do they think they are anyway!  just walking in front of traffic like they own the place or something.

Yep. My minds made up.  I'm going to call the Irish school of motoring to arrange my first lesson. 

Anyone want a guide dog? He'll not be needed when I start driving.  He's rubbish at giving directions.

It's great having this small laptop running Linux" now.  Notice the word running.  With windows, it was crawling.  Walking at best.  Linux" really makes it fly!  At the moment, I'm reading a man page in the console to refresh my memory to make this boot into run level 5 instead of 3.  It's simple.  I know but I can’t remember how to do it.  I'm also listening to music in the Totem media player and I'm writing in Open Office.  Even with that it's running great. Ok, that's not much but you need to understand this 1.6GHZ laptop with 1GB of ram came to a stand still if I had my screen reader, Windows media player and Microsoft word open at the same time.  That's how bad it is!  This isn't a technical post though so I'll shut up talking about how impressed I am with Fedora 9 on this laptop. 

I am writing with a question.  We want to go away this year but we've no idea where to go.  We've been looking around but we've just bought a house and we've both moved jobs.  Well, Emma's about to so money isn't at an all time high if you know what I mean.  Not that it's too low either.  If it was we wouldn't be looking for a holiday but you know what I mean.  I don't want to have to spend thousands for one week!  So, here's what we were thinking.  You my fabulous blog readers can deposit a large amount of cash into my bank account and I'll reward you all by blogging while out of the country.  I think that's a fair deal don't you?

No really, we're looking for your ideas.  We're not looking for anything crazy.  As long as it's hot we're open to any suggestions.  Personally I'd rather somewhere in Europe as it's less bother getting currency changed.  Of course if you know of a great place outside the EU then by all means, let me know!

We're looking for something during the last week of August.  Any time after the 21st. 

Oh that brings me to another topic.  We were also looking at traveling in Ireland for a while however with our fabulous summer this year I didn't think we could handle the very hot temperatures and we'd probably be better off going somewhere slightly cooler.  While trying to search for something to do in Ireland though I looked at www.discoverireland.ie.  It's the worst site I've come across in ages!  Talk about inaccessible!  The calendar doesn't activate when using a screen reader probably because of some dodgy client side scripting and the page is really cluttered! Needless to say I got sick of it very quickly and went somewhere else.

Reminder to my self more than anything else.  Orca doesn't read superscript / subscript letters in Open Office and the say current line command is quite slow.  I will probably submit these as bugs / feature requests later if I get the time. 

Darren Byrne had the nastyness to meme me today. Actually, fair play, it's the first time I've been memed! I think that's very sad actually. The fact that I'm just slightly happy at the fact of being recognised enough to be memed. Here's me thinking I've been writing to my self for all this time.

This started over at Skillet.com/a> and has been doing the rounds for the last day or two. I saw it over at Head Rambles this morning.

It's called "Getting your Goat". Basically it's a good excuse to have a good old rant. I'm good at that so, first with the rules:,/p>

1. List two things that irritate you for a reason (and list the reason!), and two things that irritate you for no apparent reason whatsoever!!
2. Give credit to the person who tagged you.
3. Link your answers to the original blog, that’s here (at Skellet.com).
4. Tag four new people to participate.

That's kind of different' isn't it? ok. Here goes.

1. Two things I hate for a good reason.
   1. People saying they'll do something with absolutely no intention of doing it! Why say it! Why not just be straight and admit that you couldn't be bothered!
   2. Cars stopping in front of traffic light crossings. There are road markings for a reason. why ignore them! It makes no sense to me! And pluss, have you ever seen a guide dog who doesn't want to cross at an angle? I have one and he's fucken stubbern! If he doesn't want to cross because he thinks something shouldn't be there it doesn't matter if you put a rocket up his ass. There's nothing that can move him.
2. Things I hate for no particular reason:
   1. The feel of Styrofoam. There's just something really horrible about it! I cant even listen to someone lift it! It goes through my head.
   2. The Accordion. It's the one instrument I absolutely hate with a passion! There's no particular reason either! It's just ...... horrible!
3. Darren Byrne Is the person responsible for this.
4. I answered this twice earlier. There's no point putting another link in.
5. Ah, now, who to send it to...
   • Abby, your definitly it. You can rant as well as the next blogger. Even if your outside Ireland, I suppose we cant hold that against you.
   • StuartYour next! Go on, let it all out. You know you want to.
   • Elly, I don't see this on your site, want to give it a go?
   • Laura, if your reading, I haven't seen it on your blog either! Go nuts!

I think this is well overdue! An online dictionary that will convert between English and Irish! 

For me and for most Blind people it's a great help as there is no practical way of reading a Brailled dictionary.  There were be too many volumes to search through when you consider that the average A4 sheet is equal to three sheets of Braille. Each volume is between 60 and 75 pages.

The link is http://www.englishirishdictionary.com/

Wasn't that a great song?

I think I have it here somewhere.

It's the song that I think of for some reason while looking through my site statistics.  Every day, any site owner gets hundreds of hits from people using search engines most of which are completely unrelated to the topic they focus on.  That's what I love about blogs though, their so dynamic.  One day I could be talking about technology, the next about local news, the next about music and I could even drop in an opinion or too as well just to be a bit different! So, the keywords at any one time are endless!  Oh plus you have comments too!  Google has picked up on a few comment keywords recently as well which has got me some really strange visitors. Unfortunately, most of them just sit quietly to one side without commenting so their of absolutely no use to me!  Come on people, comment!

Quite a lot of people Email me privately for some reason.  Someone sent me a message Yesterday asking me to tell them more about the Bodhran!  I'll get around to that at some stage. 

To all of you who find my site via a search engine, Welcome!

To all of you looking for a way of putting up door frames, You're out of luck!

Oh, I don't repair or recycle fridges either sorry.

BTW, on a completely random note that will only make sense to a few nosy readers out to do no good, you may not reproduce any of the text on this site without my prior permission. Please take notice of the copyright statement at the bottom of each page. You should also be warned that all of the content on this site should be considered my opinion unless stated as fact.  If you believe any content to be in error or offensive you may of course use the Email link or the comment form associated with each post.

Irish Rail is a joke! When we were twenty minutes away from Connolly station this morning, the driver announced that the train would not service any stations after Connolly!  That meant that at twenty to nine, I’d get off the train and have to run over to Kildare Street to make it in for work at 9!  As it turned out, by the time the entire train spilled out of the station it was closer to ten to nine as the stupid ticket validation system in Connolly wouldn’t recognise tickets to Tara Street or any other station after Connolly so everyone had to try to push through.  I said from the start that new system was rubbish.  This morning is just another example that proves it.

I’ll not go into why I hate this validation system so much as I’ve ranted about it on enough forums last year so if you’re interested, I’m sure you’ll find a few dozen messages from me on the topic. 

Ah thank god for Fridays!  I’m in a fantastic mood this morning!

I woke up to the most fantastic Email I’ve received in years this morning! Anyway, with that aside, I Had a really relaxing walk to the train station with my dog working excellently.  We made it to the station in less than twenty minutes when it usually takes us 25 so we were walking at a really nice pace but the dog wasn’t feeling the pressure at all.  He was veryrelaxed which is good as I’ve had him off the pain killers for a while so I’ve been concious  that he may be experiencing some discomfort.  He goes through stages where it’s better to keep him off the tablets than to give them to him and the last two weeks have seen him doing great without them.  Yesterday he was a bit stiff and didn’t want to stretch much but it didn’t seem to bother him. 

I got to Dublin and the sun was still shining.  Again, he worked really well weeving in and out of the crouds making a bee line to the office.  It’s funny, while crossing Kildare street he looked up at me as if to ask, are you going for a coffee this morning?  If I go straight to the office I go left but if I’m stopping for a coffee first I’ll go straight and he’ll find the first open door to the left. It’s funny, if Mark, the owner of the shop is standing outside organizing the display, the dog will stop me waiting for me to say hello and all that kind of thing before waiting for the command to continue into the shop over to the counter.  It’s funny the expectations they learn to have.

OH, this morning, I think I slept on the train right from I got on from Drogheda just before I got off at Pearse!  That never happens!  I feel great now though. 
So, what else is happening.

The fella I’m teaching on a Thursday night is coming on really well.  After six weeks of lessons he’s got three tunes and we’re even moving on to ornamentation using grace notes. Now, if he’d only have more confedence in him self we’d be great!  I really enjoy teaching.  It’s a real challenge but looking at people progressing is a real reward.

Oh, would you believe it, yesterday was the first bad day I've had in this new job!  For the first time in four years I was on the phone all day!  The others who work with me are all off doing another job that I was fortunate enough to get out of but as a result, I'm stuck doing all the other stuff!  I've no kidea how things are going to go today as I've to catch up on all the stuff I should have done yesterday!  I've a laptop to bring back across to Lenster house, I've tapes to rotate, a backup  CASO server to troubleshoot as the jobs running on it are on hold for some unknown reason  and the tape library says it's in use although there's no processes running and I've  two viruses to remove from a machine for one of the staff.  So, there you have it, loads of stuff to do today as well as try to cover the office as well! 

I love being busy.

Lately, I’ve been playing with my nice new shiny Nokia N95 phone.  It’s got tuns of features in a smaller body than my old N91 so I’m really enjoying messing around with it.  I could call it experimenting or researching but fuck it.  I’m enjoying it too much to call it something as serious or boring as research. The first thing I did was throw on about 6 Gigs of music.  That took a while by the way; I usually keep all my music in Wav format because I hate the sound of compressed music so I hat to do loads of conversion before copying it all across.  On the up side though, I found a CD that I’d copied to the N91 but later forgot about that I’m really enjoying.  It’s from a group called Téada.  I’ve no idea who they are or when I bought their CD but I like it!   Anyway, it’s great not to be restricted by the same old 4 Gig of stuff for a change.  I know I could have put other music onto the N91 but I was lazy!  Converting music takes time and its more hastle than I wanted.  Plus, the N91 was starting to see the end during the last four or five months so I knew that I was going to have to update sooner than later. 

The one feature that I was looking forward to using was the integrated GPS receiver in conjunction with the Way finder GPS application.  Way Finder Access is an adapted version of this software that provides information in textual format as apposed to the standard map form.  Basically that means it’s much more accessible to someone like my self who doesn’t particularly like maps as my screen reader won’t read them.  It took a good while to get it working but finally, after leaving the phone on a windowsill for about an hour it found my position and displayed some local road names and points of interests.    However, everything was not as straight forward as I’d anticipated.   I took it outside and got into the car but before I could drive off I had to wait for the GPS to connect.  Five minutes later, still nothing.  Ten minutes.  Still nothing!   I was getting a bit frustrated at this point so I just left it and did what I needed to do.  Later though I was more successful so I took it for a quick strole.  Although I’m from Drogheda, a lot of road names still escape me.  In fact, scratch that, most road names escape me.  I can direct you to almost anywhere in the town however give me a road name and I’ll give you a clueless Darragh. So, it was nice to hear the phone chat away telling me where I was as I walked.   I gave it a very simple route first though to see how it worked.  I also took the cane with me as I didn’t want the dog to suffer while I got use to navigating with this additional mobility aid. To conclude, I was very happy with how that went. 

When I tried the system in Dublin, I was completely out of luck.  The stupid thing wouldn’t get a lock at all!  It was disappointing as I really wanted to get an idea of what points of interest it had in its database around here.  Although I know the area reasonably well, I was hoping it would expand my awareness of what’s around me and allow me to more confidently venture out to other areas. That wasn’t to be though as it seems that the limited efficiency of the N95’s GPS receiver couldn’t handle the built up environment of Dublin.  Once I got a lock when I left the phone at the window for two hours in the office but as usual, when I ventured outside it lost it and wouldn’t re-establish it again.

Last night, while staying in Crumlin, I finally got a good lock and found a few points of interest.  I plotted a route from Stanaway to the Stat oil Garage on the Crumlin Road.  The GPS said it was about a mile and a half away.  That was perfect as I assumed it would give me plenty of opportunity to test its direction around corners etc. 
I walked out of Devenish, onto Stanaway and it immediately kicked in and told me to take a left onto Sun drive.  It said a hundred and twenty feet but it was much more like four hundred. For some reason, I always operate best with feet and inches instead of Meters.  I’ve no idea why.  Anyway, I turned left onto Sun drive and after a few seconds it told me to turn left after 0.2 miles onto Cloher road.  This certainly wasn’t 0.2 miles away but I followed its directions.  Fortunately, there were no crossings between Stanaway and Cloher road on the right so it was an easy road to find.  Plus, I kind of know the name of that road so I was reasonably confident that I was going the right way.  Oh, I should say that I know this area reasonably well but I had no idea where the Crumlin road was or where the destination was either. So, I was completely reliant on the directions the GPS was providing.  I turned onto Cloher road and it said that I should turn left after 0.5 miles.  Problem was, there were a lot of left turns before that so frequently I had to walk left, verify the road I was on with the where am I function then turn back onto cloher road and keep walking.  The problem with that method was that frequently, the where am I function would just tell me that I was in Dublin!  How helpful was that!  Now, granted, I could look at the cross roads page of the software but that really confused me.  Mainly because I am still learning about how it expects to orientate its user.  After crossing a very busy road with no crossing I went over a bridge that I recognised as a bridge over the canal.  Immediately, it told me to turn left.  I know that was impossible though because I know someone who use to live down that road and it’s a dead end down that direction.  I kept walking and it told me to turn left again.  When I turned at the next left though it told me that I was off course and it tried to reroute me.  Again, it told me to go back onto Cloher road and go straight so I did!  Across another busy road with no structured crossing or lights over another bridge.  At this point the instructions it was giving me made absolutely no sense so I decided to turn around and retrace my steps back to the house. 

When I got back, I was told that the second bridge I crossed was Dolphins Bridge.  From what I gather, it’s an area to be avoided.  Especially late in the evening as there are a lot of problems there at the moment with gangs and drugs.  Glad I didn’t know that at the time!  I stood for about five minutes trying to figure out what the GPS was telling me at that bridge where I‘m told they regularly deel right under. 

I’m hoping that the main problem with this is the internal GPS receiver in the N95.  It didn’t seem to be able to track my position well.  That left turn it told me to take was actually the left before the bridge over the canal.  When I got closer to the turn it should have told me but it gave me very little indication where it was. 

Another problem I found was with the software.  When you go off course and it tries to reroute you back the way you came it doesn’t tell you to turn around.  It’s very disorientating.  It also took a very long time to realise that I was off course but again, I’m hoping that’s down to the internal receiver in the N95.

One feature I’d like to see in Way Finder Access is assurance that when you reach a turn during a route it tells you to go straight or right.  Some kind of reinforced instruction to allow you to be confident that the way you’re going is the right way.  I’d also like the screen reader to customise its key map while in Way finder so you could determine the street you’re walking on by just hitting one key. 

Over all, I like way Finder Access and I’m really hoping that the problems I’ve experienced are related to the integrated GPS as for it’s advertise functionality, it’s by far the cheapest GPS solution on the market for Visually impaired users.  The Trekker, Humanware and Freedom Scientific solutions are much much more expensive and they necessitate that you carry much more hardware around with you.  One aspect that attracts me to Way Finder Access is that at most you need your phone, a GPS receiver and a speaker / headset.

If you’ve had any experience with Way Finder access I’d really like to hear from you.  I’m thinking of purchasing an external Bluetooth receiver and the licence for the application but I don’t want to go in blind.  Excuse the pun.  I want to be fully aware of the benefits and pitfalls of this application in comparison to the competition.

Look at that.  now, the only thing I'm missing is a usb powered kettle to allow me to boil water for coffee without moving from my desk!

The picture shows my desk with three keyboards, a VOIP phone, three monitors, one 19 inch and two 15 inch screens at each side of the larger one. to the left of the main keyboard is a Braille display and to the left of that is a bar code reader. Oh there are also a few DLT tapes on the left edge and a DVI graphics card just under the side of the left monitor. On the left over the keyboard is a braille labling gun that's used for labeling new servers when they go live.

On the Tenth of June, my birthday, we took a drive over to Skerries over to Bill Haneman to let me play the Tailor brothers Úilléann pipes.  The Tailor Brothers were origionally from Drogheda however left to find work and obviously, money in the states.  Do a search for the Tailor brothers and you'll find the history of them.  Basically, the pipes wer play are an evolution of these pipes.  It was an absolute honor and privlidge to play them. I have a few pictures below to show you them.  I'll let the tags on each image speak for them selves.  Just move your mouse over each picture to see a short discription. Users of screen readers, do nothing, you'll automatically get this information.

My thanks to Bill Haneman.ie for giving me this oppertunity.

Finally, after waiting for exactly 5760 minutes since Monday, it's Friday again!  The weekend is fast approaching!  Of course, I've a really busy day to get through first but there's light at the end of the tunnel!

Today I've the weekely backup rotation to do so I've to invintory all the tapes that have been used in both Kildare and Lenster houses box them and just throw in the new tapes.  Sounds like a simple job but because the server rooms are so far away from each other it takes a while.  Pluss there are a hell of a lot of tapes in use. 

Oh I got a restore request last night at 7 minutes to 5 and I still managed to make the train at 5:13 from pearse!  How fast is that!

Actually aside from the backups today, if nothing major has happened last night then it should be a reasonably quiet day as there isn't anything huge I need to do. 

So, here's to the weekend!

Grandad has the right idea. Over at Head Rambles he blogged about this fabulous Summer weather. Think it's time to go buy a boat.

On the way to work this morning I had a read of Marie Borans blog supplement in the Irish Independent. I like her writing! I’d possibly disagree with some of her conclusions when assessing technology for SiliconRepublic.com as in my opinion the conclusions should be less personalized however; I really appreciate her giving this little site a mention! So, Marie, if you’re reading, I owe you a pint!

Now, the one thing that’s got me thinking is her focus on the fact that I’m blind and I occasionally write about issues directly effecting blind people. My aim while writing this blog is to keep it as unrelated to stuff regarding blindness as possible. Of course, as I’m learning about something or setting a new application or operating system up it will invariably come up as a point to note for anyone who finds my experiences helpful but it’s very rarely my intention to write about something that only appeals to the small group of visually impaired readers that visit this dodgy domain.

At some stage while in a more reflective mood I must read back over some posts to try to assess exactly what image this blog and indeed I portray. As I said in a post in March, my reasons for blogging are complicated, different and yet as normal as all the other bloggers out there however I think my main aim is to illustrate through this medium that because I’m blind, there are occasionally tasks where I need to apply slightly different methodology in order to succeed in completing them. Applying that positive and optimistic policy of believing there is always a way of adapting your self or the tools available for a given task in my hope will assure that I am never recognised by the fact that I cant see and instead recognised by my flexibility to adapt to any situation / task / environment and interact with it with the same efficiency as any one else. I suppose to a reasonable degree that necessitates a certain amount of content where I refer to different techniques that I use for adapting to various environments however I’d hope that this is only viewed as a side note and not the most prominent attribute. It’s possibly a balancing act. What do you think? What is the most prominent topic in your opinion on this blog? What do you get from it? Why do you bother reading? What brings you back? Is this a blog orientated toward people who are blind? God that would be ironic wouldn’t it?

You know, I think this is a bug I’ve caught from other bloggers. Spending an entire post blogging about blogging. Its crazy isn’t it? I should just get back to writing the same old nonsense as normal.

Thanks for giving me something to think about…

Oh to finish up, there are a few things I need to correct. Not just in the Irish Independent mention but in the blog in general. Their more updates than corrections really.

Firstly, I no longer work with Novell. Even when I was there I never worked directly with accessibility. I took this on as a side project that I worked on when I had the time and outside work hours. My ongoing work creating Audio walk throughs for new users of Linux" is done in my own time and only for the benefit of this very worthy cause.

At the moment, I’m working with a company contracted by the OIREACHTAS. The Houses of the OIREACHTAS is basically the centre of Irish government. I’m working here as an IT administrator primarily responsible for backups and supporting members. Members are TD’s, Senators and their employees. My job takes me to Kildare, Lenster, Phoenix and agriculture houses on a daily basis. I really like the job as I have a lot of exposure to everything from rooms packed with racks and racks of servers to Members PC’s to testing new laptops and software for future implementation. Coming from the previous company I worked in, coming to work doesn’t feel like I’m actually working. I suppose that’s the best way to have it isn’t it? One final note that could actually get me into trouble with some people, I’m employed by a company contracted by the OIREACHTAS. This means that I did not get in because of my disability. I got this job by working very hard, building on my qualifications and proving via experience with other companies that I was the right person to meet their requirements. I don’t mean to say this to belittle anyone working in the civil service however I recently got an email from someone praising the Irish government for taking someone on with and: I quote: “My problems”. So, I felt it necessary to make that clear. Sorry, minor rant over.

My work does not involve accessibility however I’ve had to do a bit to make this environment accessible to allow me to work with the same efficiency as everyone around me. This involved ensuring that my screen reader was on every server and work station in these offices and purchasing a bar code reader to allow me to read tape labels used for organizing backups. Funnily enough, these were the only two changes that were required and I purchased both adaptations my self. Not because they were not offered by my employer but because I believe that if people with disabilities expect that they should be considered equally it is unfair to expect perspective employers to shell out for costly adaptations. If needed of course, there are grants that can be sourced from employment organizations such as Fas to cover this however I haven’t needed to go down this road in quite a while. As you can probably guess, this is not something that many blind people agree with.

Just thinking, maybe I should change my blog slogan to: Dodgy Darragh, trouble maker!

I found this interesting:  In the Drogheda Independent in the Wednesday June 11th edition.

http://www.drogheda-independent.ie/frontpage/ancient-remains-found-in-scotch-hall-building-site-1413001.html

Actually, part of Scotch hall is built around a very old building.  I cant remember what the building was used for and in fact it probably wasn't something very important I think it was protected under a preservation order so they had no choice but to build around it.  I like it though.  It's a really cool feature right in the middle of the center.   Everything in the outside is still in tact.  the door, old brick work and even the windows!

Emergency tax is a right pain isn’t it?

I was assured by my new employer that I wouldn’t pay this for at least three months giving them plenty of time to submit my P45 to them so they could in turn relay it to their out sourced pay role company who would in turn relay this to Revenue.

Over two months on, I find that their still charging me emergency tax!  Stupid Revenue have refused to help me by providing all the information I need for my employer so I need to hastle people needlessly for work that should have been done by Revenue.  Thieving feckers.

Anyway, it’s all sorted now. 

It's the longest day of the year, it's in the middle of June and the rain is pounding off the ground. 

OH, and I'm baby sitting a friends four year old son while his mother and Emma go the cinema to watch Sex in the city. 

Thinking about it, I think I've the better deel.  I'd much rather mind the child!

I just cant figure out Cake walk.  It's so complicated!

I finally got it to record through the right input on my sound card and it's even outputting to both sound cards similtainiously which is fantastic but I'm having problems!

The recorded audio is very distorted and choppy.  Not the kind of distortion that you'd expect from bad levels but distortion like clicking right the way through the recording. 

When I try to record a second track, for some reason it plays back the first track as I want it to but the music I record is a second ahead that on the first track.  That definitly shouldn't be happening. 

It's either a hardware incompatibility or with any luck, just something I haven't come to terms with in Cake walk.  There are a huge amount of options to set before you even start looking at recording something.

Well, after people talking about it last night, I decided to give Twitter a go.  You'll find me at http://twitter.com/digitaldarragh

Don't worry, I'm certainly not going to give this up.  I am just trying that out to see what it's like. 

I'm going to the firefox party tonight in Cine world in Dublin.  From the amount of people coming, it looks like it's going to be a really good night!  Emma's even coming.

Get your self over to http://mozillaparty.com/en-US/events/view/106  quickly to register and I'll see you at 7PM.  I'll be the one with the big golden guide mutt beside me. 

Poor Freddie,  I know he's having a few problems at the moment but he's starting to get on my nerves. 

Yesterday, while a bus passed us while waiting at a crossing it sent a gust of air our direction.  That's nothing unusual.  It happens from time to time.  Freddie jumped a mile though!  So much so that he made me let go of the handle for his harnis and sent it over his head with the force of his  jump back. As needed, I gave him some attention and assured him that it was all ok with the assumption that he'd recover quickly and work normally afterword.  No.  That wasn't to be.  He pulled me left for the entire walk home and he got distracted and frightened by every single thing!  He even jumped when a leaf blew in the wind on the ground.  That's how distracted and nervous he was!  That lasted for the entire walk home.  This morning he started off great but after avoiding a parked car that was on the path a few minutes away from the house he decided to return to his left pulling ways.  This is nothing new with him.  He's done this from time to time in the past.  In fact, a few years ago he got so bad that I almost had enough and was verging on returning to the cain.  It sounds like a minor issue but when you can constantly feel his nervousness through the handle and you know he's walking so close to the wall he's practically touching it it is very hard to stay posative.  Of course, now that we've had this a lot we're getting through it and I've learned ways of decreasing his sensitivity and making working more like a game again.  That's really the secret to this dog,  make something like a game and he'll forget all about his nervousness.  That worked for a while this morning but it kept returning and once again he'd pull me left.  Fortunately, after about half way through, after just ignoring the fact that he was nervous for about ten minutes he finally got over it.  it returned again just before getting to the train station but that's normal.  He seems to have a small issue with walking through the car park at times. Fortunately, when we arrived in Dublin and got off the train he wasn't nervous any more but his distraction levels were still very high.  He seemed to  find something very interesting around the side gate of trinity.  It's actually got to the stage where if I need to go somewhere today I'd rather take the cain because working him is just too much hastle. And believe me, that's saying something.  This place is like a maze and it's far from accessible.

So, there you have it.  My Guide dog related rant is over for the moment.

I haven't really followed this program but I got slightly interested in the last few weeks.  Last night, they seem to have finally found earth.  However, for the last five minutes there was no dialogue and only pictures.  My poor mother dropped over to say hello on her way past and was nabbed to provide some audio description for me!  Thank god for mothers! I'd have been completely lost!  Although, thanks to sky plus, I'd had it recorded as well so I could enlist Emma's help later if I needed to.  I hate when programs do that.  One of the most significant parts in the entire season and it's all visual!  Do they have no consideration? 

Take a look at the new willing Fools website over at www.willinfools.com  It's built on Word press which seems to be increasingly popular lately by people who don't want to dive to far into development.  Not that that's a bad thing of course.  Just an observation.  I like the new site.  It's much more organized and I think the blog look and feel suits them a lot more.