This is without doubt the most dammaging news to hit assistive technology users ever. Believe me when I say that the effect of this cannot be over stressed. If people like Willy Walker from Sun are not employed to continue to push the Gnome accessibility project forward, the advances we've seen in the past ten years will never be seen again. That's a fact based on their track record. Without the Gnome accessibility project, I would not have been able to hold employment when working for Novell. There are hundreds of people in similar situations around the world. Sure, the Gnome accessibility project will possibly continue however without the backing of Sun, it's going to make very few strides forward.

Everyone who has an interest in assistive technology needs to jump on this one. It doesn't matter what platform you use. It doesn't matter if you've even heard of Linux. I hear you ask Why!

Look at Firefox 3. I saw press releases from both Freedom Scientific and GW Micro claming that they worked with the Mozilla foundation to ensure that version 3 of Firefox was accessible to visually impaired. But, in actual fact, I know that it was nothing to do with them. And, if you want proof, just look through the logs of the nightly builds. Every day, someone from the sun led Linux accessibility project was helping Firefox contributors to fix bugs that caused problems with accessibility. It was Sun that made the need for Accessibility known!

Here is an open letter written by one of the most hard working community developers of Orca, the screen reader for the Gnome desktop manager. Joanie is without doubt one of the most hard working and intellegent people I have the fortune of following on Twitter. I really hope that he continues his work on Orca however I doubt that even she will be able to do as much on a part time basis as Willy Walker was able to do in his full time role. The open lettter can be found at http://blog.grain-of-salt.com/index.php?itemid=394

An Open Letter to Oracle on the Topic Of Accessibility

Dear Oracle:

You don't know me, so please permit me a brief introduction: I'm Joanie. By day, I'm an assistive technology specialist working with individuals who are blind or visually impaired. By night, weekend, and holiday for almost four years now, I've been a GNOME community contributor working primarily on the Orca screen reader, a project led by Sun's Accessibility Program Office.

Working with the engineers at Sun, both inside and outside of the APO, has been an honor for a variety of reasons, not least of which is our shared common belief: Access isn't a privilege; it's a right. Towards that end, Sun Microsystems strived to ensure that ALL users have access to software and information.

Does Oracle plan to do the same?

Sun Microsystems believed that these things shouldn't be denied to those who aren't employed, or who don't live in the "right" country, or who don't speak the "right" language, or who cannot afford to purchase thousands of dollars' worth of access technology.

What does Oracle believe?

Through its significant, ongoing contributions to the GNOME desktop, Sun Microsystems has made computer access possible for many individuals with disabilities, from all walks of life, all over the world.

Will Oracle embrace the opportunity to continue this important work?

My assumption was yes. In fact, I was feeling quite hopeful. After all, the past few years have been hard on Sun. But with Larry Ellison's promise of increased investment in the Sun brand, and Oracle's strong commitment to accessibility, things would finally be turning around: If one under-funded APO could accomplish everything that it has, what could the two combined and properly-funded APOs achieve? At the very least we'd be able to finally get a handle on all of the accessibility challenges facing GNOME 3.

I was wrong.

Last week, Oracle laid off two more members of Sun's already-decimated APO. One of those let go happened to be both the Orca project lead and the GNOME Accessibility project lead, Willie Walker. I truly hope this was an oversight on Oracle's part, and one that will be rectified very soon. Because if it is not, and if no other company steps forward to continue this work, the accessibility of the GNOME desktop will become the open source equivalent of an unfunded mandate, doomed ultimately to fail.

Oracle's decision threatens to leave many individuals with disabilities around the world without access to a modern desktop environment. I find that tragic.

Please, make sure you tell others about this. Tweet it. Call your friends, shout from the roof tops, just do something! This really cannot go unnoticed by us as uses of assistive technology. If it does, I am sorry to say that we'll all regret it.

A question was just asked on twitter that I thought might be of use to some people.

So, here goes. Follow the following distructions:

These are for Windows XP.

1. Start system properties by pressing the windows key plus pause. Pause is usually on the top right of desktop keyboards.
2. Press the control + tab combination twice to move to the hardware tab.
3. Press alt + d to activate the Device manager button. If you can see the screen, you will notice that under lined letters for buttons, radio buttons, checkboxes and even some edit fields can be accessed quickly by using the alt key + that letter. For menu items, pressing the letter alone will activate that option. In the case of menus with two of the same underlined letters, pressing the letter will set focus to one of these.
4. To jump to the list of hardware, press the tab key once.
5. Press the letter m to jump to the item labeled:"Mice and other pointing devices".
6. Expand this item by pressing the right arrow.
7. You will usually only see one item in this list. Press the down arrow to highlight it.
8. Activate the context menu. ON a mouse, this is usually obtained by clicking the right button. On a keyboard, press the applications key. This is three to the right of the space bar on most desktop keyboards. If you are using a laptop that does not have an applications key, you can press shift + F10.
9. The first item in this list is "Update driver". Use the down arrow to highlight this and press enter to activate it.
10. The following wizzard will walk you through the process of updating your driver. You may use the tab key to cycle around the options on this screen, the enter key to activate buttons and of course, as explained earlier, use alt + underlined letters to quickly activate buttons and other controls. For example, alt + n for next.

For users of Windows Vista and Windows 7:

1. Go to the start menu by pressing the windows key or control + escape.
2. You will automatically be in the search box. Type the following without the quotes. "device manager".
3. To jump to the list of hardware, press the tab key once.
4. Press the letter m to jump to the item labeled:"Mice and other pointing devices".
5. Expand this item by pressing the right arrow.
6. You will usually only see one item in this list. Press the down arrow to highlight it.
7. Activate the context menu. ON a mouse, this is usually obtained by clicking the right button. On a keyboard, press the applications key. This is three to the right of the space bar on most desktop keyboards. If you are using a laptop that does not have an applications key, you can press shift + F10.
8. The first item in this list is "Update driver". Use the down arrow to highlight this and press enter to activate it.
9. The following wizzard will walk you through the process of updating your driver. You may use the tab key to cycle around the options on this screen, the enter key to activate buttons and of course, as explained earlier, use alt + underlined letters to quickly activate buttons and other controls. For example, alt + n for next.

Hopefully that works for you. If not, please post a comment.

I posted this comment on Nicky's blog but because it's an interesting topic in relation to selfe defence at home, I thought I'd repost it here too.

Yes, I certainly agree that this is a welcome step however, everything is not as great as it seems. Would you agree that if people have the legal right to defend them selves that this will lead to burglers coming more prepared for this eventuality? There is a lot to be said for being a passivist in this type of situation. The last thing you would want is for someone entering your house to be more armed than they already are because they are aware that you could be willing and able to fight back if the oppertunity arose. More importantly, what if the burgler had the idea to attack you before you had the oppertunity to attack him. All because your now legally entitled to defend your property.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m in support of this amendment to the constitution but I understand the reasons why it’s not such a great idea as well.

Also, I will finish by saying regardless of the law, if someone entered my house and posed a viable risk to me, Emma or even my dog, I would have no hesitation in inflicting as much bodily harm as I could on them. At the end of the day, I’m responsible for what goes on. Could I really live with my self if something happened to them? Thanks, but I’d rather face the law.

What are your thought's?

I really hate talking watches with a passion.
Their evil! Their horrible! Their the embodyment of everything that is evil in the world.

Why? Well, I'll tell you.

• Their loud.
  Imagine this. Your sitting in a quiet office. people are typing on their computers around you and you want to find out what time it is. This booming voice shatters the silence by screaming out: "THE TIME IS NOW 6:15 PM!!!!!!!!!" Everyone in the office turns and gasps at this distraction and you go bright red with shame as a result.
• They talk too slowly.
  You need to know what time it is and you need to know now! You press the button and in it's booming voice, it screams in the slowest voice ever, "THE TIME IS NOW 6:15 PM!!!!!!!!" All you need to know in a hurry was that it was a quarter past 6, but by the time it's finished, it's now twenty past! Ok. that's a huge exageration but you know what I mean.
• Their big and clunky.
  A talking watch on your arm is like having a huge sign on you saying to people, hay! I'm blind! and I love my talking watch! Listen to it roar!

OK. right. so my hate of talking watches is now known. People, please buy a braille watch. Their much better!

I assume you know that in Windows 7, task bar items are associated with a number. so for example, internet explorer is assigned to windows key plus 1, your libarary is assigned to windows key plus 2 etc.

But, did you know that if you press windows key, shift and 1 a new instance of Internet explorer will be launched instead of just setting focus to the currently open instance?

Or, if you need to launch Internet Explorer with higher access privlidges for some reason, press windows key, control, shift and 1 and you'll be prompted with a UAC box asking you if you are sure.

Cool isn't it?

I like it because I use windows key and 2 a lot to jump to my libraries. But, if you already have a folder open, windows key just sets focus to that window. That's kind of useless if you want to open two folders at the same time and you want to continue using keyboard commands to jump back to your libraries. So, like with Internet explorer, press windows key, shift and 2 and it will open a new instance of the libraries view.

Right. Here's what I want to do, but I am not really sure how I'm going to do it without using loads of bandwidth.

I currently have Icecast set up on a virtual server running Linux. It hosts a few broadcasts at the moment however their not permanently available. therefore, if you visit a broadcast mount point such as http://digitaldarragh.com:8000/madfortrad.m3u You will not hear anything unless someone is broadcasting to it.

The problem here is, when you advertise a broadcast like this, people like to go visit the stream right away. At the moment, when they visit it, they either get errors or their media player tries to download something. This isn't good for very obvious reasons.

So, the problem is therefore, how do I get something to stream to this Icecast mount point all the time.

With Icecast, I can specify a secondary mountpoint. So, if I could get something to stream to this alternative mountpoint it would be perfect. Problem is, that if it's an external source, it's going to eat up bandwidth and also, it will likely slow the performance of the server.

So, how do I stream using a virtual server that doesn't have a sound card and therefore obviously doesn't have a device to stream to? Icecast needs a client to stream to it. Is there a client that would sit quietly as a service and stream to a mount point all day long? Surely this client wouldn't work without a sound card? Or, is there some kind of virtual sound card module that I could use?

Thinking out loud, actually, the encoder / client doesn't necessarily need to output to a sound card. and it could use a local loop back to the IceCast server. But, again, I need to make sure the client is really lightweight so it doesn't create too much overhead in terms of memory and processor utilization because the servers priority always needs to be focused on serving websites.

Any ideas?

It's no secret that I really love Irish traditional music. From Cara Dillon, Julie Fowlis, Kate Rusby, Michael Mcgoldrick, Tommy Cunnif, Zoe Conway, Mick Ó Brian, Sharon Shannon and John McKusker to Guidewires, Lúnasa, flook, Grada, Stocktons Wing, Slide, Tripswitch and Téada just to name a few, I love it all. I have over a Terabyte of Irish traditional music and I want to share some of this with you.

There are no decent Irish traditional music radio shows at the moment. This aims to fill that void.

The show will air on Saturdays at 7PM GMT, 2PM Eastern and 11AM Pacific time.

At the moment, there are a lot of ideas for making this show something you will want to listen to. Just some of the aims at the moment are:

• Interviews and live performances by known and not so known Irish traditional musicians.
• If permitted by musicians, short recordings of live gigs.
• Interviews with lovers of Irish traditional music.
• Reviews of specific new albums,/li>
• Requests! Tell me what you want to hear. If I don't have it, I'll certainly get it.

The content and format of the show is currently not set. It's going to change and evolve over the next few weeks as people decide what they want. Get your say in by commenting on this post.

This online broadcast is licensed by The Irish Music Rights Organization (IMRO.) Every step possible has been taken to ensure that copyrighted material is respected and artists are recognised appropriately.

The stream will be available at the following address. If this doesn't open in Internet Explorer or Firefox, paste the address into your media player of choice. http://digitaldarragh.com:8000/madfortrad.m3u

Problem

You cannot connect to certain sites.
You can ping IP addresses on the internet but you cant ping some or all domain names.

Background

DNS look ups are basically where you give your computer a domain name like google.com and it resolves it to an IP address such as 216.239.59.137. Generally you will have two or more DNS look up servers. These are generally given to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Solution

If your ISP is having problems with their Domain Name Servers (DNS) for short, you may want to consider using a service called OpenDNS. This service does exactly what your ISP's DNS servers do. You will continue to have a primary and secondary DNS server but instead of looking up names using your ISP's servers, you'll use OpenDNS instead.

First, go to www.opendns.com and create an account. When your done, you will see instructions for adding the DNS servers to all versions of windows and Linux. If you continue down the page, you'll also see a heading for geeks. Here, you will find the primary and secondary addresses. Keep these somewhere for a moment.

To configure Windows, Just follow these really simple steps.

1. Go to run.
2. Type the following Without the quotation marks: "control netconnections"
3. Are you using wireless to connect to the router? If so, go to Wireless network connection with your mouse / arrows. If your using a wired connection, find Local area connection..
4. press alt and enter if your using the keyboard, or right click on local area connection or wireless connection then click properties if your using a mouse.
5. If using the keyboard, press i until you land on Internet protocol TCPIP. If your using Windows 7 or Vista, you'll see IPv4 TCPIP or something like that. If using the mouse, click on this. NOw, press alt p for properties. If your using windows 7 or vista, press alt and r. If using the mouse, click on the properties button.
6. Tab once to the radio button for obtain DNS IP address automatically and press the down arrow once to select Use the following DNS IP address. IF your using the mouse, click on this option.
7. Tab to the primary dns field or left-click on it.
8. Now, type the Primary DNS address that you got from the OpenDNS site.
9. Do the second for the secondary DNS address. Just tab to that field or click on it with the mouse.
10. When your done, click the OK button, then at the network properties, click close.

Right, that's the hard bit done. Now, you just need to flush your DNS cache.

Your DNS cache is a local log of addresses that have been looked up. This cache reduces the amount of look ups that are carried out. However, when your change your DNS server due to problems, you need to remove this cache so that at the start, all further look ups are sent out to the primary or secondary DNS servers.

Doing this is really simple.

1. Go to run.
2. Type "cmd" and hit enter or click ok.
3. In the resulting command prompt window, type the following without the quotations: "ipconfig /flushdns" and hit the enter key.
4. Now, type exit.

Your done.

Close any and all Internet Explorer windows open at the moment and try going back to a site you previously couldn't access.

Ok. It's no secret.

If your a boards.ie member, go on over to their website as there's an important message for everyone who has an account there.

I really pity them. This is going to be a hard mess to clean up after. And it's really not their fault either!

www.boards.ie

Random, highly personal and very strange. But I couldn't care less.

I've a pain in my ass!

NO seriously! I've a pulled muscle or something.

And you thought you were having a bad day? Just imagine me! I'm sitting on my chair leaning to one side because my ass is sore.

Caused by doing too many squats with free weights. Trying to increase the power of my hill climes on the tandem.

Stop laughing!

No really!

Ouch!

It was said last night that I haven't blogged in ages.

Well, it's true. I haven't really been bothered. I've had a few tuff decisions to make and a few work problems that have required a bit of serious thought to figure out what I'm going to do. But, I'm almost at the end of the tunnel now. The decision I knew I was going to have to make will be made shortly and the required action will be taken. and work? well, I'm just goin to have to put up and shut up for a while.

January and a lot of December have been dead months in terms of music. This trend can not continue. Without music, my best avenue for releasing a lot of my day to day worries is gone so things annoy me more than they would ordinarily. So, I'm attempting to rectify that.

Now, I need a coffee. This train is running late....................... again.

I decided on Sunday that I was going to set up a service on a Linux box for streaming audio. It's not for me... not for the moment anyway. It's for Stuart Lawler He wanted to stream his weekly podcast, the Stuart Lawler Show live to listeners while also making it available as a downloadable podcast. He's planning to air it every week at 2PM. So, if your around at that time which is 7AM in Canada and 9AM in most parts of the US, Hop on over to The live show feed. Note, that feed doesn't work when he's not broadcasting so be warned, it will probably just give you a page not found error message.

I wanted to write a few notes to explain the process that I used to get IceCast running on this Ubuntu 8.04 machine. Firstly, I made a mistake. I didn't realise the Icecast2 package was available in the apt repositories. So, I compiled all of the dependencies and the actuall Icecast package my self from source. So, I could have made it much easier on my self if I had checked the repositories before hand but... hay, that's life.

So, when installing Icecast from source, you'll need to download, configure, make and install LibXML, LibXXLT, LibTool, Curl and make. You'll also need libvorbis, libogg and possibly a few other packages depending on what your doing.
You should install your dependencies in that order before moving on to IceCast as the make clean option didn't work after the make process failed due to dependency problems.

Of course, if your compiling Icecast from source, you'll need to add it as a service to run so you'll need to grab or manually create a file to run it for /etc/init.d/

But, that isn't probably necessary if you bother to check the package repository first though.

simply, go and grab it by typing sudo apt-get install icecast2 and your done. Don't do what I also stupidly did when I installed icecast-server as that is version 1 of the package. Why they still have that in the repository I will never know.

Right. Is that done?

The config files are in /etc/icecast2.

Hay, I noticed a little funny thing when I installed it. I created a group called icecast with limited access and then a user with a similar name. Then, the installer created a new group... But what wsa funny was that in the config it generated in /etc/icecast2/icecast.xml, it elft the last bit commented out where the user name and the group is specified for better security. Something must have been left out somewhere when the package was created for the Ubuntu repositories. anyway, it's simple enough to customise the xml file. The only problem is figuring out what addesses it's looking for. The howtos, forums and every other bit of documentation out there is confusion at it's best. Forget it all! Just use the release notes and the comments in the config file to guide you because they won't stear you wrong.

Change the hostname to yourdomain.com.
Leave the port.
uncomment the changeowner part of the config at the bottom. comments start with <!-- and end with -->. If your reading this with a screen reader, that last bit will make no sense to you. Use your read by character functions to see it.

Finally, when that's done, create your mount point. At this stage, look at the sample mount points in the config. Only take what you need from them. Start the block with , end it with and you'll be fine. The only information it really needs is the tag. Make that /name.mp3 or something like that.

That's all there is too it really. It's really much easier than I thought it was going to be. Actually, by complicating it, I probably made it more difficult than it needed to be.

I've been doing a lot with virtual machines this week.

Virtual machines are basically computers within a computer. That's really the easiest way of explaining it.

The Virtual machine application I chose was VMWare workstation.

So, installing the VM was absolutely fine. you'll basically create the VM, decide the virtual machines specifications and when you boot it, it's like booting a normal computer. You'll have to install an operating system and configure it. Fortunately though, installing drivers is usually a non issue as they'll automagically be picked up from the host.

The strange things I've come a cross so far are as follows:

When installing Jaws, it took two reboots for the mirror driver to be installed. After this, the procedure continued as normal. Authorization etc was as you'd expect on a normal installation of Windows.

One non-accessibility odity that I've found is that while in the virtual machine, the power saving settings of the guest still continue to take priority. That means that the machine can suddenly go into stand by even though you have been using the guest continually. OF course, it's not really a problem. Either go to exclusive mode in VMWare or change your power settings.

On the first machine I installed this environment on I had huge problems getting the virtual machine to except the installation of Windows XP and then, when I finally got it working, the host couldn't resume from stand by. I think this was as a result of something wrong with that computer though as when I recieved it first, it wouldn't boot until I removed the keyboard and mouse. Some of the windows and reboot issues seemed like ACPI problems too so I switched the disk into a different machine with the same spec and it all worked properly.

Interestingly, I would have expected Windows and Jaws to need reactivation when I changed the disk into the alternat PC however both continued working without any changes at all.

I won't explain why this is so unusual or why I'm devoting an entire blog post to it. Just go over and listen for your self.

Get off the train. Let a few people go first. Their useful for following to find the right ticket validation machine to go through. Most people use the very wide one at the end of the row so it's safe enough to follow them as that will leave you almost directly in line of the steps that lead down to the exit.

When you get off the train, turn left and be prepared to follow quickly as people leaving the station do so very quickly.

You will gradually turn to the right. Scan with the cane carefully as there are three steps to go down before you meet the ticket validation machines. These steps will be on your right side and as you go down them the ticket validation machines are in a row to your left.

When you get down the steps continue following the crowd to the left. There will be two very small plastic signs that most likely don't even reach past knee level on the ground. One is at three steps that lead down to another area but I have no idea what it's used for and I don't know what the other sign is for. There's a bin and a pole to the right of it. When you reach the pole your only a few feet away from the row of machines. If you stand with your back to this pole and bin and you walk straight forward, you'll meet a machine however although you can get through this machine if you have the correct ticket with you, it's not the best one to go through in terms of accessibility as you will find no land marks between it and the steps down.

Again, although you know of these land marks and their useful if the crowd is too quick for you to follow, try where possible to follow them as it's much easier.

When you meet the ticket machine, go straight through. During rush hour there are usually two people there. One on the outside and one standing in the way of the door thing so it doesn't close. This machine is slightly wider to allow access by wheel chairs but is used informally for commuters who purchase yearly tickets.

Again, continue following the crowd through this machine. They will turn gradually left as when you are facing with your back to this specific machine the stairs down are almost directly in front of you.

If you turn left with them, scan with the cane to the left. You'll find a pole. Navigate around this pole and take a step to the left.

Walk straight ahead and you will find the side of the steps. This is a wall with a rail on your right. If you move about three or four steps to your left you'll meet another wall. I find using the right is better. It's personal preference though. I choose it because I can go straight out of the station at the bottom while following the wall and because most other people try to rush out the door nearest the traffic lights it usually results in me getting there before the rest of them. Oh, plus, I avoid the people giving out news papers too so its win win.

Right. Half way down the steps is a small platform. It only lasts for about two steps. When you get to the bottom you'll notice tactile markings. Go straight out to the very edge of the footpath. Use the cane by scanning the edge of the path as you turn to the left. Follow that path with the cane scanning the step to your right. You will come across one pole that is out on the edge but it's not a huge obstacle considering the mess on the left.

You'll meet a dip. After this dip the traffic light pole is only a few steps away.
Use that crossing.

At the other side, move to the end of the tactile and take a sharp left. Attempt to continue in a straight line for around twenty feet.

After you do this, gradually turn left scanning to your right for a wall.

Continue down this road scanning the wall and steps on your right. These are reasonably straight so you shouldn't have major problems. There are two areas however where the wall has been removed and the path widens. Simply carry on straight.

You will be aware when you come to the corner as the surface of the path changes and you will meet tactile markings that are sloped from a traffic light pole toward the corner. Find this corner and take a sharp right. Stay in close as there are a few poles and metal boxes used for maintenance or something on the outside of this path.

On this street, continue walking until you reach a change in the surface. Be aware that there are two points along the wall that jut out. However, the cane will detect these.

When the surface changes, immediately start walking to the right scanning for the ramp that marks the start of the road. This is a very wide corner that turns to the left. Continue following this ramp until you feel a slope up and a change in surface.

There are a lot of poles on the edge of the path on this road but the buildings on the right have very inconsistent fronts that angle, curve, jut out and are generally hard to follow. The road gradually curves to the right after a while but after meeting the first pole on the edge, take a step to the right and walk down the centre of the path for around 40 feet. This will likely help you avoid the person that begs at the wall and allows you to avoid a lot of the navigation you would need to do if you followed the building edge.

After 40 feet or so, turn to the right gradually and begin following the buildings around to the right. After the dip, you will soon meet a change in surface as well as access covers down to the seller for the pub on the right. After passing these two metal covers, step to the left and follow the middle of the path for a short time.

You will meet a tactile crossing. Use these traffic lights to cross the road.

After crossing the road, use the cane to find the gulley. Follow this gully for only a few feet. If you continue to follow this you will meet poles as well as the edge of the foot path. Veer in to your left but don't follow the edge of the building. Go straight along the centre of the path. You will very likely meet a slope down as well as tactile markings. Cross this very quiet and narrow road and continue along the path following the buildings to your left. There is only one obstruction on this path. It is a barrier used by a coffee shop. After the barrier you are only a few steps away from the crossing at the bottom of Kildare Street.

This route is much more in-depth and complicated than when walking it with a dog. I’ll prove it.

Standing on the train, the doors open.

The dog with experience now takes this as his sign to start.

He carefully stretches off the train. It’s not a step; it’s more like a stretch. It’s great! By him stretching to the platform, I instantly know how far it is. I don’t even think he knows what he’s doing.

We walk, following the crowd to the machine. The dog stops at the step and as he knows I’m a bit to egar for my own good, he angles his body around my left knee just a little bit to stop me going any further. This is not something he’s trained to do but he rathers stopping at steps even if I know their there.

We change angle slightly so we’re not walking at a curve down the three steps. Once at the bottom, the dog corrects his angle and makes a bee line to the furthest ticket machine. He weaves to the right of the crowd that are now in front of us so we pass them out. We rather get to the machine ahead of most of the other passengers as it’s easier for the dog to take his time in placing him self so as we can continue the recommended guiding position even while walking through the gap.

We get through the ticket validation machine and the dog again veers to the right as he wants to get past others who have got through the machines while we were going through the one for yearly tickets / wheel chair users. He stops again at the steps giving me just enough room at the rail to walk down with him. Again, that’s another technique as it almost forces me to stop with him.

We go quickly down the steps but we take the door to the far left. This is because we are ahead of most of the crowd and if we time it right, we can usually get to the crossing just before the lights change.

That’s important as with a busy crossing like that, I don’t like to cross when the lights have changed before I get there as it breaks a very important habit. The dog should always stop at a controlled crossing.

We cross the road and swing around the traffic pole on the other side toward the left.

We keep going at a steady pace along the buildings on the right. The dog slows down at one point for an instant because there is a pole slightly too close to us and he rathers being on the safe side.

We meet the changed surface and turn tightly to the right.

We continue walking and he concentrates on the roadway into trinity that is denoted by the changed surface. If cars are going in or out of this gate he stops rigidly until they have passed.

We continue on our way, turning to our left along the narrow path where the strange building fronts are on our right.

The dog sees the seller covers in the distance so makes a decision to guide me around them.

We pass them and stop at the crossing.

Here, we do something that very few guide dog owners bother with; we perform a strict left turn. This is where the dog turns around to your right across your body and continues around in a circle with the handler following until they face left. This is done strictly at this crossing for two reasons. The first and most important is that the dog goes ahead of me and therefore is officially guiding and watching out for obstacles. I am basically not walking anywhere that he has not checked first. In my experience with this particular dog, this is not really necessary but it’s always good to be aware of. The second and most important reason is that we regularly continue down this road to the Dawson Street so he needs to be aware that stopping here is a necessity and although he may like going to Dawson Street, it is me who controls our direction. Simply stopping and doing what would be considered by trainers as an incorrect turn to the left doesn’t place in the dogs mind the importance of this junction.

Anyway, with all that rubbish out of the way, we cross and quickly turn to the right. We continue straight stopping at both crossings before hitting the corner of Kildare Street.

See? Isn’t that so much easier? Fortunately, I hope to have my dog working again tomorrow. I’m looking forward to cutting out all the complications.

These are my views and are strictly not those of my employer. I write this as an indevidual with specific personal political views and opinions. This post should thus be read as such.

Expanding on what others have said, It is true. Ireland does need an election. but first we all as a society and a nation need to analyse and fix The way the power is distributed as the way that legislative changes are discussed and made in Ireland is flawed at every level.

Look at the Oireachtas chambers and committees. Every motion goes through the same process resulting in the same messing every time. What is the point in having a chamber system based on a debate system when the debate is pointless. What is the point in having a demecratic system if party wips mean that party members must fall into line. couple that with the obvious majority being controled by the same wips and it's not a democrisy we have, it's a mess!

People keep complaining about ministers. When in actual fact Ministers are but puppets who's strings are pulled by the departments they have been asigned to. Look at Noel Dempsy after his holiday last week. He was completely right to take a holiday and I understand his complacent attitude upon his return when hounded by the media. He's only a man! He is suppose to be managing his department but all he really needs to know is what is going on. He hasn't got experience in this area, he depends on the people working in his department to have that experience.

And, then look at the departments. Their staff are employed to do a job they've never been interested in really. for the majority of people there, they are taken in, trained to the minimum standard required to do their job then left at it. There are people right from CO's right up to AP's who have interests, abilities and skills in different areas but these are not utilized. There is one office that I am aware of where a CO has more computer experience than the one single person in her area who has been promoted to a position where he manages the entire IT infrastructure. I caught a small portion of a program last night that spoke about taking ownership of your career by improving the environment and processes you work with. I work for a private company. I attempt to do just this. However, people employed by the government work to very specific guidelines. Even when they have the ability and willingness to do more, the flexability in the government isn't there to allow them to do it.

So, stop asking for a reelection and start demanding and implementing for your selves the reform that Ireland needs as a democratic nation to get back on it's Feet. FG, FF, the greens, labour, none of them are going to be able to make a change in power. None of them because the current attempt at a democratic system doesn't allow for it.

Usually, I'm quite a posative person. Today however, I am not.

So, just put up with it!

Firstly... I was out on Saturday. Problem was that I had just far too much on my mind for me ever to enjoy my self so the night was doomed right from the start.

To add sault to the woond, the group that I went to see was suggested to me by a lot of people but I found them utterly boring. Their called Electric avenue. Their a cover band so I didn't really expect anything origional from them but what I found was so dull, so dry, so void of creativity I think I lost all faitth in humanity. How people can listen to this mind numming vomit is completely beyond me. If you want to listen to music that is arranged and sang like the artist who origionally performed it fine... That's your thing so I cant and won't be bothered listening. But if you cant do it, don't try! Their music attempted to mirror every artists song they sang owver, look, put it this way, Pick a famous painter. if you could paint, would you try to mirror every stroke that painter used to create a piece of art or would you take inspiration from it and then put your own indevidual touch to it. Even if you knew you could never be as good as that painter, you'd still do what you could to enhance his or her art with your own style. That's what i would do anyway. If you don't do that, what's the point? In painting terms, why not just take a picture of it. In music, why not just play a CD and have done with it.

Sorry. I'm probably being overly crewel. But, as i say. I'm in a generally negative and pissed off mood so tuff.

I heard a young singer lately. She did what she thought was a simple and uncleaned version of Molly Malone. I heard a recording of it by chance. It was so full of feeling and so full of indeviduality that she made the song her own. No one else could sing the song like that because the feeling in it was based on her experiences. Her loves, hates and heart break. The timing was not exactly normal,In fact, it was choppy. But it all fitted together like the song was written to sound that way. This woman has more singing and performance ability in her little tow than this group of six musicians as a band.

AS you all probably know by now, I'm very active on twitter.

If you want to follow me, go on over to www.twitter.com/digitaldarragh

I heard about something today that caught my attention briefly. It's called Twitter Psych. It examines the words you use in tweets and generates a psych profile of what you talk about most. Now, take it with a rather large pinch of sault but it's some fun.

Visit the site your self at http://www.tweetpsych.com

Here is the analysis that it generated for me. Scary isn't it? I dwell on the past,I don't talk about sex half enough, I'll have to fix that... I'm a control freek, with no regard for money, I'm overly negative and I dwel on morbid thoughts. Oh, I almost forgot, I'm imotive too! but hay, it's all good. I'm highly analitical and quantitative, I like relaxing and being entertained, My thought processes are at a high level and my conseptual thinking is logical or something crazy like that. Jesus, I'm screwed up aren't I?

Time
This user Tweets about time 49% more than the average user. This indicates references to time in general, including the past, present and future.

Past
This user Tweets about the past 48% more than the average user. This may indicate a preoccupation with events that occurred the past.

Numbers
This user Tweets about numbers 42% more than the average user. This may indicate highly analytical and quantitative thinking.

Leisure
This user Tweets about leisure activities 33% more than the average user. This includes activities other than work and may indicate a desire to engage in relaxing and entertaining behaviors.

Control
This user Tweets about control 31% more than the average user. This includes restraint and moral imperatives and may indicate a desire to impose order.

Thinking
This user Tweets about thinking 28% more than the average user. This includes abstract thought and cognitive mechanics and may indicate an high level of thought processes.

Conceptual
This user Tweets about conceptual thoughts 23% more than the average user. This includes higher-level abstract thought. Logical reasoning and philosophy are examples of conceptual content.

Negative
This user Tweets about negative sentiments 18% more than the average user. This includes negative emotions, negative feelings and morbid thoughts.

Present
This user Tweets about the present 16% more than the average user. This includes references to present time and currently occurring events.

Future
This user Tweets about the future 12% more than the average user. This includes Tweeting about time as it relates to the future and may indicate an interest in events yet to occur.

Senses
This user Tweets about physical sensations 6% more than the average user. This includes sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile feelings.

Anxiety
This user Tweets about anxiety 5% more than the average user. This includes uncertainty, nervousness and apprehension. It may indicate a stress and fear.

Constructive
This user Tweets about constructive behavior 3% more than the average user. This includes creating and building things and indicates an interest in development and creative processes.

Positive
This user Tweets about positive sentiments 2% more than the average user. This includes positive feelings, thoughts, emotions and agreeability.

Primordial
This user Tweets about primordial content 2% less than the average user. This includes lower level dream-state and unconscious modes of thought. Some researchers refer to this as "reptilian" thought.

Money
This user Tweets about money 3% less than the average user. This includes references to income and money in general.

Social
This user Tweets about social behaviors 3% less than the average user. This includes inclusive Tweets, social behavior and speaking directly to the listener.

Self Reference
This user Tweets about itself 3% less than the average user. This includes tweeting about themselves, their activities. In most social media, doing this too much is regarded as a faux pas.

Emotions
This user Tweets about emotions 9% less than the average user. This includes a wide range of positive and negative emotions and may indicate a generally emotive perspective.

Learning
This user Tweets about learning and education 41% less than the average user. This includes Tweeting about school as well as self-teaching activities.

Sex
This user Tweets about sexual references 69% less than the average user. This includes sexual references and may indicate a preoccupation with sex.

Media
This user Tweets about media and celebrities 86% less than the average user. This includes references to celebrities and mass media and may indicate an interest in celebrity culture.

This has to be the best thing about Windows 7 I've seen to date.

If your a techy, this is a dream come through.

Add a new folder to your desktop and name it
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
you will now see the icon above on your desktop and a very extensive list of options.

You'll find everything from the task manager, device manager, accessibility options, event viewer, troubleshooting wizzards for sound, printers, network connections and displays, network utilities for configuring the firewall, internet options, task bar and desktop properties and more. It's a great way of getting to a configuration option quickly. Especially if your not mad about the newWindows 7 control panel.

These are tunes composed by the legendary fiddle player Maurice Lennon A musician that I am very happy to play music with regularly when he's in Ireland.

The first tune, If only you were mine, was composed by him when he was 19 when his heart was broken after a woman he loved married.

The second Tune, Maeves dance, was composed by him about two years ago. He watched a documentary that told of an Irish family who emigrated to Australia when their Daughter, Maeve was only six. After a short time passed, she was tragically hit by a car and was killed instantly. However, this is not what the documentary focused on. Instead, it focused on an imaginary world that Maeve created and wrote about in great detail in her diary. Maurice was captivated by this world and the second tune, recognised by its waltz tempo was the result of the inspiration he got from this world.

People into Irish music may notice there's a swing to the waltz tempo. Maurice likes to play it this way to attempt to illustrate the child like nature of the world and the inspired tune.

I hope I do them justice.

Oh. let me dedicate this to someone who I really hope has a fantastic music career ahead of them. I've been very impressed with her singing over the past few days.

Use this link to listen to the recording.