Only the fecking Irish!

Well, here we go, another Olympics, another horse doping scandal in the Irish Olympic team. The best part about this one though was the first comment by the head of the Irish Olympic committee on hearing that one of the horses was tested positive for banned substances

"Well, that's a bitter pill to swallow"

Aussies are just strange

I was hunting around the kitchen in work yesterday morning to try to find where the cleaners had hid the black mug that they keep taking off my desk (it's a morning tradition at this stage), when I came across something a bit strange:


Salt 'n Vinegar flavoured salt? What the hell? What's wring with just using traditional old-fashioned salt and traditional old-fashioned vinegar?

Then I looked at the back, and it all fell into place: "Made in Australia". The country whose other contribution to world cuisine has been biscuits that you suck your tea up through.

You have got to be kidding me!

It seems that SpamAssassin is on the side of the Georgians in the ongoing conflict in the Caucasus: I tried to send a Register article about google map's little "russians invade georgia" error to some friends of mine, and it seems that if you try to send a mail with the word "russians" then you get the following error:



I asked our admins about this and they swear blind they didn't do anything: it seems our mails are checked by SpamAssassin before they go out though, so it could be them that are doing it.

New Trains, at last!

Well, finally Iarnrod Eireann are after rolling out the new trains on the Waterford line. After watching for the last year while the super-fast, new, shiny Cork train has whizzed in and out of Heuston while the rest of us mere mortals climbed onto the same old orange pieces of crap as we always have, it's our turn. Finally I'm travelling on inter-city transport that isn't older than me! Irish Rail has dragged itself kicking and screaming into the late 20th century at last! I say "late 20th" rather than "21st" because now we're getting the type of trains that our brethren on the Continent have probably taken for granted since the 1990s - and people in the likes of Japan & Korea have probably had since before then even.

It seems that once they catered for the special people in Cork by giving them their special trains (I'm surprised they didn't paint them red), they're replacing the rolling stock on the lines in order of seniority, which means that even Galway got the new trains before us. Then again, they needed them. Up until recently, if you were going to Galway and were getting off in one of the intermediate stops like Athenry where my friends live, you had to go to the door, pull the window down, reach out and open the door handle from the outside. Takes a bit of getting used to!

So, what are the trains actually like? Well, when you see them, the first thought is "shiny". They're silver and green as opposed to the faded orange and black of the old ones (and at least they look like they've been painted this decade). When you get onboard, the first impressions are "new" and "clean", the seats are in blue and grey colors and the ceiling is white with recessed lighting instead of the old florescent panels. The toilets are the same as on the Cork train, all electronic buttons, automatic sinks and airline-style flushing loos except without the annoying automated announcements for everything (yes, I know I've just closed the door, you don't have to tell me mr. robot). These have a bit of a disadvantage over the old-style toilets tho, at least on the old ones the locks were mechanical, if you don't hit the button properly on these, or don't remember to hit "lock" as well as "close", someone can walk in on you. One of the other disadvantages of the new trains is that the engine is part of the carriage like on the Arrows rather than being a separate unit, so to get a long train you have to stick pairs of these back-to-back. This means you can't get on the back and walk the length of the train to get a seat like you used to be. Then again, if they got everything right first time, it wouldn't be Ireland! :-) At least the seats are relatively comfortable, not like on the Cork train. There, you're glad that the new trains are faster and it's only a 2 1/2hr trip, 'cos your as is definitely gone numb before you've hit 2hrs!

So, progress anyway! Now all we have to hope is that they don't break down as often as the old ones! :-