Ireland: Google announces 200 new 'jobs' and congratulates us on becoming an I.T. slum

Google today announced 200 new graduate positions and complimented us on becoming a multilingual hub here in Ireland. Looking beyond the lovely warm feeling that we get from Multinationals (especially American ones!) when they give us a pat on the back(side), what does this really mean, given the fact that Dell – who perfected the art of platitude and knife – went to Poland and left us in the lurch jobs – wise recently?

Having seen Google’s Irish recruitment site, there are similarities between them and Dell. It features a picture of an employee sitting on a ‘spacehopper’ – the inflatable thing with two teats to hang onto which children play with, bouncing up and down around the place. Dell practically offered sweeties to employees for sales results, so straight off we see one similarity: treating employees like children and attempting to build an image (of God knows what … “we’re laid back” presumably? )

Graduate positions are all the rage in I.T. in Ireland at the moment – and with good reason. All of the jobs below them are flooded with cheap labour from every corner of the globe. Take for example HP. I recently attended a 3 hour ‘interview’ at their Leixlip (Co.Dublin) operation … in those 3 hours I met but a few Irish people. The job was entry level support, at more than a third less pay than is the normal minimum for the job.

I then noticed HP advertising similar jobs through FAS (State training ‘Authority’ – read sweatshop-stop) HP have also (in the instances where they decide to pay) partnered with recruitment agency CPL in Dublin. In turn, CPL advertise jobs such as Dutch technical support for HP with “relocation” assistance for anyone wanting to come to Ireland despite an existing population of nearly 500,000 people unemployed out a population of circa 4.5 million.

Firstly, a company with profits of the order of HP’s should not be allowed to employ Irish workers for nothing. Secondly, as with Google, offering ‘graduate positions’ is of negligible help to this country in getting out of the mess it is in. Sure, these positions are great, but they are not going to kick – start the economy. The mass market will – the one which, aided and abetted by a paralysed State – they have completely wrecked.

I would like someone to answer one simple, basic question. If the low to medium end of the tech market is flooded with foreign cheap labour, how does that benefit anyone? The only counter – argument seems to be “they support the economy” (indeed that is somewhat rubbished by the statistics on how much said non – nationals send home). All we are left with is “it’s good for the economy” along with a few desperately sad people reaching for the ‘racist’ emergency lever.

Google are here for what they can get, while they can get it … and so are HP. There are no doubt a plethora of others up to the same ‘pick and choose’ engineering of the labour market structure / looking for free labour respectively. It is time that the Government of this country stopped wetting itself every time it hears empty platitudes from American multinationals. They will be out the door as soon as an opportunity presents itself, just as Dell were.

Ireland itself is a bit like Somalia at the moment. While the country falls to bits we have no government – they are all on holidays. They know full well that their days are numbered at election 2012, but these crooks have made their money and no longer care. The place is imploding in a vacuum while they sun themselves and talk shite about “The smart economy” which for 2 years they have been unable to define. Most of the idiots couldn’t open a Hotmail attachment in fact.

In congratulating us on becoming a “multilingual hub” of the World, what Google were really saying is “Thanks for the easy ride – we’re getting what we want out of you”. There’s a difference between becoming a multilingual hub and an I.T. whore through which the World moves and then abandons. Not only did we blow 30 years of experience at the top level of I.T. and related industries, we very much continue to do so. Top marks for “economy”, bottom grade for “society”.

We have a word for it in Ireland: “Fianna Fail”. It’s a band of intensely corrupt and overweight old men, posing as a political party.

Banned from Boards.ie

Whoops!

I was banned from the 'Motors' section of boards.ie yesterday. I now feel totally ... normal. It seems that getting banned from boards.ie is something which happens to nearly everyone at least once, and usually for the same reason - saying the wrong thing falling foul of a troll who happens to be a friend of the Moderator in question.

Let's go back to beginning. A couple of months ago I was looking everywhere for the telephone number of a Saab mechanic. I had found it on boards.ie once upon a time, so I went looking for it again and couldn't find it. Eventually, under a ton of papers, I found the scrap of paper with the number! Yipee!

Having spent the entire afternoon searching for it, I duly logged on to boards and posted the number ( I knew that a lot of other people had been looking for it too ) In the meantime I had been talking to the mechanic and he had no problem with this, and besides, boards had the wrong number still on their website. Within minutes a moderator had blanked out the correct number in my post.

I also got a P.M. accusing me of "spamming". Wow! Several messages went back and forth but it got really silly. I moved on, though not without noticing that 'spamming' is okay if you are an 'alright' person according to the moderators. Indeed in the Motors section right now we have a trader advertising his cars openly in the 'Motors' section. Anyone else would be told to read the rules:

"* No advertising - if you have something to sell then use adverts.ie, not here! Items put up for sale will result in the advert being removed and the user getting banned." - K.Bannon ( moderator )

I then noticed a thread about a garage whom I'd taken to court for damaging my car. I duly posted a synopsis of their 'customer services'. The same K.Bannon swiftly removed my post. When I asked him why, he suggested that my facts - based post could give rise to 'libel' and that it was irrelevant to the original post in the thread ( like the 10 responses about the same garage which were alternately plugging it / a car they had for sale, but none of which were removed ). I questioned why my post wasn't simply edited instead of entirely deleted. I got no answer to that.

A quick read back through the thread determined that a lot of the posters were friendly with the garage in question, and the moderator. The moderator simply wanted an excuse to delete my post. I am careful in how I write, and it is unlikely that my post was actionable, but that obviously wasn't the point.

All was fine ( sort of ) until KBannon decided to follow me around the threads, still obviously in a bit of a huff. This latterly arose in a thread about drink - driving. A bit of flaming, if you will. Basically the boys couldn't handle my views ( that the current drink - drive laws largely don't work in rural Ireland ) and instead began intentionally misrepresenting me as a drink - driver.

He also posted this helpful remark, which I congratulated him on, though pointing out that it was a bit childish coming from a moderator.

KBannon: "If you or anyone else finds it difficult to understand then maybe they are better off not drinking or smoking in order to preserve the few brain cells they have!"

- KBannon ( Forum Rules ) "* No personal attacks on other members"



Anan1 29/10/2009 12:38p.m. ( moderator who banned me )

Quoting me:

Reality check again! = allowing people one drink usually leads them to have more. Obvious!

Reply: "Not to me, i'm afraid."

... a little further along the thread:

Anan1 30/10/2009 14:50p.m.

"I'm not averse to a rake of pints myself, ... I had about a 1/2 bottle of wine in a friends house over a period of an hour or so, set off for home in the car"

Fascinating. In one post this moderator disagrees with me that allowing people to drink a little leads on to drinking more, then admits drinking half a bottle of wine and getting into his car. I rest my case.

I think it is a pity that Boards has gone the way it has, as it's a site which I used to admire greatly - until I began using it, that is. As a patriot I would like to see something Irish continue to do well. At some point, however, quality has to enter the frame. This means that moderators should be grown up enough to accept that some people might have views contrary to their own. I got banned for pointing out that 'drummerboy08' was talking "verbal diahorrea", which he was. Despite me repeatedly correcting him, he continued to suggest that I drink - drive. Me getting a bit annoyed at my character being intentionally slurred is apparently more serious than libel.

Libel? - yes, I found several examples. Like the 'public' part of 'public forum' the moderators at boards.ie also need to learn the definition of Libel. I know it, and aim to help them in this regard. Watch this space.

As for the 'Community Manager' Darragh Doyle, he simply posts excuses: http://johnmryan.com/technology/boards-ie-are-the-moderators-fair/

One of these days someone is going to take boards.ie to court, and excuses like "the moderators aren't paid" and "they can't notice everything" won't wash. The moderators are very alert on boards, it's just that they clearly watch the wrong things for the wrong reasons ( and don't understand what libel is ).

Regarding the obvious contempt for the posting public, they'd do well to remember all of the great websites of the past. Remember how X Y and Z once ruled the internet ... and now elicit the response "Who are they?". Life is traditionally short online. Boards don't understand it, and their community manager seems to think that if you say something positive often enough, it becomes true.

UPDATE! - My ban has increased from 1 week to a month!

Yes indeed. I sent a mildly derisory p.m. to the fool who banned me, and he obviously dropped his bag of doritos, fell over the mess that no doubt accompanies spending all day in front of the keyboard, and hit that button! Crestfallen I am! He's really teaching me! ( imagine whipping noises and screams )

Oh well, nothing for it but to entertain myself in a new game I've developed. It's called "Battle of the titans", and it's about finding the dimmest moderator on Boards.ie. Here's what I found so far.


Unkel ( regarding Hyundai Sonata car ) "The yanks love them. Wobbly boats that sit 4 400 pounders in comfort and never breaks down"

( I can't find anything mentioned in the Rules about racism, to be fair )

Hellrazer ( in reply to question "what other stuff are you selling Hellrazer?" ) "Well put it this way there's 220k. of stock "...

Rules: * No advertising - if you have something to sell then use adverts.ie, not here! Items put up for sale will result in the advert being removed and the user getting banned.

Eoin: "Exactly. now can everyone unbunch their panties and keep on topic"

(LOL!)

KBannon: "Posts that encourage driver to break the law e.g. telling people to make false motor tax declarations may result in either an infraction or banning. Similar punishment will be awarded to those who seek such advice"

...

Unkel: "doing 200 km/h on an empty motorway in good weather conditions is not necessarily dangerous" ( Thanked by kbannon, Anan1 )

Rules:　Well according to the other moderator, this is a banning offence - encouraging others to break the law!

Stark ( re above ) "Comparing doing 175km/hr on Donegeal roads to 200km/hr on an empty motorway? Apples and oranges. He shouldn't be relying on his own conceptions of what's "fast" when passing down sentence."

Rules: See previous

Unkel: "As the title says I don't obey the speed limit on empty motorways"

Rules: ... once again ...

This is the bit I like the most, out of all of their rules, but it's flouted so often - mainly by the moderators - that blogger.com would probably suffer a seizure if I posted all of the examples:

"Comment on the post not the poster.
Responding to someone's point with personal attacks, regardless of how "witty" you think they are, is not big or clever. It just comes across, at best, as being an ass and at worst a bully with a small doodah (we mean “mind” of course)."

I'm glad that they agree with me so, as this is why I got banned in the first place - I responded to the moderators and favoured posters doing exactly what this rule states should not be done. I agree with boards.ie that these moderators / posters are bullies with small doodah's.

Derision from Heroes and some good advice

Would that be my site or the lime green you put around everything?

Oh dear.

It looks like my post on 'Decisionsforheroes' a few months back didn't go down too well, judging by all of the Tweets out there and indeed how so many people have little else to do. As could be expected in Ireland, it got personal pretty quickly. I am a great believer in free speech, and critiques. Attacking people, on the other hand, is immature.

There seemed to be a lot of bitching going on about my site after that post, but all I can say is "thank you" for the increase in traffic to my site. Any time, lads. Of course it might have been more constructive to ask me what my views were, and rubbish them if the idea was brilliant and I was missing something. Nope. Instead comments directed at myself.

According to 'Bohoe' I was sore 'looser'. Now Bohoe, I didn't 'loose' anything. Best of luck with your English studies though. It quickly became apparent to me that most of the Judges in the competition I mentioned knew each other, and in some cases the winning entrant. If I wanted to be personal about things, I could have mentioned that in my original post.

The best advice of all came from Alan O'Rourke. Like all the other friends of the winning entrant, who had a little groupie hug over me, he suggested that my website was terrible. He then seemed surprised when I emailed him to ask what he didn't like. He eventually concluded that he didn't know.

As a great believer in one good turn deserving another, I'll critique his site in return. It's actually very good, bar the most important page of all - the homepage. I've added a few notes about the basics of design:


Admittedly my own site needs some polishing, but to be honest most of those who derided it either a) don't have a website, or b) have a website that looks dynamic and innovative in a highly generic way, or as above missed the basics. Regarding my own homepage, I've followed one rule, and that is that colours in the centre draw the eye in and not out:


Other than the silly personal remarks, I will concede that the overall look of my site needs improving. I don't however, see the point in becoming a web programmer if people can not look at the site without shades. Swings and roundabouts, I'd say. Best to start off with the basics and get it right, even if it takes longer ( personally I'm in it for the long haul )

Oh no! Just as I was about to move on I notice this, from Conor O'Neill! :There was only one thing to do ( since he wouldn't reply to any of my emails ) and that was to go and check out his consumer ratings website and see if the content was more radical than the concept.

Conor O'Neill's site:

It's nice actually, albeit very reminiscent of Ebay and the mild colour banditry around the edges once more. The only thing is, the boxes are a bit big really, aren't they? Why the fear of white around the edges? This is like Ebay for the visually impaired!

Incidentally, apart from posting personal remarks and bad comments about my site which he can't / won't back up, our Conor was also one of the judges on the I.Q. Prize competition which got them all so upset in the first place. Apart from referring to some of the entrants as 'lunatics', further down the blog we find some more of Conor's wisdom:


Pardon me for pointing this out, but in any meaningful sense "Anyone can enter" (but) "... is vital" seem like a pretty obvious contradiction. Bearing this in mind, maybe he just thought that he saw errors on my site ;)

Basically, what I've discovered is a nasty clique who can't take criticism. The future looks bright? Hehe ... maybe in a very 'Irish' way. As for my own site, it got good reviews from someone who runs a Tech. site ranked at 4,000th. in the World, amongst others. That'll do me fine for the moment, but of course there's always work to do. Just to put that in perspective, Boards.ie is hovering around 5,000th. at the moment.

Oh, and the fact that BBC featured my designwork to expert praise is another thing. I could go on and on, but I've been there and done it in terms of design. Nothing to prove, you see. Regarding the personal campaign in a teacup spoon I'd suggest that if those who spend all day on twitter posting innane comments actually do some work, they might reach their goal of being the best in their respective fields. I won't hold my breath though.

Bluescreen hell and hope ( Google O.S. )

My computer got attacked by something lately - I'm not sure what really, but it involved a lot of blue screens and 'STOP 0x0000007B' messages. Entirely peeved, I decided to format my hard drive, having backed up everything beforehand, which I do on a regular basis anyway ( the machine got progressively slower over time, and I sensed the worst - backing up is good advice which can not be repeated too often )

I then embarked on a reinstallation nightmare. Windows setup was giving me various bluescreens. Having confirmed the disk were not surface - damaged or dirty, it took forever to get to the root cause of the problem - well, sort of get to the root of it. Having strained the grey matter I remembered unistalling Pinnacle products before the roof fell in. I answered 'yes' to 'remove all files' even if they were shared. Either it's a coincidence, or that stuffed my machine.

Having re-written the bootsector, performed LLF on the drive, and run various variations of FDISK and so on, I discovered why windows wouldn't reinstall. I was using an OEM Windows XP home disk, trying to use the XP Professional Uprgrade, and the thing was hanging. There was only one thing for it: a slipstream disk. Thankfully I had another machine connected to the net, and found the instructions without any trouble.

Basically a slipstream disk copies over the files which an OEM disk lacks. I was able, by following the instructions carefully, to combine the XP pro with Home, and throw in SP-2 for good measure - all on the one disk. I can't remember how many times I've had to go to these lengths over Windows. It took almost a week to get my computer up and running again, and my patience was at nil for a finish. It looks like the days of paying a wad for an O.S. have - praise to the Lord - finally come to an end though.

Within the next few months, Google O.S. will be making an appearance. From what I can gather, firstly on Notebooks / Netbooks / PDA's, but later on we'll be getting it on all forms of computer. About time, and hats off to Google yet again. It's much more than an O.S. though, it's more of a way of life. Not a new way of life, but rather one we live already but which MS is still too dumb to recognise.

For example, video player? - what video player?! Google are betting on us not needing a video player fundamental to the O.S., because most people watch streamed video online. Beautifully logical. Get ready for a super - Linux. I can't wait! No matter if it starts off wobbly ( there's no evidence it will, based on the excellent Chrome ) but besides, there's plenty of room for getting it wrong at the start. If Google do their worst, the Beta will be no worse than the final product of MS with all the patches, sellotape and plastic ties that help it barely chug and fart along. Oh, and it won't cost the laughable €392 I was quoted when XP came out. No, it will be FREE!

The future suddenly looks a lot brighter!

ClickandPay.com / NetObjects - which is worse?

Well, back in July I decided to purchase some software from NetObjects. They were in discounting form and I had money - never a good combination. The last time I bought from them - 2008 - I simply did a Bank Transfer from me to them with no problems - invoice was emailed to me, and despite not great communication otherwise ( none in fact ) the product arrived within a few weeks. As it came from Germany I was a little bit peeved ( the Germans are pretty fast ) but a few weeks was okay. Just about.

It's a slightly different story this time. On the 27th. of July I went on their site to make my purchase. When it came to 'Checkout' time there was no sign of 'Bank Transfer' ( which is still advertised on their site ) but rather 'ClickandBuy'. I had no choice but to opt for it. Unbecknownst to me, I was signing up for a whole different service ( more about 'service' later ) which had nothing to do with NetObjects. To make matters worse, clickandbuy are moneygrabbing bastards by all accounts. Thanks NetObjects.

Following a long process of looking at blank 'help' pages on ClickandBuy.com, I finally managed to discover that my payment is just sitting there, doing nothing. I then went on Google to check out 'ClickandBuy'. By all accounts it's a "service" ( London - based ) which lies somewhere between a virus and a 419 scam.

I'm thoroughly disgusted at NetObjects for seeing their customers as a cynical opportunity, and more than disgusted that 'ClickandBuy' have my account details thanks to NetObjects. So much for trust. Take a look at the links below and decide if these are the sort of shisters who you'd be happy giving your details to! Oh, and I've gone completely off NetObjects too. I no longer want anything to do with a company that dupes customers like that: a half - decent company should not take advantage of customers.

I've demanded a full refund and will be in touch with my Bank about ClickandBuy.

http://www.ripoffreport.com/ClickandBuy/Internet-Services/ClickandBuy-clickandbuy-scam-7C4PM.htm

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081113045549AAvAN3G

Windows 98, MMX and driver problems ... ahh, the good old days!

I recently dug out an old Dell laptop, namely because Windows XP 'compatibiltiy mode' doesn't work with quite a number of my really old games, Like Destruction Derby 2 ( 1996 ). The problem is rarely graphics: quite a number of games will run, but with no sound. Things have moved on a bit from 'MIDI' 'WAV' and 'AWE32' ... not to mention 'Roland'! In other words, I stretched 'backward compatibility' to breaking point.

The old Dell in question is a 1997 Latitude XPi CD ... that's right, it has a CD-ROM drive, maw! It also has something I really like ... a floppy drive! Out came the 2 gb. drive and in went my 100 gb. Fine but runs a bit hot. Specs otherwise are: 64 mb. RAM ( + 16 onboard ) Pentium 166 MMX processor, Neomagic graphics ... and ESS sound.

The sound is proving to be a bit of a problem though. The Dell website, surprisingly, has nearly every driver still on it for this machine ... except the correct sound driver. I set up the machine with Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000 Professional on a dual - boot system. No sound in either case. It turns out that the driver on both disks is slightly different from the Dell driver, and dell no longer have the file available ... ESS1887 to be precise.

I have to say I'm impressed with the catalogue of files available via the Dell support website though. I was less impressed with Microsoft. I try to like Microsoft. I watch videos of Microsoft's history on Youtube and get a warm feeling all over. Then something happens and I just go back to hating them! This was to be one such time.

True to form, Windows 98SE wouldn't shut down. Then I remembered the 'shutdown assistant', a little patch for this pretty major flaw which was issued by Microsoft. Did I find it on Microsoft's website? - no way! Now that REALLY annoys me. To put it simply, Dell don't have a driver I want. No problem, that's tough ( but as already mentioned they still have a lot of files - 12 years on ).

In the case of Microsoft, here they made a complete balls of something. That's different. If they make a balls of something, the patch ( shutdown ) should be available for as long as it's likely that someone will need it. If they don't want to provide it, they should quit stopping others from providing it. Microsoft are incredibly protectionist. Even the old Windows 3.11 disks are not legally available for download. It's stupid. Who is going to make a fortune from Windows 3.11? Might it usurp Windows 7?

I eventually got the download so that I could shut down Windows 98SE from a person who, presumably, was 'illegally' hosting it. My God, how I really do hate Microsoft! Whatever about Windows 3.11, which is of course their property, not making a fix available for something bought is purely contemptible. I must get my linux user manual out again ... and get to like it.

All in all, I'm enjoying my little step back in time. Like many who get misty - eyed about computing of long ago however, I had forgotten how frustrating searching for drivers can be ... and making floppy disk bootdisks!

Adverts.ie - I'd buy something if I could

I've been looking out for a Blackberry Storm for quite some time now ... or at least since Vodafone released it last year with a 12 month contract and €109 price ( it's free in the U.K. / better contract terms ) Needless to say, at the time I wasn't interested under these 'terms'. Vodafone do what they like, and the 'Telecommunications' "watchdog" in Ireland has nothing to do with phone charges!

I was perusing Adverts.ie when I came across a nice example at a reasonable price. Tried to log in to Adverts.ie and discovered that I could not. I then entered the details of another account ( set up in frustration some time ago as a test, resulting from the same 'You do not have permission' error ) but again, no go.

On this second attempt I was redirected to sister site 'Boards.ie' where - guess what - I was told that I did "not have permission" to post a reply to the advertisement. For the third time in a week, I gave up. I like Boards.ie / Adverts.ie but they are not much use if users can not log in. Is it me? - well, I don't think so. I log on to at least 6 forums and never have a problem with 'enabling cookies' or anything else - it just logs me in instead of hopping from site to site with the same error message.