Life is grand

That is where I work, at the TSSG. Lovely, isn’t it?

If you are a web-developer in Ireland, or willing to live here, and want to be involved in a public RSS project then drop me an email. We are looking for someone who knows CSS, XHTML and JavaScript. That means you can do it in a text-editor, not dragging-and-dropping in Dreamweaver. It means you either already do OO in JavaScript or are willing to learn. Ajax and all that goodness too. Experience, qualification etc. requirements are not set in stone, if we see the steely glint of a web-dev in your eye it will be good.

The project is FeedHenry at The TSSG.

An Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, visited us at the opening of the ArcLab Research and Innovation Center yesterday. The day went well though he was in and out faster than a wife dragging her man out of a pub. Apparently he had 15 other openings to attend to that day.

The mayor of Waterford was there as was Martin Cullen and various other dignitaries from WIT.

One thing I must comment on is that Irish speakers need to raise their heads more. The mayor kept her head up more than most but it looked like she was reading her notes via braille. The rest, even Bertie, kept their heads down as they read their speeches. I was also suprised when the building was blessed by two priests. Apparently it is the done thing in Ireland even though afterwards a few jokes were made about avoiding it becoming a religious day.

All in all an interesting experience and a good thing for the Waterford region.

An Taoiseach will be visiting WIT’s Research and Innovation Center building where I work on Monday the 16th for the official opening. The TSSG and SEEP are hosted here and the place is fairly buzzing with activity. Plenty of press and other notables will be visiting. We should get a chance to demonstrate our project to everyone.

In case you don’t know An Taoiseach is the Irish equivalent of a Prime Minister. Pretty much the top dog in the political food chain. The current living embodiment of An Taoiseach is Mr. Bertie Ahern.

Head on over to Mícheál Ó Foghlú’s weblog to read about a new company launching from 3CS today. The company is Nubiq and they are launching Zinadoo, a mobile website creation service. I’ve worked with Helene Haughney and the rest of her team in the past and have watched Zinadoo grow from strength to strength.

Great to see such entreupreneurial spirit in Ireland.

Just ordered one of these.

Tom Corcoran contacted me yesterday and mentioned that he’d be happy to offer the TSSG or WIT facilities as a venue for BarCamp Ireland.

I work at the TSSG building and it is a lovely location with a great boardroom and other meeting rooms. WIT is also a good venue.

I have updated the BarCamp page but thought I’d mention it here too so that it is noticed.

9 tag rugby games later and The Shellakybookys show how much fun they had. We beat the Wallace Warriors last night and claimed the Grade C Bowl cup for 2006.

We have all had a great few weeks in the ITRA league.

As you can see we took some beatings but began to start winning with 4 straight wins at the end. A pity the final two games were not league games (one was a semi-final and the last was the final) as we would have posted higher on the league had they counted.

All the same we had a blast and will be back next year to challenge for the top cup.

The team from the TSSG will have to figure out what to do next as we will miss our weekly practice and game.

Thanks to the ITRA and other organisers for a great event.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Redemption Song by Bob Marley is being played in the company canteen. So cool.