Thomil's Random Ramblings

When you think of a navy, what kind of ships do you think of? I presume you’ll picture destroyers and frigates, submarines, or aircraft carriers, or even amphibious landing ships, launching landing crafts and helicopters full of marines, and that is certainly true. However, almost every navy also has a host of other ships, ships that operate outside the glare of the public eye, but that often perform equally invaluable duties. Mine hunters, survey ships, fleet tankers, or training ships fall into this category. There is one other category of ship out there, though. These ships and their crews actually shun the glare of the public eye, preferring to operate in the shadows. Only a limited number of navies operate them. Dedicated reconnaissance vessels, more commonly known as spy ships.  Everyone who has read Cold War era techno thrillers by the likes of Tom Clancy, or watched movies such as The Final Countdown or The Hunt for Red October (highly recommended, by the way) has heard ...

Cycling in Cork. Now there’s something that never seems to get boring. I’ve recently started using Coke Zero Bikes again after what feels like an eternity, only to find that most road users in Cork are as thick as three layers of battleship armour. Ignoring red lights seems to be a favourite pastime for pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, buses, taxis, and emergency services alike. Cyclists of all ages, genders and nationalities seem totally incapable of grasping the concept of one-way cycle lanes, and no one seems able to keep a somewhat decent lookout for other road users. And that doesn’t even take into account those “lovely” individuals that delight in intimidating, cutting off, and harassing cyclists. Forget about new laws, where’s a RPG-7 when you need one? In short, no one trusts cyclists… with good reason, and cyclists don’t trust anyone either, again with good reason. With that being the case, clearly segregated cycle lanes or bike paths should be in anyone’s interest, or so...

I'll be honest: I love my MacBook. I love my iPad, and all the other gadgets and gizmos I own. However, every now and then, I find myself thinking back to the early days of my blog, my first netbook, and how things that seem quaint now were the best of the best back then. Like this beauty from back in 2009 for example. I started my blogging career on that thing. That's how I got started. On an Acer 110L netbook, with a 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a whopping 512 MB of RAM, an 8GB SSD, and an 8.9 inch display, with a max resolution of 1024x600. For someone like me, who had just landed his first full-time unlimited job, this was a revelation. Sure, it couldn't hold a candle to a full-size notebook even then, but it still was a major milestone for me. It also marked the first time I was exposed to Linux. The less said about Linpus Lite, the Linux distribution packaged with the Aspire One 110L, the better. It was limited, to say the least. Only when I sw...