DjMagra's stuff 'n' stuff

And we’ve moved

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 00:43:21 +0000

Ok, so, no doubt you’re now seeing some changes from what you’re used to here. I’ve moved my blog away from blogs.linux.ie (a big thank you to Colm and Donncha for facilitating my blog there for nearly three years).

Of course, Donncha is also heavily involved in developing Wordpress which this blog is working off, so, thanks to him for that too!

Whilst on the subject of thanks, big shout out to Paul for his help moving over here.

I’m going to be experimenting with things a little over the coming weeks, so, I can’t guarantee that there won’t be a certain level of brokenness of things, but, sure, c’est la vie.

Can anyone who has hard-coded links to my blog straight to blogs.linux.ie/djmagra please ensure that they update their bookmarks to point direct to www.daraghmcg.org.

Finally, Happy Christmas to ye all, hope you have a peaceful, happy and safe one!

Ooppss

admin — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 11:11:57 +0000

Sorry, I was dicking around with stuff on the back end of the site last night and broke things! Everything almost back to normal for now!

Here is New York

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 13:49:57 +0000

You may or may not remember that shortly after the September 11th attacks on the US, a well documented and publicisied exhibition sprung up in an empty store in SOHO. Soon to become know as Here Is New York, it was a place where anyone could go to post photo’s of NY and 9/11 related material. It didn’t matter whether you were a pro photographer, photo journalist, or were taking it with your camera phone, they all got put up, anonymously, and without caption.

Out of this exhibition, a book was published, which I saw recently and decided that I just had to purchase! It’s huge, and contains a massive amount of images, and from what I’ve seen so far, for any New York fan, or anyone with a passing interest in the events of 9/11 it’s an essential purchase.

Speaking of cool photo tools

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:30:13 +0000

I’ve long wanted a proper flash based photo gallery. I’ll be a long time waiting on Emma Jane to build me one I reckon, so, for the mean time, I’m going to make do with SimpleViewer, what looks like a very neat way of putting together flash based photo galleries. On top of that, it sits very neatly with Picasa, so will make things nice and easy to use. But, on top of that, there’s a lot of customisation available which will open up lots of advance features too!

The Rasterbator

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:21:21 +0000

Not quite as crude as the name might suggest, The Rasterbator is a very cool tool discovered by some of the lads in the office. It allows you to create giant posters from normal size photographs.

I’ve seen the results in printed form already, from a distance, they look amazing, and would make for some very, very entertaining backdrops to parties etc in the future!

And it’s No. 1

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:53:05 +0000

Yup, after writing about the possibility of getting to Number One, The JCB song made it to Number One in both Ireland and the UK this weekend. This is not enough to clinch the coveted Christmas Number One, they will need to fend off quite a lot of garbage this week in order to maintain the spot, but, even if it is not declared the actual Christmas Number One, to my mind, the lads from Nizlopi will actually be No 1 for Christmas, given that the UK charts are not released until 4pm on Christmas Day itself this year!!

Phew

admin — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:05:54 +0000

This really is a manic, hectic time of the year! So much been going on over the past two weeks, lots to write about, hopefully will get a bit of time for it today! Needless to say, I think I shall be admitting myself to The Priory in the New Year, if I am not sent before then!!

Ice skating

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:34:39 +0000

I really fancy ice skating in Dublin sometime soon. Really don’t know where I’m going to find the time before Christmas mind! Don’t fancy going to the RDS for it either, I hear Smithfield is happening again, is the IFSC doing it this year too, is it any good there?

And, does anyone fancy joining me? G’wan, should be a laugh! Might even go for a few (just a few) brews before hand to liven it up a little!

Camera’s still knackered!

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:15:26 +0000

I took the camera out at the weekend for the first time to take some proper shots since I got it back, and much to my disgust, I found that the problem that was there (front focusing) prior to Canon taking it off me for four weeks, was still there, in fact, if it’s anything, it’s worse than it was before.

I took over 300 shots, from shots at a rugby match, to portraits, to candids out in the garden, and not one of them is 100% in focus. Ok, some are close enough as it almost makes no difference, but, from over five grands worth of kit, you’d expect pretty much every shot to be in focus all the time!!

So, it’s going to be going back to Canon on Friday, which, is going to leave me camera-less for the Christmas unless they get their act together and do something to arrange cover for me for the Christmas, as I’ve a few projects lined up!!

O Driscoll to stay

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:04:34 +0000

I’m glad to see that all the fuss is over, and Brian O’ Driscoll has finally decided to stay in Ireland until at least the end of the 2007 season. Looking forward to seeing him back in action in a Leinster jersey in the new year.

On another note, I heard he was out drinking with a few fellow Leinster and Ireland team-mates in Hogans at the weekend, and was the only one wearing an Irish rugby jersey! Now, to my mind, that’s just being a little sad!!