Myself and a few chums recently went to see Eric Clapton play Malahide Castle, organized by Aiken Promotions (AKA: Aiken 'license to print money' Promotions).

Well from the get go this concert had bad omens. It had rained all day and there looked like no let up for the crowd. We were not surprised when the gig started about 20 minutes early, as the rain was coming down hard when the band finally came out.

The gig itself started well, with Clapton wowing the masses with his effortless control of the guitar. The crowd were just getting warmed up when he began to bang out "Lalya", this is when things for Eirc, and Aiken Promotions, took a nose dive (from which they never recovered). About half way through the song the sound/power in the entire venue failed. It was obvious to us that the band were unawares as their monitors appeared to be fine. So as Eric hammered away....95% of the crowd stood in the rain going: "This is shite", "This is crap", "This is a shite gig"...etc...etc...

After a few uneasy minutes the sound came back on! Saints be praised. It was not long however before it failed again....and again. It appears that the Eric Clapton stage crew, and Aiken Promotions, were completely unaware that water and electricity do not mix. Granted it was a rainy day...but Jesus Christ what about Glastonbury!!!!! Wet mud falls from the skies and covers every amp and wire in sight...and they do not loose power. Typical Ireland.

Now I'm guessing here that someone had the decency to tell Eirc that the sound had went out twice...so when I saw him and his band bow before us I did not even bother to start shouting Encore!, it was a forgone conclusion that he would be back out....because that would make sense and help alleviate the pain we had already endured. Eric........Eric????? ERIC! They walked off, and so too did 99% of the crowd!!!! In classic Irish "we don't complain" fashion the crowd headed for the hills at speed. We simply could not believe that after what had happened the crowd would just walk out without a single BOOOO or angry word??!!?? Just imagine this happened at Glastonbury, they would need several riot teams to keep the trongs of fans at bay.

We COULD NOT however leave without a word or two ;). We made our way up the front (not very hard as everyone scurried away) to shout: "This is shite", "This is crap", "This is a shite gig"...etc...etc...at the band and anyone else who would listen. To our amazement it seemed the only other disgruntled fans were 3 middle aged women, disappointed that their had been no encore, and that the gig had ended so abruptly.

Amoung the officaials we did mange to get talking to "Nice Guy Aiken" who agreed that it had been a disgraceful gig, but obviously gave us the sound advice to send an email to complain etc, which I partially heeded ;). Drunks screaming at roadies is hardly going to bring down the government (although in this country it probably would), so we left what has been for me the worst gig I have ever attended. Thank you Eirc Clapton for coming to Dublin and playing a crap gig, your not welcome back!!!

Firstly, we really enjoyed our trip. The people (most of them) were very friendly. But this post is not about our trip....its about Morag (all run in terror from her mighty roar!!!!)

< INSERT SMART ARSE BLOG POST HERE >

Don't mind if I do. Things went bad early on in our tour. We had some drunken muppet who kept making silly noises and looked like he was out of his mind (and probably was) on drugs. The tour started on the Royal Mile, smack bang in the middle of the old town. Our guide introduced herself as Morag. She certainly looked the part clad from head to toe in black, cocooned in a 3 quarter length PVC jacket with Klingonesque boots! < INSERT STAR TREK JOKE HERE >

I guess our first problem with Morag was her use of the "INSERT X JOKE HERE". She frequently made obscure references to parts of Torch Wood and Monthy Python as tour advanced. Her humor was only ratified by one lad at the top of the tour who roared with laughter (obviously her brother). Not a serious crime you might say.....well the clincher for our group anyway was when she compared the Irish to the Americans (offending half the tour in doing so). She explained how the Irish were usually drunk at the back of the tour giggling like school girls, and the Americans were busy asking silly questions. Well Morag you now know that I was busy at the back of your tour making mental notes of how I would present your horrible tale to the world ;) With the malevolence of all your Edinburgh Poltergeists I now spurt out that story!

The second faux pas on your part was your disgraceful reference to being a lesbian. When one of our group took a picture of the castle at night (which was far to your right mind you), you said "No flashing please, unless you are an 18 to 25 year old female". 2 things happened at that moment; 1. you horrified most of the tour who uncomfortably laughed 2. You created this web page.

The final nail in the coffin

Abused and angry, we left the City of the Dead walking tour. In classic Irish fashion we did not complain in person....we stored up our anger and then talked about it, hammering down the finer points of what would make up this post. Feeling cheated we decided to go on another walking tour!!! This time we went with Auld Reekie Tours We were happy to find a much nicer guide who went out of her way not to offend us, and did not make stupid Torchwood jokes....and who was not called Morag. In passing our guide asked had we done any other tours? We told her we had............She then asked us who our guide was. We told her. She then explained how that person had once worked for Auld Reekie Tours, but had been sacked. It all became clear.

Conclusion

Don't go on the City of the Dead walking tour as one of the guides called “Morag” is a "Garbage Bag". Go on the Auld Reekie Tours as the tour guide we had was great!

It seems to me that the pedestrians crossing the bridge here get a raw deal around rush hour. Busses tend to pile into the yellow box (completely blocking it) and completely blocking the pedestrian walkway. This frequently happens on a daily basis and forces pedestrians to walk out into oncoming traffic to get around the buses that are backed up. Its a broken leg or snapped spine waiting to happen, Or one of them high budget tragic car ads we are subjected to “NEVER, EVER park your bus in a yellow Box…..”

The above (and much worse) frequently happens under the nose of the traffic Garda frequently on duty there. I don’t expect them to shout down bus drivers, but a statement to Dublin Bus about how dangerous the situation has become would seem like a good idea!!! The last thing I would want is to be knocked down by a bus....that is running late....on my way to a DART which is packed to capacity.

We set off at an ungodly hour and began our assent of "The Ben". As we got higher the weather began to get very misty and a light drizzle began to fall. If I had to voice some concerns about the trek it would be the pace it was taken at. We spent a very long time simply standing on the trail. During this time we got cold and wet. We would then move for another short burst before waiting on the back of the group to catch up. This was very annoying for people who are well used to finding their own pace and moving up a mountain. I wonder could the group have been taken up in 3, fast, normal and slow, to prevent the long waits and bottle necks?

See the photos here!

With such a large group there was some complaining from other groups of walkers who were forced off the trail due to our large concentrated volume. That said I don't think they were too upset having to push through the crowds! As we approached the top it started to rain quite heavily. I was a little disappointed by the low cloud cover but fully expected it, as I had read that there is only a 1 in 6 chance of the summit being clear on a Ben Nevis accent!!! It was also quite mild at the top...not the North Face of Everest temperatures we were warned about ;)

The decent was a little crazy, due to the fact that we were now allowed to decent at our own pace. Some of the people who had been at the top of the group set off at a furious pace down the mountain, which in cases was most definitely dangerous. It rained the whole way down....but at the end we were greeted by cheering Scots and a shot of whiskey (It was all worth it!). I must say again that the charities made a HUGE effort to make our trip better, and they did a thoroughly excellent job.

Broadworks Communications are an Irish based TV provider with a sub-standard service. From what I can see they are basically a reseller of Sky's services, tagging on a few other services for good measure. In terms of the service, it is poor to say the least. Channels frequently suffer from heavy visual distortion....like they are being beamed down to us from Mars. The general reception is poor and the picture quality is never sharp.

Broadworks is delivered to your television via old TV cable, no sign of decoding boxes etc....just plain old clunky cable. It is a frequent occurrence to turn on a channel an see nothing but the sky menu, with a message saying this channel is currently unavailable!!!!! Seeing this is obvious proof that Broadworks are receiving a sky signal and hacking it up into resalable packages and piping it out to our development.

In terms of professionalism my major gripe would be their letter heads. We have received letters and bills that look like they were printed on an old printing press. The logo looks like word art! One would almost think this was a company set up by property developers.....who then give exclusive contracts to provide TV coverage per development........hmmmmm.

To rub salt into the wounds NTL and SKY are not allowed onto the development. Basically Sky have their hands tied as we are unable to erect Sky dishes outside our apartments, and NTL have been refused permission by our NAZI builders to lay cable to provide a service, as they own the common ground still???

So with a gun to our heads we watch fuzzy TV, with a handful of stations. Is this fair.....no. Is this legal....apparently.....will this change (who knows)

CLICK HERE TO SIGN A PETITION against Irish cable TV companies!!!

Over 9 million views!!!!!!!!!!. This girl is in danger of beating the Star Wars kid in terms of views and cult status!!!! "Everywhere like such as"......."all your bases are belong to us now" :)

I hope someday the wisdom of this girl saves "U.S Americans" from the faith that awaits them in "the Iraq". Now where's my map ;)

Goodwins guitar shop in Dublin has an excellent range of guitars, and unlike Argos you are able to see, touch and even play these guitars before you buy them!!!!

I have no vested interest in Goodwins ;), I simply like ranting about Argos!

3 error messages, days of pain. Just recently i've been trying to set up a computer for a friend of mine. The problem was XP just would not go onto it! At various points during the XP setup I would get the blue screen of death, or setup would report that the drive could not be formatted.

My first thought was the hard drive. I wrote zero's to it and used the WD diagnostic tools but the drive passed. I was just about to give up when I found a possible solution on google. It appears the errors are (nine times out of ten) related to hardware problems or over heating.

I first recorded the CPU temp around the time of the blue screen, however there was no elevation which lead me to the RAM. I replace the Corsair RAM supplied with my own RAM. Problem solved. Dodgy Corsair RAM!!!

In an attempt to diagnose what was wrong we started working backwards, pulling out the RAM etc. The noise finally stopped when we removed the video card. The consensus was that we had a faulty video card. This however would be ruled out the following day when I installed the card in my machine and all was well.

We did note however that when the power connector was not plugged in the ringing started again. So basically the problem was cased by the modular design of the PSU (An Enermax Liberty 620w). I have a simialr PSU and noticed that when plugging in the cables a large amount of force was needed to get them to click home.

So the moral of the story is that ASUS boards beep when you have an SLI card seated but no power connected, and that Enermax modular PSU have dodgy cables!!!

Lukla Flight, Lukla airport.

6th September 2003 (day 1): Flew into Lukla Biggles style. The flight was eventful with bags of rice down the centre of the plane and some excellent views of the surrounding mountains. Most people move on from Lukla on their first day, however I would be spending more time that I had planned in Lukla on my return journey.

Lukla Airport is nothing more than a tiny airstrip, that is frequently used as a football field between flight. The clouds have a tendancy to sweep in....putting a swift end to all inbound and outbound flights.

For my first day we had a gentle 2 and a half hour hike to the Kalapather Lodge in Phakding (a small sherpa village on the trail to Namche Bazzar).

Tamserku, Namche welcome party!

7th September 2003: We started early to make the trip to Namche Bazzar. This is a tough days walking. Our walk involved crossing (and re-crossing) the Dudh Koshi River in several places as we made our way to the foot of a large plateaux. Atop the plateaux sits the Sherpa village of Namche Bazzar, the last sizable village on the trail to Mt. Everest Base Camp. Got some excellent views of Thamserku on the way up, a taste of what was to come.

I recently went to the new and improved overclockers site, and clicked through on an ad for Windows Vista. I was suprised to see nothing but "EXCELLENT" feedback, given that the web community in genral tend to bash Microsoft even when they do an excellent job. So I decided to lend my two cents and write a small (and in my opinion) a more fair appraisal of Windows Vista. I spoke of two people I know who had very different experiences with Vista, one good and one bad. I presented the facts and posted up the feedback. As I expected the comments needed to be moderated.....but alas have not appeared!!!!

I contacted www.overclockers.co.uk about this issue and got the following back:

Thank you for your webnote.
We will publish comments as long as they are not slanderous and relevant to the product.
For example: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CB-133-BE&tool=3
Regards,
Thomas Lamb

Thank you for that Thomas....WHERE IS MY COMMENT!!!. No sign of it yet.....must have got "lost in the system". I can only conclude that Over clockers filter their comments and remove negative ones....which is an absolute disgrace. Or I may be wrong...and maybe the comment is going live shortly?

The Plot Thickens!!!!!!

So I mailed www.overclcokers.co.uk again and confronted them about my missing comments...and this is what they said: (Just snippets but direct quotes)

In the second you state on the first line you do not own this product - hence you are in no position to post a review
- also the comments made are largely nothing to do with Vista itself.

Errmmmmmm....sorry. I think we have problem here. You do not need to have bought a product to post feedback (as this screen shot shows). I have not bought an OS in my life, but i've plenty of experience with them having been in IT for years!!! Your own site has a Reviews section for feedback. Nothing about buying the product.

This rant is changing.....im going to have to call it a five star rant.....as I see nothing but 5 stars on the OC site ;)

So the moral of the story is: Don't complain about anything to OC, because they will not listen.

You shouldn't install over the top of a previous install - whether it's 95, 98, me, 2k or XP that is liable to cause problems - Vista is no different. Nvidia have sucky drivers for Vista, ATI have great drivers - does this make Vista good or bad or is it irrelevant?
- Thank you for the advice Dave. Why is there an option to over-install if its a bad idea? Should this not be called the Upgrade (bad idea) option. Im just being silly now. I was only giving two different stories of Vista, its your problem if you will not post feedback that is not in line with your 5 star rating!

It appears im not alone......Over Clockers Complaints.

At a glance it’s a strange shop to walk into, as the entire side of the shop is taken up by a running track with a camera and computer at one end. The staff are very friendly and invested about 40 minutes in total ensuring we had the correct runners for the level of jogging we did.

The first stage of the selection process was to stand on a board which game an imprint of the bottom of your foot. From this the staff were able to gauge the arch of your foot etc. The next stag was to run barefoot down the running track. Your running style was then examined in slow motion to reveal any leaning to one side etc.

From this initial video the staff selects several runners offering support for your running style. You then run down the track in each pair and review the video from each. From these and based on how comfortable you find the runners you make a selection.

I must say I was very impressed and found the staff very helpful indeed. The last time I bought runners I simply grabbed a pair out of Foot Locker (as I would imagine 98% of other casual joggers out there did). I would advise anyone who jogs regularly to take a trip out to Bray and get runners that are correct for you.

Check it out here. Amphibian King

Firstly: The facts!

• Eircom were contacted to fix a broken phone line. The line was completely dead.
• Eircom fixed the phone line by installing a new line.
• Eircom failed to ask us if we had broadband, they also neglected to turn DSL back on for our new line.

Due to the actions taken by Eircom they effectively cut off our broadband connection. To resolve this issue we first called Esat BT (our broadband provider). After several HOURS on hold we got talking to a technician who advised that we fill out a new line connection form. From talking to Esat BT support I am drawing the following conclusion:

Esat BT technicians are not interested in resolving your issue. They are interested in getting you off the phone as quickly as possible as this is the metric by which they are rated. (Number of calls VS time)

Obviously there is a serious conflict of interest when trying to juggle providing decent customer care and getting through 20 calls in a shift. The end result is a horrific experience for most customers, and resolution for the small few who are lucky enough to get someone who cares.

On to Eircom: We called Eircom to explain that it was in fact them who had caused the whole problem by cutting off the DSL (without asking). We had the misfortune of speaking to Lorraine (the worlds worst customer service representative). Lorraine was thoroughly useless, abusive, and belligerent. It was clearly explained that Eircom were to blame for the whole problem, however Lorraine explained over and over that in order to resolve this we would need to contact Esat BT, who would in turn contact Eircom. Procedure obviously could not be broken, god forbid. Lorraine was the quintessential call centre drone, firing out the buzz phrases of "Its a wholesale issue"....and "bare with me". You should not be working in customer service, as you are ignorant and rude.

After 15 minutes of Lorraine's drivel the purpose of our call switched from getting our problem resolved to making a formal complaint about Lorraine's attitude. We got put through to Lorraine's manager x. It soon became clear as I watched my sisters face in horror as x launched into another defensive attack, stating the problem was not eircom's and we needed to call BT (They call this schooming x). The conversation, and any faith we had in Eircom ended when x hung up on us, having lost her temper at the end of a biblical hissie fit.

Thank you Eircom, you just joined the elite of customer service scum bags

So where to now: So both companies had fobbed us off. We were left with no other choice than to go back to ring Esat BT and pled with them to help. Luckily for us after a 50 minute wait we got talking to a technician called Paul who ordered a line check for DSL. I will say that Paul promised to call me back with the results....and never did. That said the problem with the DSL looks to be resolved as the DSL light is back on!

Enter The Peace Maker: It jmust be mentioned that "nice guy eircom" did call us back to apologise for the horrendous treatment we receved at the hands of Lorrane and x. However man above, you did not apologie for cutting the DSL and causing the problem in the frist place.

In retrospect: What should have happened is this:

1. We call Esat be and report DSL down.
2. Esat do a line check. > Problem is resolved

Instead the staff of both companies created a nightmare for us.....and the above is our story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To see the pictures of our trip to Kashmir please click here.

Upon arriving at our house boat we were presently surprised by the much cooler climate of Kashmir (given its elevation) and the amazing scenery. I think when we all left for India we did not believe we would be trekking in the Indian Himalaya, not a million miles from the Pakistani border! Had we not come to Kashmir then this would never have happened.

From our house boat we set out on a 4 day trek up into the Himalayas. We drove by jeep to the foothills before taking to our heels to climb up Mt Harnuck (not sure of the name ;). I would say that anyone wishing to trek in India should first get themselves to Srinagar or the lakes. From here it will not be difficult to find a guide and porters to take you trekking. Most of the staff on the houseboat can put you in touch with the right person if you have not already met them.

The trekking we did was of average difficulty. Please note we had a donkey called “Nilly” who took our bags…so we were walking light! On our first day we walked to a camp spot at the top of a huge plateaux. We shared this plateaux with the native Gypsies who were incredibly friendly to use. They even invited us to their home where the women of the village sang for us. It is still one of the best memories of the whole year away for me.

From here we went up to a lake high up on the mountain before descending back into the Gypsy village below.