Donegal Hotelier flies the Union Jack.

In the news recently is the flying of the union jack by a Donegal hotelier Brendan Rohan who owns Dunfanaghy Holiday Village in Co Donegal. Apparently he gets a lot of business from English people and flies their flag as a form of welcome, he seemingly has forgotten our history and the disrespect shown by loyalists for the Irish flag and hatred shown on their eleventh night bonfires. Don’t believe the flying of the union jack is a good idea and the making guests feel welcome isn’t sufficient reason for it to be flown in the republic. The hotelier in question doesn’t fit the profile for being a anglophile formerly being a officer in the Irish army and all. The hotelier is contactable on facebook if one wants to get his side of the story. One wonders how it will end. Incidentally I rate below as being incitement to hatred at the very minimum.

Were Computers more fun.

Here is a topic i feel like discussing, computers don’t seem to the fun they used to be or maybe I am just a lot older. Things are not as interesting as they once were. Does anyone feel the same i wonder ? Nowadays I check the email, read the papers, play some music videos on youtube and of course a small bit of blogging and that’s about it. I miss the addictive games that used to be around and the chats I used have on Icq with people from around the world, used to do that alot very addictive actually (makes the world a small place). Computers seem to lack the “sense” of adventure that was once with them, maybe it is because so much of they used to do is being done by mobiles and other smaller devices. My gut tells me put it down to age.

on pc

National Maternity Hospital.

In the news recently is the proposed new maternity hospital which is to be built in Dublin. It has raised hackles due to the fact that the ownership is in question, despite the taxpayer forking out some three hundred million to construct the hospital. it is to be owned by the nuns-sole owners (the sisters of charity to be exact) for supplying the site on which the hospital is to be build. This doesn’t sound like much of a deal for the taxpayer who is supplying all the funds and has nothing to show for the all that is to be spent. One wonders who would make a deal like this in this day and age. Our government seemingly does these sort of things i.e completely reckless with public funds and with the whiff of a scam as well. The religious have not got good press of late with the scandals of the Magdalene laundry’s and the mother and baby homes particularly Tuam. The nuns have no right to a public asset or public funds for that matter. The taxpayer should not be ripped off in this matter.

Here is a link of interest:

Block Sisters of Charity as ‘sole owners’ of National Maternity Hospital

 

Stakeknife Investigation & Cover up.

The man responsible for the new “stakeknife” investigation chief constable Jon Boutcher has appealed for witnesses to come forward to his inquiry. According to Boutcher potential witnesses will be treated sympathetically. However no mention is made of “stakeknife” role as British intelligence informer and it is not clear if British army intelligence section or MI5 will be called to give evidence. The case is already in the public arena with the book “stakeknife” published for many years and the fact that the British police are actually providing  Freddie Scappaticci with refuge. Will British security services end up with a murder rap or will the entire matter be thrown at the door of the IRA. A cover-up of “stakeknife” is highly likely.

Wikileaks & CIA Cyber-warfare

Wikileaks reveals CIA hacking tools in so far as publishing documents which they released on the their website on the seventh of March. Hacking isn’t a new phenomena and all intelligence agencies are likely to have methods to hack modern technology to find material on people who they have under surveillance. It may come as a surprise to some people but pimply faced teenagers are not the only source of malware on your computer, your mobile phone and lately your tv (smart tvs largely sold by samsung). It is quite a wide net when it comes to intelligence gathering and cyber-warfare,  they seem to want to keep tabs on the general population rather than targeted suspects who would be easier to “bug” or wiretap. Also infecting computer systems would allow them to be taken down in the event of hostilities breaking out, power generation and communications are likely targets and present a significance security threats to most nations. It is reputed that all software has bugs in it which can be activated by a certain sequence being sent to the computer which has been infected. Though I am unable to prove it but as they say “bugs in the software flash the message there’s something out there”. Protection of vital computer systems is a essential component of national security in the event of cyber-war. More measure have to be taken to protect people’s privacy, financial details and more industrial applications. Computer systems require through examination with both the software and hardware being scrutinized. Both hardware and software are reputed to come with “back doors” -remote administration  which are easily exploited by hackers. Manufacturers have to take seriously computer security and not have people surprised by packages installed on their computers. Technology has enriched people lives by letting them do more but sometimes maybe the less technology is the better option.

links of interest

The Hacker News.