Tommy Collison » Uncategorized

Apple Adverts

Tommy — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:46:41 +0000

I’m telling you, Apple has some great music taste.

Usage

Tommy — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:46:18 +0000

If you sleep on it; sit on it; type on it or use it for more than two hours a day, you should get a high-quality, comfortable one, to the best of your ability and budget. I say this with regard to quality-of-life, referring to:

Beds
Mobile phones
Chairs
Laptops
Backpacks
Headphones
Shoes
Keyboards

Anything else you’d add to that list?

A Quick Note on Permalinking

Tommy — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:26:01 +0000

Recently, a lot of my posts have been linking to other articles, quoting bits and commenting on them. The TSA Insanity article is an example of such a recent post.

How posts like those work:

Chat Lists

Tommy — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:13:36 +0000

Whenever I sign onto AOL messenger and see Patrick online, I usually ping him for a chat or to ask him a question. Today was a little different because he’s actually home for Christmas, along with John. :)

Now, I can ask him that question as he sits opposite me doing e-mails!

Jared Nadin • White Christmas

Tommy — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:37:17 +0000

I really like this:

He’s a wonderfully talented performer and great guy in real life :)

Okay, I’ll stop gushing — if I don’t see you guys this side of the 25th, Happy Holidays, folks!

‘Weightism’

Tommy — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 20:08:14 +0000

I’m a bit late to read ABC News’ Study: ‘Weight-ism’ More Widespread Than Racism” but when I came across it, I had to document it here.

As a result, the researchers contend, weight discrimination is spiraling upward, and that’s a dangerous trend that could add fuel to the obesity epidemic.

The study argues that discrimination against fat people should be illegal, in the same way discrimination against people based on their age, sexuality, race or gender is illegal.

I disagree.

For the most part, being overweight often as much a choice as being obnoxious or smoking or eating with your mouth full or believing in creationism. Obviously it’s not the same kind of choice, and sometimes it’s not even a choice, but in a lot of cases, it’s more of a choice than race or gender.

Having said that, it depends on what discrimination you’re talking about. If you’re looking to hire someone to answer your telephone support system, obviously weight shouldn’t come into it. However, if I make a living renting bikes to tourists in Clare, I should be able to refuse to rent a bike to someone who’s morbidly obese and who’s going to break my bike.

There seems to be some stigma around criticizing obesity (it’s also prevalent in smoking), so here I am, doing my bit to try and curb it.

↳ Dear Congress, It’s No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works

Tommy — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:50:18 +0000

Joshua Kopstein:

But the chilling takeaway of this whole debacle was the irrefutable air of anti-intellectualism; that inescapable absurdity that we have members of Congress voting on a technical bill who do not posses any technical knowledge on the subject and do not find it imperative to recognize those who do.

Miss Saigon

Tommy — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:00:00 +0000

Last weekend, I was very lucky to see CentreStage Youth Theatre’s Miss Saigon. To say that it was “not bad for a local production” would be a bit patronizing for what is one of the best musicals I’ve seen in many years.

A strong set of leads being complimented by an equally powerful ensemble made this a very honed production of what I now recognize to be a very fun, lyrical piece of work.

Left to right: Aaron Barriscale, Jared Nadin and Colin Doherty debate Vietnam, American visas and fine women in Miss Saigon. Apologies for the less-than-steller image quality.

Props also to Michael Young, the musical director. I got to watch some of the rehearsals and really came to appreciate how accomplished he is.

CentreSpace Studios on Alphonsus Street is a wonderfully intimate theatre, and provided a great setting for a great night of entertainment.

Will keep you posted on upcoming shows by CYT — can’t wait to see their next masterpiece.

Possible Extensions to Find My Friends

Tommy — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 12:57:26 +0000

I talked abut Find My Friends recently and thought about two more points to do with it in the interim.

One of the new features in the iOS 5 Reminders application is a feature to remind you of a to-do when you leave or arrive a certain location (home, work, etc.). It’s pretty cool. I can tell my phone to remind me to buy a new Math book when I arrive into town on a Saturday. To me, a natural extension of this feature links in with the Find My Friends application. Since your friends have already granted your permission to see their location, why can’t you set reminders based on their location. For example, I’d love to be able to set a reminder that says “Remind me to text Mum to get AAA batteries when she leaves work”.
You can already turn off location tracking (i.e. “don’t let my friends see my location in Find My Friends right now”) in the application quite easily. An extension to this would be that the app knows to turn off location when you’re near certain place. I originally thought of this feature with regard to me finding new hipster cafés to work in, and wanting to keep them secret (i.e. not letting my friends see my location when I’m there). So basically, as I draw near the Twisted Pepper, my phone turns off location awareness so none of my friends can see my location. Other uses: for when you don’t want people on your Find My Friends list to see where you live/work.

Rain

Tommy — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 06:59:06 +0000

I went into town on both Saturday and Sunday and it was raining quite heavily on both days. I made a run for a bus during a break in the downpour and managed to snap this picture on O’Connell’s Street: