When is Dublin 7 NOT Dublin 7? When it's Dublin 8

Did you know that, despite being on the north side of the Liffey (where the odd numbered post-codes live), the Phoenix Park is actually in Dublin 8? And it’s not for the reason you might think. Thus spoke Wikipedia:

"There is a very simple, practical reason why the Phoenix Park is in Dublin 8 and it has nothing whatever to do with snobbery but with practicality.

Long before there were postal codes the James’s St Postal Sorting Office looked after the Phoenix Park because it was considered to be closer and more convenient than Phibsborough (Dublin 7). James’s St continued in this role when the postal codes were introduced so Dublin 8 it had to be."

This interesting fact courtesy of a 20-minute argument in Morelli’s chipper on Thomas Street that almost ended in a fist-fight.

Hello, I’m a Mac.

David Mitchell and Robert Webb (PC and Mac in the UK adverts) were in Dublin promoting their new film, “Magicians”. After the screening, they were taking photos with people and signing autographs. So, naturally, I asked them to sign my Macbook.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst

Five days to go!

Some things are still up in the air. When we land in Rome on Sunday, we’ll be going into temporary accommodation until we can find somewhere to live. This means that when the movers come on Friday, they will be taking all of our stuff and putting it into storage until we give them a call and say “Yes, we are living at this address now, please bring all our worldly possessions to us.” And since we don’t know when we’ll actually have a place to live, this means that we might not see our stuff for anywhere between two weeks and six months.

So right now, I’m hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

What does that mean? Well, it means that I’m reassessing everything I own and think “can I live without this for six months?” While everyday clothes are cheap and easy to replace, I have to think about all the possibilities. I should bring formal clothes, because there will inevitably be some function where I will be required to scrub up nice. So that’s a no-brainer.

But what about the other stuff? Movies and games? There’s no way I can live without those.

This is a tough decision. I’m totally addicted to my Xbox 360 now, and what better way to keep in touch with my nerdy Irish friends than by kerb-stomping them over Xbox Live? And what better way to maintain a sense of accomplishment than increasing my gamer score? But as much as I love the 360, it’s far too heavy and takes up far too much space for me to bring on my own. It will have to come with the movers.

I’ve decided to only take my PlayStation 2 with me. I’ve dumped the boxes for the games so that the actual disks are in a couple of CD wallets and I’m bringing my PlayStation 2 in my carry-on luggage. This means that I’ll at least have a couple of games to play when I get there (Final Fantasy XII, God of War 2).

We’re taking a Macbook, so we’ll have something to watch DVDs on. But what DVDs? I’ve got a CD wallet especially for movies, and now I have to decide what I should fill it with. This isn’t an easy task. I mean, how do I decide what movies to bring? How do I predict my tastes and moods for the next six months? I realise that there are people who could fit their entire DVD collection in one of these 72-disc wallets, but there’s a reason I have as many DVDs as I do - I’m a fussy, temperamental little shit.

And this leaves us with a little thought-experiment: if you were moving to a foreign country and you could only bring one DVD, one game, one book and one CD with you, what would you bring?

Arrivederci Party!

Thanks to all those who came out on Saturday. It was great to see everyone together at once, and we went home feeling very special indeed. The rest of the mugshots are up on flickr.

Father of PlayStation retires from Sony

According to Eurogamer, Ken Kutaragi is retiring from his role as CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment. Kaz Hirai will be replacing Kutaragi as CEO.

I have to say, I’m more than a little disappointed by this news. Double-crazy double-K was always always good for an entertaining quote. Almost everything out of his mouth was like something from a megalomaniacal supervillian - things you can almost imagine Ming the Merciless shouting at people. The best Kaz Hirai has given us so far is the embarassing “RIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRR!”

So here are some of my favourite Ken Kutaragi quotes:

“It will be expensive … for consumers to think to themselves ‘I will work more hours to buy one’. We want people to feel that they want it, irrespective of anything else”

_

“If processors of high performance and wide bandwidth like the Cell were linked together without sufficient security, a worldwide system crash could occur with one attack.”

_

“The PS3 will instill discipline in our children and adults alike. Everyone will know discipline.”

_

We’ll miss you, Ken.

Guide Books

I’m fast becoming an expert on guide books to Rome. So far, my favourite is “City Secrets: Rome”. I like it because it lists the things to see and places to eat followed by a short anecdote by someone who knows the place well, and explains why they recommend it in real, human terms.

For example, this is what Virginia L. Bush says about the Colosseum:

“A new visitor to Rome should go first to the Colosseum. Since it is said that Rome will stand as long as the Colosseum stands, and the world will last as long as Rome stands, it would be good to check first that everything is in order with the universe”

Guitar Hero 2 and OS X

I think my previous post on Guitar Hero 2 gave some idea of how disappointed I was by this game. So why the hell did I go out and re-buy it for the Xbox 360?

Well, apart from the high-definition graphics (very important in a game like this) and the way it’s an easy 500 achievement points, there’s one very big reason why I got it: the Guitar. It plays beautifully, it’s based on an Explorer and it’s USB.

Naturally, I plugged it into my Macbook before it even went near the 360. OS X recognised it, but the 360 controller drivers from Pref360 didn’t work. No worries, it was only a matter of time. Well, the new version of the Pref360 drivers adds support for the Guitar Hero controller.

So now I can play Frets on Fire on my Macbook, which is fantastic. But I really want to see if this can be used as an input controller for Max/MSP or Processing. Then the fun can really begin.

Evenings in Rome

Ah, Roma.

Despite my tragic Italian vocabulary and the fact that, in a land of thin, tan people, I stick out like a sore thumb, our trip was largely successful. We managed to get some sense of what our life in Rome would be like.

The City Itself

An image that keeps popping into my head is of the entire Roman Empire rolling around on the ground saying “Help! I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” It’s a beautiful city, but it’s not coping very well with modern life. Aside from the copious levels of really, really shitty graffiti, the heritage doesn’t seem to be respected. There’s a lot of history scattered around, at the sides of roads, but this is neglected and uncared for. For example, I can’t help but feel that, in any other country, the ruins at Viale Argentine with its beautiful, two-thousand-year old frescos would be treated as a national landmark. In Rome, however, the ruins are used as a cat sanctuary. I guess you could look at this as simple pragmatism but it still feels slightly tragic.

Driving in Rome

I also have a new-found respect for Italian drivers. The motto over there seems to be “keep it moving”. Which means that if someone cuts you off, you honk your horn, you wave your fist, you give them a mean glare, but you keep it moving. I saw things over there that would have drivers jumping out of the car with rage, but the Italians just get on with it.

And this means that there are very few traffic lights in Rome. Near our hotel in Gianicolo, traffic from four different directions merge into one lane. I spent an hour just watching this intersection. Despite the lack of traffic lights, noone slowed below 30kph and noone got into an accident. It was beautiful. Balletic.

But it reaffirmed for me that I will never, ever be able to drive in Rome. Just driving home from my mom’s house yesterday, I noticed I was starting to drive like an Italian. And it scared the living shit out of me.

And the food

Do you really need another person going on about how great the food is in Italy?

Apartment-hunting

Finding a place to live in Rome is going to be a pain, I can tell.

While I was there, we saw two places. One of them was a beautiful house. Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, two outside areas. Oh, it was beautiful. But it was in a really sketchy area of the town. I live in Stoneybatter and work on Thomas Street, I know what sketchy is. And even I was put off by the area. And besides my own personal problems with the area, it just isn’t suitable for entertaining or Embassy work.

The other was a lot smaller; one bedroom, two bathrooms, with not a lot of storage. But it’s in a much better neighbourhood. And despite the lack of space, it’s a much more beautiful place. And we want to live there. And so begins the dance.

You see, over here, it’s a much more simple affair. You like the look of an apartment, it’s in your budget, the landlord likes the look of you and, boom, the apartment is yours. Over there, it’s a lot more like a mating ritual, with a lot more bum-sniffing before anyone actually gets mounted.

"We'll pay _$amount_ per month"

“Ah, but it’s worth $amount*3 per month”

“That’s on a short-term lease, we’re offering a guaranteed $amount per month for a 3-year lease with a 3 month security deposit”

“I won’t do anything less than $amount*2 per month, 6 month security deposit and a bank bond”

…etc…

So God only knows when we’ll actually have somewhere to live.

Roman Holiday

The quiet trend ‘round these parts is set to continue because I’m heading off tomorrow for a few days in Rome. This isn’t actually a holiday though. More of a reccy. It’s basically an opportunity to check out a couple of apartments, get a feel for the place, see if it’s the kind of place we can see ourselves living for the next few years.

I’m sure you’ll be able to follow the progress on Flickr.

Getting ready to say goodbye

When we were told that H. was being posted abroad, I got scared. Actually, let me rephrase that. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was terrified. I knew it was coming, but I’d hoped that… I dunno… they’d forget about her. Forget to tell her to move. Or they’d say that they wouldn’t need her to start until August.

August 2010.

It was not to be. We got word last week that she’s due to start on May 7th. Barely a month from now. So time is against us.

Last week, I handed in my notice. I’ve worked in this company for five years now, and it was such a surreal feeling to be finally saying the words “I quit.” I’d wanted to say them for a long time now. I’d almost said them a few times, when things got really tough, when I desperately wanted a change of scenery. But something always had held me back. Stability? You can’t really call this place ‘stable.’ Job satisfaction? Best skip that one. Security? Maybe - a steady pay cheque is a thing of beauty. Most likely, I stayed because of two things: the prestige of working for this company, and the people I work with.

As a geek, especially a games geek, this is a very prestigious company to work for. The sense of geek pride is enormous, especially given its reputation within the Irish software industry. It might not be as big as Google, but sometimes it feels like this is a good thing. With a small team, it feels more select: the elite of the elite, the ubermensch.

And as for the people, well… I’ll miss them more than the job.

It feels like it’s coming close to the last day of school. Weird, mixed feelings of relief and regret. The door of opportunity has been flung open! I am master of my own destiny once again! There is nothing I can’t do!

Nothing, that is, except work with my friends like this again.