Six Nations 2010
06/02/10 22:38 Filed in: Sport
I normally do a preview
of the Six Nations every year, but with the new
little fella making his debut last weekend, I didn’t
get a chance this time around.
The show kicked off this afternoon, with 2009 Grand Slam Champions Ireland facing Italy at Croke Park. Nobody really expected a shock here, and indeed none came. Ireland had it sewn up by half time, but a spirited display by the Azzurri in the second half prevented the match from turning into a rout. In the end Ireland ran out 29-11 winners.
This was followed by England entertaining Wales at Twickenham. Two years ago, Wales won this fixture 26-19, which set them on their way to their second Grand Slam on the decade. It was not to be this time around. After a really desperate, forgettable first half, play opened up after the break. England finished the stronger, winning 30-17. France and Scotland meet in Edinburgh tomorrow.
This year sees Ireland play two away games and the other three at home. To someone unfamiliar with the competition, this might be seem to be a favourable season for Ireland, but of course, it isn’t. The two away games are against France and England. In recent times, we have had a very good record against England, and have only lost once to them since 2004 and beaten them five times. Tellingly though, the last time we were beaten by them was the last time we were in Twickenham.
France is a different story. From 1972 to 1999, we lost every single game against them. We beat them in 2000, 2001 and 2003, and then lost five in a row to them (plus two World Cup games) until we finally got the better of them in Croke Park last year. Our next game is in Paris, and this is the game upon which our Six Nations chances rest. If we can beat them, then I think we have every chance of retaining the title and with it a second Grand Slam.
There will be a lot of criticism of Ireland’s display today, but I’m not too worried at this stage. It was the first match of the tournament, so you can expect that all the moves might not come off. Also we were missing some stalwarts of the first team, notably Marcus Horan and Donncha O’Callaghan. I expected Leo Cullen to have a better game than he did, and Rob Kearney will want to forget today for ever. Also, sometimes inferior opposition just try to close the game down, and that’s what Italy did today. They never looked like being able to create anything,and their try came from an Irish mistake. We will know better how good this Ireland side are once they take to the field in Paris next weekend and face a top class outfit.
So how will we do? As I said, it all depends on next week. If we win, the championship is there for the taking. If we don’t, we might still sneak it (along with a Triple Crown) providing France slip up along the way.
Winning the Grand Slam last year was a superb achievement. Retaining it would be even more so. As well as having to go and win in Paris and London, every other team in the competition will be looking to bring us down a peg or two. If Ireland can retain the title this year, they will truly go down in history as one of the greatest sports teams from this island to have ever taken the field.
Greatness awaits. Let’s hope our men have it within them to grasp it.
The show kicked off this afternoon, with 2009 Grand Slam Champions Ireland facing Italy at Croke Park. Nobody really expected a shock here, and indeed none came. Ireland had it sewn up by half time, but a spirited display by the Azzurri in the second half prevented the match from turning into a rout. In the end Ireland ran out 29-11 winners.
This was followed by England entertaining Wales at Twickenham. Two years ago, Wales won this fixture 26-19, which set them on their way to their second Grand Slam on the decade. It was not to be this time around. After a really desperate, forgettable first half, play opened up after the break. England finished the stronger, winning 30-17. France and Scotland meet in Edinburgh tomorrow.
This year sees Ireland play two away games and the other three at home. To someone unfamiliar with the competition, this might be seem to be a favourable season for Ireland, but of course, it isn’t. The two away games are against France and England. In recent times, we have had a very good record against England, and have only lost once to them since 2004 and beaten them five times. Tellingly though, the last time we were beaten by them was the last time we were in Twickenham.
France is a different story. From 1972 to 1999, we lost every single game against them. We beat them in 2000, 2001 and 2003, and then lost five in a row to them (plus two World Cup games) until we finally got the better of them in Croke Park last year. Our next game is in Paris, and this is the game upon which our Six Nations chances rest. If we can beat them, then I think we have every chance of retaining the title and with it a second Grand Slam.
There will be a lot of criticism of Ireland’s display today, but I’m not too worried at this stage. It was the first match of the tournament, so you can expect that all the moves might not come off. Also we were missing some stalwarts of the first team, notably Marcus Horan and Donncha O’Callaghan. I expected Leo Cullen to have a better game than he did, and Rob Kearney will want to forget today for ever. Also, sometimes inferior opposition just try to close the game down, and that’s what Italy did today. They never looked like being able to create anything,and their try came from an Irish mistake. We will know better how good this Ireland side are once they take to the field in Paris next weekend and face a top class outfit.
So how will we do? As I said, it all depends on next week. If we win, the championship is there for the taking. If we don’t, we might still sneak it (along with a Triple Crown) providing France slip up along the way.
Winning the Grand Slam last year was a superb achievement. Retaining it would be even more so. As well as having to go and win in Paris and London, every other team in the competition will be looking to bring us down a peg or two. If Ireland can retain the title this year, they will truly go down in history as one of the greatest sports teams from this island to have ever taken the field.
Greatness awaits. Let’s hope our men have it within them to grasp it.
|
Start Them Young
In my piece about the
forthcoming Apple Tablet last night, I mentioned the
intuitive nature of the iPhone/iPod touch. It really
is so simple, a child could master it, and I can
testify to that.
My iPod touch has become the in-car entertainment device for Aoife, our three-year-old. I have loaded up a pile of cartoons, movies, games and other little bits and bobs that she likes, and now whenever she and I are in the car, the call comes out: “Can I play on your iPod, Daddy?” When I give it to her, I don’t even have to turn it on for her. She knows that the button on the bottom turns it on and then to slide the unlock arrow. Within seconds, she’s watching Bob the Builder, or playing the piano or Preschool Adventure [both iTunes Store links.]
The other day, we were in my sister’s house and Aoife was showing her older cousins a new game I had downloaded for her. They were amazed as she whizzed through the screens to find the icon of the game and launch it.
My geeky heart swelled with pride.
My iPod touch has become the in-car entertainment device for Aoife, our three-year-old. I have loaded up a pile of cartoons, movies, games and other little bits and bobs that she likes, and now whenever she and I are in the car, the call comes out: “Can I play on your iPod, Daddy?” When I give it to her, I don’t even have to turn it on for her. She knows that the button on the bottom turns it on and then to slide the unlock arrow. Within seconds, she’s watching Bob the Builder, or playing the piano or Preschool Adventure [both iTunes Store links.]
The other day, we were in my sister’s house and Aoife was showing her older cousins a new game I had downloaded for her. They were amazed as she whizzed through the screens to find the icon of the game and launch it.
My geeky heart swelled with pride.
The Tablet
It’s both the best-kept
and the worst-kept secret in the tech world. No-one
expects anything but a tablet or slate-type device to
be unveiled by Apple supremo Steve Jobs on Wednesday,
but no-one outside a small and tightly controlled
group of people know what it looks like or what it
will do. There has been a huge amount of idle
speculation about the mythical device on the internet
and in the mainstream media, but that’s what it is -
speculation. A few hundred words from me on the
subject isn’t going to add anything to what’s already
known, but I’m not going to let that stop me.
The first question is “Why would Apple want to release a device like this?” The sub-notebook sector of the market is already quite crowded, what with ebook readers, netbooks, and of course, existing slate-type devices. This is true, but there were plenty of smartphones on the market before the iPhone, and the iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player. And it is to these two devices we should look in order to get an answer to that question.
The two runaway successes for Apple in the last decade have been the iPod and the iPhone. When the iPod was released in 2001, Apple was just a computer and software business. Music players - that was a game dominated by Sony, Philips, Toshiba and several others. But Apple came along and changed the game. The iPod offered features that none of the other manufacturers did - an intuitive user interface, and a superb desktop application to manage your music library and sync your iPod with ease. Then along came the iTunes Music Store (later renamed the iTunes Store) and growth went vertical. Not only were you buying your device from Apple, but chances are you were also buying content for it from Apple too. By the time the competition managed to wake up to what was going on, Apple and the iPod were out of sight. The device has become a generic name for MP3 player, just as Hoover is a generic name for vacuum cleaners.
It’s hard to believe that before 2007, Apple hadn’t sold a single mobile phone. Like with the debut of the iPod, Apple were entering a new market. But this was different. In 2001, MP3 players weren’t a big sector in the overall consumer electronics market. In 2007, the mobile phone sector was enormous, with most markets saturated. However, no-one had come up with a really good smartphone, that combined phone, internet device and media player. And then Apple just came along and did it. Looking back on the first release of the iPhone, it looks primitive, with no 3G, a 2MP still camera, 4GB of storage and no MMS. But the killer features made all the difference - a simple to use interface, a really good browser and some serious eye candy when it came to media handling. If Apple had left it at that and just upgraded the hardware and tweaked the software every now and then, the iPhone would be forgotten by now. What Apple did next was a stroke of genius - the App Store. Developers were invited to develop applications for the iPhone, distribute them through an Apple-owned store, and get a nice share of the price if they were paid-for apps. Two years later, there are over 100,000 apps available for the iPhone and over 3 billion downloads have taken place.
Both of these devices succeeded not because they were early to market - they succeeded by changing the game. In 2001, the music industry was in crisis. Illegal downloading and filesharing was threatening the future of music as a commercial commodity. When Apple offered the music companies a paying way onto its hip new music players that all the cool kids were using, they jumped at the chance. Of course, it’s not the only way that you can buy music online or your iPod, but because the iTunes Store is so seamlessly integrated into the iTunes/iPod experience, that for many users it is the default way to buy music online.
In the smartphone market, nearly every new entrant these days has that lovely scrolly touch screen, and most of Apple’s competitors have App Store equivalents with literally tens of apps available. It will be interesting to see if anyone catches up with Apple and the iPhone - perhaps Google and their NexusOne Android phone might give them a run for their money.
So what has all that got to do with the putative slate device? If Apple are going to release a device in this sector, it will have to have a defined function that sets it apart from whatever is there already. It is said that Steve Jobs was initially reluctant to facilitate the development of a tablet as he could see little use for it other than for browsing the web while on the john.
The iPhone, though a great device, has some serious limitations. One, which is common to virtually all smartphones, not just the iPhone is the screen size. It’s fine for very casual browsing, but it is unsuitable for reading a long article or for using as an ebook reader. There is too much pinching and scrolling involved. We don’t read books that measure three and a half inches diagonally. Similarly, if you have photos on your phone that you took with your 10MP camera, you’re not getting the benefit of those extra pixels. If you had an iPhone-like (or more relevantly an iPod touch-like) device with a bigger form factor, this content becomes more useful. Movies are more watchable on a 10” screen than a 3.5” one.
One thing is for sure - it will be gorgeous. Jonathan Ive and his team of designers will deliver when it comes to teh shiny. I’m not even going to begin to speculate on what sort of horsepower will be under the hood, as I haven’t got a clue. There has been some debate as to what OS will run the device. Will it be a fully featured Mac OS X device running Snow Leopard, or will it run the iPhone OS? Or will it be a new OS, built especially for the device? Will iPhone Apps run on it? If not, will a parallel slate App Store exist alongside the iPhone App Store? We won’t know till Wednesday.
A gorgeous device on its own will not cut the mustard, even one with the famous Apple logo on it. What will Apple offer, content-wise, that will change the game and make this device the leading one in its class? There are plenty of rumours doing the rounds, that Apple has been in discussion with publishers and news organisations to see if they would be interested in licensing their content. Apple would be in a very strong position in such negotiations. News organisations and other publishers are looking at dwindling revenues, as the expectation grows that they should distribute their content for free on the internet and fund themselves through advertising. Apple can show them its experience of iTunes and music, and also tempt them with the fact that it owns a database of several hundred million credit card holders who regularly purchase a diverse range of content from its iTunes store. Another strong one is the notion that this will be aimed at the education sector, and will eventually replace textbooks.
One hunch I have is that MobileMe is going to feature somewhere along the line, maybe as an online repository for content or possibly as a method of delivering content through a subscription service.
The other question that is doing the rounds is about price. The Wall Street Journal is suggesting about $1000. My gut feeling is $600 - $800. (Just replace those dollar signs for euros for Ireland.) $1000 means that they will not be able to attract potential purchasers of netbooks, and also it would be the same price as the entry level MacBook.
As I said at the beginning, only a select few know right now what is coming down the track. But by this time next week, we will be sick of reading about it.
The first question is “Why would Apple want to release a device like this?” The sub-notebook sector of the market is already quite crowded, what with ebook readers, netbooks, and of course, existing slate-type devices. This is true, but there were plenty of smartphones on the market before the iPhone, and the iPod wasn’t the first MP3 player. And it is to these two devices we should look in order to get an answer to that question.
The two runaway successes for Apple in the last decade have been the iPod and the iPhone. When the iPod was released in 2001, Apple was just a computer and software business. Music players - that was a game dominated by Sony, Philips, Toshiba and several others. But Apple came along and changed the game. The iPod offered features that none of the other manufacturers did - an intuitive user interface, and a superb desktop application to manage your music library and sync your iPod with ease. Then along came the iTunes Music Store (later renamed the iTunes Store) and growth went vertical. Not only were you buying your device from Apple, but chances are you were also buying content for it from Apple too. By the time the competition managed to wake up to what was going on, Apple and the iPod were out of sight. The device has become a generic name for MP3 player, just as Hoover is a generic name for vacuum cleaners.
It’s hard to believe that before 2007, Apple hadn’t sold a single mobile phone. Like with the debut of the iPod, Apple were entering a new market. But this was different. In 2001, MP3 players weren’t a big sector in the overall consumer electronics market. In 2007, the mobile phone sector was enormous, with most markets saturated. However, no-one had come up with a really good smartphone, that combined phone, internet device and media player. And then Apple just came along and did it. Looking back on the first release of the iPhone, it looks primitive, with no 3G, a 2MP still camera, 4GB of storage and no MMS. But the killer features made all the difference - a simple to use interface, a really good browser and some serious eye candy when it came to media handling. If Apple had left it at that and just upgraded the hardware and tweaked the software every now and then, the iPhone would be forgotten by now. What Apple did next was a stroke of genius - the App Store. Developers were invited to develop applications for the iPhone, distribute them through an Apple-owned store, and get a nice share of the price if they were paid-for apps. Two years later, there are over 100,000 apps available for the iPhone and over 3 billion downloads have taken place.
Both of these devices succeeded not because they were early to market - they succeeded by changing the game. In 2001, the music industry was in crisis. Illegal downloading and filesharing was threatening the future of music as a commercial commodity. When Apple offered the music companies a paying way onto its hip new music players that all the cool kids were using, they jumped at the chance. Of course, it’s not the only way that you can buy music online or your iPod, but because the iTunes Store is so seamlessly integrated into the iTunes/iPod experience, that for many users it is the default way to buy music online.
In the smartphone market, nearly every new entrant these days has that lovely scrolly touch screen, and most of Apple’s competitors have App Store equivalents with literally tens of apps available. It will be interesting to see if anyone catches up with Apple and the iPhone - perhaps Google and their NexusOne Android phone might give them a run for their money.
So what has all that got to do with the putative slate device? If Apple are going to release a device in this sector, it will have to have a defined function that sets it apart from whatever is there already. It is said that Steve Jobs was initially reluctant to facilitate the development of a tablet as he could see little use for it other than for browsing the web while on the john.
The iPhone, though a great device, has some serious limitations. One, which is common to virtually all smartphones, not just the iPhone is the screen size. It’s fine for very casual browsing, but it is unsuitable for reading a long article or for using as an ebook reader. There is too much pinching and scrolling involved. We don’t read books that measure three and a half inches diagonally. Similarly, if you have photos on your phone that you took with your 10MP camera, you’re not getting the benefit of those extra pixels. If you had an iPhone-like (or more relevantly an iPod touch-like) device with a bigger form factor, this content becomes more useful. Movies are more watchable on a 10” screen than a 3.5” one.
One thing is for sure - it will be gorgeous. Jonathan Ive and his team of designers will deliver when it comes to teh shiny. I’m not even going to begin to speculate on what sort of horsepower will be under the hood, as I haven’t got a clue. There has been some debate as to what OS will run the device. Will it be a fully featured Mac OS X device running Snow Leopard, or will it run the iPhone OS? Or will it be a new OS, built especially for the device? Will iPhone Apps run on it? If not, will a parallel slate App Store exist alongside the iPhone App Store? We won’t know till Wednesday.
A gorgeous device on its own will not cut the mustard, even one with the famous Apple logo on it. What will Apple offer, content-wise, that will change the game and make this device the leading one in its class? There are plenty of rumours doing the rounds, that Apple has been in discussion with publishers and news organisations to see if they would be interested in licensing their content. Apple would be in a very strong position in such negotiations. News organisations and other publishers are looking at dwindling revenues, as the expectation grows that they should distribute their content for free on the internet and fund themselves through advertising. Apple can show them its experience of iTunes and music, and also tempt them with the fact that it owns a database of several hundred million credit card holders who regularly purchase a diverse range of content from its iTunes store. Another strong one is the notion that this will be aimed at the education sector, and will eventually replace textbooks.
One hunch I have is that MobileMe is going to feature somewhere along the line, maybe as an online repository for content or possibly as a method of delivering content through a subscription service.
The other question that is doing the rounds is about price. The Wall Street Journal is suggesting about $1000. My gut feeling is $600 - $800. (Just replace those dollar signs for euros for Ireland.) $1000 means that they will not be able to attract potential purchasers of netbooks, and also it would be the same price as the entry level MacBook.
As I said at the beginning, only a select few know right now what is coming down the track. But by this time next week, we will be sick of reading about it.
HC QF & SF Draw
24/01/10 22:06 Filed in: Sport
Munster’s reward for
topping the seedings after the Pool stages of the
Heineken Cup is to be drawn against the last team
they played against in the competition - Northampton.
This had become evident by Saturday afternoon as the
action around the grounds unfolded. If memory serves
me correctly, this is the first time this has
happened for Munster.
Northampton are the only Guinness Premiership team left in the competition, and you can be sure that Sky Sports will be bigging them up come quarter-final day. Sky always try to put forward the impression that they are impartial, but whenever a Premiership team is in the hunt, particularly one with a smattering of young English internationals, the mask slips. Barnes and Harrison were painful to listen to on Friday night. In their eyes, Shane Geraghty was running the show, when in fact he was having a mare.
I think it’s good to have tough opposition in the quarters, because if Munster can get past a difficult opponent at that point, they get momentum for the next two games. Last year, they slaughtered a poor Ospreys at Thomond in the quarter finals, and then got done over by Leinster in the semis - a team they had beaten twice in the Magners League earlier in the season.
If we get past Northampton, then an away semi final awaits, against either Biarritz or the Ospreys.
Leinster will entertain Clermont Auvergne at home in the quarters and if they get through that, they will be on the road to France for the semi against either Toulouse or Stade. Which opens up the possibility of an All-Ireland Final in Paris, the first one to be played offshore since Cavan bate Kerry in New York in ’47.
Northampton are the only Guinness Premiership team left in the competition, and you can be sure that Sky Sports will be bigging them up come quarter-final day. Sky always try to put forward the impression that they are impartial, but whenever a Premiership team is in the hunt, particularly one with a smattering of young English internationals, the mask slips. Barnes and Harrison were painful to listen to on Friday night. In their eyes, Shane Geraghty was running the show, when in fact he was having a mare.
I think it’s good to have tough opposition in the quarters, because if Munster can get past a difficult opponent at that point, they get momentum for the next two games. Last year, they slaughtered a poor Ospreys at Thomond in the quarter finals, and then got done over by Leinster in the semis - a team they had beaten twice in the Magners League earlier in the season.
If we get past Northampton, then an away semi final awaits, against either Biarritz or the Ospreys.
Leinster will entertain Clermont Auvergne at home in the quarters and if they get through that, they will be on the road to France for the semi against either Toulouse or Stade. Which opens up the possibility of an All-Ireland Final in Paris, the first one to be played offshore since Cavan bate Kerry in New York in ’47.
Headline Fail
23/01/10 22:36 Filed in: General
Nonsense
Munster Prevail In Nerve Shredding Encounter
22/01/10 23:10 Filed in: Sport
Despite the best
efforts of the referee Romain Poite, Munster managed
to keep their noses ahead of Northampton in tonight’s
Heineken Cup sixth round pool match at Thomond Park.
I always think that it’s a poor show when the ref ends up as the most influential man on the pitch, and so it was tonight. There was hardly a single decent scrum in the whole match, with the front rows unable to engage properly. Any other top level referee would have stopped the rot early on, hauling the two front rows out and explaining that they had to come in straight. Instead he let them infringe at will. When Paul O’Connell tried to draw his attention to it, he was accused of trying to interfere.
In case anyone needs reminding, this little bollix was the very same ref who tried to ruin the Munster - All Blacks match in November 2008.
But still we won. It wasn’t pretty, but then Northampton came here looking for a win in order to ensure qualification. The bonus point they picked up means that they probably still will get through, and might even end up back at Thomond for the quarter final.
Moment of the match was when Northampton has a succession of five-metre scrums on the Munster line. At the time they were getting all the scrummaging decisions going their way. Munster held them out and looked like they had turned them over, but Monsieur Poite decided that Paul O’Connell had handled in the ruck and binned him. Then the seven men of the Munster pack managed to get one against the head of the dominant Northampton eight-man unit. In an intensely ugly match, it was a rare moment of beauty.
This was Munster’s toughest match to date. There will be sore bodies tomorrow morning, but at least the pain will not have been borne in vain. Munster are three matches away from regaining the Heineken Cup. They must show the same level of doggedness and tenacity in the knockout stages, whoever they meet. Improvement is needed too in certain areas, especially the scrum.
The elite players go off now to International duty. When they come back (hopefully with the Six Nations Trophy safely back in the IRFU cabinet), they will have to be prepared for even more of the same.
I always think that it’s a poor show when the ref ends up as the most influential man on the pitch, and so it was tonight. There was hardly a single decent scrum in the whole match, with the front rows unable to engage properly. Any other top level referee would have stopped the rot early on, hauling the two front rows out and explaining that they had to come in straight. Instead he let them infringe at will. When Paul O’Connell tried to draw his attention to it, he was accused of trying to interfere.
In case anyone needs reminding, this little bollix was the very same ref who tried to ruin the Munster - All Blacks match in November 2008.
But still we won. It wasn’t pretty, but then Northampton came here looking for a win in order to ensure qualification. The bonus point they picked up means that they probably still will get through, and might even end up back at Thomond for the quarter final.
Moment of the match was when Northampton has a succession of five-metre scrums on the Munster line. At the time they were getting all the scrummaging decisions going their way. Munster held them out and looked like they had turned them over, but Monsieur Poite decided that Paul O’Connell had handled in the ruck and binned him. Then the seven men of the Munster pack managed to get one against the head of the dominant Northampton eight-man unit. In an intensely ugly match, it was a rare moment of beauty.
This was Munster’s toughest match to date. There will be sore bodies tomorrow morning, but at least the pain will not have been borne in vain. Munster are three matches away from regaining the Heineken Cup. They must show the same level of doggedness and tenacity in the knockout stages, whoever they meet. Improvement is needed too in certain areas, especially the scrum.
The elite players go off now to International duty. When they come back (hopefully with the Six Nations Trophy safely back in the IRFU cabinet), they will have to be prepared for even more of the same.
When The Saints Come Marching In
21/01/10 21:39 Filed in: Sport
How many times have we
been here before? Last round of the pool stages of
the Heineken Cup, and Munster welcome a high-flying
English team to Thomond Park for a winner-takes-all
do-or-die encounter. Gloucester have been here, as
have Sale and Wasps. The only team ever to have
spoiled the party for Munster was Leicester back in
2007, but we were qualified by then anyway.
Northampton Saints are the latest to make the trek to Limerick in order to try to upset the Munster applecart. To many of the players, this will be seen as
just another
match. But how that perception will change when they
run out onto the pitch and see the sea of red and
hear the deafening roar. Thomond is as intimidating a
place to come to for an opposing player as you can
imagine. (But in a nice sort of way, you understand.
Munster rugby people are very welcoming folk in every
other way. Just don’t get
cocky, or
presume that you might win.)
This should be a Munster win. Not necessarily a comfortable one, and a bonus point will not be considered before the game kicks off. Munster need to win in order to get a home quarter final, and they have been in this type of situation before.
“But Munster have never beaten Northampton in the Heineken Cup, and the Saints have a better scrum, and they’re third in the Guinness Premiership, and, and, and…”
And bollocks. Northampton have never faced Munster in Thomond Park on the last weekend of the pool stage before.
Northampton Saints are the latest to make the trek to Limerick in order to try to upset the Munster applecart. To many of the players, this will be seen as
This should be a Munster win. Not necessarily a comfortable one, and a bonus point will not be considered before the game kicks off. Munster need to win in order to get a home quarter final, and they have been in this type of situation before.
“But Munster have never beaten Northampton in the Heineken Cup, and the Saints have a better scrum, and they’re third in the Guinness Premiership, and, and, and…”
And bollocks. Northampton have never faced Munster in Thomond Park on the last weekend of the pool stage before.
Bye Bye Flash!
Here’s a handy little
utility if you use a Mac and Safari as your browser
- ClickToFlash.
Flash is a bit of a pain when it comes to the Mac and Safari. It causes the browser to slow down and it hogs the processor. But it’s hard to avoid these days, what with dynamic advertising, embedded videos and such like cluttering up the web pages we read.
What ClickToFlash does is disable Flash in the web pages you browse, leaving just a box with the word “Flash” like this one from The Irish Times homepage:
If you decide that you would prefer to keep Flash running for a particular page or for a site, you just click on the gear wheel in the top left corner of the box and you get a menu like so:
But the best is with YouTube. When you go to play a video with ClickToFlash enabled, it offers an enhanced menu from the gear wheel in the top left.
As well as playing in Flash, you can play using H.264, or in your Mac’s QuickTime Player app, or you can download the video as a movie file using H.264.
Flash is a bit of a pain when it comes to the Mac and Safari. It causes the browser to slow down and it hogs the processor. But it’s hard to avoid these days, what with dynamic advertising, embedded videos and such like cluttering up the web pages we read.
What ClickToFlash does is disable Flash in the web pages you browse, leaving just a box with the word “Flash” like this one from The Irish Times homepage:
If you decide that you would prefer to keep Flash running for a particular page or for a site, you just click on the gear wheel in the top left corner of the box and you get a menu like so:
But the best is with YouTube. When you go to play a video with ClickToFlash enabled, it offers an enhanced menu from the gear wheel in the top left.
As well as playing in Flash, you can play using H.264, or in your Mac’s QuickTime Player app, or you can download the video as a movie file using H.264.
Some Random Stuff
10/01/10 01:10 Filed in: General
Nonsense
Not posting much these
days - I blame Jimmy McNulty and all the rest at
the
Baltimore City
Police Department. Coming to the end of season five
of The Wire, and if you have never seen it,
it is as good as everyone says it is. Once that’s
out of the way, I still won’t have too much time
to post, as there’s something else coming this way
that’s going to take up a lot of my time…
If you find
yourself in front of a brand new Mac and are a little
lost, help is at hand. Don from ScreenCastsOnline
has published
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With all this talk about snow and ice and lack of grit for the roads, the most overused word of the last few weeks has got to be “treacherous”. What’s wrong with “dangerous”? What have we done that should inspire loyalty from our roads and footpaths?
With all this talk about snow and ice and lack of grit for the roads, the most overused word of the last few weeks has got to be “treacherous”. What’s wrong with “dangerous”? What have we done that should inspire loyalty from our roads and footpaths?