Of course, it does bring to mind the time on the Birdsite when I got dogs abuse directed at me because said Minister in his previous portfolio wasn’t on a TV show discussing housing.

For over an hour I engaged in “banter” with increasingly irate punters along the lines of:

Punter (addressing ‘Minister’): “Where are you? Hiding?”

Me: “I’m sitting at home having a pizza and a glass of nice wine.”

P:”what have you to say about the show?”

Me: “Lighting was a bit harsh and the sound editing..”

So, yesterday I asked the #Mastodaoine for their opinion on whether I should go for it if I am ever mistakenly called by national media looking to speak to a government minister.

https://mastodon.ie/@DaraghOBrien/114106059585613422

100% of all cats who expressed a preference say yay.

You evil minded beautiful people.

Working my way through @ct_bergstrom’s #BullshitMachines (having returned from much needed adult beverages with one of my oldest friends, a pioneering AI researcher at a leading Irish University).

Part of me wants a universe where me, Carl, and my friend drink fine wines and are recorded discussing how fucked things are. It would be must watch TV.

4/3) And it gets better. Only one of the two email address fields are masked (so “for security and GDPR” is therefore bollox both technically and legally)

And the browser form, when you click on either of the email address fields, shows the email addresses of other people who have previously filled out that form as helpful prompts. Which actually is a #GDPR and #InfoSec issue.

(3/3) Nice lady asked me to use any influence I had to flag the stupidity to the RSA if I had any influence.

So, here I am, publicly calling out RSA Ireland for a brain numbingly stupid UX design decision they justify with a nonsensical GDPR figleaf that is leading to less secure and less compliant workarounds being used by staff to deliver service to customers.

2/3) After the third “passwords don’t match” error the lady asked if I wanted her to do it for me. I agreed and we got chatting about the piss poor design. This issue happens a lot. Several times a day. The staff queried it and had been told the email address field was masked for #GDPR reasons.

Reader, I may have uttered an unfestive profanity with such weary passion that the nice lady asked why I thought so, and so forcefully. So I told her.

And then it got better…

Renewing driver’s license this morning (in person appointment). Wanted to change email address. Interface was a tiny tablet computer. System was a web-based system. Email fields on the “change email” screen were masked as if passwords (one masked, one not). Rendering input on the tiny virtual keyboard a pain in the arse. (1/3)

So, for some reason @POLITICOEurope have decided to start spamming in French.

Fantastique!

I've been ranting to my family (brothers & mother) over dinner the previous evening about how there was a dearth of awareness building around #GDPR for SMEs by Enterprise Ireland, with tenders I'd put in for training that pitched GDPR stuff being rejected.

Then the FG machine rolls on to the street. And John knocks on the door. Mother answers, and suggests I might want to talk...

It is the run up to the last general election. I'm staying over in my childhood home, which is in Richard Bruton's constituency.

It's a Saturday morning. Canvassers are afoot in the area, door stepping people for Richard. And they have brought some start power along - his brother, former Taoiseach and EU Ambassador to USA, John...

Here’s a ComputerWorld article about the US Senate report on Y2K after the fact. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2593290/senate--y2k-fixes-worth-the-billions-spent.html

It’s that time of year again when I see people posting their “Remember Y2k.. wasn’t that an overblown thing” hot takes.

My response: It was. Because the people working on solving the problem solved most of it in time. I did a bit of work on Y2K prep and issue fix. I had to learn f*cking COBOL.

Lots of others did a lot more and, because very little went wrong, the absence of failures is seen as a bad thing.

Well. That sucks for Dyson. https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/1201/1419561-james-dyson-libel-claim/

For everyone bemused at the current #RTE kerfuffle I can heartily recommend this book Sit Down And Be Counted: The Cultural Evolution of a Television Station https://amzn.eu/d/bExU5bC for insights into the roots of the management culture in RTE. (And, of course, @Tupp_ed has his fingers involved as he brought it back into print)

I’m not sure the trolls will react well to this regeneration of The Doctor #DoctorWho. But @Tupp_ed would be the expert view on this…(h/T to @aidan_walsh for posting the link to the original image)

@Tupp_ed @privacat @eolai @tjmcintyre @CastlebridgeChief I’d also have to add @TG4TV #Gaeilge

#FollowFriday well… i have to lead this one with the inimitable @Tupp_ed and the irrepressible @privacat.

I’d add to that @eolai and @tjmcintyre

And is it cheating if I suggest my #WorkFace @CastlebridgeChief?