hbo nordic

I've been a HBO Nordic subscriber for the past year, but I'm going to stop today.

According to their website (only those in Nordic region can view this), they support the following:
1. Computer 
- PC and Mac only
2. Tablet/Mobile 
- iOS and Android only (I'm grouping these together since the lines between tablet and mobile are blurred anyway)
3. TV (three weak options)
- HBO is available as a 24 hour linear channel. More information will follow. (I've been waiting over a year, still no infomation)
- A small set of Smart TVs - Samsung TV's Series 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (2011-2014)
- Running a HDMI Cable from your computer (I think this just confirms you can watch HBO Nordic on a computer)
4. Xbox 360

That is it.

They don't support any modern way of viewing TV.

• No Chromecast Support
• No Apple TV* Support
• No Playstation 3 Support
• No Playstation 4 Support
• No Xbox One Support

*While they have support for AirPlay Mirroring on Apple TV, it is far from ideal. You have to play the show on your device and then mirror it to the Apple TV. This drains the battery on your device since it is playing on it and then displaying it on screen. I've also tested it and there is some lag, and blurred lines. It isn't a enjoyable viewing experience.

The only way I can watch HBO Nordic is on my Xbox 360. Even then I run into this problem:

@HBOse sick of seeing this each time try to play anything. Have to retry a couple of times to get it to play. pic.twitter.com/of3qCOsQJg
— Darran Crowley (@darran) March 2, 2014

I've been told many times I have to crawl under the TV where all the plugs are, unplug my Xbox, wait and replug it. It works sometimes, and other times it doesn't. What it always does it return back to the same Video Player Error screen after I finish an episode.

The year is 2015. It is a lot to ask for some proper device support? I can watch Netflix on every device mentioned in this post with no problems, as well as my LG Smart TV.

Finally, I have a post from February 2013 on the HBO Nordic Facebook page:

"Hela AirPlay" which was translated here as "All the AirPlay", I would understand as Full AirPlay still isn't here. Still only the mirroring option. Still no PS3 option, I guess their talks with Sony didn't go too well.

There are far better ways I can view HBO Nordics content, I tried the legitimate route, but they are forcing me to seek other ways to get the content.

bye bye rte

On Friday I handed control of all the RTÉ twitter accounts back to RTÉ.

After what happened in the previous post, I didn't want the same happening to all the other accounts. I counted that there was over 15,000 people following all the different accounts I had running. So after a quick tweet or two to Mr. O'Shea, I found who I should be contacting about the transfer of details.

I got a two sentence email back from them four days later:

Dear Darran,
Thank you very much your email. We are happy to take over the ownership of these accounts and will appreciate if you send us all necessary details.
Best regards,

After over two years of providing the service and not abusing the names or the accounts for my own gain (quite easy to embed my own advertising into the feeds) or just holding onto them and doing nothing with them, all I got from RTÉ was that two sentence, poorly written email.

I sent over all the log in details and after a couple of days downtime the accounts have started spewing out news once again. Already there are problems with their new account feeds, which I would have picked up on and fixed straight away... lets see how @RTE_WebDesign handle it :-)

P.S. Can you change the email address on all the account or I might forcefully take them back!

open letter to o2

Dear O2 Ireland,

I'm a long time customer of Vodafone, for at least the last 9 years. I've also only had 1 brand of phone, Nokia. I have been a loyal customer to both companies.

Now since you got your monopoly on the iPhone here in Paddy taxed Ireland, and I really want one, the only option for me is to abandon the two companies that have served me well for the last decade.

For the last 2 out of the 11 weeks that the new iPhone has been on sale I have been checking your website for the opportunity to purchase one. Needless to say I haven't been able to as you know well, they are all sold out.

I don't want to hear your beef with Apple and their supply, I do know they are mighty pissed with your rediclous tariffs too and there is no one to blame for that. And I am aware that you will be changing them after Christmas, after all how can Apple target business accounts when faced with the options, a Blackberry easily out matches an iPhone on value!

You have me, a customer who is willing to abandon ship and move networks for something you fought hard to gain exclusive rights to (did ye really have to work so hard on this considering the deal was in the bag once O2 UK got it). Yet, after 11 weeks with the phone on the market, I'm here writing this letter explaining my frustration.

From Wednesday, if there is not any news on your website (last updated nearly 2 weeks ago) I will have no choice but to try and buy an iPhone online, get it unlocked and stay with Vodafone for several more years.

If you loose potential customers like me one at a time and don't care if you do. I guess I'll be glad I join your Company. Hopefully that's not the case..

Kind Regards,

Darran :-)

P.S. I know I won't hear anything from you on this.. but wouldn't it be nice if someone dropped me an email..

the langer's ball

Got a nice email from Michael from The Langer's Ball (maybe a play on langball?). They are a 2-piece Irish Group that has been performing in and around the Twin Cities in the U.S.

I had a quick look at their website and they have The Langer's Blog! No RSS feed tho, so I wouldn't classify it as a real blog. In my eyes a blog has to have a RSS feed!

They do a nice trad version of Galway Girl, which you can listen to here:




So all this has brought doubt into my mind at the title of my own blog: A Langers Blog.

Should there be an apostrophe in my title?! I wondered about this before, but just decided to leave it out. So should I have one?

• A Langers Blog
• A Langer's Blog
• A Langers' Blog

irishman wins world race

Update: Its Official, see below..Irishman, Damian Foxall and his French team mate Jean-Pierre Dick will sail into Barcelona tonight in the Paprec-Virbac 2 winning the 1st ever Barcelona World Race.

The Barcelona World Race is a new two-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race starting on the 11th November, 2007 [and to be held every four years]. For the first time, this race will see the world's best professional sailors from both solo and fully crewed disciplines coming together to compete against each other in teams of two.

I've been following them since late November, when they were battling for 3rd position. It was great to get an update every day via RSS about accidents, masts breaking, teams dropping out, challenges for 1st position! They have held the lead for a while now, with Hugo Boss nipping at their tails, but tonight they will complete the race by returning to Barcelona, winning the competition.
One thing I must say is that the media attention over the entire race has been poor. Only once I heard an update on the news about how they were getting on, and this was a quite news day over Christmas. This is a shame considering there is an Irishman winning this race! I'm sure there will be loads of press today and tomorrow about our new Hero, now the hard work is over!

UPDATE: Its official:

Updated : 11/2/2008 21:02 GMT

Jean Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall have crossed the finish line at 20h 49.49
GMT in the port of Barcelona and officially are the winners of the first edition of the Barcelona World Race. The ecstatic duo are clearly over the moon, jumping up and down in celebration of an incredible feat - 92 days 8hours 49minutes and 49seconds having covered 28,329 miles non-stop around the world.

blog quicker

So lets try something. More posts, more often, but shorter.

Tonight I've made two more RTÉ Twitter bots, RTÉ Irish and World News.

Follow them here:

• RTÉ News: Ireland
• RTÉ News: World

I've also returned to Twitter.

in the paper

I finally got around to scanning in the newspaper article from the Sunday Tribune about my post on RTÉ editing Wikipedia.

Article from the Sunday Tribune 9th September 2007
SundayTribune Web Version

In other news, you can get to my photos by going here: photos.langersblog.com :-)

learner drivers

A recap of the last few days:

Thursday
New rules are introduced for learner drivers, changing the system we currently have. The major chance would be that all second provisional license holders will now need to be accompanied for a full licensed driver from midnight Monday.
Excellent a shake up in the way things are done! About time!

Friday
The Gardaí say they would not be using their discretion on a case-by-case basis in relation to provisional drivers and would enforce the law as normal.
Our Minister for transport Mr. Dempsey also said on the news that the new laws will come into force as announced and went against the Gardaí by stating they will take a 'common sense' approach for 'two or three months' in relation to the short period in which some drivers will have to make new arrangements.
I'm getting mixed signals!

Saturday
Opposition politicians call for the minister to defer the introduction for six months saying that the government is out of touch with the conditions of ordinary people and the number of people who will be discommoded.
The opposition doing what they do!

Sunday
Minister Mr. Dempsey announced he was deferring the introduction of the accompanied driver provision until 30 June 2008. This gives the 122,000 people on their second provisional license plenty of time to apply for and sit their test, because they would now have it on demand.
Good for him, listening to the people!

Monday
The Driving Instructors Register say that they don't believe it is possible for all the drivers on their second provisional to pass the test before the end of June. This is might be because there is a failure rate of about 50%, the surge in applications in the last few days and the fact it isn't just second provisional license holders applying for the test.
Maybe the Minister and the Driving Instructors should of had a meeting?!

Tuesday
With the new rules/law in place, I guess it is business as usual...

For your Information:
Number of people on provisional licenses are as follows:
1st - 209, 253
2nd - 121,871
3rd - 31,792
4th - 25,076
5th or subsequent - 37,233
That's 94,101 who are gone past the 2nd provisional license stage!

Sources: rte.ie/news & rsa.ie

rte post

My RTÉ post got a lot of reaction. This was mainly thanks to links from Damien and Tom. I also noticed that a few of the papers then picked up on the story!

The Sunday Tribune:

The edits were first spotted by 24-year-old blogger Darran Crowley from Cork, who highlighted them on his blog.

Link

There was also stories apparently from Irish Times or Examiner and the Daily Mail who did not give me any credit!

On a side note, as you have noticed, this blog has taken a bit of a break, I started my Masters Degree in UCC (in Business Information Systems) which is taking up a good bit of time! I will try to continue to update more often. I also stopped contribution to Team Geared Up Blog :-(

twitter bots

I've been busy the last few weeks creating some RTÉ twitter bots. They provide an individual twitter channel for all the RTÉ news feeds.

• RTÉ News
  
• RTÉ Business
  
• RTÉ Entertainment
  
• RTÉ Sport
  
• RTÉ GAA
  
• RTÉ Racing
  
• RTÉ Rugby
  
• RTÉ Soccer
  

I also got a Nob Nation Twitter feed going to update you with the latest sketches and direct links to the MP3's to listen to! twitter.com/NobNation

I was actually surprised that all the names had not been taken and I even managed to get twitter.com/rte! I was inspired by the excellent BBC breaknews bot and other feed bots from menti.net.

What other names/feeds need to be twitter'ized!?

rte edits wikipedia

I've caught our National Broadcaster, RTÉ editing numerous Wikipedia articles. These include rival radio station FM104 and TodayFM's Gift Grub.

Some of the worst edits include changing FM104's article from:

FM104 is aimed mainly at 16-35 year olds, broadcasting mainly popular music and rock music. The station's flagship programme is the award-winning Strawberry Alarm Clock

to

FM104 is aimed mainly at 16-17 year olds, broadcasting mainly popular music and rock music. The station's flagship programme is the Strawberry Alarm Clock,

I'm pretty sure FM104 does not aim themselves at a 2 year age range, and there is no denying that the Strawberry Alarm Clock has won awards. Why does RTÉ think otherwise? Surely they shouldn't edit Wikipedia if they don't have any knowledge on the article in question!

Other Edits to Gift Grub mainly involve removing half the article or parts of it. They also added the following piece... very bias towards RTÉ.

In December 2006, Gift Grub received a heavy blow when impressionist Oliver Callan left Today FM in a row over his alleged rights to material on the Gift Grub 7 album. His departure left the comedy slot without more than 20 of its most popular characters including Enda Kenny, RTE Newsreader Bryan 'Dobbo' Dobson, intrepid reporter Plastic Sheeting (based on RTE's Southern Correspondent Paschal Sheehy), Dave Fanning, Damien Dempsey, George W Bush, Derek Mooney, Pat Kenny, Marian Finucane and many others.

Callan's claims are the subject of threatened legal action and he even went on RTE's Liveline programme to air his grievances, which generated much press coverage and dinted Gift Grub's album sales. Oliver Callan has since set up a rival comedy slot on RTE Radio called Nob Nation, which now has a much bigger audience than Gift Grub due to it being carried on both RTE Radio One and on 2FM.

I've found all this using the WikiScanner. See more of RTÉ's Edits here, including a request to create a Jenny Huston article!

Any response RTÉ? I know you have read my blog before!

sky+

Last week my Aunt received this letter from BSkyB or Sky about Sky+. The offer she received gave her a Sky+ box for €69 with a saving of €80.

Pretty good deal, I wanted in on it too!

The background: She is a customer for about 2 years, has a 2 mix package and Multi-room. On the other hand we are customers for over 5 years, have a 6 mix package and had Movies and Sports for 2 years. We have never once received any offer off Sky like this.

I phoned up and enquired to see if I could get this Sky+ Box, and eventually, after 3 phone calls lasting about 30 minutes each (they hung up on me once) I found out that because we did not get a letter we could not get the offer. They prefer to give their newer customers or customers on smaller packages better (or any) offers.

We have to pay the full €149 to get a Sky+ Box. Since then, I have dropped our packages down to 4 mixes (after considering cancelling it all together). It's a shame SCTV Digital (that website was bloody hard to find!) has such shite service, after all it has taken 2 years to begin rolling out the promised digital!

how to: fill your ipod

(like a bus, there is none for ages and two come along at once)

There are loads of music videos online on sites like YouTube where you can watch them all for free on your computer. Set up your own playlist on the site and leave it run in the background for constant music. So why can't you listen to it from your ipod?

Here is a step by step on how to get a video off you tube and onto your ipod as a .mp3!

1. Find the song you want to put on your iPod or music player.
Example: The current No.1 single: Rihanna - Umbrella - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7bK4Vee36M

2. With the url of the song (similar to that link up there) head over to KeepVid and get the download link.

3. Save the file to your computer and rename it from get_video to songname.flv, in this example Rihanna - Umbrella.flv

4. Download, install and open SUPER ©

5. Drag the .flv file into the box at the bottom and choose MP3 as the output container on the top left, then click Encode.

6. The MP3 is then usually saved straight onto the C Drive, find it. Move it to where ever you keep your music. (You can rename it too... Rihanna - Umbrella.flv.MP3 to Rihanna - Umbrella.mp3)

7. Open iTunes and add file to Library. Rename the file and Sync to your iPod.

8. Wash, Rince and Repeat.

EASY!

go ireland

As everyone who knows me knows I'm no Sports Head. But today Ireland played trashed England in the Six Nations at Croke Park. The score: 43-13!

You can watch the news stories about the Match here. It is a shame that both the BBC and RTÉ aren't streaming the live match to people outside Ireland and the UK. There are no pubs showing the match here in Whistler. Not even the worst Irish Pub in the World! Bastards!

This is the second Rugby match to be held at Croke Park. RTÉ did a nice programme on the opening of the GAA Stadium.

This specially commissioned half-hour programme celebrates the moment when Ireland unites in sport as the Irish rugby and soccer teams play in Croke Park for the first time.

Watch it here.

24 tips

With 24 starting this week over here in North America, I found some nice tips for 24 Newbies I though I'd share my favourite one with you.

• Chloe is right. Don’t ever question that girl. Believe it or not, she can shoot a gun.

You can read the rest at feld.com

24

Jack is back!
24 starts here in less than 30 minutes! 2 hours tonight and 2 hours tomorrow!!

all right

Great news coming to me in over the web! They have dropped Old Man Marty on 2FM! Sorry... RTÉ 2FM. Moved Rick around, and got the breakfast guys from FM 104 to do the Breakfast Show!

Dec sums it up well here. I'll be happy when I return, that is if it looks the same in a few months!

extras

The new series of Extras by Ricky Gervais is up and running for the last few weeks, but its the theme song at the end of the show that got me searching the internet. Mind you it didn't take too long to find the answer, it took a bit to find the actual song!

Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman

Bring tea for the Tillerman
Steak for the son
Wine for the women who made the rain come
Seagulls sing your hearts away
'Cause while the sinners sin, the children play

Oh Lord how they play and play
For that happy day, for that happy day

scouts video

Scouts what we are is what we do
One promise, One image

Watch it on YouTube

blogger song

Via The Catbirdseat