Maddie

Did Madeleine Mc Cann's parents have anything to do with her disappearance? I personally think they did. Although they may not have been directly involved in her disappearance, they certainly helped. Honestly what sort of parents leave their twins aged two and little girl aged three in an apartment on their own in the Algarve. Kate and Gerry Mc Cann didn't just leave their children for two minutes to go out to the shop they left them for an hour to have dinner in a restaurant with their friends. There defence was that the tapas bar was only a hundred meters away from their apartment. That may be so, unfortunately for Maddie that hundred meters was just too far. When the case first broke I thought that maybe they had killed her by accidentally overdosing her on tranquilisers to make her sleep. Then I realised they wouldn't have had much time to remove her body. When investigations revealed no hard evidence that they were involved in her disappearance everybody resigned to the fact that they were innocent. However I honestly believe that they are far from innocent and that they should be charged with gross neglect of their children and that the social services should think about removing their twins away from their care before something happens to them too. You may say that's too harsh but I feel really strongly about the abuse and neglect of children. You need a licence to drive a car it's my opinion that you should need a licence to have children too. Regardless of whether they did it or not, they left their kids unattended and the worst thing in the world happened. With all the money they have they wouldn't pay for a babysitter that the resort could provide. Some people long for children and can't have any and others just abuse and neglect them. At the end of the day the Mc Canns neglected their children and they should go to jail for that alone. As for Maddie, if she is still alive she is one very frightened possibly hurt little girl who wont understand whats happening to her or where her mum and dad are or why they left her and haven't come back to get her. I couldn't imagine any child going through that. For more information visit the Find Maddie helpline . If you don't agree with me just look at the following video and tell me how her parents could put her in that danger by leaving her alone and not be to blame.

Web standards

I have to admit I've never really thought about websites in great detail before this course. Ignorance is bliss! However after attending a lecture by Roisin Mulligan a lecturer in the college who is blind I sat up and realised the complexity of it all. Roisin showed us how she uses a computer and navigates around a website using specialised software called Jaws , it really got me thinking. Some websites were quite easy for her to navigate around but others such as Sky sports were virtually impossible. Even I who has all of my senses couldn't really make head or tail of their website. It was so busy, there was far too much information all on one screen. I truly think that Roisin is amazing, she hasn't let her disability stop her in any way. However, after witnessing how difficult it was for her to navigate around some sites, I really do think that web standards is an important issue. Whatever way you look at it, if a website can't be accessed by everybody it is a form of discrimination. It is not as if they can use the excuse that people with sight difficulties cant read a website anyway. That is actually not the case as proved by Roisin and the ability of jaws software. Therefore it is my opinion that it should be a legal requirement for all websites to be accessible to everybody regardless of their disabilities. I sincerely hope that all the students who are studying computers and website design in our college are taking note of these web standards as they are the future technicians and website designers of the world and the accessibility of websites for all including the disabled is in their hands. For the rest of us I hope that each and every one of us is grateful for everything we have and we realise how lucky we are not to have a disability such as blindness that could affect our every day life. Roisin is an inspiration to us all.

My experience in D.K.I.T

Well what can I say about my time here in D.K.I.T . I think it's fair to say it was the cause of most of my near mental breakdowns over the last few years. However I have to admit that although coming back to college as a mature student was very stressful it did give me a new purpose to my life that had been previously taken away. Apart from the educational experience, I made some fantastic new friends, the type of friends that are few and far between. The one thing I will take away from here is the feeling of pride, I pulled myself out of a very dark place and set myself a goal, which was basically to survive the first year. Yet here I am almost finished my honours degree and waiting acceptance onto a masters degree course in D.I.T . When I think about it now I can honestly say I made it, I pulled through with flying colours and even though I didn't know where this road would take me at the start, I have loved every minute of the journey and the future is looking bright. The following song always reminds me of good times. So cheers D.K.I.T you gave me plenty.

Search Engine Optimization

So, what is it ? Well my opinion is that it is just a very technical word for creating a very good website that Google likes. Are all those years that students spent at college learning how to create a really cool, flashy website for some big company while earning really extravagant salaries wasted because if you research SEO than you will know that Google and search engines like it don't actually like big flashy websites with loads of pictures and flashing lights. So therefore was it a complete waste of the companies money, that they hired someone to create this brilliant website when all Google likes is boring, text rich websites. If your a bit lost let me explain! You see the whole idea of creating a website is so that people will visit your site and think it is really good and therefore think your product or service must be really good. Hence they buy your product or service and hey presto you make money. The key to knowing how good your website,according to Google is how far up on page one it is. I do say one because if you are on page two ,forget about it.The key to getting people to your website is having a few key words that you supply to Google and every time someone enters one or all of your words in the Google search area then your business comes up on a Google web page. For example if I Google the words Dundalk and hotel the place where I work, The Ballymascanlon House Hotel comes up, but considering there are only four or five hotels in Dundalk, it only comes up number four on the page. Our main competitors The Crowne Plaza and The Park Inn come up before us. Not so good for The Ballymascanlon House Hotel I think. However if you type in the words golf, courses in Dundalk it comes up number five on the web page,the Crowne Plaza comes in at number one. Which is a bit strange as the Crowne Plaza doesn't even have a golf course. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that Dundalk is the major key word, and nothing to do with hotels or golf courses. Likewise I happened to be searching on Google for a picture of tea and biscuits and a hotel appeared on the web page, obviously some genius somewhere decided to put tea and biscuits into their key words, The mind boggles! After all that effort of choosing the right words you then have to be really careful not to annoy Google by doing sneaky things like hiding your words and other technical stuff like that, because if you do Google will find out and then mark you off their search engine forever, so if anyone ever "Google's" your website it will never appear ever again. Never mind Big Brother Google is watching you. If you feel I haven't explained the whole thing well enough for you to understand my blog then feel free to visit the following website to learn more about SEO. Oh and if you cant beat them join them. Here's Google's tips on getting into Google and staying there . Alternatively you could enroll on the honours degree course in business in hospitality at D.K.I.T , you do a module in E-Tourism and you actually learn quite a bit about this technological stuff there! P.S feel free to correct me if I have entered incorrect information.

Bye Bye Bertie

Is it just me or does anyone else in Ireland think that the fact that Bertie Ahern resigned this week is really sad. Now I'm not particularly very politically minded and if you asked me who the leader of any political party was I would more than likely give you a blank stare which would have you under no illusions that I hadn't a clue. However I do feel that Bertie was given a very raw deal. Now I know that he probably wasn't up to much good in those early days regarding his finances but sure what politician wasn't? I'm pretty certain that they were all at it at some stage, unfortunately for Bertie he got caught. It seems to me that a lot of Bertie's opposition were very quick to jump on the band wagon, but in the words of our Lord " Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" Gospel of John . I very much doubt that any of those politicians could afford to throw the first stone!. What really annoys me about the whole thing is how some of the people of Ireland were so quick to turn on Bertie. How could the people of Ireland be so idiotic that they were so quick to forget all the work he has done for our country. Without him there would be no Good Friday Agreement, details of which can be obtained by clicking on the following link Good Friday . In all honestly what has Bertie Aherns private affairs got to do with the way he ran our country, I for one don't think it affected it at all. He was good at his job, he did a lot for Ireland and I personally think that, that was what people of Ireland should be concentrating on rather than who or where he got his money from. Regardless of how I feel the country's media hounded and hounded him until they got their wish, poor Bertie Ahern resigned. My only worry is, have the people and media of Ireland made a huge mistake. All that said it was time for him to go and I have to say there were some very touching tributes to him as the country said goodbye to Bertie Ahern "man of the people". One of the best I heard was on Today FM , where the , Gift Grub Team did a very touching sketch for Bertie's farewell. For more information on the Ahern years The Irish Independent did a very good article. But If you just want a laugh then check out Irish Blogs.ie . As for me all I have to say is "Goodbye Bertie we will miss you"

Mobile Computing

The term "Mobile Computing " is used to describe the use of computing devices which usually interact in some fashion with a central information system while away from the normal fixed workplace. Mobile computing technology enables the mobile worker to: A) Create, B)Access, C) Process, D) Store and, E) Communicate information without being constrained to a single location. Mobile computing is an extremely versatile, capable and exciting technology that offers many otherwise unattainable benefits to an organisation that choose to integrate it into their fixed information system.(Zimmerman,1999). To read more interesting facts on mobile computing you can read the following article , Mobile Computing .Some examples of the uses of mobile computing in the hospitality industry is where several hotels in America are currently using a mobile computing system. They work in the following way, as guests check out and the rooms are vacated, the central property management system wireless signals the cleaning staff that the rooms are ready for cleaning. Any problems that the cleaning staff come across during the cleaning process such as maintenance issues, are immediately communicated to the mobile maintenance team for action. As soon as the rooms are cleaned and any maintenance issues are sorted the accommodation staff member wireless updates the central computer and the room is immediately available for check in of new guests. Another use of mobile computing in the hotel industry is the use of "Waiter Mates". "Waiter Mates" are a hand held computer system that the waiter of a restaurant brings to the table with him. The "Waiter Mate" allows him or her to enter the table order onto the hand held machine and it automatically transfers the order to a computer system in the kitchen. By using such devices it speeds up the process of the actual order getting to the kitchen and it allows the waiter to concentrate on serving the table rather than running in and out of the kitchen to place the order. It also reduces the chances of dockets being mislaid which can often happen on busy nights in a restaurant or kitchen. To look at some samples of a "Waiter Mate" you can access the following website. Waiter Mate

Young Suicides

While travelling into work the other day I was listening to the Gerry Ryan Show. A lady came on air talking about how her young son had hung himself in sheer temper because she had taken him out of the pub. She was saying that she knew for a fact that he didn't mean to hang himself, that in his own mind he was thinking "that will show you mammy for embarrassing me in front of my friends" and in reality she maintained that he didn't actually realise in his own head the actual consequences of committing suicide. He didn't realise that he would never get to hear her say " Oh I'm so sorry for embarrassing you I'll never do it again" because he KILLED himself, there is no coming back, there are no more nights out with his friends , no more girlfriends , no more holidays, no more laughter. The point she was making was in relation to the funerals of the two young students who committed suicide recently. She feared that due to the massive publicity they got and the elaborate funerals they received with everyone saying such lovely things about them and thousands of people attending the funeral, their favourite songs being played and the school closing for the duration of the mass actually made hero's out of them especially to their peers. Does shutting school's and allowing students to have their day in mourning when a student commits suicide send out the right message. I don't think it does . The lady made the point that maybe if students weren't allowed to go to the funeral and had to go to class instead they might realise that there is nothing heroic about it and at the end of the day normal life still has to go on and the person who is gone is gone forever not just for the day. I totally agree with her, do these kids actually know, I mean really understand what suicide means? Do they understand when the funeral is over and their friends go back to school that they cant join them because they are gone forever, they ended the life they had now and any life they could have had. In my opinion instead of letting the children go to the funeral they should say a prayer for the deceased and continue on with their work so as not to glorify the act. I also think schools should be more pro active when it comes to teaching young kids what it actually means to take your own life , that it is not an answer and that there is no coming back from it. Possibly schools should introduce counselling services or put up websites that deal with the topic of depression or suicide such as suicidal.com. This may help when students feel like there is no one they can talk to. Either way we as a society need to act on this spree of young children taking their own lives and it is up to each and everyone of us to take an interest in our children and explain to them what suicide actually means for them.