Noel Coward had perfect diction, but just like Brian Sewell when one speaks too perfectly and happens to be male one sounds a bit Brian Sewell.
no, on with the music.
Archive for the 'ambrand' Category
Chris Ewbank is the “Lord of the Manor of Brighton”, although this is a purchased Title, rather than a Royal appointment. He has used the ancient right of this position to appoint a Town crier.
Montserrat
Published July 14th, 2008 in british empire, montserrat, British Overseas Territory, ambrand and commonwealth. 0 CommentsSome day, when I have the money I hope to visit the Island Paradise of Montserrat. I’s nice flag speaks for itself…
… whats that? you’re lost?. Well let me be your John Locke and interpret what the island has to say.
Montserrat is often referred to as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, due both to its resemblance to coastal Ireland and to the Irish descent of most of its early European settlers. It is a British overseas territory.
Montserrat is located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It measures approximately 16 km long and 11 km wide, giving 40 kilometres of coastline. Montserrat was given its name by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World in 1493, after its namesake located in Catalonia.
Its Georgian era capital city of Plymouth was destroyed and two-thirds of the island’s population forced to flee abroad by an eruption of the previously dormant Soufriere Hills volcano that began on 18th July 1995. The eruption continues today, but on a much reduced scale with the damage being confined to the areas around Plymouth including its docking facilities and the former W.H. Bramble Airport. The subsequent exclusion zone extends from the south coast of the island north to parts of the Belham Valley has been closed because of an increase in the size of the existing volcanic dome. This zone includes St. George’s Hill which provided visitors with a spectacular view of the volcano and the destruction it has wrought upon the capital. A new airport at Gerald’s in the northern part of the island opened in 2005. Appropriately we understand it was constructed by a Northern Irish company.
The village of Brades currently serves as the de facto centre of government.
Hotel frontdesk software
Published June 5th, 2008 in paperless revolution, frontdesk, paperless, paper to screen, hotel software and ambrand. 1 CommentOne of my friends runs a busy “Guesthouse”, although its central location and high standards mean it might as well be called a Hotel. The property uses a pen and ink booking system.
So unless you want to phone or walk-in any electronic inquiry you make will have a lag of say 1 hour at best, i.e. they check email, check the book, reply. Today that just doens’t cut it. Any potential guest will have meanwhile found examplecorporatehotel.com and will have been able to confirm availability in 5 seconds and booked in 5 more with his credit card.
I have been trying various “Front desk” software programs.
When running a hotel there are a few key functions you will need in software.
- The home page of the program should be a calendar
- Check-in button
- Check-out button
- A rock solid backup method, something internal is good, but if a hotel is to commit its priceless calendar to a piece of software it should have files that can be backed up from DOS/Explorer, something like Outlooks .pst
ASI Frontdesk
Support: An American address, with Indian employees. There are a few bugs in the software. Like most things made for the American market the address field expects a two letter state abbreviation (eg CA) and a character zipcode (90210 with or without 1234). An Irish address can fill neither of those fields and the software does not truncate the final address on the letter head, leaving nasty spaces. Overall the software is badly designed.
I’ll keep trying and report more…
I remember how a few years ago it became stylish to order bottled water in a Restaurant or Bar. Moreover the brand chosen was supposed to sent a message. Would sir prefer Ballygowan or Perrier? We can laugh at such showiness, and our laughter is supported by the environmental lobby.
Why should water be transported from one country to another wasting finite fossil fuels, when it is freely available from the nearest tap. Further consider the fossil fuels wasted in creating the plastic or glass bottles which may not be recycled.
So why don’t we drink from the nearest tap? well bottled water does have advantages.
- It can be fizzy - hands up who has seen a Soda Stream machine since 1989, Anyone, Anyone, Bueller?
- Your water may be disconnected, or it may harbour cryptosporidium (temporary)
Actually thats it, never mind the health stuff its fluff. Here at Ambrand.com we have thought of one other advantage of bottled water that we have not seen mentioned elsewhere. Perhaps it is an advantage that is only manifest in Ireland. So here goes…
In the the public buildings, towns, cities of Ireland there are no drinking fountains. So, if you want something to quench your thirst you must spend mone, and considering how bad Coca Cola is supposed to be for you we recommend water, which of course comes in a bottle. We couldn’t care less if the water came from a tap in a factory yesterday or a spring in France last week, we must buy bottled water. Unless you go into a Pub and ask for a glass of tap water, but then there will be an awkard silence while the barman wonders if he should charge you and how much. But perhaps a Bar is the place to go, because another problem in Ireland is its lack of public toilets.
UCC Boole library is like for Fort knox
Published April 12th, 2008 in rfid, mardyke arena, envelopes, cork university, ambrand, ucc and money. 4 CommentsWhen I say UCC I refer to my alma mater of University College Cork, Ireland. Since the library extension circa 2006 on entering the building there is a turnstyle that only unlocks when an RFID card is put near a reader.
The automatic way to get a card is to become
- a student
- a member of staff
But what happens after graduation, what if you want to consult some works of excellence from time to time? Well, the Graduates Association website boasts one can then one must be engaged in scholarly research but
- it cannot be for profit
- it cannot be part of one work
- it cannot be research required as part of a course in another college
- personal interest reading does not meet the criteria for membership
Those criteria exclude everything for example
- writing a book? (that would be for profit)
- researching family history?/local history? (that would be personal interest reading)
Needless to say when I make my (further) millions I will not be donating any to the Cork University Foundation.
If you have managed to get a card please let me know how you swung it.
Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda
Published February 1st, 2008 in WI, British West Indies, British Overseas Territory, BWI, caribbean, anglosphere, ambrand, west indies and commonwealth. 0 CommentsBahamas, Barbados, Bermuda… the names call forth images of white sandy beeches and warm green waters, but what exactly is the difference between these three nations?
Bahamas
north caribbean
independence from the United Kingdom 1973 (now a commonwealth realm)
population 330,549
currency Bahamian dollar (pegged to USD 1:1)
Barbados
south-east caribbean
independence from the United Kingdom 1966 (now a commonwealth realm)
population 279,000
currency Barbadian dollar
Bermuda
north east atlantic (east of the USA, north of the caribbean)
British Overseas Territory
population 66,163
currency Bermudian dollar
All were part of the British West Indies/British Caribbean/Anglophone Caribbean (the politically correct terms keep changing), so English is an official language, two are commonwealth realms, and one is still a British Overseas Territory. But even though information about the islands in English is easy to find it is still hard for our European minds to tell them apart. Perhaps a resident can shed some light on the differences for us.
S.I. No. 49 of 2007
Published January 31st, 2008 in yes minister, red tape, over regulation and ambrand. 0 CommentsDear Reader. I refer to STATUTORY INSTRUMENT No. 49 of 2007 also known as EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (COMPANIES) (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS 2007. You have probably never heard of this regulation, but if you are the webmaster of a companies website in Ireland then you need to keep reading.
Section (2) of the Regulation says
“Where a company has a website, it shall display in a prominent and
easily accessible place on that website…(a) the name and legal form of the company;
(b) the place of registration of the company and the number with
which it is registered;
(c) the address of the registered office of the company;
(d) in the case of a company exempt from the obligation to use the
word ‘limited’ or ‘teoranta’ as part of its name, the fact that it is
a limited company;
(e) in the case of a company that is being wound up, the fact that it
is being wound up;
(f) if reference is made in the letter or order form to the share capital
of the company, the reference shall be to the capital that is subscribed
and paid up.”
The requirement to provide such info on letters and invoices and so on has existed for some time, this regulation just includes websites.
Naturally the act is vague, but I interpret it as meaning the bare minimum that is acceptable is to have one page that includes the following text in a small print font size. I typically use the “contact” page
Example Company Ltd. Registered in Dublin, Ireland? (ie. the location of the CRO flagship office) Company number 12345. Registered address 1 Mainstreet, Nonsuchtown, Co Cork
For the avoidance of doubt the regulations do not refer to sole traders or partnerships. I think regulation is required there. Many sole traders trade under their own names without additions and thus do not need to register a Business Name under the Registration of Business Names Act, 1963 with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) but due to the paucity of information on the website of the CRO many sole traders do not realise that they still need to register with the Revenue Commissioners via Form TR1? (even now I can’t find out the exact name of the form) as a sole trader. In doing so they acquire a number, which is typically their PPS number. I believe the regulation should extend to sole traders as it would make them realise they are not registered, and should be.
The public awareness of the requirement of all businesses to be registered is high in Australia where all businesses - regardless of registration type - have an Australian Business Number - ABN - which they must display.
loc8tor review
Published January 20th, 2008 in toys for boys, gadgets, gadget, loc8tor and ambrand. 0 Comments 
The handset is very “loose” and has a BW LCD with a green backlight.
I left my units in “alert mode” so I would know when someone was stealing my red swingline stapler, but there was too many false positives when nothing moved.
In my learned opinion the loc8tor is overpriced, ugly, and poorly constructed. If they reduced the RRP to €50 it would be a worthwhile gadget, but as it stands it is not.
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