Carlow Bypass finally opens
May 31st, 2008
On Thursday 29th May, the Carlow Bypass was officially opened. It ended months of speculation as to when the opening date was with several dates being mentioned. The bypass will form a section of a motorway linking Waterford to Dublin. A badly needed motorway at that.
For myself it means, if Im ever driving to Dublin I wont have to endure Carlow town. On a typical day this knocks 10-15 minutes off the journey to Dublin. However on say a Friday evening it could take up to 30 minutes to get through Carlow.
As I work in Carlow town, I will not be using it on a daily basis. So I decided to take a drive along it today and it looks very impressive. Speed limit is currently 100 kmph, Im not sure if this is how it will remain. Also the speed limits on the demoted regional roads have not yet been updated in terms of signs to 80 kmph.
One thing I did notice is that the bypass means other routes into Carlow have the potential for more traffic. I left the bypass and headed for Carlow Town on the Tullow/Wexford road. This road really needs improving, particular as you come into the town along by Lidl, Closh and past the Tesco /New Oak entrance.
It will be interesting to see the impact this has on the town and also its surrounding areas. With the amount of exits it opens up new potential business locations that were previously remote locations.
Euro 2008 Fantasy Football League
May 29th, 2008
I have set up a Euro 2008 Fantasy Football league for Waffle.ie. The league will be tracked and contestants belittled in this thread.
Anyone interested, drop me a mail or PM and Ill provide the code. Huntelaar is my tip for the must have player.
Powerscourt Waterfall, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow
May 17th, 2008
Powerscourt waterfall, located in County Wicklow, is Irelands tallest waterfall. I dragged my two nephews along to see it for the first time today and the waterfall passed the PSP pounder test, in that they loved it!
The Waterfall is located in a park that offers parking, food and drink, toilets, benches and a playground. Admission is 5 euros for adults and 3.50 euros for children. There are plenty of walking routes around the park, some lead to the waterfall and others away.
The waterfall itself stands at nearly 400ft.. From a distance it appears as a white streak, as you get closer the water and its spray becomes more apparent. At is base is a rocky pool which can be stepped around. The stream of water leading away from the waterfall trickles its way around the rocks and along this stream is another well beaten track.
If you have never visited this location, I would strongly recommend it. The surrounding areas have lots to offer, even if only driving through. We stopped off at the Wicklow Gap, other places of notes along the route are Glendalough, Sugar Loaf mountain and Djouce mountain.
Change of domain for my blog
April 26th, 2008
I decided to change the domain I host my blog under, but you already know that now, dont you. Ive moved from garydaly.com to wheresmejumpa.com. I will keep the former for a simple page or two with a few bits n bobs about me and the latter for my waffling.
I have purchased a number of domains which all point here, they are:
I also purchased garydaly.info, 99 cents for a .info with GoDaddy at the moment so expect further .info purchases!
Political graffiti in the Carlow countryside
April 26th, 2008
Since the day Bertie Ahern announced he was vacating his position as Taoiseach, opposition supporters in the Carlow area have taken to mindless vandalism. I have seen some of this around Carlow Town, but it is most evident on the Carlow - Kilkenny road.
Graffiti/vandalism of this type would normally be associated with rebelling teens. However the topic and wording would point to an older, more politically aware culprit. So do we have middle aged vandals rampaging across Carlow?!
The joy of VBSEO
April 24th, 2008
Recently installed the VBSEO plugin and its default style for Waffle.ie. After an install of VBAdvanced, the site suffered in terms of SEO. The resolution was to invest $149 in this plugin.
Installation was a breeze. I also took the time to upgrade to vBulletin 3.6.9. And today I discover 3.6.10 has been released. Anyway, once the plugin is installed you have access to your VBSEO control panel. Its not the prettiest of interfaces, but powerful nonetheless.
Significant changes made intially were to beautify my URLs, enable link backs and change the structure of variables added to meta tags. There are a lot more features to be explored. Also using the VBSEO style. Its a clean, standards compliant template that looks the part also.
So here’s to a search engine friendly future for Waffle!
New look for waffle.ie
March 19th, 2008
I have been working on the layout of Waffle.ie over the past week or so. The aim being to make it more distinctive. To be honest, I am struggling! However, I think I am getting there. Ive given it a fixed width and changed the colour scheme.
Also part of this work was to come up with a new logo. Thanks to Fahmi, the logo is now in place, see attached. Im very happy with it, the chattering teeth has always been an image that summed the site up and its nice to have finally worked it in.
I need to work on blending it in better than I have, the colour scheme will have to change. I would be interested to hear opinions on the logo, layout and colour scheme.
Further to the design of the forum, I am planning on giving the Arcade and Casino greater visibility on the site. First step was to give them each a sub domain.
Next step will be to design a new index page for the site, i.e. not a VBA page. If anyone has attempted this or knows of examples, pass them on.
UPDATE
I have since installed VBSEO and its default style. There were a number of issues with the customised theme.
IndigoInflatables.com
February 24th, 2008
Indigo Inflatables are a Carlow based company that offers Bouncy Castles, Obstacle Courses, Sumo Suits. Fancy Dress hire and more for hire and sale. This website displays its full range of products.
Products are stored in a MySQL database and the wonders of PHP gathers the required information. Styled with CSS, including the horizontal navigation bar (thank you listomatic!).
The owner of this website has also secured the following domains which now point to Indigo Inflatables :
So for all your infltable product needs, Indigo Inflatables!
Pixmania picture books
February 11th, 2008
We had loads of pictures from New York and as with the majority of digital pictures they will never be printed. I was pricing regular photo printing with Pixmania when I noticed they have a variety of printing options.
I went for the Classic hard back book. Crammed in 48 pictures. Their software was excellent, you have total control over the placement of the pictures. Best of all, was the price. Delivered to the door for 32 euro.
The quality of the pictures were very good and the book itself is simple but striking.
Have a looksie here.
DCSEO Linkbacks for vBulletin
January 6th, 2008
I have recently installed DCSEO Linkbacks plugin for vBulletin on Waffle.ie. When viewing a thread, this plugin will display a list of URL’s that link to that thread. In ACP, admin’s are presented with a list of linksbacks which they can approve or reject.
Installation was very simple, with a handful of files to upload, an xml product to import and a linkback variable to be added to the showthread template. For a linkback to register in ACP, it has to be clicked, therefore it wont retrospectively add links to threads.
I can see this plugin promoting linking to threads on Waffle.ie which in turn will aid SEO and increase number of visitors to the site. To test out the plugin, Ive linked to a thread here.