Shane Barry lives in Dublin and works as a technical writer for an international software company. Between 2004 and 2008 Shane blogged regularly for TMO under the title of The Monkey's Typewriter. Shane also conducted a number of interviews for TMO, which are also collected here.
This is (apparently) a fairly old piece of news among the techno-savvy, but I was happy to hear about it over the weekend and perhaps you might be today. According to TechCrunch, the latest version of Google Earth features a “secret” flight simulator that can be summoned up using the key combination Ctrl+Alt+A (for Windows […]
First some background: As you might have heard, piffling issues such as the war in Iraq and the stalled reconstruction of New Orleans were brushed aside this week by many U.S. media outlets. Instead they focused on the arrest of U.S Senator and (erstswhile?) member of the Singing Senators Larry Craig, who was unfortunate enough […]
First, the Catholic Church crumbles, then David McWilliams tells us we’re all filthy-rich HiCo decklanders, but this news threatens to cut the last, frayed ropes tethering us to auld sod: From The Guardian: “My goodness: Nigeria overtakes Ireland in Guinness salesNigeria has overtaken Ireland as the second-largest market for Guinness as Diageo pushes the black […]
If the publicity photographs are anything to go by, Roddy Doyle has gone from looking like a trendy-“I want you kids to write about what you know”-teacher to his present incarnation as a faintly smiling Tibetan monk.Promoting not just one, but two books: a children’s story and the next novel in the “Henry Smart” trilogy: […]
While she was alive Diana Spencer had the power to turn stolid middle-aged men into gibbering idiots (c.f. Alastair Campbell’s toe-curling accounts of his encounters with the dysfunctional aristo). But even beyond the grave, she exerts her dangerous gifts on hacks of a certain age–particularly those charged with sharing their pensées with the great unwashed […]
Film: An Inconvenient Truth: Al Gore presents a compelling case, delivering another nail in the coffin of the argument that climate change is a debatable/distant threat. (And mid-way through a spookily mild winter who can be confident that our weather is not seriously screwed up?). However, I did have a bit of an issue with […]
A while ago, I came across Charles Baudelaire’s famous poem À une passante in an American journal article that was discussing the evolution of the city during the 19th-century. The poem is often referenced in this context–the new, impersonal city that emerged in the West at this time–because it’s considered one of the first works […]
The West’s woes continue…RTE’s website leads with the chilling news that “Belavia has confirmed its once weekly winter service between Shannon and Minsk will cease on 25 October.” Meanwhile, in the backroom of his beleaguered constituency office, a haggard-looking Willie O’Dea peers over the shoulder of his PA. On the computer monitor the pixallated expanses […]
One of the lazy generalizations about blogs is that they are merely electronic diaries–fluffy, self-absorbed journals that are no more interesting than the authors who pen them. While this characterization can be applied to some of the several million blogs in various states of maintenance, it is also fits some of the “professional journalism” that […]
The searing images captured by Nina Berman of wounded U.S. troops returned from Iraq dissolve any false comfort that might be derived from separating the injured from the dead in casualty statistics. In particular, the photograph titled “Marine Wedding” makes you want to go out and grab a cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq–one of […]
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