Éibhear Ó hAnluain

@eibhear.gibiris.org

2500 Followers 755 Following

Matrix address: @eibhear:matrix.gibiris.org Free Software user and supporter Civil Liberties enthusiast 100% personal account Also operating @theauldsthretch.bsky.social Re-post policy: https://bsky.app/profile/eibhear.gibiris.org/post/3l3g3cukuru2f

A portion of the wikipedia page for the Bayeux Tapestry (including a detail picture of the tapestry featuring William The Bastard's brother, Odo):

"Origins

The earliest known written reference to the tapestry is a 1476 inventory of Bayeux Cathedral, but its origins have been the subject of much speculation and controversy.

French legend maintained the tapestry was commissioned and created by Queen Matilda, William the Conqueror's wife, and her ladies-in-waiting. Indeed, in France, it is occasionally known as La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde ("The Tapestry of Queen Matilda"). However, scholarly analysis in the 20th century concluded it was probably commissioned by William's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who, after the Conquest, also became Earl of Kent and, when William was absent in Normandy, regent of England.

The reasons for the Odo commission theory include:

1) three of the bishop's followers mentioned in the Domesday Book appear on the tapestry;
2) it was found in Bayeux Cathedral, built by Odo;
3) it may have been commissioned at the same time as the cathedral's construction in the 1070s, possibly completed by 1077 in time for display on the cathedral's dedication.

Assuming Odo commissioned the tapestry, it was probably designed and constructed in England by Anglo-Saxon artists (Odo's English power base being by then in Kent); the Latin text contains hints of Anglo-Saxon; other embroideries originate from England at this time; and the vegetable dyes can be found in cloth traditionally woven there. Howard B. Clarke has proposed that the designer of the tapestry (i.e., the individual responsible for its overall narrative... "

A screen shot from the story: "Meta should disable features such as autoplay and infinite scroll by default, introduce effective screen-time breaks and make its recommendation system less focused on driving engagement, the Commission said."

A screenshot from the Active Travel Collision Tracker showing my report. It's a portion of a map (https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=53.339443&mlon=-6.239593#map=18/53.339443/-6.239593) showing Grand Canal Quay and the dot representing my collision. It also shows the details:
- My report: "Car pulled out in front of me on wet, cobblestoned road. Braked, losing control of bike. I fell off; broke 2 bones in my foot"
- Other details: "Collision", "Outcome: Serious injuries", "Thu. January 24, 2013 at 5:40 PM", "Reported by Victim".

A portion of the screen I get when I go to that site from my work desktop:

"Sorry, you don't have permission to visit this site.

Website blocked

Not allowed to browse Mature Humor category

You tried to visit: ..." following by the URL.

I'm inclined to raise an objection to the spelling of "Humor", but the people who make decisions like these are probably not going to get the joke.

A screenshot of the story with the typo mentioned in the post: "Company fails to appear to defend catalogue of missed payments that caused financial hardship and martial difficulties"

The first half of my e-mail to my TDs Tom Brabazon, Barry Heneghan, Cian O'Callaghan, Naoise Ó Muirí and Denise Mitchell:

"A chairde,

I am looking forward to the 12th August. On that day, there will be a total solar eclipse visible from continental Europe (mostly Spain), and I plan to travel to catch it. It will be my second total solar eclipse (my first been in December 2003, which I caught when I was in Australia), but I have seen/experienced all solar eclipses in Ireland since 1984.

Do you know who else is looking forward a stellar event on the 12th August in Ireland? Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and Palantir, who will host more than 200 of his best "friends" in Powerscourt Hotel to talk in secret about all the things of interest to billionaires like how to help run world war three when it comes, and whether money (something most of these people have way too much of) could buy happiness.

You are likely aware of Peter Thiel, but I would like to point out that while he is not as well known as Elon Musk, he is far more dangerous to the world, mostly because he is in far greater control of his mouth and his actions. Mr. Thiel rejects democracy (see his 2009 essay /The Education of a Libertarian/ in Cato Unbound, https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/), and even suggests that granting women a right to vote damaged the notion of "capitalist democracy" (which, even if it's true, may not necessarily be a bad thing). Mr. Thiel founded Palantir, a global surveillance company, which -- among other very shady things -- has been used by the government of Israel in its genocide in Gaza (see https://www.thenation.com/article/world/nsa-palantir-israel-gaza-ai/)."

A screenshot of my #RSS reader (yay! for RSS) showing the story I am quoting. I see the story headline ("Top garda pledges 'robust enforcement action' if protesters try to disrupt EU Presidency"), where the story is from ("TheJournal.ie") and when it dropped ("30 minutes ago"), the story category ("National Security") and the story introduction that TheJournal.ie posted in the RSS feed ("Commissioner Justin Kelly said the EU Presidency will be the biggest security operation in the history of the State."). We also see the various interaction buttons offered by my RSS reader (respectively, "Mark read/unread", "Star/unstar", "Share", "Tags" and "Open story URL").

I have highlighted "... protesters ..." of the headline and "National Security" category with red ovals, and I have drawn a red arrow going from the former to the latter and I have hand-written "??!" beside that arrow.

A screen shot from the story showing this snippet: "Ms McEntee said the document gives Irish citizens visa-free access to 186 countries.

On the refresh, she said: “It combines some of the world’s most advanced security technology with a design that proudly reflects who we are as a nation, our heritage, creativity and natural beauty."

"Have some respect" says Fionnán

The post that got me blocked. @alexhammy209.bsky.social claiming that "The children of Gaza deserve parents that don't start wars."

A photo of a shopping bag. The handle on the side I can see looks like a mouth with a tongue stikking out, and the knots of the handle of the other side look like a pair of eyes, with one twisted in a way that makes it look as though it's winking. Part of the black ribbon embedded into the bag to allow it to be tied closed is immediately above the "mouth", making it look like a nose.

The branding/label on the side of the bag is "Serena".

A photo of a stick on the footpath outside my home. It's shaped like Julia Donaldson's "Stickman" in mid-run, which is why I took the picture.

My then-puppy Gracie (collie/retriever/husky mix) on our couch. All we see of her is her face, as she is so small and the angle of the pic is so low, the rest of her is obscured.

A screenshot from my #RSS reader (RSS is just brilliant!!!). It shows the following:

News story headline: "European trade union leaders meet in Dublin"
News feed: "RTÉ News Headlines"
Time of posting: "10 minutes ago"
Section (though that's not terribly obvious from the normal view): "Business"
Snippet (as provided by RTÉ with the feed): "Senior trade union leaders from across Europe are meeting in Dublin to discuss a plan to develop trade union capacity in conflict resolution and peacebuilding."

I have highlighted "Business" with a red oval.

The letter I wrote to the Irish Times, dated 10/06/2026 at 08:56. The subject was "Belfast Riots" and the text was as follows:

A chara,

As far as those who are burning innocent people out of their homes in Belfast are concerned, they are "the lads" that Sinn Féin leader Mary-Lou McDonald has spoken about. They believe they are acting on the "genuine concerns" that Fine Gael leader Simon Harris has often described. They are just executing the measures that Minister for Justice and Fianna Fáil leader-aspirant Jim O'Callaghan has set out as appropriate.

As far as I am concerned, any condemnations from these political leaders are inauthentic.

Is mise,

Éibhear Ó hAnluain,

A screenshot of what greets me when I log onto mu.social.

It says:

"Age Assurance

Hi there!

To give you an age-appropriate experience, we need to know your birthdate. This is a one-time thing, and your data stays private."

Then there's a button labelled "Add your birthdate"

and then there's a box that says "For organisational accounts, use the birthdate of the person who is responsible for the account."

And, finally, it tells me "To log out, click here. Or if you’d prefer, you can delete your account."

I seem not to be able to get past this. Thus: won't be using it.

A screen shot of the Met Éireann rainfall radar map right now, showing a great big blob of rain falling on that area of Dublin often referred to as "between the canals".

A brief screengrab of the met.ie web page for my part of Dublin, showing that at 17:00 (when I set out for home), there'll be a 40% chance of rain and at 18:00 (when I arrive home), there'll be a 55% chance.

A screenshot of the web page on The Economist's site where the story is. It shows the story headline "How to fight back against Gen-Z socialism" above which is what I guess is the story category, "Leaders | Our cover". Below the headline is what I think is called "the subhead", and it reads "The me-first doctrine is a threat to prosperity" and below that is the obligatory "Share" button.

I have highlighted "me-first".

The note at the top of the ballot paper stating both "Vote for One" and "Vote por Uno". I am decrying that it's a non-transferable ballot, not the dreadful, arbitrary, nonsensical, but oddly consistent capitalisation.

A cake (officially an orange cake, but that's not obvious from the pic; keep the secret to yourself, now) with a white sugar icing on a large dinner plate, which itself is sitting on a brown, dappled counter. There is a lone decoration on the cake, a nativity scene carved out of a piece of orange peel, sitting in the middle on the cake. Above the representation of the stable is an asymmetrical 5-prong star, also carved out of a piece of orange peel.

A portion of the article: "Speaking to reporters before the Cabinet meeting, Mr Martin said that including services in the bill could potentially damage Ireland.

He said that it could do so "more than anybody else in terms of potential impacts on US multinationals based here back in America.

"We need to be realistic and need to be honest with people in respect of what we can achieve via this legislation," he said."

A diagram from the linked-to article showing all the uses of matrix in the public sector throughout Europe.

The map is crowded with icons representing the very large number of independent apps that use matrix, each plonked onto the country that uses it.

Thus, Germany has 19 icons on it, between them, Belgium and The Netherlands have 8 icons, France has 4, Switzerland, Poland, Finland and Sweden each have 3 icons, The UK, Norway, Estonia and Austria have 2 each, and Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Romania, Ukraine, Denmark and Luxemburg have one each. Ireland, country that pretends to be a tech leader, has 0 icons.

The portion of the act defining a week for Ireland: '“week” means the period between midnight on any Saturday and midnight on the following Saturday;'

My old Nokia N900, resting with its little stand on my mousepad.

Bluesky search result for "from:eibhear.gibiris.org anohni" showing how much I love the version of Rufus Wainwright's Going to a Town that features Anohni. Three results.

From David Roberts (@volts.wtf): "It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Bluesky has been a net negative for US politics. They corralled everyone on the left into a little glass fishbowl where they shout at one another & everyone else ignores them. Meanwhile, all the pols & institutions stayed on X & are being dragged farther right."

A shot of the last slide of one of my talks with my standard disclaimer:

"No data centres were harmed in the preparation of this material. All pixels were handcrafted using only ethically-sourced electrons.

Prepared with 100% Natural Intelligence."

A quotation from the article: 'Here, of course, it’s not. When cops from a Dún Laoghaire garda station showed up at his home two days after the protest, Najafi said, he was thrown by it. “They said, the embassy has made a complaint.”'

A portion of the linked-to story:

'However, the Labour TD called on the Government to legislate to ensure social media companies change their algorithms and end "infinite scroll" features because self-regulation "simply won’t work".'

Thanks for your consideration of my complaint.

I accept that you have performed a form of analysis, and I accept that you acknowledge my frustration and offence.

I also note the absence of any analysis on your part regarding the legality of the controls on your quotation sites. One of the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation is "accuracy", described in part as "accurate ...; every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that personal data that are inaccurate ... are ... rectified without delay ..."[Source: GDPR info web site: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-5-gdpr/].

Refusing to permit someone to enter their name into a system using the correct spelling is, in my view, a refusal to record the name accurately, and thus a violation of the "accuracy" principle of the GDPR. One could argue, as the Data Protection Commissioner has done, inadequately, in the past, that allowing the use of accents in names it not a legal obligation, but I have not heard the suggestion anywhere that refusing to permit space characters is legal. If you want to understand how serious this is, consider that one of the founders of modern Ireland, Éamon de Valera, would be permitted to spell neither his given nor his family name correctly if seeking a quote from [XXX].

It remains, in my view, therefore, that [XXX] has not addressed the substance of the claim: that the website is operating illegally by not permitting potential customers to spell their names correctly.

*Our Understanding Of Your Complaint:*

We understand you were unhappy with how your name was required to be recorded on our online quotation system.

*Decision:*

After conducting a thorough review of your case, we are partially upholding your complaint and will explain below the reasons for this decision. Please treat this letter as a Final Response letter for the purposes of referral to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman.

*Background and Findings:*

On the 4th of March 2026, you contacted us to discuss details of a motor insurance quote you obtained online.

Due to a system limitation you were unable to input the correct spelling of your surname.

You explained that it was insulting and illegal for us to fail to allow you to use the correct spelling of your name. You requested for a complaint to be logged on your behalf.

On the 10th of March, we issued your complaint acknowledgement letter. Unfortunately, we incorrectly used the honorific "Ms." as opposed to "Mr." as you had inputted on the system. Additionally, we had referred to you as "OhAnluain" as opposed to Ó hAnluain".

A screen shot of the original post followed by a post from the Irish Times with the headline "Water woes for Shane Lowry again as triple bogey at Doral leaves home we'll adrift" and a picture of Lowry at the end of a swing.

The first three paragraphs of the linked-to story:

"The estates of two of Jimi Hendrix's former bandmates have lost a High Court claim against Sony Music Entertainment UK over rights linked to recordings by The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Companies representing the estates of bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell brought legal action against Sony, claiming they were entitled to copyright and performers’ rights in relation to around 40 studio recordings made by the band in the 1960s.

Redding and Mitchell, who both died in the 2000s, formed The Jimi Hendrix Experience with Hendrix in 1966. The group broke up shortly before Hendrix died in 1970, aged 27."

I have highlighted "estates of" and "against Sony Music Entertainment" of the first paragraph, "Companies representing the estates" and "claiming they were entitled to copyright and performers' rights" of the second, and "Redding and Mitchell, who both died in the 2000s" of the third.

A screenshot of the LibreVox page where the book can be downloaded from, listing the two volumes.

A portion of the article: "The draft laws have been designed to stop them from simply stripping news from their platforms - something Meta and Google have done in the past."

A screen grab where it shows the headline of the article and the subhead:

"Homelessness: Another new record as 17,517 people in emergency accommodation
Of those NUMBER were children"

I have "NUMBER" highlighted, because, c'mon lads.

The Clontarf map from the mapping site, showing some thinking it stretches over Raheny and as far as Kilbarrack, over Donnycarney into Artane and over Fairview and incorporating Marino.

A pic of the Caprese Salad I just put together.

A screenshot of the report from the bottom of page 23:

"Encryption

2.58 Encryption has been described as “the turning of information that is in an intelligible form – usually described as ‘plaintext’ – into information which is not – usually described as ‘ciphertext’”.[12] Ciphertext is made up of an unreadable string of letters, numbers and symbols. Information may be encrypted “in transit”, as it moves between electronic devices, or “at rest”, as it is stored in a device.

2.59 OTT apps now offer “end-to-end” encryption (abbreviated to “E2EE”) as standard, meaning that the plaintext is encrypted by the sender’s device using an encryption key and is only decrypted once it reaches the receiver’s device using another decryption key. As a result, the communications service provider responsible for transmitting the message, and anyone else who ..."

A screenshot of the portion of the RTÉ story on the same report, which has a section, "... away from everything else on the page ...", saying "KID! Read the full report here." with a link under the "here".

A screenshot of David Cameron's tweet of the 4th May, 2015: "Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice - stability and strong Government with me, or chaos with Ed Miliband"

A portion of the story:

"Speaking on Sunday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he did not believe any public representative should be providing a character reference in such a case.

The Tánaiste agreed with him and said he was also not aware of who the TD in question is. He also called for the TD to come forward and reveal their identity."

I have highlighted the bit that says "The Tánaiste agreed with him and said he was also not aware of who the TD in question is."

A screen shot of a portion of the page describing the "Statements of Learning" for Junior Certificate Music at https://www.curriculumonline.ie/junior-cycle/junior-cycle-subjects/music/statements-of-learning/. Is say that SOL24 is that "SOL 24: The student uses technology and digital media tools to learn, communicate, work and think collaboratively and creatively in a responsible and ethical manner. " and identifies as an example of learning that "Students can use technological and digital media to create collaborative compositions; record and critique group performances and explore the works of composers, while being aware of issues related to copyright and plagiarism."

I have highlighted the "... while being aware of issues related to copyright and plagiarism".

A screenshot of my "ticket" for the event. I've covered my e-mail address, because, y'know, reasons.

A screenshot of a portion of the openstreetmap "tracetrack topo" layer map showing New Orleans in the U.S. at the top, Merida in Mexico at the bottom, and "Golfo de Mexico" in between.

A Lexus parked on the footpath, taking up about 90% of it, forcing pedestrians out onto the road. Photo taken from the rere.

A screen shot from the Matrix annual public report showing the map of Europe and where Matrix is either in use or in proof-of-concept.

A portion of a colourised version of John Speed's 1610 map of Dublin focussed on the site of the 1597 explosion (or "explojun" as my son used to say when he was 4 or 5 years old). Above the map is the text "KABOOOM!!!!!". It's a screenshot of a slide from a deck I maintain for a talk I give on the development of the streets of Dublin.

A portion of my blog post that reads 'Those who want to apply these controls on the national anthem should prepare specific legislation to address their concerns, rather than using something, like copyright, that would neither be appropriate nor effective. I can even donate a name for it, if they'd like: the "Censorship, Restrictions and Appropriation of State Symbols" bill. That way, just like what they do in the U.S., once it is signed into law, it can be referred to as the CRASS Act.'

A screenshot of the news reader I use (commafeed), showing an RTÉ story. The headline is "US death row inmate has execution stopped last-minute" and the summary text is "The death sentence of a 75-year-old man days before his execution date has been commuted after it was noted that he did not pull the trigger in the shooting for which he was convicted."

I have drawn a green oval around "last-minute" of the headline and a green oval around "days before" of the summary, and a green arrow going from the former to the latter, and I added a shocked-face emoji by the arrow.

A portion of the e-mail I replied with:

'I wonder, though, if you have had the chance to read the complaint. If so, it would have been a little careless (in the truest sense of the word), to spell my name "OHanluain".

Like, literally: I set out the correct and incorrect spellings of my name in the complaint.

Also, it's "Mr.".

Éibhear'

It also contains a quotation of the e-mail I was replying to:

'*Complaint Ref: CR-101178*

**

Dear Ms. OHanluain, '

The back of the TV licence that arrived in the post yesterday where "... there on that other side, in the middle of the other side, away from everything else of the other side ..." read the following words: "Ní údairítear leis na ceadúnas seo aon sárú cóipchirt ar an ábhar a glactar. This licence does not authorise any infringement of the copyright in the matter received."

The output of my attempt at the quiz includes this "advice". I decline.

The Israeli Prime Minister quoted in the article by The New Republic 'Benjamin Netanyahu Just Said “From the River to the Sea”' (https://newrepublic.com/post/178243/benjamin-netanyahu-literally-says-from-the-river-to-the-sea): 'Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday rejected the premise of a Palestinian state and promised that Israel will take over the entire region it currently occupies, “from the river to the sea,” according to an English translation on the Israeli news channel i24NEWS.'

"After the election, 84% of respondents agreed that elections are conducted in accordance with the law."

My complaint:

When I was filling the form to get a quotation, I typed my first name, correctly, as "Éibhear", and an error popped up saying "Please enter your full forename". That *is* my forename. When I re-entered it, incorrecly, as "Eibhear" the error went away. When I entered my family name, correctly, as "Ó hAnluain" I was presented with the error message "No numbers, Spaces or special characters allowed." When I re-entered my name, incorrectly, as "O hAnluain" the message remained, and when I re-entered it, incorrectly, as "OhAnluain" the error message went away.

It is both insulting and illegal for [XXX] not to permit me to have my name recorded correctly.

One or more of the following outcomes would resolve my complaint:
- A correction of the web site to allow people to have their names recorded correctly.
- Failing that, error messages that don't suggest that the correctly-typed names are wrong, but rather acknowledge that [XXX] is unwilling or unable to capture them faithfully.
- Failing that, at least the correction of the typographical error in the second error message where "Spaces" should be "spaces" (i.e. the initial capital is wrong).