Why Ireland should vote no in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum

Treaties are self amending

The European council has the right to update treaties without the constent of member countries.

Decrease in voting power

Ireland’s voting power will decrease from 2.1% to 0.9%

The over ruling of the Irish constitution

The charter of Fundamental Rights can override the Irish Constitution on areas such as of human rights, justice, education, and health.

Term of Presdidency of the European Council

Currently the presidency of the European Council is shared equally across all member states for a period of six months. The Lisbon treaty will extend this period to two years. England, France,Germany and Italy will have the right to block all nominees for the presidency thus making it more difficult for smaller member countries

Neutrality

Ireland has always held a neutral stance when it came to conflict. The Lisbon treay will change this as it states “If a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States shall have towards it an obligation of aid and assistance by all the means in their power.”

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-14

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-07

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-31

  • 15hrs at work today not fun. But at least our apps got installed. #
  • this is awesome http://is.gd/HMWp #

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GIT

I recently attended a presentation on GIT, the free & open source, distributed version control system.  I have to admit I was blown away by the power of GIT.  From the get go after a user installs GIT they have in their working directory a full-fledged repository with complete history and full revision tracking capabilities, not dependent on network access or a central server.

One of the aspects of GIT that probably has impressed me the most is the various deployment models that are available to the user. In classic version control systems such as ClearCase there is what can called a “sea saw” approach meaning that a user A checks in code code to a central repository and the User B must update and download the changes from the central responsibility and vice versa. GIT offers a different approach partially because it is distributed. Each user hosts their own repository. Users can directly connect to other developers repositories without the need of a central repository.

Many open source projects use a model where developers can download code from a central repository. On their local environments they can commit their changes and it is version controlled on their own machines. Once a user is comfortable with their changes they can push it back to a central server where a group of administrators can pick and choose code from the various submissions and then push code up to another controlled repository. Then a smaller group of administrators can pick and choose the code which they can then push to a production repository.

Another cool feature in GIT is called “Stashing”. Stashing allows developers to stash away code changes and comeback to them later. This is particularly useful if you were currently working on some new feature but you have stop development to fix some issue. Normally the process would be to copy and paste the effected files into a folder and undo a hijack, fix the bug and merge the changes in later. Stashing automates this process and even merges in the changes from the bug fix.

Overall GIT seems powerful, full featured, easy to use and appears to provide more options to developers. Most classic version control systems like SVN and ClearCase do not empower developers to check in code for fear of breaking the build but GIT appears to provide the opposite effect.

You can download GIT here.

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-24

  • Im creating a media PC to watch Hulu, Rugby & Podcasts from a piece of crap dell box. Its working surprisingly well. #
  • Where is a good place (pub) in San Fran to watch the FA cup final on May 30th? #
  • Just attented a presentation on GIT. I never though I could get excited about source control. #
  • Has anyone played with Jive Software? What do you think? http://www.jivesoftware.com/products #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-24

  • Im creating a media PC to watch Hulu, Rugby & Podcasts from a piece of crap dell box. Its working surprisingly well. #
  • Where is a good place (pub) in San Fran to watch the FA cup final on May 30th? #
  • Just attented a presentation on GIT. I never though I could get excited about source control. #
  • Has anyone played with Jive Software? What do you think? http://www.jivesoftware.com/products #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-17

  • somehow screwed up my firefox profile … running pretty slow. about:config I thought we were friends? #
  • just installed windows 7 on the mac using Sun Virtual box. To be honest I just did it to test out the virtualization software. #
  • really liking http://www.virtualbox.org/. So glad I did not but any virtualization software. #
  • when was internet radio added to Itunes? #
  • @davidbutler360 Its ok, Its faster. Its basically Vista with the bugs fixed. Its… Read More: http://is.gd/AfdO in reply to davidbutler360 #
  • @rorymc yeah I was thinking of buying it but decied against it as I dont need windows at home. Very happy with virtualbox. Its just as good in reply to rorymc #
  • @rorymc yeah heard nothing but good things about it. All been said Fusion is most likely better in reply to rorymc #
  • @harrigan where you at the game? They won handy enough? in reply to harrigan #
  • I think the Spirit is the worst movie I have ever seen. #

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-05-10

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Kiva – Loans that change lives

I came across a really interesting, innovative and worth while site today called Kiva. Kiva is a website with a goal to alleviate poverty around the world.  The innovative thing about Kiva is that in essence it is a micro lending site. It finds entrepreneurs from across the world who are trying to start their own business to break out of poverty.

Kiva allows you to bowse potential entrpeinerurs profiles and if you come a across an individual or a business that you would like to donate money to, you can.

The site is also community driven and there are many lending teams that you can join. Another aspect of the site is its transparency. It is working hard to show where your money goes and what impact it has had on the lives of the people who you have lent money to.

All in all this is a pretty cool appraoch to ending poverty, especialy for people who are trying to break out of the poverty trap.

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