LEGACY CONTENT AND MENUS

In order to make this site more Mobile friendly this section is no longer being updated on a regular basis.

VISIT THE 2023 PHOTO BLOG

As this site is not a mobile-friendly as we had hoped we are developing Headless WordPress solutions which are much faster and ideal for mobile users.

JULY 2023

Almost every day this section is updated and it provides an excellent beginning to your journey of exploration ... have a good visit

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The options in green are very fast mobile-friendly sites and it is suggested that you use these options. Red indicates a slower option more suitable for desktops. Blue are links to pages within sites.

Brown Thomas

Brown Thomas

2016 Photo Blog

2016 Photo Blog

Saints And Sinners

Saints And Sinners

Murrays Bar

Murrays Bar

UPDATES JULY 2023

JULY 2023
NEW SECTION DEVOTED TO PUBLIC ART

The new quick blog devoted to Public Art and related topics is fast and sparse and may be best suited for mobile applications.

Irish sculptor Brian King studied at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, where he later served as Head of the Department of Sculpture from 1984 to 2004. His large-scale painted metal sculptures imbue abstract geometric form with the emotions and movement of colour. King exhibited extensively in Ireland and Europe from the 1960s. He showed at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art from 1964 to 1978, and represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1969 and 1983. His work is held in many public collections including Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, and the University of Ulster.
UPDATES JULY 2023

JULY 2023
FIRST SESSION WAS A VISIT TO TRINITY COLLEGE

Enrique Carbajal González was born in Chihuahua, Northern Mexico, shortly after the end of the Second World War. The artist adopted the pseudonym ‘Sebastián’ after the painting of the martyred Saint Sebastian by Sandro Botticelli. He is best known for his monumental public sculptures, created using steel or concrete, which can now be seen throughout the world. There are currently four of these sculptures in Ireland, all of which have been generously donated by the artist.

JUNE 2023
PLAN TO USE SIGMA CAMERAS



MAY 2023
MEDIATEMPLE TO GODADDY MAY 2023


Within a few months all my sites will be self hosted and while that does present many problems I can say, based on experience, that shared hosting and even dedicated WP hosting is, at best, unreliable. For a number of years I used MediaTemple and while I may not have been over impressed by the quality of service I was reasonable happy. However, MediaTemple was purchased by GoDaddy and my sites were transitioned this week and I am less than pleased.

However, to be fair, the site OSX128.COM which is now hosted by GoDaddy is faster than any of my self hosted sites ... this is mainly because it is what is known as a 'headless' WordPress site.


MAY 2023
I PLAN TO VISIT CORK CITY AND COUNTY


I am planning to spend the second week of May 2023 in Cork City and I have decided that the Sony FX-30 will be my main camera and my backup will be an old Sigma DP1 Quattro which is a bit of a risk. I have yet to decide what lenses to bring with me.

MARCH 2023


I HAVE CANCELLED MY VISIT TO KILKENNY

Unfortunately I had no option but to cancel my visit to Kilkenny and because of the difficulty of getting Hotel Rooms at reasonable cost I may need to cancel my visits to Belfast, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.

JANUARY 2023


LOTS OF CHANGE ON THE WAY AND MY SITES WILL BECOME MOBILE FRIENDLY

I have alway been disappointed because my sites fail Google Vitals tests for mobile devices despite the fact it achieves close to 100% for desktop.

Since January 2022 I have devoted much time and effort to finding a solution and then in July 2022 I found two promising solutions but both require me to move from Rapidweaver as a development tool and away from traditional hosting services. I had already tested my own in-house servers so it suits me to host my websites but I have spent years using Rapidweaver so I will continue to use the application for a few more years but will gradually develop alternative solutions.

I was really surprised to discover two solutions. I have always liked Wordpress but over the years I have had serious security problems and a number of hosting services asked my to go elsewhere and eventually I ended up using WPengine for my Wordpress sites but monthly cost is very high and increasing.

The most promising solution that I have found is Headless Wordpress and I am in a position to self host if necessary. I will not discuss the second solution here as I do not know if there are security issues in the case of self hosting. However, both new solutions can be migrated to the cloud [AWS or Digital Ocean] instantly if I wish to do so and it is most likely that I will.

7 JUNE 2023 USING AN RX0 CAMERADUBLINBIKES DOCKING STATION 75

Holly Pereira is a muralist & illustrator based in Dublin. Her hand-painted murals are colourful, fun and bold, and create bright and exuberant environments in which we are invited to play. Holly often gets inspiration from folk art and typography.

WOLFE TONE PARK FEATURING TRAM 305 WHICH IS NOW A POPULAR CAFE

Wolfe Tone Park reopened almost a year ago [16 May 2022] following major works by Dublin City Council. It is described as a "green space" but I advise you to visit and decide for yourself but there is no doubt that it is an improvement but I am waiting for the bronze cow to return. Note: It has become much greener since May 2022.

As already mentioned in previous posts the park was closed during the pandemic and the the Parks, Biodiversity and Landscape Services team took the opportunity to restore it to a green space.

A QUICK VISIT TO DUBLIN CASTLE5 MAY 2023

There have been gardens at Dublin Castle since at least the early years of the seventeenth century.

The current gardens are situated immediately south of the Chapel Royal and the State Apartments within an enclosing stone wall. The gardens are entered through wrought-iron gates of Celtic-inspired spirals. Beyond a ‘four seasons’ garden lie four smaller gardens, one at each corner of the site.

MICROSOFT BING IMAGE GENERATOR GENERATES IMAGES OF LEPRECHAUNSAPRIL 2023

Using Bing Image Creator to Generate Amazing AI Artwork: In March Microsoft announced that they were bringing Bing Image Creator, new AI-powered visual Stories and updated Knowledge Cards to the new Bing and Edge preview. Powered by an advanced version of the DALLE model from their partners at OpenAI, Bing Image Creator allows you to create an image simply by using your own words to describe the picture you want to see. Now you can generate both written and visual content in one place, from within chat.

ADOBE FIREFLY EXAMPLE NOT FOR COMMERCIAL USE 215739MOTORCYCLIST WITH A SPACE SUIT RIDING ON MOON WITH STORM AND GALAXY IN BACKGROUND

In March 2023 Adobe introduced Adobe Firefly, a new family of creative generative AI models, first focused on the generation of images and text effects. Adobe Firefly will bring even more precision, power, speed and ease directly into Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud and Adobe Express workflows where content is created and modified. Adobe Firefly will be part of a series of new Adobe Sensei generative AI services across Adobe’s clouds.

MERRION SQUARE PUBLIC PARK THE DAY AFTER SAINT PATRICKS DAY

Merrion Square Park sits at the centre of one of Dublin city's most beautiful Georgian squares. The park has been restored to its historical layout. It also has a playground and sculpture trail. The Houses of the Oireachtas (the Irish Government), the Natural History Museum and the National Gallery of Ireland sit along the west of the square.

INTERESTING PROPERTY FOR SALE54 ARBOUR HILL STONEYBATTER 10 MARCH 2023

When I was young one would would not haven chosen to live in the Arbour Hill area of Dublin but by the 1970s it started to become a very desirable location and over time houses there became expensive so I was a bit surprised to see this large building on the market for Euro 795,000. However, after seeing photographs of the interior I understand the price.

KING BILLY'S WHITE HORSE

The myth is that William, who was dressed in gleaming armour, was riding a white horse while his banner bore the words 'God and the Protestant religion'. According to historic records the horse that featured in the Battle Of The Boyne was brown.

When I was young I remember my Grandmother saying as we passed a large house "protestants live in that house" when I asked her how she knew she replied that they have King Billy's horse above the door. I was a bit surprised by Grandmothers's comment as her sister happened to be a Protestant.

TRIBUTE TO LUKE KELLYLIFE SIZE BRONZE BY JOHN COLL

Luke Kelly's legacy and contributions to Irish music and culture have been described as "iconic" and have been captured in a number of documentaries and anthologies.

The influence of his Scottish grandmother was influential in Kelly's help in preserving important traditional Scottish songs such as "Mormond Braes", the Canadian folk song "Peggy Gordon", Robert Burns' "Parcel of Rogues", "Tibbie Dunbar", Hamish Henderson's "Freedom Come-All-Ye", and Thurso Berwick's "Scottish Breakaway".
My main hobby is Street Photography but I have many other interests including blogging, computers and electronics in general.

Currently I operate a number of websites in order to promote my interests and through my sites I have made available a really large catalog of photographs many of which are available to anyone who wishes to use them.

IT IS LONELY HERE

WAITING FOR YOU TO VISIT

This particular site in in many ways experimental and gives me the opportunity to try out different ideas and technologies and at present my main focus is on building and operating a really fast site and that is much more complicated [and costly] that I had originally expected.


ALL PHOTOGRAPHS SUPPLIED BY INFOMATIQUE

PHOTO DIARYSMAINTAINED BY WILLIAM MURPHY

Commercial Disclosure

You will find links to buy products from Amazon, Google and other partners. If you click on these links, you’ll find that the URL includes a small extra piece of text which identifies that the click came from my websites. This text is an affiliate code, and it means that I get a small percentage of the money you spend if you choose to buy that product, or, in some cases, other products from the site soon after. These affiliate links help pay the costs of producing my websites and ensure that the content is free to you.
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Because of issues that we have had with hosting services and because our web sites were not mobile friendly was have decided to implement alternative solutions but as much time and effort will be required the changes will be introduced on a phased basis beginning in February 2023. If you are a mobile user it is suggested that you select the mobile friendly options included here.

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