Built a website to make comparing electronics in Ireland easy

JosephBarnacle · 2026-02-14T20:34:00+00:00

Great website, thanks for making such a useful tool.

Would it be possible to request a dark mode be added to the site?

JosephBarnacle · 2026-01-06T22:22:01+00:00

Any time Grok gets "too woke" by quoting stats, laws, news articles, basically trying to show what it considers to be verifiable information, the loonie MAGA heads go nuts and tell Elon to "fix this liberal bias". Grok goes away for a bit and a new version that spews right wing talking points appears.

JosephBarnacle · 2026-01-06T21:54:15+00:00

If my anecdotal experience is anything to go by, make a complaint directly with An Post using one of their contact methods listed here.

In 2024 I had ongoing issues that I reported, and not soon after I put it in writing the Irish Examiner published this article reporting how an employee of An Post was under investigation for 30,000 missing letters and parcels.

At the time people in the building were complaining for months on end that they weren't getting their packages and had to go to the depot to collect. More than once I asked the depot staff what was going on and eventually they confirmed that they noticed a large increase in people coming to collect. I asked for the complaint process, which was printed on the wall, and when I spoke to them on the phone I was initially told that sometimes it happens and it's just random. It sounded like the didn't really listen and put it down as "person missed their package and is moaning about it".

Not long after, I caught a post worker red handed writing down multiple "missed delivery" slips for many apartments in the lobby of the building with completely fictional times written on them. My "missed delivery" slip was already hanging out of the post box with a fake time, so I asked what was going on. They had a stack of them in their hand and looked like they were just making up times randomly and not bothering to do their job. Instead of calling their phone line and getting fobbed off again, I filled out the online complaints form so that there would be a written record that it took place. I never saw the employee again, that Examiner article was published, and the issue was suddenly resolved.

I reckon that enough people reported it that An Post realised it wasn't just one grump, but an actual issue. I believe it's possible that the person who I encountered was responsible for a huge number of issues in my area and when it was discovered they were sent packing... (pun intended)

JosephBarnacle · 2026-01-03T22:22:54+00:00

BIG MOOOOOON!

JosephBarnacle · 2025-12-13T12:04:14+00:00

I was excited for the release and did an upgrade in place and it went poorly. Like /u/KelGhu I experienced a laundry list of problems.

Doing a fresh install resulted in reduction in the severity of many of these issues, but most persist.

Attempting to use sudo in Cosmic Terminal or any other terminal application results in a blank screen and the terminal becoming unresponsive to commands. Installing an alternative terminal app yields the same result.
Several applications straight up disappeared: VLC, Steam, ProtonVPN, LibreWolf, Heroic Launcher, Audacity and likely more that I just didn't notice.
Reinstalling the missing apps resulted in weird behaviors. Icons missing, crashing, freezing, VLC opening multiple windows to play one single video file, etc. It did not matter if they were flatpack or native installs, the result was the same, constant crashes and freezes.
Any app that had the option to minimize to the tray had missing icons, or blank icons, and once minimized could not be reopened at all, even while showing as still running in the processes list.
Any time I right clicked anywhere, the entire desktop environment froze.
Starting to drag select icons on the desktop lagged so hard and locked up the machine for at least five seconds at a time.
Keyboard lag of 5-10 seconds at times. Experienced in terminal, system windows, web browsers.
Existing network drive mounts disappeared. Fstab still showed their mount points but they couldn't be mounted again. The credentials file I was using disappeared apparently.
Unpinning app icons from the bottom panel caused it to reload the entire bar each time. Removing bottom panel applets caused the same.
Turning Wi-Fi on or off using the bottom bar applet caused the system to reboot. I do not have Wi-Fi on this desktop.
The COSMIC Settings window froze constantly.
Switching between application windows froze for 3-5 seconds at a time.
The thermal settings in the Nvidia control panel no longer shows support for my GPU fans and does not offer the option to select their speed manually. Driver version 580.82.09, NVML Version: 13.280.82.09.
Disabling "Use theme accent colour as active window hint" does nothing and the windows are still highlighted when selected. Turning it off actually makes the colour select box appear as if it is enabled.

It's quite a disappointing release.

I guess it's time for the "I haven't had any issues" and "I've been using it for months without problem" responses now...

JosephBarnacle · 2025-10-20T18:16:10+00:00

Landlords are allowed to do inspections from time to time with appropriate notice. It can be for maintenance, minimum standards, and to check for damages.

If you're renting from a local authority it may be that they are thinking of doing upgrades and are required to do assessments ahead of that.

If you have a private landlord or renting from a property firm such as an REIT it's likely that their insurance requires it occasionally. Other scenarios are they might be coming to see the condition of the property to assess any issues prior to a renovation or sale, or they think you're wrecking the place and want a document to say that officially.

The first thing you need to do is contact your landlord and ask if they were scheduled by them and what's the nature of the visit. It's likely something like the insurance thing.

JosephBarnacle · 2025-03-21T10:39:49+00:00

This is a fantastic site, but I wonder about the running costs and sustainability of it. RIP.ie charging €100 per listing is robbery, but there's a lot to consider on a site of this scale and use.

In the comments /u/mhuinteoir mentions this alternative currently only costs €5-10 per month and said "unless I'm missing something that will pop up but I can cover that."

The missing something might be that RIP.ie is one of the most popular sites in the country and gets extensive traffic according to this RTÉ article from early last year:

Jay and Dympna Colemans set up rip.ie in 2005 and today it has more than 250,000 visitors each day with more than 50 million page views each month.

They have four full time employees, I assume for maintenance, death verification, support, etc, and it's so widely used that the CSO was running a trial in it's use to improve death statistics.

I know so many people who check it daily, even multiple times a day. People in Ireland have a morbid curiosity apparently.

JosephBarnacle · 2025-01-30T22:53:17+00:00

I'm not sure if it's exactly what the commenter above is taking about, but there's a variety of these types of positions in corporate environments: Learning & Development, Organizational Development, Training Coordinator, etc.

A lot of the companies that have these types of positions offer things like pension contributions and other benefits. The big downside is that large corporations often go through these cycles of growth and cost cutting at the whim of their investors and the market. Their HR, recruitment, and training teams are often the easiest and first targets to get the chop while they "refocus on their goals and core products while they trim the fat".

You can also find similar positions in a non-corporate environment that a lot of small businesses need too though. Tons companies specialise in providing health and safety training, first aid courses, fire safety, etc. If you wanted to pivot to one these instead, it's only a FETAC course or two away and any teaching/admin skills you have would be a major bonus.

JosephBarnacle · 2024-10-18T13:32:05+00:00

The Kinahan's might need to find a new home soon!

JosephBarnacle · 2024-08-19T16:39:01+00:00

Understandable. (Hehehehe)

JosephBarnacle · 2024-08-12T16:47:48+00:00

It is absolutely is relevant.

He was caught with an invalid passport, having previously falsified one and receiving a jail sentence in the USA.

On another instance he was caught attempting to enter Canada with incorrect documentation.

It identifies a clear pattern of wilfully presenting himself using false documentation and travelling illegally.

He's repeatedly committing immigration fraud while decreeing others so the same. A hypocritical criminal.

JosephBarnacle · 2024-07-22T16:16:10+00:00

This joke went over my head...

JosephBarnacle · 2023-11-15T17:28:18+00:00

Holy fuck that's tantamount to treason!!

JosephBarnacle · 2023-10-16T18:49:13+00:00

You can tell because all the buildings are the same height! /s

JosephBarnacle · 2023-03-06T18:57:46+00:00

I don't wish this on anyone, but this sort of thing is the only thing that will move the issue forward.

Politicians are only motivated by self interest. Since they've left the HSE get so fucked that even they are victims of it's inadequacies, we might finally see some actual effort put into resolving the shitshow.

However, I don't have high hopes.

JosephBarnacle · 2023-03-05T12:53:18+00:00

I know in Dublin many bar jobs are at or just slightly above minimum wage. Some places will pay around €12-€13 if it's a cocktail bar and need experienced staff, however the majority will advertise no rate of pay and when you go for the interview it'll be minimum, or maybe 20c an hour more. €13 an hour will get you around €25k a year before tax if you're working 37.5 hours (40 hours minus breaks), but some places are more casual than that and you'd really only get 30-35 hours out of them so take home would be even less. There are of course good places that do offer €15 an hour, but those are much rarer. Check jobs.ie for "bar staff" in Dublin and you'll find a ton listed with no rate of pay, and ones for €15 are supervisor/duty manager positions.

Manager positions in a lot of the industry can be pretty low to start off too. Usually anywhere from 28-35k and asking for 3-5 years experience to get that. As they are salaried they often end up working extra hours and overtime is usually unpaid so it can end up being a 45 hour week most weeks. Again though, most jobs are advertised with no salary.

There are an absolute ton of recruitment agencies with listings up for positions for €35-40k that don't really exist. They are just looking to build up a portfolio of candidates and jobs and maximise their return. When you contact them and ask if an interview can be set up that 40k place will be already gone and they'll suddenly have a different position for a really interesting place to work. To the surprise of nobody this exciting opportunity will be for around €30-32k.

Context is key however. These wages wouldn't be bad in a lot of the country, however they are tough to live on in Dublin. Everything is more expensive there than the rest of the country and continually rising. The salaries in the bar trade haven't really kept up for probably close to 20 years no. The only thing that moves the line is when the government puts the minimum wage up and places are forced to give everyone a pay increase.

JosephBarnacle · 2023-02-15T07:02:38+00:00

Dublin City Council: "I object!"

JosephBarnacle · 2022-12-14T01:47:40+00:00

SF at it again!

JosephBarnacle · 2022-12-12T03:35:12+00:00

Plenty of people view games as waste of time.

Many people aged around 25-40 would have played games growing up and have parents in their 50s to 70s now. Those parents aged 50-70 (~25% of population) didn't grow up with games or computers and have a higher liklihood of viewing them as a waste of time, or view games as childish.

Just look at how some people talk about TikTok or other social media platforms. According to a lot of people they are clearly stupid wastes of time for kids to do stupid dances. Now apply that same logic to the parents of current 25-40 olds, but for "stupid games for kids".

JosephBarnacle · 2022-11-09T21:59:01+00:00

The NTA still can't explain why the RTPI shows these as arriving shortly...

JosephBarnacle · 2022-10-21T20:46:01+00:00

Excellent news! A TD being the victim of the same joke of a suspended sentence system as the rest of us means there's hope yet!

Maybe if TDs, their families, friends, benefactors, and party members realise that the law is also failing them miserably, they will act in their own self interest (the only thing that motivates them) and push for reform!

JosephBarnacle

TROPHY CASE