A Long Overdue Update

Sorry it’s been such a long time since my last update, real life was a bit busy for a while. This post will be a little different, as event though there’s a lot happening in the world of Android, what with the announcement of Android 5.0 Lollipop and the Nexus 6, 9 and Player.

I’m going to wait for the official OTA update before reviewing Android 5.0, so I’ll be silent on the topic until around early to mid-November.

In the meantime, I’ll be posting a review of Garth Nix’s new book “Clariel.”

Stay tuned!

How To Enable Student Mail On Android [NUIG Only] Part 2

Last week, I covered how to enable Student Mail through the stock Email client on Android. As you may remember, I didn't entirely recommend it, as this required the Email app to be given the permission to wipe your device without warning, among other things.

Happily, I've done some more research into the matter, and found a far better solution. Instead of creating a Corporate Exchange account, instead we'll create an IMAP account on the phone. This method requires no special permissions, and is just as functional as the previous method I covered. Unlike the other method, however, this only syncs your Email, and does not include your contacts or calendar from your Student Mail.

First, go to Settings, scroll down to Accounts, and tap "Add Account".

Then tap "IMAP".

Enter your Student Email address, and tap "Manual Setup". Then tap "IMAP".

Type in your password and proceed by tapping the arrow in the bottom right-hand corner.

On the Incoming Server settings screen, change the server to "outlook.office365.com" as per the screenshot below. Set the security to "SSL/TLS", and make sure the port is 993. Tap the arrow in the bottom right-hand corner to continue.

Change the SMTP server to "smtp.office365.com", the security to "SSL/TLS", and the port to 993. Ensure the "Require sign-in" checkbox is unchecked.

That's it. You now have an Email app setup to sync with your Student Mail, with no ridiculous permissions whatsoever required. Enjoy!

How To Enable Student Mail On Android [NUIG Only]

You may have found that the only way to access your Student Mail on mobile, particularly on Android, is through a desktop web page. Surely there has to be a better way to check your mail?

Good news folks, yes there is! This guide will show you how to use the stock Email app on Android with your Student Mail. However, be aware that this causes the Email app to need very excessive permissions, as you can see below.

If you don't want to give the Email server these permissions, check out my other guide here.

If you're OK with that, then we can proceed. You need to navigate to Settings - "Add Account" - Corporate. At this screen, type in your Student Mail login details, and tap "Next", and then "Exchange".

At the "Account setup" screen, change the "Server" address to "pod51002@outlook.com". Then tap "Next".

Before editing

After editing

You will then be prompted about "Remote security administration". You need to accept this to enable Student Mail using the Email app.

Decide how, when, and what you want to notified about, and tap "Next". If you want, you can then name the account, This is completely optional. Tap "Next".

You will then be prompted to activate the Email app as a device administrator, which is where you can see how excessive the required permissions are. Assuming this is acceptable to you, scroll to the bottom of the permissions and tap "Activate".

That's it! You can now check your Student Mail through the stock Email app.

The Garth Brooks Fiasco

The proposed Garth Brooks concerts have been attracting a great many headlines over the past few weeks, for all the wrong reasons. 400,000 people have been left devastated by the unfortunate turn of events, whereby Brooks cancelled all 5 of the planned concerts. What caused this turn of events?

Aiken Productions were the ones organising the concerts. The original plans were for only two concerts, though an extra date was added due to demand, followed swiftly by a fourth and a fifth concert. The problem, however, was that the tickets were sold "subject to license," meaning that Dublin City Council had not actually approved of the extra dates, and could, and eventually, would, cancel the concerts. However, the application was dated 16th April 2014, while tickets went on sale around mid-January. In that case, regardless of how many concerts there would have been, either two or five, Dublin City Council could still stop the shows. The biggest problem in this situation was the fact that Aiken Productions could begin selling tickets three months before even applying for a license.

The GAA is also somewhat guilty. As shown when they stopped a sixth show due to a match fixture, they could have stopped the fourth and fifth shows from going ahead as well. This is especially important when you consider that the GAA own Croke Park, and would have been aware that the a maximum of three shows had been agreed with residents, and that these three slots had already been filled by One Direction. The fact that they allowed a total of eight potential gigs illustrates the lack of respect the GAA seemingly has for the residents around Croke Park, and for agreements made with said residents.

The residents have a good case against the concerts. The area in which they live becomes completely locked down during matches and gigs, restricting their freedom. There are also fears of disorderly or drunken behaviour and littering. Finally, the noise levels in the area would, at the very least, be very annoying. However, there is another side to the residents' case. Firstly, many businesses in the area would welcome the Garth Brooks concerts with open arms. Also, the residents don't seem to be united in their aims. They protested against the concerts when five concerts were announced, but when Brooks made the statement that it would be five or none, another group started a campaign for the concerts to go ahead. In my opinion, the residents who were against the concerts held the minority view, but still achieved their aims. If that is the case, then are we a democratic country? But I digress.

The Government then became involved. Our Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, ruled out emergency legislation that would allow the concerts to go ahead. In hindsight, this was probably the only thing that could have saved the concerts. The Minister for Tourism, Leo Varadkar, then said that he was willing to go so far as to travel to the US in order to resolve the situation. The sad truth is, though, this was a totally futile gesture, as if a resolution could not be obtained without travelling, there was little to be gained from Minister Varadkar going to the US, presumably putting the flight on expenses. Again, however, I digress.

Garth Brooks himself made the statement that it would be five concerts or none. Someone made the comment last night on the News, I can't remember quite who, but essentially he claimed that Brooks was being selfish and childish for not accepting the three concerts that had been licensed. That may be so, but on the other hand, Brooks was showing his commitment to all his fans with the statement. It is quite odd though, when you consider that originally only two concerts had been planned, it then escalated to five, but then when only three were licensed Brooks refused to only do three gigs, despite it being more than had been planned in the beginning. In a statement today, Brooks cancelled the gigs, finally bring closure to this fiasco.

Honestly I believe that all parties are at fault to some extent. I only feel sorry for all the people who bought tickets for the concerts, some of them camping for several days in preparation. In this sorry story, they are the real victims. From now on, any artist of Garth Brooks' stature will be highly cautious in any plans to come to Ireland, based on how this debacle was handled. As has already been noted several times, the Irish economy will suffer somewhat, as a result of losing €50 million in revenue. Our international reputation, particularly that of our being a welcoming people is also likely to suffer, as we hardly showed ourselves to be very welcoming to Garth Brooks.

If you have any comments, feel free to leave them below.

I Want Your Help

I'm planning a new post for my blog, but I want to know something first. Don't worry, I don't want anything personal, I just want to know how often you would update the software on your phone/tablet/computer.

So, if you would be so kind as to comment on how you often you do, or don't, update the software on your devices, that would be absolutely brilliant!

Thanks in advance :D

From here on out...

First off, Happy New Year's to everyone. I'd also like to thank everyone who actually read my blog last year. I didn't expect a fraction of the traffic I've received; as of January 3rd, I've had just over 1900 hits. Thanks everyone!

Unfortunately, for the next six months or so, until my Leaving Cert is finished, I probably won't be able to spend as much time as I'd like on this. That said, I'll try and push out a few updates every month, but they probably won't be as frequent as they have been up till now.

There isn't much else to report really, other than storms and gales leading to a few power shortages, nothing too major thankfully.

If there's something you'd like me to cover here, or just anything at all really, feel free to comment!

Normal service will be resumed with the next post. Thanks for reading.

No post this week

Hi guys. Sorry but there'll be no blog post this weekend because I'm studying for exams...

Rest assured that normal service will be resumed next week.

A few Honest Opinions

Right, this is a bit different from most of my usual blogging material. Someone in my year in school asked me to give an honest opinion about everyone in the year. So, that's what I'm going to do, although I'll name no one.

One thing I can honestly say about everyone in the year, is that they're always up for the craic, and they're all sound. So, always add that to whatever I say below.

There's this really loud one, who seems to really enjoy being the life and soul of any group.

Another one is always happy, with, as far as I can see, a really active social life.

There's one who's amazing at art, and a nice person to boot.

This one is a really hard worker, who's always good fun to be around.

One is probably one of the most genuine and generous people you'll ever meet, who also works really hard.

Naturally there's one who is slightly odd, but, I find, in a good way.

Another one is really practical, and he's also, to use the colloquial, "dead-on".

There's one who's really old-at-heart.

If you want something done, there's someone for that too. He's also really practical.

There's a quiet one, who's gotten a lot more outgoing over the past few years.

This one isn't always around, but when he is, certain classes are usually entertaining.

This one's always on about a specific subject, but he'd do anything for you.

There's one who is really good-natured. She's a real heart person.

This guy is hard-working, and he gets on great with the girls.

So, they're the personalities of my year. Really, I can't really think of many negatives about my year. There are so many different personalities that it just sort of works.

A Quiet Man's Take on Things

The quiet man is the one you won't see. He's the guy who gets more of the work done in a group. He's also typically the guy who can't see the point of all the talking people do, all the time.

But the quiet man sees more than you'd give him credit for, and knows more than he should, maybe.

Many of the most successful businessmen and leaders, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, J. Robert Oppenheimer, were all quiet men. That's because they weren't so preoccupied with their own egos that they couldn't see that other people were better suited to jobs or tasks. Plus, quiet men will listen to every side of a story or plan, and then decide what to do.

Quiet men work alone maybe a bit more than they should. That's probably because the people around them will either rely too much on them, or not pay them the slightest heed. In those situations, you're better off working on your own.

Regarding New Posts

Apologies for the lack of posts. Due to school taking up virtually all my time, I'll be limiting all further posts to weekends, so as to allow me to focus entirely on school.

Stay tuned, an expect an new post sometime over the weekend

Life On Mars (or in the sticks)

As I mentioned in my previous post, I live in the West of Ireland. More specifically, I live in Connemara, in a place called Carna. It's really just a place on a map, there aren't really many landmarks or unifying features to turn it into anything more than that. Still, it's home.

I grew up with my parents in an Irish speaking household. Similarly, both the primary and secondary schools I attend(ed) are all-Irish schools. Well, they are in theory, but in my secondary school, the principal is always complaining that we don't speak enough Irish amongst ourselves. He has a very good point. Teenagers around here all speak English far more than Irish. In a school of over a hundred students, a lot less than that will reply in Irish, if you speak to them in Irish.

If I'm honest though, I can't complain about the education I've received here. True, there was a lack of subjects when I was choosing my final 7 Leaving Cert subjects, but overall, anything I've wanted to do has been accommodated. I'm the only one in my year studying Honours Maths, but I've never been pressured to drop to Ordinary just because I was the only one, either by students or teachers.

The people are nice too. No one has ever given me grief about my hand, or, really, about anything. Back here it's a really close-knit community, you know that everyone really will work together if something really important comes up. But you do have that old thing of everyone knowing everyone else. There are no secrets here, anything that happens is known by the whole village within hours. There's a great Irish expression, "dúirt bean liom gur dhúirt bean léi", which means, literally, "a woman told me that a woman told her". That's really how it is back here.

Naturally, there is, of course, good WiFi. The coverage is good too, provided you're willing to put up with 2G, and the occasional Vodafone fail.

 Right, that's life back here covered. Till the next post :-)

Introduction

Right, I've decided to try and keep a blog. Bear with me for a while, I'm not used to these things really!

I'm a Leaving Certificate student in the West of Ireland. When I say West, I mean West, it's pretty much "Next stop America" from my front door!

I've called this blog "Single-Handed Techie" because that's more or less what I am. I have an upper limb deficiency, which, in plain English, means a short weird looking right hand. I'm OK with saying it like that, because I've had all my life to get used to it, but I'd never describe anyone else that way.

Right, if I'm a techie, I might as well give you guys a rough idea of what I've got, tech-wise. I've got a Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 (2013), and an Asus Transformer Pad. Yep, I'm a proper Android fan! That said, I've got an iPod (4th Gen) and a 6-year-old Dell Inspiron laptop. Yeah, I should probably think about upgrading that one!

Well, that's as good an introduction as I can think of, I might post again later today. Feel free to comment, if you want.

Till the next time :-)