Recently, someone close to me, who is doing an Irish Diploma in UCD came to me quite worried and asking for my help… and not with their Gaeilge either!
It’s a night course once a week and seems to be very popular with everyone doing… up until the other day. It’s exam time and nothing strange there but what is odd is that University College Dublin announced to the unsuspecting diploma students that they would be required to not only do a written exam, but also give a Powerpoint presentation to the class… even though most of the class had never even heard of Powerpoint.
Like everything, Powerpoint is easy enough to use if someone has explained it and you’ve had a good bit of time to get used to using… but to give someone a week or two of notice and not only expect them to have their gaeilge correct but also expect them to magically acquire computer skills is crazy. Surely Microsoft Powerpoint would have more relevance on a computer diploma! Are UCD trying to turn what is essentially a great course into a very bad experience of Irish?
I mentioned this to a Gaeilgeoir friend of mine and their response was “we didn’t even have to do THAT for our Degree course . Powerpoint… Ta siad as a meabhair!”.
Availability of the Windows 7 Beta has been extended until January 24th 2009. You can download your own copy of the beta 
It seems there may be justice in the world after all… and if you’re one of the unlucky souls who bought a “Windows Vista Capable” Junk PC thinking it would actually run Vista well, you may have your chance to seek justice . A federal judge has given class-action status to a lawsuit against Microsoft for the misleading marketing scheme.
