NiallOK’s Blog

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ShiteDrivers.com, my the blog about bad driving on the roads of Ireland has moved home.

Regular readers of the site will be glad to know that it’s not gone completely. The address stays the same, the content is still all there, - I’m just not running it any more (this guy is!) and it’s moved server.

That’s all!

As reported on RTÉ News, it’s the end of the road for (unaccompanied) unlicensed drivers as it’s now illegal (as of midnight, Monday night) to drive on your own unless you’re fully licensed - and damn right too.

That’s not to say that Irish people won’t moan about this - sure where would we be if we didn’t have something to moan about?
(… Jersey?) One common excuse is bound to be the old “we didn’t get enough warning” chestnut which, I’m afraid, is bollocks. The longest driving test back-log that I’ve heard of was 6-8 weeks (it’s come down a LOT recently) and this new law was announced over 6 months ago, so the truth behind that excuse was being too forgetful or lazy to bother applying for the test not not having enough time !

As I said last October, I’m glad I have my full license myself. I felt sorry for learner drivers back then, but that was because it seemed as if the laws were going to be introduced very quickly and not in fact many months later. I don’t feel sorry for them now as they’ve had a more than adequate chance to sort themselves out with a test.

We’ve always had one of the most lax “ah sure it’s grand” style attitudes towards learner driver laws in the world. As I said in a recent TV interview, it’s always been a case of “just send away for the piece of paper, it arrives in the post and out you go on the road”. This law plugs a gap that has been open for far too long. I’m sure it’ll reduce the number of cars on the roads (better for the environment!) and will annoy a lot of people - well, unlicensed drivers (who have no excuse anyway…) but as long as it helps reduce the level of carnage, it’s worth it.

In related news, I’m closing ShiteDrivers.com. The domain name is due to expire on July 18th and unless someone takes it off my hands well before that, that’s the end of it.

It’s nearly 3 weeks after the event, I know - but this one kinda slipped by me… We all knew Blogorrah was pretty dead anyway (and some of us had stopped caring, to be honest), but now it looks like the site really is definitely gone for good…

Why? Well, the domain blogorrah.com expired on February 2nd at 2.13pm and wasn’t renewed by the famous celebrity obsessed bloggers with the caustic wit and unusual charm (… oh dear!), so was quickly snapped up by some cybersquatting company who are sitting on it and turned it into this:

Sad indeed…

It’s not just the final nail in the coffin, mind you … it’s the final flower placed at the gravestone after the last sod of dirt has been patted down, after a tonne of it has been thrown over the well varnished, well filled and fully nailed shut coffin, which has been lying six feet under for many a month. Or something like that, anyway…

Oh dear… Yesterday really was a bad day for hosting company DreamHost. Not only did they make a mistake that caused virtually every single DreamHost customer to be billed for a full year of hosting up until December 2008, taking over $7.5million extra from their customers, but they then (childishly) blogged about it in a cheeky chappy way (entitled “Um, Whoops“).


I’m sure nothing like this would ever happen with Irish hosting companies, eh?