Thoughtsofanidlemind's Blog

  • Photographing Herons in Ireland

    Photographing Herons in Ireland

    Exploring the Different Genres of Bird Photography The other day, I received email from birdphotographytips.com which outlined seven genres of bird photography. I must admit that I never thought about genres when going out to take photographs of birds. It’s always been the case of trying to capture the best…

  • Photographing Aillebrack Rabbits

    Photographing Aillebrack Rabbits

    Rabbit Warrens Dot Aillebrack The land immediately behind the beaches in the townland of Aillebrack in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland is dotted with the scrapings created by rabbits as they construct a network of warrens in the sandy soil. Their territory extends back beyond the road to the Connemara Golf…

  • Viewing Seals in Ballyconneely

    Viewing Seals in Ballyconneely

    See Common Seals in Mannin Bay and the Salt Lough I’m fortunate to be able to spend time in Derrigimlagh, a townland between Ballyconneely and Clifden in County Galway on the west coast of Ireland., part of the “Wild Atlantic Way.” The landscape is wild and the sea roars in…

  • Safari on the Lower Zambezi

    Safari on the Lower Zambezi

    I’ve never been on a safari, so going to the Lower Zambezi was a real adventure. Potato Bush camp was a great base to tour from and an excellent guide made sure that we saw lots of animals and birds. All in all, a great first experience of safari.

  • Electric Storm Knocks Out e-Tron Charger

    Electric Storm Knocks Out e-Tron Charger

    Our Audi e-tron was running well after its trip from Ireland to the South of France until a power surge caused by a nearby lightening strike upset our day-to-day routine by knocking out the car’s charger. Audi helped get us back on the road, but we learned a big lesson.

  • Walking the Gettysburg Battlefield

    Walking the Gettysburg Battlefield

    A brief trip to America allowed me to visit the Gettysburg battlefield and walk part of the ground fought over by Union and Confederate troops in July 1863.

  • Driving to the South of France with an Audi e-tron

    Driving to the South of France with an Audi e-tron

    Driving long distances with a full electric vehicle takes more preparation than it does when driving a petrol or diesel car. Here’s what happened on a trip from Dublin to the South of France via the U.K,.

  • Visiting Skellig Michael

    Visiting Skellig Michael

    Skellig Michael is a small island off the coast of Kerry in Ireland. The monastic settlement on the island has been a world heritage site since 1996. It’s easy to see why.

  • The BitCoin Sex Trap Email Extortion Scam

    The BitCoin Sex Trap Email Extortion Scam

    An Odd and Very Demanding Message Last Friday night, I received a note from “Hyman Cipolletta” using the Outlook.com account rriivoryorz@hotmail.com. The message header shows that the message originated in a North American server (Namprd12.prod.outlook.com) in the common Office 365 infrastructure shared by Exchange Online and Outlook.com. My interest was…

  • Office 365 for IT Pros, 5th Edition (2019)

    A New Edition We launched the first edition of the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Chicago in May 2015. At that time, the book was called Office 365 for Exchange Professionals and it was some 600 pages long. Indeed, it was short enough…