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Tipperary County Council are now offering its customers a free text alert system to advise with regard to the following information:
 Mr Joe MacGrath, Chief Executive, Tipperary Co. Council Severe Weather Notifications.
Road Closures & Diversions.
Community Events & Initiatives.
Local Planning Activity.
Flood Potential Events.
General Community Notices.
Registration, to receive the above information, can be obtained by accessing your right to register Here.
‘MapAlerter’ is a free service that gives all Irish Councils the ability to issue alerts for the specific topics shown above. Rather than informing an entire town about a water outage, all alerts are mapped so only the real affected residents receive notification. This ensures a high level of satisfaction amongst MapAlerter subscribers because the information they receive is local in nature to their specific area.
You can also register for a free account to receive alerts by SMS text message, by Email or by Smartphone App notification.
As already stated, alerts will only ever be issued for your local area and there are no costs to get the text messages. The system is specifically designed to keep you, the customer, better informed and fully up-to-date about activities taking place across the Premier County.
You can also get your alerts using the free MapAlerter App if you search for “MapAlerter” on the App Store or Google Play.
  
 Firstly, no the spelling of ‘Pwned’ is not due to our failure to use our spell checker. The word ‘Pwned’ is in fact a corruption or leetspeak slang term (‘Leetspeak’ also known as eleet or leet, same being an alternative alphabet for many languages that are used primarily on the Internet), and derived from the word “Owned.” (We understand that the word originated with the online computer game called ‘Warcraft’, where a map designer accidentally misspelled the word “Owned.”)
But why the above question we hear you ask? Well to answer a question with a question; “How aware are you of how much of your personal private computer data; including account ‘Usernames’, ‘Email Addresses’, ‘Encrypted Passwords’ and ‘Password Hints’ have been made available or publicly exposed by computer hackers”.
Examples of just four popular used accounts of some 153 such sites known to have been compromised.
[A] In October 2013, 153 million Adobe Accounts were breached by computer hackers. Data compromised with each account included IDs, Usernames, Email Addresses, Encrypted Passwords and Password Hints.
[B] In May 2014, the Avast Anti-Virus Forum was hacked, with 423k member records exposed. Data compromised again included Usernames, Emails Addresses and Passwords.
[C] In mid-2012, Dropbox Data was breached which exposed the stored credentials of tens of millions of customers. Again in August 2016, Dropbox forced password resets for their customers whom they believed may have been put at risk. Data totalling over 68 million records was subsequently traded online, included Email Addresses and Passwords.
[D] In May 2016, LinkedIn had 164 million Email Addresses and Passwords publicly exposed. While originally hacked in 2012, this data remained out of sight, before eventually being offered for sale.
[Other widely used accounts breached in the past include Tesco, Sony, Win7Vista, and numerous Gaming and Torrent sites.]
Question: How will I know if my personal data has been compromised?
Answer: Simply click HERE and add your Email address or username to the appropriate box, before clicking on the word ‘pwned’, latter positioned on right hand side of this same box. Then scroll down the page, just a little, to see the number of accounts / breaches in which you were ‘pwned’ in.
Question: I have an account which has been ‘pwned’, so what should I do now to correct this data exposure?
Answer: Go, as soon as possible, and change all passwords to named accounts ‘pwned’. If you cannot remember the associated password with any of your accounts, simply hit the tab which permits a request from you to change your password on the basis ‘Forgot My password’. (You will receive a personal email permitting such changes.) When changing your password remember the wisdom of Sheldon Cooper (From TV’s “The Big Bang Theory”), and I quote “1234 is not a secure password”. Use at least 8 symbols including uppercase and lowercase symbols, alphabet letters and numbers.
N.B. Even more importantly, it goes without saying; ensure that none of your individual accounts currently use the same password.
Independent TD Michael Lowry has called on the Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources, Mr Denis Naughten, to urgently advance the Government’s National Broadband Plan for County Tipperary.
Currently there exists over 41,000 properties across Tipperary without broadband and of these over 8,000 are businesses of varying sizes, each attempting to compete in the wider market place. Larger towns like Clonmel, Thurles, Nenagh, Tipperary Town and Templemore are well served by commercial operators; however other smaller towns and villages right across Tipperary require immediate intervention by the government.
Deputy Lowry recently contacted Minister Naughten; highlighting that “a key element for rural development must be to invest in infrastructure in areas outside of our main towns and cities. The absence of high speed broadband is a significant issue in attracting foreign direct or other investment to rural areas, thus obstructing all future job creation in Tipperary”. Lowry further insisted that “the State now fast-track the necessary capital funding into the Broadband process to expedite the roll-out schedule and guarantee rural broadband to 100% of Tipperary homes and businesses.”
The Independent TD continued, “The Government must review its current time-line on Broadband issues and stop referring to it as anything other than what it actually is, a basic and essential utility. Lack of Broadband is threatening the very growth capacity of entire local economies, particularly in Co. Tipperary. Broadband has become a critical factor to 21st century business life, and rural businesses rightfully feel abandoned and unable to compete, while city based businesses continue to thrive.
This same digital divide now places rural Ireland at a massive disadvantage and is not just failing individuals and businesses in their ability to communicate, but is also affecting students in our educational system to adequately engage in their intellectual pursuits; much of which now depends on having access to basic Internet facilities.
Obviously the lack of basic Broadband accessibility is only one of the many areas that need to be scrutinised in an effort to stop the everyday curse of migration, emigration and unemployment. These factors are draining rural areas of their very livelihood. However, with rural Ireland lacking critical 21st century infrastructure in providing 21st century opportunities, rural dwellers will continue to flee in favour of greater prospects elsewhere.
Business, whatever its size is the very lifeblood of every economy and if entrepreneurship is to be encouraged to set up in rural Ireland, access to Broadband is now essential if we are to work, grow and fairly compete,” concluded Deputy Lowry.
 Hawk-Eye score verification technology is expected to be up and running here in Semple Stadium, Thurles, Co Tipperary this summer, 2015, in time for the Munster SHC quarter-final between Clare and Limerick.
This technology was given the green light for installation in several major stadia outside Croke Park at last year’s GAA Congress. However with Pairc Ui Chaoimh and Casement Park both undergoing complete reconstruction at present, this technology is expected to be undertaken at Semple Stadium first.
With a feasibility study of Semple Stadium now completed, it is expected that this technology can be installed in time for the start of this summer’s Munster hurling championship, scheduled for the end of May initially, while using a temporary screen.
Semple Stadium will also host a Munster football quarter-final between Tipperary and Waterford, followed by a provincial hurling semi-final between Cork and Waterford before the second week of June, so for testing purposes alone, getting this technology up and running by May ‘s end would represent good planning.
This verification technology was called into use to decide the All-Ireland senior hurling final between Kilkenny and Tipperary last September 2014 in Croke Park Stadium, ruling that John O’Dwyer’s final action free, before full-time, was indeed narrowly outside the target zone, thus resulting in both teams having to replay.
Leading gaming experts including Head of EA to participate in LIT/Microsoft Ireland event in Thurles.
 Shannon Mostert and Ciara Bull from Nenagh, Co Tipperary Some of the biggest names in the gaming industry will gather at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) campus here in Thurles later this month to participate in Games Fleadh 2015, an all-island games design and development competition for third-level students.
LIT Tipperary, whose alumni have worked on some of gaming’s biggest titles including ‘Call of Duty’, ‘StarCraft’ and ‘Guitar Hero’, has announced it will host Ireland’s largest gaming event on Wednesday March 11th.
Supported by Microsoft Ireland, EA Games and the Irish Computer Society, the 12th annual Games Fleadh will feature the ‘Direct X’ Endless Runner challenge, Robocode and the Game Studio ‘Endless Runner’ competition, the winners and runners up of which will present their games to Brenda and John Romero and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) Greenlight Committee.
Games Fleadh 2015 – Open to the public for free
Brenda and John Romero have each more than 30 years experience working in the gaming industry, over 150 game titles such as DOOM and Quake to their credit, dozens of awards and have collectively founded nine game companies.
Games Fleadh will also feature games development and research talks by industry veterans such as Bryan Neider who will assist in the judging process for the various under graduate competitions. Neider is Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Electronic Arts (EA) labels, which collectively are responsible for producing some of the bestselling video game titles of all time including The Sims, FIFA, Battlefield and Madden NFL.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for students to create a prototype game, meet people from industry and make a name for themselves within the Irish game sector,” said Dr. Liam Noonan, Lecturer at LIT’s Game Design and Development degree in Thurles at the launch of Games Fleadh 2015.
“In terms of career development, participating in this competition is invaluable as students are adding to their portfolio of creative content and networking with students from other colleges and people from the games industry. It is these up and coming game developers and their innovative ideas that will act as the catalyst for job creation in the Irish game development sector,” added Dr. Noonan.
According to Dr. Noonan: “We were delighted and privileged to work with the Fulbright U.S. Specialist Award scholar Brenda Romero and her husband John back in September in our Thurles campus and they were very supportive of our Games Fleadh initiative. They suggested that the 2015 theme should be Endless Runner as this would allow students flexibility in designing either a 2D or 3D game.”
Commenting about Games Fleadh 2015, Brenda and John Romero said: “We are really excited to be involved in Games Fleadh this year. Having travelled all over Ireland and met hundreds of students and game developers, we know how much talent the country has and are looking forward to seeing this year’s results.”
Speaking ahead of his visit to Ireland, Mr. Bryan Neider stated: “I am looking forward to meeting the games design and development students at LIT Games Fleadh 2015, discussing their “Endless Runner” games and sharing our experiences at EA Games in the design and development of future titles.”
Stephen Howell, Academic Engagement Manager, Microsoft Ireland commented: “Microsoft is delighted to be on board sponsoring the Games Fleadh once again in 2015. We have demonstrated our commitment to the competition over the long term as it represents a fantastic opportunity to shine a spotlight on the immense third level games design talent in this country. It also plays a unique role in promoting knowledge-sharing, with international experts taking part and the latest research in the field up for discussion.”
Games Fleadh 2015 is open to the public for free. Online registration is available at www.gamesfleadh.ie.
For more visit www.twitter.com/gamesfleadh or search Twitter #gamesfleadh.
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