13 & 14 Years now dancing their sets

In the 13 Years, 24 dancers are competing for a trophy donated by Cassandra Halloran

In the 14 Years, 18 dancers are competing for a trophy donated by The Cruchley Family

13 & 14 Years have been called to marshalling

Results - 10 Years

1 Isabella Fitzpatrick, Halloran
2= Bridie O'Neill, Carey
2= Sophie Kelley, Simpson ACT
4 Alison Manuel, Simpson ACT
5 Abbie Spajic, Halloran
6 Leah Town, Simpson ACT
7= Jade McMartin, Halloran
7= Kelanney Davy, Simpson ACT
7= Manuela Rainsforth, McAleer VIC
10= Matthew Lambert, Carroll
10= Oisin Braddock-Hanratty, Reilly
12 Caitlin Kersivien, Maher

Results, 9 Years

1 Roisin Bolwell, Halloran
2 Siobhan Lo, Fenagh
3 Ebony McMartin, Halloran
4 Maddison Gardoni, Halloran
5 Chelsea Moutia, Halloran
6 Madeline Carroll, Halloran
7 Niamh Mack, Carey
8 Ellie Borg, Carey
9 Jade Abbey, Carey
10 Georgia Robinson, Carey
11 Lara Haynes, Simpson ACT
12= Chanel Wardini, Halloran
12= Kate Wakeling, Maher
14= Libby Wakeling, Maher
14= Amy Mountford, Creer-Harvey
14= Erin Burt, Creer-Harvey

Presentations and lunch are due around 1200

So we appear to be running on time, please note that the LiveCam audio will me muted when I move the camera for presentations and will remain muted until presentations start.  It will also be muted (but showing video) during the lunch break.

10 Years in marshalling for their soft shoe round

Before and after

Before (or is it after?)

After - I think!

Definitely after - the finished product of the earlier photos

10 Years hard shoe round now dancing

10 Years in marshalling for their hard shoe round

9 Years in marshalling for their soft shoe round

And the canteen is very popular too

9 Years in marshalling

They are now doing their Premiership hard shoe round, dancing two at a time

Feis scenes

Gourmet food update

The MasterChef kitchen (the BBQ at the fron of the feis) has announced that they are now serving gourmet sausage sandwiches or rolls, bacon & egg rolls and other fine food.  Hardly watching that other cooking show tonight, when you see the skills of the top chefs here today :)

In other feis related news, the 10 Years Open Set Dances are now on stage.

Intermediate 10 Years set dances are continuing...

9 & 10 Years are doing their Set Dances

In the 9 Years, there are 27 dancers competing for a trophy donated by Glen Ryan.

In the 10 Years, there are 18 dancers competing for a trophy donated by The Lack Family.

The dancers are on-stage doing their set dances, which will be followed by their Premiership hard shoe round, then soft shoe round.

It is again very cold in the hall, so if you are coming out, rug up!

Information about inappropriate ads sometimes appearing on LiveCam web page

There has been a spirited discussion about the appearance of some advertisements on the LiveCam web page - some or many of these ads could be considered to be highly inappropriate for children, young adults or any adult, depending on their points of view (the adults, not the children and under-18s).  Last night I spent several hours displaying a test image on the LiveCam site and then doing a detailed analysis of the web streams that I received when viewing the test image.  Following are the results.

Technical environment for testing
I tested the LiveCam page on WindowsXP, Windows Vista, Windows7, OSX 10.6.4, Ubuntu 10, OpenSuSe, Solaris 10 and OpenVMS.  I used Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10, Safari 5, Firefox 3.6.6 and Chrome 5.

I tested the site with browsers in their default settings, then using private or incognito mode (this doesn't store any web history in browser caches), then using NoScript (a Java/flash/ad blocker).  I used Wireshark to capture the details of the whole TCP/UDP stream going to the machines receiving the LiveCam stream and then disassembled the stream for all requests and communication.  I further captured and dumped the web page HTTP contents as they changed dynamically.

Results explanation
The page you see when viewing LiveCam is complex and composed of over thirty separate elements, including advertising from at least 18 different sources (!!).  The Ustream controlled component is ONLY the image you see that contains what I broadcast - this is delivered to your browser using Adobe Flash.

All other advertising on the page is not delivered via Ustream, it is delivered through multiple advertising services and they base their ads on many complex factors, including your browser location, operating system, browser type, browser history, readable cookies on your PC (in other words, things left behind by other sites you have visited, or someone using your PC/browser has visited), and other components about you that can be identified from the web - and there are lots!!


The Ustream ads appear to come from Google and are content-restricted, I was unable to display any ad within the Ustream Flash screen that contained anything inappropriate, although I received plenty that was boring or related to the US, not Australia.  What is displayed on the remainder of the page, that is NOT in the Ustream box containing the LiveCam streaming, is not under control of Ustream - it is under YOUR control.

Recommendations

1. If children are using the computer, ensure that they are supervised at all times.  This is not my recommendation, it comes from the Police, the Commonwealth Government and the Child Protection Agencies.  If you don't want to, or you think that is an imposition, please don't complain about what may be displayed on a site as it is under your control.
2. Use an ad/script blocker in your browser, something similar to AdBlock or NoScript.  It will stop the display of all ads, block malicious JavaScript and other components and generally improve the security of your PC.  It requires configuration and is fiddly to start, but it is worth doing.  If you can't/won't supervise your children or if you just don't want to see ads, do this at least.

In summary, everything on the LiveCam page is under your control and, apart from the ads in the actual video stream of LiveCam, all the ads that appear are based on your browser/PC history and whatever the advertisers can glean about you from the web - it may be inaccurate, but that is how they work.

If you receive something inappropriate in the LiveCam Flash window, please photograph it or do a screen copy and send it to me ASAP so that I may take it up with Ustream.  I cannot, however, stop the boring ads or ads for US TV shows and/or services - sorry :)

Welcome to the Claddagh Feis on Sunday

A very brisk morning in Sydney. this means positively sultry compared to Canberra or Melbourne, where one needs to chip the ice from the windscreen on mornings like this :)  The BBQ has been fired up and bacon & egg rolls should be available from about now, the cappuccino cart is popen and doing a great trade, and in general, we are ready to roll.

LiveCam is online but without audio until marshalling starts, which should be within the next ten minutes.

Please stand by for an important post about LiveCam advertisements

Today's dancing timetable is as follows:

0900 9 & 10 Years
1200 Results and lunch
1230 13 & 14 Years
1600 Results
1630 15 & 16 Years
1900 Results

The adjudicators are Vicki Paulin ADCRG (VIC) and Raymond Ayres ADCRG (VIC).

Results - 21 Years & Over

1 Tai-Lei Benson, Halloran
2 Eleanor Finneran, Halloran
3 Jessica Denford, Carey
4 Elise Furlong, Maher
5 Siobhan White, Wollongong
6= Erin Wagner, Carroll
6= Emma Fitzpatrick, Reilly

Results - 19 & 20 Years

1= Laura Hannon, Simpson ACT
1= Emma Ryan, Hallorna
3 Emma Connell, Aisling
4 Colbee Mifsud, Kennedy (Belfast)
5 Kris Jackson, Carroll
6 Ondine Kennard-King, Higgins

Results - 18 Years

1 Olivia Ciciulla, Rabusin VIC
2 Taryn Priadko, Halloran
3 Laura Corkhill, Simpson ACT
4 Caitlin Ironside, Simpson ACT
5 Natalie Gin, Aisling
6 Kathleen O'Kane, Carey