I’ve recently subscribed to a great sci-fi podcast – Escape Pod. There are lots of things I like about it – it’s released under a Creative Commons license, it still manages to pay its authors – but mostly the fiction is really good. The RSS feed is here and there’s an archive at escapearchive.org. Some [...]

One of my readers (hello, Dennis) complained when I saw him last that I write too much about computers and open source, so this is my reasoning behind why using open source technology is not only a good idea but really quite important. In the nineteenth century, a debate arose in the locksmithing community about [...]

Microsoft are offering a version of Office to South African consumers that can be rented on a monthly basis as the US$700 price tag is beyond the reach. No matter what the monthly rent (US$30), it will be more than the price tag of OpenOffice.org – zero. xD.

My work computer came with MS Office 2007 pre-installed. I have decided to go back to using OpenOffice.org for two reasons – the ribbon and the ‘docx‘ OOXML file implementation. That and the fact that it reeks of EEE. Firstly, the ribbon. Nice idea, but it doesn’t work. It’s not intuitive and adds an extra [...]

The BBC is proposing to launch its on demand TV system, iPlayer, but it will only be available to people using a Microsoft operating system. Firstly, this expresses a n unjustifiable commercial bias. Secondly, it fails in the BBC’s obligation to provide universal services by excluding Mac and Linux users. Thirdly, it supports Microsoft’s digital [...]

…is that you feel a lot happier about opening the box to repair it. My computer’s RAM went, and having put it together in the first place, it was pretty straightforward to replace it with a new set. A nice thing about Ubuntu is that it’s very easy to reinstall… End geekiness. xD.

I’m feeling rather pleased with myself. Being somewhat geeky, I’ve been wanting to build my own computer for a little while now and I finally have. In fairness, I did use a barebones kit, which makes it easier. I’ll spare everyone the gory details, but it’s really not particularly hard – especially with a Haynes [...]

I wrote the new template for my blog according to the standards for XHTML laid out by the World Wide Web Consortium. Mozilla, which runs to these standards, displays my template without any problems. Internet Explorer, however, does not run to these standards and so does not display my blog properly. For an internet browser [...]

Microsoft Microsoft Campus Thames Valley Park Reading Berkshire RG6 1WG Dear Microsoft, I like blogging. I’ve been writing a post recently. It’s about a film called Holy Mountain and I’ve been writing it over a few days because it’s a bit complicated. The film, that is, not the post. Now, I know this isn’t very [...]

Just briefly, some of my favourite OpenSource and similar links. All free… www.OpenOffice.OrgPretty much exactly the same as MS Office, but with added functionality. The extra features are varied, but the most useful is the ability to make PDFs. Not just read, but make. www.mozilla.orgQuite a few people know about Mozilla, the alternative to MS [...]