From Bottleneck.org
Microsoft-bashing
Microsoft has been forced by the EU to offer a choice of browsers to users. Through blindly following a link somebody posted on Twitter the other day, I ended up at the BBC's Have Your Say page on this subject. Reading this page is a mistake for any rational human being, as you'll quickly discover if you spend any time reading the amusing collection of the most stupid comments which have been collected together on the spEak You're bRanes (sic) website.
So, having got to the Have Your Say page related to Microsoft offering a browser choice, I was very quickly infuriated by the degree of ignorant Microsoft-bashing and free-software smugness on display.
I feel before I continue that I should declare any bias. I am not a Microsoft "fanboy", and I do have some idea what I'm talking about. I am an IT professional, and I've been involved with computers as long as I can remember. My primary technical skills lie much more in Unix and Linux systems than in anything to do with Windows or Microsoft, and this very website is managed by me on a Linux server. I have no particular pro- or anti- Microsoft or Linux/Free Software stance.
Having said that, I use Windows 7 64bit at home with Internet Explorer 8 as my only installed browser. This is a conscious, informed and reasoned choice on my part, and I believe I'm qualified to make it. So let's take a look at why I am supposed to be wrong about this.
The arguments put forward on the Have Your Say page seem to fall into a number of camps. So let's look at each of these, and let me explain why it doesn't work for me.
1. Free browsers and operating systems are the best, I can't believe you all still use Windows
- "How quaint. You mean there are still people who use Windows?"
Grow up and stop being so smug about it. If you want to use free software, then by all means do, but if you can't offer any reasoned argument for why your choice is better, then don't expect anyone to take you seriously, or indeed ever find you anything other than an utterly smug cock. There's really nothing to answer in this point.
2. Microsoft products are too expensive
- "I'd be happier using MS if they charged a reasonable amount for their software. They are far too expensive."
Fair enough, I've got no problem with the idea that you might not think their software is good value for money. I happen to think it is good (enough) value for money. Here's what I get with my current version of Windows 7:
- An easy-to-use operating system
- Out-of-the-box support for a vast array of hardware
- A web browser
- A gaming platform
- Basic tools for producing documents
- A web server
- A media centre including PVR capability
- DVD authoring software
- An email client
- ... well, lots of stuff
Of course all of that is available for free on Linux. Well, except the gaming platform and the "easy to use" parts. I just find it all works together a lot easier and more simply with Windows, and I'm prepared to pay for that, just as Microsoft are at liberty to charge for it. As a society we seem to be increasingly assuming that we have a right to service without having any expectation of needing to pay for it.
3. Internet Explorer / Microsoft products are unstable and crash all the time
- "I installed it and it crashed my PC, which required a rebuild to resolve the problem. Nice one Microsoft, I see you still peddle third rate flakey applications that dont work"
I just have to disagree. I keep my systems updated with the latest patches, and I very, very rarely see Internet Explorer crash or Windows blue-screen, and normally when I do, it's an error in third-party software or drivers that cause it (e.g. Flash, or in a device driver). Now I will accept that the software and OS should be resilient to the effects of badly-written third party software, but I believe that Microsoft are as close as anybody to this, and that it simply does not happen often enough for it to concern me (and believe it or not, I've seen Linux panic enough times as well!)
In general, when I find someone telling me that "Internet Explorer crashes all the time" I find a myriad of third party tool bars, aborted installations and upgrades, or other general user fuckwittery which has made their machine an unstable pile. Have you all ever considered that it might be you who's breaking your PCs?
4. Internet Explorer is utterly riddled with security holes and your identity and money will be stolen if you use it
- "as someone who used to do Internet Banking using IE6, I am lucky I didn't get hacked"
Yup, it's all down to luck. Nothing to do with there being nothing particularly unsafe about the browser you were using. Where is the evidence of all these potential identity-stealing vulnerabilities you're worried about anyway?
I've used Internet Explorer for my online banking (and everything else) for years and guess what - I've never been hacked. (Please do not take this as a challenge!) I keep up-to-date anti-virus on my machine. I keep it patched with the latest updates. I don't download and install ropey software from all over the place (and I think this is the key mistake you might all be making out there!) just stuff that I believe I can trust. I occasionally run the free version of Ad-Aware across my PC just to feel good about myself.
A variant of this is "Using a less popular Browser reduces the risk of being attacked"
Well, you're quite right, people do tend to target the more popular software. I'd go on telling everyone to use the browser you use, since it's less popular. Erm.
5. Internet Explorer is slow
- IE is pretty slow and only used when I need to check something works in it
If you say so. It's fast enough for me, and I don't tend to find that page rendering times are the limiting factor in my enjoyment of the web. Flash is a bit slow, though, and my broadband might be a bit slow sometimes, too.
6. Other browsers have better features built in or available as add-ons
- "I find AdBlock Plus absolutely invaluable ... other useful little touches too like spellcheck in web comment forms"
Well done, this is the only argument that I believe has any real weight behind it. As it happens, Internet Explorer has all the features I particularly care about. I just don't find the adverts that offensive, and to be honest if we all start blocking them it begs the question of what other horrible means the site designers will have to come up with to raise revenue.
I don't believe that, if you look objectively at the products, there's anything fundamentally bad or evil about Microsoft products. It really boils down to this: Microsoft bashing is fashionable.
So there we have it - that's why I'm happy enough with Windows and Internet Explorer. It works for me, it performs the functions I need it to, it's sufficiently simple that I can stop being an IT professional when I get home and just use my PC. What's so wrong with that?
News Feeds
I've added an RSS feed showing new pages on this site to the menus on the left of the web site - I've been meaning to do it for some time, but have only just found a sensible-ish way to do it. It's still a bit rough and ready, mind!
I've also added a bit to the About Me page listing the particular news feeds to which I subscribe, some of you might also find some of them interesting. Here they are again:
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
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| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
| Feed | Web Site |
Birthday Number 1 Singles
This from EveryHit.com - the number one single in the UK singles chart on each of my birthdays. With apologies for the poor formatting!
- 1977 On your birthdate the No. 1 single was Rod Stewart - "I Don't Want To Talk About It / First Cut Is The Deepest"
- 1978 On your 1st birthday Boney M - "Rivers Of Babylon"
- 1979 On your 2nd birthday Blondie - "Sunday Girl"
- 1980 On your 3rd birthday Mash - "Theme From MASH (Suicide Is Painless)"
- 1981 On your 4th birthday Smokey Robinson - "Being With You"
- 1982 On your 5th birthday Adam Ant - "Goody Two Shoes"
- 1983 On your 6th birthday The Police - "Every Breath You Take"
- 1984 On your 7th birthday Frankie Goes To Hollywood - "Two Tribes"
- 1985 On your 8th birthday The Crowd - "You'll Never Walk Alone"
- 1986 On your 9th birthday Doctor & The Medics - "Spirit In The Sky"
- 1987 On your 10th birthday Whitney Houston - "I Want To Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)"
- 1988 On your 11th birthday Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg - "With A Little Help From My Friends / She's Leaving Home"
- 1989 On your 12th birthday Jason Donovan - "Sealed With A Kiss"
- 1990 On your 13th birthday Englandneworder - "World In Motion"
- 1991 On your 14th birthday Color Me Badd - "I Wanna Sex You Up"
- 1992 On your 15th birthday Erasure - "Abba-Esque (EP)"
- 1993 On your 16th birthday UB40 - "(I Can't Help) Falling In Love With You"
- 1994 On your 17th birthday Wet Wet Wet - "Love Is All Around"
- 1995 On your 18th birthday Robson & Jerome - "Unchained Melody / The White Cliffs Of Dover"
- 1996 On your 19th birthday Fugees - "Killing Me Softly"
- 1997 On your 20th birthday Hanson - "Mmm Bop"
- 1998 On your 21st birthday B*witched - "C'Est La Vie"
- 1999 On your 22nd birthday Baz Luhrmann - "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)"
- 2000 On your 23rd birthday Sonique - "It Feels So Good"
- 2001 On your 24th birthday Shaggy feat. Rayvon - "Angel"
- 2002 On your 25th birthday Will Young - "Light My Fire"
- 2003 On your 26th birthday Evanescence - "Bring Me To Life"
- 2004 On your 27th birthday Mario Winans featuring Enya & P Diddy - "I Don't Wanna Know"
- 2005 On your 28th birthday Crazy Frog - "Axel F"
- 2006 On your 29th birthday Sandi Thom - "I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker (With Flowers In My Hair)"
- 2007 On your 30th birthday Rihanna featuring Jay-Z - "Umbrella"
- 2008 On your 31st birthday Mint Royale - "Singin' In The Rain"
- 2009 On your 32nd birthday Black Eyed Peas - "Boom Boom Pow"
Flight Simulator X
These tracks show a series of Microsoft Flight Simulator X flights I've been making recently, visiting every country on the way down the West Coast of Africa. This is a tour in progress, so I'll update the map as I go.
Note that the tracks sometimes look a bit awkwards because of where the IFR airways run.
In order to convert the Flight Simulator X flight plan files (.pln) to Google Earth / Google Maps format (.kml) I wrote a bunch of macros in an Excel 2007 spreadsheet - I can't guarantee it will work for you, and I'm quite certain it won't work for earlier versions of Flight Simulator, but you're welcome to make use of the file if you want to!
Download Flight Simulator X .pln to .kml Converter
View FSX Flight Plan tracks in a larger map
Walking in Santorini
This is a GPS plot of a walk we took in Santorini in 2009. We started at our hotel and climbed up the hill to the ruins of Ancient Thira, stopping at a little church on the hillside on the way up. Then we walked down to Kamari to meet some friends for the afternoon, and finally took a boat trip back to our resort of Perissa.
Click on the markers for a sample of pictures taken on the way, and click on the thumbnails to open a larger version in the gallery. Also, check out the full collection of pictures from Santorini.
View Santorini 2009 in a larger map
Skiing GPS Tracks
I've finally put online some GPS tracks I've recorded on a couple of occasions when I've been skiing, just for casual interest.
First there are a set of tracks from Serre Chevalier in 2007. I started splitting this one down into individual pistes and lifts and colour coding them accordingly, but ultimately I decided that life's too short and just dumped all of the tracks together.
The second set is from Alpe d'Huez in 2009, and I didn't bother mucking about with this at all.
The final set is the most recent and is from Tignes and Val D'Isere in 2010. It's a bit smaller than the others because I had battery issues and so didn't get tracks recorded every day.
The tracks don't necessarily represent every slope skiied, but they give an indication of terrain covered. They look fine in Google Earth but they don't work particularly well in Google Maps because there are too many tracks to fit on to one screen.
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