The Linux Extremist

I used to work in possibly the most blinkered development atmosphere in the United Kingdom. The owner of that company lived, ate and slept Microsoft; a devotee of Visual FoxPro, it was difficult for him to imagine anything better than that. To give some idea of the difficultes that this creates, Foxpro is a single threading application; it can handle only one transaction at a time. When he demanded that we develop our e-commerce solutions using Foxpro as the backend database, chaos ensued.

I remember once giving him a copy of Ubuntu Linux, in the hopes that might shake his point of view, an attempt which was bound to be as successful as trying to convince Tom Cruise that a squirty little midget like him shouldn’t play an action hero, but I made the effort nonetheless. As the owner accepted the CD ROM, he floored me with the following question: “How does one develop solutions for Open Source servers using a Windows PC?” I had to ask him to repeat himself to ensure that my ears weren’t playing tricks on me. They weren’t.

It dawned on me that Microsoft is like that for some people. They contaminate the horizons, and managers and professionals get locked into a “comfort zone” which is not easily broken; they get used to Microsoft providing all the solutions to every problem, and regard anything outside the Microsoft Zone with suspicion. That is precisely how Microsoft would like it: they would like to provide solutions up and down the line, from enterprise computing to your MP3 player; unfortunately for them, this has the negative consequence of them being a Jack of all trades, but a Master of few.

This idea of a one-stop shop for all your IT needs has its attractions; at least one can ensure interoperability between systems. For example, it should be child’s play to send a spreadsheet from Pocket Excel to Desktop Excel. Similarly, it should be easy to develop solutions for Pocket Explorer as well as regular Internet Explorer.

However, trying to be all things to all people is simply not a viable strategy; what tends to get lost in the attempt is quality. It is very rarely stated that MSN Search is superior to Google, or that Windows XP is superior to Linux or Macintosh OS X (at least in terms of stability and performance). The Playstation and Xbox are roughly comparable, and Windows for mobile devices is not seen as infinitely superior to the alternatives.

Indeed, I do not recall Microsoft ever being considered “superior”, rather, they were just more available. I remember a conversation I had in 1997, when I was working for a publishing company. My boss asked me to lay out on the line what the difference was going to be using Windows NT versus Caldera Linux; I had problems finding reasonably priced contractors to build solutions for the latter at that time, a situation which was not helped by the fact that my company was based in a rural area.I told him: “Using Caldera is like getting a custom built car…it’s stable, it’s elegant, it’s beautiful. However the initial costs will be higher and when it does break, which will be rare, getting people to fix it will be more expensive.”

“And Windows NT?” my boss asked.

“It’s like getting a Ford Escort. It’s adequate, nothing more, and when it breaks down there are loads of people around to fix it.”

Less than 10 years later, the shoe is on the other foot - the availability of Open Source developers is on a par or greater than that of Microsoft-only programmers; the costs of using Open Source are unquestionably less, yet the solutions are still beautiful.

Thanks to this change in fortune, Microsoft’s retreat has begun in earnest, but rather like a spoiled child, when told, “What part of No don’t you understand?” they still reply, “All of it.”

Rather than see Microsoft do a full re-think, we are witnessing an expansion of their all-encompassing philosophy: not only is there MSN Search, there is also the proposed MP3 player, and of course, Windows Vista, which will incorporate an even larger bundle of functions in a single OS, trying to be ever more to the user.

Previous experience should have indicated that this is only a recipe for mediocrity. However, Microsoft is apparently immune to learning. They should be taking hints from the Linux model, whereby tools are small and specialised. The kernel is not “everything”, and development is carried out by many individuals and organisations, rather than under the umbrella of one, all-encompassing corporation. Linux users are very happy to have a kernel from one project, a browser from another, and an office suite from yet another. Open standards ensure that there is consistency between projects, and the results are the conglomeration of the work from the Masters of Few Trades, rather than the thin gruel from a less-than-optimal Jack of all.

Microsoft can continue to rely on those who refuse to be saved by the Linux Revolution. However this group, in my experience, is shrinking; when the bill for licensing costs comes in, ever more managers are saying, “Surely there must be a better way.” There is. Sure, there will be people like the owner devoted to Visual Foxpro, but they are a dying breed. If Microsoft doesn’t want to become a dinosaur themselves, they’ll have to learn to narrow their focus, specialise, and most of all, learn from their rivals and their mistakes. If so, they have a future. If not, the horizons they clutter are going to be ever fewer.

This week, my office melted in the withering heat. On that basis, I decided not only to take my newly built custom desktop machine home, but to keep it in an air conditoned room with my other custom built desktop at least for the duration of the summer. Once there, it took about 5 minutes flat for me to be annoyed about not having a Keyboard-Video-Mouse switch to easily swap controls between the two.

My setup is fairly modern - I have a DVI monitor, and there is no way I was going to go back to VGA. My keyboard and mouse are both using USB. I also have a scanner and a webcam that I wanted to use on both machines. The problem is that there isn’t exactly a world of choice in terms of DVI / USB KVM switches.

I first took a look at a Belkin Omniview model, and then backed away when I read reviews like this -

Bad points: Doesn’t work with a lot of mondern USB keyboards Cables don’t work with DVI-D only TFT displays Firmware update program only available for Windows

General comments: Updating the firmware stops the annoying beeping if the KVM switch doesn’t recognize the USB keyboard.

Other comments were in this vein. I also looked at a model from Avocent. But the comments on this were not much more encouraging -

Bad points: Occasionally ‘misses’ a PC on boot-up, leaving the USB keyboard and mouse unresponsive - you have to either restart the unit by removing power and USB host cable, or reset the PC. This happens inexplicably, probably about once a week. All the cables you need are not included, and need to be purchased seperately.

Ouch. The only option in this case was to try and broaden my search outside of the standard stockists like Dabs and Misco. Through a company called KVM Choice, I found a little switch by a manufacturer called Aten, and bought their CS 1762 model. It was difficult to find much in the way of reviews on it, so I was taking a risk. The only thing I could say with certainty was that Aten was the Egyptian god of the sun. Was that a positive omen in summer? Who knew, it was roll the dice time.

The switch itself is nothing much to look at, but KVM switches are generally little grey boxes. I was pleased by the fact that it had all the necessary cables with the unit - something neither Belkin nor Avocent had. It also had a small USB hub in the back of the unit. Plugging in the cables was straightforward, I booted up my first computer and found no problem - there was no loss of resolution on the monitor, no change in sound, no loss of performance on the keyboard, no strange beeping, and no problems detecting all my USB devices.

It was when I booted up the second computer that I discovered a little niggle; if you press lightly on the switch for a moment, only video switches over. In order to switch full control over to the second computer, the button has to be pressed for 2 seconds. This is not a big deal, but still, an issue. Generally speaking if I’m switching it’s not for a quick glance as to what’s going on at the other machine; some people might find that useful, but not I.

Another minor niggle occured when I had the focus of the switch on a computer I was shutting down. When the unit shut down, the screen then “partially” switched back over to the other computer - I got a distorted picture from the first PC, even though I hadn’t switched over.

Another little problem which requires more testing is some level of screen flicker after a few hours of operation.

That said, overall, the Aten does the job. Even with the niggles, it is worthy of recommendation. It’s a little grey box, but a valuable and worthwhile one at that.

In recent days, I’ve discovered that many Linux users are operating under two false assumptions. The first false assumption is common among newbies; they think that by switching from Windows to Linux, they’re merely trading one operating system for another, and apart from improved speed, reliability and security, the two are roughly comparable. The second assumption is more typical of Linux experts; it’s the notion that Linux belongs to us hip, cool swinging experts, so noobs, shut up.

Both of these assumptions are missing a critical point about Linux. The first assumption is wrong because no, Linux is not like any other operating system; it has an educational approach at its heart and kids, you’re going back to school. The second assumption is just as wrong because the Linux Ethos demands a co-operative, collaborative approach to computing which obliges participation in the educational process, not acting like the “cool” high school seniors who smoke cigarettes in the parking lot.

It’s a truism that’s often stated, but when people first start learning about Linux, they begin to change their relationship with their computer. It changes from being a dull box from Dell to being a bunch of components, which need to be optimised in order for the sum to be greater than the whole. A greater ability to customise and control one’s machine, grants power and responsibility; it’s not like Windows where everything is done for the user and the user only has Microsoft to blame when it blows up. If you screw up, and believe me I’ve done so, it’s going to be up to you to sort it, kid. The end result is, yes, more tinkering, but also a system which is more suited to what the user wants to do.

It’s an educational process; in my case, I have been in technology for 23 years (my father brought home my first computer when I was 10); however I regard the experiences I’ve had with Linux as being the most interesting and informative lessons in computing I’ve ever had. Other users have reported the same.

As education is part of using Linux, and given the absence of formal technical support (unless you want to pay through the nose), then it becomes the obligation of the existing Linux community to maintain a helpful attitude, and to document their experiences in order to help those who are still learning. It’s a small price to pay for getting all of one’s software for free. Those smoking cool kids who insist that Linux should belong to experts and no one else are impeding growth and progress.

It is also the obligation of the community to assist the educational process in other ways; for example, if you find a bug, report it. This is not like Microsoft where a bug will blithely be dismissed as a design feature. Reading, testing, sharing, reporting - these are all actions which the Linux Ethos demands.

It is fair to say that this Ethos was established when Linus Torvalds first released his operating system. Those who are unfamiliar about the “Post that Got Linux Rolling”, here is what he said -

From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: <1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Hello everybody out there using minix -
I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes - it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi threaded fs.

It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.

Note how Linus was soliciting feedback and assistance so early in the project; by doing so, he was embedding the operating system with this unique set of principles. This has developed organically, and of course, not everyone believes in it. However, collaborative, experimental, educational computing with a supportive process of change is continuing to win victories in the marketplace and with users. Not explaining the Linux Ethos to new users will damage their experience with the OS; forgetting the Ethos will mean obstacles to continued progress.

Hopefully now that Windows is falling to pieces and projects like Ubuntu Linux are recruiting vast numbers of new users, the Ethos will not fall by the wayside. It would be a shame if it did; nothing would be a more sure recipe for Linux to lose its way.

Being a suspicious sort of fellow, I tend prefer buying things from a local vendor than from someone distant. In particular, I am not a big friend of supermarkets: I much prefer the idea of being able to buy berries from a farmer a few minutes drive away rather than relying on Tesco importing it from somewhere in Central America where the berries are sprayed with pesticides lethal enough to be on Saddam Hussein’s top 10 favourite chemical weapons list, and the pickers are probably spitting on the fruit to spite the pompous gringos.

There’s more to this than just desiring superior taste and freshness (and not wanting to poison myself or get the dreaded lurgy). If I’m spending money locally, then I’m pushing money back into the local economy, rather than sending it to El Diablo, Alcalde of the Berry Farmers. Also, if I have a problem with a product, I’m much more likely to get a good response from the bloke up the road than from El Diablo.

You would think that the internet, with its global focus, would actually work in El Diablo’s favour. Theoretically, I can go onto Tesco’s website and others, and get the best price for berries, which usually implies handing over money to the Alcalde. However, the internet also enables me to buy locally as well on a more consistent basis; up until the internet came along, the only way small, local concerns had to get their marketing message out was to go to farmers markets and pass it on through word of mouth. These days a great many producers in my area (West Sussex, England) have websites and provide a means whereby I can get much of my food locally. Here are a few representative samples -

1. Nyetimber Vineyards (www.nyetimber-vineyard.com) - a slick site, selling West Sussex sparkling wine. Don’t laugh, English wine actually has gotten some very good reviews as of late, indeed, Nyetimber’s Classic Cuvée 1998 has been rated the best sparkling wine outside of the Champagne region.

2. Lurgashall Winery (www.lurgashall.co.uk) - this small company makes & sells fruit wines, and the rather peculiar Silver Birch Wine (made from tree sap); not bad.

3. The Chilli Jam Company (www.thechillijamcompany.co.uk) - locally made hot sauce. I swear by their Fireball sauce. My girlfriend, being more sensitive about such things, would swear at it if she got a taste.

4. The Chocolate Alchemist (www.thechocolatealchemist.co.uk) - OK, so the cocoa beans have to come from outside England, but they process it themselves and their organic chocolate is excellent; especially recommended are their white chocolate and raspberry bars.

5. Deer View Products (www.deerviewproducts.co.uk) - jams and chutneys mainly. Their whisky marmalade and goosebery jam are excellent…and organic.

6. Stumpys Brewery (www.stumpysbrewery.com) - not to my taste, but definitely local and not the run of the mill beer.

7. Lurgashall Mill (www.wealddown.co.uk/shop.htm) - part of the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. I buy my wholemeal flour from them.

Not all of these sites, it should be mentioned, offer online transactions, but at least they offer a means by which these products can be purchased consistently.

The availability of local produce on the ‘Net reminds us of something important; the internet is not just about big, global things. It also can cater to very narrow, niche and local concerns. The modern era and modern technology are not necessarily going to crush small firms, rather, the forces of change may help even the playing field, and ensure that big companies don’t have it all their own way. It also means that this evening, I’m popping open a bottle of Nyetimber with the thought that I’m doing something the French would rather I didn’t. Now that’s worth smiling about.

It’s been a while since we had a good “I got fired because of my blog” story. As I recall, the last major one was back in 2004, involving a blogger called the “Washingtonienne”. For those who don’t remember that tale, the Washingtonienne was a congressional stafferette, who by her own account wasn’t all that interested in politics; rather, she came to DC to be anally violated by the government in an atypical way. Instead of having a routine colonoscopy performed by the IRS, she apparently dedicated herself to being rectally invaded by as many of her co-workers as possible, some of whom, unbelievably, paid her for the privilege. She was so vile that probably hard core skanks would object to their label being used to describe her, as it would give her an elevation in status. The only people who were on her side were desperate blokes who wanted to sleep with her, and leftie radicals who hoped she would embarass some Republicans (and who also wanted to sleep with her). To make a long, nauseating story short, her blog was discovered, she was fired, and apparently she wrote a book, the most useful copy of which is probably serving as a doorstop in a New Orleans bordello.

The latest blog fracas, in contrast, is much more tame. An Englishwoman living in Paris, going by the handle of “Petite Anglaise”, was just fired by her employer because apparently her blog “damaged the reputation” of the firm and they had “lost trust” in her.

I took a look at her blog when the server finally let me through; it’s quite personal, and she was obviously careful to make only vague references to where she worked. Mostly it’s a well written account of what it’s like to be a single English mother in Paris; there are some charming references which indicate she’s not gone completely native, for example, she refers to her French ex as “Mr. Frog” and her child as “Tadpole”. However, as it’s chicklit, I found the blog pretty tedious as a whole. This is not the stuff that episodes of “24″ are made of.

As for the matter at hand, it appears that the most insulting thing she said about her employer was that her boss was very “old school” and implied that he was an upper class twit.

Implying things is not my style, so I’ll say what I think of her employer directly: if you’re reading this, strike the upper class, you’re a twit. You are dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, my word, you are dumb. What on earth are you thinking? Were you thinking? You may as well write out a cheque and put “Our collective arses” on the amount line and hand it over to her.

Let me explain why I’m saying this: your firm is in France. Were you asleep when the students there rioted because the government suggested that maybe people under 26 can be fired with less than 2 years on the job? What makes you think you can sack this lady so easily?

The only way you might have had Petite Anglaise is on two charges, neither of which warrant dismissal. First, you could have nailed her on taking time off under false pretences; according to her blog, she apparently took half a day off citing nanny problems when she was actually out having fun. Second, you could have dragged her up by the ear for using work time to write on her blog. In fact, if you didn’t like her blog, you could have quietly taken her aside, disciplined her on both these counts, and told her to take it down. The affair would have ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

The fact that you didn’t show this much sense makes me wonder: are you totally blind as to what is going on with technology, and what usually happens with popular, sacked bloggers? Here’s a clue, since you haven’t got one: they usually turn the guns on their former employers, full force, and the employer is generally the one who looks bad. Whatever la Petite Anglaise said about your company is nothing compared to what is being said about your business now that she’s left the premises. It’s one thing for an accountancy firm to look heartless; that actually might be a positive if they handle companies in receivership. It’s quite another to look heartless and stupid.

Because you’ve sacked her, you lost all control of the situation. Random people like me have heard about it and think you’re a great lot of idiots. Firms connected to yours are probably wondering, if you handle something as routine as this so badly, what else are you doing wrong? “Dixon Wilson” is about to become a synonym for inane, foolish, antiquated and feckless. Articles about this affair are proliferating - a quick check on Google News this morning indicates there are some 109 articles on the subject. Overall, well done, you’ve committed Corporate Hara-Kiri, you dolts.

As for la Petite Anglaise herself, she’s now got her 15 minutes of fame. If she’s careful and not crass, she’ll be able to extend it. Better still, she’ll make money off of it, as indeed she will from the settlement she’s likely to receive. Perhaps she will continue to blog, write something other than a useful doorstop, and later (with a bit of luck, not too much later), she’ll be able to say that l’affaire de la Petite Anglaise ended for the best. For the sake of all of us bloggers, I hope so.

Let’s be honest. Ubuntu is a beautiful operating system, but whoever decided that brown was going to be its signature colour wasn’t playing with a full deck. Brown hasn’t been in vogue since the 1970’s, when apparently everyone’s senses were taken over by space aliens from the Planet Tacky.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to change it; first and foremost is getting rid of that awful background image, which could be entitled “Vat of Swirling Chocolate in Slough”. Download your image, put it somewhere safe (I generally keep a folder called wallpaper in my Home directory), right click anywhere on the desktop, browse to your image of choice, and voilà, that’s gone.

But Ubuntu Brown is more insidious than that; it makes an appearance in both the login screen (i.e., the screen that prompts you for your password) and the splash screen (the little widget that tells you that Nautilus and Update Manager are loading up).

I’m happy to report that changing the login screen is a snap. However, changing the splash screen was a bit more complex.

First and foremost, pick your login screen and splash screen. I used www.gnome-look.org to find ones that I liked. The login screens can be found under “GDM Themes”. The splash screens have their own link.

Login screens should be downloaded and saved as a tar.gz file. Look then under System > Administration > Login Screen Setup. You’ll see a button to allow you to add a theme. Browse to the relevant package and install it. You can also change the colour of the desktop using the eyedropper tool on this screen.

What to do with the splash screen is less straightforward. The image for the splash screen is held in /usr/share/pixmaps/splash, and there are two copies of the same image - ubuntu-splash.png and ubuntu-slick.png.

Before doing anything, I made two copies of the downloaded splash screen and put them on the Desktop. I renamed the copies ubuntu-splash.png and ubuntu-slick.png. I then went into Applications > Accessories > Terminal and typed:

cd /usr/share/pixmaps/splash

And then -

sudo mv ubuntu-splash.png ubuntu-splash-old.png

Which renamed the old splash screen rather than deleted it, in case I ever wanted it. I did the same to ubuntu-slick -

sudo mv ubuntu-slick.png ubuntu-slick-old.png

Then migrate back to the Desktop using cd - the directory is /home/yourname/Desktop. I then typed -

sudo mv *.png /usr/share/pixmaps/splash

I rebooted my machine to test if it had worked; it had. You may want to do the same, if only to enjoy the fact that the brown has disappeared.

Some studies have said that a person’s IQ drops over the summer; this is possibly due to the brain being less used during vacation times. Or it may be because the searing heat makes it difficult to think of anything else; in Britain, yesterday was the hottest July day in recorded history.

Given that everyone was apparently trying to find somewhere to hide from the heat (I found a group of people hiding in an air conditioned hardware store intently looking at a demonstration video for a mop), a little item on BBC News apparently escaped much notice late yesterday evening. The article is entitled, “Microsoft ‘opens to competition’”.

The article states that Microsoft has announced a set of 12 “principles” to which it intends to adhere from here on in. They have said they’re no longer going to punish manufacturers for supporting alternatives to Microsoft software, which theoretically means Dell could bundle OpenOffice with a Windows PC without fear of consequences. Also, they have promised more transparency for non-Microsoft developers to build Windows applications. Additionally, they’ve have said they will be “more energetic” in their support of interoperable standards.

If this is to be believed, Microsoft sounds like they’ve caved, big-time. It’s great publicity, but can the leopard change its spots?

I wonder. I don’t find it coincidental that Microsoft is announcing these “principles” at the same time that it stated it was going to continue to adhere to the 2002 antitrust settlement with the American government beyond its expiry in 2007. That 2002 agreement was hailed as a sea change in Microsoft’s behaviour, but since then nothing has fundamentally altered in the way they do business.

I also don’t find this announcement entirely unconnected with the European Union’s recent decision to levy a heavy fine on Microsoft for anti-competitive practices. Thus, there is a whiff of male bovine excrement about Microsoft’s announcement, tinged with the cheap perfume of spin and the underlying scent of decay. They’re in trouble and under pressure; they have to at least appear to be taking a more conciliatory line.

To quote Winston Churchill, this is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but it may be the end of the beginning. There is going to remain a distance between Microsoft’s rhetoric and reality, but given the scrutiny that Microsoft has faced in recent days, there has to be some actual movement to go along with the words.

This is a time for the Linux community to increase the pressure, not slacken it. Alternatives like Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Fedora need to continue to be promoted and developed. Let’s see how interoperable Office becomes with OpenOffice and if Microsoft falls behind, let’s demand that they keep their word. Also, Microsoft should be challenged particularly on Principle 5, namely, “Microsoft will not retaliate against any computer manufacturer that supports non-Microsoft software.”; let’s see if Dell or HP will start stocking computers with OpenOffice as standard without fear of consequences. Indeed, let’s see what happens to Dell or HP if they offer Linux-based PCs instead.

What Microsoft needs to realise is that the days of one dominant operating system are drawing to a close. A future of diversity awaits in which they are one choice out of many; adherence to open, interoperable standards will mean that this plethora of choice will not lead to chaos. The only question that remains for Microsoft is if they are going to embrace this future, or be dragged kicking and screaming towards it. With this announcement, at least their present screaming has lowered a few decibels.

One advantage of having a Windows PC at work, and believe me, I’ve been struggling to think of something, is that I can constantly remind myself how lucky I am to not be using it at home.

The only other benefit I can think is that I can also use my Windows PC to see what Microsoft is going to try to foist on the public next. Out of morbid curiosity, I’ve just tried out their latest version of Internet Explorer 7, Beta 3. When the project is complete, this is the browser that supposedly will put Microsoft back on the map after a lengthy period of stagnation.

I had problems getting out of the starting gate. Obviously, I went to Microsoft using Firefox in order to download it. However in order to get the file, one has to go through the whole Windows Genuine Advantage nightmare. First, I had to download the “WGAPlugin” tool, which when I double clicked on it to install, it didn’t work. Undeterred, I tried the second download for a “Genuine Check” programme. This worked, and I got a code which I then entered into the Microsoft site, and it finally let me through.

After downloading it, the install procedure of IE 7 then initiated yet another check that I was using a genuine version of Windows. I was wondering how many times the system was going to check that I was using the genuine article - I felt like shouting down the broadband pipe, “Hello, hello, yes, Microsoft, I’m using a valid copy of your junk OS!”

Once the install completed, I had to reboot; one of the things that is most frustrating about Internet Explorer (and as a Linux user this seems insane to me), is the dependency of the entire OS on this one piece of software. As it’s a Beta, I was taking a risk. Still, I rebooted, and fortunately I’ve seen no ill-effects so far.

Launching IE7 was relatively painless but irritating: Microsoft simply refuses to leave you alone. At first, I was redirected to a page where I was told I could modify a variety of settings, including changing my locale from the United Kingdom to the USA. As I am in the United Kingdom, changing this option was not at the forefront of my mind. When I began to browse, IE7 told me about what wonderful anti-phishing tools it was giving me as well. It occured to me that this was the most egotistical browser I’d ever encountered.

The good news for those who insist on using this software is that it does have some features which bring it into the modern era. Tabbed browsing is a feature of IE7. Hold your applause, as it is not entirely straightforward. IE7 tries to make things “simple” by using somewhat anonymous icons to communicate what each function does. Tabbed browing is an excellent example of how this be confusing. On Firefox, one invokes a new tab by simply going to File > New Tab. On IE7, there is this very indistinct motif -

To invoke a new tab, one has to click the grey button on the right of the active tab, in this case, the BBC News page. Yes, there is a message when you roll over it, but it was not particularly intuitive, and neither are any of the other controls on this browser.

As for speed, I did not see any particular performance advantage over Firefox. If anything, IE7 is a shade slower than a tweaked Firefox on Windows, and definitely slower than Firefox on Linux. That said, it is better than IE6, but then again, most things are.

There are some differences in the rendering of fonts. IE7 renders fonts more smoothly than its predecessor, which is somewhat easier on the eyes. Again, this does not indicate any particular advantage over Firefox.

Overall, IE7 is an improvement, not a revelation. It means that Microsoft is still in the browser business, but not leading the pack, and that’s only for Windows, since they don’t make their browser for Linux or Macintosh. It will be interesting to see what vulnerabilities will inevitably spring up in this browser; for the moment however, it’s moved Explorer out of the realms of being a bad joke to merely a questionable choice.

Apologies for the additional bit of shameless self-promotion, however, I’ve set up a download feature of my novel, “I, Palpatine” on this site, the Linux Extremist.

“I, Palpatine” tells the hitherto untold story of the origins of Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious from Star Wars - I attempt to answer the following questions:

1. What was his childhood like?

2. Where did he get his political skills?

3. Why did people on Naboo trust him so much?

4. How did he turn to the Dark Side?

5. Who was Darth Plagueis the Wise, his mentor?

If you wish to download the book, please click on the “I, Palpatine” link on the right hand side of this page and follow the instructions.

My girlfriend is a regular reader of my blog, in spite of it being so heavy on technology commentary it seems like a Hymnbook to Geekdom. Furthermore, she is not a technology boffin; to state what she does for a living as obscurely as possible, so no one can track her down, she trades a commodity for a living.

That said, I don’t think she feels particularly good about it. We were discussing one of my posts last night, and she said something that particularly caught my attention:

“You do something practical…I just gamble with other people’s money.”

I felt my heart sink a touch at those words. It’s not nice to feel that you don’t contribute to society through the work you do. She is also one of the very few people whose discomfort I don’t enjoy.

So dear, as you’ll likely be reading this, let me clarify something for you. What you do is immensely practical, and it is very important.

When we go into a store to buy anything, we forget that the price of what we buy is part of an enormously complex set of calculations. Take your 40 pence Mars bar, for example. A large part of its price is dependent upon the costs of the sugar, cocoa beans (assuming there are any in today’s Mars bar) and other ingredients in the bar. These commodities are traded by people like my girlfriend, who have to figure out what these commodities are worth, and how much for which they should be sold.

Important stuff. Much of it is taking a guess, an educated guess, mind you, but a guess nonetheless. If she was trading in cocoa beans (she isn’t), she’d have to guage what is going on in the market: is Cadbury’s going to at last do the right thing and actually put more cocoa in their chocolate or are they going to continue to put candle wax in their bars? If it’s the former, the cocoa bean supply will be tighter. If the latter, things will remain as they are. She has to consistently get this calculation right, and make profitable deals for both buyer and seller.

Yes, there is an element of gambling in what she does. But it also requires a skill which very few people possess - an insight into market movements. Traders are like herd animals, and it’s part of her job to guess which way the herd is moving, whether it is in orderly formation or in a stampede.

It is true a lot of people do this job in the City of London. Semi-educated wankers destroy economies and markets on a daily basis because they get it wrong. These are the sort of people I used to insult during my London days when they got smashed at my local pub and started playing air guitar.

In contrast, my girlfriend is one of the few who consistently gets it right. It is people like her that mean we have a more or less rational set of prices for what it is we buy and sell. It is people like her that keep the wheels of capitalism turning, whereas I’m just trying to throw a monkey wrench into the gears of the Microsoft machine.

She is changing jobs this year, and her new profession, which again has to do with her preferred commodity, will be just as important. However, she will no longer be working in trading; in some ways this is too bad, as it may increase the power of the semi-educated wanker air guitarists in the market. I suggest we’ll be just that bit poorer because of it.