Status-Q

CNET is starting a series of articles on Microsoft's plans for world domination via Windows XP.

Having moved quite frequently between several different machines over the last few months, I thought I might offer some advice on how to do things on different operating systems:

Windows

• You can probably do it in several ways
• None of them will be particularly intuitive
• Some of the ways will cost you lots of money
• If it doesn't work, getting support will cost you even more money
• At least there are an awful lot of other people who can sympathise.

Linux

• You can do anything
• It won't cost you anything
• It will be exceedingly reliable
• It will probably be horribly complicated
• If you can't do something, just modify the source, update your compiler, find and install a few extra packages, and recompile the kernel
• Well done! Go to a party and see if you can find anyone who appreciates how clever you've been.

Mac OS X

• Things on the Mac fall broadly into one of two categories:
• Things that have been done right
• Things that haven't been done yet
• You can therefore do it easily or not at all
• If you can't do it, just relax and go to Starbucks instead
• It probably wasn't that important after all, man.

Bob Metcalfe's law states that the overall usefulness of a network is proportional to the square of the number of people connected to it (because each of the N users can make N-1 connections). I was thinking of this while listening to a radio programme this morning about the

global dominance of English as a language.

A similar multiplying effect must occur with databases on the net. The more data a particular database contains, the more people will use and add to it. The marvellous Internet Movie Database was an early example.

Now, I wonder if this one will ever really get going....

OK, I guess I'm just a bit slow, but I've suddenly discovered an area of computing that I'd never come across and which had never occurred to me before... Did you know that, as well as a Flight Simulator, Microsoft also sell a Train Simulator? And that Hornby not only sell model railways, but virtual ones as well? Wow, there's a whole page full of similar software here!

Any serious anorak-wearers will be wondering, no doubt, which planet I've been on for the last few years, but somehow I had managed to miss these. They seem a bit sad and yet rather fun at the same time. Good Christmas presents, I guess, for the right person, and think of all that attic space you could save....

I was sad when the U.S wireless network Ricochet was shut down a few months ago. It offered quite a good service to the insufficient number of people who subscribed. Still, if you're in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, wondering where it all went wrong and why you bothered, then you can't get a much better finale to raise your spirits than this story.

Follow-up to the Fidelity Investments story: If you're wondering what this XML thing is and why a company should want to spend many millions of dollars using it, you might want to read The Importance of XML. Feedback welcomed.

Lauren Sandler - "This rain is proof that there is no God".

These are tough times for any religion to justify itself. My upbringing tells me that it is only the belief in heaven, in the fact that this life is just a temporary waiting room for better things to come, that can provide any real comfort for those involved.

Still, can we pick and choose like that? There have been a large number of church services over the last few days, and many sermons preached. I haven't heard much reference to loving your enemies, praying for those who persecute you, and especially not turning the other cheek.

There's nothing I can really say that hasn't been said about yesterday, the most infamously historic day of my lifetime. 'Infamous' is an appalling description. There aren't even any suitable adjectives left. But I love the defiance of this amazing photo from the NY Daily News.

Nicholas Petreley always writes pretty good stuff, and his recent articles about the dangers of .NET (part1, part2) are particularly good. He's started a web site at www.varlinux.org which should be worth watching for anyone interested in Linux.

Remember how hands-free kits for mobile phones were meant to reduce the radiation going into your brain, but were then discovered to be just as dangerous as holding the phone to your ear, if not more so?

Drs James Luck and Ata Khalid have come up with a solution which is definitely from the "Now why didn't I think of that?" department. For some reason I have more admiration for inventions which are rather obvious, but which nobody else considered. They show greater lateral thinking on the part of the inventors. Perhaps I find Edison's famous statement about genius being 1% inpiration and 99% perspiration a little depressing, so I feel cheerier when an invention appears which helps to redress the balance!