This might not be an immediate big deal for most of you. In fact, statistically speaking it probably isn't. That is probably because most people reading this blog are using a recent version Microsoft Windows and have never really thought about using anything else. You may have thought about using an Apple, but have you ever considered using GNU/Linux?

Probably not.

Lots of people have though, and lots of people do. In the main, they are fairly thoughtful, clever people who have strong views on monopolies, freedom and being able to communicate their ideas without the fetters and chains of commercially imposed limits. They are people who pay their TV licence fees (grumblingly) and actually pay attention to what is happening around them, from the political arena to the technological.

They support open source software, because they can look at exactly what is going to go onto their computer and they know what it does. They rarely, if ever have spyware, viruses or any of the other internet nasties which get so many other computer users. They have a lot in common with Apple users, if for slightly different reasons.

I recently posted the following in a web forum which was questioning whether the picture "Klara and Edda Belly Dancing" was art or not. What follows is my view. I'm reposting it because I would like to see whether any of the readers out there feel any differently. Feel free to leave comments.

There are quite a few ways of looking at this, not all of them palatable to everyone, but all of them having some merit. To figure it out though, we need to ask ourselves a few questions, which can be surprisingly basic while still holding some sophisticated answers.
Lets get the obvious one out of the way first. Is it child porn?
At the very top of wikipedia's definition of child pornography is this paragraph:

I have to say I'm disappointed.

The government today replied to a petition which had been posted posted at petitions.pm.gov.uk regarding bank penalty charges and asking for legislation which outlawed unfair charges for unauthorised overdrafts.

Basically the reply to the petition was to say that 'the law is unclear' and that the government would be relying on the OFT's investigation.

I find this remarkable. The Labour Party has found it possible to install all manner of insane legislation in favour of one thing or the other, but doesn't seem to realise that as the government in power they have the power to create legislation dealing with issues raised by its constituents.

I was watching the 6 o'clock news tonight and Look North came on at 25 past, as it is wont to do.

Now I tend not to watch TV news much at the best of times, quite a lot of journalism in this country has unfortunately denigrated itself to the point where it as relevant to real news as an old dead gin whore is relevant to the image of todays London. Look North is no better than many of the shows these days but probably - except for stories similar to the ones I will talk about below - no worse either.

However, since I was busily feeding a four month old baby at the time and had no hands free, I had to sit through it and to no surprise whatsoever, one of Look North's patented sickly sweet emotional appeals appeared on the show.

See above. What in the hell is Russia doing?

First they get grumpy about gas exports and cutting entire countries off, then we have them deciding to resume long range bomber patrols (heading towards the UK at least one time and probably more), then we have the mysterious case of a journalist who was a fierce critic of Putin and his politics, resurfacing a year later.

What are they? Perhaps more importantly, why are they doing it? Is someone threatening them? Is Putin flexing his muscles for a reason? What do they want?

So far all I've seen is Russia rattling sabers, but why are they doing it? The last thing we need at the moment is the beginning of another cold war.

Maybe they have managed to come up with some technological breakthrough which they believe will give them a massive advantage? Maybe they have realised that for the most part, unless the USA has another space shuttle up its sleeve (and I don't think they do) the one they have is the last one and if something should happen to it, the USA will be dependent on Russia for transporting people into and out of space.

Interesting, but difficult and ever so slightly scary.

Convicted rapist at Labour event - A businessman with a rape conviction attended a fundraising event for the Labour Party, the BBC reveals. [BBC Politics]

Ok....so a convicted rapist attended a political event.

Whats the problem here? It happened in 1996 for gods sake. Presumably since the man is wandering around free, he has completed any punishment the courts set down for him.

If you don't feel that the punishment set down for him was enough or appropriate, then thats something YOU need to deal with. I would suggest lobbying your local MP for some serious justice and penalty reform.

I am in no way condoning what this man has done, to rape any man or woman is unforgivable. I am not suggesting he be forgiven and have no doubts about it, he won't be. That offence will be on his record forever, like a port wine stain on his face.

Ok, I talked a little bit about this in my post yesterday, but since then I've been doing a little bit of research on the subject and I have to say I'm getting very excited.

The device is a mobile phone called Neo1973.

Why would I be so excited about a mobile phone? That's a good question, considering that there are now far more models of a mobile phone than I am aware of. It is an especially good question when you consider it in context of the fact that I am writing this post on a mobile phone called an HTC Universal, which I love, insofar as I can possibly love an object.

The reason I am so excited about this Neo1973 is because of the system it runs, called OpenMoko.

Ok, I've been fairly quiet on here recently for all sorts of reasons, a major one being the fact that my wife gave birth to my second son, a healthy baby boy. However, I have never seen so much, of so many different colours come from so many different directions as I have from this child.

The reason for this post is something which has only just become available today. Its something I believe in to the core of my heart, even more than being a Jedi.

The reason I say that (the Jedi thing) is in a census the Australian government carried out a few years ago, a circular email came round telling people that if enough people said they were Jedi Knights in the 'Religion' section of the census, the government would have to recognise it as a religion. I don't know whether its now a recognised religion, but the idea tickled me and since then, whenever a form has asked my religion I've put down 'Jedi Knight'. My way of saying 'None of your business' I guess.

Anyway, the reason for this post is a device called the Open Moko, which stands for Open Mobile Kommunication. I know there should be a C in there, but it wouldn't have the ring if it did.

Last Friday something fairly momentous happened. You probably didn't really notice it to be honest, not many people did. The BBC news team noticed it, but to be honest, none of the other people who really should have been taking notice of this sort of thing really caught it.

What happened was that the fine, upstanding bunch of scoundrels and liars otherwise known as British Members of Parliament, voted to exclude themselves from the reaches of the Freedom of Information Act.

Yes, you heard that correctly. British MPs are trying to pass a bill which will exclude them from certain applications of the Freedom of Information Act.

Now their reasoning for this despicable outrage against ethics and their constituents is that they don't want confidential correspondence between them and councils to be made public.

This is notwithstanding the fact that legislation already exists to protect such correspondence, in the form of the Data Protection Act.

Ok, its been widely reported that Lloyds TSB won a case about their penalty charges yesterday. If you haven't read it, the story is here on the BBC

The important thing to remember here is that this case has no bearing on most of the cases you guys will be raising - providing you follow the guides.

The person who instigated this case didn't follow any of the guides you can find on the internet which help you claim your penalty charges back. Thats the first point. He made it up as he went along, he used the wrong terminology (illegal rather than unlawful, which is a fine distinction, but a distinction at law nonetheless) and there were some strange circumstances taking place which made sure the case got to court.

As some of you probably know, most of these cases make it to within a day or two of the court date and are settled in full.