Monthly Archives: May 2004

They’re Not All Like Her

Despite what I said about gay marriage earlier in the week, Spiked Online reports that the protests were fewer than expected,

This was not quite the scene that opponents of gay marriage had either anticipated or hoped for. Yes, a few bedraggled protesters held banners outside the City Hall in Boston – but their numbers were few and their message was all but ignored by the gathered national and international press corps

[source]

Perhaps my open letter was not really needed.

On this day…

No other posts on this day.

What’s Happening on Channel Four?

In 2003, Kate won Big Brother 3. I started the summer with little interest and then, gradually, watched more and more of it. Last year, I seemed very aware of Big Brother 4 from the beginning. Then I grew to support Fed despite the bad press and gradually you get sucked in.

next week is a big night for channel 4So, this time next week – in a clever bit of scheduling – we will see the last episode of Friends and then watch as the new contestants enter the new house for Big Brother 5. Perhaps I will try and avoid it again this year. Still, it means interest in Dermot O’Leary will pick up again and that tends to go hand in hand with the beginning of summer. It’s a good time of year!

Channel Four will have a big night next week but C4’s boss Mark Thompson won’t be celebrating with them as he’s just jumped ship back to the BBC.

On this day…

2003: Gone Fishing

Thursday In Milan

view of france from the planeFlying into Milan yesterday I watched as the plane flew over the channel and across the French borders. I have never noticed how beautiful the French countryside is from above, a big patchwork of browns and greens stretching before you. It was a lovely clear sky and thus I could see for miles. It really was a beautiful site.

milan hotel barArriving in Milan and a 40 minute train ride into the centre of town I made my way to the Windsor Hotel – which was very nice and, despite its name, not very British. I spent most of the evening in the bar with one of the sales guys from our Italian office. Usually, these trips are pretty lonely as I arrive late and am holed up in a hotel room until it’s time to get up and make a meeting, taxi or office. This was nice but I still managed to get to bed at a decent time last night to make this morning’s meeting.

On this day…

No other posts on this day.

Open Letter To The Woman in Massachusetts

Yesterday, I was in a my hotel room watching BBC World news. I generally have it on in the background when I am alone in hotels; mainly for the company rather than the fact that I am interested in the repetitive cycles of 24-hour news programming.

I looked up from what I was reading when pictures of the first legal US gay weddings in Massachusetts came on. Obviously, this is a topic that I have a personal interest in. My congratulations go out to all who legally wed over the past few days. While I understand that not every gay couple wants to marry I strongly believe in the equality that this decision represents and the dignity it affords all people in the state.

Of course any balanced media coverage had to include those who objected. There were scenes of people praying and some placards but nothing looked like it had turned into mass rioting and I took that to be an encouraging sign. However, the was one female opponent to the legalisation of gay marriage who did frustrate me – perhaps irrationally – more than the others. Her comments to camera went along the lines of. ‘They want to destroy traditional values’.

Despite the whole ridiculousness and stupidity of that comment and the fact that it doesn’t even make sense it angered me more than anything else I heard.

Dear Madam

I saw your comments last night on the television news and how you feel that, through the legalisation of gay marriage, ‘they’ (who I take you mean to be homosexuals in Massachusetts) are trying to destroy traditional values.

I wanted to ask you about your traditional values but you were a vox pop on the international news and I will never get the chance. So I choose to write my thoughts here. Perhaps one day you will read them and think.

A tradition is usually something that has been around for a long time. It has roots and a history. Culturally, traditions are often important and significant but they have not always existed nor have they always been as they are. Traditions develop with human life on earth. They are of their time. Your implication is that traditions are good and anything that changes (or – in your eyes – erodes them) is bad. But, forgive me for my rudeness, this is pure crap.

For centuries we burned people we considered witches. That tradition is gone. Should we be fighting to keep it? There was a tradition of denying women the vote, or perhaps I should say that traditionally men voted while women stayed at home. I don’t hear you shouting for that tradition. Can I say there was a tradition of slavery? Perhaps not, but certainly – at one time – reasonable, decent people of the age thought it was acceptable. Quite rightly we deny that tradition now.

But regardless of my flippancy here, your comments angered me for they tried to dress your bigotry up. You tried to hide it by using an argument that says because it has always been one way that is the way it should stay. If I was from your country I may attempt to rationalise this for you by saying you were outside your ‘comfort zone’ and that’s why you react as you do. Fortunately I am not and thus, from a distance of an ocean away, I can see your intolerance for what it is.

So, let me set the record straight. Nobody is trying to destroy tractional values for there really is no such thing. Massachusetts has seen that so-called traditions that uphold prejudice, intolerance and preach inequality must, like witch burning, slavery and dancing around a may-pole, be consigned to a part of human history where peoples of the future can look back and laugh at us.

I wasn’t angered by the prejudice of the religious zealots who were featured in the news. While I believe them to be ill-informed and not speaking for any deity I perceive, I do understand the roots of their opposition. I am angered by your hiding behind reasoning that because something has always been it should always be so. Traditions are often no more than superstition justified by repetition over extended periods of time. So, please, accept the fact that your opposition is rooted in fear (I did want to say prejudice but I hope that your prejudice is caused by fear) and embrace the inclusive new traditions of your state.

One of the facets of a cavilled society is that it strives to be better for all its people. At this moment in history Massachusetts seems to be at the forefront of those striving to improve upon what we have. Perhaps, in the north eastern corner of the US, we are seeing one of the most civilised places on earth emerging. That is a cause for celebration.

You don’t realise how lucky you are to be living in such a place.

Jon

On this day…

2004: Note to Self: Iberia
2004: Been There?

Note to Self: Iberia

It’s worth pointing out that if you are travelling from London’s Heathrow airport to Spain using Iberia and travelling Economy that they are now charging for in-flight food and drink. I guess the range is better than you would have previously received but it comes as something of a shock when you are used to receiving an in-flight snack for free. Since I started traveling for business the quantity of food (and in some cases the quality) has decreased considerably. Nonetheless, paying for it on a national airline was something I had not expected. Remember to take enough cash.

On this day…

2004: Open Letter To The Woman in Massachusetts
2004: Been There?

Been There?

The strangest thing about Madrid was my unwavering belief that I have never been there before. I arrived and spent a day with one of our customers. Apart from the rather long lunch break that was taken quite late in the day, the visit was like many visits to our customers: useful, interesting but I may as well have been in an office block in central London. The travelling just means I have less time to do what I needed. While I was waiting at the airport for my return flight I decided to go to the cafe bar and get myself a drink. As I walked took my tray from the pile of slightly damp cafeteria-style trays I had the strangest feeling of deja-vu. As I took my 330ml of French beer to the a table I began to realise that I had sat at this cafe before. Eventually, after searching my diary (thank goodness for the wonders of Palm) I discovered that I had travelled through Milan on my way back from Spain in Christmas 2002. Funny the tricks memory plays.

On this day…

2004: Open Letter To The Woman in Massachusetts
2004: Note to Self: Iberia

Free Software?

I am sat in Madrid thinking a little bit about my last post about Movable Type. Yes, I am on another business trip. This time the hotel is close to the airport and was a quick taxi ride away. I should be asleep in thirty minutes but I have been thinking about software that is, apparently, free.

As I noted earlier, I don’t have much problem with the concept of Movable Type morphing into a proper paid for, licensed, piece of software. They say it will not be crippleware and that trust will very much be part of it. Six Apart allow you to determine how many ‘blogs’ make your site (it’s not a hard-coded limit) and allows you to determine how many users really are active in using the software. There is a great deal of trust there which I am not sure is sustainable. Nonetheless, I think this is a good approach.

When I look around I look at what else I use regularly (and I will stick with personal software rather than work-based software). My version of Windows XP at home was pre-installed a properly licensed. I use HomeSite if I ever need an HTML editor. It’s a fully paid-for. Paint Shop Pro is my image editor. It was a full free version which they chose to give away on some magazine cover or other so it is, therefore, properly licensed despite being unpaid for. I tend to use Windows Media Player (which is free) but I have paid for Real Player Plus to get some of the additional features.

So far so good. I’ve noted before that I have licensed Opera as a browser even though I do not use it a great deal. But the most-used piece of Software on my machine is Mozilla. I use it for web-browsing and for mail. It handles all my mail accounts. I think it’s superb. I have never contributed to it since the very beginning when I acquired a licensed version of Netscape 0.9/1.0 (and even then the company I worked for bought it for me). I can’t write code so I can’t contribute in that way so I really ought to pay something for it. I think it’s only right. As with Movable Type there are people who work for the company that makes it. If I want them to be around I should support them.

And that’s why today I will make a donation to Mozilla.

On this day…

2004: Sticking With Movable Type

Sticking With Movable Type

So Six Apart have finally announced Movable Type 3. I have to confess that, from what I have read, I will be disappointed. It doesn’t appear to be loaded with a great deal of new features which is sad. I hope this is the foundation for some new development. To be honest, if there was some way of handling photo galleries from within the tool then I think I would be very happy. I will, however, not pass further judgment on it until I have installed it and I am going to wait until it is released properly (rather than the developer’s edition) before I install. In that way I hope some of the plug-ins that I would like to install will have been tested and then I can upgrade and add functionality all at once.

The views of other users also saddens me. There has been a long history of collaboration online. I remember when I first joined the connected world having some basic legal questions answered via Usenet. How great it seemed back then. In the end, of course, nobody was going to dish out free legal advice forever and proper paid-for advice will always have a place. In the end, good things will – in the main – be worth paying for.

I believe the good folks of Six Apart deserve some recognition for the work they have put into building a publishing tool that’s as easy to use as Movable Type. It was never Open Source software. It’s always been the work of Ben and Mena (and now Six Apart). I find it sad that the large number of negative comments does not reflect the fact that continued development of such a fantastic tool requires a full-time commitment from people and, somehow, these people have to be paid for. Even Mozilla has a staff!

I honestly believe that we can be sad at the lack of additional, out-of-the-box functionality but we should not be sad that Six Apart is turning into a business that needs finances to support it. Of course, our expectations as users will now change too. Six Apart are really going to have to show that this is a professional product backed up by proper support. Once, user’s would forgive the lack of customer service (we weren’t paying anything) but no longer. And in my experience it is the mishandling of customer service/support that always lets people down.

Movable Type must continue to lead and if it is to keep my trust. I will pay for this version and I hope my commitment to the product is rewarded. If, in the future, Movable Type does not live up to user’s expectations (brought on by the way it was streets ahead of other systems at first) then the company suffer. Yes, as Jason Kottke notes, the pricing structure is wrong at the moment – but that’s no reason to leave. Yes, there are alternatives which really are free (as Mark Pilgrim notes and goes on to prove by – apparently – switching seamlessly) but for now I am sticking with Movable Type because they haven’t let me down. They’ve shown that they have addressed the need to turn it into a product that needs people to develop and support.

But please, sort out the pricing structure.

On this day…

2004: Free Software?

Odd Thoughts

The oddest things come into your mind while traveling. While I was sat on the plane earlier in the week I started to think about humour. I have no idea why. But I wondered what the reactions were like to the first joke? What was the first joke?

I can understand how language developed. As we evolved we need to find ways to communicate (where is the food or what dangers are there out there?) But how did the first joke happen (and by that I mean the first gag rather than the first thing somebody did that brought on laughter). How did those who heard that first joke know to laugh? What were the cues?

I’ve no idea why it came to me but now it’s fascinating me.

On this day…

2004: Euro Winners