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Miscellaneous Opinions

Entry 335, on 2006-05-25 at 14:36:23 (Rating 3, Comments)

This blog entry is one where I will offer a few opinions on miscellaneous topics. Sometimes there are just too many issues happening at one time to be able to concentrate on just one of them!

First, my old favourite, Telecom! A few days ago I commented on how much I enjoyed the spoof ad which ridiculed them. Not surprisingly, the movie has been removed from the youtube web site. Telecom will say this is because the spoof used video footage from the original ad, which is copyrighted. Of course, the embarrassment of being lampooned so effectively would have nothing to do with it! At least while they ignored the ad they could say they were above interfering with anything so trivial. Now they can't even claim that doubtful virtue!

Another issue which has been simmering away here for a few days is how much mountain climbers should do to save other climbers who are in trouble. This started when the party of a disabled New Zealand climber left a dying man behind near the top of Mount Everest. The first person to climb Everest was Ed Hillary, who is also a New Zealander, and he is horrified by the whole thing, saying that it would never have happened in his day. I suspect that's true. Somehow we now seem to value money and fame ahead of natural virtue.

On an entirely different topic, I have been reading some comments on the latest version of Microsoft's new operating system, Vista. It looks decidedly mediocre to me. The new features seem to be divided into two categories: first ideas which Mac OS X has already had for years, and second enhancements designed to plug the numerous security holes in the system. Why don't Microsoft do everyone a favour and just give up! They could license Mac OS X from Apple and finally have a decent operating system. And after that they can stop making that monstrosity Microsoft Office as well! They should just stick to the Xbox - at least that looks good compared with Sony's latest bumbling efforts!

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