The Prius of progress

One of the nice discoveries since buying a Toyota Prius last July is that my fuel bills have gone down dramatically (by over 40 per cent) at a time when petrol costs have been going up.

Now I discover (from the Daily Telegraph, no less) that I may have another pleasant surprise in store. The personal tax and NIC incurred in running my previous company car (a Saab) came to over £5,000 a year. The bill for the Prius looks like being closer to £1,600. There must be a catch here somewhere. The Telegraph also reveals that the late lamented John Peel was a Prius owner.

My colleague Dale (who drives a Prius) has a theory that there is a correlation between using Apple Macs and owning a Toyota hybrid. A better way of looking at it might be that the Prius is the iMac of the automobile world — tiny market share, but smug and satisfied owners!

Sparklines

Edward Tufte, who has written a series of lovely books about presenting graphical information (and an elegant pamphlet on The Congnitive Style of Powerpoint), has come up with another neat idea: sparklines — data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphic images. Like this (conveying information about glucose levels).

The New Yorker‘s view

Terrific long editorial outlining the case for voting Dubya out. Nice contrast with the tired cynicism of the Economist. Quote:

“The damage visited upon America, and upon America’s standing in the world, by the Bush Administration’s reckless mishandling of the public trust will not easily be undone. And for many voters the desire to see the damage arrested is reason enough to vote for John Kerry. But the challenger has more to offer than the fact that he is not George W. Bush. In every crucial area of concern to Americans (the economy, health care, the environment, Social Security, the judiciary, national security foreign policy, the war in Iraq, the fight against terrorism), Kerry offers a clear, corrective alternative to Bush’s curious blend of smugness, radicalism, and demagoguery. Pollsters like to ask voters which candidate they’d most like to have a beer with, and on that metric Bush always wins. We prefer to ask which candidate is better suited to the governance of our nation.”

UK government accepts that Open Source is now ‘viable’

As I noted last week. It’s been a long time coming, but better late than never. My Observer column on the Office of Government Commerce’s conversion is here. Audio version here.

And the impact of that bin Laden video…

… Er, precisely zilch, argues the New York Times. “In dozens of interviews on Friday and Saturday in five hotly contested states, … Supporters of Mr. Bush said the bin Laden tape had strengthened their resolve to vote Republican by reminding them of the grave threats still faced by the country, while Mr. Kerry’s supporters said the tape was yet another reminder that the Bush administration had failed to catch Mr. bin Laden. Even the undecided said the tape would not influence their decision.”

The Economist opts for incoherence

The Economist — which sells 450,000 copies a week in the US — has decided that, if it has to choose between ‘the incompetent and the incoherent’, it will plump for the latter. Vote for Kerry, in other words.

That bin Laden video

The old boy seems in good shape, judging from the video. Life in Pakistan is clearly more agreeable than lurking in Afghan caves.

What puzzles me is how the US electorate will react to the broadcast. Will voters see bin Laden’s effortless survival as a sign that Dubya’s ‘war’ on terror has been fruitless (and vote for Kerry)? Or will they conclude that it warrants sticking with the current regime? During the Republican Convention, Maureen Dowd made the interesting observation that bin Laden’s name was not mentioned once during the entire convention. He was, as it were, the ghost at the feast. Dowd concluded that this was deliberate — because his name might stimulate troubling thoughts. Hmmm…

How to make your Windows XP machine secure. Step One: take a month’s holiday

David Pogue of the New York Times is one of my favourite technology commentators. He’s written a wonderful step-by-step guide to help his Microsoft-using readers avoid the perils of XP Service Pack 2, the upgrade that is proving a nightmare for many. To see the full enormity of what’s involved, it’s worth quoting:

“Seven Steps to a Smooth Service Pack 2 Installation

The best way to avoid problems is to be slow and methodical BEFORE you install SP2. Proceed through this checklist with all the care of an archaeologist unearthing a skeleton.

Step 1: Check your hard drive for free space
You need at least 500 megabytes of free space, or SP2 won’t even install. (For the speediest installation, defragment your hard drive first, if you know what that means.)

Step 2: Remove spyware
Spyware (software that you don’t realize you have because it piggybacked on something else you downloaded, like Kazaa) can gum up the works of an SP2 installation. Scan your hard drive using a free program like Ad-Aware (www.lavasoftusa.com) or Spybot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org) to make sure your PC is free of these programs.

Step 3: Uninstall your virus and firewall programs

Installing Service Pack 2 on top of outdated utilities can produce two different unpleasant side effects. First, the new Security Center doesn’t recognize older versions of these programs. Second, your PC might not even be able to start up after the installation –which is, you have to admit, something of a drawback. (Later, after the installation, put your virus and firewall programs back — updated versions, if possible — one at a time.)

Step 4: Visit the Web page of your PC manufacturer
Search for information regarding SP2. It may turn out that your PC won’t work with Service Pack 2 unless you first update your BIOS (the built-in software that controls your keyboard, screen, disk drives, communications, and so on). In that case, you would find, at www.dell.com or www.gateway.com (for example), a BIOS updater program that you’re supposed to download and run.

Step 5: Back up your stuff.

If you can back up your entire hard drive, do so; but at the very least, make safety copies of your photos, email, music, documents, and so on. Think of it this way: Your PC is going in for brain surgery.

Step 6: Visit the Windows Update Web site
A preliminary visit to www.windowsupdate.com is an important prerequisite. This Web site will actually interactively inspect your PC to see what condition your copy of Windows is in. If you[base ‘]re missing pieces, they[base ‘]ll be filled in for you — an important step before the big Service Pack 2 installation.

Click the Express Install link to begin. After a moment of computation, you’ll see a list of updates that Microsoft thinks you need, under the heading High Priority Updates. Installing them now will ensure that, when Service Pack 2 comes along, your copy of Windows will be everything the installer expects.

Step 7: Log off everyone but yourself
In other words, if you have Fast User Switching turned on, make sure all the other accounts have been signed off. You should now be ready to install SP2 successfully, whether from the Windows Update Web page, a CD that you’ve ordered, or from the Automatic Updates dialog box that appears on your screen one day.

Finally, another tip, courtesy of author David Karp, my own personal Windows XP guru: If your PC is your life — or your job, at least — you may want to take one additional, advanced step: Install a SECOND copy of Windows XP. This arrangement, known by geeks as dual-booting, takes some technical expertise. But it means that you can install SP2 on the duplicate copy of Windows to test your most essential programs. That way, you’ll know about any potential crises before committing your ‘real’ copy of Windows to SP2.”

Got all that? Alternatively, you can turn your Windows box into an aquarium and buy a Macintosh.

HMG begins to see the light on Open Source

BBC Online is reporting that “UK government departments moved a step closer to using open-source operating systems such as Linux after a study found that they were ‘viable’ products. The software could ‘generate significant savings’, according to the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

The OGC summary of the report says:

* Open Source Software is now a viable Desktop alternative for the majority of government users
* Interoperability is not now a major issue
* Open Source Software can generate significant savings, particularly in conjunction with Server consolidation and by delaying hardware replacement
* Potential ‘green’ benefits through the prolonging of hardware life, with less resources consumed in producing new hardware and less waste/disposal/landfill of old machines
* Decisions should be based on a holistic assessment of future needs, taking into account total cost of ownership, with proper consideration of both proprietary and open source solutions

OGC Chief Executive, John Oughton, said that the pilot studies underpinning the findings “have provided us with valuable evidence on Open Source Software. They show it could support government bodies by offering efficient and cost-effective IT solutions. Effective use of IT is a crucial element in the Government’s modernisation agenda. This Report will assist public sector bodies in making informed, value-for-money judgements when deciding upon which solution best suits their needs.”

Why not movies on the iPod? (Hint: Steve Jobs’s other job)

When launching the new photo-displaying iPod, Steve Jobs went to great pains to ridicule the idea of movies on iPod. This didn’t impress Russell Beattie, who thinks it may have something to with the fact that he runs a movie studio:

“Jobs had no problem promoting ‘ripping’ when he was ripping the Music Industry, did he? But ‘ripping’ a Pixar movie and suddenly Steve is talking about how video isn’t the right direction suddenly. Okay, sure. See you next year when the iPod Video is announced… it’ll be fun to hear the explanations then about how the ‘market is ready’ for the product, etc.”