The weekly Round-Up: 18.06.04

In a week when a sweaty, balding Algerian man managed to take the English from heady ecstasy and plunge them into ennui in just three minutes it becomes apparent that a little perspective goes a long way.

It's just a shame that sentiment was lost on one of Microsoft's executives recently.

The software giant came to London with its 'Get the Facts' roadshow to highlight the evils, sorry, business risks of open source software.

A kind of political battle bus if you will. All aboard!

Driving the bus and honking its horn as if his life depended on it was Microsoft's head of platform strategy Nick McGrath.

McGrath said the 'Get the Facts' campaign was a "reality check" aimed at exposing the "myths" surrounding Linux.

He added: "Room for one more on top! Oops, mind the gaping hole in the floor - we'll patch that later." (He didn't actually say that bit).

McGrath said Microsoft is trying to convince the UK technology scene that its software is at least as cheap and secure as open source rival Linux.

"Barp! Barp!"

(For more on the show, see here).

This is all very well but what's got a lot of people hot and bothered is the language the software giant is using to label open source advocates.

One Microsoft exec described the anti-Redmond sentiment expressed by many Linux fans as a "jihad".

Novell technical director Steve Gaines was less than impressed.

He told silicon.com: "There's a huge amount of passion around open source... It's far more positive; it's 'let's create alternatives' not 'let's trash something someone else has done'."

silicon.com reader Jeanette Rosalyn from San Diego and a committed Microsoft user agrees with Gaines.

She wrote: "I may not use Linux now, and may never in the future, but I am finding it more and more difficult to support Microsoft when I see the kinds of actions they have taken against a group of people who are trying to provide some much needed competition in the OS industry."

Ajaz Poswall in Southampton stated: "I've never been really been anti-Microsoft but [with] this recent stunt I totally understand why people are starting to turn against them."

silicon.com reader Baris from Turkey thinks the company needs to seriously rethink the messages it's sending to market.

"Using such words will not give Microsoft a good fortune... it is ridiculous. They must change their image makers," he wrote.

Indeed, silicon.com's take on the row is here.

Meanwhile, it falls to silicon.com reader Wesley Parish to point out the saddest part of all - the continued pejorative use of the word "jihad" simply as "holy war".

Wesley points out that the true definition of jihad has little in common with its current widespread use in the media.

"Firstly, have they ever looked up the word 'jihad' in any decent Arabic dictionary or glossary? I have, and it tells me that the root meaning is - paraphrased – 'a concentrated and persistent effort to achieve a goal considered worthwhile'.

"As such it is a compliment. But in this day and age of 'soundbites' and 'eyecandy', they obviously don't intend to compliment Linux users do they?"

Bravo Wesley! Time for a little perspective, one thinks...

Speaking of perspective, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is not an organisation that's easily slighted.

Take its softly, softly approach to dealing with the illegal downloads issue if proof were required.

The RIAA this week warned that digital radio is the latest serious threat to the bulging coffers of record companies, sorry, impoverished artists (see here).

Digital radio broadcasts that bring CD-quality sound to the airwaves could lead to unfettered song copying if protections are not put in place, it claims.

Without copy protections, music fans could cherry-pick songs off the air and redistribute them over the internet, further deepening the copyright woes of record labels.

Customer choice? What a concept.

RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol growled in a conference call: "A little bit of prudence right now goes a long way."

Fine words indeed from a man who's organisation has sued much of the US population, including 12-year-old girls, dear-old silver-surfer grannies and, worst of all, Mac users - the monsters!

Digital music has been dominating the headlines for much of the week.

NTL and Napster were making googly eyes at each other this week as they announced a deal that will see the online music pioneer bundle its service with the broadband company's fat pipe subscriptions (see here).

However, if the two companies were trying to steal a march on Apple it may be a case of too little too late because Tuesday saw Steve Jobs bring the iTunes Music Store to town.

In a week that has seen a lot of anti-European sentiment Apple launched the popular service in France, Germany and the UK with a fanfare (see here).

Apple claims to have around 70 per cent of market share of the legal download market and has sold around 85 million songs since it launched the service just over a year ago.

The company proved that legal music downloads could work. In fact, a panel of silicon.com experts were so impressed with the success of the iTunes Music Store they went and named Steve Jobs the Agenda Setter of 2003 (see here).

Pop starlet Alicia Keys appeared on stage with Jobs at the launch to warble a few songs and made the rather nice gesture of singing a tune by the late soul legend Ray Charles which featured the lyrics "Night time is the right time..."

Then she completely ruined the moment by adding "...to listen to iTunes" at the end.

Class, Alicia, class... (whoever you are.)

Last week, silicon.com published a picture of the Round-Up on top of Ben Nevis, ending years of feverish speculation (sort of) as to its true identity.

(If you missed it, you can check out the Round-Up in all its rugged glory here although if you chose not to click you probably won't get the next bit at all.)

Many thanks to the legions of readers who took the time to send in comments. The Round-Up would like to take this opportunity to reply to a few of the choice ones.

"Isn't that a frame from a Star Wars film?" asks Chris Ireland.

If only, Chris, but any resemblance between the Round-Up and Des Webb, who played the irritable Hoth ice creature in the Empire Strikes Back, is purely coincidental.

Rick Kline from Dundee babbled: "News Flash: Round up team goes to the pub, meets Scots deer stalker the hard way... More inside"

Eh? (Nutter!)

Conspiracy theorist Alexander Simpkin narrowed his eyes and wrote: "Ben Nevis? Or Film Studio!?"

Ben Nevis, Alex.

And as to the vast host of other readers who said "Yeti!", we'll have you know the only abominable things about the Round-Up is the foot odour and propensity for bad puns.

The Round-Up was pictured on the snow-covered peak during its Three Peaks climb - scaling the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales in a weekend. Phew.

Team Round-Up and Co have now raised more than £8,000 for UK homeless charity Shelter in the process - and a big thank you to everybody who sponsored us.

Speaking of worthy causes we're approaching that time of year again when some of the leading figures in UK technology will be spending a night sleeping rough on the streets in aid of charity.

The annual Byte Night event takes place on 17 September with all proceeds going to children's charity NCH.

To learn more about Byte Night and read a few experiences from IT chiefs who roughed it for the night (and learn how you can get involved) click here.

"Come on! Come on! Oh God, you donkey!"

If such a call was heard in your office this week it could be one of two things.

One – a colleague watching a video replay of Emile Heskey's performance in last Sunday's match.

Two – your colleague was waiting for his or her prehistoric PC to complete its boot cycle and was simply venting spleen.

If the answer was the first one, then all hail Rooney and Vassell for restoring faith in English centre forwards against the underhand tactics of the Swiss last night (Greg Louganis would have been proud of some of those dives).

If the answer was the second then your embattled colleague could win a prize (see here).

IT equipment supplier Kinitron is searching for the oldest personal computer still being used by a London business.

In order to qualify, the PC must be based on an Intel processor and still be performing a 'regular business function' within the M25.

And finally this week, there may be a fine line between eccentricity and plain daft but, oh Lordy, don't the Brits know how to tread it?

Virgin boss Richard Branson has broken the record for driving across the Channel in a car (see: here).

Looking 007-esque in dinner jacket and bow-tie, the man behind Virgin Mobile, Virgin.net and the whole darn Virgin empire frankly, 'drove' into Dover harbour in his Gibbs Aquada amphibious car.

Those still smarting from Sunday's footballing disaster in Euro 2004 (Why, David? Why?) may take some solace from hearing the record was previously held by two Frenchmen.

OK, so the technology angle of the story may be tenuous but by God doesn't it make you proud to be British? No? Ah, c'est la vie...

Until next week, the Round-Up is off to attach an unfeasible number of St George's Cross flags to its car. And still on the subject, congratulations to silicon.com competition winner David Irvine who will going out to watch England v Croatia on Monday night. Well done David, give them a cheer for us.

Still here? Well have some headlines then:

Devil's Advocate: The problem with chip-and-PIN

Perot contests email archive trawl in £2m defamation case

Denial-of-service attack causes web blackout

Teen eBay scammer jailed for nearly three years

iTunes finally arrives in the UK

Euro 2004: Watch footie on your desktop