So, what is the software that I hate the most? The list could be long, but some applications are internal to places where I worked and are unknown to the rest of the world. From the familiar to an average Internet user things I can mention: Picasa - I already wrote about my feelings toward this bastrad child of Google Windows Media Player - I think its interface is not … more »

At last, there is a downloadable beta of the Macromedia (now Adobe?) flash player 9 for Linux. For quite a long time release of the Linux version was lagging behind the Windows. Many popular web sites utilized features from the newer versions, and such sites were unusable on Linux. Download the new plugin from here . more »

Property-related indexes are falling on LSE, according to an article in Financial Times. Many analytics mention in their comments, that current property prices in the UK are "unrealistic". Maybe they have been talking about it for long enough to actually cause price drop in the end. more »

I have just installed AcdSee - and I can tell you it is way better than Google's Picasa. Starting with the simple thing - full screen viewing, and down to the proper interface and all the rest. Picasa looks like a quick hack compared to the slick and polished feeling, provided by AcdSee, and the functionality of the later is very good as well. It will take me some time … more »

I am testing Drupal 5 beta. A lot of useful modules have not been upgraded yet, but using this page I was able to upgrade manually a few of them, including Google Search, Quicktags, Pathfilter and a few others. more »

This is unbelivable! I have received 155 spam messages in one day! The world is going crazy. more »

Despite high prices and rising interest rates, recent figures from mortgage lenders show that the property market is acutally booming, writes BBC. I personally find it hard to explain, taking into account the fact, that the affordability levels are falling throughout the country, and especially in large towns, and the first time buyers often require parents' help to get on the so called property ladder. In London, according to many … more »

For years I wanted to run the personal finance manager Gnucash on Windows - in my opinion, it is way better than Microsoft Money or Quicken. Unfortunately, it was only available under Unix. But it seems that now, with the release of version 2 of the application, it is possible to compile it on Win32. So in a few months we might have a stable port of Gnucash for Windows. more »

It is quite strange - Google has robots.txt file, while both MSN and Yahoo! do not. It would be interesting to see, what other high profile sites have robots.txt and what do they put there. more »

An article on BBC , published in 2000, but still relevant today, shows, how automobile fuel is taxed in the United Kingdom. The current duty figures, somewhere between 70% and 80%, are among the highest in the world and can explain, why petrol is so expensive in the country, despite the fact that there are oil fields in the North sea. more »