Good news, bad news...

Good news...despite the scary severe weather warnings, I woke to find barely a centimetre of snow had fallen overnight. That said, it's still snowing, if only lightly, so I guess it could get worse through the day.

Bad news...I was supposed to be at a big meeting in our other office today, but this has been cancelled due to the snow. The meeting is to be rescheduled for May: what do you want to bet they'll pick Asylum week so I can't go? (To the meeting, not Asylum; nothing is keeping me from the con!)

Good news...having given me a delivery date of 23rd Feb, Dell's order status system now says my order is "preparing for delivery". Does that take two weeks? Or can I expect my snazzy new PC even sooner? (Either way, it's still good news. What? I'm a nerd and proud of it.)

Two good, one bad. That's a good score :-)

Can anyone recommend a good (free or cheap) WYSIWYG web editor (for Windows)? I am determined not to let MS Office near my new PC but Front Page is the one thing I don't have an alternative for. I use AceHTML for raw coding but its WYSIWYG is pretty clunky.

ETA: I just realised, I don't have a name for my new computer!

Names are terribly important. I mean, I try not to anthropomorphise machines but look at my track record:

• My first PC was a second-hand machine. I called it HAL. It would never, ever do what I wanted without much wheedling.


• My second PC was named by someone else: London. It got the plague and died.


• My iMac was called Methos. It was great (and still works, if only for the occasional game) but wasn't as useful as I hoped. He got irritated with me too easily.


• My current PC is named Xena: I hoped that would be a better omen. She has served me heroically for many years but has ceased to kick ass.


• My last laptop I named JohnWinchester. The damned thing died on me right when I needed it most.

I need a really super-butt-kicking-badass name for the new one.

Latest BBC row

Carol Thatcher was fired by the BBC for a comment she made in the "green room": referring to a tennis player as a "golliwog".

There's a lot of debate in the media about whether the BBC overreacted. According to Jay Hunt, the BBC controller she was fired because her comment offended another person in the room and she flatly refused to apologise.

It sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? This is the exact point that is made over and over whenever the race issue explodes in fandom. It doesn't matter if she was only kidding. It doesn't matter if she didn't intend to hurt anyone. It only matters that she did hurt another person. When it's brought to your attention that you've caused another human being pain, a decent person apologises. Not "Sorry, but..." Just "Sorry." Or, better still, "Sorry, and I'll try to ensure it doesn't happen again." If you can't manage that, you're not a decent person and you are a racist.

The other side of the debate is the comparison to the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand incident. People keep bringing this up but it is not a fair comparison. For starters, there were other people involved in Sachsgate and two of them did lose their jobs. Ross apologised - not very sincerely, but he did - and he was suspended.

No, the comparison that gives away the real attitude of the BBC isn't Sachsgate. It's Jeremy Clarkson. He's gotten away with hate speech on many occasions, and not in any green room: on the air. When five women were murdered in Ipswich he thought it fine fodder for comedy. He jokes about killing gypsies. Not only does he still have his job, he's bloody well encouraged to keep at it. The BBC's excuse? It's what people expect from Top Gear.

The truth is the BBC does apply a double standard. Racism is fine...just not when it's directed at black people. Misogyny is fine as long as the target audience is male (or when it's on Torchwood, and no, I'm never letting that one go). Homophobia is fine as long as it's "funny".

Sorry, BBC. You need to do better than that.