Steve Litchfield

Interesting to see ex-Microsofter Johansson ditching a DRM-heavy Microsoft app in favour of a non-Windows DRM-free solution for playing back multimedia . Especially interesting since I'd been struggling to get anywhere with Microsoft Office 2007's stupid approach to first 'activation' of its own trial version and then unfriendly handling of legacy Office 2003 files. After my teacher wife and I had torn our hair out in frustration, I simply installed the free OpenOffice 2.3 and peace was restored, with files being opened and saved properly - and we also knew where to find most of the functions rather than playing the new Office 2007 guessing game.

And so yet another music service is to close ( Virgin Digital ), with customers being locked out of re-downloading music they've already paid for. Why do consumers put up with this? Just say no to DRM. Buy CDs and then keep them on your shelf, ripping them in iTunes or Media Player when you want to any portable device and carry on doing so for free until the end of time....

Well, that just about sums up the summer we've had (or rather haven't) in the UK. Looking down at my shorts next to the bed, I realised that I'd only worn them twice in the whole season. Surely, surely, this has to be the coolest and wettest summer since records began? Steve Litchfield (sent from a mobile device)

Great to see Google release the third component of their free online Office Suite - try it here . In my test, it opened a large test Powerpoint presentation perfectly: With Google also giving away StarOffice, and with OpenOffice itself, all free, who on earth wants to pay Microsoft hundreds of dollars/pounds any longer for their bloated Office suite?

Russ Beattie is a man I've always liked for telling it like it is. In other words, telling the absolute truth and not minding if it offends some mega-corporation. In this case, saying what an absolute crock the Microsoft Zune is . Yes, it's competent, but it doesn't sparkle, it doesn't attract, it doesn't glow, unlike the stellar and constantly evolving opposition from Apple (and now the likes of Nokia). Just scrap the Zune, Microsoft, and admit you were wrong again. While you're on his blog, here's a great tip about reading web pages with silly colour schemes (you know, pink on dark pink, etc)...

Heartening news to hear that the one OpenOffice-dismmissing IBM has signed up to help develop OpenOffice . I've always been a fan of OO and have hated the way Microsoft make it so expensive for ordinary folk to do basic word processing and spreadsheets and with horrendous activation schemes. And now OO looks set to go from strength to strength.

I've lost count of the number of commercial sites I've visited, upon which I want to purchase something simple, something small - and, when I get to fill in my credit card details, they also want me to create an account on their system, complete with user name, password, full address (again) and so on. Look, I just want to buy something, OK, I won't be coming back, don't take it personally, it's just that you've only got the one thing I want. So WHY DO I HAVE TO CREATE AN ACCOUNT? And have to remember (/write-down and keep safe) one MORE username and password. Usually, I just turn back at this point and go to another site, if possible, which doesn't have the same system. What sparked this off? I wanted to use a particular piece of royalty-free ambient music in my video podcast , so I clicked through the relevant site to the 'Ask us for a quote' section. All I wanted was a price, like "$10" or "$100". Instead I was presented with a...

Thr first, the absolute first thing I do when receiving a new Windows PC is to pop into Control panel and turn all the blasted effects, animations and curved-cornered windows off. The end result is something quite a bit faster, as the processor hasn't got to keep recalculating all the visual eye candy. But Windows XP has got nothing on its successor Vista, or even the new OS inside the Apple iMac. DOES EVERY SINGLE ACTION HAVE TO BE ACCOMPANIED BY RIPPLES, SWOOSHES AND TV-LIKE FADES? I think not. Is it just me? Can't information on a computer screen just appear and not have to be faed in or faded out? Maybe I really am getting old. This is computing for toddlers.

After another year's annual holiday, in which we experienced on successive days how good and how bad attractions can be, I thought I'd start to put together mini-reviews of many of the family attractions in the UK . If you've been on a day out somewhere with your family and can add to the site, please get in touch.

I don't often crawl out from under my rock and stick my head up to be shot at, but if you fancy coming along to say hello or to enjoy what'll hopefully be a good night of original music, note that Shed Music (couple of our videos here ), in which I'm 'guitar and vocals', is playing the 3Bs in Reading on October 17th, we're starting to play at 9pm. Go on, come along, buy some beer and make the landlord a happy man....

I've seen about 20 remakes of famous movies in the last 10 years. And 19 of them have been utter rubbish compared to the original. "The Thomas Crown Affair" was the only improvement, in case you were wondering. And now comes in news that "Enter the Dragon" is being remade . Err.... guys, Bruce Lee WAS the film. And he's dead. You won't get even 10% of the film's attraction without him. What a waste of money. I was going to say 'talent' as well, but noone with any will want to get involved in the first place, so.....

That's what the school holidays sometimes seem like. Yes, I love spending time with my daughter, but trying to think up new ideas to fill up six and half weeks of non-stop leisure time with her, without spending too much money and without letting her watch TV all the time, is always a bit stressful! We cope, of course, but do sometimes regret not living near any relatives or playmate cousins who could help out time and interest-wise. Hey ho, here's to September!

Quite staggering. Astronomers have spotted four galaxies 'merging' . It all sounds exciting, but it's the scale of the 'event' that blows my mind. Here we are trying to survive out three score years and ten on this planet and the scientists come along and tell us about the galaxy merger. The thing is that the merger was happening five BILLION YEARS ago. It's just that the light from the event is only just now starting to reach us. And all that's on top of the fact that each galaxy itself contains billions of stars (like the Sun) and that there are billions of galaxies all around us. I think I need a lie down.... A biblical quote springs to mind: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have established [I am constrained to ask]; What is man, that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you visit [care for] him?” (Psalm 8:v3-4).

Hey, there seems to have been a rush on my Legoland web site - August really is peak season over there. Trouble is that it's so busy that if you approach Legoland wrongly then you can come a real cropper with prices, queues and food. Legoland can be a great day out if you budget properly, look out for magazine 2-for-1 offers and know how to minimise queuing. Which, after 11 trips on an annual pass with my family in a one year period(!), is why I created my Legoland Survival Guide - Tips mini web site. Worth a look if you're planning to visit!