Being a brit (small cap) I hang my head in public shame (as in transport not schools). I have worked with many UK and US startups and I guess that is why I left the green and pleasant lands... satanic mills says it all for the work and the ethic. Bring back the death penalty for misfeasance.

God forgot England

And news from a famous educator (I will refer to him as Alan to protect his innocence). Alan was telling us the story of the Yank in an Edinburgh Moss Bros store asking if he could rent a 'Tuxedo'. (Tuxedo means nothing to almost every Englishman except those who worked with IBM, ICL and NEC on Transaction Processing stuff). The shop assistant asked Alan what he meant, to which Alan explained, 'A Tux, frilly shirt, suspenders, silk, dickie'. The shocked young man who though Alan must be one of those unmentionables... and sent him next door to the women's lingerie shop!

Just in case you don't know - here are the translations from US - US words are capitalized:
TUXEDO - Dinner Jacket, DJ, Tails, Morning suit
SUSPENDERS - Braces, lifters, elaggies
suspenders - GARTER BELT
FRILLY - effeminate, lacy, racy, sexy

An Englishman would have asked for a DJ with cummabund and black tie
A Scot would have asked for the cash in the register.
A Canadian would have dressed up in the women's clothing
Calling all Yanks who have been to Edinbuurrrrrggghhhhh!
God help the Lanuage.

The question is, "Is Microsoft that evil?" - thankyou to our reader in Chelmsford, MA (not that Chelmsford in Essex is any better!).

The answer is, sadly, yes, on twenty seven counts!
1. If you use word to edit an html file the resulting file will only work on MS web sites.
2. If you upgrade to XP, and then try to uninstall back to w98, all your files are lost.
3. If you use Office 11, you have to migrate (imprison is more like it) to XP
...
27. If you are still running win98, MS will actually send you a free copy of XP just to get you to upgrade from Office 97!

I have just tried to get two PII 192M IBM thinkpads to XP and had to revert back to win98 because of the pain and torture, new licenses, new hardware, new this, new that. Is Microsoft Evil? Judging by the time I have wasted on their products, yes - will someone please show me Linux!
God Help Windows.

Checked out a very amusing site called Gimcracker and was prompted to write:
I am gobsmacked that 'gobsmacked' was successfully exported to the US, and thought that most US folk would follow 'collector of gnomes' usage. A quick poll of an American and half a Canadian suggested that 'blown away' or 'bush whacked' would more appropriate to North American colloquialities.

gobsmack - (OE) is actually a Scottish verb used to describe a form of greeting normally reserved for an challenger or rival. In ancient times 'gobsmacking' was often performed by slapping someone with a metal gauntlet. Early colonialists subsequently used the phrase 'thou givest the glove' which has now been shortened to 'giving the finger'.

God smack America

Two very early mornings getting up to travel - the jet lag may have passed but I think I have generalized stupidity disorder (I just hope they don't name the disease after me!). The weather is (surprise) cold damp and rainy, rumour has it that the sun appeared briefly somewhere in Nottingham but sadly not many folk were outside at the time.

Yesterday I was down in Pangborne and had a super supper at the local Chinese, and had to walk about 4 miles at an olympic pace.
On the Anglo-american front (note use of capitalization), described the car as quite pokey. Kevin was quite offended since he had spent the extra dollars to get a top of the line, fuel injected speedster and thought I meant pokey (us) not pokey (UK). Apparently our American bretheren use the word to describe something that is big, slow or has relationships with small clay figures (Gumby)! You can purchase models of the clay figure on eBay (eBUYGumby).

Send medicine!

God help us all

XBox has (apparently) not arrived as yet - otherwise I'd get a call asking about component video connections! Amazingly the whole XBox thing doesn't seem to be very popular over here - everyone in UK uses PS2.
Working late again... guess it is the weather cos it is dull and gloomy even in the middle of the day! Think I will have a cup of tea and off to bed. Kevin, my US buddy, asks what the English drank before we ransacked India - good question, but he could have worded it better. Maybe I'll take him out and play some cricket with him!

God rest Xbox

Still in UK on a rainy day - still in PJs also!
But it didn't stop me going out for a drive: and just realised that one more suble difference between our nations is the red/yellow traffic light combination!
Guess every one knows that red is for stop and green for go (except in Boston)...

Red and yellow in the US means definitely stop (?) (pedestrian or policeman has control over the lights)
Red and yellow in the UK means definitely start (the lights will go green in the next second)
I am just glad that we drive on the other side of the road - it seems to be the only thing that make the foreigners drive sensibly when in the commonwealth.

God help the traffic lights