Category Archives: Blog

If anyone ever tells you that women aren’t as funny as men, say two words in reply: Sue Townsend.

Sue Townsend wrote the funniest book I’ve ever read: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, aged 13 3/4. I read it at just the right time of my life – aged around 15 or 16, when I was just a year or so older than Adrian Mole when he wrote his first diaries. When asked why she had written about a teenage boy and not a girl, Sue Townsend replied that she believed boys and girls were pretty much the same at that time of their life. She certainly described my childhood (and I sometimes fear she is describing part of my adulthood, too.)

Like many excellent writers, Sue Townsend knew that the best writing is often the simplest. One of her most inspired passages is to be found in The Wilderness Years, where she simply describes the food that Adrian eats one Sunday afternoon round his Grandma’s house. It’s nothing more than a list, but it sums up my childhood perfectly, sitting in front of the coke fire at my Grandmother’s house, reading the Sunday People and then watching something like Bullseye on the television.

Sue Townsend died on Thursday evening, aged 68. She left behind one of the most consistently funny and moving series of books ever written, books filled with a well realised air of righteous indignation about them. Sue Townsend was on the side of the forgotten people, the failures, the Adrian Moles of this world.

She will be missed.

Earlier this week I was listening to a radio program about the discovery of waves of gravitational energy that confirmed inflation just after the big bang. The presenter was inviting listeners to ring in and ask questions of a scientist, the scientist was doing a rather good job of explaining things clearly.

I thought it rather heartening that those taking part in the discussion were taking this opportunity to try and understand what was going on.

I should have known better. A caller rang in and announced that it was all very well hearing the scientist speak, but nobody really knows how the universe started. For all their talk, for all their experiments, those scientists didn’t really know what had happened.

I suppose that’s true. Nobody really knows anything. But that’s not very helpful.

Nobody really knows anything. It’s the really that’s the loaded word. I don’t really know what’s happening when my back is turned, I don’t really know what other people think of me, I don’t really know that I’m not part of some Truman Show style hoax and everyone is watching me on television.

But what’s the point of that sort of thinking? If I accept it, I might as well accept that I’ll never know anything.

Many people like to say no one really knows. It excuses them having to think. It has the added effect of pulling your hard won experience and knowledge down to their level. It makes their ignorance the equal of your ignorance.

I don’t see why I should accept that.

I’ve just finished answering a set of questions about writing SF, the results of which will appear in a magazine article. One of the questions asked was What’s the first SF you remember reading?

I couldn’t give a definitive answer but there are two series that stand out in my mind from my childhood. The  first is the Space series of children’s SF anthologies, edited by Richard Davis in the 1970’s and early ’80s, the second is the Danny Dunn series by Jay Williams and Raymond Abrashkin.

Did anyone else read those books? I haven’t read them for years, probably not since I became a teenager, and I’m not sure I would want to read one again.  It might spoil the memories.

But I loved the books at the time. Danny Dunn liked science and maths, so did the adults around him. His mother was housekeeper to Professor Bullfinch, a man who encouraged Danny’s love of science and taught him new things.  The science was pretty authentic (or so I remember) and I used to devour it.  The professor invented some of the objects which started Danny off on adventures.

For me, the best thing about the stories was that Danny Dunn (and his friends Irene and Joe) would win through by using their intelligence.  The resolution wasn’t achieved by guns, or superpowers, or magic, it was always achieved by thinking, by learning new facts and applying them. I wouldn’t say the books got me interested in studying Maths, but it definitely made me realise just how cool maths and science were. And if you’re laughing at this last sentence, then understand this, it showed me that there were other people who found those subjects cool.

I wonder what happened to Danny Dunn?

He’s probably a grandfather by now. I’d like to think that his kids are working at CERN or somewhere like that. I hope they didn’t end up working in quantum finance.

Danny Dunn, boy accountant. It doesn’t bear thinking about.

A computer needs an operating system. You buy a PC and about 90% of the time it comes with Windows installed (about 8% of the remaining are Apple OS).¹  A significant part of the cost of the PC goes on the operating system. Not a problem, Microsoft spends a lot of money developing their software, they deserve to paid for their work (just like I hope to paid for my writing).

The problem arises when you try and choose another operating system. What if you don’t want Windows?

Okay, I don’t do politics on this blog. If you want to know my politics, read my books. Better yet, buy me a pint at a convention and I’ll bore you with them as long as the beer keeps coming.

However, I’m taking a brief break from that rule this week. This might seem a boring techy whinge, and I suppose it is, but it’s important.

I’ve installed Ubuntu Linux, my preferred operating system, on three Windows 8 machines this week. It’s been a tremendous pain, something that was once a very easy job has become a nuisance because Windows does not want to let go of the machine. This is not just a Linux issue, my technicians at work are having trouble installing Windows 7 on new Windows 8 machines.

A lot of people have been rude about Microsoft in the past, sometimes unfairly in my opinion. But I’m about to join their ranks.

Why shouldn’t I install whatever operating system I choose on a PC? I bought the machine, it belongs to me and not to Microsoft, no matter what the pre-installed software seems to think. That’s like the estate agent saying I’m not allowed to choose the carpets or wallpaper for my new house. Or the bank saying that I have to have PPI when I take out a loan (and that didn’t work out so well for the banks here in the UK… )

I feel that we’re at crossroads. So many people are asking me to install Linux on their machines because they’re fed up of the dog’s dinner that is Windows 8. However, the process of installation of another OS hasn’t been this difficult in years. That’s why I’ve logged my experience so far here on my tech blog for anyone who might find it useful.

As I said earlier, this may seem like a boring techy whinge, but there are other issues at stake. For example, here in the UK, Microsoft allows schools to use Office 365 for free. Okay, Microsoft benefits by getting kids used to its way of doing things, but education benefits because even if Office 365 were not that good (and it’s excellent), schools are free to spend the money saved on other things.

Good for Microsoft.  Or so I thought. A few weeks ago at BETT (an educational trade fair) I was told that schools in Malaysia had to pay for Office 365.

Let’s just think about that. Countries who probably need the money more for their children’s education don’t get the free software.

Free, open source software has the potential to make people’s lives better. It helps to level the playing field when it comes to education. That’s just one, minor reason why I use Linux, and one reason why you should. If you’re using it, you’re helping to develop the software so that other people can use it.

That’s one of the reasons why I blog occasionally about Linux. That’s why I’ll be making an effort to transfer more Linux notes across to my tech blog Tony Ballantyne Tech in the coming weeks.

I use Ubuntu Linux, there are many other flavours available. Why not give it a try? If you know someone who uses it, ask them what to do, they’d probably be delighted, if not downright evangelical about its benefits.

In the meantime, you can find out more about Ubuntu here.