Eric Lee

I've posted a handful (literally) of reviews on the Amazon website. I didn't even remember that I had, but I just now had to post one about the new James Bond book so I returned to the site.

In looking over my reviews, I see that I posted a one sentence review of Microsoft Excel a year ago. Here's what I wrote:

"Why would anyone pay over £170 for a piece of software which does nothing more than Open Office.org does -- and OpenOffice.org is completely free of charge?"

Nearly a year later, someone posted a comment on my review (I didn't realize you could do this). It's worth repeating here:

"This is so true - I dowloaded openoffice on reading this and it is very good. converts all your old word or .xls files and is easy to use with the same functionality of office. plus I am quids in as was about to spend £180 on Excel. Major mistake if I had done that! Great post Eric."

One more convert to free software -- won over by a review on Amazon. I wonder what else we can use Amazon reviews for?

Posted by Eric Lee at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I wrote my first computer program back in 1985. I was writing in a long-forgotten programming language known as "RPG II" for an IBM System 34 mini-computer. (Mini-computers were not what you think -- they were room-sized devices to which one connected dozens of dumb terminals.) Over the years, I got pretty good at coding and whenever I needed a computer to do something for me, I'd knock off a quick program to do it. Some of the programs I wrote were even sold to professional magazines so that others could copy my code.

But for the last ten years, I've been working on PCs (until a year ago, Windows-based PCs) and have no experience with programming them. I did learn Perl, which I use to write short programs (scripts) on Linux servers for websites. But I've found no easy way to write a useable program on my PC.

I've long thought it would be wonderful if I could use a language I know (Perl) on a platform I use (the PC) and get back to the stage where I was a decade ago, writing programs to meet my needs.

As of yesterday, that problem is solved. I have just written my first application (a small group of programs) -- a powerful task list (to-do list) manager. I am now using this instead of the various programs I have used in the past, such as the Gnome To Do list, KDE Kalendar, and web-based lists such as Remember the Milk, TaDa List and so on.

Continue reading "POW! I'm programming again" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Meet "Robbie", the newest member of our family.

Robbie is a Roomba household robot, a product of the iRobot corporation, and something I've wanted to own for a long time. It costs about the same as a decent vacuum cleaner, so I thought -- what the hell.

I bought Robbie home on Friday and charged it (him?) overnight. Yesterday, I set Robbie loose in my carpeted bedroom, went out to do errands, came home and found the robot had shut itself off -- and the floor clean. Wow.

Continue reading "Living with robots" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 08:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Nearly four years ago, after weeks of experimenting reading electronic books on my Palm handheld computer, I wrote a short essay here called "Hooked on Ebooks". I thought that the electronic book as displayed on a small handheld device was an idea whose time had come. I was wrong. Or rather, I was ahead of my time.

Continue reading "Ebooks Revisited" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 01:33 PM | Permalink

That's what you get when you send an unencrypted email. It's like sending all your messages by postcard, without an envelope. Of course if you don't mind governments, employers, corporations, and ISPs reading your emails along the way, feel free. But, if you want to send me encrypted email, use the PGP public key below.

Continue reading "Want everyone to be able to read your emails?" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In the last several weeks, unions in a number of countries have been engaged in a wide-ranging and often acrimonious debate over the subject of boycotting Israel.

In Britain, both the National Union of Journalists and the University and College Union -- together representing some 155,000 journalists and university lecturers -- have called for a boycott of Israel. At its upcoming conference, the country's second largest union, the 1.4 million member Unison, is likely to do the same -- or else pass a somewhat watered-down version of the call. The unions and professional associations of architects and doctors are considering similar steps.

Continue reading "Unions - If you want to help the Palestinians, don't boycott Israel" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

I'm attending a conference today organized by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) here in London. There seems to be some kind of wireless Internet connection, so if I can, I will blog throughout the day as the conference goes along.

Continue reading "Building support for Migrant Workers" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 09:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The BBC has just aired a special two-part episode of the hit television series "Spooks" in which the villains -- a team of terrorists -- turn out to be agents of the Israeli government.

Continue reading ""Spooks" and the Jews: The BBC crosses a red line" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)

[Editor's note: Several issues of BibiWATCH are now available once again to read on this blog. Click here.]

Palestinian suicide bombers attack Tel-Aviv. The Israeli government blames Hamas. As support within Israel for any kind of peace deal with the Palestinians withers, pundits write that the Oslo process is dead.

It is June 1996 and Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu has just been elected Israel's Prime Minister.

Continue reading "From BibiWATCH to the Blogosphere" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More than 100 years after the Russian Social Democratic Party split into its Menshevik and Bolshevik wings, the open source web browser Mozilla has clearly taken sides. This screen shot taken from the Mozilla email client (Thunderbird) needs no further comment:

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just found this on the website of a political party here in Britain. If you agree with it, perhaps you should consider joining:

We will also withdraw all British troops with immediate effect from Iraq. We will never again involve British troops in any more American 'wars for oil' or neo-con adventures on behalf of the Zionist government of Israel.

Care to guess where this came from? Make your guesses in the comments, below.

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

If you haven't yet done so, please check out How Internet Radio Can Change the World -- my latest book, published in April 2005. Full details about the book, including how to purchase your copy securely online, are available here.

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:08 AM | Permalink

Dear Sir:

I was pleased to see that you vigorously condemned last week's terrorist attacks by jihadists in Bangladesh.

As I'm sure you know, today -- less than a week after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip -- a terrorist attempted to blow up a bus in the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva. According to press reports from Israel, some 48 people have been injured, some seriously.

It is believed that the terrorist who undertook this attack was a member either of Hamas or Islamic Jihad -- both groups which are closely identified with the groups which carried out the attacks in Bangladesh (and London last month).

I was wondering when we could expect to see your condemnation of today's bombing?

Thank you. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

It is late afternoon in North London. Behind my house, maybe 50 meters away, is the North Circular Road. Here, in this part of London, it's a six-lane highway. We tell people that we can hardly hear the sound of the trucks and cars as they pass, 24 hours a day. But right now we hear something we've never heard before: absolute silence.

The North Circular Road in this part of London has been shut down for several kilometres, stretching from Muswell Hill in the east to Golders Green in the west, by police. They have done so following the discovery of a white car, parked at a housing development called Strawberry Vale, a fifteen minute walk from my home. The white car was apparently used by at least one of the men suspected of involvement in last week's attempted suicide bomb attacks in London.

Continue reading "The war on terror has reached my back-yard" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:03 PM | Permalink

Under British law, political parties are obligated to inform us of the names of their major donors. A visit to the website of the Electoral Commission reveals that nearly half of the money donated to George Galloway's Respect Party comes from one man, Dr Mohammed Naseem. Google searches quickly reveal that Dr Naseem, in addition to having been a Respect candidate for Parliament, is also a leading figure in the Islamic Party of Britain. And that party, whose website is largely dormant, did have some things to say about the recent terrorist bombings in London in a document posted yesterday (16 July).

That document, entitled "In Times of Terror the Truth takes a Tumble" makes the case that Islamic fundamentalists were not responsible for the terrorist bombings. The reasons given include:

* They could not have been Islamic fundamentalists because one of them was "married to a Hindu lady"

* The Israeli politician Netanyahu was warned not to leave his hotel before the general public was informed that there had been a bombing -- tipped off by the Mossad, which somehow knew what was really going on.

* Critical evidence, such as a CCTV camera on the number 30 bus, suspiciously disappeared from the scene.

* Finally, who benefits from the attacks? Why the Blair government, of course!

There is more, but here's a typical sentence:

"London needed a real terror attack in order to numb people sufficiently for the government to push through legislation that they had not been able to push through even before their electoral fiasco."

(By "their electoral fiasco" the author means Labour's unprecedented third straight election victory.)

These are the views of Dr Mohammed Naseem's organisation, the Islamic Party of Britain. They were written by the party's general secretary, Dr Sahib Mustaqim Bleher, a German-born convert to Islam.

Contrast this with what George Galloway told the House of Commons on the very day of the attacks:

"I condemn the act that was committed this morning. I have no need to speculate about its authorship. It is absolutely clear that Islamist extremists, inspired by the al-Qaeda world outlook, are responsible."

Dr Mohammed Naseem is a leading figure in the Respect Coalition. He is its single largest donor, providing nearly 50% of the funds reported to the Electoral Commission. He was a Respect candidate for Parliament in the general election. The organisation he leads, the Islamic Party of Britain, is today saying that the attacks were a provocation, staged by the police, the Blair government, or the Mossad -- or all of them together.

George Galloway -- do you stand by what you said in the House of Commons on 7 July, or do you share the views of your colleague Dr Naseem and his Islamic Party of Britain?

Posted by Eric Lee at 07:48 AM | Permalink

I have added my name to this statement. I encourage all readers of this blog to do so as well.

Posted by Eric Lee at 11:20 PM | Permalink

Dear Sir:

Last week, following the attacks in London, you wrote:

"No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government. They are entirely innocent and we condemn those who have killed or injured them."

Today a suicide bomber killed two women and injured 24 others in an attack on a shopping mall in Netanya, Israel.

Do you condemn the attack in Netanya today?

I look forward to receiving your reply, which I will publish on the web.

Eric Lee

Posted by Eric Lee at 07:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Thanks to all of you who wrote in asking if we were alright.

I don't want to add my own voice just yet to the many who have already written about this, but let me just refer you all to two excellent websites which contain many postings that are quite similar to the way I am feeling right now:

Harry's Place

and

Labour Friends of Iraq

Posted by Eric Lee at 03:29 PM | Permalink

A decade ago, maybe even five years ago, the story I'm about to tell could never have happened.

Continue reading "The AUT, the Israel Boycott and the Internet" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)

Approximately 70 trade unionists from Britain and Iraq attended an all-day conference organized by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), held in its headquarters in London.

Continue reading "Report on TUC Iraq Solidarity conference" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I encourage everyone reading this page to donate to one of the disaster relief funds now collecting to support the tsunami victims. Here in Britain, I recommend giving to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a coalition of many aid groups including ActionAid, British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

Posted by Eric Lee at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LabourStart may not be a typical website. It caters to a large international audience working in some 15 languages. Its readers are trade unionists. This may not mean much, but in December 2004 (the first half of the month), Microsoft Internet Explorer is the browser used less than 63% of the time by our readers. The Mozilla/Netscape browsers get a combined 29%. In other words, for every two users of Internet Explorer, we have one Mozilla user.

This is considerably higher than what is being reported from such US-based services as Web Side Story (around 4% market share for Mozilla).

Posted by Eric Lee at 09:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ronald Reagan and Victor Reuther were born only months apart in the years before the first world war. They both died last weekend in America, aged 92 and 93. One is being mourned by the rich and powerful, with a lavish state funeral planned. The other is being honored more quietly by ordinary working people. Their lives ran along strangely parallel lines, but in the end they came to represent two very different Americas.

Continue reading "Two Funerals, Two Americas" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

I had to read this story twice to be sure it wasn't a joke.

Yesterday, at a private meeting with U.S. governors in the White House, George Bush's Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, called the National Education Association -- one of America's two national teachers' unions, with 2.7 million members -- a "terrorist organization".

Continue reading "Are teachers "terrorists"?" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I don't know if anyone else is picking up on this, but computer viruses are increasingly becoming a class issue. An article in today's newspaper revealed that the author of the Mydoom virus which is now racing around the net deliberately chose to target home users rather than corporate, government or military users.

Continue reading "Mydoom as a class issue" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

In late 1997, I had an idea. Why not sponsor a "Labour Website of the Year" competition? My book on "The Labour Movement and the Internet: The New Internationalism" had come out a year earlier. There were already a number of union websites. I had a site of my own, at that time hosted by Canada's largest union, CUPE. It had been set up to accompany the book. LabourStart did not yet exist.

I put out the word, and to my astonishment, people began voting (by email). Seven sites received votes. The winner was the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). Now to be perfectly honest, not very many people voted. And seven is not a whole lot of sites. But it was a beginning.

Continue reading "The labour website of the year: a brief history" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This story can now be found here.

Posted by Eric Lee at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What happens when you search for the word 'labour' on the world's leading search engines? The results are as you'd expect from Google and all the rest -- with one amazing exception.

Continue reading "Searching for 'labour'" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 04:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spam is killing off email and threatening the very future of the internet. Surveys are showing that current net users are switching off to get away from unsolicited commercial email. Millions more are reluctant to get online for fear of being deluged with offers of pornography, viagra, money scams and so on. As trade unionists and social change activists, this is a worrying development. Email is an enormously powerful and cheap tool for us, particularly for online campaigning, but spammers are making it increasingly difficult for us to get our message through. We need to educate our members and ourselves in order to win the battle against spam. If we don't win that battle, we lose all the gains of the last decade and return to a world where those with the money can get their messages heard -- and where we are effectively silenced.

The only problem is that there is no solution to spam. Let me re-phrase that: there is no solution, but there are solutions, to the problem of spam. For some time now, I have adopted a strategy of defense-in-depth.

Continue reading "Defense in depth: A strategy to stop spam that actually works" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

A few years ago, when some of us noticed that Microsoft had essentially taken over the Internet, we were worried. Among other worries, we feared that a near-complete monopoly by Microsoft would mean that technological innovation -- then proceeding at a brisk pace -- would come to a halt. Today, with Internet Explorer having a more than 90% share of the browser market, our fears have come true.

There have been several recent developments which should worry us.

Continue reading "The problem with Internet Explorer" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 11:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'll be speaking on Friday at the congress of the International Federation of Workers Education Associations (IFWEA) -- which was the first international labour institution to have a website, back in 1994. Unfortunately, the website doesn't seem to have kept up with the times. The IFWEA website is still highlighting on its front page a section on its last conference, back in 2000 -- but there's nothing about this week's event.

Posted by Eric Lee at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've downloaded and begun using Mozilla Thunderbird today. Continue reading to find out what I think of it . . .

Continue reading "Mozilla Thunderbird - free, open source email client" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 05:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Using Trillian Pro 2.0, an instant messaging (IM) client that allows me to connect to all the major networks, I am now once again online and can be reached on any of the following networks:

ICQ : 49624912
AIM: labourstart1
Yahoo: labourstart
MSN: ericlee@labourstart.org

Please feel free to add yourself to my contact list.

Posted by Eric Lee at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Three unrelated problems in the course of 7 days -- proving that Murphy's Law is very real. (And apologies to everyone waiting to hear from me by email.)

Continue reading "Email hell" »

Posted by Eric Lee at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Click here to read the full text of this article.

Posted by Eric Lee at 12:04 PM | Permalink