So, we hear in The Guardian that "Government plans for changes in the law to boost rape conviction rates are in disarray after the judges who would have to put them into practice told ministers they oppose them.

Overall, the judges believe that the proposed measures are too complex and are urging ministers to have more faith in the common sense of jurors. "The law shouldn't be complicated. It should be something that everybody understands," one circuit judge said."

Um, I hate to be one to show a lack of faith in intellectual professionals who have spent goodness knows how many years learning and training and rising to their current positions, but when we have "a plummeting conviction rate for rape that has dropped from 33% of reported cases in 1977 to just 5.29% in 2004.", isn't it time we stopped relying on 'common sense'?

How to Be A Domestic Goddess. What a wonderful goal. We now have books that tell us how to do everything, by ourselves; how marvellous! Yes, actually, I can bake bread, clean my house, play with my children, clean their shoes, make my own letter paper, pay the bills (on time) *and* get dinner on the table. Can't you?

The licensing requirements for Windows Vista seem to me to be quite awkward for web and software developers on a budget - particularly for those who don't actually want to run the operating system as their development platform.

As with XP, the OEM license for Vista (which is the relatively affordable type you buy with a new PC, or from a PC wholesaler) will only allow one transfer of the license from one machine to another. Perhaps this isn't too bad if you use Vista as your main Operating System.

But the only Vista licenses which will entitle you to run Vista under virtualisation (running Windows as a "guest operating system" on Linux, for example), are the Business or Ultimate versions. What about multiple installations, or re-installation? Does the OEM license regard these as the same as a transfer? Under virtualisation, the guest operating may get installed afresh several times. It's also useful to be able to run several instances of the same operating system at once.