I just read an article about Google setting up it's European HQ in Zurich, Switzerland. This is great news for Switzerland and Europe; it will bring the best of the European minds together and will re-affirm Europe's place in the International Information Technology scene.

Europe and Switzerland have long been involved in the innovation of this scene. Geneva is the home to CERN (http://www.cern.ch), which is the world's largest particle physics laboratory. CERN was where the original World-Wide-Web (the main use of the internet after email) was created, by British-born Tim Berners-Lee. The organisation is involved in developing a new, super-bandwidth version of the Internet that will be available to most people that have Internet access already.

Personally, I'd love to live in Switzerland; it has a great standard of living, represented by it's $38,000 Gross-Domestic-Product per head (World Bank, 2003), compared to $25,120 of the UK, $34,280 of the USA and $21,930 of Canada. It also has a low population, wonderful countryside and cities and a respectable impartiality in International affairs.

You can view the news article about Google & Zurich at http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=4673445

I was last here in Portugal in September 2003, things have changed over the five months. It has been a bizarre first weekend of my month here.

The first thing that I noticed is that the Porto City buses now run on natural gas; something my own city, London, should aim to follow. We all need transport, and the most environmentally friendly option is always the best.

Since attending the World Summit on the Information Society, I'd expect Portugal (as a member of the EU) to be a more e-inclusive society. My fiance's grandma was about to install broadband internet access at her home, but she received a letter from a government department warning that if she went ahead her state pension would be reduced. In essence, elderly people who live on state pensions are punished for trying to get online. This is not something I expected, and I think it is a disastrous policy for the Portuguese government to pursue.

Last night, a news bulletin interrupted the normal programming. During a football match, a football player for Benfica FC suffered a heart attack and died almost instantly. Seeing footage of such a young (24 yrs old) man dying so suddenly was certainly a shock, and Portugal is almost certainly in a state of mourning.

On the flight from London, I was on the same plane as the Portuguese Olympic Sailing team who had just won second place in a competition in Australia.

Overall, I think Portugal is improving slowly but surely; the Porto council seems to be improving the state of the city - there's less rubbish on the streets for sure. At this time of the year, the city is sunken into the fog of the Atlantic Ocean, which when combined with the dark of night and the various flood-lights, creates an amazing atmosphere.

For so long now I've wanted to get an Apple Powerbook. In fact, it wouldn't even have to be a Powerbook; I'm sure an iBook would suffice. They're all so elegant and sleek, but that shiny surface doesn't hide a bug-riddled operating system, oh no - Mac OS X is strong, based on Unix, easy to use, easy on the eye and brilliant.

I really can't wait to get my hands on one of my own.

Alberto - you better keep that iBook away from me.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be leaving for Porto, a great city in North Portugal. I must say, this is the most last minute trip I have taken part in; I booked my tickets last night. The reason I am going is due to a family emergency, so I'll go and lend my hand if I can.

Is anybody from TIG in or going to be in Porto, or North Portugal (North of Coimbra) in general? If so, perhaps it would be beneficial if we meet. Drop me a line.

Hey everyone,

I know it is small, but as a token of my appreciation to you, the TIG community - I've made a small gift that hopefully many of you will use.

If you use MSN Messenger (v.60+), then you will be able to install the TIG-emoticon I have made for use in MSN Messenger conversations. Simply follow the following steps:

1) Download the TIG-MSN Emoticon HERE. Tip: save it in a place where you will easily find it later.

2) Open and login to MSN. You must open a conversation window then click the Emoticons symbol (the smiley face).

3) Click 'My custom emoticons...' and click Add.

4) Click Find Image and select the image file that you downloaded.

5) Enter a keyboard shortcut (e.g. (tig)), that you will use.

6) Click OK.

That's it, you can now use the TIG MSN emoticon.