List: 'Top 10 downloads for 2010'

Today’s ‘List Friday’. At the end of my ‘List Friday’ post two weeks ago, I promised – Scout’s honour – that I wouldn’t subject you to any more ‘best of 2010’ lists [1]. I’m a man of my word. Usually. Who said that promises were made to be broken? Maybe it was me. Anyway, computers are still on my mind. So please forgive me. For today’s list, courtesy of cnet.com is ‘Top 10 Windows downloads of 2010’ [2] It’s a countdown list – from 10 to 1. The most interesting thing about this list is that half the items on it – numbers 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 to be precise – are security programs. So self-evidently Windows users are concerned, if not preoccupied, about computer security. Contrast this list with its cnet sister (or brother, I don’t care) list: ‘Top 10 Mac downloads of 2010’ [3]. On this list none – that’s right, zero – of the items are security programs. Ho hum.

P.S. Talking of computer programs, my new computer came without a program that should’ve been pre-installed on it. I’ve downloaded it, but I can’t install it because it needs to go onto a specific hard drive partition which currently is too small. So a courier’s taking the computer to Launceston. Almost certainly the hard drive will need to be formatted and Windows re-installed. So when I get it back, whenever that may be, I’ll have to download, install and configure my programs from scratch. Ho hum again.

Lists: ‘The most memorable images of 2010’ and ‘2010 in photos’

Today’s ‘List Friday’. As I’ve gotten older I’ve found it easier to accept discordance. Or is it ambiguity? Anyway I’m talking about two pieces of opposing evidence. For example, three days ago I wrote I have the type of mind that prefers the active process of converting the written word to mental images, to the passive process of watching and listening to a movie [1]. Yet several ‘List Friday’ lists have been lists of photographs (most recently two weeks ago [2]). And then there’s the adage ‘A picture’s worth a thousand words’ [3, 4]. Anyway today I’m back to a list of photographs. As this is the first ‘List Friday’ of 2010, two lists. Both on the same topic. The first is salon.com’s list of ‘The most memorable images of 2010’. There are 50 images. The blurb’s here [5], and the images here [6]. Next, from the Boston Globe’s ‘Big Picture’ section, is ‘2010 in photos’, which comes in three parts with 40 photos in each part [7, 8, 9]. Take from these 170 pictures what you will. Anyway, enough from me.

P.S. I promise – Scout’s honour – that these are the last ‘best of 2010’ lists I’ll subject you to.

P.P.S. Happy birthday, darling Brendon.