Bad tactics in the second half

Right, here's your starter for 10: what is the highest profile event happening at the moment?

Take your time. No need to rush.

Well, when I said no need to rush, I didn't mean we have all day.

Come on, hurry up. Look this isn't rocket science: either you know the answer, or you don't.

Okay, I'll tell you: it's the World Cup. Or some might say it's Wimbledon.

Or it's us getting our asses kicked in the cricket (I would prefer it if it were our donkeys getting kicked - at least then we might stand a chance of winning).

How many of you said: 'It's the launch of Windows 98'? Not many, I bet.

Did anyone even notice?

We have just had the announcement of the latest version of the most influential operating system in the business and you can't help noticing the hush on the Windows front.

It wasn't like this last time, was it? Cast your mind back to the halcyon days of mid-1995 when the media circus saw fit to interrupt our lives for several months with endless shouting, arm waving and general misinformation about Windows 95. This time, it just isn't the same, is it?

I wonder if people in the US may have seriously underestimated the pull of the World Cup?

Even Jerry Seinfeld, the hugely popular stand-up comedian whose mildly amusing TV show we all have to sit through politely while waiting to see the Larry Sanders Show - possibly the best TV comedy the world has ever seen - looks as if he may have screwed up. It seems he has booked the London Palladium for two performances on the same day. Alas for Jerry, that day is the day of the World Cup Final. This just about sums up America's approach to the rest of the world. Normally it wouldn't matter, except that the World Cup is the rest of the world.

So busy are we sitting in front of our TV sets, surrounded by six-packs and takeaway pizzas, that the grown-up version of Windows 95 is likely to be just a footnote on our June calendar. In fact, the week before it happened, Microsoft's PR company had to ring all the journalists to see if they were coming to the Windows 98 launch party. Compare and contrast with the attendance at a free booze-up in Shepherd's Bush when England lost to Romania on the same Monday - precious little chance of that event being under-attended even without much publicity.

And all I can say is that this is the best news I have heard for a long time, because it means we finally have our priorities right. For too long I wondered, indeed feared, that we were so cowed by the whole Microsoft marketing machine that we would jump any time it told us to. So it is good news that this time we are firmly staying put.

My only concern is, what if Microsoft decided to sponsor the next World Cup?

'Microsoft's World Cup 2002'. It is a vision even more horrible to contemplate than the tattooed beer belly of a category 'C' football hooligan.

Chris Long is a freelance IT journalist.