I can't believe I'm saying this, but think I come down on the Microsoft camp.

In the rich cities, an Internet user who spends $1 actually gets more out of their experience and finds more Web sites in their language.

M F K Fisher is the dowager queen of writers on browsing and slicing.

In economic and cultural terms, they are missing out in a big way. Going online means paying to tap into Western culture.

What is special about Fisher is not the tedious stuff about six teaspoons of dry mustard, but the literary dressing around the sides of the recipes.

He brings a gust of acrid provincial air to the ancient office. He is an angry young prophet rather than a smooth courtier. His verse is angular, savage, robust and very good.

Most people around the world will experience new information technologies through their mobile-phone browsers. Computers are still priced out of reach for most people.

Jane Grigson is the nearest thing that we have on this side of the great green bouillabaisse to M F K Fisher. with learning and wit that are rarely devoted to such a banausic subject as stuffing food down one's cake hole.