No website-recommending medium worth its salt should bypass the "cultural" phenomenon of the season, the exploits of the NHS bespectacled, mini-wizard, Harry Potter. So, for the many (?) mini-fans of this column I recommend, out of the vast multitude, the site of teenager, Claire Field: www.potterguide.co.uk.

Her home-grown website is delightful in itself but the story of the Potter-mad youngster’s clash over copyright, with Goliath i.e. Warner Bros. Inc., dramatically rivals even Ms Rowling’s magical tale. See also www.potterwar.org. Wizard stuff!

Talking of things that go blast in the air, an email I received this month from Paul Goodison in Belgium reminded me of the troublesome year of 2000. Three kinds of blight hit me that year. The usual, phytophthera infestans, singed the spuds towards the end of the summer as normal, the "Bluestone" being applied only twice under my strict regime (see www.planorganic.com/articles). The second was a mite more serious as it wiped out a large crop of garlic, my cash crop for the year. I still have no diagnosis, no name for that unwelcome, non-chlorophyll, phantom of the air that blasted my dried crop into a reeking mess. A mystery!

The third affliction was seriously disruptive also, almost putting me off this whole computer business. This was a technological blight which rotted various parts of a new computer thus delaying my arrival in the hallowed halls of webmasterdom by at least a year. The machine was replaced but only after gargantuan lobbying efforts. (Save yourself some of the grief I suffered by writing to: opendoors@sunday-times.co.uk – they actually beg you to send in your complaints about computer companies!) But I persevered and so, for better or for worse, here I am chained almost daily to a busy website (10,000+ hits per week and growing at 50% per month) inputting info and dealing with voluminous emails and wondering where it’s all leading. A friend commented on me last week; "There’s nowt so queer as folks - that works for nawthing!".

My luck however in 2001 was improved. Even the potatoes escaped the blight. And I wasn’t sued for libel! I ignored the urgings of my local computer-shop owner for ages about anti-virus software. Then I relented – not having sufficient faith in garlic - and bought the Norton Anti-Virus package. www.symantec.com. Costs about I£40.00. (Oops, Euros now of course, 40 x 1.27, whatever that is). It was a relief that there were no nasties already in the system after twelve months of intensive use. But within a week of installing the watch-dog software I had two aliens try to get on board, both from agricultural sources, both Irish, one organic. Email me: info@planorganic.com for more details. Sinister?

But, to return to the Goodison email. I re-established contact with Paul whom I met at the famous Growing Awareness conference in Skibbereen, Jan 2000. He spoke eloquently on the platform about the CAP and its effects on the third world. Paul’s work can be glimpsed on www.pandora.be. He was sympathetic on hearing recently of my allium woes and consoled me by claiming that a clove of some garlic I had given him, placed on top of his computer, had driven out the gremlins it had been plagued with. Magic!

There’s an idea! Persuade Microsoft to bundle garlic, organic of course, with its products. It would have a great chance of success – that’s if B. Gates was really interested in glitchless software. But, no more than the sock industry that bought up the long-life sock, longevity of product is not Bill’s brief. The gospel according to Gates, - Windows 95 is dead and gone, "simply isn’t good enough" – Long live Windows XP, "making the impossible possible"! For a few hundred dollars more of course – even in its cheapest version!

O ye others of little faith in herbal medicine for computers, there is good support for (the many!) Windows’ problems on: www.support.microsoft.com. It is also very advisable to take preventive medicine in the form of GoBack software from www.roxio.com. And keep the garlic for the cold – and the vampires! But thanks Paul anyway for the thought!

Have a bug-free and magical New Year.