Thursday Next

Depends on how you are leaving. I can give you a bit of a run down on your rights but it is very dependant on your situation, and may be a conversation better held in private... You might find this link useful as well: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/employment/redundancyandleavingyourjob/dg_10026688.

Haha, I'll take that as a no then. Should anyone decide to fall into my obvious trap, I'm on Frostclaw.

The torch itself. There's a couple of news stories floating about where people are auctioning off the torch. If you are a torch bearer you can pay £199 (I think) to keep the thing. I think most torch sellers are doing so for charity, which I guess is a "good thing".

Anyone here still playing this? I'm just getting around to it now. As my first MMO, company allegiance aside, I'm finding it rather enjoyable.

I don't know if I just notice product placement more these days or what, but MI:4 felt like a really expensive, very slick, BMW advert. Entertaining as hell, but the advertising seems to be really in your face these days. It was up there with I Robot.

Simple, it's not the government's job. You said your parents would never dream of accepting welfare or food stamps, but they did take the church foodbasket. Your parents had a choice, take a welfare cheque or take from the church. They chose the church. Me, I'm not about encourage the church unless I have to so I'd take the welfare cheque. That said, if it was starving to death or setting aside my principles, I'd swallow my pride and take the church basket. If the choice was not there are you really trying to tell me that they would have starved rather than take a government handout? It is very much the government's job to keep their citizenry alive and kicking. Also, have to say, I'm not Jonny's biggest fan and I've never made a secret of that. But what you said was bang out of order. There was absolutely no call for that sort of personal attack.

A misplaced sense of pride? Nope, just not lazy people who sit on unemployment for years and do nothing to better their situation. Yes, everyone who's ever accepted any form of state assistance whatsoever is a lazy asshole who's never worked a day in their life. That certainly is an intelligent and reasonable stance. Battra, how can you say that they would never use food stamps when there were "times when the church food basket kept us fed"? Your parents clearly aren't above taking a freebie when it's offered.

He denied that a focus on parenting and childcare was a diversion from "big issues" like the economy. Since when is parenting and childcare not a big issue?

Hatred is a bit strong. I will admit to a feeling of... frustration maybe resentment when about a third of my wages gets gobbled up and people who take advantage of the benefits system get hand outs. Those feelings are however tempered when I remind myself that I visited an orthodontist for free as a child. That my sisters and my nephew and niece are supported by that money, and that my university tuition fees were government funded. It's easy to look at extremes such as families like the Philpotts who do (imho) take the piss and exploit the system and get angry. How can you possibly care for 17 children? Never mind the financials, there simply aren't enough hours in the day to give that many kids the attention they need. I'm not suggesting that we should have a Chinese style limit on childbirth, but I think that what Jeremy Hunt said about "taking responsibility" is worth bearing in mind. If you can't afford to raise a child then you should think very carefully before bringing one into the world, not just keep banging them out while the state covers the cost. It's not people on benefits that I (personally) have an issue with. It'd people who exploit the system that wind me up. Of course, there aren't many news stories about honest people living quiet, normal lives on benefits or otherwise, because that's not going to sell papers or generate clicks.

Haha, I left it downloading. Will benchmark it properly when I get in. Oh, one quick BIOS question... Is it better to have Boot from CD before Boot from HDD? I had to switch them around to get everything installed, but now I'm wondering if it wouldn't boot quicker without checking the DVD drive first. (It'll only save me about 0.5 of a second, but if I can get those half seconds back, so much the better.

F'in A man. We brought on a guy at work whose name is Michael Jackson. I'm wondering how long it is before I can ask him "are you related to that singer guy" and "why don't you just go by Mike?" I'm glad someone else got the reference. (assuming Hotty was going for it).

It is alive! Somewhat annoyingly I realised this morning that I forgot to put the mobo speaker back in. It's sitting on my desk. But otherwise, all systems go. It's rated 7.6 on the windows index thingy. Is that good?

If I was, RockBand iOS wouldn't have been deactivated (and then un-deactivated), BF3 would be multiplayer only, and SimCity V would not need a persistent internet connection. Oh and we'd have a Mirror's Edge sequel by now with a Battlefield 2143 in the works.

Wish I knew. It's all very odd. Acti paying out to the IW Employees, changing counsel, then burying the hatchet with EA. I wonder if they have a shaky case and are attempting damage limitation or a graceful (as far as is possible at this point) exit. While I have no knowledge of what went on. (Really I don't this stuff is a bit above my pay-grade) I suspect that Activision dropped the case against EA on the proviso that EA don't counter-sue. It may be that Acti hoped to scare EA off of the deal with Respawn with the suit in the first place since any advance paid to Respawn as part of the agreement between EA and Respawn would have in all probability been used to fight this case. If Acti could have cut off Respawn's income it would have put Acti in a far stronger position. P.S. Apologies for the crap links, just want to make clear that all the information I'm divulging is public domain (and I don't actually know how to change the hyperlink into the text I want...).

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCmJFvHXtTpaKxoQ-d2vKomod6Og?docId=0e544cdf64e8437bab3e553b7f46c9cd

I've not played any Diablo so can't say if it's dumbed down. I just meant that when you make a system "more accessible" you will always have people waving the banner for Streamlined or Dumbed Down, depending on whether or not they approve of the changes.

Search google for "what is the best search engine" and the first result is a top 10 list of search engines. It does not say "Ummm... Google is lol!" Google could do pretty much whatever they wanted with that search term, see "do a barrel roll" or "tilt" or "slant" or "zerg rush". But instead of going for a cheap gag, they produce relevant, useful, unbiased info. While it may not be a monopoly issue, it's still not cool.

I couldn't tell you if the people making those statements have played the game or not. I wouldn't say that cutting out the calculation element is objectively better. You may well prefer it, personally I've always liked calculating the stats and working out the best combos. De-branching the skill tree was always going to be somewhat controversial. Streamlining vs Dumbing Down always is.

Well, you know opinions... I've seen plenty of complaints that graphics look washed out. That the skill tree has become a skill trunk. Almost everyone agrees that the actual gameplay is repetitive and that you are essentially playing a prettied up slot machine. I'm not saying that you or your friends are not allowed to like the game, or find it attractive, or whatever. Just that while the headline complaints are about the DRM, there are plenty of other issues that people have with the game.

Given that all the things people were saying about the reasons that always on DRM for single player is a bad idea are coming home to roost it seems like a perfect place and time to talk about the teething problems Diablo III is having. To be honest the connection issues may well be helping to hide some of the other problems people are having with Diablo III, I've seen others complain about flat textures, repetitive gameplay and an uninspiring story. I'm sure some of that is fuelled by the anti-DRM sentiment, but it seems like the game is not all that everyone hoped it would be.

This is just typical EA! Except it's not us for a change. Glad to see some worthy competition for worst company in America. Bring it Blizzard!

Yeah. Same thing.

That looks very sleazy. To be fair to apple siri gave a "You're kidding right?" response to a number of questions phrased in a similar way. They just missed this wording out. However, the fact that they changed it does make you wonder if they would hesitate for even a second before illegally exploiting a monopoly.

Is the video supposed to be hilariously cheesy? The look over your shoulder and smile thing is cracking me up.