Thursday Next

You can also add in Tywin's behaviour toward Tyrion. Even after everything that happened, with Cersei, with Jaime, with Tyrion proving himself in battle and in Kings Landing. After all that Tywin still will not give Casterly Rock to Tyrion. A possible explanation could be that he knows Tyrion is not his son and so will not suffer him to hold Casterly Rock. It's been speculated that Tyrion was the result of Aerys raping Joanna, that when Tywin found out he tried to have the child aborted with moon tea, but because of the hardiness of Targs, Tyrion survived, alas Joanna did not. As a result Tywin blames himself as much as Tyrion for the death of his love and couldn't bring himself to murder Tyrion as he is the last piece of Joanna he has left.

They're citing repeated infractions of the ToS. EA don't do themselves any favours by not commenting, but you do only have one side of the story there.

Heart of Darkness. Jeeeeeebus, it is a tough read. The prose is like wading through treacle. The fact that it is written from the point of view of a guy listening to another guy tell a story doesn't help matters. 90% of the book is in quotation marks to the point where you wonder why the author didn't just say "fuck it" and write it all first person. I'm over half-way through now, so gonna slog on to the end, but man, I think I'm going to have to reward myself with some Stieg Larsson or something after this. Has anyone read the millenium trilogy? Would they recommend it?

Yeah, I quite like this place too.

What tradition would that be?

I don't have ADwD to hand, but at one point near the end Tyrion muses as to whether his immunity from the greyscale means he is a Targ. There's also the comment "All dwarves are bastards." And Tywin saying "I wish I could prove you are not my son." (rather than "I wish you were not my son"). He's also described as having "white-blonde" hair, possibly alluding to the white hair of Targaryens. Oh, and he dreams of Dragons, and the way the Direwolves react to him is odd.

But, a lot happened on Tyrion's journey. Meeting Young Griff, finding out he is Aegon. The meeting with the greyscale fellas which raises suspicions of Tyirion being a Targaryen bastard, getting apprehended by Mormont, his character development while with Penny, and then coming to Mereen as a slave. That's a lot to fit in that would be missed if he just appeared in Mereen.

It is indeed my first and I am quite satisfied thus far. Was looking for an e-reader not a tablet so the Kindle Fire isn't really of interest to me. Given the nature of the content available on the Kindle (i.e. tiny files that take days to consume) I don't see the need for an expansion slot on the reader.

Forcey Fun Time. Bwahahahahaha.

I don't get it. Asplain please?

Such as..?

Oh, so when he used the inflammatory term "Is it still veritable spyware?" he actually meant: "Do the game and the Origin client still collect totally anonymous, unidentifiable, telemetry data for the sole purpose of identifying the causes of errors in the software with certain hardware configurations so that EA can provide fixes for those errors ensuring a better user experience for all?" In which case, yes, it does still do that. Also, technically speaking, Origin doesn't "scan your computer". Windows does and reports out to Origin.

It's not spyware.

"He also noted that the average revenue per paying Origin user is currently between $45-50." That would be a copy of BF3 then.

Got me one of these fellas First book I read on it was Flatland. I'm currently 1/3 of the way through:

Fair enough. Profit margins on digital items are very good because the cogs is very low, but a social network with sell-able items is not a guaranteed success by any means.

Not to mention that all three of these games are already translated. So... yeah...

The link to the "Profitability" of Home was clearly in response to Chewie's suggestion that Home is unprofitable. "Good" is subjective. Lots of people obviously think Home is "good". You and Chewie clearly do not. Do you know how much it costs? It would take more than one person to design, render, test and upload a shirt, and no one in this industry is working for "next to nothing" so no, it does not cost "next to nothing" to create a digital shirt. The infrastructure and manpower required to keep a social network running, especially one as rich in content as Home is far from tiny so it's not simply a case of: 1. Set up Social Network. 2. Sell one digital t-shirt. 3. Profit!

The following is personal experience and opinion: It's got nothing to do with being from Eton and everything to do with people thinking that they are too good for certain jobs. I finished Uni with a law degree, came home, had no job, applied to some solicitors, some retailers, some supermarkets. My first job: Getting up a 4am to do stock counting at Sainsbury's. It was shit. I hated every minute of it, but, I am way too proud to sponge off the state. I've had more jobs than I can count over the years, from cleaning fryers in a cafe to silver service in 5* Hotels. I've delivered hire cars and sandwiches, done data entry, worked in building insurance, and in pubs. I have never been out of a job since I was 16 unless it was by choice. My sister has the same problem as a lot of these people. She wants to work in media and so refuses to get a "crappy job" in a shop. The result is that when she goes for a media job she rocks up with a degree and a blank CV. So she never gets the jobs she wants and the cycle continues. There are jobs in tanning factories (leather, not sun-tans) that are horrible, smell bad, and are bloody hard work, but usually (unsurprisingly) have vacancies. Anyone who doesn't have a job needs to lower their "standards". Around this time of year there are always a glut of jobs going in retail for the Christmas rush. If you can't find work, then I honestly believe you just aren't trying hard enough.

Assuming now that Chewie is done reading we can dispense with spoilers? For a while I was convinced that Beric Dondarrion was Azor Ahai, he had the proper flaming sword and was undying until he passed the gift onto Cat/Stoneheart. Now I wonder if with Jon's future not looking too rosy if Melissandre will revive him the way the Red Priest did Beric, either that or if Cat will pass the gift on to Jon (seems unlikely given their history) either way, it would see Jon possibly as the true Azor Ahai. I'm surprised that no one has drawn the parallel between Cersei taking a walk and being broken and Dany taking a walk and being forged anew. Surely this is the prophesied "Younger and more beautiful queen"? I think the Tyrion chapters were drawn out to give you an idea of the sort of distance he has travelled, it would sort of lose the sense of scale if Tyrion just popped up with Jorah outside Mireen.

7 out of 10? This is easily a 7.4 or maybe a 7.5. Jerk.

What I mean is, you take someone's money, there's a contract there. I don't mean just in law, I mean you've asked the other guys to do something, they've done it. Now you change your mind and they've just got to put up with it. It's wrong on so many levels.

What I mean is, for that particular demo, did everything have to be in place like, if someone moved the trolley on foot to the left or right, would the whole thing have not worked. Or is Asimo aware of its surroundings? I know it's programmed, I'm not a total nincompoop, but I'm not sure where on the scale it is from something like a big-trax in that it would do the same movements irrespective of context up to something completely autonomous that can be told to find a trolley and bring it over and pour a drink.

Much as I dislike piracy, I dislike people who kowtow and renege on agreements more. Especially when they've bought and paid for something and been completely up-front about who and what they are.

Ridiculous. I mean I know that any line you draw and say "This is now a person" be it at birth, or the 1st / 2nd / 3rd trimester is arbitrary, but how can two cells be a person?