Thursday Next

"Do" does indeed mean party.

I can't think of an alternative either to be honest. The only thing I can think of is "order" as in "I ordered some tickets to the Muse gig in May." But I'd never use that for a holiday.

We had our company one last week. It was a masquerade ball in a cathedral .Food was average, drink was flowing I was first on the dance floor. All in all a great success. Got the departmental do next wednesday. That should be similarly fun fun fun! I love having a chance to socialise with my colleagues from other departments.

To add to all of Deans points about how impractical it is from a profit and loss standpoint. Are we seriously talking about a ~$500 mid-spec PC/Console with a Valve sticker on it competing in a market where everyone shakes their head at Nintendo and says that ~$300 is way too expensive for a console?

The Hobbit! Loved it. But I'm a Tolkein fan. Takes a while to get started (as does the book) but once it's warmed up it ticks along at a good pace. They also add in a lot of the untold stories, or ones that were referenced on the side: Which help to flesh out the story. While The Lord of the Rings tells about a land emerging from a time of darkness, The Hobbit shows the land on the precipice as it begins its slide into that darkness. I've got very high hopes for the rest of the trilogy.

@Ethan: Crystal ball gazing: There is no way that a new home entertainment device is going to join or supplant Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in the living room for gaming, not unless they've got the reach of Apple or Samsung. Certainly not if we're looking at people's mums or other casual / core (but not FDS hardcore) gamers. If you are a PC gamer, and you want PC gaming in your living room, there are plenty of solutions for that already. If you are a console gamer, there are no benefits to going to Steam on a mid tier box and you're probably already balls deep into your platform of choice. I've got too much Sony content to jump ship to a Steam console / PC and I only have space / time in my living room for one console so I'm not going to double up.

But that is already well catered for by Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. I don't see what Steam has to offer on top of that?

But if you are so ignorant as to gaming and technology in general, why would you even look twice at a Steam Console? While it has a huge number of casual titles, Steam is not aimed at the mum market. That position is already filled by the Wii. Steam doesn't have anything like a big enough brand to take on Nintendo in the casual living room gaming space.

You don't have to be tech smart to build a PC. I'm just a lawyer and I built one. The problems I see with this are: 1. If it is cheap enough to compete with console prices it won't be as powerful. 2. If it is as powerful as consoles it will be more expensive. 3. Even if they do somehow make it as cheap as and as powerful as a console it will still soon be obsolete. 4. If it uses just a steam OS then it will not have the Netflix / iPlayer etc. features that consoles have. 5. If it uses Windows, then you might as well build (or get an off-the shelf) HTPC, which will do games, video, music, etc... While people making games for consoles know that they have to stick within the console limits PC games are not similarly restricted so a SteamBox that is released today and can run games on high, will, within six to twelve months be running games on low, and within a couple of years will be able to run bugger all.

Why is anyone interested in this? Just build an HTPC and install Steam if you're ok with an underpowered PC plugged into your telly. I don't see any benefits to this unless it is silly cheap.

No worries. I know I went way over budget which is a bit naughty and definitely don't want anyone else to feel like a bar has been set. I spend a lot of time with you guys and it's cool to have an opportunity to do something nice like this. Big thanks to P4 for setting it up.

Given that by downloading you get it on both platforms I wouldn't be surprised if most sales were online so not counted by NPD.

It turns the stereotype because the title implies that Chewie has created the ideal playlist that will automatically seduce a woman. The stereotype being that all women can be seduced by a situation. Like those ads for "use this one weird trick to get women to sleep with you" or whatever. The stereotype is turned on its head because in the subheading Chewie reveals that his perfect playlist is an abject failure.

A prince coming. Nudge nudge wink wink say no more...

Also feel this way about Mirror's Edge. I'm sure you can blast through the campaign in a few hours. Just looked and speed run is sub one hour, but it still felt like a full length game to me (because I am not as good as this guy).

^How is that politics?^ http://www.gamesindu...elief-for-games Woohoo! Now we get to pay even less tax. Find it quite amusing when juxtaposed with http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20560359

Now this I wouldn't have been too chuffed about. I'm sure he means their mouths. Like they would be drooling and stuff. EDIT: Also, sexism? Really? It's satire in my opinion. It could have been gender neutral "Chewie's Essential Seduction Playlist", but then given that Chewie is a heterosexual male, it would have meant the same thing. I'm totally up for equality and all that good stuff, but no women were demeaned here, the title was totally self-depricating and, if anything, empowering to women given that it turns the stereotype that women can be seduced by a situation regardless of the potential partner on its head. On topic. Otis Redding, "Georgia (on my mind)" is a great song to chill out to with a [GENDER NEUTRAL] romantic interest. Unless [his/her] name is Georg[e/ia], in which case it comes across as ultra cheesy. In fact, any of Otis's slower stuff is good but, "I've been loving you" and "These arms of mine" are a little full on if you are not already in a relationship with the [guy/gal] you are with at the time.

- I'd pay off the debts / mortgages of my family and close friends. - I'd stay in my job. I love the industry for all its faults, and I wanted to be a lawyer long before I knew anything about money. - I'd buy a modestly sized 3-4 bedroom house with a decent sized garden, something that a few friends could stay over in and I could entertain in year round. - I'd still cook and shop for myself. - I'd buy a fast, but relatively understated car for everyday use, something like an Audi R8. - I'd buy an old Triumph Spitfire and renovate it with modern engine, drive-train, brakes, etc. I love the look of that car. - Other than that, I'd probably stay mostly the same otherwise, go to the nicer bars in town but not the ridiculous "exclusive" places, go to the cinema with a mate on a Wednesday because it's two for one, I've never been particularly ostentatious. I like nice things, not sparkly things. Things that are well built and not form over function. Oh, I'd go on a couple of two week holidays a year (I still have a job after all), but I'd pay for any of my mates that want to come along. One exception to the ostentation rule is that I'd have a ~40' boat moored in Poole. Not a Sunseeker though. I file those under "Premiership Footballer tat" along with Ferraris. A Ferretti maybe (http://www.ferrettigroup.com/) they make incredibly beautiful machines. Essentially, I'd like to be the person that some second or third generation rich kid, a Paris Hilton or whatever turns their nose up at because they think I've got nothing when I could actually buy them three times over. I find the idea of having a huge amount of money/power but not flaunting it very alluring. Off topic. If you gave me the option of having fame, money or power I'd take power any day, which is just one reason why I should *never* be given any.

I always thought that the whole "whole 9 yards" thing was a Football reference, I know a first down is 10 yards, but many idioms like that are sports references, wondered if maybe a first down was 9 yards in the way back when. A bomber's guns feels like an unlikely source for the saying imuo.

First you hate it, then you get used to it. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on it. That's institutionalised.

To be honest, the title of the thread is somewhat predatory. Sounds like a pickup artist thing. But then juxtaposed with the success rate, it's clearly tongue in cheek and could just as easily have been "Chewies universally inoffensive playlist". Which is how I chose to read it.

There needs to be a "Kiss my floury bottom" apron.

You've probably never heard of it.

Righto. Cheers.

Hey, noob question(s). How do we gift? Is it anonymous?