Re access. It's not a great database for proper multi-user database applications, but it's a bloody wonderful RAD solution for the horrors you find lurking in Excel.

RE 1-2-3 I wote macros for it and remember they had a few decent features in later versions but nope they were beatend fair and square. Funnily enough the other obvious place a MS product whacks the compeditor is Outlook vs Notes. (The Notes client being clearly designed to make the user pay for sins in a prior life).

I did log into facebook recently to see if there were any more privacy buttons I needed to turn on. Merciffy there noting there - no photos comments etc. If I was sure the would delete everything I'd close it.

First thoughs:

Beard'n'Sandles - instead of penguin for *nix types.

The silly "Prince" squiggle - for TIFKAM

Whale/Joss Stick - for when the Cetean Ambient is cranked up

An Armchair - for any long posts on military matters

Missing the obvious candidate

Where's Juilan Assange??? I know he hasn't actually had a role yet but he's clearly born for it so it's just a matter of time. It's not hard to picture him with the white cat..........

WoW-playing Voters

I don't suppose the views of WoW players will affect the result much as they'd have to leave their bedrooms to vote......

Not first time we tried to "help"

IIrc after the war some refurbished Engima machines were distributed to Commonwealth countries and other allies for "secure" communications.....which we could then break into.

I wonder what the publisher of the Express has to say. He has a number of publications that might well have sustatial online readership............

Corporate roll-out schedules

Alas we're on IE8 here that came with our more to Win 7 from WinXP/IE6 hell this year.

Not sure that IE9 will happen any time soon as every browser change requires retesting of a vast number of internal web-based apps. Of couse there is no need for them to have been web-based but that is another story.

Hidden Qualities?

Having alternated between Notes and Outlook clients over the years I always assumed that there must be some hidden benefits as there certainly weren't any obvious ones. When I used it c2000-2 the user interface was a clearly worse than outlook...express. (I actualy used OE with Hotmail for my personal mail then as it was easier). I encountered notes again in 2005-7 and 2010-11 and I could detect barely any improvement.

There may be some great features for the BoFHs but there certainly weren't any for the users.

Of course a lot of these PIA legacy IE6 apps were created because 10-12 years ago developers wanted some web dev on their CVs regardless of the fact that they were internal apps and a thick client might have been a better solution for the end user.

How do these people sleep at night?

My favourite quote from their species was "If you take a hypothical system and imagine a hypothical use-case......." I have no idea what came next as I must have fallen into a trance.

Science Fiction?

It's fiction about science mostly which it the tread that links his writing.

Not sure

I'm normally up for a new release. Even Vista had UI improvements over XP which made it a wrench going back, though I only ever installed it on a laptop. Hoever I'm really unclear where they are going with the Metro UI in the desktop world.

Certainly I can't see it being rolled out in any large office environment, though I thing most larger corporates are currently going through the XP to Win 7 deployment so won't be looking to upgrade for another five years or so. By then they should have worked out where they are going with the classic desktop which I think will be aroud for a good while yet.

for myself I think it could work well as a mediacentre OS and I might try it out on my old dell netbook this weekend.

Why?

Could someone explain why I would want to purchase a BitCoin. is there a purpose to it other than finding new ways to lose money.

First question they'll ask

"Ok so how do I print from this thing?"

BBC Basic

I had a BBC B but I had to wait a year or two for it as it was a lot of money for us. As I recall because the basic had proper REPEAT....UNTIL Loops, procedures and functions there was a culture of never using GOTOS at all so it did teach you some good habits. I also recall doing some stuff in Assembly language but then my taper recorder broke and wouldn't record so it was a good few months before I could save any code again and never got back to the hard code.

That said it when I was a college and had to write a little PASCAL it was a very eaesy convertion and I earning a living in VBA these days so the £400 was a pretty decent investment.

As for all this BS about "proper" programming languages, I'm a firm beliver that you can write bad or good code on any platform.

Coffee is a serious matter

I have a couple of home espress mahines, a LaPavoni and a Dualit and to be honest I'm beginning o think that it's not worth it until you go towards 4 figures and get cut-down commercial machine like http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php/26/isomac-millennium-two-semi-automatic-espresso-machine

But was it 'simulation'?

Lets just check and see what the benefit is.......

Check a random album recommended to me on Amazon:

So I can have a low quality rip delivered to me using my own bandwidth for.....exactly the same price as a CD. Great. Nope. Not sure why I'd fall for that one.

Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and In stock.Items for dispatch to UK will be sold by Amazon's Preferred Merchant. (Why?)

45 new from £7.93

Buy the MP3 album for £8.99 at the Amazon MP3 Downloads store.

Limit too low

This sounds positive but the problem with limiting it to the VAT threashold is that there is yet another barrier to expansion. With our small seasonal business we would have been better stopping trading in when we hit the threshold in month 9 and not had to pay VAT out of the netx years turnover. They we get a second shop and they pull the small business rates relief.

There are serious disincentives to expanding a business in this country.

32-point simultaneous...

That's a lot of fondling.

I'll get my coat, and some car keys from that bowl.

Obvious explanation......

I'm sure his supporters will believe that the poor performance is sabotage by the CIA, the Federal Reserve, the Trilateral Commission etc etc