@ Cynical Observer

As a salaried employee (of the state), I am allowed to claim expenses. However, when I spend that money (e.g. on petrol, car maintenance, train tickets), I am paying tax (VAT, fuel duty). At the end of the year, HMRC look at how much I've claimed, then reduce my personal allowance, ensuring that I pay tax on my expenses again. I'm certainly not making a profit out of this.

I like this arguement.

Complaint: "Duck Duck Go is shit. I used it to search for something, and it didn't find it."

Response: "No, Duck Duck Go is fine. You should have gone to the relevant website and found it for yourself. Why would you need a search engine?"

Bravo!

I'm still using Google, simply because Google is the best there is at what it does (even if what it does ain't very nice).

WOPR was hardly a badass, though!

With regards to Deep Thought, I don't know where that picture came from, as there's never been a film adaptation of that.

Re: It just looks so pathetic

5 servings of KFC? No thanks. 1 is already 1 too many.

@ Robert Grant: Here:

"I pushed her against the wall and said: Now I know the truth. Are you a man? She then announced that she was born as a boy and that she had been operated on. She was now a woman, and so she did not need to tell me about her past as a man. My world collapsed. That evening came to blows. The police came."

Granted, "came to blows" doesn't specify who was beating up who, but "I pushed her against the wall" suggests that the husband started it.

Re: Keeping Secrets

Quite. Still, smacking your wife about is a line that should never be crossed, so any sympathy he might have garnered for being "deceived" for 19 years, goes right out the window.

Thanks, Mako.

What was once a whimsical recounting of one man's sexual misadventures, will now be forever heard as the disturbing story of a would-be-rapist, stalking around bars in search of his next victim. Thanks a lot.

I prefer to relax and enjoy someone else's.

(sorry)

Totally flat?

Like Christopher Lloyd at the end of Roger Rabbit? You sicko.

Re: Those pesky Japanese STEALING from Iran AGAIN!

I'm just glad THAT Charles 9 is here, as SOMEONE needs to take this STORY seriously (and WANTONLY abuse the SHIFT-key).

Re: Shame...

Why let it gather dust when you can just hand it down? My in-laws bought a Wii - once they'd got bored with Bowling, they gave it to us for the kids to use. Free console (result) and small children really aren't that bothered about cutting edge technology (so long as I tune out their pleas for me to buy them and X-box with Kinect!).

Nintendo Wii: shit for grown-ups (Wii-motes? Ugh!), but great for kids, so it's no wonder it sold so well.

Re: Interesting this one...

Plenty of (straight) non-believers get married in church. I don't believe in god, but I find that to be grotesquely disrespectful, but the ministers involved seem to be satisfied by the couples involved simply attending a couple of sunday services.

Unlike the dingbat in the story, I wouldn't draw the conclusion that gay = non-believer, so it really shouldn't be that hard to understand why a same-sex couple might want their union blessed in their place of worship.

@Ed 11

From the correct angle, all administrators look alike. Any angle, in fact.

Re: "Textbooks that feature Yoda..."

Such things already exist, and have done for some time! My son's teacher liked to incorporate Star Wars into his lessons, when practical, but was asked by the Head to stop, as the school decided that it was inappropriate to promote "War" to 6-year olds.

Re: cartoons as toy adverts etc

Quite. I suppose it depends on your definition of "modern" if the author wishes to consider this a new phenomenon (or maybe they just grew up without a TV - oh, the horror, the horror!).

Re: My god

Any decent pub will top the beer off for you, on request. I doubt Microsoft are going to be popping round to pour him a few more GB.

Re: So what are the lefties among you going to do when the diversity takes over Britain?

Hahahahaha! Good one.

Is this a masterful troll, or just too much fail for the internet to handle?

Wanting to read a book, one handed,

makes someone a wanker? What if they just want to enjoy a cup of tea and/or biscuit, with their read?

An e-reader shouldn't be less convenient than an actual book, should it?

@GrahamsTenPenneth

It's been a couple of years since I last had Mint running on my desktop machine (wanted to see if it was worth ditching the pre-installed Vista). Has Linux (any distro) got to the point that plugging in, say, a camera or MP3 player, will prompt the system to find its own drivers and then let you browse around whatever you've just plugged in? It took me quite an effort to get even the most basic functionality from my Zen when plugged in to Mint (it was about the same when plugged into my Win2k laptop), which put me off recommending Linux to anyone else (I'd like to put my dad on it, as it's just too easy for him to riddle his Vista desktop with endless malware), but I just can't do it (endless phonecalls would ensue).

I've currently got Puppy running on an old laptop, and something as simple as disabling the lid close/sleep button eludes me still. If an enthusiastic amateur like myself can't get off Windows, what hope the general population?

Perception.

Perceived risks of driving without prior instruction:

- backing the car into a wall (expensive)

- running someone over (litigious)

- dying in a fiery wreck (fatal)

Perceived risks of surfing the internet without prior instruction:

- accidental discovery of boobs (arousing)

@ bill 36

Still probably more reliable than wind power!

Well, I'm winning no friends here!

@thegrouch

No, I think the point is that they will not filter your content if you ask them not to (the "fap" comment was a flippant remark, but well done for focusing on that).

@AC

I don't know, will they use this on CRBs, etc.? I would assume not, as a desire to look at the internet without filters =/= a criminal conviction for purchasing child porn.

@Thorne

The slippery slope? Certainly bears consideration but, given that we already have Step 2 (Cleanfeed), maybe this is all stable doors and bolting horses?

Re: @Sir Runcible @AC:@Lamont (this is getting horribly nested, isn't it?)

Bit late to worry about "them" having your name, address, etc. Internet access is a paid for service, not an inalienable human right.

I really don't think this counts as censorship, as 1) they tell you that they're doing it and 2) they stop doing it if you ask them to. Opt-in or opt-out, it remains optional.

@N13L5

I know this is a tech site, but I still think that referencing a popular game as a benchmark for 3D graphic capabilities, is more meaningful than rattling off the technical specifications of the GPU. Knowing that web-pages scroll smoothly, and HD films can be played back is all well and good, but a thorough test of a device should (in my mind, at least) throw something graphically demanding at the device - afterall, whether or not you want to play games, some of the intended market will.

Google Play says that my Desire S will run Dead Trigger but, in practice, it's jerky, and has terrible controls. A real-world test gives you something beyond the raw specs, which is imformative, even if you've no interest in the task used for the test.

Opera is the best browser!

Oh, sorry, wrong generic comment.

iPhone users are all sheep!

No, that's not right either...

@ThomH

Aye, slap a TV tuner (Freeview HD+, please) in there, and I might want one. Actually, if I has HDMI, I suppose I could just plug in any old PVR, but that's not as tidy.

Re: Only a passing mention

Mortal Kombat is a cult classic, surely? Very quotable, and great fun. The sequel belongs on a list of crap films, though.

ISP (on behalf of the state): Would you like us to impose our morals on your lifestyle?

Internet User: No, thank you very much.

ISP (...): OK, we'll turn off the porn filter for your internet feed.

Internet User: *fap, fap, fap*

Damn you, nanny state!

@Sir Runcible

Really? Is it so terribly arduous to have to tick a box to indicate your preference for web-filtering, when applying for a contract with your chosen ISP?

Manually deleting all of the "adult" channels from my Freeview EPG, everytime the box gets re-tuned, is a pain in the arse, so I'd rather they had to be added in by those who want them, but is this really worth my while getting upset about? No, not really.

If they're going to have a filter, it'll have to be either opt-in or opt-out. Doesn't bother me either way, but I'd take a wild guess that many of those who want it, don't really know what it is, while those who don't want it are probably very aware of what it is, so having those who don't want it ask to have it turned off, is probably the method that most reliably produces the desired results (assuming that the desired result is a false sense of security among those who want the filter on, I suppose).

Re: "everyone else as a nude Kelly Brook"

Your "morning afters" are going to suck.