L00b

What's your budget? I can recommend a really fabulous, extra-extra-special place by Windermere, where we sometimes return to for our anniversary (but it ain't cheap) As relaxing/quiet as you're ever going to find, with lake views and a Michelin star restaurant.

All openly accepted as either indescriminate and/or less humane than hunting with hounds.I'll not disagree about gassing and trapping, but come on: holding that shooting is more indiscriminate and/or less humane than hunting with hounds, is just plain hard-headedness. (EDIT: and yes, I have shot a fair few foxes (and other furry things) in my time and no, I'm neither for nor against fox hunting - not bothered either way TBH ...but if some people can get a job/pay tax and make a good, honest living from it, then that's OK in my book).

Not to worry, I just thought it brought it more within the context of a discussion about 'capitalism' (rather than a discussion about 'real deserving workers vs shiny a55e5' )

Fixed it a little bit, by your leave But then again, that's one concept Titanic99 never seems to understand, or accept.

I'm surprised at you, Titanic99. But then again, not Surprised you did not instead rant at the unfairness of the second-hand games market, so far as game creators are concerned. After all, a 2nd-hand game sale deprives them of the just revenue associated with a new sale, for all their hard graft, millions invested, etc. ...only for the likes of CEX, Games, Gamestation to make a profit on the same unit twice or more! Despicable, I tell you Not surprised because, as usual, you don't seem to have thought this one through (does it not amaze you, that any second-hand market works in exactly the same manner ) PS - by that same reason, there's nothing ideologically relevant about your example. It's not about getting one up on the next person, it's simply about common sense

You mean National Service? That ceased for anyone born after 01 Jan 1977 (I think... around that date anyway). It could be delayed by up to age 24 maximum (from age 18 at the earliest, to accomodate higher education), so the last class of conscripts would have been in 2001. I was paid €57 net per month for the entire duration. Housed, fed, clothed and entertained, what would you need money for The worst it was, when I got posted in the civil service for the second half of it, the exact same job as a civil servant (i/of posted conscript) attracted €40k p.a. I suppose that would be one way of going about budgetary cuts

Why be so sexist?

Yeah, well...I'm from that part of France, which has always been either French or German, depending on the century (or even decade, at times!) So I suppose there's a bit more subsconscious social/cultural conditioning underpinning this "defense of the realm" malarkey... which is why (you'll not often hear, though it is God's honest truth) Alsatian people are some of the most patriotic French persons to be, and many amongst notable military commanders (yes, there are some) originally came from the North East and still do. Not that 12 months worth of basic would have counted for much, if the Russians had been coming indeed (I was lucky, I got to do half in hussards -for the extra annual leave: 2 whole weeks instead of 1- and the other half in top-level civil service -for the experience and the occasional perks: playing minder to a Discovery Team filmcrew following the bomb disposal team at work around Verdun!-) I did think about career. But in all honesty, I don't think I'd have made the grade for helos or fixed-wing at the time, which are the only things I'd have enlisted for.

Married August 1996 here. Honeymooned 3 weeks, then shipped out a week later for 12 months of national service in France. Not for one minute entertained the idea of doing an AWOL (i) firstly and entirely because that's not me (morally speaking) and (ii) because even if I had, then I'd have been on receiving end of a European warrant for arrest, and spent the 12 months in a military gaol instead (as and when caught by SY's finest, then handed over to French MP), with a dishonorable discharge at the end. You'll often find me making posts here and there about rights and duties. Too few people understand the very notion these days.

Neat. However, and unfortunately, I perceive a flaw. An important one, a'tually: why would the inventor robot be inventing things for you and do your bidding, JFK'? Oh wait... <Charlton Heston fist-shaking> You are particularly elaborate Turing test in disguise, aren't you? AREN'T YOU? </Charlton Heston fist-shaking>

Well, in epiphany's paradox (or Utopia, take your pick), who's going to do the first inventing and the first robot-building? Sorry to keep being practical in such a senseless thread, but hey... I just can't abstract the Cartesian out of me (...and we all know what will eventually happen, when robots develop and build successive generations of themselves, don't we? epiphany's paradox will become redundant, just as we will become an energy supply source and coma-induced into leading pre-ordained lives in an alternative reality )

They have, in many different guises. Get with the cybernetic times, epiphany

Simply. No justice (or injustice) about it, whatsoever. The one and the same, for all things living and breathing, the World over. If I may. No, I think Cyclone suggests that it would make more food (well, as much as those working produce) for people willing to work Ever heard of De La Fontaine's the grasshopper and the ant? It's as valid today, as hundreds of years ago when it was written

Hi, I was unfortunate to suffer my first Paypal account hijack last night (since I got my account, around the time Paypal first started). Thing is, the way Paypal notified me about the potential hijack between the transaction notice and the 'vendor' acceptance of the payment, and the rapidity with which they apparently resolved the issue (email confirming case resolved and that I will be fully reimbursed, received within less than 24 hours), makes me think there was no hijack as such, and on the contrary that it was a Paypal internal ****-up of some sort. Question: has anyone suffered a similar mishap recently? I'm trying to assess how isolated this was. And before anyone asks, yes, the Paypal emails were genuine and no, I haven't the foggiest how anyone could have got my login details (which are very different from my logins for most other sites, Forums and whatnot I frequent). I have been using eBay for 10+ years, Paypal since they started, and the Internet since well before that, and I am reasonably savvy about phishing attempts, fake websites, checking this-that-the-other before inputting any keystroke/clicking any link. MalwareBytes, AVGFree and Windows 7 internal security are all clear, have been for months.

Try this theory for size (pun intended)

You'd be surprised (I was!) I offloaded a bundle of Win95 retail (CD/jewel case/key), authentic boot disk and Office 95 retail (CD/jewel case/key) on eBay around Xmas. Was fully expecting pennies (my usual £0.99 start to avoid listing fees ) for it, but what the heck, would make some room in my office draws... It made just slightly over £20, to my utter amazement EDIT - saw that ad (in the OP) last night, and had a good chuckle at the time - totally agree with PC Brigade above, but I refrained from thread-spoiling

Oh boy, here we go again... (only kidding )

I don't get intimidated easy ...but my communications (in such cases as the OP) are intimidating enough (having a trained legal mind helps a bit, I'll admit )

In these types of situations, (i) always make sure you keep a copy of everything and (ii) always send correspondence by recorded delivery (and print out the delivery record from RM's track & trace website). If, as and when a debt collection becomes involved, copy (cc) the debt collection on any correspondence sent to the service provider (Sky, VM, whoever), again by recorded delivery. Some years ago, I had a similar issue with DHL in connection with a duty import and VAT invoice they wanted paying, for goods which they themselves classed as lost in transit and never delivered. That eventually went to a debt collection agency. A few choice recorded delivery letters to all parties sorted the matter, never to be heard from again.

I have. Several of them, at that. However, and admittedly, on very few occasions (when some sheik or other was passing through and was having management give his entourage a VIP whip-through of the centre - mid to late 90s, if I recall correctly (could have been '94 or '95 )). EDIT - snap, just seen your earlier post about your London experience.

No. If you're going to discuss legal concepts, you have to be precise. Of course. However, and unfortunately, maybe not in her condition . I'm not scaring her, I'm informing her: to do it right (meaning, for a good chance of success), you have to either spend the time (learning/researching/planning/making representations), or hire expertise (which doesn't come cheap). Firing off personal emails/letters etc. will likely have about as much effect as a chocolate fireguard (until and unless you actually issue proceedings). Firing off emails/letters by a legal firm comes at a cost.

Looks like passing off and copyright infringement, at a first quick glance. But to actually do something about it is likely to cost you £££s, unfortunately. And will likely put off any potential buyer for your website. No, it's not. It is (a strong likelihood of) copyright infringement. No, it's not. It is an expression (which until not so long ago was) used as a mark in the course of trade. The fact the expression may be considered as descriptive is a potential bar to registration, but that does not necessarily impact a passing off case.

I may be wrong (hope I am, actually), but I got the distinct impression -conveyed in no small part by the media over the past year and a bit- that quite a lot of families struggling as a result of the recession have been resorting to, indeed, "building up large lines of credit". Now, again I sumise, probably not so many of these are claiming incapacity benefit, but in view of the above, I would expect the 'credit line figures' to be somewhat biased by current events/circumstances in a lot of cases. I wonder if Experian's statistical modelling takes that into account? A very dangerous precedent, if this goes through. In terms of invasion of privacy, this is much worse, by some orders of magnitude, than anything NuLab put through in the past few years (and I'm really not a NuLab -or just Lab- fan at all!). The likes of Experian have been collating just about everyone's consumption/finance data for years already, whether people ticked the little privacy boxes on forms or not (since they can cross-ref everything to at least a bank/credit card or account number, and that piece of data identifies the account-/cardholder just as surely as an ID card/passport in 99.99% of cases). If the "conduit" to the Gvt opens, this will give Whitehall the kind of individual + searchable information about just about everyone, that any totalitarian state could only ever dream of getting back in the days.

In other news, a new kit has just been unveiled by Capello for the English team's next outing.

Methinks you'd be back to square one, minus the price of the chameleon. So, don't.