SteveThaiBinh

That song is always appropriate. I shall be humming it all day.

This reminds me of the opening chapters of Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man. I know he was quoting an earlier philosopher, though I can't recall who offhand. The point is that history, progress and all human achievement were made by the mules and pigs, not by the star-swingers (so to speak). Diplomacy and democracy were invented by people who didn't want to fight for their freedom. That's not to say there's nothing worth fighting for, or nothing I'd be prepared to fight for, but our reluctance to fight is one of our greatest strengths.

I guess consumer choice is a good thing, so if people want to do this, fine. I think some people or companies may be willing to do this, even if it ends up costing slightly more in the long run, in order to take some risk out of their finances. Incidentally, the Saudi government cut petrol prices by 30% last week. A litre of petrol now costs about 10p here.

Bounce. I think it came with it. I've been trying to get past level 7 for weeks. It's just no substitute for having my computer.

Most people I know who won't join the military (myself included) are probably doing the country a service by not joining. Also, the army seems to have a hard enough time turning people who want to be there into effective soldiers - does it need any extra aggravation?

I could probably fit two in the spare room and one on the sofa.

I saw Dogville on TV over the weekend, and loved it - some interesting ideas and some great acting. I found it hard to take The Core seriously, and it would have been a better movie if they'd played it for laughs.

I vaguely remember this being raised before, possibly in New Zealand? I also remember talking about it with friends after watching a news item about Koko the gorilla who apparently knows 1000 signs from American Sign Language. Can we deny 'human' rights to a creature who seems able to think and express herself the way we do? On the other hand, there are scientists who dispute whether she actually understands the signs she uses or just learns to reproduce signs because her handlers reward her.

The discovery of pre-ancient civilizations on Earth, whether human or not, would be evidence that the universe is an even more interesting place than we thought. On the other hand, either time travel or accurate prophecy would diminish us by devaluing our choices and freedom, making life more boring. So I'd vote for the pyramid under the Antarctic or whatever. What's wrong with disco?

Working today doesn't bother me as much as working on Christmas Day does. Happy Easter to everyone who wants to be happy, regardless of belief.

IMO means 'In my opinion' To get to HK-47 the fastest, go to Nar-Shaddaa first of the four Jedi Master destinations. However, it's not a good idea to rush through the earlier stages of the game focused entirely on one object, such as getting HK or jedifying a favourite NPC. It makes the game feel shorter and more broken. Stop and smell the roses.

I saw Ghost in the Shell a while back, and though I thought the ideas were interesting, I'm not sure I was convinced by how they were incorporated into the dialogue in particular. Perhaps something was lost in translation. I saw Hollywood Homicide on TV at the weekend, a movie about which I'd heard nothing but bad things. I actually quite enjoyed it, though I can understand why someone who'd paid to see it in a cinema might have been disappointed. I think it's more of a lazy afternoon kind of movie.

I don't see a problem. Although you haven't actually written 'No Muslims Allowed' on the posters, you have effectively excluded Muslims because you've created an event which few Muslims would feel able to attend for religious reasons, but that can't be helped. You're not obliged to give up either eating pork celebrating the eating of pork in order to suit someone else's culture or religion. I hope you have a great time. A problem would only arise if the social calendar of the university were dominated by pork and alcohol-only events to the point where Muslims were repeatedly excluded and unable to participate. That would be discrimination, even if all of these events were voluntary. I doubt that happens very often, though, as most universities have a pretty varied and rich social scene.

I think the last strategy guide I bought was for Ultima VII: Serpent Isle. I use the internet guides for any game that I've finished but haven't found everything yet - Baldur's Gate 2 and Morrowind are good examples of games with lots of goodies hidden away that I learned about through gamefaqs. I use them to enhance my gaming experience. But I could give them up any time I wanted to, really I could.

I didn't bring a monitor with me, so I'll be getting a 17-inch monitor as soon as I get my computer through customs. Moving from 15 to 17 inches will be a big step for me. It would be lovely if it were free, but alas, the Monitor Fairy doesn't live anywhere near here. I plan to abandon my computer two years from now. The AGP motherboard will be obsolete before then (if it's not already). So no more upgrades - it'll be a full replacement next.

No Daylight Saving Time in Saudi Arabia. It would just be confusing, because prayer times are fixed in relation to sunrise and sunset and wouldn't be able to change with DST.

I think I'll like the scaling feature of the game when I actually get to play it. Hopefully it means that I can send my character where I like and where I think the narrative and his personality dictate he should go, rather than having to run around doing lots of silly, out-of-character sidequests just in order to level up sufficiently to fight the next big monster. If I ever manage to get my computer back, I'll enjoy this game.

I used Netscape when I first got internet access back in the mid-nineties, but then Microsoft started pushing Internet Explorer and it was default on every public computer so I just got used to that. However, I'm getting sick of Explorer crashing all the time, even on a very clean system. Are any of the others noticeably more crash-resistent?

In no particular order, and I'd probably come up with a different list on a different day, but nevermind: Before The Rain My Neighbour Totoro Grosse Pointe Blank Fargo The Hours Star Wars Episode IV Dr Strangelove The Third Man The Producers Glengarry Glen Ross

Yes, Neverwinter Nights is worth buying, but is it a good idea to get it now? On the one hand, it might whet your appetite for NWN2, on the other it might give you a D&D overload that will last for months. Depends how you take these things, I guess.

Perhaps their lives and sense of self worth are built upon small victories against the 'system' (that's McDonalds and you, by the way). Cheating you out of 4 cents would have been a victory, as would getting you into trouble with your boss, you corporate sell-out you! They may have failed this time, but they're still out there, raging against the system and waiting for the revolution. Or maybe they just had a bet?

Not even I would believe a rumour that surfaced today.

Good news. I wonder what took them so long - it doesn't look any different from what appeared so briefly a few weeks ago. Still very much looking forward to this game, almost as much as Dreamfall.

Don't know if this helps, but... The division of health care into orthodox, complementary and alternative is of course Western-centric. When I lived in Viet Nam, people talked about 'Modern'/'Western' medicine and 'Traditional'/'Chinese' medicine. They would tend to go to each for different things - if you have a fever, you go to the traditional doctor, if you break your leg you go to the modern hospital. There are charlatans in traditional medicine of course - I had a Vietnamese friend whose father was dying of lung cancer and of course the 'orthodox' doctor said there was nothing she could do, but a traditional doctor promised a very expensive cure based on ingredients illegally imported from China, and my friend paid up. Why? Because it was his father, and if there was even a tiny chance it might work, it was worth it. My friend wasn't rich, he paid the equivalent of half a year's salary, and of course it didn't work, but he didn't regret it.

We know. The Sith Lords Restoration Project is working to improve the ending and other aspects of the game. Other than that, please search for and enjoy the other couple of hundred threads about how lacking the ending was.