Humodour

It's stable because a relatively large percentage of the economy is based on extraction of raw resources. (The Canadian Dollar is similar in this regard, although it is more tied to the USD due to the interconnectedness of the US-CAN economies.) Indeed. The Aussie dollar almost exclusively follows the direction of the price of oil. Interestingly it's always about 10 US cents lower than the CAD. I thought so too at first, but Australian exports experienced an unexpectedly large decline in that quarter causing a far higher trade deficit than expected. The 0.6% growth (Which translates to something like 3% GDP growth if it were for the year) was in spite of it (fuelled mostly by consumer and business demand, and public sector spending). Hmm. It'd certainly be nasty. Natural resources only make up 5% of GDP though, and of that China only consumes perhaps 20% of our raw commodities exports, which is nothing to sneeze at. I'm not sure what to make of it. I tend to think people overestimate the importance of Chinese appetite and commodities in general to Australia's economy.

I actually found Deus Ex combat adorable.

how do you know if its ready or not I have inside sources. Do you have those, hmm? No, so don't question me!

I'm sorry, but advertising a product is strictly forbidden on these forums. I'm going to have to report you.

So I just bought a copy of Heroes of Newerth (a self-professed DotA clone). I had the option because I'm a beta tester. I was the 23,870th beta tester to do so. It cost $30 USD. That means they've made $716,100 USD on this game already and it's not even in stores yet. Not bad eh? Also, if anybody wants an invite, I have 4 available. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. The file is about 250 megabytes (plus maybe another 100 in patches). Despite the size, the graphics are good (way better than DotA's).

Our cat left us once. She came back a week later very hungry and decided it was best to stay.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/09/02/...onomy.html?_r=1 I can't help but laugh.

For the sake of us all, don't release it unless it is polished.

Um... Portal Beyond Good & Evil Psychonauts (maybe?) Diablo 3 (you know it's true)

Youre excited about Diablo III? Anyone who isn't is a fraud. Then I'm a fraud I think most people already knew this.

Age of Empires 1 or 2 (both including expansions).

Youre excited about Diablo III? Anyone who isn't is a fraud.

Considering Alpha Protocol's lack of any ****ing advertisement & marketing campaign you'd think a demo would be a superb idea. Bah.

TBH, that's where Australia wants to be in terms of supporting quality of life and happiness. Over 70% of GDP comes from the services sector. Less than 10% from commodities and agriculture. The rest mainly manufacturing. Then again, we could take a leaf out of Japan's book fully mechanise manufacturing with robots, leaving most people to the more intellectually rewarding/stimulating services jobs as they are currently. But the problem is places like Japan already have that market cornered. There's just not a lot to justify Australia breaking into the manufacturing industry generally (look at the mess of our car industry). Free market and all that rot. I suppose we could introduce tariffs and such?

Meh, you don't. I think you're Chinese yourself right? Either way, I find myself agreeing with the bulk of your post. Many Chinese apologists are rather less rational and frank. I don't want China to fall into poverty and chaos. I do not, however, like the direction we're heading with China having all but a monopoly on manufacturing many Western goods. Not with the mentality of the Chinese state (I wouldn't give a bugger if it was private industry, and if China's private industry was truly private). Though at least such manufacturing is tempered by a reliance on Western commodities. Regarding your comment on the size of the manufacturing industries in other developed countries - I do presume they are smaller, but that's in no small part due to China soaking up capital investment with places like Indonesia left picking over the scraps (which was only sensible until recently since Indonesia for example only fully started economic liberalisation about 10 years ago). There's certainly no labour difference. But my point isn't that we should've avoided Chinese products in the past - it's that we should start to avoid them now, now that coherent alternatives exist. This coincides with China trending towards a consumption based economy so in an ideal world it works out well for everyone.

I'm not excited about Alpha Protocol. The dialogue system sounds annoying and restrictive and the fact that you 'level up' in a first/third person shooter (rather than simply gain skill points as in Bloodlines, Deus Ex, or System shock 2) sounds ludicrous. Finally, the segmentation of genuine role playing vs combat based on dev descriptions is not encouraging, nor is the claim one of them (Sawyer?) made that most role-playing is done through conversation. The stealth system in the game also sounds severely gimped. But I'll buy and hopefully enjoy the game on some level. Maybe it'll surprise me and I'll like it as much as one of the aforementoned games, but I'm not holding my breath.

I think the best idea is to simply avoid Chinese products. China doesn't even have a complete or consistent legal system yet, ignoring the fact that one would be supporting a totalitarian communist regime. Bull****. I'll take my chances with democracies of equal capability like India or Indonesia, thanks.

Man, bouncers here are such ****s. I've been thrown down the stairs at least twice from memory. Probably many more times that I can't remember. Once I woke up with a shallow knife wound on my chest after a particularly big night. But that's neither here nor there.

Meanwhile some other boffins have chosen to use slime mould 'robots' for their swarm intelligence instead: http://www.physorg.com/news170865567.html

Some researchers have designed a way to cheaply mass-produced micro-robots with swarm intelligence: http://www.physorg.com/news170678733.html Pretty damn cool.

Yeah, it does seem like a game suited for a demo. I would adore a demo.

The Scots already forgave him by giving him life imprisonment (20 years?) instead of the death penalty. They do not owe him compassion. Edit: For the record, I despise the death penalty.

Huh? My thoughts exactly.

America does that already. That said the bastard should rot in gaol till he dies a miserable lonely death. That's more then he gave the hundreds of innocents he butchered.

**** yeah energy legs! Can I get it in diet? You know, the one without 4000 babies? Yes, I believe there is a version for women.