Gorth

No, it usually requires a product of some sort to change hands too in exchange for the money. Otherwise it's called Tax It may not be what you are looking for, but it is the traditional understanding of the customer/supplier relationship. You can add a number of "qualifiers", like it has to be a voluntary transaction (as opposed to blackmail) etc. but in the end, it's still an exchange taking place. Maybe you are looking for "clients" instead (i.e. buyers of services from service providers)? Semantics, but it sounds nicer somehow, especially when using healthcare as an example

Qantas frequent flyer points

*Points finger, making screeching noise* You corporate fat-cat... just wait until the starving masses sets up camp, demonstrating at your door step, singing "We shall overcome" and "Kumbaya"

Whee!... got an email from Amazon that they expect to deliver my card sooner than first promised. Like shipping tomorrow and arriving early November (which is an improvement over late December) >_ Well, I'll save the true celebrations for when the card is securely fastened in my PC.

I belong to the culinary challenged Bought this pair of Hoki filets and had to look up on Google whether I was supposed to grill or bake it Ended up throwing some Piri Piri and a bit of Dill at it and bake it in the oven. Not too shabby with a bottle of Chardonnay. I like simple food I like sea food and would prefer to get it more often. Not many good sea food places around (Fish&Chips doesn't really count)

Not exactly headphones, but I'm looking at headsets. I have this most awesome Sony set (DR-220) which I've worn out those little "foam pillows" (whatever those thingies covering the speakers are called) and I can't find any replacements in this Odinforsaken part of the world, so I may have to, reluctantly, buy a new set. I went into an electronic store and bought a set, called Sennheiser Something (set me back $50-$60 or thereabouts), just to bring them home and discover they had the most awful flat, tin can like sound. Into the rubbish bin they went and I'm looking again, using the old set with bare plastic against one ear and torn foam tatters on the other. Anybody got any good ideas for lightweight (important too, the Sennheiser junk felt very heavy by comparison) and quality audio (both speaker and microphone)?

That was very... orange I don't really celebrate Halloween, but some good offers and sales on spooky stuff usually shows up at this time of year

When I applied for permanent residency here, I needed police records from all countries that I had lived in for more than 12 months the last 10 years. Danish police said sure no problem, they sent copy in an envelope. New Zealand police said sure no problem and sent an envelope with a printout. Australian police.... we can do that, but it will cost you $40. So I guess that makes me a customer of the Federal Police

When I played DA:O the first time, I was very surprised not to run into Nurgle, Tzeentch, Slaanesh and Khorne in the fade. It was so much a cut and paste from Warhammer that it felt uncanny

Without having read the readme (anybody ever read those?), does it in any significant way alter the gameplay experience? I.e. it changes looks/convenience not actual gameplay mechanics/difficulty? If I can drop it in the middle of a game without restarting, I might just try it out before finishing my current game. I'm a slow player

You could always pull a "Britney", just play back some computer generated voices without straining your own vocal chords in the process

He really has a strange approach to "reward psychology"

Awesome stress relief Life is currently a balancing act between work and a bit of spare time. The latter usually spent staring at some empty space feeling like my skull is full of cobwebs. Using miniature painting and FO:NV to keep my mind doing something at least, even if it feels low on battery Wondering about how Tarna is doing too. Considering investing in one of those big tomes of Active Directory to finally get it read and hopefully get a broader understanding of some of the underlying mechanisms and design philosophies.

Why do you hate our freedom? Hmm, reminds me that I bought the big bundle of GTA games that I need to play someday, pending the eventual delivery of my new (and hopefully more stable) gfx card.

Is it some kind of special or scripted encounter? Could they be wearing cheat items to boost their saves to make sure you have a hard time?

Poor Sisyphos, ended up working in HR

I've got a bit different experiences with the latter. They are rarely involved in the hiring process except as Chaperones, protecting the interviewee against grumpy old men In my current work place they went out of their way in put in overtime in their own time to help me out when getting my permanent residency and they assist with business trips abroad (what you need to know, vaccinations, visas you need to apply for before going there etc.). Usually delivering prompt and good answers to questions about workplace relations, leave etc. too.

Yeah FO1 definitely isn't humourless, I just prefer the over the topness of FO2, that and the sheer amount of stuff to do Not a fan of the over the topness (Knights of the holy grail, crashed Star Trek shuttle etc.), but I loved the sheer amount of stuff to do thing. I suppose I always loved games with a lot of stuff to do. Probably why I keep going back to the "oldies"

It's not that Fallout 1 didn't have humour, it was just less slapstick and less in your face. I still remember wanting to punch a BoS paladin or two when they sent me to The Glow Never mind that The Glow was one of my favourite places in FO1. Mostly it was the absurdity of a lot of the situations and quests that made you smile though, not the stand up comedian with a laugh track kind of funny like much of FO2. I still finished FO2 way more times than FO1, just for different reasons, not because of the 'humour' of FO2

About the first question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_d...ard_disk_drives In short, lower latency and search times. Laptops in particular benefits from faster "drives". Also, way more resilient when suffering physical abuse. In case you ever felt like hitting somebody over the head with a notebook... One of our clients replaced their server HDD's with a dozen SSD's and large job runs between 10 and 20 times faster. But that's a database system with a lot of random access/read activity, your mileage may vary. No idea about the motherboard question though, probably varies between make and model?

Slightly old (some of them are pre-end of cold war) from rec.humour.funny.reruns Yes, I know you can find these by the truck load today by searching google and places like engrish.com, but once upon a time, people actually collected this kind of information in books The original on usenet is somewhat longer, but I've cut it down to some favourite examples: This originally comes from Richard Lederer, from a book called Anguished English. In a Belgrade hotel elevator: To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order. In a hotel in Athens: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily. In a Yugoslavian hotel: The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid. In a Japanese hotel: You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid. In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery: You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday. On the menu of a Swiss restaurant: Our wines leave you nothing to hope for. In a Hong Kong supermarket: For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service. Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop: Ladies may have a fit upstairs. In a Bangkok dry cleaner's: Drop your trousers here for best results. In a Rhodes tailor shop: Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation. Similarly, from the Soviet Weekly: There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years. In an East African newspaper: A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since the contractors have thrown in the bulk of their workers. In a Zurich hotel: Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose. In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist: Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists. In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time. In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency: Take one of our horse-driven city tours -- we guarantee no miscarriages. Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand: Would you like to ride on your own ass? Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan: Stop: Drive Sideways. In a Swiss mountain inn: Special today -- no ice cream. In a Bangkok temple: It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man. In a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions. On the door of a Moscow hotel room: If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it. At a Budapest zoo: Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty. In the office of a Roman doctor: Specialist in women and other diseases. From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner: Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself. Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance: - English well talking. - Here speeching American.

That they are >_ SoZ is still among my favourites, getting dusted off every now and then.

Bye guys...

Well, that's the thing. They all three worship the one and same God, regardless of what name they attached to their subject of worship. In broad terms, Judaism don't believe Messiah has been born yet. Christians believe He was born and died approx. 2000 years ago. Muslims believe Jesus, while being a messenger from God (Prophet) wasn't the Messiah and got a bunch of new texts to read. Still the same God of Abraham and his offspring they are talking about (i.e. a pantheon of one). Hence my comment about the devil being in the detail. It seems more about semantics as to what constitutes "crucial tenants of faith"(sic). I.e. if a Christian acknowledges that Buddha lived and tought his ideas, does that make Christians and Buddhists the same religion? I still don't agree that in the example, Dwarves and Elves have the same religion (because of the differences in the tenets of faith). If the dwarven god says trees are filthy weeds and should be chopped down while the elven god says trees are holy spirits and should be hugged, you have some seriously different tenets of faith. If you don't agree, I'll just declare you a heretic in the Church of Gorthology and keep disagreeing By the way, what is a church in this particular context? The same as a religion? Calax's original question was about single mega churches (I doubt he had cathedrals in mind). Poor guy probably played too much Dragon Age.

Possibly. It's not me you need to convince though, but the gentlemen who wrote the Oxford Dictionary Isn't that sort of contradictory? I would think whether or not to worship a particular god or not a crucial part of a faiths tenets. That would make Judaism, Christianity and Islam a sectarian difference according to your second line, yet different religions according to your first line. If you believe that you in the afterlife go to the halls of Grimnir as a dead dwarf and believe that you go to the gardens Morr as a good human Empire citizen, would you simply call that different sects?