DEEJAYKEG

The higher downstream transfer rates are only potentially of more use if one streams movies and, even then, are dependent upon your ISP's traffic-shaping policies. You may find that, according to what you pay for your package, the connection is throttled down. This is a common practice. The most relevant number to gaming is the ping and there isn't a great deal one can do about that.

Er...WTF...

You are lucky SOB is going to Turkey or he'd put you on his "list"!

Be strong, my friend. It's great that you are there for her. Prayers offered daily here for the sick and those in hospital so I trust that they'll be heard.

The phishing emails disguise the criminals' sites as supposedly legitimate links to ones bank etc etc but I haven't heard of malware that substitutes such links "on the fly". The greater and more common risk is if the web site administrator has not secured his site and a hacker has injected code to infect visitors' PCs - known as a "drive by". A useful little plug-in that is supported by some financial entities and companies is Trusteer Rapport. This sits in your browser and checks whether the "bank" site really is the bank site, protecting you from a "man in the middle" attack. You'll find that here: http://www.trusteer.com/Products/pc-and-mac-security

Even legitimate sites can be compromised so the onus is on the reader to ensure they have robust AV precautions on their machine. This is for nought, however, if Java is active in your browser - as Hxtr says, if you insist on retaining it (you don't need it), make sure it doesn't run a malicious program on your PC or you are screwed.

Does anyone take any notice of your regional accent over there? Are positive or negative inferences made just by the way one speaks? In the UK, in the past, our public broadcaster - the BBC - would only employ announcers who spoke in a "Received Pronunciation" (RP) accent. (This is that one hears when HM The Queen speaks, for example.) Recently it was established by a poll that people are suspicious of RP-speakers and associate it with dishonesty whereas the north-eastern regional accent (as heard when SOB opens his mouth ) is the most trustworthy. There are many call centres in Newcastle-upon-Tyne! I'd be interested to hear if there are similar accent-related prejudices in the States. Is someone who speaks with a mid-western accent viewed more positively than a southerner or vice versa just due to the way they speak?

A Scottish bar stool for kilt-wearers...

I think you'll find that the men "shocked" are employed actors and the special effects people would have been busy also. People who put cameras in "conveniences" tend to be prosecuted for voyeurism over here. I doubt that, at seven years of bad luck per mirror broken, any reflective surface was actually damaged in the making of this public service announcement. Hand-washing is a cultural habit. It is drummed into us from an early age that we must wash our hands before meals and after using lavatories. This is continued into adult life by the authorities who seek to impede the spread of viruses like flu and norovirus and is especially important with so many people crammed onto such a little island. Any establishment that does not maintain its conveniences in a suitably clean state loses business and rightly so. Indeed, the last complaint I made at a hotel, in April, was about the state of the gents' loo off the main bar.

I disagree strongly having dealt with many female offenders. The advert also suggests that young men are the problem whereas previous stats have shown that the middle-aged are more likely to offend. This is a better one...

Only a few years ago, water levels in the Rhine were seriously low... Herzliche Grüße, alle Deutsche Freunde!

Consider yourself privileged @ as SOB usually only goes for fellas with French accents... He'll be inviting you out for chips next! (You're paying!)

99 cents = £0.62 in our money. We pay £1.349 per litre = C$2.16 ! I'm surprised that local police don't take an interest or perhaps carriage of fuel in this way isn't illegal there. Likewise, given the avoidance of Canadian taxes by filling up across the border, one might expect Canadian Customs to charge on the fuel in jerry cans.

I more interested in knowing why some Americans insist on pronouncing the word "nuclear" as nu-cu-lar. The most disturbing thing about this study is the finding about the word "merry" that so many associate with matrimony. One is rarely "merry" when "merried"!

Praying for the lad and his family. Be strong.

For The Fallen, a poem by Laurence Binyon. With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea. Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit, Fallen in the cause of the free. Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres. There is music in the midst of desolation And a glory that shines upon our tears. They went with songs to the battle, they were young, Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow. They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted, They fell with their faces to the foe. They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. They mingle not with their laughing comrades again; They sit no more at familiar tables of home; They have no lot in our labour of the day-time; They sleep beyond England's foam. But where our desires are and our hopes profound, Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight, To the innermost heart of their own land they are known As the stars are known to the Night; As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust, Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain, As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, To the end, to the end, they remain.

Great news, Chaos! Keep up the good work!

http://youtu.be/lK5D9lMGVAI