That used to happen to me when I was a kid and stole the 'special' chocolate from the medicine basket in the fridge.

Atheism is falsifiable, a God merely needs to present him/herself (Or a significantly witnessed old school miracle or magic).
Theism is not practicably falsifiable, an omnipotent all powerful but shy super being that you meet (and are judged by) only after death is not a measurable thing

Why I hate the ribbon.

Open word, try an insert a new drawing canvas. Look in insert tab, no button there, after some hunting its found under the Shapes drop down button.

After drawing your canvas on screen, the previously invisible Format tool bar opens, Add a text box and some text.

Now try and play around with the text. Gotta go to the home tab - or pay hover and hope with the formatting floaty box.

Now I want to add (insert) another box, bugger, gotta click on FORMAT tab again.

But know if I click on a blank area of the drawing canvas, the ribbon auto flips back to Home, so I need to click back onto format to get my drawing buttons again.

OK, Ive got my boxes, now I want to color some of them in, click on a box - OH NO, now its taking me back to the Home tab again..what? that wasn't the behavior before. In fact, the selected ribbon behavior constantly changes depending on your previous actions and I cant predict how it will behave!

Any why does the little break out button on the bottom right of some groups open a property box OR a dock-able tool bar (Styles/Clip Board)

And what about inserting a page break - its under the Insert tab. Cool, what about a section break, its not there, its under Page Layout! Why is a page break in a different section from a Section break?

And tables - there are so many options that there are 2 ribbons for table work. I used to have it easy with all button visible on my 2 row super tool bar but know I have to click and hunt for the option I might be after.

(And don't get me started on excel and access travesties)

The simple fact is, tool bars did serve their purpose quite well and there has been no rational reason put forth to remove them completely.

If the ribbon was an option then there would be NO PROBLEM - but the ribbon is mandatory and for some people it is a regressive step. The fact that this is somehow the users problem is a case study in the arrogance of developers/marketeers.

bzzt. wrong. I can no longer play this game on my win7 64 install (via steam). No amount of jiggery pokery can get the bugger to launch and there's enough forum post about the issue that show the problem isn't limited to me.

I can get it to run (crappyly) in my kubunutu install. With the tips of one of the parent posters I might even be able to give this old blaster another whirl (Being one of only 324 people in the world that actually enjoyed to game)

Please stop stalking me.

Its not. After the first week or two I'm sure most teachers know who is in their class or not and where to put the appropriate X or Tick on a big ol paper spreadsheet..

But the kicker is the attendance is on a piece of paper. To be useful to the dark side of education (administration) it needs to be electronic and each attendance needs to be reliably associated with a student.

So teacher (or some poor admin type writer monkey) needs to do double entry or schools need to have a half decent student administrative system that lets them easily record attendance AND handle all the wierdo situations where like whole bunches of students being put into the class for the day for one reason or another.

(School administration systems either suck or are horribly expensive. In a lot of cases they are both)

From a purely 'we just need to know that the kid turned up' this is a perfectly valid logical solution. Kids have tag, kids walk through doors, kid = attended. Counts are made automatically and funding reports can go out that are not magical works of fanciful fiction.

Its a perfectly reasonable solution to an ongoing problem with (alas - again) a large scope for arseholerly to be applied.

this...

You didn't mention the really annoying thing about that phone number to call is often attached to large 6+ figure support contracts.

And that to get the system in place to have a reason to use that phone number required a team on expensive consultants which disappear after just barely implementing the requested feature set.

That fact is, for the cost of this 'off the shelf' enterprise package, you could employ a small team of dedicated technical types whose sole job it is to make it work AND have the bonus of a dedicated team of people who know what the fuck they are doing and don't need to pick up that phone in the first place.

My pub time theory is the "tragedy of the moderates."

Most people, I think, are moderate or indifferent people. As in 'I don't actually really care what anyone else does as long as its not directly negatively impacting me'. Lets say about 70% of the population fall into this bucket.

Then there is the extremists. They can be left or right, liberal or conservative. It doesn't matter. These people do get very upset at the idea of other people doing something that goes against their own ideals or agendas, even though the actual impact on them personally is minimal or non existent.

Now the first group isn't really polemically motivated. They will probably just keep voting for what ever 'team' their parents/friends are on. They may change their mind, but things have to get pretty dire for this to happen. This group is probably split 50/50 amongst the major parties.

The second group are the movers and shakers of politics because they will change their mind and they will do it almost irrationally based on single issue hot topics. Abortion, Gun control, Church, Environment, Protectionism. It just happens to be that this group is predominantly made up of conservative/religious/right wing. Its also got the environmentalist and socialist in there as will, but they only make up a minority. This group is also distributed amongst the various parties, but maybe not so evenly.

Now here is the kicker: As a Politician, you can go against quite a few of the opinions/ideals of your teams group 1 people without them changing sides, BUT you are GUARANTEED to loose ALL group 2 people if you don't placate their particular issue.

So how does this play out: Lets take Gay marriage. I reckon most people don't give a flying toss, it doesnt effect them personally, they will still vote on their party lines (the group 1s). But lets say 8% of the population (The sub set of the group 2s that are against gay marriage) will vote against your party regardless of any other policy if your party lets it happen. When the margins between seats are often decided on counts 10% of the vote, then its simple game theory: All parties will attempt to be seen to be supportive of the extreme group, to not do so almost guarantees election defeat.

So we have the crazy situation where most people are not extreme, but the few extreme people end up having a disproportionate effect on election results. That's how nations with centrist populations end up with extreme right/left leaning parties.

Go to pub, drink beers, discuss..

I hear you bro. I'm still having to hunt and find the stop/play/shuffle buttons. Ive got no idea how to 'save' my own internet radio selections anywhere and I am constantly getting lost between my own directory tree layout of music and the internal 'here's your songs grouped by album meta tags that is expanded to a bzillion one song groups because of that folder of c64 remixs '

I am trying to learn how to use cause Ive gone Kubuntu after the unity debacle, it but its a challenge. Maybe when the kids are older Ill have some more time to figure it out but having to learn how to use a music player just seems just wrong.... :(

WTF? If people/corporations are never held responsible /reminded for their past bad actions, what is the point of *not* being an evil bastard.

Sorry, accidentally banged your wife the other day - just move on fella. Oh yeh, I did steal every electronic appliance in your house when I said I was just going to borrow some sugar - wont happen again. Sure, we may have burnt down all your churches full of puppies and children.. but, forgive and forget.

I can see you motto being adopted by all current and future psychopaths - Consequences are sooo last century I guess.

No, but the can totally destroy the lives of the first few thousand or so. Remember, this guy still has to go through the 'secret' federal trials - who know what the hell is going to happen there.. (Secret trials - I cant believe we have got to this stage!)

So while a good portion of the population sees the TSA as an annoying but necessary, getting past that couple of thousand people required mark will be tricky.

Maybe, but it is also because the people are currently paying taxes and rates and bills out the wha-zoo and sometimes its hard to see what they are getting out of it.

I'm not sure about this local public services, but I know our own city council is continually sending its elected members on overseas junkets, producing flashy informational brochures and 'supporting' an otherwise unsellable local glossy town magazine.

When people see public officers spending money on themselves or their own interests, people will get cranky when there suddenly isn't enough money for the things that the rates and taxes should be funding.

(Agreed with everything you said except for this bit)

As an ex small business owner, I can say that it may be 'simple', but its not easy to work out. Remember, its not 10% of the selling price - its 10% in addition to the selling price - so internet sellers now need to present a different price based on location..

GST allows you to claim input credit based on the cost of doing your business. So companies can effectively claim a reduction in the amount of gst they pay to the govt. (Simply put, if I sell you a grommet for 100$, I collect an additional 10$ from you for GST. If I spent 40$ for the widgets I used to make the gromet I can I can claim the 4$ GST I spent on that widget and only pay the govt 6$ of the 10$ I collected). Multiply that by every single thing/service you sell and the paper work gets to be a hassle.

Unless they have sourced materials/services from Australia, in which case I guess they should be able to claim them, the overseas companies are now at a disadvantage because their already selling price incorporates the local taxes paid on the product being sold: In the spirit of GST they should be allowed to re-coup those taxes but they cant - unless we get all of the US to register for ABNS as well)

This has to be done every 3 months if you are a small business, or every month for larger business (based on turnover).

Now factor in every country has its own tax codes, so now exporters have to keep up with all regulations from all countries.

Now factor in currency transfer fees? Who pays - and at what rate?

Now philosophise over the whole concept of 'taxation without representation' - When you purchase from overseas you are purchasing from an entity that cant vote in AND doesn't not participate in living within the laws of the government collecting the cash. I'd call that state sponsored theft.

So much for the global economy and free trade. A tariff by another name is still a tariff. Id actually be happier if the government said 'You know what, fuck it. Anything bought into out country gets a 10% tariff paid by the importer - no exceptions'

No you wont. You'll watch it happen in front of you whilst you seethe with impotent rage and silently scream at your neighbors in line for someone to say something. Your fellow passengers will look at their boots and wish for the episode to pass as quickly as possible. Everyone will die a little bit inside.

And if you do make a scene, you'll be quickly taken aside whilst they rack up felonies against you. Maybe if your lucky your story will end up briefly in some news outlets where you will be confused with nude man guy, some strangers may donate to your defense fund but you are pretty much screwed for life now.

And that is why I'm never visiting America again. Sort that shit out because its spreading across the world.

(Oh, I also do not want to see another squirt on cheese in a pump bottle - nasty)

Except to look like the old menu & toolbar combination