I see the 'use it or lose it' scenario where I work every March. In fact it is starting now... All year we are told to save money, then March comes around and all of a sudden we have £000's to spend. It doesn't fit in to how I think money should be spent.

The regression of the human race back to the caves continues. Why do the people in power have no idea about technology or progress? ONLINE IS NOW - EMBRACE IT

My vote would be listening skills. Working on a helpdesk I get annoyed when I'm not listened to when offering advice. I don't offer advice for fun and sometimes I know what I am talking about. My favourite that has happened a couple of times when answering the phone: Me: "IT Helpdesk James speaking" Them: "Who is that?" Me: "James" Them: "Oh hi, Gary"

> That's why fake "viral videos" are so painful to watch.

Good observation there. I cringe when non-IT friends show me certain viral fake-but-are-you-meant-to-know-it videos. The one that stands out recently is the "one winged plane landing". Yeah, that is soooo fake. But I never say anything..

And what if you work for AOL? No escape then.

Once society embraces a way to accept digital human signatures on a massive scale the need for posting items will diminish (changing peoples behaviour and mindset is a different story though). An example: Like lots of people I use online banking. I decided to open an additional savings account with the *same* bank. Went through the process online in a few minutes. At the end of the process I had to wait for *5 days* for an aknowledgement to be posted to me so I could sign and return the form for the opening balance transfer. I am already a customer with that bank and I had logged on securely like normal to go through the account opening process. Why did I have to do that?! Talk about backwards.

I've used last.fm for 4 years with about 19,000 scrobbles and this makes their recommended radio stations pretty damn good. However, I'm confused at the 'destroying Spotify' bit. To me they are completely different services that complement each other. I certainly couldn't use one without the other...

LOL reviews are one of the most important factors I base my purchases on. And here in the UK I go by Edge Magazine which I have been reading for 16 years.

I can trust their reviews. Anything they give a 9/10 is a must buy (if you like the genre) and the rare 10/10 are no brainers. There have only been a handful of 10/10 in the magazines long history, including one this month: Bayonetta.

Edge Magazine: http://www.edge-online.com/magazine

I hear ya! Forza Motorsport 3 springs to mind, no System Link option :-(

What local authorities pay that? I work in IT at a local authority and the basic IT Technician wage on our helpdesk is ~£16k. Not even second line IT Technicans get close to the £29k figure you mention.

I have given up with explaining slashes and backslahes to people who call our helpdesk. I either call it the one with the question mark on or the one without.

Crap, so they know when I pause or rewind shots of sexy Suzi Perry from the Gadget Show?

Microsoft have recently released an update for their Live service on the 360. This update allows you to buy 'clothes' and 'themes' for your avatar. That is what I don't understand...so I can get a Quicksilver themed t-shirt for my avatar (with MS spacebucks) and it will cost me?

But...it is just pixels on a screen that look like a Quicksilver logo?? I don't get it, why would I want to pay for that?

Maybe off subject but I had a great weekend of gaming playing Trials HD on the Xbox 360. Think Kickstart II on the C64 from years ago but add in lovely graphics and an amazing physics based environment. A sublime example of demonstrating objects in a videogame with physical world properties. It's also an easy to pick up, fun and addictive game to boot.

Trials HD review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyE_j_GSsXQ/

I don't know, maybe the 'level editor' in this game would answer the OP's question?

Through a kind of insurance like an 'escrow agreement'?

http://www.nccgroup.com/services/software-escrow-services.aspx/