I'm glad I live in semi-rural Australia, and know all the local cops if not by name, then at least on waving and nodding terms.

On the rare occasion I get pulled over, I say "gidday" and wait for him to say what's on his mind. If it's a random breath test, I follow instructions, and then I'm on my way. If I've been speeding, I 'fess up, and say "You got me, mate, I wasn't paying attention" - that once got me out of a '30km/h over the limit' ticket and fine with a warning. And our cops are armed with pistols and tasers.

Seriously, make an effort to be nice to your local policemen/women - the return on investment can be considerable.

I'd mod you up if I had points today.

I miss using my Mamiya RB67. I really couldn't be bothered with processing and scanning film anymore, although I can "upgrade" to a genuine Mamiya/Leaf digital back - for about AUD $32K - yes, thirty-two thousand dollars.

Motorola Razr HD here. Bought unlocked from Telstra in Australia. They STILL haven't rolled out KitKat for the Razr HD. Been promising it since April last year, and Motorola have announced a rollout for Lollipop.

Seriously, don't buy Telstra. Yes, I know about CM and will be investigating that very soon.

Please tell me, what content - that you have viewed in both 2K and 4K, whether movies, TV or games - have you completely been unable to enjoy in 2K?

I can enjoy, be entertained, and appreciate a well-made movie in standard definition, let alone 2K.

Hint - there's so much more to a movie/TV show/computer game than the level of detail you can see on the screen. Things like acting, direction, plot/story/script, audio/music, and so on. It's possible to make a gripping, suspenseful film with a VHS camera. Detail can be a distraction in some cases, and it speaks of the skill of the director and art department to not let the detail distract from the story. Imagine "Alien" without the dark, hard-to-see corridors, hmmm?

Yep - and you can automate it (partially) with Cryptoprevent from http://www.foolishit.com/

Not connected with them other than as a satisfied user.

I used to use AVG until it became bloatware, then I tried Avira and it seemed to suffer stability problems, switched to Avast which was OK and didn't seem to slow things down, and then removed that when I realised how much FUD the antivirus industry uses to sell its products, and how piss-poor their products are at doing their job.

I've seen malware infections - from trivial all the way up to cryptolocker - manage to get past the "big 3" (norton/symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro), and AVG. The only products who seem to be stable and maintain a small-ish footprint are Eset and Kaspersky.

I leave Windows defender switched on, scan once every few months with free malwarebytes, keep Cryptoprevent updated, and anything else I can remove with Combofix - not that I've had anything in over 2 years, but Combofix is what I use to repair customers' machines, then I leave them with a copy of free malwarebytes, and Cryptoprevent.

The "climate", as you use the term, is a big problem, and it worried me when my kids started school. We chose to send them to a private primary school (neo-humanist), and get involved. I've been a classroom helper with specialised tutoring in IT and making/editing videos, helping out in the cafeteria, etc for 11 years now, and my youngest child has just finished there.

I took a big cut in annual income to be able to work the sort of hours that allowed my participation, but it's brought the benefits. My kids are fit & healthy - the cafeteria doesn't carry junk food, period - it's all freshly made, and although lunches from home are encouraged, they have to meet certain standards - no packs of crisps, no "muesli bars", no packaged sweets, no cup noodles, etc. The kids are allowed bare feet, allowed to climb trees, and swim in the creek at the school. The local public high school teachers that these kids end up with have consistently praised the amount self-reliance and maturity of kids from this school.

I'm also well-known to the teachers, staff & other parents (especially the others that are into participation), and that's a valuable reputation. I've never had problems with parents leaving their children here for sleepovers, and vice versa - I trust my children's friends' parents. The seventh-grade teacher (female) once left me alone in charge of the whole class for an hour while she went home to collect some materials she'd forgotten.

Get involved, people - even it you have to take a pay cut to do it. Change the climate, and start with yourself.

Crux is very useful for navigating at night. From wikipedia:

In the Southern Hemisphere, the Southern Cross is frequently used for navigation in much the same way that the Pole Star is used in the Northern Hemisphere. Alpha and Gamma (known as Acrux and Gacrux respectively) are commonly used to mark south. Tracing a line from Gacrux to Acrux leads to a point close to the Southern Celestial Pole.[3] Alternatively, if a line is constructed perpendicularly between Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, the point where the above-mentioned line and this line intersect marks the Southern Celestial Pole. Another way to find south, strike line through Gacrux and Acrux, 3 1/2 times the distance between Gacrux and Acrux, directly below that point is south.

My list so far:

1. "Your computer has been sending us error messages". "Which computer? I have several". "All of them" "The same message?" "Yes, sir". "That's impossible, they don't all use the same operating system, so which one?" "All of them, sir" and so ad nauseam.

2. "Can you turn on your computer, sir". "I can't". "Why is that, sir". "I have a broken leg and I am in bed and can't reach my computer" You could hear the script pages flipping while they searched for a response.

3. "Windows button? Oh, I use linux" "You are lying" He was shouting by this stage, and eventually called me a fucking son of a bitch.

4. "You're lying to me. What would your mother think of you lying to people? She would be ashamed of you" That one brought a few seconds of silence, then "Shit" and she hung up.

I really love fucking with these low-lifes. The only challenge is thinking up new ways to play.

They built a GUI using visual basic and tracked the hackers' IP address.

We care about you, too. Seriously - the support from other countries during the recent tragedy in Sydney is very much appreciated.

Pris wasn't a combat model - recall the briefing Bryant gave Deckard, where photos and specs of each of the escaped replicants was on the screen. There was a Nexus level, sub-type and a description - pleasure model, etc. Something like "Phys level A, Ment level B" etc.

The 4-year lifespan was deliberate to prevent them, as Bryant said, from developing their own emotional responses. Tyrell wasn't going to admit to Roy that his lifespan was deliberately limited - his attitude, right up to the point where Roy killed him, was paternalistic and he seriously underestimated Roy's response - Tyrell thought Roy would walk away with his tail between his legs, but Roy had by that late stage of his life, begun to develop emotions - and Tyrell bore the brunt of Roy's rage.

I agree about Rachel - she was special, probably designed to appeal to a high-class client, as opposed to being a standard pleasure model like Pris. Rachel was an experiment - it's all in Tyrell's speech to Deckard after the VK test on Rachel.

D'oh! I shouldn't use a computer when I'm tired.

I think it's obvious that Tyrell is a liar. It's inconceivable (heh) that Tyrell couldn't manufacture a replicant (can we PLEASE have the word replicant added to slashdot's dictionary? I mean, the film been around longer than /.) to live as long as he wished. Economics of 2019 aside, wouldn't it cost enormous amounts of money to design, build and test said replicants - I'd have thought customers (that's everyone who moves off-world) would want something to last longer than 4 years.

The four-year lifespan is engineered obsolescence, to keep buyers buying.

In Oz, the panels and infrastructure (i.e. mounting frames) have to conform to the same set of weather-rating rules as the rest of the house.

We've had wind gusts over 100km/h during cyclones (admittedly infrequent), as well as walnut-sized hail. I believe the panels are warranted up to golf-ball sized hail.