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Comment Re:Yeah i was thinking about that. (Score 1) 620

Really, huh? Last time I checked they still taught "FIRST look left, THEN look right, THEN cross the streets" to our kids, did they forgo that in your country?

Unforunately that's not a universal rule. If people did that where I live, there wouldn't be many left to tell the tale. I've almost stepped out in front of a car before I got used to looking "the wrong way" first. BTW, I'm Canadian and I live in the UK. My wife has done the exact opposite in Canada and Germany. Luckily I was there to stop her and vice versa. "The left side's the right side and the right side's the wrong side" is the saying I think.

The change in traffic handedness really screws people up. It doesn't take me long to get used to it while driving or as a passenger, but if I think about it for too long it really does my head in.

Comment Re:Obligatory (Score 1) 419

Easily. Even if this company manages to develop the game (I believe the devkits require licenses), it won't be signed by MS, a necessary step to run on an unmodified console. If you had a mod chip, you would likely be able to run it as could then run unsigned code.

If they were smart, they would develop it for the PC. At the same time, they should also devote some devs to improve the open source drivers for the Kinect. That way they have their swingin 3D sex game and, aside from the fact that very few, if any retailers would actually sell it, no one could stop them from selling it. Microsoft might try to do something if they use a Kinect in their advertising, but I'm not sure how that would actually pan out.

Comment Re:I bought some lighter fluid... (Score 1) 421

Then perhaps those states should mandate that they get the new formula. Any Sudafed I've bought in the UK and Canada no longer contains pseudoephedrine, the offending ingredient.

The box of pills in front of me now lists the active ingredient as phenylephrine and the nasal spray is xylometazoline hydrochloride. These are the UK products.

And the customary link to Sudafed's Wikipedia page for your reference.

Comment Re:So what? (Score 1) 433

You'd think so, but...

I was in The George (Wetherspoon pub) on George St in Croydon a couple of weekends ago for breakfast, and in the men's washroom there were cameras with signs underneath explaining that they were there to prevent people using drugs in the washroom. It certainly took me by surprise. They seemed to be pointing at the sinks and the door. Some of the cameras were visible from the urinals so presumably one could be seen on camera using them. It was difficult to tell where they were pointing exactly since they were all the black dome type cameras.

I remember thinking at the time that if anyone wanted to snort some coke or whatever that badly, they could easily take a seat in one of the stalls and do whatever they wanted off camera.

Comment Re:wow (Score 1) 334

No I don't believe retina scans were part of it.

I was issued a UK fiancé visa back in March and had my fingerprints taken digitally and a digital photograph as well for biometrics purposes. I suppose they measure the distance between your lips and nose and eyes and stuff. For fingerprints, the scanner might have looked at the blood vessel structure inside the fingers instead of the prints, but I can't be certain on that.

I'm glad the ID cards are gone now, mainly for privacy reasons, but if I could have used it as an EU travel document (despite my status as a foreign citizen), I would have put up with it for ease of travel.

Comment Re:I'm sold, my only question is... (Score 1) 137

I know this is kind of a running joke in this thread, but they could go three ways with it.

1) Make it like San Andreas, where you had to eat/work out in order to keep your health up. A lot of people didn't like that because it was too much micromanagement, so they got rid of it in GTA4. They could add the option to pay the charge on to a cashpoint/ATM or something like that. If you didn't pay it within a certain amount of time, you'd get a fine or the cops after you.

2) Set the game in a time period before the congestion charge was introduced, so any time before 2003.

3) Not call it "London" (like Liberty City isn't called "New York") and just not include it in the game at all.

Comment Re:Pepper spray is torturous. (Score 1) 267

I've been in a bar where someone pepper-sprayed somebody else and the place cleared out in minutes. I'm asthmatic but it's mainly allergy induced, and I was coughing like crazy and I couldn't see because my eyes were stinging and watering like crazy. I wasn't even sprayed directly, it was just in the air. At first I didn't know what was happening until I got outside and my mouth felt like it was on fire.

Not fun for about 5-10 minutes until everything was more or less back to normal. After that, I couldn't imagine being sprayed directly in the face!

Comment Re:Paid Beta Program? (Score 1) 313

It might work if they charged the so-called beta testers an upgrade fee to the end product, so the total outlay of cash is the same or very near the same as if they had just waited and bought the game on release day. The most I would pay extra would be between $0-$5, for the privilege of playing early, but the "demo" had better be awesome. Paying anything more would be rather evil... I'm not paying full price for the finished product AFTER ALREADY HAVING PAID THEM for what amounts to beta testing.. no thanks!!!

The plus side to this is that, like traditional demos, it might be a good metric to see how popular a game will be before release day, but the difference would be that the cash would start flowing in sooner, maybe allowing for better features or something to be developed... but it's EA we're talking about, and I'm sure they'd just "invest" it in a more annoying DRM scheme or something equally stupid.

Comment Re:No One Would Notice (Score 1) 336

If I were to claim to be a snob, I'd have to say that I'm more of a beer snob than anything else. As such, I whole-heartedly agree about the beer vs. wine comment. However the "best beer in the world" is also entirely subjective. The only beers I've seen in a large bottle like you describe are Heineken and some Belgian beers (some of which are corked like Champagne!). To some people, that "best beer" might be Labatt Lite. I, for one, do not share the same opinion.

I'm more into the Polish beer at the moment, Tyskie in particular. Of the other Polish varieties available here, I find Zywiec to be too heavy and filling, Lezajsk is alright and Zubr is way too malty for my taste. My previous favourites have been German beers (lived there 2 years) but the selection of German beer is very limited here and it all tastes like it's been sitting on the shelf for 6 months, compared to what it tasted like over there.

It did take some time to adjust my palette from the relatively flavourless swill available here in North America to the more intensely flavoured, hoppy stuff available over there, but I'm enlightened now and will never go back. These days I rarely ever drink more than 2-3 beers in a week so I want to enjoy the taste as much as possible. At $4.25 (compared to $3.50 for a regular sized domestic beer) from the bar we frequent, an ice cold, half litre, Polish beer is exactly what the doctor ordered.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what you can afford. A few years ago, I would never have paid that much for a beer because I couldn't afford to. Cost vs. quality is always an issue in nearly every purchase we make. We love car analogies here, so in brand new cars, the manufacturers have been really focusing on the quality of their interiors. Yeah, the interior in a Mercedes is going to be as good as it gets, but a decently equipped VW is still very nice, comfortable and full of nifty features, with a significant cost savings. Sure you might not get the voice activated back massage or the heated steering wheel and shifter knob, but are those things ALONE really worth the extra 30 grand? Sames goes for buying the latest and greatest iteration of the i7 vs. looking at the prices and finding the best price point for your budget. There's always 1-3 CPUs right at the top of the price ladder and then #4 which is like 1/2-1/4 the price of the top end. That's the one most people, including myself, will buy.

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