Certainly not my sole reason. Scotland has different needs to that of England, Northern Ireland or Wales. I have contempt for "our" government Broken promises in the form of tax breaks for leading Scottish Industries such as computer game technology where money was taken from what was promised to the industry and given to Manchester's new Centre for Excellence in Computer Graphic Technology, promises on consultation of expansion of financial powers that have yet to be delivered and the staunch, defiant sound of a complete block on any discussion of Scotland gaining independence.

Something I meant to put in my first comment, In your original post you said you wish the whole independence debate would go away. The problem is that no other party has ever allowed the debate to take place, they debate about being able to debate about it. Who gave 650 MP's the right to say "No, not a chance." Who do they think they are to deny the people of Scotland to choose what they feel is best for themselves?

While the RBS and HBOS, well BOS are Scottish banks they are not exclusively for Scottish citizens nor run exclusively by Scotsmen and woman. If, and it's an if, RBS went bust, do you really think that Scotland would have been the only country in the UK to suffer because of it? In fact, as the previous poster mentioned, due to the size of the other home nations combined, I'm sure that there are more non-scottish based accounts in RBS than Scottish based ones.

Similarly, banking sector rules, regulations and laws are created and enforced through the UK government, it was not part of the devolution agreement in place. I could wail about Scottish politicians calling for powers to be handed to Scotland to regulate their own banks which have fallen on deaf ears since the creation of the Scottish parliament.

It is very easy to only remember the banking crisis as it is fresh in everyone's head. Most people have and probably are still affected by the crushing blow the worldwide recession has dealt. I'm sure if we go back through time we can comprise a list of things England owe Scotland and vice versa. Don't delude yourself into thinking Scotland would ever be financially indebted to England.

Sadly, you completely miss the viewpoint of many supporters of Scottish Independence. Saying that there is no real reason why Scotland should be independent is a statement I hear time and again by anti-independence supporters North of the border and by a vocal majority South of it. If, as the case may be, the majority of voters want an independent Scotland then I would say that IS a real reason for Scotland to gain her independence. After all, the role of government is to do the will of the people. The fact that many other EU countries have a similar landmass, population and influence as Britain in no way makes me alter my stance. So because other EU countries are the same we should stay part of the UK to keep up appearances? I consider myself Scottish, not British or European (although I am all them).

Claiming only national pride and emotion drives pro-independence supporters is a cop-out. It's the same line that has been spun for years, as is the argument that Scotland will be financially devastated if we were to leave the Union. I do not imagine breaking from the Union would be easy and plain sailing. I am fully prepared for hardships that may arise through seeking independence as are most pro-independence supporters I know.

P.S. AFAIK, IANAM (I am not a minister), catholic's and protestant's believe in the same God.

It''s awful. Yesterday I could browse slashdot happily. Today I look at it in disbelief, how could one update make such a difference to my browsing experience. It's almost as if . . . . . Oh, my bad, I loaded up Internet Explorer by mistake. So, the Slashdot layout has changed huh?

It is an interesting subject. I got hooked on crowd control simulations although I would have described that sort of study more herding than silent democracy.

I LOL'd at this. The fact I swallowed half my banana while reading it was the karmic downside :(

Yup, us drivers have boids flocking algorithm in-built.

Just a thought but should they not, for simplicity, skip PSP2 and go straight to PSP3? I hardly look forward to walking into my local GameStation, watching all the cool kids hanging next to the PS6 section of games while I am nervously shuffling about the PSP4.

Looking forward to seeing Rock Band: Backstage pass, groupies and all.

I'm not sure it's a double standard when you compare software glitches to a professional con. These guys developed a plan, hired another man in an attempt to decrease attention to the fact they were robbing a slot machine.

To have a window in my office **dreams of a better world with office windows and non-smelly co-workers**

I don't deny major dealers would be against such a move but the natural evolution of a consumer driven market wears down even the most stubborn capitalist ideology. Car manufacturers adapted seatbelts and air bags after they had their day of kicking and screaming that it would force consumers away. Mega-industries will never change a financially beneficial situation unless forced to. The banking sector continued fine after ATM's took the place of bank clerks dispensing cash to customers.

Apologies! I probably didn't convey my point properly. I'm not meaning paint colour, air conditioning or the size of alloy wheels you want. I'm talking about choosing your car's engine, chassis, the kind of gear stick you want (for us UK residents of course ;P). I wasn't complaining about the current state of car customisation, I just wait for the day complete customisation of car's components is similar to that of a PC.

I agree with many of the points made in the article. The one point that got my attention (and then got me thinking) was "These days, it takes $1 billion or more to design, engineer, test, certify, and launch a brand-new vehicle. And that takes roughly five years." My point is that I am eagerly looking forward to the time I can buy a car online with a build specification similar to the options I am offered when I visit Dell's or some other company's website. How long before we get PnP components for cars like we do with computer components? Car manufacturing will generate more business when we have more adaptable parts that can be ordered, created and delivered within two weeks of visiting Ford's website.

I graduated from a university of Abertay two years ago with an honours in Computer Games Development. I have since stayed in academia to complete my PhD and have the fulfilling job of teaching a few modules on the first, second and third year courses. From my experience in taking the modules and teaching the modules, a degree in CS would have done me just as well, probably better, than my current degree. I have found myself in situations having to explain basic programming concepts to 3rd year students, the same students who were fast tracked into Playstation 3 and XBOX 360 development. I don't mind that they don't understand a particular algorithm, I get frustrated that they don't understand the concept of an algorithm. I don't mind that they don't have a natural talent for mathematics, I get exasperated when I am continually asked "Why do we need to know so much triangle stuff". The best module I had was a module named "Languages and Compilers". Sadly, the module never came up until four year but increased my understanding of programming languages more than 3 years of programming modules. My wish, with hindsight, would be doing my degree in CS and learning the graphical aspect of programming in my own time, creating a library of small, simple yet well programmed games for any future employer to see.