I have the Windows steam - Mac ought to be similar. There's an option (per game) that you can find by right-clicking on a game's name, and selecting Properties - then go to the Updates tab and make sure it says 'Do not automatically update this game' instead of 'Always keep this game up to date' - do this for every game you have installed, then when you start steam next time it should allow offline mode to work, without that 'needs to be online to update' message appearing. I don't know if this works for every Steam game, but it seems to works for every Steam game i have (eg: portal, halflife 2, popcap ones). If you want to update a game sometime, turn the option back on for that game (and maybe restart steam at this point?) - then turn it back off and restart steam again after any updates have completed. A little annoying, but this has worked for me without any problem.

I heard of a newly arrived British tourist replying similarly when asked whether he had a criminal record. Apparently he was replying to a customs officer who was having a bad day, as he soon found himself on his way back to the UK. In other words, DON'T SAY THIS! It may not be as funny as you think.

Ah, just like CDs that last forever. Good to know.

Not mine.

Maybe that's because you are used to listening to a non-compressed version of that song, and are comparing this crap version to the proper good version you know? Whereas with the youtube video, that's all there is - there is no better version, so there's no problem. At least that's how it is for me - I listen to a lot of 'bootleg' recordings, some of which are pretty raw (and some of which sound awesome, by the way), but if this is the only version of a particular song by that band or whatever, then you are listening to the best version of that song, although your ears may take a short while to accustom to the poor sound quality. I'm with you - if I hear a poorly compressed MP3 of a song I like, I can't stand it (unless that's all there is).

Shitterton, England. (Apparently their town sign kept going missing, so now they have a big new immovable one, made of stone.)

Does this get us any closer to hands-free web browsing?

Not quite true - do a search for what the GG did in Australia in 1975.

... I'm more concerned about the girth.

Help me out with this OJ Simpson analogy - is he driving a car?

I didn't need 20 different ways. I just had it bookmarked for quick and easy viewing.

Deakin is right over my back fence - they could have invited me over to their little dinner party. Snobs.

I'm halfway (possibly further through, who knows) a Civ4 game - max world size, 16 civs, and it's a to-the-death game. My alliance (started with 7 civs, now down to 4) has been at war with the other alliance (was 6 now 4) for about 300 years (18 months on and off in real time), with no end in sight. There's really only one significant enemy in the other alliance, the rest can be safely ignored.
I long ago gave up on a quick victory, so for the last 100 years or so, I have concentrated on bombing the crap out a city with about 20 bombers, immediately following that up with an attack by 20 or 30 tanks, and hopefully eventually take the city. Of course, you need to give other reachable cities similar treatment regularly, just to keep them manageable. I haven't actually succeeded in capturing a city for at least 50 years though, as whenever I get ready for a sustained bombing-and-tanking campaign on a city, the enemy send a pile of units towards me, so I then have to divert the bombers and tanks to crushing these constant raids. I keep softening up his cities though, in preparation.
I had some outpost cities on another continent, but the place was just too rocky and arid, so I gave up sending reinforcements to them, and abandoned them to their fate probably 150 years ago. They're still there, though, hanging on.
I have all the techs but haven't gone nuclear - I still feel that I can eventually wear the other guys down.
All the while, I keep churning out missionaries or whatever they're called, along with spies etc, just because they're cheap, set-and-forget, and they may make some small difference in the long run.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that I really need to finish this game before number 5 comes out.

I DID marry her - now I play Farmville to block out the pain of my ruined life.

Why charge a third when you could charge two thirds? It's still cheaper...