This. I bought a fairly cheap Samsung b&w laser printer a few years ago after wasting fortunes on ink for a colour inkjet that was used a few times a year. What with cleaning cycles and ink just drying up it felt like it was costing me a cartridge per print. Now after around 3 years it has cost me a total of £25 for one replacement toner cartridge (plus the original sub-£100 cost for the printer with original cartridge). Lack of colour has never been an issue as like you and others I just outsource any colour printing to the local store.

As a parent of two boys I see this the opposite way. I see restaurants and driving as good times to interact with my children (with them nailed in place) and also for them to learn how to entertain themselves and to learn appropriate behaviour. As far as I'm concerned the use of technology as a general pacifier is much more of a problem than anything else - I'd quite like my children to have some kind of attention span before technology inevitably takes it away.

I'm not suggesting we're luddites or saints though - my kids still watch too much TV and play too much Minecraft but I think of them as entertainment devices and not off switches for children.

As another poster suggested - your vows will be like so much dust in the wind once you have a real kid running about, forming its own personality (e.g. talking back / having tantrums) so I believe you just have to do your best to hold on to (a little bit) of your core beliefs, be flexible and let kids be kids. And don't listen to strangers with advice.

All the best with the little one.

Yip. If you want to know the truth you have to do the research yourself (so I've been told). http://www.davidicke.com/ is apparently the place to start.

I've often wondered something similar myself (but I was too lazy to become a physicist). What if the universe is infinite and inflation is simply the result of a 'local' (e.g. at least a 15 billion light year radius) eddy in the flow of infinite space/time.

If you want to know bring some marijuana.

Yup. And that's why those deciding the punishments should not be those involved.

Sorry, I'm commenting to remove a bad mod (I'm sure I didn't click Redundant).

I love the idea of intercontinental hobos though. Containership Willy, riding the currents. Would their bindles be low power outboards?

Very true. I was told by a Holywood producer that a Holywood movie should have the following structure or forget it -

The hero must try to overcome their 'problem' three times. The first two times he must fail, but the failures allow him to learn and grow as a character. Thus he succeeds in the last desperate attempt.

You don't? That's sad really and I guess explains why they get away with it.

I'm playing OpenTTD (http://www.openttd.org). I played Simutrans a few (many?) years back and it was good, but the concepts are so different from Transport Tycoon that I find it hard to pick up when ever I try - it hurts my head because its similar yet so different.

I love the optimisation aspects of openTTD - maximising the throughput on busy lines and stations - the money aspect I couldn't care less about and always give myself a few hundred million when I start. I think I'll be playing it till the day I die.

But if you go back further, to pre-industrial times peoples work was slower with many more holidays - http://groups.csail.mit.edu/ma...

It keeps getting suggested that pre-industrial people worked longer hours but the evidence just doesn't back that up. http://groups.csail.mit.edu/ma...

Wish I had mod points for you, but this matches my feelings. Its one reason I have left the world of 'IT' recently and started a company well away from technology (well, a franchise) where I work in the morning and prospect for work in the afternoon when I want to. Money is tight at the moment but I'd never go back even if I have to live off left-over rice.

Many argue that our pre-industrial ancestors actually worked less - http://groups.csail.mit.edu/ma...

If you like your work (or money) enough that you want to spend your whole waking life doing it then all kudos to you. For many of us though money isn't everything, and doing anything for 40 (+) hours a week, week in and week out, just isn't our ideal life style choice.

I wouldn't be that surprised if he was. I know its a cliche but I still suspect that the most anti-gay are really grappling with their own hidden feelings and (unjustified) self loathing. Otherwise why would they care so much?

How I wish I had mod points today, although not sure if I'd mod it funny or insightful ;)