The system in the UK also includes a ban on Product placement and other advertising in-show. I think they've eased up a bit now, but when I was a kid the cartoon "Top Cat" was retitled to "Boss Cat" because there was a local brand of cat food called "Top Cat". (Yes, they actually edited the title sequence, badly). The gang still called him TC though, which would have been confusing if I had actually thought about it.

Anyone know how to turn off the ones that pop up on slashdot? I can't moderate from my iPad since they came along - as they pop up when finger touches screen and steal the focus from the moderation drop down box.

I can't find any option in slashdot options, and there's no noscript for safari for iOS...

Most utilities, if you ring them with your own meter read after receiving an inaccurate estimate, will issue you with a new bill based on your read.

I had a lot of random estimates in my old house because it had one of those old dial meters in which every pointer turns in the opposite direction to the one before it - I gather some incorrect readings had been taken (before I owned the house) which created an incorrect usage pattern to base estimates on.

OTOH I guess you haven't lived in an earthquake zone. Brick and concrete houses tend to fall down without rediculous amounts of reinforcement. Wood flexes and springs back.

Having owned and lived in both 100 year old brick and 100 year old wooden houses, I would say the maintenance level required is fairly similar.

Not if the original poster lives in Canberra. See http://www.transact.com.au/en-ACT/internet/network for details on the TransACT FTTN VDSL network. Been in place for about 10 years.

Isn't it more like writing a C compiler in C-shell - at least name-wise :-)

You need to understand that Slot machines, unlike roulette wheels, are not purely random. They contain logic that pre-decides where the wheels will spin to and discard outlier values that would take the machine outside programmed min and max payout rates (as well as do other things designed to hook and encourage play). These payout rates are frequently set by law. Thus if a machine is reaching the low point there actually is a higher chance of a win as the machine discards more losing combinations.

When no-one is expecting it.

"For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night."

This one does work on iPhone. Slow as a wet week, of course, but very impressive. Crashed first time, but then ran fine. Perhaps if I had an iPad 2 with it's super processor I might start vi...