> Every month, I pay my landlord (a professor; I'm his only tenant) with a check. I wonder what system would replace that, that would be significantly different from checks, but that my landlord could accept?

A standing order.

> Also, what if I run over someone's bicycle, and I want to give him a blank check to pay for it? Or, more realistically, what if I need to pay an individual that I have only just met more money than I have in cash?

If you're going to give black cheques away to strangers, why not just give them your bank card and PIN?

As for the second situation, I'm sure your dealer can wait a day or two. ;)

Just more scaremongering really... I live in the UK and have seen none of this supposed Orwellian dystopia we supposedly live in. I never get stopped or searched by police, despite looking dodgy. I can buy kitchen knives without any difficulty. It's all a lot of hot air.

Don't believe all you read... I suspect the right-wing US media may be partially to blame, as we are obviously too 'communist' for them.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8180791.stm We just decided we didn't like it any more :P

You know it's Slashdot when a "grammar nazi" has a spelling mistake in their criticism of a sentence.

You may want to expand these obscure acronyms before plastering them all over the place.

I thought you were referring to a furniture store of some kind.

"Their dead."

Read more.

"Yeah, right. Without patents some poor people would have never gotten rich, since the rich have more experience, money and manpower. Patents were created to prevent the rich from stealing commercially valuable ideas from the poor so as to encourage innovation and help mankind as well. "

That may or may not have been the original intention, but it is certainly not what they are used for nowadays; the rich monopolising anything they can get their hands on.

Have a spare couple of grand for each of us for the oh-so-glamourous style hardware? Thought not :P

Geeks know where to get their music for free... at least I think that's what he's referring to.

Try to avoid QA... On my first (and only) decent programming job after doing a Computer Science degree, after a few months, I was forced to do mindless QA for 2 months... It was so mind-numbingly boring I got fired for laziness. Now I work in a call centre ;)

Most tractors would have a hard time splitting in half to make overtaking easier.

I had 5 80s before I quit, and had spent a considerable amount of time in these zones.

The first 7 levels were great, especially Howling Fjord, but you never get any feeling of danger in what should be the most dangerous zones. There are about 5 monsters in these huge zones that will dismount you, and then only if you get extremely close for some reason.

My favourite part of the expansion was fighting down through the mines on the southeastern edge of Howling Fjord. No shortcuts, just a nicely designed crawl.

As it is, the outdoor zones are entirely danger and excitement-free, an easy route to 80, rather than being an adventure.

I'm not entirely sure what islands have to do with this.

"Anyway, I used to play Everquest (a lot) and one of the biggest disappointments was when they introduced the city portals. When I first started playing (as an ogre) traveling from the Oggok (ogre city) to Neriak (dark elves) was quite a trip, which I had to prepare for and I had to be constantly alert so I wouldn't die (those damn madmen and sand giants). Not to mention traveling to for example Ak'Anon or Erudin, for which trip you actually needed to sneak through human controlled cities to take a ship. That was awesome to me. I can understand that it's not fun for everyone but when discussing these features at least consider this!"

Ahh, I'm glad someone else appreciates this as much as I do... I used to love the old Qeynos - Freeport run.