I .. I suddenly have the urge to buy all the soundtrack music played over the tannoy at Tesco.

Once the ballyhoo and excitement at the birth of a new language have subsided it is quickly supplanted by the motherly urge to control and protect.

More like...

Dear Valued Customer,

Please try not to be noticed, but do continue to use a lot of bandwidth to protect our revenue stream.

There's a good chap.

Cheerio,
Your ISP

PS If you do get noticed we, most regrettably, shall be forced into the position of writing a stern letter to your mum.

I once lived in the heart of the US auto industry. Anonymous tin-box Chevy and Ford cars ruled the roads by shear numbers. Not many people remember these high volume cars, the Vega, Maverick, Nova, Fairlane, Granada, Chevette. And the Pinto is only well remembered due to an engineering oversight which made it a mobile crematorium.

So Microsoft has higher numbers, yeah? So who is using these things? Quick and dirty websites or real e-commerce, media, commercial/industrial?

Numbers alone aren't very meaningful.

We demand, lies, damned lies and statistics

I'm honestly surprised when someone on MSDN knows the precise reason something works or does not, their own code probably looks like muck to them, too. Keep going through these exercises of "try this..."

OT - I'm not surprised. Is anyone surprise? Apple is the private sector equivalent to the NSA.

First, of course was Shoemaker-Levy 9.

And we're not counting people who don tracksuits, Nikes and scarf deadly pudding whenever they see a big comet scooting by.

When I watched Star Wars, the first film, I was perched in a seat with a massive bucket of popcorn in my lap (as I wasn't very tall, yet, it nearly obscured the screen, such was my love of popcorn.) When that Imperial Star Destroyer cruised "overhead" the piece of popcorn on my tongue rolled out and fell back into the bucket. I was floored by the visual effect. I think I scarcely touched the popcorn throughout the rest of the film and was surprised to find I had a bucket of popcorn at the end. Gripping.

It hasn't aged well, though. Characters, Luke and Han among them, have a decided 70s look about them (the Dry Look) other things, like computer displays look pathetic next to what my mobile phone can do. A keener eye shows how slapped together some things look upon later viewings, as well. Lucas' addition of CGI in later DVD releases are a poor fit for some of the gritty shot locations, such as the dock on Tatooine.

Viewed through the lens of my memory, I still love it and recall the thrill of watching it the first time and standing in my home drive, staring upward, trying to visualize how an Imperial Star Destroyer would look in the sky above our house.

Sure they do, it's called a Guillotine. Problem is, we don't use it.

it's simple cause and effect

Being tracked and pestered because I'm walking around with my mobile on, to activate stuff, would be a nuisance (I feel it's a nuisance that it rings, it's for me calling people, not the other way around ;-)

And like it or not, you'd be tracked, even if everyone promised you were not being tracked.

Which wine, red or white?

Which still will be appealed, because that's the way the game is played.

email
news
check a couple forums
look at ebay for junk
updates to software/OS

Nossir, I don't need it.

What does the GWB administration have to do with Welding?

I see them, now and then, during the daylight hours, but you have to be looking up and in the right area to spot them. Some are pretty exciting to see.

He wants more than fame, he wants to establish Russia as a global power, again. Problem is, his economy is mostly natural resourced exporting - which means it's pretty weak on manufacturing or services.