That was my first thought too. but i guess a less exciting deadly flu might be more likely.

Mum, is that you?

Well, maybe it wasn't a flame, but i hate making spelling mistakes, and you have taken some of the joy out of my first ever first post. I had to type fast, but also take the calculated risk that what i could say was faintly amusing, cos it could so easily have gone the other way. some of us just cannot spare the karma, you know. So, go on, laugh at my expense. heh heh immume, thats a great word though....

afaik, smug bastard, rich bastard and of course, more money than sense bastard are not caused by micro-organisms. er, i suppose i should balance that by mentioning that i know people who use macs who are really nice people and they get great work done. none of them post on slashdot, tho.

Yeah, but it doesnt matter. everyone knows that apples are immume to viruses and malware. and they look better than ordinary Pcs.

um, what about the 180 quid I paid for the tax disc on my car?. Not to mention the duty of about 80 percent on each gallon of petrol? Bike riders are like parasites, living off a system they make little or no contribution to. can't say ive noticed most cyclist obeying the law, either. some pedestrian teenager was killed by a bolshy cyclist some time ago, as i recall.

Bah, where are your mod funny points? Still, I got tea up my nose. maybe its an age thing.

The explanation is as follows: first you get voted into power. then you try and flex your power muscles. oooohhh, that criminal stuff is so old hat, and sorting it out is, like, really hard. (social deprivation, education, rehabilitation, drugs and all that) but wait, we can still feel powerful passing some legislation for lots of other bollocks stuff that appeals to the hard of thinking. and better still, the cops are hot for it, cos it is a lot easier than catching the old hat criminals, who dont give a shit about the system anyhow. and better still, they can be banged up for a really long time, unlike the normal criminals, who seem to get community service or whatever, what with the jails being so full and all..... I guess it is a form of cancer, where if the body doesnt have enough real disease to fight, it turns on itself. Britain has turned on itself, and the prognosis is not good. and hell yes i blame the politicians. hmm, stream of conciousness. where did i leave those tranquilisers.

Scooby doo went there years ago. could an animation count as prior art?

I used to feel the same way about microsoft access.
Then I realised it was because I didn't know anything else.

I think you have a point. I feel I should mention that looking at tux has never, ever given me an erection.

That would be George Bush, then?

I think BSD needs a new, cuddly but cool mascot. how do you compete with tux? Is the cresta (remember that?) polar bear available?

I imagine the system is recording some sort of analogue signal? It boggles my mind to imagine they possesed anything other than the most basic digital stuff in the 60's. mind you, i am frequently dissappointed by how far we haven't come since then.

Economics. the allocation of scarce resource. If it is not limited, then there is no ecomomics.
In these games, time is the scarce resource, and maybe patience!
People sell their time (collecting gold or whatever) to people who want it.
The problem for the Game developer is that they do not have a real economy. (hey, just like the real world!) that is, the money created just appears and floats upward, whereas in a real economy it circulates, and is never "used up" (present circumstances excepted). Unless the game can simulate an economy successfully, then there will always be problems with currency in game.
This means work, or some simulation of it, which is by definition not that much fun. (software developer excepted, of course). So I would conclude that they are, um, wrong to ban external labour simulating in game labour. so far, the free market has proven to be the most efficient distributor of resources. well, till now, anyhow.