As a proud Scotsman I feel that this is fightin' talk.

So true - I've only been to the US twice but I vividly remember that even stuff that you wouldn't think should be sweet like bread and tomato sauce tasted sugary.

I have enjoyed visiting this site which I first found around 2000 I think. I have always found it to be a great community with some people posting really interesting stuff in the comments. I remember one thread had an astronaut posting on it and someone worked out he was and outed him (in a good way) and seemed pretty cool at the time. If anyone can find that thread or remembers this incident that would be awesome would like to read it again. Reading this site inspired me to run Mandrake and then Ubuntu Linux as my main OS for quite a few years although like so many others I eventually caved in and just bought a Mac to run Unix at home. I also think the American can-do spirit of so many posters and tech guys inspired me to start my own company www.myhealthscan.co.uk - 10% discount on whole body MR scanning just for mentioning Slashdot.org!

So true. I think the best experiences I have ever had in restaurants have always been when you are made to feel welcome and valued as a customer. Some places seem to forget that if they are in the hospitality industry, they should be hospitable.

Here is a list of businesses that will accept Bitcoin as payment in the UK, mostly in London: http://www.wheretospendbitcoin...

I have an iPhone 6 and it still runs perfectly, battery life still good, runs latest version of iOS etc. I am not going to replace it unless it breaks or becomes unusable - it was an expensive phone when new. There must be huge numbers of people in a similar position. It is a pretty small group of people that need or want the absolute latest and greatest.

Why would you go to a doctor if you were not sick?

Shooting film might be a smart move in these situations I doubt many of these border guards have a dark room handy.

iMessage is an incredibly useful feature for me and most iPhone users I know. I live in quite a rural part of Scotland and many family members have issues with mobile phone reception. The fact that the messages just find their way over wi-fi wherever you are is a huge bonus. My wife wants an iPhone now mainly just for this feature alone.

You only ever hear one side of almost any medical story, because patients (normally for good reasons) have a right to almost total confidentiality. Doctors can say practically nothing about individual cases without the express, written consent of the patient. Obviously this is not going to be given if there is a complaint against the doctor or hospital in question. The patients are at liberty to say anything at all about the case and nobody is able to correct them if they lie or misunderstand things. I've been a medical student and doctor since 1994 and can honestly say I have never seen anyone in the health care sector deliberately harm a patient or encroach on their autonomy without good reason, but obviously hospitals are staffed by fallible human beings and mistakes are made. Most patients are surprisingly understanding about mistakes if you are open and honest with them about what has happened and apologize.

Nokia should have doubled down on dumb phones and concentrated on making the most reliable, robust, phone call making devices on the market. Large clear proper number buttons, extra loud ringers and speakers for older people, great battery life, maybe integrate with companies who will help older people in an emergency etc. There are loads of people out there who want a really simple mobile phone to make calls but have no interest in social media or apps. Many of them would happily pay a premium for something like that really well executed and Nokia is a recognized brand in this segment of the market. There just is not enough room in the smart phone space for a third, minority OS. Most people who can afford one get an iPhone and if not you can get a cheap Android phone that has similar functionality at a lower price. I just can't see why you would buy a Windows phone.

I would love to leave the house without a wallet, confident that any outlet or shop where I wanted to purchase something would accept Apple Pay. But we are not even close to this yet. Plenty of places in the UK still do not have the contactless facility for credit cards and some cards are still being issued without this facility. So I am stuck having to carry the wallet full of cards and cash anyway, and if I am doing that I might as well just pull out the card rather than fiddle with the fingerprint reader or PIN on the phone.

Gram Parsons - way ahead of his time in so many ways.

The 7 plus will have two separate cameras, one with a wide angle and one with a a short telephoto lens. This addresses one side of the problem with iPhones as cameras for people photos - the wide angle lenses (I think 28 or 35mm equivalent) happens to be pretty unflattering. If I was shooting portraits with a DSLR I would want a focal length of at least 85mm and preferably a bit longer. The new Nikon 105mm F1.4 portrait lens looks perfect for this sort of shooting. However they are saying that even the telephoto lens will only be around 56mm equivalent, still too wide IMHO. The other problem with iPhones for people photos are that with tiny sensors you are stuck with a very large depth of field so you can't blur the background to create nice bokeh. They are apparently going to attempt this in software - I have no idea if this will look right or not. If I was a betting man I suspect it will look better than the current iPhone 6 photos but worse than a full frame DSLR photo taken with a telephoto lens and the aperture wide open. I am quite a keen photographer so this would definitely push me towards the 7 plus over the 7, even though I currently have a 6 because I didn't want something as large as a 6 plus.

I'm guessing you don't shoot many stills, you seem to be a videographer. If you think anyone shoots with a full frame DSLR for posing purposes you must be insane. They are fantastic tools for taking still images for the following reasons: 1) You have a large clear optical viewfinder. I'm sure electronic viewfinders will catch up eventually but at present there is still some lag and the resolution is lower. 2) Great battery life if you don't use the rear screen too much. I regularly go on holiday for a week, shooting a reasonable amount every day and still have charge left when I get home. 3) Not that huge if you are happy to use prime lenses. Some faster professional zooms are pretty big but for amateurs you can just use a couple of primes and zoom with your feet. Unless you are shooting something a bit weird like birds or macro stuff about 90% of shots could be taken with a 24mm and 85mm prime. 4) You don't unpack a DSLR you leave it slung round your neck and switched on - you can take a shot almost instantly. 5) Larger sensors are more sensitive to light combined with fast telephoto prime lenses you get great depth of field control for portraits. This is where they really shine over iPhones. The iPhone has a slightly wide angled lens (I think around 28-35mm equivalent) and a small sensor which is a lousy combination for people photos. Sure an iPhone is easier to carry but you are giving up a lot of functionality and the end results are nothing like as good.