Dak

If i can throw my 2p into the arguments: windows xp is hardly amazingly super-dooper cant-find-fault amazingly great, but its not too bad either; definately the best windows OS, and the best (from what i hear) for compatability. My main gripe is with the way in which it is set up by default (ie, not very good). The security holes arent that much of an issue for regular users, as long as you take the updates when available and have the proper complement of security programs (eg firewall, av etc) and use them properly, although it would be nice if there wernt SO MANY holes, ill admit (espescially for complete novices, who are likely to not have the correct security measures). there are lynix viruses, just not as many (by far) as will effect windows OSs. IE can be configured (with quite a bit of effort) to be very secure, but by default it is to malware as a net is to the wind, ie not very good at stopping it getting through. much as i like FF, it does have flaws (memory leaks and a tendancy to crash. I also hear that the encryption it uses for its stored passwords is somewhat lacking), and there are security holes, but by-and-large it is more secure than IE, and -- inportantly -- it ships with the correct security settings as default. I get -- and agree with -- what your saying pangaloss, but you cant deny that microsoft has some shady buisness practaces. The most recent one that springs to mind involves microsoft antispyware: having entered the anti-malware scene, microsoft then makes moves to purchase Claria (which may be more recognisable by their previouse name of gator/gain), who had made and spread a significant amount of both spyware and adware. This coming from a company who produces an anti-spyware program? Furthermore, microsoft antispyware was then updated to have the default action for most of the claria/gator/gain products set to 'ignoor', which strikes me as pretty much a sneaky-bugger way of tecinically not removing them from the definitions whilst still aranging it so that ms-as doesnt remove it. Microsoft have since scrapped plans to buy claria, but still it was a dodgy move, a company who makes an anti-malware program purchasing malware and changing their aforementioned anti-malware program to ignore the products by default. As i said, this is but ms's most recent transgrettion; "Microsoft is evil" may be an over-exageration, but its easy to see where it stems from. ----------------------- back to the original point, what are the good points of lynix (other than it not being m$?). I gather that there are alot less linix viruses etc than ones which run on windows OSs, but whats the benifit of having an XP/linux dual boot, from the POV of a regular user (ie, it'll be used to surf the net, wright documents, play a few games etc) with above average (but hardly leet) computery skills? I haf to say, im actually quite fond of xp -- it takes a bit of messing about to get it to run on a below-spek machine and without getting infected, but its good enough at what it does.

Its hardly sophisticated, but as far as im concerned you can't beat a good ol' cup of PG Tips: black and strong enough to kill. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, t

like i said, dickhead (and cock-head) are both insults. Although, the above is all true in british english. Im not sure about us/canadian english.

actually, most email scams are from nigerian-based organised criminal gangs, although i think they generally stick to "hello. me dadda wasa oil murchant, let me put money ina you account, you send me £2,000 ill give you 2.4million £, magu" rather than hacking into accounts. its worth emailing AOL, even if theyll probably ignore it. there are people stupid enough to fall for scams, even of the "give me £x and ill give you £xxx" variety, so its a fair bet people will fall for scam your talking about, so its worth a shot at closing down the account hes operating from.

'helmet', 'bell end' and 'nob end' if your around friends who dont mind vulgar language 'head of the penus' in polite convorsation, 'glans' in a medical context and in formal wrighting. 'head of penus' or 'glans' would probably be most suitable for this site (although i prefer 'nob-end', as i find it funny)

december 2006, according to aerternus' link.

oh dear... this is refered to, both colequially and medically, as 'cleavage'. dickhead isnt used (under any surcumstances) to refer to the head of the penus. dickhead is a (relatively mild) insult, as in "oi! you trod on my foot, you dickhead" etc. refering to the head of the penus as 'dickhead' would sound stupid. it is collequially refered to as 'helmet', 'bell-end', or 'nob-end'; more formaly as 'the head of the penis'; and scientifically as 'glans'. i may regret asking this, but why did you wish to know those two terms?

thats more against the 'cruel' part than the 'unusual' part; why would jailing someone be more lenient or less disproportionate than pelting someone with rottern tomatoes; or a fine more lenient/less disproportionate than parading them through the streets holding a sighn with 'litter-bug' writtern on it? actually, i think that unusual punishments could be tailored to be (in some cases) directly proportional to the crime (as in the rottern meat example). come to think of it, why is it ok to put someones name on a publically accesable register or publish their conviction in the local paper, but not parade them around the streets with a sighn? It would achieve the same end. actually, id like to change that to "im not arguing for or condoning anything that i sujjest within this thread; merely testing the idea that unusual punishment should be abstained from. so if i mention lopping bits of people off, or allowing ex-rapists to rape rapists as a punishment, im just speculating.

I thought it was the other way round... i thought that the primary concern of the legal system (at least in 'civilised' societys) was to act as a deterrant, by essentially saying "look, potential wrongdoers: this is what'll happen to you if you do x". Anyway, unusual punishments can act as a redress and as a deterrant. Im not quite sure what you mean here: surely the govournment makes moral desisions quite oftern by illegalising certain things like prostitution and murder? ================= this is completely irrelivent to this thread, but i just remembered that i never got around to this before, and the relevent threads have been locked: my appologies to all for the thread-distroying arguments i had with revprez.

My advice would be: report his AOL email account to TOSGeneral@aol.com (according to this site) report his ip to his isp, if you havent already. make sure that your automatic forwarding is turned off of your hotmail account Also, id check all the settings on the sites you have accounts with, to make sure nothing has been changed, eg your email address on your accounts, so that any password changes you make dont get emailed to him. Change ALL your passwords for online sites. Make sure that theyre strong passwords: at least 8 didjits long, at least one letter and one number, and not a real word (even in h4x0r, or backwards), so for example 'p455w0rd' would be a week password. Accronyms are good for this: 'db1maayb' is a strong password, but easaly rememberable as an accronym for "dont break into my account again you bastard" with the 'i' of 'into' replaced with a 1. email the buyers and inform them of the conman. inform your bank, and paypal (and any online-thingy which you use which involves money) incase he tries to withdraw your money. go to your local police station and have a chat with them. If your not sure how he got your password, you might want to run a few virus/spyware scan to ensure that you dont have a keylogger on your computer.

Why should we not use cruel and unusual punishment? surely all punishment is, by its very definition, cruel; locking someone up or putting them to death is hardly a nice thing to do. Why the big no-no on having unusual punishment? I can see the point of not, for example, not cutting theives hands off, but a total ban on imaginative punishments... The reason that i started thinking about this, is that i saw a program on the telly the other day about the illigal trade in unfit meat. In ye olde days, if a food-vender was suspected of selling rotten meat, he would be forsed to eat the meat that he was selling -- a quite fitting punishment, with 0% chance for miscarage (if the meat was rotten, he will get ill; if not, he will be fine) but im sure this would count as 'unusual' punishment. locking people in stocks and pelting them with soft fruit also strikes me as arguably a suitable punishment for social crimes, eg noisy neighbours, because 1/ it would punish people in proportion to how, in the above case, annoyingly noisy they had been (the more they had annoyed their neighbour, the more theyd get pelted by fruit), and 2/it is a very visable way of showing that justis is being done, and so presumably would act as a good deterent. also, certain punishments which could arguably be justified, eg castrating repeat rapists, would be disallowed by the ban on "no cruel and unusual punishment". Id like to make it clear at this point that im not actually arguing for or condoning any of the above punishments; nor am i actually suggesting that we reintroduce imaginatively unusual punishments. I was just wondering why the above are automatically not even considered when developing a punishment for a crime? So more of a 'discuss' thingy.

what is his email server? most of them have a way to report abuse, so you could report him to his email server aswell. change your passwords for online things, as he could have used the 'i forgot my password' thingy to have your password sent to your email address so he could get it.

So, what does being on the sex offenders register entail? I believe that you cant live within x of a school, and cant get jobs working with kids? Is there anything else? do you have to mention it under the 'criminal record' bit of a job application? could civvilians look up an entry in the sex-offenders registry?

They dont have the full article in their database... if you want to read it, either google the title or go to the nearest academic library and enquire after this issue of this journal Am J Dis Child. 1975 Jul;129(7):794-800. presumably, the american journal of diseased childeren (?) what abouth the paper i linked to? heres another: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10865398&query_hl=2

I think the answre to that would overwhelmingly be yes. the legal age of consent in taiwan is 16, so it'd be illegal, too.

If they get branded as 'sluttish' if they have some experience, then its little wonder that they pretend that they are 'innocent'. Does it really matter that much if they arent virgins? anyway, from what i hear there are much worse ways to be decieved by a taiwaneese 'girl'.

god is now hear although, i should point out that im inclined to spell 'nowhere' as 'nowear', so maybe thats why?

Kaaaaaaaaaaaa-waitforithereitcomes-plonkums

RE the spelling and grammar: The problem isn't one of analy-retentive pickyness with reguards to the English language*; it is one of being able to actually understand what is being said. If you need a spell-checker, then here are two: For Internet Explorer For Firefox Whenever I'm having an exessively mentally-'special' moment, I use the Firefox spell checker. 'Tis easy to use and takes but a few seconds, which is less than it takes to have to explain what you ment when you said scelingtoon**, teqhniquely***, or acqusation****. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ * except sayo, when he's in one of his linguistically pedantic moods. ** skeleton *** technically **** accusation

Is that legal? If so, we should make this thread a "get me articles" thread, for anyone who wants them. Iv got an athens account, and ill d/l any articles which anyone wants and which my athens account covers.

are those two on the bottom really pleased to see each other or something? whats wrong with the idea that they lugged the blox from the nile to the pyramid? There would have been alot of lugging of the blocks involved in building the pyramid anyway, whats another couple hundered yards?

It probably does to him! shouldnt that be 'her'?

"Derek!" cried mrs.cheesmeister to her husband, "Look out! Theres a carniverouse floating zombie coat of doom about to grab you from behind, no doubt in order to devour your flesh in the most heniouse of fashions!" But it was too late... due to the verbosity of her warning, he was still listening when the carniverouse floating zombie coat of doom grabbed him from behind and consumed him, indeed in the most heniouse of fashions, before returning back to its wardrobe and regurgitating dereks reminans for its baby anoracks, who were still too young to hunt for themselves. A chilling silence fell outside the cinima. Mrs cheesmeister stood in shocked terror at the loss of her husband. In the distance, an owl hooted.

they remind me of the little blobs you get when you get air-bubbles caught in a microscope slide. sorry if its been said before in this thread, but they're water droplets catching light dude... the one to the bottom right is even creating st elmo's jewels.

I know this isnt strictly speaking a joke, and i know alot of you will have seen it already, but i was crying with laughter so hard that my face hurt after reading this thread, and just wanted to share it with you. daves closing comment is the best bit.