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* Posts by AndrueC

5089 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Aug 2009

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Review: HTC One

AndrueC Silver badge
Coat

Can you change the battery - preferably for something bigger?

I'm looking to replace my ageing HTC Desire this year but I want something that can last for four or five days between charges and that means a 3aH or better battery. I've been looking at the Samsung S3 and you can buy a 4.3aH battery for it on Amazon. It makes it bulge a bit at the back and adds some weight but the same is true for the 3aH battery in my Desire. Doesn't bother me in the slightest - I think it makes it easier to hold and also means it can prop itself up sideways on the desk for viewing videos :)

Mine's the one with a spare battery in the pocket.

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Researcher sets up illegal 420,000 node botnet for IPv4 internet map

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Re: Using a default username and password isn't hacking

I'm sorry, but people that don't secure their systems from this level of attack are part of the problem.

And I'm sorry to tell you that in the real world not everyone using the net is a geek or highly qualified IT professional. If you design or implement IT systems you need to understand that and act accordingly. The alternative is to ban anyone who doesn't have the requisite qualifications from using the internet. It'd make for a safer online world but it'd be a lot quieter as well :(

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That Osbo bloke - he's on your Twitters. 'What a c**k'

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Facepalm

..paperwork and pen

Well that explains the lack of support for broadband in his budget. Some kind soul should explain to him about computers.

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Twitter patents sending messages, promises not to sue everyone

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Re: Fine while it lasts

A patent on tossing could be very lucrative given the number of tossers in the world.

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Virgin Media boss to Osbo: Bung city fibre cash into small biz

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Damn right. ISPs were told to get rid of 'up to' despite it being technically accurate and not that difficult to understand. They had to replace it with a pointless and misleading percentile based value ('at least 10% of people who could have entirely different circumstances to you got this speed'). Yet 'unlimited' is allowed to remain despite the fact that it is clearly limited.

The other problem with UK broadband is pricing. The market has been forced/allowed to reduce prices to the point where making a profit is almost impossible and RoI a dream on the horizon. That's why BT has walked away with BDUK. No-one else can stump up enough money or get good enough loan terms from the banks to make it viable.

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AdBlock Plus BLOCKED from Google Play

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Stop

Re: Terms and conditions are for the Sheeple.

If electronic goods fail within a certain time (IIRC 12 months) due to a mnanufacturing defect, the manufacturer has to, by law

Actually no, it's not that simple. If the fault occurs within the first six months the retailer has to prove that it isn't a manufacturing defect. After that the consumer has to prove that it is. Secondly the retailer doesn't have to replace the item. That's just one of their options. They are quite at liberty to pay for a repair instead. They are also allowed to take wear and tear and usage into consideration when deciding what if anything the consumer is owed.

SOGA is good but it's not an automatic 'I win' for consumers. As noted above - it's between consumers and retailers not manufacturers.

But overall I agree with you. Everyone needs to have some respect for the law. If we pick and choose which bits we like it won't work at all.

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Re: Surprise, surprise.

Yeah a bit like their secure searching on Chrome. Now I suppose it could because they value our privacy and want to protect us but it could also be because most ad blockers can't process secure connections.

Luckily if you create a new search engine with this URL:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%s

And stay signed out you can continue insecure searching :)

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Re: More adverts, everywhere.

frequently updated, hosts file

Maybe you don't consider your time valuable but I consider mine to be. I have better things to do than keep updating an obscure configuration file. Computers are supposed to relieve us of drudgery and mindless tasks, not create new boring tasks for us.

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Freeview telly channels face £240m-A-YEAR shakedown by Ofcom

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Re: plus ca change

Workers of the world unit!

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SimCity 4

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Re: Crashing

In the new version there should be the option of "cash for land"

I think that the option of being able to get onto the servers to play it ought to be added first.

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BT pockets more gov broadband millions. This time: Lincolnshire

AndrueC Silver badge
Stop

Some links to think about:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/5747.html

and

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/5749.html

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What's most important? Bandwidth over kilo-miles, or milli-watts?

AndrueC Silver badge
Boffin

but there are plenty more frequencies available below that and we've a lot to learn about how to make the most of them

I thought the higher 'radio' frequencies were blocked by the atmosphere and were unusable and of course the lower frequencies have insufficient bandwidth to be useful. I'm certainly no expert but I was under the impression we were already using as much EMF spectrum for transmission as was possible.

I suppose the higher frequencies could be used in a vacuum but that won't be easy to maintain for most applications.

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Starlight-sifting boffins can now spot ALIEN LIFE LIGHT YEARS AWAY

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If any alien species with a modicum of intellect saw those things on our world, they would turn around shaking their heads while they did so.

So even advanced civilisations are arrogant and judgemental?

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AndrueC Silver badge
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WTF?

Re: Neat, but.....

Speaking as a software developer if I run a test and get weird results I assume the test is probably wrong. Hopefully they do too and have done their due diligence. Still - colour me sceptical for now.

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BT engineers - missed appointments

AndrueC Silver badge
FAIL

I had an SFI come out a couple of weeks ago (totally unnecessary as my ISP and I both knew). Appt was booked for Saturday PM and was a no-show. Engineer turned up Sunday AM. When I pointed out it was booked for Sat PM he said "I know but the system told me Sun AM". Sounded like a right cock-and bull story but at least he turned up.

Unfortunately what we needed was someone from their network team since there was nothing wrong with my line or modem. Well - up till then anyway. The engineer's testing resulted in interleaving being applied and it was two weeks before the DLM relented. All this for an ongoing problem that repeats every 60 days and has done since last June.

Increased latency, sync unchanged, no packet loss. It's the network, Jim! But BT have yet to accept that.

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Philips pushes out SDK for multicolour Zigbee LED lights

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Joke

They might be controlling their hue but who will control their cry?

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Rise Of The Machines: What will become of box-watchers, delivery drivers?

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Joke

Only if the servers are up :)

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En Garde! Villagers FIGHT OFF FRENCH INVASION MENACE

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no man is an island

Apart from Robert Maxwell several years ago.

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Six things a text editor must do - or it's a one-way trip to the trash

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Re: RE:"Can't be arsed with installing a text app on every machine I visit"

Put NotePadd++ or any other text editor on a flash drive.

Most of them are virtual. So I'd have to put the stick in my workstation then go through the hassle of mounting the USB in the VMWare client (bearing in mind we normally use RDP to control the machines so don't typically have the VMWare client open). Sometimes RDP can host it but it's a bit hit and miss and of course even less practical if you're editing text files on more than one machine at once.

All in all Win+R+'Notepad' is simpler and quicker ;)

I don't hate the alternatives but the gains are rarely worth the bother. The serious text editing I do is for programming and that I do with Visual Studio. Everything else is just looking at logs or maybe editing a config file. Neither of those needs anything more than Notepad 99% of the time.

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AndrueC Silver badge
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Re: EDLIN

I used to rely on Edlin many years ago when I was doing tech support. The beauty of a line by line editor is that it's easy to predict what should be on the user's screen. And if I remember correctly we sometimes sent out scripts activated by redirecting stdin. When I was working on Unix machines I used VI. Knowing the CLI for that was good because back then you'd sometimes find yourself on a terminal that wasn't correctly set up.

But as I've said in my other reply: Any tool gets bonus points in my book just for always being there.

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AndrueC Silver badge
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Meh

Doesn't the lack of more than one undo/redo level not annoy you?

No, I don't make mistakes :)

More seriously it depends what I'm doing. I just find that for the 'simple' text editing scenario I'm usually on some test machine or server and notepad is always ready and waiting. If I got used to a clever editor I'd just get pissed off every time I found it wasn't there.

Notepad collapses in to a black hole the moment you try to load a file of any significant siz

Not since Windows went 32 bit from what I can see. Only this morning I was working through a Windows Update issue and looking at WindowsUpdate.log. 1.1MB in size and it loads almost instantly - and that' on a Win 7 VM with only 1GB of RAM assigned to it.

I'm not at all saying that Notepad is perfect. It's crude and rudimentary. However the one thing it has in its favour is that it's always there. Snazzy tools and widgets are all well and good but a pain in the bum if no-one has installed them on the machine that you are trying to fix. If we had group policies or templates that ensured all machines had the tools then it'd be different but that's not practical for us. So we stick with what we know comes out of the box for the most part.

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AndrueC Silver badge
Meh

I use Notepad. Can't be arsed with installing a text app on every machine I visit and most of the time it works well. The whole 'word wrap' stuff is annoying but otherwise it works.

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Throttled customers rage over Virgin Mobile UK's tight cap

AndrueC Silver badge
Unhappy

For several years I was capped at 400kb/s as were many others who had first joined on their PAYG tarrif. They never did explain what was going on there.

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Twenty classic arcade games

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Meh

no Lunar Lander or Asteroids? F'shame.

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Incoming comet will probably miss Mars, says NASA

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Re: "NASA's current prediction of the comet's path."

The influence of Mars on the trajectory depends partly on the relative speed of the comet

The same principal can be applied to golf when you're putting :)

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AndrueC Silver badge
Mushroom

Bloody hell - it's like a series of celestial lessons!

Lesson 1 - Comets sometimes hit large objects.

You see this huge, big gas giant? See this comet? Look - it hit it. Look at the damage!

Lesson 2 - Objects sometimes come very close.

You see this asteroid? You know your own orbit? Look how close it comes.

Lesson 3 (for the hard of thinking)

Right. Listen up monkey-man. See this small, rocky planet. Smaller than yours? You see this comet? Yeah? Now watch. And FFS pay attention this time!

I hope we don't have to have lesson 4.

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Strategic SIEGE ROBOTS defeated by 'heavily intoxicated' man, 62

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Re: Vandalising government property?

Nah, it's easier than that. Just hang a notice on the existing robots: "I am not a robot".

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Re: Sense of déjà vu

TV cop films look increasingly like braindead fascists in trendy designer clothes ....

Yeah like the way the 'heros' are depicted pressurising employees to reveal customer details "Because you don't want the hassle of us with a warrant" or the classic "I think I heard a noise inside, we'd better go in".

I bet half the the audience just nods its head sagely thinking 'Anything to catch the plebs'. 'Cause of course the officers only do it when they know the perp is guilty anyway.

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WTF?

Re: Vandalising government property?

I'm a bit mystified that you can get booked for vandalising

Perhaps it's along similar lines to the idea that leads to people wrongly banged up being charged for room and board for their incarceration. Perhaps in the future we'll be charged for wear and tear on handcuffs and if you get shot you have to pay for the ammunition :-/

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Re: Sense of déjà vu

In the UK we are probably more likely to kill the robot with a golf club

Not my bloody clubs you don't. Not unless you can find the old steel set in the garage.

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Hey, media barons: The noughties called, they want their mobile tech back

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Re: Too many freetards

Absolutely. If I choose to go somewhere or do something that has adverts that's fine. But the idea of someone thinking that my mobile phone is an advertising hoarding for them to use as/when they see fit is absolutely not fine.

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Re: Are you?

How much do you pay every time you use Google Search?

If I use a service then I'll accept adverts (although I reserve the right to take reasonable steps to avoid actually seeing them). My choice to use the service so I accept the 'consequences'.

Do you pay for your e-mail service? Do you have your own e-mail server?

I run my own mail server. It uses commercial software (called VPOP3).

Are you an user of Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Picasa, reddit, tumblr, etc.?

No. Well - I have an account on LinkedIn but I got sick of them sending me spam after I'd asked them repeatedly not to.

Have you bought a The Register Gold Account (can't find the article, that was hilarious)?

No - see my first comment. If I use a service or app on my phone that has adverts that's one thing. But someone working out how to send adverts to me just because I have a phone in pocket is another. It's the difference between a pull service and a push service.

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AndrueC Silver badge
Mushroom

If anyone ever sends an advert to my pocket I will hunt them down and ram my phone up their arse. Sideways. Then nuke them from orbit because it's the only way to be sure.

I am not a dumb consumer. I refuse to be treated like a commodity.

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Health pros: Alcohol is EVIL – raise its price, ban its ads

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Re: ODFO

Or FOAD.

50p a unit minimum price does nothing to a pint of beer around here and not much for anything else bought in a pub. It hits wine and whisky drinkers at home though. So yobs can keep chugging in public but more refined drinkers get stung. Or maybe that's the plan - drive us out onto the streets to drink.

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SpaceX rocket reaches orbit but Dragon fails to spit fire

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Re: It's the Vogons!

Hey. I used to work for Vogon International before they got taken over and we would never have sabotaged a space mission.

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Keyboard, you're not my type

AndrueC Silver badge
Coffee/keyboard

The worst keyboard I ever used was an 80s era Olivetti. The first few millimetres of travel were lovely and cushioned. Then you hit the end stop. It was really quite peculiar. Clearly they had springs (it was a decent 'business class' product) but just didn't have enough travel.

The best I ever used was a Compaq keyboard of the same era. Even though I tended to hammer the keys those were so light that even I ended up floating my fingers across them.

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Nexus 1 put in orbit to prove 'in space, no one can hear you scream'

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Pint

Re: Scream

and I'm one of the team

Upvoted because you do 'space stuff' for a living :)

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AndrueC Silver badge
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Headmaster

From the news article:

"In theory, because space is a vacuum there are no molecules, so sound cannot travel as vibrations are not carried."

In my opinion as a native English speaker that's a silly thing to say. 'In theory' means 'not yet proven' or 'I think so'. The above sentence means that the author is not sure about either the lack of molecules in a vacuum or that the lack prevents vibration and thus sound. Either way it's silly. The matter is beyond dispute and has been for a long, long time. The first two words are misleading and should not be present. The third word should probably also not then be present since I was taught never to start a sentence with 'because' :)

Now going back to the original tagline one could debate whether 'in space' means 'in the vacuum of space' or 'not on the surface of a planet'. If the mobile was inside someone's spacesuit then the English language allows us to state it as being 'in space' but of course the suit wearer would be able to hear it scream. So the tagline might actually be wrong. If you are in an environment where you are capable of screaming then almost by definition you will hear it and there are several ways that other people could hear you :D

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AndrueC Silver badge
Facepalm

I love the way the BBC article refers to lack of sound propagation in a vacuum as a 'theory'.

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No mobile signal? Blame hippies and their eco-friendly walls

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Trollface

Re: Yes.

N.b. part of reason for this style of design there is that - for one storey houses - its more resilient to minor earthquakes

Seems reasonable. In the UK it's because it's cheaper and faster to build and the construction industry doesn't give a shit. It's not like they have to honour warranties or anything.

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Alert

Re: Yes.

A modern house having internal walls that block something? Wow that's a change. Normally houses built after the 80s are stud-work and plasterboard that doesn't even block sound.

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Welcome to our Wi-Fi: Devicescape reinvents landing page

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Is it like that wisdom of crowds thing

The intelligence of a group of human beings is inversely proportional to the number in that group.

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Ancient lost continent discovered lounging on Mauritian beach

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I bet it'll be blamed on global warming.

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Microsoft secure Azure Storage goes down WORLDWIDE

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Re: Oh Rly?

I've *never* trusted cloud computing and I never will

Admiral Kirk once said that about the Klingons. Mind you a few years earlier he also said "Double dumbass on you" and that applies here as well :)

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Happy

Re: Coincidence?

I take it you have not worked at a multinational ?

Well yes, fair point. However it's the OP's apparent faith in governments that is so shocking.

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Happy birthday, LP: Can you believe it's only 65?

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Re: 'If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a ...'

Regarding that repeating groove - was it supposed to do that?

I dunno but I'd assume so. It wasn't "I am the Beat" *click* "the Beat" *click* "the Beat". It was seamless. Either intentional or a very, very lucky mastering defect :)

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AndrueC Silver badge
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Re: 'If it ain't Stiff, it ain't worth a ...'

I have a Logitech Touch so in theory lossless digital can be better quality than a CD since there should be zero jitter. In practice I doubt my ears would tell the difference. I doubt they ever could and at 46 surely not.

Anyone else remember the vinyl single of I am The Beat by The Look? A never ending track because the groove leads back to itself at the end.

I am the Beat!

The Beat!

The Beat!

The Beat!

The Beat!

The Beat!

The Beat!

...

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AndrueC Silver badge
Meh

The only thing I miss (a bit) is the artwork. I owned a vinyl copy of Tusk and I was quite disappointed when I saw what came with the CD. It's a shame that's all some people will ever know. Other than that cracks and pops, lack of portability and the fact I can now stream my collection 24/7/52 across a network means I don't miss vinyl.

I wish I could also say that I appreciate the improved dynamic range but sadly most of today's record producers squander that in a pointless loudness war. I've given up on ripping CDs to a lossless format as a result and succumbed to the convenience of downloading MP3s. Maybe the quality drop masks the worst of the producer's efforts.

How sad.

Time was when I chose media and equipment that enhanced the producer's work.

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SimCity Classic

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SC is one of the best time-sinks I know. The later versions lost their way somewhat though. They took out the micromanagement like power lines and water pipes but introduced stupid advisers and higher level problems.

I don't think I went with a doughnut layout but for sheer population density you couldn't beat tenements. Oh and always run a water pipe under the road and remember that hydroelectric dams can be built on almost any sloping surface. I also remember setting stable cities up at work (only played in the lunch hour of course :) ) then turning off disasters and leaving them running all weekend. Come Monday all financial problems were solved for the foreseeable future :)

There's a new version coming out soon that looks quite good (and supposedly has proper multi-player options). I might just decide to buy that although I've largely sworn off computer gaming.

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