Sarconia

I contemplated attending but I'm a bit new around here really, that and I'm not really too sure what I could bring to the discussion - I'm a bit of a multi-tasking floater rather than a specialist.

Until you'd mentioned it I didn't even know what an MP earnt, I've never really been thinking about the money. According to parliament.uk, they earn £65k which equates roughly to a take home salary of £3700 after tax. What the heck I'd do with that money, I do not know. I'm an eternal stingebag and don't see the point in paying more than I have to for anything, yes... I even buy Tesco value toilet roll, your finger doesn't go through it like they say and sure, it's not as nice as Andrex but when it's 12 rolls for £1.50 I can't complain. It's not that I couldn't afford Andrex or anything like that, it's the principle, why spend money on a product which is quite litterally going down the drain? It's just arse fodder at the end of the day. I definitely intend to, it's time to really help the poor and the middle classes, not the rich, they have it easy enough already. I'm fed up with politicians who can't even adhere to their own standards. The seven principles of public life, they all sound like a good idea to me but have you even met an MP who has embodied most of these traits? selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. I think most fail on the first one! I'll have to see where the local HQ is and shift myself down there at some point. The only issue with this that I can foresee is the problem of other people. Personally I always try to conduct myself with professionalism, I try to be nice to everybody, get on with my work and then go home, however, some people seem to have a problem with this, they attempt to screw over others, myself included for no apparent reason - it doesn't give them any benefit whatsoever. This I do not understand, I really don't, you can't like everyone but if you do happen to end up near those who you don't particularly like, just be civil, do whatever it is you have to do and then get out of there - no grief or hassle is needed. From personal experience though, a lot of it comes down to the fact that people aren't honest, can't even admit to their own feelings and generally go around lying and harassing others in order to try and cover up their own problems and the cycle repeats. It's supremely annoying, don't take your problems out on others who have nothing to do with it, target the problem directly. Hmm, that went off at a slight tangent, maybe I should go and write a manifesto on lawsloop.

I was largely forced down this career route simply because I took the first job which was offered to me after graduating from university. It wasn't what I'd wanted to do but it could've been worse, I've got no idea what I'd be doing otherwise, I'd probably be stuck in another completely random career if I wasn't here. I always wanted to be an MP when I was younger and still do really, it's the only way you'll ever get to change anything big.

I'm currently smashing my way through The Servant of the Empire by Raymond E Feist & Janny Wurts, it's an epic trilogy which has everything I want from a book. Political intriegue, different cultures, war/battles/fighting as well as a bit of romance and the occasional bout of hot steamy passion, no details are spared either.

Yes, I will be going to the pub in full cosplay, people will be giving me weird looks but I don't care! I'll be going as Kallen Stadtfeld/Kozuki from Code Geass

It has to be asked, what is everyone up to this weekend? I'm off to London Expo, gaming, anime, random geekiness, lots of cool nerdy items to buy, I couldn't be happier! Especially as I missed the last one due to being at a convention elsewhere, I'll be cosplaying too Not sure what I'll be doing for the rest of the weekend, probably just chilling out and recovering from Saturday, after the expo it'll be time to hit the pub.

I very rarely go to the cinema nowadays... £8 to see one film? I'm too cheap for that, I'd rather pay a few more quid for the DVD!

I often run about the same distance you do, just that I do it every other day rather than every day. I'm convinced that running is probably the biggest strain on the body when it comes to exercising so it should be done with care, you've already gone and got the right shoes and seem to have tried everything else so I'd say if the pain is constant then it's time to see a doctor. It sounds like it might be a trapped nerve but they usually tend to wear off after a few hours/after lots of stretching in my experience.

I've been contemplating trying to make my own ones. Regular Pea + Smeer with Wasabi Paste + Slow bake = Wasabi Peas?

Here we have fairtrade organic tea... it's a bit of a shame that it tastes a bit rubbish though. Give me PG Tips / Tetley any day! Coffee is Nescafe which is pretty standard, milk is milk and sugar is sugar. Most of the time I go home to make my own lunch, there is a cafe on site though which isn't bad, I'm just a cheapskate and as I live within walking distance of the office, I might as well save money and make my own. I do get the odd Graze box delivered though as a treat on a Friday.

It funds all of those ice cubes in the swimming pool! Still, I'm rather glad that I no longer have to deal with the Fees Module. All of those headache issues of trying to delete students who still had weird Fees data lingering around.

Go for a swim to celebrate Vik

Not all of us do! I personally always try to keep reasonably covered yet cool and professional looking at the same time. For example today I'm wearing a yellow short sleeve shirt (with a collar so it definitely counts as a shirt), knee length black trousers which are exactly the same as my normal trousers, just that they come up to my knee and the same shoes as normal. I've not seen any trousers for blokes which are the same as what I'm wearing today... I'm not actually sure why not though... nothing wrong with a bit of knobbly knee/lower leg!

The summer release isn't even out yet!

Cor... and I thought that 80% Absinythe (sp?) that someone bought back from Turkey the other year was bad... that along with the Cannabis Vodka... urk! I'm amazed I actually surived them both.

As long as you state exactly what is wrong with the car to the best of your knowledge in the Auction then it is fine (from a legal/Ebay user rules standpoint). Just put in your accepted payments as Cash only and state that in the auction too. As with all things though, beware of idiots and scammers (not that anyone would want to try and scam you out of a car which doesn't work but you never know). I'd make it doubly clear that you need someone to come and pick it up - I've had a few auctions which have ended and the person has even paid for the item and then said "meet me here" (which is usually X miles away) despite the fact that I clearly stated in block capitals, in a massive font that the item was for pick up from location only. Other than giving it to a friend, seeing if anyone down at the local garage wants it or getting a scrap place to come and pick it up... I don't think so.

Drinking on a Thursday night, I hope you have today off! I can drink anything although there are certain drinks which I'd rather not go near. I'm not particularly keen on Fosters, Stella, Carlsberg, Whiskey or Wine but I can drink it if I have to (E.g: It's free). I am a big fan of cocktails though, usually I'll mix myself up something which either involves Gin, Amaretto or something blackcurranty. I tend to drink Tequila when it comes to shots, there's a specific kind I'm after but I can't find it in the stores anywhere (despite now living next to the biggest Tesco's I've ever seen). Too much alcohol on the brain already, you can tell it's Friday!

As long as the small company is swift, efficient and know what they're doing then I don't see what the problem would be, convincing management of that though... yeah, that is the bugger.

One customer who I dealt with once said "It's ludicrous that your mailbox can be full but it actually notifies someone else!". I have to agree really, if someones mailbox is full, they should be informed too - maybe with a big flashing red pop up on their homepage which flashes vigorously every time they log in.

2GB isn't really that big for an MDF file. Do you have an older copy of the .MDF? One which hasn't been messed around so much and is smaller in size? If so, I'd suggest restoring to that database, doing the training and then restoring back to that smaller database each time.

Whilst the MIS software might be free, surely you'd still have to pay if you wanted support? Therefore you could still just as easily point the finger at the support company. As long as management are willing to pay for it of course (which they should be as without the licenses for an MIS it should be cheaper paying only for the support contract). There might even be a support option where they will remote on and do your upgrades for you.

As both companies are being made subsidiarys of a bigger one, hopefully there shouldn't be too much change. They'll probably stay relatively the same... a bit like GAME and Gamestation.

What are they doing with all of that money? All of these 16 bit applications which are still floating around... they should've been replaced ages ago to be honest.

There are many reasons as to why people are scared of open source, the most common one has already been stated earlier in the thread, that most users are on their own and if anything goes wrong, they don't know how to fix it. Also, it's a new system to the users, people in general are mostly inherently afraid of change and anything unknown, I have many users who call me and often it's a very simple query because they are scared to click and find out what the icon does for fear of messing anything up. A lack of training is apparent as well, users don't spend the time to at least have a quick glance at the hardware/software manuals - they just plough straight in and if whatever it is they are trying to use doesn't work how they think it should in their (sometimes illogical) brains then that also causes problems. A lot of teachers (not all of them) try to fight against new technology being implemented, usually with an excuse something along the lines of "it'll disrupt my lesson" as they are apprehensive at first, if you can get them over that hurdle though, they'll then turn around and say "how did I ever manage without this?". On a side note: Gah, DCSF rebranded already!

KB96140 for SQL Server 2008, it's effectively the same process, just that it looks different to 2005.