pap

Or alternatively, collecting vast amounts of personal information to get blackmailing information, etc. btw, can anyone thinking of the "if you've got nothing to hide" line please send me all of your electronic communications. PM me (or email NSA) for contact details.

It has always been possible to talk about immigration without being racist. Problem is, a lot of people are racist to start with and the problems associated with immigration are simply validation of their pre-existing prejudices. A lot of racist sh!t can get said, thus they end up being called racist. You've also got to contend with people who conflate stemming the flow of present immigration with sending everyone back. UKIP's main policy aim is to regain sovereignty. Though many of their supporters have doubtless jumped on board because of the immigration, sovereignty and the importance of the democratic process are what Farage talks about in the EU Parliament. I really don't blame anyone for being concerned at the strain immigration places on our infrastructure, but then, our infrastructure has been p!ss-poor for decades in any case.

Waiting at traffic lights; those rare moments when the lights turn green at the same time a song really kicks in on your car stereo.

Kissinger won it. Pretty much had no credibility after that point.

Heh. Who said the PS4 was my horse? Main is a PC, and as I've said numerous times on this thread before, have at least one of every preceding major console. I'd buy an XBox One if it were worth the money. I could go down and buy one today. Why do you think I haven't? Since you're euphemistically calling me a liar, perhaps you'd like to say why TV integration isn't broken? The whole point of TV integration was the seamless stitching together of your games and media. There is no easy fix to turn 50 frames into 60 frames. The only option I see that is open to Microsoft is some kind of "fast switch" 0between 50 and 60Hz. Even then, it won't be "fixed". TV is broken at 60Hz and many games will be broken at 50Hz (the refresh rate you need for PAL TV). It's a great machine in North America, but a rip-off here.

I reckon a lot of superstitions are just common sense, like not walking under a ladder or crossing on stairs.

Asked the club on Twitter

Used to be OCD as a kid. Germs terrified me, to the extent where if I'd touched something once, I'd touch it again to "put the germs back". It got better, thank f**k.

The banner has always had a sinister ring of prison drama about it. Keegan, the prettiest one, looks like he's just realised he has to pick up the soap. The rest look like they're waiting for him to pick it up.

Eep!

Took the scousers out to Leigh, Lancashire. My 18 year old claims people there talk like they've suffered a stroke.

The Star Trek Encyclopaedia is now available in electronic form; I thoroughly recommend it, with one small caveat - you have to guard the knowledge in the manner of a medieval priest and ensure that the "flock" never get to read it directly. Otherwise they'll just start asking awkward questions, like "why wasn't Asia under the heel of a genetically engineered supervillain in 1990?".

Sadly, an upfront love of Star Trek is a universal constant I can no longer rely on, bletch. But they can be trained.

Well if you want to eschew the sage advice of a 38 year old throwback in favour of Toke's touchy feely approach, that is your choice sir, but I can't say I'm not upset. I had a whole series of brilliant tips about how to keep the girls interested which I was going to lovingly sprinkle over this thread, like leaving a wet towel on your girlfriend's side of the bed for ten years (a project!) and then, after around three years of complaints, eventually NOT leaving your wet towel on your girlfriend's side of the bed (project complete!). See, it's these kind of "manly wiles" that I think you could benefit from, SM. You seem lost, kidda

I'm a big fan of Hernandez. Boy knows where the goal is, and capitalises on mistakes ruthlessly. Conventional wisdom might suggest he's way out of our league. I'd be quite interested in seeing him and JRod play together. Not sure if it'd work, seem to eke a lot of their goals from the same places, but if our game is all about pressurising the opposition into f**king up, that would be an interesting front line.

They owe a trillion to foreign lenders, according to Forbes and a bit of extrapolation. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/06/29/china-foreign-debt-approaches-1-trillion/ Been reading some AJP Taylor. When discussing the Japanese, he talked of how they'd very quickly assimilated European culture, military tradition and technology without ever having the historic application of its values. Similar thing happening here with the Chinese and business?

Hey Alain. The port question is relevant because of the already apparent difference between the underlying horsepower. Just today, Eurogamer have done another direct comparison between a multi-platform game, Tomb Raider : The Definitive Edition. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-tomb-raider-definitive-performance-analysis It's another example of same game faring worse on XBox One hardware. The wags over at NeoGAF have already produced this little beauty:- It's childish and puerile, but it wouldn't be possible without the emerging pattern of multi-platform games performing better on PS4. The processor architecture is but one factor. Taking your example back to the 1980s, ports between the Amstrad and Sinclair Spectrum should have been of equal fidelity. Both used the Zilog Z80, but anyone who remembers both machines know that other hardware made the difference. Same thing with BBC Micro vs C64 (6502), Atari ST and Amiga (68000). Same thing applies here. Other hardware is making the difference. The PS4 always had faster RAM; which is making a difference - but the most worrying thing for One owners is that several developers have been complaining about a bottleneck on the One. This article is extremely techy but worth a skim. Long-term, it may not be a problem. The PS3 had similar problems which were eventually, mostly overcome by smart devs. http://www.redgamingtech.com/xbox-one-esram-720p-why-its-causing-a-resolution-bottleneck-analysis/ I'm getting a little bored with the "won't rest until people agree with me" motif. It's a completely false reading of the situation. I expect to be permanently irreconcilable with Nolan et al throughout, or whenever he buys a PS4. I'm not seeking his agreement; I'm enjoying debating with him and where he's been right, I've agreed with him. He hasn't been often been right; I'm still waiting for his answer on why it will be interesting when the One is released in the remaining countries. I think the One will do well in North America, but the concept is broken over here and Microsoft haven't even acknowledged the issue exists. i genuinely feel like some proper whoppers are being spun by the XBox One apologists on here, and if someone really is wondering which console to buy, such glaring inaccuracies shouldn't be allowed to stand.

Who are THEY? I've always wanted to know.

Aye, some p!ss-poor closure skills from Super Michael there. What's all this "provisionally" boll*cks? You've got to play hard to get, SM. You can't go around accepting provisionals. The ball is totally in her court. If you're looking to get whipped there are some very reasonable specialty venues in London.

Blimey Gemmel, is this what you do with your time these days? Personally, I'd have thought that the question mark at the end of the thread title and my call to financial experts to weigh in were indications of my uncertainty on the issue. I can appreciate that you may have arrived at a different interpretation. Please tell me you didn't actually laugh out loud. The alternative; a meaningless placeholder thrown down by someone with nothing else to say, is so much more appealing.

Your debt would be sold on to someone else as part of the fire sale.

So in that sense, the comparison is invalid. We've proven that the PS4 is technologically superior on every comparable point. The examples are interesting in that they all involve Sony. Betamax was Sony's format; like the PS4, it was technically superior to its contemporaries. They lost that battle for commercial reasons; you might say they learned from their mistakes. HD DVD vs Blu Ray was an entirely different proposition. I don't think you've any business saying that HD DVD was better for consumers, apart from one small area which doesn't matter anymore; cost. BluRay's hard-coating production process made Blu Ray discs more difficult to produce when a format war actually existed. Two things ended the stalemate. First, the studios jumped ship (Sony owns a couple of them anyway). Next, a Blu Ray drive was included in every PS3. A lot of people would own the format even if they weren't particularly interested in it. Inevitable Blu Ray purchases ensued. Console perma-death hasn't happened since the dark days of the Dreamcast, but it was by no means unprecedented. The Saturn suffered a similar fate in the previous generation. The Wii U looks like it might go that way now. As we've discussed before, a difference of a million units won't necessarily stop games from coming to One, but games companies are going to be acutely aware of the size of the respective markets, and will prioritise the PS4 version. Very few multi-plat games were lead SKU on PS3 (Burnout Paradise was a notable exception, I believe). That'll change this generation, partially because the PS4 is so much closer to the PC architectually, but mostly because of bums on seats. A million more have a PS4 controller in their hands right now. Japan goes live next month for PS4. That'll add at least another million's difference in 2014. Returning to your earlier point, why is it going to be interesting when MS release the One in the remaining countries?

Did you ever own a Betamax VCR or any discs on the HD-DVD format?

Fair enough; which of those will save the XBox One?

I'm unsure of the "XBox One only available in certain countries" being used as an excuse for poor sales, Nolan. However, I am willing to entertain it. These are the countries that it's presently available in. Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States That's Western Europe, North America, the English-speaking parts of Oceania and Brazil. This leaves Asia, Eastern Europe ( not Russia ), Africa and everywhere in South America that isn't Brazil. Which of those territories do you think will make the big difference for Microsoft?