pap

Ta Brussels. I do realise I'm a massive idealist, which makes it very easy for people without many ideas to come in and say "hur hur, look at pap's dreamworld". The points you bring up are well worth raising though, 'cos you're right - the ostensible greed of humanity is seemingly a sticking point that we won't get over. I've never been entirely convinced that we all despise each other as much as the hate machine claims. I also think that some may find the scope of the mission, provision for all and world peace, a bit of a reach I can't say that I've ever handled a project of that magnitude before ( if I had, there'd be 70ft billboards of me everywhere to inspire the workers! ), but I have handled complex projects with so many moving parts as to make the thing look unachieveable. Wasn't it industrialist Henry Ford who said that "nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs"? So yep, I can appreciate that solving the problems of the entire world at once is an ask. That doesn't mean we can't try the same thing on a smaller scale. If it were me, I'd suggest starting with small groups of people, scaling up and working out what the kinks were at each stage.

Are you telling us that the desire for food and accommodation is greed? I'd say those were basic human provisions. Hunger would be a better term. I appreciate that you're playing devil's advocate, but I don't really think you can call it greed, especially when you compare the rampant levels of greed that occur in legitimate financial institutions. Wasn't the whole of the financial crisis brought about by greed? The acute situation in Greece? Could never have happened without the greed of those that lent the money to the country in the first place. They knew that Greece would never be able to pay it back, but the EU as a whole would have to. Then you've got ambulance chasing solicitors, legalised loan sharks, Indian IT call centre scammers (yes, they've more than graduated from the "run of the mill" trying to sell you sh!t phase) and a panoply of other greedy bastards out there trying to fleece everyone every day. If we are talking about greed as something we want to avoid, capitalism looks even worse than a planned economy.

I hope he doesn't post on here, Bear. I think he'd be upset to see his offspring making mock of his dating regime. Did it work?

And yet it's easy to ratchet up 35K comments without actually saying anything. Emptiest vessels, eh mate?

Apologist rubbish, sir. In a different age these men would have been sent to the Tower for treason.

Capitalism was ruined the moment globalisation became a thing. Let's just focus on ourselves for a bit. What is the economic trajectory for this country? Do you see this capitalism thing working for us over the long-term? Where are our kids and grandkids going to work in the future? Globalisation kickstarted a race to the bottom. The jobs are gone, and as long as profit motive is the primary consideration, they're never coming back. As for your last point, someone who pulls food out of a field is worth a million skilled workers, if that skilled worker's job is ultimately meaningless.

Sorry sir. You only answered one of my questions, and not satisfactorily. However, your "let someone else sort it out" attitude is typical. You moan about people with no responsibility, yet cannot take responsibility for even defining what criteria your idea should be applied under. I can see why you might be reluctant to espouse your views on who shouldn't or should be allowed to breed. Whole can 'o worms, OldNick - but tbf, that was open anyway. I'd just like to know if there is any thought whatsoever behind your proposals.

Let's have no food or energy security! Yeah!

So who gets to define dysfunctional? What is dysfunctional?

We've never seen it. None of the communist revolutions ever got past the reorganisational dictatorship stage. When Trotsky tried to reorient the Soviet movement back along former Marxist lines, he got an icepick for his trouble. Don't get me wrong; I'm not positing Communism as some of solution. I don't know how it'd work out; but the ideals of that movement - that everything belongs to the people, needs-based economies etc, are things that interest me greatly. Furthermore, many of the things that we are worried about, such as the financial crisis and paying back all those bankers, just wouldn't be a thing under a planned economy. Yet we're told that this hardship is inevitable. It clearly isn't, because under a different system, it wouldn't f**king exist! This is not a "there is no more food on the planet" kind of a problem. I suppose what really irks me is how much bloody waste there all is under capitalism. There's the competition element, obviously - tons of people making different things aimed at different parts of the market. Then you've got all the professions that wouldn't exist without it, such as accountancy, stock brokers, sales people, marketing people, advertising executives. Sorry, but none of those jobs are necessary. They just exist because capitalism does. Complete waste of human potential, imo. We all go through the grinder every week and for what? To get a piece of something that under a different system, would be yours by right? To pay exorbitant sums for accommodation that should have been yours from birth? Capitalism doesn't work either, not locally and definitely not globally.

With respect TCM, it's a vile idea that shouldn't be implemented under any circumstances, something I'd have expected to see from a hardline Chinese Communist government. That's basically what they do, isn't it? Ok, so they don't means test as you suggest, but their meddling in the natural order of things has led to incalculable long term problems. What you suggest is actually worse, effectively being a form of social eugenics. Stop the poor from breeding.

Funny how all your solutions lead to more problems, right wingers. So let me get this straight, the general revised plan is:- Put anyone on benefits on state-sponsored contraception. If they refuse this, their benefits are stopped. So what happens if these people already have kids? Gonna punish them too by not giving mum any money? That's going to be great for their life chances, eh? The problem with your fictive dream on everyone being off benefits is that it depends on their being a decent employment market out there AND a cost of living that incentivises the practice of going to work. Neither exists, and won't for a long time. Our executive class, largely at the behest of greedy middle-class shareholders, have spent the past three decades putting any job they could find on a boat.

Always thought? Blimey. Didn't realise we had local branches of the Hitler Youth I was a Boys Brigade lad, meself (although not for long).

I'd be one of the sliders. The last Mac I had was one of the original iMacs. Had an iPhone4 prior to getting my S3, and will be binning my iPad3 ( ripoff in retrospect ) as soon as:- a) the next delicious Droid tablet comes along. b) I have a working budget for a delicious Droid tablet.

Depends. Are you even comparing like with like? My Windows machine with an SSD shuts down faster than a clockwatcher at 16:59. My corporate machine, which has a magnetic drive, plus a load of links into corporate network locations, takes bloody ages to close down. My point is that there's normally a reason for Windows PCs slowing down. I try to keep my private machine relatively free of crap, keep drivers up to date, clean the bugger out once every six months and never install pirated software on it. That goes double for my corporate machine. I don't think that's an unreasonable amount of maintenance or discipline to exercise on an expensive piece of equipment; and certainly for me - what I gain through that teeny bit of extra toil more than offsets the small amount of effort I need to keep things running swiftly.

In this case, brand clearly matters. Lots of people make PCs that run Windows. Only Apple makes computers that run Mac OS ( others have tried this commercially but have had the pants sued off them ). Continuing my car analogy, you're paying extra for an automatic because you can't be arsed learning to drive properly.

Be proud, Super Michael. Real men use PCs. (thumps chest)

I disagree, Bear. Apple's one trick is making people think the BMW is a Ferrari. It's a good trick.

What happens if someone refuses? Stormtroopers? Going to start locking people up because they won't let the government inject them with chemicals? Castration for repeat offenders?

I don't typically have that experience, and when I have, I normally know why it has happened. I completely agree that historically, Windows has been unreliable. I'll even concede that right now, with Windows 8, it's probably even worse (my daughter, who has Win8 on her lappy, is complaining of having to restart a lot as MS sorts its sh!t out). I happen to like a lot about Macs, but two things always deter me when choosing a new PC. First, it's software. As a gamer, I have no desire to p!ss my pants in excitement because some game dev has decided to bring a 2 year old game to the Mac platform. The next thing is knowing I'm being utterly fleeced. I keep asking the same question, but never get a decent answer. The entry level Macbook is a grand. How the hell do you spend a grand on a PC and still end up with Intel integrated graphics? To me, Apple's overpricing on basic components is a perpetual f**k you to its potential customers. I know that most people don't care, but it's really a deal breaker for me. If Apple were a car dealership, it'd make its money selling BMWs at Ferrari prices.

Perspective is important. I get just as upset as you do when I see kids that aren't well looked after, but then I also recognise that the kid in the babygro has STILL won life's lottery by being born here, in this country and at this time. She has a much better future, at least in theory, than a kid in the developing world. The other thing that is important is priority. As a nation, I think we idolise our kids; but its a highly specific thing these days. No-one really gives a crap about other peoples' kids, what they do or what they get up to. They have a saying in Africa, "it takes a village to raise a child". I think there is a lot to that. I certainly remember getting told off by neighbours, etc - and my mum having no problem with that if deserved. Problem is, we have very few villages left in this country, at least in the communal "we know and trust our neighbours" sense. I think we need to take more collective responsibility for our kids.

Sorry mucker, but I'm not sure your point of clarification helps. Are you telling me that Mac OS X is unable to marshal the Java VM under a Un*x-like operating system securely? Big lols if so.

My new PC, which cost around the same as a MBP, would eat any Mac for breakfast.

Barge polls are a great laugh. They invariably end with everyone voting to go to the pub.

The Walking Dead is back, people. I am chuffed that this is so. I am also pleased that they are going balls out with a certain character being at home to Mr Fruitcake (grief and nut, flavour aficionados). Just finished watching this week's episode. The show used to be accused of being slow. Never minded that, and it still has its quieter moments, but the show runners have got supremely adept at putting a TV show together on a tight budget. Yes, they save money on sets, and I'm sure that as usual, 99% of zombie action will take place at the prison, the town or "random bit of forest B". Seeing it all in motion is superb.