Posts by Rampant Spaniel 1813 publicly visible posts • joined 26 May 2011
Now they monitor your thoughts for key words, I'd never get away with that! :-) Although I did note a lady a few seats away with a needle doing some kind of cross stitch for the feeble minded thing and wondered how she got a needle on board? I (quite rightly) had a jewelers screwdriver removed from my bag after forgetting I had left it in there (useful for quickly taking lenses apart for a clean / adjust).
Since you aren't allowed out of your seat anymore people take this as an oppertunity to interrogate some poor sod sat near them. Just because you didn't think it was wise to bring some entertainment on a 9 hour flight doesn't mean I want to know your entire family history. It's not bad if the person is remotely normal and I'm not busy but frequently I have to work on the flight and whilst I like my work, 8 hours of editting photos sat next to some heffer who hasn't heard of washing and insists on commenting on every picture whilst whacking my arm with her bingo wings is not my idea of fun. It's common courtesy, if someone is busy or engrossed in a book it is not a universal sign for bore me with your half remembered gossip from the enquirer or your family tree. Especially do not confuse my English accent for a saffer one, purely on the grounds that I cannot think of two more dissimilar ones.
I love coffee, but it shouldn't take more that 4 words to describe the coffee. It is getting seriously mental stateside, it takes people 30-45 seconds to describe their order. Yes fauxtalian size names is a little silly as well. Just because the style of coffee is derived loosely from an italian concept doesn't mean every other word on the menu needs to be in italian. We use Hawaiian where we can here, and yes that means entire sentences, but ffs it's not like you are actually ordering in italian, just stealing a few words to justify it costing 5 bucks.
I also concur wholeheartedly with the above sentiment regarding the quality of the coffee. It is rarely better than instant (which is fine in the same way a Hollands steak pie is fine, but it isn't a fillet) and frequently abysmal, despite costing a small fortune. Personally I found carrying a small flask of coffee made from local beans cheaper and nicer.
On % of revenue vs $, is it really unfair? Either works depending on the situation and the amounts. A % amount allows the manufacturer to make cheaper devices where the patent costs scale, great if for example you wanted to make a budget handset for a developing country. A fixed dollar amount depreciates over time but doesn't penalise companies making more expensive products. Given Apple isn't likely to make supercheap phones I can understand why they want a dollar amount.
I have no idea how anybody can realistically figure out a FRAND rate. I guess you would have to base it off other patents already licenced that are of a similar nature and importance? Moto have to licence that tech as part of it being used in a standard. Perhaps a better solution is that when standards are written costs are worked out there and then for everyone who wants to use them and you but a licence for the entire standard?
They may not use hospitals, but hospitals (in theory at least) are paid for by NI which technically is not a tax (although taking a mandatory percentage of your wage for a service provided by the government is about as close to the definition of tax as it gets).
People pay tax, in return they in theory get services. Businesses pay tax, in return they get services. The exact division of who pays how much rarely relates to how much is used. I pay a fecking shedload of tax (mostly because I don't **** with my taxes unlike some), I do get some stuff in return but not all that much, but someone else might pay no tax and get the same amount. Is that fair? In some ways no and in some yes. I am taxed at a rate I can afford, at least thats the theory. I wouldn't want to pay less tax if the trade off is someone with bugger all money not having enough to eat. So yes companies use services and pay taxes but perhaps not in the same ratio as citizens, but hopefully based on what they can afford. In reality they weasel out of as much as they can which I do object to. They benefit from security from our armed forces and police. They benefit from the fire service. They benefit from our infrastructure to move their products around. It is not a one sided deal where poor helpless little corporations are taken advantage of. A country needs money to run, most of us have to pay some, companies included.
A solution, elect me supreme ruler with cartle blanche. Several firing squads later company execs will be less hasty to optimise their tax bills.
I totally understand your sentiment, however I don't think there is any easy answer. It's not like we can really tax the imported services, EU free trade etc. Taxing on turnover is worse than loosing the tax. Rewriting the tax code entirely is an option although this is limited by obligations to conform to EU rules on levels of tax.
Politicians need money to get elected, money buys advertising they need to lie their little heads off. Companies make significant donations to politicians. Completely coincidentally laws are passed \ ammended by these politicians in such a manner that allows companies to profit, be it via tax breaks \ loopholes etc. Of course knowing where the funding from your reelection campaign is coming from in no way influences the manner in which they discharge their duties.
Yes we would be unwise to tax companies based on their turnover although it does make some sense. Some businesses, especially those that resell others services, would take a big hit and the length of a supply chain would affect taxation heavily. Rather than each company paying tax based on its profit, they would all be paying on turnover which would increase the cost of the goods significantly unless the rate was very very low and even then it would penalise longer chains.
Rewriting the tax laws would be a very good start. Imprisoning accountants and lawyers wouldn't hurt either. What these companies are doing isn't illegal, it's just wrong. Do business here, pay tax here. As I find out about companies pulling this stunt I stop doing business with them.
That is a valid point, although I would sugges a more valid point would be how big do you build your defences even if you had the money?
Do you build them high enough for a 10 year storm, or 50 year storm. At whatever point you draw the line, at some point it won't be enough. There will always be a bigger storm at some point. The recent article on Geneva demonstrates something scientists have known for a while, that earthquake generated tsunamis and hurricanes / tropical storms don't touch the violence of a significant landslide into water. There were some simulations on volcanic islands splitting apart with a significant part falling into water. The resultant wave was devastating, far beyond 30-40 foot tsunami damage. They also believed this has happened in our past and will happen again.
Fema should be well funded and whilst defences are important so are proper evacuation proceedures that are well practiced. We get a tsunami pretty much once a year. It's second nature to saunter home, make sure everythings packed / charged and ready to wander further up hill if needed. Tourists understandably get upset which is probably mirrored in situations like this. Something big, scary and unfamiliar is about to happen, this freaks people out. We aren't freaked out by tsunamis because we know that if we follow what we need to do we will be safe, but we know that from experience.
Should we spend billions on tax cuts, military spending and election campaigns inpreference to disaster prep. I wouldn't choose to but I'm not in charge. I guess the country will have it's say soon. Fema rocks and other than increasing its funding I wouldn't change it.
As regards scores of deaths, I picked scores because it was seemingly the most appropriate term, given a score is 20? I doubt they were the only deaths that day. It's easy to bash America and Americans, to ridicule their foreign policy etc but 40 people won't be going home to their loved ones. This isn't about Americans, it's about normal people unfortunately being caught in a natural disaster. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, not even bankers. Even our politicians aren't playing on this, the Chris Christie is even complementing the president on his handling of things. Seriously, consider that a staunch republican governor is paying respect to a man from a party which they have refused to work with. When shit goes down in the USA I (as a foreigner) have the upmost respect for how they deal with it. It may lumber along at times and get stuff horrendously wrong, but like the UK, give it a hell of a shock and the response is significant.
Jemma, ignoring for a second your sanctimonius and childish attitude, this isn't an issue of flood defences. You could not realistically defend against this level of storm. About 48 hours ago the island that I live on survived a tsunami. Luckily it came as a tidal surge and not a wave. Thanks to Gerard Fryer and his amazing team at the PTWC and NOAA we had ample warning to get to safety. We do have flood defences, we didn't deploy them. Why? Because for the most part they would simply become tidal debris that would cause more devastation. Flood defences are meant to prevent flooding and can only withstand a limited amount of force unless you make them unreasonably large. This is especially the case when dealing with '100 year storms' or major events like Tsunamis. The force involved is simply on another scale, something that is hard to comprehend until you have seen it. It is better to ensure you have solid evacuation plans to get people safe then deal with the cleanup. Japan had great defences around it's nuclear plants, just not great enough for a freak event.
Being glib about scores of deaths is frankly pathetic, disgusting and contemptible. I hope you never find yourself in a similar situation, getting to see first hand the ocean recede 120ft then return with devastating results.
Sorry I didn't get chance to read the transcript :-) I was boarding a plane and didn't fancy the rubber gloving, words with friends style ;-) I get the feeling that lawyers everywhere will be nursing a semi in anticipation of all the fees resulting from this!
If there is one thing that upsets a judge more than anything else it is bringing the legal system into disrepute. If this guy did lie, did mislead the jury etc then I would not like to be in his shoes.
Judges, quite rightly, believe it is imperative to maintain the integrity of the courts. Apple and Samsung deserve another trial if the allegations are true, this muppet should pay for it.
Very, very true. Much harsher penalties are in order! Including ones for the photographer, not just the publisher. I know it's fun to bash the rich and famous, and what they do in public is fair game. What they do in a hotel room, a hookers basement or on a balcony 1/2 a mile from a road is not fair game, especially if its legal. If the fines were a percentage of turnover it might help.
Does this class as flogging a dead horse?
I understand and agree with the invasion of privacy aspect, albeit with some reservations given there seemed at their time to be a link to his daddies political past. If Max likes a whallop and tickle thats his business. If the girls were underage it's different. Just like the Harry 'pool' pictures or the Kate M holiday shots, tabloids know they can ignore rules because the great unwashed will pay more to see the pictures than the fines will be.
The Spanish royalty shooting Elephants was a perfect example of when there is a public interest (of the none pervy kind). Shooting pics from a road half a mile away with an 800mm lense and stacked 2x tc's of someone famous sunbathing is an invasion of privacy.
It just doesn't work. I needed to rent a camera recently (a phase one 645df+ with the iq180 back and 3 cs lenses) and had them rushed via courier. The total value was around 60k usd give or take. Needless to say they didn't arrive and the tracking said they had. I called the courier who informed me it had been delivered. I asked the the signature / name etc and they said they couldn't read it (fair game, they're usually unreadable). They called the driver and he said I was out (utter horlicks, I was sat outside with the kids waiting and playing) so he delivered it to a neighbour but couldn't remember which? Turns out he delivered it 3/4 of a mile away. Nothing to do with my place being his furthest delivery on a Friday afternoon at all, no not at all.
The concept of delivering to a neighbour is fine when the postie knows his route and the people on it, its fine when you live with nice people who can be trusted and its fine when the postie isn't a workshy berkshire hunt. The problem is you can't guarantee all that. The sender should be able to put a sticker or notice on the parcel or letter stating 'address only', that way no nutters get offended, no my neighbours are twats stickers are needed etc. Some couriers allow this, I thought the one the rental company used did also but obviously not or it was ignored.
Unless you happen to be poor and\or a minority, then they try and make it as hard as possible to vote, change voting hours and days, change ID requirements, change early voting systems.
If you have to resort to cheating to try and win an election, give up, certainly don't bleat about free elections.
You work in politics don't you?
I didn't 'lob any false accusations, you discredited his views for no other reason than you didn't like them. His review isn't complete, the gui was awkward, the rest fine. Seems pretty complete. Just because you are a Balmer groupie doesn't mean nobody else is allowed an opinion other than yours. When people elaborated you deliberately misrepresented their comments.
Given your post is 0 for 7 I'm not sure you have much support but by all means keep digging!
I thought you might not have seen any humour in that. It just amused me the vitriol reserved for valid comments about a product released to generate feedback (and publicity). Just because you don't have the same experience or opinion is not good reason to discredit someone else out of hand.
You discredited a valid comment. It is perfectly sensible to tweak the preview to be able to continue testing it. The feedback is then you need to reconsider the gui and also MS get continued feedback on other features that they otherwise wouldn't if he had just stopped.
Content creators probably don't make up a huge market share but this may send a percent or two of the desktop and laptop market to Apple. It depends of they put metro on windows server.
If you look at the evolution of hci we have gone from toggle switches and lights to keyboards to mice and keyboards and then mice kind of diverged into mice, trackpads and nipples to suit different situations. Now touchscreens are going mainstream, they are ideal for consumers, but that is only one segment. I think we need somthing more in the picture before metro makes sense. Perhaps something like a cross between a keyboard and a tablet touchscreen to drive a main display, even a duck hunt style gun. Then we need to not have the computer second guess what links should be there and have a lot more available on a screen.
MS probably headhunted him from Apples online propaganda legion, sorry division.
I don't think anyone is saying metro is useless, just that it doesn't suit everyone and that trying to shoehorn the same gui from a phone and tablet onto a desktop is going to be a compromise and not suit everyone. This seems like fairly honest, sensible feedback. People have detailed why it slows them down. MS has decided to stick to its guns. Thats absolutely fine, there are other places to spend our money if MS doesn't want it.
We all gave feedback as to the issue. The interface is best suited to a touch screen environment and for people who primarily want quick access to a relatively small number of applications and who would benefit from 'at a glance' previews of social media \ email. That is not everyone. There is also a group for whom their phone and tablet already do this therefore they take a hit for no gain.
Just because some folks are resistant to change doesn't mean all criticism is invalid. Metro is great, just not for everyone in all circumstances. I really don't see the issue in allowing people to just use a standard desktop & start menu if they wish? I'm not trying to deprive anyone of metro, I just find that for work, I am quicker on the older gui.
Thats great! I don't think the people who say it's bad believe it is universally bad, just that it isn't great for their situation. My thoughts are it seems great as an 'experience' and pants as a 'tool'. The problem as I see it is that MS is trying to treat everyone as having the same needs. The needs of say a working photographer and a 'home' user will be different and so their tools need to be different. For some people their will be huge value in being able to see twitter feeds and others it will be in an alphabetical access to 60 different applications at a mouse click.
It's true there is usually a natural resistance to change, but this doesn't mean all resistance is invalid.
Your logic could not be more flawed. The reason people are resorting to workarounds is because they allow them to work more efficently. Logic like yours is why companies get saddled with broken systems. Some middle management desk warmer believes that any criticism of their latest idea must instantly be deflected onto the source and never considered as remotely legitimate. Thinking like yours is why I worked in a lab that for 7 weeks was completely unable to order supplies, the new ordering system (which we initially welcomed in principal) was tied into our new 'sole (soul?) supplier' and their catalogue which was fine for ordering paper. However when most of what we needed had to be purchased from other companies via the SS acting as an intermediary, it all went to shit. When we pointed it out politely and suggested solutions we were advised we were just causing trouble because we wanted the old laborious system back. In reality we wanted the new system but for it to work.
I downloaded the preview and rc, I tried both for a week and found that it would make an awesome tablet os and a shocking desktop os. Laptops would be more of a mixed bag, dependant on what you do most, if you have a touch screen and the size (and distance from you) of the screen. It really just needs two modes, the old desktop for work and metro for play. Would it kill them to do it that way? Apple doesn't force the same ui on iphone the macpro users? They are lauded for their user experience. Time to grab a few win 7 licences just in case. I wouldn't bother with workarounds, I'll just not use it. I've been considering a switch to apple, especially with the mbp retina, ms seem to be pushing me away.
into some anonymous slush fund for 'fact finding' junkets to brothels and bars.
MS did have a virtual monopoly in consumer os's and was trying to ensure that no matter what you needed, be it a browser / spreadsheet / disk compression tool you used theirs and if you didn't know there was an alternative then who cares. I'm not entirely against their actions either, they played hard and fast but delivered or acquired some decent products. They played to win and did a good job.
MS agreed to the terms and breached them, however their punishment should be relalistic. An extension to their agreement and a moderate fine. 10-50m, anything higher would be totally out of proportion.
However, the muppets in the EU will be out to flex their muscles and line their pockets so expect something in the billions. They have to justify their pathetic existance and apparently we aren't buying into how important it is to regulate the shape of bananas.
Exactly :-) He would fall under the more generic term, haole (meaning no breath, either because he wouldn't exchange breath as a greeting or becaue the paler skin resembles corpses \ dead people tend not to breathe much).
There are actually things in Hawai'i that don't have specific Hawaiian names, most likely because they weren't worth eating :-)
Decent logic. IIRC the Hawaiians didn't have names for some things, some fish spring to mind, because they didn't need them. If they didn't bite you (mano, sharks) or weren't tasty (i.e. moi) they didn't all need a name beyond a generic ia (fish). It's not conclusive, it could have been lumped under a different more generic word for 'shit you should run from'. Or nobody survived long enough to name one?
Leave angel delight alone! :-) It's not fancy, its probably not very healthy but it has a special place in many of our hearts lol
IHOP's syrups are indeed trash, but their omlettes are passable so all is not lost when the family forget it is a dictatorship and outvote me. It all rather pales next to a proper breakfast (fryup).
and god forbid if it is a barrister you 'defame', especially if you do something really bad like catch them being whipped in a basement by a bunch of ladies in pseudo military attire. Then you really are in trouble! They throw an entire library at you.
(for the record, I agree the above scenario would be a breach of privacy, but the best response when caught is 'you are all just jealous it wasn't you', not a lawsuit).
Apple and MS have a cross licensing agreement so Apple will be unlikely to sue MS. MS has many patents, standards based and not that apple need (standards based ones they could get via frand) and want (ones not used in standards so not actually required but attractive enough to play nice over) and the same is true the other way around so they license each other.
Apple and MS have been in the mobile space for a long time, since way before windows mobile (wince for example or apples newton). Google is very new in relative terms and doesn't (or didn't pre moto) have the grunt to force an agreement.
Even Intel and AMD cross license despite the fact that outside the cellphone marketplace they are pretty much (since dec \ cyrix etc died or went niche) each others only competition.
Partly apples gripe with android is how unsettling it's differing revenue stream is compared to how the market had been. I have no doubt that grossly upset Apple.
I wonder how much better those phones would sell if at&t didn't spend the advertising money and just gave folks $50 a month off their bill for 6 months?
I have to agree, I'm sure there are limits but we cannot make offending people illegal. People have different views, different beliefs and different ways of expressing themselves. Taking part in society opens you up to all of that and not everyone is going to be sunday at grandma's polite. When someone offends you you either give them a dose of their own medicine, laught at them or ignore them. Running to the babylon over calling names is a little extreme. If it trips into outright threats or slander \ libel (can't remember which a fb post would count as) then there are laws to deal with that. Otherwise you are a tit or you ran into one on the internet. Shit happens. Move on. Some people are muppets, this is a fact of life. God can you imagine the courts if everybody rang the rozzers when someone was mean to them online? Stephen Fry would have at least 4 courtrooms to himself.
I agree. Darpa gets away with building air conditioned hangers for dolphins, yet NASA has to beg for every last cent. NASA used to employ 400000 people, send astronauts to the moon, operate a fleet of shuttles and inspire countless kids to actually pay attention in school. Now they thumb rides of the Russians. For the same reasons art enriches life, NASA's old ways of doing crazy shiznit just because theres a chance it might be possible enriches us.
I guess we are. Just because I don't like it doesn't make it 'not art'. There is a huge amount of 'art' that is in fact to the majority of people complete bollocks. Apparently art is happy for this to be considered art so I am happy to leave them to it. The real test will be that of time, will future generations consider turfing the inside of a church art or simply a lazy talentless twat trying to get some coin. Probably the latter, but for now that isn't the case. In the present the art 'community' is the judge.
As for what song to send, I am a little shocked they didn't pick the most obvious one, Bowie's 'Life on Mars'.
Very true, but there is a lot more to it then just a job, there are jobs even now.
It's only my opinion, but I think there are many factors, starting with parents inspiring their kids and opening their minds. Challenge them to think. Theres nothing wrong with supporting a football team, but theres also nothing wrong with teaching your kids about engineers like brunel, or surgeons and scientists who save and improve millions of lives. Kids are like sponges for information, even at 3-4 years old. Then school plays a part, having teachers that recognise (and teachers that are supported to do this) talent and nuture it. Teachers that inspire kids by showing them how a 'boring' equation or process relates to the real world. Then support them at university and in post grad with loans etc. Start removing barriers and have kids do more practical experiments (which requires more money).
I grew up in a science orientated household, my parents had a huge impact on me, but even bigger than that was a college chemistry tutor with a phd who taught very little of the syllabus and a lot about chemistry in the real world. Also an oppertunity to work in industry at a relatively young age helped. It switched me from biology which I found easier to chemistry which I found a lot harder.
STEM is a start but parents, government and schools all need to step up. Even more jobs will come when the talent is here. Maybe even the government funding more research directly.
Ou are correct, arts are just as important as STEM, but it isn't a matter of importance. Just look at the number of MA Art history graduates vs # of new jon openings requiring an MA in Art History vs say the same for an MSc in Biotechnology or Genetics or Maths.
The world is packet full of budding artists in on form or another, the current fad is photography, videography will be next. Arts are usually fun, sciences are rewarding, there is a difference (I may not have expressed it well enough, but as a former research scientist turned photographer I do experience a difference, trust me nailing a shot at a wedding has nothing on catalyst design). As our generation has pretty much done FA to inspire kids towards STEM (no concorde 2, no walking on Mars, no moonbase etc) and as you acknowledge STEM is vitally important unless we want a future working in mines for our Chinese overlords, we need an initiative to get kids inspired and supported in learning science etc. So yes, whilst some areas of the arts are underfunded such as operas and are vital to a vibrant society, I am a little pissed off to see arts pushing its way into a scheme thats extremely important to solve problems it doesn't have. To get kids learning maths and sciences they need to see and experience the applications and society needs to change its values away from worshipping footballers and this seasons idle american winner and towards people who are actually making fundamental leaps forward in the quality of our lives. People like Barre-Sinoussi working towards a cure for aids (and they are pretty damn close) or Roy Taylor whose team look like they have a cure for type two diabetes, something that plagues the lives of 2.5 million people in the UK alone. Just ask those people would you trade a cure for diabetes for will.i.am? These should be the people our kids aspire to emulate but the media barely mention them yet some tit of a football player crashes his car or gets in a fight and its all we hear for a week. The next antibiotic to fight cdiff or mrsa or whatevers next isn't likely to come from an xfactor winner yet thats what the majority of kids want to be.
I can agree on the coastline and the nym are one of the most beautiful places I have been (and they do border the teesvalley) but frankly the rest of it has gone downhill for the most part. It lost too many jobs, good skilled jobs as well. A quick look at somewhere like Redcar highstreet tells the tale. Gone are places like M&S, Newboulds etc now theres Brighthouse (a sure sign somewhere has gone to the dogs), endless pound shops, bargain stores, mobile phone shops etc. Rejuvination (actual rebuilding, not stupid fish sculptures or vertical piers) needs real jobs to 'stick'. Saltburn seems to have managed to clean up the jewel streets and has improved which is great, but theres an endless list of places that have gone downhill. It's not a reflection on the people, but nowhere can survive a mass exodus of jobs like that. Just driving from Redcar past the steel works and ici (this site alone has lost what 15000 jobs?), out towards seal sands and billingham and hartlepool and you drive past hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, only a fraction of which have been replaced by low paid service industry jobs.
I really do wish the area well, but my impression has been of a decline over the years. Most of the people I went to school and college with moved away to find better jobs.
I think quality has taken a hit when people sold out due to increasing wage / spud / fish costs. I haven't been in barnacles for probably 10 years but they were usually reliable, cheap and ok for quality. Will try the one you suggested next time I'm in town. The chippy by ings farm primary used to be great (especially for nipping out of school at lunch) but sold to new owners and its not the same. The one at the bottom of saltburn banks alright.
True, but it's a short walk (about 30 miles through some very nice countryside) away. Theres an art to proper chips, you have to vary the frying temp as the sugar content of the maris pipers varies over the year. Plus loads of places buy in machine deboned 'cod' from all over the place. It just isn't the same. Is Barnacles still going? I remember stopping there a few times for f&c to take down by the minesweeper.
I would happily pay say $50 a month for one service that has everything netflix & hulu & the main studios own sites and broadcast services has and that I can stream to 3 or 4 devices at once. Then I can cancel the cable package and upgrade the broadband. They probably end up making more money overall but I get the freedom to watch what I want when I have time. We already downgraded the cable tv because of all their petty fights with content producers. Netfix is more convienient and vod fills in a few gaps.
Many of us don't like in the 60's where we get home from work at 5pm and sit in front of the tv all evening. If they want my money they need to offer a product thats value for my money. iplayer in the uk is awesome. Fragmenting digital delivery won't make more money, it will make less. Thats why network by and large cross sell channels, whilst the internet removes geographic constrictions it doesn't remove the inconvienience. Get your shit together or you won't get my money. TV isn't a necessity, it's a luxury and luxuries shouldn't be a pain in the ass.
Not entirely correct. The smaller sets like say 3219 (ignoring the minifig sets) come with 10-12 pieces which includes the prefab bits. Midsized technics kits (say 8069? the jcb) usually have around 600 pieces. Check out brickset.com as noted above, even lego agreed they went too far.
My lego used to come from bulk sets (not sure it was sold ay other way?) or jumble sales. I couldn't begin to imagine what it would cost these days to fill a huge box with lego.
Technic truly was amazing. A working jcb, the walker from aliens etc truly great designs. You could even buy a book with extra ideas, but for the most part, when I had it, it was just a giant box full of potential. Whilst the designs were amazing, they just taught you the skills and techniques to build what you wanted. If you built a really skinny frame and used handmade balsa blades you could just about get a twin rotor copter off the ground. Sad to hear it went downhill. You didn't need it to look perfect with flushfit bodypanels (it's not like landrover ever bothered with them), just being generic pieces meant you had complete freedom to remake anything, only whilst lego lacked functionality, with motors and pneumatics technics brought functionality.
Have they taken away the ability to order individual technics parts?
Very true. These days the box has 4 blocks and some stickers. Lego for me was a huge cardboard box full of lego. It wasn't (until technix, and even then there was that continual quest to build a working helicopter) that you had a box that was supposed to be a car, you had a huge box that could be whatever you wanted it to be with no prompting. When the girls were there they helped shape the end result. So heman or liono's castle might have an annex for barbie or shera but the goal was never gifted to you.
I took my kids to a lego store and its full or prefab junk, I asked where the sets of blocks are and was led to the back of the store and showwn every freakin kit on the way before I got to some stupidly overpriced woefully small 'buckets'. It's like kids aren't allowed to think or imagine for themselves.
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