Ok, so I'll keep this simple. Uncle Tez joined CAG in desperation way back in 2006 as DCAs were hammering at my door. CAG responded incredibly, helping me to properly communicate with the DCA weasels and get my affairs sorted. Much more importantly, I found a friendly, helpful community of people who hugely bolstered my then much needed confidence by showing me that help was available and that I wasn't alone. After a quiet period I managed to finally resolve all my debt issues and came back to CAG to try to help where I was able, firstly in the debt forums, then naturally gravitating towards the IT forum since this is related to my professional capacity. Since which time I'd like to think I've been of some use to some people. I've also been a regular frequenter of the Bear Garden, often starting and/or engaging in emotive topics. I've not always agreed with other CAGers, but I absolutely and fundamentally believe in everyone's right to have free and open speech. However, after another long period away, I've come back to find a very changed CAG. My first greeting on coming back was to learn about wholesale thread deletions. Not a good thing in any forum. I then started a thread regarding Mr Fry's comments on Catholocism which generated a lively debate. That thread was then wholesale removed. I PM'd the site team, asking why whilst another poster began a thread asking the same question; both entirely reasonable requests. I received a PM back which I quoted in the 'Why?' thread, which clearly showed that a decision - whether group or individual - had been taken to wipe a whole thread without any real justification. The PM cited "xenophobia" and "offensive to Catholics" as the reasons, which was inaccurate in the former and patently idiotic in the latter. The 'Why?' thread asked for the site team to come forward into the public, open forum to kindly provide us all with clarification on their decision; they responded by simply wiping the whole thread without warning or explaination. A second thread was then started politely asking for more clarification. This thread was summarily locked off by the site team to prevent further posts within minutes of it being started. So basically, I'm off. It's been fun here with you all at CAG over the last few years, but it's not so fun anymore. I come into the Bear Garden to discuss and debate and question. My opinion might disagree with yours, or we may loathe each otehr's standpoints, but the point is that we should all feel we can post into threads without fear of whimsical, confused or blinkered modification or removal. It's both fun and fulfilling to engage in a debate on an emotive issue; it's neither if we cannot be sure that the site team aren't going to suddenly wipe the whole thread on a personal whim or misunderstanding of what does or does not constitute the rules, or are simply going to kowtow to a few complaints and remove it. Others may have more patience with this increasing trend; I have better things to do. If I may conclude by tweaking the infamous quote by Heinrich Heine, 'Where they remove posts they will also, in the end, remove posters'. So long CAG, and thanks for all the fish.

Rock Bottom

Top Dollar

Absolutely. This seems to suggest a slightly worrying trend for CAG, especially for threads in the Bear Garden, as I mention here.

You Tube

Wet Weather

As SOD'EM and others have said, every answer will be a multiple of 9. Take a look at the chart and you'll notice that every multiple of 9 (so 9, 18, 27, etc.) has the exact same gift. I took the script running it apart and noticed the programmer has rather craftily added in a routine that changes the number table every time you look at it, so the gift in box 9 on one go will be different from the gift in box 9 on the next, and so on. A fun little distraction though.

Sonic Vibrations

Charming Company

Department Head

Target Board

Close Call

Chequered Past

Flag Pole

69 Position

There's plenty more stories like that. See here and here for two examples, with this site containing a lot of information about the disturbing level of power supermarkets now wield. And if you can be bothered to sit through the 50 minutes or so, a copy of an excellent Dispatches documentary on the evils of Tesco can be viewed here. I believe it's estimated that £1 in every £8 in the UK goes through Tesco's tills, which is rather worrying given that - in keeping with many corporations - they seem incapable of behaving in a socially, environmentally or economically responsible way.

In light of this thread, I should point out that I do have an alibi for when this fire broke out..

Tesco, mate, definitely Tesco. Microsoft are just incompetent when it comes to web browsers; Tesco are actually evil.

Right, so this isn't a discussion so much as purely a thread in which I'm venting my bile at the ****e that is IE. And why is level-headed, pragmatic Uncle Tez doing this? Because he has just spent the last two hours scripting and rescripting webcode purely so IE can manage to display a basic website properly, and still hasn't finished it, that's why. "Maybe the problem is your web code, Uncle Tez", I hear you cry. Maybe indeed. Let's look. No, my code is fast, efficient and - most importantly - 100% standards compliant. Both my suite of coding checks and W3C's own services tell me the site is utterly compliant with all webcoding international standards and that my HTML is at peak efficiency (as if there was any doubt ). I look at my site in Firefox and it looks and behaves beautifully. I run it in Chrome, and the same. Safari has no problems with everything running as it should and Opera looks perfect too. I even throw the onboard browsers on three smartphones at it (Opera Lite, Safari iPhone and Mercury) and each shows the site exactly as I'd intended. In short, every real browser in the world manages to get it right. But then along comes Internet Explorer, who doesn't want to play nicely with the other kids. It buggers about with my PNG transparencies, refuses to obey standard CSS settings, and mauls the efficient code about until the result is a shoddy mess it then vomits it up on the screen. Internet Explorer is like a revolting, screaming 6 year old who refuses to follow the same rules as everyone else then expects you to give it a gift for doing so. It's not revolutionary. It's not pioneering. It's just ****ing bollocks. Is this idle bile? Perhaps. But IE has always, from its earliest inception, been one of the worst browsers in terms of properly interpreting web code; indeed, many of the alternate browsers have grown up to fill this deficiency, and every - and I do mean every - other browser on the planet manages to present CSS and webcode properly these days. All except poor old IE. Or rather, poor anything IE, as this persistant inability to get it right pervades not only IE6 but also IE7 and IE8. Is Microsoft purely incompetent and tone-deaf to customers and the changing world around them, or are they simply counting on IE's non-compliance somehow becoming an acceptable de-facto standard? Microsoft, you have many fine qualities, and in the world of domain networks you are rightly one of the frontrunners, but for the sake of webcoders and webusers will you please just add basic compliancy to your browser!? Ok, rant over and I'm now going back to my web code to start adding the fourteen (14!) extra lines of code per affected link that IE needs to understand how to handle the site properly. All the other browsers need...um...no extra code; they just get it right. But take heart, for Internet Explorer does have one redeeming feature: It's perfect for downloading a better browser.

Only just seen this (Honeybee posted a link in the Technical forum I usually haunt), but I think I'm best placed to simply echo what others have said already, to be honest. You're a human being. You made a mistake. It happens to us all and it certainly isn't a situation that merits a disciplinary interview in my view. As others have said, your best bet is to play with an absolutely straight bat. Be honest, forthright, admit your error and make it clear that you were confused by the system and you'll be fine. I would be very surprised if any company would be stupid enough to try and take things further once this had been explained to them. In what I hope is the unlikely event that they do, please repost. By admitting a simple and honest mistake, you put yourself into a very strong position as far as any further action is concerned, and people here are more than happy to advise you further.

You see it strikes me that here is a fabulous opportunity for Tesco. They've bought a tiny, and I do mean tiny, scrap of wasteland in an economically depressed area of the city. Putting a Tesco there is insanity. It's opposite a Spar, next to a Co-Op and 2 minutes from the biggest Sainsbury's in the city. Who do they think their customers are going to be? The same local population that came together to build and enjoy the very garden they're going to rip up!? By keeping the lease on the land and protecting the garden for the benefit of the community, Tesco have a marvelleous opportunity for free and very beneficial publicity. Is it going to happen? Judge for yourselves: I have this morning learned that the JCB and demolition crew left the site untouched after Friday's standoff, only to find a number of protesters had arrived over the weekend and were mounting a peaceful sit-in demonstration this morning. Tesco's response to this? It seems they predicted this, as they have turned up with a court order and have sent the police in this morning to forcibly evict, and if need be arrest, the protesters. A friend of mine took the following shots on the Friday (including a gorgeously hypocritical quote from our Council leader): ImageShack Album - 5 images Tesco. Every little hurts.

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : E3 2010 Ben Croshaw's rather entertaining take on current and future immersive and 3D consoles and control systems. A little geeky, but amusing regardless..

Style Magazine

One of the most upsetting things is that this is going to get major coverage, if not front page, in tomorrow's local paper and - quite rightly - public sentiment will be outraged... ...for about 24 hours, then it will all get forgotten and Tesco will sit there with their shiny new Express (the site is nowhere near large enough to accomodate anything other than a very small store) in the place where there used to be really a rather nice garden, built at their own expense by the local community for the enjoyment of everyone. Obviously, I understand how corporate business behaves and am well aware this sort of thing goes on constantly; it's more when you see it happening directly to a place you actually care about that it hits home. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Ok, so I'm a little upset. Why? Let Uncle Tez tell you a story. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin: Once upon a time in a town called Brighton there was an area of economic decline. The local housing was cheap, filled with students and the unemployed, and largely dilapidated. The local shops were almost all small businesses, most of them just ticking over. Because the land was cheap, there was also a huge Sainsburys in the area. Along the main road were some local cornershops, video store (still selling VHS tapes), a small market, a local Spar and a Co-Op. The other businesses included a vets, a small surgery, post office and a few charity shops and second-hand furniture shops. The area was, in essence, like any small area within a larger town or city, and one whose economic heart was only just ticking over. Most of the money in the area was coming in from people visiting the huge Sainsburys. Now one of the more ghastly establishements in this place was an old forecourt garage. Not especially large and not especially nice, it went the way of so many smaller establishements and was condemned. The nice men from the council came around years ago and knocked it down. Then they went away again. For years, the site was just left to rot. Nothing moved in, no business took over. The site came to be a local haunt for addicts, drunks and those relieving themselves. Rubbish built up and the place was ghastly. About 2 years ago, in a stunning act of selfless social regeneration, the local community came together and took matters into their own hands. They cleared out all the rubbish, cleaned the plot, and built a gorgeous Community Garden in its place, complete with rockeries, pathing and a small pond. Everyone was welcome and the place was a pleasure to go past. The community loved the garden, and the project featured several times in the local paper as an example of regeneration by the community for the community. Last year, rumours began that Tesco - may they burn in hell - had bought the vacant plot and decided to put a small Express store there (this is, of course, right opposite the Spar, next to the Co-Op and just down the road from the biggest Sainsbury's in the city). Protests and letters began, but nothing really seemed to happen from Tesco's side and the garden stayed. This morning, Uncle Tez was cycling past this garden and found a vast swathe of police cars blocking the road, lights flashing. PC Plod was growling menacingly at a group of perhaps a dozen or so protesters, many of them young children, who are standing in front of the enormous JCB Tesco have sent around to rip up the entire garden so a shiny new Tesco Express can be built whilst a film crew from the local paper looked on. And sadly, here endeth the tale. I have a nasty suspicion that when I cycle past this garden again it won't be there any more. So, excuse me if I just vent slightly when I say a heartfelt and angry **** YOU TESCO.