McPhee

First thing to check - make sure the machine is running 64-bit Vista (it'll specify, probably saying 'Vista Home Premium x64' or some such thing). Regular Vista can only use a 3-ish GB RAM, 64 can use 4 and is faster if the program is written for it (a lot of design programs are). Even if you decide against 4GB RAM now you might still need it later, with normal Vista you'd then have to reinstall the OS. 4GB RAM is ideal, no worries about running out of memory no matter what you're doing Processor-wise the Q6600 will do grand! It'd be a silly waste of money to go for anything higher and you will see benefits from running a quad-core system. The ATi 3870 and 3850 are great graphics cards, well rounded and more than powerful enough for what you need. Don't worry about hard drive size, they are relatively cheap and easy to install. 500GB will do you for a while, you just need to pop another one in around the time you hit the 300-350GB mark. Had a quick look on Dell for you and an XPS machine that'll meet your needs will set you back about £900. I don't think that is 64-bit Vista though, you'd need to ring and ask.

End of. If you don't have a question then get out of the thread. If you have a question regarding piracy then piss off also, that debate is over.

Im not coming, parents silver (i think) wedding that weekend. Having the grandparents down for a meal

I've read articles from enough different sources over the past week to know which ones are probably ture, which ones are based on rumour and which ones are spun out of all proportion. It's down to how many sources report the same thing, where these sources lie geographically and politically and (most importantly) the wording. I'm pretty sure you know political waffle when you see it Fish, am i right? The vast majority of articles from the BBC (and many other UK media sources) reek of it! The BBC also contradict themselves a lot. They are now saying that the forces near Gori actually were 'demilitarising' the conflict zone by dismantling weapons in an abandoned military base. The whole week they have come out with bold statements and then quietly back pedelled on them later. They've been mediating this on and off for the best part of 100 years now. They talk, peace is agreed, S. Ossetia gains semi-independance through the peace treaty. A few years pass, Georgia changes it's mind and decides to reclaim what they see as land that is rightfully theirs. They invade, Russia kick off, war happens. Rinse. Repeat. There's only 2 ways to end this; you force South Ossetia to rejoin Georgia or you force Georgia to let S. Ossetia go. The S. Ossetian people voted 96% in favour of independance in a 2006 referendum that they hoped would draw the eye of the international community. Can you really force that number of people to go against their wishes? The Georgian President staked his Presidency on reuniting Georgia, who knows what the people will do if he fails and S. Ossetia becomes independant? Rose Revolution take 2? The third option is to leave things as they are, which blatantly doesn't work. And as for the "European Method" vs the "Russian Method", which do you think saved more lives? Do you leave a war raging on whilst you talk it over? Or is it better to end the war and then talk? Europe almost always waits until people are dying to do anything, it then takes it's time deciding what to do whilst yet more people die (just look how many days it took to get the French President in to the region). Russia just bombed the hell out of the Georgian military, removing the problem. They killed civilians in the process, but i'd be willing to bet that less people died than if they followed the "diplomatic" route.

probably not, it's more likely that the phone can't handle the browser and the flash youtube videos are the same time worth a shot though?

It's the browser AFAIK, no speed probs with Youtube over 3G

Does Mcoy know why Mcoy is posting that in this thread? Does Mcoy want McPhee to give Mcoy another yellow infraction?

Just drop it. Those who run the site and the forums are OK with it so leave off Jayseven, at the end of the day it's none of your business.

O-sea-sha Ignore the news, it's read by morons who are managed by morons with the whole thing in total being aimed at... you guessed it! Morons.

Not quite right, Russia admit that part the Russian lead peacekeeping force is near Gori in an abandoned military base. Part of it's duties are dismantling military hardware, it can't just be left abondoned for anyone to use or steal. Georgia can't clean up the hardware itself because it's not allowed to move military forces anywhere near the conflict zone. The South Ossetians shouldn't be anywhere near there though, im wondering if those reports are accurate? The Russians and Germans aren't reporting it. If you want the full story don't read British, American or Russian media. All 3 are spinning a yarn (especially the BBC, who i'm really quite pissed off with).

No, it's the old "doing what is in the interests of ones own country" thing actually. Russia's actions make perfect sense for Russia, and it also happens to make perfect sense for the residents of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The only people who are pissed off are the Georgians and their allies because both have lost something through this war. Russia have signed up to a six point plan detailing the following: No more use of force Stop all military actions for good Free access to humanitarian aid Georgian troops return to their places of permanent deployment Russian troops return to pre-conflict positions International talks about future status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia Maybe peace at last? Hopefully the international community do what is right for a change rather than what limits Russian influence.

I know, it just seems like a cop-out to me though. Proper vegitarian food is really nice! Proper meat is really nice! Imitation crap is just, well, it's just crap!

I never understand why stuff like 'Veggie Chicken' exists, surely if you want to eat chicken you should just eat the real thing? It seems like the veggie food that most people try is all immitation meat, which is a really, really wierd concept. Surely it's better to make stuff with actual vegitables, there's never any reason to use immitation meat because stuff like beans, lentles, nuts and seeds can always be used in place of meat (they make a much tastier meal too).

So Russia's behaviour in Chechnya means they aren't doing the right thing here? RIIIIGHT. Thats a naive view to take, there isn't a nation on the face of the planet that isn't, hasn't been and wouldn't be hypocritical in exactly the same way. With Chechnya they stand to loose something, with S. Ossetia they stand to gain. S. Ossetian independance benefits Russia, thats why they've been so keen to help out over the past 16 years. We should just be grateful that they did step in, if they didn't it'd have been a slaughter! Im willing to bet the death toll would have been A LOT higher. Georgian forces would have taken weeks to secure the majour Ossetian cities and then years to fight rebels out of the countryside. There's also plenty of reports saying that they were firing on housing blocks from the minute they crossed the border, killing civilians (so far unconfirmed by western reporters, they are all in Georgia pointing the blame at Russia and refusing to even consider another side exists to the story). Russia have done what they set out to do, they've stopped the S. Ossetian war and made it impossible for the Georgians to return for at least a couple of years. I guess they'd rather that they were allowed to overthrow the government as well, but they seem to have given up on that idea because of the amount of international pressure on them. If they moved on the capital then EU and possibly UN troops would have been moved in on the assumption that Russia was trying to conquer the country. Whats this? An impartial article from the BBC?!?!?!? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7555155.stm Not a bad read really.

Maybe, but then again maybe they are bored of talking. Sixteen years of talking and trying to solve this matter diplomatically has got them nowhere. They were making progress towards a peace deal with Eduard Shevardnadze, but then the Rose Revolution happened and Mikheil Saakashvili came in to power. He's pretty stuck to his guns, he promised that Abkhazia and S. Ossetia would be back under Georgian control under his presidency. Negotiations for the past 4 years have been pretty pointless, he isn't going to get what he wants and he won't compromise. In a 2006 referendum by the S. Ossetian goverment 99% of South Ossetians voted in favour of independance, thats an overwhelming number! The Russians are also saying that Saakashvili is a war criminal. They won't admit it, but they want him removing from power. Speaking from their point of view if the forces are already there then they may as well get on with removing him. It solves what they see as 2 major problems. They want to fight their case at the U.N. so this is the sort of stuff that they will be fighting with. They believe that they are in the right, and regardless of other reasons (resources, strategic importance of land, increase in power etc.) if they genuinely do have a case with these two points then i hop the U.N. supports their decision. If not then they should pull back to S. Ossetia, negotiate independance and make it clear that they will use force to gain it if necessary. The international community likely won't like any of this, an independant Ossetia would be a close ally of Russia in an important geographical area.

I bet they let us do star wars characters eventually, for more money. It's a theory i've got, they are holding some features back for DLC. I could see customisable and createable Star Wars characters being bundled with Vader/Yoda and the pack costing some ridiculous sum like 2000MSP

Well this is bad shit. Now we just need to wait and see if Russia wants Georgia for itself or is just trying to bugger the country's military up. There's always a third possibility. From their point of view they might be removing an enemy of Russia from power. They seem convinced that he is a war criminal and there is evidence to suggest that Georgian forces were targeting civilian targets in an attempt to quell the S. Ossetian people. I wonder, if the world's power was tipped in Russia's favour would we be seeing the Georgians as the enemy? The Georgians have been quite reckless through all of this. To put another way imagine this situation. Our government makes a load of policies that shun Scotland and Wales. Both of those regions rebel and set up their own governments, supported financially and militarily by the USA. 12 years later England send troops to quell the rebellions, killing anyone who stands in their way. Loads of civilians end up dead, city blocks are destroyed etc. America then sends troops over to help fight England back. It's quite an obvious out come, especially given Russia have been waiting on an excuse to attack Georgia. They should really stop now, Georgia won't try it again! I know fine well they won't though, they want Saakashvili out of power and S. Ossetia either independant or as part of Russia (it'll be under Russian control either way). Oh yeah, and this is the resource problem: There's oil and gas going through Georgia. The BTC oil pipeline is the only oil line that goes to Europe without going through Russia. Not sure about the gas line though, will have to check that. It currently supplies 1% of the worlds oil, but its not running at capacity yet (or at all at the moment thanks to the damn Kurdish terrorists that blew part of it up last week!). Come 2009 it'll be supplying 1 million barrels a day! Combined with the Russian oil lines it would make quite a dent in our oil supply if Russia ever went to war with Europe. We'd be relying on oil moving through Israel and stuff produced from inside Europe instead, and America would have to look elsewhere for most of it's oil (not a problem really, it's not even touched the Alaskan reserves of oil and gas yet and that is one of the biggest in the world!) I wasn't saying that Russia are looking to take over any country in particular. I was just saying that in the event of a large scale war that S. Ossetia makes a great place to strike at those nations from.

Always wanted to try Kangaroo. Theres a restaurant near here selling it (along with loads of other exotic meats) but at £8.99 for the meal i'm a tad suspicious... Will take a trip down to brum soon and try some from Walkabout

They are up to something. As i mentioned in a previous post South Ossetia is very close to the BTC oil pipeline. In the even of a large scale conflict with the west they'd be able to strike at the pipeline quickly, removing one of our main fuel resources. South Ossetia also makes a great base with which to strike southwards through Georgia and in to Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Essentially it's a Russian gateway to the south making attacks a lot easier.

Are you guys colour blind? What colour are mods names? And what colour is Jayseven's? Out of interest though, why did you think he was a mod?

South Ossetia isn't an independant country, it's an autonimous region of Georgia. Many of the people there are Russian citizens though, Russia have been handing out passports to the people living there for over a decade now.

With South Ossetia under their control Russia has only ~50km between their forces and the BTC oil pipeline. Without it there's a mahoosive mountain range in the way that is relatively easy to defend. If we ever went to war with Russia then they'd find it a lot easier to steal our oil with South Ossetia under their control.

You don't really get this situation do you? Georgia didn't attack Russia, they attacked South Ossetia. On a map South Ossetia is a region of Georgia, in reality though (and at the begining of post-soviet Georgia) it was an autonimous region. It had it's own sub gouvernment. Sadly the Georgians and South Ossetians fell out and basically parted ways (unofficially). Georgia wants South Ossetia to fall in to line with the rest of Georgia rather than being independant. They don't recognise "South Ossetians", they see them as Georgians rebeling against a Georgian gouvernment. Last week Georgia decided to end the "rebellion" and moved troops in to South Ossetia. Russia then stood up for South Ossetia's independance (which they have supported since 1992 by supplying arms and money) by moving their troops in to South Ossetia. Georgia didn't attack Russia, Russia attacked Georgia. The vast majority of South Ossetians hold Russian passports (given to them by the Russian government) and are therefore Russian citizens. Technically Russia are protecting their own citizens, not invading another country. Some people are calling hijinks, insisting that Russia's motives are selfish and that they plan to destroy Georgia. We won't know if that is true until Russian tanks start rolling in to un-disputed Georgian territory. Hopefully that never happens, i'd like to think that Russia are just being the peacekeepers in all this (for all of our sakes). As for the cease-fire, give it a day or two. Sometimes the message takes time to get through to all forces.

I think the word you're looking for is 'apprehensive'?

Being in the army doesn't mean you have to be on the battlefield. They'll find something meaningful for you, even if it's locking you up in prison as an example to others who refuse to do their duty.