andresf91

Welcome fellow <em>ga?cho</em>!I live kind of near you... in Montevideo, Uruguay.Which city do you live in? Porto Alegre? Pelotas? Those are the only ones I know from Rio Grande do Sul.Happy posting.Cheers

It seems pretty unfair.I just thought that US law was applied only in US lands... but I was wrong. The fact that they can apply their law all over the world is so.... violent! (And remember Helms-Burton.... aww it makes me sick!)So I na?vely believed in the independence of Swedish justice... But it really doesn't matter if bitorrent is illegal or not in Sweden... Europe is quite an US ally, so in geopolitics game, they are on the same team.I'd say that the piratebay should be hosted in Iran or North Korea: they won't care if Microsoft wants to sue one of their servers

I see, so maybe the air intake kit would be a good idea then.And well, just to let you know my opinion on these things, I prefer the bus to driving for that kind of trips. I know that with a car, you can take as much luggage as you want and carry things which maybe important, and there's a lot of comfort and image in driving maybe, but I'd rather take a bus, turn the mp3 player and sleep the whole journey.But... sorry, I really don't want to change the topic of this discussion. It was like a parenthesis...As for the changes to your car, maybe you're right, and improving its performance that way would be good.Thanks for the explanation.

Wait wait wait...You mean 2.5L is not enough? :DI think you're using a lot of petrol with that engine, specially in these days when we know that there's much less petroleum in the world than it was expected a few decades ago.So, I really can't understand why people, not you only (don't take it as a personal attack please)... Why people uses that kind of engines which uses lots of petrol in cars for cities (like Sebring)?Because, if we were talking about a car or jeep for transporting or farming stuff, I understand, but otherwise I just can't.Maybe you really need it, I don't know...

How can you admire a man who is the leader of a socialist country? - That is the question, right? Of course Cuba is a poor country, but you have to admit that everything south from Rio Grande. We are the periphery of the world, along Africa and Asia. It doesn't matter if we can import brand new cars or freezers, there is still people who can't buy them. Why? Because they don't want to progress? That's a problem that many inhabitants of the First World have, they believe that in capitalism, with free market rules, if you deserve it, if you work for it, you can get what you want. They may teach that at school, so that you break your a*s working 16 hours a day, but the sad truth is we don't have opportunity equality. The story of Rockefeller is nowadays a myth. According to CIA World Factbook, the world literacy in 2007 was estimated in 82%. That's 18% of illiteracy. If you think they have the same opportunity of being happy than you, my friend, I must disagree. Let's not talk about nutrition and health services for all. So, why did I ramble about all these things if we're trying to discuss Cuba and the blockade? Because when you talk about goods that can't be imported because of it, an island whose people struggled against a puppet government controlled by the USA, and they fought for the national liberation first, and then led by the revolutionaries, into the construction of socialism, that is, making history. (Revolution was declared socialist by Fidel when they learnt of Bay of Pigs attacks, in 1961, though Fidel, Raúl and Ché were already non-partisan communists before 1959.) And Cubans have had education ad health for free since 1959. The only places in the First World where education and health aren't used as trade goods, countries like Sweden are rare, and they're able to give that to their population because they keep stealing capitals from where they invested (from the South). Another thing about Cuba, is their solidarity with the world: they have shown us how charity won't change anything, however working hand by hand, poors and poors, we can make it (I don't want to extend about this, but I recommend a book by Ignacio Ramonet, One Hundred Hours with Fidel). Well, that was quite disgusting to read, with respect. Hey, don't you think that if Castro was subduing Cuban people's real will, he would have lasted so long as the leader of a Revolution? The idea of an alternative to capitalism just can't get into someone's mind... neither does a leader who is needed. The thing is, if you studied Latin American contemporary history, that dictatorships don't last long here. The difference with Cuba, is that it's a dictatorship, yes it is, and it's the dictatorship of a class; and there you have the leader of the class, now, and after he will die, it doesn't matter, his speeches, his writings will be there and won't be forgotten, as much as today aren't. Dictatorships didn't last much more than 20 years in this continent, in countries where most people didn't have a solid culture in politics. Cuba is unique in history: they study politics in high school, liberalism and marxism deeply, and they know how to discuss between them, and they are very critical with Revolution. How Revolution would advance, if otherwise? Revolutions get stuck and pervert themselves when critics are left behind; and the US Gov can say what they want, but when the critics (people compromised with Revolution, not soldiers of fortune who say they're political prisoners to get an US visa), are inside the island, the party listens. They have the mechanisms. Anyway, I was forgetting something. I believe that the questions here weren't asked right here. The USA Gov might take a controversial decision these days, that can change things between both countries: to lift or not the "embargo". But in this thread, nobody asked the main question. Is it just? It's something that you ask yourself when you take any decision, is it fair? Is the blockade just? Who has the right to block a country? Why do they have it? The United States thinks that they have the right to be judge and policeman all round the world, in the Americas and Middle East specially. It's clear that for most of the US Presidents, other states' sovereignties doesn't really matter; all that matters is "American people interests", which in simple English means multinational-enterprises interests. Isn't anybody going to openly ask: "Is it time for us not to interfere in our neighbour's desires, in their way to socialism?". That's is the main question from an ethical point of view, I think. In the end, I want to say sorry if I was rude to someone, but this is politics, and passions make us shout. But I want to finish with something I remember from my journey to Cuba last month. Chatting with a Cuban rastafari (who didn't take weed, that's real Cuba), I insisted on discussing about certain politics with him, like speech freedom, and he said "It's ok, we can discuss and agree or not, but it's our problem, we will resolve it, and we talk about it, it won't change anything. If something has to be changed, it's us who are going to discuss it because we are more critical with our leaders than Bush; he says lies about socialism, we build it, and because we decide our future, we have to be critical and auto-critical with ourselves. But it's something that we will resolve, not anyone from outside." Those are words that I'll never forget, for sure, and it is something to think about when we have a 50 y.o. embargo on a tiny, rebel island 90 miles away from the centre of the mafia which works against the island happiness. Maimi mafia I mean, because that's what they are, terrorist groups. (American media coverage of the actions by these men is almost negligible, so don't worry if you understand what I mean, just Google it). And one last thing to add: Cuban people haven't developed hate against the US. Anyone who has travelled there can tell. They know American politics are corrupt, because their only control is to be voted each 4 years. But Cubans don't hate Americans, they fight against the US Government, which is absolutely different.

I got the same message from happylove, who has no posts. This user is just a spammer, not interested in posting in the forums. That's why I think he or she should be banned from this boards, or at least don't let her send PMs. But it's not my responsibility to decide what to do with this user, it's just my opinion. I also got a similar message from the user mariaibrahima, and reported it to BuffalloHelp. I hope some action is taken against these spammers.

Nope, not yet. Thankfully.The worst thing that happened to me with my Facebook wall, was one of those special "gifts" that people can send. It happened that my girlfriend invited me to that application (not the normal Gifts app), and she sent to all her girl friends the picture of the abs and pectoral muscles a man. But this application, instead of sending me an invitation, put the images on my wall.So, as I didn't open Facebook until a couple days later, my friends had a good laugh and wrote some homophobic comments against me on my wall, joking of course. I had to delete it, and reported this application, I can't remember the name right now...The good thing was what my girlfriend did to make it up with me for making me the fool

I'm not an expert, but I can give you a few tips from my little experience. First, as many of the repliers said, there are two main types of digital cameras: Point aNd Shoot, and Digital Simple Lens Reflex. To make it simple, the thin ones, and the fat ones, respectively. The difference in quality of image between them is HUGE. Also is price difference, of course. So, to make it even more simple: if you're starting with photography, as I am, don't buy an DSLR camera, because... you may like taking pictures, or you may get bored, and a $2000 (USD) camera may end its life forgotten in a drawer after a few months. Although, if you're planning to go semi-pro or pro (like National Geographic's or DeviantArt's), pics in the night with little-to-no light or semi-pro to pro stuff... DSLR is your choice. But for family and friends stuff, choosing PNS would be a better idea. Other things to consider are: brands, lens, flash, megapixels, memory and battery. Brands: well, most people wouldn't recommend you Kodak cameras, but they have the best price/quality relation in my opinion. Of course, you'll take better photos with Sony, and even better with Canon or Nikon. But Kodak's point and shoot cameras have a good price family stuff, pictures of your holidays, etc. I have a Kodak V550, a PNS, that takes decent pictures even on sunsets (poor light). If you're going pro, you wouldn't need to ask in the forum, I suppose, but if you are... Nikon D series and Canon EOS are my recommendation. You may get some good offers on eBay, or pay the retailers price if you can afford it. Lens: the lens doesn't always have to be the same brand than the camera brand. Some Kodak cameras have Schneider or Carl-Zeiss lens, which are much better than Kodak's. For semi-pro and pro cameras, lens are may be bought separately, but I can't give much advice about it because I don't use DSLR. Flash: must be good, but remember they limitations. The built-in flashes usually can give light up to 3 metres. More than that, the picture will be dark and not neat. (Just for the record, they can't reach the moon; when I realized that, my childhood was left behind.) So, the point is, you can consider buying an extra flash, if you really think you will need it. However, I find it pointless. I wouldn't, but it's up to you. Megapixels: The belief of more megapixels, the better, is not exactly true. The thing is that, unless you want to make a poster or be a photojournalist, you won't need more than 5 MP for Point and Shoot, and 10 for DSLR. The camera I mentioned above, the one I have, Kodak V550, has 5.0 MP, but when I shoot, I use 4.0 or even 3.1 MP. So, if I have good light, if I focus right, if I shoot at the best moment... that's up to me, not how many megapixels. They are not the most important thing. Of course, if you'd like to buy me a 21.0 MP Canon EOS-1D Mark III, I wouldn't mind, you know... Memory: buy Kingston memory cards, they have a lifetime warranty, you can check that they are original products and I've never had any problem with them. Size: depends on the MegaPixels. If you're shooting with 5MP, 2 Gb means 1225 photos (aprox.), which is enough or not depending on your needs and how near you'll be from your computer so that you can move the pics to it (it was enough for me during a one-month holiday). If you have more megapixels, do the math. But I would suggest you to have 2Gb as a minimum. It is also important that the camera tells you how many pictures you can take with the remaining memory space. Otherwise, having an extra memory card will be wise. Battery: I recommend lithium batteries, which you can recharge easily. And have an extra battery when you're shooting outside. And indicator in the camera which tells you when you're running off is great. Other recommendations: don't ask the staff at the stores, I don't trust them and if you come up like if you don't know much about cameras, they'll sell you something too good and expensive, or cheap and bad. Once you're in the store, check the cameras, ask for trying them, take pics without flash and see if they look good. But don't believe a word from someone who gets money from your buying.

I'm a dialectical materialist, and I think that religion is the opium of the people, as Marx once wrote. But I can't really say that the Bible is basically a fairytale. Really. It's an historical document. It's the book that dominated Europeans life during Middle Ages, and it is still important to lots of people as a reference for their ethics and behaviour. But let's go back 2000 years, or whatever time we can say... As I wrote in the previous post, the "circumcision for everybody" may so ugly right now, because we all have water in our houses. But then, in the desert, it was much difficult to clean. It's pretty easy for a man to get an infection if he doesn't clean properly. Circumcision was a public health measure for a nation ruled by religious laws. The bill wasn't passed by the Congress, but by God, or we may say, a bunch of old Rabbis who later added it to the Old Testament (I really don't know much about Judaism, so if I'm saying something really stupid about the Rabbis adding that, sorry). Also, the story about Jesus, can't be taken today only as the son of God, and blah blah blah... We're in the XXI century, right? Let's see newer points of view. Religion is part of most, if not all societies. It's part of their cultures, no matter if you're Islamic , Christian, Jew, Buddhist, etc.., even atheist or deist. I bet your society has one or more religions. Why a society needs culture? Because it needs ethics, authorities, rules, customs that make people survive, adapt themselves to their surroundings, and set classes of individuals. These things always happen, and have happened. They can't be denied, unless you really want to be blind. Today, the Bible shouldn't be read as "this is how you must behave", stick to the rules "God" set, pray every night. Religions have evolved through time, along societies changes. This means that people makes the religions, according to their needs, new ones prevailing. We created God, the idea, and keep creating it. God only exists as long as we believe in him/her (why can't someone believe in Goddess, uh?), as long as we need her/him. I don't believe in God, because I don't need it. Lots of people still do, to feel some support, to find love and hope, to wake up feeling "filled with pure, indescribable and indestructible joynothing could put out that joy", as truefusion said. But also, and this is part of last decades of Latin American history, believing in God can be a liberation theology. If Jesus lived today, he would be in Chiapas along Sub-commander Marcos. You can bet that. He was next to poor people, not the way Catholic Church does, but like lots of catholic fathers in Latin America, struggling against misery, for poor rights in the streets, and sometimes with the guerrilla. This is the world we live in today, and religions aren't left behind, though it's not the Pope's official point of view who still talks against condoms and abortion. But, like I said, it's XXI century. Who can say if they're wrong or right? They may be both, but the fact is that, times keep changing for people, so do their creations. I think still God exists, because the human being created and perfected it to our needs. Now, we need to liberate ourselves from our chains of oppression. Will God be up to these circumstances, or like I quoted above, religion is the opium of the people? (For more info about Liberation Theology, Wikipedia.)

Forget about believing in God or not. That's not the point I think. You don't believe in God, you're part of a movement. Call it religion, or deism (that is, there's an external force that created everything and then had fun leaving the humanity their free will) or energy. It's not only you who believes it, there are lots of people around, organized or not, that do as well. When someone believes in something that is different from everybody else on this world, he or she is called crazy, heretic, subversive, etc.... you know, rhetorically denigrated. Until... someone believes you, and you convince people to your movement."Truth shall make you free" said Jesus. He started a silent revolution, he lighted up the fire, he liked the poors, the ones who had their social status were deep down... and you know how he died.Science has studied religions and as you may know, not everyone are the same. Some of them had many gods, other didn't even had gods but "figures", etc. Christianity, Jewish and Islam have only one god, called God each one. This info may not sound useful, but it show us how religions have developed through time.So, unless you really believe that God came and told Moses or the other prophets things, some of them, their key for their survival in the desert (e.g. health rules like circumcision), you can understand that religion is part of each culture.Each society makes their culture, each man produces not only goods, but all around his life and his work. As he believes in something, he helps it to be there, part of the culture.So, religion is produced by men and women, by the society. Just like many other ideas, myths, science, art. Abstract entities.God, as part of the religion, was created by people. It's just an idea. It feels good to have someone around to pray to when you need something or when you feel terrible; some people, despite development of societies, can't stand not having that idea-entity around, called God, to ask for their self-contentment.To sum up, yes. God exists. We created it, it's not the first word that represents something non-factual, or beyond the proof of existence.So, another question: we made it, are we ready to kill it? When will truth make us really free? When will we stop consuming this opium?

I think that voice plays a key role. I can't stand very high pitched voices, nor low, man-like ones. I prefer them, a little below normal for women, but just a little.Attitude is also important, he way she moves and her initiative, I like that. And a smile is a plus.Talking about smiling, her face is not unimportant at all, because if you get lucky, is the face you'll be seeing on the other side of the bed the next morning. Or the body you'll be feeling. So if she's cute, that'll be cool.And that stuff we all have heard, you know, that the beauty is in the eyes of who looks... bla bla bla, is also true, some-way. I mean, sometimes my mood affects me and I can't find someone sexy or beautiful. The lack of light and the abundance of alcohol and drugs helps too.

I don't think playing cards is a sport, really. It's just another way of entertainment. Not all hobbies have to be sports; chess isn't, neither reading nor racing cars (in my opinion). Sports are one way of entertain yourself, not all the ways. The games I play, well, I enjoy poker, blackjack and "truco" (trick). You may be familiar with poker and blackjack, but truco is a game from Uruguay and Argentina, the two countries of the Rio de la Plata. Let me explain it to you: it's always played with a spanish deck (naipes), after taking out from the deck the eights, nines and jokers. The number of players must be even (usually two, four or six players), splitting the players in two sides. If there are only two players, first, the cards are shuffled by one of the players, and then he deals three cards to each player, and puts another card on the table. This card is called "muestra" (sample), and everyone can see which card is. Each card dealt, has a different relative power. From least to most powerful: 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2 and 3. Some of those cards are called "matas" (killers), and those are, from least to most powerful: 7-gold, 7-swords, 1-wood, and 1-sword; they all beat the normal cards, mentioned before. There is also another group of special cards: "piezas" (the pieces), which are some of the cards included in the suit of the "sample". They have points. These are the pieces, from least to most powerful: 10 (points), 11 (27 points), 5 (28 points), 4 (29 points) and 2 (30 points). So, basically, the game consists of three hands, during which you have to beat your opponent two hands to win. The first hand is started by the "mano" who is the player who didn't dealt. The second one is started by the player who won the first one, and so the third hand (if there is, because if a player wins the first two hands, wins the round). There can be as many round as needed: the goal is to score 30 or 40 (not the points of the pieces, another score). The most important thing in this game, is not to get the best cards, but to make believe the other player that you can win him if you have bad cards, or that he can win you if you feel you have better cards than him. But you can't lie or cheating them. There are "yellings" inside the main game, that help you earning score and "tricking" the other player (there comes the name). Those "yellings" are "embido" (can't be translated), "flor" (flower) and "truco" itself. I really don't know how to explain the whole game, so, if you feel this game is worth learning, check Wikipedia here, that is clearer and better explained than what I can explain. Good luck!

The remarks of this post don't have a scientific background, contactskn. If you could tell us how did you acquired this knowledge, like sources or something, we may believe you. Remember some people are so crazy about losing weight, that they try every trick or tip they find online, and some of them, as Parubilla said, vary from person to person. So, not drinking water when they feel they need to, may not be healthy for them. Water is one of the most neutral substances in the world, and unless you drink 7 L per day, it won't harm you. Mixing it with food shouldn't bring you stomach aches or anything, actually. So, if this is some of those family "secrets" that our grandmothers always are talking about (like eating watermelon and drinking wine are like a stone for your stomach), please tell us. Andrés

I would suggest you to allow your visitors to right click, it's so frustrating when you can't click as you wish, and when web developers interfere into my GUI. I just leave the site! Also, newbies are no harm if they sneak into your source code. The problems don't come from them. The problems come from those who already know how to use the menu bar, or better, how to disallow all Javascript. So, if someone wants to find security leaks or steal your "precious HTML coding", use other ways. Anyway, back to the topic, the best solution if you still refuse to allow your visitors to use their left button, use PHP, which doesn't require the file to be in the same directory as the mp3 file to download. The code written by iGuest will work. Copy it from the opening <? to the ending ?>. (But please delete the script that disallow the left click!)

Thanks a lot for your advise, everyone. cemeteryrecords: You asked about my internet connection, it's 512Kbps DSL. But I don't think the main problem is with the connection, but with the whole system. So the thing is, whether I add more RAM, or get another antivirus. My dad and I have talked about buying more memory (the computer is his, I live with my parents), and asking in some PC shops, we found out that the motherboard (ASUS P5VDC-MX) supports one type of RAM memory that isn't sold here in Uruguay any longer since it is quite old. So if I want to upgrade the RAM, I have to buy a new motherboard, and that's what makes it expensive. jlhaslip and xpress: I've been also doing some research for other antivirus software, and learnt about AVIRA Antivirus Personal, NOD32, Avast! and AVG Free. They seem to be the best. Thanks for your recommendations. I'll keep trying to find out if there's a chance to stop eScan from consuming so much memory and CPU when updating until I discuss this issue with my father. There must be a way to make it go smoother. If anyone knows, I'm still open to suggestions. Thanks to all who answered, Andr?s.

First of all, you should know lots of PHP, and how to write MySQL queries. You should know how to keep your site safe of attacks, so you'll have to be careful not to leave holes for hackers to use (like inserting code through GET variables and that kind of stuff). Also, you'll have to keep the CMS engine separated from the presentation (aka as templates, skins, themes, etc...). Smarty is useful for that. Finally, you'll have to put all that together and spend hours writing code, checking things, in different servers, letting your friends find bugs, etc. So, the best option is ask yourself: Do I really need to my own CMS? If I were you, I would rather use one of the CMS out there, like Joomla, Mambo, or even Wordpress, the blogging software which has developed content managment feature, it's quite solid and has lots of themes (presentation) and plugins (add-ons), and it's quite intuitive and easy-to-use, specially for starters. So my recommendation is: use the CMS you can find in those Fantastico-like installers. I've had good results with Wordpress, so I recommend it. Anyway, I leave you some links to discussion here on the boards, about which is the best content management software; it's healthy to hear other points of view. Links: 1, 2, 3, 4. Good luck, Andrés

I had never heard of GMX, but according to what I could find out on Wikipedia (its article and a comparison of webmail providers), it seems to be popular in Europe, especially in the German market. And it seems to support POP3 and IMAP, so, if you don't like their webmail access, you can read your mail with desktop email clients, such as Thunderbird, Outlook, Eudora, Correo, KMail, Opera Mail, Lotus Notes, to name the most popular ones. Anyway, GMX seems to have other limitations: ads in inbox, supports English only (the webmail access) and only IE and Firefox. So I wouldn't recommend it either.

My PC: Intel Pentiem D 2.80 Ghz (Dual core), FSB 800Mhz, ASUS motherboard (can't remember the model), 512 Mb RAM. Windows XP SP3.Every time I connect to Internet, my antivirus, eScan, looks for updates, and downloads them. That's not a big deal, and doesn't consume much memory.The problem started last year, and it happens when eScan loads the updates to its engine. To do that, it has to disable the engine and re-enable it again. I don't know why it can't just add the updates to the database, it just does it the hard way. So, as you can assume, every thing goes so slow that all I can do is wait there until it does that job.Can you imagine trying to move along a webpage, specially one with lots of javascript like Gmail or Facebook's homepage, while this *BLEEP*y antivirus loads? Everything gets stuck and sometimes Firefox crashes (version 3.0.5, sometimes 3.1b2)So, I would like to know if you can help me or tell me some way to avoid this problems. I know that I should get more RAM, but this didn't happen a few months ago, and I had the same PC and antivirus. Maybe it's because I updated the Updater (that sentence was quite redundant)? Shouldn't it be better?

I just watched a documentary film today on Max Prime, called Sharkwater. I'm not really into documentaries, but this one is awesome. Not only its topic, shark hunting, but the scenes are unbelievable and the plot is really eye-catching. The young director of this film, who was also the producer and screenplayer writer is Rob Stewart. This man dove into the water in an attempt to vindicate the name of his favorite animal: the shark. This species has always been vilified for its brutality, ferocity and temper, but the truth is far from that. The sensitivity, curiosity and strength of sharks make them to be noble and quiet animals. Beautiful also. Sharks have existed in depths of the oceans since before dinosaurs inhabited the Earth. The images given by the director of the film to show us all that are overwhelming. Absolutely surprising and amazing. Imagine yourself swimming around different kinds of sharks in the Ocean... yes, that's how and where you'll see Rob Stewart, who isn't afraid of these large creatures. And the fact is that, as they know they can't eat him because of this size, they don't lose energy trying to bite him. But unfortunately not everything is beautiful. Things get awful when Stewart comes to denounce the indiscriminate hunting of sharks worldwide. The ambition to get shark fins, used to make soup, is gold in the Asian market. What can I say about it? Chinese and their conduct with respect to the environment leaves a lot to be desired. The appalling massacre against the whales, is the precedent for this new horror they lead. After violently removing the animal from the water, they cut the fins and throw the shark back to the water, letting it die. There are certain regulations to prevent this abuse but the bans are difficult to monitor anywhere, given the fact that sharks regularly migrate across international borders. It is not a mystery to anyone, as it is not with other species, that the decline in the number of sharks has serious consequences for the ecosystems in which they live in: sharks are an essential part of the food chain, and their predatory nature helps keep in check the population of their prey species. Why is this happening? Because nobody cares that sharks' population has decreased 90% since the 80's, when the words was spread that their fins were expensive. Even Greenpeace has done little to fight this. I believe this has happened because it's not very popular: most people is afraid of sharks, and think that they like to eat people, but that's not true at all. When sharks attack people (which happens less often than when soda machines kill us, according to the figures shown in this film), people die because of blood loss, not because the shark ate them, as it can't do it since their jaw is smaller than our bodies. They can't eat us! Instead, they eat smaller fishes. These fishes generally eat plankton. This plankton is the main source of oxygen to our planet. Yes, can you see the relation? Kill sharks=More fishes=Less plankton=Less oxigen The question is, how can we survive if we don't understand or do anything to accomplish with nature's laws, and we let some b*st*rds attack not only a beautiful species but also the air you'll breath tomorrow? Links: Official site, Amazon, Wikipedia, IMDB. Watch the trailer on YouTube.

I finally decided for a Canon... well my dad actually did because he's the one who bought it. He chose the MP140, which has scanner included. It's not meant for photo printing like the MFP but it's quite useful anyway.Thanks for the advice!Andr?s

Unions aren't just to improve workers' wages and conditions. They play a key role in class struggle. When unions fight to get their workers' salaries raised and then they coexist in peace with the bourgeois, then they are corrupt, they're like diazepam, calming them down. And they mainly support the workers' individualism, when what they really should do is to spread solidarity among them, develop their class conciousness by helping workers of other unions who may be in conflict with the employers, teaching the members about social topics of importance, which could discussed in this kind of forums but working-class can't get access to because of digital gap or other reasons.That's what unions are about in my country: developing workers' class conciousness, because "No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc" - Karl Marx.That's my point of view regarding why do we have them.About the case you were talking about, we must agree that if the union is on strike, it's because the employers did nothing about their claiming, and now they can see the power of the workers. I don't know how it works in the States, but in Uruguay they don't earn any money when the workers are affiliated to the union, neither when they're on strike. So, conflicts usually finish fast, specially when strikers have the people's support.So, don't blame the unions. Blame the fascist employers who don't respect your right to association. How many McDonalds have a workers union? I read there was one which was shut down despite being profitable. What else can I say?

I have sinusitis right now, I also had it last March and an year ago (I think it's due to weather changing).I don't think being sick changes me too much, but now you mention, a yesterday I had an argument with my brother of which I thought later was really stupid: I couldn't find the cable magazine and asked my brother where it was. He said he didn't know and kept playing with his gaze fixed on the computer screen; that got me really pissed off so I started the argument. I admit it was very childish.So, maybe I'm a little more irritable when sick.Also, I'm sleeping a lot. However, I don't think it's because of the sinusitis. I sleep until late whenever I've got the chance to do so.

So, what happens if you drink 7 litres of water a day? Do math.... You'll spend half of your day in the bathroom :)Just kidding. I only wanted to agree with midnightvamp: it MUST be illegal to make this kind of false claims, it harms people's health. Anyway, I'm sure there are worse diets out there that drinking cold water.

I'm considering buying an Epson CX5600 multifunction printer, and I heard that if you have an Epson stuck some time, without using it, the ink in the heads will dry out and clog the heads through which the ink comes from the cartridge.Id' really appreciate if anyone could tell me how often does this happen?Thanks, Andr?s

I don't know if anyone cares, and maybe it's off-topic, but Bobcat is the name of a pick-up truck in GTA-series game too. In GTA San Andreas is almost everywhere.