All this kicking off in Arab-land...

[Clippy]

Bit hard to get pissed at work these days, unfortunately. Though I do remember when I was at Sellafield one lad used disappear in the van we had for running around site quite frequently. Until one day the site Police (ie Armed and Fat) found him slumped on site in said van well arseholed, totally Vokda'd up.

And when I worked in Germany, some of the guys had little beer fridges on their desk - wow! Was a while ago tho...

But even last year I was in Hamburg and the gf was in G-Star off or on Mönckebergstraße, free Becks while you wait for said 'Freundin' to shop....

Germany has it spot-on...

A few years ago on the first day of a new gig, I was being introduced to various people one of which was one of the senior desktop support guys.

He reeked of booze and, playing dumb, I later asked the colleague who was showing me around if she smelt a smell from him.

Quick as a flash, she said he had some sort of gum problem and the smell was the medicine he was taking for it.

About a year later, desktop guy was finally given the boot for being pissed at work.

The large service provider he worked for, regularly lied to the client about his state and kept him out of the way working on PC builds.

I don't understand why they didn't either get rid of him straight away or re-deploy him rather than regularly lie.

[stek]

We have free beer in the kitchen here. The end client has an on-site shop that sells it too. They definitely have the right idea.

Said Freundin worked until quite recently in a cigarette machine making factory SW of Hamburg - not hard to find, all the employees there took it is cos they made Fag making machines they were exempt from EU rules and could smoke in the office. AFAIK they still do...

[Paddy]

..does it not mean that 'the people' there have had enough of Islamic bollocks and want to be more Western and free and give us cheap petrol?

'Islam - 5th Century Religion in 21st Century World'

'Western Economics - let's charge you for everything and fook u over if you don't pay, totally ruining your credit score, but if you're on top, shiit below'

But if we embrace the Oily countries into Western-dom, can I have cheap petrol and buy a 1959 Cadillac?

stek, in a server room, with the loudest rack server ever, Sun (now Oracle) T2000, the suction power on this rig is amazing, nearly blew my leg off when I walked past it. Actually that gives me an idea, door is locked, clean undies on, come on baby, yeah, boot cdrom - oh yeah, IPV6, ooh, sexy, default route?, I don't know it, tulip, default route? anybody?

Too late....

Not all Arabs are Muslims. The problem is one of corruption in government and the poor not seeing benefits.

BTW, I was in a noisy server room last year and some nupty pulled the floor up behind me and I took a step backwards. I though I was being sucked to the centre of the Earth.

[NotAllThere]

The vast majority of arabs are muslim though. I think they're fed up with corrupt dictators running/ruining their lives. Some of the groups pushing this are more radical muslims, most are just people who want to be able to make a bit of cash.

[TimberWolf]

I dread to think what will become of these nations when their oil runs out, if they're revolting in the good times. Still, at least the west won't be bombing them as often when it is gone*


*unless we want their sunshine

[xoggoth]

All a bit oversimplified. If those wanting more REAL democracy and freedom win out it would be great. Unfortunately, they do not begin to decsribe what the opposition is, Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood, nasty tribal leaders who are no better than Gaddafi and Iran-backed Shias wanting revenge on Sunnis all probably have more organisation and are more likely to take over. This will probably not turn out well.

[xoggoth]

I dread to think what will become of these nations when their oil runs out

What about sand? Costs £1.50 a small bag at Homebase.

PS And stones. One of the reasons revolts go so much better in the Middle east than in, say, London is lots of stones to chuck.