1/27    Interesting list of useful unix tools. Shout out to
        cowsay even!
        http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3428AB/kkovacs.eu/cool-but-obscure-unix-tools

1/24    "What the Top 1% of Earners Majored In"
        http://finance.yahoo.com/news/top-1-earners-majored-163026283.html
        No EE/CS/EECS!
        \_ Yeah, you should have majored in Art History instead.
           \_ No you should have gone to Med Skool like every good asian
              parent says.

1/24    http://james-iry.blogspot.com/2009/05/brief-incomplete-and-mostly-wrong.html
        Amusing "history" of computer science.

1/24    Hey danh, have you ever seen this movie?
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Royale_(film

1/18    Hmm, Snooki looks much better without makeup.  She actually looks okay.
        http://www.csua.org/u/v8v (tv.yahoo.com)
        \_ Yeah, I'd do her.

1/18    Shit Murdock Says:
        1/14 So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters
        who threaten allsoftware creators with piracy, plain thievery. -
        1/14 Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts
        around them.No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.
        1/15 Just been to google search for mission impossible. Wow, several
        sites offering free links.I rest my case.
        1/15 Sure misunderstand many things, but not plain stealing.
        Incidentally google blocks many other undesirable things.
        1/16 More pirates.Whole entertainment ind employs 2.2 million ave
        salary 65 g. Good jobs and expanding foreign earnings. Made in
        America, too!
        \_ Hey don't knock the Smartest Conservative on The Planet.

1/18    History Channel is pretty responsive to current events:
        RedTails movie -> History of Tuskegee Airmen
        sinking of Concordia -> History of Titanic
        What else?

1/18    I own a bunch of NFLX stocks bought at several different periods
        (from high $200 all the way down to $80). I dumped a few and
        still have a few. Why the hell is Reid Hastings still making
        $500,000/year? How do I join the pending NFLX Class Action
        Lawsuit?
        \_ Why would you buy stock in a company run by a narcissistic
           a-hole who mistreats his employees? Do you own Zynga stock
           as well? You automatically join class action suits unless
           you opt out of them.
        \_ http://tinyurl.com/72s4cn8
        \_ Did you hold on to enough of your stock to be in the black
           now?

1/17    Is it possible to ship USPS Parcel Post online? The online
        interface only allows Priority and Express.

1/14    Google steals from Kenyans:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/7z2p8v9 [ars]

1/12    "The Case for a 21-Hour Work Week"
        http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the-case-for-a-21-hour-work-week.html
        Yeah, let's beat the Europeans on laziness.  If their purpose really
        is to save the planet, why not re-direct the "excess" consumption
        towards environmental causes?  I don't see how traveling, for example,
        in the extra free time is not a form of consumption.
        \_ Screw the planet; if you're not producing an arbitrary number of
           widgets, staffing a retail or customer service station, or doing
           some other kind of job that requires a constant presence and
           regular productivity, what's the point of having you in a physical
           location for 40 hours per week? And if you do work in one of those
           jobs, wouldn't it make sense to run studies to show how many hours
           you can actually work and remain efficient before you start
           inadvertently flaking?
        \_ Traveling could be a bicycle tour of the region near where you
           live, for example, it doesn't have to be luxurious. I basically
           agree with this, but no one in IT is going to let you work 20
           hrs/wk, so what I plan to do is retire 25 years after I graduate.
           So I keep my living expenses low and save a lot.

1/10    Rocker advocating for limiting nudity and profanity on TV:
        http://www.csua.org/u/v6f (news.yahoo.com)
        \_ Is this SFW?
           \_ Yes.  -- OP

1/8     "Amid tensions, U.S. Navy rescues Iranians from Somali pirates"
        http://www.csua.org/u/v5i (news.yahoo.com)
        "... the rescue operation was carried out by a ship belonging to the
        very U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group that Iranian army
        officials had earlier boasted of evicting from Gulf waters.
        \_ "U.S. ship rescues Iranian fishermen - again"
           http://www.csua.org/u/v65 (news.yahoo.com)

1/4     Honeybee's version of "Alien":
        http://www.csua.org/u/v4i (news.yahoo.com)

1/4     I want to test how my servers behave during a disk failure and
        a RAID reconstruction so I want to simulate a hardware failure.
        How can I do this in Linux without having to physically pull
        a drive? These disks are behind a RAID card and run Linux. -ausman
        \_ According to the Linux RAID wiki, you might be able to use mdadm
           to do this with something like the following:
              mdadm --manage --set-faulty /dev/md1 /dev/[disk]
           link:preview.tinyurl.com/88vwcvu [raid.wiki.kernel.org]
           [ Maybe this only works for software raid - I don't have much
             experience with hw raid on linux ]

1/4     Honeybee' version of "Alien":
        http://www.csua.org/u/v4i (news.yahoo.com)

1/2     Is Boxer for or against PIPA/SOPA? I know that piece of shit
        Feinstein is, but not so sure about Boxer.
        \_ They are both sponsors.
            \_ I'm Shocked.  Shocked!

1/1     Happy New Year! Happy End of the World!
        \_ Why do people still watch the Pasadena Rose Parade? Is it
           suppose to be interesting?
           \_ The big float with the surfing dogs was pretty neat.
        \_ For one, I remember that Year 1993 was also supposed to be the end
           of the world.
           of the world.  It's amazing that the news media still runs reports
           on this whenever someone comes up with yet another new date.

12/29   New brute force attack against WPA1/2 base stations based on a flaw
        in WiFi Protected Setup (WPS):
        http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/723755
        http://www.tacnetsol.com/products
        http://sviehb.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/wi-fi-protected-setup-pin-brute-force-vulnerability

12/29   Looking for an IT job?  Stephen Hawking is hiring.
        http://www.hawking.org.uk/index.php/component/content/article/96

12/29   Is it worthwhile to use ext4 on VMs? Is Journaling necessary on VMs?
         \_ what about DBs?  I read somewhere ext3 was better for DB voumes (mysql)

12/27   Weird issue with x11: I have ssh x11 forwarding, and for the first
        few minutes I can initiate (start) new x11 programs like xload,
        emacs, etc. Now, after a few minutes, I cannot initiate new ones
        anymore (though my existing ssh still works). What is going on?

12/23   In Python, why is it that '好'=='\xe5\xa5\xbd' but
        u'好'!='\xe5\xa5\xbd' ? I'm really baffled. What
        is the encoding of '\xe5\xa5\xbd'?
        \_ '好' means '\xe5\xa5\xbd', which is just a string of bytes; it has
           length 3.  Python doesn't know what encoding it's in.  u'好' means
           u'\u597d', which is a string of Unicode characters; it has length 1,
           and Python recognizes it as a single Chinese character.  However,
           it doesn't have any particular encoding!  You have to encode it as
           a byte string before you can output it, and you can choose whatever
           encoding you want.  u'好'.encode('utf-8') returns '\xe5\xa5\xbd'.
           See http://docs.python.org/howto/unicode.html
           \_ wow thanks. I always thought unicode == utf-8, boy I was
              so wrong. This is all very confusing.
              \_ dear dumbass:
                 http://www.stereoplex.com/blog/python-unicode-and-unicodedecodeerror
                 http://docs.python.org/library/codecs.html
                 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/643694/utf-8-vs-unicode
                 \_ If all you've used is UTF-8, you'd have no reason to
                    suspect there are other Unicode encodings (and really,
                    if UTF-8 had been designed first, there probably wouldn't
                    be).  Not knowing about them doesn't make you dumb.

12/23   http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/22/uc-berkeley-google-apps
        Oh noes! What Would Bill Gates Do?
        \_ http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000701.html
           Microsoft to Transition Corporate IT to Google Apps

12/21   In Emacs, how do I make it so that it will resize its screen
        when the maximum resolution of my monitor changes? When I
        use my laptop, my emacs is too big (and I can't resize it
        because the bottom-right corner is not accessible).
        \_ Which OS?  Can't you drag the top border (not a corner) to resize
           the height to be smaller?
           \_ MacOS 10.7, bottom right only.
              \_ How about "M-x eval-expression (set-screen-height
                 <some number>)"?  You'll have to type this without seeing
                 the minibuffer.
                 \_ yes that works. I tried this at home (when
                    my screen is downsized from a 24" work monitor
                    to my laptop) and had to do this blind without
                    seeing the mini buffer and had to do it a few
                    times. I guess I should learn how to write
                    a keyboard shortcut in elisp :(
              \_ Can't you drag/move windows by any border, or am I thinking
                 of a different OS?

12/20   Question to people in industry: I'm a transfer student, which
        means I can take an extra semester to graduate. I will have met
        all the requirements to graduate in May, but already have an
        internship lined up for the summer and was planning to use the
        semester afterward to take some courses I haven't had a chance
        to yet (graphics, distributed systems (if they add the course),
        grad-level networks or security). I'm not sure if it would be
        worth the time/money to stay another semester, though, and am
        wondering if I should just apply for full-time jobs now and not
        worry about doing another internship/semester. Thoughts?
        \_ It won't affect your job prospects.  If you'd enjoy another semester
           in school, take another semester; if not, don't.
        \_ You will make more money over the course of your career
           by going to work now, if that is the question. Is there
           any chance that later on you will get a MS or MBA?
           \_ The question is whether it's worth going to work 6 months
              later in order to take a few classes which interest me,
              but may not be relevant in the long run. I would like to get a
              MS at some point. What difference does that make here?
              \_ It is certainly not "worth it" if you just want to maximize
                 lifetime income. Taking a few more classes won't make you
                 any money, but working another six months certainly will.
                 If you are trying to decide life satisfaction vs the money,
                 it really depends on how much you enjoy school. I have
                 enjoyed working more than being a full time student. YMMV.
                 If you plan to get an MS, you will probably be more attractive
                 to graduate programs with the extra coursework and might
                 even be able to get more out of the MS, so that should be
                 a consideration.
        \_ you'll always find ways to make more money in your lifetime
           but there will not be many opportunities to take classes
           from a really great university. Chances are, when you start
           working, you will be too busy to want to take any new class.
           \_ Agreed.  I graduated two decades ago with honor (which already
              meant a broader list of courses) without taking 184 (Graphics),
              188 (AI), or 268 (Networking).  Now I wish I took those courses.
              --- !OP
              \_ Why do you wish you took them?
                 \_ Because now I feel that there are holes in my CS education.
                    When
                    When people talk about these areas, I feel bad that I don't
                    know anything even though I graduated from a prestigious
                    university.  AI may be obscure all right, but graphics and
                    networking are common.
                    \_ Just read books and stuff. Sheesh.
                       \- your brain size has been classified as: small

12/19   "Comic superheroes perform breast self exams"
        http://www.csua.org/u/v19 (news.yahoo.com)
        Whatever the title may say, I say this is superhero porn.
        \_ Boob Guy, are you back?

12/18   It sound better when you don't do the math:
        http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-12-19
        \_ Google sucks and chialea has gone to the dark side.
           Money talks.

12/17   Mission Accomplished!
        \_ The Honorable President of the United States George W. Bush has
           already told me this ...... years ago!

12/16   If a couple contributes to their child's 529 Plan of $26000,
        is that amount tax sheltered (as in, your taxable income is
        reduced by $26000?)
        \_ No, but the gains are tax free when you use it later. It is
           similar to a Roth IRA, if you know how those work.

12/15   “Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and
         bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry,
         contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized
         religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.�
         -Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

12/15   Does anyone have experience investing in apartment buildings
        I'm not really looking to invest, but I want an apartment
        to live in, and I'm not happy with the leases I'm encountering
        for instance one requires 2 years of tax returns with the
        application. I'm in a position to buy a building, but I've
        got no experience with this, and I don't want to learn that
        it was a bad by losing a lot of money. --jwm.
        \_ I bought a two unit building and live in the top. It has
           worked out pretty well for me. Email me if you want more
           info. -ausman
        \_ jsl and I run a small 4-unit, and have for a while.  Property
           management can be a lot of work. You could hire property
           managers to do it for you but it cuts into income. -mehlhaff

12/15   Happy Bill of Rights Day:
        http://www.billofrightsday.com

12/11   Nick Weaver partying with Vint Cerf and Van Jacobson:
        http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=2076798

12/9    Improved approach for matrix multiplication:
        http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~virgi/matrixmult.pdf
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/cdf5u32 [new scientist]

12/9    A public company (NASDAQ/NYSE) needs to publicly disclose
        important information right? Is there a way to find data that
        shows who owns most of the stocks, when they're dumping (to measure
        their confidence in the company), and how many people are shorting?
        \_ It has been a few years since I took a business organizations
           course, but from what I remember, there isn't a requirement for
           companies to diclose who their major shareholders are b/c this
           can and does change frequently.  You might be able to figure out
           when a major inside shareholder is dumping shares b/c they
           generally have to give notice of intent to sell shares in advance
           of the transaction.  But, there isn't any similar requirement for
           outside sharehodlers.  Shorting is similar, but most companies
           don't allow insiders to short the companies stock.
        \_ Go to http://finance.yahoo.com.  Enter your stock symbol, click "Get
           Quote".  Under "COMPANY", click "Profile".  Under "Key Executives",
           look at the pay and exercised options table.  Then click "View
           Insiders", and look at the "Insider Transactions Reported" table.
           \_ Wow that is really cool THANKS! I'm looking at GOOG out of
              curiosity: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=GOOG
              I find it funny that John Doerr exercises only 46 at a time.
              This is not what I expect from multi-millionaires. LOL!
              On the side, the page http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile
              On the side, the page
              http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GOOG+Profile
              is wrong-- Neither Larry/Sergey are DOCTORS (they're just PhD
              dropouts) and they exercised more than 0.00 shares.
           \_ All this info comes from the 10-K and 10-Q that companies file. But
              it takes a lot of reading to dig it all out.
              \_ That table is what they exercised this year.
           \_ All this info comes from the 10-K and 10-Q that companies file.
              But it takes a lot of reading to dig it all out.

12/9    Anyone using DNSCrypt from OpenDNS?  Is it worthwhile trying?
        http://www.opendns.com/technology/dnscrypt

12/8    Java code much worse IRL than pretty much everything else:
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/d5e46cq [ars technica]

12/5    "Eight Ferraris wrecked in million-dollar pileup"
        http://www.csua.org/u/uw3 (autos.yahoo.com)
        "Police and video reports say the wreck began when a 60-year-old
        businessman from Fukushima driving a Ferrari F430 attempted to pass a
        Toyota Prius, but instead hit the guardrail.  That set off a chain
        reaction among the cars driving in a tight formation behind the lead
        Ferrari, ......
        The Prius escaped unharmed."
        So much for "performance" cars.