10/10   Please help us test out NFS.  Take a look at the README file in
        /linux-nfs and /freebsd-nfs.  Use one, use both, have fun, break
        stuff.

10/10   Please read the latest announcement on motd.official if you don't
        usually. - jvarga
        \_ The reason for this is so that you can move /var/mail to another
           machine and nfs mount it from soda.  You also want to move off
           soda accounts and merge them with office accounts and mount those
           on soda via nfs.  All because you don't know how to admin soda's
           daemons or upgrade the kernel.  Somehow I think this is the wrong
           way to go about it.
        \_ You are truly a dumbass.  What do you expect to find?
           \_ Signal: 0.  Noise: 100.  Troll value: nil.
              \_ Absent the insult, the question still remains.  What is
                 jvarga trying to learn from this exercise?
                 \_ maybe he wants "real" users to test out new HW before
                    putting it into production and to also help compare it
                    to the older shit that was there before.  Yeah, let's
                    put new hw into use without testing.
                    \_ No, that doesn't make any sense.  New hardware always
                       works perfectly every time.  Nothing has even been
                       DOA or died in the first week of production use.  The
                       idea that someone might want to test or burn in a new
                       build is just wild and only a dumbass would do testing.
                       I learned everything I needed to know about technology
                       from the motd.
                       \_ If you spoke less rashly and listened more carefully,
                          you might actually learn something.
                          \_ So if I just shutup and listened to your greater
                             wisdom which seems to imply that user testing is
                             useless and jvarga is a dumbass I would come away
                             with useful technical knowledge I could apply in
                             the future in production environment?  Like this?
                             "Boss, I'm sorry, but the motd said there's no
                              point in testing that production raid array
                              before we go live with it, so you're just a
                              dumbass for even thinking about it".  I'll try
                              that next time.
                              \_ If I were your boss, I'd certainly want to
                                 know what you are trying to achieve with
                                 your proposed testing and whether your
                                 proposal is appropriate for your goal.  A
                                 later post claims that they want "people to
                                 pound the hell out of the NFS mounts and tell
                                 us how stable they are".  Is that the goal?
                                 Will random users doing whatever really tell
                                 us anything about how stressed the disks
                                 were?   Would that be the most effective way
                                 to stress the disks with representative
                                 traffic?
                    \_ Is user testing the right way to check if a drive
                       is prone to infant mortality?  Is checking one drive
                       under linux nfs and another under freebsd reasonable
                       if one is trying to catch hardware errors?  There are
                       probably better ways to test for hardware robustness.
                       So the question remains.  What is jvarga trying to
                       test for?
                       \_ People continually bitch and moan about the horror of
                          NFS and how much it sucked when they used it, but
                          none of those people seem to have any legitimate
                          complaints from any time in the last few years.
                          We're testing the stability of NFS on FreeBSD and
                          Debian Linux to see if the issues people are crying
                          about still exist.  We want people to pound the hell
                          out of the NFS mounts and tell us how stable they
                          are.  The results of this test are the last influence
                          on our choice of hardware setup for Soda Mark VII.
                          \_ So do you think a bunch of random users doing
                             whatever is a good way to stress test NFS for
                             stability and bugginess?  Here I assume that
                             NFS is not trivially broken.
                             \_ If you have a better idea, please feel free
                                to try it out.  Or, if you don't think this
                                stuff needs to be tested before being put into
                                production, mail root and I'm sure they can
                                move your home directory over.
                             \_ Jesus Christ, if you have a suggestion for the
                                guy, make it; otherwise shut the fuck up with
                                this wannabe Socratic Method nonsense.

10/9    Has anyone tried putting a dell p4 motherboard into a regular
        case? Is the dell motherboard standard size? I know their case
        does not fit regular power supply... thanks.

10/9    Let's just conquer Canada already.
        http://www.halifaxlive.com/canada_military_10062004_9435.php
        \_ NZ already disbaned their AF cuz of whore of a PM.
           The RPG-magnet Stryker the US Army uses are made in Canada.
           Canada is already part of the Echelon system, along with
           other English speaking countries.
           \_ Yeah, those Kiwis are really missing their Air Force, what
              with their _utter_lack_of_enemies_.
              \_ you mean the Uruk-hai aren't real?
        \_ Huh?  We already did.  We allow them to run their puppet state,
           pass laws, collect local taxes and such but we own it in all
           the important ways.  How much more 'conquered' could Canada really
           be?

10/8    Dear physics/EE experts. If I put electricity in motors, they
        turn. But if I turn motors, will they generate electricity?
        How efficient could they do that? The other question is,
        the Toyota Prius has a regenerative brake. How much more
        components did they add to make that happen (how many more
        motors, circuitry, coils, etc), and how efficient is the
        regenerative brake? In another word, suppose you put in
        100X 'energy' into the car to make it go ye fast, then you
        utilize the regenerative brake, what percentage of 100X do
        you get back?
        \_ http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/08/pf/autos/mileage/index.htm?cnn=yes

10/10   ABC media bias memo commentary:
        http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/31441.htm
        \_ I'm sorry, I don't get it.  Why post an editorial from the NYPost?
           Couldn't find a freeper link on the same subject?
           \_ I only listen to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. Sometimes some
              NYPost or Ann Coulter. The rest is liberal trash.

10/10   The motd has been so much more pleasant recently, even though we're
        in a really tense time politically.  Has everyone just decided to
        be better human beings suddenly?  Political and other topics don't
        seem to have the same nasty negative edge to them they did only a
        week or so ago.  It's much better this way.  Thank you.
        \_ It's probably just the absence of one or two key negative people.
           \_ Tom's been gone. -- ilyas
                \_ Tom, like you, makes occasionally reasonable, if unpopular
                   points about contentious topics.  He can be very cynical
                   about it, but I have rarely seen anyone respond to his
                   arguments recently with anything but ad hominem bullshit.
                   Please restrict this sort of shit to the real anonymous
                   losers who troll the motd.  Anyway, the motd's mainly
                   become more pleasant because even the negative, wrong
                   replies are at least decently reasoned and
                   articulated.  -John
        \_ no, I am just busy at work.

10/8    Please recommend a good portable mp3 player and radio for
        under $100.
        \_ You're asking for a bit much here- there is the ipod and then
           there is a bunch of crap with poor interfaces.  I would
           recommend the metallic blue panasonic mp3/cd player... poor
           button layout and the rest but it was reliable and fit in my
           pocket fairly well.
           \_ http://ebay.com, search for an iPod.
           \_ Are there any good flash-based MP3/FM players in that price
              range? -!op
              \_ I don't think there are many mp3 players w/ radios.
                 The Samsung Yepp looked pretty good awhile back though
                 (no radio).
                 \_ Doesn't the iriver have a radio?  Nice features, but
                    not too great physical interface (the buttons feel
                    weird and cheap.)  -John
                    \_ Most (all?) of the iriver players do FM.  Only the
                       CD-MP3 or smaller flash players would be in OP's price
                       range.  I like the interface on the hard drive player,
                       but not so much on their flash player (space limitation)
           \_ i dont' know.  i didn't find ipod's interface particulaly
              intuitive.
              \_ There's always one...
                 \_ The emphasis on ID3 tag-based navigation bugged me -!pp

10/8    Dear physics/EE experts. If I put electricity in motors, they
        turn. But if I turn motors, will they generate electricity?
        \_ How do you think electric power plants work?
        How efficient could they do that? The other question is,
        the Toyota Prius has a regenerative brake. How much more
        components did they add to make that happen (how many more
        motors, circuitry, coils, etc), and how efficient is the
        regenerative brake? In another word, suppose you put in
        100X 'energy' into the car to make it go ye fast, then you
        utilize the regenerative brake, what percentage of 100X do
        you get back?
        \_ http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/08/pf/autos/mileage/index.htm?cnn=yes
           \- a neat demo i would think you would see in high school
              physics is to put a coil at the end of a pendulum and swing
              it through a magnetic field ... when the coil is open, the
              pendulum behaves normally and continues to swing back and
              forth, but when the coil is closed, the potential energy
              becomes kinetic energeny and then raher than being converted
              back to PE, becomes electrical energy and the velocity of
              the pendulum drops. it is pretty dramatic with an efficient
              coil. ok tnx.
              \_ i have thought of the same thing while banging yermom
              \_ a *really* dramatic demo in a similar vein is to drop one
                 of those super-strong rare earth magnets down a copper tube.
                 the currents induced in the tube create enough field to make
                 the magnet take tens of seconds to drop through a few
                 feet of tube.  cooling the tube with liquid nitrogen makes
                 it even more dramatic.
                 \_ A brilliant read on the matter:
                    http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm
                    \_ thanks!
        \_ I wonder why subway trains don't use regenerative motors.  I'd think
           we don't even need to add batteries to the train.  Just make it pump
           the electricity back to the powerlines such that another train
           accelerating somewhere along the same powerlines can use that
           energy.
           \_ BART does, at least in theory.
        \_ it really depends on the motor design. If it has no permanent
            magnets and relies on current to generate the magnetic fields it
            uses to provide motive force, turning a 'dead' motor to generate
            current won't do anything at all.  Also the brushes in the motor
            would need different timing settings to run as a generator than
            they do as a motor.

10/10   http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/09eo1
        The EO-1 funding bill is passed.  The system goes on-line October 8th,
        2004.  Human decisions are removed from strategic defense.  EO-1 begins
        to learn, at a geometric rate.  It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m.
        eastern time, August 29.  In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
        \_ And the race to program the first self-aware worm is ON!

10/10   RIP Christopher Reeve.  http://www.drudgereport.com
        \_ Does anyone else feel dirty getting this from http://drudgereport.com?
           It's like hearing about it from Joan Rivers.
           \_ Yeah, but it has quite literally just been released.  I saw
              a ticker on ABC to this effect.  Damn.
           \_ No.
           \_ You feel 'dirty' getting news from a link re-posting service?
              Whatever....
        \_ Stem cell research might have saved his life.
           \_ Yeah.  As it is, it's probably better this way for him and
              others in the same position.  Admirable guy.  -John
           \_ Thank you for politicizing a celebrity's death.  Thanks a lot.
              \_ He was very outspoken and political on this subject.  I doubt
                 he would mind this.  If it gets people atually talking about
                 it..
           \_ *LAUGH*  Yes, if only we had spent a few billions on stem cell
              research in the last 3 years, Reeves might be alive today!
              Hahahahahhaa, what a crock.  Yes, they were on the cutting edge
              of useful real world success when the evil Bush stopped the
              Federal funding of harvesting the unborn.   Riiiiight.
              \_ So you're aware that the stem cell lines were coming from
                 extra embryos left over from artificial insemination?  That
                 such embryos would be thrown out anyway?
                 \_ So you're aware that private research is totally unimpeded,
                    and that all Bush did was not spend federal funds on new
            lines, right?  And why hadn't those embryos been thrown out?
            \_ Ending federal funding is as good as killing the research
                       dead.
                       \_ If there was something there then it would be very
                          profitable for private companies to spend their own
                          money on it.  They spend billions on new drugs.
                                \_ Corporations are risk averse and slow to
                                   change.  Most really pioneering research
                                   remains solely funded by the gov't.  Drug
                                   research is a rare exception.
                          They spend billions on new drugs.
                          They can spend billions on something with an even
                          high profit margin *if* there was something to it.
                          \_ Sure, just like they spent billions developing
                             the ARPANET before it was profitable. And just
                             like they developed the transistor as a spinoff
                             from the Apollo program, leading to the modern
                             computer.
                             \_ Yes and there's still Federal money going into
                                this.  They simply can't butcher more unborn
                                for the vague hope something will come of it.
                                Not with Federal money.
                                \_ SINCE YOU ARE NOT LISTENING, MAYBE YELLING
                                   WILL HELP.  THE STEM CELL LINES COME FROM
                                   EMBRYOS OTHERWISE USED FOR ARTIFICIAL
                                   INSEMINATION.  NOT FROM ABORTIONS.  IF
                                   YOU CAN'T SEE THE DIFFERENCE, YOU ARE BLIND.
        \_ Here it is from Yahoo news:
           http://csua.org/u/9en
        \_ Rest in peace, Superman.  *salute* -- ilyas
        \_ Aye, R.I.P..  Superman lives in us.  -- alice
        \_ movies actually used to be good.  what happened?

10/10   Anyone know where I might be able to find out approximately how much
        real estate LOAN agents make per transaction versus real estate in the
        East and South Bay?  From what I know, most real estate agents make 50%
        to 80% of 1.5% of the total transaction.  How about real estate LOAN
        agents?  I know they get about 0.25% to 2% of the total loan amount.  I
        am interested in knowing if the real estate LOAN agents also add other
        bogus charges, jack up the interest rates, etc. to make more money.
        And, how much of that total amount do they get from their bosses.
        \_ I do know that they make most of their money from buying loans
           at "wholesale" and reselling them at "retail." The loan disclosure
           docs tell you what they paid for the loan. In my first home
           purchase, they bought the loan at 5.9% and resold it at 6.0%
           to me, which meant that they made about 1.4% on my loan. It
           was an owner operated business, so I assume they got all of it.
           On my refi, I was not in such a rush, so I was able to negotiate
           it down to 3/4 of a point, or .75%. In this case, the guy worked
           for a big company, so I have no idea how much of it he made. And
           yes, they will try and charge you more if you let them. In my
           first loan, they tried to charge me 6.5%, claiming various bogus
           reasons for such a high rate. So make sure you know what the
           market rate is for you loan before you go in to negotiate. They
           are called mortgage brokers, btw, not loan agents. Calling them
           by the wrong name is confusing.