4/13    What's up with this?!
        FreePSB (soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU) (ttypl)
        \_ yeah, now it says MacOS

4/12    Is Laitron Computers worth going to?
        \_ they  never keep more than bare minimum in
           stock. Sales ppl are a little rude too.
           \_ Agreed, but I've shopped there anyway, because they have
              good prices and that's what I was most interested in. --dim
              \_ Exactly. That's the only reason Fry's is so big.
                \_ One of the guys is rude, the black dude is cool tho.
                \_ #t, there's a manager type who pulled bait-n-switch on
                   me when I tried to get a price-match.  But the black guy
                   is pretty cool, helpful and friendly. - tpc
              \_ Actually, I've found Hi-Tech has better prices on quite
                 a few items. Check both places before going to Laitron.
                \_ http://www.pricewatch.com

4/12    My gf's birthday is coming up and I want to do the most
        romantic thing ever done for her.  Ideas anyone?
        \_ give her... "the greatest love act of all."
        \_ Have dinner (McDonalds) at the CSUA lounge.
            \_THE GUY SAID ROMANTIC!! so make sure you super-size...
        \_ Watch a porno together and then you and some friend gang bang her
        \_ The Fully Monty!
        \_ Take her to Jerry Springer show!
        \_ One night with me, it doesn't get more romantic...
                \-well, i dont think there is a very large kernel of
        stuff that are "universally" considered romanitc buy women. except
        diamonds, due to the DeBeers conspiracy. anyway, i think you have
        to ask a more pointed question like "know a good place for a picnic"
        know a good restaurant in SF" etc. --psb, your romance counselor.
        \_ There are like websites and stuff. Search for romantic idea
                                                        -muchandr
        \_ Asking for romantic advice on the motd?  MUHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!  But
           seriously, I'd suggest something involving food and a getaway.
           Mostly depending on your budget.  EG, cheap:  A nice picnic
           somewhere around the area (I personally like the Sonoma coastline.)
           Somewhat more expensive:  A fancy, but not too fancy resteraunt.
           Really fancy:  Some quaint little bed & breakfast combined with
           a really fancy resteraunt.

4/12    anyone have a used computer desk they want to sell?  ideally i'm looking
        for something with several drawers and a shelf on the top.    -lila

4/12  Federal:
      http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/forms_pubs/forms.html
      California:
      http://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/97_forms/index.asp
      \_ Feed ME! -da guberment

4/12    Okay ... who kidnapped PSB?

4/12    They're arresting Berkeley Grads!
        http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9804/11/AP001077.ap.html
        \_ Awww, didnt know DanH graduated.
        \_ I read this, didn't see anything about Berkeley grads.

4/12    How do you get a black box for cable? - reeser
        \_ Call TCI.
                \_An illegal one, I mean.  For illegal purposes too.
                        \_ You want to publically admit you're breaking the
                                law?  Brilliant.
        \_ You can buy one through mail order.  It is legal to
           sell such a machine, since the whole premise is that you
           only use it once you already have cable.  You are breaking
           the law (just like illegally copying software) otherwise.
        \_ Check out the back of a pseudo-geek magazine, like Popular Science
           or Popular Mechanics, for ads.  (And I'm sure that you can find
           ads from places that sell cable decoders on the Web, too . . . )
           \_ what about for DSS?
              \_ DSS piracy is done by way of "test cards" which are
                 programmable devices that spoof a valid DSS security card.
                 Not as legal as a pirate cable box, unless you're in Canada.
                 Also, DirecTV has a nasty habit of doing ECMs that often
                 render the cards useless.
        \_ probly cheaper just to bribe the cable installer ...
        \_ I bought a Disney unscrambler (the solonoid thingies) from a
           cable installer. He was very cool about it.

4/11    Sandia said a few days ago that they think they can get high-yield
        nuclear fusion in a bit over a decade.  Does anyone believe them or
        have more information?  If it's true, it would be a Good Thing.
        \_  I'd love to read this.  Give me a ref?  I'll follow up
            with my opinion on it...  --PeterM
                \_ http://www.sandia.gov/media/z.htm
                \_ It is capital Z, yet htm extension. Weird.   -muchandr
                \-i was talking about commercial fusion power with a friend
        of the family who works on fusion at LLL maybe 1.5 yrs ago, and he
        said the press that implied it was "right around the corner, early
        21st cent" were way off. "not in this decade". --psb
        \_ Check out latest issue of Discover.  There's a proposal of using
           proton-boron reaction instead of conventional deuterium.  -- cm1ee
           \_ Saw the origional of that in Science a few months ago.  Mostly
                an "on paper" proposal.  Nothing much more than that.

4/11    For a project, I need to convert a .bmp into a 2D array of numbers
        that represent each color. For example, say I have a 20x20 pixel
        .bmp with 256 colors. I need a 20x20 array holding values from 0
        (white) to 256 (black). Can anyone point me in the right
        direction? Any help would be greatly appreciated. -jkwan
        \_ Assuming you want to automate this (do it tons of times non-
           interactively, I'd suggest:  use ImageMagick (ick) to convert
           them to .xpm, which is acii format roughly how you describe,
           but with it's colormap specified first.  You could then do some
           perl on that to get what you want --dbushong
        \_ I suggest you go and get information on bmp file format.  There are
           already c libraries that reads bmp file header and data for on
           the internet.  I have a game book that came with a CD rom with all
           bmp classes.  So, I assume you get it from the internet.

4/13    Everyone go see PETTICOAT PLANET

4/13    Is there really an e-mail address which acts like /dev/null?  Thanks.
        \_ no
        \_ your@mom.com
        \_ hostmaster@internic.net
        \_ if you look in /etc/aliases you might fine the line
           nobody: /dev/null
           \_ but thats only on soda, not a general convention
           \_ It's about as much as general convention as 'postmaster' is.