8/13    Hey, what the hell's up with cs 150 not letting us in?  There's
        plenty of room.
        \_ Prereq's are being even more strictly enforced.  No non-majors
                allowed under any circumstances.

8/13    If I'm user root on a machine how do I monitor what one of my user
        is typing/doing?
        \_  Now, why would you want to do a thing like that?
          \_ to monitor illegal activity
        \_ search for ttywatcher

8/12    I recently started using procmail but was wondering if there are any
        email programs that will tell you when you have new mail in a
        particular folder. Pine doesn't seem to cut it.
        \_ newmail to see it as it arrives, frm to see what's new since you
                 read last
           \_ newmail will only help if you're already logged on. frm won't
              help you if you've filed your goods.
                \_ frm will help you if you know how to use it.
        \_ 'folders' works great, if you use MH.  If you don't use MH,
                you should.

8/12    I have a PII and I've got Linux running on it.  I have
        6G hard drive space and I'm considering repartitioning
        and then installing Win95/98 on it along with Linux,
        but after reading usenet posts on it, have been a bit
        wary.  It doesn't look very pretty.  My question for
        Sodans:  Have you successfully installed both on your
        computer?  If so, how did you set your computer to boot?
        Thanks...
        \_ Barring availability of a program like Partition Magic or
           System Commander, the best way I've found is to install
           Windows 95 first and then install Linux. Tell Linux you
           want to boot from a floppy. It's not much slower and it'll
           save you grief if you need to reinstall Windows, because
           Windows will mess with your MBR. I do this with Redhat and
           Windows 95 OSR2 all the time. Forget lilo. --dim
           \_ Ugh, boot disks are a pain in the ass.  I've successfully
              installed an unistalled linux and lilo with great ease.  To
              get rid of any history of linux+lilo just restore your
              original partition with fips and run fdisk /MBR which will
              retore you master boot record to its original state.  Hell,
              you might like linux so much that you'll get rid of win95
              all together. :-)
              \_ You just keep the boot disk in the drive all the time.
                 Not a big deal. The problem is not uninstalling Linux,
                 but reinstalling Windows. It will hose the MBR and lilo
                 in its march towards world domination! --dim
        \_ Many people who dual boot install ms windows first and then use
           a drive partitioner like Partition Magic or fips (fips15c comes
           with many linux distributions) to chop the drive.  Don't forget
           to defrag you drive first.  I wouldn't worry too much because
           you can always undo this.  If you have any valuable data backup
           it up first (ie. old papers and projects) onto some mass
           storage device.  If you have a new computer you probably have
           FAT32 which I hear is a pain in this ass.  You'd better check
           up on that.  There are many ways to dual boot but the best way
           is linux loader (lilo).  To get rid of it (and the linux OS)
           type fdisk /MBR from the dos prompt
           \_ oh yeah, if you're installing from the RH distribution the
              installation software will automatically detect the other
              OS's partition and set lilo to dual boot both OS's.  It
              selects linux as the default boot and gives you about 10
              seconds to decide at startup.  To change the lilo settings
              edit the /etc/lilo.conf file and invoke /sbin/lilo.  You
              should also do this after recompiling your kernel.
        \_ Dual booting works fine; you just have to understand what you
           are doing.  LILO rules; I once used it to setup 4 OS's on the
           same computer, including both SCO and Interactive Unix which
           used the same partition id and refused to coexist (had to create
           hand-edited MBRs...).  Do the following:
           - back up current Linux stuff.
           - boot from a DOS 7.0 floppy, blow away Linux partition, create
             a Primary partiton (3G or something) -- then you don't have
             to resize it later.
           - install DOS 7.0.
           - install Linux, creating appropriate partitions.
           - install LILO on Linux root partition; this doesn't affect MBR,
             which M$ OS's have a habit of randomly overwriting.
           - mark Linux partition "active" with either DOS or Linux fdisk.
        \_ NOOO!  Don't put win95 on your PC!  It will permanently crash it!
        \_ NOOO!  Don't put linux on your PC!  It will permanently crash it!

8/12    Apparently you can now patent math formuls.
        http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/archives/1998/980811.atc.html
        - seidl

8/12    I find quakes to be very good alarm clocks. If only I could
        schedule them for 7am everyday.
        \_ Same here.  I could never wake up around 7am until today.
           \_ how on earth does a tiny earthquake wake you up?!
                \_ Oh...this "tiny" earthquake is the one that created big
                   crack on hwy 101 this morning?
                \_ It was pretty good quake.  It set off some of the car alarms
                   on my street.
                   \_ was it felt in berkeley at all?
                   \_ well, a passing Harley will set some car
                        alarms off too...
        \_ What quake?  --didn't feel a thing
          \_ How about 5.4 quake hitting south B.A.?
          \_ I didn't either.  What area was it hitting?
                \_ check out http://www.sjmercury.com for details.  Front
                   page headline.

8/12    Jobs with KevinM: <DEAD>www-inst/~iesg/jobs.html<DEAD>
        \ Kevin Mitnick is in charge now??????????
                \ Wait till Tom Holub becomes in charge.

8/11    Is there a way to check to see a certain function is defined
        in JavaScript?  Thanks.
        \_ If hasClue($programmer) return true else useRealLanguage();
           \_   Personally, I find embedding "Real" languages into HTML
                just the type of invaluble experiment in futility that one would
                expect suggested from JUST ANOTHER ASSHOLE LOSER PREACHING HIS
                IMPOTENT CASE BECAUSE IT MAKES HIM FEEL LIKE A BIG MAN TO WAVE
                AROUND HIS ROMANTIC SENSE OF HIS OWN INTELLIGENCE IN
                OVERCOMPENSATION OF HIS OWN PATHETIC TINY NEEDLEDICK.
                        - my name is (fucker)
                        \_ fucker, will you marry me?
                           \_ You're too late. Get in line. -(fucker)
                        \_ Cool.  Caught you.  --trolling for flames
        \_ The question was not asking for an alternative.  If you
           don't know the answer, why bother posting?
                \_ Exactly.  You don't know the answer so why bother posting?

8/11    Has anyone had any experience with any of the upper div math
        classes (in particular 113 and 125A)?  What would one recommend to
        fullfill the upper div math requirement?
        \_ Math 110 (Linear Algebra) is pretty easy. Math 113 is only a little
           more difficult, but a lot less useful for a CS type. --dim
           \_ Agreed... I was a CS-Math double-major and I use 110 and 113 a
              lot more than any of the other upper div math courses.  Under no
              circumstances should you take 104.  128A is useful if you
              expect to do a lot of numeric programming.  -mogul
              \_ 128A has to be the worst math class ever. sooo boring.
               \_I thought 128a was ok last semester with the Icelandic
                 Prof. Adalsteisson, gave us libs and stuff for C/C++.
                 Demmel is teaching it in the fall
                 and I recommend taking it with him.  Avoid Rieffel,
                 boring, and stupid fortran.
        \_ I'm not a math person, but my math friends always said 113 was a
           piece of cake and 110 was a really hard weeder course.  YMMV.
        \_ 110 is a more theoretical bend on what was taught to you in
           54/50A/whatever.  If you didn't do well in lower division,
           you'll choke in 110.  Of course, for the psychotics who want
           to know where integrals come from, there's always 104.  It's
           a worthwhile course in that it gives you a broader picture of
           How Things Work, though I doubt you'll use much of the stuff
           in CS.  Take it anyway. :-)  -- tmonroe
           \_ 104 has been relatively easy this summer. Easier than
              Math 55 because you don't have to worry about "competition".
        \_Well gosh, I actually majored in math, and found them all to be
          pretty useful classes.  104 is possibly the hardest class at Cal.
          I definitely would not take it just to fulfill a one course req.
          I thought 110 was very easy, and 113 was not that hard if you were
          willing to stretch your mind in different directions.  128A was
          a lot of work, and the math content was kind of low.  Probably good
          for the CS tie-in.  Are those your only choices, or could you take
          like mathematical logic, or set theory, either of which would be
          much more applicable to CS?  Or even 170, which they didn't offer when
          I was there.  Grrr.  --cody
        \_ Take 104 if you really want to learn math.  Otherwise,
           110 or 113, if you just want to fulfill a requirement.
        \_ Math 121a and Math 121b were two of the best classes I took
           at Cal.  I had professor Podles, but some of my friends who
           took these classes with professor Neu also enjoyed them very much.
           I also took Math 104 which I think is pretty useless.  Even though
           Math 104 is interesting and you learn some fancy words like
           "compact", the only benefit I recieved was learning how to
           write a proof (e.g. I leaned what an upside down A and a backword
           E mean).  Feel free to email me if you would like to read
           more of my rant on why Math 121a and Math 121b are FAR superior
           to math 104, 110, 113, 185 and most others with the possible
           exception of Math 128a/b or the applied math course (I don't
           remember the course number for the applied math course).
           By the way I got an EE/CS degree with a minor in physics,
           but I am working as a software engineer now. -emin
                \_ Which 12 step program did you attend?
        \_ You used to be able to satisfy the L&S upper div math requirement
           with stats 134, which was a basic intro to probability
           and statistical methods. not a bad thing if you're not into
           most mathematicians' math and you feel a little too focused
           towards discrete math and logics in CS --karlcz

8/11    This is a question for a friend. Does academic probation show up
        anywhere on your records (especially transcript)? Can anyone
        (eg. companies) easily find out if you have been on AP or not?
        \_ Yes, it does, so if they have your transcript, yes, they can.
        \_ I don't think it does. However, the rotten grades that got you
           there will be so what's the difference? --dim
           \_ It does (like I just said in the response above, gee), trust
              me.  I was on AP for one semester, and the fact that I had
              entered/left AP was clearly noted on my official transcript,
              just below my grades for the semester -- Someone Who's Been There
              \_ I have seen the transcript of someone who was on AP (and
                 who also withdrew) and only the withdrawal was evident.
                 However, it was an "unofficial" transcript. Does that
                 matter? Also, like I said, the grades aren't going
                 anywhere so what difference does it make really? --dim
        \_ I think the actual quote is "Dismissed `date`" or something
           like that.
                \_ Most people on AP aren't dismissed - only the losers,
                   but AP shows up on your official UCB transcript either way.
        \_ YES! YES IT DOES! SHUT UP! IT SHOWS UP! ITS THERE! STOP! YES! YES!
           IS THAT PERFECTLY CLEAR NOW?!  YES BEING ON AP SHOWS ON YOUR
           OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT! NOW STOP IT!
           \_ So you are sure it shows up. I am confused.
           \_ No more coffee for this person.
        \_ Do companies actually want to see your transcript? I have never
           heard of such a thing, though some want your GPA.
           \_ I've been asked for my GPA.  Good sign you may not want to work
              there.
           \_ A couple big companies have asked for mine.
           \_ hell, i've seen some ask for SAT scores.
           \_ Apologies for the formatting below... -mogul
           \_ If they do, it's an indication that they don't have a clue what
              kind of person they are looking for.  GPA is not a measurement of
              success in the work place.
              \_ Im sorry, but there *is* a correlation.  It's not perfect,
                 but it is important enough to ask for.  I know there are
                 alot of "sucessful" programmers or whatever who flunked
                 out/dropped out of school, but as a first screen, you probably
                 want to know about grades.   I mean we are talking about
                 being a corporate stooge, so what do you expect them to
                 ask for : ``Only apply if you are a motivated self-starter?''
                 Oh, they do that too. Sorry.
                \_ Isn't the purpose of having an interview to find such
                   information about person.  I took an interview course and
                   it taught various techniques to find out certain quality
                   of a person.
                        \_ Oh. I thought the purpose to check out that chick.
                \_ Yes, you're sorry.  Why bother interviewing if they're only
                   collecting information you could have emailed or told a
                   secretary over the phone?  There is no correlation.  GPA is
                   not important.  As a first screen, you'll miss out on the
                   true talent who spent their time in front of a computer
                   instead of kissing BH's fat ass, eating potstickers.  There
                   _is_ a direct correlation between ass kissing, potsticker
                   eating and your GPA, but this says absolutely nothing about
                   your potential contribution to an employer.

Boredcast Message from 'aaron': Tue Oct 17 00:11:43 1995

get this
a company i sent mail to replied wanting the answers to two questions:
"what are you doing now? graduated? vacation?" and the kicker -
"what was your GPA?"

i have half a mind to reply only with "it's 3.2, but we have a saying
in computer science here at cal: 'if they want to know your GPA, you
don't want to work for them.'"

        \_ Since you obviously don't want to work for them, you might as well.

8/11    If you took IDS 113 from Prof Woodson, check out today's
        Daily Cal ( http://www.dailycal.org )
        \_ the article said ed113
        \_ I'm in ed113, it's ed133.
                \_ It *WAS* IDS 113 previous semesters.  People in Ed113
                   this summer should have already known, hence "took IDS 113",
                   which a bunch of CSUA'ers (tabloyd, nevman, etc.) did a
                   while ago.

8/13    Ouch !  <DEAD>209.1.31.51/98/7/27/index2.htm<DEAD>

8/13 Id like to summarize the motd
   1) insecure soda geeks backhandedly brag about their various
      perceived accomplishments.
   2) soda geeks with bad or nonexistent gpa's try to convince
      themselves and others that they are smart anyway, and correctly
      point out that in order to be a wage slave, an education probably
      doesn't matter anyway.
   3) various technical questions are identified to this asteric: *

   Feel free to re-insert the lift of this projection, but I think this
   adequately preserves the structure of the original conversation.
        \_ In the field of CS, education doesn't mean a whole lot.  I know
           a lot people with sub 3.0 GPA making $75k-$100K/yr with less
           than 3 years in the workplace.  I have 3.5 and I haven't made
           anywhere close to that.
        \_ Neither Gates nor Jobs has a college degree at all, and many
           other rich twinks.

  3) various technical questions are identified to this asteric: *
        \_ What in the hell is this supposed to mean?
           \_ I think that this entire MOTD entry was composed by some kind
              of AI experiment.  (See the sentence asking us to "re-insert
              the lift of this projection" just below.)  Taken in that vein,
              this is pretty respectable -- close enough to natural English
              that you might believe there's some kind of human behind the
              words.

   Feel free to re-insert the lift of this projection, but I think this
   adequately preserves the structure of the original conversation.
   \_ You forgot "various soda geeks indirectly display their lack of
      command of the English language"
      \_ Not to mention "self-inflated soda geeks attempt to show off
         their percieved dry wit and sense of humor"
        \_ Better yet:
           "the CSUA: various geeks huff and puff and strut their
           stuff, full of sound and fury and signifying pomp and
           tomfoolery." - tpc
           \_ It is a motd told by an idiot.
      \_ What about: "MOTD-killing soda champions leave behind only
         URL's to cheesier-than-YANK magazine websites?"

8/13    BASTARDS! YOU KILLED THE MOTD!
        \_ The only good motd is a dead motd.
        \_ What are you going to do about it?  Launch a Kenneth Starr
           investigation?
           \_ Actually, now that you mention it...
           \_ They're too weak.  It's the OSC for you, buddy.
           \_ When they investigate the independent council for
              for misappropriating funds, will that also be called
              the "Kenneth Starr Investigation"?
                \_ No funds were misappropriated.  URL please?
                   \_ Wow.  Not even 'I don't know of any funds
                      being misappropriated'.  So I take it you
                      have a personal accounting of his $40+ million
                      budget?  The council has been repeatedly
                      reprimanded for his allocation of investigative
                      resources to the Paula Jones case where he had
                      no authority to do so.  Furhter, the initial
                      wiretap of Linda Tripp was done BEFORE his
                      expansion of power to cover the Lewinsky matter.
                      How many other 'fishing Tripps' have we financed?
                      Who will watch the watchers?
                        \_ That isn't misappropriation.
           \_ Spend $40 million tax payer dollars on something that no one
              cares about.
              \_ And the "Kenneth Starr Investgation" is unique
                 because...?
              \_ How else can they make some entertainment news the news
                 headlines, everyday?
              \_ Not "no one".  Don't lump me into your shallow zero-morals
                 apathetic "the economy is fine so its ok" group of leftist
                 stupidity.  Even if this line of "reasoning" wasn't a total
                 cop out, it isn't Clinton who gave us a healthy economy. It
                 is the work of a Republican, Alan Greenspan.  No one has done
                 more harm to this country in recent years than AG; by keeping
                 the economy humming, he has allowed morons like you to slack
                 by without a blink at the worst President this country has had
                 since Johnson, or maybe earlier.  Please stop opening your
                 editor on the motd without your brain properly engaged.
                 \_ The Republicans invented the internet?
                    \_ Probably so, considering most of those guys who worked
                       at BBN back in the 1960s were probably crew-cut, white-
                       shirt-and-black-tie wearing guys (working on a DoD
                       funded project, to boot).  The long-haired, dope-
                       smoking WiR3D! pseudo-hippies came along later.
                 \_ Republican is the reason for our healthy economy?  Oh come
                    on.
                 \_ No body said that the economy is fine and therefore forgive
                    the President.  The point argued is the $40M spent just
                    to find out that the President lied about his extra
                    marital affair.  That is the President's personal life.
                    Who gives a shit what he does with his personal life.
                    \_ and besides which, we don't need to spend $40M to figure
                       that out.
                    \_ You're right.  I'd rather have the OIC investigate his
                       possible role in the transfer of sensitive missile
                       technology to the Chinese.  I *hope* that Clinton moves
                       to California after he leaves office, so he can be
                       easily within range of a new-and-improved Long March
                       missile, along with most of us.
                    \_ Hm.  He took a vow to be faithful.  He took an oath
                       as president.  If he doesn't care about the first
                       one, how can we trust him on the second?
                       \_ most every elected official has taken an oath to
                          their position.  Are you that fukn lame?  or do
                          you want to go through each of our senators,
                          representatives, governors, down to city council
                          members, and find out who's cheating on who?
                       \_ A President is human, you know.  If you are so
                          damn picky, then why don't you elect a computer
                          run the country.
                          \_ Bob Dole don't run against computer.
                       \_ Exactly.
                       \_ So what if the republicans can impeach the
                          President.  Al Gore will be next person to be
                          President if Clinton is impeached.  This would only
                          showcase Gore for the next Pres. election.
                 \_ Speaking of zero-morals, I'm a lot more worried about
                    the power being amassed by the special prosecutor than
                    the things he is trying to investigate.  Why do you idiot
                    right wing jingoists have to use 'morality' to mean
                    'our limited sexual mores' rather than the more general
                    term.  Anyone notice that the 5th amendment hasn't seemed
                    to apply to the President in all this?  Nor his staff.
                    Who's next?
                    \_ Uh oh... "they" are out to get us!  The sky is falling!
                       The 5th amendment is about the right to not self
                       incriminate yourself.  If he begged off on the 5th,
                       he's admitting guilt to the public, if not to the
                       courts.
                       \_ Actually, taking the 5th is not supposed to be
                          used in deciding guilt or innocence.  Also,
                          one of the principles of our judicial system
                          is that Grand Jury proceedings are not open
                          to the public.  This is supposed to protect
                          people from getting harassed by prosecutors
                          on fishing expidtions which never convict the
                          target.  Don't you think eroding the protections
                          of our judicial systems are a lot worse than
                          consensual sex between adults? -emin
                 \_ Just out of curiousity, why is Clinton the worst
                    president since Johnson? -emin
                        \_ or was that "worst president with a Johnson"?
                        \_ because he hasn't gone to war with anyone yet
                           \_ Uh, there hasn't been another Vietnam, but
                              Somalia?  Bosnia?  Attempted whoop-ass on
                              Saddam?
                              \_ You're comparing Somolia/Bosnia to
                                Vietnam?  Only the casualties was only a
                                fraction of that in Vietnam and they
                                weren't complete failures like the Nixon
                                war was.
                 \_And how many millions of dollars have gone to pay
                   the salaries of "White House Counsels" whose main job
                   is to stonewall and intimidate witnesses over the past
                   six years?