11/18   I need to implement a distributed locking library, and I was hoping
        someone out there could maybe point me to good reference materials
        (research papers, reliable websites, good texts, etc.)  Any help
        would be greatly appreciated! -mice
        \_ Masterlock is good enough for common household use, but you'll
           need to spend big bucks on cameras, dogs, and security personel if
           you want serious protection.
        \_ Masterlock.
           \_ But what if my little sister can't read (and yes, she's Asian)

11/17   phr33 k3v1n m1tn1k, phr33 sp33ch
        d00d u b3ttr b3w4r3 my 31337 und3rn3t g4ng!

11/16   do people here have opinions on or interest in quantum computing?
        I am a physicist working on quantum computing, and i'm wondering
        how many cs people are playing with the idea.  at this point,
        the practical stuff is all still physics, since no one has gotten more
        than a couple qubits to work, but surely there are more neat algorithms
        that could be found by cs people in adition to the factoring algorithm(
        shors algorithm) and the search algorithm(grovers algorithm.) you
        could argue that this is a waste of time, because we don't know if
        large scale quantum computation can be achieved, and to that I have
        no defense(except that we're working on it, and we have a good chance.)
        i'm just wondering.

11/16   whoever's trying to get net for Stebbins, if the house is still
        serious and you think it's still worth a shot e-mail me and I'll
        give ya my number and I can give ya some hopefully helpful advice.
        i used to live there. -jctwu

11/16   does anyone know about these stupid Merchant accounts - they won't take
        me off of their list... all emails looke like:
        <<< 7cyhep4@hotbot.com  (1,924) Low Cost Merchant Accounts >>>
        And the email header doesn't have my name as a recipient... any idea
        on how to block this spam?  Thanks!
        \_ I filter anything without my address in the headers into a spam
           folder.  Scan headers and wipe once a week.

11/17   Question about soda's load average numbers:

        $ uptime
        10:04AM  up 82 days, 16:40, 228 users, load averages: 17.10, 17.91, 16.42

        17.10? When the load gets to around 2+ on my Linux box, it is quite
        unresponsive. On Solaris its more like 3+. On soda its often 15+ and
        completely responsive. How does soda pull it off? Creative accounting?!?
        \_ Plus soda doesn't even have a ultra-fast processor (only one 200MHz
           K6). I guess that's the wonder of soda's lottery scheduling. --yuen
           \_ Must be, since I can barely push my 2 x 200 MHz UltraSparcs past
              4.
        \_ no, it's the wonder of "load average" not having meaning under
           soda's lottery scheduling system.  -tom
           \_ How do you figure out the load average under lottery scheduling?
              And is it possible to port to Linux?
              \_ the code is available. Go to it!
                 \_ Where is the code?
                \_ We should be running linux on soda!
                   \_ No we should be running a commerical OS like Solaris or
                      even ULTRIX ! HAHAHA
        \_ Comparing load averages between machines is pointless.  My dual
                processor SS20 running Solaris runs nicely with loads up to
                about 10-15 before it starts getting noticably slow.
                \_ What kind of procesors do you have? I have two ROSS 150s
                   and I have never been able to get the load up past 4 without
                   the system becoming unresponsive. It could be because I
                   only have 224 MB RAM....
                        \_ 75Mhz SuperSparc II's (1Mb cache) & 320 megs RAM
                           machine runs httpd & remote user logins - no X/CDE
        \_ I have seen load avgs go up to 150 a couple of weeks ago, this is
                weird.

11/17   /csua/tmp/soda.paradise.txt
        Fresh from the walls of 2nd floor labs; typed in for the benefit of
        CSUA expatriates
        \_ This was amusing and fits in quite well with the thread below about
           Berkeley not being about learning.  I wouldn't have put it in terms
           of gang banging, but what the hell, why not?
           \_ truth in advertising: unfortunately, the file has nothing
              to do with group sex.

11/18   My coworker, who i think is a complete ass, is telling us Critical Path
        is better than Sendmail.  The main reason?  B/c it "has a web interface"
        and Sendmail doesn't.  Which is better?  Are there only two primary
        choices these days for corporate mail?
        \_ You coworker is an ass.  Run a fucking mail server.  What
           admininstration?  I touch my mail server about once a... uh.. never.
        \_ http://eGroups.com?
        \_ "web interface" == admin, client, or both?
        \_ mail on site (pay for admins, machines) or mail outsourced
           to CP.  Or if you really want to pay $$$ for a bunch of
           untrained MSCE monkeys, go with Exchange.
        \_ sendmail offers outsourced email? didn't know that.
           \_ They don't.  The facts would seem to support the assumption
              that your coworking is an ass, as he doesn't know the
              difference between a provider of outsourced email and
              a provider of email server software.
        \_ Setting up a sendmail email server isn't that hard.  Why pay anyone
           else on a monthly basis to do a big nothing job like mail admin?
           \_ Let's say you have 100 users and pay $5/mo/box to someone else to
              handle your email. That's $500/mo. How many sysadmins can you
              hire for $500/mo?
              \_ Sysadmins that only deal with  mail?  About $0.25 per
                 month.
        \_ Tell your coworker, that by his reasoning Yellow Cab makes better
                cars than BMW.  He's comparing apples to oranges, services to
                products.

11/17   Is there a picture of trevor buckingham somewhere that I can see?
        \_ how about one I can wipe my dick with?
        \_ He must be made up.  No one that self-centered and obnoxious could
           actually have lived long enough to get into Cal - his scrawny little
           neck would have been wrung long ago.

11/17   How come almost all of the dirs in /ftp/pub are now owned by root?  I
        can't put or delete files in the dir that I created a long time ago.
        \_ The permissions got reset by mistake a while back.  If you would
           like ownership of your directory back, mail root and we'll fix it.

11/17   Just curious. What is the difference between science and engineering?
        How come some schools offer BS in Computer Engineering, some offer
        BA in Computer Science, and some offer BS in Computer Science?
        \_ No difference, really.
        \_ semi-related postulate: "engineering" folks [EEs] take CS
           so that they can understand what they are building chips for.
           CS folks take EE classes so that they write better code.
           But CS folks shouldn't think they are chip designers, and
           EE people should not fool themselves thinking they can
           write decent code.
           \_ unless you're "The Natural"