1/25    it's its
        its == ownership
        it's == it is
        \_ how about the ice cream form?
        \_ Another way to remember: his, hers, its
        \_ They're vs their just kills me.  I want to destroy something every
           time I see some spawn crawl from the genetic cesspool of life
           screwing this one up consistently.
        \_ "Anyways".  The word is "anyway" damnit!  You sound like a friggin
           hick when you say "anyways"!

1/25    Wow, the "can tell it was emacs" thread disappeared.  I guess
        our mystery man didn't really know what he was talking about.
        \_ Idiot.  It's still there with the answer included.  You are a
           moron.

1/25    16-year-old Norwegian DeCSS author Jon Johansen arrested and
        computer equipment confiscated for intellectual property violations.
        "The movie companies OWN the Law!"

1/25    Anyone seen Gary Bauer?  What's up with the bizarre eye brows?  Is
        GB human?  Alien?  Some other branch of humanity?  A cross breed of
        some sort?  This disturbs me greatly.
                \- gary bauer, as i have been saying for months, is clearly
                a reanimated ventriloquists dummy. --psb
                \_ My God!  You're right!  That's exactly it!  No wonder I
                   found it so troubling.  He's an imitation of a real person!
                   Who is pulling the strings?
        \_ Just one of the many non-humans running for President this year.
           Al Gore isn't human, either -- he's an "audio-animatronic" human
                \- that's "Algor" assistant to dr. clintonstein. --psb
           facsimile built by Disney "imagineers" out of scrap parts from
           the "Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln" attraction at Disneyland.
           The jury's still out on Steve Forbes -- he may be non-human,
           or he may just be incredibly geeky.  We need a REAL MAN (or
           woman) to vote for!
                \_ you're not amusing, nweaver.  -tom
                   \_ I'm not nweaver, but I am simultaneously chagrined
                      and insulted.  -- !nweaver
                \_ Is psb a citizen?

1/25    http://x31.deja.com/getdoc.xp?AN=577516159&fmt=text: Wow, there are
        people like Trevor elsewhere in the world, too.
        \_ Trevor is a dime-a-dozen asshole.  The problem is he's a Cal
           asshole so some of us have to deal with this particular asshole
           at times.

1/26    Battlestar Gallactica >> Star Trek Voyager

1/26    Does anyone have a copy of the piolet episode of "The Six Million
        Dollar Man"?  It was never released on the video, but I'm sure there
        are copies from the TV floating out there.  Please Email me.  Thanks!
                                                        -sofia

1/25    Stupid national airports thread deleted as I have been seeing it since
        a year ago and it is already getting boring
        \_ fuck you Heuwey Long.
        \_ fuck you Jean McGrath.

12/26   CS 186 (Database System) needs a reader.  Contact Sirish
        Chandrasekaran, sirish@cs.berkeley.edu if interested.  This is a great
        opportunity to make some money, and a worthwhile experience if you
        would like to TA any CS classes in the future.

1/26    Some friends of mine are having problems with memory
        management in Java.  Is there a way you can force
        garbage collection in Java?  Alternatively, is their
        a way you can do memory allocation similiar to C/C++
        where you can explictly allocate and deallocate stuff
        so that you aren't at the mercy of the garbage collector?
         \_ java 1.1: System.gc(); System.runFinalization;
                in that order, to force garbage collection and
                call all object finalize() methods.
         \_ Does that actually FORCE garbage collection, or does
            the system just treat it as a suggestion?  Thanks.
            \_ depends on the java VM.  The ones I've worked with
               actaully do a GC when you ask for one, but this
               is not required by the language spec. - seidl
         \_ Are you sure the problems are caused because the VM isn't
            doing a gc? You could have objects which you think are dead,
            but are still referenced and therefore not up for GC. You'll
            need to use some tools to figure out.
            Also, the VM you are using is important. Some Java VMs out there
            use conservative gc, in fact I think all the Sun VMs before
            HotSpot (which has an exact garbage collector) used conservative
            gc. With conservative gc's, it's possible to have objects which
            are collectable, but the garbage collector isn't *sure* they are
            collectable, so to be safe it doesn't collect them (this can not
            happen with an exact collector).
            \_ Dude, if garbage collection is so complicated and delicate,
               what the heck is the point?  If I'm going to worry about
               memory management with GC, why not just use new and delete?
               New and delete are nice and simple and you don't have to
               worry about all this weirdness;  you just clean up after
               after yourself.
               \_ Implementation of GC is complicated and delicate, but
                  the use of a GC'd runtime system isn't. Or at least,
                  it shouldn't be -- the problem here is that the people
                  who originally designed an implemented Java are morons
                  (if you need any more proof, look at java.util.Date).
                  When using any reasonable garbage collector (like one
                  in any Smalltalk or the Java HotSpot), you just make new
                  objects and the garbage collector will reclaim when they
                  can no longer be used.
                  Now, you could make a programming error where something
                  you think should no longer be useable still is, but
                  if you have good programming habits, that shouldn't happen
                  very often. Far less often than memory leaks with malloc,
                  free.
         \_ Also, if you set the variables' value to null I believe it will
            be marked for garbage collection.  Of course, this won't _force_
            gc.
            \_  This is a myth -- nulling vars does not help gc. Either
                you need
                the objects in those vars, in which case they should not be
                up for gc and they should not be null (of course); or you
                don't need them and you don't need the class holding on to
                those variables, so the root class should be up for gc and
                its ivars should be up for gc also.
                I guess the above is not true if you have a class that is
                long lived but puts objects that it only needs for a short
                time into an variables, but that *probably* is a bad design.
        \_ Perl has great GC mechanism, is easier to program (little error
                                \_ No.  The way you wrote it, either meaning
                                   was valid in English.  See you at the end
                                   of English 1A.  Do not pass Go.
           catching code required), is portable, and has BETTER GUI designer
           (Perl/Tk). It is also OO (Perl5). GO PERL!
                                  \_ Perl OO is about as intuitive as IRS tax
                                     forms.  It is incredibly awkward as well.
                                        \_ Perl is easy for people with a unix
                                           background.  We're the target
                                           audience.  Sorry if that's not you.
              What an insightful comment.  Where did I say that I don't _/
              have a unix background?  I didn't?  Then why did you make such an
              inane statement?  Look again:  Perl is a great language for many
              things, but it's impl of OO sucks.
                \_ Thought you were talking about Perl as a whole, not Perl OO
                   in the second line.
                   \_ Please pay attention.  Thank you for playing.
                      \_ No.  The way you wrote it, either meaning was valid in
                         English.  See you at the end of English 1A.  Do not
                         pass Go.
                         \_ Bzzz! Try again.  'It' refers to 'Perl OO' not to
                            Perl.
                            \_ Duh.  That was obviously your intended meaning
                               looking back with your able assistance to parse
                               your questionable grammar, but it is not the
                               only valid interpretation of what you said.  You
                               are a dunce and a nincompoop.  You're not quite
                               at the self-centered low-grade moron level but
                               keep trying and you'll make it soon enough.
                               \_ What part of "It...as well" doesn't
                                  obviously refer to Perl OO.
                                  \_ "It" can refer to either Perl or Perl OO
                                     as used.  Consult HS English teacher.
                                     \_ "My car door is poorly implemented.  It
                                        is awkward to use as well."  Do you
                                        honestly mean that I could be talking
                                        about the car or the car door?  Moron.
                                        \_ Geeks arguing about grammar arcana
                                           are always so *cute* . . . I just
                                           want to reach out and give the both
                                           of you one great big *hug*!
                                        \_ thread snipped. here you go:
                                           alt.usage.english
           \_ Perl GC doesn't catch circular structures because it uses
              reference count GC.
           \_ LISP! LISP! LISP IS THE STANDARD!  Garbage collection language.
        \_ PERL IS THE BEST, JAVA SUCKS!!!!!                    -sys adm
           \_ JAVA IS THE BEST, PERL SUCKS!!!!!                   -god
              \_ I don't think god reads the motd.
                 \_ *pshaw* Since when did you have to read the motd to
                    post to it?

1/26    Battlestar Gallactica >> Star Trek Voyager
        \ Two new BG projects. One new TV series with most of the
         old crew, except Greene (dead) and Benedict (dont know why)
         And a IMAX movie! Involving Commander Cain (originally played by
         the late lloyd Bridges) with an entirely new cast
        \_ Which one was Benedict?  Memory is fading fast....
                \_ Face on A-Team (starbuck i think)
                   \_ Yup. the pilot who couldnt decide if he loved Casiopia
        \_ He probably said, "I'm the STAR! I'll ALWAYS be the start! and
                      \_ "And what kind of crime is starBUCKING, I'd like
                          to know?"
        \_ He probably said, "I'm the STAR! I'll ALWAYS be the star! and
            I want 10 million dollars, dammit!"

1/25    only quality software is used in our nations airports
        http://207.240.121.247/airport.jpg

1/26    Holly, 1987 unit 2 HC, where are you now?  -longing again for Holly
        \_ Any pics?
                \_ Sorry.  Pre-scanner days.  No pics.
                   \_ But you can scan now old pics on paper or film from the
                      back then, if you have any.
                        \_ Nope.  Didn't have pics then. Wondering though....