4/7     Has anyone had positive experiences with a commercial web host
        that offers 10+ megs of storage and 10+ gigs of transfer/month?
        Don't want to run my own server but sick of paying $150/month.
        -wayne
        \_ I've done alright with <DEAD>hostpro.net<DEAD> (100MB storage for about
        $40 a month). Their web admin interface kind of sucks tho.

4/7     What do all these political parties at Cal stand for?
        So many parties: CalSERVE, some apple thing. getting confused.
        \_ aPPLE is an offshoot of Student Action, they split off because
           SA is putting up some guy nobody knows for President and they
           (aPPLE) doesn't feel he's paid his dues, and they also think
           that they picked him because he's an asian guy, and they think
           they can cause the 'Cal Asian Community' to vote in a block for
           him because he's president of one of the asian clubs.  To me,
           that seems as logical as them recruiting dans to run for ASUC
           President, and expecting all the techies to vote in a block for
           him.  As for what they stand for, Student Action is more campus
           spirit, money for student groups, etc.  while CalSERVE is more
           focused on minority issues.  That's what I've gleened anyways.
           In practice, they are all pretty much the same, and are at their
           best when they find something cool to throw their weight and money
           behind, like the new OCF computer lab. -jones
                \_ hey Devin, you should manipulate some party to say that
                   if they'll massively fund OCF and CSUA, it might encourage
                   its members to vote for them.
        \_ Different baffled facial expressions when you psychologically
           terrorize them during elections.  Gordie Mohr, where are you? -John
        \_ Like Devin said, they're all pretty much the same.  He neglected
           to mention that useful and cool projects that they throw their
           weight and money into are by far the exception.  Most of their
           time is spent in petty squabbles over non-issues because the parties
           encourage members to vote in blocks.  The motivation for the block
           voting goes something like this: "Party X is voting for pointless
           issue Y, and we hate party X so let's vote against it, and waste
           days (if not weeks) arguing over the issue." Examples of stupid
           issues include: should we change Oski or keep him the same, and
           how can we cover our asses from that Spitfire debacle.  When not
           basically wasting your time and funds via petty squabbles, the
           major ASUC political parties waste your time by playing Team
           Fortress on an OCF machine.  A quick rundown of the parties and
           their, generally self-serving interests:
           -Student Action: Probably the biggest behemoth, and easily the most
            politicized (i.e. most full of shit) party.  Devin's description
            is reasonably accurate except they tend to make flawed claims:
            (I don't know whether or not they've actually successfully pushed
            for increased student group funding, ask Herr Jones)
             - being responsible for Heller Lounge being open 24 hours:
               In actuality, this was due to the work of a non-student action
               Senator that quit the ASUC because he got fed up with party
               squabbling.
             - Fighting for 500 more beds in the Underhill Housing project.
               Last I checked, Underhill is still a parking lot.  This claim
               is both meaningless and impossible to substantiate since any
               housing built on Underhill won't be built until everyone
               currently attending Cal has graduated.
             - Registering over 7000 students to vote.  While this is certainly
               a good thing in terms of community service, it offers virtually
               no direct benefit to Berkeley students.  SA doesn't have a
               monopoly on registering students to vote.
           -Apple: As Devin said, a split off of SA.  It was formed by folks
            who were bitter that SA didn't slate them for executive positions.
            Being that Apple is essentially SA 2.0, there isn't much hope for
            them.  Also, they're prone to making bad allegories about changing
            the ASUC the way Apple Computer changed the world.  Listen to one
            of these and you'll see that Apple is very high on the BS-meter.
           -BECS (Berkeley Engineers and Cal Scientists): Note that a number
            of BECS' candidates aren't even in the sciences.  This year BECS
            is campaigning with SA and UNITE.  My guess is that SA is just
            using BECS for overflow since it would look bad if SA was running
            too many candidates.
           -UNITE (It probably doesn't s
           -UNITE (It probably doesn't stand for anything because I don't
            expect the greeks to be clever enough to cook up an acronym): The
            Greek party, also in cahoots with SA.  Probably being used by SA
            for overflow and to draw the Greek vote.  Not surprisingly, the
            Greeks tend to vote as a block.  (Kind of like the borg, only
            dumber, oh yeah, kind of like sheep).
           -CalServe: They tend to focus on minority issues, and make the
            claim that CalServe isn't very visible on campus because its
            members are busy working with their communities outside of
            Berkeley.  While this all very noble, there are two problems with
            it: a) They don't seem to have made much progress getting
            Affirmative Action reinstated. b) If they're spending so much time
            working with their communities off-campus, they're not really
            helping out Berkeley students.
           So that's the lot of them.  My suggestion is that if you want the
           ASUC to get anything useful done (i.e. to get the Suck out of the
           ASUC), don't vote for any members of the established political
           parties.  And don't buy the "We have experience as ASUC officials"
           scam either because when you look at what they actually did while
           gaining "experience", it doesn't amount to very much.
           -dans (Speaking as himself and in no way as an official of the CSUA)

4/6     In C, how do I get the offset of a field in a struct?  E.g.
                typedef struct {
                        char MS_foo;
                        int MS_bar;
                } MyStruct;
        I want to use the offset of MS_bar (which is 1) in compile-time.
                \_ It most likely isn't 1 on any modern architecture.
                   The compiler will pad it so the int starts on a 32-bit
                   boundary on almost all 32-bit machines.
        \_ ((MyStruct*)0)->MS_bar
           \_ don't you mean (int)(&((MyStruct*)0)->MS_bar) ? -ali
              \_ This works.  Thanks!
        \_ MyStruct crap;
           bar_offset = &(crap.MS_bar) - &crap;
        \_ You don't wanna go there.  This is machine specific stuff.  If you
           want to write portable code, there are lots of other ways to do
           what you want.
           \_ no, the ways outlined above are not machine dependent. what
              are you talking about? maybe there's some fine print in the
              standard that says the above won't work, but really, it works
              doing this is using C++ and using member objects.
              and you shouldn't be pedantic about it. another good way of
              doing this is using C++ and using member objects. -ali
              \_ Dude.  You don't know what you are talking about.  The
                 way in which variable sized members of a struct are
                 positioned within the struct are, and should be,
                 implementation specific according to the standard.  Shut
                 up and go away.  You know nothing.  Don't give advice here.
                 You are a fool.  Sign your name.
                 \_ ok, you go and underline for me in the above specified
                    code the machine specific stuff that is susceptible to
                    padding differences and data type size and reordering.
                    \_ Sure.  The above data structure has a character
                       (generally 8 bits), followed by an int (generally
                       16 or 32 bits).  Depending on how the memory on the
                       target computer is arranged, the offset of the second
                       member (the integer) could be 8, 16, 32, or maybe even
                       some wierd non-power-of-2 number.  You have said this
                       yourself, the implementation is free to pad (I am not
                       sure it is allowed to reorder though).
                    ok? -ali. And sign your name yourself.
           \_ Example?
              \_ What are you trying to do, exactly?
                 \_ I want to print out all the fields in a variable of
                    a certain big struct, so I think I should make a table
                    of field informations, like this:
                        typedef struct {
                            char *FE_string;
                            int FE_offset;
                            int FE_type;
                        } FieldEntry;

                        FieldEntry fieldTable[] = {
                            {"MS_foo", <offset of MS_foo>, TYPE_CHAR},
                            {"MS_bar", <offset of MS_bar>, TYPE_INT},
                            ......
                        };
                    Then I use printf() to print the fields according to the
                    types.
                    \_ Why do you need field offsets in the first place?
                       \_ Then I can just traverse the table to print
                          out all the fields passing the appropriate format
                          strings to printf() according to the field type,
                          rather than writing 100 printf()'s for 100 fields.
                          \_ Use a macro, then cut and paste from the struct
                             definition.
                             \_ But I think using a table reduces code size
                                a bit.

4/6     In C, is it possible to explicitly declare an enum type to be
        byte-sized?
        \_ Not in ANSI C.

4/8     Angelina Jolie (from hackers and foxfire) will be lara croft...
                        \_ and "girl,interrupted", and "from the heart" or
                            whatever, and....
        well, at least she's proportional.
        \_ The woman who won in Wheel of Fortune last night was much more
           proportional.
                \_ someone on soda watches Whell of Fortune? oh my gawd!
        \_ Which one is more ample, Angelina or Nell McAndrew?
                   \_ Yup!  Jepordy -> Wheel of Fortune/Family Feud -> Who
           life modem of Lara Croft)?
           \_ funny, I didn't konw modems HAD breasts
                      Wants to be a millonare.  That's my everynight
                   \_ Yup!  Jeapordy -> Wheel of Fortune/Family Feud -> Who
                      Wants to be a Millionaire.  That's my evening
                      entertainment.
                      \_ Too bad there wasn't a game show based on
                         spelling.  You would do great on that one.
                         \_ Wheel of Fortune wasn't based on spelling?
                            \_ well if you look at the motd log you'll
                               see jepordy.
        \_ Yeah, she's 1/3 of the video game Lara Croft.
        \_ Which one is more ample, Angelina or Nell McAndrew (the official
           life model of Lara Croft)?

4/8     Open Bsd current supports my laptop.  Any pro's/ cons to running
        OpenBSD on it? (or a laptop in general).

4/8     You think me a whore? Than what be all of you?
        \_ Johns.

4/8     Is it just me, or ali has this "You don't know what yer talking
        about and I do" attitude?
        \_ ah give the poor guy a break.  He's hardly alone in that
           attitude.  You need only listen to wall to see what I'm talking
           about.  Or maybe that's what inspired this in the first place.
           about.  Or maybe that's what inspired this in the first place. -ali
        \_ but he does know what he is tlaking aobut.  And obviously most
           of the idiots on this motd who try to insist that blatently
           are talking about.  Somehow in the lkast few years the clue level
           wrong things are true are going to bring out attitudes like you
           are talking about.  Somehow in the last few years the clue level
           still insist that they know their ass from a hole in the wall.
           of the CSUA has gone way down and yet those self same clueless fucks
           still insist that they know their ass from a hole in the wall. -ali
                \_ Array's are not objects!  Yer an idiot if you think
                   they are!
           \_ Maybe they hang out in Dwinelle and their ass IS a hole in the
              wall.
           \_ Tell us about the stars ali.
        \_ i seriously depends on the antecedent of "yer" and the tone
           of an attitude.  But he's not such a bad guy.
           of the post i'm replying to. -ali.
           \_ Tell us about the stars ali. -ali #1 fan.
        \_ yes, ali's a smart guy.  Yes, ali sometimes gives the impression
           of an attitude.  But he's not such a bad guy. -ali.

4/9     Open BSD 2.6, Laptop, pros/cons?

4/7     Looking for web discussion/bulletin board software.  Suggestions?
        \_ ed /etc/motd.public
        \_ php Phorum http://php.net - tpc
        \_ Source for Slashdot-style web boards is available --oj
        \_ Phorum http://php.net - tpc
        \_ <DEAD>www.ezboard.com<DEAD> may do the trick.

4/7     What's the latest K&R Ansi C edition?  How different is it
        from the Second Edition?
        \_ What, you have some disability that allows you to type the question
           here but not search on Amazon?

4/7     I paid $18,650 in interest last year on my parent's mortgage for
        their home.  My name is not on the title of the house or the
        mortgage.  Is there any way I can deduct the mortgage payments
        off my large software engineering tax return, or are my parents
        the only ones who can deduct this?  Yes, I am too lazy to see
        a tax advisor.  Thanks.
        \_ see a tax accountant.  Spending couple hours could save you
           thousands of dollars.
           \_ eh, nevermind, I guess.  I called the IRS help line (no
              hold time, can you imagine that) and they said I suck
              (I can't deduct).  I don't believe making my parents
              dependents helps either.
              \_ so how much of that can you write off as "Gift"?
              \_ No hold time calling IRS?  Unbelievable!
                 \_ My parents are not a charitable organization.
                    With respect to my parents, I can give each up to $10K in
                    gifts that counts as tax-free income for them, and for
                    which I do not have to pay an extra "gift tax".  I cannot
                    deduct any of this 10K, because they are not a
                    charitable organization.
                    \_ If I'm married and both my parents are alive, does it
                       mean I and my wife together can give $40K a year total
                       to my parents without paying gift tax?
                       \_ http://ftp.fedworld.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p950.pdf
                          Or go to irs.gov, Forms and Pubs, Search, "gift"
                          The web site is really fast these days.