8/14    Is it ok to ask an indian guy/gal what his/her caste is?  Or is that
        considered a taboo topic?  I'm just curious about what this person's
        pecking order is back in india.
        \- i think it is pretty tacky. might be ok if you know the person
        pretty well and are talking about "growing up in india" or something
        like that, but other i dont think you should. you can however often
        tell from the last name. --psb
           \_ Esp. south indian last names and some north indian names.
        \_ Brahmin.  Trust me.
           \_ Yeah Brahmin's are at the top. They are the best! - Brahmin.
        \_ brahmin, kshtryia, vishia, shudra, where brahmin's are on top.
           Some basic rules are:

           1. Upgrades are available only for women via marriage. A lower
              caste woman marrying an upper caste man gets upgraded to the
              man's caste. (This is a progressive rule that is not yet
              accepted by orthodox hindus)

           2. Upgrades are not available for men. A lower caste man
              marrying an upper caste woman, downgrades the woman's caste.

           3. Downgrades are always possible based on behavior (ie being
              born into a caste does not qualify you for permanent membership
              in that caste). If your behavior deviates from the norm for your
              caste you will be downgraded, usually to untouchable which is
              lower than the lowest. (This is a generally accepted rule by
              all but the most bigoted and orthodox brahmins)
           \_ Are you a brahmin?
              \_ yes. -tjb
        \_ [lengthy un-asked-for crap deleted]
           I believe that psb is right, most of the people in India are not
           brahmins and are pretty sensitive about this fact. Many of the
           people you'll meet in this country are brahmins (at least by birth)
           so they won't be as sensitive. In the past only brahmins had the
           qualifications to immigrate to this country in large numbers, but
           in recent years that's changed.
                \_ You are an idiot.  Most intelligent people from India that
                   I had met don't care about their former caste.  Currently
                   in India itself it is very advantageous to be one of the
                   lower castes because there is affirmative action for them.
                   It is currently next to impossible to enroll in a good
                   university as a Brahmin or a Shatria.
                        \- this is misleading. --psb
                           \_ I am getting this straight from my indian
                              friends.  Where do you get your information,
                              psb?
                \- this last comment really isnt true. immigrants from
                differnt parts of india and at differnt periods of time
                have had very differnt characteristics. e.g. since the 60s
                most of the bengalis [men] are civil/mech/electrical
                engineers. there was also a large influx of indian doctors
                starting in teh 70s. this is not at all true of the people
                from say the punjab are who came over in the earlier part of
                the century ... i believe many of them worked in the agri-
                cultural sector. --psb
                \_ Are you a brahmin?
                   \_ i think he's from a uniquely american caste known
                      as "admin".
                      \_ Generally those of a lower uid are of higher caste.
                          \_ that's because of their closeness to
                             God^H^H^Hroot^H^H^H^Hnirvana

8/14    Reviews of WebLogic?
        \_it's good but also check out iPlanet, IBM's Websphere,
          and ATG's Dynamo.  These are good too.
          \_ WebSphere Must DIE
                \_ Don't bother with iPlanet and Websphere if you want EJB 1.1
                   It is either WebLogic or Inprise (first tier) or
                   Silverstream and similar crap.
                   Orion/JBoss/Enhydra/whatever (second tier). Avoid PowerTier
                   Silverstream and similar crap. If you just want servlets
                   there are plenty of servlet containers out there besides
                   WebLogic.
        \_ yee haa!!!
        \_ A++.
        \_ valuation++
        \_ don't even consider anything else.
        \_
        \_ BLEAH!  --sysadmin who has to deal with the aftermath everyday
        \_ don't listen to what the sysadmin says.
                \_ Yeah, we just have to keep the shit running after you're
                   done coding for it, so when the black box dies and the
                   site is down for 72 hours while you're trying to get
                   emergency tech support from BEA, you'll remember to listen
                   to the sysadmin next time.  Typical coder monkey wearing
                   blinders on the highway.
                        \_ Ugh it's a process on a box that can't run away
                           with memory and if the application sucks, it's
                           really not up to the admin to deal with it.
                           \_ Let's see, it dies on it's own, it won't serve
                              but still answers the weblogic port, the cluster
                              code is a total cluster fuck, so to speak, and
                              the load balancing plugin for iplanet is total
                              garbage my dog could have written better in his
                              sleep in VB.  Any questions?  And oh yeah,
                              where'd you get the idea it isn't a sysadmin
                              problem if the site crashes?  I want a job at
                              your company.  -sysadmin
             \_ Umm, I am a sysadmin and now i'm worried, is it really more
                difficult to support than, say, DYNAMO? more buggy, etc? -top
                \_ Haven't touch dynamo so I can't compare but I can assure
                   you that weblogic sucks, that $17,000/cpu license sucks,
                   that the license prices are going up soon sucks, and that
                   my company is switching off weblogic ASAP.  That part
                   doesn't suck.  -sysadmin
                   \_ What are you using instead?

8/14    word for today:  PHIMOSIS

8/14    Solaris 2.8.  What's the ndd or ifconfig command to see what the
        current speed/duplex is and to change it?  Man pages didn't help.
        \_ from /etc/system:
           * set hme:hme_adv_autoneg_cap = 0
           * set hme:hme_adv_100T4_cap = 0
           * set hme:hme_adv_100fdx_cap = 1
           * set hme:hme_adv_100hdx_cap = 0
           * set hme:hme_adv_10fdx_cap = 0
           * set hme:hme_adv_10hdx_cap = 0
           # ndd -set hme hme_adv_autoneg_cap 0 (or 1) ..
                \_ thanks.  These weren't set in my /etc/system but now I
                   know what to look for and where to set my values.
        \_ ndd /dev/hme, at the prompt "?"  will show you all supported
           variables. link_speed, link_mode, link_state show you the
           current config. --jwm
                \_ thanks.

8/15    Another india-related question.  So why are some indians veggie-eaters
        while others are meat-eaters?  Is it because of caste?  The higher
        up you go the more meat you consume?
        \_ Don't be stupid. It's a free country, too.
           \_ Uh. Wrong.
           \_ But meat there is not free.
              \_ Being stupid shouldn't be free either, please send me $10
        \_ The higher up you go the less meat you consume. Brahmin's consume
           no meat.
        \_ Eat more cows, save the atmosphere.  -John

8/14    Is there anyone with root access in the CSUA office during the summer?
        If so, who are they and approximately what time/days are they there?
        Thanks.
                \_ call in the afternoon. sometimes one of us is around. -root
                   \_ Who do I email to set up an appointment?  staff@csua or
                      root@csua?  (unless you mean to call literally....)
                \_ yeah you can call 1 510 I DONT CARE bitch ass mutherfreak.

8/14    Hi I have a domain name I want to offer for sale.
        Anybody have an idea where I get started?
        \_http://www.afternic.com
        \_ What domain?

8/15    Breakthrough in quantum computers!
        http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000815/n15481726.html
        \_ Fixed the link.
        \_ So it can solve a particular problem in one step instead of four.
           Isn't that the result of a change in algorithm instead of a change
           in the underlying electronics?  How does switching to using atoms to
           implement the logic make it possible?
           \_ No, it is a change in the underlying electronics.  Quantum
              algorithms can't be done on non-quantum computers.  - mikeym
           \_ The fact that they successfully demoed this essentially confirms
              that it is indeed physically plausible to implement the Quantum
              Fourier Transform, which is at the heart of, among other things,
              Shor's poly-time quantum integer factoring algorithm. Presumably
              what poly-time factoring will do to computing needn't be
              explained. Here's some reading for details:
              http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~vazirani/qc.html
              http://xxx.lanl.gov/ps/quant-ph/9809016
                -alexf
                \_ dude, I work in the industry, I don't understand this
                   crap. Should I go back to school?
                   \_ if you wanna work for peanuts as an academia phreak, YES
                   \_ if you want to understand it and/or contribute to it,
                      YES. if you don't, don't bother. it's rather unlikely
                      that there'll be practical industry demand for quantum
                      coders before you retire (or at least are too old to
                      pick up an entirely new paradigm).
                      \_ just wait for phillip's QC API --oj
                      \_ Too old?  Like, his brain would seize up and he'd be
                         incapable of learning something new?  All his bits
                         are in use?  Unlikely.
                         \_ When you're 60, you will, in all likelihood, not be
                            to willing to learn a whole new world from scratch
              \_ http://www.sciam.com/1998/0698issue/0698gershenfeld.html
                   This is a Sci Am article on the topic.  For people who
                   haven't had Quantum Electro Dynamics in college (which is
                   like 99.999% of the world.  :-)
                 \_ See second link above (LANL); it's perfectly accessible
                    for anyone smart enough to log in to soda and read the motd
                    (ie not that smart).
                    \_ hey1! :-(

8/15    Got any suggestions for online hotel reservation services?
        \_ http://expedia.msn.com

8/15    Can I order Berkeley transcript online or on the phone without
        having to go there physically?
        \_ http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Records/transdipl.html

8/15    URL for freeware windows ssh client?  Doesn't have to do anything
        fancy.  Only using it to login to a remote ssh-only box to run one
        script for a user.  I don't care about emulation quality, features,
        or anything else beyond basic ssh'ing ability.  No demoware with
        interactive nags, delays and self bombing timers.  I want to install
        this for the user just once and forget about it forever.  Thanks!
        \_ http://www.employees.org/~satch/ssh/faq/ssh-faq-2.html#ss2.2.3
                \_ Found what I needed.  Thanks again!

8/15    Oh my Gawd.  http://www.ecrush.com
        \_ This is really funny.
        \_ Damn, why didn't they have this stuff when i was 12?
        \_ take the "date jennifer lopez" quiz
        \_ more like <DEAD>estalk.com<DEAD>
           \_ "Host name lookup failure"
              \_ Admin Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
                 Joe Smith (COCO-24040) stalk_her@hotmail.com
       \_ Man, this site is perfect for stalkers like jj.
          \_ What about paolo?