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| 2000/10/25 [Academia/GradSchool] UID:19558 Activity:nil |
10/24 What is a good score on the GRE? I'm looking to get into Cal or
the Farm. I took it today and got 2200.
\_ You suxor. |
| 2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Languages/Tcl] UID:19559 Activity:kinda low |
10/24 We just bought John Ousterhout's dig, Ajuba Solutions. Wonder if
that's a good thing or a bad thing...?
\_ We just bought a Thai hookah. Wonder if that's a good thing
or a bad thing...?
\_ seano is that you?
\_ I like hookah's. -curtis-e-bear
\_ smoking bad
\_ According to the Ajuba site, you're killing all their products
so what the hell is the point?
\_ Ousterhout is the Tcl guy, right? Sooner dead the better.
\_ Tickle's weak...but I mean, it's basically BASIC, and BASIC
kicks ass. So what went so horribly wrong?
\_ No, only M$ Visual Basic kicks ass. TCL would kick ass
if it was M$ Visual TCL.
\_ #F, original BASIC has no procedures, local variables,
variable declaration, pass by value, pass by reference,
and a data structure. TCL has all of the above and more.
The syntax of TCL is horrible, the runtime is weak due
to the limitation of the data structure, but other than
that it has all the basic elements of a sound programming
language. Of course nowadays a good programming language
is defined by how fast you can learn it and how easy you
can build applications with it.
\_ How can you have "local" variables with no proceedures
(and presumably no separate source files)
\_ Don't forget OO with OTcl and there's also Tcl/Cl. |
| 2000/10/25 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:19560 Activity:high |
10/24 I bought something AS IS on eBay and it doesn't work. Is it legal
(moral?) to resell it AS IS?
\_ if you know it's defective and don't identify it as such,
it's neither legal nor moral. -tom
\_ tom's opinion deleted.
\_ BS. Caveat Emptor. If you say AS IS, only someone who is
a total idiot would assume that it works. If you say AS IS
it may or may not work, then you cannot be held legally
responsible.
\_ On the legal grounds, what are you using to support that it
is illegal? On moral grounds, the device was $500... is the
correct moral thing to do claim that it is not in working
\_ Certainly that would be correct morally. There are plenty
of legal grounds for being able to collect damages from
people who knowingly sell defective products. -tom
condition and get what I can for it (maybe $250)?
\_ tom's opinion not respected
\_ Yes, but only if they do not state AS IS,
(perhaps working, perhaps not). And its
stupid to sell it for less than you bought
it. If some sucker is willing to pay you
for a broken POS more power to you.
\_ say no to tom
\_ look, troll, we know you're a stupid
coward, but it's trivially obvious that
selling known defective merchandise is
actionable fraud, whether or not you
say "as-is." -tom
\_ In California, you are now legally required to
tell a potential buyer if your house is
haunted...
\_ Yeah, but usually it just comes down to them
saying "it worked when it shipped" and then
your ass collecting the insurance money
from the post office...
\_ That's lying. It's illegal (insurance fraud) and
immoral. |
| 2000/10/25 [Politics/Domestic/California, Recreation/Humor] UID:19561 Activity:nil |
10/24 Vote:
User Friendly: ..
Dilbert: .
\_ what are these two voting for the worst comic stip of the decade?
Megatokyo: .
Crack-ho magzn: .
(yermom, that is)
Kevin and Kell (http://www.kevinandkell.com .
Blondie: . |
| 2000/10/25-26 [Reference/Military] UID:19562 Activity:insanely high |
10/25 "Anti-Gun People Suffer Mental Condition"
http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/1024-106.html
You people know who you are. Also, if anyone wants an introduction
to shooting at the range so they can make informed decisions,
mail me. -jor
\_ As I recall, the only people jor was arguing with
were not endorsing banning guns, or even restricting
their use... they were making fun of his nerdworld
fantasy of protecting his homestead and democracy
by himself with his little gun.
\_ All researches have bias. The point is, one should judge the
\_ Wow, a press release pointing to <DEAD>www.jpfo.org<DEAD> ("Jews for the
Preservation of Firearms Ownership" -- check out their "Ask The
Rabbi" column!) *Obviously* no hidden agendas there. Thanks for
pointing us to these unbiased third-party researchers selflessly
leading us to THE TRUTH!!!1!!
\_ All researchers have bias. The point is, one should judge the
research just on it's veracity.
\_ The right to keep and bare arms is essential
\_ exactly what information will "shooting at the range" give
us, when the problem is "shooting at the people"
\_ The idea is, once you get the feel of a finely
crafted firearm exploding powerfully under your control,
you wont want anyone taking it away from you.
\_ The right to keep and bear arms is essential
\_ and the right to bare legs is even more so.
hint: grammarP
\_ someone keeps changing it.
for the long term preservation of the republic.
The surest way to enslave the populace is to
disarm them.
A little hint to the anti-gun crowd. Banning
guns only hurts law abiding citizens, ie people
who obey the law. By definition criminals don't
obey the law. They will continue to have weapons,
and the common man will not be able to defend
himself.
\_ Not true in other countries - common
\_ You are a moron and a coward. It amazes me that
you half-wits are always so down on people who
are obviously your intellectual betters just
because they don't hide it well enough. Tom is
easily one of the more intelligent people who
post to the motd and i'd rather read his troll
than anything you have to say, mr. "I'm not smart
enough to say something clever so i'll just delete
other people's post". -!tom
criminals have difficulty obtaining guns.
We are not talking about the mafia or
triad, but the grocery store robbers.
\_ That's because there isn't a huge SUPPLY.
Why? Because there isnt any business drive
to make guns in a place where owning one
is very difficult to do legally.
\_ You are wrong. It is extermely easy
to get a gun via extra-legal channels.
And let me put it to you this way,
if all the guns where in the hands
of organized crime, they would be the
ones knocking down grocery stores
that failed to pay "protection" fees.
The "common" crook would not exist.
I like my freedom and ill-informed
bleeding hearts will not take it
from me. Those who would trade freedom
for security deserve neither.
\_ I can just see you uttering "Freedom!"
as your last word when your 10-year
old kid shoot you with your .38
thinking he was playing cowboy and
injun.
\_ I don't own a gun, I don't have
have kids and even if I did
my kids would not be playing
cowboys and injuns, because
fighting is inappropriate for
people from my caste.
I chose to remain unarmed, but
I should not be forced to be
unarmed. A choice implies freedom,
a ban is the absence of that
freedom. To disarm the populace
is to enslave them.
\_ I disagree that banning gun
is equivlanet to enslaving
the people. There are lots
of free democratic countries
where guns are banned. Guns
allow crooks to easily butcher,
rape, rob, hold as hostage,
enslave people from peace-
loving castes like yours. If
a democratic country needs to
have its populace to have guns to
control its government, its
political system / system of
have its populace have guns in
order to control its government,
its political system / system of
checks and balance must have
really broken down.
\_ When only the government and
the criminals have guns how
do you stop them from taking
your rights away? Government
is a necessary evil, but it
should never be trusted to
put the rights of the
individual before the rights
of the state. The right to
keep and bear arms is the
only way to ensure that our
freedoms cannot be taken
away.
\_ I don't buy that having
guns available would make
a difference in controlling
government abuses in a
established democracy
like the US, with a
mature system of checks
and balances and a free
press.
\_ Organized crime is as bad or worse
in the US than many countries where
there is gun control.
\_ Gun control only affects law
abiding citizens, not criminals.
Baning guns reduces freedoms
and brings us all one step closer
to enslavement at the hands of
a few armed elitist. We must
have the right to preserve our
freedom by force.
A second hint, when the feds have all the guns
you will not be able to prevent them from taking
your property and your rights.
\_ We should require that guns be registered
annually (like cars) or every two years.
\_ tom's opinion = troll. deleted.
\_ tom is an idiot, but a funny one. I think that
his posts ought to remain uncensored simply for
thier misguided humor content.
\_ I find it amusing that this troll is
not only deleting my posts, but the
posts of people who agree with me, and
entire threads that I participated in.
No wonder he needs a gun--he's a complete
coward. -tom
\_ Whether or not you are right (and I
don't think that you are), he should
not delete your posts.
\_ sure he should. tom is an idiot --
and a fat-head to boot.
\_ What harm can an idiot do? |
| 2000/10/25-26 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/Others, Recreation/Media] UID:19563 Activity:high |
10/25 What exactly is "B-Movie"? Thx.
\_ 2 interpretations: Budget Movie (low budget)
or a movie they show for free when you see the A movie.
\_ Sorry, what's "A movie" then?
\_ the movie you paid for (like when cartoons were free
because you paid for the main movie.)
\_ a movie is a motion picture. duh.
\_ The general usage (in the States) is "Shitty, low budget
film". A corrolary to that is the increasingly popular
"DTV--Direct To Video". --sowings
\_ A very, very nice "new wave" band...sorta dark-sounding.
Also, see the films of John Waters or Roger Corman,
and maybe the live-action version of The Guyver.
\_ McGuyver?
\_ in some asian countries, A means Adult (porn)
\_ I thought that was H as in Hentai, not A as in Adult.
B doesn't have any significance (AFAIK), but R usually
means Romance.
\_ you mean it DOESNT mean "boobs"?
\_ you would think this if you interpreted
"some asian countries" as only refering to japan
\_ Okay, I am a ignorant American, what countries
does this refer to?
\_ Japan, Indonesia and Pakistan only.
\_ India isn't a Asian country but Pakistan
is? Confirms what I knew all along, Indians
are really WHITE not ASIAN.
\_ Indians aren't white, they are Aryan /
indo-European (I think). In general, they
are quite dark. |
| 2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Functional] UID:19564 Activity:high |
10/25 Here is an interesting article about s/w. It goes against
the typical silicon valley s/w mentality, and even some of
the anti-female sentiment often shown on this motd:
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html
\_ "Yet everyone complains how bad software is, with all the
defects." Everyone? I personally think that software quality
has increased in the past 20 years. Look at the accomplishment
we've made with OS, application, database, network, etc.
\_ Okay: M$ Win*, M$ Excel/Word/PowerPoint, M$ Access/FoxPro,
M$ TCP/IP & IE, etc.
Things have become much worse.
\_ "something wrong with the way its being written"
If only writers had some process of their own.
\_ You don't want to know how much this software probably costs.
When there's no profit on the line then things are typically
done well/right. Most software companies aren't about good
software but about (duh) making a profit. --dim
\_ And most software companies also have competitors, both for
customers and for funding.
\_ Yes, we're all familiar with slashdot, thanks.
\_ I worked at NASA and yes there are people that write good
code there but there is little innovation. The reason that
it is reliable is because each change or improvement or
idea has to get approved by ~ 50 people (and most ideas don't
make it through the process). The atmosphere does appeal to
a lot of mothers (mine included, AI research @ Ames 13 yrs)
though. They like the slow non-aggressive work enviroment.
Also efficiency isn't a top priority, many programs make
the worst possible use of resources in order to ensure max.
reliability. And this doesn't change even when you point out
that the same thing can be done faster with equal reliability,
because it would be "dangerous" to change it (the reality is
that it would mean that some people would have to do work,
which is avoided at all costs).
\_ 1) resources aren't important. In a situation like this
correctness is everything. Resources are pretty damn
cheap.
\_ You are wrong. Resources on the shuttle are exteremely
expensive. You can't just launch the latest 2GHz PV
Q3A/UT FRK proc into orbit. The computer systems on
the shuttle are quite slow and every cycle on them
is precious. If you can do something faster then it
worth doing, esp. if it is provable safe. Improvements
in operational efficiency translate to longer cheaper
missions. Ultimately someone has to pay for this and
that is the US tax payer, if this thing gets too damn
expensive it will stop flying, regardless of all that
science is great and wonderful and should be done
regarless of the cost bs that you see on Star Trek.
2) if it works and is BugFree(tm) them changing it IS
dangerous. It means you have to go make sure there are
no problems with the code and change it in the painstaking
process you described before (which yes may be painful
for someone used to coding in a more freeform style, but
let's face it, it does work for what they want).
\_ The problem is not that it is dangerous to change
and test it, the problem is that beuracrats don't
like change because that means they have to do work
and they hate doing work. Nasa is run by inertia,
a body at rest remains at rest unless otherwise
compelled by an external force. And that external
force needs to be pretty damn strong. The reason
that there are so many women there is that they
like the fact that most of the time there is nothing
to do and when asked to do something they can just
say that it would take too long.
\_ It's all about risk versus gain. Change for the
sake of change is not wise in such an environment.
Further, even the smallest change can be *very*
expensive considering all the testing and validation
that must be redone. When there's sometimes code
that's been around for 30 years and consists of
millions of lines you can see why people are loathe
\_ It's a four-year old article.
to change it unless there are requirements to do
so. It's not sloth. --dim
\_ @ Ames its sloth. I routinely got, yeah we could
change it or we could fix it, but I don't feel
like it, I just want to surf the web and go home.
We could maybe do it next month.
\_ change it != fix it != optimize it
\_ In the context of the code I was dealing
with change|fix == optimize, basically
most of the stuff ran slow and no one
wanted to even clean it up, because that
would get in the way of putting in a solid
7 hrs (they always take min 1 hr lunch) of
playing solitare or bz or web surfing.
The people described in this article probably also write in
ADA.
\_ until recently (not sure how the advent of RTOS's affect this)
all FAA certified software for ATC was exclusively hand coded
and verfied assembly code.
\_ At Nasa, the shuttle guys were ADA, the aeronautics guys
were FORTRAN and the AI guys were Lisp.
\_its amazing the thing ever got off the ground.
\_ well it was only 10 yrs late and over budget.
\_ It's a four-year-old article. |
| 2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Security] UID:19565 Activity:moderate |
10/25 http://www.pantyraider.com \_ Now why don't they have something like predicateRaider? Now that might hold my attention. \_ is that like ContextFreeGrammarRaider and LR1Raider?? \_ woo woo! \_ How about corporateRaider? That would be *interesting*. \_ almost related: http://www.phonebashing.com |