11/27   A long while ago someone posted a link to a page that had good
        questions to ask a perspective employer about the options being
        offered (what they represent as a % fo the company, etc.)
        I'm hoping someone remembers what i'm talking about and will post
        the URL again (or a similar page)  thanks.
        \_ http://buffy.eecs.berkeley.edu/Advising/CS/Peer/resources/joiningastartup.html

11/27   Poll (use dot please):
        CS164 should be 4 units --++-> ....
                                  ||     <---- Buchanan
                                  ++-> .
        CS164 should be 5 units ---+
        \_ uh, so people think 164 should be more units than 162?  huh?

11/27   Fuck Aiken, COOL, and semantic analysis!!!
        \_ Don't you mean "Fuck'ken COOL, semantic analysis!!!"?
        \_ Sorry to say but its your fault for taking it with him and
           not with Hilfinger and Java... that's what I did and the
           class ruled.
           \_ Frankly, "wrote a java compiler" looks infinitely better on
              a resume than "wrote a COOL compiler".
              \_ And you're only doing this major because it looks good on the
                 resume right?
                 \_ And you're not?  You bought in BH's whole thing about the
                 \_ And you're not?  You bought into BH's whole thing about the
                    intrinsic value of education for it's own sake and blah,
                    blah, blah?  The rest of us have bills to pay.
                 \_ If you're hiring java engineers, would you rather hire
                    someone who implemented a "java" compiler or a "COOL"
                    compiler?  Gotta take this class anyway, might as well
                    get the best buck for it.
        \_ Yeah, there were so many cases to cover with semantic
           analysis.  Ridiculous for a class project.
           \_ It was 10x worse with Hilfinger, so shut the fuck up.
                \_ But think about how much more you learned!  You don't need
                   a high GPA, just a sense of personal satisfaction!
                   \_ I did. And I got an A in the class. I wasn't complaining,
                      it wasn't that bad if you put in your 100 hours...
                      I was just noting that it was way more work than Aiken's
                      lame projects. Now Graham, that's a killer.
        \_ Life would be a lot easier if you figured out HOW to deal with
           all of the cases and ambiguity BEFORE writing any code.
        \_ Try Graham.
         \_ was I the only person who liked Graham? -aspo
            \_ yes.
            \_ In a biblical sense?

11/27   Anyone happen to know how to convert an Acrobat PDF document to a
        Word document?  (purpose: I want to print gobs of pdfs
        and Word supports printing multiple pages per sheet of paper,
        similar to how enscript prints double pages in the cs labs)
        \_ you can do that with a pdf as well
        \_ some printer drivers have settings for this.  If yours doesn't
           and you use Windows, you might want to look into a utility
           called FinePrine.  Otherwise, you can convert the PDF to
           PostScript and use psnup
           and you use Windows, you might want to look into a shareware
           utility called FinePrint (http://www.fineprint.com  Otherwise, you
           can convert the PDF to PostScript and use psnup
           \_ You don't even have to convert it -- psnup can read and
              write PDF directly.
              \_ it can?  doesn't say so on the man page, and it seems to
                 reject the pdf files I give it...
        \_ here's an online converter:
           http://wheel.compose.cs.cmu.edu:8001/cgi-bin/browse/objweb
           In general, though, I wouldn't recommend going from PDF/PS to Word.

11/27   Why is the _t appended to things like pid_t and uid_t?
        \_ Stands for "type"?  -- yuen
        \_ AKA coding practice.
        \_ It stands for terrorist.  AKA stands for AK Assault rifle.
                \_ That's AKA_r.  Duh.
           \_ ENOAMMO

11/27   Anyone used a free lsystem implementation that worked?  All the
        internet resources seem to point to lauren lapre's version,
        and I can't get that to compile.  Thanks!
        \_ Yer welcome.  -lauren lapre
        \_ The problem is not lapre.  The problem is user error in compilation.
           \_ Care to be more specific?
                \_ Learn to compile other people's code.

11/27   Anybody seen "Mamma Mia!" the musical?  How was it and would you
        recommend it?  Thanks.
        \_ i think people on the motd are more likley to have seen
          "yermom-a-mia!"
        \_ You're welcome.  -mamma mia
                 \_ reviews were generally very good.
        \_ happy brainless show
        \_ That's pretty much what I've seen in reviews.  Nice, esp if
           you like Abba, but nothing deep.  Ask me after sunday -jor

11/28   How does one get gmake to consider the Makefile as a dependency such
        that a program rebuilds from scratch when the Makefile is changed?
        \_ $(TARGET): $(OBJS) Makefile ?
           \_ that looks good.  -- not the original poster
        \_ Switch to Solaris make and use KEEP_STATE - it will detect when
           compiler flags are changed and remake affected files.
           \_ Yes.  Use a proprietary makefile.  Good idea.

11/28   http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001127/hl/drinking_water_study_1.html

11/28   Is it better career-wise to have an inflated title (Senior Architect)
        at a company full of unqualified idiots or a regular title (Java
        Engineer) at a company that knows what it's doing?
              \_ My mom was called a Analyst by the Gov. for 13 years. She
                 wrote the AI's that help fighter planes takeoff and land
                 from carriers and that make sure the shuttle's booster tanks
                 are functioning correctly.
                 In the long run, if you know your stuff, it doesn't matter
                 that you are called a Analyst or a NOCMonkey.
        \_ "Java Engineer". I've got to add that to my list of oxymorons.
        \_ I dunno. Would you be more impressed by a Member of Technical
           Staff from Bell Labs or a Senior VP from http://dogfood.com? Different
           people will answer that question differently. Which one do
           you want to be?
              \_ how about "programmer" at Bell Labs? You know that's
                 Kernigan and Pikes designation.
           \_ how does Member of Technical Staff compare with Senior
              Software Engineer?
                \_ "manager".  "director".  And prefix with "senior" to make
                   it a total of 4 more.
              \_ Well at sun MTS is lower than SSE, so I'd rather be
                 SSE. - MTS at sun
        \_ Senior Architect isn't a very high ranking title.
           \_ What tech titles are above that besides VP Eng and CTO?
                \_ Depends on the size of the company. I was offered a job
                   as a chief architect in a startup and I would have reported
                   directly to the CEO had I accepted their offer.
                   [moved. -motd continuity god]
                \_ "manager".  "director".  And prefix with "senior" to make
                   it a total of 4 more.
                   \_ Plus "lead". Though it depends on whether you want
                      to and are good at managing people. If you want to
                      build things, stay away from management. If your
                      skills are getting rusty or you are ambitious, go
                      for the manager title. There are also the extremely
                      rare posistions like Sun Fellow, which allow you
                      to do whatever you want.
                      \_ Cisco had Distinguished Engineers and Fellows,
                         which bascially ment you did what you wanted.
                         One fellow was also PostMaster for a time. I
                         think that Tony Li was a fellow also. Now being
                         known as Mr. BGP, that's a good title. I'd like
                         to be known as Mr. <Major Internet Protocol Here>.
                         \_ Mr. ICMP Echo Request.  Mr Ping to his friends.
        \_ career-wise: inflated title, no question.
           This is based on assuptions derived from the fact that you
           are asking this question in the first place.
           Impress people who actually matter: the second one.
        \_ whatever pays more and as long as you feel justified in what
        you are doing to earn that title, then be happy, if you feel your
        title is too low to reflect your importance, then leave or ask for
        higher position. (or more money to compensate - but money never really
        does)
        \_ are you inSANE???? tell me that $200K a year wouldnt compensate
           for having "NOCmonkey" on your business card.
           "never" should almost never be used.
           \_ there can still be emptiness felt, even the richest people feel
           empty at what they are doing..
              \_ Yeah, but in 5 years, they can AFFORD to do something
                 "meaningful, yet penniless"
                \_ I don't.  -Rich&Full
                  \_ maybe for now, but in a few years.. you'll want something
                   more... everything we do is chewing bubblegum.. the flavor
                   runs out.. hopefully not before we die.
                   \_ Maybe you're sitting on your ass, patting your head,
                      rubbing your stomach, chewing gum, and watching the
                      market tank.  I'm enjoying life.  -R&F
                      \_ which for you apparently involves getting in silly
                         discussions on the motd.  wow.
                         \_ Gosh, I guess.  And for you involves getting in
                            silly discussions on the motd from _work_?  I do
                            what I want, went I want, how I want, report to
                            nobody and answer for nothing.  Your pointed
                            comments are damaging to my poor self esteem.
                            Please stop before I hurt myself or something.

11/28   On an HP-UX system, how do I make a shared library?  I tried the
        procedure I normally use with other systems, but it fails.  Here's
        what happens:

        gcc -c -fPIC a.c
        [no errors]
        gcc -shared -o a.so a.o

        And I get this error message:
        /usr/ccs/bin/ld: DP relative code in file /var/tmp/ccmAcwPp.o - shared
        library must be position independent.  Use +z or +Z to recompile.
        collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

        Neither +z nor +Z appear to be options for gcc though.
        \_ gcc has always had broken so support for hpux. you may either need
           to upgrade or give up (read the release notes for gcc to find out
           which). you might have better luck with -fpic instead of -fPIC. -ali
        \_ Check how your gcc was built. The *.a files there (libg2c.a,
           libstdc++.a, libgcc.a etc.) probably have position dependent
           code in them. --dim
           \_ libc has nothingto do with making a .so. there is no check for
              libc inthis step.
        \_ Not sure if this is what you're asking for, but try:
                ar -q library.a objectfile.o
           \_ (S)he said shared
           \_ *
        \_ On a platform I don't know, I usually snag some random library
           (say gnu readline) and run ./configure on it, then read the Makefile
           (or just run make and see what the shlib link line looks like)
           \_ *
        \_ those branded with * are morons
           \_ *
              \_ *

11/28   NIS question.  My nsswitch.conf has the line
          passwd: files nis nisplus
        To me this says that the user should be looked for in the passwd file
        first, then checked for in NIS, then NIS+... Yet when the NIS server
        isn't available, I have to wait for a huge timeout before I'm finally
        logged in (yes, there is an entry in the passwd file).  Why does this
        happen and how do I get the expected behavior? -mogul
        \_ It's probably doing something other than a passwd lookup.
           You'll have to truss the process to find out what.  -tom
           \_ Or you can check for other nis lines in the nsswitch.conf
              automount, group, hosts may all be blocking on nis lookup.
              It may be something in your .login/.profile/.[t]cshrc file
              causing an nis lookup as well (like having someone else's
              homedir referenced in your path). --scotsman
              \_ If it's stalling in .cshrc, I think there is some option
                 you can set in .cshrc to show you where. Put a line with
                 'set verbose' or something at the top of .cshrc
                 And if you have root, then login as root and see if
                 the problem still exists. Since root has simpler dotfiles
                 and should have no remotely mounted home dir, you can
                 use it to narrow down the possible problem.
                 You might also modify nsswitch.conf
                 \_ Yes, but only if I log into another client served by NIS.
                    My home directory gets mounted from my main machine.  On
                    my machine, the passwd home directory entry is set to the
                    local directory so it doesn't go through autofs... -mogul
                 to remove nis and nisplus and see what happens.
                 Make sure you have another xterm open however
                 just in case modifying nsswitch.conf locks you out.
                 Also try getent passwd YOURUSERNAME and see if it says
                 what you think it should be (i.e. is your home dir
                 really on your local desktop disk?)
                 Also check /var/*/messages file for errors
        \_ what's in the groups line?  is your default group in a file
           or in nis?  initgroups usually takes forever
           \_ groups line was fine, but my group was missing from local
              /etc/group.  Still didn't solve the problem though.  I will try
              tom's suggestion when I return to work.  -mogul
              \_ These things are often due to DNS problems.
              \_ is your home directory auto-mounted? could be the auto
                 mounter maps are stored on the nis server.
        \_ Try:  passwd: files nis [NOTFOUND=return] nisplus    -- ivy

11/28   With SSH, when we change our password for the account do we have to
        regenerate the one time pass phrass?
        \_ Nope, they're separate.