12/20   Remove your own motd entries after they're posted over 3 days!

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12/20   Can someone explain this: "Denormal numbers present a major
        stumbling block to implementing floating point multiplcation,
        because they require performing a variable shift in the
        multiplier, which wouldn't otherwise be needed. Thus, high-
        performance, floating point multipliers often do no handle
        denormalized numbers, but instead trap, letting software
        handle them."
        \_ Don't you always multiply the mantissas as if they are integers
           and then add the exponents, regardless of whether they are
           normalized or not?
        \_ normalizing a floating point number means shifting its mantissa
           to the left until the MSB of the mantissa is 1 (and compensating
           by changing the exponent). if you know
           a number is normalized, you don't need to store the 1, which
           means that assuming normalized gets you a free bit.
           however, being a certain number of shifts, when the exponent
           gets as small as it can get, you can't shift any more, and
           you might be forced to use a denormal float. this is only a
           problem with very small number. typically, hardware
           will throw and error when it can't normalize. good hardware
           doesn't and just says lets you know that something is a denorm.
           -ali.
           \_ That's easy. Just shift left by the leading zero count.
              Zero counting in hardware is pretty easy. For 32-bits
              that's just 5 levels of multiplexor and AND gates (AND
              gates are probaly has a higher delay).
              gates probably has a higher delay).

12/20   just out of curiosity, how many people at berkeley give a rats ass
        about grad student unionization one way or the other?
                        -alum
        \_ unions suck. ban unionization.
        \_ onions suck. ban onionization.
        \_ It's stupid.  Grad students striking only hurts undergrads.  They
           don't strike from their own classes or research.
                \_ How else do you propose they improve their working
                   conditions?  Talk at the UC a lot?  Well, that hasn't
                   conditions?  Talk at the UC a lot?  Well, that hasn't
                   worked or there wouldn't be a onion.  Teaching is many
                   worked or there wouldn't be a union.  Teaching is many
                   student's only realistic means of support during
                   gradschool, and they deserve decent compensation
                   and reasonable working conditions.  If you knew the
           \_ has the berkeley grad student union pulled in people who
                   egregious dirty tricks that the UC has played on grad
                   student instructors you'd support their strikes instead
                   of feeling sorry for the undergrads.
                   \_ "many students"is the key phrase here.  As an engineering
           \_ has the berkeley grad student onion pulled in people who
           don't teach?  i go to another school now as a grad student, and
           have noe intention of teaching, and am constantly pestered
           by the onion people.  as far as i can tell, the "movement" is
           a political power play by the large international onion who is
                       grad student I make a very comfortable living wage from
                       my stipend for doing work i love that leads to a
                       financially valuaeble degree, and has flexible hours.
                       If the TA's from the humanities departments who are
                       being taken advantage of came to me and said "we have
                       a problem, and we would like your support in our cause,"
                       i might have sympathy.  instead they lie and say that
                       they want to "make the engineering department a better
                       place"and such to trick us into joining.  as far as i
                       can tell, the only people who would really benefit are
                       those who are paying for it: the union bosses on the
                       outside who think grad student unionization is a good
                       way to get their numbers up. i go to a private school
                       though.  i was wondingering if people at berkeley feel
                       the same way about UAW that i feel about
                       HERE, the people sponsoring our unions effort.
                        [fixed most major spelling errors.  -motd spelling god]
                   \_ Striking isn't it.  As an alum who suffered through one
                      of those ridiculous strikes years ago I could give a damn
                      about the grad students.  The undergrads suffered.  The
                      University didn't suffer a bit.  The profs didn't.  The
                      grad students sure as hell didn't.  They were trying
                      hard to get undergrads to boycott classes but they
                      didn't boycott their own.  What a total crock.  Grad
                      student strikes do *nothing* towards improving grad
                      student working conditions.  I do not support them in any
                      way.  When the grad students do a *real* walkout on their
                      own classes and their own research for their own profs
                      that they work for on a daily basis then they might get
                      some sympathy but the phony strikes don't cut it.  They
                      can bite me.  Actually I was around for several of these
                      _fake_ grad student strikes.  Just a bunch of
                      hypocritical noise.  I did what my graduate instructors
                      did, not what they said to do.  I went to class.
                    \_ You miss the point, grad students want to be doing their
                       research, it is the most important part of being a
                       graduate student and is essential to advancing their
                       career and education. Grad students might want to be
                       taking classes, it is often neccessary to meet class
                       requirements to graduate, and classes can be useful, and
                       fun. Graduate students rarely want to be teaching a
           \_It's all controlled by the mob. Teamsters have nothing to do with
           higher education. Ban the unions.
                       classes, it is not what they came to gradschool to do.
                       The fact that graduate students in less fortunate fields
                       need to spend so much time teaching classes sucks, it is
                       a waste of time for them and they do not recieve anything
                       near the compensation that their level of education would
                       imply in "The Real World" (tm). Perhaps striking is an
                       ineffective way for graduate students to get their
                       grieveness addressed, but, I do think they have some
                       legitimate complaints which should be addressed. With
                       respect to the impact that these strikes have on
                       undergrads, yes, we do suffer. But guess what, undergrad
                       instruction at Cal is nothing to write home about anyway,
                       a fair number of our professors couldn't teach their way
                       out of a cardboard box, our classes are absurdly over
                       crowded, and at least in computer science, the amount
                       of money we get for instructional is laughable. A few
                       grad students walking out isn't exactly going to ruin
                       an otherwise unblesmished record.
                        \_ So you're saying that since undergrad education at
                           Cal already sucks, grad students should go ahead and
                           feel free to strike as they're not hurting anyone
                           anyway?  If the strike is ineffective, then why do
                           it?  I don't know where you get the idea undergrads
                           aren't hurt.  Just about everyone I knew at the time
                           hated the grad student strike and got fucked pretty
                           badly during finals.  And no I don't have any
                           sympathy whatsoever for the poor dears who became
                           grad students.  Teaching for dirt wages is part of
                           the deal.  It wasn't a secret and they can go get a
                           new career with that Real World Salary anytime they
                           want.  Pretty much just boo fucking hoo.
           \_ has the berkeley grad student union pulled in people who
              don't teach?  i go to another school now as a grad student, and
              have noe intention of teaching, and am constantly pestered
              by the union people.  as far as i can tell, the "movement" is
              a political power play by the large international union who is
              sponsoring the whole thing here.  does this pretty much describe
              the suituation with UAW and UC grad students?
              \_ Your ass has been formatted.  -motd formatting god
              \_ It's all controlled by the mob. Teamsters have nothing to
                 do with higher education. Ban the unions.
                 \_ no.  destroy the mob.

12/20   Does anyone know of a good internet source for indian recipes?
                \_ try these. (student's guide to cooking)
        http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/indian/indian-coll-1.html
        http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mjw/recipes/ethnic/indian/indian-coll-2.html
                -- sagarwal

12/20   Any *runtime* reason why include java.stuff.here may be better than
        include java.stuff.* ???
        \_ None.  The bytecode is the same.  It's just a matter of good style.
        \_ the first way limits the number of things that are available in
           the namespace to just the contents of java.stuff.here, some people
           like this better since it force the programmer to understand the
           effect of imports. In the old days importing a single file was
           slightly faster than importing all of the entries in a directory,
           so some old timers stick with method 1.

12/20   Is the safeway strike over?
        \_ There never was a strike against Safeway.
                \_ Umm, the teamsters strike??
                   \_ If you're talking about the strike against Summit
                      Logistics, yes that's over.
                        \_ Yes. The company that has only one customer:
                           Safeway.  It was a Safeway strike no matter how
                           you want to redefine it.  It's just a shell company
                           run by Safeway.  I'm anti-union but I'm not blind,
                           run by Safeway.  I'm anti-onion but I'm not blind,
                           or stupid and I don't delete other people's posts
                           because they say things I don't like to read.

12/20   Anyone looking for a house in Berkeley?  Is it just me, or are there
        really really few houses on the market right now?  Why?  Is it just
        because of the holidays?
        \_ yah don't you know houses are the ultimate christmas present
        \_ Most folks won't move over the xmas holiday unless they have to.
        \_ I've heard from a couple realtors that basically no real estate
           activity occurrs around this time. (My company was in a space and
           needed to break our lease... the owner said we could either be out
           by Thanksgiving or pay until January 1st.)
        \_ Why would you want to own property in Berkeley anyway?

12/20   Still looking for agpgart.o from a recently built linux box.  Please
        leave a copy in /tmp or a URL I can grab it from.  Thanks!  (And
        please don't delete this again).
        \_ Why not build it yourself? (And yes, this thread will be deleted ..)
                \_ Because I don't have a linux box.  I just need one little
                   file.  I don't have an extra box sitting around just doing
                   nothing waiting for me to install an entire OS just to get
                   one file.  Thank you for being so helpful and friendly
                   about such a minor and tiny request.

12/20   Do tulip or iris bulbs last more than one season?  I bought a bunch
        of bulbs and I'm planting them.  I'm wondering if I'll have do to
        it over again next year because they will all die.  Thanks.
        \_ tulips don't naturalize in the Bay Area, it doesn't get cold
           enough.  Irises might.  Daffodils do.  If you want, you can dig
           up your tulip bulbs and put them in the refrigerator for a month
           and re-plant them.  -tom
           \_ tom is right about tulips -- they require a deep freeze
                       \_ axiom 2?
              to bloom (around here, one has to refrigerate them for 6-8
              weeks before planting).  they can last another season around
              here if you let the tulips bloom, and then wait until their
              leaves wither after their blooming period (this is when nutrients
              store up in the bulb and is valuable).  Then, you dig them
              up and store them in a cool, dry, dark place until fall, when
              you once again, refrigerate/chill them, and start over.  You
              don't, fortunately, have to do this with irises, which do
              naturalize quite nicely in the Bay Area (but every couple of
              years, irises prefer some "thinning out" -- otherwise they
              don't rebloom very well).  If you want bulbs
              that naturalize well, I second tom's recommendation of daffodils,
              and I add a recommendation for narcissus (paperwhites), which
              do not require a deep freeze, are low maintenance, and
              bloom readily throughout the winter months (mine are blooming
              right now, and there are more of them than last year).  --chris

12/20   Why can't clean tissue paper be recycled with "mixed paper"?  It seems
        like tissue paper is made of the same fiber, just less packed.
        \_ To be wary of your "clean" tissue paper is not unwise.

12/20   What's the resolution of a consumer camcorder?  When I hook up my
        camcorder to my 20" TV the image doesn't look as sharp as those from
        broadcasting stations.
        \_ Your consumer camcorder uses VHS, they broadcast SuperVHS.
           There is a noticeable difference.
           \_ Broadcasters only use SVHS?  I thought it was something better..
               \_ believe it or not, many of them actually use Betamax.
                  \_ I believe that broadcasters use Betacam, which is a more
                     professional-grade version of Betamax.
        \_ This depends alot on the camcorder.  If it's normal 8, yes it's
           going to be a lot lower resolution.  If it's Hi-8/S-VHS/it will
           be "broadcast quality" but a lot depends on the quality of the
           camera itself. I've known normal 8 cameras to "look" better on
           first gen than hi-8/s-vhs because of better color.  Some brands
           really suck.  Some of the new digital cameras beat Betacam,
           but ya gotta spend $3K -- but that sure beats $15K!
           but ya gotta spend $3K -- but that sure beats $15K!  Also,
           you might be inadvertently recording in "EP" or "SLP" mode
           which will definitely affect quality.  Finally, be sure to
           have a hi-8 tape or S-VHS tape if that's what your camera uses,
           if you use normal 8 or VHS you are going to see the difference.
                \_ That's great people, but if you read the question,
                   you'd realize the question is asking for resolution.
                                                        -troll

12/20   Has anyone ever worked at a McDonalds?  Do the eggs in the egg
        McMuffins come precooked/preshaped, or do they use real eggs?
        \_ They are real eggs, you crack them into these metal rings. -tom
           \_ Are you saying this from experience?
                \_ yes.  Though I usually worked closing.  -tom
                        \_ And I always thought they were extruded like
                           plastic.
                           \_ I thought they were spun and grown into
                              ingots (like silicon wafers) and then
                              pulled out and sliced up.
        \_ On a similar note, I've heard rumors that Jack In The Box tacos
           aren't actually made of beef... rather, some cheap soy substitute.
           I asked for a nutrition fact sheet type thing last time I was
           there but just got blank stares. I'd really like to know since I
           don't like beef but really like those tacos. Truth or urban
           legend?
           \_ I've also heard that KFC chickens are machine grown and
              headless and that people wake up in ice baths with their
              kidneys removed.  Ah..the freshman urban legend forwards.
           \_ KFC is made of soilant green!  Soilant green is made of
              HUMANS!!!
                   \_ Tom finally weighs in on something he knows about--
                      MacDonalds and flowers!
                        \_ Don't knock flowers.  That's important.
                           \_ absolutely!  without flowers I wouldn't have
                              a cheap, convenient, and disposable gift to
                              give the cheap easy women I date.

12/20   Why is OpenSSH prefered over SSH1? Aren't all those bad ass
        patented algorithms better than the free ones? Does this
        mean no RSA?
        \_ OpenSSH is not preferred over SSH.  -tom
        \_ Depends.  You want code from the OpenBSD guys or from whoever?
           There's no magic in the non-Open version you'll be missing out on.
           \_ except working support for the SSH2 protocol and IDEA. -tom
              \_ OpenSSH works just fine with IDEA, you just have to enable
                 it (and in OpenSSL).
              \_ ssh2?  Yes... and?  So what?  What are you doing that ssh1
                 isn't good enough for?
                \_ Connecting from a Mac, for one.  Connecting with an ssh2
                   client, for another.  -tom
                   \_ OK, let's see.  #1 is wrong.. I connect from a mac to
                      ssh1 servers all the time, and #2 is a tautology.
                      Boy, you're a bright one, tom.
                        \_ I "connect" from a Mac to ssh1 servers, but the
                           software available has insufficient features.  And
                           #2 isn't a tautology if you are someone running
                           a system that has to be accessed remotely (such as,
                           just about every machine running ssh).  -tom
                           \_ How many machines with _only_ ssh2 clients have
                              you worked with?
                                \_ I have had to install ssh2 servers so
                                   people with only ssh2 clients could
                                   connect.  Real world.  -tom