3/5     Motd fortune of the day:
        Don't go to a Japanese restaurant with ugly+loud Cantonese waitresses

3/5     According to the solaris sysadmin guide I need to be in single user
        mode to do a dump/restore.  I've tried dumping when I'm not in single
        user mode and it works fine.  Should I be afraid that anything bad
        might happen?  Anybody had any bad experiences with ufsdump in user
        mode?  Thanks.
        \_ It'll complain sometimes if a file changes while it's backing it
           up, but it basically works fine.  -tom
           \_ referential integrity cannot be assured if dump is performed
              in multiuser mode.
        \_ Do you care about data integrity? If you do, then you should be
           in single user mode, since you can better control the accesses
           to the filesystem.
           That said, if you are doing this at home on your personal box,
           with one user and maybe the web/ftp server running, its not a
           big deal.
        \_ just curious, can you force remount the filesystem into read-only
           mode, then dump it, then remount it rw?  Might solve the integrity
           issues, and only lose you last-access-time information.  -ERic

3/5     So, I use exploder and outlook on my win2k box at work. The new version
        of netscape blows and Work requires me to use outlook.  Is there any way
        (short of ditching one or the either) that i can keep IExplorer from
        knowing my email address/having access to outlook. (lest the evil h4Xor
        (or worse, porn) sites that i visit know who i am).

3/5     For the "First Class" stamps which I bought for $0.33 but which don't
        have "33 cents" printed on them, does it mean I can still use them now
        34-cent stamps?  Thanks.
        \_ If you post a letter with 33c instead of 34c, the post office
           will probably still deliever it, but they are under no obligation
           to do so. I wouldn't send any bills that need to arrive in a
           timely fashion with just a 33c stamp on it.
           If you want to be on the safe side, buy some 1c stamps and add
           them to your letters.
        \_ I have sent exactly 1 under-posted letter out and got exactly
           1 under-posted letter returned for more postage.
        \_ No; they were first class stamps when they were printed, but their
           first-classness has been superseded now that there's a newer series
           of non-denominated first-class stamps.  They're worth whatever the
           first class rate was at the time they were printed (part of the
           reason they started printing the year on stamps a while back).
           \_ I just bought some first-class stamps (no value printed) from
              the post office a few days ago for $0.34 each, but there are
              "2000" printed on them.  Does that mean I got cheated and they
              are only good for the first-class rate last year?
        \_ why does the PO make stamps that don't have the value printed on
           them?  it's silly.  is it just so that they can print the stamps
           before they decide on new rates?

3/5     Is it worth $130 extra to get a 19" Trinitron monitor instead
        of a 'plain' 19" ? Shopping at Dell.
        \_ If you're not paying for it, YES. If you make more than $50k and
           you'll be using your computer for >5 hours a day, yes. Otherwise,
           no. (that's my opinion... which is what you asked for, right?)
        \_ How much for no monitor at all?  Buy the system screenless and go
           out and buy one of the FLAT-CRT 19" Trinitron NFs or flat
           Diamondtrons.
           \_ Mmm..diamondtron.. *drool*
        \_ I have a Sony G400. It is bright, sharp and beautiful.  However,
           I always have had problems with Sonys in geometric distortions.
           The first one is bad, and I have to lug the boulder back to the
           store to exchange for another one.  I have a suspicion that
           companies like Dell gets all the monitors with no geometric flaws
           and the bad ones are given to companies like onvia, cdw, etc.
           I have this suspicion because the Sonys (from Dell) at my
           workplace all do not have distortions.  Yes, the Sony G400 was
           for my monitorless Dell.  I think Dell also sells the G400
           (http://www.gigabuys.com but their price is high.
           \_ You can be sure that Dell sets certain standards before
              it will use OEM manufacturers.  Standards often higher than
              your ordinary riffraff seller.
        \_ CRTs are horrible. Don't waste your money. Get a LCD flat panel.
           A 15" is as low as $499 and you can get a 18" for $999:

           http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/custom/monitor_blowout

           I have a LCD and I'm never going back to CRT. The only reason
           to still buy a CRT is if you *need* color-sync for professional
           photo-editing.
           If I had $16,000 extra lying around, I'd own a Sony LCD HDTV
           too.
                \_ LCDs suck if yer a hardcore geek game junkie
                   that wants high refresh rates.
                   \_ LCDs refresh at upto 30 frames/sec. People with
                      very good eyesight (usually not hardc0re gam3rz)
                      can tell the difference between 30 and 40 but not
                      much else. Most of us can tell the difference between
                      20 and 30. Our eyes are just not that good, so what
                      is the point of 100 frames/sec?
                      \_ Because the Nyquist sampling ratio doesn't apply
                         to H@RDK0R3 G@M3R5.
                         \_ Sorry, I thought that we were all homo sapiens.
                            I'd never heard of this species called h@rdc0r3
                            g@m3r. Is it perchance related to the species
                            known as 3133t h@x0r or gn00 l1nsux lus3r?

3/5     Do you want to have fun, technical experience, and flexible hours?
        Residential Computing is hiring for the System Administrator position!!!
        Applications due March 14, 2001, 12 noon.
        For more info:  http://www.rescomp.berkeley.edu/hiring
        \_ how many options do I get?

3/4     WTF is wrong with's Berkeley's internet connection?
        \_ Pipe got severed. Same reason Seti can't upload units.

3/4     I want to create a shell script that my users can execute,
        but not read.  I thought the way to do this would be to
        create a shell script and give it world executable permission
        and take away all read permissions.  This doesn't seem to work.
        Any suggestions?  Thanks.
        \_ you can't.
           \_ I'm executing one right now.
        \_ create a binary instead?
          \_ You still need to read it to execute it.
             \_ no you don't.
                \_ Local Unix FS will let you execute without reading.
                   NFS servers just assume that the execute bit also grants
                   read priveledges.   (Some clients may try to stop you from
                   reading the file, but it's usually possible anyway.)
        \_ Um, this is probably useless since a user can always run the
           script with /bin/sh -nv <path to script> and see what its doing.
           They can also get an execution trace with -x (either set -x or
           /bin/sh -x). You can probably do a set +x in your script, but
           some versions of Bourne and Korn shell will ignore that if the
           shell was invoked with -x.
           Why do you want to do this?
           \_ I'm a TA and we plan to have a project where the students
              can test there work by running a script.
                       \_ I believe you want their not there.
              \_ why don't you want them to see the tests? Will that give away
                 how to do the project? If so, I'm curious as to how and why.
                 \_ If the students see the tests, they'll cheat and and tailor
                    their code to only handle the those test cases.  -- not TA
                    \_ Then you are a fool.
                    \_ Then maybe you need a better test suite/project? --Jon
        \_ Install sudo.  Add an entry to the sudoers file which allows anyone
           to run the script, and have it run as user "foo".  Then make the
           script read/executable only by "foo".  Now make a wrapper script
           which just does "sudo -u foo /path/to/real/script" and tell your
           users to run the wrapper script.  --dbushong
           \_ This will work, so long as you also clear out the env vars
              and reset the -x flag in shell.
        \_ Write a CGI or a mail interface.

3/3     what's the smallest size case you can get for a desktop (ATX)?
        \_ 8.5"
        \_ unless you want rackmount 1.5" high cases, microATX:
           http://www.in-win.com/framecode/index.html
           http://www.supermicro.com/PRODUCT/Chassis/Sc350M.htm
           \_ These things are huge. There are *much* smaller cases
              (4" high, 14" wide, 12" deep) at fry's. And I've seen
              even smaller ones in low end HP vectra's.
              I considered getting one of these, but the whole problem
              with PCs is that they need a keyboard, mouse, monitor etc.
              and can't boot on serial console.
              PCs suck, get a real computer.

3/3     More apm fun.  apm, apmd work, but halt -p causes a reboot.  Any
        suggestions?
        \_ Truss/strace/trace it.
           \_ ktrace