4/11    Gun toting yahoo idiot dad gets off by stupid jury making bogus claims
        of "self-defense" firing a *GUN* on a *SCHOOL CAMPUS*!
        http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/news_4.html
        This guy should've gotten the full life term.
        \_ Did you read the article at all?  He only fired it into the air and
           he was just trying to defend his son when his son was being beaten
           by a gang, not by another single person.  Also see the reference to
           Joshua Stern near the end of the article.  I wouldn't carry a gun to
           school, but if I were the father and I happened to have a gun at
           that moment, I would have done the same thing.

4/11    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,5455,00.html for the full text of
        the US letter to China.  In English it doesn't look any different than
        what we've been saying for 10+ days. And here's the Chinese version of
        what the US letter said
        http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200104/11/eng20010411_67479.html
        You can do your own "compare and contrast".
        \_ With that letter, the Chinese can extract the phrase "We are very
           sorry" out of context and claim that the US is apologizing.
           sorry" out of context and claim that the US is apologizing.  Both
           sides save their faces.
        \_ Chinaman: "velly solly"

4/11    Last year I filled out my tax return s using only information i got
        off of the motd.  when the irs demanded to know why everything
        was "screwed up" i had to explain to them about the magical
        powers of the motd, and how everything heard here is true.  finally,
        i was able to convince them by showing them several days worth
        of motd that indeed it was all true, and they let me have my
        way.  this year i'm declaring my schlong as a tax deduction,
        and don't expect any trouble.
        \_ it sounds like a loss to me.
           \_ I think the IRS code says he pays based on his girth to length
              calculation computer from lines 14 and 12 on the 1040GL form.
              It's likely he won't owe anything this or any other year in
              which the result on line 16 is 1.2 or less.  That's something
              that snuck into tax law by executive order on december 31st.

4/11    Anyone have any experience with Turbo Tax? Was it worth it? Was it
        the web version or stand-alone? Thanks.         - rory
        \_ I just did all my taxes in 2 hours with TT. Had a glitch
           doing electronic filing, but pretty smooth otherwise.
           It's just too expensive, otherwise its good.
           \_ If your taxes are bone head simple, yes.
        \_ I've used the web version for the past two years. My taxes
           are not overly complicated or overly easy (married filing
           jointly, itemized deductions because of mortgage, no major
           investments). I've been happy both times.

4/10    How can i tell what version of snoop i am running?
        \_ strings
        \_ uname -a - snoop is builtin to Solaris & doesn't have seperate
                version numbers

4/10     I'm looking to set up a small wireless lan in my (GF's) house.
         Recommendations?  (cost matters!)
              \_ like someone said above..the airport is basically
                 802.11b gear branded by Apple..it's not Apple specific
                 we have a setup with an Airport hooked up to a fbsd box
                 to dsl serving wireless dhcp/nat
                 \_ agreed. We had an Airport LAN set up at my old office.
                    It worked great. I have a WaveLAN PC card from Lucent
                    and I was able to easily use it under Windoze and
                    Linux. From what I understand, the Airport is in fact
                    not much more than a WaveLAN card plugged into some
                    486-type machine and packaged nicely. The only issue
                    I see in doing it yourself is that you probably won't
                    be able to do it as cheaply.
                 \_ Are there any wireless systems that offer some kind of
                 security? Couldn't someone drive by your house and snoop
                 everything on your internal network?
                 \_ Yes... someone could. Though the Apple Airport appears
                    to allow access conrol via MAC address, and also supports
                    encrypting the communication channel.       - rory
                    \_ Neither of which are specific to Airport. By the
                       way, MAC stands for media access control, something
                       present in all ethernet devices (including 802.11).
                       Of course it's used for access control, hence the name.
http://machardware.about.com/compute/machardware/library/weekly/aa062600a.htm

4/10    if you take stock in lieu of 1/2 your salary, do you need to
        declare it as "income"?
        \_ Look at all these poor suckers doing their taxes at the
           last minute. I did my taxes more than a year ago.
           \_ So you stopped making money in 2000 since March?
        \_ No, you need to declare it as insanity.
           \_ seriously - i didn't need the cash and thought that
              the package was decent.
        \_ what's the max amount you can earn and not have to pay
           taxes?  Is it still $8000?
           \_ Anyone under $50k/year isn't paying enough to matter.
        \_ anything you earn is income.  A better question maybe how
           to report it.
        \_ If the stock was given to you as an Option (ISO or NQ)
           then you don't have to report it till you exercise. If
           you have already exercised, then you will need to report
           it as either short-term capital gains, long-term capital
           gains or a combination of regular income and short/long
           term capital gains.
           \_ I agree with this guy
           \_ http://www.fairmark.com has some info
           \_ It's short-term capital gains if you exercised and sold.  If you
              exercised and held it for more than a year, it's long-term
              capital gains at the time of the sale.  *HOWEVER*, if you
              exercised ISOs and didn't sell them during that tax year, then
              you probably owe AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) in the tax year
              that you exercised.  In this case, hire a professional, because
              you WILL need help.
        \_ If the stock was given straight out (i.e. not as options) then
           you're most likely screwed since it will count as income at the
           market value on the day you got it, even if it's at 1% of that
           price now.  Call a CPA.

4/11    Ooh look!  They have the internet on computers now.

4/11    Chinese Pilot Wong Wei went the wrong way.
        \_ URL?