4/27    IBM flat screens.  Skip down to the last two paragraphs.  The rest
        is just a free sales pitch for IBM.
        http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5081976,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews01
        \_ how does one do "industrial design" anyway? say I doodled a neato
           pc design. who would I talk to to get it manufactured?
        \_ When is someone going to sell an OLED/LEP monitor?
        \_ pix please.
        \_ IBM brought one of the 20" ones by our company to demo last month
                 - they are nice!

4/27    how did elections go?  I know the outcome, but the vote tallies?
        runoffs?
        \_ we won
           \_ Woohoo!

4/27    In workouts, why are free weights better than machines even if I'm
        using the same weight?
        [just cleaning up. it's archived if you want the info.]
              \_ Thanks for all the info, guys.  I'll start switching to free
                 weights.

4/27    Anyone here took phil 135 metaphysics?  What the hell is metaphysics?
        (at berkeley)
        \_ Its the physics of the mind body and the soul.
           Its the most important subject you can study for
           the betterment of your life and all of humanity.
           - Deepak Chopra
        \_ Its the physics of the mind body and the soul. - Deepak Chopra
        \_ Fake physics
           \- if a bookstore has a sectional called "metaphysics" you know it
           is a bad bookstore. if the "metaphysics" section is bigger than the
           philosophy and physics sections put together, then it is a really
           bad bookstore. For a long answer to your question (that is not too
           hard to read) see I. Kant:  Prologomena to Every Future Metaphysics
           That May Be Presented as a Science. For an even longer answer,
           Critique of Pure Reason ... "Hume took as his starting point a
           single but important conception of metaphysics ... the connection
           of cause and effect ... metaphysics consists, then, of a priori
           knowlege ... to distinguish from pure mathematics, pure philos
           knowledge ... i must refer the reader to the Critique of Pure
           Reason, where the distinction between the two ways of using reason
           are clearly and adequately presented." ok tnx. --Kant, Prologomena.
           p.s. Kant is 277yrs and 1 week old today.
        \_ I took it.  Meta physics is a uber class of philosophy dealing
           particularly with being, reality, mind, knowledge. It is
           inclusive of sub branches of philosophy as epistimology,
           ontology, theory of knowledge, philosophy of mind, etc.
           Generally will asks questions such as:  what is the nature
           of being? What is truth? What does it mean to exist? What
           is the relation of cause and effect?  etc.  Very interesting
           topics but if you're not use to philosophy classes you might
           be asking for too much.  If you're not a philosophy major
           don't be surprised if you get a C (or less) on your first paper.
           \_ i used to be a philosophy major (among other things) i had
              history of philosophy (heraclitus -> sartre); philosophy 132.
              is this enough?
              \_ history of philosophy is not philosophy proper, it's
                 history.  So I don't know if it's enough for 135, but
                 definitely avoid courses in philo on Kant and Heidegger
                 unless you really really want to read a lot of difficult
                 writings.
                 \_ I'm making your burger. -philo major
                    \_ So how was that book on Kant? And I will have
                       a fries and a milkshake with that. Thanks.
                 \_ Do you know why the called him Kant? It was short
                    for Stupid Philospher, Can't Get a Job!
                    \_ Hey!  I love Kant!  -!psb
                        \_ I wonder if Nick "don't go into CS for the money"
                           Weaver is one of the morons commenting above. -tom
              \_ camus can do, but sartre is smartre!

4/27    I'm trying to get some warez off IRC.  There are a lot of people
        advertising sites that require you to visit some other site and
        register and give them an email address.  Anybody know if they're
        spammers?
        \_ probably, but if you're getting something for nothing, what do you
           care?  just go register for a temporary hotmail account or something.
        \_ don't ever deal with that kind of crap. it's not worth the time
           or hassle. newsgroups and ftp pubs are the best. -1337 W@R3Z K1D
           \_ you need a good newsserver for newsgroups.  even then it will
              like panning for gold.  and pubs will be  slow and few and
                 far between.

4/28    If the U.S. is supporting a "One-China" policy, should we be
        selling Taiwan our advanced weapons. If they do, in fact, unite,
        that would me that American technology, including F-16's, would
        then belong to China.
        \_ Those F-16s were Block 20/25 with the MLU. Not the most advanced
           F-16s. In fact they were embargoed Pakistani F-16s. The Chinese
           have the J-10, which was made with Israeli assistance, based upon
           the Israeli Lavi fighter, which is a knock-off of the F-16.
           Plenty of countries have U.S. weapons that could one day be used
           against US but most are older models/outdated. Iran was sold
           F-14s before the Shah was deposed (though they only have a
           few working ones left. Iraq had old HAWKs during the Gulf
           War besides their usual Soviet SAMs.
        then belong to China.
        \_ Those F-16s were Block 15 with the MLU. Not the most advanced
           F-16s. The Chinese are developing the J-10, with alleged
           Israeli assistance, based upon their experience with the now
           cancelled Israeli Lavi fighter, which was made with U.S. assistance
           and very similar to the F-16. Several Congressmen have brought
           this issue up and publicly condemn Israel for helping China.
        \_ Yeah, someone in China wrote us a check and the delivery address
           just happened to be in Taipei.
        \_ nuke taiwan into oblivion!!1!--the mad chinaman

4/28    This motd is boring. Somebody say something interesting.

4/28    LaTeX question:  How do I write a macro to add to numbers?
                                                       \_ two
        I can't seem to find how to do math operations with macros.  Thanks.
        \_ See Appendix A.4 of "The LaTeX Companion" for one way.
           \_ I don't happen to have that book handy.  Is there a URL
              or a sample latex file available to illustrate this?
              \_ Sorry, I don't know. If I were to do a websearch,
                 I'd search for the TeX commands "advance" and
                 "multiply", or the LaTeX package "calc" by Thorup
                 and Jensen.

4/28    This motd is boring. Somebody say something interesting.
        MOTD poll on what primarily is going to limit human population:
        1)  Birth control
        2)  War
        3)  Famine      .
        4)  Pestilence
        5)  fags taking over the world, so no procreative sex .
        6)  People posting on the motd and running 37337 GN00/11N
            SUX, rather than saving money, buying homes and starting
            families. On the other hand, having less people who can
            mistake M$ Windoze or 11N SUX for a REAL OS is probably
            a good thing.