5/12    http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200106047.shtml
        Blue team?  Red team?  It all sounds racist to me.  GWB is hiring
        these guys by the bucket.

5/12    http://www.redherring.com/index.asp?layout=story&doc_id=880019288&channel=10000001
        So what is your take on the "programmable microchip" is it just
        hype? Is it the way to go? --cuek@post.com
        \_ Mostly hype.  Coarse grained reconfigurable devices, instead
           of fine grained ones like Xilinx.  It still comes down to
           applications and (ease/difficulty of) programming.  Yawn.
                -nweaver

5/12    American Pie 2 -- Why Bother? Watch for a new gag involving
        onanism (surprise) and Krazy Glue (ouch).  Release Date: August 10
        \_ Wait, first you're saying why should someone care about the movie,
           then you're asking people to watch for certain sequences in the
           movie? Eh? Oh, and learn to format.

5/12    Still no word on why talg is speaking at graduation.
        \_ I am SO there!  Talg is my special friend... -- ilyas
        \_ who's that?
           \_ A guy who just said, "I'm so glad I never had to participate
              in a sexual relationship where I had to care about my grade."
        \_ Incidentally, to complete the parade of True Evil speaking at
           Berkeley graduations this year, I believe Janet Reno is speaking.
             -- ilyas
           \_ Janet "Killer" Reno?!? WTH are the regents smoking?!?
        \_ Who the hell is talg?
           \_ http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~talg
        \_ Because he signed up.
        \_ Can we sign up for the rebuttal?
           \_ can ilyas write the rebuttal?
        \_ i think it's perfect.  Finally talg will realize what most
           of the seniors truly feel about him.
        \_ who is talg? (aside from the his name)
           \_ See url above.
        \_ Tal is a smart guy.  He introduced me to "Conrete Mathematics"
           by Graham, Knuth, & Patashnik, which has excellent typesetting
           AND is fun to read.  I think it's great that he's speaking at
           graduation.  -- alice
           \_ This isn't grad school, alice, you don't have to be nice to
              everyone, especially not to my special friend talg. -- ilyas
           \_ then have him speak at _your_ graduation.  Why does he have
              to ruin the day for the rest of _us_.
           \_ you could've asked the motd. hard to find people who haven't heard
              of this book.
           \_ but see you aren't a bitter, lifeless geek
              \_ she isn't?
                 \_ she's hot, to say the least. she's got the feline sexiness.
                    \_ PixP
                       \_ how does this work? I thought that P was for Predicate.
                          \_ It doesn't.  It does.
                          \_ it does stand for predicate.  people who ask pixP,
                             urlP, etc. are idiots.
        \_ so he can go on and on about how much the undergrad program sucks
           and how he'd much rather be somewhere else?
        \_ Seems to me that UCB should get either Marion Barry or the
           worm-eaten corpse of L. Ron Hubbard to speak.  But maybe that's just
           me.

5/12    What's a good site to have cellphone tones sent to your phone?
        I already searched gooogle...only came up with european stuff.

5/11    http://www.grrl.com/hackerboy.html

5/11    top shows a lot of "io wait"  How do i find out which processes
        are doing all the disk writing/reading? and is there a way to
        "nice" a process with regards to disk io the way nice does for
        cpu utilization. (if not, shouldn't there be?)
        \_ Some versions of ps will do this with the right options.

5/11    How the hell do you quote search string on Yahoo? I want to
        search for "A & J" in yellow page. It's the & that it won't take.
        Thanks.

5/11    How do I hook up with the Milpitas street drag races?
        \_ Membership requires extremely small penis
           \_ Membership.
              \_ Membership.

5/11    California is doomed:
        http://www.latimes.com/business/reports/power/lat_risky010511.htm
        Davis' power plan is based on hopes, guesses, and ideal estimates.
        This is no way to run a state.
        \_ But it's a great way to run a nation's budget.
        \_ I love this. Beyond some hack writer's story, on what
           evidence do you base this statement? Do you have some
           method to make polisci and economics quantitative? Hell,
           its half guesswork and half voodoo. If you have a better
           plan , perhaps you should run for office.
           \_ Is there *any* news source you would accept?  When stuff from
              conservative media sources are quoted the response is usually,
              "That's just right wing propoganda.  No one reads that!"  When
              it's a left wing media source like the LA Times, the response is
              to attack the one particular random author.  What little world
              do you live in?  And more importantly, have they stopped building
              power plants?  If not, I want to go there too.
              \_ Uh, no. Someone intelligent can discern between and opinion
                 and a fact. Facts come out of reports like 10K reports or
                 official government pubilcations or if the news media
                 takes that data or wording from that publication and reports
                 it verbatim. But once a reporter starts to infer, it's no
                 longer a fact but an opinion.
                 \_ So things like quoting Davis as saying we'll have X much
                    more power by Y date (which isn't happening) and that
                    things like his business conservation program which only
                    has 2 companies signed up so far is just the reporter
                    making stuff up?  Okey dokey!
                    \_ No, because despite having sound bites and quotes
                       from almost every other person involved, the reporter
                       never once quoted Davis himself.  So in fact, the
                       article makes it appear as if Davis is using the
                       "we'll have X much more power by Y" argument
                       without actually reporting what he said.
                       \_ Yeah it's just the people who are supposed to be
                          implementing it who have no idea how it's going to
                          work and are quoted as saying so.  Time to let it
                          go.  The plan is fucked and playing word games about
                          who was quoted directly or indirectly in an article
                          won't save the State of California.
        \_ The only solution to the problem is more supply == more
           power plants. Unfortunately the dimwitted anti-progress
           tree-huggers and no nukes alarmists won't allow that to
           happen, because they secretly relish the fact that this
           state will soon revert to the stone age, because that is
           the highest level of technology they are capable of
           understanding.
           \_ wait, what about the demand side, dude?
                \_ This was discussed yesterday.  CA already has the greatest
                   conservation rate per capita in the nation.  There's only
                   just so much more to be squeezed from that rock.  No new
                   power plants have been built in 10+ years in CA as the
                   population and business usage grew.  Think about that one.
                   \_ No, Hawaii and New York are at the top, not CA.
                      And you would expect New York to run the heaters
                      non-stop. And if you look at the distribution, the
                      numbers can go lower. In Los Angles, residents consume
                      an average of 5400kW hrs which is significantly
                      lower than the state's average (7700kW hrs).
              \_ Yeah, the tree huggers should stop recharging thier
                 EV1's.
           \_ Rocks can be used to assault others.  We must eliminate rocks...
              for the children!
              \_ Laws of physics can be used to assault others.  We must
                 eliminate laws of physics ... for the CHILDREN!
                 \_ Sky equipment kills people.  We must attack the sky
                    equipment industry!
              \_ Science has made us what we are! Science has made the guns,
                 the power shortage, the nukes, the traffic jams! We must
                 eliminate Science and trust God... for the children! Good
                 lord man, the fucking CHILDREN!
                               \_ This is problem. F*cking is what created
                                  the children. We must eliminate f*cking!

5/12    Who will save the children?

5/11    Motd poll:
        I have met IRL with people I first knew online ....
        I haven't
        I have slept IRL with people I first knew online ..
        I have neither met nor slept with people I first knew online

5/12    Douglas Adams, 2001.
        \_ We take eighteen ounces of sizzling ground beef, and soak it in rich,
           creamery butter, then we top it off with bacon, ham, and a fried egg.
           We call it the Good Morning Burger.
        \_ Hopefully now he'll now know the Question to the Answer of Life, the
           Universe, and Everything... Rest well dude...
        \_ damnit why don't people like Rush Limbaugh, William Shatner,
           Jesse Helms, and other schmucks die instead?!?!?
              \_ Damn it why don't the schmucks in the ACLU, the Sierra Club,
                 Green Peace, NOW, the Green and Democratic parties die
                 instead?!? The world would be a *much* better place without
                 them.
           \_ If you were God, who would YOU rather have in the afterlife
              with you?  That's why....
                \_ There is no God.  There is no afterlife.
                   \_ There is a God, but there is no afterlife for most
                      people (due to the simple fact that they have nothing
                      with which to survive death).
                   \_ There is a God, but there is not "afterlife". If
                      you attain "salvation" its all over, otherwise you
                      keep coming back until you attain "salvation".
                      One attains salvation when one's karma == 0.
                      Its very difficult.
              \_ I would *love* to have good decent people, such as those
                 you mention, they believe in freedom and democracy and
                 \_ Whatever you think of the Bush family doesn't excuse the
                    entire state of Massachusetts for turning a clan of rapist
                 the american way.
                    entire country would be a better place if a Kennedy
                    specific virus was developred and released.
           \_ Uhm, I think "schmuck" is a gross understatement.
           \_ They're like a virus, cancer, or lawn weed. You can poison
              them all you want and they'll never go away, wreaking havoc
              on anything good.
                \_ Yeah, imagine that, people who believe in the U.S.
                   Constitution.  What a bunch of fucks!  I hate that, too.
                   \_ Nobody wants to hear the non-sensical ravings of a
                      loud-mouth malcontent.
To: linden@Eng
                      \_ but that's what the motd is all about.
           \_ They do.
              \_ Sometimes they need to be helped.
                 \_ Oh hey that was almost witty.
                    \_ oooh. That was a burn, man. You sure showed him.

From: adamsd@CERF.NET (Douglas Adams)
Subject: Re: UL prototype...
Cc: dan.mckinnon@canrem.com (Dan Mckinnon) content-length: 3385

> Mr. Adams, I wonder if you would care to post a comment in
>alt.folklore.urban in response to Peter's comments. He probably doesn't
>know you are "into" computers, music, graphics, world wildlife, and so
>on.
>
> Dan.mckinnon@canrem.com
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>PVDL>From: Jym Dyer <jym@remarque.berkeley.edu>
>PVDL>> Douglas Adams maintains that the similar incident (which
>PVDL>> he wrote with Arthur Dent as the protagonist) was based on
>PVDL>> something that actually happened to him!

Yes it did. It happened to me on Cambridge station in the summer of 1976. A
couple of years later I told the story on the radio, and then subsequently
began to come across all sorts of variations of the story cropping up all over
the place. I don't really care whether you believe me or not. I'm simply
relating what occurred. If you are predisposed to believe - on no evidence -
that I am a liar, there's not a lot I can do about that.

>
>PVDL>There are 2 (two) more hallmarks of an urban legend:
>PVDL> 1. In retelling the tale, the speaker always claimed it
>PVDL> happened to him, or a friend of his.
>PVDL> 2. The speaker will not be budged from this claim, and
>PVDL> if challenged, becomes more adamant.

So how would you distinguish this from someone who was telling the truth? If
you say that I'm a lemon and I deny that I'm a lemon and you then say that
it's characteristic of people who are lemons to deny that they are lemons
there's not a lot further we can go is there?

>
>PVDL>In the final analysis, it doesn't matter whether Douglas Adams is
>PVDL>big enough to say that the incident stems from something he heard
>PVDL>rather than something he felt:

How do you kow this? Do you have access to some part of my mind that I don't?

>PVDL>On the other hand, you're posting on the Internet, and Adams wouldn't
>PVDL>know Internet from an alt.sewer.

I do know about the InterNet. Presumably the fact that I'm saying this will
only confirm to you that I know nothing at all about it. I would say that
wouldn't I? Ah. Perhaps I'm an imposter. Why don't you ask me if I am? If I
deny it that will prove that I am because that's what imposters always do.

>

>PVDL> Peter "thought the Hitch-Hiker's Guide was a good idea taken
 >PVDL> a long way too far.   It's been a book, a radio show, a
 >PVDL> tv show, a play, an opera... about the only artform that
 >PVDL> it hasn't been is a tapestry, and there's probably someone
 >PVDL> working on it now" vdL.

The Hitch Hiker's Guide has not been an opera. It has however been a tapestry,
if you count a woven bath towel as a tapestry. Careful with your facts. That's
how myths start.
           \_ Get over it.  One could easily ask why the Bush clan scum are
              still around.  How many rapes and murders does it take?  Oh yeah,
              they're ultra dumb crack-smoking fascist so it's all ok.
           \_ Get over it.  One could easily ask why the Kennedy clan scum are
              still around.  How many rapes and murders does it take?  Oh yeah,
              they're ultra leftist so it's all ok.
              \_ Don't mock the Kennedy's. The Kennedy's can kick the Bush's
                 ass and their "compassionativity" any day.
              \_ Whatever you think of the Kennedy family doesn't excuse the
                 entire state of Texas for turning a clan of rapists and
                 murderers into heros.  And I wasn't mocking them.  The
                 entire country would be a better place if a Bush
                 specific virus was developed and released.
                 \_ At least the Bush clan believes in freedom, progress
                    and prosperity, unlike the Kennedy's who want to keep
                    us all in miserable poverty and servitude (to them)
                    for the rest of humanity.
              \_ How many Kennedys are ALREADY dead? Ever study them? Tragedy
                 everywhere.
                 \_ Not enough.  Not nearly enough.

\_ Who is "linden@Eng?
        \_ he's just this guy, you know?
        \_ I think it's Peter van der Linden at Sun, author of Just Java
           and Deep C Secrets.
           \_ yes it is. -alexf
                    \_ You are right they breed way too fast.
          \_ this rules, you guys can even turn the death of a great
             author into a flame war.  carry on.
             \_ "Great author"?  *pshaw*  hardly.
                \_ then why'd you read all his books then?
             \_ Who asked you?  No one needs your permission to have a flame
                fest.