11/30   Next semester's officers:
                President       twohey
                VP              ajani
                treasurer       mgoodman
                secretary       karthik
                librarian       darin

12/5    Today I tried to login to http://mail.yahoo.com via the secure page, and
        Netscape complains that the certificate that the site has presented
        does not contain the correct site name.  What's wrong?
        \_ It must be Carnivore.  The FBI is reading your mail and triggered
           a netscape bug.  Turn yourself in.

12/5    Say I have a directory full of huge jpg images. Whats the
        command-line way to make a small thumbnail copy of everything?
        \_ /csua/bin/thumbnail_index
           \_ Wonderful!  Thank you!
        \_ share the porn!  pst

12/5    Has there been a ssh change?  Protocol 1 no longer works, and
        protocol 2 has problem with
          ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host
        \_ It could be AT&T (I've noticed the same thing) but there's also
           a recent vulnerability found in ssh1.
           \_ It's not AT&T -- this just happened to me and I have DSL.
              I was able to login after a couple of minutes though. Anyone
              know what's going on?
              \_ I had the same problem from work and we have a T3 (not att).
        \_ I've been having the same difficulty.  I attribute it to rampant
           packet loss into/out of EECS.

12/5    Does anyone else have termcap problems using xterm from Solaris
        to Linux?  Any ideas how to fix it?  xterm -display solaris:0
        on the linix box works ok but I dont want to do that [low bandwidth].
        \_ Yes, I have 'set prompt="%S%/%%%s "' in my .cshrc, and when I rlogin
           from SusOS 5.7 to Linux 2.2.16-22, all the characters are inverted
           instead of only the prompt.
           \- there are display position problems and rev video problems
           even if you dont use the tcsh highlighting stuff. any remedies
           would be appreciated. --psb
        \_ If you use bash on solaris, upgrade to a newer version. They've
           apparently fixed some of the termcap problems. e.g. line editing
           with widths > 80.
           \- does emacs work cleanly for you? not for me. i dont think
           changing your shell will fixthe problem. --psb
        \_ what kind of termcap problems?  I usually export TERM=xtermc
           if it's the color you want.  you should probably be able to use
           ansi or at the very least vt100 --dwc
                \- hmm, using vt100 seems to work. tnx. --psb
        \_ apparently there have been some "holy wars" about how xterm termcap
           should work between debian linux and the rest of the world.  but
           it seems the new release of XFree86 has joined debian in this.
           \_ XFree86 xterm has many extensions (like color) not present in
                the http://X.org xterm used by the rest of the world.   Some linux
                distributions are rumored to have an 'xterm-sun' or
                'xterm-r6' termcap entry for the older one, or you can always
                compile the XFree86 xterm on Solaris.
        \_ Yet another reason why *nix isn't ready for the desktop.  Can't
           even get the basic stuff right and it varies across vendors.  If
           something ancient like xterm is causing geeks problems how does
           anyone seriously expect the rest of the system to be ready for
           prime time in the next century?

12/5    I want to use Cascading Style Sheets to force the display of code
        between <code> directives to have eight spaces for every tab. I've
        searched the web, but haven't managed to find any useful links.
        Any help would be appreciated. --twohey
        \_ I don't think CSS will let you specify things like that.
           (w3c discourages using horizontal tabs in preformatted text.
           http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/struct/text.html#h-9.3.4 )  Can't
           you just use emacs or some other tool to replace all the tabs with
           spaces automatically? (If the increased file size bothers you,
           install mod_gzip or something.)
           \_ I want to cut and paste code that's formatted with eight space
              tabs and have it display correctly. It seems absurd that I
              have to translate spaces to tabs for this to work. --twohey
              have to translate tabs to spaces for this to work. --twohey
              \_ it seems absurd that translating tabs to spaces is such a big
                 deal.  just tell emacs to save files with spaces instead of
                 tabs.  get over it.
        \_ perl.  no emacs required.

12/4    Is there a way to run a proram from another machine, without
        having to log into that machine? Specifically, I'd like to run
        an xbiff icon from another machine, on my local machine (so I can
        tell when that account gets mail). I'd like not to have to keep
        the extra xterm open on my local machine.
        \_ "ssh -X foo@bar.com xbiff" might work.  After you enter your
            password you can background the process (or you can & it if
            you have DSA stuff set up).
            \_ or just ssh -f foo@bar.com xbiff
               and it will background itself (you only have to give -X if
               whoever set up the client explicitly made X forwarding off by
               default)
        \_ Run a cron job on the remote host.  Have it check if your xbiff is
           running and if not, run it with the appropriate parameters/env.

12/4    If a DFA of M accepts all languages in L, then what exactly is
        the "complement of L"? Isn't the complement of L everything that
        M does not accept, which is an infinite set?
        \_ Usually you phrase things as "a DFA M accepts the language L"
           with the extraneous "in" and "of".  The complement of L is
           usually everything not in L which is what M does not accept
           which can be an infinite set.  This is not a problem.  Consider
           the language L = {} (e.g. L contanis only the empty string).
           In this case L complement is all non-empty strings.  It is
           trivial to build a DFA to recognize L complement.  -emin
        \_ ok thx emin. I can prove that if a DFA M can accepts all L
           in polynomial time, then ~L can also be accepted in polynomial
           time. However, how do I prove/disprove that if a DFA M can
           accept context free grammar, then ~M can accept all ~L?
           \_ DFA's can't accept CFG's.  Did you mean "PDA M"?
              Take your method of converting M into ~M and prove that
              it accepts the inverse language.
              \_ Actually DFA's can accept any CFG which is also a
                 regular language.  For example, the language L = {}
                 is both regular and context free.  However, as you
                 point out, there exist CFG's which DFAs can not
                 recognize.  To the original poster: I'm not quite
                 sure what question you are asking, but the following
                 information might be useful to you.  CFGs are not
                 closed under complement.  That is if L is a CFG then
                 ~L need not be a CFG. -emin
                        \_ YOU KICK ASS    -original poster taking CS GRE

12/3    What's a good wireless networking solution to use (with WEP encrypt,
        ease of configurability, etc)? Thanks.
        \_ gee, all of the above is very interesting, but can someone fuckin'
           tell me what brands (sw/hw) are recommended/not recommended ok thx
           \_ i like lucent ap-1000's.  --jon
           \_ I have an RG-1000, which is the same as the Apple Airport, but
              it looks like an iron instead of a UFO.
           \_ I have an LinkSys BEFW11S4 and its pretty good, and is a
              4 port switch and cable-modem/DSL router to boot. -ERic

12/3    Who is a member of LISA? What do yo think?
        \_ LISA (if you speak of Large Installation Systems Administration)
           is a conference.  Perhaps you speak of SAGE?  And what about
           SAGE/USENIX do you want to know? --Jon USENIX/SAGE member.
        \_ LISA is a communist front.

12/5    What's the purpose of putting titanium dioxide in lollipops?  Is it a
        preservative?  Isn't titanium very expensive?
        \_ It is a dye. It is very white. The amount they use is miniscule.
        \_ Titanium metal is expensive, titanium dioxide is cheap.
           The expense is almost entirely in extracting and machining
           the pure titanium metal.
           \_ I see.  I thought titanium is like gold where the element itself
              is rare.
        \_ It's a conspiracy to ship titantium out of the country via shipments
           of seemingless harmless candy.
           \_ And they encoded some 1024-bit encryption algorithms in the
              quarks of those titanium atoms too.
                \_ Who told you?!  Now you'll have to die!

12/5    Let's say I'm on the jury for one of bin Laden's top men. Will my
        identity be concealed? Is it public info?
        \_ I think it'll be public info if bin Laden goes to criminal court.
        \_ I think it'll be public info if he goes to criminal court.
           However, if he's captured alive, I think he'll most likely go to
           military tribunal instead where many things can be kept secret.
        \_ You'll end up known and on a jury for a good 18 months in seclusion
           and will probably be offered entry into the FBI's witness protection
           program afterwards.  You'll need it.
        \_ I think you're both full of it.  the secret military
           tribunals you are thinking of have no jury, just judges.
           \_ I wasn't thinking of a secret military tribunal.  Thank you for
              caring.
           \_ I think "trying one of bin laden's top men" is exactly
              what bush and co had in mind when they brought back
              ultra double secret military tribunal trials.  i hope.
              too bad that with the new presidential paper secrecy
              laws, we won't know about it for 200 years.

12/5    Should Osama bin Laden be a candidate for Time magazine's Man of the
        Year?
        \_ Of course.
        \_ I agree wholeheartedly.
        \_ he is not a man though, but a coward. Only men should be nominated
        \_ Yes, because Time Magazine states that Man of the Year is for the
           person that influenced, either good or bad, the world the most
           during that year.  So that title doesn't necessarily honor someone.
           At least that's the Magazine's intent.  --- yuen
        \_ You know it won't happen, since if it did, the mag would lose
           all this $ from cancelled subscriptions and boycotts.  Anyways,
           he shouldn't.
           \_ Why shouldn't he?
                \_ Because even though Time says this isn't intended as an
                   honor it is seen as one anyway.  If it wasn't seen as one,
                   there'd be no controversy.
                   \_ Hitler and Stalin have been men of the year.
                        \_ Yes, and?  So what?  So was the Iyatollah(sp?).
                           \_ So what? So, moral qualifications have nothing
                              to do with being named Man of The Year, just
                              being influential on world events.
                              \_ You missed the part where only Time thinks
                                 being named Man of the Year isn't an honor.
                                 The rest of the planet thinks it is, therefore
                                 it is and naming a scumbag like Bin Laden *is*
                                 honoring him and it shouldn't be so.  Why is
                                 this so hard to understand?  Time is just
                                 disingenuous and intentionally controversial
                                 as a PR stunt.
                      \_ They named Hitler before he killed all the Jewish
                         people.  They named Stalin at the end of WW2.
                         \_ No, they named Stalin twice, once in 39 and
                            once in 42.
                         \_ So you meant Hitler was a "good guy" before the
                            holocaust?
                            \_ Do you have a problem?  Disheveled Historians
                               in 1938 could say Hitler was a Historical
                               Figure for creating a military machine, but
                               to name him after WW2 is something els.
                               \_ I see.  Thx.
        \_ Actually, I could see the Time staff selecting Osama, if he
           turns up dead pretty soon.
        \_ They should create a category. One for evil men of the year, and
           the other one for the good men of the year. Superman, Batman,
           and Spiderman should be included.
        \_ Man of the Year should be our hero and savior, our great president
           George W. Bush.
           \_ Just like his dad, who was named "Men of the Year"
              \_ Wasn't his dad named "Two faced Man of the Year" or somesuch?
           \_ It'll be Rudy before GW.
              \_what the hell did Rudy do? Speak bravely while living w/2fags
           \_ Ok you hate GWB.  Whatever.  You're a Berkeley student, so I
              guess you're supposed to be sarcastic and bitter in a futile
              attempt at cleverness, humor, and political acumen.  That's
              nice of you to share.  Sophomore or immature junior?
              \_ my guess is alumni

12/5    Dow above 10000 (at 10114), NASDAQ above 2000 (at 2046)!
        \_ shut the fuck up, cmlee
        \_ Uh huh, this means the economy is all better now, right?
           \_ "Better" yes, "all better" not yet.

12/5    What exactly does G. I. as in "G. I. Joe" stand for?
        \_ General infantry
           \_ So that means the most expensible soldiers?
        \_ Learn how to use google.
           \_ Yeah, that's useful. Especially when you are searching
              for letters of the alphabet. Top 4 hits for "G.I." on google:
                GI Gesellschaft fur Informatik eV
                American College of Gastroenterology
                Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Education Service Home Page
                <DEAD>www.ginet.com<DEAD>
                \_ actually quoting something doesn't work in google anymore,
                 in dejanews, you could search for "G.I." and just get "G. I."
                 not G. and I.
                   in dejanews, you could search for "G.I." and just get
                   "G. I." not G. and I.
           \_ I typed in "What does GI Joe stand for?" and got it on the first
              hit. Like I said, learn how to use google..
        \_ Government Issue(d).
        \_ Gonnorrhea Infection
        \_ Gastrointestinal

12/5    Hey, is there a CS Already Graduated Association?
        \_ And how about a CS Never Graduated Association?
           \_ Do either of these associations have available hawt babes of
              the desired gender?
              \_ Doesn't "babes" imply females?
                 \_ is partha female?
                 \_ % grep babe /etc/mail/aliases
                    babe: aaron, scotsman, aubie
                    babe-in-training: babe
                 \_ You've never heard a girl say "He's a babe"?
                   \_ yeah, but always thought she was a confused babe