1/24    quote of the day: "john walker loves amerika."

1/24    man... I'm not going to bother even filing my tax returns this
        year. too much trouble. who cares anyway... I mean, its money
        that was never mine in the first place.

1/24    How do UPS's (uninteruptible power supplies) work?
        \_ trained hamsters inside only run when they see the little
           light go out.
           \_ Damn, products evolve almost too fast these days.  My old
              version only uses rats.
        \_ Big rechargeable batteries.
        \_ They sit between your box and the power grid, and are supposed
           to figure out when there's a drop in power, and then kick in
           within a short enough time to prevent the connected device
           from powercycling or experiencing damage.  Some also do surge
           protection, or are controlled by the protected machine itself
           (so for example when the charge is very low, they tell it to
           nicely shut itself down.)  -John
           \_ More like "conditioned" power. Drops are just as bad as spikes.
        \_ http://www.howstuffworks.com/question28.htm  --erikred
           \_ That's a GREAT web site!!!  -- yuen

1/24    Someone recommended http://dice.com... are all the postings in there by
        headhunters? any particular headhunters in there that are good?
        are there any good job websites that have regular job postings,
        not headhunters?
        \_ I keep recommending people NOT to use http://dice.com.  Every response I
           got from there was from some annoying headhunter.
        \_ http://dice.com is free.. thats why headhunters like using it.. but they
           use it to find both people and jobs.  also, small companies LOVE
           using http://dice.com for that same reason.  we get almost all our
           resumes from http://dice.com and craigslist
           \_ long entry (sorry -- skip if you're not interested in the
              details of job boards): http://dice.com is NOT free for employers.
              it is actually pretty expensive for employers.  however,
              it does attract the most headhunters into
              its database of resumes because mostly, that's how http://dice.com
              markets itself to employers (e.g., that it has a lot of contract
              employees on there).  also, with the economy what it is, most
              employers are limiting themselves to only one or two resume
              databases, and from what I hear, they usually use http://Monster.com
              or http://hotjobs.com (which are even more expensive, but considered
              to have "better quality" resume databases).  most
              job boards have now opened their clientele to headhunters, due
              to the economic conditions out there.  however, http://hotjobs.com
              (which held out the longest in not offering access to
              headhunters), gives limited access to headhunters (ie, I think
              they allow headhunters to search the resumes, but not to post
              jobs), so it may be your "best" place to avoid HHs.  --chris
        \_ Nothing wrong with head hunters per se.  You just have to know how
           to deal with them.  Your first question should always be, "What's
           the company's name?"  If they start shitting around on you about
           they have numerous job openings blah blah, insist on a list of
           the companies they have in mind for you.  Sometimes HHs have a
           real job in hand.  It happens.
        \_ Headhunters are slimy, but very convenient.  A good headhunter
           will find you an interview and negotiate your salary.  Get
           several of them working for you at once and play them off against
           each other.  I recommend starting with about 10 or 15, and narrowing
           it down to maybe 4 viable job offers.  Try to have as many going
           at the same time as possible and tell them inflated reports of
           their rivals' yield.  That's my advice.  And yes I do this.  -brain
        \_ Dice sucks.  They kept on reposting the same jobs that's been
           filled long time ago.  Try http://flipdog.com where you can also
           filter out recruiters posting if you like.
           \_ this is true -- http://dice.com tends to 'refresh' old job postings from
              employers (or in this case, headhunters).  most employers do
              not know this happens (it happens at no extra cost, unlike
              http://monster.com), or they do not care.  i believe that hotjobs
              also does not let jobs expire.  --chris

1/24    My video card has a TV Out port (it looks like an S-video plug).
        I don't have any sort of video capture card/device, but is there
        any way to connect my tv to my pc (using this s-video connection)
        and somehow record something onto my pc as a video, maybe with
        some shareware program or something?
        \_ I just got ATI TV VE, and I wished that I had gotten it earlier.
           Its got MPEG record, free TV guide, VCR timed record, closed
           caption, keyword search, etc etc. Also I can set the background
           wallpaper to TV. All this, for only $40 at MicroCenter.
           \_ You just got a 'new' video card with the GF4 being announced on
              Feb 5th?
                \_ What's the GF4?
              \_ and what will the time difference be between the announce
                 date and the ship date?  He paid $40 for his ATI card.  The
                 GF4 will be what, $300?  $400?  Oh, and the ATI TV VE isn't
                 even a video card, dingus.  It's a separate capture card.
        \_ That would be TV In.
        \_ can I use my monitor as a camera?  can I turn a DAC into an ADC
           via software?
           \_ can I use your dick as a door stop?
           \_ you really should think about what you are saying/asking.
              if this was possible, do you think the manufacturer would
              neglect to market this as a feature?
              \_ by the way, I was being sarcastic. (Well, duh!) or did you
                 mean to reply to the original post?

1/24    Is there a way to do the substr function in a shell script?
        I want do command | foo 4 10 to get the 4th to 10th character
        of output.  Thanks!
        \_ printf(1) might work
        \_ cut -c 4-10 if you want 4th through 10th of every line; otherwise
           you'll probably need some sed/perl hack since most UNIX utils
           treat lines as separate records. -alexf
        \_ Try awk '{print $x}' | cut -c 4-10  where x = your item in the line.
           If you need to do something with the rest of the line you can start
           playing with 'tee' and shit like that but perl is probably a better
           long term choice.
        \_ awk has a substr function.
           # substr($2,9,7) picks out characters 9 thru 15 of column 2
           {print "imarith", substr($2,9,7) " - " $3, "out."substr($2,13,3)}
           --dim

1/25    Crap.  At a new job and the emc tech guy just sent mail that our emc
        service contract expired almost a year ago.  $225/hr, minimum of 2
        hours to do anything.
        \_ That's probably less than they would have charged you for a
           service contract.  -tom
           \_ i doubt it.. cuz thats prob jus labor and not parts. -shac
           \_ that's just time, not materials.  And you think they're going to
              be really zippy when its on an hourly paid basis?  They already
              take 4+ hours to swap a disk or two.  --fucked EMC admin

1/25    So my small startup company is asking each one of us to take a
        semi-permanent (i.e. for the next 6 months) salary cut. I know I could
        probably get a job someplace else for more money. Questions:
        1) does http://salary.com still provide a pretty close estimate on 2001/2002
           salary ranges or are they still providing stats from the '98-'99
           golden era? When I looked at them I thought I'm getting screwed...
        2) Would you work for a company that offers $75K/yr for software
           systems architecture work?
        \_ With the recent wave of layoffs, are you sure you can get a job
           someplease else, let alone for more money?
           \_ i don't think this is completely irrational.  the
              biggest cost for any company is by far money
              for salaries.
           \_ Don't know; but I have been looking. My mgmt simply can't be
              trusted and I don't get along with my direct supe. My strategy
              (if I can't find anything now) is to put in my required 8-9 hrs
              a day and keep an eye out for better things. Any noticeable
              flaws in this strategy? -- original poster
              \_ I think no management can be trusted when they're talking
                 about compensation.  They just keep on saying you're already
                 getting top salary at your level of skills.  And they'll cite
                 whatever obsolete salary survey that lists the lowest salary
                 ranges.
              \_ If you want to maintain your current salary level,
                 work less hrs.  i.e., with a 12.5% pay cut, you simply
                 work 7 hrs a day, that basically puts you on the same
                 salary when you used to work 8 hrs a day.  That's what
                 I do.  Just make sure you still complete your work.
                 \_ Yeah but you're still taking home less every check.
        \_ I've yet to see an online survey that even came close to what I've
           made at various places for the last 7+ years.  If you're making the
           http://salary.com figures then I think you're low.  Most of those surveys
           allow people to self describe.  I've seen surveys where "Senior
           Unix Sysadmins" in the U.S. claim to be making $25k.  Not even in
           Alabama.  As for the rest of it, *never* trust management.  Even
           if they didn't want to cut your salary it sounds like a shitty work
           environment anyway.  You should *always* be looking for a new job
           even if your current job seems great.  I think your basic plan is
           fine.  Do the bare minimum required to keep getting a check and
           bug out the moment you get something you'd like.  --been there
        \_ There is more to work than money. Do you like what you are doing?
           Do you enjoy working with your co-workers? Are you learning
           new stuff or do you have more responsibility than you would
           with your experience level at another place? If the answer to
           all these questions is no, then you should definitely be looking
           for another job.
           \_ very obviously, his main interest is to collect pay checks if
              his primary concern is salary.  If a company is in this cutback
              mode, I'd be more concern about the company outlook more than
              bitching over salary cut.

1/25    Anyone here still play muds?  Which ones and what client do you use?
        \_ Muds don't work over cable modem.
        \_ Portal is available from http://gameaxle.com. Runs on Windows. Is quite
           good. better than tf (tiny fugue)
        \_ batmud, circlemud, realms, 3k.
        \_ zmud