3/26    Ich bin der Nebel.  Mit mir muss rechnen.  Der auf das Wasser
        hinausfa"hrt.  Tausend Jahren hat man keinen gesehen.  Der ihn
        der Luft herumfliegen will.  Wer bist du, eigentlich?
        \_ Wat da hel?
        \_ ACHTUNG! Alles touristen und non-technischen peepers!
           Das machine control is nicht fur gerfinger-poken und mittengrabben.
           Oderwise is easy schnappen der springenwerk, blowen fuse, und
           poppencorken mit spitzensparken.
           Der machine is diggen by experten only. Is nicht fur geverken by
           das dummkopfen. Das rubbernecken sightseenen keepen das cotten
                                \_ rubberneck?
           picken hands in das pockets, so relaxen und watchen das
           blinkenlights.

3/27    Ran MOTDRESTORE.

3/27    Milton Berle dead!  They always go in threes....  Age 93.
        \_ Dudley Moore #1, Berle #2, who's #3?
           \_ You, soon...
              \_ Not famous enough....
           \_ Milton Berle's penis?

3/27    Inspirational thoughts for the day:
        1. Every second that passes brings you closer to your death.
           -geordan
        2. You will all die in about 20000 days or 1728000000 seconds or
           2857 weeks or 666 months. [motd reformatd was here, aesthetics
           be damned]
           \_ Darn! I just wasted an entire week playing computer games.
              Now I have 2856 left.
        3. Human life is a sexual transmitted terminal disease
           \_ Watching too much of The Matrix....
              \_ Matrix stole this line from me.  This is 12 years old...
                 \_ sure... http://www.bartleby.com/63/86/4486.html
                 \_ The line is the Matrix is about humanity being a virus,
                    not about life being a disease.  -tom

3/27    What's a login that works for the economist online?
         \_ subscribe and use cypherpunk/cypherpunk, then that will work.

3/27    Dan "Godfather" Quayle wanted NW MP Killed:
        http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/03/26/nz.lange/index.html
        \_ Bullshit.  You know he's lying because Dan can't use words that big.
        \_ "...... and I certainly wouldn't be at risk from a chap who
           couldn't spell tomato," he added."  Well, he certainly wouldn't be
           at risk if he can't even tell tomato from potato.
        \_ You mean NZ PM?

3/28    Anyone have a suggestion of how to plot data in the form <timestamp>
        <variable value> with unix software ... is there a canned GNUplot
        way to do this? Or is Excel the best bet. Data looks like:
        12:00  0
        12:01  7435
        12:02  9047
        12:04  12976
        12:05  10648

3/28    What exactly are the "Digital IDs" that Outlook Express blabs about
        when I click on "Security" in the program? ... specifcally, how do
        these relate to PGP encryption?
        \_ No, it's created by combining your SS#, DOB, Mother's maiden name,
           and CDL in a complex alogorythm that involves concatenation and
           rot13.  This cryptographic innovation brought to you by Microsoft!
           The ecommerce version has your bank account and pin in there, too,
           for your convenience.

3/27    "World tribunal 4 signatories away from ratification"
        I expect many here feel this is a good thing.
        http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/654883/posts

3/27    Are you getting another spam wave?
        \_ I am but it is all being filtered by Spam Assassin. Ausman rewlz!
           \_ Ditto.
        \_ set up own domain on own box, create throw away aliases for the
           garbage people on the net to mail you, delete aliases when they get
           too much spam, live spam free life like me.

3/27    How much should I expect to pay to get my auto's AC freon topped off?
        How much if also doing a leak check?
        \_ Depends.  How old is your car?  Pre-1992 cars use real R12 Freon
           and that shit is really expensive to deal with now (like $50 for
           a pound, and you need a few pounds).  If that's the case, it's
           probably time to just upgrade to an R134a system.  If it's a
           more modern car, R134a is relatively cheap (like under $10/pound).
           In any case, find and fix the leak first.  -nevman
        Any recommended places?
        \_ Pepboys?
           \_ i've heard of two cases of pepboys charging for a whole bunch
              of work that they did not do(they cancelled the
              charges without explanation when challenged.)
              there is such a thing as an honest shop.  why go to
              a dishonest shop?

3/27    man, gotta hate that liberal media
        http://salon.com/news/col/cona/2002/03/28/whitewater/index_np.html
        \_ Why do you quote defenses of Bill Clinton by those who
           proverbially suck his dick.  Do just 30 minutes of
           INDEPENDENT research into the crimes for which he was accussed,
           just one of which he happened to be convicted by the House of
           Representatives.  Are you that morally and ethically depraved
           that you defend the vulgar narcisistic slime that is Bill
           Clinton?
        \_ Great first line.  I wonder if Joe Consason wrote that line himself
           or it was Salon adding their two cents.  Anyway, whatever the
           source they obviously didn't read the same final white water report
           the rest of the world read.  I wonder where they get the special
           edition from?  Also, I still can't figure out how Hillary 'lost'
           those billing records for years only to magically find them on her
           desk a week after the statute of limitations expired.  What an
           ironic and oddly fun world we live in!  I think "Socks ate my
           records!" would've gone over better but I'm not a lawyer.

3/28    Sigh
        http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/nm/20020327/ts/politics_finance_bush_dc_6.html

3/28    So how many people believe the U.S. was involved in bringing
        down the WTC in order to create endless oilwar as well as blind
        flag waving/rights-waiving obeissance etc?
        \_ How many?  Only the stupid and the paranoid ones.  Count them up.
        \_ It was the Mossad.
           \_ you misspelled "yermom."
           \_ Sure, blame the Jews.  You know it was the ANC.
        \_ The US didn't do it, but knew it was going to happen
           and turned a blind eye to the possiblity:
           http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/sept-j16.shtml
           stunning the growing protests of globalization just before
           \_ Wouldn't be the first time that the TPTB overlooked
              an impending disaster (ex. FDR and Pearl Harbor)
              \_ or manufactured one (e.g., Tonkin Gulf, resulting
                 in U.S. entering the Vietnam War) -- the government
                 admits this openly now.
                 \_ USS Maine and the Spanish American War, USS Greer
                    and WWI, the list goes on.
                    \_ You mean USS Greer/WWII, right? What is odd
                       about that incident? UBoats sank quite a few US
                 \_ Greer was WWI. She was the first ship fired upon
                    by germans, but this was in self defense (the
                       destroyers before the US entry. Do you think they
                       were all hoaxes or something?
                       \_ Greer was WWI. She was the first navy ship fired
                          on by germans, but this was in self defense (the
                          Greer was depth charging the Uboat in question)
                          Wilson "forgot" that the Greer was under orders
                          to depth charge Uboats when we went before congress
                          and urged the US entry into WWI. It wasn't exactly
                          lying, but it was shady.
                          \_ http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/7-2-188/188-29.html
                             Maybe the same incident happened in both
                             wars with the same ship, but I kind of doubt
                             it.
        \_ http://www.copvcia.com and http://www.emperors-clothes.com
        \_ don't forget masking the inevitable economic downturn and
           the stunning growing protests of globalization just before
           they IMF/WB went to WDC
           \_ yeah all those dotcommers outa work could cause a lot
              of hell if they identified the real problem
              \_ Actually this was a problem for most large corporations.
                 Once the supply of labor was getting short, costs went
                 up. When the dotcoms who couldn't outlast a yearlong
                 recession and died, the supply of labor shot up and
                 corporation costs have gone down.
        \_ Not that I'm discounting the theory, but why is there a
           conspiracy theory for every major event in history?  Next thing
           you know, the gov't conspired to bring the asteroid in to kill
           off the dinosaurs.
           \_ Cuz government by definition IS a conspiracy, one which is
              well-funded and controls who the "rules" apply to and which
              commits every action with social control and the maintaining
              power (gained via the conspiracy of government) as its
              paramount concern.  Off-the-shelf formulas are used frequently.
              \_ "by definition".  Uhm ok.  Whatever.  No cookie, troll.
           \_ The government bringing in asteroids to kill the dinosaurs?
              Nothing could be more absurd.  Everyone knows it was space
              aliens. -geordan
        \_ it was the gays. -rev. falwell
                \_ and we all know what a healthy lifestyle many of them lead.

3/28    Comment on the ACM programming contest.  Do we advertise this
        competition in the math department?  All the problems involve
        algorithms or it's heavily math oriented.  I'm wondering if we're
        sending too many *nix coding monkeys and not people with deep
        understanding of the algorithms.
        \_ I remember having to explain to a math graduate student (who shall
           remain nameless) how to reverse a linked list. -- ilyas
        \_ If our team was run by Hilfinger, which it was and he had
           anything to do with picking the team, then our team must
           have been pretty talented.   I just don't understand why
           we didn't do better.
        \_ you wants lots of mconsts, ian goldbergs, nikita borisovs,
           and ben rudiak-golds
        \_ It's pathetic no matter how you look at it.  Also, how come
           the Indian Institute of Technologies are not well represented?
           Those are pretty good schools.
        \_ Sigh ... The PRC universities got all the top spots, while
           Taiwan's bests are way down at the honorable mentions, with
           Berkeley of course.
        \_ uhhh, what the (@*&($ is JiaoTong University, Tsinghua Univ,
           Fudan Univ, etc? And why the (@#*&$* is Stanford 5th and Berkeley
           below 30th? What happened?
           \_ Those are all famous universities in Mainland China.  The math
              dept. in Fudan is pretty famous, I think.
           \_ Universities by the same name exist in Taiwan, too.
        \_ I think the quality of Berkeley has gone down:
           2001 Berkeley HM, Stanford 5th
           2000 Berkeley none, Stanford 15th
           1999 Berkeley 7th, Stanford HM
           1998 Berkeley 11th, Stanford 24th
           1997 Berkeley none, Stanford 16th
           1996 Berkeley 1st, Stanford none
           1995 Berkeley 5th, Stanford 19th
           1994 Berkeley 6th, Stanford none
           1993 Berkeley 4th, Stanford 2nd
           1992 Berkeley none, Stanford 3rd
           1991 Berkeley none, Stanford 3rd
           \_ What's "HM"?
              \_ Honorable Mention.
           \_ You know why we were 1st in 1996, cuz I was on the team.
              \_ and you are?