4/23    Is there some fast way to find the number of files in a
        directory?  I'm trying to do this in a dir with over
        over 10,000 files and "ls -l | wc -l" is taking forever.
        \_ ls | wc -l
        \_ ls -1 | wc -l
        \_ echo * | wc -w (assuming no spaces in filenames)
           \_ This won't work if there's a lot of file names.
              \_ obgetabettershell
                 \_ Ok, what's your religion?  Some of us work in real places
                    and don't feel like installing tons of 'kewl' crap on
                    do this that work everywhere with the l8st kewl sh3ll.
                    every box.  There's perfectly good standard unixy ways to
                    do this that work everywhere without the l8st kewl sh3ll.
        \_ obPerl
           \_ perl -we 'use strict; my $d = shift @ARGV; if (defined $d &&
                        opendir(D,$d)) { my $n=0; foreach (readdir(D)) {
                        $n++ if (-f "$d/$_"); } closedir(D) ;
                        print "$n\n"; }' <dir>
                        \_ Wouldn't it be nice to be able to access $. for
                           directory reads?
                           \_ yes
              You can make is shorter if you leave out -w, use strict, my
              and closedir.
        \_ find . -ls | wc -l   RTFM on your version of 'find' for details.
        \_ find <dir> -type f -print | wc -l

4/22    who is nethk331 and why is he/she using 90% of the cpu?
        \_ it's nethack, biznatch!  BOW FOUL DEMON!
          \_I note from the dates on the bones files that some people
            are still using nethack 3.3.1.  Upgrade to 3.4.0, people!

4/22    /csua/bin/me updated.  Race condition removed with a thing-of-beauty
        hack.  Thanks for the idea, jon.  --scotsman

4/22    Finger Puppet Insurrection!? At MayDay!?
          <DEAD>www.festivalsofresistance.net/events/fingerpuppets.html<DEAD>

4/23    Want expand on your technical skills in a fun environment with flexible
        hours? Apply to be a Rescomp sysadmin!  Applications due April 24th @
        12:00pm.  For more info: http://www.rescomp.berkeley.edu/hiring
        \_ Dude!  Do I get a Dell?
        \_ "Systems Administrators are paid $17.03 per hour and are
            required to work 12-19 hours of work during the school year."
            Is that hours of work per year, per month, per week?
            When I was student we only got $9.03/hr.
        \_ does rescomp still have RCC's and all those positions?
           \_ yes. not as well paid as sysadmins, though.
        \_ We currently are not hiring right now. Please check back later for
           more info on positions which we may need to fill. If you have any
           questions, please email us at hiring@rescomp.berkeley.edu.

4/23    Security question: assuming i have a "good" /dev/random and I
        read from /dev/random from 00:00 to 00:01 and save that in a file,
        will take make it trivial to attack someome who uses /dev/random on
        the same machine to "seed" a random passwd generator at 00:00:30?
        Or does each caller some how whiten it with his own environment?
        \_ Or say I read in 10k bytes from /dev/random or /dev/urandom
           at 00:00 and I start and another copy of the same process "at
           the same time", will I get overlapping random streams?
           at 00:00, which takes 2 seconds.  I start and another copy of
           the same process a couple of millisenconds after 00:00,
           will I get overlapping or interleaved random streams?
         \_ no and no, if it is a "good" /dev/random
            \_ So what prevents two people "simultaneously" reading from
               /dev/random from letting the same stream?
               \_ The driver probably has a locking mechanism in the
                  read entry point to prevent this:
                  ep_read { lock ; copy bit to userspace ; unlock ; }

4/23    Anyone have a url to images of the tshirts that abercrombie
        and fitch had to pull because they "promoted negative stereotypes
        about Asians"?
        \_ Go to http://auctions.yahoo.com and search on Abercrombie & Fitch.
        \_ http://www.angryasianman.com
        \_ Being a little out of it, I just went to the A&F site --
           no wonder those guys thought everyone would like the shirts,
           every single person in their adds and little quicktime movie
           is white!
           \_ Kill whitey!  Everyone white is racist!
        \_ http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020418/168/1f3o7.html
        \_ So what's racist about a Chinese guy bowling?:
           http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020418/168/1f4hh.html
           \_ he's wearing a coolie hat you imbecile
              \_ So coolie hats are racist? I guess I didn't know that, thanks.
        \_ http://www.abercrombie.com/anf/onlinestore/collection/2129_01_r.jpg
           http://www.abercrombie.com/anf/onlinestore/collection/2695_02_f.jpg
           http://www.abercrombie.com/anf/onlinestore/collection/2757_01_r.jpg
           http://www.abercrombie.com/anf/onlinestore/collection/2758_01_r.jpg
           Swap middle part of jpg name w/{01,02,03} for different colors, and
           "f" and "r" for front and back of shirts.
           \_ "Put your Buddha on the floor." Boy, I sure am offended.
                \_ Kill whitey!

4/23    Can DiskSuite combine a 9 and 18gig drive into a 27gig partition or
        do you have to use identical disks even in a stripe concatenation?
        \_ Yes, you can combine drives of differing sizes.
        \_ You can concatenate different size drives but not stripe them.

4/23    Any advice on where to find jobs that pay more than retail with
        hours flexible enough for classes. ?
        \_ Campus?
                \_  I said that pay more than retail. Besides;
                our good ol governor has a hiring freeze thanks to W.
                \_ How is it W's fault that California is run by fuckups?
                \_ UC system is exempt from the hiring freeze. - danh
                        \_ interesting since the CSU system has a freeze
                           -- SFSU student
        \_ I should amend that to "uc system does not have to comply
           with the hiring freeze when it would interfere with their
           educational mission" - danh
           \_ further, the hiring freeze applies only to those positions
              paid for by state funds.  if there are other sources of
              funding available, doosh doosh.
        \_ You could read the rest of the motd and see that ResComp
           is hiring, for one.
                \- I am not an Cal Student.
                   \_ How did you get a CSUA account, then?
                      \_ Don't be a moron. Some people actually live to
                         graduate.
                         \_ Let's see, you post a message on the
                            Computer Science *Undergraduate* Machine
                            asking how you can get a job that will
                            fit in with your *class**schedule* and
                            then call someone who points you to campus
                            jobs a moron. Go stick your head in pig!
                            \_ share and enjoy
                               share and enjoy
                               journey through life with a plastic boy
                               or girl by your side
                               that's your pal, be your guide
                               until it breaks down and starts to annoy
                               and grinds when it moves and gives you no joy
                               because it's eaten your hat
                               had sex with your cat
                               played ball on your wall
                               or riped off your dog
                               sednd it to us we won't giva  fig
                               well tell you
                               go dstick your head in a pig.

4/23    motd' s been way too tame lately. Who is the latest soda chick
        to drool over ?
        \_ yermom
           \_ she's not "the latest".

4/23    How long do typical musicals last? less than 2 hours? 3 hours?
        \_ about 2.5 - 3 hours, including intermission
           \_ gah...  not if they're any good/well paced...  a musical shouldn't
              be longer than 2.5 hours, unless it's of the les miserables
              persuasion, in which case you really shouldn't bother.
              \_ Les Mis!  Better than Cats!
                                       \_ Or Phantom!
        \_ why, is some girlfriend dragging you to one?  it's not
           fucking worth it. it may only be a couple hours, but it
           will seem like a year.  save yourself now and find an
           excuse not to go.
           \_ Good plan.  The OP should suddenly get a call about a dead
              relative or something.  Maybe emergency liver transplant.
              Anything but a musical.

4/23    Happy birthday, chialea!

4/23    My advisor is not going to pay for the new IDSG NFS backed up storage.
        Any recommendations for commercial backed up storage I can access
        off the net (either NFS or scp) ?  -- poor grad student
        \_ find an advisor who's not an idiot?
                \_ they all are
        \_ alice?
                \_ Who the fuck is alice?
                   \_ cool/cute  CS gradstudent with an account on Soda.
           \_ Um, no it's not me.  But thanks for your concern.  Now back
              to the op's question.  -- alice
        \_ Waitasec, you won't pay for campus NFS service but you'll pay for
           more expensive outside 3rd party commercial service for the same
           thing?
                \_ depends on how much more expensive. IDSG has various
                   nazi policies that I'd rather avoid anyway. plus it
                   would be a nightmare paying for this that can only be
                   paid for by a UC recharge account

4/23    <DEAD>webcenter.newssearch.netscape.com/aolns_display.adp?key=200204231226000102372_aolns.src<DEAD>
        Time to nuke Puerto Rico.  We must destroy it in order to save it.

4/23    why is karen hughes nicknamed "beltway"?
        \_ Do you know what the "beltway" is?
                \_ isn't it the freeway circling washington d.c.? -op
                   \_ er... no.
                   \_ yes it is, but I believe the person above is suggesting
                      another meaning.
                        \_ ok so what's with the nickname? -op
                           \_ It just means someone who knows the ins and outs
                              of DC politics.  No big deal.

4/23    Why is it when I make a new frame in xemacs, it doesn't inherit the
        colors I've set in my .emacs whereas my original frame does?
        \_ emacs bad, pico good!
        \_ if it's like gnu emacs, do a C-h v default-frame-alist <RET>

4/34    Most databases use B-tree structure to store the data.  Is there a
        mathematical proof that this is the most efficient way to store
        a dbase?  Best in update times, delete times, record sizes, etc?
        I'm wondering if there are better structures for specific structures.
        Like a database full of numbers is different from a database of
        words.  thanks.
        \_ Proving lower bounds on storage space of an arbitrary object is
           undecidable (it reduces to finding the Kolmogorov complexity of
           the said object). -- ilyas
           \_ You meant "reduces from," of course... (the other direction does
              not imply uncomputability; and there are other issues with
              storage of arbitary data structures [e.g. efficiency of
              later access]). -alexf
              \_ Sorry, I wasn't using 'reduces' in the technical sense, I just
                 meant the two problems are equivalent, but yes.  If I had a
                 terminating algorithm for proving lower bounds on storage
                 space I could use that algorithm to find the Kolmogorov
                 complexity of an object, which isn't possible.  Interestingly
                 enough, some lower bounds on running time of data access exist
                 (O(log n)). -- ilyas
        \_ Uh, the insert/delete/search bounds are well known and well
           understood.  STFW or read a databases book to find out and draw
           your own conclusions.  They are not by any means the best, but,
           they are good for many of the more common operations that are done
           on a database, and not too bad (TM) on the less common operations.
           And the fact that you ask if the performance would be different for
           a database of numbers vs. words shows a gross misunderstanding of
           what the hell a database is.

4/23    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/020422/168/1fjje.html
        \_ That's un-fuckin' believable. Does the trophy REALLY look like that
           or did somebody doctor it?
                \_ a different angle: http://sports.yahoo.com/pga/gallery/20020421/1019437234lpga_longs_drugs_rcp108.html