6/26  Will any old wireless lan pc card compatible with 802.11 do?
        Is that the protocol most of campus (airbears etc) uses?  I'm
        also thinking of setting up wireless net in my apt.   General
        comments are appreciated.  I'm looking at a model from D-Link,
        but brand name/model suggestions would be helpful. -darin
        \_ You want 802.11b (or g, not yet available), but plain "802.11"
           which was out before the 802.11b standard is not want you want.
           Why? There were two ways to make "802.11" cards, and the two ways
           were incompatible. That's why they made 802.11b. 802.11a is the
           new stuff coming out, so you don't want that, and g is compatible
           with a and b. I think this is mostly correct, but the short answer
           is: You want 802.11b. You should be fine assuming you don't need
           encryption.
           \_ actually.. 802.11b is backwards compat w/ the old 1mb/s 802.11.
              802.11g will be backwards compat w/ 802.11b.. 802.11a is neithr
              backwards compat w/ 802.11 nor .11b or .11g... most campus
              nets are using 802.11b and cisco aironet 350 ap's and recommend
              either an airport in a mac or in a pc either an orinocco, linksys,
              or dlink card because those are what they tend to test... cuz
              they are cheap.. -shac
        \_ D-Link is on the list of tested cards:
           http://airbears.berkeley.edu/faq.shtml#whichCard
           more generally: http://www.wirelessethernet.org/sponsors.asp
        \_ Which of these alphabet soup standards has the 'best' security?
           I'd like wireless home net but don't want god knows what floating
           I'd like wireless home net but don't want g-d knows what floating
           out over my neighbor's houses for miles around.  Thanks.
           \_ Just use application-level encryption (SSL, SSH).  Don't trust
              the wireless encryption.  Incidentally, AirBears is preparing
              to upgrade to 802.11a/802.11b dual-mode hardware.  -tom

6/26    general realestate question.  say someone buys a house for 100k
        and then sells it for 200k.  now they have made 100k in pure
        profit minus the closing costs.  do they pay capital gains tax
        on that?  if not, what sort of taxes if any are paid on that
        profit?
        \_ depends on when you bought it, if you lived there and what
           time period(s).
        \_ if you buy a new house worth >$200k within a certain time period,
           you are not taxed on the gains.

6/26    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=753&e=1&u=/nm/20020626/sc_nm/health_semen_dc_1
        Semen good for women. I like what the last sentence implies.
        What a bullshit study, article, and conclusion. All it might
        show is condoms are bad.
        \_ Is this s subtle way of saying "blowjobs are good" ...
           The scientists suspect semen will have the same effect on
           women regardless of how they are exposed to it.
           \_ Real sharp, slick.

6/26    the bottom is falling.

6/26    http://www.theonion.com/onion3326/homosexualrecruit.html

6/26    http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20020626.shtml
        Asking the question, "why does the left support the Palestinians and
        not Israel?"
        \_ why do israeli soldiers sodomize palestinian youth and drive them
           to become suicide bombers?
           \_ Why do you forget to cite reliable sources when you spout
              your mindless pro-palestinian propaganda? Could it be because
              there aren't any?
              \_ why do you not realize that was a troll?
                 \_ why don't you realize that the only reason for keeping
                    this shitty account or logging into this machine
                    is to read trolls and flames on the motd?
        \_ The left has traditionally supported the downtrodden. The left
           supported Isreal until relatively recently. But this blowhard
           is not really even worth replying to.

6/26    http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaID=20484
        Discuss.
        \_ $15 to hang around with the female friends of pathetic geeks?
           no thanks.

6/27    Can a decision by the Supreme Court be overruled or appealed, in
        any way?
        \_ no.  the jedi do their bidding, and they provide order in
           the galaxy.
        \_ Congress can override via legistation. Don't they teach government
           in HS anymore?
           \_ uh, no, congress can override via constitutional amendment only.
              don't they teach government in HS anymore?  -tom
              \_ In reality the supreme court would say a law is uncon. in
                 some very specific way for some very speicific reason and
                 thus further legislation, crafted around that point, can yield
                 *not* the SC (thank god).
                 the same originally intended results without running afoul of
                   and the god ban doesn't take affect for several
                 the earlier SC ruling.  That being said, the 9th circuit is
                 *not* the SC (thank g-d).
                 \_ are you allowed to say "god" on the motd?
                    \_ god has no place within these walls, just like facts
                \_ 9th circuit only affects the 9 most western states,
                   and the g-d ban doesn't take affect for several
                       god god god god god god god god god god god god! hah!
                   months, giving the government a chance to appeal,
                   and if necessary appeal to the supreme court.
                 \_ are you allowed to say "g-d" on the motd?
                    \_ g-d has no place within these walls, just like facts
                       have no place in organized religion!
                    \_ I'm allowed to say whatever tom says I'm allowed to say.
                       g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d g-d! hah!
              \_ Back where I come from consitutional ammendments are
                 viewed as legistation.

6/27    WCOM: they didnt just "lose" 4B, here is the idea - when running a
        business what is the only thing which matter, costs and revenue,
        profit is the difference between the 2 right. YES! Well not
        accouring to GAAP (generally acepted accounting principles). Most
        business use whats called amortization. Corporations needed some
        mechanism to account for large capital expenditure- For instance
        worldcom- they spent 10B on a network and equipment but didn't
        want to account for that as a loss even though technically it
        was, the complexity is that the revenue for that cost will come
        in over the period of lets say 20 years- So to try to give
        investors a better idea of whats going on the corporation
        amortizes the contruction costs over 20years so that the costs
        match up against the revenue. This is all perfectly legal exactly
        the way governmetn wants it; however, in reality it totally
        screws reality, reality is that costs are costs and revenue is
        revenue but due to the nature of busines that is wrong beacause
        it totally voids the incentive of R&D. Now it gets even more
        complex in that what happens when revenue related to a capital
        cost does not materialize but you don't want to have to continue
        taking loses fro the the remainder of the amortization cycle,
        well you take whats called a writeoff, but corporations don't
        like these one time charges because they skew profit numbers. So
        at the end of the day it is very difficult for investors to know
        how a company is really doing.

6/26    more re: mozilla
        form auto-completion seems much more lame than in IE. Other people
        experienced this? Solution?
        \_ Use IE for forms, e-banking/investing etc. Use Mozilla + Tabbed
           browsing for google searches, cvs-web, reading mailing list
           archives, forums, etc. (IE Don't do any real work with mozilla)
           \_ damn... so form completion just sucks in Mozilla? I was hoping
              there was a module or something I could d/l to make this
              better. maybe someone should write one.
        \_ Huh?  What's wrong with Moz form completion?  Works for me.  I
           haven't noticed anything.

6/26    /csua/pub/jobs/brobeck-part-time
        Law firm looking for someone who knows communications/digital
        signal processing to help them out.

6/27    The phrase "under God" in the pledge was an artifact of McCarthy era
        paranoia over the "atheist Communists."  Removing it, finally, takes
        it back to the author's initial intent.  The pledge had been around
        for 62 years, through two World Wars, before it was changed.  The
        uproar surrounding this decision is utterly ludicrous. --scotsman
        \_ oh is it? then be sure to remove any G-d related words from
           our currency and courthouses.
           \_ Er..  Yes.  It is.  And yes, they should.  Read a little history.
              Read the constitution.  Oh, and sign your name.  --scotsman
           \_ Why the hell not. The time is ripe for that, too.
        \_ As if the communists of the 50s really weren't out to destroy this
                   country.  Read some history.
           \_  Are you defending McCarthyism?  I suppose you're going to
                say the Holocaust didn't happen either.
           \_ And believing in God helps you with this problem... how?
        \_ The suit will be tossed out. All you god-fearin' folks will be
           safe from the evils of atheism. This is really a big non-story.
           The guy who brought the suit should teach his daughter to do what
           the creationist folks do. Walk out until they are done.

6/27    Uh oh... someone discovers the hard way that political philosophy is
        not based on the color of one's skin....  I won't use the "R" word. :-)
        http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/Full&cid=1023716561709

6/27    Who was it that said something like I joined the CSUA and only got this
        lousy account and a look at Partha?
        \_ Partha? Who's Partha?
           \- the guy who insists on formatting his motd posts differently
           from everybody else's. ok tnx
           \_ WHAT?!  You don't know who  *THE*  psb is?!?!?!  ACK!  This is
              madness!  God save us all!  --psb #1 Fan
              madness!  G-d save us all!  --psb #1 Fan

(-=-= One MOTD, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for None =-=-)

6/27    Where to get the "screen" source code or binary for Solaris?

(-=-= One MOTD, Under PSB, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for None =-=-)
        \_ Well there's sure as hell no justice around here....  ;-)
           And shouldn't that be "Under G-d" according to the recent motd
           search/replace job someone did on the motd?

6/27    If the media did their job and actually included a history of the
        Pledge of Allegiance with their reports on the decision, the uproar
        would be a blip from Gary Bauer or Pat Robertson. --scotsman
        \_ If they ever did their job, if they ever could have done their job.
        ||| THE 'UNDER GOD' PHRASE was inserted in the Pledge of Allegiance
because of a McCarthy-era campaign by a right-wing Catholic group, the
Knights of Columbus. The KOC is now deeply involved in anti-abortion
campaigning by the Catholic Church and was once an important supporter
of the notorious Legion of Decency, which censored American films and
was the source of the phrase "banned in Boston." So not only are the
words "under God" clearly religious, they have their origins in the
theocratic maneuverings of one particular religion. Ironically, until
recently the Catholic Church did not consider Christian fundamentalists
covered by the very phrase they today so loudly champion. The theology
of salvation by faith alone was anathematized by Rome.

6/27    anybody watched "witness to hope" on PBS?  The documentary talked
        about a town built by the communists in poland that had no church.
        After 20 years of lobbying, a church is finally built entirely of
        volunteer labor.  I'm trying to remember the name of the town.
        Yes, I have been searching on google and can't find it.  Thanks.
        \_ The poles are diehard anti-semites.  They deserve no hope.
           \- it was a town called hope.

6/27    Can anyone who has used Maxyma and Mathematica/Maple comment on
        them?  I am using mathematica and find it overhyped yet inconvenient
        for the kind of symbolic manipulation I need.  I need to implement
        diverse kinds of say algebraic strctures and rules and to exert close
        control over how the the rules are applied.  That is I know how best
        to simplify but want to use the program to do the bookkeeping. Ok tnx.
        \- er do you actually have a copy of MACSYMA ... I'll buy you lunch if
           if you actually have VAXIMA running on a VAX. Mathematica used to
           be really unreliable. I havent followed discussion about it for a
           few years and mostly use it do draw pictures or do pretty simple
           things now [some factoring and computing some sums] ... I like
           Maple6 and many colelagues use matlab. --psb
           \_ Derivatives of DOE Macsyma is now GPLed, see e.g.
                http://www.ma.utexas.edu/maxima.html    and
                http://sourceforge.net/projects/maxima and on GNU.
              No I haven't tried to install. I want to have some confidence
              that it will be useful before trying that.
        \_ for symbolic math, Maple is great. matlab is only useful
           if you have the symbolic math toolbox.
           \_ what do you all mean by "symbolic math"? symbolic as opposed
              to what? does this mean like modern/abstract algebra?
              \_ for example:
                 symbolic: finding the indefinite integral (a symbolic
                   expression from another symbolic expression)
                 nonsymbolic: finding the value of a definite integral
                   (number-crunching)
        \_ Anyone know of a good open source version of a program like
           matlab or maple?

6/27    Does MIT have a football team? How about CalTech?
        \_ University of Chicago is a school with very high
           addmissions standards, a good education, strong
           academics and grad programs, great research, tons of money,
           and no serious atheletic recruiting/scam programs
           at some point they decided they were sick of the bullshit,
           and it has not harmed them in any way.  that doesn't meand
           you can't have excellecnce in athletics, just not at the
           expense of everything else.  just look at the cal tae kwon
           do team: great athletes just competeing for the fun of it,
           not beacause they are supported by some athlete welfare program
           and provided with free cars and whores.  last i checked
           they were one of the best teams in the country, while our football
           teams always suck in spite of the cars and whores.
           \- Robert Maynard Hutchins got rid of the UChicago football team.
              [remember where Fermi build his reactor?]. There was a lot of
              alumni controversy. He then pushed a Western Civ program and
              did a lot to make UChi the "hardcore" school it is today.
              RMH was an interestin guy ... he was dean of Yale Law in his
              late 20 I believe an president at UChi in his early 30 I think.
              He used to say "sometimes i feel like exercising ... so I lie
              down until the feeling goes away." --psb
        \_ Harvard and Yale do.
        \_ I see where you're going with this. demonstrates
           exactly what sort of study body results when no
           athletes are enrolled.
        \_ Their team made the front page of Sports Illustrated in the
           late 80s.  Who knows if the team is still around.
           \_ How many (*good-looking*) women does MIT/Caltech have?
              Stanford? UCLA? USC? Chico State?
                \_ by answering that you just further my point.
              \_ I'm assuming you mean before they try to commit suicide
                 by immolation in their dorm rooms.

6/27    I want to have a color poster printed up (say 24x36).
        Will somone please recommend a good/cheap place?
        \_ Kinko's is well equipped to do this. Also they're 24 hour.
                \_ how much?
        \_ is it legal to reproduce a professional poster which is usually
           copyrighted?
            \_ I wouldn't care even if that was my intention, which it not.
               i'm doing an original poster -op
               (i would never spend that much dough to buy some dumb ass
                reprint of the original Star Wars poster, or whatever)

6/27    Where to get the "screen" source code or binary for Solaris?
        \_ http://www.sunfreeware.com
        \_ great, now we have "where to" questions in addition to the "how to"
           ones...
        \_ http://freshmeat.net/search/?q=screen§ion=projects

6/27    Who's the oldest active member on CSUA? What year?
        \_ psb, 2