8/26    Oh, those were the days... of hellish lab hours and coding punishment:

        From hilfingr Sun Sep 10 22:10:37 1989
        From: hilfingr (Paul N. Hilfinger)
        To: c60c-4ad
        Subject: Re:  project 1 and error checking

        These assignments are all intended to be "pseudo real-world".  This
        means you must expect that input will come from psychopaths.  Nothing,
        of course, can prevent such an individual from holding down the
        Control key while he types, for example.

        PNH
        \_ You mean students these days don't have to write their code to
           handle garbage input?
           \_ In java?  HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAA!!!
              \_ Gee.  I envy them!
        \_ 89?  Wasn't that after they watered down the 60abc series?
           You want tough, ask the guys who went through it circa 86/87.
           Actually, 60c was trivial after those guys survived the first
           semester of 60a in Fa86.  You want really tough, talk to some
           guys who went through cs50.

8/27    *sigh* ...and the idiotic censorship continues.     -mice
        \_ just some humorless little twit.  why bother mentioning it?  you're
           just feeding it's deep psychological need to feel 'powerful'.

8/26          \_ of course, i was actually there when 60abc was created.
                 and one of the stated goals was cs50/55 was too difficult,
                 and there was too much material to be covered in 2 semesters.
                 i was even there when they decided that teach both scheme
                 and c in 1 semester was too difficult, and they watered
                 that down also.
                 \_ Who are you? Email me, I'm quite curious to hear some
                    concrete details of what happenned with the 50->60 switch,
                    if you're indeed for real. -alexf
                    \_ you could ask clancy or bh for details. anyway, once
                       you've got the details, could you post a summary in
                       /csua/tmp?
                       \_ a ugrad perspective is likely to differ substantially
                          from that of clancy and bh. -alexf
                          \_ not sure what else there is to say.  the
                             unofficial reason for going from the 50/55
                             sequence to the 60abc sequence was too many
                             people was failing out of 50.  so they
                             essentially took the original 50 and split it
                             into 2 classes, 60a and 60c.  60b was largely
                             the same as 55.  of course, after the 1st
                             semester, it was obvious students still
                             couldn't handle both c and scheme in one
                             semester.  so by the 2nd semester of the class
                             (sp87 i think), they further reduced 60a to
                             scheme only and saved c for 60c.  scuttlebutt
                             was guys who took the original 60a breezed
                             through the watered down 60c, and guys who
                             took the later watered down 60a had more
                             problems. -tse

8/26    Where is a good place to buy a Slackware 8.1 CD locally? I have a
        "new" Toshiba 445CDX Laptop and the 2.2.16 kernel in Slackware 7.1
        does not seems to support my PCMCIA controller. Otherwise, any
        suggestions for downloading the install files from Windows and then
        switching to Linux to upgrade the OS? What's up with
        <DEAD>callug.cs.berkeley.edu<DEAD> ?

8/26    I obtained an SGI monitor that was being given away. I want
        to connect it to my pc, but its attachment isn't the typical
        computer monitor plug. Do they make adaptors for SGI cables
        so I can plug it into my pc...if so, where can I get one?
        \_ call sgi
                \_ SGI doesn't have any sort of tech support like that
                   and I don't think radio shack would even carry sgi
                   stuff.
                   \_ when's the last time a true geek actually went to and
                      found something they needed at radio shack?
        \_ if it is 13w3, try http://www.ultraspec.com  --jon

8/27    What is up with the strike?
        \_ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/27/BA124694.DTL
        \_ Yeah, but what does FreeRepublic have to say about it?
        \_ I don't think the owners are going to make a deal with the players.

8/27    Is there a CSUA policy about deleting accounts of those who have died?
        Or is it a respect sort of thing to keep the account for the deceased?
        \_ There are deceased?
           \_ gene kan
              \_ What happened to him?
                 \_ He Cobained.
              \_ gene can do what?
           \_ was he active CSUA?
        \_ How about deleting accounts for those who have been inactive for a
           long time?
           \_ and... why?
              \_ To reclaim disk space?  Free up login names and UIDs?  Reduce
                 chance of break-ins since those people won't be changing
                 their passwords periodically?
                 \_ As if people who never really used their accounts are using
                    a lot of disk, someone else wants their name, we're near
                    out of UIDs or more than 1% of you slack bastards has
                    changed your password in the last 6 years....
                 \_ reclaim unused uids?  Doesn't the account creator just
                    add a new uid after the highest used one?   Are we even
                    anywhere near starvation for uids?
                    types.h lists the uid as:
                        typedef u_int32_t       uid_t;
                    So thats what, 4 billion possibilities?  I see only 2400
                    or so passwd entries.  Try another excuse to delete
                    unused accounts...

                    To reduce chance of break-ins?   I'd argue to delete the
                    active accounts -- theyre the ones most likely to have
                    their password leaked ( via social engineering , trojaned
                    software, or other means) or shared on another
                    site.
                    \_ ok genius so then why should the accts not
                       be deleted?
                       \_ The burden of proof is on those who desire
                          change in a functional environment.  They should
                          not be deleted because there is no reason to and
                          it would waste someone's time to do so.  Why
                          *should* any accounts be deleted?
                    \_ How come at line 2437 in /etc/passwd the UID goes up to
                       10958, but then at line 2438 it starts from 1003 again?
                    \_ I saw that old login names like achoi or choice no
                       longer exist.
                       \_ achoi/choice is now android. -geordan
                          \_ So any future Albert Choi or Ah-Ching Hoi can
                             re-use the login achoi.
                             \_ *hint*

8/27    Anyone knows how to get a development kit for Nintendo (n64, gc)
        from sources other than Nintendo.  (dead company?)
        \_ nintendo is dead??
                \_ know.. hope to get spare sys from dead companies
        \_ I know a GC development kit costs around $10K, good luck...
           (Oh and the compiler you need to buy from someone else and goes
           for about 5k.)

8/27    Anyone have an audio clip of "Conan, what is best in life..."?  -John
        \_ ever heard of google? jeez. one of hundreds:
           http://www.geocities.com/manindersandhu1982/sounds.html

8/27    >wget
        wget: Command not found.
        huh?
        \_ try fetch
        \_ locate wget
           \_ If you tried it, you'd note that it's not in any of the standard
              paths (though apparantly some users have compiled their own
              copies).
              \_ I did try it.  And?  Yes?  wget isn't installed... so?
                 \_ was confused because it used to be installed.  It is again
                    now, so I'm satisfied.
        \_ wget installed as /csua/bin/wget.  bugs to tonytung
                \_ this is a trojan. please remove it.-contrib
                   \_ care to substantiate it?

8/27    SF and NY chosen as the finalists for 2012 Olympic sites. SF
        is a shoe in!
             \_ shoo-in
        \_ Oh God.. give it to NY.  The last thing the bay area needs is more
           traffic and special reasons for blocking it.  It won't be the SF
           olympics anyway because SF is too rinky dink to deal with it.
           \_ the same can (and will) be said of NY.
              \_ Traffic was awesome during the 1984 Olympics. I think
                 NYC will get it based on sympathy. --dim
                 \_ Yeah it almost worked for the World Series.
           \_ And the second last thing the Bay Area needs is terrorist
              attacks.
              \_ bay area = huge muslim population. No terrorist attack.
                 \_ Jerusalem has a higher Muslim population.
                 \_ But those are "coward" muslims who come to the States to
                    "join the evil American Empire".
                 \_ uhm yeah these are the same people who are killing
                    themselves for the _chance_ to maybe kill others they view
                    as their eternal enemies.  you're in fantasy land.
                    \_ When is the last time you heard of a suicide bomber
                       in the Bay Area?
                       \_ That's not a logical argument.  It's the same
                          line of reasoning that goes: my car has never been
                          broken into, so it will be safe to park unlocked in
                          downtown Oakland.  The fact that no suicide bombers
                          (rare in the US to begin with) have struck before
                          means little or nothing.        -mice
                          \_ look, go move to Wyoming if you want to live
                             somewhere nothing interesting ever happens. -tom
              \_ I heard that in Utah multiple terrorist attacks of
                 public coffee, cola, and alcohol consumption almost
                 destroyed the social fabric of Salt Lake City.