10/02   Hey PHPers, How do i define a function alias?  E.g. if i have a
        function "getit" and i want also to be able to call it as "gimme"
        \_ why the hell would you ever want to do this?
            \_ Alias a function (I can think of lots of reasons) or the
               particular example, which is, after all, just an example?
               \_ Tell me a reason.  I see none.

10/02   I know there are grad students here.  what good/bad things do people
        have to preport as far as dealing with UAW representation?
        \_ Yeah, good idea, join a mobster controlled union.  You need to
           understand that *all* unions' first thought is about what is good
           for the union.  If that also happens to be good for a union member,
           that is just a pleasant side effect for the member.  If you ever
           have to file a complaint with your union about work conditions
           the union will make everyone's life a living hell without actually
           doing anything to improve your life.  Unions as they exist today
           are no longer the benevolent pro-member entity they began as.
           \_ You have no idea why the Mob controlled unions and apparently
              have no idea why someone would join one now. Too bad.
              \_ And you've done *nothing* to correct my statement, just
                 added a zero substance comment.  Too bad.
              \_ oh, mr. union expert, could you please enlighten us then?
                 what are these good-for-nothing, lazy, and corrupt
                 organizations good for?
                 \_ Are you the same guy who was griping about how overpaid
                    union dockworkers are?
                    \_ One of many I'm sure.
                       \_ So you see the obvious logical flaw in complaining
                          how overpaid union members are and then claiming
                          that unions don't do anything, right?
              \_ Someone is forced to join a union because the union controls
                 the jobs.  If someone doesn't join, (s)he can't work in that
                 field.
           \_ This hits so close to home. Unions can be helpful if you have a
              real gripe against your boss (he's making you work late or go
              to his house or whatever)... you file a grievance, and he gets
              slapped on the wrist. Then you don't listen to him... you're in
              a union, he can't do much to you...
              \_ Or the union makes a lot of noise but doesn't do anything for
                 you, your boss hates you and treats you like shit (all within
                 union rules, though) and your life becomes a living hell, and
                 the union chalks up another victory because they gained more
                 space on the hallway cork board for union fliers at your
                 expense.  Gotta love that union!
              \_ My father-in-law works at the bakery in a Safeway.  He said
                 what the union does best is collecting union dues.  He often
                 has dispute with his boss on schedules, overtimer, missing
                 pay, raise, promotion, seniority, etc, and the union aren't
                 helpful on those issues.
                 \_ Where I work, we in the union don't let our boss treat us
                    unfairly (other than the shoddy pay)... we've filed so
                    many grievances against him that he's scared to act against
                    us... but he's been here only 3 years and we've been here
                    for over 20 (average, I've only been here 5 years).
        \_ The union over here does things like: recently the medical coverage
           became much crappier than it was before, more out-of-pocket and so
           on.  Instead of letting this just happen, the UAW is negotiating
           for us to not be so badly screwed over.

10/2    I want to Rip WMAs or MP3s.  What are the fastest (and most accurate)
        RIPpers out there?
        \_ You seem to be confused boy.  Ripping is the process of pulling
           music data off of a CD.  This produces uncompressed data
           (on windows, .wav files).  Encoding is the process of converting
           uncompressed audio data to mp3 or some other compressed format.
           \_ well some programs do both at once (from CD to MP3/WMA).
              What's the fastest program to do both steps end to end?
              \_ why on earth would you want to convert to WMA and lock
                 yourself into a Microsoft-owned, DRM-laden format?  For
                 ripping, Exact Audio Copy is the most accurate (but not
                 fast).  CDex is good too and probably significantly faster.
                 You can easily set up EAC or CDex to encode with LAME
                 automatically.
              \_ EAC + lame --r3mix is the STANDARD.  There are faster ways,
                 but this method produces excellent quality mp3s for a
                 minor slowdown.  It's worth it.
                 \_ ED!
           \_ Aw, c'mon!  Don't Rip on the poor kid!
              \_ Don't make me encode your ass boy.

10/2    Procmail question: I have a rule to sink all returned mail.  I ran
        a test by sending to an unknown user to generate a return mail to
        myself.  However it seems if I sink the returned mail (sending it
        to /dev/null), our mail server will keep trying to send me the
        return mail.  I see this behavior from procmail log, it kept process
        that rule as if it was in an infinite loop.  Was this procmail's
        fault?  or was this our Mail server problem?  As if the returned
        mail was not delivered to my inbox, the server will redeliver it.
        \_ Use verbose logging and check.
           \_ thank you very much that helped!
        \_ stop playing with stuff you dont understand, szs
           \_ Good point.  Scientists: give up studying the unknown.  If
              we don't understand it now, we weren't meant to.
                \_ sarcasm?
                \_ That's why I'm a scientific creationist.  Anything I don't
                   understand is easily attributable to God.  I sleep well at
                   night knowing the Universe is a solved equation.

10/2    http://csua.org/u/36e
        See, that's what's wrong with America. An entreprenuer tries to
        make a little money by starting his own business with some willing
        adults and the whiney liberal trial lawyers screw it up for him.
        \_ It's called exploitation.  Would it be right for you to ask
           a homeless woman to have sex with you if you gave her a sandwich
           in return?  We have laws against that.
                \_ That's pretty sick all right.  Ewww.
            \_ How do you feel about Professional boxing?  Should Don King
               be arrested as well?  I know tom thinks it's o.k. 'cause The
               Man gave Don's org a license.  How about you?
               Also, if some homeless woman wants to trade her body so she
               DOESN'T STARVE TO DEATH, It sure is a good thing there
               are people like you around to make sure she isn't "forced"
               to do anything as horrible as having sex.
               \_ No one is this country has starved to death since the
                  depression.  Try again.
        \_ Ah yes, the ambulance chasing lawyers read the net, too.
        \_ Maybe they can sneak a video cam in to prison and produce
           Prison Fights.
           \_ Want to star in my new movie?  You and 1000 felons.  I'm
              calling it Prison Rape.
        \_ everything else aside, only in america would this happen. you
           don't find this fucked up behavior like this in any other country.
           \_ No, you find much worse, like death squads, people going to vote
              risking their lives to do so, UN sanctioned slavery, stonings
              for a long list of 'moral' violations, etc.  Take the Blame
              America First crap somewhere else where they don't know better.

10/2    I was talking to some punk who graduated from Mudd who claimed that
        MIT was a terrible ugrad school. Also talked about rampant grade
        inflation at MIT. Is MIT known to have grade inflation? I always
        thought that it didn't.
        \_ Mudd is psycho.  they have four majors, and the addition of the
                                      \_ 7: bio, chem, cs, eng, math, phys, ss
           "soft" field of bio was recent and very controversial.
           SEALs can talk shit about Marines, but Marines are still tough.
           \_ Mudd is a school with "little man's syndrome"; to some extent
              they are more interested in being difficult than in actually
              teaching.  -tom  (former Mudd ugrad)
              \_ Didn't know you were a quitter.
              \_ Oh so they're like CalTech?
                \_ I think they strive to be harder than CalTech--there's
                   definitely a rivalry between the two schools.  In the
                   school yearbook there's a "blackout" page where they take
                   a photo of the original freshman class from 4 years ago
                   and black out everyone who didn't graduate in 4 years.
                   There's sort of a perverse pride in their level of
                   difficulty.  -tom
                   \_ The rivalry is all in Mudd's mind. Tech students
                      are barely aware of Mudd. -former Tech'er
                        \_ When I visited CalTech they made a big deal
                           about the cannon and Mudd stealing it.  -tom
                           \_ The last couple of times I visited CalTech,
                              the people in flem would talk about it, and
                              the rest would brush it off as flem doing
                              its thing. I really don't think most techers
                              care about mudd whatsoever.
                \_ A HS friend left sometime after a class in which the
                   high on a midterm was 13 (of 100).
                   \- dont you need to ask "what would the high on the
                      midterm have been if it was given to caltech/mit
                      students?
                      \_ we know if it were cal, it would be like 3.
                         \- i suspect if it were berkeley, the average
                            might have been lower but the top score would
                            have certainly been higher.
                   \_ that's farily common in P-Chem.  They have "honk if
                      you passed P-Chem" bumper stickers.  -tom

10/3    For a while now I've noticed that my friend's hamster looks at me.
        She's very attractive and I thought it was just innocent flirting;
        so I played along.  This flirtatious behavior culminated last night.
        During dinner I was sitting on her left and my friend was sitting on
        her right.  Our legs innocently touched underneath the table.  I was
        expecting her to pull away, but she didn't.  I was wearing shorts and
        she was wearing a skirt.  We didn't start rubbing our legs or anything
        like that.  It was a simple and soft touch.  That was one of the most
        erotic moments in my life.  I think she felt it too.  I keep playing
        the entire scene over and over again in my head.  This is driving me
        crazy!
        \_ For a while now I've noticed that my friend's mom looks at me......
           \_ Dear Mrs. Robinson.
        \_ Grow up.
        \_ Get laid.
        \_ why is it that other people's wife always look prettier?
        \_ And what a culmination it was.
        \_ How did you get up from the dining table with that hard-on?
        \_ why is it that other people's mom always look prettier?
        \_ why is it that other people's wife always look prettier?
           \_ grass, other side.
           \_ wife != mom.
              \_ The original post was altered.
        \_ You were wearing shorts at dinner?
           wife* on her left?
        \_ maybe her left leg was paralyzed.
        \_ maybe the surgical pins in your leg and her leg have become
           magnetized at opposite charges.
        \_ She accidentally touched your leg?! Yeah, she wants you.
        \_ You had it all planned out, didn't you?  Why didn't you sit next
           mom* on her left?
           to your friend on his right, but instead sit next to *your friend's
           wife* on her left?
           \_ subconscious
           \_ wife != mom.  Maybe in *your* family!
              \_ congratulations.  you were trolled.
                 \_ congratulations.  you have no sense of humor.
                    \_ Nice try.  No cookie.
        \_ What are her measurements?
        \_ picsP
        \_ The next time your'e alone with her show her your penis... maybe
           pretend your fly is open or something.  Try to rub it on her.
           \_ http://www.thestranger.com/current/city2.html
        \_ A good run.  This was a bit obvious but you hauled in a good catch.
           I hereby dub thee, Sir Troll du Cookie!
        \_ Dude, I did yermom!

10/3    I like to participate in motd polls:
        yes:
        no: ..............
        \_ Thank you for participating in this motd poll.

10/3    Who is better in the Civil War:
        Gen Grant:
        Gen Lee:     .. General Lee Generally Generalleed better.
        Gen Sherman:
        Yermom:      .
        \_ Buy a history book.

10/3    I live in an apartment by a busy street and I hear the cars at night.
        Would it help if I place an extra acrylic panel on my windows (which
        I can get easily from Home Depot)?
        \_ Use aluminum foil.  Very classy.  Your neighbors will love it.
           \_ Dynamat. Not as wrinkled.
              \_ You're missing out on a key element of the aluminum style.

10/3    Do B of A mortgages have prepayment penalty?  I can't find that info
        on the web site.  The phone says estimate hold time is >30min.  Their
        rates seems much lower than E-LOAN.  Thanks.
        \_ Probably not.  I don't think anyone in CA has a pre-payment penalty
           loan anymore.  They *might* but that's the sort of thing you'd see
           in the loan paperwork.
           \_ Oh yes they do. It's usually in the form of a clause which
              says that the loan may not be paid off within x years (2, 3, 5)
              of origination. This is mostly to prevent refinancing. According
              to my lender, it's more commonly seen for variable interest
              rate loans. I had this clause in my loan paperwork (fixed APR)
              and requested it be removed. They did, since it was a "mistake".