10/28   Dear Russian motdians, how do you tell if someone's from Ukrain,
        Russia, or other Republics? For example, can you tell from their
        last name like <something>ski, <something>gorodov, <something>ninoff,
        etc?
        \_ Ask them.
        \_ Russian endings: ov/ova, iy/aya (e.g. ivanov, kulikovskiy)
           Ukranian endings: ko (e.g. bondarenko)
           Armenian endings: ian (e.g. kevorkian)
           Georgian endings: dze/tze shvili (e.g. shevardnadze dzhugashvili)
           These are rules of thumb though, and jewish last names are pretty
           diverse.
           \_ More standard assumptions (i.e. what people will assume without
              asking in Russia based on last name alone):
              Russian: -in/-ina, -off (old latinization of -ov)
              Polish/Belarussian: -skiy/-skaya (generally assumed NOT russian,
              contrary to the above).
              Lithuanian/Latvian: -is/-as/-us
              Azerbaijani: -gli/-glu (same ending, different latinization, same
              as -glI in Turkish, which Azeri is effectively a dialect of); I
              suppose these can also show up in Turkmen, Uzbek, and the like,
              but they seem to not do so too often.
              Central Asian / Azerbaijani: Russian endings attached to Turkic,
              Arabic, or Altaic first names. Hard to quantify in terms of
              endings alone.
              Estonian: anything sounding like Finnish; double consonants and
              double vowels anywhere, stuff ending in -u
              Standard Jewish: -man/-zon/-son
              Anything else remotely germanic-sounding (or foreign-sounding
              in general, for most people in an average village) -- Jewish
              is assumed anyway.
                 -alexf, whose last name "sounds unusual" and thus is
                  immediately [correctly] assumed to be Jewish by most people
                  from the former USSR
           \_ my proj lead is Ukrainian and his last name is
              zhegorodov. He said he used to be a farm boy, whatever
              that means.
              \_ That's why they are rules of thumb.  People intermarry,
                 etc.
              \_ Indeed, rules of thumb only. Although a Russian _could_
                 probably _guess_ that the above is Ukranian or at least
                 near the border -- the stem is "Zhegorod", a place name
                 (since "gorod" is the root for "city"), and the _place
                 name_ sounds Ukranian more than anything. Keep in mind that
                 anyone who grows up in a diverse environment which doesn't
                 have a US-style pressure against drawing lines along ethnic
                 boundaries will learn a ton of subtleties of this sort
                 without noticing, since everyone uses them to distinguish
                 between "us" and "them", for all values of "us." -alexf

10/28   Dear psb aka wisest Emacs guru I've ever met in my entire life. Can
        you please share your Emacs wisdom by putting it on your web site?
        I will worship you more if you do.              -psb #3 fan
        \- i'm not a big believer in WEEB technology for stuff like that.
           also writing html takes years off my life ... html*mode cant
           do anything about the aesthetic insult. you can mail mr-emacs@soda
           and you might get an answer. --psb
                \_ PLEASE put it in text mode. I will worship toward Northern
                   California 5 times a day and fast for you.
        \_ try M-x help or C-h in emacs

10/28   http://www.evilninja.net/buybush.htm
        \_ brilliant.
        \_ at least it's a bit more clever than the standard "bush is stupid
           and stole the election from that nice man Al".

10/28   nobdy gave angels a chance.
        \_ uh, they looked much stronger to anyone who knows baseball.  -tom
           \_ so which team did you put your money on?
              \_ I don't normally bet on sports, but I predicted Angels in 5.
                  -tom
        \_ I am pretty happy. The giants are assholes.
          \_ Uh-huh, and what does that make a relief pitcher whose tactic is
             throwing three pitches in succession at a batter's head.
             \_ Good?
               \_ A good pitcher doesn't need to do this.
                  \_ Tell that to Don Drysdale.  Or for that matter, Randy
                     Johnson.  "Need to" is a stupid anyhow.  It's fun to.
                  \_ Well, there's the argument that hitters, with all their
                     armor, are no longer afraid and are standing virtually
                     on top of the plate.  A pitcher shouldn't be averse to
                     throwing inside.
                  \_ Blah blah blah, assine strategy, blah blah
           \_ Giants in 9!
           \_ So the fact that two players have attitudes (Bonds / Lofton)
              makes the whole team assholes?
              \_ Jeff Kent (Cal alum) is a serious asshole
                 \_ motorist to Kent after he broke his wrist:
                    "You're an idiot!"
              \_ getting paid millions to play a child's game and then threaten
                 a strike?  they're all assholes.  they make the dockworkers
                 look good.
        \_ I'm just glad baseball season is OVER.
           \_ Only four more months until spring training!

10/28   alexf, they say that if you want your paper to be published on say
        ACM/IEEE change your last name to be Russian. What does that mean?
        \_ That means someone's pulling your leg. But you knew that. -alexf
           \_ I thought it means that he's trolling.

10/28   http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/10/28/displays.rollup.reut
        Flexible OLED plastic screens.  Roll 'em up.
        \_ Yes, we've been seeing these prototypes for 3-4 years.  Note that
           they have yet to show an example of hues of blue or detail the
           lifetime of the individual OLED's.  Personally, I'm hoping OLED's are
           viable commercially soon, but I'm not holding my breath.
        \_ This is yet another of those "will be available commercially in 3-5
           years" things where "3-5 years" is a moving target.  When you can
           buy one in Compusa then there'll be something to talk about.

10/28   is there a unix project that replaces the functionality
        of yahoogroups?
        \_ Yes.
           \_ I agree.
        \_  Is this a joke/troll? Newsgroups: try typing "trn"

10/28   Has anyone else noticed that if you type :) very quickly on a
        Microsoft natural keyboard, sometimes the ) will get dropped. This has
        been the case for my last 3 keyboards...
        \_ You need to spend less time on AIM.
        \_ Since I don't use a Microsoft Unnatural Keyboard and none of the
           languages I write have :) as a common sequence, I would have to say
           "no, I haven't noticed".  Why do you keep buying these things if
           they don't work?  Get a real keyboard.
           \_ Pretty much all keyboards have similar bugs.  -tom
           \_ My new micro$oft World Domination keyboard has a
              specific set of function keys with every type of
              smilie on them, so I don't have this kind of problem.
           \_ I rarely use :) so I rarely notice. And all my companies offered
              me either a shitty 101 keyboard or the MS. Luuuuv the MS.
        \_ I've bought like 20 of these over four years, and there are definite
           \_ d00d, yer so 1337.
        \_ I've bought like 20 of these over three yrs, and there are definite
           quality control issues (a key stops working, certain Ctl/Alt combos
           don't work, generally below avg quality) the cheaper and more OEM
           (less reputable vendors) you buy them.  FYI, MS is selling the Nat'l
           Keyboard of the PS2/USB variety for $40 at CompUSA, retaining it in
           the Fall '02 line of keyboards/mice.  I've also noticed the quality
           steadily improving ~ every half year.  Haven't tried the "Office" or
           "Internet" ones.  The "Wireless Desktop" ones, well, they require
           batteries, and who wants a wireless mouse which have 100% of the
           time tracked less well?
           \_ are you some kind of idiot? logitech plain jane kbd, $14,
              solid quality. if you keep buying shitty MS keyboards you
              deserve what you get.

10/28   Want a part of $9 Million dollars?  Simply give your
        "bank name, your bank account, number, your private telephone and
        fax number for easier and effective communication and location where
        the money will be remitted.".
        It is that easy!
        \_ Want my SSN and atm PIN too?  Mother's maiden name?  How about I
           just transfer everything I own to you in Nigeria?

10/28   I want to rename a couple files in a cvs repository.  What's the
        best way to do so (assuming I want to maintain the changelogs)?
        \_ rename the file in the CVS root, and update the checkout.
           --scotsman
        \_ integrate from to, delete from

10/28   Goddamn spam.  Is there a good site that lists spammers that would
        honestly remove you from their distribution if you go through their
        unsubscribe process?  It's been said that these actually just verify
        that you have a working email address.  I'm tired of having to add
        the 10th billion variation of an address in Outlook's block list.
        (Yes, I _have_ to use Outlook; no choice).
        \_ http://freeroller.net/page/cbeust/20021022 You're welcome.
        \_ Unsubscribe lists are their way of duping you into confirming
           that there is a human receiving their mail.  The best way
           is to avoid posting your email on the internet at all.
            \_ I have never found this to be the case (though many are ignored
               and it isn't worth your time anyway since spammers rarely send
               from the same list twice.  If you are getting mail from the same
               source over and over, opting out will not hurt (prob. won't help
               either).
                \_ Do not opt out.  Do not reply.  It can only hurt.  Do you
                   work for a spammer or what?
                   \_ Some companies do indeed respect spam complaints as they
                      should, even going so far as to add constraints to their
                      clients database to prevent offended addresses from
                      being re-added, enforcing opt-in confirmation
                      requirements on all lists, etc.  they're few and far
                      between, though, and the previous poster is half right.
                      It can _not_ hurt, but in most circumstances it will.
                      --scotsman
                      address
                      \_ Since the odds of getting a good company are near zero
                         it can only hurt you.  The only companies that respect
                         list management replies are the ones you probably
                         intentionally opted in to in the first place.  Random
                         pr0n spam companies do not respect anything.  Do not
                         reply to random spam.  It is easy to tell the diff.
        \_ I suggest getting a new email address, cancel the old one and don't
           use your real address for anything but friends and real business.
           Hotmail & yahoo are there for your spam eating needs.
        \_ get off your fucking ass and set up spamassassin, it's easy and
           it works like a charm. --aaron
           \_ This isn't always an option in a business environment but I agree
              with you in the general case.
              \_ Actually, if the OP is inquiring about business mail, they
                 should get of their fucking ass and tell the sysadmin to get
                 off their fucking ass and setup some kind of mail filtering.
                  \_ spamfiltering in corporate-NT land isn't so easy.
                        \_ dunno about the sysadmin side but we have a corporate
                                spam filter and it works pretty well (too well
                                really..but that's a small problem)
                  \_ as the sysadmin my answer would be "tough shit, talk to
                     the CTO and get budget and policy for it".  I like my job.
                     My job is *not* to answer to you, the piddly drone bee.
                     My job is to do what the execs want.  They don't want spam
                     filtering because it might kill a real email.  Deal and
                     stop wasting corporate time posting on usenet all day.
                     \_ Oh yeah, policy comes straight from the CEO to the
                        sysadmin for important decisions like this.
                        \_ Depends on company size.  As the grunt bottom rung
                           sysadmin I am not risking my job by implementing a
                           spam policy without buyin and write off by people
                           high enough up to protect my job when the CEO loses
                           email.  You're a fool if you'd do otherwise.
                     \_ god, i hate people like you.  but then, so does
                        everyone.
                        \_ I have a job.  You don't have my job.  Why should I
                           risk getting fired because you're getting spam?  I
                           hate stupid selfish ignorant fuck sluts like you,
                           but then, so does everyone.
              \_ i guess what i'm saying is "there is no way implementing
                 filtering is going to have less ROI than asking these
                 people to stop, because they won't." --aaron
           \- ObEmacs:http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SpamStat
              [however starting to use gnus has a bit of a learning crv]
                \_ what kind of freak still uses emacs to read their
                   email?  i mean seriously, I don't even think psb
                   does anymore.
                   \- actually worse than that! i use /usr/ucb/mail with some
                      code tweaks. emacs has a lot of very powerful mail
                      readers. you are no doubt E_TOOSHORT to use emacs to
                      read mail. --psb
                      \_ anyone who uses emacs to read mail is E_MORON
        \_ SpamAssassin for Windows: http://www.deersoft.com
           No need to install perl or any other UNIX crap on your NT box.
           \_ you forgot to mention the $30 part.
              \_ $30 is worth less than an hour of your time.
                 \_ Hour?  What hour?  And no its not.  I get paid more than
                    that.  You're also forgetting that it takes time to install
                    and configure vs the near zero amount of time I spend
                    dealing with spam.  Who the hell are you to think my time
                    is worth less than $30/hour anyway?  I was making more than
                    that right out of school.  Sorry that you're not.
                    \_ My point is that $30 is nothing compared to your time.
                       Read more carefully please.

10/28   motd poll :
        i used the extra hour to
        sleep:  ..
        get more work done:.
        post useless polls to the motd: .
        drink: .
        mud: .
        master of orion v1.3 & cable sci-fi: .

10/28   Who's that Asian guy in the new Dell computer? He looks familiar...
        \_ actor in TV shows?