12/7    if anyone's interested, there's now a /csua/pub/books sub-
        directory to post (used) cs-related (and other) books for sale in.

12/6    What is type CS slide mount?  Is it just plastic or something more
        specialized?

12/6    Any recommendations on a good starter motorcycle?
        - sick of parking tickets
        \_ You bastard!  When they said "RIDE BIKE!" they meant a foot powered
           bicycle like a 12 speed, not a sound poluting earth destroying
           monster!  RIDE BIKE!  RIDE BART!  RIDE BUS!  RIDE SHOES!
           \_ Perhaps he wants a eco-friendly, non-poluting natural gas
              or electric bike. Don't jump to conclusions.
              \_ Get real.  The OP was very clear.  Eco friendly was not on
                 the list.  It's about parking tickets, not my air.  Stop
                 trying to read in what isn't there.  And it's not like an
                 electric or natural gas vehicle is eco friendly anyway.  It's
                 all killing the planet, you're just moving the problem to
                 some other place.
                 \_ I was joking.
                    \_ That's not funny.  Destroying the environment for your
                       own self convenience is never funny.
        \_ Sure, something small (250cc), cheap, and used.  Spend your
           money on gear.  (You're gonna crash the thing with in the
           first 6 months, buy cheap and easy) Oh, and take the course.
           -jrleek
           \_ He's not 'gonna crash,' he just may crash.  -jor, 8 years
              75,000 miles, no crashes.  He should just buy a reasonably
              priced standard, like a Bandit or a non racer 600 sportbike.
           \_ I'd say a 250 is too small.  You will grow out of it to fast.
              Not to mention there aren't too many 250s around these days.
              Go with sometihng ~500ccs, get something with little or no
              plastic (you will drop the bike and plastic is expensive)
              and that you won't feel too bad about if you destroy.  Lots of
              generic 80s and 90s japanese bikes fit the bill.
           \_ Yeah, I've heard good things about the course.  Gear recs?
              I've heard good things about the Suzuki SV650, but I doubt
              I'll find one of those used. -OP
              \_ minimal reqs - boots, long sleeve shirt, jeans - mds
                \_ That's pretty minimal.  I'd say minmum is a Snell
                   approved full face helmet, boots, leather gloves,
                   leather jacket, and jeans.  In that order. -jrleek
                  \_ I read it as "reqs for the *course*" - they provide
                     the helmet.  Forgot gloves, they require that too.
                     Jacket is of course good, but not sure it's that
                     much benefit for the mostly-low-speed riding of the
                     course, it's warm...
                     \_ Was actually wondering about general gear recs? -OP
                        \_ jacket, gloves, helmet, boots, jeans.  Wear all
                           of them.  Don't be cheap.  Good gloves are a lot
                           more important than you think, they give you grip
                           on the trottle and even at 30mph that wind gets
                           COLD fast.  Not to mention losing your palm in
                           accident would suck.  (I've fallen with tough
                           leather gloves on, you tear those things up.)
                           Boots are probably the least nessecary of those
                           five things, but fuck it.  Don't be cheap.  Having
                           heard horror stories of people shaving down thier
                           ankles do you really want to risk it?  Once again,
                           expect that you will fall down at least once in your
                           first year.  If you aren't being too risky it
                 are only half has likely to get in an accident per mile
                           probably wont be that bad of a fall, but even a
                           minor fall can be really painful if you aren't
                           wearing gear.
        \_ Sick of having full use of your limbs and appendages too?
           \_ you can die slowly but surely, sitting in a cage in traffic,
              or you can accept a chance of sooner pain, saving an hour
              a day.  You can also go to dinner in North Beach on a Friday
              night without paying some bum $20 for 'his' parking space.
              \_ you can have your head run over by a semi. your life.
                 if you stay off freeways you have a much better chance.
                 but even then you have your red-light runners, people who
                 rear-end you for no reason, etc. etc.
           \_ What are the accident statistics for motorcycles and cars?
              \_ I poured over these one night and calculated that you
                 are only half as likely to get in an accident per mile
                 on a motorcycle than in a car. However, your accident
                 is 10 times more likely to be fatal. So the per mile
                 fatality rate is about 5X. -ausman (still riding)
                 \_ Any correlation between taking a class and reduced
                    fatality?  --genuninely curious
                    \_ Well, your insurance rates go down if you take the
                       class and generally that is a good sign.
                 \_ No, I have not seen anything convincing. Alchohol is
                    involved in 1/2 of all crashes, so don't drink and drive,
                    not even one beer. Do I really need to say this? Also,
                    2/3 of all injuries are caused by cars where the driver
                    does not see the rider, so visibility is very important.
                    Wear bright clothing, ride a brightly colored bike, have
                    loud pipes, do whatever it takes to be seen, especially
                    when you are in inexperienced rider. Eventually, you will
                    learn to adapt your style to your relative invisibility,
                    but at first it is quite a shock. -ausman
        \_ related question - what to watch out for (mechanically) in a
           used bike? How much should you expect to pay for a starter bike?
            - mds, in similar situation
                \_ that would depend on what you decide on, and whether
                   it's used or new.  ninja250's are nice because they're
                   so damn cheap at ~3k new and a bit less, used .  -suzuki
        \_ my boss crashed his harley. lost his ankle and about 4 inches
           above it.
        \_ Is he on King Of The Hill now?
           \_ A guy I knew in highschool crashed his car and lost his life.
              What's your point?
              \_People in the ER call motorcycles "suicide machines." Your
                \_ i thought they called them
                        regional variation: "donor-cycles" _/
              chance of surviving a car crash in one piece are higher than
              if you are on a motorcycle, assuming all things being equal.
        \_ a kawasaki ninja 250cc if you're small; a suzuki gs500e or a
           kawi ninja 500cc if you're much bigger than a 5'3" female.
           i endorse the safety class as well.  good stuff.  -suzuki

12/8    this is a pretty good "system debugging story" --psb
        http://seanm.ca:70/0/nerd/500mileemail.txt
        \- i have some quibbles with the computation at the end but still
           a fun story. --psb

12/8    I just got handed a large Visual Basic...thing...and I need to
        convert it to C++ fast.  Does anyone know of a good program that
        can do this in an automated fashion?  I STFW'd and was only able
        to come up with some REALLY expensive software.  Thank you for any
        assistance!
        \- contract someone unemployed? serious suggestion.
           \_ A good suggestion, but not within my power.
        \_ why do you need to do this?  if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
           \_ Standardization.  It's now Company Policy.  *shrug*
              \_ "Ok, no problem, we'll need 250 man days.  Do you want it
                  in 2-3 years or do you want to hire more people?"
        \_ Code costs ~$100 per debugged/tested line.  If you want some way to
           do it manually, run a metrics program and do the math on the real
           cost.  Otherwise, you'd probably do well to convince management
           that they need to buy this expensive tool you described.  They talk
           about this situation in "Rapid Development" by Steve McConnell,
           where management has fantasies of projects being completed in x
           days because they said so, but you would do well to dis-illusion
           them with the above math, and a copy of Rapid Development to back
           up your argument.  [formatd]
           \_ Huh.  That's sound advice.  Thank you!

12/8    No money but at least you can say you're working while looking for a
        paying job: http://www.craigslist.org/sfo/pen/sad/7231446.html
        \_ Are the rest of the people working for nothing too?  You often
           get what you pay for, esp when you offer only a possibility of
           a real job.
           \_ Usually yes because there isn't any money.  Everything is
              running off the founders' credit cards.
              running off the founders' credit cards. [do not edit other
              people's posts.  add your own comment if you have something
              to add]
              \_ Aren't credit cards a really bad way to finance a company?
                 or is the interest reflective of what the risk is?
                 \_ One would think so but I've seen it a few times.  Then
                    again, how many people were day trading 3 years ago?

12/8    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0312261551/reviews/002-8781719-2026452#03122615513200
        Read the guy's letter about the sponge.

12/8    Somebody gave me an audio CD that only has one track about 50 minutes
        long.  I want to "re-burn" and break it up into 4-5 tracks that are
        shorter in length (so I can skip forward and such).  What FREE tools
        are there to do this?  I'd imagine I need to turn it into an MP3 and
        then break up the MP3 into smaller chunks and then turn it back into
        an audio CD.  Or is there a tools that does this directly?  Thanks.
                 \_ you're not making any sense.  When you rip the audio from
                    the CD, you get a WAV file.  There is no extra step of
                    "encoding to WAV".  Just rip and split.  I think Exact
                    Audio Copy can do it. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
        \_ could be as simple as cdda2wav and split, and your favorite mp3
           encoder ...
           \_ If you're just going to record it back to CD again, you might
              not want to convert it to MP3 at all -- just split up the WAV
              file into smaller WAV files, and burn those.  Not only will
              converting to MP3 lose some audio quality, it tends to add a
              bit of silence at the beginning and end of the file, which will
              disrupt your otherwise continuous audio.
              \_ I need to turn the audio tracks into WAV files first don't
                 I?  Is there ONE tools that does all this?  I know I can
                 download an encoder to turn it into a WAV file, and may
                 be another tool to split it.  But I'm asking for an integrated
                 program.
                 \_ you're not making any sense.  When you rip the audio from
                    the CD, you get a WAV file.  There is no extra step of
                    "encoding to WAV".  Just rip and split.  I think Exact
                    Audio Copy can do it. http://www.exactaudiocopy.de
        \_ http://audacity.sourceforge.net
           Don't bother encoding to MP3.  Why would you think you need to?

12/8    Can iPods interface with USB? I'd hate to buy a $70 Firewire card
        for my PC...
        \_ suck it up. --aaron
        \_ Firewire cards are cheap.  You can buy one for #20-30.  For $70,
           you should be getting a USB2/Firewire combo card.  Besides,
           do you really want to transfer gigabytes of MP3s over USB1.1?