12/28   Be careful what you say, you might get a visit from the police:
        http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash/wu.html
        \_ boo hoo, terrorist boy gets nabbed by the FBI.  That is exactly
           how it is supposed to work.
           \_ yup.  China had that all worked out for DECADES.
           \_ Only a russian jew would trade freedom for a "safe" and
              "fair" system he can find the loopholes in.
        \_ All I can say is it's a good thing she didn't call anyone a
           "nigger" or call her roommate a "wetback" she would've gone
           to jail for that.
        \_ I must be missing something here, because it starts off with a
           story about a girl and "Metal Gear Solid" then suddenly
           switches to some guy from Yemen.  Huh?
           Not to meantion, so people from terrorist countries are checked
           out more thoughorly nowdays.  Big whup.
           \_ Yemen is a terrorist country?  I thought they were one of our
              "important allies".  Funny how muddled all this gets.  Hey,
              wasn't that federal building bombing in Oklahoma done by U.S.
              citizens.  Maybe we should start looking more closely at them
              too.  I know.  Let's just start rounding up students.  They
              think about alot of different things, and some of those things
              must be dangerous.
              \_ A) Just because the goverment likes us, doesn't mean
                 everyone in the country does.  Case and point: Saudi
                 Arabia.  (The opposite is also true, say, Iraq.)
                 B) I didn't see you whining back when all the "militias"
                 we're getting checked out.  Or even when Waco went down.
        \_ this writer needs to go back to journalism school. they never
        introduce "Kamal" until a paragraph AFTER referring to him with
        third person pronouns...totally fucking confusing shit article. --aaron

12/28   The failure of the German welfare cradle-to-grave system:
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/813440/posts
        \_ Wow.  Tax revenues are down and deficits are up, so the government
           raises taxes?!  Thank God that would never happen here!  Get a life,
           pal.  A majority of states right here in the US are in the same
           economic boat.  How many of them have a "cradle-to-grave" welfare
           system?  Get a life.
           \_ You're not making any sense.  If you could calm down for the 30
              seconds it might take to write a reply maybe we could discuss it.
              In the mean time, take a look and see the long term fate of an
              industrialized western nation with even greater taxes than here:
              9% unemployment and zero growth to our lower taxes, lower
              enumployment rate and above-zero growth.
              \_ Austria +2.5%, Britain +3.4% , Spain +3.2% quit making shit
                 up.
                 \_ None of which have the same level of socialist support or
                    taxes Germany has.  Thanks for staying on point.
              \_ Aren't you late for some cyrillic menorah reading or somesuch?
                 \_ No idea who or what you're talking about.
              \_ you may or may not be right, but the existence of a recession
                 doesn't mean that's the "long term fate" of such a system.
                 duh.
                 \_ Been going on for *9* years.  Read the article, then come
                    come back and let us know what you think.  "duh"
              \_ I like it when the poor suffer and die. It's much better that
                 way. I mean, God must want it to happen, right?
                 \_ Because once the economy collapses from over taxation, all
                    those poor citizens will be equally "wealthy" and therefore
                    happy, right?
                 \_ You can't legislate compassion.
              \_ How much stuff is "enough"? I don't think growth and
                 consumption are always good. Look how overfed Americans
                 are. We are dying from our overconsumption.
                 \_ infidel defiler!!!  you are now required to read
                    the Fountainhead and buy an SUV or suffer the
                    consequences.
                 \_ Americans are not overfed.  Those who are fat are so
                    because of the kinds of foods they eat, not the amount.
                    And you apparently haven't been to Germany.  West Germany
                    has plenty of fatties rolling about.  Anyway, I find it
                    interesting that the only people who say "how much stuff
                    is enough" are those who have nothing and want to take from
                    those who have.  Go earn it.  It isn't your place to decide
                    how much another human being is allowed to earn.  You also
                    confuse 'economic growth' with 'pants size growth'.  Please
                    come back after getting a passing grade in Econ 1 where
                    they'll explain how zero economic growth with a growing
                    population means the average standard of living will drop.
                    \_ The German population is not growing. Go back to Econ 1
                       yourself. I have everything I want and no desire to
                       take from others. It is you greedheads that are never
                       satisfied. If your selfishness and stupidity were not
                       destoying the planet, I would be happy to let you
                       wallow in all the crap you desire.
                       \_ Go Captain Planet go!  Save that rock!  Nader in
                          2004!

12/30   Ok, after much web surfing and ebay searching I'm convinced that I
        can't find a decent new laptop for my sister under $500.  I'm now
        looking at refurbished dells.  Anybody bought one of those?  Or
        general problems with dell laptops?  Thanks.
        \_ Ask danh for a laptop(tm).
        \_ you still haven't answered my question about her fellatio skills
        \_ Dell laptops are pieces of junk.  Get a Thinkpad.
           \_ Yea, and now they have the affordable Thinkpad R series.
           \_ can you elaborate on a specific problem you had with dells?
                \_ they all break.  they have poor heat dissapation.
                \_ and they're more like lead bricks than lap tops.  I don't
                   know about your sister but I'm not happy with a zillion
                   pounds of dell on my lap burning a hole through my flesh.
                   \_ dude, stop.  You're turning me on!
           \_ Thinkpads have shitty multimedia ability and are overpriced.
              \_ as if she's playing doom3 on it?  its a laptop.  all laptops
                 have shitty mm compared to desktops.  laptop buyers simply
                 understand and accept the tradeoff.
                 \_ well, that's not true. i have used laptops for watching
                    dvds, playing music, recording music, and playing games.
                    i generally don't use the batteries but I like the other
                    aspects of portability. for mm, dell > ibm.
              \_ The R series pricing is very reasonable.  The dell
                 lattitudes seem ok to me, but I am not so sure about the
                 inspirons.  And don't buy toshibas.  They are horrible
                 and feel like cheap toys.
                 \_ my toshiba portege 2000 is sweet.
                    \_ I guess I shouldn't have made sweeping
                       generalizations.  Just that all the toshibas
                       (satellites) in my lab are crappy and aging badly.
                       Also, most compaqs are shitty but the N600C seems
                       very nice.
                       \_ Toshiba shares with IBM a price/quality curve that
                          looks like a step function.  The low-end Toshiba
                          Satellite line is typically junk.  The high-end
                          (arguably overpriced) Portege line tend to be
                          quite nice.  Same seems true of IBMs.  When you
                          start paying out the ass, quality jumps.
                          \_ I find the low end Thinkpad R series to be of
                             good quality, unlike low end Toshiba junk.
                             And I love the Thinkpad T series.  If I
                             have a chunk of dough, I will get it.
                 \_ I've heard terrible things about Inspirons so I bought
                    a refurbished Lattitude and it's been ok.  The two
                    problems are that the screen hits the keyboard (so
                    there's a scratch) and the arrow keys are a bit loose
                    from lots of use (so they're a bit clicky when you press
                    them hard).  Neither of these bother me, but
                    others might be.
           \_ I have bought two used thinkpads on EBay and both have
              served me well.
              \_ ditto for me (except I bought 3).
        \_ I buy a lot of laptops. Sony has been the worst. IBM is okay, but
           overpriced and the "eraser" starts to get erratic. I once bought
           2 dozen Thinkpads and within 3 years every one of them had problems.
           I have been buying the Dell Latitudes lately without problems. --dim
           \_ What kind of problems?
           \_ dim, did you buy brand new thinkpads or refurbished ones?  This
              thread is about refurbished dells/ibms.  I'm assuming you mean
              refurbished for both?
              \_ These were new. If the new ones suck, so will the refurbs.
                 The IBMs had every sort of problem you can imagine. None
                 of them are in use now. I thought they were cool when they
                 were new, but I'm not buying any more. --dim
                 \_  Wanna sell one of the less broke of them?  how much??
        \_ okay, flame-on, but I love my Acer TravelMate.  The only problems
           I have had concern the crappy OS that it came with (Win98).  It is
           light, usable (keyboard is actually easy to type on), includes
           external drives, and is much cheaper than sony and ibm.

12/31   Essential System Administration by Frisch refers to a "wheel group"
        as being an added security feature for the assignment of root
        privileges.  Question: How is this an added security feature when
        having the stolen root password allows login as root anyways?  The
        author also mentions that this feature is not available in Linux, but
        used in BSD type OS's.
        \_ False assumption.  Given a wheel group, you can disallow external
           logins by root altogether.  This leaves at the very least a username
           trail if the source IP is spoofed.

12/28   http://hometown.aol.com/iamhotbiats/myhomepage/profile.html
        (kids these days).
        \_ Why would be possibly be interested in this? Is that your
           sister or something?

12/28   wanted, dongle that speaks USB and firewire for the purpose of reading
        and writing to the following media: CF-1, CF-2, MicroDrive, SmartMedia,
        SD/MMC, and Memory Stick.
        \_ Why do men want what they can't have?
           \_ Because he's too stupid to realize he can't have it.
        \_ I want world peace.

12/30   Shit, I finally remember what used to be there before Wall Berlin
        and someone pulls the thread.
        \_ bastard!  what was in the building pre-wall?
           \_ Cafe Durant, but it's still there, isn't it? Aren't they all
              in the same building?
              \_ what was... in the space... that USED TO BE
                 wall berlin.  no it's not cafe durant.  cafe
                 durant is ABOVE the old wall berlin space.
                 Wall Berlin is closed now, the space is going
                 to become a tea house.  what was there BEFORE
                 WALL BERLIN.  I will kill you all.
                 \_ It was some crappy sandwich place. I remember
                    eating there before it closed. Let me rattle
                    my brain some more and see if I can remember
                    the name.
                    \_ Togo's?
                \_ no togo's was on bancroft.
                incidentally why is that lot on Telegraph still vacant?
                \_ Evil Rasputin's guy owns the lot.  Doesn't want
                   Amoeba to expand.
                \_ so why not build housing?  or does he think
                   students who live there... might shop at Amoeba?
                   I guess that actaully makes sense in some weird
                   way.
                   \_ I dunno.  How much property tax does he have to spend
                      every year on that lot?
                      \_ Is that all you can think about?
                         Go back to russia, jewboy.

12/30   What should I use to copy DVD to VCD?
        \_ You can find out details on this and other related issues at
           http://www.fbi.com
           \_ you mean http://www.fbi.gov genius?  and to answer the OP's question,
              see http://www.doom9.org

12/30   Happy birthday primrose!
                \_ aww!  Thank you!  I feel so loved!  --pboynton
                   \_ If you go to the power exchange you'll be loved by
                      lots of people.