12/30   O.k. i want to read Iain Banks' Culutre books.  Is _Consider Phlebas_
        the first one?  Are many in the series out of print? (that's going to
        suck if it turns out i like them).
        \_ _Phlebas_ is first, but _Use of Weapons_ and _Excession_ are
           the better earlier ones. Banks' stuff can be hard to find here;
           try a library or order from a UK bookseller.
            \_ The FAQ says not to start with Excession. <shrug> :)
               \_ Excession is my favorite!  It had Meatfucker in it,
                  my favorite Banks' character. -- ilyas
        \_ There really isn't an order to the books.  I did like Use of
           Weapons.  I think his best book is "Feersum Endjin", which is
           not actually a Culture book.  -tom
           \_ Feersum Endjin takes place in the Culture universe, and contains
              Culture characters, if one pays attention.
        \_ Player of Games is another good early one.  Generally don't start
           with the later novels.  The earlier ones are more interesting.
           Then again it could just be I read the earlier ones back when I
           was less descriminating.

12/30   What's the best way in linux to delete or wipe the Master Boot
        Record of a hard disk.  I want to send it somewhere with nothing
        on it. essentially the way a HDD comes from the factory.
        \_ cat </dev/zero >/dev/hda (or /dev/hdb, or whatever) will wipe
           \_ Is there a Linux equivalent?
           the entire disk, including the MBR.  Be careful.
        \_ run FDISK /MBR
           \_ What happens if i run "lilo -u" and I had no MBR backup?

12/30   The Democrats are history:
        http://www.lrb.co.uk/v24/n19/liev01_.html
        \_ Interesting article thanks for posting it.
        \_ that guy has a clear head on his shoulders.
        \_ great piece, but your headline is misleading. --erikred

12/31   There was a comment about Drallion a while back.  There was a
        reference to _other_ circuses than Soleil. Can the poster post
        the names again?  thx.
        \_ I had mentioned Cirque Baroque.  I think they only play around
           europe (based in france..  marseille?) --scotsman
           europe (based in Villemarechal) --scotsman

12/30   serious question: has anyone been to bhutan "recently" ?
        i passed through that area very quickly many years ago. i am
        trying to figure out if there is enough to do there on a solo
        trip to fill up a week. also if it is really expensive [for
        white people it used to be almost an order of mag more
        expensive than nepal]? ok tnx. --psb
        \_ ask lila.
        \_ I can loan you my DVD of "Into the Thunder Dragon" (a traversal
           of Bhutan by bus and mountain unicycle).  -tom
        \_ Are you "bayaryaan" from http://fuckedcompany.com?
           \- what? are you talking to me? --psb
              \_ yes.

12/30   [Baleeted!]

12/31   Anybody wear the glasses where there's no upper and lower rim?
        It's hard to describe.  The frame consists of just the middle nose
        piece and the two ear pieces. There's no rim that wraps the actual
        plastic lens.  I've looked all over for them and can't find it.
        If you know the manufacturers' name or the store that carries them
        please let me know.  Thanks.
        \_ they are "rimless" see: link:www.silhouette.com
           focal point opticians in berkeley has them, i think.
            \_ thank you!
        \_ A related question.  Anybody here buy prescription frames + lenses
           online?  Is this even something I should be shopping online for???
             \_ do you need a store to adjust the frames? and check the Rx
        \_ I have rimless glasses and they are made by Kawasaki.  My
           previous pair was also rimless and they were made by Armani.
           I got both from Mountain View Optometry (in Mtn. View, of
           course).
        \_ You might be better off buying the rims online, and then taking
           the rims to somewhere local like Costco to get them perscribed.
        \_ They break really easily, so don't think that you will be uber
           morpheus matrix cool console cowboy for long.

12/31   I am using Emacs 21.2.1 with JDE 2.2.8 on a P3-866.  And
        Emacs starts running REALLY slow after loading about 10
        files.  Emacs by itself w/o JDE doesn't have such problem.
        Anyone else has silimiar problem with JDE?
        \_ Are you swapping?
           \_ I didn't exactly launch any disk activity monitor program,
              but my disk light isn't on and I didn't hear the disk
              cranking.  It seems more like CPU-bound.

12/31   When my program binds a socket to a port but dies due to an
        error, how do I "unbind" the socket so I can run the program
        again without getting "Address already in use"?  Thanks.
        \_ Man setsockopt, and look at SO_REUSEADDR
        \_ You will probably need something like this:
                int setReuseAddr(int listenfd) {
                  int on = 1, ret = 0;
                  if (setsockopt(listenfd,SOL_SOCKET,SO_REUSEADDR,
                                (void *)&on,sizeof(on)) < 0) {
                        close(listenfd);
                        ret = -1;
                  }
                  return ret;
                }