1/13    Stupid question.  Besides the obvious (e.g. determining the strlen),
        what makes variable length encoding difficult to program?
        \_ that's the difficulty, although there are some things that result
           from it.  For example, with video or audio streams with variable
           bitrates, seeking to a specific time in the stream can be difficult.
        \_ you mean strnlen, right?  No one uses strlen anymore I hope?
           \_ What is strnlen (no manpage) and what's wrong with strlen?
              \_ i assume the above poster is trying to say strncpy vs
                 strcpy.  but clearly s/he's not thinking very clearly.

1/13    How I Joined Teach for America -- and Got Sued for $20 Million
        http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5528
        \_ Obviously the answer is to give more money to the school system.
           That'll fix everything.

1/13    Heidi got eliminated, THERE IS A GOD AFTERALL!!!
        \_ She gets my vote for bitch of the year!
        \_ Zora?  She's the one.  The interesting part will come at the end.
           Notice how he's gotten over his guilt about the core lie and he's
           now really into the power trip testing thing?  He should've chosen
           based on their income levels (doctor, business type) and not how
           they look.  Then he could retire to beer and tv while she worked.

1/13    Who is this op guy who keeps posting here?
        finger: op: no such user
        \_ Original Poster.  What I want to know is, who's tia?
           \_ yeraunt
           \_ she's this generic not-very-hot asian actress we're supposed to
              think is really hot because hollywood says so.

1/13    do rabbits really fuck all the time, or is that just an expression?
        \_yermom does
        \_ is this a troll? In any case:
           http://www.bartleby.com/65/ra/rabbit.html
           scroll down to "Reproduction".
           \_ that doesn't really answer the question.  reproduction
              rate != copulation frequency.
        \_ Their reproductive strategy is the shotgun approach favored by
           a fish and amphibians; they have large and frequent litters on
           assumption that many will die.  They were introduced to
           Australia years ago, and there weren't enough efficient
           predators to keep their numbers in check, so they became a
           problem.
           \_ So, the stupider you are, the more children you have?
              Interesting.
              \_ This isn't news.  --happily childless

1/13    Vote for the California quarter:
        <DEAD>134.186.46.107<DEAD>

1/13    I've been looking at intel's web site and can't find any sort of
        white paper on design principles that make the CPU keep up with
        moore's law.  I heard that things like the main components of
        performance is memory and manufacturing process.  The fancy stuff
        like pipelining hyperthreading etc, doesn't really do much.  The
        amount of onboard cache memory is still the determining factor in
        performance.  And that is tied to the manufacturing process.  It has
        been a while since I took CS152.  Is this still true?  Most of the
        advances in microprocessor design is in integrating bigger and bigger
        cache into the chip?
        \_ Making transistors smaller also helps. Smaller devices run faster
           than larger ones since both the resistance and the capacitance
           depend on the device size.
           \_ given practical limits on size and cost of a die, more cache
              implies process improvement.  the pa guys used to do offchip
              sram in a mcm, but i think they've given up on that also (because
              at the end of the day the interconnect between cpu and sram is
              slow).  (of course i've not looked at general purpose cpu's
              for many years so i may be wrong).  intel's claim of everything
              being essentially only  memory and cache bandwidth limited
              may be true for the class of cpu's they mostly build (general
              purpose) and the class of problems they solve (large grained),
              but certainly is not true for all architectures and all
              applications.  also i guess depends on the definition of a cpu.
              e.g. just as the bandwidth of a truck full of mag tapes is
              stunning, so is the computational power of a die full of small
              (friend of mine makes a 27k gate one) processors.
              so in general they are wrong, though they are probably
              correct specifically for the problem they are trying to solve.
              \_ well, my wrong is probably too strong, because it's always
                 memory and cache bandwidth, but it's certainly not the only
                 thing.
        \_ Moore's law specifies #transistors/chip.  The fabrication process
           allows features to shrink roughly in line with ML.  Lately, issues
           like scaling (wires scale differently than transistors) and routing
           (connecting the transistors to each other) are tougher than shrinking
           transistors.
           \_ nothing lately about it.  i took cs250 15 years ago, and it
              was obvious to me then that routing was the problem.  power
              is a much more interesting and recent problem.
              \_ When I worked developing CAD tools @ Intel 1997-2000, those
                 were the emerging problems.  Hence, lately. -emarkp
                 \_ back in the day when i banged sea-of-gates chips late
                    80's and early 90's, it was as simple as throwing the
                    netlist over the wall to the backend guys.  93-ish
                    we started having to worry about floorplanning, and
                    95 i started doing cot and p&r was a problem.  which is
                    not to say that p&r was not a problem earlier, as anyone
                    who pushed polygons by hand will tell you (which is what
                    i referred to when i mentioned c250 above), rather
                    that around that time density and technology made the
                    problem much less tractable.  you also have to understand
                    that intel does not have the most normal design flow, and
                    your experience at intel probably does not reflect
                    industry experience in general.

1/13    http://www.looper.info/contents.htm
        Does anybody know anything about this band?  I just recently heard
        some stuff by them (like it a lot) and their website says that the
        lead guy has "disappeared" but mentions that it could just be his
        artistic temperament at play.  Is there really a police investigation
        or is it just a stunt?
        \_ main member from Belle & Sebastian, don't know much more than
           that.  -sax
        \_ I don't know anything about the band really, but they did have
           a cool song, "Mondo 77" on the Vanilla Sky soundtrack.
           \_ It's also on the XBox game that involves "Kudos".
        \_ They were the opening band for a Flaming Lips concert a couple
           of years ago (either that or Radiohead). pretty nice stuff.

1/13    Another stupid question. Why exactly is Iraq not allowed to have
        these "weapons of mass destruction"? America and many other
        countries possess them, so why cannot Iraq?
          \- better question: why is France on the Security Council --psb
        \_ better question: why is France on the Security Council --psb
           \_ On the winning side of WWII and gave the capitalists numerical
              superiority over the communists. Not that having more really
              counted for much.
           \_ It was the only way to make shutup Charles de Galle.
              \- if you really want to hate france, you should read
                 more about de gaulle's thumbing his nose at churchill
                 and fdr. i dont have a good reference for this but if
                 someone else does, i'd be interested. ok tnx --psb
           \_ topWorldEconomies - countriesThatLostWWII = securityCouncil
              \_ ignorance + you = your post. Russia is not a topWorldEconomy.
                 \_ Who else then?  Cananda?  Harharharharhar!
                    \_ India... Brazil...
        \_ They entered into a legal arragement at the end of the gulf war
           where they stated they would not develop nuclear weapons.  They
           agreed because Saddam wanted to stay in power, but now he's
           violated that contract with the UN according to the chimp
           in the whitehouse.
        \_ ... as the world goes, is only in question between
           equals in power, while the strong do what they can
           and the weak suffer what they must ... [men] by a
           necessary law of their nature they rule wherever
           they can. And it is not as if we were the first to
           make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found
           it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist
           for ever after us; all we do is to make use of it,
           knowing that you and everybody else, having the
           same power as we have, would do the same as we do.
           --History of the Peloponnesian War, Book V  ("The Melian Dialog")
           \- "in our lifetime" i think a few more countries are likely
              to get nukes to make a run at it. iran, japan for example.
              --psb
              \- BTW, this may be of some interest:
                       soda:/tmp/Mearsheimer-Walt.pdf
                 I think they are somewhat glib on a few things (then it
                 comes to the importence or non- of nukes) but otherwise
                 it is a fairly accesible and reasonable article. --psb
                 \_ That's a good one though it is glib on points as you
                    say. It nicely outlines, by no specific mention,
                    "so why IS this little cabal so bent on aggressive
                    military action since they seem smart enough to know
                    better?". Anatol Lieven's article in the London Review
                    of Books is the only one I've seen to answer that in a
                    way that made sense. His article has also been prescient
                    given that it was published in October and, thus, likely
                    written in late August. -- ulysses
                    \- i think the the LRB article is leem, although the
                       "jewish problem" in american party politics was
                       kind of interesting. walt and mearsheimer's brains
                       are larger. you may wish to see the issue of IS
                       on this topic. IS is even better. --psb

1/14    Related question to the French question below.  Why do Americans
        continuously kiss up to the french?  French fashion, french food,
        are always "in".  And paris is like the #1 tourist city in Europe
        for americans.  Even the language.  Americans who speak french think
        they're superior than americans who speak spanish.
                         \_ You are a barely literate moron. --aaron
                \_ Marquis de Lafayette. Also most people who speak
                   french also know how to READ french and perhaps
                   have read the works of men like Dumas, Moliere,
                       hack, about the level of  _/
                       sydney sheldon.  (ref.
                       star trek)
                   Voltaire, Hugo, Rousseau, Decartes etc.
                    \_ btw proust is likely the greatest argument
                       for being able to read french.  not to
                       mention baudelaire, apollinaire, etc.
                   As far as french fashion is concerned, have you
                   ever been to a Hermes shop?
                   \_ so your claim is that the spanish literature tradition
                      is inferior to the french one?  by extension, if there
                      is a perception that people who speak language x is
                      less cultured than those who speak french, then the
                      french must also have a superior literary and cultural
                      tradition than speakers of language x?  fools rush
                      in where angels fear to tread indeed.
                      \_French was the language of science during the Age
                        of Reason.  It's had one of the greatest affects
                        on the English language because of that, and the
                        fact that after the Norman conquest French was the
                        language of nobility in England for quite a while.
                        Although Spain and Latin America have a huge,
                        brilliant tradition, some of the major building
                        blocks of western philosophy have come out of France.
                        Does that mean that France is the best?  Maybe not.
                        Does that mean you should shut the fuck up?  Yes.
                        \_ hey, will you be calling me a nazi and comparing
                           me to hitler soon?
                        \_ so your argument now is that french is
                           politically and philosophically superior?
                           and this argument is better than the french
                           cultural and literary superiority argument how?
                           (remember, you included dumas, moliere, and
                           hugo on your list, so you were hardly arguing
                           philosophy or politics.  but i'll ignore that
                           thorny issue.)
        \_ I'm superior to you because I can speak English. --aaron
        \_ Same reason there's Japanophiles and other Whatever-ophiles.  It is
           just different than what they know and therefore must be better in
           the "grass is always greener" kind of way.  I was highly unimpressed
           by Paris when I was there.  Italy was very cool however.  Paris
           was just like NY or any other large American city except they don't
           speak English and they don't shower.  Most American cities are
           cleaner.
        \_ How about french women?  Any comments on french women?  Are the
           stories of menage a trois true?  Or just more american men kissing
           up to french women and making up fantasies.
           \- they dress better and carry themselves differently but that is
              true in nyc as well.
           \_ Stories of threesome?  What are those?
              \_ As if huge numbers of people aren't do 3somes here.
           \_ They smoke a lot, if you like chicks that smell like ash trays
              try french chicks.
                 \_ dude, there's dog shit everywhere.  literally.  most
                    of my parisian coworkers thought it was disgusting too.
                    i repeat.  what dope are you smoking?
                    \_ I was there in May, perhaps it is cleaner then.
                       There was a lot more dogshit on the street in
                       Amsterdam. I didn't even notice it in Paris.
                       I have heard from locals that you are safe
                       if you stay on the main streets.
        \_ Have you ever been to Paris? It is, no joke, the most
           beautiful and nicest city in the world. I have not been
           to all of them yet, but I have been to many.
           \_ nicest?  can i have some of what you're smoking?  parisians
              are rude and annoying, probably even in comparison to residents
              of other cities of comparable size.  residents of large cities
              in latin countries are probably the nicest.  dubliners or
              londoners are probably the nicest in europe.  fyi, i've lived
              in paris for about 4 months, so i do speak from some experience.
              and, yes, i even speak french, so don't pull the "oh they're
              nice if you tried to speak french".
              \_ I don't mean nice in that way. I mean the streets are clean,
                 the transit system works well, food is good and there is
                 \_ This is like saying "seattle is beautiful when it's sunny"
                    You must have missed the nigh-continuous transit strikes.
                 plenty to do and see. I even found the people to be
                 reasonably pleasant. I went to Paris expecting to not
                 like it, but I ended up being charmed.
                       \_ i will give you credit for the food though; it's
                          certainly well past acceptable, and i don't mean
                          just the grand vefours/tour l'argent axis.
                          regular grub at normal restaurants are of a pretty
                          high standard, and i've been having a yearn for a
                          good frisee aux lardons.  as for the dog shit, if
                          you stayed in the touristy areas it's not too bad,
                          but you should see what they're like before the
                          cleaning crew got to them before ~8am.
        \_ i have bad impression of paris.  dog feces on the street, rude
           drivers, and being cheated on subway station. :(
           \_ All dogs should be banned from public places. If you want a dog
              go and live in the woods with it.
           \- i thought most of the people in paris were quite nice ...
              and my french is really lousy. maybe some of you people
              are just barbarians? physically and historically there is
              something really cool about a city with such a long history
              and depth [nyc has some of this is in the usa]. while i am
              glad i dont work in retail, there is something pleasing about
              retail-heavy cultures ... e.g. the small shops every where,
                    If you don't think nob hill is charming, you are a clod.
                    The weather is great, too. If you like LA so much,
                    you should move there. Most people who live in LA
                    hate it.
              a street culture. not filled with bitter cockroaches likes
              telegraph ave. and there is something just amazing about
              tuning a corner at dusk and seeing the notre dame ...
              i still remember that jaw dropping "holy shit" moment. --psb
              \_ yeah we all know you're a bloody francophile.  too much
                 exposure to cabanne (sp?) at a young age.
                 \- as i country i think the french need a beating. --psb
              \- so what is so great about SF other than restaurants?
                 yes the sunset over mt. tam is nice ... but people dont
                 get credit for that. the newspapers is for illiterates by
                 illiterates. "even la" has better museums. etc etc etc
                 SF has one of the biggest reputation gaps. --psb
                 \_ SF has the GGB.  That's about it, I think.
                 \_ SF has a lot of beauty, most of it physical beauty:
                    Every neighborhood has a hill with a great view.
                    If you don't think nob hill is charming, you are a
                    clod. The weather is great, too.
                    \- well i acknowledged SF has reasonable physical beauty.
                       but la has some nice areas too. i'm talking about the
                       kinds of things people can claim credit for. --psb
                       \_ Preserving your city's history is something people
                          can claim credit for. Ever been to Las Vegas?
                          Almost nothing there is more than 20 years old.
                          If you took away all of the strippers and lights,
                   much of the new world worth visiting.  ok, except vegas.
                          there's not much left.
                          \_ liberace museum.  hoover damn.  valley of fire.
                             gambler's book store.  lake mead.
                             \_ The crestfallen looks of those who have lost
                                their life savings...
                       \_ SF has Berkeley, one of the most fascinating
                          places in the world.
                          \_ hahaHAHHAHHhaHAHHAhhah
                          \_ If you're a crack whore.
                       \_ Weather, restaurants, physical beauty, historical
                          presence, metropolitan, shopping, multicultural,
                          liberal attitude (appeals more to tourists), past
                          reputation, and it can showcase it's high points
                          very well. SF looks good from a distance.
                \_ Can't you ask this of pretty much any (north?) american
                   city except new york?  if you discount restaurants,
                   amusement parks and non-world-class museums, there's not
                   many cities in the new world worth visiting.  ok, except
                   vegas.
                   \_ Boston? Chicago?
                      \_ so?  unless you have people there, they're both
                         not more than a 1 to 2 day sort of destination.
        \_ As for French vs. Spanish, I guess Americans don't associate Spanish
           with Spain, but rather Latin America.  When you hear someone with
           a French accent, you think "Wow!  He's (Western) European."  But
           when you hear someone with a Spanish accent, you think "Gee, another
           border crosser."
           \_ If you're an asshole, maybe.
              \_ So when your maid and gardeners are speaking Spanish you
                 don't think, "Thank God I'm never running for office", you
                 think, "How fascinating!  We have so many Spaniards here
                 doing menial labor at below minimum wage!  The European
                 economy must be hurting to come all this way for these jobs!"
           Italian lingerie makes Victoria's Secret look like the crap that
                 \_ If you hear a Spanish accent and think it's a Mexican
                    accent, you're not just an asshole.  You're a fucking
                    idiot.
                    \_ There's a distinction between Spanish accent and Mexican
                       accent?  I have a Chinese friend who was born and grew
                       up in Spain, whose first language is Spanish and second
                       language English,  The accent in his English sounds just
                       like those Mexicans here.
                 \_ When I hear you trying to talk to your maid in really loud
                    simple English, I think "what a fucking worthless moron
                    who has never worked a day of real work in his life."
                \_ there is a difference actually.  Spanish spoken by
                   Europeans sounds differently than Spanish spoken
                   by central americans, supposedly because a king of
                   Spain had a slight lisp and mandated the lisp become
                   part of the pronounciation of the Spanish language,
                   it's also what is taught in American schools, I don't
                   know how true the story of the Spanish king is.
                \_ ok i just googled for "lisp" and "spanish" and
                   "monarch" and found a linguistics paper discounting
                   the mysterious lisping spanish monarch theory, but
                   a better explanation is that the version of Spanish
                   inflicted on Central America by raping conquistadores
                   has diverged slightly from the Spanish spoken by
                   non raped villagers in Spain.
                   \_ You linguistic neophytes.
        \_ It's all because we've feeding our kids with French Fries all these
           years!  :-)
        \_ Paris is one of the best cities in the world. The food and wine
           are fantastic. The architecture is amazing. There is so much to
           see and do and so much history. Overall, I think France is a
           rather dirty country compared to the rest of Europe. The people
           are not my favorite either. There's a lot to dislike about
           France and the French. However, when it comes to food, wine,
           fashion and the other things France does well it's pretty clear
           why everyone "kisses up" to them for those. As for the women, it
           comes down to their clothes, especially lingerie. French and
           Italian lingerie make Victoria's Secret look like the crap that
           it is. --dim
        \_ Let's conquer Paris and make it into the 58th state of the USAE.
           Then we can claim that we have a nice city too!
           \_ Just re-elect Bush!
              \_ The third entry in today's IDIOT CLUB!  Congratulations!

1/15    Back to Mirzaian's strongly polytime LP claim. The link to the
        announcement has vanished from his webpage (although the file itself
        is still there, http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~andy/pubs/Announce.doc).
        Would the original poster (or anyone in the know) care to comment?
        \_ Apparently not.
        \_ Looking into it, stay tuned. - OP
        \_ We ll find out by February. - OP
           \_ Which we, why February, and what will we find out? Or did you
              mean by January 28th? If so, then that still wouldn't explain
              the disappearance of the original announcement.

1/13    An admitted troll, but an amusing one:
        http://www.diepunyhumans.com/dailymirror.jpg

1/14    http://csua.org/u/7f7
        Why is Bush so afraid of these bastards?
        \_ Because N. Korea is known to be exporting missiles to rogue nations
           and N. Korea is also known to be developing nuclear weapons?
        \_ N. Korea has a lot to worry about.
           1. they are much closer to having the bomb, some even think
              they already got one or two
           2. technically, they are relatively sophiscated, as they did
                \_ NK does not have missles than can reach US soil.
                   They do have missle that can reach Japan and this
                   is why people are concerned.
           Any day now, we'll all be eating kimchi and speaking Korean our
              test 2 stage rocket
           3. they are in the state of starvation for past couple years,
              and starving person / state tend to do "irrational" things
           4. they are next to Russia and Chinese mainland, so U.S. need
              a bit careful about launching assault next to these big boy's
                 \_ Even if NK had them, they wouldn't launch an attack on
                    the U.S. Their main goal is preserving the current
                    regime, not suicide.
              border
           5. Launching assault from Japanese base does not go well with
                    \_ Yeah and the Sun revolves around the earth.
              Koreans nor Chinese.
           6. N.Korea is this close to Seoul.  If the north decided to
              attack the south unexpectly, it probably will succeed in
              taking Seoul (however brief the moment may be).  This doesn't
              go well with S.Korean's economy.
        \_ Because N. Korea is known to have exported missiles to rogue
        \_ Who says Bush is afraid of them?  They're not a threat.
           We must invade Iraq now!
           nations and N. Korea is also known to be developing nuclear weapons?
        \_ Probably because N. Korea has a shitload of nuclear that sit
           on top of long distance missles that can reach the Bay Area. IMO
           \_ And one day if you keep believing, you'll be a REAL boy.
              \_ Congratulations!  Welcome to the IDIOT CLUB!
                 \_ And you must be its president?
              \_ Obviously no-one has proof, but i think you're obtuse if
                 you don't think there's a possiblity.
                 \_ And monkeys might coming flying out my butt. I'd worry
                    more that Pakistan might sell one off than NK.
        \_ Because he's projecting his Evil-doer template onto North Korea.
           Any day now, we'll all be eating kimchi and speaking Korean to our
           new masters.
           \_ Second place winner in the IDIOT CLUB today!
           \_ That's not what Kim Il Jong wants.  He wants money and oil.
                              \_ And his name spelled correctly.