2/18    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=379623
        3 iraqi ships floating around for months, radio silence, etc. busted?

2/18    What is the command that does low level (media) verification of a
        disk?
        \_ fsck
           \_ Doesn't fsck check the consistency of filesystem only?  I want
              \_ format
              to check the consistency of the raw media, or at most one
              level up, the sectors.
              \_ I posted the answer earlier but some fuckup deleted it: format
                 The unix format command will verify raw media in both a
                 destructive and non-destructive way.  And to whichever of you
                 stupid ignorant know-nothing assholes deleted my reply
                 because you didn't know the right answer when shoved in front
                 of your face, I give you a simple obFuckyou.
                 \_ Thanks for your answer and I did not remove it, but
                    I did indicate that no such command exists in OS X, not
                    yet.  That line was erased too.  There is a program in
                    OS 9 and before that does it: Drive Setup but that feature
                    is no where to be found in OS X.            -- op
        \_ What OS?
           \_ OS X

2/18    any recommendations for web-based tax services?  I know of Web
        TurboTax, but I'd rather avoid dealing with any TurboTax products.
        \_ Just yesterday there was news of a hacker stealing 5 million
           credit card numbers.  You sure you want your tax info kept on
           somebody else's server?  Just get TaxCut.
           \_ The danger of your card number being stolen is greatly
              exaggerated.  Almost all card issues won't hold you
              responsible at all for any charges incurred on the stolen
              card.
              \_ You are poorly informed and the danger is real. The credit
                 card companies will not hold you liable but you may find
                 yourself wasting hundreds of hours (yes, hundreds) of
                 your time fixing the mess if you become a target. This
                 happened to my gf's sister and, citably, to the Chron's
                 financial columnist. Note that the danger is more your
                 SSN, DL and DOB getting stolen rather than a credit card
                 number
           \_ If I bought TaxCut I'd be filing online and my tax information
              (and CC number) would be on their server anyway.
                \_ That's why you should never file online. Doing things the
                   old fashion way by paper and snail mail is the safest
                   way of doing thing.
        \_ I liked H&R Block's service.

2/19    http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/db/2003/02/06/index.html
        I miss him.  I do.

2/19    http://www.savekaryn.com
        \_ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/17/1045330537167.html

2/19    http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html
        To those of you who got your secondary education outside the U.S.:
        Are things really fundamentally different elsewhere?
        \_ Russian education tries to educate, so there is social selection
           based on academic performance.  At least when I was there.  I think
           this guy is right on.
                \_ "You failed.  Off to Chechnya with you!"
           \_ In Soviet Russia, butt wipe you!
           \_ In Soviet Russia, school teach YOU!
        \_ Yes and no.  My experience in China had a lot of overlap.  A diff.
           was that coolness was less exploited by the industry and less
           extreme, though that must be changing very much toward the direction
           of the U.S. now.  Still, the popular kids would turn out to be
           dumb, and the smarter ones (not necessarily nerds) would get
           bullied.  I had suicidal thoughts but not attempts.  I actually
           did not dislike my short U.S. high school experience.  I was not
           much involved with the other kids and left alone.  The coursework
           the U.S.).  This gave to me time to explore my own interest but
           I am sure those who actually need feeding did not learn much.
           was extremely easy (at supposedly one of the best public school in
           the U.S.).  This gave me time to explore my own interest but
           I am sure those who actually needed feeding did not learn much.
           I also had some experience dealing with people who did their H.S.
           in soviet/russia in academic circles.  They have a reputation
           of being smart almost by default but are not particularly
           impressive in real world accomplishments.
           \_ HS here was easy for you because we don't take education too
              seriously in this country until college and mostly not even
              then.  Everyone gets the education they strive for.
              \_ That's mostly ok, except for math and sciences which
                 require more work during earlier years.  End result is
                 that only ugly no-life nerds make it in science and
                 engineering in the US.
                 \_ what is your explanation ofor American dominance in
                    science and math research and tenchology?
                    us "nerds" have done pretty damn well for the last 100
                    years or so in this country in spite of a nonfunctional
                    education system.
                    \_ Those of us with the balls took it upon ourselves.
                       And it doesn't hurt to have highly educated parents
                       as well.
                       \_ Meaning you had an unfair advantage over others? The
                          educational playing field should be level!
                    \_ That's easy: an over abundance of ugly nerds!  What
                       else are they going to do?

2/19    Is there something like the hyperref package for latex 2.09?  I want
        to automatically add hyperlinks for \ref \cite etc in a large
        latex 2.09 file.  Ok tnx.
        \_ pdflatex supports it, IIRC, but since I don't think dvi has
           "hyperlinks" per se, I don't think it would have such a thing.
           -chialea

2/19    Happy bday, lila!  You ho.
        \_ stop insulting the hard-working hos of this world --datapimp
           \_ You tell him daddy! Now slap him down! Slap him hard! --dataho
              \_ Shut the fuck up, bitch! --datapimp
                 \_ Sorry datapimp daddy. I was just sayin'. --dataho