Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2003:March:24 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>
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2003/3/24 [Computer] UID:27818 Activity:nil
3/23    Does anyone know of a way to map a file's type (magic number, extension
        etc.) to its mime-type? Specifically, I'm looking for a way to include
        binary files into messages composed via mh-e or comp without having
        to manually type in the content-type for each binary file.
2003/3/24 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:27819 Activity:nil
3/23    What motivation is there for anyone to follow the Geneva Convention
        in terms of POW treatment? Everyone's up in arms about how the Iraqis
        are treating those captured, but why should they care about so-called
        international law?
2003/3/24 [Computer/SW/Mail] UID:27820 Activity:moderate
3/23    I configured sendmail 8.12.8 to use STARTTLS and SMTP AUTH.  For mail
        clients that only use LOGIN and PLAIN (like Outlook Express) is the
        password still encrypted?  STARTTLS encrypts the transmission before
        the password is sent, right?
        \_ yeah ask the peep here, they can't even get SSL over POP working
           right
        \_ According to RFC 2487, there is no guarantee that mail will be
           processed in this way (see 5.1). In the case of sendmail you can
           force it to require clients to use a TLS encrypted session via
           TLS_Clt. For more info see:
           http://www.sendmail.org/~ca/email/starttls.html
           \_ Cool, thanks.
2003/3/24 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:27821 Activity:nil
3/23    GPG question.  I am trying to do the usual GPG on windoze
        (don't have choice, use Win at work).  The only thing is
        I prefer not store my private key on the laptop which I am using
        (it belongs to my company).  I am thinking of buying one of those
        flash-rom drive (thumb drive) and dump my key rings there.  Have
        anyone done that before?  what kind of problem would you encounter
        if you do that?
        \_ Losing your thumbdrive would be bad.  I have an IBM Microdrive
        that I use to store all my personal info.  The sensitive files
        (e.g., private keys) are all encrypted, in case the laptop gets stolen.
2003/3/24 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:27822 Activity:high
3/24    I dd's an entire windows disk (it had 4 partitions) to a file, and
        now I'd like to mount the image. What's the best way?
2003/3/24 [Health] UID:27823 Activity:nil
3/25    All of your rights were not earned by weekend protestors, news
        journalists or hollywood actors.  They were earned with blood and are
        protected with blood.  Regardless of your position, think about someone
        beside yourself. Why don't we see the same size protests in support
        on Veterans Day?
        OUR TROOPS MORALE
        link:www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/special_packages/iraq/5445066.htm
2003/3/24 [Transportation/Car] UID:27824 Activity:kinda low
3/24    What is the situation in downtown SF?  various groups on the internet
        are claiming that there are mass protests that have shut things down.
        is this true?  -3000 miles from SF
        \_ there's some stoppage, nothing on the scale of last thu
           though.  I think everyone is kind of tired and
           gearing up for a major push at the end of this week. - danh
           \_ a major push to what?  hurt people who work hourly wage jobs?
        \_ Not true. My brother is at UCSF and he says that the protests have
           hardly affected anything.
           \_ UCSF is nowhere near downtown
        \_ They've stopped traffic in the days since the beginning of the war,
           but it hasn't shut things down.
           \_ I made it to work Thursday, but most did not. Traffic was
              not moving. Things were pretty shut down. Since that day,
              protests have only been a minor distraction. -ausman
        \_ I work 3rd/Market.  It was shutdown to cars and buses along Market
           on a few blocks for a while the other day but the rest of the
           city was fine.
2003/3/24 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:27825 Activity:very high
3/24    Michael Moore is a fat whiny twit, and a not particularly bright or
        witty one at that.  I thought I should point that out.  -John
        \_ I doubt anyone was particularly surprised that he took time
           to speak his mind (as that's what his career is based on),
           and I thought it was pretty nifty for him to invite his fellow
           documentarians up on stage with him.  As for the rest, I can
           understand why you'd say that, and I can also see why people
           think otherwise.  He earned a lot of cred with "Roger and Me."
           --erikred
        \_ I think it's pretty silly that everyone criticises hollywood
           celebrities for using their "soapbox" of fame to get whatever
           message they may have out.  yes, they're mostly idiots.  but it's
           the press's fault that they treat what hollywood people say
           as news.  what if they treated everything we say on the motd as
           news?  I realize that Moore is not part of hollywood exactly,
           but people have been making a stink about this issue recently,
           and i think it's relevant.
           \_ Hey, he gets his opinion, I get mine.  And why voicing an
              opinion about his personality constitutes a judgment on any
              "issue" is beyond me.
        \_ sort of like you.
           \_ Hey, great point.  You're pretty funny.  Do you sign your
              posts, or do you just make kneejerk anonymous digs?  Do you
              think dumbshit cowards like you deserve anything but scorn?
              Sad pathetic fuck.  -John
              \_ I think Moore acted like an idiot too.  I mean it may be
                 a war fought on "fictitious" reasons, but Bush won the
                 election fair and square, nothing fictitious about that.
                 That Bush is a moron doesn't change that fact.
                 \_ I respectfully disagree:  The number of votes by which
                    Bush "won" was so slight as to be well within the
                    the statistical margin of error for an election of
                    this size.  Further, machinations by Republican
                    appointees to the Supreme Court made a controversial
                    decision that lent legititmacy to an otherwise shady
                    outcome.  I don't expect that to sway you, but I want
                    you to know that I disagree.  --erikred
                    \_ Well put.  I agree.  - some other guy
                        \_ He won, period.  Every reasonable vote count since
                           has come to the same conclusion.  The Supreme Court
                           simply preempted the state legislature and expedited
                           a foregone outcome.  The Florida Supreme Court severly
                           overstepped its delegated powers and deserved to be
                           smacked down.  The relevant USSC decision was 7-2.
                           The legal opinion is available, search for it.
                           Whether Bush won by 500 votes or 50,000 is irrelevant.
                           No president has had a majority of votes since Reagan.
                           \_ Keep towing that line.
                              \_ And if you're feeling frisky, you can toe
                                 that line too.
                           \_ Recounting all of the ballots in Florida would
                              have led to a Gore victory, according to NYT,
                              Washington Post, et al. Or is that not a
                              "reasonable count" in your definition, since
                              it does not give the conclusion that you
                              desire?
                                \_ Go read the legal opinions and decisions.
                                   Don't demagogue from a point of ignorance, at
                                   least be intellectually honest and research
                                   it yourself.  USSC decision 7-2.  The same
                                   thing happened to Nixon against Johnson.
                                   Nixon chose not to litigate it.
                                   \_ Got the decision.  More specious was
                                      whether the Supreme Court should have
                                      reviewed the case at all.
                                      Also, the number of votes is important
                                      to our claim of being a democratic
                                      country and opens the discussion for
                                      the need for severe electoral reform.
                                        \_ Electoral reform, for what?
                                           Do you understand the point of
                                           the electoral college
                                           or why Senators, until Wilson, were
                                           elected by state legislators?  Please,
                                           again, to be intellectually honest
                                           with yourself learn about the
                                           electoral college and read the legal
                                           opinions.
                                           \_ do you understand why no other
                                              democracy uses an electoral
                                              college?  -tom
                                              \_ none as old as our's.
                                              \_ Yes. The EC is what gives
                                                 states equal footing in the
                                                 national discourse. It allows
                                                 for equal representation of
                                                 ideas in our REPUBLIC (not
                                                 a democracy).
                                        \_ Could it be because we are not
                                           nor were ever meant to be a
                                           democracy?
                                                   \_ We have the opportunity
                                                      to have an educated
                                                      electorate vote in
                                                      free elections for
                                                      elected representatives.
                                                      Times have changed since
                                                      1776.  It's time we
                                                      changed with them.  Thus
                                                      the call for reform.
        "One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with
        complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's
        presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear.
        It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian
        of the rule of law. I respectfully dissent." -Justice Stevens
        (writing for the 4 dissenting judges who voted against the
         decision awarding the election to Bush, not 2, like you imply)
        \_ This was not the relevant decision.  There were two decisions handed
           down, one 5-4, the other 7-2.
2003/3/24 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27826 Activity:very high
3/24    THE WAR THAT WILL CHANGE THE WORLD
        http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/71309.htm
        \_ The New York Post is a tabloid with about as much credability as
           as the weekly world news.  Please don't post NYP articles, it just
           makes you look like a moron.
           \_ oh, as opposed to freerepublic
           \_ is there a list of 'motd acceptable' news sources?  I should we
              should only allow NPR quotes and Salon.
        \_ This is a serious question. What makes you think that our attempts
           to create a democracy by force in Iraq will be any more successful
           than our attempts in Afghanistan, Panama, Haiti, etc?
                \_ We never attempted in Afghanistan, it seem to be going
                   as well as expected thus far.  It worked in Japan,
                   South Korea, Europe, Taiwan, Chile, and was working in Iran.
                   What is the alternative? I propose there are only two:
                   1) kill the Arabs ala colonial Europe or Rome.
                   2) make it more attractive economically to lay down arms
                   and live and prosper with a non-belligerent society.
                   \_ Taiwan?  South Korea?  Europe?  What the heck are you
                      talking about?
                        \_ history?
                           \_ History?  US invaded Taiwan to bring about
                              democracy while it is under dictator CKS?
                                \_ You do not build weak, nascent democracies
                                   to counterbalance the Soviets.  You align
                                   with stable dictatorships with capitalistic
                                   tendencies in order to transition to liberal
                                   styles of government.
                                   This was the essence of US Cold War policy,
                                   I'm actually expected to explain this?
                                   \_ Sure, but how is this relevant?  We are
                                      talking about the feasibility of a direct
                                      US invasion and regime change here.
                                      This is not analogous to any of the
                                      countries you mentioned except Japan and
                                      Germany.  Vietnam, for example, blew up
                                      in our face because while we were thinking
                                      of fighting against communists and the
                                      soviets, we miscalculated vietnamese
                                      nationalism.
                                      \_ "except Japan and Germany" is the
                                         point.  thanks.
                                         \_ I would grant you that, but I
                                            would also point out that Japan
                                            and Germany were actually occupying
                                            nations they invaded when we decided
                                            to topple their regimes.  Perhaps
                                            there are better ways to change /
                                            mellow out the regime in Iraq under
                                            scenarios similar to what happened
                                            in places like Taiwan and South
                                            Korea, given that there is limited
                                            evidence that we would be successful
                                            in building a democracy in Iraq.
                                            How much effort and resources are
                                            we willing to devote to this
                                            enterprise, or would we just get
                                            another puppet dictator, someone
                                            like Ferdinand Marcos or the
                                            Saudi sheiks, who constantly steal
                                            from their people?
2003/3/24 [Computer/HW/Drives] UID:27827 Activity:high
3/24    I dd's an entire windows disk (it had 4 partitions) to a file, and
        now I'd like to mount some of the partitions in the image. I used
        losetup, so   "sfdisk -l /dev/loop0" shows this:
        Disk /dev/loop0: cannot get geometry
        Disk /dev/loop0: 0 cylinders, 0 heads, 0 sectors/track
        Warning: The first partition looks like it was made
          for C/H/S=*/255/63 (instead of 0/0/0).
        For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
        Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes,
         counting from 0
           Device    Boot Start     End   #cyls   #blocks   Id  System
        /dev/loop0p1   *      0+    260     261-  2096451    6  FAT16
        /dev/loop0p2        261    1022     762   6120765    5  Extended
        /dev/loop0p3          0       -       0         0    0  Empty
        /dev/loop0p4          0       -       0         0    0  Empty
        /dev/loop0p5        261+    521     261-  2096451    6  FAT16
        /dev/loop0p6        522+    782     261-  2096451    6  FAT16
        /dev/loop0p7        783+   1022     240-  1927768+   6  FAT16
        Do I have to make a device called "/dev/loop0p1"? 'cause that device
        doesn't exist yet. Or is there a different way to mount the
        partitions contained in the image? Thanks.
2003/3/24 [Uncategorized] UID:27828 Activity:high
3/24    I am all for massive demonstrations, but this closely
        follows what I feel about some recent SF trashing:
        link:www.csua.org/u/b73 - danh
        \_ fascist!
2003/3/24 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:27829 Activity:high
3/24    Continuing the Electoral College thread. Say the Presidential
        election was to be decided by popular vote from now on. Would
        candidates even bother campaigning in states like New Mexico
        or Idaho? Bush would have also spent much more time campaigning
        in California and Gore would have spent more time campaigning
        in Florida.
        \_ Probably not.  So what?  You think it makes sense for votes in
           Wyoming to count for more than votes in California?  -tom
           \_ Yes.  It was a founding principle.  It would be nice if each
              electoral vote were determined by district too, with the winner
              of the state getting the 2 extra.  If you want to change what's
              been in place for over 200 years, go for it.  You know the proc.
           \_ Heard of protecting the minority against tyranny of the
              majority?
              \_ That's a red herring, unless you think "People from
                 Wyoming" are a minority group in need of protection. -tom
                 \_ Of course.  They represent rural interests.
                    Another example - If minority interests are not
                    protected, every drop of the colorado river
                    might have been diverted to Los Angeles.
                    \_ like I said, a red herring.  -tom
                       \_ We are talking about Electoral College
                          in general right?  You do not believe that
                          people living in less densely populated
                          areas and less densely populated states
                          often have interests different and in
                          conflict with those living in major
                          urban centers?
                          \_ I believe there are hundreds of different
                             groups with different interests in the US, and
                             that "rural people" do not deserve special
                             protection, compared to, say "black people" or
                             "men".      -tom
                             \_ Except that the former is written into the
                                constitution and the latter isn't.
                                \_ well, actually, the latter is as well.
                                   The purpose of the electoral college was
                                   not to protect the interests of rural
                                   voters, and it's silly to suggest that
                                   it should be.  -tom
                          \_ Sure they do, but why should their votes
                             count for more? -!tom
                             \_ someone else said before: it isn't that they
                                count for more.  it's to make sure they count
                                at all.  they still barely count as it is.
                                \_ yeah, that must be why 80-90% of the
                                   water in California goes to farmers, they
                                   get screwed because we elect our
                                   governor democratically.  -tom
        \_ Why don't you read what the writers of the Constitution
           thought about democracy and the parallel events in France.
        \_ I didn't see the earlier thread so excuse me if this was said before
           but this is a republic (or close to it), not a democracy.  It's all
           nice to talk about democratic ideals but you can't run a country of
           any real size that way.  To my knowledge there are no true
           democracies right now (or anything close) and haven't been since the
           Greeks experimented with it and even theirs was a limited form.
           \_ every democratic nation in the world, except for us, chooses
              its president/prime minister on the basis of popular vote.
              No one else sees a need for an "electoral college."  -tom
        \_ Under the current Electoral College system, California is worth
           so many more votes than Wyoming that the effect is virtually
           the same.  The way you beat the California edge is by winning
           a coalition of Mid-West States that vote along similar lines
           and bring in more votes combined.  The EC only extended reasonable
           protections when the population was small:  Rhode Island's
           guaranteed 2 votes were worth something when the total vote tally
           was in the low hundreds.  If you want true rural representation,
           allocate EC votes to voting districts, not winner-takes-all.
2003/3/24 [Science/GlobalWarming, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:27830 Activity:nil
3/24    This crazy world, from
        http://www.petting-zoo.net/~deadbeef/archive/5318.html :
     "You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a
     white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, France is accusing
     the US of arrogance, and Europe doesn't want to go to war."
2003/3/24 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:27831 Activity:nil
3/24    Re: earlier post about POW.  Geneva convention obliges waring party
        to ensure they are protected, anonymous, and unhumiliated.  Inviting
        mobs of "embedded" journalists to have a feeding frenzy is about as
        in compliance as having a mob of thugs not controlled by the
        government beating the POWs.  Both sides violated the convention,
        but the civilized coaliation so far has much more serious violation.
        It achieves so by having a poorly informed but self-righteous
        population.
        \_ is a declaration of war necessary for Geneva convention to apply?
        \_ embedded journalists didn't film any pow's.  it was pows left behind
           to be picked up by later troops that random non-embedded independent
           journalists filmed.  I believe what they did was wrong but it was
           not an official U.S. government sanctioned act.
2025/03/15 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
3/15    
Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2003:March:24 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>