7/8     Q) Are you going to telecommute from Santa Clara, Calif., or
           move north to Beaverton, Ore., where OSDL is headquartered?
        A) Telecommute. I'll be visiting physically every once in a while.
           (To answer an earlier question. from http://csua.org/u/3je

7/8     Dear anonymous motd censor:
        What the HELL is your problem?  The only thing acceptable to you is
        questions about UNIX, HTML, tcch, cygwin, and freakin' Mountain
        View?
        \_ Hey, let's get the FBI to make a profile. oh wait ...
        \_ U forgot linux
        \_ lets united and fight for it.  publish the name who is
           deleting and modifying other people's post.
           \_ Oh! Oh!  Mista Kotta!  I know!  (but I'm still not telling).
                \_ most csua people were approximately 2.5 years old
                   or maybe even -2.5 years old during the above.
                   i'm not even old enough to remember. - danh
                   \_ okay. so what happened "during the above"?
                      \_ some moron deleted the Welcome Back Kotter
                         reference someone used earlier, don't worry
                         about it. - danh
                   \_ I know. I don't care.  Most csua people don't read the
                      motd.  Alums mostly do, like you.   --hs
              Write your own scripts, stick them in cron and wait.  You'll
              see exactly who is doing what within 24 hours.  Trivial.  The
              most amusing part is not who is censoring and modifying posts.
              That's what babies do.  I like seeing the hypocrites posting
              anonymously and then bitch about others who post anon.  That's
              always good for a laugh.  --horseshack
              \_ Hypocrites? Post anonymously is one thing, modifying
                 other's post and deleting other post is completely different
                 \_ not really.  modifying the motd is modifying the motd.
                    doing it anonymously while bitching about others being
                    anonymous posters just compounds the crime.  Anyway, like
                    I said.  It took 10-15 minutes to write the scripts.  --hs

7/8     Is there a way to put a colored border on the inside of a cell
        in an html table?
        \_ use CSS, border attribute
           \_ td, th { border: 2px solid orange }
                \_ why ",", not " "?
                   \_ RTFSpecs
                   \_ with comma: "apply this rule to any td or th"
                       w/o comma: "apply only to th that is child of td"
        \_ Can't you set BGCOLOR?  For example, <TD BGCOLOR=GREEN>
           I don't know if it's standard, though, so it might not work in
           all browsers.
           \_ That stuff has been deprecated.
           \_ and you will die for suggesting the use of bgcolor, esp. in caps
        \_ related css question: how can i change the blue background of the
           selected item in a dropdown list?
           \_ select option:active { background-color: pink; } might
              work.
              \_ at least w/ IE6, it doesn't work. i think "active" is
                 only a pseudo-class for the a element, no?
                 \_ In CSS1, yes, but CSS2 expands active, hover, and focus
                    to all elements.  See if it works with mozilla.  Also, try
                    select, option:active { background-color: pink; }
                          ^ note the comma
                    just to make sure.
                 \_ I suggest using the validator services. valid xhtml is
                    the way of the future.  http://validator.w3.org and
                    http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator
                    \_ ya very nice and all but it still doesnt work.
                       \_ it may not work but at least you'll be spec-clean!

7/8     Is there a UNIX command to see how much RAM a machine has?
        \_ I like using 'top' for that.
        \_ solaris: prtdiag
        \_ linux: awk '/^Mem:/ { print $2/(1024*1024); }' /proc/meminfo
           solaris: prtconf -v | awk '/^Memory/ { print $3; }'
        \_ linux has 'free'

7/8     Cygwin/tcsh users: Some odd bug in tcsh made it create a 1.7 gig
        .history file in my $home.  It took a few minutes to figure out why
        new tcsh's would swap the machine to death and never start but that
        was it.  Just trying to save someone else some hassle and time if
        it ever happens to you.
        \_ err.. what version is your cygwin/tcsh?  I have been using it
           for past 10 months and my .history file is kept under 1kb.
           \_ I keep it updated almost daily.  It hasn't changed in more than
              a month.  I've been using it for about 6 months.  This is the
              first time anything weird happened.  I had about 12 rxvt/tcsh
              windows open and ssh'd to work.  The work firewall timed me
              out (oops!) and I was stuck scratching my head trying to open
              new shells after I killed the timed out ones.  I've changed
              nothing in my config recently.  I think I just ran into some
              odd bug.  It was 1.7gigs of my prompt over and over.
              \_ so you had a dynamic prompt that dumped into .history.
                 don't use dynamic prompts or precmd/postcmd aliases..
                 use the tcsh builtin prompt bits. There's nothing useful
                 that they won't do.

7/8     Can anyone recommend a good residential plumber near Mountain View?
        \_ Excellent service from yermom last night. Highly recommend. A++++.
           Took care of all my plumbing -- and all at her residence.
           \_ yeah nice n all but is she licensed and bonded?  I don't hire
              non-pros!

7/8     go to http://googles.com and type in "weapons of mass destruction"
        then hit the "i'm feeling lucky button."  Read teh text

7/8     What are the pros and cons of a 1-piece suit vs a 2-piece suit?
        \_ swim suit?
           \_ if you're female: with a 2 piece you have a much easier time
              when you have to use the restroom (as opposed to a 1 piece
              which you'd have to wrestle).  2 piece suits are also varied now
              with tankinis for more coverage and bikinis...well, for less
              coverage.
              \_ Women with those fantastic hour glass figures look better in
                 the tanktinis rather than 1 or 2 pieces.  1 piece looks like
                 well just ugly, 2 piece she's always holding on to her top.
        \_ I have never heard of a 1 piece suit vs 2 piece suit as in jacket
           and pants.  2 piece suit is a jacket and pants.  3 piece suit is
           a jacket, pants, and vest.  1 piece -- no pants?
           \_ Yeah pants-free is the new black!
           conservative, or 50+, you might want to consider a 1 piece. If you're
           young and hot, a two piece is going to show more breast, stomach,
           thigh, etc. of course, there are 1 piece g-strings, but those are
           pretty rare. also, there are a lot of retro style 2 pieces that have
           become popular in recent years, including the 70's "boob tube" and
           the 50's style shorts (kinda look like board shorts)... a lot parents
           like these for 'tweens because they don't show as much leg/ass.  --
           MBE (Motd Bikini/Bathingsuit Expert)
              \_ "I can see you're really excited to work for the company..."
           \_ 1 piece = jumpsuit
        \_ a one piece covers up a lot more, so if you are overweight,
           conservative, or 50+, you might want to consider a 1 piece. If
           you're young and hot, a two piece is going to show more breast,
           stomach, thigh, etc. of course, there are 1 piece g-strings, but
           those are pretty rare. also, there are a lot of retro style 2
           pieces that have become popular in recent years, including the 70's
           "boob tube" and the 50's style shorts (kinda look like board
           shorts)... a lot parents like these for 'tweens because they don't
           show as much leg/ass.  -- MBE (Motd Bikini/Bathingsuit Expert)

7/8     YAPayPalScam: http://www.atnewyork.com/news/article.php/2232421
        \_ anyone using paypal at this point deserves what they get.

7/9     How do I disable text messaging on my mobile?  I'm receiving spams
        regularly.  Cingular customer service said they didn't know - after
        putting me on hold for 18 minutes.  Thanks.
        \_ same question applies for Verizon
           \_ http://vtext.com > TXT Dashboard > TXT Personalization > TXT Blocking

7/8     Is there a utility to convert MS Word files to PDF from the command
        line?
        \_ Do you really need it from the command line or do you simply need a
           batch convert (even though that may have a GUI frontend)?
           \_ Here's my use case... a secretary needs to post meeting minutes
              online. she can do "save as html" but that kind of sucks. so i
              want to have a webpage that lets her upload the doc and then
              auto-generate html and pdf (or just pdf) links on the site.
              if you have a GUI way to do it, that's fine too (she uses a Mac,
              i have a PC and UNIX, but no X on my UNIX server). thanks. -abe
              \_ If she's using OS X, she can just print to PDF from the
                 print screen of any application. -chialea
              \_ I'd just use OpenOffice 1.1 -- export to pdf.
           anything with a doc with non-mS software won't always result in
           correct output. If your secretary has a budget, and you want
              \_ No X on your unix box??  Install it.  It isn't that big.
                 \_ I don't *want* X and I definitely don't want OpenOffice.
                    \_ What's wrong with X?  You some MacBigot?
        \_ The inards/spec of the "Word" document are secret, so doing
           tried an existing program "doc2html" but it makes even single
           carriage returns into paragraph boundaries </p><p> That wouldn't
           work for me, so I wrote a perl script to turn doc into xhtml,
           but there is junk near and the beginning and end of the file
           that I have to edit out by hand.  Not elegant, but it works.
           I'll send you my code, perhaps you can improve it. mail brett.
           Microsoft does not "play welll with others".
        \_ The inards/spec of the "Word" document are secret, so using
           non-mS software won't always result in correct output. If your
           secretary has a budget, and you want perfect output, she should
           buy Adobe Acrobat, which comes with "Distiller".  that will
           allow her to "Print to PDF".  Otherwise, she could print to a
           postscript file, but that creates other issues with fonts and
           pages and such.  I have a similar task.  I tried an existing
           program "doc2html" but it didn't do quite what I wanted, so I
           anything with a doc with non-mS software won't always totall do
           things correctly. If your secretary has a budget, and you want
           perfect output, she should buy Adobe Acrobat, which comes with
           perhaps you can improve it. mail brett.  Alternatively, you
           could quote:
           "Distiller".  that will allow her to "Print to PDF".  Otherwise,
        \_ Is the Secretary running OS X? If so, she can select File->Print
           then hit "Save as PDF..."
           she could print to a postscript file, but that makes other
           issues with fonts and pages and such.  I have a similar task.  I
           tried an existing program "doc2html" but did't like it, so I
           wrote a perl script to turn doc into xhtml, but there is junk
           near and the beginning and end of the file that I have to edit
           out by hand.  Not elegant, but it works.  I'll send you my code,
           perhaps you can improve it. mail brett.  Microsoft does not
           "play welll with others".
             http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
        \_ If she has OSX, there's built-in export to PDF.
           \_ I'm thinking about upgrading her to OS X... but I was wondering
              if there were any UNIX equivalents...
              \_ OS9: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macos/126
              \_ OSX *is* Unix.
                 \_ The Open Group does not agree with you.
        \_ best results from print-to-file with postscript printer driver
           from MS Word and then ps2pdf13 to distill it.

7/8     M$ ditches options in favor of stock:
        http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/030709/microsoft_options_3.html

7/8     <DEAD>www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/5654971?source=Reuters<DEAD>
        It's a good thing we didn't waste any money on that crazy Star Wars
        crap.  They'd just run a blockade and bring the nukes into a port!

7/8     Where can I get 3-12V water pumps similar to those used in Japanese
        water fountain thingies?
        \_ Aquarium store.
        \_ They sell pumps in the garden section of Home Depot.  In my
           experience they're cheaper than getting them at aquarium stores.
           \_ Are they as quiet?

7/9     Diebold voting machines easily hackable:
        http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm
        Why on earth would you use Microsoft Access to do something as
        important as tabulating votes?
        \_ because you care more about short-term profit than democracy?
           \_ Well, there goes their profit.
           \_ how is there profit in using a shrink wrap ware instead of a
              free one?  they're stupid but not for the reason you feel.
                \_ thanks guys, once in a while this anti-corporate, "they
                   are all a bunch of evil greed heads" draws me in and i
                   forget that the answer is almost always "people are
                   stupid" rather than "people are evil", it's good that
           \_ How about making software as "product" and subject to
              product reliability law suit? duh
                   there are others who realize that and can remind me when
                   i forget. -phuqm
        \_ only criminals would hack into systems.  let law enforcement
           do its job, fucker
           \_ hmm, these sound like the words of a criminal who is aware
              just how unlikely the "job" is to get done.  You know, that
              or a Troll. -phuqm
           \_ Or corrupt/zealous/partial/party-affiliated voting officials
              \_ That makes them criminals, DUH!
           \_ hah!  the great long tradition of police protecting voting...
        \_ how about making software as a "product" (instead of this
           licensing nonsense) and subject to product reliability law suit?

7/09    what is an application that displays IO usage by process on FreeBSD?
        \_ For which OS?
           \_ o.k. i hate to be obnoxious when i'm asking for help but:
              I've said this before..... *THIS ONE*.  Don't you think
              it is a reasonable deafault assumption when someone asks
              a computer question ON a computer that you use THAT
              computer's specs?   That being said, if you know the
              answer for some other OS, wouldn't it have been as easy
              to just PUT THAT rather than asking?  I'm sure someone
              (including of course me) would be interested.
              \_ Bong.  Try again...preferably on someone else's time.
              \_ no. no.
              \_ Concur. No No.
              \_ It's rather elitist to presume that everyone is smart
                 enough to use FreeBSD.
        \_ FreeBSD answer: doesn't seem likely.  man fstat & iostat and
           write a script to cross-reference the results
           \_ And then release it under the GPL so we can all use it!
           \_ o.k. how about other (non-VMS) OSes?

7/09    My script calls another (and puts it into the background).
        Is there anyway (short of a "trap" command) to make sure
        that script is killed/dies once mine is/does ?
        \_ if you are using csh/tcsh you should know the job number by
           where you launched it (first bg job is 1, second is 2, . . .).
           just do a 'kill -9 %#' in you cleanup (where # is the job number).
                                           \_ i.e. "use the 'trap' command"

7/9     Yet another reason to ban SUVs:
        http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/09/heat.deaths.ap/index.html
        \_ are you an idiot, a troll, or joking?
        \_ Actually it's a better argument for forced sterilization.
           \_ as opposed to de facto sterilization among geekdom?
        \_ ever hear of air-conditioning?