10/17   From various reviews I've read it seems like Quicken used to be really
        good and at some point it started to suck. Lots of people seem to hate
        the 2004 version. I want to get a version that's fairly recent (not
        the 2004) and start using it on a regular basis. Can someone who has
        used it over the years comment on which version is best?
        \_ I use QuickBooks 5.0 and I'm happy with it. It's much nicer than
           Quicken (its sibling) but may be overkill for you.
        \_ I keep my money under my matress.
        \_ It's the AOL effect. AOL at one time was actually not too
           expensive and the features were pretty intuitive to use. Now,
           everything's jam packed into one screen with icons flying all
           over and the GUI simply sucks. It's a bloatware POS. I hope AOL
           goes out of busness.
           \_ They are.
        \_ I got Quicken 2003 for free.  It feels more cluttered than 2002.
           I just use Quicken to balance checking and saving accounts, so
           I can't comment on its downloading, stock tracking features.
           The last time I tried these features on an older version (2000?),
           they sucked, partly because it involves not just Intuit but also the
           The last time I tied these features on an older version (2000?),
           financial institutions.
        \_ It's missing some very obvious features that would vastliy improve
           it...  E.g. being able to customize the screens (to get rid of their
           ads, and remove some of the clutter), a better way to go through
           the options with tabs... (instead of having to go through the menus
           one by one), no good way to reduce the bloat of the file size...
           I'm using 2003 because in some way's it's useful, but actually
           liked 2002 better.  Afraid of 2004.  (what's up with the basic/
           deluxe/premier tiers?  Any use for getting the higher versions?)
        \_ One thing I like about 2003 vs 2002 is that it allows for
           they sucked, partly because it's not just Intuit but also the
           financial institutions.
           deluxe/premier tiers?  Any use for getting the higher versions?)
           very long memo field.

10/17   I'm using linux with a broadband router for the first time. The linux
        machine gets all the proper info through DHCP, but DNS doesn't work.
        How does the DHCP client set the name servers? By writing directly to
        /etc/resolv.conf or something? I'm just manually inserting entries in
        there to get it working for now.
        \_ man dhcpclient
           \_ if you had a clue, you'd at least know it's man dhclient. and
              have you actually tried reading that page?
              \_ real men use static ips.
        \_ Actually you want to look at dhclient.conf(5).  Normally, you
           should be able to have an empty config file--your client gets its
           DNS servers by DHCP, just like its default gateway, and puts them
           in resolv.conf.  If this doesn't work, you can override a lot
           of things in dhclient.conf, such as 'prepend domain-name-servers
           <IP>; which will put <IP> before whatever you get from the dhcp
           server every time.  -John
           \_ the problem is just that it's not doing any of these things.
              it is getting the proper info since it shows up in the leases
              file, but it's not writing resolv.conf. i'm using an empty
              dhclient.conf.
              \_ Try a new OS.  It's obviously a linux problem that no one
                 here is qualified to answer.
                 \_ o-kay. at least you, anyway.

10/18   Jerry Springer may run for governor of Ohio
        http://csua.org/u/4qa
        \_ I know a lot of stupid people who've done a lot of stupid things,
           but i've never even heard of anyone else stupid enough to bounce
           a check to a prostitute.

10/18   Does anyone have any ideas of how to cure a wet phone? I accidentally
        kept my phone in my pants as I ran them through the washing machine.
        \_ Run it through the dryer to dry it out!
        \_ Prob hosed. Buy a new one.
        \_ I forgot I have my clunky old motorola startac phone in my shorts
           pocket when I jumped into the fox river to pull my canoe to
           shore.  The phone would not power up at first, but slowly came
           back to life after a few days (no response -> static -> power
           up and down constantly -> works).  However, it did develop a
           problem where once in a while, if I flip it open or close too
           fast, it would power off by itself, which is quite annoying.
           Try to be patient and wait a few days before powering it up.
           All the phone numbers in the phonebook still remained.
                \_ I actually have a startac (that hasn't been
                   drenched yet) that has that same problem (turning off
                   by itself when I flip it open/shut too fast). So
                   your startac is probably fully functionally then.
                   \_ good to know. guess it's a systemic phone problem then.
        \_ it is NOT hosed! You need a LOT of work and patience to save its
           life. First of all, if there are contaminants inside the phone,
           you gotta get rid of them. Contaminants include sugar goo, salt
           (REALLY bad), and other chemicals. You gotta get rid of them by
           dipping the entire phone into DISTILLED water. It must be distilled
           water or else it's no good. Then shake the phone for a few minutes
           while in the distilled water, and repeat using new distilled water.
           Do it a few times, 10-15 would be ideal. Afterwards, you gotta
           dry your phone. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT power on the phone when
           it is wet. Now wait 3-5 days while baking your phone under the
           sun and then give it a try. It should work afterwards.
           \_ I'd suspect you of spoofing, but this sounds just crazy enough
              to work....

10/17   The Motd Movie Critic has returned for your pleasure to review
        Secondhand Lions: With the exception of half a scene at the very end
        of the movie, this was a fantastic movie.  This is a purely character
        driven movie written strictly for adults.  There was some fine acting,
        a fair amount of tear jerking sentamentalism and a lot of good lines
        and funny situations.  Take your spouse.  Take your over 25 y/o date.
        The under 25 crowd may not 'get it'.  The final scene looked very
        tacked on by some marketdroid or other idiot but doesn't ruin the rest
        of this very fine film.  --MMC
        \_ motd poll:
           i think the MMC is a fucking annoying idiot: ...
           i think he's a harmless idiot who doesn't annoy me: .
           i like the MMC:
           \_ Wow, so bitter and angry.  Someone lock you in a closet?  Why
              does it bother you so much that someone would do movie reviews?
              Maybe you're just in the oft neglected under 25 crowd?
              \_ actually I hate all movie critics, and always have.  I'll
                 spare you the long rant as to why, but the point is that
                 MMC is the only movie critic who will actually read
                 all my insults, and I intend to take full advantage of it.
                 \_ i want to hear the long rant! --aaron
                    \_ no, you don't.  you just think you do.
                 \_ I also think i want to hear the long rant -phuqm
                    \_ third'd. Long rant! Long rant! As for me, I don't
                       realy care for 'em but I like http://rottentomatoes.com
                       \_ fine.  but i'm not posting it to the motd.  i'll
                          put my rant in /csua/temp or something and tell you
                          where to find it. give me a day or so.
                          posting long rants to the motd is a thankless task
                          since they tend to get deleted as colateral damage
                          from some other flame war.
             \_ perhaps it's your tone. "the" motd movie critic, talking about
                himself in the third person. It's like Miss Manners.
                \_ It's classic.  How else would it be?  Anyway, The MMC is
                   glad to have provided not only movie reviews but an outlet
                   for a fellow sodan.  The MMC does not review the work of
                   other columnists, only movies.  --MMC
                \_ Big ego doesn't mean no value.  I follow MMC in movies.  I
                   follow Trudy the Monkey in stock picks:
                   http://www.trudythemonkey.com
                   \_ You know the dart throwing monkeys consistently pick
                      better than 90% of the 'experts' and almost never lose
                      money?

10/18   "The group studying defense policy and institutions expected
        problems if the Iraqi Army was disbanded quickly  a step L. Paul
        Bremer III, the chief American civil administrator in Iraq, took.
        The working group recommended that jobs be found for demobilized
        troops to avoid having them turn against allied forces as some
        are believed to have done."
        http://tinyurl.com/rfyw
        \_ I'm sure.  Did you know that we've attempted to pre-plan for
           literally ten of thousands of scenarios for various world events
           over the years?  For just about *any* event there's some government
           wonk in a small shared cube that wrote a document saying that
           whatever happened would have happened.  And five others who said
           some other thing would happen.  Your tax dollars at work.  -U.Sam.
           \_ Yea but this seems to be a major State Department study
              involving a wide spectrum of Iraqi experts:
              "Beginning in April 2002, the State Department project assembled
               more than200 Iraqi lawyers, engineers, business people and
               other experts into 17 working groups to study topics ranging
               from creating a new justice system to reorganizing the
               military to revamping the economy."
        \_ In China during the imperial times, civilians' revolt per se usually
           doesn't pose a serious treat to the political establishment.
           It's usually the civilians' revolt mixed with disbanded army /
           deserted military units which would seriously threaten the
           ruling regime.  It's unforunated that those who in charge of
           Iraq naive enough to think they could disband the old regime's
           Army without serious consequences.  Now, these disgruntal boys, with
           military training, armed with unguarded military-grade weapons,
           are going to make US troops' life as difficult as possible.

10/18   Who keeps deleting the Jerry Springer thread?
        \_ Jerry Springer?
        \_ I missed a Jerry Springer thread?  Shit.  Please repost.

10/18   Is there a player that is not a Real product that will play
        .ram and .ra format on Windows?
        \_ There's a winamp plug in that lets you play Real Audio files.
           Google for 'Tara Winamp Plugin' and try to ignore the Tara Reid
           porn.

10/17   Huh, so Arnold won?
        \_ Mr. Olympia? Yeah, he did.
           \_ So no more Arnold movies?  Oh well.
              \_ Did you hear about the Florida recount?  What about Monica
                 Lewinsky?

10/17   I just installed redhat 9 on an old machine, and it loads web pages
        very slowly. Mainly, it seems like it takes a long time to establish
        a connection with a server. But it has a pretty high transfer rate
        when downloading, and nslookups come back quickly, so I don't know why
        that should take so long. Any ideas?