11/3    How's CS61B with Shewchuk?
        \_ Decent.

11/3    iTunes for the PC has this nifty feature that fades out the tail end
        of one track into the beginning of the next.  Call me easily
        impressed, but I like this a lot.  Are there plugins for Winamp
        that give the same effect? --erikred
        \_ you can turn on 'cross fading' in winamp - danh
        \_ I thought it was nifty until the first time I listened to an album
           where there is not silence on track boundaries.
           \_ I can see where that might be annoying.  --erikred
           \_ I dunno, it still sounds cool.  It sounds like a radio station
              fading from one song into the next.. sometimes it's boring,
              sometimes it's disturbing, but it sounds kinda cool.

11/3    A good place to find various SCSI cables (specifically a 50-pin to
        50-pin internal with termination block) in the Bay Area? Thx!
        \_ http://www.l-com.com  Stores are for people who don't value their
           time.
        \_ Just about any computer store?  Frys?  Compusa?

11/3    Where is a good place to donate an old fax machine, printer, etc.?
        (they're not broken, just kindof old). Thanks in advance!
        \_ http://www.accrc.org

11/3    http://www.masterandcommanderthefarsideoftheworld.com   WTF?
        \_ WTF long url, or WTF another Russell Crowe movie, or WTF Hollywood
           is gonna botch another novel-to-movie?
           \_ What is the record for longest movie title?
              \_ Google may be your friend here. The first several hits all
                 come up with different movie titles, some facetiously.
           \_ the long URL flashed on my tv screen for 5 seconds, when
              http://www.masterandcommander.com points to the same site.
           \_ I fear the last. This a fun little series if you can get
              through the nautical terms. Boney lovers beware, not for you.
                                          \_ Boney? What's this refer to?
                                             \_ Hint:film is about English navy
        \_ just another Russell Crowe movie
        \_ just another Russel Crowe movie
           \_ From the looks of the preview, this looks like a great comedy.
              Russell Crowe seems to have worked hard to pull off without
              a doubt one of the least realistic English accents in the
              history of the cinema, and the supporting cast seems to do
              their damndest at Scottish and Irish accents as well.
              \_ They should have outsourced to India. At least some of them
              their damndest at Scottish and Irish accents as well.
                 have decent English accents.

11/3    Does Firebird have an "AutoFill" extension like the new google toolbar?
        \_ Can you describe the feature in more detail, so those of us who
           love Firebird so much that we won't run anything else (and are lazy)
           have an idea of what you're talking about? :)
        \_ i've got yer autofill extension right here pal
        \_ I don't know what are you talking about, are you talking about
           URL auto-completion on things you've typed up in the past? and/or
           stuff that you've searched in the past?   my firebird version 0.6
           on Windoze has this nasty bug which crash on auto-fill once a while.
           \_ 0.7 is much more stable, well worth the upgrade.
        \_ Sorry for the ambiguity (i use firebird 0.7 but miss google's auto
           fill feature). It's like http://Gator.com spyware... basically, it can
           auto fill your name, address, phone, zip, etc into forms w/ a
           single mouse click.
           \_ firebird can remember things that you filled out in forms in
              the past, and will let you auto-fill them in, but on a field-
              at-a-time basis. Does the google feature fill in the whole
              form? (that would seem fairly difficult, given the differences
              between forms/labels/etc)
                \_ yes, google can do it all at once. so how does firebird
                   do its version of auto-fill?
           \_ Mozilla has a googlebar plugin.  I never got it work on my
              version of firebird.  May be you would have better luck.
                -- happy firebird / thunderbird user
                \_ I use the googlebar, which rocks, but it doesn't have this
                   feature. Also, the auto-fill is quite different from
                   firebird's autofill. firebird's autofill is specific to the
                   site, where google's works cross-site (it's pretty good).
        \_ i am using Mozilla and very happy. What's different about
           firebird? It's ironic that Netscape got better when it no longer
           has a big company over it...
           \_ I think you need to check your definition of ironic.  When
              was the last time you saw a piece of software from a big company
              that was remarkably better than the open source equivalent?
              \_ LOL. is that a joke? are you really that out of touch with
                 reality?
                 \_Apache, gcc, kde, gnome, vim, g-emacs, mySQL, perl, bash...
                   \_ Play any open source games lately?  Oh wait, I guess you
                      think GNU chess is just as good a game as Diablo II.

11/3    I'm stuck at work twiddling for 3 hours.  What easy to learn online
        games are out there?  No pay services, please, I just need to kill
        one evening.  Thanks!
        \_ http://espgame.com
        \_ nethack!
        \_ http://www.popcap.com/gamepopup.php?theGame=bookworm
        \_ http://isketch.com
           http://www.crystalnewmedia.com/gridlock/gridlock.swf
           http://www.xgenstudios.com/castle
           \_ sounds like a lot of people are on the same boat.
        \_ you all rock!  thanks!  3 hours killed.  --op

11/3    Hi, a co-worker got rear-ended by a FedEx truck today (it was
        raining and my co-worker had stopped on a yellow), and his bumper
        has an obvious ~ 3-foot crack.  The FedEx guy gave him his insurance
        info.  Two questions:  (1) Assuming he reports this, does FedEx
        insurance pay, or does my co-worker's insurance pay, (2) Do you
        think my co-worker's rates will rise, and if so, by about how much?
        Right now he pays ~ $300 / 6 months.  He drives a 2000 Suzuki
        station wagon he paid $7-8K to the dealer for.  Anyone have
        experience here?  Thanks.
        \_ If the FedEx driver was at fault, you will not have to pay.
           Your insurance rates should not go up.
        \_ At fault person should never get dinged unless something really
           weird is going on.  Getting rear-ended is pretty much guaranteed
           no-fault.  If the insurance company fucks around and tries to
           claim anything different, IMMEDAITELY get a lawyer to send them a
           letter.  They'll back down in seconds.
           \_ Don't you mean the opposite of what you just said?
              \_ Uh yeah, I was dazed when I wrote that.  I meant the !At fault
                 person should never get dinged, etc.  The rest is true.
        \_ Ask your co-worker to see a doctor immediately.  I got
           rear-ended last week and I didn't seek treatment until my neck
           and back started hurting like hell.
           \_ Larry H. Parker got ME 1.3 Million.

11/3    got email from john@csua.berkeley.edu,about meeting of some sort
        most likely virus is attached. beware.. (not really from john)
        about meeting on wednesday.. watch out..
        \_ John, stop sending pr0n viruses.  We aren't interested in your
           animal pr0n.

11/3    One day my people will stop being victims of the left.  Unfortunately,
        that day has not yet come.  Sigh....
        http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001782176_clinton04m.html
        \_ Hey look, its a freeper posting a CONTEXT FREE LINK.  Who woulda
           thunk it?  I actually bothered to paste your link into my browser,
           and I wish I could get the three minutes of my life back that I
           spent reading this lame article.  They booked Clinton, they didn't
           get the ticket sales they wanted.  Big freakin' deal.  Happens
           ALL the time in concert promotion, but do you see whiny little
           bitches posting on the motd about how everyone is a victim of
           U2 or REM?  Stop obsessing over Clinton, he hasn't been the
           president for 3 YEARS.
           \_ Everyone who thinks differently than you is not a freeper.
              Anyway, since it was so obvious you missed it, this was supposed
              to be a charity event and when it didn't even break even due to
              his high fees, he didn't cut back and return any money.  Ya know,
              charity?
           \_ You know, it's still his fault...
              \_ Yup, everything is Clinton's fault.  You know that helicopter
                 that got shot down the other day?  Clinton's fault.  And that
                 enormous federal debt?  Clinton's fault.  Not to mention the
                 Kobe Bryant case - definitely Clinton's fault.  The Blaster
                 worm - without a doubt, Clinton's fault.  SARS too.
                 \_ wow, talk about missing the point.  Get back on your meds.
                    \_ There was no point to miss.  Just more Clinton-hating
                       hot air from the usual motd gasbags.

11/3    Can anyone recommend a decent heart monitor?  My dad has started
        getting into physical fitness, but he likes to work out at home on
        antiquated equipment, so I was hoping to get a decent heart monitor
        so he can keep track of how hard he's really working (and I'd like to
        get one for myself, come to think of it).  TIA.
        \_ Just bought a basic Polar (A3) for my dad.  Sometimes my dad has
           to put a little water on the sensor (as per their instructions)
           before it starts detecting a heart rate.  One good thing I
           found was that the treadmills, etc. at the gym of my apartment
           complex has Polar HRM built-in so when using those machines,
           one doesn't need to wear the watch, just the sensor.  I presume
           the protocol is proprietary such that it won't work with
           other brands?
        \_ I bought a Polar for me, and one for my wife, and we love them.
           They are the biggest name, I believe.  http://www.polarusa.com  -ax
        \_ finger.  wrist.  count.
           \_ And how exactly does this help the economy?  you obviously
              HATE AMERICA!!
        \_ Sports Instruments ECG5.  Heart rate monitors can lose signal near
           sources of electromagnetic interference (such as when biking past
           high voltage power lines).  When a Polar HRM loses signal, you
           have to manually restart it.  The Sports Instruments HRMs will
           automatically restart as soon as they start receiving a signal
           again.  They're available for about $60 from http://ediscountbike.com.
                                                                -alawrenc

11/4    Madonna soils all that she touches
        \_ Hey. Britney was spoiled by Justin, not Madonna.
           \_ Britney was spoiled at birth.  A lack of brains will do that.

11/4    The motd has been quite humorless lately.  Can we all troll a bit
        harder?  Thanks.
        \_ Been to http://www.somethingawful.com lately?
           \_ holy shit. I've gone blind.
              \_ My reaction precisely.  It took me a while to figure out
                 it's a fake front, not an atrocious hack.
        \_ are trolls humorous?
           \_ the better ones are entertaining

11/4    In IE 6.0, how do you make it show the URL of a link when you hover
        over it?
                                           /- claiming victimization eh?
        \_ Click on View, then click on Status Bar.  If that doesn't work,
           you're probably dealing with some Javascript to disable the
           status bar display, so you'll need to look up the URL in the
           source like a good hacker.
           \_ you call this hacking?
        \_ Use Firebird

11/4    Any Sodans that live in San Francisco, remember to vote in the mayoral
        race today.

11/4    http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAUJ53BMMD.html
        The Bush job bust.
        \_ Yippee Im sooo happy, unemployment for everyone.
           Now if only more soldiers die in Iraq I will be ecstatic
           and gloat myself silly.
           \_ Hey, high unemployment is good for business!  You won't have
              fat soft workers asking for benefits, raises, or union
              membership if unemployment was at say 35%.  Salaries would
              seriously drop and that means more money for the execs!
           \_ Ahh, gotta love editing of posts after the fact.
                \_ Part of what I wrote was deleted. Who loves you baby.
                   \_ You LIE!

11/4    Just wondering, has anyone read anything new and worthwhile in either
        of the sci-fi or comic/graphic novel genres?  I'm primarily interested
        in very recently published works like Stephenson's 'Quicksilver' and
        Gaiman's 'Endless Nights'. -dans
        \_ "Whiteout" is crime noir set in Antarctica
           "Powers" is crime fiction where the victims are super heroes
                http://www.jinxworld.com/content/powers.htm
           \_ Powers is the BEST thing on comic book shelves these days.  Pick
              up every TPB in the series; you will not be disappointed. --erikred
           "Alias" by  Brian Michael Bendis is a PI who is a burnt-out hero
           "Red Star" is about an alternate world where the Soviets have magic
                http://www.theredstar.com
                I read a lot of comics; shoot me an email               -brain
        \_ http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/402-8067208-4854549
           Some of the best comics I've read in the past few years.  I'm
           not sure if there are translations in English, though.
        \_ FYI, 'Quicksilver' isn't really sci-fi - more like a pop culture
           attempt at Pynchon-esque historical fiction.  Stephenson is no
           Pynchon, though, and I haven't heard good things from those who
           have read it.
           \_ I read it and liked it somewhat, but was dissapointed.
              Basically, it makes you want to read more about the 17th
              century, and made me wish that Stephenson had just given up
              the novel format and written a slightly dramatized version
              of the events without adding fictional characters.
              His characters were much weaker than in Cryptonomicron.
              By his characters, I mean the ones stephenson
              invents, obviously.  Louis XIV and Isaac Newton are clearly
              more amazing characters than any novelist can create.
              Still, if you like all his other work, it's probably worth
              reading (I'm glad I read it.)
           \_ Thanks, good to know. -dans

11/4    Serious question for a change.  My wife and I are looking at home
        births.  That is, giving birth at home with the help of midwives and
        NO doctors present.  The old fashion way I suppose.  I'm curious if
        any sodans were born this way or gave birth this way.  Thanks.
        \_ lila was born in a tent.  YMMV.
                \_ url?
                \_ ya whatever, the next thing yer gonna say is her dad was
                   an alcoholic and her mom was a hooker in some Hick state?
        \_ I know several couples who have done the home birthing method,
           but I have no personal experience with it (obviously).
           Their children were not born with big dents in their
           head from someone using tongs to remove them from the
           birth canal.  Plus the next night you can dump the kiddie
           pool of water and afterbirth into the storm drain! - danh
           \_ throw it away? them's good eatin'. mmm, afterbirth. -Mama Lion
        \_ why would you want to do this?  Save hospital costs?  Or because
           it would be nice to be "old-fashioned"?
        \_ If you're doing this because of some wish to be "natural" and/or
           "wholistic," then you're an idiot.  Any idea why the expected
           lifespan of humans continue to increase?  Well, the ability of
           doctors to save babies' lives, and prevent any harm to birthing
           mothers has something to do with it.  Don't shun science.
        \_ Most women also don't consider the lack of access to an epidural
           a good thing either.
           \_ doesn't the decision for an epidural have to be made before
              the whole process anyway? (e.g. you can't change your mind and
              decide on it when in labor already?)  I recall seeing some
              web pages on "water births" a while back, that might be worth
              looking into...
        \_ I don't like getting into a shouting match on the motd.  But if
           you're really interested in the subject read "Reclaiming our health"
           by John Robbins and "Spontaneous Healing" by Andrew Weil.  It's
           a complicated issue.  Don't expect to glean a few lines and go
           run around attacking other people's position with it.  That's
           teenage behavior.  -OP
           \_ glean a few lines?  I don't think this word means what you think
              it means.
           \_ Immaturity?  On the motd?  I'm shocked.
                \_ If you're the kind of person who doesn't keep a spare
                   tire in the trunk, doesn't make backups of their important
                   files, runs with scissors, and isn't afraid of heights,
                          \_ Don't make fun of poor Weird Al
                   then I guess you'd feel comfortable home birthing too.  -ax
        \_ Do you also intend to not vaccinate your children?
           \_ Fuck you.
              \_ Come on, what did you expect from the motd, a rational
                 discussion without personal attacks?  Pshaw.  Here's one
                 vote for just turning the motd off completely.  Its boring.

11/3    vi vs. emacs: which is for liberals and which is for conservatives?
        \_ Fuck you earthlings and your stupid bipolar politics. We are Borg,
           we use MS Visual Studio. We are the .NET, we are the collective.
           You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
        \_ ED IS THE STANDARD!
           \_ IFILE!
        \_ With (s)ED! and awk you don't need anything else.  vi & emacs are
           for l0sers!
        \_ emacs is definitely the epitome of liberal government.  It's a great
           OS, if only it had a good editor.  vi's philosophy is more like the
           do one job and do it well approach (smaller government).
           \_ glad to see you've fully bought into the ridiculous political
              mythology.
           \_ is vim the neocon approach?  We pretend to be small, but we
              keep doing stupid shit just to drive you crazy?
              \_ Pretend to be small?
-rwxr-xr-t  2 root  wheel  3172672 Dec  8  2001 /usr/local/bin/emacs*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1146252 Dec  2  2002 /usr/local/bin/vim*
-r-xr-xr-x  6 root  wheel  279020 Jan 21  2003 /usr/bin/nvi*
                 -geordan
        \_ libertarians just cat directly to the device

11/3    Linda Tripp wins lawsuit for violation of privacy:
        http://uk.fc.yahoo.com/031103/325/ecy92.html
        \_ Who says the gods have no sense of humor?
           \_ hm. I didn't find it funny after learning she's getting almost
              $600k... I find it hard to believe there was that much damage.
              Of course, who knows what the lawyers take away. Are court
              winnings taxable income?

11/3    link:csua.org/u/4vz    http://suse.com banner picture

11/4    So what is it with all the hatred in CSUA? We hate SUVs, we hate
        M$, we hate Winblows, we hate Bush, we hate StanfUrd, we hate golf
        players, we hate the wealthy in general (why??), we hate landlords,
        we hate __stick in a politican here__, we hate pretty much
        everything. What is up with that?               -fun loving guy
        \_ I hate you.
        \_ different hatreds for different reasons: we hate girls because
           we can't get any... we hate minorities who excel in CS because
           we feel they are more succesful than us, we hate minorities
           who don't do CS because we think they are lazy and get handouts,
           we hate alot of stuff because the stupid cartoons on the walls
           of top dog tell us to hate them... we hate Bush and the wealthy
           because we are from Berkeley... we hate Stanfurd because of
           some inane tradition.
        \_ Berkeleyeans hate wars in general, hence Bush, etc etc etc.
           \_ Very simple solution : America - Love or leave it.
              \_ I prefer: America - Try to improve it.
           \_ No, Berkeleyians just hate.  It's easier than thinking and
              engaging in rational debate.
              \_ I'm so glad I haven't lived in Berkeley in a long time.
                 I lived in Oakland for most of the time I went to Berkeley,
                 and I highly recommend it.
        \_ It's all very rational. First of all, most of us hate wars. Then
           we make the following connections:
           war->bush->corporations
                    ->bush ranch->golfh
                    ->wealth->StanfUrd
                            ->M$->BillG->WinBlows
                    ->oil->SUV
                    ->republicans
           And we hate everything that connects to war, which includes all
           of the followings. It is all very rational.

11/4    Ok, so how many of you think that the attacks are carried out by
        the so called "Saddam Loyalist"? think about it, if some
        country over runs the US, do you think only the Bush Loyalist
        would be in the resistance? I think not. No matter how corrupt
        Bush is, I will surely be the one to resist any foreign
        invasion forces. I hope the idiots at Washington has a good
        understanding of the problem and deal with it accordingly. Oh
        wait, we are only there for the oil, fuck everything else. We
        are out of there once we get the oil... never mind.
        \_ By "Bush" you mean "Hu Jintao," right?
        \_ No cookie, troll.  You can do better than that.