12/13   If the Japanese never attacked Pearl Harbor, would America still
        have bothered attacking Japan?
        \_ The Japanese thought so.
        \_ after they took over all of asia, the US would probably start
           to think about it.  And yes, that was the plan!
        \_ If pigs learned to fly, would hell freeze over?
           \_ If frogs had wings, they wouldn't bump their asses so much.
        \_ Japan would have attacked the Philippines, and the United States
           controlled the Philippines, so they would have still been
           in the war.
        \_ Eventually, possibly.  The US were fairly preoccupied with Europe
           at the time.  -John
        \_ It's hard for Japan not to attack USA.  USA cut scrap iron and
           petroleum export to Japan (two most important thing for Japanese),
           USA was also providing fighter planes and military training
           /consulting  to the Chinese nationalist army.  USA's gunboat
           was patroling up and down the Yanzi River (attending the so-called
           property of free-trade).   Not that I like Japan, but USA was
           engaging in act of war against Japan well before the Pearl Harbor.
           \_ Hey, asian nationalist troll, you should meet up for drinks
              with chicom troll.  You'd get on like gangbusters.  -John
                \_ John is an intelligent fella. Yep.
              \_ I heard this viewpoint, as well. There is some merit
                 to it. -!op
        \_ US doesn't need to attack Japan.  It can screw Japan in many
           other ways.  Japan has itself to blame though for stupidly
           attacking China, which is too big for it to swallow, even when
           KMT and CCP can't be bothered to fight Japan, preferring to
           save strength to fight each other.  US is bad country too,
           occupying Filipines, forcing Japan to trade with US, and
           messing around in China (helping the Manchu dynasty against
           Taiping rebels, selling opium in China, etc.).  However US
           did do a few good things once in a while, like whacking
           Japanese Imperialists, spreading Christianity in China,
                                  \_ and that was good... how?
           and returning boxer-rebellion "reparation" money to China to
          today graduated from.  Most of Tsinghua's graduates love to
          come to US, at least used to.
           build schools like Tsinghua (Qinghua) University,
           from which all these commie sotware programmers we see
           today graduated from.  Most of these commie Tsinghua's
           graduates love to come to US, at least used to.
                                - the I-want-to-confuse-John troll
                \_ US did a few good things, like spreading Christianity?

12/13   I just got a palm zire (B&W). what are some good freeware games?
        something like chess or a scrolling airplane shooter?
        \_ http://www.freewarepalm.com
           Let me know if you find anything cool.
        \_ Dopewars.  Great for meetings.  -John

12/13   Saddam Captured!!!
        France sends plane full of defense lawyers to Iraq for Saddam!
        \_ ``It's a major event that should strongly contribute to democracy
            and stability in Iraq and allow the Iraqis to master their
            destiny,'' French President Jacques Chirac said in a statement.
            I don't like Chirac either, but he's not completley
            retarded.
        \_ Which is shot down in the no-fly zone.  France commences operation
           cheese and whine.
        \_ Doesn't it remind you of the brain bug scene at the end of Starship
           Troopers?  You know they held this news since 10am Saturday PST.
           Also, why do they obscure the red flags in the http://cnn.com photo
           held by celebrating Iraqis?
        \_ It's funny that I get my news first on motd
        \_ If we put Saddam on trial, will he reveal all the sordid
           history of our many years of cooperation with him?
        \_ Maybe he can tell us where the WMD Bush warned us about are.

12/13   What are some of the great samurai movies out there (with subtitle)
        with visually pleasing fighting scenes?
        \_ Ran, by Kurosawa. -- ilyas
        \_ The Seven Samurai, also Kurosawa, of course.  -John
        \_ Sanjuro, you guessed it, Kurosawa -scotsman
                \_ I want to see many heads cut off. Kurosawa show that?
                   \_ You are an idiot.

12/14   What's the general uptake on the economy in California right now?
        Central/Western Europe was complete shit (nothing at all going on),
        and increasingly so until about this summer, then sometime in
        September/October things just started picking up (projects, jobs,
        etc.)  It was far more so than the usual fall/spring budgeting cycle,
        but rather, as if people just sort of collectively decided to be
        sick and tired of doom and gloom--how about the US?  -John
        \_ Nothing like it here.  I still have a number of friends either
           out of work or temp'ing it.  There's a few more job notices, but
           employers seem to be enjoying their scarcity.
           \_ seconded.
           \_ I know people hiring. Give me their names. -ausman
        \_ How bout other areas in the US?  It still seems that MS is hiring
           quite a bit.
        \_ Things are much better than 18 months ago. It will never be like
           1999 again.
           \_ never? that's bullshit.  the boomtime mentality is hardcoded
              into the human brain.  once people decide it's boomtime, all
              history is forgotten and everyone thinks they're going to get
              rich.  you think the late '90s were the first boom or the
              first bubble economy?  do you really think it'll be the last?
              \_ So my pedantic friend: when do you think the tech economy
                 is going to "recover" to its 1999 state? That is what the
                 original question was about.
              \_ Fine. I am sure there will be another Tulip Mania or
                 Internet Bubble again in human history. We will not
                 be around though.
                 \_ You're an idiot.
                    \_ Nice comeback. Did you take rhetoric?
                 \_ We'll be around, except the next boom will be something
                    else, either quantum, biotech, nanotech, or something
                    totally different. don't forget all the nontech booms that
                    we'll also see.
                    \_ biotech has already gone through several boom-bust
                       cycles.  regions that depend on natural resources
                       like mining go thruogh  boom bust cycles all the time.
                       I think my "you're an idiot" comment pretty much
                       sums up the above post.  it's just another one of those
                       fucking idiots who thinks the entire world starts
                       and stops with the software industry in the Bay area.
                       a bumper sticker from my home state (alaska) states
                       "please god, give us another boom, and this time we
                       promise not to piss it away."
                       \_ Sure there are little boomlets all over the world
                          all the time, but they are not the same as an
                          economic wide bubble, the way the US stock market
                          in 1929 or 1999 was. If you think the Dot Com boom
                          was something that was confined to the Bay Area,
                          then you are the provinicial fool, my friend.
                          \_ Japan in the late 80s is at least as big as
                             the recent US bubble.
                    \_ i have a quantum pc i can sell you.  it's in this
                       little box, but if you open the box, it breaks.
                \_ I recommend John K. Galbraith's A Short History of
                   Financial Euphoria. Though not his best book, it's a
                   short, thoroughly entertaining read.
                   \_ Galbraith is the best author I've never read.
        \_ Yea, some would argue there is a big housing bubble right now,
           so I guess there is a big boom in housing related jobs.  Lots
           of people I know recently went into real estate, housing
           appraisal, mortgage, etc.  There is also a big boom in China,
           and some say a big gold and commodity boom coming up soon.
           \_ Some would argue therefore it is true?  Nonsense.
              \_ You are right, a bubble is never a bubble until it bursts.
              \_ You revealed the code!  Howard Dean is posting on the motd!
           \_ http://realtytimes.com/rtcpages/20031208_homevalues.htm
              The housing market is doing what it should be doing. It is
              cool in the recently hot areas, including SF Bay Area.

12/14   Some folks like to re-write history; I call them "revisionist
        historians."
        http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/14/sprj.irq.saddam.profile.ap/index.html
        just when you think cnn can sink no lower.
        \_ um, it's nothing new and has been going on for a while.
        \_ What is "low" about that article?
                \_ seconded.

12/14   Is there a way in Excel to do

            y=0
            for n=1:100
              y=y+x^n
            end

        where x is the value in a particular box, say E2.  Obviously, I can do
        this manually for 100 boxes and then sum them, but I'm looking for a
        more elegant way.
        \_ I don't know how to do it, but i'm pretty sure the answer is
           yes, there is a way.  Excel will let you define macros using
           visual basic.  look under the "tools" pulldown menu.
        \_ A1 = 1, A2=A1+1, copy A2 to A3-A100
           B1 = X^A1, B2 = B1+X^A2, copy B2 to B3-B100
           B100 is your final answer  -nivra
        \_ Nothing is impossible with Excel:
           http://www.geocities.jp/nchikada/pac