1/20    A follow-up to my post on Western Digital 2 months ago. After
        complaining to BBB and writing to the headquarter in Western Digital,
        I finally got my $120 rebate last week. Hard work does pay!

1/20    Man, Nancy Pelosi is weird looking. She has this wide-eyed, crazed
        stare when she speaks, and an unnatural manner. I wish she wasn't
        the minority leader.
        \_ She was reading off the teleprompter.  Everyone looks freaked out
           when they do that.  When she speaks extemporaneously, she's much
           more effective.  This isn't, of course, to say that she has been
           effective at all... --scotsman
        \_ Do people think Clark looks even more this way?
        \_ Looks like a fish..
        \_ That's why you should never get plastic surgery.
        \_ So how come three threads criticizing that idiotic campaign
           stump, I mean, SOTU address, got censored, and this dumb thread
           stays?
           \_ No criticism of Our Great Heroic Leader will be tolerated.

1/20    I'm gonna be in San Diego for a weekend. Can anyone recommend anything
        cool to do or see (other than the SD zoo)? Thanks.
        \_ go to the movies?  read a book?  seriously, though.
           the Wild Animal Park out in north county is pretty neat.  much
           different feel from an ordinary zoo.  sea world is pretty much
           one big advertisement for anheiser busch.  but, it's there.
           old town.  pretty touristy.  good mexican food.  there.  eat
           good mexican food.  even the most run-down ro(x)berto's will
           have better mexican food than most places up here.  stay away
           from mission bay park.  it's nasty.  go to belmont park, wander
           the boardwalk.  coffeeshops have a much different vibe down there,
           are actual interesting hang-outs.  pacific beach has a bunch of
           them.  claire de lune in... mission hills?... is also pretty
           nice, they have a lot of open mics and poetry nights.  la jolla
           cove is a nice place to swim.  there are good bookstores on adams
           avenue, around the ken theatre.  i haven't been there since i was
           a kid, but seaport village used to be fun.  way back when.
           unfortunately, the best part was a fish and chips place which
           has since closed.  maybe very bleak or very touristy, but who knows?
           maybe it still has class.
           \_Boy, you almost make me wish I was going to San Diego.  Can you do
             this for other cities?  If I had known that the motd was a travel
             guide too, I would have asked it lots of stuff before.  Is there
             anything the motd CAN'T do?  (besides ignoring trolls?)
           \_ You missed the two best walking neighborhoods in San Diego:
              Gaslamp District and Hillcrest. Hillcrest has lots of coffee
              shops and cafes and Downtown has tapas bars and Croce's, a Jazz
              joint. The Downtown Mall is a trippy place. The Elephant
              Bar is La Jolla is fun. Lots of dance places in Pacific
              Beach, they come and go all the time, so I can't recommend
              any specific one.
              \_ Isn't Old Town the same thing as the Gas Lamp? I was just
                 in Coronado this weekend and had a good time there. La Jolla
                 is another favorite.
                 \_ No, Old Town is near the airport and Gas Lamp is downtown.
        \_ punany in tihhhhaaaajuana
           \_ if you can't get it at berkeley you can't get it in tj.  once
              you figured out how to get it here you can get it anywhere.
              it's all the same.
              \_ Yeah, that's how I felt about your mom.
                 \_ You can't afford my mom.
        \_ Go see if there are hot chicks at UCSD?
        \_ If you like good beer, visit Stone Brewing Co.
           \_ In an industrial park in San Marcos, North County, my home
              town.  On the way to/from the Wild Animal Park. --erikred

1/20    I'm started to get perfectly legit looking spam (not in black list,
        not in Razor, not in SpamCop, etc etc). Look:
         X-Spam-Status: No, hits=2.8 required=5.0
                        tests=HTML_10_20,HTML_MESSAGE,NORMAL_HTTP_TO_IP
                        version=2.55
        I even use sa-learn on --ham and --spam mboxes, and it was cool
        for a while till recently. What should I start doing?
        \_ Upgrading to a more recent spamassassin version might help (the
           current release is 2.63).
           \_ just continue to ignore me: i'm using a very old version and
              don't have these problems.  you know why?  no one is tweaking
              their spam to my version.  go ahead, get on the upgrade
              treadmill.  see what i care.
        \_ Unplug and chill.

1/20    Hungry Programmers raided by FBI:
        http://csua.org/u/5mp
        \_ wow, bummer. A related question is, suppose you use RSA or some
           hard to crack stuff and encrypt your criminal activities. Would
           they have the resource to crack it?
           \_ you'd go to jail for contempt a la kevein mitnick until you
              gave up the passphrase or died of AIDS.  they don't have to
              crack it, they just have to crack you.  stop thinking like
              some nerd.  they don't play by your grade school nerdling rules.
              \_ What if you say "I forgot." What if you do forget?
                 \_ You lose.

1/20    Any candidates for the best way to prevent developers from #includeing
        a header file accidentally.  Aside from very loud comments to that
        effect, what is a good way to make the compiler complain?  I was
        thinking something like
        #ifndef MYLIB_I_REALLY_WANT_TO_USE_THE_PRIVATE_INTERFACE
          // best way to cause compiler pain goes here
        #endif
        at the top of the private header file.  This has to be straight C for
        various reasons (I do prefer C++ and Java).
        \_ #include Your_error_message_here
           \_ Cannot find file Your_error_message_here
           \_ If you want to raise a preprocessor error, there's a mechanism
              for that: it's called #error.  #error Don't include this file.
              Anyhow, if you want to restrict access to, say, structure
              internals, you can do:
                #ifdef MYLIB_I_REALLY_WANT_TO_USE_THE_PRIVATE_INTERFACE
                    struct st
                    {
                        int field;
                    };
                #else
                    struct st { };
                #endif
        \_ Document your code and fire any developers who ignore specs.  If
           they're ignoring something this major, they will hose your source
           even worse somewhere else.

1/20    Dean's post-Iowa rave party
        http://www.marken.us/auction/dean_goes_nuts_remix.mp3
        http://home.comcast.net/~texaggie79/dean2.mp3

1/21    Here's some funny shit.  Various peacenik lawyers seek revenge on
        Tony Blair for supporting the US in Iraq.
        http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=442590§ion=news
        \_ see what the UK gets for trying to remain international and not
           giving itself whole-heartedly to Bush's unilateral campaign?
           "The U.S. cannot be tried before the court because it refuses to
            sign up to it. The UK did."
           \_ What does it mean to be "international", exactly?  Striving to
              surrender your nation to others who don't have your interests
              at heart?  Good plan.  Don't run a country.
        \_ learn to shorten your urls: http://csua.org/u/5mw
           \_ Shortening urls is great, as long as the poster specifies
              what they're sending you to.  This simple courtesy is rare,
              however.
           \_ I prefer the real raw deal.  I do not like being sent to unsafe
              links.  I'm willing to cut n paste.

1/21    In a similar vein to the Dean thing below, Steve Ballmer dancing it
        up: http://www.ntk.net/media/dancemonkeyboy.mpg
        \_ This is older than dirt.
           \_ Ah, sorry about that. I hadn't seen it before.

1/21    spamassassin is failing to tag messages like the following:
        "Genierc and Sepur Viarga (Caiils) available oinlne!
        Most trusted online source!
        Cilais or (Spuer Vagira)
        takes afecft right away & lasts 24-36 huors!
        FOR SUEPR VAIRGA TOCUH HERE
        Genierc Virgaa
        costs 60% less! save a lot of $.
        FOR VIGARA TOCUH HERE"
        What are some ways to deal with this? I've tried blacklisting but
        it's getting futile because they keep changing their address. Thanks,
                                                -desperately failing
        \_ check the headers of some of these messages for the Habeas header.
           there is a viagra spammer abusing the header right now. SA honors
           the header and deducts ~8 points. If this is true, disable habeas.
           \_ It's not using habeas, it's just not scoring high.
          X-Spam-Status: No, hits=x.x required=5.0 tests=HTML_20_30,HTML_MESSAGE
        \_ retrain
                \_ no, because at the end of these mails they put random
                   common valid words and training would increase the
                   chance of false positive making spamassassin less powerful.
                   If I'm not wrong, spammers are getting smarter and smarter
                   and as long as we have to worry about these things, they're
                   winning the war
                   \_ Nuke the site from orbit.  Its the only way to be sure.
        \_ I have the same spams and use SA too and I've noticed that while the
           spellings change, 'TOCUH HERE' stays the same.
           \_ Until it doesn't...
        \_ sounds like some kind of typo count would be very good at spam ID
           \_ I used motdedit and you overwrote my post.  Bad sodan!
              \_ I used me, too. you got the wrong guy.  The guy who overwrote
                 your post posted this: "is that what he really did? And ..."
           \_ But then drunk people can't send email!
        \_ I hate spam but occasionally I get one that totally cracks me up and
           that almost makes the rest worthwhile. Anyone else enjoy the
           'white trash sluts' spam a little too much?

1/21    Joshua Marshall(TPM) interviews George Soros:
        http://csua.org/u/5mx
        \_ 'this administration has no compunction in misleading the people.
            It has no respect for the truth. This, I think, is a real danger.
            It is the danger of an Orwellian world. It's not new, because
            obviously, Orwell wrote about this fifty years ago. But what he
            wrote in 1984, you know, the Ministry of Truth being the
            Propaganda Ministry, the use of words meaning the opposite of
            what they are meant to mean. The Fox News, "Fair and Balanced,"
            the "Clear Skies" Act for permitting pollution, the "Leave No
            Child Behind" [that] provides no money for the legislation.'
            \_ "Fair & Balanced" is only offensive if you're on the left.  As
               someone not on the left, I mostly stopped watching the tv news
               years ago because it was so sickeningly left.  At least when I
               watch Fox News I understand there is a bias.  A bias in the
               direction of my political philosophy I readily acknowledge and
               easily see.  It is laughable that the left doesn't see the same
               bias in their own news on the other stations.
               \_ The quote is about "misleading," not about "offensiveness."
                  You acknowledge that there is a political "bias" in their
                  news.  Ignore whether you agree w/ the channel's politics.
                  Just tell me, does "Fair & Balanced" accurately represent a
                  news station with a political bias?  No. That's why it is
                  misleading.
                  \_ It's not necessarily misleading.  You can make the case that
                     because the american media has such a predominantly liberal
                     bent the only fair and balanced thing to do would be to bend
                     the other way.  Kind of like the way you libs want to
                     compensate for slavery with affirmative action.
                     \_ I thought this point was obvious but thanks for
                        pointing it out to the above confused person.  I do
                        believe that Fox's centrist and sometime right
                        leaning stance is an excellent balance to the
                        leftist trash that has been coming from the bulk of
                        the news media for decades.  And again, unlike the
                        left watching their stations, I understand what I'm
                        watching is sometimes biased.  So does a huge number
                        of other people that have sent Fox's ratings through
                        the roof.
                        \_ It is not centrist. They always aggressively question
                           Democrats, while never doing this with Repubs.
                           You imply that the republican agenda is centrist, and
                           opposition is flaming liberalism.

1/21    SOTU.  Thoughts?
        \_ That's an overly-obscure acronym.
           \_ On some other day than right after the State of the Union, it
              might be.  I think the SOTU should be modded -1 troll.
              I predict any mention of any topic from the speech will be
              deleted as a troll by someone within an hour of posting, hence
              troll.  It's hard to imagine a more divisive or blatantly
              political SOTU.
              \_ Talk about trolling.  You just trolled the motd on the same
                 topic you said others would be trolling.  A weak meta troll
                 at best.  You score -2 weak meta troll.
                 \_ there's an important difference between a bored grad
                    student posting to the CSUA motd and a US president
                    addresssing congress.  The former is expected to
                    troll, and the latter is expected not to.
                    \_ I shall clarify: expressing a different political
                       viewpoint from yours is not trolling.  Not outside
                       your tight nit little knee jerk circles, anyway.
        \_ Anyone remember Clinton's 1996 SOTU?  Was it nearly this political?
           \_ Clinton's SOTU addresses were mostly just boring.
           \_ It didn't include half as much DoubleThink and lumping of
              dubious claims with beneficial effects (i.e., reference to the
              Estate Tax as the "Death Tax" in the same sentence as expansion
              of the married-filing-jointly tax exemption).
              \_ You don't like the death tax?  Exactly what right do you
                 have to the money a man has made over his life time and
                 wants to leave to his family?  Why do you have more claim
                 to his hard earned wealth than his family?
        \_ CNN poll showed only 45% approved of the speech, compared with
           52% for Clinton's speech during the height of Monicagate.  The
           cracks are showing.
           \_ Dream on.  Your party is imploding.  Go waste a vote on that
              maniac, Dean.
              \_ In what way is he a "maniac"?
              \_ You are so right. 49% of America thinks that GWB is
                 doing a good job. The 50% who don't are just a vicious
                 minority:
                 http://www.zogby.coma
              \_ Let me guess, you are the same guy who assured us 100%
                 that there were WMD in Iraq. Your track record ain't too hot.

1/20    [18-hour rule for debated threads enforced: political thread restored.]
        Finally a tax cut the Republican's don't like:
                                          \_ The apostrophe doesn't mean "an s
                                           will follow"
                http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif _/
        One that helps the middle class most, of course.
        http://www.calpundit.com/archives/003060.html
        \_ typical... the rich & poor are taxed the same amt of SS due to the
           $88k+ cap, so reducing SS tax helps all $80k earners the same
           dollar amount, but of course $6k is pennies for the millionaire
           while it's 2 months mortgage for normal folks.
           \_ If you're paying $3k/month mortgage and/or making $88k a year,
              here's a big fat fucking hint: YOU'RE NOT POOR!
              \_ And that cap used to be $70k not that long ago.
        \_ Yeah, let's kill social security sooner.  Funny how it isn't called a
           tax, but rather SS when it's supposed to be put into a 'lockbox'.
           But when we want to shift the tax burden even higher it's called a
           tax. -emarkp
           \_ Did Bush raid the "lockbox"? Yes, he did and he used it to
              handout tax cuts for the rich.
              \_ Sh. Maligning the Pres. isn't allowed in Del Paso Manor.
              \_ Pyramid scheme.
              \_ Last I checked, my SS rate was still the same. -emarkp
                 \_ Rate, yes, funds available, no.
                    \_ Are the funds available >= the funds needed? -emarkp
                       \_ Well they would have been, if they had not
                          all been spent. Good enough until 2038 at least.
                          \_ So you're claiming that we're deficit spending for
                             SS?  That is, that outlays of SS are higher than
                             collections?  If so, I'd like to see something to
                             back up the claim.  -emarkp
                             \_ No, I am claiming the opposite. Though the
                                outlays are projected to pass income in 2013
                                or so.
                                \_ So what precisely is your objection to moving
                                   SS money around if there's a surplus? -emarkp
                                   \_ I think the money should be used to
                                      pay off the debt, not pay off GWB's
                                      campaign contributors. Silly me.
           \_ I don't see why any of you give a shit about SS.  Not one of us
              is likely to see so much as a penny from it after paying into it
              for decades.  People are living too long, getting too much out,
              and not putting enough in to cover any of us.
                \_ Hear hear... SS will be bankrupt long before we retire,
                   probably after the substantially increase taxes and
                   retroactively tax retirement savings.
        \_ http://csua.org/u/5mh
          "As critics have long noted, that means that someone earning [$87,900]
             pays the same Social Security payroll tax as Microsoft's Bill Gates."
           "For example, a filer earning between $40,000 and $50,000 pays 12.2
           percent of his income in payroll taxes and 8.5 percent in income
           taxes, according to a study by the Tax Policy Center.
           By contrast, a worker earning more than $500,000 pays 3.5 percent of
           income in payroll taxes, and 27.3 percent in income taxes."
           \_ Worse than that, the combined rate is higher for people
              making $87k/yr than it is for people making 88k-300k.
              Guess how much I make?
              \_ You do understand that federal income tax and social security
                 are wildly different things, right?  The only thing they have
                 in common is that they're deducted from your salary (SS even
                 deducts from your company equal to the amount from your salary,
                 so you're really getting twice the shaft).
                 \_ They seem the same to me. The federal government takes
                    a bunch of my money and spends it. What is "different"
                    about them?
           \_ You understand that people get the same amount out if they put
              the same amount in?  BG is not going to get more out of SS than
              someone who made exactl $88k every year.  If you think SS taxes
              are so unfair to the poor then let's let the max contribution
              rise all the way up and then we can pay BG a billion or two a
              year when he hits 67 (or whatever) because he'll have put so
              much in over the years.  That makes sense, right?
                \_ you're an idiot.
                   \_ thank you. now I know I've hit a nerve when that's the
                      only response to a factual description of how the world
                      works.
              \_ You are wrong. Say two guys pay the same amount in and one
                 dies at 65 and other lives to be 100. They do not get the
                 same amount out. Your statement goes downhill from there.
                 \_ here's where I get to say "you're an idiot".  Must I also
                    explain why the sky is blue?  Please take your anal
                    retentive self and find a rock to crawl under.  You're
                    the only one here who didn't understand the very basic
                    gradeschool concepts being applied here.  In this case,
                    there is nothing the government can do if you drop dead
                    too early, however, it is obvious to any child that if
                    you live the same length of time you'll get the same amount
                    out as BG, assuming you're the same age, start drawing at
                    the same time and have been making at least $88k for most
                    of your working life.  There, I did it.  I fed the Mighty
                    Troll Of Anal Retention.  Have a cookie.
                    \_ Thanks for the cookie, but you are still wrong. There
                       are thousands of scenarios where people who pay the
                       same amount in get differing amounts out. Your payout
                       is based on your highest five years of earnings, so
                       someone who makes 30k/yr his whole life gets less
                       back than somone who makes 10k/yr his whole life,
                       except for that 5 year period where he made 100k.
                       Is this fair? I dunno, maybe you have an opinion.
                       There is no way to design the system that is not
                       "unfair" to somebody or other.
         \_ As an aside, I think the name "Social Security" should be changed
            to "Welfare for Seniors".  That way people wouldn't think it was
            a retirement plan, we wouldn't have this nonsense about privatizing
            it, and people wouldn't think that you should get out an amount
            proportional to what you put in.  If you're intelligent, lucky,
            or thrifty you can prepare for retirement far better than
            Social Security.  The reason I support SS is that I don't want
            to see stupid, unlucky, or spendthrift seniors starving living
            in poverty.  Finaly, naming it "Welfare for Seniors" would
            probably make people realize the stupidity of making SS a
            regressive payroll tax.
        \_ What's the rationale behind the government providing MANDATORY
           retirement plans to all US workers?  I can understand rationale
           for providing welfare type benefits(Redistrib. of wealth, etc.),
           but SS has the guise of a "retirement plan:" you pay in young,
           you get back when old.  Firstly, anyone with income above $50k
           should be able to provide for their own retirement, esp. with
           federal tax savings plans like IRA's, Roth IRA's, 401k's, etc.
           Secondly, anyone who is forced to live paycheck-to-paycheck
           belongs in the poor category eventually, and will end up on
           welfare or some other government freebie.

1/21    Seems like the Republicans on the motd haven't yet figured out the story
        isn't Dean anymore, its that the Democratic primary has become dynamic
        and interesting.  I don't know who the Democratic nominee is going to
        be and neither do you, but I think I'm pretty safe in betting that its
        not going to be Dr. YEAHHH!!!!!  Go John Edwards!

1/21    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,109029,00.html
        Churchill's parrot still potty mouthed and anti-Nazi.
        \_ Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find an
           audio file of this bird on the net somewhere and post a link
           to it on the motd.  Thank you in advance.

1/21    http://www.booble.com google for porn/boobs
        and http://eurekster.com for google+friendster in one

1/21    What the fuck is the "sanctity of marriage"? If politicians are
        bold enough to support it, they should be bold enough to say
        "outlaw gay marriages".
        \_ They're bold enough to pay lip-service to religious supporters.
        \_ possible amendment.
        \_ pro-choice defenders should be bold enough to say "kill fetuses"
           \_ how about 'remove fetal infection'
           \_ Idiot. Making a law against something says "don't do this".
              The absence of a law does not say "do it". There's no law
              against you cutting your ear off. I guess you should do that.
              \_ And where would you be if your parents decided to abort you?
                 \_ back pushing up daisies, which are probably prettier than you.
                 \_ where would you be if your parents never made it? think
                    of all the babies that could have been born if only they
                    had more sex!
                 \_ Not complaining on the motd, that's for sure.
        \_ Here, "Outlaw gay marriages".  WTF do you think Bush and others
           are saying when they propose a Constitutional amendment that
           would outlaw gay marriages?  They're not hiding their views or
           calling them something other than what they really believe.
           You, sir, are a troll, and an ignorant slut.
                \_ No I'm no troll. I'm bringing up a topic of
                   discussion the same way that most people do
                   here in the motd. I was wondering why they
                   have to give a nonsense euphemism for what they
                   want. And YES, they are partially hiding their
                   views when they say "preserve sanctity of marriage"
                   because that does not indicate anything about
                   gay marriages. But nice try, bitch.

1/21    You know... all this bitching about social security won't make a
        difference.  Most young people don't vote.  Old folks do vote.  The
        baby boomers will come close to bankrupting this nation when they
        start to retire in the next decade.  They'll vote to keep getting
        every last penny they can from the govt because "they deserve it".
        \_ They will outnumber the young people anyway.
           \_ Two wolves.  One sheep.  Dinner.  Yay democracy!
                \_ Our only hope is to keep raising the retirement age
                   anyway.  They might do that.
                   \_ No.  Our only hope is to figure out a better form of
                      government.
                      \_ how about: PAY TO VOTE.
                         \_ No, it's more complicated than the current system
                            'Buy a politician'
        \_ I was told that in WW2 Japan, many old people were told to die
           (commit suicide, etc) because they were non-essential and were
           using precious Japanese food, time, labor, and other resources.
           Is this true? If so, maybe we can do something similar in the US.
           \_ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812
        \_ soylent green