4/5     http://www.supportempire.com
        \_ remote sys adm for only $2.30 / hour!
           tech support / india / outsource

4/5     Article on the mercenaries (like the Blackwater employees):
        http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/weekinreview/04glan.html
        \_ Evil BushCo proxy employees deserve to be shot, stomped, burned,
           hacked up, dragged through the streets, and hung from bridges.  it
           is the only way to teach you yankqui pig dogs what freedom means to
           the rest of the world.
           \_ w00t!
           \_ Why do you hate America?
           \_ BUCK FUSH!
              \_ BUSH FUCK!
           \_ See, here's what I don't get.  They're willing to do all that to
              four mercenary guys, but they put up with decades of oppression
              at the hands of the Butcher of Baghdad.  How does this make them
              heroes of the resistance?  I don't see it.
              \_ He was a butcher, but he was OUR butcher!  Of course,
                 the truth is that for the most part, people who kill and
                 maim are just looking for an excuse.
                 \_ Now .... now, there is no right and wrong, just different
                    cultures.
                    \_ Respect my diversity you western swine or we'll come
                       over there, blow you up and convert you (peacefully)
                       at the edge of a sword!
              \_ They do that to 4 of Saddam's, hell opens up and swallows
                 up the town.  They kill 4 Americans, all we do is wring our
                 hands and go through bouts of recrimination.  We start
                 dragging out and killing 10 of them for every one of ours,
                 and it'll be amazing how fast they'll play nice.
                 \_ Isn't "Operation Iraqi Freedom" great?
                    \_ Great red herring!
                    \_ Welcome to "Operation Iraqi Bodycount"
                       \_ w00t!
              \_ Do you have any idea how many people were killed trying
                 to overthrow Hussein? This was probably a monthly
                 occurance when he was in power, there was just no free
                 press, so it never got reported.

4/5     Is Frank Herbert popular in the Arab world?
        \_ He hates Jews, doesn't he?  Passion of Christ, baby!
        \_ Given that his view of the Middle East has more to with the movie
           "Lawrence of Arabia" than actual experience of Arab cultures, I
            would be curious about this, too. I actually wouldn't be surprised.
            Look at what the Godfather movies did to the mafia. After decades
            of shabby clothes, FFC makes a few movies and suddenly they all
            dress in fancy suits like they did in the 30s again. -- ulysses
            \_ You seem to know a lot about Frank Herbert's life.  Care to
               reveal your sources? -- ilyas
                \_ blow it out your ass ilyas, frank herbert was an
                   excellent writer but he spent most of his life writing
                   Dune in his van during lunchbreaks while working
                   for the SF Examiner in San Francisco.
               \_ You get 2 pts. I haven't ever looked
                  deeper than web page bios to confirm what I should have said
                  is my own personal impression. Do you have something else to
                  say besides that, though? I'm still curious about the original
                  question. Note that he did spend something less than a year
                  in Pakistan as a journalist, but I wasn't counting that. I'm
                  more interested in how people react to stylized depictions
                  of their cultures. -- ulysses
                  \_ if you're going to pose the abstract question of how
                     people react to stylized depictions of their own culture,
                     why not just look at hollywood's depiction of the US?  or
                     for that matter any theater or art in any culture in any
                     time?  art is always a stylized depiction.
                     \_ Because we have here a specific and interesting example
                        that I hadn't thought of. I already know my own
                        reactions to foreigners telling me I don't sound
                        American because I don't sound like John Wayne and
                        what I thought about "Dancer in the Dark" having grown
                        up in Washington State, for instance. So has anybody
                        asked a friend from, say, Saudi Arabia, or is there a
                        sodian from Kuwait who can contribute? It's just a
                        question. -- ulysses
        \_ Tell us news of Iraqqis.
        \_ His name is a killing word.

4/5     Iraq: Shit, meet fan.

4/5     stock investing gurus,  i want to be a long term investor but i
        keep getting into situations like this: mbt bought on 11/18 now
        up 80+ %.  i feel that it has gone up too far too fast, and will
        soon correct.  what should I do?  should I like sell half of
        it to take some profit?  hold on through any corrections, or
        maybe use some options to hedge and smooth it over?  what will
        be the tax implications if i go the option route?  will i
        still get to use long term capital gains if i sell the stock
        eventually (after 1 year)?  i've never played with options
        before.
        \_ options are dangerous especially for rookies.  Beware.
           \_ agreed.
           \_ I know, but everyone has to start somewhere.  I am not
              going to use options to margin / leverage.  just want to
              use it to hedge, and will start out conservatively and
              use it sparingly.
              \_ Tax implications are the same as with stocks, HOWEVER,
                 you may inadvertantly enter the world of the day trader.
                 Some places charge extra fees for quicky turnarounds.
        \_ learn discipline, if you want to make 50% on an investment
           then sell when you make 50%. if you want to make 100% then you
           should wait. just be realistic about what you are expecting.
           80% isn't too shabby
           \_ There is a fine line between investing and speculating
              and I think you have just crossed it.
        \_ There's no shame in taking a profit.
        \_ you should make a list of rules: when do you sell a stock?
           then apply those rules to the stock.  You should do this
           before you start to invest.
        \_ You have to set your expectation of how much you want to gain.
           And don't let the long term capital gains influence your decision.
           I met too many people who chose to get long term capital gains
           and ended up with nothing.
           \_ Hey fucknut, you just overwrote about five peoples posts.
        \_ There are a few things you can do: the most conservative is
           to sell a covered call. Sell it at a price you are wiling
           to sell your stock at. If your stock goes up, you forfet
           gains, but if it goes down, the call expires worthless. Set
           the option expiration price below what your stock is selling
           at to be real conservative. This will not effect your taxable
           gain on mbt, but it will generate taxable gain of its own and
           might force you to sell the stock (if the option expires "in
           the money"). The other thing you can do, is to put "trailing
           stops" behind mbt. Set a price, say 25% below the current price,
           and put in a stop order. If the stock lowers to that level,
           you will sell it. It does not solve your tax problem, but it
           protects your profits. I run trailing stops on all my volatile
           stocks these days. It has saved me a few times. -Not really
           a stock investing guru, just not a noob anymore either.
           \_ what about just buying some put options?  would that be a
           \_ what about just buying some put options?  is that a
              noobie thing to do?
              \_ I don't have any practical experience with puts.
                 \_ you misspelled "putz."
        \_ thanks for all the help!  I think I will wait another few
           days, letting it run a little more.  then I will either
           sell half or try option.  thanks!
           \_ watch out for wash sales where you sell a stock and buy
              a stock within 30 days.  The tax break in the loss
              may not count.  But of course, if you have a profit,
              noobie thing to do?
              \_ I don't have any practical experience with puts.
           sell half or try option.  thanks!
              that's a different story.

4/5     My girlfriend lives in Daly City, and want to get broadband at her
        house.  Cyberonic(reseller of Worldcom DSL) says her house is 18000
                \_ this sounds like a melding of Cyber and Moronic.
                   \_ Did you once work for Duhflushtech?
                   \_ Yeah, the name sucks, and support kinda sucks as well
                      when things break, but what other ISP can give you
                      1.5M/768k for $49.99 a month with no contract? -op
        ft from CO, so she can't get normal ADSL.  But for $10 more, there's
        a new DSL technology they call "REACH" that'll give her 512k up and
        down(their normal ADSL is 1.5M/768k).  I never heard of this "REACH"
        technology, nor can I find any info on the web.  Anyone heard of it
        or know what they might be talking about?
        \_ Check with SBC to see if they offer service. SBC has been setting
           up what they call "Remote Terminals" which are basically DSLAMs
           at a half-way point. They will often cut down the distance for
           far away customers from ~15k ft to ~2k ft.
           \_ Many(most) of the ISPs out there are basically reselling SBC's
              DSL service.  And for these ISPs, SBC will allow them to use
              the remote terminals.  But Cyberonic is a MCI Worldcom DSL
              reseller, and thus SBC will not allow the use.  When I switched
              from SBC reseller(DirecTV dsl) to Cyberonic, my download speed
              went down a bit because of this. -op
        \_ I don't know if this is what they're using, but if the modems used
           spread-spectrum, there's no real limit on distance (and hence
           signal/noise ratio).  The farther from the CO, the lower the speed.
           DSL providers generally impose a maximum distance so that they can
           provide a consistant quality of service.  Imagine your average non
           techie person orders DSL and gets only 100kbit and can't understand
           why.  As for the extra $10 per month, it's either to pay for more
           expensive DSL equipment, or else "because we can".
           \_ That's why I was asking, and asked the sales rep why she couldn't
              just sign up for the regular service and just suffer the lower
              speed for the same price of $49.99/month.  But he said that at
              that distance, she'd only see 256k up/down. -op
           \_ Actually some of the providers began going beyond their
              advertised distances to allow customers to have access, but
              the same customers began complaining to the PUC about very
              bad performance and the PUC came back and smacked SBC very
              badly for it. After that, they all began sticking to their
              limits again.
              \_ which is lame.  they should be able to sell DSL to
                 customers with the understanding that it will only
                 be say 128kb/s DSL, and charge accordingly.
        \_ You might want to consider a cable modem if upload speed and super
           fast pings aren't that important.
           \_ I've got cable, 1.5/256, fast pings.  Works fine.
              \_ But what about during peak hours?  I've heard that AT&T
                 used to scan ports and cut off your service if they find
                 an open ftp/mail/whatnot server port.  Does Comcast do
                 this as well?  She primarily needs it for VPN for her work.
                 Will it be fast enough? -op

4/5     When do Bing Cherries start to get really cheap in the bay area?
        \_ June
        \_ walk around Capp/Polk and ask.
           \_ Those are LeSkanque Cherries.

4/5     Broke the 600 mark..
        \_ What's the number counting all contractors?
           \_ We don't count civilians.
              \_ Of course the casualty numbers look better if you omit
                 civilians, armed or not, but it's not really honest.
                 \_ Isn't there some website that counts all casualties?
                    I've heard that the new body armor keeps people alive,
                    but there are many more amputees compared to gulf war I
                    \_ It relies on left-biased media reports.
                    \_ "Bring it on!" -gwb
                    \_ Body armor?  Why do we allow body armor?  Doesn't that
                       make the death totals lower?
           \_ ^contractors^mercenaries.
        \_ Another 10,000 and we'll be near what Saddam did to his own people
           every year....  We should reinstall him.  He was much more
           efficient at this whole killing thing than we are.
           \_ No matter how many times you repeat this sort of argument, it
              just doesn't hold water.  Sorry.
              \_ Why not?  Shouldn't we minimize human suffering, mr. bleeding
                 heart?  Or did you suddenly become a racist american
                 jingoistic imperialist swine who thinks american lives are
                 suddenly more important than iraqi lives?
                 \_ The war was justified on a false premise.  Our leaders
                    misled us and probably themselves in a single-minded
                    quest to "get Saddam," and in the process cheapened
                    the sacrifice of every American soldier that dies for
                    that cause.
                    \_ Even assuming you are right... how does this invalidate
                       the 'minimize human suffering' bit?  Your hatred for our
                       leaders is blinding you to what's right anyways.
                       \_ It's laudable to free a coutry from a violent tyrant.
                          We could have started with a country that has a
                          populace that would be more welcoming, one with a
                          less fractious ethnic makeup, or one that other
                          countries would help us out with.  We did the right
                          thing for the wrong reasons, and under the wrong
                          circumstances.
                 \_ How many Iraqis have we killed this year? I heard
                    it was 10,000+. By your reckoning, we are more
                    efficient at killing Iraqis than SH was.
                    \_ Yeah, we're also way better at getting Americans killed
                       by Iraqis than Saddam was.  How many Americans have been
                       killed by Iraq-sponsored terrorism when Saddam was in
                       power?  A handful of tourists in Israel maybe?

4/5     Graphic Design Engineer needed, degree or 1-2 years experience,
        for application software company.  Contact wck@@genp.com (recruiter).
        \_ where is the position located?
        \_ What is a Graphic Design Engineer?  You mean someone to design
           the user interface?

4/5     Most intriguing spam subject yet: "intense duchess"
        \_ why are two random words "intriguing"?
        \_ My favorite so far is: "valparaiso mechanic"
           \_ That's excellent!

4/5     We know where the Spanish Flu (Spain) and SARS (China) originate from.
        What about Mad Cow Disease, where did it spread from?
        \_ England.
           \_ Did it originate from scrapie in sheep?
              \_ Yep. MCD was caused by feeding scarpie-infected sheep to
                 cows for protein. Oddly enough, cows with MCD can be fed to
                 other animals, but not humans. Circle of Life...
                 \_ Is this still true?  Are otherwise herbivorous animals
                    that are intended for human consumption, still being fed
                    other animals?  In the states?  UrlP?
                                                    \_ #t
                    \_ look for news archives following the discovery of BSE
                       in Washington (December?  January?).  There were quite
                       a few articles about the continuing practice in the US
                       of feeding cows to cows.  Or feeding cow blood to
                       calves instead of milk, which is also standard practice.
        \_ SARS, and something like 60-70% of new strain of common cold virus
           for some reason coming from Southern China.  We have no idea why,
           but medical community seems to accept it as a fact.  Many people
           also think that Spanish Flu also originate from China as well.
           \_ According to my virology classes, the Spanish flu probably
              originated in the US.  It crossed the Atlantic with US troops
              coming out of the midwest (Kansas or Iowa or somewhere, I can't
              remember), probably recombining with another strain either in
              transit or upon reaching shore, and became even more virulent
              than it was before.  It then migrated back to the US with
              returning troops.  This according to Prof. Volkman
           \_ Don't forget the Black Death. -- ilyas
              \_ I am not aware of the fact that Black Death, which is
                 is a completely different kind of disease, is originated from
                 China.
                 Remember, at the time, China is a lot more populous than
                 Europe.  While Chinese medicine at the time was more advanced,
                 I don't think they are advanced enough to contain plague such
                 as Black Death. You would imagine that Black Death would of
                 caused a lot more devastation in China than Europe.
                 \_ China lost 35 million people during the 14th century.
                    Europe lost 25 million.  I believe the first outbreak of
                    the bubonic plague occured in China around 1300s sometime.
                      -- ilyas
                    \_ Though somewhat morbid, I find this somewhat
                       interesting.  Could you post a link so I can read into
                       this on my own time?  Thanks!    -mice
                       \_ I don't think I can do better than google and a trip
                          to the library.  Incidentally, there does seem to be
                          some disagreement over the origins of the plague.
                          Many ancient outbreaks (we are talking BC) had
                          symptoms and death rates similar to what would be
                          expected of a plague outbreak.  The plague may not
                          have come from China after all, however the outbreak
                          responsible for the devastation in the 14th century
                          is thought to have come from China originally.
                            -- ilyas
        \_ Actually, many think the Spanish Flu originated in the US
           and the Black Plague (the big bubonic plague outbreak that
           terrorized Europe in the 1300s) originated in Africa as
           opposed to China.
           \_ No this must be a chicom troll.  Every disease must have
              originated in China.
           and the big bubonic plague outbreak that terrorized
           Europe in the 1300s originated from Africa as opposed to China.

4/5     What's going on with http://scotch.csua.berkeley.edu? (our faithful port
        23 SSH proxy...)  As a test...

        <4> telnet http://scotch.csua.berkeley.edu
        Trying...
        Connected to http://scotch.csua.berkeley.edu.
        Escape character is '^]'.
        128.32.112.230: connect: Connection refusedLocal flow control off

        Connection closed by foreign host.
        \_ send this shit to root not the motd.
                \_ Calm down. You act like this is the first time
                   someone has posted a problem involving soda on
           \_ He probably just wanted faster abuse^H^H^H^H^Hservice.
                   the motd.
                   \_ im calm. yes, its not the first time. and like every
                      other time he needs to send his shit to the right people.
                   the motd.
           \_ He probably just wanted faster abuse^H^H^H^H^Hservice.

4/5     [spam is not intriguing]
        \_ Everthing happens according to God's holy plan. There is a deeper
           message to your spam that you would realize if you only opened
           your heart.

4/4     Alistair Cooke, 1908-2004. RIP