4/7     http://www.senderberl.com/rice3.14.jpg
        \_ What are these guys, lysdexic?  http://Senderberl.com:  "Ralph Nadar",
           "Arnold Schwartzenegger"?  -John
        \_ My gawd, stop the miscegenation!  Who will think of the children!

4/7     I would appreciate recommendation of a fully Mac compatible USB
        keyboard.  Of course there is Apple Pro, but by experience it must
        be more expensive than it needs to be.  tia.
        \_ what timing.  from yesterday's /.:
           http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/07/1630208
        \_ I have a Mac and wanted the same thing. I ended up buying the
           Apple Pro keyboard. I'm glad I did. First, it's a very nice
           keyboard. Second, it's just really nice to have the Mac keys
           on it ... a real Apple key, volume up/down/off, eject ... sure,
           you could map them to something else, I guess, but I am glad I
           spent the extra money to get the real thing.

4/8     Which class should I take if I want to learn SVM, C4.5, Bayes, and
        these other goodies? Is it DB? Logic? Etc?
        \_ Machine learning.  Stuart's class was quite good. -- ilyas

4/8     I recently got my first raise, and I'm curious: are my accumulated
        vacation hours worth more now, or will I be paid according to the
        rate I was receiving when I earned them?
        \_ This depends entirely on your employer.  Ask HR.
        \_ I think they are always worth more now to the company, because if
           you take the vacation now, the company is obligated to pay you at
           your new rate while you are not working.  The new rate is what they
           now have to use for accounting purpose.  But I don't know what rate
           they'll use if you decide to cash-in the vacation time and the
           company allows that.
        \_ I've always had them valued at my current salary when I cashed
           them in.
           \_ if it were any other way, what would happen when you started
              taking vacation? would the company use prepromotion vacation days
              first or are they bastards, in which case they use your post-
              promotion vacation days first... then, when you cash out, they
              cash you out at pre-promotion wages. it would be a mess and
              probably illegal.
        \_ I just got paid for all the hours i've accumlated over our max
           and I was paid at my latest salary.  -sky
        \_ New rate. Doing it the other way would screw with accounting.

4/8     How/where do I get google mail?
        \_ Now: From your friend who works at google.
           Later: http://gmail.com
        \_ http://www.google.com/search?q=gmail

4/8     On Al-Jazeera, an announcer read a statement he said came with the
        video .... "Three of your sons have fallen into our hands," the
        Al-Jazeera announcer read. "We offer you two choices: either pull
        out your forces, or we will burn them alive. We give you three days
        starting the day this tape is broadcast." Japan's NHK television
        identified the captives as two aid workers and a journalist. The
        passports shown in the video belong to: Noriaki Imai, born 1985;
        Soichiro Koriyama, 32; Nahoko Takato, 34. The gunmen also displayed
        a press card for Koriyama from the weekly newspaper Asahi. ...
        Associated Press Television News obtained a copy of the full video,
        which also shows four masked men pointing knives and swords at the
        captives as they lay on the floor of a room with concrete walls. At
        one point, a gunman holds a knife to the throat of one of the men;
        his eyes widen in panic and he struggles to try to get free. The
        woman weeps and her lips move as if speaking. There was no audio to
        the footage. -NY Times (today)
        (The article also describes the method by which eight Korean Christian
         missionaries were also kidnapped, now subsequently released.)
        \_ Will they saran wrap them up first? The Japanese love that.
        \_ If they execute them, nuke their city.
           \_ Which city? All of them???
              \_ Nukes are cheap.  We've been spending big bucks to dismantle
                 them for 20 years.  Use a few.
        \_ Whenever I see someone threatening to slit someone's throat
           (as it happened with Pearl and probably some of the 9/11 flights),
           I think of this video:  http://csua.org/u/6tv  NOT WORK SAFE.
           Probably the most horrible video I've ever seen, and I've seen
           all of soda's famous ones.  This is no joke.
           \_ that's pretty damn horrible/scary...  Who was the poor guy?
              \_ Care to elaborate for those who opt not to view it?
                 \_ They stick a knife in the guy's throat, and slash it,
                    and then cut his head off.  It's really awful.
              \_ it's propaganda footage from Chechen rebels.  The guy is
                 a captured young Russian soldier.
                 \_ We're supposed to be pitying the poor rebels, right?  If
                    not, would it help their acuse if they sent their kids
                    into civilian areas wearing bomb belts?
            \_ that is nothing, in Indonesia, the muslim bastards
                killeda 14 year old Chinese christian girl by sticking
                a sword, edge side up into her vagina, thrusting it all
                the way till the hilt hits her vagina, then proceeding
                to cut open her torso from vagina to chin. nice
                religion.

4/7     Motd tip of the day: Consider writing your post in a text-editor with
        a spelling/grammar check.  Correct, copy, and paste.
        \_ Motd tip of the year: Go fuck yourself.
        \_ Motd too impollsiv for that lah.

4/7     Oh no!  Don't throw Condi in the briar patch!  Oh please! No, stop!
        http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040408/D81QM1501.html
        \_ 'She said she made the unusual decision to retain him when the
            new administration came into office, saying, he was an "expert
            in his field, as well as an experienced crisis manager."'
           So unusual that two administrations before this had done the same
           thing.
           \_ retaining competence in government _is_ unusual.
              \_ Touche'!
           \_ Meaning the previous two administrations didn't take terrorism
              seriously, either as history has shown.  Maybe if this idiot
              hadn't kept the same job through 3 admininistrations someone
              who would've got something done would have been there.

4/7     Any recommendations for bay area travel agents? Like to book
        tickets/trip to Hawaii for August of this year.
        Hoping to beat the online prices. Thanks.
        \_ Doubtful you can beat those. Try to consolidator airlines for the
           best deals, but not exactly the best service.
                \_ What are consolidator airlines?
                   \_ http://www.google.com/search?q=consolidator+airlines
           \_ Any recommendations for online sites, then?
              Tried united, aloha air, hawaii air, yahoo travel, expedia...
             \_ Also try suntrips (http://www.suntrips.com  They always have
                great airfare and package deals to Hawaii and Mexico.
                Also check out their advertised specials in the chronicle.
                -- sky
              \_ i'd try travel agencies that cater to the chinese crowd.
                 they seem to have pretty decent deals.  check your local
                 chinese newspaper for ads.  of course, it helps if you
                 speak and read the right lingo.

4/8     Condi's been FRAMED. It's all about subduing the black populace. If
        the gloves don't fit, it don't make sense.

4/7     Condi Rice paraphrased. "It's not our fault. We didn't know exactly
        what was going to happen so we couldn't do anything to prevent it.
        It's Clinton's fault."
        \_ Truth hurts, huh?  Read the transcript for yourselves instead of
           getting the mindless motd leftist rehash:
           http://wid.ap.org/transcripts/rice.html
           http://wid.ap.org/transcripts/rice.html
           \_ Truth?  From a series of subjective statements by one woman,
              in the face of numerous subjective statements by several other
              people?  Yes, that'll get us to the bottom of this.
              \_ Better subjective statements by the person under discussion
                 than subjective rehashes by others.  I think the above
                 poster makes a good point.  Thanks for posting the link.
                 You hear a lot of lies watching CSPAN, but IMHO that's a lot
                 better than hearing a brief, badly understood, spun version
                 of the lie by some reporter on one of the "real" networks.
                 \_ You're right, primary sources are better than secondary
                    sources.  Unfortunately, it's now devolved into "She said,
              people?  Yes, that'll get us to the bottom of this.
                    he said."  It's hard to get to the truth at this point.
                    \_ when it comes to a question of crediblity between
                       a white man and a black woman, we all know who to
                       trust.
        \_ We already found that out when Clarke testified (he said that had we
           done everything he wanted it wouldn't have stopped 9/11).  It's a
           shame that this commission is a blame hunt instead of an attempt to
           fix problems.
           \_ To fix problems you need to find the cause. The blame game tells
              you who thought what way. Was it institutional or executive
              based? What were the priorities? Who knew what when? Was it
              incompetance, lack of communication or PHB syndrome?
              \_ If you want to find the cause, you shouldn't be lobbing
                 partisan opinions, or even having this in open session.  This
                 whole Rice inquisition is happening not to find answers, but
                 to present a dog and pony show to the public, which includes
                 the blame game.
                 \_ Like Cheney's Energy policy? Golly, no partisans there.
           fix problems.
                    Yes it was a dog-and-pony show, because sometimes you NEED
                    prove you have a dog-and-pony, that can state your case
                    instead of being told "don't worry your pretty little head
                    about it, we know what we're doing."
           \_ as one radio commentator mentioned- the phrase "couldn't the FAA
                have put heavier doors on the cabin / armed the pilots"
                never came up from any of the commission members.  They
                seriously are not interested in the truth, even the Democrats
                who would benefit from showing the Bush administration's
                failures.  They are all worthless parasitic trash.
                \_ Because the FAA could never have gotten that passed though
                   committee before 9/11.
                   \_ what committee?
           is a lot more glamurous.
        \_ you guys have such short memory span.  Remember, Bush and his
           neocons were putting China and Russia under their cross hair and
           eager to start another cold war.  Fighting an evil empire
           is a lot more glamurous.
           \_ I thought it was 'neocons and their Bush'?
              \_ my bad, i'm sorry.
                 \_ glamorous.
        \_ What frustrates me is the emphasis on how "lucky" the US caught
           previous terrorists attempts. You can MAKE luck. It's like sodans
           whining about no sex when they spend whole weekends playing UT.
           If you're not trying, it's not going to happen.
           \_ Exactly.  We all know that it's the CounterStrike guys who get
              the chix.
              \_ Word. I hate those guys.
        \_ Clinton lobbed cruise missiles at bin Laden (after the U.S. embassy
           bombings that killed hundreds).  You can bet he would have liked
           to have Predator accuracy at that point.
           On the other hand, Bush didn't do anything.  Nothing was
           "actionable".  The attitude was that if Clinton supported it, the
           Bush people didn't want anything to do with it.
           \_ Given Clinton's record it's a sound basic policy from which to
              start.
        \_ Condi testimony indicates a failure of the intelligence
           community, mostly their fear of being wrong.
           \_ Maybe. That's the question. Emperor's clothing or deaf ears?
              \_ no, the statement means keeping mouth shut before
                 telling the emperor or emperor's helpers like condi

4/8     http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/international/middleeast/08CND-SHIA.html?hp
        Wow!  Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting for centuries we
        managed to unite them.  Now they can be annihilated together!
        \_ hey, it's a small group of criminals and thugs, CNN said so (it's
           right there in the first link on the web page)
           \_ w00t!

4/8     Live chicken cam!  Ask him to do something and he does it!
        http://www.subservientchicken.com

4/8     Kerry wants to go up in a speed boat up the Tigris in Iraq.
        \_ urlP?  And please don't say drudgereport or something...

4/8     Any recommendations for a cheap nationwide dial-up PPP provider
        where I can purchase two months of service? I'm going on vacation
        to the midwest, and staying at places that don't have net.
        \_ Here's an idea, make it a real vacation and go offline for a while.
            \                   \- "real" vacation to the midwest?
             \_ I recently started a business and that's not yet an option.
                \_ going offline is not an option, or taking your "vacation"
                   somewhere other than the asshole of the united states is
                   not an option?  personally, I'd rather work a 90 hour week
                   on the west coast or in the northeast than have a week
                   "vacation" in the midwest.  I have relatives there, and
                   have plenty of experience to back this up.
                   \_ how many states are officially "midwest"? -neutral party
        |_ joiinternet for $6.95/mo.
        \_ Every SBC dsl account comes with free nationwide dial-up for
           when you're travelling (via prodigy).  Find a friend with DSL
           that doesn't use the dial-up portion, and use theirs?
        \_ Bring along two AOL CDs.
           \_ Thanks. I went with ispwest. --op

4/8     It upsets me that CNN has the most pro-Administration headline:
        CNN:  Rice delivers tough defense
        Washington Post:  Rice Defends Bush Anti-Terror Efforts
        NY Times: Rice Defends Administration's Performance Before 9/11 Attacks
        LA Times:  Rice Defends Pre-9/11 Antiterror Policies
        Fox News:  'If We Had Known ...'
        Boston Globe:  Rice: US not on 'war footing' at time of 9/11 attacks
        I guess this is how you ensure your reporters remain embedded and how
        you maintain "access".  The David Letterman fiasco with the sleepy kid
        is another data point suggesting CNN bias.
        \_ Yahoo News routinely changes its headlines several times a day for
           news articles.  Maybe the other media companies do the same thing.
           Then it'd just be which headline you happen to see at the time.

4/8     While we're at it:
        CNN:  U.S. suffers more casualties, gaining ground
        Washington Post:  Insurgents Fortify Control
        NY Times:  U.S. Vows to Retake 2 Southern Cities in Hands of Militants
        LA Times:  General Sees Prolonged Insurgency
        Fox News:  Operation Resolute Sword Under Way
        Boston Globe:  Shiite militias control three Iraqi cities
        ... You could say it's the liberal media being liberal and CNN
        portraying things in a positive light; you could say CNN is
        distributing the news from White House press releases.  I suppose the
        truth lies somewhere in between.
        \_ CNN is a joke - they are getting pounded in the ratings and I
           suspect they think they can get the viewers back by trying to
           be more like Fox.

4/8     Interesting analysis of the stock option expense brouhaha:
        http://csua.org/u/6u2
        \_ brouhaha?
        \_ From the Milken institute?  You've got to be kidding.
        \_ Editorial by the Washington Post staff yesterday in support of
           stock option expensing:   http://csua.org/u/6u5
           "The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the issue is
           therefore timely -- and just as important, it's written in
           language understandable to those without advanced accounting
           degrees. ..."

4/8     John Ashcroft, Work Safe:
        http://www.wonkette.com/images/work%20safe.jpg
        \_ Depends on what resolution you view it at.
        \_ NWS version: http://www.pmbrowser.info/hublog/images/gashcroft.jpg
           \_ what's up with putting urls/img in < > lately?
              \_ There's some RFC that says that URIs are supposed to be
                 enclosed in angle brackets in plaintext media.  It's not a
                 new development; never seen email addresses in angle brackets
                 back in the days of yore?
                 \_ Days of yore meant using !s instead of @s.
                 \_ The suggestion, if that's what it says, is misguided.
                    \_ why?  it lets you put URLs into sentences without having
                       to worry about the punctuation screwing them up. -tom
                       \_ Please provide an example of a URL in a sentence
                          where punctuation screws things up.
                          \_ "Go to link:google.com/."
                          "The requested URL /. was not found on this server."
                              \_ If the terminating period is a representative
                                 example, then I prefer the non < > URLs.
                                 I guess you could say that's just my opinion.
                                 \_ You've also got quotes, commas, slashes,
                                    apostrophes, parentheses and others.  I
                                    do think the astute reader can do just
                                    fine without brackets.
                                    \_ I would go as far to say that only the
                                       class of "moronic" users would have
                                       trouble with non-bracketed URLs, and
                                       actually bracketed URLs might give them
                                       a similar level of problems.  The
                                       class of "moronic" users should
                                       eventually learn not to copy the
                                       terminating period.
                                       \_ How about URLs containing spaces?
                                          \_ Use %20.  (You don't see URLs
                                             with spaces for this reason)
                                       \_ Sometimes people just click on the
                                          link in their email app without first
                                          copying.  So it's up to the email app
                                          to include or exclude the terminating
                                          period.
                                          \_ (1) We are talking about the motd,
                                                 I believe
                                             (2) E-mails apps I've seen ignore
                                                 the period, comma, semi-colon
                                             \_ period is a valid character in
                                                a URL; brackets are not.  What
                                                reason is there to *not* use
                                                brackets?  -tom
                                                \_ IMO, they're superfluous.
                                                   \_ how can it be
                                                      superfluous to separate
                                                      intended URL characters
                                                      from valid characters
                                                      which are not intended to
                                                      be part of the URL?  You
                                                      think email and terminal
                                                      programs should just
                                                      guess which characters
                                                      are part of the URL?
                                                      Why not tell them? -tom
                        E-mail programs I've seen don't have problems _/
                        ignoring trailing punctuation in the URL.
                        \_ you haven't seen them all--I've seen errors of\
                          various kinds, in various programs.  And it's
                           *incorrect* to ignore trailing punctuation; URLs
                           with trailing punctuation are valid.  -tom
                           \_ In this case, I side with the "incorrect"
                              approach being the better one.  It happens
                              all the time with English usage; what's incorrect
                              becomes accepted.  Most text-based e-mail
                              newsletters I've received for several years
                              don't use < > brackets, which lends support
                              to the "widespread practice" argument.
                              In any case, I also found
                              out that Outlook supports < > when the URL
                              has spaces (even though there's an RFC which
                              says space chracters should be encoded as %20
                              in the URL), so that's neat.
                 \_ This is the motd.  We are not subject to RFCs.  We can
                    barely get people to indent.
     Aiee! Chaos! _/|\_ nowhere did I ever say I was trying to get other people
                    |   on the motd to use angle brackets.  I'm only justifying
                  Whee! my own usage.
              \ this is a great thread!                               /       \
              /-----------------------/              motd became ->   \  ^  ^  |
              \--------|                            self-aware and    /\ \__/ /
                       |                            tries to mimic    \ \____/
                       |                            that scene in      \
        /--------------/                              "The Abyss"       \
        |                                                                \
        \-------------------> Follow the magic dancing penis pigeon!      |
                                                                   \_____/

4/8     If I set up a BIND nameserver for a domain that doesn't exist yet,
        and I use this nameserver in nslookup to query hostnames from
        this domain, will the nameserver recognize that it's (configured to be)
        authoritative for that domain and reply directly, or will it try
        to start from the root servers and work its way down (thus not
        succeeding in finding itself)? Thanks.
        \_ As long as it knows it's a master, it will answer queries.  The
           root servers just start queries in the outside world on the
           path to finding it. --scotsman
        \_ nameservers only refer to other (i.e. root/gtld) nameservers if
            they don't know anything about a domain.  So your unregistered
            domain will work for you, but nobody else, unless they're resolving
            off of your nameserver.  -EricM
        \_ Plus you need to go look up what the SOA record means.

4/8     Claim vs. Fact with Rice's Opening Statement and Q&A:
        http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44887
        http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44918
        \_ Cool, mind if I send you to an equally biased site for a
           "claim vs fact" on this or other hot button topics?  Why do so
           many of you think your biased crap will be taken seriously by
           anyone who isn't already a singing member of the choir?
           \_ Hey, if we can have freep and drudge links we can have
              American Progress links.  They're more credible than both of
              those sites put together anyway - the left equivalent to
              freep would be international ANSWER, or something...

4/8     I'm George Bush, and I approved this message.
        \_ Thanks for following the format rules this time.
        \_ "approved of"?

4/8     http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Police.html
        http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-US-Iraq-Military.html
        It is now more apparent than ever that disbanding the Iraqi army
        was a terrible mistake.  It resulted in (1) lots of jobless and angry
        military trained people, (2) totally alienated all the sunnis,
        (3) destroyed the only Iraqi institution that can keep order (the
        police force put together by Bremer has proven to be totally useless
        and they are viewed as lackeys).  US should have learned from the
        colonial brits and made use of the conquered Iraqi army.  Now, I
        don't see how a police / military force can be put together, cause
        the provisional government is now seen as a US lackey, and any
        police / military force will also be seen as a US lackey, and will
        only attract lackeys, unfortunately.  the pro-US patriotic Iraqis
        can at most stand on the sidelines now.  we are stuck there forever.
        \_ Bremer (who shares responsibility with Rumsfeld, et al. on
           disbanding the army) said we were going to be handing over power
           on June 30, and he said that on Tuesday.  Then again, Kerry says
           the Administration hasn't explained how the handover will take
           place, who we are transferring power to, and what relationship
           this will have to the U.S. forces who will apparently remain
           behind to provide security
           \_ Remember our president "doesn't do nuance" (actual quote).  In
              his mind: June 29: Sovereignty in US hands June 30: Sovereignty
              in Iraqi hands.  That's it.  Don't try to think beyond that.
              \_ Yeah, if he did do nuance, he would have ignored the
                 asinine calls from the left for a definitive handover
                 date.  Now all we hear is how stupid it was to name a
                 handover date since we gave the enemy a target to hit.  Kind
                 like the liberals who opposed Saddam's ouster in '91, but
                 poke with glee at Bush41 for "not finishing the job".

4/8     rcs is your friend.

4/8     X Files 2 movie in the works, David Duchovny signed on
        http://csua.org/u/6u6
        \_ Didn't he say he'd never do any more X Files?  Oh wait, this is a
           "2".  Ah.
        \_ poor scully can't find work
        \_ They were both always more pretty than talented. I'm sure they are
           doing alright but it's the same thing with Ms. Gellar. Everybody
           loved her doing Buffy but that doesn't mean they'll have patience
           with her stumbling through anything else.
           \_ Her lesbo kiss and sliding her ass around the screen was pretty
              good in her one non-buffy role.  Duchovny has been doing red shoe
              diaries and other light porn for a while.  Scully has been at my
              place trying to find her career under my shorts.
              \_ kane is that you? -- ilyas
              \_ SMG? Lesbo kiss? Hello. In what film did that happen and
                 where's my avi clip?
                 \_ dangerous liasons, umm, i mean: _cruel intentions_
                    and, as you obviously expect, your avi is on every single
                    p2p network in existence.

4/8     http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/09/international/asia/09DAMS.html
        yeh! Nu river saved from dam building project.
        china is a beautiful country.  please don't destroy it!
        http://www.river.com/nujiang
        \_ But the Three Gorges are still gone.
           \_ Only for the 35 years the dam will last before silt accumulation
              builds up enough to destroy it.

4/8     A good friend of mine, who happens to be a graduate student in CS,
        sent me an email the other day asking if I knew of any internships
        still available for the summer in the San Ramon/Dublin/Pleasanton/
        Livermore area.  The ones at my work are pretty much gone, has any
        one got any leads?  Thanks, -jrleek

4/8     I just ported over a kernel module for linux. It works. Where do
        I get documentation on how to modify the standard make xconfig so
        that my driver shows up as a menu choice? Thanks. --williamc

4/7     Stoplight to punish suburban speeders in Pleasanton:
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/07/MNG8N61MGG1.DTL

4/8     [Rice opinion with no additional info moved to existing thread]

4/8     Can you guys PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave messages on for at least
        12 hours before deleting them? I don't poll motd at work every
        hour so I miss some of the posts, and I don't like to use mehlhaff's
        user unfriendly rcs archive. Thanks.
        \_ what's user-unfriendly about vi?
        \_ If every worthless troll was left up for 12 hours, the motd
           would be 50 pages long. Do you really want that?
           \_ I think it'd be more like 20 pages, and yes, I want that. -!op
              \_ i also want that. so do a lot of people. censors are basically
                 bad people, and are a minority...just like in society at
                 large.
                 \_ motd archives exist.  just do a restore after the
                    censors delete.  i do for threads i care about.
                    \_ no one should have to "just do a restore" to go see
                       what they might have missed because some pedantic
                       selfish self righteous self inflated asshole thinks
                       he knows what does and does not belong on the motd.
        \_ what's user-unfriendly about less/more?

4/8     I recently got my first pussy, and I'm curious: does my accumulated
        load last longer now, or will I be masturbating according to the
        speed I was doing it when I produced it?