4/14    http://www.economist.com/finance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2577440
        Republicans want more (much needed according to _the E_) regulation
        Democrats blocking it.
        \_ Need a subscription to the E to read it. Can you summerize (or
           at least describe what kind of regulation)?
            \_ sure, FANNIE MAE and Freddie Mac are behaving like 1980s era
                savings and loans (my words) and have de facto government
                protection (taxpayer protection) against the overreaching
                risks which they are (thus) willing to take.  Also some
                accounting tricks that overstate the "reserve" capital that
                they have on hand to meet the (already too low according to
                _The E_) govmnt requirements.
        \_ Which party is doing what re fannie/freddie is political bullshit.
           However, there is a real problem with the way both funds are run
           and structured which goes back many years.  Fannie is in
           exeptionally bad shape which will probably require entirely new
           management to correct their current way of thinking.  Freddie can
           still be save as is if they beat on current management a little bit.

4/14    To the poster who suggested on making motd default for new accounts,
        I say no. Motd/wall usage is for the elite only, and newbies should
        have read only access until they gain the respect of the elite,
        and it is until then, that they have full access to motd/wall
                                                        -elite alumni, 91
        \_ You think you're elite?  Hah. you are a FOOL.  The elite are so
           lazy that they'd never induct anyone new into the Motd Brotherhood.
        \_ You're not so 318 as you think.  They can already read the motd
           with out an account.  And don't bring the wall into this.  The wall
           is just the playpen for an inclusive little clique discussing their
           STDs and cricket scores.  The motd has useful information on it.
           \_ I think it was a troll, guys.
              \_ You're the only one not in on the joke.  Sorry.  -- 23184U
                 \_ Wow, I guess I'm just not 1337.

4/15    I finally understand what a CRM is and what it is used for.
        it's the database of contacts, customers, customers' employees,
        business leads, interests, themes, "opportunities" and a calendar
        to remind you the flow of following it all up.  The front end is part
        of a CRM.                       -brain
        \_ throw in deliverables, impressions to cover marketing
        \_ http://csua.com/?entry=12519
                \_ right, that was the post I was referring to.
                   check out the mouseover on kchang's page!  crazy!  -brain
        \_ It should be noted that most CRM project fail. (you don't earn
           your money back on the investment for it)
           \_ Yeah.  Most of the CRM software that people bandy about
              (RazorsEdge, etc), work out to be upwards of $150k.  When
              we looked into it at the BAM/PFA, it was around $150k for the
              package and customization.  Hardware to run it and ongoing
              support was a lot of money on top of that.
              There are other systems out there, though, with not quite all
              the functionality but much more reasonable price.  -sax
                \_ the installation I was working with cost $30k, with $50k
                   of labor and $200k of contracting that went into building
                   custom modules into it.  The data mining that resulted
                   from it landed a $4.8 M deal.  Sounds like a good
                   investment to me!
              \_ I've struggled through goldmine for the last 2 years, and
                 hate the pile of shit.  90% of user problems are goldmine
                 crashing, "losing" mail, and just otherwise being a pile
                 of shit.  They still use a fucking broken bde library.
                 The DB schema has grown without a redesign for years, and
                 feels like it.  I've been wanting to make my own suite out
                 of open source stuff to replace the crap. --scotsman
                 \_ We actually went with a Filemaker solution.  It was
                    developed by people who left Bluebaud.  It is FM, but
                    it has a pretty decent feature set... kind of focused
                    on membership and donation campaign tracking.  For
                    under $15k, it does everything we need and more -sax
           \_ i agree, but it depends on which company you get it from.
              ROI from enterprise crm companies generates more cash flow.
              The mid-market crm products out there aren't that good and
              is why most fail.  If you can come up with a cheap mid-market
              crm product, then definitly make one.
        \_ LT. TOEJAM: I just got another blast on the CRM-114, and the
           damned thing decodes: Wing Attack, Plan-R.
           MAJOR KONG: Wing attack, Plan-R?
           \_ Major Kong: Well, I've been to one world fair, a picnic, and a
              rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing I ever heard come over a
              set of earphones. You sure you got today's codes?
                \_ http://crm114.sourceforge.net  -John

4/14    Life in a U.S. convoy
        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13038-2004Apr14.html
        \_ csua@csua.com / csua
        \_ motd@csua.berkeley.edu / csuamotd
           \_ Sorry, I don't understand this at all.  What are these email
              addresses?
              \_ logins and passwords to the site above so you don't have
                 to register yourself.  thought about adding your obligatory
                 motd insult here, but decided to just be mr. nice.

4/14    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14444-2004Apr15.html
        This is a fairly good run down on S. Korea's recent election.
        It's mainly interesting because most American's assume that this
        means Koreans are turning anti-American and pro N. Korean.  Which
        is true to some degree, but my wife (who is Korean) belives this
        has more to do with a backlash against GNP corruption, and the Uri
        Party (Roh Moon Hyun's party) being realitively anti-corrution.
        Impeaching the president really went over badly for the GNP.
        -jrleek
        \_ when did you get married?
           \_ 1/31/2004.  You can see a picture or 2 of my wife on
              my csua webpage. -jrleek    BTW, who's asking?
              \_ congrats! -dwc

4/15    Paper based blue-ray discs from sony:
        http://www.japancorp.net/Article.Asp?Art_ID=7101

4/15    I was riding my motorcycle to work today, and a guy in an SUV
        pulled up next to me at a stop sign an yelled, "You Bitch!"
        When I turned to look at him he asked me the way to the
        freeway in a thick Chinese accent.  I told him.
        \_ Thanks for sharing.
        \_ Eh?  Trying to map what he said into something else he might
           have been trying to say, coming up empty...
           \_ That's what I couldn't get either.  It must have been
              "excuse me" right?  But even with a Chinese accent that's
               not even close...
               \_ "excuse, which" maybe?  And then got flustered and
                  started over?
                  \_ "Hey you. Which way to the freeway?" which you only heard
                     the first part of? Or maybe something Mandarin or
                     Cantonese.
        \_ Now that I think about it, maybe it was some kind of sociology
           experiment.  We could all get in on this fun.  Walk up to someone
           on the street, mutter an explitive, and when they look at you,
           politely as the time of day.
           \_ It probably helps if you're a nice looking Chinese guy with
              an accent.

4/15    http://www.beatallica.com
        Beatles songs covered in a perfect Metallica-circa-1986 style.
        \_ I've been waiting for this my whole life... why didn't somebody
           tell me this earlier?
           \_ You're welcome. --op

4/15    Why are conservatives so hostile to Open Source software?
        \_ You mean conservatives like this?
           http://www.catb.org/~esr/guns
           \_ But Eric Raymond is an idiot.  He doesn't count.
              \_ "From age twelve I always wanted to be a Heinlein
                  character when I grew up."
           \_ Isn't ESR a libertarian?
        \_ Because they hate freedom.
        \_ Why do liberals have to make up lies about conservitives to make
           themselves seem reasonable by comparison?
           \_ Why do conservatives have to impugn the patriotism of those who
              disagree with them?  (See "Why do you hate America")
           \_ Why can't conservatives spell "conservative?"
           \_ http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/05/1081017093699.html
              Both the IPI and the Alexis de Toqueville institute have
                                             \_ Tocqueville
                                                \_ jackass   <----------\
                                                   \_ You seem torqued. |
                                                      \-----------------/
              now denounced open source.
              \_ Why? Because there's no money in it? Because it's "communist"?
                 \_ Open source == (UNIX) rw-rw-rw- == 666 == numba da beast!
                    \_ But open-source binaries are code 555
                       \_ Open source software starts as code. Like marijuana,
                          it soon leads to voting Democratic, gay marriage,
                          and betraying America to communis...Islamic fanatics.
                          \_ Not to mention commie mutant tratiors.  They
                             endanger the future of Alpha Complex.
                             \_ If the comuputer really is your friend, you'd
                                use MicroSoft. It's what the computer ask for
                                by name!
        \_ Because Jesus hates it.
        \_ Because it's unpatriotic.

4/15    http://csua.com/?q=tom (118 results)
        http://csua.com/?q=psb (145 results)
        psb >> tom                                      -psb #1 fan
        \_ that's >, not >>
           \_ What sort of horrible Frankenstein would result from appending
              psb to tom?!
              \_ Partha T. Holubjee
              \_ Ride Cricket Bat!
                 \_ CHEESEBOARD!  CHEESEBOARD IS THE STANDARD!
                    \_ Cheeseboard IS the standard.  I miss it. -- ilyas
              \_ Welcome! I am Frau Blucher! <sound of horses rearing>
        \_ kchang has access to soda again?

4/15    How do people deal with long file names when burning CD?  Rockridge
        extension only allows upto 32 (31?) characters.
        \_ Rockridge supports up to 127 characters in UNIX.
        \_ tar (or use whichever archiver) first
        \_ can unix read PC and hybrid cd formats?
           \_ Depends on the UNIX. Linux can red Joliet if you compile it in.
              I'm sure *BSD has a backport. No go on Solaris.
        \_ I usually burn w/ joliet extensions turned on. This results in
           the shorter 8.3 file names on solaris boxes that can't read joliet,
           but the file names show up correctly on Linux, MacOS (9/X) and
           FreeBSD.
        \_ I usually burn with joliet (-J), rockridge (-R/-r), the
           translation table (-T), and long file names (-l).  Probably
           overkill, but no problems reading the names.
           \_ cool, but which program on Darwin/OSX does that?
                \_ hdiutil, toast and mkisofs can all do this (the
                   options specified look like they are for mkisofs)
                   To make a joliet/iso9660 hybrid using hdiutil:
                   $ hdiutil makehybrid -verbose -iso -joliet \
                             -default-volume-name [vol name] -o [iso file] \
                             [dir]
                   \_ mkisof is not available on Darwin.  hdiutil only
                      does iso level 2 so probably cannot do the job.
                   \_ mkisof is not available on Darwin.  Anyway hdiutil
                      to make an image before burning.  Unfortunately if
                      you want Rock Ridge extension, you have to use
                      something else to make the image first.  At least
                      for the version I have: 5.2
        \_ http://csua.org/u/6xb?arstechnica.com
                      probably does the job though I haven't checked.
                      What's nice about Toast is that it does not need
                      to make an image before burning, unfortunately unless
                      you want Rock Ridge extension, and it cannot be operated
                      from command line.  At least for the version I have: 5.2

4/15    Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said a video recording of
        the killing showed that Quattrocchi was hooded when his kidnappers
        put a gun to his head. "When the murderers were pointing a pistol at
        him, this man tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'Now I'm going
        to show you how an Italian dies'. And they killed him." -CNN
        \_ Bring It On!
        \_ Tough guy.
        \_ ADRIAN!!!
        \_ Very brave, but he's still dead.
        \_ My hat is off to him.  He died like a real man.  I hope I would
           have the balls to do the same thing in the same situation.  -- ilyas
           \_ How does one die like a real woman? -chialea
                \_ With the same sort of courage.
                \_ Jeanne d'Arc.  Let's keep the feminist bickering to a
                   minimum in this thread, shall we?  It seems out of place.
                     -- ilyas
           \_ Is that really so brave?  Why not plead for your life in that
              kind of situation?  Many got out alive after being taken
              hostage.  Sounds like a hot head to me.
        \_ Hmm, maybe this explains why aljazeera decided not to show this one.

4/15    "I mean, one year after the liberation of Iraq, the revenues of the
        oil stream is pretty darn significant. One of the things I was
        concerned about, prior to going into Iraq, was that the oil fields
        would be destroyed, but they weren't. They're now up and running. And
        that money is -- it will benefit the Iraqi people [and my friends].
        It's their oil, and they'll use it to reconstruct the country."
                -- President Bush
        \_ Whoah! "Pretty Darn Significant" -- I guess the invasion won't cost
        so darn much after all?
           \_ how do you measure the cost of 10,000 iraqi civilians killed
              by accident?
              \_ What do you care?  Do you hate America?
              \_ nice little troll
              \_ duh.  by barrels of oil.
                 \_ Barrels of oil imported from Saudi Arabia?

4/15    Should I get a transmission flush? My old Accord manual says to
        change it every 90K (which is a bit long), and it crapped out at
        150K. Now I have a new Accord, I'm wondering if flushing the entire
        transmission will prevent it from dying so soon. Thanks.
        \_ 150K is a lot. You're not gonna get too much more.
        \_ my old accord (86) and current acura (95) all give me transmission
           and brake system problems (caliper keeps getting stuck).  from
           what I heard, these two are honda's weak points.  from what I
           read, a properly maintained car should easily go beyond 200k,
           especially hondas.
           \_ That doesn't mean it will go 200k without any work on it. It
              means you will go 200k before the engine is shot (e.g. water
              in the oil). The transmission may not make 200k.
              \_ I don't think Honda engines will have problem at 200k,
                 unless you abused it.
        \_ my old accord and current acura all give me transmission and
           brake system problems.  from what I heard, these two are
           honda weak points.

4/15    OpenBSD ports/pkgs security issues are now available in vuxml.
        http://www.vuxml.org/openbsd/index.html
        (vuxml.org has a freebsd page as well)

4/15    Are there any meta-installs for Firefox extensions?  There are so
        many available... I just want to click on one link and say, "gimme
        everything that this uber-web-dev guy has".
        \_ use the source, luke.  write it and tell us where you posted it.
        \_ what platform?

4/15    what is an html way - easier than wrapping it in a table - to wrap
        a phrase you don't want broken up? (like say
        <don't break>Firstname Lastname</don't break>).
        \_ I think it's <nobr> or <nobreak>.
           \_ it's nobr, but that's deprecated.  I think with CSS you need to
              specify a style: "white-space: nowrap;"
        \_ Substitute spaces with &nbsp;, as in Firstname&nbsp;Lastname.