4/23    Can someone recommend a good brand for French press coffee makers?
        \_ Bodum is The Definative french press.  (And the original) -aspo

4/24    from the laddertheory WEEB location:
        Women seem to especially like it if you are more devoted to your
        bad music, biker gang, forearm tattoo or marijuana. These all
        seem to work wonders. There are some interests you can show in
        a woman that will help you to fuck her: a healthy interest in
        destroying her self-esteem and in fucking her friends more
        than her seem to work wonders. Note that the following topics
        of disinterest have been field tested and shown conclusively
        not to work: Unix, literature, poetry, international politics,
        and sodomy.
        \- i note in passing, there are some funny physics reference there
           [hidden variables, dreams of a final theory (book by s. weinberg),
           virtual friends etc]    --psb
        \_ Nice!
        \_ Literature, international policitcs, and sodomy have all worked
           for me.  -aspo
           \_we're talking about women.
            \_ So am I, so am I.  With men I've found all you need to do
               is be able to breathe, and that is sometimes optional. -aspo
               \_ Gays really have no taste in men.
                  \_ More to the point, men really have no taste.
           \_poetry/philosophy have also worked for me.  It only works with
             the kind of chick (there are many) that are into peotry and/or
             philosophy.  However, only when drunk, which is the only time
             anything has ever worked for me (with strangers anyway). -phuqm
             \- i think some of you are perhaps slightly missing the
                point of the "ladder dynamics" ... part of which is "many
                lame strategies will work with the ButterChicken class".
                \_ Being a jerk works with insecure and needy chicks.
                   Having class works with classy and intelligent women.
                   \_ Seconded.  It's your problem if you want to deal
                      with women who like being treated like shit, or with
                      guys who do that.  Neither tend to rate very highly
                      on most halfway-useful peoples' lists of folks who are
                      interesting and fun to be around.  -John
                      \_ There is a diff. btw being crass and being a jerk.
                         One can be a very classy jerk.  That site is not
                         meant to be taken all seriously, but there is a lot
                         of truth in it.  Girls who place nice guys on top of
                         their list tend to be the most boring type.
                         \_ Yeah, who want kids and marriage 2 weeks in.

4/24    In SQL, when I insert a row with sequence (auto_increment), I don't
        know which sequence it is assigned to. How do I find out what number
        I just inserted? I guess I could try (SELECT max(id) ...) then insert
        max+1, but if I have 2 people doing it, I may be screwed. By the way
        I'm using mysql so there is no transaction...
        \_ Um, the whole point of auto_increment fields is that *you* don't
           have to worry about them.  The way you phrased your question seems
           to suggest you're trying to perform an insert where you specify the
           auto_increment.  That's just silly.
        \_ Take a look at:
           http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Getting_unique_ID.html
           http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/mysql_insert_id.html
           (If you ever switch to postgres you will have to rewrite this
           to use curval/nextval instead)
           to use curval/netval instead)
                            \_ fixed.
        \_ That's funny, I'm using transactions on some InnoDB tables with
           mysql 3....
                         \_ probably a typo.  should be nextval

4/24    There used to be an ee40 and ee120 TA named ken chiang. Anyone
        know where he is these days? He used to work in Fearing's lab.

4/24    Hey, where is the long vietnam war thread?  Did I miss any
        insights from psb?
        \- see http://csua.com
           for me vs AMC --psb
           \_ Wow. Pretty sad debate. I'm sure liberals and Democrats will
              be faulted for the failures in Iraq too. The next person to
              say Iraq == Vietnam needs to be slapped.
              \_ Yah -- the problem wasn't lefties or liberals, it was the
                 60's counter-culture and 'free love' social phenomenon.
                 Without the support of the people, the government was
                 never able to muster sufficient support for our (better
                 trained, better equipped) troops to hold onto any tangible
                 victory.  It was a pretty sad conflict.  Though there may
                 be some peripheral similarities to Vietnam, the conflict in
                 Iraq actually has a fair degree of popular support.
                 \_ And the guerilla warfare, lack of clear goals, lack of
                    cooperation between the branches, and an utter lack of
                    what would constitute winning the war certainly didn't
                    help.  Now, which war am I talking about?
                    \_ Stop. Stop right there. Vietnam and Iraq are two
                       different wars being fought for different reasons in
                       different parts of the world with different goals in
                       mind. They are DIFFERENT!
                    \_ Clear goal: democracy in iraq.  What would constitute
                       winning the war: democracy in iraq.  Utter lack of
                       cooperation between the branches: source-p.
                       You are repeating things you heard without thinking.
                       \_ That's a clear POLITICAL goal.  What's the clear
                          MILITARY goal?  We had a clear political goal in
                          Vietnam too.
                 \_ The Vietnam war had huge amounts of support until people
                    started doubting the bright and sunny forecasts and began
                    to see the effects on the vets returning.
        \_ What made Vietnam so terrible was the fact that everything that
           could be screwed up there, was.  Eisenhower screwed 'Nam for
           the French, JFK wouldn't let it die, LBJ tried to micromanage
           it, and made the rules of engagement ridiculous.  Nixon took a
           shot a fixing things, but popular support was gone, so he
           finally gave up, only to have congress completely screw Vietnam
           over so the South couldn't continue fighting on it's own.
           We've screwed somethings up in Iraq, but it's still nowhere
           near 'Nam.  Stop smokin' so much pot and come back to reality.
           \_ No. What makes Vietnam so terrible *for Americans* was retreat
              after so many years of war. Had Vietnam somehow stablized into
              a situation akin to Korea, it would have been touted as a huge
              success. The Vietnamese have their own view of the conflict
              in their country. POV is important here.
              \_ It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's "Captain Obvious!"
              \_ Believe me, if there was an option not to retreat, we would've
                 stayed. Despite what you hear in the 'free media', we retreated
                 because the PRC was engaged in the war and we had no other choice.
                 We retreated and and established diplomatic relationship with the
                 PRC. It was the only exit strategy. The PRC can afford keep
                 fighting the war, we can't. We also 'gave' up Taiwan alone
                 with Vietnam. You honestly think we would've done so if we had
                 a choice? So don't just say "oh why did we retreat", it's like
                 saying, oh why did we use the A-bomb. We did because we have
                 no other choice.

4/24    In terms of stability for FreeBSD, RELEASE > STABLE > CURRENT, right?
        \_ I'd say STABLE > RELEASE.  Stable includes all fixes for known
           exploits, etc.  And other than a few issues with upgrading between
           major revisions, I've never had trouble with -STABLE. --scotsman
           \_ Seconded, but don't follow stable too closely; give it a little
              time to make sure the fixes don't cause new problems.

4/24    Ok, in market for new car.  Prius or Insight?
        \_ Two words: "peak oil"
        \_ There were some Edmunds advisors I saw a while back on TV who
           said that that the demand for hybrids is still too high and
           that if you're worried about fuel economy, you should invest
           in a high mileage non-hybrid vehicle instead. To my surprise,
           he suggested a BMW 3-series. But I agree. The money you save
                          \_ M3 CSL!!!111  Only decent BMW... -John
           from a hybrid over some other high-mileage vehicle as a result
           of a lower gas bill probably won't offset the premium you will
           pay on a hybrid. I'd wait for hybrid supply/demand to go up.
           \_ Hybrid is not worth it in terms of gas savings, but as a BMW
              owner I think the mileage is atrocious. I got better mileage
              on the 8 cylinder Jaguar I rented. BMW is not high mileage.
              \_ I just got back from Germany and after some city driving
                 and Autobahn driving (I was going 90-135MPH most of the
                 time) I was averaging 25MPG and this was with the 5-speed.
                 The 6-speed transmission offers a taller overdrive gear
                 which probably would have pushed the fuel economy up
                 (particularly at the speeds I was traveling at).
                 \_ Is 25 mpg considered high? I probably get something
                    like 22 mpg, but there's a lot of stop-and-go. It sure
                    ain't my Honda or my Nissan in terms of mileage.
                    \_ When you're going 90MPH+, yes 25MPG is high. Wind
                       resistance goes up drastically when you travel at
                       those speeds.
                    \_ 25mpg is average at best for a normal-sized car.  It's
                       good mileage for a SUV, though.
        \_ Mostly irrelevant I'm sure, but my friend's 2002 Prius was hit in
           a parking lot.  It's a $3000 repair, and she's out of a car for 3
           weeks waiting for the parts to ship from Japan.
        \_ Used.
        \_ Honda Civic Hybrid is a better choice.
        \_ RIDE BIKE!
           \_ Oh just go and die will you.
        \_ 2004 Prius is a better choice.
           \_ Toyota gives "false" estimates for its MPG.  Nowhere close to
              what is advertised.
              \_ Why do you believe this?
                 \_ I know someone with a Prius, he only gets 40-45 MPG, not
                    60.  -tom
                    \_ does he have any twink points?
                    \_ 2003 or 2004 Prius?  The 2004 improved on fuel economy,
                       and the web site says "55 mpg".
                       \_ http://www.kanai.net/weblog/archives/001506.html
                          Old one advertised 48 overall.
        \_ Forget hybrids.  Get Civic HX (35/40 mpg), no need to replace
           batteries after ~10 years.  Seriously, the fuel savings you get
           on hybrids don't really safe the environment more than driving
           something like the HX.  Good maintenance, responsible long-term
           ownership is far more important.
        \_ Consider buying a VW Jetta with a diesel engine (which, beside the
           related VW Golf TDI, is the only diesel car on the US marker I think)
        \_ Does anyone really get the rated MPG?  I doubt it since no one drives
           exactly the same way the EPA drives.

4/25    Anyone else experiencing problems getting mail, and delays
        starting SSH (all TCP?) connections to Soda?
        \_ nope.  But I did once at a company where the firewall didn't
           allow reverse DNS lookups.
        TBMS, after logging in, 80 seconds before getting term type query
        from .cshrc. Increased timeout to 90 for SSL/IMAP mail on port 993
        and works ok. Mostly IP addresses in output from who, not hostnames,
        so reverse DNS probably not it(?). WTF? -op