5/1     link:csua.org/u/75e
        \_ what is it about good looking men who are gay? and has psb come
           out yet?

5/1    Ikea's tribute to Objectivist Philosophy:
       http://tinyurl.com/2xtf4
       \_ is that really what that is, or is there some other explanation for
          the name?  do any sweedish speakers here want to comment?

5/1    mehlhaff, why did you stop your motd archive?
        \_ Why don't you just run your own?  It isn't magic.
        \_ I think that binary flood was designed to break motd archive.
           \_ Checking the file type and length before archiving wouldn't
              be a difficult addition for those who care.

5/1    waner, cut the binary shit out.
        \_ waner is smushing the motd with binaries?  waner the good
           stalker christian?  no way!
        \_ what binary was he using? I ran strings on it the first time
           but I couldn't really see.
        \_ how did you figure it out?  -waner
           \_ I propose waner's account be suspended.
           \_ second that.  tell us how did you figure this out.  by
              knowing who did the last motd destruction/censoring, may be
              we could stop motd censoring altogether.
              \_ If you squish tom you'll end most motd censorship.
              \_ Maybe keep one window tracking changes, and another tracking
                 people's idle or last login.  This would only work for hosings
                  in the middle of the night.
                  \_ there is no middle of the night.  people post from all
                     time zones.
                     \_ Some time zones are more active than others.  There is
                        a middle of the night for a machine where most of the
                        users are in California.
                        \_ I'm going to measure activity as a function of time
                           over a few 24 hour periods and see if you're right.
                           i'll get back to you on this.
                           \_ I haven't measured it scientifically but I know
                              motd activity is primarily M-F/8-6.  I'd like to
                              see what you measure and what the numbers look
                              like when you're done.
           \_ i log fstat and diff on motd.public.  it's usually not hard to
              figure out who's modifying the file with what, particularly if
              the person does it repeatedly.
              \_ except that some (many?) editors don't keep a file open while
                 they're editing. so the window during which they have the
                 file open (i.e., reading or writing) is rather small.
        \_ he's a stalker too?  do tell.
           \_ There was a world-readable text file in his home directory which
              in obsessive detail chronicled his every interaction with this
              particular girl over the past year or two.  Someone posted the
              filename to the motd.  Then everyone was creeped out, then waner
              made the file non-readable.
              \_ It was a great file.  I've never had such a deep look into the
                 mind of a psychotic/stalker before.  Did anyone figure out who
                 the girl is and warn her?
                 \_ maybe if anyone knows felicia, presumably ex-cal student,
                    religious, looks like the righthand chick in
                    http://tinyurl.com/yubsf

5/1    Don't hose the motd or get sorried.
        \_ What the heck kind of threat is that!?  @_@

5/1     Stop posting commercial porn links.
        \_ Yeah, let the amateurs have a chance.
        \_ May I have more commercial porn links, please?

5/1     Anyone recommend a word processor for writing a book? My friend's mom
        just finished her book, and it's one Word doc per chapter... I was
        wondering if there is any software out there geared to handle 300 pages?
        She's a writer, so no, she doesn't want to use LaTex.
        \_ FWIW, my mom wrote her dissertation (100s of pages, plus footnotes)
           in WordPerfect.  She seemed pretty happe, but she also used EndNote
           in WordPerfect.  She seemed pretty happy, but she also used EndNote
           to help with footnoting.
        \_ Why in god's name did she start a new doc every page?
                \_ sorry, I meant one doc per chapter.
        \_ Framemaker...kinda industrial, but powerful.
           \_ Don't be mad.  FM is such a bitch she might as well us LaTex.
        \_ People have written math books in latex. -- ilyas
                \_ that's the whole point. she has no interest in making
                   perfectly typeset symbols and the like. she probably
                   just needs something to efficiently handle many pages of text.
           \_ asking someone's mom to use latex is just plain stupid.  she
              needs a word processor.  what she really needs is for someone to
              teach her how to use Word properly.  one .doc per page is just
              user error/ignorance.  she already has the right tool.  she now
              needs lessons in basic use.
                \_ no one doc per page is my typo. it was 41 chapters, so 41
                   docs. she wanted to get the page numbers right before
                   sending the book off to the publisher, so printing each
                   document wont do. as for using 1 doc vs. 41 docs, I don't
                   think her decision to go one doc per chapter was so bad...
                   it's faster to load, easier to manage, etc. also, there are
                   probably fears of losing 1 chapter vs. losing the whole
                   document if there is corruption.
           \_ How many math books nowadays *aren't* written in LaTeX?  I can't
              imagine trying to make a 100+ page document with extensive
              mathematical typesetting without LaTeX. However, I think it's
              pretty clear that the op's friend's mom is *not* writing a
              math book.
              \_ TeX/LaTeX are good even for non-math stuff. I wrote all my
                 english essays in LaTeX, for example.
           \_ I think the OP was acknowledging that LaTeX could be used, but
              it's complexitity was too great for the intended user.
              \_ LaTeX is really not that hard to use. You can do all the
                 typing first, and then the proofing and formatting later.
                 \_ Latex is so easy, even I use it all the time. -- ilyas
              \_ aren't there plenty of graphical LaTeX editors?
                 \_ there's scientific word, but personally i don't trust
                    it.  I've seen people wrestling with it for hours to get
                    it to not fuck up their figure captions, and i've seen it
                    destroy bits and pieces of  documents in screwy ways.
                    mathematica can generate latex from its wysywyg, but
                    it's some kind of fucked up latex code that not all latex
                    compilers will recognize.  if you want a point and click
                    interface, why use latex?
                 \_ no
           \_ LaTeX is flexible, powerful, and totally impossible to use on any
              non-*nix platform.  Don't delete this again.
              \_ wrong. i used to use latex all the time on windows, using
                 miktex under cygwin. there are also other fine editing
                 environments like winedt, if you don't like CLI's.
                 \_ winedt rocks.  also, ostex for mac is really nice.
        \_ Why would she not use Word, and put the whole book in one document?
           Let the publisher worry about formatting it, that's not the
           author's job, unless it's a "book" she'll be printing out and
           binding herself.  (In which case she should still write it in Word
           and then lay it out in Quark or InDesign). -tom
           \_ I agree.  also, writing the document in word doesn't mean you
              can't typeset it in latex later, or better yet get someone
              else to deal with typesetting. as an author, typesetting
              is not really your problem.  I know of one journal(science)
              that actually lets authors submit latex manuscripts which they
              then actually *convert* to Word 97 for publication.  go figure.
        \_ Actually, this is largely the purview of the publisher.  Most
           publishers say ``Thou shalt use xxx.''  In most cases, xxx is one
           version or another of Word.  Most of them like Word for its change
           tracking features.  A handful of publishers will let you use any
           tool you want, but, unless your friend's mom is sufficiently well
           established to pick and choose among publishers, the question is
           probably moot. -dans
        \_ What's wrong with one word doc per chapter? When I was writing, I
           put each chapter in a separate word document. The publishers
           liked this as it made it easier for them to email the chapters
           between the different editors and myself.
           Once the manuscript is finished, the publishers will use
           something like frame or quark to layout all the chapters and add
           indexing codes, consistent footnote numbers, pg numbers, &c.). I
           wouldn't put all the chapters into a big word doc and worry about
           getting the pg numbers right &c.; let the publishers do that,
           they have better tools.
           Just make sure that the publishers send the proofs in ps or pdf
           so that she can get a good idea about how printed edition will
           look. I would plan to spend a couple of weeks reviewing the
           proofs in order to make sure that formatting codes and deleted
           text don't accidentally show up.
           BTW, I wouldn't recommend word for chapters longer than 50
           pages. I ran into problems with footnotes and revision control
           (office{98,X} on Mac).
        \_ I would suggest she try a stick and rock.

5/1     Heh, your guy can't even get his story straight!  hehe,
        http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040510-632009,00.html
        \_ How about putting an old Republican Guard general in charge
           of Fallujah? Talk about the Mother of Flip Flops.
           \_ Here's someone who missed the message.  -op
              \_ maybe because it's totally unclear?  who is "your guy?"
                 in case you haven't noticed, the motd has a plurality of
                 libertarians with a smattering of anarchists, democrats,
                 communists, far-right republicans, moderates and some
                 buchannan nuts.
        \_ Clinton gave sworn testimony behind closed doors.  Bush and
           Cheney gave unsworn testimony behind closed doors.  I'll take
           sworn over unsworn any time.

5/1     If the motd is nuked again, the following will restore it (it's a
        hidden feature):
lynx -dump 'http://csua.com/?text=2day > /etc/motd.p
ublic
        \_ kchang's archive only updates a few times a day, right?
                \_ 6 times during peak hours and twice at night. It's really
                   meant to be used as a search/engine for old entries
                   and doesn't have the quick, interactive feel of motd,v.
                   By the way entries from 1998-2003 are now posted, you can
                   check out all the stupid comments tom made
            http://csua.com/?q=tom&start=0&type=hist
            \_ Why would I want to read tom's old stupid comments when I can
               get them fresh everyday right now?  It isn't like he's ever
               changed (grown up) or anything.
               \_ and you're the model of maturity.
                  \_ you didn't sign your name so you're stupid and your
                     opinion has no value.  --irony #1 Fan
        \_ ~tse/motd,v
           \_ Gary, I thought you had a life?!
              \_ No married man has a life.  You should know that.
                 \_ BDG, is that you?

5/1     Can someone please recommend a good apachelog analyzer (generates
        statistics, etc etc)? Something cool, maybe with HTML+graphics,
        easy to use, and free.
        \_ awstats.  uses php, easy to set up.  maybe doesn't do everything
           that webalyzer does, but a heck of a lot easier to install.
           \_ umm, webalizer is pretty easy to install.
        \_ analog is the STANDARD!
        \_ Search the web for "Scratchy"

5/2     Everyone be sure to watch "10.5" on NBC tonight from 9-11 PM. It's
        TV at its finest!

5/2     http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/science/03RESE.html?pagewanted=1&hp
        US is Losing its Dominance in the Sciences
        \_ what a typically crappy article.
                \_ so now NYT articles are crappy?
        \_ Too bad we can't lose our edge in thinly veiled leftist
           media.