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| 2004/5/4 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:29979 Activity:insanely high |
5/3 csua wall is dying. so is nwrite, talk, and motd. how sad.
\_ We'll all text-message each other on our CSUA mobile phones,
which will have CPUs faster than soda and run *nix.
\_ want to know what killed it? IRC (1992). ICQ (1994). AIM (1996).
YIM (1997). MSN Messenger (1998). Mobile text messaging (2000).
Eudora/POP/IMAP/Affordable desktop/laptops (now people don't
have to log into soda to check email). And finally, lack of
CSUA effort to 1) make a more friendly frontend for nwrite/talk,
something that the better programmars at XCF have no problem
writing and 2) get more members involved 3) tom scaring newbies
from using soda.
\_ Hi paolo!
\_ paolo is sexy
\_ well he's mostly right. -knows paolo
\_ well he's mostly right. -!doesn't know paolo
\_ behold, kchang has risen from squishdom and is striking with
righteous fury at his old enemies!
\_ well he's mostly right. -!doesn't know kchang
\_ How is motd "dying"? It seems to get more posts than ever.
\_ case u haven't noticed it's mostly from ilyas, tom, and psb
\_ I like that definition of 'mostly.' For instance, let's
measure the fraction of the threads currently signed by
above three, versus all other threads. -- ilyas
\_ it's a dumb and obviously false statement even if
you only count signed posts. since a majority of
posters do not sign, it's beyond idiotic. just
ignore it.
\_ Obviously someone needs to take the time to
write a script that will record motd editing
frequency per account, and settle this argument
once and for all. |
| 2004/5/4 [Consumer/Camera] UID:29980 Activity:nil |
5/3 I remember this old comment in the archives (re: digital slr cameras)
"Digital Rebel has some serious user-interface issue as a pedagogic
tool to move user beyond point-n-shoot..." -kngharv
What's the basis of that slam on the dig. rebel? Anyone agree with
that sentiment?
\_ http://csua.com/?q=digital+slr&start=0 |
| 2004/5/4 [Uncategorized] UID:29981 Activity:nil |
5/4 Matrix Director's "Cut":
http://www.azcentral.com/ent/celeb/0430sexchange.html |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:29982 Activity:high |
5/4 Sudan's deputy U.N. ambassador, Omar Bashir Mohamed Manis, said
the United States had no right to accuse anyone of human
rights violations, after allegations of abuses in Iraq (news -
web sites) including mistreatment of Iraqis held in
U.S.-run prisons. Images of the Iraqi prisoners "are fresh in
the minds of all justice-loving people around the world," he
said.
\_ And how exactly would he know any justice-loving people?
\_ The difference being that in countries like his shit like that and
much worse happens everyday. When it happens here and people know
about it, it is stopped and the people doing it get jail time.
People are people but our system is infinitely superior to the
alternatives where torture is the status quo.
\_ or, in his specific case, the status quo happens to be genocide
right now. of course, since it's arabs doing the genocide
no one in the UN gives a shit, and since there's no oil involved
the bush administration doesn't give a shit. |
| 2004/5/4 [Reference/Languages] UID:29983 Activity:nil |
5/4 The discussion below got me thinking: is there a standardized system
for phonetic transcription of Arabic words into English, like the
pinyin system in Chinese? It seems that most people do not adhere to
it, whatever it is, but it would be nice to know. |
| 2004/5/4 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:29984 Activity:very high |
5/4 /csua/tmp is full. Thanks tom:
293032 -r-xr-xr-x 1 tom wheel 299905024 Jan 29 15:51 moab-munifest.avi
\_ why post this to the MOTD instead of mailing me? Oh right, you're
an anonymous coward. -tom
\_ Because nobody likes you, everybody hates you, we think you
should eat worms...
\_ so do you plan to remove the file?
\_ certainly not because of some MOTD posting. If someone
wants to ask me directly, I'll consider it. (It was
placed there at the specific request of another CSUA
member). -tom
\- you know tom, this bit of pigheadedness
surprises even me. i dont think you are
being picked on here ... you own the largest
file there by a factor of two. has something
changed in your life to ratchet up your
bitterness level? it seem to jump up at
some point recently ... i only ask out of
intellectual curiosity. you can continue to
bray about the AMC but help everyone else
out by deleting the damn file. --psb
\_ Does 'pigheadedness' have etymology related
to 'go stick your head in a pig'? -- ilyas
\_ Publicly-readable files account for only
30% of the disk usage in /csua/tmp.
\_ do you think its usefulness to the other csua member
might have expired in the last 3 months?
\_ why don't you download it and see? -tom
\_ i am beginning to understand this general animus
towards tom.
\_ the greater your level of contact the more you'll
understand. he's just got a self esteem problem
because he never got a degree but is surrounded
by those who do or soon will.
\_ Except I personally know a few people who never
graduated, and don't have this problem...
|_ /csua/tmp should be self-monitored. It's quite rude to leave
huge files there, esp if you know that the filesystem is full.
asshole.
\_ It's also quite rude to insult someone in a public
forum, instead of asking them politely. Asshole. -tom
\_ i'll just note that bad behavior on one part does not
justify or excuse bad behavior on another, just as
rudeness on one does not justify or excuse rudeness
on another.
\_ Yes. Unless it's tom.
Speaking of resource abuse, whatever happened to the alumni
donation thing? I'd like to donate maybe 50 bucks but I still don't
see a PayPal link and what not. Maybe I should just donate to the
Stanford computing facility. -guy doing CSMS@Stanford
\_ there is a difference between what is expected
and what is justified.
\_ Being rude to tom is always justified.
\_ since I ever met tom in 1992 he's been rude and inconsiderate.
he has contributed very little except hostile, condescending
remarks, and now this. It's not the first time, and it will not
be the last. It has been 12 years since I've known him and very
little has changed. I really think we should squish him.
\_ "now this"? I put a file requested by another CSUA member
into a directory intended to allow CSUA members to share files.
How horrific! As for my contributions, I was CSUA VP for two
semesters--what have *you* done?
And there are files > 100MB which have been there for over 2
years; why do you care about mine? Oh, right, because you're
an anonymous coward.
Shit, I've been trolled. -tom
\_ I don't see what anonymity has to do with the size of the
file. And I certainly don't buy into anonymity as a
justification for pointless ad hominem. Chill, dude. -mice
\_ Why are you talking about the file? The post tom responded
to is just an anonymous smear and request to "squish him".
You're fucking insane if you think his response was somehow
out of line. What ad hominem? Wtf is wrong with u people.
\_ Uhm, did you even read the post the guy is replying to?
Train harder, grasshopper.
\- because not removing the file is "out of line" with
arguing with the fellow in the motd. nobody is saying
tom should be squished or shouldnt argue with this
fellow. but he should have done something with the
file. his stubbornness over this makes him either
stupid or an asshole ... or possibly somehow psycho-
logically disturbed. --psb
\_ Because yours was the largest file. That was hard. Try
engaging your brain occasionally.
\_ Irrelevant. It's still a relatively small usage of the
filesystem.
\_ FYI, signing as "guy doing CSMS@Stanford" does not count as
de-anonymizing yourself. You might as well not sign at all
if you're not going to give your username.
\_ I think that was about the donation part, not the tom part.
\_ Speaking of resource abuse, whatever happened to the alumni
donation thing? I'd like to donate maybe 50 bucks but I still don't
see a PayPal link and what not. Maybe I should just donate to the
Stanford computing facility. -guy doing CSMS@Stanford
\_ Why do you guys always pick on tom? Just because he's a bit rude,
hostile, and censors the motd like some nanny is no reason to abuse
him all the time. Seriously, I feel badly for him. He's working
as some IT peon at one of the greatest universities on the face
of the planet and literally surrounded by people smarter and better
educated than himself since he never graduated. Of course he's
bitter and hostile. Why don't you guys just accept him as he is
and let him feel important once in a while? He'll mellow once you
accept him as one of us.
\_ hahahahhaaha this has got to be one of the best responses
I've ever read. It deserves the best motd post of the
week.
\_ you hypocrites sound like pathetic high schoolers
\_ well apaprently there is space on /csua/tmp now, and moab*.avi
is still there, so whatever.
\_ So the moral of the story is: Most CSUAers are helpful and
cooperative, but tom is a jerk.
\_ Here is what is going on: Tom is proud of whatever is
in that file [thus the helpful suggestion "why don't you
dl it and see"] and he wants to keep it there to point to
or for people to stumble on. If he were to delete it,
putting it back without "someone asked me to put it there"
would just look pathetic. No, I don't know why he doesn't
just put it on a web page.
\_ It's really simple. I'm not going to respond to some
anonymous coward's attempt to disparage me on the MOTD.
If someone wants to make it a personal request, I'll
consider it.
The file is a video made at the 2003 Moab MUniFest,
and I think it could be of interest to people, but
the original purpose of putting it in /csua/tmp was
that randal wanted to see it, and I don't have personal
web space where I can stick 300MB. -tom
\_ You guys are bad. Tom picked on me once, but this thread is
a little mean.
\_ You reap what you sow... |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:29985 Activity:high |
5/4 Anyone know of a unix program/script to convert openGL model files
to AutoCAD readable format (.dwg or .dxf)?
Google turns up mostly methods to convert the other way. Thanks!
Alternately, are there any simple to use freeware
CAD programs that you'd recommend that can save as those formats?
\_ OpenGL is an API, not a file format. Converters "to OpenGL" will
typically generate a .c file which when compiled will send the
geometry through the OpenGL API. What are you really asking for?
\_Would like to convert something like
http://glv.sourceforge.net/fileformat.html to .dwg/.dxf
It doesn't need to be GL oriented, but should be simple to
hand-code. PostScript would be fine, but I'm not sure how
to specify 3D coordinates in .ps.
\_ On that page, the syntax is basically just a raw translation to
OpenGL commands. For instance, the "point x y z" translates to
the OpenGL calls:
glBegin(GL_POINTS);
glVertex3f(x,y,z);
glEnd();
It is fundamentally state-machine oriented. A translation
would be nontrivial. Frankly it's more common to translate
structured geometry files to OpenGL because usually you start
with the structured geometry. Reversing the translation would
be difficult--you'd have to reconstruct information that's been
thrown away. I don't think you're going to find anything like
this, but good luck. |
| 2004/5/4 [Uncategorized] UID:29986 Activity:kinda low |
5/4 PacMan irl: http://www.pacmanhattan.com |
| 2004/5/4 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:29987 Activity:high |
5/4 Can someone with a FreeBSD 5.2.1 system try out a couple of ports I've
put together? (I haven't played with the ports before, so I'd like to
know if these work properly for other people). tia.
nmh 1.1RC3: link:tinyurl.com/34xgu (untar in /usr/ports/mail)
connect 1.76: link:tinyurl.com/3xc5y (untar in /usr/ports/net)
\_ Yes, I could but I'm not going to install stuff from an anonymous
person on my machine. It's one thing to post anon, it's quite
another to run your code on my machine.
\_ Mail me if you are concerned that there is something in the
port files that might damage your system. --ranga |
| 2004/5/4 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:29988 Activity:kinda low |
5/4 FreeBSD5 question. I see 4 ISOs in the FreeBSD5 distribution tree.
What is the difference between "bootonly" "miniinst" and "disk1".
The all appear to be bootable and take me into the install program?
\_ Take a look at: http://tinyurl.com/3cnpm
If you want to install from cd w/o d/l'ing anything at install
time, just d/l and burn disk1. |
| 2004/5/4 [Recreation/Computer/Games, Reference/History/WW2/Germany] UID:29989 Activity:high |
5/3 Attention 3d 1st person shooter gamerz: Battlefield Vietnam, yay or
nay? -BF1942 dude, alias "Nazi killing machine"
\_ I'm waiting for the truly accurate military video game where you
lay around terrified 98% of the time ... and then get insta-maimed/
killed by a sniper or pipe-bomb.
\_ BFV is much more immersive than BF1942. Plus infantry actually
stand a chance against tanks and helis. The terrain is beautiful.
\_ but should they stand a chance? against a heli? please....
\_ With a Stinger, sure they should. If you want game
balance + realism, make stingers easy to obtain.
\_ Well, this improves game balance. All you have to do is whip
out your RPK or M60 and start belting it out. When they realize
they are being shot at, they have to turn around, find you,
aim their chopper at you and shoot. Oh and in that time, you
get to find a place to hide. Most people are crappy chopper
pilots and are not resourceful enough to pickup other players
to act as door gunners.
\_ I'm still waiting for Battlefield: Iraq
\_ uh, desert sucks?
\_ No! Urban guerilla warfare!
\_ it's been done in BF1942, the Red Army field (forgot the name)
It's a nasty terrain. |
| 2004/5/4 [Academia/Berkeley/Ocf, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:29990 Activity:high |
/54 Please come back to csua paolo, we promise to be nicer this time
-paolo #1 fan
\_ we forgive you for the motd fuckup, please come back so that we
can ridicule you again!!!
\_ why did paolo change his name to pst?
\_ he said something once that it was a good way for dealing with
spam. It's not the first time he's changed his CSUA (and OCF)
login. |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Domestic/California, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:29991 Activity:moderate |
5/4 On Cheney (Guardian UK): http://csua.org/u/76f \- i wish that had been a better article. the success of dick cheney is a product of people valuing niceness over principle ... "well he might be an evil fucker, but he is nice to me" --psb |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:29992 Activity:high 88%like:30001 |
5/4 Economy up, Kerry doomed:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/05/04/financial1419EDT0159.DTL&type=printable
\_ Yeah, but Bush is a corrupt asshole. I'd vote for an inanimate
carbon rod over Bush.
\_ Did you actually get to SEE the rod?
\_ Is that why Bush's numbers keep dropping? |
| 2004/5/4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:29993 Activity:high |
5/4 In perl, how do you know if an argument given is a scalar, hash,
or array?
\_ generally, the use to which it's being put. And the behaviour
you see if you use it as a scalar. Maybe use strict or -wT
might give you some helpful messages. -beginning/intermediate
perl user
\_ TYPES ARE FOR THE WEAK!
\_ or for coders who don't know what they are coding
\_ More to the point is why do you think you'd need to know in perl?
\_ say you want to overload a method so it takes different
arguments for backward compatibility. CGI.pm does that.
\_ Don't know enough about perl to know, but perhaps for things
like polymorphic function arguments? Perl is pretty ambigious
about stuff like this... which is why I avoid using it for
"real" code in projects.
\_ in some cases you might be able to use ref($var) to find out
what "type" of variable was passed: some of the return values
are SCALAR, ARRAY, HASH and REF. (man perlfunc and search for
ref). |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:29994 Activity:very high |
5/4 ...Kerry got bad press over throwing
the medals (and just about every single charge of waffling
I've seen) because there are plenty of hack journalists more
than willing to trim stories to fit their talking point du
jour. --scotsman
\_ No, Kerry got bad press because he earned it.
\_ Just for the record, how. Can you come up with a story that
could reasonably be called waffling? My favorites are the
ones which take quotes from 20 years apart, or the ones that
claim he's against noble goal X because he voted against a
really shitty bill that had a line item about X. --scotsman
\_ I voted for the $87B before I voted against it.
I won't make Pres. Bush's service an issue. Oh wait, I will.
Hell, just read that right-wing rag Slate:
http://slate.msn.com/id/2096540
\_ The $87B claim... This falls squarely under part 2 of
my favorites. --scotsman
\_ Um no. That was Kerry saying he VOTED for it before
voting against it. What did he vote for? An amendment
to the bill which would repeal some of the tax cuts.
He wants to have it both ways.
\_ God forbid someone should see shades of grey in an
issue. I prefer all my politicians to have a black
and white view of everything.
\_ Yes, it is called the "balanced budget act" and
Kerry was voting to follow it. BushCo just wanted
to borrow the money, which is irresponsible and
reckless. No waffle here, just a Senator trying
to do his duty.
\_ Bush's service has been an issue since his governor
races. It became more of an issue when he decided
to attack Kerry's service. All I've heard from Kerry
on the subject is that they have no place to attack
him on it.
\_ John Kerry specifically said he wouldn't bring it up.
Then he brought it up. I have seen nothing from Bush
about Kerry's vietnam service. Furthermore, I wish
right-wingers would drop it.
\_ If not from Bush, it's come from Cheney, Karen
Hughes and any number of others. I bet I could
find a Bush quote, though.
\_ Kerry has plenty of people to attack Bush for him
starting with Ted Kennedy. It remains the case
that Kerry said he wouldn't say it, and then said
it. It wouldn't be a problem if it were only one
thing, but this waffling is pervasive.
\_ Gotta love all these 100% recycled anti-Gore
talking points. Who needs new ones?!
\_ Gotta love your ducking the issue.
\_ That's the point, there's no issue to
duck. The "Kerry is a waffler" argument
is a tired Republican talking point
that has been around since Clinton in '92.
There is no issue to duck because the
accusation has no basis in facts, only
in out-of-context quotes and creative
use of ellipsis.
\_ Hell, why not just point to a freeper page and get it
over with.
\_ Uh oh, someone posted an example (two actually) and you
can't deal with the truth. Hurts?
\_ He voted for the $87B by taking the money out of
the tax cuts. That means he voted against taking
the money out of other programs. That's not a waffle,
and claiming so just proves you are a tool and a troll.
And Kerry didn't make Bush's record and issue until
Bush someone thought he could makes Kerry's record
an issue. That sort of changes things.
\_ He voted for an amendment to the bill, and then
voted against the bill (the amendment didn't pass).
He can't honestly say he voted for it before he
voted against it.
\_ Reasonably called waffling by a troll like you? No. I no
longer feed trolls, anonymous or named. |
| 2004/5/4 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA, Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:29995 Activity:very high |
5/4 /csua/tmp has about 2.8 GB used in publicly readable directories.
About 2.3 GB is random stuff from individual users. The top 20 files
in /csua/tmp are a total of 800MB and the most recent is 3 months old.
Please clean out your old files. --anonymous but trying to be polite
\_ fyi, /csua/tmp/hozers has a list of directories sorted by size
\_ Wow, I had no idea we had so much world readable crap on soda!
\_ If you have any cool files in /csua/tmp please post the filename
and a brief description here.
\_ If you don't, root will delete your files in 24 hours.
(Ok, not really, but I wish root would. :P )
* Sims.mpg are virtual creatures evolved to moved around in
different environs (water, on land, etc.)
\_ crabvspipe1.mpg is an unlucky crab which gets sucked through a
tiny hole in a pipe due to a huge pressure difference.
\_ moab_munifest.avi is some dumb bicycling thing.
\_ clearly you didn't watch it. -tom
\_ Wait for it...Wait for it...RIIIIIIIIIIIII-
\_ DELETE FILE!
\_ Don't you mean BALEEATED?!
\_ theplay_long.ram is the highest quality clip I've seen.
(thanks tom!)
\_ any good porn? -hornyguy
\_ Heavens I hope not. The CSUA has had enough pornishment.
\_ tranthra.avi-- dorm+hooker porn. Not good porn.
\_ So when is William "Hung" going to film one of these?
\_ Ok root, I don't think anyone can argue if you delete
that. (Not to mention it's a year old)
\_ It's a classic!
\_ is this a ucb dude?
\_ yes. it takes place in the units.
\_ Is this the one where some kid take a hooker with
flat breasts into his dorm room while his computer
camera on and they have some kind of argument about
why the computer needs to be on?
\_ Does that mean there's no actual sex in it?
\_ There's sex. It's just not well-filmed or erotic.
\_ It's a hilarious video. Not erotic but definitely humorous. |
| 2004/5/4 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:29996 Activity:high |
5/4 Anyone know of a way to send SMS message to mobile phone in China
for free, ie, via the web? thx.
\_ Find the service provider of the person you're trying to SMS.
Then go do a web search for web-based and e-mail SMS gateways
for that provider. |
| 2004/5/4 [Computer/Companies/Apple] UID:29997 Activity:nil |
5/4 M$ patents a new apple:
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-5205574.html?tag=nefd.top
\?_ Wow, they really are planning to take over _everything_.
\_ Trying to license FAT format?
\_ Actually, the new LO-FAT format. |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia] UID:29998 Activity:high |
5/4 Paul Krugman beats out Anne Coulter and Molly Ivans for
"most partisan" http://www.lyinginponds.com
\_ ok please point out the insanity in a krugman column,
take for example http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/04/opinion/04KRUG.html
\_ He's MAKING SENSE. Clearly he's insane.
\_ Extreme partisanship is the New Way. With the country so heavily
segregated along political lines (google for the demographics on
this), partisanship sells and Jimmy Carterish (or, for you
Republicans, Rockefellerish) politics are down the drain.
Also, the Democratic contenders (and in fact, Coulter herself)
would all be kicked out of the top ten if they included talk
radio rather than just syndicated columnists downloaded off the
web. Not to mention every second of Fox News.
\_ Molly Ivins, not Ivans. Sometimes Molly "I can't get two facts
right" Ivins.
\_ With a moron for a target, she doesn't have to.
\_ What is truth? Truth is optional when the cause is worthy. |
| 2004/5/4 [Recreation/Computer/Games, Reference/History/WW2] UID:29999 Activity:high |
5/4 Historical strategy games buffs, play these two:
(a) Europa Universalis 2, (b) Victoria.
Steep learning curve, but very fun. There is also a WWII one using
the same engine, but that's probably not for everybody. -- ilyas
\_ Are either of these free or Free?
\_ No. -- ilyas |
| 2004/5/4 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:30000 Activity:high |
5/4 I don't see any 9/11 controversial posts in the motd archive
like kill arabs, fuck Afghan, etc. I thought that's the basis for
the motd shutdown, which really didn't happen. What's the deal?
\_ No motd archiver yet devised keeps a perfect record, especially
with radioactive comments that immediately get censored.
\_ The email sofia wrote to the officers had at least a sample of the
quotes you're looking for, and yes, they were bad.
\_ you can look on "kais motd " around the time following
9/11. The problem with the quotes in the email is that they were
taken out of context. As I recall, it was basically this one
single person making the most extreme posts and those had plenty
of the types of responses you'd expect to such trolls. Another
example was lifted from a sarcastic reply, you know how sometimes
someone pretends to agree in order to show how it's absurd, well
sofia or whoever quoted one of those. (cf. jews posting "kill the
jews!")
|_ post please
\_ post please?
\_ someone post please?
\_ I second that
\_ don't you need permission from sofia?
\_ Sorry, I don't have it. The only thing I recall is that
1) There were posts that violated even the Supreme Court's
rules for free speech-- cf. inciting violence-- to say
nothing of the ASUC's less permissive rules. Furthermore,
they weren't being deleted as often as you might hope.
2) John posted a file (a snapshot of the motd) that contained
the worst examples he could find, which was helpful-- except
that it was *nothing* compared to what one might have seen if
they were on a constant cycle of "reload cnn. reload bbc.
check motd. channel surf. is nytimes up? reload latimes"
The posts weren't "politically incorrect". It was hate
speech. Now pretend your last name is Hussein on Sept 11
and figure out if you'd be concerned.
\_ Now what difference would it make if CSUA never existed
and your last name was still Hussein on that day?
None.
\_ Wait, so your argument is that since some people
might have been saying horrible things, the CSUA
should provide a forum for them? Should the CSUA
allow white power posts as well?
\_ No my argument is that I didn't find motd
any more offensive than on some other "usual" days.
Of course, if you show me a sample of the offensive
material posted on that day, I'll take my words
back (you know I wasn't monitoring all day..)
\_ There is plenty of name calling and offensive things said on this
motd every day. Someone with root access just decided to be
"politically correct" on that day and shutdown it down. I didn't
see anything abnormally offensive on motd on that day.
\_ And someone else can't "shutdown it down" that axe they've
been grinding ever since.
\_ Free speech is more important to some of us than others.
\_ Free speech?! LOL. This the motd. You must be this
tall to ride.
\_ Not all that tall, unfortunately. |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Domestic/Election, Finance/Investment] UID:30001 Activity:high 88%like:29992 |
5/4 Economy up, Kerry doomed:
http://tinyurl.com/2jloj (sfgate.com)
\_ Yeah, but Bush is a corrupt asshole. I'd vote for an inanimate
carbon rod over Bush.
\_ Did you actually get to SEE the rod?
\_ In rod we trust.
\_ Is that why Bush's numbers keep dropping?
\_ No, that's the effect of the Communist Media.
\_ http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/05/04/rtr1358052.html
\_ Wow, the economy is picking up after hundreds of billions of
dollars of stimulus and 2 wars. But we're turning into a nation
of burger flippers/Walmart employees and rich CEOs with no one in
between. |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Consumer/Camera] UID:30002 Activity:high |
5/4 Um, so I asked the question yesterday about the Canon digital rebel
and what problems people seem to say it has that prevents someone
from moving beyond point-and-shoot yada yada. The kchang link reply
wasn't helpful... anyone know what the deal is?
\_ While we're on the topic, does anyone have a good article that
explains white balance. is this an issue only in digital or film
as well?
\_ It's an issue in film development.
\_ Go to the forums @ http://dpreview.com. In fact, all digital camera
questions should go there.
\_ user interface. Digital Rebel has terriable user interface to
be operated manually (i.e. adjust both apature and shutter speed
manually). Having said that, the best teaching tools is
go get a (used) 100% manual camera with a 50mm lens, and take
black n white classes, you will be amazed how fast you improve.
\_ I totally disagree; digital is a much better way to learn,
because you take more pictures and get more rapid feedback
about how they came out. As for adjusting both aperture and
shutter speed independently, how often is that really necessary?
Aperture or shutter-priority mode with exposure compensation
will handle almost all the needs of most photographers. -tom
\_ How often? All the time if you know wtf you're doing and
want the best results.
\_ it's two degree of freedom no matter what. Digital
Rebel is not designed to tinker with both without pushing
tiny buttons to switch mode. and, yes, Digital is much
more convinient than 35mm, but convinient doesn't equate
to better tool to learn.
To move beyond point n shoot requires dicipline, and
I've seen too many newbies lost his/her dicipline
completely with digital camera. For beginners, it's
more important to *THINK* before shutter is pressed,
it's more important to use plain old center-weighted
meter to read different exposure situation (instead of
rely on AI). Most beginner knows the existance of
exposure compensation, but they don't know when to
override the automatic meter. Further more, B*W film
is known for unlenient latitude toward exposure. Each
failed exposure means the image will not come out at all.
For digital camera, like all consumer product, a lot
of effort has put into software which automatically
making adjustments so the picutre turn out correctly.
That, combine with unknown characteristics of CCD/CMOS
exposure latitude, give newbies false sense of
security.
\- i really really hate this recent trend in cameras/lenses
that make changing the aperture a pain in the ass ...
worst are ass lenses like the nikon Gs which have no
control ring. even on high end cameras prefer you
to use one of the on-body dials ... which just seems
difficult handle while trying to take pix quickly.
i think most people just care about composition for
fairly easy shots to take. digital is sort of a
brute force approach ... bracket like crazy and pick
your shots later. if that isnt an option you need to know
what you are doing. it ise usefulto have EXIF info
but i think few people end up going over this stuff.
"taking better pix" != learning photography. for the first,
go digital, if you can afford it. for the latter,
canon f-1, if you can afford it. --psb
\_ When I was looking for a SLR digital camera I spoke to some of
the pro/near-pro photographers at work about which canon to get
(10D vs digital rebel). They all said that the 10D was overkill
for someone learning photograhy and that the digital rebel was a
much better choice. One said that while the ui wasn't the best
for full-manual shooting (the reasons given above, plus a few
more to do with the focal points) it was good enough to learn all
the aspects of good photography without getting bogged down in
the minutiae of a "true" pro camera. One or two told me that they
had a digital rebel which they used for personal photography
mostly because it was lighter and smaller than the 10D (and
similar).
Personally, I feel that the digital rebel is a great camera
(given that you get a pretty good lens w/ the camera for around
$950 or so). I've learnt more about photography with it than I
did with a fully manual camera mostly because it lets me take
lots of photos and compare the results of my manual settings with
those of the fully auto settings. I have played around with fully
manual cameras (my dad is a photonut) but I could never get
decent enough photos to stick with it and learn the nuances
because it was too hard to get a decent photo (I would often
leave my camera at home on trips, because no pictures was about
the same as getting really crappy pictures, not so with the
digital rebel). YMMV.
\_ i read about someone german guy hacking the digital rebel ROM
to unleash all the features in the more expensive 10d. |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:30003 Activity:nil |
5/4 "There are no longer torture chambers or mass graves or rape rooms
in Iraq." -- President Bush, 04/30/04 |
| 2004/5/4 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:30004 Activity:nil |
0/3 dude!
\_ "The pattern and practice of the Saddam Hussein regime was to do
exactly what you said, to murder and torture, and the killing
fields are filled with mass graves. And equating the two, I think,
is a fundamental misunderstanding of what took place" at Abu Ghraib
- Rumsfeld
\_ Well, let's see. We've got what looks to be rape at Abu Ghraib.
We've definitely got the torture. And we've now got a little
mass grave of our own in Falluja. So where's the
misunderstanding exactly?
\_ Don't be obtuse. The people the perpetrated these acts are
going to be held accountable -- probably to an extreme
considering the current political climate. This stuff is
regarded as morally reprehensible in our culture and society.
This cannot be said of Saddam Hussein's regime. -mice
\_ I've no doubt that some of these people will be held
accountable, but I'm doubtful that the chain of command
that likely created the climate that encouraged this
crap will be held responsible.
\_ "I am not a lawyer, but what I have seen would qualify as
abuse, not torture, so I am not going to address claims of
torture." -Rumsfeld (doesn't he sound more like Clinton every day?) |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll/Kinney] UID:30005 Activity:high |
5/4 Kinney finally blogs: http://www.kuro5hin.org/user/ipex/diary \_ the CSUA motd was a blog a decade before the word was invented \_ how many other CSUA'ers blog? |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:30006 Activity:insanely high |
5/4 Some Vietnam vets slam Kerry
http://csua.org/u/76i
\_ Now (Iraq torturing) is probably not the best time to doubt claims
of atrocities committed by US forces in Vietnam.
\_ Taking photos of nude prisoners is not torture.
It is hazing - similar activities take place
is fraternities.
\_ And this illustrates why all the libruls are just brain
dead, if they had any brain to begin with. Hazing is a
priviledge. Even in America, very few of the incoming
students who beg for it would have the honor of getting
hazed. To think the Iraqis are getting it for free,
witout even so much as asking for it, should make every
American green with jealousy and want to become an Iraqi.
\_ yawn, this is the best you can do? I'd expect
more from a high school sophmore.
\_ Kerry claims everyone in Vietnam did it (except him of
course)
\_ in all the 4 months Kerry was runner scumming in
his speed boat, he managed to kill 1 unarmed vietcong
and many innocent civilians
\_ How the heck do you know? I'd like to. Link?
\_ some guys have a beef with him from 1971, who cares.
\_ '"I do not believe John Kerry is fit to be commander in chief of
the U.S. armed forces," said retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffmann,
chairman of the organization.'
My father served in Vietnam and Somalia, and he doesn't think
W is fit to lick shit off a vet's boots. So why should you care
what either of them think?
\_ Was your father Bush's commander in the Air National
Guard? Some of the signees were Kerry's supervisors
in Vietnam. Did Bush protest against Vietnam and
Somalia for political gain? Nor does Bush portray
himself as a war hero, Kerry does. Consequently
the opinion of Kerry's contemporaries is pertinent.
\_ One guy questioned one of his three purple hearts.
A few other didn't like him because he was anti-
war. That's all they had on him. Smells partisan
to me.
\_ How many times does this have to repeated???
An overwhelming majority of the veterans are
not condemning his participation or medals,
but his despicable actions after the war.
He was in the vanguard of leftists
undermining of the Vietnam war effort. He
and his ilk are why a free Hanoi subsequently
fell and the millions fled on rafts. All
of his behavoir is well documented if you
would bother to investigate:
http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry
\_ Bush is running as the hero/furer/messiah for 9/11+iraq. |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Reference/History/WW2] UID:30007 Activity:very high |
5/4 What important US event happened near the end of September 1776?
\_ The first use of US-sponsored terrorism (the New York fire)?
So google tells me. -- ilyas
\_ Do you hate America???
\_ If you tell me what America is, I will tell you if I hate it.
-- ilyas
\_ That sounds suspiciously like what a Communist would say |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Recreation/Computer/Games] UID:30008 Activity:high |
5/4 I want to buy 'settlers of catan' online (because the idea of
leaving the house is abohorent to me). Also, i'm a cheap bastard
is there some discount game place online :)
\_ It's called "<DEAD>www.ebay.com"<DEAD> You might have heard of it.
\_http://www.google.com/froogle?q=settlers+of+catan&btnG=Search+Froogle&scoring=p
\_ http://tinyurl.com/yrlzz (froogle)
\_ I got it and others from http://funagain.com, they were nice/fast
\- funagain and fairplay are good in service and price.
if you are trying to save $, you should try to cluster
to amortize shipping cost ... like with catan you might
get the 5-6pp set at the same time. actually if you are
in berkeley, i might be interested in clustering a
game order. --psb
\_ funagain is good. fairplay is usually cheaper but i've never
ordered from them... i just get funagain to match their prices.
\_ Crypto fascist! |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Consumer/TV] UID:30009 Activity:high |
5/4 anyone know if there will be any dual layer DVD writers on the
market? i am thinking of whether to buy a DVD writer now or
wait for the dual layer ones (if any).
\_ Yes, there already is one announced (I forget if it was Pioneer
or not). Good luck, however, on getting media.
\_ Sony
\_ Only the Sony one for now, and both the drive and media cost
megabucks ($4000/drive, $40/disc) |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:30010 Activity:very high |
5/4 What's the probability of Bush getting reelected? Will he stage
something like the Taiwan president did? (ie, let one terrorist
attempt be successful the week before election?)
\_ You mean like 9/11?
\_ on a much smaller scale. 911 again would be bad for Bush.
\_ Another 9/11 would be great for Bush. It would also result
in a draft, large scale mobilization of industrial capacity
of the US, and the summary squishing of most of the Middle
East, in my opinion. Bush is at his best in squishing mode.
Nothing's scarier than a pissed off America mobilized for war.
What's happening now is scary enough, and we aren't even on
anywhere close to war footing. -- ilyas
\_ Hmm. I'm not so sure about this. If it was Bin Laden again,
well, it doesn't look like there would be anything in
particular to do about it. I don't think congress would
jump on board a general "war on muslims" policy. The other
dictators are being pussies lately. Hell, Saddam was trying
hard to be a pussy until the end.
\_ Not 'war on muslims', 'war on fundamentalist islam, and
middle eastern dictatorships'.
\_ You know, Oliver Stone foretold all of this in Wild Palms
s/911/boca raton nuke/g and it's very creepy - even to the
part about the "Liberty Bill"
\_ according to John Zogby it's very close to 50/50, and he makes money
off of being right, not off of being partisan one way or the
other.
\_ I'd be really curious what the oddsmakers have on it. Can you bet
point spread on elections or is it only up/down?
\_ The Insider has it at 9/8, tradesports at 58/42. You can
bet on total electoral votes on tradesports. Betting on
elections is illegal in the United States.
http://www.campaignline.com/index.cfm
\_ What are the odds on the US "suddenly" capturing UBL in
October?
http://csua.org/u/76q
\_ The odds on him being captured by Set are 30/70, by
the end of the year 40/60. |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:30011 Activity:high |
5/4 Has anyone been able to use links (the browser) to view http://nytimes.com? \_ Yes, what seems to be the problem? \_ I can't log in. It's as if it's not accepting cookies-- I put in csuamotd/csuamotd, submit, and it takes me back to the same page. \_ Do you mean lynx? I have no problem. \_ links != lynx: http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links |
| 2004/5/4-5 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:30012 Activity:insanely high |
5/4 I am living in a house with a large garden around it. What's
a good but cheap way to make sure that the ants don't venture
into the house during summer?
\_ when my roommates and i threw out the piles of rotting food, the
ants left.
\_ what about the maggots? WHAT ABOUT THE MAGGOTS?
\_ FLYPAPER!!!!!!
\_ Leave a trail of sugar from your garden to your house.
\_ did you mean to say "from your how to your garden" (so
that the ants leave the house)?
\_ Put ant baits at the windows and doors.
\_ water your lawn before sun rise helps. and, periodically
check the seal between your house's fundation and the wooden
walls. The concret-like seal tend to break easily, and ants find
its way in from there.
\_ buy some chiton based pest control. it shreds the little buggers
and doesnt poison the earth.
\_ Dig a 3 foot trench around your house, fill with oil, light. Refill
as needed.
\_ Ah, the Boys from Brazil are back.
\_ "Grant's Ant Stakes". They work great when put around your house.
I used to live in SoCal, where ants can be a big problem. |
| 3/15 |