7/31    Do people know what the paypal fee schedule is? Also does anyone know
        if they do "charity cases" on a commission-free basis or something
        like that? Context at ~psb/MOTD/FloodRelief, if you are so motivated.
        --psb
        \_ Partha, let us know what you find out.  Thanks, erikred
        \_ May be wrong here, but didn't Amazon's Honor System do free
           processing for charities?  Or was that only for the 9/11 Red
           Cross fund?

7/31    http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/new_words.htm3
        I'm surprised that lossless and menudo are only now making their way
        into the dictionary.

7/31    I'm trying to download a flash application (swf) but it seems like
        it's also trying to load other things. How can I download flash
        applications? Thanks.
        \_ More info needed: browser? OS? site?

7/31    Post-convention Newsweek poll: Kerry/Edwards 54, Bush/Cheney 41.
        \_ Newsweek about as left as can be.
        \_ What struck me most about the Dem. convention was who was sitting
           next to Teresa during Kerry's speech, none other than
           Robert Rubin.  The same Robert Rubin of Enron, LTCM, and
           Mexico bailout fame.  It should be pretty clear who controls
           Washington, at least on the Dem side.
           \_ The desperate mewling of the neocons as they go down in flames
              is highly amusing.  Please continue, I'm putting together an
              almanac of quotes to mock you with post November 2nd.
              The official post convention numbers are here, in the graph
              at the top.  Nader included is first, Nader not included is
              second.  The rest listed are out of date.
              http://pollingreport.com/wh04gen.htm
              Here's the Newsweek story.  Given the negative spin they
              give these numbers for Kerry, the "left as can be" quote
              from above is pretty funny.
              http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5568072/site/newsweek
                 \_ Do you know anything about Robert Rubin?
              \_ Now I'm not a conservative or anything, but your "going down
                 in flames" claim is a little silly.  Most of the country
                 is deadlocked and either 99% sure they're voting for Kerry
                 or 99% sure they're voting for Bush.  One side will win in
                 november by getting a majority of the *very* small   group
                 of undecideds on their side.  This will not constitute either
                 side "going down in flames."  If Kerry wins, we can expect
                 the Republicans to start their usual shitfest at once,
                 probably looking for some way to impeach Kerry within a few
                 months.

7/31    Not including jobs got through people you knew well.  How many
        applications/interviews did you go through before landing a job?
        \_ Anywhere from 1 to about 10 depending on how bad the economy is but
           I skip all the jobs that are obviously lame.

7/31    Dead bitter old jew crone wastes deathbed wish:
        http://www.local10.com/news/3598475/detail.html
        She could have asked her family to do something meaningful and lasting
        like helping the local pet shelter or orphaned children or gave her
        money to the make a wish foundation.  Please God, never let me become
        so partisan and bitter that my dying wish is some ugly political crap.
        \_ maybe you should ask your God to help you reduce your own bitterness.
           why do you feel the need to describe this person as a "jew crone"?
        \_ A similar story: http://www.whistleass.com
        \_ 1) Jew crone? Lame troll.
           2) http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/obituary.asp
              The original is always preferable to the vector.

7/31    Sport of Kings:
        http://www.bayareaseg.com/video/SegwayPoloWeb.mov
        \_ ha! so you can fall off a segway!  fuck segway.  I'm sticking with
           my unicycle.  that's how a real man plays polo.
        \_ Cue people with too much money on their hands!
        \_ well at least someone found a use for them.
        \_ While these assholes are doing this, there are people
           being chained together and burned alive in Darfur.
           \_ Yes, but do they like polo?
           \_ An accurate reflection of our priorities as Americans.
           \_ Good thing you're helping those poor people in Darfur.
           \_ Where's Darfur and wtf does that have to do with anything?  Is no
              one anywhere on the planet allowed to enjoy themselves in a silly
              way so long as one person somewhere else is suffering in some
              way?  You're either a total moron or a troll.
                    \_ Actually it's my deep and abiding hatred of segways

7/31    I was having dinner with a former 6th grade teacher and a
        classmate last night (haven't seen both in years). I was dragged
        into a political discussion I didn't really want to get into.
        The result was the usual left-wing/bleeding-heart-liberal
        diatribe against corporations, money, etc. So from what I
        gather the reasoning is something like this:
        Greed is bad, therefore corporations are bad because they
        exploit workers by underpaying them. Corporations should be
        avoided and heavily restricted.
        Now, this is the part I don't get. If there were no corporations
        in the first place, wouldn't people be unemployed? And if
        people are unemployed, wouldn't that be a "bad thing?"
        Also, corporations pay a lot of taxes in the form of employment
        and income, so doesn't the government greatly benefit from
        having business and trade around?
        Just a caveat, the former teacher and classmate have never held
        a "real" job before. The classmate was stuck in a jungle for
        2 years doing peace core shit and recently came back. I don't
        know about you, but I think the education system is pretty fucked
        if we have people like this running our schools.
        \_ Go vouchers!!! Oh wait teacher's unions control the schools and
           Dem. Party....
        \_ As anyone who worked for a corporation will tell you, corporations
           _do_ suck, for the most part.  But avoiding or restricting
           corporations treats the symptom, not the disease.  I don't think
           anyone knows how to treat the disease (which, btw, has nothing to
           do with corporations themselves, it's apparent in the public sector
           too). -- ilyas
           \_ Seems to me the common factor is concentrated wealth and power.
              "Soulless bureaucracies" are manifestations of power that can
              generally be traced to a few large stockholders or government
              officials.  What do we mean by "restricting corporations"?
              Regulating human employment, monopolies, and corporate actions
              affecting health, safety, and the environment all seem to be
              desirable to me, in this capitalist system, to protect against
              the abuses inherently possible with these massive differences
              in wealth and power. The government itself is *supposed* to
              manifest the power of the "people" but obviously this too needs
              watching. But corps. generally represent the power of very few.
                 --motd moderate
              \_ '... needs watching.'  Yes indeed.  The problem is, even with
                 government watchdog groups, it's much harder to get the
                 government to change.  Anyways, I am not really holding my
                 breath for an improvement until the world has achieved
                 americanization/globalization/localization.  I think when that
                 happens a lot of problems will go away.
                 (By 'a/g/l' I mean the country's gvt systems and economies
                 will come to resemble the US, while at the same time there
                 will be a huge push to decentralize most aspects of the
                 government, start cultural preservation movements, and so on.
                 So both a localization and a globalization will happen at once)
                   -- ilyas

7/31    Using CSS, is there a way to make my text just take up the middle 700
        points of the webpage, similar to the way it would be done as if I
        had made a table with width="700" (using only HTML)? Thanks.
        \_ http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#box-properties  -tom
        \_ http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1#box-properties  -tom
           \_ whoever keeps messing up this URL, stop.  -tom
        \_ here's a real world example of using CSS mixed w/ kludge to get
           the desired effect:
                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
                http://creativecommons.org/includes/deeds.css

7/31    So I'll ask again.  Is aMule just a porn distribution system?
        That's all my searchs turn up.
        \_ You know I downloaded some dog / women porn and ever
           since I see dogs differently when they are on the
           street.
           \_ This is why I avoid porn altogether.  You never know what
              kind of wierd crap is gonna get stuck in your brain.
              kind of weird crap is gonna get stuck in your brain.
              \_ but is that always a bad thing?
                \_ kind of. I got introduced to creampie porn and got really
                   hooked on it. I got so hooked that I'm having sex
                   without any protection, which is really really bad.
                   \_ what the hell is "creampie porn"?
                        \_ you can google for it, but I don't suggest it.
                           It's kind of addictive once you tried it (assuming
                           you have a gf and she is willing to give it a try)
           \_ following this line of logic, do you also avoid tv and movies?
              \_ In case you haven't noticed, our bland monolithic culture
                 is unlikely to produce anything challening enough to fit
                 the poster's objections.
                 \_ I would rate American Idol about as low as dog/women
                    porn.
                    \_ Didn't they have specially trained dogs in the Roman
                       coliseums rape women for entertainment? -- ilyas
                       \_ pics and urls please!
                 \_ no I was left with a feeling of revulsion... after
                    a while.
        \_ no.  It is more than that.  It is my 2ndary pirating sources
           for things I don't bother to buy, or want to try it before I buy
           it.
           \_ and your primary? BitTorrent?
              \_ Where can one use them safely?  Are the FED scanning the
                 net to track those accessing them?
                 \_ If you're a criminal, expect to be caught if someone wants
                    to find you.  There is no safe way to be a criminal.  The
                    only 100% way to avoid a piracy rap is to not be a pirate.
                    \_ Form which commie country did you immigrate?  Here you
                       are not a criminal unless caught by the law, and you
                       are innocent until a jury decides otherwise.  It's legit
                       to ask how to stay free.

7/31    [ no, see, you need to restore the entire thread. ]
        \_ Grow up you self-righteous little worm and stop seeing so called
           censorship everywhere.  It was a partial restore because that was
           what was easily extractable from the logs.  If you want to do
           better, then restore everything yourself.  It was clear this was
           not an ideologically driven edit.
           \_ I don't care whether it was ideologically driven, petty, or
              another kind of edit.  Whenever it happens, surrounding context
              will get nuked.  End of story.  Don't edit other people's shit.
              \_ Yep, temper tantrum.
              \_ Hey little worm, do you understand this is not a matter of
                 any "editing"...it's a matter of a best effort *restore*.
                 You are punishing the wrong person.  It probably isn't worth
                 my time to catch you doing this, but let's not beat around
                 the bush and pretend there is some principle in what you
                 are doing.
                 \_ No, *this* is the temper tantrum.
                    \_ No, this is aggrivation.
                       \_ And this is bad spelling.
        \_ Shrug.  Not my thread, not my posts.  I just restored as a public
           service.  Why don't you restore what I missed, if it means so
           much to you?  Don't know how to run rcs, do you?
           \_ Nuking all discussion as a response to partial deletes is much
              more effective than restores.
              \_ great, now we have an effective way to get rid of trolls
              \_ Gee, and I thought you were just a child throwing a temper
                 tantrum.
              \_ Nuking all discussion as a response to anything is stupid.
                 Restoring the damaged thread to an undamaged state immediately
                 and without comment is the best way to fight childish partial
                 deletes and the typical not-at-all-funny edits on the motd.
                 \_ Not all discussion, just the thread in question.  The
                    reasoning goes like this: any edit (except accidental ones)
                    whether ideological, joke, etc entails a lack of respect
                    for what the (edited) person had to say.  Why should that
                    person be singled out for said lack of respect?  Let's
                    apply it uniformly.  The environment we are shooting for is
                    "edit someone's post -> no one gets to have any more fun."
                    \_ You need to make a distinction between ideological
                       edits and partial restores because a thread was
                       "damaged" ... partial edits, then added to, then
                       partial restores etc ... which someone tries to
                       unideologically restore the bulk of rather than
                       leaving it truncated.
                       \_ I appreciate the attempt at public service, but
                          frankly, if you are just restoring a truncated
                          version then don't bother.  It has the same effect
                          as just leaving partial edits be.  I am not going to
                          let partial edits be.