Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2004:December:06 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>
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2004/12/6 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:35180 Activity:high
12/5    http://fallujahinpictures.com
        About as graphic as you imagine, and very depressing.
        \_ Hmm.  The pictures are graphic and very disturbing, but the strict
           focus on mutilated bodies and wounded people seems to slant the
           'photo-essay' into a potentially distasteful political message while
           neglecting to capture any real sense of the iraqis as a people.
           I mean, if even *one* picture other than blood and gore (in the
           two weeks of grisly images I scrolled through) had been included,
           I wouldn't have formed this opinion.
           \_ What do you want?  People in a refugee camp?  Someone parallel
              parking?  Or walking their dog?  They're addressing the failure
              of the media of showing NONE of this gore, not the lives of
              Iraqis..  If they were trying to show that, they would go there
              with cameras themselves.
           \_ Well, whatever it is, it isn't journalism.  It's kind of
              a mirror image of foxnews.  What I want to see is real
              reporting on the *overall* situation in Iraq, not just
              what brave marines fighting(fox) or dead people(this blog)
              look like.  These pictures could have been from any war.
              \_ Which is a point in itself.  They could be from any war,
                 but they're from this one, and you haven't seen them
                 anywhere else.  Finding some modicum of real reporting
                 isn't hard.  You just have to look outside this country.
                 \_ I think these pictures are counter-productive. The
                    public didn't see stuff like this during WW II. I have
                    a relative in Iraq and he send back a lot of cool
                    pictures of him with Iraqi kids and stuff, but that's
                    not 'news' either because it doesn't fit anyone's
                    agenda.
                    \_ USA Today and Fox have have images like this (US soldier
                       with Iraqui chidren) on a regular basis. It's not news
                       but its great propaganda. I would guess there's a new
                       one of these each week in USA Today, for instance. This
                       does not belittle your relative's experience. The
                       implication such pictures have not been showing up in
                       the mainstream media is simply false, though.
                       \_ I haven't seen very many positive stories. It's
                          not that they don't exist, but that the negative
                          and sensationalist stories are far more common.
                    \_ No pictures like this from WW2?  Are you sure that you
                       know what you're talking about?  Pictures of Auschwitz
                       and other concentration camps were critical in raising
                       awareness of what the Nazis had done.  Just because
                       the pictures don't support the US agenda doesn't mean
                       that they should be censored, as they essentially are
                       in the US media.
                       \_ WW II was all but over by then. I have old
                          newspapers and they were not full of pictures of
                          all the people that died on D-Day, for instance.
                          This 'journalism' really began with Vietnam.
                          \_ How is it journalism to deliberately not
                             report something?  Keep in mind that there are
                             huge technological leaps between WWII and Vietnam
                             (satellite communication, etc.) and between
                             Vietnam and now (too many to list).  As has been
                             discussed in many other places, Gulf War 2 is
                             probably the most heavily covered war zone ever.
                             And the journalists covering it have technologies
                             at their disposal to increase frequency and detail
                             of stories that previous generations could only
                             dream about.  The availability of a technology
                             that increases information means that it is likely
                             to be used, regardless of how much you wring
                             your hands about it.  Moralizing will not turn
                             back the clock.  Digital cameras and the Internet
                             are a Pandora's box that we cannot close.
                             \_ The media has an obligation to present a
                                story, not to become 'reality television'
                                like showing car chases. The media
                                obviously doesn't show scenes like the
                                beheadings. Heck, they won't even show the
                                inside of a slaughterhouse (for animals).
                                We know certain things happen in war and
                                to focus on those few hideous things is to
                                ignore the big picture. There's a good
                                reason the media doesn't show graphic
                                images and they shouldn't. Let people seek
                                them out if they want them, but not in the
                                mainstream.
                                \_ The only obligation the corporate media
                                   has is to generate revenue for their
                                   shareholders.  That's it.  Fuck the
                                   corporate media.
2004/12/6 [Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:35181 Activity:nil
12/6    To the guy who was asking about ports 0/1 sending 'blocks' on a Mac,
        we tried it with an autogenerated config and didn't see this happen.
        See for yourself with `nmap O -P0 -p1-1023 -sV <your IP>`  -John
2004/12/6 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:35182 Activity:high
12/6    Is there any way to place/enforce DRM on an application written in a
        scripting language, short of having it "phone home" to decrypt itself
        each time it runs?
        \_ Die.
           \_ I dislike DRM as much as the next guy, but I'm still curious.
              No need to be a knee-jerk jerk.
              \_ Depends on what you mean by "enforcing". There is no way
                 to produce uncrackable DRM without an external control
                 mechanism or the aid of the hardware. If you just want to
                 make it harder, you can use those scripting language
                 to bin programs and then apply an executable encrypter
                 or successively more complicated schemes, but with enough
                 work, it's still crackable (and there are some very
                 enterprising crackers out there).
        \_ Yes.  Will it be cracked in minutes?  Maybe.  Hours?  Most likely.
           Days? Without a doubt.  The fundamental problem with all DRM
           mechanisms is that, at some point, you give the user the decryption
           key.  At that moment, you (the DRM vendor/fascist content owner)
           lose.  This is true regardless of how obfuscated your mechanism for
           transmitting the key is.  Aside from their hard-on for extracting
           (even more) money from consumers by granting themselves new rights
           that don't exist under conventional copyright law, one of the
           reasons content industry execs bought into DRM was that they were
           too technically clueless to recognize that the ``give the user the
           key'' flaw that is inherent to all DRM systems.  The empirical
           evidence of numerous trivially cracked DRM systems (hold down the
           shift key, use a black sharpie on the edge of the CD, etc.), and
           the 20/20 vision of hindsight has made their obvious `Whoopsie'
           clear to them.  The DMCA and the continuing legal onslaught is a
           crass and sorry attempt to use to law to patch over a gaping
           technical hole.
           -dans
           \_ You sir, are a moron.
              \_ Care to expand on that?  What are the flaws in his argument?
        \_ Use rot26 encryption, anyone who cracks it will be violating
           the DMCA and you can ask the feds to put them in jail!
           \_ Crap!  Merely by reading this sentence I violated the DMCA!
2004/12/6 [Finance/Investment] UID:35183 Activity:moderate
12/6    From the "They'll never learn" department.  Dow 36,000 returns!
        http://www.techcentralstation.com/120504A.html
        \_ I'm not sure what you're saying.  Are you saying that over a 17
           year period stock value won't increase?
        \_ Hmm, at 8% a year for 15 years it would be about 33,000.  So,
           what's the problem?
           \_ The problem is that this dude thinks the fair value for the
              Dow right now is 36,000.
2004/12/6 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:35184 Activity:nil
12/6    http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=477
        \_ I like this one. Couldn't sound more wingnutty if he tried:
           http://csua.org/u/a7j (onlinejournal.com)
2004/12/6 [Recreation/Computer/Games] UID:35185 Activity:high
12/6    Are you too old for a GameBoy?
        \_ Yes.  The LCD display is too hard to see for my eyes.
        \_ No, but too old for a lot of its games. -24
           \_ what kind of games (besides Mario bros type of games?)
        \_ Advance Wars rules.  -tom
           \_ Tom, you and I had our differences in the past, but if you
              like Advance Wars, check out Nectaris for ps1.  Love that
              game. -- ilyas
              \_ will you give me a PS1 and a TV to use it with?  -tom
                 \_ You can also try nectaris for the PC or the tg16
                    emulator (although the graphics are suckier... not that
                    nectaris is about graphics), just to see how it plays.
                      -- ilyas
                    \_ tom and ilyas making up!  awww ....
                       \_ No way.  Tom has cooties. -- ilyas
                          \_ and you know that because...
                          \_ tom and ilyas are actually the same person, and
                             he is responsible for 99% of all postings to MOTD
                             \_ So, John, williamc, ausman, and meyers are all
                                just subroutines?  What about The Geordan?
                             \_ tom + ilyas = TOMILYAS -> MOSTLY A.I.
                                \_ My LOST AI!
                                \_ A, SO MILTY!
                                \_ I LOST YAM! MOIST LAY!
                                \_ MOLT, I SAY!
        \_ Check out Wario.  It's much more fun that it sounds.
2004/12/6-7 [Computer/HW/Memory, Computer/HW/CPU] UID:35186 Activity:high
12/6    I'm at my wit's end with a problem.  I'm running WinXP and a lot of
        newer 3D games make the machine randomly lock hard.  There isn't much
        pattern to it, but some games do it and some don't.  This problem is
        not mentioned under tech support for the games besides the generic
        "Update your drivers and DirectX" which I've done.  Games which crash
        include Railroad Tycoon 3, Rome:Total War and Sid Meier's Pirates, and
        in the non-crash group is GTA:Vice City, Doom3, and MS Flight Sim 2004.
        I don't know what else to try, is it a hardware failure of some type,
        or maybe AGP apperture?  This is a GeForceFX5700 on an Athlon XP.
        \_ SP2?  Running in safe mode works?  Maybe bad memory?  -John
           \_ SP2.  Can you use D3D in safe mode?  Other apps are stable.
                \_ SP2 fucks up a lot of apps and games.  There are lists
                   of known problems at the MS site.  I think there's a way
                   under safe mode to select the drivers you load.  Just as
                   a terribly stupid idea, try setting up a vmware session and
                   running the game inside that--it might give you some more
                   clues.  -John
                   \_ The SP2 issues page seems all about firewall issues,
                      which is not the problem.  Safe mode, while a good idea,
                      prevents DirectX from working.
        \_ I had some similar problems after I installed a new video card
           in my old computer. Make sure you are not overloading your video
           bus. Try turning down the AGP rate from 4X to 2X or even 1X and
           then see if it still happens. I tried a bunch of things before
           I hit upon this. You can set it in your start-up screen. -ausman
           \_ Motherboard supports 2x and 4x.  Switching to 2x did not fix it.
        \_ Do you have the VIA chipset?  I do, and I have the same
           symptoms, as documented on <DEAD>viaarena.com<DEAD>.  -ax
           \_ MB is Abit KG7, with AMD 761 northbridge and VIA 686B south.
           \_ What did you do about it? -ausman
                \_ I got used to not being able to play the Medal of Honor
                   series.  Most other 3D games work fine.  -ax
        \_ Could be something overheating.
           \_ But Doom3 runs fine for hours.
        \_ My younger brother had this exact problem after we added another
           Corsair CL2 DIMM to get him to 1 GB.  Entered BIOS settings and
           turned CAS settings from Auto or CL2 to CL3 - now everything works
           fine.
           \_ Some games worked and other didn't? -op
              \_ I don't think you should put too much concern on the
                 "some game work and other don't". The game that works
                 may just be not exercising the CPU enough or something.
                 I would suggest the following, download "Ultimate BootCD"
                 and try a burn-in test, if your mahcine locks up, it's BIOS
                 or hardware problem. If it passes, then maybe a software
                 problem, reinstall XP from scrach and see if it helps.
                 If it's a software problem, most likely it'll go away.
              \_ Yes.
           \_ Can you start to play some games and then they lock up,
              or will they lock up your computer on startup?
              \_ In my case they will start, then lock randomly in 1-10
                 minutes. Screen freezes and sound gets stuck in a loop.  -op
                 \_ Now's the time to upgrade to an Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester!
                    -sl0da l0s3r
                 \_ Yeah, exact same symptoms as mine. I am pretty sure you
                    are overloading your graphics subsystem. Have you installed
                    the latest firmware upgrades on both your graphics card
                    and your mother board? Could be a sound card problem
                    too, but it seems unlikely from what you have said.
                    Any kind of hardware or driver changes lately? -ausman
                        \_ Same symptoms for me too.  -ax
        \_ OK, an update for those whove been helping me:  I ran memtest86 and
           one other memory tester.  Both ran for a while reporting no errors
           until the system suddenly locked up.  I ran the mersenne prime
           torture test and had no problems.  So something is flakey, but how
           can I be sure it's the RAM, not the CPU?  My motherboard monitor
           reports in-spec temperatures and voltages both at idle and when
           running GIMPS.
           \_ Can you try a stick from another PC?
              \_ I have 2 different sticks in there now, both in use for at
                 least a year.  I'll try selectively pulling one later.  For
                 now I'm wondering about a good CPU-only stress test (like
                 one that uses only a tiny bit of memory and no mallocs() ).
                 \_ OK, I tried each stick on its own.  One crashes very
                    fast while the other takes a while.  So, either I have 2
                    bad DDR sticks, or something else is fucked.  Suggestions?
                    \_ It's your motherboard. Abit KG7s are know to be flakey.
                       Return it and get something not Abit, like a Gigabyte.
                       Abit + P4 + Via also has problems. I only recommend
                       Abit if it's the more expensive standard Intel chipset
                       version. Avoid Via chipset abits, especially if you
                       are using P4. Also, K series is known to be flakey.
                       You can try upgrading the BIOS and see if that helps,
                       but I never got one to work reliable, especially
                       on high load stuff.
                       -williamc
                                \_ I agree with williamc, I think it's
                                   my motherboard as well, but am too lazy
                                   to change it since my disks are raided. -ax
                       \_ BIOS is current.  I'm afraid you might be right.
                          Can you reccomend a stable MB for an 266FSB Athlon?
                          \_ I'v been using a GA-7VT600 gigabyte for
                             some time now with Linux/XP and no problems.
                             It's got a KT600 and it can support up to 400
                             FSB. BTW, the reason why your MB is flakey is
                             because of the chipset combo. It's a via/amd
                             solution that just doesn't work. Avoid combo
                             solutions like this. Plus, whatever you do
                             avoid the KT266 like the plague (older
                             via chipset). Your solution was due to the
                             KT266 instability (the A version doesn't help
                             matters much, just avoid any MB like this)
                             Via cleaned up its act aver the KT266 debacle
                             and Via+Athlon is pretty stable now. Via+P4
                             is the crap, especially the P880 series.
                             -williamc
                          \_ Motherboard having hardware issues does not
                             explain why it would lock up in some games
                             and not in others. Do you mean "flakey' in
                             some other fashion?
                             \_ Yes it does, I've seen this before on Linux
                                also. 90% of programs ran fine, even a
                                kernel recompile. But when we began to
                                load the system up with circuit simulations
                                the thing would segfault at random. It took
                                me a week of replacing parts to find out it
                                was the MB initially. What was interesting
                                was that stuff started to fail in succession.
                                First there was the segfault issue, then
                                all of a sudden kernel recompiles failed, then
                                the IDE controller went out for no reason.
                                Chipset problems usually only appear if you
                                stress the system long enough. That's why it
                                passes QA and gets put on the shelf. -williamc
                             \_ Presume that any game can lock the system by
                                sending a corrupt instruction to the video
                                driver or AGP controller.  Now if there's a
                                MB/chipset that is randomaly corrupting some
                                writes to main memory, a game which makes more
                                writes has more chances to get stung, and send
                                a corrupted instruction.  Just one explanation.
                                \_ Yeah, but shouldn't that mean that he
                                   should see Doom3 crashes sometimes as well?
                                   Less frequently yes, but none at all?
                                   Something else is happening that we are
                                   not quite understanding here.
                                   \_ RR Tycoon, Pirates, and Rome must have
                                      something different about them than GTA,
                                      Doom, and flightsim. Maybe he should try
                                      underclocking his FSB and see if things
                                      get more stable. Anyway the memtest
                                      indicates the RAM is the problem area.
                                      \_ Memtest doesn't report any problems,
                                         it flat-out locks the system. This
                                         is with 2 different RAM sticks. -op
                                      \_ No, you're wrong. It's the MB, plain
                                         and simple. Just because it appears
                                         as if it's a memtest problem doesn't
                                         mean it's not the MB. Trust me, it's
                                         the MB. I have direct experience
                                         with Abit K series MBs, I've seen
                                         stuff like the IDE controller going
                                         wonky, the serial ATA going wonky,
                                         the video AGP problem going wonky,
                                         etc. The memtest is only one
                                         symptom of basically a chipset
                                         problem. Hardware is complex, it's
                                         not like software where you can
                                         pinpoint stuff to one dll and say
                                         the bug is there. It's the MB, stop
                                         wasting time and just get it replaced.
                                         It costs $50. -williamc
                                         \_ Thanks for your help.  What do you
                                            think of this mobo:
                                            http://tinyurl.com/4ul8f
                                            \_ It looks fine, I've never had
                                               an issue with nvidia chipset.
                                               I've had some minor problems
                                               with MSI, though, but that's
                                               on the P4 side. Your athlon
                                               should be fine as long as
                                               you get a good board, MSI
                                               makes decent (but not really
                                               outstanding) boards. The
                                               nvidia I have running an athlon
                                               is an ASUS from last year.
                                               -williamc
                                            \_ Could also be the power
                                                supply?
                                               \_ Hardware monitor reports all
                                                  voltages 3-5% over spec. -op
        \_ Sounds like a virus.  Reformat and start over.
           \_ Are you sure?  Re-read the thread.
        \_ http://forums.eyo.com.au/arc/t-1142.html
           Relax your memory timings.  Reduce bus speeds.
2004/12/6 [Reference/RealEstate, Reference/History] UID:35187 Activity:kinda low Cat_by:auto Edit_by:auto
12/6    Awsome site: http://nationalatlas.gov/natlas/natlasstart.asp
        Statistics on geography and other things
        \_ Florida IS for old people! Look at age over 65.
           Look at the Black population, it's interesting.
           This also confirms that the Bay Area IS a haven for Asians.
           Also, this confirms that Mormons DO have more children!
        \_ Stats for crime and population seemed to be grouped by county, so
           LA skews the visual for California.
        \_ very cool; thank you --darin
        \_ wow. the country-wide trends for breast and ovarian cancer
           are strange.  Truly a rich, white woman's cancer.
                               \- isnt breast cancer higher among the
                                  nulliparous ... hence the "marin county
                                  effect" --psb
        \_ nice map/atlas, nice demographic/statistic stuff.
2004/12/6 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany] UID:35188 Activity:high 50%like:32222 54%like:32631
12/6    Dear German John, I hope you like this:
        http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/swimsuit/collection
        \_ Consider yourself forgiven for all the Heil Cherman Chohn
           links you've posted in the past.  -John
           \_ for that, HEIL JOHN! Har har (sorry couldn't resist)
        \_ What did anyone ever see in Cheryl Teigs?
           \_ She seems to have the standard look of the late 70's to
              early 80's.
           \_ She's a very attractive woman. I saw a picture of her taken
              recently and she's definitely a MILF. If she looks that good
              now then I am sure she looked great then. The thing with the
              70s is that styles were ugly and so women like Cheryl Ladd
              and such all look 'generic' to us now. It wasn't a glamorous
              look like Marilyn Monroe that we can readily identify with,
              but what's underneath the hood is still pretty nice. Twiggy,
              I don't get.
              \_ Models don't exist to be attractive.  They exist to sell
                 clothes.  Anorexic looking models emphasize the product more.
                 \_ It's models with big derrieres who are selling products
                    now, so it's just changing fashion. I cannot get into
                    Twiggy no matter how you dress her, though - even as
                    a flat-chested flapper. Blah.
           \_ Same for Audrey Quock.  If SI were to pick an Asian, please at
              least pick one that has a more attractive face.  -- Chinese
        \_ Very nice pics if you want to learn glamour photography.  But the
           quality of women is not to my taste.  It depends on what you like.
           (I know many of them are supermodels.)
2004/12/6-7 [Consumer/TV] UID:35189 Activity:nil
12/6    Those that have Dish network, how does their one receiver two
        turner thing work? I mean the RG6 cable goes to the receiver,
        but how does the receiver hookup to the 2 TV (which may be far
        away, and A/V cable doesn't run very far). Are they using regular
        antenna cable for TV and ask you to use channel 3? That would suck
        for picture quality.
        \_ i have 2 rg6 cables (one for each) running from wall cable outlet
           to the satellite box outside (they join here) just before it connects
           to the satellite dish.
           \_ How many TV do you have connected, what's the connection type and
              how far is the TV?
2004/12/6 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Recreation/Humor] UID:35190 Activity:moderate Cat_by:auto
12/6    http://users.pandora.be/bonte/forumafbeeldingen/dancemonkeyboy.mpg
        Why I'm so hyped about MS.
        \_ Ah, that brings me back.  I love that one.  Ironically I can't
           get it to play in Windows Media Player when downloading through
           IE. *sigh*
        \_ "Give it up for me!"  This guy is the best advertising for open
           source anywhere.
        \_ He's about 2 deep fried twinkies away from a heart attack.  The
           remix is even better.
2004/12/6-7 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:35191 Activity:nil
12/6    Keeping freebsd up-to-date:
        http://www.taosecurity.com/keeping_freebsd_up-to-date.html
2025/03/15 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
3/15    
Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2004:December:06 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>