12/7    I bought several portable handwarmers from Restoration Hardware as
        Christmas gifts-- they're basically similar to Zippo lighters (where
        you fill the saturate the lower reservoir with lighter fuel, then light
        a wick of sorts on top).  Only thing is, it just won't fucking work.
        I'm nauseated by the fumes, my hands are covered with dry spots from
        spilled fluid, but I can't get the damn burner to stay lit without
        completely flaring up.  Is there any trick you need to do with new
        zippos?  thanks.
        \_ Son of a BITCH!  I just burnt my hand picking the damn thing up.
           I guess it's kinda lit...  hooray.
        \_ I bought a replica WWI trench lighter there several years ago
           and had the same problem with spilled fluid and fumes.  I think
           their stuff is just cheaply made, but it was a cool lighter.
        \_ Use the newer proheat reusable chemical hand warmers. Those
           things you have are basically wwII tech. Where are you
           that you need a handwarmer?

12/7      I'd like to run a program and save the output to a log file
           while still seeing the program output on stdout.  I tried using
           the tee command as in "foo.exe | tee mylog.txt" but tee only
           seems to print to stdout every once in a while instead of when
           foo.exe generates a line of output.  How do I save output to a file
           while having every new line of output sent to stdout?  Thanks. -emin
           \_ The problem is not in tee, but in foo.  By default, the stdio
              library produces output a line at a time if it's outputting
              directly to a terminal, but buffers its output in large chunks
              otherwise (see "man setvbuf").  When you pipe foo's output to
              another program, it's no longer outputting to a terminal, so it
              turns on its buffering.  The easiest cure is to create a fake
              terminal for it to run on: ssh -t localhost foo.exe | tee mylog.txt
              I know, it sucks.  The default buffering really ought to be
              smarter, or at least configurable.  --mconst
            \_ foo and tee BOTH buffer, don't they?
                 \_ Tee actually never buffers its output.  Even if it used the
                    default stdio buffering, though, it wouldn't be a problem
                    here since it's outputting directly to a terminal.  --mconst
                  \_ what about foo | cat | tee mylog.txt?
                     \_ That won't help anything.  foo is still writing to a
                        pipe.
                        \_ The mconst has spoken.  Woe to those who will not
                           listen.
         \_ You have to redirect stderr to stdout. In bourne-like shells,
            foo.exe 2>&1 | tee log
            In csh derivatives, I think it's something like
            foo.exe |& tee log
         \_ Another possibility you might explore is using 'screen' to run your
            process, with screen logging to a log file. SCREEN RULES!!
         \_ "Sounds like a virus.  Reformat and start over."
             \_ Advice like this will destabilize your computer for years to come

cunt
Cunt
cunt
Cunt

12/8    Here's one for the grad students:
        http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/comics.php

12/8    How come human adults can digest cow's milk but not human breast milk?
        Why has our digestive system evolved into like this?  Is there any
        evolutional advantage?
        \_ You have two flawed assumptions in one sentence.
        \_ Yes, human adults, as long as they aren't lactose intolerant,
           can digest human breast milk. What makes you think otherwise?
           Of course, it isn't something you'll likely experience unless
           you became pregnant or your significant other does...
           \_ That's what the nurse at the children hospital told me.  She said
              my baby will get diarrhea if I feed him cow's milk, while I'll
              get diarrhea if I drink his formula.
              \_ She's trying to trick you.  You remember the apple and
                 the garden of eden, right?  Drink the milk, just do it.
              \_ This is different than what you said.  You asked only about
                 adults and breast milk.  Now you're talking about adults and
                 formula, and infants and cow milk.
              \_ Word of advice.  Stay with breastmilk as long as you can,
                 then with formula as long as you can, before switching to
                 things like cow's milk and solid food.
        \_ Being able to digest milk obviously has an evolutionary advantage
           if you have access to milk from livestock etc., under circumstances
           of general food shortage. They're turning grass into an edible food.
           It's kind of a mutant ability. Other animals generally can't do it.
           \_ Any mammal can lactate.  It's no "mutant ability".
                \_ He said being able to digest milk [as an adult] is a
                   mutant ability, not lactating.  And fully half of all
                   mammals cannot lactate.  The male ones.
                                            \_ bzzt.
                   \_ The ability in closest proximity is "turning grass into
                      an edible food".
                      \_ ok well I meant the digestion, that's what this thread
                          is about. -ppp
                   \_ Cats can digest milk. I am sure other animals can, too.
                      Mice seem to like cheese.
                      \_ I hope you don't own a cat.  In spite of the fact that
                         some cats _like_ to drink milk, cats are lactose
                         intolerant, and will get sick from cow's milk.  Go
                         to a pet-store. They have specialized cat-sensitive
                         milk you can buy, that's lactose free and processed
                         to be digestible.
                         \_ Cats are about as indestructible as it gets.  Just
                            water down the milk about 50% and they'll be fine.
                            If you give them regular milk, they tend to get
                            the trots.  -John
                         \_ No pun intended, but our cats are not pussies.
                            They drink small amounts of milk all the time
                            and it's fine.
                            \_ How do you know? Maybe they are getting
                               sick. Diarrhea or whatever cats get.
                            \_ your cats may be mutated. most cats are
                               lactose-intolerant.  http://csua.org/u/a8u
                               \_ This link says that your cat may or may
                                  not be. That's just like people.
        \_ It doesn't have to do with cow milk or human milk. Babies have
           a certain enzyme (lactase) that can break down the carbohydrates
           in milk, and they gradually lose it as they get older. "Technically",
           all adults should not be able to metabolize lactose, but people
           typically tend to retain some lactase in their system.
        \_ Can lactose tolerance be developed?
           \_ Probably.  You can also develop tolerance for anthrax.
             \_ what about iocane powder. can you really develop tolerance to
                that?
                \_ It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid,
                   and is among the deadlier poisons known to man.
                   \_ Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line
                      \-Hello there are some mistakes and some semi-accurate
                        things above. A fair representation of the big picture
                        with some dicta thrown in is available at:
                        ~psb/MOTD/OnMilkDigestion
                        \_ Inconceivable!
                        \_ From my experience, more than 70% of people I
                           know (from Taiwan, Singapore, China, etc.) from
                           east asia don't have problem with milk, which
                           seems to contradict the <30% lactose tolerance
                           figure given.
                           \- this is why genetic surveys dont happen via
                              anonymous motd polls. see second table:
                              http://lactoseintolerant.org/02_about.html
                              are you saying the drink milk or they consume
                              dairy products. not the same thing. or maybe
                              you just hang out with a lot of 2 yrs olds.--psb
                              \_ when I was going to primary school in
                                 Singapore, they would have milk programs
                                 and give all the kids milk to drink every
                                 morning.  Why would they do that if all
                                 those kids are lactose intolerant?
                                 \- did you miss the part about lactase
                                 production is gradually shut down?
                                    \- did you miss the part where it
                                        says 93% of asian children in
                                        australia are lactase deficient?
                                        also if you look at the figures,
                                        the "shutdown" affects just a
                                        small percentage of the population
                                        (9% to 19% among australian
                                        caucasians).  My observation
                                        of most of my east asian acquaintances
                                        drinking milk without problem
                                        includes both children and adults.
                                        \- maybe your friends in sigapore
                                        were "colonized" by sir stamford
                                        raffles and his friends. --psb
                                           \_ hmm ... but the same is true
                                           for my friends from taiwan,
                                           or china.  besides, when
                                           singapore was under the brits,
                                           most of the chinese
                                           in singapore were poor coolies,
                                           so incidences of fraternizing
                                           with the brits were very low,
                                           unlike say in British India.

12/8    What's a good place to go for family around the bay area for Christmas?
        I want to drive there and stay in a hotel for a day or two. Besides
        tahoe, what are some other destination spots?
        \_ Sea Ranch can be nice, but is expensive and a bit stuffy.
        \_ Damn, I looked at Tahoe and the hotel is just too expensive for me.
           Guess everything's expensive around Christmas. Maybe I'll just stay
           in the bay area... :(
        \_ Occidental is nice. I have stayed at the Occidental Inn
           a number of times. How old are your children?
           \_ Parents visiting, so I am trying to think of some place to
              take them...
                \_ go to Apple HIll
              \_ Occidental Inn would be perfect then. Not cheap though.
        \_ Monterey?  Mendocino?
           \_ seconded.  Add Carmel as well.
           \_ Mendocino sucks. --grew up in Mendocino
              \_ Orr Hot Springs is pretty amazing. Not really a place
                 to take your parents though.
                 to take your parents though, unless they are nudists
                 or really hip.
        \_ Man, you guys suck. Two days and all you can come up with
           is three places. Okay here is a short list: Napa, Russian
           River, Calistoga Hot Springs, Marin coast, Pt. Reyes, Sonoma
           Inn, Pinnacles, Big Sur, Gold Country, Tahoe, Yosemite.
        \_ Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay, Hearst Castle, Bodega Bay, Bear Valley,
           Reno, Truckee.

12/8    For person who wanted to know how to overload new[], the general
        syntax is void * operator new[](size_t) { //do whatever you need to
        do with size_t and return an array pointer } -williamc
        \_ And if you're going to do this madness, be sure to overload delete[]
           as well.
        \_ Cool, thanks.  Now I remember why Java was invented...
           \_ The original poster's C++ program was too slow, so he's using
              obscure C++ features to make it run faster.  How would Java be
              better here?
           \_ In order to remove an optional feature?
              \_ Yup, that's why languages like C++ and Perl suck. I've
                 used both for years, and the things you can do with C++
                 are just fun fun fun. Next time you feel bored, insert
                 delete(this) in your code and see what happens.
                 \_ Don't knock what you don't know how to use.  I've been
                    in many situations where `delete this` came in quite
                    handy for memory management issues.  Instead of sitting
                    here complaining about how bad a language is because it
                    lets you do something you don't understand, take half a
                    second to realize that there's people in the world who
                    actually know how to program.
                 \_ Doctor, it hurts when I delete(this)...
                    \_ Son, you need to realloc(penis, 6 * INCHES);

12/8    Via Drum: http://csua.org/u/a8p (LA Times)
        Since someone mentioned the housing bubble yesterday.

12/8    http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/12/08/coverup
        Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, ... told his commanding officer ... that he
        had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees
        at his base, and requested a formal investigation. ... Thirty-six
        hours later, Ford ... was then strapped down, loaded onto a military
        plane and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.
        Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a
        psychiatric examination ...
        \_ So how many of you motherfuckers who voted for Bush still think
           Abu Gharib was some kind of independent action by a few grunts
           with no knowledge of superiors?  Shit rolls downhill.  When the
           guy at the top has no respect for human dignity, international
           law, or even the regulations of the US armed forces (do you bastards
           seriously still believe he wasn't awol?) that attitude has a way
           of percolating down.
              \-http://www.cafepress.com/ipa_politics.14488324?zoom=yes#zoom
           \_ I thought you no longer gave a fuck, aaron.
           \_ Tin foil hat time I see. My, aren't we bitter liberals today.
              You're absolutely right, though. Saddam's methods of prison
              torture was much more humane than the U.S. sponsored prison
              torture. I for one say that we were better off with Saddam.
              Oh, btw, didn't Kerry vote FOR the war?
              \_ Wow. you make such a convincing argument.  At least we're
                 not as bad as Saddam.  Shouldn't we as a nation be so proud
                 of ourselves?
                 \_ Hell yeah! That's why we live in the U.S of Fucking A.
                    Our policies are much better than Saddam's policies,
                    our method of government hands down has beaten
                    dictatorships like Hitler's Germany, Mussolinni's Italy,
                    and Tojo's Japan. We're better than the Brits, and
                    a hell of a lot better than French. To top it off,
                    our society is better than the former Communist hegemony.
                    If you don't fucking like it, get a plane ticket, get out.
                    We don't need your tired sorry ass ivory tower defeatist
                    attitude anymore. It's tiring. You lost the election, you
                    lost the vision of what America is, you've lost touch
                    with the common people. Face it, your dogma is just plain
                    wrong. Seriously, give up your citizenship for someone who
                    acutally WANTS to be here and isn't going to bemoan the
                    state of affairs on the fucking MOTD every fucking day
                    while sitting on your panzy ass doing nothing about it.
                    \_ hey, shithead.  i also think the the US is the best
                       country in the world.  You know why?  not because of
                       flagwaving shitheads like you.  every country has
                       mindless fucks like you, including the enemies you
                       name above.  What makes the US as good as it is, for
                       all its problems is the poeple who have fought to make
                       it better by criticizing it over the centuries.  oh
                       yeah, and it was the "ivory tower elitists" who were
                       thrown out of nazi germany and came over here to win
                       the war.  the nazi enemy had far more flagwaving fucks
                       like you than we did.  we won in spite of fucks like
                       , and we will continue to be the best nation on earth
                       in spite of fucks like you.
                    \_ gung ho, today, aren't we?  Why don't you do something
                       about it and sign up to go over to iraq?
                       \_ because he's a fucking pussy like his commander in
                          chief.
                    \_ No fucking shit we're better than Hitler's Germany,
                       asswipe. Some of us aspire to a lot more than that.
                       Maybe YOU should give up your citizenship to someone
                       who cares about the constitution, civil rights, and
                       the things that once made America a great country.
                    \_ If US policies are so much better than Saddam's, why
                       did you just juxtapose the two side by side?  Your
                       comparison implies US policies are similar to, but
                       slightly better than those of a dictator. Now I see
                       why you're so proud.
                    \_ -2 flame.
                    \_ AMERICA!  FUCK YEAH!
                    \_ Good Red Herring, but not good enough. -Vet
        \_ Didn't Stalin do that to dissidents too?
           \_ Yeah, but we are not quite as bad as Saddam Hussein. At least
              not yet.
              \_ http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=17001
        \_ About time the people who really pushed this policy start
           paying for it. I knew it wasn't two Spec 4s and a Staff Seargant.
           This kind of approval of torture had to come from pretty far up
           in the chain of command. I hope the officers involved fry. -Vet
           \_ In your personal opinion, what is the highest point in the
              chain of command where people are at least complicit?
              And which chain of command would that be--army or CIA?
              \_ God knows. The Battalion Commander at the very least
                 had to be aware of what was going on and was obviously
                 trying to cover it up. I dunno about anything higher
                 than that. The Guantanamo torture memos by Gonzalez
                 have set the conditions for all this to happen, but
                 that is guy is getting a raise due to rah rah boy and
                 his buddies. When I say Battalion Commander above
                 that guy is getting a raise to AG due to rah rah boy
                 and his buddies. When I say Battalion Commander above
                 I mean the Army MI BC. I don't know anything about
                 the CIA or how they do things.
        \_ I wouldn't neccessarily trust a single sourced Salon story.
           I am a liberal, but I know sensationalist reporting when I
           see it. I would like to see a second source for this story.

12/8    When people say null string or empty string in C, does it mean a char
        pointer that's NULL, or a char array whose first char is '\0'?  Thanks.
        \_ Both, because it's essentially the same. However, I think they
           probably mean the latter. I assume you mean a pointer pointing
           to NULL, and not a pointer which is NULL, which makes no real
           sense.
           \_ What's I'm thinking is that for "char *str", it can be either
              "str == NULL" or "str[0] == '\0'".  So you're saying that for the
              former, there is no string; and for the latter, there is a string
              but it's a null/empty string.  Correct?
              \_ Possibly, but if you were to malloc a string and assign
                 its lvalue to *str's rvalue then str==null means that
                 you are checking to see if you lost the rvalue for the
                 str. So theoretically the string could still exist if
                 it hadn't been probably freed and you'd have a
                 memory leak. For the latter if you created an automatic
                 character array the memory stays assigned to str regardless
                 of terminating it at the beginning. There is no way to
                 release the memory for an automatic variable unless you
                 do something really wonky. So neither really checks for
                 a lack of a string. The former checks to see if the pointer
                 is pointing to a string, the second checks to see if the
                 first char of a string is the terminator.
        \_ The latter.  "Empty string" is a better term to use than "null
           string".
           \_ I always assumed that an empty string is a string that exists
              but is empty, ie "", and that NULL string refers to the case
              where the string pointer is NULL.  /me shrugs
              \_ Typically you see this as char* p = NULL.
                 p is a char pointer.  p points to NULL.
        \_ If the term uses "string", that means it's NUL-terminated.
           Therefore it means "".  A char* that's NULL is a null pointer.
           But probably prefer "empty string" for clarity.
           \_ You mean a char* that points to NULL. a char* that is NULL,
              well, that doesn't exist. Since an array is passed like
              a char* in C, a string which is "" is essentially the
              same a char* pointing to NULL.
              \_ Err, yeah.  I think you might want to rethink that position.
              \_ What?  The previous poster's explanation and terminology
                 was correct.
              \_ char* cptr = NULL; // null pointer
                 char* cptr = ""; // empty string (== "null string" (?))
                                  // "" is \0 in memory.
                 Those aren't the same. You can deference the empty string.

12/8    "Dude" research:
        http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/08/dude.study.ap/index.html
        \_ Dude. That is sooo coool.

12/8    Torture in our name? Unacceptable.
        http://csua.org/u/a8z (Dallas Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
        \_ If you're trying to portray texans as decent human beings, you're
           going to have to try harder.  Ivins lives in Austin like all
           civilized texans with above a sixth grade education.  Austin is
           about as much a part of red state america as los angeles.
           \_ Damn, you're right.  Travis County voted 56% Kerry, 42% Dubya.
              L.A. County was ~ +7% more blue than that, but still.
  http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/TX/P/00/county.009.html
           \_ The 'red states/blue states' myth always amuses me.  There
              are more republican voters in CA than in in almost any given
              are more republican voters in CA than in almost any given
              red state. -- ilyas
              \_ Indeed.  Here's the popular vote shown as shades of purple:
                 http://www.livejournal.com/users/andromedagal/1522.html
              \_ Wow, that's the first thing I've agreed with you on.

12/8    P.S.B. were you at Chow a couple of days ago?
        \-er, park chow yes. are you stalking me? do i know you?
          \_ W00T!
             \-what? what is so odd about getting dinner at CHOW restaurant.
               if i have dealt with you and havent insulted you, why didnt
               you just come up and say hello. i recommend the shortrib dish.
               \_ I thought you were on a date.  That's why I W00TED.
                  \- i dont go on dates, only Potemkin Dates(tm)
                    \_ Oh THAT again.
                    \_ Oh THAT again. http://csua.org/u/a9f
                       I still don't get what you mean by this term. Who would
                       care whether you are dating or not?
                       care whether you are dating or not? No wait, are you
                       trying to create a false impression of yourself to a
                       propective so? That would make almost any date a
                       potemkin date, though.
                    \_ If it is not prying, psb, who plays Catherine
                       the Great on your Potemkin dates?
                       \_ If I know anything about folks from India, it's
                          his parents. -- ilyas
               \_ I'm partial to the pan roasted chicken myself.