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| 2004/12/15 [Uncategorized] UID:35300 Activity:nil |
12/14 I am thinking of taking intro to complex analysis course with
Daniel Geba. Has anyone had an analysis course with him before?
What are your impressions? Is he a good lecturer? |
| 2004/12/15 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China] UID:35301 Activity:very high |
12/14 Say goodbye to Bittorrent you hax0rz!
http://money.cnn.com/2004/12/14/news/fortune500/piracy/index.htm
\_ Have you even looked at Bit Torrent model? Put up a few trackers
in China and see if the MPAA can touch them.
\_ For once, Chicom troll have point. Thank you, China! -John
\_ chicom troll? you must be an old fart john! ;)
\_ John, for some time you have been crying "Chicom troll"
whenever there is any mention of China free of vitriol
on the motd. Did some Chinese abuse you in some way?
You used to be more reasonable, or so I thought.
\_ Isn't http://suprnova.org hosted in the Ukraine or something?
\_ whois says netherlands.
\_ so if I host an anti-Bush site out of US, I will not get
a visit from the CIA? How about child porn and drug
trafficking and prostitution ring? No CIA no FBI? Hmmm
\_ No, you'd probably get a visit from your local law
enforcement community (for the child porn/drug/whore
wite.) Civilized countries tend to frown on that sort
of thing. -John
\_ Do people generally consider Switzerland a
civilized country?
\_ More to the point, do people in Switzerland
consdier Switzerland a civilized country?
\_ Yes, and we get machine guns. -John
\_ Still bitter about the gun debate?
\_ You can take my bulldozer when you
pry it from my cold dead fingers!!
- ilyas #1 fan!
\_ Yay! I finally have a #1 fan!
-- ilyas
\_ Why don't I ever get nice things?
-geordan
\_ Because you are already
pverpowered. -- ilyas
\_ Your proposal is accepted.
\_ You know, for once, I actually agree with Dvorak, "You can
download movies on the internet??", woohoo, thank you MPAA. |
| 2004/12/15 [Reference/Celebration] UID:35302 Activity:nil |
12/14 Kato Kaelin is standing by!
http://hollywoodiscalling.com
\_ Dude, screw Kato, Todd Bridges man, Todd Bridges!! Can you
imagine a happy birthday greeting from Todd Bridges while
he's high as a kite? "Happy Birthday, uhm, whoever you are,
man, this coke is sweet!" |
| 2004/12/15 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:35303 Activity:nil |
12/14 So Paul Bremer, Tommy Franks, and George Tenet were awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom today. Can someone else think of any
other semi-competent jackasses that have won this, or has Bush set
a new precedent here?
\_ Mr. Rogers. Always hated that bastard.
\_ Seriously lowers the bar. Fucking assholes.
\_ I have to wonder what Tenet has on Bush.
\_ It's Dubya's loyalty reward.
"Stick with me, I'll take care of ya".
He's trying to recruit for his administration.
Lieberman reportedly already won't take the Homeland Security
job or the UN ambassadorship.
\_ "Come with me if you want to live!" |
| 2004/12/15 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:35304 Activity:nil 66%like:30894 |
12/15 Do it for Dubya!
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/index.php?p=948 |
| 2004/12/15-16 [Uncategorized] UID:35305 Activity:low |
12/15 Anyone know where I can find a complete archive of 'Dysfunctional
Family Circus'? All I can find is little collections here and there.
\_ http://www.drivenbyboredom.com/gallery/gallery.php?x=26 isn't
big enough for you? It looks like Bill Keane slapped a C&D order
on the sites hosting the full material.
\_ There are something like 500 in existence, and I've seen a lot
better than those.
\_ I second this. The true Dysfunctional Family Circus totally
rocked, much more than this site does.
\_ http://www.ubersite.com/m/30671 ?
\_ was there really a "true" one? Looking in the archive, it
looks like it was always a collaborative effort
"(Last change 15 Mar 94.)" |
| 2004/12/15-16 [Recreation/Dating] UID:35306 Activity:high |
12/15 I need gift ideas. What are you guys getting for your girlfriends /
wives for Christmas?
\_ Jewelry, the nice kind. No cubic zirconium. They're just overpriced
trinkets, but for whatever reason women go mad for them. I guess
the same can be said about males and sports memorabilia.
\_ Sports memorabilia? Are you kidding me? Electronics, maybe.
Yes, women like jewelry.
\_ I was attempting to think of trinkets. I suppose electronics
are trinkets to other people. They're a necessary part of
everyday work for me since I'm in the hardware business, so
the analogy doesn't apply to me. I don't get excited if
someone gives me a new laptop, I already own 3 and work
on a dozen more on a daily basis. Same goes for PDAs,
dvd players (we have more here than one can count), routers,
ethernet cables, soldering irons, etc. I had assumed the
same for the majority of males at sloda, but I guess I was
wrong. Also, electronics aren't really that expensive compared
to things like a signed baseball/football/basketball by
<insert your favorite player's name>. It's completely useless
on a day-to-day basis, but everyone wants one.
\_ Mine doesn't. I think she wants a bikini-babe calendar.
\_ How about "The Men of Berkeley EECS" calender?
\_ Selma: "There go the last vestiges of my
heterosexuality."
\_ a second girlfriend.
\_ a new DVD player that plays DivX files. Now she can watch her
collection of MST3K more easily.
\_ A Club Med vacation for the both of us.
\_ Make her use http://floatingsheep.com/wishlist
\_ How about a nice pillow:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6717610/?GT1=5936
\_ Better, earlier, and not M$NBC:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2004-09-29-man-pillow_x.htm
http://www.della.us/boyfriend-arm-pillow.html
\_ I think that this is the saddest thing I have ever seen.
\_ Opera tickets at La Scala or Staatsoper (her pick, busy consultant,
no clue when she has time), the trip there, and a nice hotel.
\_ Only works if you're into opera. Most of the women I've dated
would prefer a basketball game or even bowling than <<YAWN>>
opera. Sorry, we're not all new york weenies.
\_ Too true. My girlfriend likes theater, musicals, dance,
the symphony, and other arts. She hates opera. Yes, she'd
go to basketball 100 times before the opera. |
| 2004/12/15 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:35307 Activity:low 50%like:34252 |
12/15 What the heck, the motd is so boring today, where are all the trolls?
\_ Bush sucks dude. Move to canada. We are losing the war on
terror because of scumbags like you. FreeBSD is the real OS
of manly men. Ilyas needs to be squashed. Tom needs to fuck
Ilyas.
\_ Real Mem Use Linux. --- baited |
| 2004/12/15-16 [Science/Space, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:35308 Activity:high |
12/15 Anyone know how laser distance measurement work? Intensity of
reflected light? But doesn't that depend on the reflecting
surface? Curious. Thanks.
\_ I thought it was the time-to-travel of a beam of light. I assume
you mean far distances.
\_ I recently tried a Leica Disto laser measurement device, it
can measure from 1 ft up to 600 ft. Just wondering how it
works because it seems to be pretty accurate and works on most
surface I point it at, even tree leaves at night.
\_ It modulates the laser's strength to produce pulses, and then with
a high-resolution timer it can tell how long it took for the
roundtrip. An advantage of this is that the shininess and distance
of the target do not effect the measurement as long as they are not
too far and too dark. If you shone it on a smooth enough mirror
at the wrong angle, you could disrupt the measurement though.
\_ wow, how high resolution of a timer are we talking about?
This is speed of the light we are talking about. Something
comparable to timer used in GPS? But those are much further
away...
\_ For ~1-meter resolution, you need 3ns resolution. I know
higher-resolution timers are available, as for price, no idea.
\_ The clock period on a 2GHz Pentium is 0.5ns, and the chip
costs only a couple hundres dollars. So I guess a timer
with 0.5ns resolution would cost much less than that.
Come to think of it. Light is not really that fast.
\_ If you mapped all speeds onto the domain [0,1], light
would be 1.
\-"we have measured the charge of the electon ... and
it is 1" --psb
\_ I suppose it can be the fastest and still not be
"that fast". After all, the universe seems a lot
bigger than light seems fast. Or perhaps it's just
that our sense of time is too fast, since we live
so short.
\- gee what other free parameters seem too
big/too small?
\_ Size of universe = age * speed of light.
If you think the universe is bigger than light is
fast, then that's just saying the universe is old.
Your preception would remain the same no matter
how fast light it, because the universe would be
bigger.
\_ If size of univese = age * speed of light, why
\- hello, even without a discussion about
inflationary theories [i mean inflation
in the sence of alan guth et al] this
simple notion doesnt work because the
universe was not opaque for a long time,
meaning a photon would not have been
able to cross the diameter of the
universe [or even get far at all].
you can probably GOOGLE for "opacity
cosmology" or something like that.
so the speed of light in a vaccum was
not always the speed at which photons
moved through the universe. ok tnx.
\_ While the speed at which photons can
cross the universe is not always C,
with the exception of hyperinflation,
the outermost dimension of the
universe grows at C, modified by the
geometry of space.
\-saying "assuming expansion is space-
like, then it would fit inside the
light cone" is not 'interesting'.
positively asserting that inflation
is, always was, and always will be
spacelike, i suppose is interesting.
\_ I'm just trying to make the point
that opacity/optical depth has no
effect on the size of the universe.
Want 'interesting'? I like the
fact that assuming linear
expansion, the age of the universe
is the same as the inverse of the
Hubble Constant.
\- ok, now tell us about
zero-point energy.
\- one is a boundary condition
the other is an approach to
answering the empirical Q and
and attempt to do better. the
real point of course is we have
some observational data for size
so really what we are trying to
figure out is age.
is there debate among scientists on whether the
universe is growing at an accelerating rate,
constant rate, or decelerating rate?
\_ It *is* more complicated than that, but I
wanted to gloss over that fact because for
purposes of comparing non-comprable huge
values (light-speed vs. universe size), it's
about right. If you want to do actual
\_ You are assuming that the expansion
of space is limited by the speed
of light, correct?
cosmology, you need to think about tensors
of 4-dimensional non-euclidean geometry, but
that seemed beyond the scope of this debate.
\- um without looking for explanation that
involve really exotic theories and
fancy math like M-theory and supergravity
the two big Qs in cosmology today are
1. the missing mass question and the
2. the hubble constant/cosmological
constant question ... some recent
observation are seeing some curious
phenomenon in high red shift objects.
in both cases there has been a lot of
study to rule out dumb mistakes but now
a lot of physicists believe something
big is missing from our theories and
models. on a parochial note on topic #1
the dark matter studies are a major
funding priority for the govt and on #2
a lot of the seminal work is being done
at lbl (smoot, permutter, borrill etc).
there are a lot of decent and fairly
accessible books on these topics
as well as many good WEEB pages at
various levels. s. weinberg is a really
good writers if you are looking for a
specific recommendation. ok tnx.
\_ It turns out that time is what we're best at measuring.
\_ How do you tell pulse from one another? How do you identify
the return pause is the one you sent x time ago?
\_ Imagine you space your pulses out by, say 1ms. This lets you
measure up to 1000 pulses per second, each can have a maximum
roundtrip distance of 300km, which is way more than you can
measure in practice.
\_ I thought reflection is absorption and re-emission of photons.
Does that happen instantaneously? If not, does the delay depend
on the surface material of the target?
\_ It's not instantaneous, and it does depend on the elements
present in the surface, but except for a few special cases,
the delay is inconsequential in this type of measurement.
\_ Yes, if what you're pointing at is a black hole, you're scr00ed.
\_ Has scientists confirmed that black holes exist?
\-yes, essentially. --psb
\_ Black holes? Humbug! I've never seen one!
\_ Black holes, white holes, Asian holes. I've seen them all.
I've even gone inside a few Asian holes. |
| 2004/12/15 [Computer/SW/Virus] UID:35309 Activity:nil |
12/15 Renaming the Bay Bridge after Emperor Norton:
http://csua.org/u/act (SFGate)
Is this whom they named Norton Hall in Unit 3 after? |
| 2004/12/15 [Uncategorized] UID:35310 Activity:nil 76%like:35313 |
12/15 Which one of these do you like? (it's enrollment season again):
Blue Shield:
Kaiser:
Aetna: |
| 2004/12/15 [Uncategorized] UID:35311 Activity:moderate |
12/15 When did Wonkette get to be so boring? Bring back the anal stories!
\_ When was she ever interesting? |
| 2004/12/15-16 [Industry/Startup] UID:35312 Activity:moderate |
12/13 So when a business thinks/claims/pretends that I owe them money
it can send my info to a collection company who will then try to
ruin my credit rating. What recourse do I have when a business
owe me money, besides sending letters to their waste basket? Do
they have credit rating that keep them accountable too?
\_ Yes, they have credit ratings.
\_ At my startup, we used to subscribe to Dun & Bradstreet (http://www.dnb.com
and build our company credit rating with them so that (potential) clients
can check on our creditworthiness.
\_ You can take them to court. Small claims court will cost you about
what, $25-$50? Say you are disputing the charges and seek an
injunction. If the business tries to hassle you about terms/
conditions for 3rd party arbitration and you didn't sign anything
tell them to go to hell since the question is if there was ever
a contract in the first place. What company, what situation, and
how much are they trying to get from you?
\_ http://www.bbb.org
\_ ultimately, it's defamation of character. |
| 2004/12/15-16 [Health/Disease/General] UID:35313 Activity:high 76%like:35310 |
12/15 Which one of these do you like? (it's enrollment season again):
Blue Shield: ..
Kaiser:.
\_ I love Blue Shield: they paid for DNAA testing for something I
was diagnosed with 20 years ago (turned out I don't have it),
and their HMO plan has been generous with the specialists my wife
and I have needed. However, I'm insured through CalPERS, and they
jacked my premiums up $75 per person-- what I'm saying is, go
with Blue Shield only if your work covers most of the cost.
Kaiser:.
\_ If you're generally healthy, Kaiser is the way to go. No paperwork,
short waits for appointments, and no/minimal co-pay.
\_ No paperwork is nice, but short waits for appointment is not my
experience. They couldn't find me a schedule for a physical
within the next three months. I'm switching to PacifiCare
starting January. My coworkers have PacifiCare, and they never
had any trouble with getting an appointment. It doubles my
premium, but it's only $13 more per month for me.
\_ I second this. For my bouts with poison oak or infected wounds,
Kaiser has been the best medical plan I've ever had. Their
policy on seeing specialists is awful, though. You need a hole in
your eardrum to see their ENTs about ear trouble, for instance.
\_ This sounds like my experiance with Kaiser. If you're a
normal case, everything is great. If you fall outside
their definition of normal, everything goes to hell.
\_ If you're generally healthy it doesn't matter which plan you
choose.
\_ Not at all. First of all even healthy people need to
see a doctor occasionally, for whatever reason
(including simple things like the cold, flu, etc).
Perhaps even more importantly, if you're healthy and
want a simple annual physical exam or any other sort
of preventative doctor's appointment, Kaiser will
provide that with no hassle; go with Blue Cross or
most PPO's, and they won't cover routine visits.
It's quite shitty.
\_ why would you go to the doctor for a cold? they
can't cure it can they? or even a flu. i think
i'd only go to the doctor if i ripped out a tendon -danh
\_ I pretty much agree, and I avoid the doctor at all
costs myself, but I think in principle it's a good
idea to go when you get the flu because of all the
more serious things that look exactly like the flu.
Going to see a doctor for the "flu" will save your
life if you have the flesh-eating virus, for instance.
Of course staying the *fuck* away from a hospital
can also save your life.
\_ inject the heroin into a vein, not the meat,
and you won't spread the flesh eating
bacteria. - danh
\_ Wow, you people actually see a doctor when you get a
cold? WTF.
\_ You must be an undergrad, enjoy it while you can. :)
\_ huh?
\_ I am sorry, but almost every health plan on the
planet covers routine visits. Health plans prove
their mettle when you have something bad go wrong.
If nothing bad ever goes wrong then they are all
pretty much the same - even the worst of them.
\_ As pp below says, you're wrong. If your health plans
all have, then goody gumdrops. I have had two so far
that didn't. I don't know how those performed in
emergencies because I never had one.
\_ Don't be sorry, because you're wrong. My current
and previous health insurance providers (both
PPO's) have not covered routine annual visits.
They provide tons of coverage for cancer,
God forgit I get that, but not for my yearly
physical exam. I'd agree with you, but unfortunately
that hasn't been my experience.
\_ What providers were these? Certainly none on this
list. I had one of those 'catastrophic' providers
and the only things they covered were major
surgery/illness *and* routine visits. Health
insurance knows it is worthwhile to cover routine
visits as a preventative. So please name the
providers of these Mickey Mouse plans and the
employers who provided them. Routine medical
visits are not a 'perk' of Kaiser. They are
typical of all plans. Hence, the wording 'almost
every'. You must have had a really, really, bad plan
and shitty employer. Knowing who it is will help
others avoid it.
\_ Yeah in theory that's true, but it
isn't always like that in life. Come
on, health insurance is among the
worst systems in this country; knowing
that, it's very fitting that they don't
(or might not) cover routine visits.
Regardless, the experiences I've
alluded to were through BC and Aetna,
both through schools (neither were
Cal).
\_ BC and Aetna (I've had both) do
cover routine visits. Perhaps your
plan did not, since it was a student
plan.
Aetna:
wow. seriously NONE of you people have had a good || bad experience
with Aetna at all? Anyone even heard of Aetna? They're horrible
back east.
\_ I know people who work there. I'm not going to say anything
real specific, but that company is *really* fucked up.
Expect a major corporate scandal in the not-too-distant
future.
\_ Yes, I had Aetna and it was okay. I'd take it over Kaiser,
but not over Blue Cross.
\_ All I know about Aetna is the lousy coverage they
"provide" during emergency and serious illnesses,
which is close to none. |
| 2004/12/15-16 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:35314 Activity:high |
12/15 So did anyone see the California Quarter coming out next year?
The 7th largest economy, birth of modern cinema and the PC
industry the gold rush, and all they could think of was
John Muir and Yosemite? Shouldn't they have pictures of things
like The Golden Gate?
\_ I think you're overestimating both the seriousness of this program
and the information density of engravings on one side of a quarter.
Look at what some of the other states have:
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/50sq_program/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=schedule
\_ Well, some of the other options had a lot more interesting takes.
There was a page up some time ago to vote for the quarter design.
A number of them pulled in icons from all over the state, and
some actually looked nice.
\_ 7th largest? I thought it's the 4th.
\_ 5th, according to the state website:
http://commerce.ca.gov/state/ttca/ttca_homepage.jsp
\_ golden gate does not represent california anymore than disneyland
or hollywood. |
| 5/23 |