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| 2004/12/28 [Computer/SW/OS/Linux, Computer/SW/Security] UID:35455 Activity:high |
12/28 I have access to a large supply of psx, n64 and snes...besides
games are there any good uses for these consoles? Are there
ways to use them for parallel computing or educational
purposes? -scottyg
\- see e.g. http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/cluster.php
i wonder if they were able to buy the hardware subsidized. --psb
\_ got any spare saturns? Want to sell one? -aspo
\_sure, go to http://www.squaredealonline.com -scottyg
\_ 50 bucks??? That isn't so square.
\_ Check ebay, Saturns are having a bit of a revival. I'll
be putting mine up soon, with games, if you're
interested. -jrleek
\- see e.g. http://arrakis.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ps2/cluster.php
i wonder if they were able to buy the hardware subsidized. --psb
\_ got any spare saturns? Want to sell one? -aspo |
| 2004/12/28 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia] UID:35456 Activity:high |
12/28 Ding dong the witch is dead.
\_ Fuck you.
\_ Who? Susan Sontag?
\_ "They white race is a cancer on humanity." Hehe
\_ "The white race is a cancer on humanity." Hehe
\_ "The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean Algebra,
Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches,
Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and
Ballanchine ballets don't redeem what this particular
civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race
is the cancer of human history."
\_ Hey look! The founder and president of white liberal guilt
club.
\_ Wow, she sounds awesome.
\_ More than that. She was. Nobody who contributes here
regularly is likely to write a single paragraph that
could stand against Sontag. And I don't like her stuff,
btw.
\_ Pfft, you and your Jewish Liberal Left Wing
popoganda. Useful idiots indeed.
propaganda. Useful idiots indeed.
\_ Dude. At least they can spell.
\_ Fixed, happy now, mister anal-gotta-have-it
formatted-to-80-display? Haven't seen a
typo troll in a while.
\_ Yes happy now. And drubbings shall continue
upon further lapses, unless, of course, you
are the psb.
\_ What do you mean by this? Do you mean she was a
good writer, or that she was well reasoned? If
A, that's not at all surprising, if B and the
quote above is really hers, so far evidence is
against you. (I know nothing about her myself.)
\_ Mainly A, though a lot of B. As with many people
who write a LOT, folks tend to echo the zanier
things she said. It would be entertaining to see
how well, say, David Horowitz, held up to the same
sort of scrutiny.
\_ which witch?
\_ huh?
\_ Ann Coulter? Martha Stewart? |
| 2004/12/28 [Politics/Domestic/911, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:35457 Activity:moderate |
12/28 http://www.msgr.ca/msgr-3/talk_of_the_town_susan_sontag.htm "In the matter of courage (a morally neutral virtue): whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards." -Susan Sontag, Sep 24 2001 issue of the New Yorker Goddamnit, I hate stupid liberals, especially those who are "smart". We're on the same team, but these people make us look like idiots. -liberal \_ Courage cannot be a morally neutral virtue in Platonian ethics, for obvious reasons. Plato is so influential in ethical philosophy, I am surprised this point isn't addressed more. Unless, of course, she's just a demagogue. -- ilyas \_ With what do you disagree? That courage can be evaluated in moral-neutral terms? What was "cowardly" about the attacks? They were horrendous, shocking, unthinkable. But cowardly? Calling them cowardly may be a salve for us here, but it's not necessarily true. \_ Killing civilians, where the idea is to kill as many as possible, is almost the purest definition of cowardice. It's discouraging that someone as "smart" as Sontag couldn't recognize this. This is no "salve" -- this is the truth, long and short of it. -liberal \_ They went after US symbols of monetary and governmental power. If they wanted to kill as many civilians as possible, they could have flown the planes into any of the nuclear plants along the route. I'm not trying to make light of the deaths, but you've forgotten what the target was. \_ Actually, the nuclear plants probably would have killed less people and would have been much harder to hit. \_ Says you and who else? \_ Read up on dirty bombs, and nuclear materials in general. As for harder to hit, are you an idiot? \_ I think Osama thought it was great to kill two birds with one stone: (1) "Spectacular" attack from killing so many innocents, and (2) the financial repercussions from taking out the WTC. I haven't forgotten anything, hombre. \_ She wasn't exactly a "liberal", more like a "rabble rouser", like just write/say crap that's total nonsense and dress it up with high-brow veneer and make it look like someone intelligent wrote it. I never liked her novels. \_ Terrorists are all cowards. \_ It's pretty courageous to drive your car into a crowd of innocent and unarmed people, which is basically what the WTC attackers did. If that's not courage then what is?! \_ how many troll points is this worth? \_ Your sarcasm meter is on the blink. \_ you needed more "?!!!" \_ "Cowards are cruel, but the brave Love mercy, and delight to save." -- John Gay "When all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on." -- Dr. George Swewll "To wish for death is a coward's part. [Lat., Timidi est optare necem.] -- Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) \_ Those last two quotes miss the point entirely. But agree with Sontag, willfully piloting a plane into a buildings is a lot of despicable things, but cowardly it is not. \_ I believe Sontag and you are both missing a key point. The term "cowardly" is NOT morality-neutral. http://m-w.com: "cowardice": lack of courage or resolution "courage": mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty Now, if there were a morality-neutral term to use for piloting a plane into a building, killing yourself, then use that term. This is where you say: "Oh, but it says 'mental' OR 'moral' strength, and I meant mental courage, and that's morality-neutral, so there!" Then here is where I say: "The moral connotation trumps in this case; use a clear, morality-neutral term." \_ "Well, I believe [...] that the novels of Susan Sontag are self- indulgent, overrated crap." - Crash Davis, "Bull Durham" |
| 2004/12/28 [Health, Health/Women] UID:35458 Activity:high |
12/28 Excellent point about Vioxx, etc. that I've been saying (but he's
saying it much better):
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20041228.shtml
\_ Good article. -- ilyas
\_ This explains a lot.
\_ well written. the last few sentences are great.
\- isnt everything in there obvious to moderately educated people?
\_ not necessarily. 1) you overestimate the intelligence
of the american public. 2) I'm not implying anything
about people's intelligence here, but I doubt everyone
viewed this vioxx situation in the same way.
\_ I think this article completely misses the point. The problem
is not one of risk management but of the drug companies
knowingly concealing evidence about the dangers of a drug while
spending millions marketing it to patients and doctors. One
more thing: when I played high school football, most people wore
as many pads as they could. Running backs wore even *more* padding
since they got hit so much. The only people I knew who wore less
padding were quarterbacks (pads can hinder throwing). Maybe the
pros are better at dodging than the people I played with. -emin
\_ They are bigger for sure, and have more 'natural padding'.
Also, they get paid more, so the hit in performance from
more padding is of more interest to them than to a random
high school guy who plays football for 'fun and status.' |
| 2004/12/28-29 [Computer/Networking] UID:35459 Activity:low |
12/28 How can I find out the IP addresses of the machine that a program is
running on? I know one way is just to gethostname() and then do a
gethostbyname() on that. But that relies on the resolver. Ideally,
I'd like to do it the way 'ifconfig' does it (which AFAICT doesn't
rely on the resolver), but I haven't been able to track down yet
exactly how it does it. Thanks.
\_ It reads /proc/net in Linux. Probably does something similar
in *NIX/*BSD you use. -williamc
\_ then read ifconfig source. /usr/src/sbin/ifconfig/
\_ why not just fork off an 'ifconfig -a' and parse through its output?
And assuming that a machine has just one IP address is not a good
assumption to make... |
| 2004/12/28 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:35460 Activity:low |
12/28 http://tinyurl.com/4agjg (SI/cnn.com article regarding swimsuit model who survived) Is it me or is this a very arrogant article, considering how many thousands have died? Or is it in fact appropriate because it's sports illustrated reporting it? \_ I don't really think so. Two reasons, A) It's really difficult to empathize with 50,000 people you never knew existed, and B) people always want to read about the survivor. It's a pretty crazy story, she clung to a palm tree for 8 hours with a broken pelvis and internal injuries. \_ In SEA people are hearing all kinds of harrowing tales. I think it is just SI choosing one for its market. Everyone who survived either was lucky enough to be on high "ground" or went through the wringer and somehow came out w/o a broken neck, smashed head, impalement, etc. 80% of stories I read pivot around "luckily, the wave tossed me into a tree/window/roof" such that the survivor avoided the churn and under currents. Quite a few were swept to sea and rescued, as well. |
| 2004/12/28-29 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:35461 Activity:insanely high |
12/28 Is it me, or is $35 million the US has pledged seems rather
small? I mean we are the fucking United States of America and
all we can give in a tragedy of this magnitude is 15 million?
\_ It's just you. How many of our tax dollars should the US government
pledge to help another nation?
\_ Yes, help someone in need that you will have nothing to gain
from, that's obviously a new concept to you.
\_ It's not new at all. But that giving should be done by
individual citizens, not by allocation of our tax dollars.
\_ None. Our tax dollars should only be used to bomb them.
\_ I agree that it is rather small, compared to the amount
we have spent so far to invade another country.
\_ like Darfur, this is another opportunity which we can use
to counter Osma Bin Laden's propaganda. We should of dragged
those Arab satellite TV stations along with us, show them that
we do help out people, including those Muslim as well.
\_ the USA is not socialist! We have low taxes so that people can
keep most of their money from wasteful bureaucracy, and more
efficiently and voluntarily give to charities people can
individually select! -New Republican l0ser who STILL p0wn5 4ll u
dem0cr4tic l0s3r5!
(sarcasm aside, the problem is that Democrats intuitively know
there is a problem with the above argument, but just sit there
and fume about rich/ignorant freeper bastards instead of giving a
persuasive counter-argument)
\_ 0mgz! n3rf tr0015!!!!``111!!~@!
\_ I d like to hear some. I became a libertarian because someone
changed my mind. It could certainly be changed again. -- ilyas
\_ The problem is that, left to their own devices, people will
donate inefficiently. We need a coordinating authority to
make sure the money is spent wisely. Of course, the
government also seems to do a bad job of steering money to
projects that have the greatest positive impact.
\_ I agree that given perfect information, and given
incorruptibility, a central planning agency will do better
than a set of independent agents. However, since those
assumptions are both incorrect when applied to governments,
and since independent agents have shown to be more effective
in resource allocation for investment, for instance, than
a central agency, what makes you say the same is not true
for charity? -- ilyas
\_ fyi, "The problem is that ..." guy is not the same guy
as the "sarcasm aside, ..." guy.
\_ Note that I agreed that the government seems to do an
inefficient job of allocating charity money. So my
argument is not so much individual vs. the governemtn,
but rather the individual vs. a "charity planner".
Individual investers often (usually?) do a bad job of
managing their own investment strategy and they would be
smart to leave the job up to professinoals (mutual
funds managers, financial planners, etc.) Why not use
the analog for charity giving? Instead of individual
persons making donations based on personal whim or
public appeals, why not use follow the recommendation
offered by a charity expert? Why not donate money to a
mutual fund of charities, just as a person would
investment in a mutual fund of stocks? This is likely
not the optimal strategy (for both charitable giving
and investment), but it'll probably yield better long
term results than going it on your own.
\_ I see no problem with this, as long as people, just
as with mutual funds, have a choice of where to
donate, or whether to go at it alone. In fact, isn't
this how charity works now? -- ilyas
\_ Do I get a choice to opt-out of paying for
the war in Iraq?
\_ There are a few possibilities here:
(a) You are an anarcho-capitalist. Then I
sympathize with your plight.
(b) You don't believe in democracy as a form
of government. Then I sympathize with your
plight and agree.
(c) You are a liberal troll. Then I advice you
to go stick your head in a pig. -- ilyas
\_ Dude, you just said "Why do you hate
America?" and you didn't even realize it.
\_ Hahahaha, you are my hero!
\_ You two both took the choice of not
volunteering for the citizen-soldier armed
forces! Freedom is not free!! Now get back
to work traitors!@1! -Troll
\_ So long as the rest of us also get to opt out
of paying for the things we disagree with, sure.
\_ Um, you do realize that >90% of managed mutual funds
perform worse than the market as measured by major
indices (e.g. DOW, S&P 500, etc.), and that's
*before* deducting commissions, management fees, and
other overhead.
\_ 1. Do you think Moses came down from Mount Sinai
with the lists of stocks that comprise the Dow
(not an initial, BTW, unless you say DJIA),
S&P, etc.? 2. Asset allocation is everything.
The effect of selecting particular securities
is secondary.
\_ How much did you donate? How does the $35 million compare to
what other nations contributed? How much do they donate to us
when we have a disaster?
\_ $35 million is a lot of money for countries like Sri Lanka.
Anyway, we've donated enough money to 3rd world countries over
the years, and we've bailed them out countless times.
\_ you have to put things in perspective. Taiwan donated whopping
$50k USD to Thailand for the relief effort :p
\_ I'm sorry to say this but the wealthy Taiwanese people are one
of the most self-indulging people in this world. They drive
nice cars and eat expensive Chinese seafood yet do not
understand the meaning of charity. They don't seem to care
about anything other than keeping their blood and money in
their own circles. -dated an X-gf who was Taiwanese
\_ What about reallocating a week's worth of aid to Israel
to this earthquake/tsunami relief fund. That will be at
least $50million.
\_ Yea, but that's because they have to pay US$18 billion
(multiple times what other countries pay for them)
to the US for its outdated older generation weapons.
Generally speaking I agree with you. Part of the
reason is that Taiwan has too few Christians (2%).
\_ Hello, are you a conservative? Are you a Republican?
Do you think the war has made the world safer? Do you
think the world will be a better place when everyone
is converted to a Christian? -moderate
\_ "have to pay"?
\_ Yes, or surrender to commie China.
\_ Some one asked how much other countries have donated. Here:
The United States is offering a total of $35 million, followed
by Japan with $30 million. Australia has now pledged $27
million, Saudi Arabia $10 million and Germany $2.7 million.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/asia.quake/index.html
\_ Australia and Japan have more incentive to contribute,
being the major players there. What about France, Russia,
and so on? |
| 2004/12/28-29 [Transportation/Car] UID:35462 Activity:moderate |
12/28 Trip Report: Hit I-5 (from 78, in Oceanside) at 9:40, and traffic
was a dream. Took 5 to 55, visited friends in Santa Ana, smoothest
drive you could ask for. Got back on 55 around 1:50, transferred to
5 North, lulled by its unoccupied nature. Fool. Brothers and
sisters, I-5 may look like an asphalt ribbon on the gem that is the
city of Los Angeles, but do not be fooled; it is a trap, and all of
its promises of smooth sailing turn to cramps and inane blocks of stop
and go. Hit four pockets of this crap. Still somehow managed to make
it to 210 by 3:30, then got socked in by warnings of a two-hour delay
and a horrendous accident 17 miles ahead. Grumbled and cursed, then
counted blessings as we were passed by the Coroner's car on the left
shoulder. Two hours later passed two semis facing the wrong way, one
with a cab that had obviously been through a roll, much to the
physical detriment of its driver. Torrential rain and heavy winds all
the way to the Grapevine, followed by fog, sand/dirt, and typhoon-
force winds up to Avenal, followed by torrential rain and heavy winds
all the way to Livermore; traffic on the 5 after the Grapevine was
mostly clear, however. Longest trip north I've ever had; I figure we
were on the road nearly 12 hours total.
\_ Sorry. -- ilyas
\_ Sorry. You know, I wasn't kidding about staying off the freeways.
These days, if I can get to a known destination on city streets,
I do so. It's faster on average. -- ilyas
\_ Damn those people who die in accidents and make everyone else late.
Traffic needs more fault tolerance.
\_ Read more closely. We were properly chastised just by seeing
the Coroner's car go by.
\_ I know... I was making a semi-serious comment. |
| 2004/12/28-29 [Consumer/Camera] UID:35463 Activity:kinda low |
12/28 Here is a camera question on other end of the spectrum. I want a
digicam to take nice pictures of things that I want to get rid of on
ebay. As cheap as possible w/o being crap. I already know how to
take pictures (I own 2 film SLRs but have lost interest in photography)
Need: optical zoom, web sharp resolution, sturdy enough to be abused by
11-year old kid. ok tnx for your recommendation.
\_ Just buy a low end digital camera. Just go to Fry's. I mean, c'mon
do you really need a recommendation for a low-end camera when you
can just hop over to Best Buy's, Fry's, etc. and plunk down $200
for one?
\_ Yes he/she does. Minolta has ones with lenses built into the
body (doesn't extend out) and are light and thin. You can
find one for < $200. Search http://newegg.com and sort by price.
Canon is the choice for high-precision shots for the normal
buyer, as person below notes. Minolta's okay, but mobility is
great.
\_ You want the Canon EOS 1Ds-Mark II.
\_ you have to be careful. You need to think rather you need macro
or not. and... why you need optical zoom again? Canon A400
is a no-thrill camera, 2x optical zoom, takes ok picture, use
standard AA bettery. the downside is 1. thick (bulky), 2. no
apature/shutter speed priority mode, and 3. lousy macro. |
| 2004/12/28-29 [Consumer/TV] UID:35464 Activity:very high |
12/28 My dad wants those Chinese satellite TV dish thingy (where you get
5-10 Mandarin stations). Where can I find more info on it and how
much does it cost? ok thx.
\_ does this help? http://csua.org/u/aio (dishnetwork.com)
note some packages are mainland, some are taiwan
my parents got something from Monterey Park here in SoCal - don't
know if it's another provider or whatever, but it was ~ $20-30 /
month, free install I think.
\_ Directv provides a superior set of programs. http://csua.org/u/aip
\_ I don't get it. The Chinese/Taiwanese programming seems
the same or not as not as good. Are you talking about
the general subscription?
\_ yeah, they suck. That is why I am in TW and all I watch
is Discovery/National Geographic/Animal Planet channel.
\_ You want the Dish network's Great Wall package. 17 channels of
Chinese stations from mainland. The TW stations are crap for
teenagers with no taste. I don't think DirecTV offers it.
\_ my dad hates all mainland Chinese. He always wishes he were born
a Japanese samurai. How do I know which channels are Taiwanese
truth telling channel and which ones are Beijing subversive commie
channels? -op
\_ my DPP parents have the ETTV subscription.
\_ Haha, a brainwashed TWnese. Dish have a package deal from
HK/TW too. It's the 'other' Chinese package. BTW, there are
so many lies spread by those Taiwanese channels I stopped
watching them.
\_ do you mean FTA free-to-air satellite programming?
I set this up for my folks -- no one seems to know about it
unless they're trying to receive free ethnic programming.
What a lot of companies do is charge for setup of a dish
(it's a little bigger in size than a directv dish)
and ask for monthly payments but the signal is essentially free,
unencrypted, so you could set it up yourself for about $200-$300 parts.
\_ WOW COOL, where can I get more info? thx
\_ Check http://www.lyngsat.com/freetv/United-States.html
for list of free channels for US. Some of the channels
require the 1-meter/3-feet sized dish to receive. |