1/28    Krugman explains why Dubya's "blacks are shafted by social security"
        claim is false, and the origins of the claim:
        http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/28/opinion/28krugman.html?oref=login&hp
        username/pw:  gnugnugnu
        This is not to say that the Democrats who sent out the initial
        e-mail petition weren't dumbasses, because they were - and I'm
        not sure if even the truth can repair the damage.
        \_ wow, I must be a prophet.  after my rambling about blacks
           and social security on the motd the other day, it's now
           all over the news.  even bush is following up on my motd
           remarks.
           \_ Yeah, he uses the same faulty logic.  If you work for 10 years
              and die, all that money you put into SS is gone, so a lower life
              expectancy means your family gets screwed from SS unless you own
              the account and your children can inherit it.
                \_ So what about all the white guys who worked for 11 years
                   and died? They got slightly more screwed.  And social
                   security is so our old folks don't end up on the street
                   eating from garbage cans, it is NOT a pension program.
                   \_ Sorry, I screwed up in my analysis.  Indeed, this might
                      suggest that whites are being screwed, since they might
                      live longer (hence being taxed more) and then die before
                      age 65.
                      \_ I hope someday you come to realize what a dumbass you
                         are.
              \_ This is countered by the fact that more blacks than whites
                 (percentage wise) are on disability.
        \_ The problem with the article is that is reasoned and well laid
           out.  The sloganeering and "faith-based" logic of the Bush admin
           will always convince the 51% of the country that put the current
           set of neocon nuts in power of the veracity of whatever BS the
           admistration is peddling at the moment.
           admistration is peddling at the moment.  See: death tax, tax
           administration is peddling at the moment.  See: death tax, tax
           cuts, WMDs, clear skies, healthy forests, etc.

1/27    Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.
        Or, how "nukular" became an official pronunciation in websters:
        http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=nuclear&x=0&y=0
        \_ How is "nukular" any worse than "comfterble", which is now the
           standard pronounciation of "comfortable"?  Word pronounciations
           change.
        \_ sigh... why don't you browse m-w a little closer:
           http://www.m-w.com/help/faq/pronounce.htm
           \_ What do they mean "feb(y)were" is not "acceptable, just common"
              I don't know any native speakers of English who pronounce
              the "r" in February! (then again, i grew up in the south...)
        \_ http://m-w.com is clearly incorrect, even with the disclaimer they have.
           Oh well.  Dumbasses.  I bet there was a significant minority or
           perhaps majority on the Merriam-Webster staff who disagreed or
           would disagree strongly with how this was done, and I'll settle
           for that notion.

1/27    I really like the visualization feature of iTunes.  Is there an open
        source program that does something as nice?  Where can I learn about
        the algorithm/formula it uses?
        \_ There are quite a few open-source iTunes visualizations out
           there which you can d/l and analyze the source for. The basic
           idea is pretty simple -- iTunes feeds you a buffer of time domain
           and frequency domain data (downsampled, so you can't copy the
           song), which your plugin can use to do whatever. A cursory look
           at the output of the default visualizer looks like it just
           draws the waveform, perhaps constrained so a shape like a circle,
           and then uses low-pass filtered versions of previous data to
           generate the trippy melting backgrounds. It doesn't look like
           it uses the FFTs. You can run some test signals through the
           visualizer and see how it responds to get a better understand
           of what it is doing.
        \_ I'd love to be a Visualization Engineer! No backward compatibility
           issues to work on, and who's going to tell you that your
           visualization algorithm is wrong or inefficient?

1/28    VMWare + Fedora Core 3-2.6.9 really really sucks because they turned
        on the 4G mem translation and it slowed down quite a bit. However,
        VMWare + Fedora Core 3-2.6.10 is AWSOME! I don't know what they did
        but it's pretty fast. Thanks VMWare/Fedora people.
        \_ In other news, clueless sodan is screwing around with testbed
           bleeding-edge kernels and wonders why they perform strangely.
           Sodan in question also lacks what other people call "a life",
           and states that his favorite hobbies include painting miniatures,
           playing D&D with his other geek friends, and tweaking his
           bike so that it makes a fake motorcycle sound. Rest of Linux
           community polled basically "don't fucking give a shit" when
           asked how relevant Fedora Core running on vmware is to them.
           \_ What have you got against painting miniatures?
           \_ Wow, you are the one need to get a life.
              \_ Wow, you need one get the English Lesson.
              \_ Wow, you are need one get the English Lesson.
           \_ there used to be a time when soda's full of helpful technical
              posts like these, now it's turned into freeper for the
              democrats, I wonder what happened...
              \_ Like many nostalgists, you have a rose colored view of
                 the past. Here is the first motd posting from 1995
                 that I happened to click upon. Note that there is a
                 huge political discussion on it:
                 http://csua.com/1995/02/01
                 \_ http sucks. use ~kchang/bin/kais 02/01/1995
                        \_ VIRUS ALERT!!! Don't trust kchang!!!

1/28    Why do eyes turn red in photos, and how do you stop this from happening?
        \_ Your flash is reflecting off the back of people's eyeballs.
           Probably the best way to stop it is to use better lighting
           (don't flash directly into people's eyes).  It's probably better
           to remove it in Photoshop than to bother with your camera's
           "red eye reduction" feature (which pre-flashes a light to get
           people's pupils to constrict).  -tom
           \_ Why is the photoshop approach better? I think the red-eye
              pre-flash works fairly well. Not everybody is shooting digital.
              \_ Well, in my case the photoshop solution is going to be
                 perfect, since I'm not the one who took the pictures, but
                 I'm the person who'll end up putting them on the web.
                 Thanks to all who replied.  This was interesting. -op
              \_ It uses battery, is more intrusive to the subject, and
                 doesn't really solve the problem.  -tom
              \_ It causes delay between pressing the shutter release and the
                 shutter actually releasing, because the camera has to allow
                 time for the subject's pupil to contract.  Some subjects
                 get confused thinking that the picture is already taken when
                 the pre-flash fires, so they start moving before the shutter
                 is released.  -- yuen
        \_ Red eye also depends on where the flash is located relative to
           the lens.  The closer the flash is to the lens the more likely
           you'll get red-eye.  This is because of the angle the light is
           reaching your eye.  A cool camera like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T1
           is terrible for indoor picture taking because the flash is right
           next to the lens.  The best way to avoid red-eye is to have the
           flash as far away from the lens as possible, the like the snap on
           flash bulbs that sit high above the lens creating a downward angle
           flash, thus avoiding red-eye.
           \_ of course the problem with flasth far away from the lens is odd
           \_ of course the problem with flash far away from the lens is odd
              shadowing effect you can get from the primary light source being
              at an odd angle.
              at an odd angle.  Hence the flash diffuser 'umbrella' used by the
              pros.
              \_ You get odd shadowing from hard light.  The umbrella thing
                 is for diffuse light.  Ideally, for pictures of people's
                 faces, you bounce some light from another angle to soften
                 shadows more.
        \_ Somewhat related, I think I heard on CSI or something like that
           only living people will have red eye because it has something to
           do with the living pigments (or something  in your eye.
           Dead people won't get red eye.
           \_ Maybe because dead people's blood isn't red anymore after the
              oxygen in the blood is gone?
        \_ The best indoor flash pictures are taken by bouncing the flash
           off the ceiling. You get more natural light photos of ppl that
           way. Might need to adjust the color if the ceiling isn't white.
        \_ take pictures of Asian men/women only. Problem solved. And IMHE
           the people who have the reddest eyes are my Bulgarian friends.
           \_ That's because they're drunk.

1/28    Did anyone from Math 128A get their socrates account yet?
        \_ wow, we have a non-alum posting on motd! That is amazing!!!

1/28    I'm thinking of building a cluster of diskless, low-end low-noise
        PCs (one to attach a monitor to a wall to make it look like a
        moving painting, one in the kitchen to display weather/traffice),
        are there motherboards that boot up from LAN and without having to
        have a HD?
        \_ Try Mini-ITX from VIA. Many of them are fanless. AFAIK,
           all of them have the ability to boot off the net.
           \_ Also just to get some ideas, look at http://www.mini-itx.com .
              They're in the UK, so ordering may abe problematic, but their
              page has some cool resources.  -John
              \_ You can get the same shit here in the U.S. Just go down to
                 Central Computer if you're in the Bay Area. They'll either
                 have it or get it for you.
           \_ how about 802.11? Any board that can boot from that?
              \_ I don't think so.

1/28    What is your favorite lightweight terminal program?
        \_ SecureCRT, the best. Putty, second.
           \_ Terminal.app, SecureCRT, Putty.
                \_ how does Terminal.app compare with SecureCRT?
           \_ Sorry I mean for *nix. I find xterm too slow, and rxvt buggy.
              \_ uh, xterm?
              \_ stop running your *nix on a 25MHz i386 PC.
              \_ Is xterm's slowness caused by xterm or by X?
                 \_ I don't know, but it seems faster than last time.
              \_ Terminal.app
           \_ Agreeing 100%
        \_ I don't have a favorite but I'll tell you what I hate. I hate
           HPUX's stupid default CDE and their lame ass terminal. Their
           mouse bindings don't conform to anything else and their GUI
           simply sucks.
           \_ Solaris had CDE (and dtterm) as a default, too. So if you
              hate HPUX you also hate Solaris. Personally, I don't mind CDE.
              \_ yeah but HP started it first, back in the mid 1990s and
                 all the other lame ass vendors followed them.
                 \_ I actually worked on CDE -- It was DEC, USL (Unix system
                    laboratories), IBM, Sun and HP I believe.  They basically
                    cobbled together various bits from each company together
                    into a windowing system ... I think the goal was to have
                    a universal one to counter Micro$oft's claim of "UNIX
                    fragmentation"
                    \_ wow, you guys sure showed M$ that you kick ass!
                    \_ CDE was lifted from HP VUE.  VUE sucked, but then so
                       do most things HP.  In fact, OSF adopted CDE in the
                       early '90s, before the OSF/USL merger.  Sun was a
                       member of USL and was never a member of OSF.  For the
                       locally minded, OSF was originally called the Hamilton
                       Group, after the DEC Hamilton building (at the corner
                       of Hamilton and Alma in Palo Alto) where the early
                       OSF meetings were held.  That building was subsequently
                       leased by Sun for work on Green Door, after DEC vacated
                       the site.
                        \_ GO MICROSOFT!!!              -undergrad

1/28    Man I want to be a terriorist!!
        http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=3&u=/ap/20050127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_sex_vs_faith_7
        \_ If things keep going on the current path, soon posting on the motd
           will make you a terrorist!
           \_ Wow, so ilyas isn't nuking hte motd, he's FIGHTING TERRORISM!!
        \_ So hot!  I thought these things only exist in R-rated B movies.

1/28    http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/01/28/auschwitz.cheney.reut/index.html

1/28    From that Yahoo! News (AP) article on Guantanamo Bay events:
        In another case, Saar describes a female military interrogator
        questioning an uncooperative 21-year-old Saudi detainee who allegedly
        had taken flying lessons in Arizona before the Sept. 11 terror
        attacks. ... The female interrogator wanted to "break him," ...
        she removed her uniform top to expose a tight-fitting T-shirt and
        began taunting the detainee, touching her breasts, rubbing them
        against the prisoner's back and commenting on his apparent erection.
        The detainee looked up and spat in her face, the manuscript recounts.
        \_ I guess he didn't know a good thing when he saw it. They
           decapitate people. We send women to fuck them. This is why
           America is so great!!!
        \_ I GUESZ HE DIDNT NOW A K00L TH1NG WHEN HE SAW IT, THEY
           DECAPIT8 D00DZ. WE U/L BABEZ 2 FUCK THUM. TH1Z IZ WHY
           AMURICA 1Z SO RAD!!!
           \_ MEBB HE WUZ PRETENDING 2 B TORTURED!!!1! -TROL
        \_ I WANNA B THE MALE SOLD1UR 2 INTURROG8 A FUMALE TURRORIST
           UZE1NG ANY MEANZ NECESSARY!!!

1/28    Anyone have any creative ideas for things to do with old CDs?
        Does campus recycle them?
        \_ create art.  Make CD mail armor.
                        \_ This is the most brilliant goddamn thing I've
                           seen all week.  You just defined my purpose in
                           life.
                           \_ Use a lot of duct tape on the backside so the
                              splinters from the cracked CDs don't get
                              jammed into your skin.
           \_ true, good for reflecting lasers, at least...

1/28    NK might have a Pak nuke:
        http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7452415
        \_ The united states might also have a nuke.
        \_ Dubya will attack Kim Jong-il with scathing rhetoric!

1/28    Michael Jackson's trial starts on Monday.  I think he should take
        a page from the ilyas defense manifesto, and stand up to the judge
        and admit to the crime.  He should say "Yeah, I had sex with those
        kids, and I'll keep having sex with kids and there's not a god
        damned thing you can do about it, unless you're going to go after
        all of those priests molesting kids and the churches that have
        been covering it up.  I'm just looking for equal treatment!"
        \_ Except it's pretty simple to institute draconian evidence gathering
           for motd editing.  The real issue is, no one wants to squish
           EVERYONE who makes motd changes.  People just want to squish me
           (or kchang, or whoever the poor unpopular dolt happens to be
           this year).  Honestly, I am getting tired of this coming up again.
           If there is a sizable portion of the CSUA who wants me squished,
           go mail politburo.  Or heck, send me a petition, I might pull an
           aaron and self-squish. -- ilyas
           \_ ok, please self-squish
           \_ Why don't I get something named after me? -geordan
              \_ I have a doctrine named after me too.  I am going for
                 an airport or an aircraft carrier next. -- ilyas
                 \_ Hey, don't forget me!  And is that really you in the
                    Adult Swim commercial that spoofs The Shining?
                    -- ilyas #1 fan
              \_ you do, you're the 164 flunk who made a funny video of the
                 professor. Still, you flunked. Ha ha ha.
           \_ "Making a motd change" != repeated nuking the motd of all
              content because someone deleted a thread you were following
              \_ Not all content.  Are you new here? -- ilyas
              \_ You are referring to the original ilyas nuke, when the
                 tactical ilyas nuke is more commonly used today.
                 \_ When did this original nuke taken place?
                    \_ There is NO DOUBT ilyas has used the global nuke.
                       We cannot afford the possibility that ilyas will nuke
                       again.  He must be squished, in the name of freedom.
                       If the Politburo shows uncertainty or weakness, the
                       motd will drift toward tragedy.
                       \_ OMG, someone deleted the post above this,
                          *out*of*order*!!!  If ilyas notices this he'll
                          nuke the whole motd again!
                          \_ Before or after he calls you an idiot?  err,
                             sorry, ilyas never insults anyone -- before or
                             after he *observes* what an idiot you are *in
                             fact*.
                        \_ yeah, you are either with us, or you're against
                           us. Ilyas is not with us, he is a terrorist.
                           \_ It was established in a thread earlier today
                              that by nuking the motd ilyas was in fact
                              FIGHTING TERRORISM!!!

1/28    When Lion's have sex, why do the females get very aggressive and
        try to bite the Male Lion back?
        \_ Cuz they like to get it on baby! Also, the feline penis is somehow
           painful to the female during penetration.
           \_ I think it's pronged so it hurts more if she tries to pull out.
        \_ Because she's being raped.
           \_ As is all heterosexual sex.
              \_ Still haven't figured out that whole 'consent' thing, huh?
        \_ Not limited to lion's. Tiger's, housecat's, all cat's are like this.
           \_ please stop with the incorrect apostrophes!
              \_ There was a strip club that I used to drive by every day
                 called "centerfold's".  It used to drive me nuts.
              \_ Where's dbushong when we need him?!
                 \_ You mean "Wheres" --dbushong

1/28    http://live.indiatimes.com/ppt/picppt/6.html
        Euro having sex with Dollar
        \_ damn. I clicked on to the horse sex one and a manger saw me
           looking at that.
           \_ A manger?  Don't get all nativity scene on us, you asshole!
        \_ The funny thing is that these posters were posted on the streets
           of Moscow a couple of years ago and the advertizing agency manager
           said he didn't notice anything wrong with it at first but later
           admitted: "Yeah, when I looked more carefully I realized that"
           The Russian language comment says: "A magazine about how money is
           made"
              \_ soda is acting slow for me with all the perl going on.
                 makes it easy to mistype.

1/28    How can I get my zsh prompt to use bright colors but NOT bold font?

1/28    Who here works at VMWare? I have a suggestion for you so that maybe
        you can talk to a marketing dude or something. I think VMWare is one
        of the coolest products out there. How about this for marketing.
        Give free copies to academia, they really need it for say, OS projects
        and what not. Also, give lots of academic discount to students
        since many of them are Linux/Win dual boot users, and since quite a
        few of them are kernel hackers it'd surely suck them into using your
        products. Once you get the kids addicted, they'll keep coming back.
        Mr. Evil M$ Gates understood this decades ago and gave free copies
        of WinCrap stuff to academia, and look how well he's doing.
        \_ Giving software to academia is not free.  The tax break can be
           extremely valueble.  I've seen some pretty shady stuff with
           software donations.  Does a company really deserve a 2 million
           dollar tax writeoff for donating software that isn't really needed?
           Maybe, but it's definitely not "free."
        \_ Doesn't VMware have academic pricing?
        \_ That's like the M$'s strategy of settling the anti-trust lawsuits.
        \_ VMware has been profitable for quite some time.  I don't think
           they need your help.
           \_ cool because I really enjoy my free warez copy and I love the
              fact that it's so easy to get serial numbers on the internet
              \_ Do VMWare employees have to pay for it?
                \_ you mean pay for sex?

1/28    Seanbaby's 20 Worst Video Games Of All Time, the Director's Cut:
        http://www.seanbaby.com/nes/egm.htm

1/28    Brain destroying animated gif ahead:
        http://csua.org/u/arh
        \_ I still live!  Sinistar^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbrain

1/28    I have a feeling most motd'ers will be on the receiving end of
        http://papernapkin.net, rather than giving the address out.  But in the
        name of being fully-informed...
        http://papernapkin.net
        \_ "You have recieved this email because your sysadmin doesn't actually
            give a fuck about your problems. RTFM."
        \_ In the footsteps of that rejection phone number that people
           give out.
        \_ Oh man this is funny.
        \_ Geeks are too shy to get that far. They just stare at the chick.
           \_ I feel sorry for you.  Perhaps you should get therapy for your
              chronic lack of self-confidence.

1/28    Has anyone ever eaten at Rally's (or Checkers as it's called
        in some regions)? Is it good? What's the quality of the burgers:
        higher than mcdonalds/burger king, or about the same? I'm trying
        to decide whether to go there or not.
        \_ better burgers and fries.

1/30    (repost) Why do guys with pickups or trucks leave the engines idling
        at the gas station even though there are always signs stating
        "NO SMOKING -- TURN OFF ENGINE"? Is it a "hey I'm a macho dude
        with a studly diesel" thing or is there a real reason for them to
        do this?
        \_ If you live in a cold enough climate you can't turn the engine
           off in any location where you can't plug in your block heater.
           Maybe some of these people picked up the habbit in places like
           that.  North Dakota is like this in the winter.
           \_ This is in California.
           \_ Even after turning it off for a few minutes only?  An engine
              doesn't get cold that fast.
        \_ my guess is that when they were young they saw their mommies
           or daddies doing the same thing because old engines were hard
           to start once they're turned off. But that is just my guess. Why
           do you care? Sheesh.
                \_ I want to know WHY people do this.  This is not the most
                   inane question ever posted to the motd by far.
                   \_ Because they're lazy fucks, because they can, because
                      they think it's macho/cool/whatever.  Same reasons why
                      people don't fasten their seatbelts, dawdle in the fast
                      lane and don't indicate when passing.  Does it bug you?
                      Then tell them.  -John
                        \_ If there was a real reason to do it, then I wanted
                           to know what that was.
                           \_ See first reply.  Big (aka bigrig) trucks are
                              a pain to start, and some older engines always
                              required some warmup time.  Now it's pointless.
                                \_ Hey, a resemblance to a real answer!
        \_ Since nobody asked it, I will: is there still any reason (other
           than not to waste gas/pollute) to turn off engine at a gas station?
           I have never heard of a gas station blown up by some redneck
           republican truck idling its engine.
           \_ just a guess, leaving your engine running means your electrical
              system is on also
             \_ hence you can continue listening to your fav country music
             \_ or keep your AC on
        \_ us guys?? how many CSUA types have you seen doing this?
           \_ More to the point, how many CSUA types who drive pickups have you
              seen doing this? -- ulysses (beat-up white 89 Ford Ranger)

1/28    I've never been to Hooters, is it similar to South Park's raisin
        girls? Where they flirt with the guys in the restaurant and
        occasionally sing/dance?
        \_ I don't know about raisin girls, but at hooters there is
           no singing, dancing, or flirting. many of the girls even
           aren't that hot.
           \_ I got flirted with while I was at Hooters, but I am
              probably a lot better looking than you.
                \_ post your picture bitch
              \_ You do realize that it's part of their job to be friendly
                 with customers, yes?  They'll flirt with ugly-ass stinky
                 people even if they have no interest or intention of
                 following up.  Just so ya know, kid.
                 \_ I'm guessing that the quantity of flirtage is a strong
                    function of the size of expected tip.  Ugly guy
                    with fancy watch and suit will get more flirtage.
                    \_ Yes and no. This is like being at a strip club.
                       Young and rich is better than old and rich. Imagine
                       if you were paid $20 to kiss someone. Wouldn't you
                       care who they were or would you kiss everyone and
                       make more money that way? Most people do care at
                       least a little bit.

1/28    emacs question: How can I specify a keyboard combo for saving
        the file? I find "control x  s" awkward. I would like to use
        "control x  \" instead.
        \_ put this in your .emacs:
           (global-set-key "\C-x\"" 'save-buffer)
           to get rid of C-xs for saving, you can use:
           (global-unset-key "\C-xs")
            \_ Thank you. That's awesome. I tweaked it like this:
                (global-set-key "\C-x\C-\\" 'save-buffer)
                Now it works great. Thanks!
                Now it works great just like jove. Thanks!
        \_ As someone who's switched from jove to emacs (many years ago),
           and also from random package X to random package Y, I urge you
           to learn and use the default bindings. If you don't, you can't
           ever use the package outside of your own environment; your buddy
           says, hey, here, fix this piece of code in my buffer, and you
           can't move the cursor because you defined the move-cursor commands
           to be like the Doom bindings ...    -- one who's been there
           \_ Seconded. I also recommend learning vi to the point
              where you are comfortable editing code using it b/c
              one day you will end up crunched for time and stuck
              on a box w/o emacs and the last thing you want to
              worry about is how to insert text.
              \-In the case of C-xC-s/C-xs, I think it is a good idea
                to stick to those bindings unless there is some weird
                reason not to [like C-q/C-s lossage]. In some other cases
                it may be reasonable to swtich. You know there is nothing
                that says you have to unset C-xs ... I suppose since C-x\
                is not normally bound having both isnt too bad. Re: vi ...
                you probably want to be able to use vi enough to get
                emacs running and do basic edits but that is a long way
                from being able to edit code. In fact the whole approach
                to editing code is different between emacs and vi, so if
                you see them as interchangable [do i use ESC-l, or C-f to
                move to the right], then you are likely not using emacs
                correctly/fully [e.g. M-x compile etc]. --mr. emacs
                \_ My emacs session generally has mh-rmail, gnus,
                   w3c, gdb, compiles and dozens of buffers open
                   at any given time. At one point in my life I
                   used to use emacs client/server regularly.
                   However, I still think that knowing how to switch
                   btwn emacs and vi is a valuable skill (ex i is to
                   insert, a is to append, hjkl is to move, :1 is
                   first line, G is last line, / to pattern match,
                   % is to paren match, this will be good enough
                   for 95% of all problems).
                   \- By all means go for the "95%" but that is a
                      long way from "I am comfortable working on
                      large projects in either emacs or vi and
                      merely prefer emacs."

1/28    Just a few dead enders left fighting us in Iraq:
        http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050104-110330-6820r.htm