2/18    Home directory symlinks (like /accounts/user and /home/u/user) now use
        relative pathnames, rather than absolute ones.  This shouldn't cause
        any problems, but please let me know if anything goes wrong.  --mconst

2/18    Latest news on the Gay Male Prostitute at the White House story:
        http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=92
        \_ Real title: "Washington reporters skeptical of photograph
           purporting to show hard pass; 'Inconclusive'
        \_ Actually, the latest is that he was in the press room before
           his "employer," Talon "News," was in existence.
           \_ http://wizbangblog.com/archives/005127.php
        \_ Why is this such a big deal? Other than lofting a few
           puffballs at Bush, what did he do that was so wrong?
           \_ After all, Pravda is always true!
           \_ How am I going to explain to my children that the President
              had a gay male prostitute working for him?
              \_ How was this guy "working" for the President?
                 \_ He was planted by the administration to ask softball
                    questions.

2/18    motd restored after some jackass used rot13 on it.

2/18    Why don't you just email your complaint to jwang directly rather
        \_ We like to air our diry laundry here on the motd.
        \_ Destruction of the MOTD (by repeated deletion, jive, or any other
           method) is severly frowned upon and will result in the
           termination of your account.
           \_ Do we have proof it was jwang?
              \_ The politburo doesn't need proof to investigate. Then
                 he has to either admit to it, lie about it, or ignore
                 them.
                 \_ Even a confession isn't enough to get squished anymore.
                    http://csua.com/?entry=32694
                    -meyers
                 \_ [ meyers reply deleted to spite him. -- ilyas ]
                    \_ Wow, that's twice I've been nuked, though you're
                       only owning up to it once.  Is this part of your
                       "inverse golden rule"?  -meyers
                 \_ [ ilyas reply deleted to spite him. -- !meyers ]
                    \_ Fuck you for forging my login.  Bitch.  Not even
                       ilyas would stoop so low.  -meyers
                       ilyas would stoop so low.  -jwang
                       \_ I am a god!  A god, damn you! -meyers
                          \_ You post to the motd with the trolls you have,
                             not the intelligent discussion you ought to
                             have.  -tom
                             \_ Sometimes, it's more fun to play with the
                                trolls -- expectations are so much lower.
                    \_ [ no sense being redundant. ]

2/18    When you need to parse something simple do you usually use (f)lex/yacc
        or just write a recursive-descent parser? I've done both in the past,
        but I can't seem to justify using one approach over the other.
        \_ the point of yacc is so that you can write a grammar for it so that
           when things change you don't have to spend a lot of time
           rewriting your hand-written C/Java recursive-descent parser. For
           something really small then it may not be worthwhile to use the
           parser, but for something that's big (parsing a real language) it's
           best to write the grammar. You get the added advantage of the
           compiler-compiler giving you grammar ambiguity messages. The other
           thing is that flex/yacc use SLR(1) whereas recursive descent is
           LL(1). SLR(x) is more powerful than LL(x) as it can handle a
           bigger set of grammar so that's something to consider as well.

2/18    Concrete evidence of human role in global warming from Scripps
        Institute.
        http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-3-1489955-3,00.html
        http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/print_article.cfm?article_num=666
        You may now commence the flame war.
        \_ Why do you hate America?

2/18    So I heard the real reason Carla got fired is she fired the whole
                                   \_ It's "Carly" which is short for "Carlton"
        department responsible for failing the revenue numbers, and as soon
        as the board heard about, they fired her instead.  Any truth to this?
        \_Which department would be responsible for failing the revenue
          numbers? The finance department? Carly was on the fence for a
          while. People were just chomping at the bits to get rid of her.
          She made a lot of enemies during the whole stupid Compaq merger.
          \_ I would think marketing or sales department.  the sales numbers
             highly dependent of sales/marketing functions as opposed to the
             the products.
             \_ Doesn't Sarbanes-Oxley title VIII hold executive staff
                criminally liable for fucking up this sort of thing?  I can't
                quite figure out from the text if the board also hangs if the
                numbers are crap.  -John
             \_ Well, there was a big fuckup in the sales dept in I believe
                Q3FY04. But really, Carly's been not well-liked here since
                she announced the Compaq merger. Not many are all that sorry
                to see her go.
        \_ Do you mean 'filing'?
           \_ I think "not meeting"...expectations.
        \_ I used to associate HP products with good quality.  after the
           compaq merger, when I think of HP, I think of crappy home computers
           you see in bestbuy.
           \_ Ironic that two innovative companies in DEC and HP were
              reduced to Dell also-rans by idiotic management. I read that
              HP is thinking of dropping the printer business in favor
              of consulting because even though it is most of their
              revenue it is 'low margin'. Once HP gives up printing I
              think they will have nothing left.
              \_ Oh yes, and those other companies with business based on
                 proprietary Unix operating systems are doing so well.  -tom
              \_ If they stop making calculators I will personally riot.

2/18    A parent's primer to computer slang
        http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx  -John
        \_ "Was this information helpful to you? Yes"
           \_ "Please tell us more:"  "omgwtfbbq" -geordan

2/18    zbgq erfgberq nsgre fbzr wnpxnff hfrq ebg13 ba vg.

2/18    To show I am a better man (and christian) than ilyas, here is a
        solution to the hw question asked yesterday (maximum contiguous
        sequence).  Pass 1: coalesce adjacent elements of the array A
        into blocks with the same sign (dropping 0) by summation into array B,
        meanwhile keeping track of their range in array A .  Finding the max
        of the array B during this pass as well.  Pass 2: starting at the
        max block, extending up and down the array B (and hence A), finding
        the max stretch.  You have to prove that it works and it is linear. :)
        \_ anti-semite alert!!!
           \_ I don't think ilyas is Jewish
              \_ No, he's either Tzimisce or Silverfang lupus theurge.  Aren't
                 you paying attention?  *sheesh*
                 \_ mislycanthropy alert?!
        \_ Doesn't this give 4 instead of 5 for  A = B = (4, -8, 3, -1, 3)?
        \_ What's wrong with you dude? We solved this already in one pass.
           Just stop already.
           \_ Was it O(n) or O(n^2)?
              \_ One pass, O(n). I don't see what's the big deal. Keep a
                 running count of the "current sequence", and the value/index
                 where it was highest. The "current sequence" is over if
                 (count + next) < next. Store the best sequence as you go.
                 \_ Except that doesn't work. -- ilyas
                    \_ Counterexample? You may call me stupid rather than lazy.
                       Although being anonymous helps me in either case.
                       \_ Think of one yourself.  Lazy bitch. -- ilyas
                          \_ I choose to think I'm right and you're stupid.
                             \_ Let me know what you get on your homework.
                                  -- ilyas
        \_ cool!  christians rule.
        \_ Not only have you encouraged the deadly sin of Sloth in the original
           poster of the question, but you have succumbed to the deadly sin of
           Pride yourself (by posting something that doesn't work).
           You -> Hell.  It's trivial to see that starting from the max block
           can fail to work. -- ilyas
           \_ You just succumbed to the deadly sin of Stupidity for getting
              trolled again.
              \_ Nay, for ilyas knoweth not what he does.

2/18    I have a 64MB USB thumbdrive and I'd like to put a small
        version of knoppix on it to use as a rescue medium. I don't
        want X. I do want all the cool hardware detection that knoppix
        does so well. Any ideas for something already made for this?
        \_ http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12964  YMMV.  Let me
           know if it works.  I want to do the same for Auditor on 1GB
           (http://new.remote-exploit.org/index.php/Auditor_main -John
            \_ Hi John, I found this, but can't find the USB for
               mounting the root FS at bootup. Has an initrd though.
            \_ Hi John, I found this, but it can't find the USB for
               mounting the root FS after bootup. Has an initrd though.
               http://www.tux.org/pub/people/kent-robotti/looplinux/rip
               It is well-documented, but not as cool as knoppix. -brett
               \_ Nifty--I intend to muck around with this sometime next
                  month (don't have any working unix boxes right now) so if
                  you drop me a mail I'll let you know if I figure out
                  how to do it.  It's also tremendously reliant on whether
                  your bios can boot from usb, in what order you load the
                  drivers, etc.  You may also want to look at M0n0BSD
                  (http://www.m0n0.ch -- I'll see the author in a few days
                  and can ask him for help.  -John

2/18    Oil traders kick Greenpeace butt
        http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1487741,00.html
        \_ That's hillarious.  Thanks.

2/18    Why the big uproar over Blockbuster's new fee structure? It seems
        to only benefit the consumer. I was screwed often by returning
        movies late, but now it's a non-issue. They used to make you buy
        them before if you were x many days overdue, too, and they refunded
        the fee if you didn't want to buy it but returned it. Just like
        now. Do these consumer protection advocates realize the new
        structure is actually better for consumers?
        \_ The big uproar isn't the fee structure.  It's the advertising that
           says, "NO LATE FEES*"
           [*unless you don't return it in 7 days--then you bought it, but you
           can return it for a restocking fee]
           \_ Would we all be better off if BB went back to the old way? I
              think people are being overly critical of BB when their new
              plan is really better for consumers than the old one.
        \_ Uproar? Consumer advocates? huh?
           \_ Yes. For instance, the State of New Jersey.
        \_ People are just pissed that 'no late fees' != return it whenever
           you damn well please. late fees = restocking charge now.
           \_ You cannot honestly expect that you can keep it indefinitely.
              \_ http://www.netflix.com/Default
                 \_ Netflix sucks donkey dick. I say this as a Netflix
                    customer.
                    \_ So why are you a customer? -curious
                       \_ Maybe he's a donkey.
                       \_ Former customer
              \_ Then why is BB saying there are no late fees?
        \_ How much is the restocking fee?
           \_ $1.25 according to http://cnn.com
              But I agree.  Some PHB at Blockbuster fucked up.  You don't say
              "no late fees" and then charge a "restocking fee" after 7 days.
              I bet a lot of the regular employees thought so too.

2/18    How do you protect yourself from pickpockets, European pickpockets?
        \_ Put your money down the front of your pants.  Keep a fake
           wallet in your backpocket containing nothing but a piece of
           paper covered in insults in 12 different languages.
        \_ Carry around a Walther PPK like Bond, James Bond.
        \_ I wore a moneybelt when I was in Europe.
           \_ Yeah, until it got stolen while you were getting head in
              Amsterdam.
        \_ Put your wallet in your front pants pocket. For really
           important stuff I would wear a t-shirt w/ a pocket and
           put it in that w/ a regular shirt on top. Another option
           is to get shirts where the pockets have flaps and buttons.
           Most pick-pockets (even in asia) aren't bold enough to
           go for money kept there.
        \_ Get a neck pouch.  Plenty of travel luggage companies have them.
           Basically a pouch with a string that goes around your neck.
           Pouch then goes under your shirt.  Keep some small bills out
           in your front pocket to use for normal purposes. Keep big bills
           passport, cards, etc. in the neck pouch.
           \_ This also works in belt form if you feel like a douche
              wearing a necklace-- you can position the pouch to hover
              above your thigh, and it goes underneath your pants.  Note
              also that the zippered/button approach below does not
              work; I was stopped by police several times and told to put
              my wallet in my front pocket because the gypsies would just
              cut the bottom of your seat pocket and grab the wallet as it
              fell out.
              \_ I find moneybelts to be more uncomfortable and less safe.
        \_ pants with zippered or buttoned pockets.  More than anything,
           though, you just need to keep an eye out, keep your hands in
           your pockets in the metros and, if you need to pull out money,
           never expose how much you actually have.  I tend to keep small
           change handy, with my big bills tucked away where it won't be
           seen even if I do pull my wallet out.  Money belts are a pain
           in the ass, but more paranoia is better where pickpockets are
           concerned.  Also, if you're going to keep your bills in a pack,
           use a bag where a few seconds with a pocket knife won't get all
           your valuables.  Walk with attitude and look people in the eyes
           if they try to case you.
        \_ My dad would often wear a pair of lightweight shorts with pockets
           under slightly larger pants when traveling.  large quantities of
           cash/valuables went into the shorts, disposable amounts into the
           outer pants.  He said it also helped deal with his growing belly.
        \_ Don't act like a tourist.  Avoid bright colors, shorts, tennis
           shoes with white socks, fanny packs, being an obnoxious loud
           tourist in public, reading a guidebook all the time while walking
           around (try to read up before venturing out), don't take along a
           fat wallet--take only the cash/cards/ID you really need, keep your
           hand in your pocket on your wallet near signs saying BEWARE OF
           PICKPOCKETS (don't ever pat your pocket to make sure your cash is
           still there), keep some loose coins & small bills separate from
           your wallet.  -John
        \_ I like to buy a small sack or pouch with drawstrings, place my valuables in
           it and tie it on my penis and just let it hang down my pant leg.
        \_ I like to buy a small sack or pouch with drawstrings, place my
           valuables in it and tie it on my penis and just let it hang down
           my pant leg.
           \_ does it also get you chicks/guys?
        \_ Carry only a small amount of money in your wallet. Put the rest of
           your money into a plastic bag, apply some lubricant, and gently push
           it up your ass. Don't forget to pick it up and put it back before
           flushing water in the restrooms.

2/18    Winning Their Hearts And Minds:
        http://csua.org/u/b46
        \_ That dude needs to get a talk radio show.
        \_ Interesting article, thanks.  (Note: link not BS from pundits)
        \_ Dear kchang, it would be nice if your motd archive can translate
           shortened url (csua.org or tinyurl) into actual url since the latter
           tends to remain valid longer.  Many ppl read links from the archive
           when they have time rather tha following the motd live.
           \_ dear anonymous person, if you move your mouse over the URL,
              you'll see a summary and the actual url. And if you go to the
              entry, you'll see the entire cache up to 8K. Try the following
              url. This feature has been around since May of last year:
              http://csua.com/?entry=36239

2/18    http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza
        A sign of the times, or something
        \_ it would be cool if I could use motd to order pizza, because that's
           pretty addictive as well.
           \_ Just post your home address and credit card number, and we'll,
              uh, order something for you.
        \_ Everquest rules!

2/18    How do I _really_ exit Windows Messenger on XP?  It either
        complains that something else (Outlook/Outlook Express/MSN
        Exploer, and none of which is installed) is running and
        refuses to close itself or it would exit but the its process is
        still left running.  A search on Google only tells me how to
        remove Windows Messenger.  But what if I simply want it to
        exit cleanly?  I want to just dump it but everyone in the
        company uses it.  I have installed GAIM and it works fine but
        I am still curious whether it's possible to make Windows Messenger
        really exit.
        \_ USE LINUX!
        \_ go under options. there's a checkbox to make it exit on close
           or something.
           \_ There is a checkbox to disallow it to run in the background,
              which would cause the program to exit on close (rather
              than just being minimized) when checked.
              But if you run Task Manager, you can see the process is
              still well and alive.
              \_ well, you have to select file | exit for it to close.

2/18    Does anyone, including the CSUA, want hard copies of Dr. Dobbs
        journal (1996-2001) and/or the C++ User's Journal (1999-2001)?
        No, you don't have to take them all. -jrleek
        \_ I would think that the CSUA would want them. Email politburo or
           csua?
        \_ Follow up: It looks like the CSUA will be taking them.
           Probably to dump them in the lounge so we look smart. -jrleek

2/18    Winning Their Hearts And Minds:
        http://csua.org/u/b46 (Christian Science Monitor)
        \_ That dude needs to get a talk radio show.
        \_ Interesting article, thanks.  (Note: link not BS from pundits)
        \_ Dear kchang, it would be nice if your motd archive can translate
           shortened url (csua.org or tinyurl) into actual url since the latter
           tends to remain valid longer.  Many ppl read links from the archive
           when they have time rather tha following the motd live.
           \_ dear anonymous person, if you move your mouse over the URL,
              you'll see a summary and the actual url. And if you go to the
              entry, you'll see the entire cache up to 8K. Try the following
              url. This feature has been around since May of last year:
                http://csua.com/?entry=36239
              Is this feature good enough for you?

2/18    In Intellij, how do you change the background color of the menu and
        project bars? I'd like the left tab to be the same color as my
        editor (black). ok thx.

                           \_ If it's not a draft, it's an illegal breach of
                              contract.

2/18    Great blog on strategies in current global war. I particularly like the
        section on large scale attacks vs. system disruption.
        http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas