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| 2005/3/2-3 [Consumer/CellPhone, Consumer/PDA] UID:36476 Activity:low |
3/1 Any recommendations for a Treo 650 case? I was looking at one
named RhinoSkin, but I was wondering if there are better cases
on the market. tia.
\_ Maybe http://www.noreve.com has one--I bought my case for the
Archos Gmini 440 there and it's pretty nice. They seemed to
have some smartphone-type accessories. Also look at
http://www.treocentral.com Given that, does anyone know if
Palm has any plans to lower the price on the things anytime in
the near future? -John
\_ I have a Rhino Skin for my Palm Tungsten, it's turned out to
be quite durable. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Reference/Celebration] UID:36477 Activity:nil 66%like:33383 66%like:34814 66%like:35110 66%like:39339 |
3/2 Happy birthday, Yahoo!!
\_ Thanks! How did you know it's my birthday?
\_ It's posted on slashdot, you're very famous! |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Recreation/Travel/LasVegas] UID:36478 Activity:kinda low |
3/2 Breaking Vegas, interesting series on the history channel.
I can't believe someone said that they cheat, yet the Casinos
haven't prosecuted him.
On a separate note, is card counting legal?
\_ card counters say no, casinos say yes. casinos also
have a big "WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE"
sign so if they think you're card counting successfully
they escort you out. it's pretty hard to successfully
card count though so they are happy for the not very
smart to come on down to vegas and spend all their money
to try.
\_ There are restaurants that refuse service to people who
wear flip flops. Does that make wearing flip flops illegal?
What casino takes the official position that card counting
is illegal (that is to say not merely refusing service to
those who do, but instead having the card counter arrested
for a violation of the law, as they would say a pickpocket)?
\_ We've been over this. Yes, it is legal if you are just using
your own brain. If you are successful at it you will be barred
from the casino, but they cannot prosecute you.
\_ Well, if you think about it, the Casinos are essentially
cheating anyway. All the games are rigged in their favor,
so technically speaking you're not really cheating, just
undoing the House advantage. Obviously Casinos need to
cheat to stay in business though.
\_ Definitions of cheat all involve some concept of fraud or
deception. Insofar as the casino makes the rules of the game
known to the player ahead of time, there is no fraud or
deception, and therefore no cheating on the side of the casino.
It is the player's choice to participate in a game governed by
the albeit unfavorable rules enumerated by the casino.
\_ Well said.
\_ the cheat in one of the casinos is not a card counter:
http://www.richardmarcusbooks.com/blog.htm |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Uncategorized/Multicategory] UID:36479 Activity:kinda low |
3/02 I am looking for a DVD writer as a backup device for my Mac laptop
(I don't have/want a superdrive). I have never used a dvd writer
before and would like to hear your recommendation. tia.
\_ Get a LiteON drive, easy firmware upgrades, reads/writes almost
anything. If the LiteON can't read it, chances are nothing
can. I also highly recommend the Pioneer, overall quality
is very good, stable burns even on cheapie see-through media
(don't expect it to last though).
LiteON drives can be purchased online. Retail they're sold as
Sonys.
\_ I respectfully disagree. The NECs are much better writers
than the Liteons. I just use the Liteons since they support
kprobe2 to verify the burns.
\_ Pioneer. These are the most reliable and best supported. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java] UID:36480 Activity:nil |
3/2 Java experts please help: I have a class FooCanvas which extends
java.awt.Canvas. If I draw into FooCanvas is there any way to read
the framebuffer of FooCanvas? FooCanvas implements no pixel-reading
methods of its own.
\_ You could do your own double buffering: override
update(Graphics g) to not paint directly into g, rather
use the graphics context of a java.awt.Image internal to
your object as the param to the paint call and call drawImage on
the Graphics in update to actually get your canvas painted.
You can then externally access what you have drawn through the
image. -ciyer |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Israel] UID:36481 Activity:very high |
3/2 Interesting writeup on how Palestinian terror is fundamentally
flawed, and must be abandoned.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/022805A.html
\_ " If the possession of an enormous stockpile of nuclear
weapons does not make you a sovereign state, it is
difficult to say what would."
\_ Who is right and who is wrong? Here is something for you
good Christians to memorize:
good = Christians > Jews > Other Religions > Muslims
In another word, Christians are always right. Any question?
\_ Can't argue with the article, huh?
\_ The whole article is filled with so many distortions and outright
falsehoods that it is not worth bothering with. I suppose you
think that the Palestinians should just all leave or die
and give their land over to the Settlers. Because if they
did not defend themselves, that is what would have happened.
had not defended themselves, that is what would have happened.
But I cannot argue with his conclusions, no matter how error
filled and fallacious his argument is.
\_ You don't need a whole article.
If your side has suicide bombers blowing up civilians, you're
on the wrong side. This is debatable, but if you try to debate
the legitimacy of suicide bombers blowing up civilians, I'd say
you were also on the losing side of the debate.
\_ If you are on the side of people taking other people's land
and tearing down their houses, you are on the losing
side of the debate.
\_ If the two sides are: Blow up civilians with suicide bombers;
and assassinating the leaders of those responsible for
the bombings with innocent lives (including children) lost
in the assassinations, and demolishing the homes of innocent
people who are related by blood to the bombers -- guess which
side is the losing side?
\_ Both sides.
\_ Okay. But let's say you didn't have to ally yourself
with a side. Let's say you were judging which side
is worse. Which would it be?
\_ The PA is automatically worse because their goal
of destroying Israel is, and always has been,
fantasy. If they had stated asked for a two
state solution, they would've had it years ago.
\_ The point is, if your side has suicide bombers
killing civilians with the goal being to kill
as many civilians as possible to help your side,
you're on the wrong side.
\_ Sooo... we have 2 different reasons why PA
is worse than Israel. Will none stand
for the Palestinian cause?
\_ Maybe as soon as they stop with the
organized suicide bombers blowing up
civilians.
And you know, who knows, that might happen.
\_ The PA's goal has not been the destruction of
Isreal for at least a decade now. What is your
excuse for assassinating the Palestinian
leadership and blowing up their civic institutions?
Oh yeah, you have no one to negotiate with. What
a dumbass argument. You kill all the leaders
of a group and then castigate them for not
having any leaders. It is hard to imagine
a more immoral policy.
\_ Which group are you talking about? The
Palestinian people as a group or a subgroup
within in?
\_ PA stands for Palestinian Authority.
\_ The question is, does the PA support
suicide bombing?
\_ Certainly not today. The official
stance of Arafat was that he was
opposed to them after 1982(?), but
others think that he secretly supported
them. A claim like that is hard to
refute or prove, either way.
\_ Did Israel assassinate Arafat;
or other PA leaders not associated
with groups that support suicide
bombing?
\_ If the leaders being assassinated head a group
which supports suicide bombers, it's not a bad
idea to kill them.
If the leaders being assassinated oppose
suicide bombing, it's a pretty bad idea to kill
them.
\_ Why not simply arrest them and bring them
to trail? Why the need for extra judicial
killing guaranteed to have collateral
civilian casualties?
\_ Why the need for suicide bombings against
civilians which are guaranteed to have
civilian casualties?
Why not simply protest the occupation
and hold demonstrations?
\_ Which is better, being blind or being deaf? Either
way, you lose. Better/worse here is semantics at
best, trivialization more like. Suicide bombings are
terrible and reprehensible; so's land grabbing.
Neither justifies or excuses the other.
\_ I doubt it. You're the one who's arguing
semantics. Clearly, suicide bombing is worse
in this case.
\_ Land grabbing is worse, cause the motivation
is greed.
\_ "Land grabbing" in general is bad.
In the specific context of punishing the
other side because they won't stop using
suicide bombers -- suicide bombing is
clearly worse -- and it should be obvious
that the primary motivations are punishment
and (perhaps) protection, not greed.
\_ The land grabbing obviously came first.
And is it worse to kill civilians via
suicide bomber or rocket from a
helicopter? They seem equivalent to me.
\_ Okay, you land grab from my people.
I start blowing up your people with
suicide bombers. I think the second
part is worse. A much more sane
response is anything not involving
suicide bombers.
The Man is going to screw with you and
your livelihood. However, you are
strengthening The Man by using suicide
bombers.
Killing civilians from a helicopter
!= killing civilians from a helicopter
as a result of their being innocent
bystanders while targeting the
leaders of suicide bombers;
Killing civilians from a helicopter
~= killing civilians with a suicide
bomber
\_ If your argument is that using
suicide bombers is impolitic,
you have no quibble with me.
If your argument is that the
Palestinians do not have the
same right to self-defence that
everyone else in the world has,
then we are going to have to
agree to disagree.
\_ "right to self-defence" does
not include suicide bombing of
civilians with the intent to
kill as many civilians as
possible
\_ How do you feel about the
bombing of the King David
Hotel by Irgun?
\_ I am not answering your
question directly, but can
say: If Irgun existed
today, and planned suicide
bombings in 2005 with the
intent to kill as many
civilians as possible, the
leaders of Irgun should be
killed.
\_ Why does it matter so
much to you what the
method of delivery is?
If it is wrong today,
it was wrong in 1946
and visa versa, in
my opinion.
\_ Anyways, thanks
for arguing with me.
This has led me
to think more about
Nagasaki. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Computer/Networking] UID:36482 Activity:high |
3/2 If I subscribe to DSL, I can connect to the internet and talk on the
phone at the same time. Does that mean I can connect via DSL on one
machine and connect via a dial-up modem on another machine at the same
time? Thanks. -- yuen
\_ Assuming you install the frequency filter they gave you, yes.
\_ I hearby officially announce my ignorance on the subject.
What is a frequency filter and how is it installed? It was
expecting something like htonl for floats.
\_ Non authoritative primer on DSL - DSL utilizes the same
copper that dial-up modem (traditional voice) does.
However, instead of an analog signal it sends over a
digital signal. DSL also does not utilize a modem, as
modulation and demodulation of a digital signal is
not required. DSL utilizes a very high frequency range
that is typically not used by traditional voice
communications. However, you can still hear the interference
from the high frequency, (probably due to the usual
frequency enhancing/cancelling/echoing/etc. which I
can't comment on) and so to prevent that from occurring
they've designed a frequency filter which filters out the
DSL signal. This allows you to talk on the phone without
having an annoying hiss in the background. I'm not
sure if the hiss will affect a dialup modem's signal
(it probably does), but you'll definitely want to install
one regardless.
\_ DSL utilizes frequency above the voice band. The filter
/hybrid is used to filter out the high freq noise for
your phone. In adsl, digital data is modulated
through a IFFT/FFT. Signals are then converted to analog
and blasted through the copper wire through a transceiver.
\_ So the $19.99/mo "DSL" that SBC Yahoo sells is actually
ADSL, right?
\_ sorry, DSL uses modems. the modulation standard is, for
example G.lite, and occupies a different spectrum so
that this trick w/ a low-pass filter allows the line
to be shared with a POTS signal that has its own specific
band-pass characteristics. what's interesting is that
the DSL modem can tolerate the high voltage ring indication
without any disruption of service.
\_ It's simple, they give you a bunch of filters, you install one
on each of your phone outlets EXCEPT the DSL one.
\_ I like to point out that, despite the filter, it somehow fried
one of my Panasonic fax machine twice. If I connect my fax
to my normal line, it will operate fine. If I connect to DSL
line with filter, after a few weeks, the machine will act up
weired, after a few months, it stopped working. It was during
warranty period, so they replaced the whole board. But after
a few weeks, it started to act weired again. So now I have
comcast and the fax works fine. I think the filter is far from
perfect.
\_ Would daisy-chaining the filters for the fax machine help?
-- yuen |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Uncategorized] UID:36483 Activity:nil |
3/2 Is there a standard network format for floats? Perhaps the IEEE
network standard? |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Reference/Religion] UID:36484 Activity:very high |
3/2 I just found out Knuth is a Lutheran. So do the anti-religion folks
here now think Knuth doesn't use his brains? -emarkp
\_ For such a smart guy, why are you so eager to resurrect this
ad hominem trollish conversation? If the tone starts out so
hostile, do you really think you're going to change his mind? Did
his sophomoric arguments really get to you that badly? I'd think
that a deeply religious person would have developed much thicker
skin than that going to an institution like UCB.
\_ I am "anti-religion". Does Knuth use his brains? Obviously he does.
So what? This is the "appeal to authority" fallacy. A lot of famous
\_ No it isn't (it would be an appeal to authority if I
said "sine Knuth believes, so should you"). It is a
counterexample to the claim that religious people don't
use their brains. -emarkp
\_ Obviously what's meant is in the context of religion.
We have no way to know how Knuth thinks about
religion and no reason to even care.
\_ Then how is this "appeal to authority"? -emarkp
\_ you're holding up someone known for brains in
CS as an example of using brains on religion
\_ Well, he /has/ used his brains on religion.
His lectures show precisely how. -emarkp
\_ Ok I know nothing about this. But in
general his CS studies don't give any
weight to whatever religious ideas he
might have.
\_ (sigh) I /know/ that. I wasn't
claiming they did. The point isn't
that anyone should believe exactly
what Knuth believes. The point is
that you can't dismiss (say) all
Christians as not using their brains.
-emarkp
\_ But you can dismiss them as having
faulty reasoning.
\_ Why is everyone on motd so
fucking binary?
\_ Why? You're begging the
question. -emarkp
Why not? I haven't seen his reasoning. _/
Every other attempt to reason belief in Christianity
I've seen has been flawed IMO so I doubt he's
different. Anyway I'm not the one who made the
"don't use brain" assertion and I'm not willing to
defend it on its face.
\_ "reasoning belief" is practically a contradiction
in terms. some people are fine with this
contradiction. some are not. some people find
solace in faith. as long as they don't impose on
others, i'm just fine with it.
people were (at least ostensibly) religious. They may be
distinguished in their own field of study but they have no more
insight than anyone else when it comes to religion. And not long ago
it wasn't wise to admit atheism or even non-Christianity. Actually
I still don't feel comfortable admitting that as a rule, I still
come across a person occasionally who will find that shocking and
think I'm corrupted by Satan or whatever. Or for example politics
which requires all candidates to assert faith in God repeatedly.
I believe many churches are "evil" entities, in that they are greedy
and out to increase their power. This was clearly the case with the
Catholic church. Even today the Catholic church is obscenely rich.
\_ It's "clearly the case" with the Catholics? Yeah, that greedy
bastard the Pope...surely you can back that up? -emarkp
\_ Look, just do some research into the gory details of the
Catholic Church. It's a long history and far too much for the
motd. That doesn't mean the current Pope is some greedy evil
bastard. But they still extract a LOT of money from their
worldwide membership. Who controls this power? It's pretty
complex now. But if you look at the early roots of all these
religions you can see how priesthoods directly profited.
The priests described in the bible were the masters of their
tribe, receiving cuts of the holy sacrifices, delegating
power to the kings etc.
\_ Oh, I know the Catholic church has a sordid history. We're
talking about here and now though. -emarkp
power to the kings etc.
\_ Priests in the bible? The only priests described in the
bible are Jewish priests, not Catholic ones. Are some of
these Jewish priests corrupted. Yes, one is involved in
putting Jesus on the cross.
\_ I was talking about the general setup. The priest class,
regardless if it was corrupt, ran the show.
\_ Yes, that was why Jesus was against the Pharisees,
and why Martin Luther was against the Catholic
Church. However, Jesus did not reject having a
church (i.e. "organized religion"). Just because
some churches get corrupted doesn't mean we should
not have a church, which, in its purest sense, just
means a group of Christians worshipping together.
church (i.e. "organized religion").
\_ You really don't know if he did. What you think
you know about Jesus is what's provided by the
church. There's no real record of what he said.
Bible stuff was written long after he died, if
he ever existed. Martin Luther has no authority..
how could the Catholic Church be wrong? It was
a product of the apostolic succession etc.
\_ Everything Jesus said is so obviously from
the viewpoint of Heaven, that I am convinced
it is true. No mortal could have come up
with what Jesus said in the Gospels. Also,
it's not as easy as you think for your
supposed corrupt church to fake everything.
There are multiple sources, many manuscripts,
etc. Don't forget during the early years
Christians were fed to lions. For a long
period of time, there isn't a centralized,
powerful church, and I don't think they can
easily erase and fake things later on. If
the bible is edited by people bent on greed,
it wouldn't be as it is today, which reminds
me of an Abe Lincoln quote:
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this
one?"
\_ right. multiple sources that conflict,
sources that appeared hundreds of years
later, etc. Let's look at your other
assertions: no mortal could come up with?
Why not? There are plenty of other examples
to draw from. What about Buddha? He's not
considered holy by Xtians yet some of Jesus
stuff sounds like Buddha. There's also the
previous scripture for them to draw from,
that sets the tone. All I can say is, try
to study the early Christian history from
unbiased sources and you'll find that it
is absolutely possible.
\_ If you wish to think of it as one big
conspiracy theory, that's your choice.
I am going to go eat dinner, and then
read the bible before I go to bed.
Good night.
\_ Siddhartha does have some good stuff,
but he isn't Jesus. There is a book
called Lotus and the Cross by Ravi
Zacharias written as a dialogue between
Jesus and Buddha. It's not a bad read.
\_ Obviously he's talking about "as far as we
know". Also, IIRC Clement of Rome was a
contemporary of Peter and historical accounts
leave little doubt that Jesus /existed/. The
question is how accurate the Gospel accounts
are. -emarkp
\_ There is plenty of doubt that Jesus existed
as one person. There were a number of holy
guys running around and stories of miracle
workers etc. We /still/ have stories about
miracle workers. Nobody says they're Jesus.
There were lots of religious cults, the
Christ cult grew up as just one of many, and
many years after the supposed events.
The LDS church follows the same path. Thankfully due to long
\_ Please show how the LDS church is "greedy and out to increase"
it's power. And of course show how an organization has a will of
its own. -emarkp
\_ organisations can't have a will? the nature of organised
churches is they have authority figures dictating things.
all organisations have leaders who direct the organisation.
As for LDS, it's designed to extract money from membership
and members are directed to proselytize. Mormons are supposed
to do those conversion missions. LDS church is very wealthy.
\_ How is it designed to extract money? Who benefits from it?
Yes, members are directed to proselytize, but we believe
the teachings to be true, so why wouldn't we? -emarkp
\_ Obviously, the clergy benefit from it. Brigham Young
had 27 wives. Haha.
\_ How do they benefit? You think having 27 wives is
only a benefit? Having many women to sleep with
might sound great to you now, but keep in mind he had
over 40 children. Furthermore, polygamy in early
Utah was not restricted to the leadership. -emarkp
\_ They get money and power and respect. Young
wasn't working 9-5 and changing 50 diapers.
\_ Well, he was farming his land, which wasn't
exactly a cakewalk. -emarkp
struggle, resisting the church now doesn't mean severe hardship
or death. But if you live in a religious community then you'd still
feel "cut off" from the club and so forth. Religions take advantage
of this sense of belonging, and comforting tales of the afterlife,
to perpetuate themselves.
\_ Non sequitur. If the LDS (say) church really is true, they're
not taking advantage of anything.
\_ What? They take advantage regardless if it's true.
\_ So I'm taking advantage of you by telling you not to jump
off a cliff? -emarkp
\_ i said "take advantage of xx to perpetuate themselves".
not sure what you're trying to argue about.
\_ The consequence of jumping off a cliff is that you
get injured or killed. The consequence of sin is
spiritual death. -emarkp
\_ So they take advantage of people's fear of death.
They're not just standing there saying not to
jump off cliffs. There's a whole apparatus set
up.. they're saying unless you are part of their
organisation you're doomed. That's quite different
from merely telling someone not to jump.
\_ So now it's just "fear of death"? If the
resurrection /will/ happen, then telling people
to prepare for it isn't "taking avantage" of a
fear, but simply giving people good
information. If the spiritual consequences of
sin are in fact as dire spiritually as jumping
off a cliff is physically, then there's no
difference. -emarkp
\_ The difference is the organizations like LDS
or the CC that are run more like powerful
corporations.
\_ What does this even mean? And what does
this have to do with the above? -emarkp
\_ I'm saying you don't need a powerful
organisation to tell people not to
jump off cliffs. They aren't "telling"
people to prepare. They are saying you
have to join the group.
\_ But if it's true that you have to
join the group, then they're not
lying or levereging, etc. And was
does it even mean "to be run like a
corporation"? -emarkp
\_ It's obviously not true. Jesus
never said you have to join some
church. His supposed apostles
who started Jesus, Inc. said it.
Jesus said whoever believes in
him will have everlasting life.
This has never panned out.
Everybody kicked the bucket.
\_ Oh, it's obvious. Glad
that's settled. So you
reject the biblical account
of the apostles, but accept
the biblical account of what
Jesus said? That really
doesn't make much sense.
-emarkp
\_ Matthew 16:18 and Matthew
18:17: Jesus talking about the
church. Jesus also goes to
the synagogue to preach, and
chase merchants out of the
temple, saying they have made
the house of his Father a den
of thieves.
http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/HTML%20pages/peter.htm _/
\_ I've read some similar sites. If
someone wants to view things
through cynical lenses, I am sure
they can come up with a lot of
theories. But the message of the
bible speaks for itself.
\_ Just remember that the bible didn't
drop out of heaven in a miracle. It
was written by human hands in human
languages over centuries and had
revisions and additions.
\_ We believe that the bible was
written by many hands but all
under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.
\_ Before becoming a pastor, our church's
pastor was a derivative trader making
a 6 figure salary. Now he is making around
pastor was a derivative trader making a 6
figure salary. Now he is making around
$30k per year. He is the only person
receiving a salary at our church. Please
tell me how my church is run like a
powerful corporation.
\_ I never claimed every church is.
\_ You didn't even define it. -emarkp
\_ You really don't get it, do you? I can't speak for the other
"anti-religion" people on the motd, but I have nothing against
religion or religious people as long as they don't try to force
a religious-based morality on the rest of society through law.
Also, when I see a politically conservative religious person trying
to enforce their beliefe system on the rest of us, I don't think
they're "not using their brain", I think they're evil. That's
different.
\_ You're not "anti-religion" then. I'm referring to people who say
that anyone who is religious is stupid. I knew a number of them
when I was in school. And someone posted just below:
"the same reason that people believe in organized religion:
because they don't use their brains."
-emarkp
\_ Ah, see now you're adding the word "organized" to religion.
I'm not strictly anti-organized religion either, but I
certainly view it with a lot more skepticism than pure
religion in the sense of a personal belief system. The
"not using their brains" part seems like bullshit to me
as far as that goes. I've known too many religiously devout
scientists who were as smart or smarter than me to buy that
one anymore. That sounds like pompous sysadmins blowing off
steam.
\_ What is your objection to organization? -emarkp
\_ In principle? Nothing. In practice, I think organized
religions are generally forces of evil in the world,
particularly when coupled with political power.
When Islam just means praying towards Mecca, eating
Halal food, reading the Koran, and claiming that
Muhammad was a prophet, I have no objection...but
throw in a few Clerics who claim Allah wants people
to kill Americans and Jews, and you have one of the
greatest forces of evil in todays world. Western
Christians are no longer as evil as that because of
several hundred years of struggle by liberals against
the power of established churches, but qualitatively,
they all lead toward the same evil.
\_ Interestingly, Islam is a problem precisely because
it /isn't/ organized. There's no central authority
to say "hey guys, killing innocents isn't ok".
-emarkp
\_ Sorry, not to engage in emarkp bashing, but
you're only partially correct--there may not be
any "central authority" in islam, but there is
quite a bit of decentralized authority in the
form of imams and muftis, some of whom are more
respected than others based on reputation or
family background. Obviously an imam of a huge
mosque will carry more weight than another one.
Al-Azhar and al-Quds also lay claim to strong
academic "authority". And shi'ism has a concept
of ranks among ayatollahs--if a grand ayatollah
yells about martyrs, that's some pretty central
authority there. -John
\_ Yes, I know this (and I don't consider
disagreeing with me civilly to be bashing),
but if there was a single central authority,
he could denounce the behavior. Alternatively
if he supported it, we'd know it was a holy
war, period. -emarkp
\_ There doesn't have to be a single central
authority for it to be a holy war--this
would also not insure the absence thereof,
as with bishops objecting to the crusades,
or even sects of christianity who do not
recognize, say, the pope. -John
\_ Good point. I think it would help
though, and that Islams largely
decentralized leadership is a detriment,
not a benefit. -emarkp
\_ Mmh...think "pope Ahmed Yassin", or
"pope Khomeini". Consider the
consequences. John Paul II is a
tired old mysogynist who's got some
strong convictions and has done some
good and some bad things, but he'd
be largely ignored if he told the
world's catholics to go start a holy
war. -John
\_ Uh...right. You mean like how Christian leaders
used their leadership to stop the hollocaust in
Europe when Christian Germany was trying to take
over the world for the master race? How about
the moral authority of the perpetrators of the
Inquisition? I'll say it again: that level
of evil has been largely eradicated from the
Christian world largely in *spite* of, not
*because* of church leadership.
\_ Martin Luther was a liberal?
\_ Um, the Inquisition was several centuries ago,
and the anonyomous poster said that organized
religions ARE (as in currently, not several
centuries ago) forces of evil. You'll note
that the Holocaust was organized by Hitler,
not any church. -emarkp
\_ Nice double standard. You claimed that
a problem with Islam today is the lack
of some central moral authority who could
stand up and say "terrorism is against God,
so you have to stop." My point was that
the organized church did nothing to stop
a Christian nation from commiting
crimes against humanity in the recent
past.
\_ The Holocaust wasn't done /in the name
of religion/. Islam terrorists are.
You don't see the difference? Also, you
said that they ARE forces of evil. Not
that they failed to stop forces of evil.
[reinserted after someone removed it]
-emarkp
I'll go further and say that you are
exactly wrong about Islam today. I know
American Muslims who go about their
business as good, moral people in spite of
the idiocy perpetrated by their fellows in
the middle east, in my opinion *because*
they don't have to listen to some
hatemonger from Saudi Arabia to be a
Muslim.
\_ I know some too. I also know Saudi,
Lebanese, and Egyptian muslims who do
the same. Most of my muslim friends,
though, are far more likely to fly into
a frothing rage than my non-muslim
friends over sensitive religious topics
and these are educated people. -John
\_ You have no way of knowing that. It is
just as likely that the leader of Islam
would rebuke them and tell the
equally valid to assert that the leader
of Islam would rebuke them and tell the
membership to shun terrorists. -emarkp
\_ Martin Luther was a liberal?
\_ Do you know MLK is a pastor?
\_ Abe Lincoln. Nuff said.
\_ Many of the top universities and hospitals in
asia (and elsewhere?) today were founded by
christian organizations.
\_ missionaries in England spearheaded the
movement that stopped opium trade in China.
\_ News flash, Einstein was a Jew, a JEW!
\_ The Germans claim he was German, and the French claim he was a
citizen of the world. -- ilyas
\_ But AFAIK he didn't believe in a personal God. He used the term
"God" to refer to the universe. -emarkp
\_ Actually, Einstein supposedly wanted to become a rabbi
when he was young. That obviously changed latter. I doubt
you can attribute to Einstein's personal religious beliefs
or his own personal beliefs of God (nobody can). Anyway,
how devout is Knuth as compared to Einstein? Did you now
that Darwin was and remained an Anglican?
\_ I found this out because of the book "Things a Computer
Scientist Rarely Talks About", which is his 6 lectures he
gave at MIT in 1999 about God and CS. He did a personal
project in 1985-6 called "3:16" which was an analysis of
translations of the Bible, which came from his teaching a
Bible class in his church. I'd guess he's as devout in his
faith as I am in mine. -emarkp
\_ people aren't perfectly rational, even smart ones. but i'd be
interested in seeing how many science/math/eng people adopt
religion later in life rather than being born into it.
\_ my personal guess: plenty, easier than say people in the
humanities and social sciences.
\_ I'm not anti-religion, as long as I can hang out with THESE
people:
http://www.eros-london.com/articles/2003-07-22/libchrist |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Health/Sleeping] UID:36485 Activity:moderate |
3/3 What's a good way to buy a new mattress for cheap? I went to a
Macy's, but they're kinda expensive. Also, I only need a mattress
(without a box spring), so I can't take advantage of any special
sales, which usually sell both together. Is online shopping
efficient for mattresses? I'd like a major name brand, too.
Thanks.
\_ Costco carries mattresses.
\_ Costco?
\_ Yes, the warehouse.
\_ How about Mattress Discounter? Or Mancini Sleepworld?
\_ How about Mistress Discounter? Or Mancini Sleepware?
\_ Or European Clitworks at Adeline and Ashby? |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Transportation/Car] UID:36486 Activity:nil |
3/2 For those interested in engine braking, check out Jake Brake:
http://www.jakebrake.com/content.php4?doc_uid=114
\_ This is impossible to retrofit into the standard overhead camshaft
engine.
\_ Yeah, it's mostly for big-rigs. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Finance/CC, Industry/Jobs] UID:36487 Activity:nil |
3/2 I signed up for a credit card with a retail chain. There is an
arbitration provision in the agreement and I can reject that provision
alone by writing them a rejection. I am not planning to sue them
unless they tries to screw me. Supposedly accepting arbitration makes
me vulnerable, but would they mark me as a bad customer if I reject it?
\_ If I were them I'd just reject your application.
It's not like they're hiring you as a software engineer and
you're disputing the anti-compete clauses.
\_ Well, it was an online application and I already got the card.
\_ Do they really allow you to reject a clause just by writing
them? The usual practice is, if you don't like the terms,
then don't sign up (or renew) - take it or leave it.
Do they have to accept your rejection? |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Recreation/Celebrity/MichaelJackson, Recreation/Humor] UID:36488 Activity:kinda low Cat_by:auto |
3/2 What does Michael Jackson looks like before all the face
surgery? His current face is like a ghost everytime I look at it.
\_ I remember seeing pictures of his early days, and he looked like a
normal black person with dark skin and African complexion. Nothing
as scary as how he is today.
\_ http://anomalies-unlimited.com/Jackson.html
The complete horrific history.
\_ Why does anyone give a shit about Michael Jackson now? The 80's
are over, folks.
\_ Wow, there's a new entry since last time I looked.
That's... disturbing. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Recreation/Dating] UID:36489 Activity:moderate |
3/2 Yahoo! News - Hermaphrodite Frogs Linked to Pesticide Use:
http://csua.org/u/b8b
Maybe this is the reason for the rise of homosexuality these days.
\_ rise?
\_ Uh, what do hermaphrodites have to do with homosexuality? I think
you might be a little confused.
\_ I thought if the pesticides is able to tip the hormone scale of
individuals to grow sexual orgains of the other sex, it'd be
enought to make the individuals grow affection on the same sex.
\_ You are confusing two things that have little if anything
to with each other. In case you haven't noticed, homos
have the same equipment as the rest of us. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Health, Health/Skin] UID:36490 Activity:nil |
3/2 I got a splinter in my finger about a month or 2 ago. Since
it wasn't particularly bothering me, I just ignored it. It's
still not particularly bothering me, but I can feel it when
I put pressure on the exact spot of the splinter. Since
it's been almost 2 months, does that mean that it's moved
deeper into my skin and will be difficult and/or painful
to remove? Is it advisable or silly to go to the doctor,
have them numb it, and then remove it?
\_ Pin, disinfect by holding over a lighter, shot of booze for the
pain, start digging. Minor risk of infection and finger falling
off--be a real man and disregard. -John
\_ If it's not infected (and it doesn't sound like it is)
then it's probably ok, and you don't need to see a doctor.
\_ So if I do nothing, will it eventually dissolve, or will
it just be deeper under my skin so I can't feel it,
or will my finger just be a sensitive to pressure on
that spot for the rest of my life? -op
\_ if you have insurance just go to a dermatologist. they'll
prob just take care of it in the office in like 5 minutes.
if not, dont worry unless it gets infected discolored painful
whatever.
\_ I had a broken-off cactus needle embedded under my thumbnail
for about 5 years before it finally disappeared. I wouldn't
worry yourself overmuch.
\_ It worked its way into your heart or your brain now. That's
why you can't see it. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Transportation/Car, Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:36491 Activity:nil |
3/2 Today's http://www.howstuffworks.com features a "How Firefox Works" page! |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Science] UID:36492 Activity:kinda low |
3/2 emarkp, I can't wait till we have ET contact. I hope they come down
and use their superior technology to convince us that their
religion is better than all the religions on earth.
\_ Then run SETI@@Home with your idle CPU cycles. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Recreation/Humor] UID:36493 Activity:nil |
3/2 Why do foreigners especially E Europeans and Russians insist on
insulting people using their funny commie accents? Why don't they
listen to themselves on tape and make attempts at improving
themselves? -- !ilyas
\_ Why do Westerners especially Americans insist on insulting people
using their funny American accents? Why don't they listen to
themselves on tape and make attempts at improving themselves? |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Uncategorized] UID:36494 Activity:nil |
3/2 BTW, about the Knuth lectures about CS & God...you can still listen to
them free online:
http://technetcast.ddj.com/tnc_program.html?program_id=50 |
| 2005/3/2-4/26 [Uncategorized] UID:36495 Activity:nil 66%like:36465 60%like:36526 |
3/2 [anonymous troll deleted] -emarkp
\_ Eerr.. that wasn't exactly anonymous. -jrleek
\_ It wasn't signed, and the link it went to takes any string.
Looked anonymous to me. -emarkp |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Computer/SW/Unix] UID:36496 Activity:high |
3/2 Is there a way to do "grep p1 file | grep p2" with one grep without
piping? ie, "grep p1&&p2 file"? Thx.
\_ use egrep? man egrep. Look for egrep -e
\_ Can I write an alias where I can say "mygrep p1 p2 p3 ... file",
where I can specify variable number of patterns, with the last
one being the filename?
\_ egrep -e '(p1|p2|p3)' filename
not sure about the exact syntax
\_ are you sure about that? the original poster wants the
conjunction rather than the disjunction of several patterns
(i.e. all of them, not "any one of"). i don't see how
any grep options including those you listed would allow
that in a single grep. -alexf
\_ you are right, alexf. I think you can use some
regular expression do an AND.
\_ Can you use sed rather than grep?
$ sed -n -e '/[pat1]/h' -e '/[pat2]/h' ... -e '/[patN]/p' [file]
I'm not sure this will work w/ all versions of sed.
\_ In gnu grep at least you can do:
egrep -x '.*(p1.*p2|p2.*p1).*' file
..though this is tedious and doesn't work for overlapping patterns.
I usually just pipe grep to grep. --dbushong |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Computer/SW/Database] UID:36497 Activity:high |
3/2 Lets say you are running a website connected to a database. The
website stores all sorts of time sensative info in the database,
like order timestamps, keeping track of various states of stuff,
etc. When we go on or off daylight savings time, doesn't that totally
mess up things that deal with spans of time? How do you deal with that?
And how do you display things to the user when they happen right around
the switch-over? How about people living in regions like Arizona or
Hawaii, who don't have daylight savings time?
\_ Your server needs to have a notion of timezone. Certainly it
should know its own, and most likely that of its users as well (if
it doesn't, the users are much more likely to be confused by
consistently wrong-timezone timestamps than by the 2-hours-a-year
DST problem). Once it does, you should store dates internally
either in a timezone-insensitive format (read the time(3) manpage,
i.e. "man 3 time"), or in a timezone-sensitive format with the
timezone stored as well (although the former is recommended).
The standard notion of timezone encodes the DST status as well.
If you store dates in GMT, GMT is completely DST-free. If you store
them in, say, Pacific, it will have timezone PST for normal time
and PDT for daylight saving time. So the date that gets displayed
as "Sun Apr 3 01:18:19 PST 2005", and is stored internally as
1112519899, is one hour earlier than the date displayed as
"Sun Apr 3 03:18:19 PDT 2005" and stored internally as 1112523499.
This is obvious when you deal with the internal representations:
1112523499-1112519899=3600. -alexf
\_ UTC
\_ I guess my related question was, what if someone changes the
the time back 1 hour ... Or on a real server would no one
do that ever.
\_ Use UTC for everything. Use NTP to keep it synchronized.
UTC only changes by one leap second every few years.
\_ Gah, fine, UTC, not GMT, I stand corrected. Nitpickers. -alexf
\_ If, for some reason, you want to know a *lot* more about
the history of UTC, GMT and precision time keeping in general,
you might enjoy reading "Splitting the Second", by Tony Jones.
\_ In practice, you don't have to worry about this. Use your database
server's native DATETIME (mysql) or TIMESTAMP (everyone else) data
type. Store the current time using SYSDATE (oracle) or NOW()
(everyone else). When you access it formatted, you'll get it
in the local time format. So you have to worry about fucking with
your clock, by not about changing time zones. |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Computer/SW/Security] UID:36498 Activity:kinda low |
3/2 I can read mail through CalMail or BearMail but can't POP. Anyone else
having this problem?
\_ You probably shouldn't've ignored the 3 (or was it 4?) warnings
that the CalMail people sent out in the past month that vanilla
POP3, being blatantly insecure by way of transmitting passwords
in cleartext, will be (and now has been) permanently disabled
as of 03/01/2005. Set up your mailer to use secure POP (or SIMAP),
on the default port, 995 (or, respectively, 993). -alexf |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Reference/Religion] UID:36499 Activity:insanely high |
3/2 I just took the Christianity test on Worldview http://Weekend.com - a sort of barometer that determines how Christian you are - and in my case, evidently, given my liberal background, I thought I'd be classified as a pagan, but in fact, I scored -26 out of a possible 170 points, which classifies me as a: "Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Secular Humanist Worldview Thinker" http://www.worldviewweekend.com/test/register.php How about you guys, what did you get? \_ Loaded, incorrectly phrased and combined questions. Test is invalid. Next? -John \_ They also tell you what the correct answers are at the end, so you can study to do better next time. -- ilyas \_ obviously, you're a bad Christian and you're going to hell. \_ Thank god for that. -John \_ John is a Heil Nazi German, he's going to hell regardless \_ Well, yeah, obviously. What a fucking waste of my time. After reading emarkp debate, I was just starting to think co-existing with religious conservatives might actually be possible, since he seems like a reasonable guy. Thanks for bringing me back to earth. I got a -47, and if I'm a Communist/Marxist, well, I just don't know what to say--that's beyond stupid. \_ well, it's a Christian site. You're either a Christian, or not in which case they categorize as "Communist/Socialist/Secular" I'm sure you've heard this before-- You're either good, or evil. You're either with us/them, or against us/them. That's the mentality of many religious folks. \_ I only got a 95/170, and I got pretty irritated at the questions. -emarkp \_ But Mormons aren't really Christian, so that's okay. \_ That was the funny part. I got irritated about the focus on the Bible and politics and was thinking "where's the focus on God?". -emarkp \_ That thing is a complete waste of time. "George W. Bush is the president" ? :rolleyes: I got -21. \_ He stole the presidency. \_ In 2004? \_ Rolling your eyes: -10 \_ Your classification is: Communist/Marxist/Socialist/Secular Humanist Worldview Thinker Heehee. I am a godless communist! -- ilyas \_ how many points? \_ -15. I left a lot of things at 'No Opinion' (agnostic view). I agreed with the fundies the most on social issues and education, not surprisingly. We want the same things for different reasons. -- ilyas \_ ilyas wants to kill the homos? \_ dear religious person, I got a -10, which means that I'm either 5 points more Christian or 5 points less pagan than Mr. Libertarian ilyas. Does that mean probabilistically, I'm going to a slightly lesser hell than ilyas? \_ Is Hell a Graduated concept? Answer is in "God For Dummies", page 2532 3rd paragraph \_ Dante seemed to think so. \_ -20 \_ Damn. I got the highest score so far out of anyone who's not emarkp. 0. That's scary. Too much yoga. -nivra \_ I got a -170 but then again I didn't answer a single question. I guess I must be going to hell because I have no opinion whatsoever. By the way I like how they give you all the correct answers. Now I can study for it in case I ever need to infiltrate into the Christian ring to check out hot chicks. \_ I got a 27 or 17%. I am a Socialist Worldview Thinker! You can rest easy now nivra. -ausman \_ woot. I'm no longer the only socialist worldview thinker. -nivra \_ -31 (-18%). I think CAL and a childhood in Soviet Russia got to me \_ ilyas, is that you? \_ Reading comprehension >>> you. -- ilyas <<<<<<< Other Changes Below ======= \_ I got 69, which makes me "Secular Humanist Worldview Thinker" --dim |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:36500 Activity:insanely high |
3/2 Motd is 50K long, go motd go! Go motd go!
\_ Why do people say "Go motd go!"? Why not just "Go motd!"?
\_ "Go Johnny go go go!"
\_ I'm going to guess that it has something to do with what you
heard as a child. Take the famous Inspector Gadget cartoon
song. It just sounds better when you sing it as "Go Gadget Go!"
But yeah I agree that all languages [that I personally know
of] have numerous examples of redundant verbiage.
\_ While "Go Gadget Go!" was in the theme song, the more
memorable phrase was "Go Go Gadget X". I always though
the Go X Go! was a homage to Speed Racer, "Go Speed
Racer, Go!"
\_ I think the lines in the theme song are "go gadget go":
Inspector Gadget..
Oo Hoo..
Inspector Gadget.
Inspector Gadget..
Oo Hoo..
Inspector Gadget.
Go gadget go!
Go gadget go!
Inspector Gadget..
Oo Hoo..
Inspector Gadget.
\_ Ha! You don't think about it as a kid, but now that
I'm grown up, the lyrics are STUPID!!!
\_ Here he comes
here comes Speed Racer (ooh, ahh! ooh, ahh!)
Here he comes
here comes Speed Racer, he's a demon on wheels
\_ I'll get you next time, Gadget... |
| 3/15 |