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| 2005/3/11-5/9 [Computer/SW/Mail] UID:36639 Activity:nil |
3/11 Sendmail updated and support added for SMTP AUTH. Configuration
continues, but you should be able to now authenticate over SSL
and relay mail from your remote mail client. Consider it still
in testing, however. Bugs to root. |
| 2005/3/11 [Recreation/Media] UID:36640 Activity:nil 50%like:34490 |
3/10 Anyone know where to d/l Star Wars Ep3 ROTS trailer rather than pay
lucas even more money for "Hyperspace" access?
\_ http://torrentreactor.net/download.php?id=36131
oh my bad that's the old one. new one can be googled for. see
google news. http://www.digitalentropy.net/Internapse/Index.html
\_ http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=that_video.avi |
| 2005/3/11 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:36641 Activity:insanely high |
3/10 Polls for alumni: what big companies do you guys work at? No name
start-ups need not respond:
Intel:
Microsoft:
Google:
Yahoo
LLNL: .
Ask Jeeves: .
Enron:
Pan American Airways:
\_ Is this random or you want to know what it is like to work at
each of these companies so you can compare offers?
\_ What about no-name decade-old companies? |
| 2005/3/11 [Uncategorized] UID:36642 Activity:nil 75%like:36600 |
3/11 Berkeley Critical Mass 12th Birthday is TODAY!
http://www.berkeleycriticalmass.org
\_ Someone should run those hippies over with their SUV. |
| 2005/3/11 [Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:36643 Activity:moderate |
3/11 Let me now sing praise to the woman on the BART wearing a denim
bikini top on her way to work. Praise spring time! I'm headed to
El Rio tonight to celebrate the weather. Who's with me? -- ulysses
\_ Score! We still have m4d snow, but I give it 2 months before the
high-rise stringy thongs start showing up again! -John
\_ Those of us who don't live in California anymore are not as
enthusiastic about this month's weather. I'll get excited about
spring in another month and a half when it comes.
\_ Those of us who don't have 40" chest muscles are not as enthusiastic
about this month's weather. I'll get excited when it gets cold
again and I can cover up my skinny body with designer jackets.
\_ Those of us who don't have 42" chest and 20" bicepts are not
as enthusiastic about this month's weather. I'll get excited when
it gets cold again and I can cover up my skinny body with designer
jackets. (It's not a joke.)
\_ for every girl you can find who likes '42" chest muscles' I'll
show you 10 who'd prefer a skinny guy
\_ Has anybody here dated extremely thin women? Like size 0
whose limbs you could encircle with your fingers? Did you
ever worry you might "break" them in bed?
\_ Yes. Yes. No. -dans
\_ That's very nice of you to say. I hope it's true.
\_ it is
\_ It's true. My spouse would basically only date scrawny guys
up until a year before she met me and she's a total babe.
Her sister, on the other hand, prefers 'em bald and meaty. Go
figure...
\_ obviously written by a guy who has'n been married too long
\_ is this backed up by a reputable scientific study, or
is it backed up by The Bible? I'll take either one.
\- Do they have food at El Rio? Are you familar with El Stew?
\_ Uh, no. What's that?
\_ What's the significance of bikini in the Bay Area? -don't live there
\_ BART is the subway train here in the Bay Aray.
\_ The weather here has been really nice for that last week.
\_ A 42" chest is not that big. 20" arms are probably one in a
million. -ax |
| 2005/3/11-14 [Computer/SW/Security] UID:36644 Activity:nil |
3/11 I'd like a way to have Terminal.app change the window's background
color when I ssh to another machine-- really cool would be to have
some sort of mapping of hostname to RGB value so that the window
for machine1 looks different than machine2. Is there a way to do
this? TIA.
\_ If I wanted to do this for one machine only, I would replace ssh
with a wrapper that outputs some ANSI sequences before calling
the real ssh. (You might want to put in some logic to only do this
for interactive sessions.) To set it up on a number of systems, I
would put the ANSI sequences in my .profile. That way, if you ssh
from A to B, then from B to C, your colors will match machine C
instead of machine B. -gm
\_ You might be able to do this w/ saved .term files. Just set
the background to the color you want and then do File->Save
and specify the cmd to execute as /usr/bin/ssh user@host.
Then when you click on a particular term file, it will have
the color set and will ssh into that host. |
| 2005/3/11 [Transportation/Car/RoadHogs] UID:36645 Activity:high |
3/11 Drive a car, support Republicans:
http://www.choosetheblue.com/mainFrame.php?prodcat=Gasoline
http://www.choosetheblue.com/mainFrame.php?prodcat=Auto+Makers
\_ Fox news is blue!
http://tinyurl.com/68odo
I'm skeptical.
\_ My SUV, my car. Keep your laws off my property. P.S. I'm driving
and you suckers can walk. Nyah nyah nyah -conservative
\_ I want to build a coal fired power plant in my backyard, right
next door to you. Gotta problem with that?
\_ Keep your laws of my property is not incompatible
w/ the belief that an individuals private property
use should not interefe your neighbor's use of his
private property. The expectation that one should
be free in his own land from interference by the
gov. and ones neighbors necessarily means that
one must refrain from activities that would
interfere w/ the ability of ones neighbors to
use their land similarly.
A coal fired power plant would be a private (if not
public nuisance) and pp would be entitled to an
injunction.
\_ Your SUV is a public nuisance that operates on public
highways and uses my tax money to be a pain in the ass.
I have far more right to demand regulation of your
vehicle than you do to try and control what I do
in my own back yard. Hypocrite.
\_ The assertion that an SUV is a public nuisance
is debatable. A public nuisance is generally
\_ It's not, I can't see past them. They endanger my
drive, in addition to making it less efficient and
costlier, by preventing me from planning for
traffic conditions ahead. This also applies to
semis and vans and pickup trucks, which, like SUVs,
can be excused if their size is actually needed
(like by gardeners, handymen, etc.) -John
\_ People NEED SUV to protect their frail egos.
It is a lot cheaper than seeing shrinks.
something fixed on a piece of property that
posses a threat to the health and safety of
the nearby community. A vehicle does not meet
this critera. Even if we assume that an SUV
meets the critera, it is debatable whether
an SUV posses any healty or safety risk. Many
would contend that SUVs are safer than regular
cars. In contrast your coal burning plant is
fixed next door to "mr conservative's" home
and will substantially affect him. Note that
if he were to put in such a structure, the
general principle provides you the same
remedy.
BTW, I am not "mr conservative", I don't own an
SUV, and I have no plans to purchase/rent one
unless I find myself on safari in central
Africa w/o a nearby subaru dealer.
\_ You will die in a car accident soon, fucker.
\_ If he's in an SUV and you're on bike on in a little Honda
or Toyota, I think you'll be the one losing.
\_ Precisely the definition of a nuisance.
\_ No, He'll flip over the side of the mountain and die the
fucker that he is.
\_ Now I'm happy, I have a Mazda that usually runs Chevon.
\_ Yay. I have a honda and an infiniti. Guess I need to start buying
Shell.
\_ Yah...I drive Toyota and pump Shell gas.
\_ Why does a company contribute to both parties?
\_ Hedging |
| 2005/3/11 [Reference/Religion] UID:36646 Activity:high |
3/11 Can a Christian enter a mosque or a temple? Is it a breach of his/her
faith?
\_ No! Christians are only allowed to use colorsafe bleach on
their faith!
\_ Oops. "breach".
\-Uh no. In the case of Hindu temples, the depends on local rules.
Some say "hindus only", some just want to you remove shoes/leather
items before coming in. In some cases you cant bring in bags and
cameras and such, but that is for security reasons [like at the
important Kashi Viswanath Mandir], not relig. In a few very orthodox
places in south india, men must wear a dhuti [and possibly tied in
the south india as opposed to bengali fashion]. In the case of some
\_ In Kerla, at least one temple is duthi only (no shirt).
\- i assume you can wear a shawl or "namaboli" type thing.
the rule is probably not "no shirt" but "nothing stitched"
[hence pant -> dhuti] and sari is ok. --psb
"hindu only" temples, i suspect that it is not a strictly relig
thing ... they just dont want clueless white people taking pictures
and disrupting things and taking wearing shoes in the wrong places
and all that. at a place like pashipatinath in kathmandu, i dont
and all that. at a place like pashupatinath in kathmandu, i dont
know what they will do if a white person says he is a hindu. you can
probably BS or pay your way in. A non-muslim cant just hang along
on the hajj ... but that is "their rule", not the Church's rule.
\_ When I was there we were not allowed to wear a
shawl, &c (different story for women). It was
pretty lame b/c this was for general attendence
not for a special enterance such as for Sri
Vaishnava's at Thirupathi.
\- did you pay $1million to go into the Thirupathi
temple? at the kolkata kalighat kali mandir, it is
more or less anything goes. in puri/bhubaneswar,
it was no leather/hindus only i think. --psb
The main masjid in Kolkata allows non-hindu one day a year, but
i dont know if you can make a special arrangement. As with churches
where you are supposed to dip or fingers and cross yourself or
whatever, some of these places have "rules" about what you are
supposed to do when you come in ... you will probably screw that
up and be obvious.
\_ I think he's asking about whether or not it would compromise his
own faith. Most major religions will let you "visit", although
I believe the Kabaa is off-limits to heathen. -John
\- although occasionally infiltrated, e.g. famously by
richard burton who dressed up as an afgan to get in.
[richard burton, the victorian, not the actor] --psb
\_ What's the Hindu perspective on American Hari[sp?] Krishnas?
\_ There is no such thing as a non-hindu. But those
people are freaks.
\- i think the view is something like the ramkrishna mission
is more respectable than ISKCON. --psb
\_ I think the op was asking if it was a breach of the Christian
faith to enter a place of worship of another religion, not
if the place of worship would allow the Christian to enter. -!op
\- yes i understand that. and i did address that. i thought the
rest may be of interest to people with more "catholic"
interests than you.
\_ You immediately catch fire and die. |
| 2005/3/11-12 [Recreation/Humor] UID:36647 Activity:nil Cat_by:auto |
3/11 Humor of the day:
http://compilers.cs.ucla.edu/~kchang/2005/VisitDay/Supper |
| 2005/3/11-12 [Recreation/Food/Alcohol, Recreation/Food] UID:36648 Activity:low |
3/11 What is the biggest, cleanest, nicest Korean market in the 415/510
area?
\_ The only good Korean Market that I know of near Berkeley is the
Koreana Plaza on Telegraph in Oakland. Just head south on
telegraph to around 45th or something. It's on the left.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2005-03-02/food.html
-jrleek
\_ Second that. There's a hole-in-the-wall in El Cerrito but
Koreana (formerly Pusan) is pretty much it. They have all their
banchan boxed up, now, too, if you're squeamish. --ulysses
banchan boxed up, now, if you're squeamish. I have
opinions on their bulgoki, too. --ulysses
\_ The best thing of all, which I found out recently, is that
they're open 24 hours now. There's a Korean market in
SF/Daly City area off of John Daly blvd that looks pretty
big, but I haven't been inside.
\_ I like how they have guys who flag the drivers around the
parking lot as if the shoppers were landing 747s. |
| 2005/3/11-12 [Computer/SW/Graphics, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll] UID:36649 Activity:high |
3/11 Heh. Is that lila in the SF Weekly's web personals window?
\_ Go Lila go. Nice pic. -John
\_ LILA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lila!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The hottest CSUA babe of the 90s
http://personals.sfweekly.com/profile.aspx?bookmark=wlyIzn%2fRCPg%3d
\_ How sad, if that's the best we can do. At least in the 80s we
had Sioux Hannah.
\_ Who? Pix?
\_ someone mentioned previously that CSUA pres or vice-pres
is pretty presentable.
\_ Sad? How so. Lila is a wonderful.
\_ And Kathy Li.
\_ Sioux was in a David Bowie video; Kathy was featured in
a comic book series. Tough choice. Sioux was hotter and
Kathy nerdier.
\_ Bowie? Nope. Paul McCartney video.
\_ Eva Chan in the early 90s was hotter.
\_ Are you guys serious? Is this the infamous lila I keep hearing
about? -newbie
\_ That's lila. Why do you call her infamous? She always seemed
OK to me.
\_ Yermom seemd OK, too. But then...
\_ 1) This picture is recent. 2) You had to be there.
\_ It's your big chance kchang! Go, go!
\_ I would but I'm not sure if she renewed her restraining orders |
| 2005/3/11-14 [Computer/SW/Mail] UID:36650 Activity:low |
3/11 Why does trn keep crashing? It seems if I leave trn idle for about
5 minutes when I try to use it again I get an "unexpected socket
close" error. This started maybe 2 months ago. What's up?
It's making it difficult to multitask newsgroup reading. -jrleek
\_ The message means that trn's network connection died. You could
try mailing news@agate asking them not to use such an aggressive
idle timeout; failing that, I guess we could hack trn to send some
sort of keepalive every few minutes. --mconst
\_ Done. I have yet to recieve a reply, but the message was
sent at about 4pm on Friday, so that's no surprise. -jrleek
\_ I have the same problem. It's fairly new. |
| 2005/3/11-14 [Computer/SW/P2P, Computer/SW/Security] UID:36651 Activity:high |
3/11 What do I need to do to make sure I don't get sued when I use
bittorrent? I am still a newbie. Thx.
\_ Azureus bittorrent client w/ safepeer plug-in supposedly
blacklists evil MPAA spy machines...
\_ Don't download copyrighted materials, or run it on someone else's
machine.
\_ How about a real answer? I don't care much for music/movie,
only apps/games.
\_ It is a real answer. Bittorrent was not conceived to
provide any sort of anonymity; Bram Cohen states as much
somewhere on http://bittorrent.com. The fact that you have a
tracker file hosted somewhere makes your IP show up. -John
\_ That's illegal and you can never fully "make sure" you don't
get sued.
\_ Under bittorrent, how would they trace me? Just give me
the technical info, if they were to do so? does the .torrent
file contains my info? ip?
\_ If you don't know enough to figure this out yourself,
you really shouldn't attempt it.
\_ In other words "I don't know".
\_ In other words, "You're a dumbass, and I'll laugh
my ass the fuck off if you get prosecuted"
\_ Sniff. Please sir, don't call me names.
\_ AFAIK, the underlying d/l stream in BT is not
encrypted. Someone w/ a pkt sniffer can tell
tell that you are using BT and what you are
d/l'ing. If they record the pkts, (which may
not be protected under 4 amd) the recorded
stream may be used as evid of your copyright
violation.
The best way to avoid this is to not become
an attractive target by d/l'ing high value
items frequently. The ONLY 100% safe way is
to not d/l copyrighted material.
\_ Isn't it easier than that to track someone?
I mean, if you're downloading Revenge of the Sith,
that means you're also serving it.
If I'm the Feds, and I turn on my bittorrent
client and start grabbing the movie, I should get
a list of IP addresses of everyone I'm getting
packets from. I just tell the movie companies to
ask the ISPs to match IP addresses to people's
names for those people sending the most packets.
It doesn't matter if the data are encrypted, since
the IP addresses in the IP headers are in cleartext.
(although I feel stupid putting it this way)
\_ ISPs do not have to disclose the names of
people for a particular IP addr unless the
cops get a warrant by showing prob. cause.
To show prob. cause, the cops need to prove
that the IP addr actually served or d/l'ed
copyrighted content thus violating the
copyright. (simply having copyrighted
content on your computer that you own may
be covered under fair use and does not
show that you have likely violated the law).
If the content is encrypted, then the cops
can't really prove to the judge issuing
the warrant that you served or d/l'ed
copyrighted content and may not be able
to meet the prob cause requirement.
(Some judges might say that having the
files there was enough to est. prob
cause so you have to be careful)
If you use authentication, and the feds
lie to you to get a valid passwd, then
you may have all sorts of other legal
protections.
\_ Maybe that's why there are so few torrent
users being sued. Anyways, since I don't
think the torrent data are encrypted anyway,
maybe it's not worth arguing about.
From a "I might get sued!" standpoint, I
personally would take the assumption that
encryption won't help for the Revenge of
the Sith example, but, YMMV.
\_ Uhm, it is a real answer. You want to use it for illegal
purposes, so you risk getting sued.
\_ From what I've heard they've only sued 7 bittorrent users
(non-ISPs). It's not as bad as MP3 sharing ... yet.
Basically, you are a target if you have fat upstream, you leave your
computer on all the time so you have the double whammy of always
serving files and your IP address never changing, and you serve a
lot of new movies.
You're probably not a juicy target, but for the average user, I
would just avoid grabbing new mainstream movies, lots of recent
movies, or serving lots of ISOs like WinXP or Office 2003.
\_ Thanks! And to the guy above, f*** off!
\_ Uhm, so you basically posted to get someone to pat you on the
back and say "Oh no, baby, it's okay. No one's going to sue
you!" That's pretty retarded. I mean, honestly, if you're
going to trade in copyrighted materials, you become vulnerable
to a variety of legal actions. Period. If you can't accept
that, the just buy the fucking thing and quite wringing your
that, then just buy the fucking thing and quite wringing your
hands.
\_ Every piece of software on your computer is legally
obtained?
\_ No clue...but I know the risks and am willing to
accept them. *shrug*
\_ I see, so all that no stealing lecture does not
apply to yourself. I am speachless.
\_ You do realize that more than two people can post
right? I haven't campaigned for or against the
morality of the issue, only the OP's retardation
about playing games with legality and essentially
entering a state of denial. You're an idiot,
by the way, just in case that wasn't clear in your
post.
\_ He didn't ask for a lecture, just how to avoid the law.
\_ So if op had asked you how to shoplift, you would
have told him w/o informing him that (1) it was
wrong to steal and (2) he may be subject to criminal
liability?
What I find more disturbing is the fact that op
feels entitled to download games (and whatever
else he wants) w/o paying for it. Regardless of
the civil/criminal liability associated w/ this
sort of activity, op OUGHT to realize that actual
people worked on the games that he is stealing
and if everyone acted like him and stole these
games there would be no incentive for people to
work on future games. If the hard work of others
brings you benefit, PAY FOR IT or we all lose in
the long run.
\_ I'm not going to disagree with you about games, but
I don't agree that stealing software always costs
companies money in lost business. I've used stolen
copies of very expensive software to get the feel
for them and figure out how to use them and then
spent huge amounts of Other People's Money to buy
the real thing based on having tried it for free.
In some cases I would probably not have made that
purchasing decision had I not been able to try it out.
So in the end, the company made *more* money than
they would had I not stolen a copy while I was a poor
student who couldn't afford it anyway.
\_ I can see your rationale. If you end up
buying a copy of the software or deleting
it b/c you don't want to buy it, there is
no violation of the principle that one ought
pay for things from one which one derives a
benfit. Unfortunately the law does not (and
probably cannot ever) allow for this.
The general principle could be applied to
games/music/books/movies/&c. if there were
no public library or private rental systems,
however, it is so easy and affordable to
rent things it doesn't really make sense to
steal.
\_ Well, the way for this to be legal is for the
company to have the foresight to give away
a version that's good enough to learn the
commands and get a feel for it so poeple like
me don't *have* to break the law to try their
damn product. Wasn't there a free version of
Doom in the begining to get people hooked?
After that, I was more than happy to shell
out the money for the real thing which I
probably wouldn't have done otherwise.
\_ right...I'm sure companies which provide
demo versions never get their software
stolen. -tom
\_ Join a private forum. No, really.
\_ Would decentralization, using SSL encryption, and only using
centralized servers to randomly connect people, and always
use another node as a middle-man when xferring data make it
really hard to track? Sort of a cross between filetopia and
bittorrent...
\_ onion routing, so nobody's sure what data is going through them,
taht would be more like it. See 'freenet' |
| 2005/3/11-12 [Recreation/Food] UID:36652 Activity:high |
3/11 Anyone here thinks MSG is bad for you?
bad : ..
not bad : ..
\_ If you think MSG is bad for you, I hope you avoid ripe tomatoes,
seaweed, and aged cheeses.
\_ The amount of MSG in tomatos is insignificant compare to
the MSG you buy in supermarkets. I haven't heard of anyone
allegic to tomatos, but quite a number of people are allergic
to MSG in restaurants.
\_ I've heard that most bad reactions are due to impurities
in the MSG they buy & use. If you get high quality,
well-refined stuff, supposedly it's much better.
\_ I don't think that's really MSG, I think it's just glutamate.
I assume that sodium in monosodium glutamate makes some
kind of difference. Probably makes it last longer.
\_ MSG is an excitotoxin. It excites your neurons (like in you taste
buds) but it is bad for your central nervous system. MSG is
really bad stuff and shouldn't be put in food.
\_ See, I really don't get this. I looked into what MSG is. It
turns out MSG is just glutamate, (as said above) with a sodium
instead of a hydrogen, converting it from an acid to a salt.
However, I looked up the equilibrium constant for MSG. It turns
out that both glutamic acid and MSG dissociate in water to
a positive Na+ or H+ ion and -glutamate, to within a few PPM.
So, like .0001% of MSG is actually MSG once it hits your mouth.
Now, glutamate is about 34% of all proteins. So when you eat
protein, and you eat it with salt (NaCl), you've got all the
ingredients for MSG in your stomach--the protein gets chopped up
into glutamic acid by your digestive processes. And by the
equilibrium constants and the presense of Na+ from NaCl, some
MSG is going to be made spontaneously. So, as I understand it,
eating salted chicken is equivalent to eating MSG. But no one
decries eating salted chicken. Given my researches, I just don't
understand how MSG can be harmful. It seems that the theory
that it's MSG contaminants that cause the problem, is more plausible.
Is the source for your claim mainstream? Or is it just that
"MSG" sounds scary so people scapegoat it? --PeterM
\_ Whenever I eat food with high MSG level, I don't get
a good night of sleep. My brain just doesn't drift
into a sleep mode and I am sort of half awake for a
long time. When I don't eat MSG food I can sleep
fine. I am a light sleeper so YMMV, but it does seem
to have a caffeine effect on me and make me agitated
when I am trying to sleep. This sort of makes sense
after I read about how it excites your neurons. I
can't say I am allergic to MSG, but when I eat at
crappy Chinese restaurants that puts in a lot of MSG,
my mouth gets very dry afterwards and I need to drink
a lot of water or fruits to 'counter' the effect. I
think the key here is the level, it is significantly
higher than what's present in natural food. I'd
rather be safe than sorry and avoid it when I can. |
| 2005/3/11-12 [Politics/Domestic/Crime] UID:36653 Activity:moderate |
3/11 I am curious, what would the death penalty opponents say about
people like Brian Nichols? Or those who committed 911? Where
do you draw the line?
\_ You draw the line at "state-enforced execution." -tom
\_ So you suggest we let people like Brian Nichols happily
live in prison, watching TV, and pumping iron?
\_ Yeah, I'm sure prison is just like a country club. -tom
\_ Of course not. In a country club, you have to pay for the
food and the gym, and there's no free medical.
\_ What about state-enforced prison? Are you against
anything state-enforced?
\_ No. Don't be a moron. -tom
\_ He probably can't help it.
\_ I'm not necessarily against the death penalty, but I believe the
system can be improved. My opinion is that, while in the U.S. you
can convict someone with "beyond reasonable doubt", you should only
be able to put someone to death using "beyond any doubt" that the
defendent actually committed the crime.
E.g., the jury convicted Scott Peterson using "beyond reasonable
doubt", but I don't believe a jury could say it was "beyond any
doubt" he did it or had someone do it, and so therefore couldn't
sentence him to death.
Naturally things like state-of-mind (premeditation / heat of the
moment, clinical insanity, etc.) may be hard to include in this
equation -- unless for example you have someone telling several
people that they have nothing against Grandpa, but they really want
that inheritance and he's old anyway -- but that's the main tricky
part of the implementation.
Ideally, there shouldn't be a death penalty, but some system where
those who would normally be put to death would be punished with hard
labor and minimal comforts for the rest of their lives. But this
ideal may be hard in coming and in regulating abuse, so I'm not
going to preach on that, but push a "beyond any doubt" restriction
on capital punishment instead.
\_ So let's say they can't prove for _sure_ someone did XYZ. It's
OK to take away their life with a fate many would consider worse
than death: life in prison, but not OK to kill them, usually on
\_ What I don't understand are the arguments that support the
death penalty for reasons beyond what it is: (a) to punish,
(b) to set an example, (c) to remove a danger from society.
It is not a mercy killing, nor can you apply economic
arguments. I personally oppose it, although asking me a
"what if" question like this is basically the same as the
torture dilemna--in short, I don't know. I just wish people
arguing pro/contra the death penalty would be intellectually
honest and not use nonsense reasoning. -John
the argument that it's irrevocable. I would argue that life (or
even a long period) in prison is just as irrevocable.
\_ Let's take Scott Peterson. We can't prove for _sure_ he did
it or had someone do it. The jury puts him in jail for life.
20 years later, someone else says he did it -- Scott is an
adulterer, an asshole, a liar, and a poor excuse for a human
being -- but to a judge, he didn't kill Laci.
You release Scott Peterson. The government must pay
restitution and clear his legal record. The payments don't
make up for the time lost. For some people, this would be
fair. So, let's say we had someone truly innocent convicted,
like Dr. whatshisface from The Fujitive. The government would
pay restitution, but it wouldn't make up for lost time. But
that's life. That's not "OK", but it's the best we can do
with the system.
On the other hand, if you kill Scott Peterson and Dr.
Fujitive guy on "beyond reasonable doubt" and they both
turn out to be innocent, that's not "OK", and we can actually
do better with a "beyond any doubt" restriction on capital
punishment.
\_ That's just a more roundabout and less intellectually
honest way of saying that you're an opponent of capital
punishment. |
| 2005/3/11 [Finance/Investment] UID:36654 Activity:high |
3/11 Housing Bubble About To Pop:
http://csua.org/u/bc9
\_ My favorite troll! You just made my day.
\_ Housing prices will increase until population growth stops.
\_ Hey, how long ago did you first posit that the housing bubble
was about to pop? -tom
\_ About a year ago. I also told everyone that tech stocks were
overvalued in 1998. Turns out I was right about that one, too.
\_ Good job, Karnak. No one could have forseen the business-
plan-less tech bubble bursting.
\_ The funny thing about financial markets is that they
naturally tend to ebb and flow; sometimes quite radically.
A funny think about know-it-all engineers is that in their
desire to prove their worth and be right, they ignore the
fact that if you say the say thing consistently for a long
enough span of time, you'll eventually be right.
\_ Gee, you're brilliant; so you told people they should have
sold a year before their houses went up 20% in value, and
they should have gotten out of NASDAQ before their
investments more than doubled in value in just 2 years.
Maybe you should run a mutual fund. -tom
\_ If you got out in 1998 and put your money in savings,
you would be better off than if you held on to today.
Sure, I missed the bubble, but I missed the crash, too.
\_ wrong; the money I had in the market in 1998 earned
a lot more than a savings account would have. (And
it paid for my house in 1999, which has since also
doubled in value). I'm sure you're doing just great
with your 2.5% annual return. Have fun. -tom
\_ Nasdaq in 1998 = 2000. Nasdaq today = 2000.
I got a nice CD in 1999 that paid me 6% for
five years. I will probably put that money back
in the market now.
\_ You are not only a moron, you are completely
full of shit. The average price of the Nasdaq
in 1998 was less than 1800, and its low was
below 1600. If you bought indexes at 1600 and
sold at 2000, that's a 25% increase; even if
you were completely asleep for the past 7 years
and didn't take any of your profit when you were
up over 100%.
And CDs were not paying 6% then or now.
Here's a real-world scenario; put $20K into
Qwest at 34, sell at 91 in less than 2 months,
use that money as down payment on a house, and
see that leveraged investment rise to a value
over 10 times the initial outlay.
How's that fictional 6% CD looking now?
Incidentally, even if you don't include this
transaction, my portfolio is worth more now
than it was at the market peak in 2000, and at
least 3 times what it was worth in 1998. -tom
\_ http://www.moneycafe.com/library/compare.htm
I got 5 yr 6% CD from my credit union in 1998.
Too bad you can't accept that fact. I am glad
you got lucky speculating in the bubble market,
but most people got burned. If you took $20k
to Vegas and bet it all on black and won,
that would be about the same thing. If you
\_ Uhm, no -- only if you have the financial
savvy of a kumquat. The primary category
of people that got burned were
non-financially savvy engineers with stars
in their eyes. Your comparison highlights
your wishful thinking wrt your own choices.
Get over it, son.
have really tripled your investment in 7 years
without adding any new money, it is you who
should be opening a mutual fund.
Nasdaq on 12/31/1998 - 2100+
http://csua.org/u/bcc
\_ How are those grapes? Probably a little
sour, right? -tom
\_ No, I actually feel very lucky to have
escape the crash that devastated the
finances of so many around me.
\_ hey cmlee, if that's you could you
sign your name, so we know we're
dealing with the true anti-analyst?
-tom
\_ Q trades at $3 today, much much
less than what you bought it at,
by the way. Was it overvalued in
1998 or undervalued today?
\_ I think it was a reasonable
purchase at $34. Not all
reasonable purchases work out.
-tom
\_ I think housing is way overvalued but it's because people
with money have dumped it into real estate and it's feeding
on itself. How would it pop though? Are there large numbers
owners waiting to flip their property for cash? They keep
dumping it back into the market. Maybe if we get some
major economic Thing happen. Inflation? Don't homeowners
do well in inflation?
\_ inflation -> interest rates rise -> recession -> pop!
\_ I agree that prices will come off the peaks, but
the question is how much. If my house loses 50%
of its current value I am still even or perhaps
even better if one considers the deductions I've
made. |
| 2005/3/11 [Recreation/House] UID:36655 Activity:high |
3/11 Sheetrock/drywall question again please. How much CAN I hang from
my ceiling, if I don't screw the screws into a stud, but I do use
one of those little contraptions that I fold up, push into the
hole in the ceiling, and once inserted it expands, and then I
connect the ceiling hook to that. (I bought it from Home Depot
in a section that sells devices to hang plants from ceilings).
Thanks.
\_ You can hang a lot when it's dry. When it's dry, it will fall
\_ You can hang a lot when it's dry. When it's wet, it will fall
apart. So if you do it, pray that your roof doesn't leak.
\_ Not a lot. Drywall is not very strong at all. You can find
inexpensive stud finders everywhere. You don't want things
hanging on the ceiling to fall down. I suspect after a while
you may even see the ceiling curve due to teh weight.
\_ Those drywall anchors are designed for WALLS not ceilings.
Don't hang anything from the drywall on the ceiling.
\_ I just weighed the light fixture I want to install
and it's 5 pounds. Do you still think that's too
heavy? I'm not trying to be argumentative; I'm just
trying to find a way to hang it from the hooks
I've bought. thanks. -op
\_ screw it into a stud, you dipshit
\_ the reason I don't want to bother finding a
a stud is because I need the light in a very
specific place. if there's a stud there, great,
but if not, then the light is going there
regardless.
\_ then you have to install framing above your
ceiling for it. -tom
\_ Can you use an LED (I think that's what they
are) or one of those little halogen lights
mounted in the ceiling? They don't weigh a lot
and give a lot of light... -John
\_ There are electrical boxes made to hang in
the space between the studs. You either need
to use a stud, frame between studs, or buy
one of these devices. Hire an electrician
and he can do all of this for 1 hour's
wages ($50-80) and you can be sure it will
be secure. |
| 2005/3/11 [Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:36656 Activity:nil |
3/11 Kerry Loves the Mainstream Media......And has contempt for
the American people.
http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/350fnrnt.asp |
| 5/17 |