|
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD] UID:36958 Activity:nil |
3/29 Does anyone know how to make multiple computers do PXE network boot? I'm trying to build low-end diskless clusters but I don't know where to begin, like which PXE server to use, how to prepare boot image or partition HD, etc. Thanks. \_ OS? FreeBSD has pxeboot, Linux has pxelinux, and I believe there are a bunch of Windows tools. (I'm assuming x86-based.) I have some old configs for the first two if you want. -John \_ You might also look at DragonFlyBSD, which forked off from FreeBSD 4.x and has done a lot of work for this sort of network boot scenario. http://shiningsilence.com/dbsdlog highlights some of it. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:36959 Activity:nil |
3/30 In Windows XP, when I share [export] a folder with read/write/execute permissions for ALL, it still asks for username/password. How do I configure it so that it never asks for user/password? \_ You need to enable the Guest account. |
2005/3/30-31 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:36960 Activity:high |
3/29 Great Bubble Housing blog post by Dan Gilmor: http://csua.org/u/biy \_ Tell me, Sour Grapes Housing Guy, what do you get out of posting things like this? -tom \_ He's trying to warn potential home buyers to avoid the bubble. \_ I enjoy yanking your chain. -sghg \_ There may or may not be a bubble, but I believe that real estate prices will only go down in the long term as the demand goes down, and demand is tied to population levels, which won't go down for a long time... -ax \_ nah. interest rate, my boy. some say inflation will keep housing prices up. but that's for regions where the cost of building materials represents a large chunk of the price of a house, which isn't true for the Bay Area. Home price inflation will end when interest rate goes up. OTOH, US economy isn't that great, and the Fed may not dare to raise rates too much, but if they don't, the pain will just be delayed and exerbated. \_ My definition of long term is > 10 years... In the short term, yes, interest rates going up will bring prices down, but keep payments the same. -ax \_ I wouldn't be surprised at all if housing prices is lower 10 years later than it is today. \_ I would. Has this ever happened in California? \_ I believe so. In LA at least. \_ Which 10 year period? \_ Not 10 years, but from ~1991-1998. \_ In the long run or the short run? In the short run, interest rates may win out, but in the long run, population and land availability will be the key. \_ yea, someday, the nasdaq will reach 4000 again too, but why buy at 4500 when you can buy at 1300 three years later. \_ If you are waiting until prices drop 70% to buy, you will be waiting a long, long time. \_ For most people, a home is a leveraged investment, you can easily lose your entire principal and more. \_ What has that got to do with the original statement? \_ For most people, a house is a home. They live there. Unlike stocks, if the house loses value it still has value as a home. Leverage only matters if you are buying a house as an investment, which most people are not. \_ Something like 25% of them are, currently. \_ Which means 75% are not. |
2005/3/30-31 [Uncategorized] UID:36961 Activity:nil |
3/30 http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000717038088 "Cingular tops in consumer complaints" |
2005/3/30 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:36962 Activity:high |
3/30 Poll, what do you do to protect your laptop's content? Homing beacon: . Nothing: ... Login PW: .. BIOS PW: PGP files: . File system encrypt: Physical security: . (i.e., it's in a locked, secured-access facility almost all the time.) Left-handed mouse buttons: . Dvorak key layout: . (however doesn't do much) pkzipc -pass=foo: . secret explosives booby trap:. |
2005/3/30 [Uncategorized] UID:36963 Activity:kinda low |
3/30 http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000740038020 Fake ATMs. Apparently, other countries have even more sophisticated scams (read the comments!) \_ These have been around for about 2 years. A couple of years back in the NE US some guys put entire fake ATMs in a few shopping centers to harvest card info. A more common one here consisted of Romanian gangs just hooking a truck up to an ATM and yanking it out of its housing (not attacking the customer but the machine itself.) In fact, ramming burglaries and the likes were a huge problem in a lot of Europe over the last 3-4 years, which is why you see big concrete blocks or stones in front of a lot of jewelery stores and banks here. -John |
2005/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:36964 Activity:low |
3/30 Pat Buchanan on democracies killing themselves: http://www.amconmag.com/2005_03_28/buchanan.html -John \_ Nice essay by Pat. Wonder what he thinks of the power grab by the White House? --PeterM \_ Good question--I don't recall PB being much of a statist, yet this article article seems to have a bit of a contradiction between "government must safeguard liberties" and be restricted by the constitution (the Jefferson quote) and "don't let the people decide anything". Hmm. -John \_ PB is a statist of the Old School. I think "Conservative" had a much different meaning in his day. My favorite bit from HST "The Great Shark Hunt" is where Pat talks about how Chuck Colson wasn't a "real" conservative. \_ "the U.S. is a Republic not a democracy!!1!" Yes, yes, we know. |
2005/3/30 [Transportation/Car] UID:36965 Activity:nil |
3/30 Valet Girls: http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/novelties/like-omygod-valet-girls-037360.php |
2005/3/30-31 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:36966 Activity:nil |
3/30 Go hybrid for cheap: http://www.mixedpower.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=440 |
2005/3/30 [Finance/CC] UID:36967 Activity:high |
3/30 Why can't the Social Security office issue new SSN's for people whose numbers are stolen, similar to what credit card companies do when cards are stolen? Thanks. \_ It's more complicated than that. Do you change your name when there's an identity thift? \_ No, but I change my credit card numbers. Obviously I'm missing something. Please elaborate. I thought since credit card companies could issue new card numbers for the same card account, the SS office should be able to issue new SSN for the same SS account. \_ 2-4-6-0-1 !! |
2005/3/30 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:36968 Activity:insanely high |
3/30 What is the difference between > < and |. The former has to do with std input output. But it seems to be just a special case of |. \_ can the op use "the former" to refer to a plurality? Is "the formers" a more accurate way to write? \_ No, you can only use former and latter. Two choices, not three. \_ My question was unclear. In the sentence "A & B were the first to arrive. C & D arrived last." Can "the former," and "the latter" be used to refer to "A & B" and "C & D," respectively, eventhough the referred to items are plural? \_ < and > always involve files. | links between programs. \_ > < connect stout and stdin respectively to a file. | connects stdout of one process to stdin of another using pipe(2). --jwm \_ So then > < is implemented as a special case of |. \_ not quite but close \_ > and < open a file as file descriptor 1 and 0 respectively man pipe(2) and dup2(2). A pipe is not a special case of a file, but both can be accessd through file descriptors. |
2005/3/30 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:36969 Activity:kinda low |
3/30 Hi, my private information is contained in the stolen laptop and I've been trying to call the hotline for the past 2 days without any luck (says operator busy, call back in a few min). Worst of all I can't even leave a message. Anyone have a better luck? 1-800-372-5110 \_ Try using the auto-redial feature that will ring your phone once the call goes through. I think it costs less than $1.00 \_ it DOES go through, with a long message that finally ends with "If you're hearing this message on M-F from 8AM to 6PM then our operator is busy, please call back in a few minutes or leave a message and we'll get back to you in 2 days." Then it says "Enter you mailbox number" or something without giving me an option to leave a message. I hate Berkeley. First it rejects me and now it's fucking with me. \_ How did you get this account then? \_ There this thing called "graduate school" after undergrad. \_ It rejected you for undergrad but accepted you for grad? |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:36970 Activity:moderate |
3/30 Opinion- what do you think the government worker should use for laptop security, esp. when it contains over 100,000 SSN and names? \_ Why would you store 100,000 SSN and names on a laptop? \_ Physical security. \_ Kind of defeats the point of having a laptop, doesn't it? \_ Such info should not be on a laptop in the first place. \_ There are ways to safely store sensitive data on a laptop. \_ Please explain. This is what this thread is about in the first place. \_ (a) nothing foolproof, nothing guaranteed. (b) Really sensitive data that's not immediately required should not be on a laptop. (c) Having a database like this is questionable practice in most cases. (d) Using SSNs to help identify people is really dumb. -John \_ What is wrong with encrypting it all? \_ Use weak encryption. Work-flow leaves unencrypted data on disk, either as a matter of course, sloppiness, or paging. Lazy users leave their decryption key/password in some easily-takable place (such as on disk). It can be done right, but there's lots of ways to screw it up. \_ Is this a serious question, or are you trolling to start a "Those careless SOBs!" rant? |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/Unix, Computer/SW/Security] UID:36971 Activity:kinda low |
3/30 ssh port forwarding/X11 issue: Any ideas on how to solve this problem: I ssh over to a remote host that shares my same home directory. My forward X11 works okay until I sudo to root. I get a message about wrong authentication. Any ideas ? Being root on the base machine works just fine for X11. \_ xhost \_ NFS mount root squash making your $HOME/.Xauthority not readable perhaps. \_ Another possibility is sudo not retaining $HOME. But anyway, look into the xauth command. |
2005/3/30-31 [Politics/Foreign] UID:36972 Activity:nil |
3/30 http://www.csua.org/u/bj7 International study of human effects on Earth. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/Networking] UID:36973 Activity:nil |
3/30 I REALLY like my DLink-624 802.11g 108G router. It doesn't get superhot like Linksys and it's pretty compact and inconspicuous. \_ l0s3r! y don't u have the dgl-4300 G4M1NG r0ut3r?~! it does pr10r1ty qU3U3ing v14 w3ll-kn0wn P0rtz! \_ My 2nd one's ok. The one I originally got worked for a week then puked all over itself. The RMA procedure was the absolute worst I have ever dealt with, but I got a new one in the end. --dbushong |
2005/3/30-31 [Reference/BayArea] UID:36974 Activity:kinda low |
3/30 Any know of a better crossover route than 85 to go from 280 to 101 in Mountain View? I take 280 S from Pacifica and I work off of th 101 Ellis exit in Mountain View. Somes I do 85-237 using Middlefield pr I just get off at Moffet on 85. \_ 92? \_ Page Mill/Oregon Expwy? \_ Lawrence Expwy \_ El Monte->San Antonio \_ Foothill Expwy->Grant Rd->237 \_ Depends where you are at, but consider 280 to lawrence to central to middlefield. |
2005/3/30-31 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:36975 Activity:kinda low |
3/30 +80 char lines deleted. \_ Jesus, haven't you heard of "less -S"? It will bother you less as text does NOT get wrapped to the next line. \_ Allah, then how do you read the discarded characters? \_ the right arrow key to scroll to the right? like any real editor do? You can even configure the scroll amount, default is a bit too much for my taste... \_ Oops. I didn't actually try out -S before I spoke. I just relied on the man page which reads "the remainder of a long line is simply discarded." \_ slouie, you're 85+ char now, and still violating 80. Oh well, who cares, it looks perfect on my baby Kais Motd: http://csua.com \_ FYI, my less alias "less -iS -#8" \_ +80 char lines will be automatically deleted, without regard for subject matter. |
2005/3/30-31 [Reference/Religion] UID:36976 Activity:nil |
3/30 Hey, the pope is being fed via tubes! Let's remove the tube!! \_ If and when he or his duly appointed guardian says to, sure thing. \_ Yeah, that would be this whole conscious and aware thing getting in the way of that. \_ Better question: Would you like to live like that? Is he being kept alive artificially? \_ Does a bear shit in The Pope's hat, Dan? \_ Many who oppose pulling the tube from Terry would support it in the case of the pope, just 'cause they don't like Catholics. Hypocritical bastards. |
2005/3/30-31 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/Immigration] UID:36977 Activity:high |
3/30 So what do people here think of the Minuteman Project in Arizona, and the response of the ACLU and Vicente Fox? -emarkp \_ I don't know anything about it, URL from CNN or http://Fox.com? \_ http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050330-125346-1389r.htm http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0317fox17.html or just plain: http://news.google.com/news?q=minuteman+project+vicente+fox \_ If they stick to never actually confronting immigrants, it sounds legal. It's certainly an excellent diversionary tactic given there's been no sign so far that any terrorists have tried to come up via Mexico. Blaming brown people has worked well as a pretty good rallying call for the right. I also predict Fox won't get any help from Bush this time since Bush doesn't need the Latino vote anymore. -- ulysses \_ If you ever lived in Southern California for over 10+ years and attended public elementary to high school there, you'll know exactly how you feel. If you're Latino, you'll feel that S Cal is a great place where you get free subsidy and support from your own people. If you're not Latino, you'll think S Cal is a shithole, a perfect example of great wealth inequality where the richest and the poorest people living in one place. This imbalance of wealth contributes to conflicts unique in S. Cal. For example, S. Cal having the highest car insurance rate (1/4 are staged for insurance money), gangsters, drive-by shooting (my school had drive by twice), ethnic fights, etc. -someone who lived there +10 years and witnesses a lot of shit \_ ...that's right, those pesky Latinos are getting all of those subsidies, and that's what's wrong with everything. Dude, I'd tell you to go to hell, but there's no place possibly worse to live in than your own mind. \_ I'm anti ILLEGAL immigrant but I'm not anti immigrant. Extra border patrol will discourage drugs and contrabands into the US as well as discourage desperate people coming into the US, who usually get taken advantage of. If people want to come to the US, they should first learn a bit more about the country (not from Hollywood or magazines) and come in LEGALLY. -parents who came in legally \_ you're a moron. \_ why is he a moron? You need to explain so he'll stop being one \_ morons don't stop being morons. \_ if that's true, I will stop trying to change tom \- there is a certain amount of hypocrisy for free traders to be in favor of the free movement of goods and capital but not labor. much of the rationale for the efficiency gains of trade/$ apply to labor as well ... labor is another "factor of production". --psb \_ Although I agree, there are other factors that are relevant to people (e.g. overpopulation concerns, cultural effects, etc.) that are not relavent to other factors of production. I have been for open borders most of my life, but i'm not sure it is a very pragmatic stance. The history of the world has been a history of poverty and income/power disparity. The U.S. has managed (along with some other countries) to overcome that state to some degree. It is perhaps justifiable to try to insulate it, if for no other reason than to act as an example of what is possible (though, i have to say, this rings false) -phuqm \- yes i understand what you say, but there are "other factors" that also apply to harmonizing IP regimes, high capital mobility etc. but the fundamental argument about "let the factors of production find where they will get the best return" and the ideas of comparative and abs advantage apply to labor too. yes, letting a lot of Changs, Mohammeds and Singhs into a lot of Changs, Parthas and Mohammeds into the country has "side effects" but so do coke and pepsi, monsanto etc. --psb Coke, Pepsi and Monsanto. --psb \_ Labor can come here, they just have to do it legally. I don't advocate allowing drug money to move unhindered to offshore banks either. Nothing hypocritical about it at all. \-i dont think you understand what i mean by free movement of labor. \_ Then explain yourself. \_ Agreed. Those who break the law should be punished, not awarded. \_ Why can't we just shoot them? I am getting sick and tired of all those mexicans standing on the street of SF looking for work, and all of them are illegal. They are potential terriorists, let's do what we do best, shoot first, ask questions later. It WILL solve the illegal alien problem. \_ Keep a tight grip on your soap when you're in jail for shooting the wrong one. \_ it's still murder, whether a citizen or an illegal. \- how about we impose public lashings for people employing illegal aliens unless they can come up with say a photocopy of the forged documentation. --psb \_ The big problem is what happens when the Border Patrol doesn't send someone out. Say the INS is busy dealing with something else and the Minutemen call with a possible illegal. The INS looks bad because they're overwhelmed. The MM get peeved. Say this happens a dozen times. Will the MM get frustrated and do something stupid? |
2005/3/30-31 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:36978 Activity:high |
3/30 Dear home owners who have|plan to buy 2nd/3rd/4th homes for the purpose of investment, PLEASE STOP IT! For each home you buy, you're taking it away from first time buyers. Last year, ~1/4 of the homes bought were investment homes. That's at least 3-4 million less homes for people who really want one. I mean, come on, what is this, the era of Monarchs and Aristocrats? Medieval period where the people who own land gets to own even more land? I thought social equality is suppose to improve especially after WWII. Something's wrong here. \_ Tough Shit -- getting ready to buy 2nd home. \_ We REALLY need to do something to the Chinese population. They're like the Jews in Germany in the 30s, buying and owning all the properties and making everyone else's life a total hell. \_ Yeah! go go final solution! \_ But Chinese immigrants are relatively poltical quiet. They don't try to influence American politics to benefit their home country like the Jews do. \_ YOU TELL EM! Damn Dirty Jews. \_ Ah, now it makes sense; Sour Grapes Housing Guy is someone who has been holding on to his money since 1998, waiting for the housing market to go down so he can buy. -tom \_ He'll "save" $200K in the end, but will have spent $150K in rent and will have lost another $50K in deductions while having lived as a renter the whole time. We'll have to hear endlessly about the $200K he saved on his house price. \_ the amount that goes to mortgage interest is higher then rent these days, even after tax deductions. no point buying unless you think home will appreciate. rent savings, tax deductions, etc. no longer are sufficient justification for buying. Only buy if you think house will appreciate more than you can earn with your principal invested elsewhere. \_ Interest is higher than rent? I rent out a house for $2000/mo, and I'm paying a $1500/mo. mortgage payment on a 15-yr fixed loan for that house. \_ yea, but when did you buy the house? try buying one now and renting it out. \_ I bought it in 2000. \_ I bought mine in 2004 and my mortgage interest is around $1800. \_ If you buy $650k house in the southbay, the MI would be around $2k. It's reasonable that a 3bd house can be rented for over $2k/mo. \_ Interest is supposed to decrease over time, but rent is increasing. Don't forget there are tax benefits with interest. \_ rent is increasing? SourceP \_ #t are you talking short-term or long-term? \_ give me a break, there are more than one person on the motd that believe the current housing market is in a bubble, and I do own a home. -!pp \_ Please move to a communist state, where social equality is mandatory for everyone except the Chairman. \_ We need land reform for urban areas! \_ Yeah right. seriously though all the housing tax incentives are totally unhelpful to regular people wanting a home. They are designed to help investors (low capital gains tax on appreciation, bullshit depreciation writeoffs, mortgage writeoffs, etc.). All that stuff does is help those with leverage and jack up the price that much (since houses are sold based on monthly payments not on actual value). I'd also argue it harms the economy, relatively speaking, to have so much debt and assets tied up in these useless houses that in the end just sit there not producing anything. \_ Gotta love capitalism! The more wealth you own, the more wealth works for you. What are you gonna do, revert Reagan's great tax cut for inheritance and investment property? Revert Bush's income tax cut for the upper-class Americans? Unlikely. \_ Patience young Skywalker, you waited this long, don't be tempted by all the house talks in the news, etc. It IS a bubble, it will dip like it did at the end of 2001, that's when you go in with your savings. At any rate, it cannot sustain the current growth for another year, period. The best investors have a cool mind when everyone else is buying into the hype, like all those stupid people who decided to join Nasdaq when it is at 4000-5000. Even Greenspan acknowledged the housing market is in a bubble, do you remember what he said about the stock market back then? Trust yourself, don't buy into the hype. \_ You know, that's what I said in 2002, 2003, 2004. It's 2005 and things haven't changed a bit. I don't have problems with housing going up. I have a lot of problems with people buying investment homes and claiming deductions and other loopholes in the tax system. If your 2nd/3rd home is an investment, then it is business, and should be subject to business tax rules and tax brackets. The current tax system and interest rate encourages everyone to buy a house, but made it even easier for existing home owners who could take a 2nd mortgage loan or reallocate and what not. And in the end, when there's only so much land to offer, the winners are the people who have the most land. Fuck GW Bush and fuck Reagan. \_ I admit it's easy for me to say this because it is all in the past, but things are not quite the same in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. 2004/2005 can be classified as red hot, but in 2001/2002 and even in part of 2003, it was actually quite manageable. Perhaps your expectation needs to be adjusted slightly. Instead of waiting for a crash, watch out for cool periods. Have realistic goals. As it is right now, it's unlikely that the house you like will drop back to 400k, but a instead of selling at 600+, it may drop to 550 or something. Are you willing to take it then? Don't get stuck waiting for it to go back to 400k just because that's your limit, limit can be stretched. The bay area is a special situation, everyone I know, including myself, my parents, their friends, have "bit the bullet" when they bought the house and at the time it all seemed very expensive. But sometimes you just need to do that, even if you buy it relatively high, in the long run, say 5-10 years, you are still likely to be ok. (Still, I don't recommend you do that right now, in 6 month or a year, see what it is like, I don't think my house will approach 1 million, trust me, it will level off and people will stop bidding up as much)... Vegas has already dropped 25% and one person I knew who's in your accused category is in a hurry to sell the home he has and guess why... \_ Think outside the box, do you really need to live in the bay area? How about somewhere else? You DON'T have a house yet, so you are not tied down. Find a job somewhere else and see if you like it. Houses are more affordable elsewhere. If you are Asian I can understand your desire to stay in the bay area, but if you are not, then why not? If I don't have a house, I may very well move to shanghai. With my savings, I can buy a very decent home in shanghai. There are also other options as others have pointed out. There are still 400k homes around. Your first home doesn't need to be perfect, like your first gf. ;) \_ Do you absolutely need a house right now? or it would be nice to have one? Our advice depends on your situation. \_ Let them buy their 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th home. While they are waiting and waiting for them to appreciate, rent it from them for cheap. Then, when the housing prices start falling, and their highly leveraged investments go south, and they are forced to sell at a loss, buy it from them for cheap. Be merciless when bargaining for a good price. Housing bubble's gonna pop! bwahahaha! \_ what if they're so dang rich they already own all 5 homes and can wait 20 years? \_ Yep. Lots of landlords have been doing this since the 1970s. They bought all their houses/buildings for cheap. If the portfolio takes a dip that's okay as long as income stays good. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/RevisionControl, Computer/SW/Compilers] UID:36979 Activity:high |
3/30 Is it Kosher to write a closed-source program which calles a GPL program on the command line but does not link to it? \_ Very likely yes, but people will disagree with you. For instance, I'm sure there are many apps which call gcc, or cvs/svn (not sure about the license on the latter 2, but for gcc, I think it's GPL-not-LGPL. \_ I think it depends whether you are bundling the GPL utility with your program. If you just call "mv" or whatever, GPL has nothing to say about that, but if you include a binary in your closed-source distribution, I think that's a violation. -tom \_ What about a closed-source distribution which includes the binary of the GPL as well as the source for only the GPL component. The closed-source project would just call "$GPLPROG $ARGS" through a shell. \_ I believe one of the complaints a lot of people have about the GPL is that it requires you to open-source your entire project if you use any GPL code in your distribution. So, I don't think you can use it the way you describe. -tom \_ This is a complicated issue. One point of view is that it is not only the code that is GPL'ed but also the calling interface, provided that the calling interface does not conform to an external "standard" (a non-gpl program that implements the same cli opts, might be a "standard" for this purpose). Perhaps the more mainstream point of view is that the gpl only applies to incorporation, ie you have one big binary in which some src files are gpl'ed. As long as you don't distrubte the gpl'ed pgm in binary only you are probably okay. \_ Related question: Can a function from a GPL project be included into a LGPL project, since the LGPL is *more* free? |
2005/3/30-31 [Finance/Investment] UID:36980 Activity:moderate |
3/30 What's a good source to get historical data of VOLUME and price of home sales? Something like Etrade data for real estate. \_ Look. Here's the deal. The real estate market in CA is nearing a top. If historical patterns hold, prices will decrease somewhere about 30% over the course of a couple of years and then stay flat for another 5 years or so. After about 7 years they will be back to where they are now and eventually they will surpass current prices. If you are buying a house as a short-term investment then don't. If you need a place to live and are renting then do it if you find a place you can comfortably afford to keep for 7-10 years. Will saving 15-30% on your house price be worth it to you to wait and see what happens? I guess that depends on your situation. \_ Yeah, but if housing prices go up again 20% this year, your advice would be terrible. \_ nah, that just means a harder landing in the future. \_ No, it's not terrible in that case. The advice is to buy a place if you can comfortably afford it. If you can't now then you won't then either. However, it seems obvious to everyone that the 20% annual appreciation is going to take a breather. I don't think anyone is on that boat. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:36981 Activity:very high |
3/30 Is there a school that has an uglier website than Cal? http://www.berkeley.edu \_ There are plenty of schools with ugly websites. Generally, one of two things causes a bad university web site: 1) The process gets taken over by people who are only familiar with print publications, and they think the web site is like a print publication. 2) The process gets taken over by bad corporate web designers who think Flash is great. Berkeley's situation is #1. -tom \_ http://www.stanford.edu \_ <DEAD>stanford.edu<DEAD> doesn't work. \_ http://www.florida.edu \_ http://www.texastech.edu \_ I would argue we have a worse website than Stanford. \_ Ya get what ya pay for. \_ Why do you all hate cal so much? Why didn't you just work harder to get into a better school back when you had a choice? Regardless, why don't you share with us an attractive university website? Or do you only know how to mock? \_ I (and I imagine others) DID get into "better" schools. We/our parents couldn't afford them. \_ Then be bitter at yourself, for not being able to work while in school. You have no right to be such whiny bitter bitches if you attend(ed) Cal. \_ Wow, you need to loosen up and get the stick out of your ass. It's pretty common for students and alumni to mock their own school. It's part and parcel to having a sarcastic sense of humor that exists in decent institutions of higher learning such as Cal. Anyway, Cal's fine. I doubt you can get a much better education somewhere else. In terms of price/education ratio it's the best deal on the market. \_ No, I agree with you about the humor and all. It's only that the anti-Cal sentiments on this motd are pretty strong and frequent so I just wanted to comment. Sure I don't think Cal was perfect, but I still do believe it is an outstanding university. \_ How do you measure the quality of education a school provides? As someone in the business of hiring the product of schools, I tend to measure the quality of a school by the quality of the graduates (which is of course unfair, since I do not take into account the quality of the incoming students, but just the graduates). However, just measuring by the the quality of the graduates, Cal is far from the head of the pack. \_ You have a self-selecting sample. You remind me of the recruiter at BofA who said that I must be bad at math because I had average grades in math. Nevermind that the people with a 3.8 in math are trying to get tenure at Princeton instead of applying to work at BofA. Cal grads compete very well overall. \_ Well, I don't think I self-select in the sense you mean. It's somewhat unlikely that I would see nth quartile students from other schools and (n-1)th quartile students from Berkeley. Cal new grads just aren't that competitive compared to new grads from other "good" schools (mit, the farm, caltech, or even utaustin (just 1 interview trip there, but I was impressed)). If it's a sop to your school loyalty, I found CMU students were even worse for what I was hiring for (EE, not CS, with some knowledge of circuits and transmission lines). \_ *YOU* don't self-select. The students do. Maybe your project did not attract the best, because it was not interesting. Perhaps Cal students are not strong at that one particular field and you are over-generalizing. I *do* know that Cal turns out an awful lot of graduate students who do top notch work, as well as the standard doctors/lawyers/businessmen. At my work, I don't come across a lot of good Cal grads either, but that's because I am in aerospace and Cal has no department. Schools like Purdue, UT, and MIT dominate there. What it says about the average Cal student is absolutely nothing. \_ So you're claiming that some difference in Cal students cause them to be somehow uniquely less interested in the companies I'm hiring for. I find this claim incredible. Perhaps you would explain what is so different with Cal grads (vs. MIT, Caltech, 'fraud, UTAustin etc.)? I've already specified what I look for in new grads (EE, some circuits and transmission line). Could any EE program that doesn't cover some circuits and transmission line be considered a "good" program? \_ Completely possible, for example, if the jobs you are hiring for are in another state from CA. However, what I am saying is that you are probably not evaluating the *best* students from *any* of the schools. After that, it's not given you are comparing second quartile to second quartile or, if you are, what exactly that means. \_ Of course the average MIT student is better. Their incoming scores are higher on average (as you state). However, for same level of achievement I find Cal students better than those from, say, Stanford. Also, I hired a guy from Caltech as smart as all hell but who is a terrible employee who has to be told what to do all of the time. He's been close to fired several times now for incompetence. There are other ingredients to success than being book smart. \_ I found Caltech grads to be impractical (in the sense that they spend too much time arguing over and working on the optimal thing rather than the good enough thing). They are very good once you've slapped them around enough to break them. Small sample size of only 2 though, so definitely ymmv. \_ I guess it depends what you mean by "better school". I think Cal was a lot of work for minimal reward. By that I mean not that the rewards are small, but that the work was large. It would have been easier to go to "lesser schools", learn less, and do less work. Heck, the main appeal behind Stanford is not that it is "better" but that you can do less and still get a 3.2+ GPA while also having a name on your resume that people care about (and fewer alums from that school in the workforce because of the size). However, you pay $100K+ for that honor. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/Rants, Reference/RealEstate] UID:36982 Activity:high |
3/30 Do I have to give a 1099 form to a contractor who works on my house? If not, what's the difference between him and a guy who works on my computer? \_ you don't give the guy who works on your computer a 1099 either \_ I am pretty sure you are supposed to. \_ Why? You're not their employer. I thought 1099's were for employers reporting wages for an independent contractor. I would think a housing contractor would be self-employed, or an employee of a firm (who would handle 1099 reporting) \_ Why? You're not their employer (or are you?). I thought 1099's were for employers reporting wages for an independent contractor. I would think a housing contractor would be self-employed, or an employee of a firm (who would handle 1099 reporting). I would think the distinction is that you, the owner of the house, are not a business. However: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html \_ If he is self-employed and you give him money, who is supposed to report it? Yeah, it says right there that you are supposed to file a 1099-MISC for payments of over $600. \_ What if he is not self-employed, but works as a sole proprietorship or has incorporated? \_ I think you've got the definition of building "contractor" confused with the HR definition of 1099 "contractor." The guy who works on your house is just someone with the word "contractor" as a job descr/title. For the "guy who works on your computer" he's a "contractor" as an employment category. Both are self employed, yes -- but the building contractor probably has his own business and is (hopefully) licensed and bonded. You would probably not issue him a W9. You would probably just pay his company. \_ What is a W9? |
2005/3/30 [Uncategorized] UID:36983 Activity:high |
3/30 Is it ethical to read the motd at work? What if I work for the evil empire? \_ You mean microsoft? \_ Dude, we all work for evil empires. \_ Not me, I work for the angel of light. \_ What, you work for Dubya? \_ Ethical? It's MANDATORY! |
2005/3/30-31 [Health/Women, Health/Sleeping] UID:36984 Activity:low |
3/30 Neurologist's Report on Terri Released http://newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/3/30/144422.shtml \_ One of two neurologists hired by the Schlinders. This one is the nutjob. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hammesfahr Yes, he is also listed on http://quackwatch.org |
2005/3/30-31 [Uncategorized] UID:36985 Activity:high |
3/30 Has anyone else had a monitor that makes a really high pitched noise? I changed the refresh from 75 Hz to 85 Hz and it stopped, though. \_ It most likely means one of your caps is bad. Take it back to manufacturer for a replacement. If out of warranty open it up and find out which cap is singing. Get a replacement cap from Radio Shack or Digikey if it's a rare one. You'll need to be semi-decent at soldering if the singing cap is on a multilayer PCB to prevent burning the pad ring off. BTW, it WILL get worse over time. \_ #include <be_careful_dont_kill_yourself.h> \_ Are you giving out advice on how to kill the original poster? Do not fix it yourself, please. \_ That's okay, I wasn't planning on fixing it anyway. The monitor is like 6 or 7 years old now, but I was just wondering. Thanks. \_ Maybe the noise doesn't stop when you changed from 75Mz to 85Hz, and it just goes beyond the auditable range which is about 20Hz - 20kHz. \_ Is the monitor a trinitron (apeture grill) tube? It could be "trinitron whine", as the horizontal wires holding the grill grow loose and the wires resonate with the electron beam. Noisy but not a physical problem: Give the monitor to your parents who don't have high frequency hearing anymore. |
2005/3/30-31 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Dental] UID:36986 Activity:high |
3/30 Fluoridation polluting our precious bodily fluids: http://www.newsmaxstore.com/newsletters/blaylock/4.cfm \_ Wow, between fluoride, lots of xrays, and those mercury fillings, dentists are responsible for massive illness. But at least our teeth are clean! Actually I am against water fluoridation in principle. Why introduce that in the environment? People get fluoride from toothpaste. \_ Have you ever seen a commie drink water? \_ Well Mandranke...I realized this during the physical act of love. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:36987 Activity:nil |
3/30 My new Thinkpad (running WinXP) has a c:\i386 directory. It looks like it's full of windows installation files and DLLs. Is it safe to delete this directory? Other WinXP machines don't have this directory. \_ No, it is not safe to delete this directory. Get two cdroms, high quality ones, and backup that directory. Make sure the CDs are readable, then delete. The directory is essentially the WinXP setup files. Without it your computer will choke everytime it tries to install something new or a file gets corrupted in the WinXP base system directory. |
2005/3/30-4/3 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/911] UID:36988 Activity:nil |
3/30 A critique of libertarian thought: http://www.amconmag.com/2005_03_14/article1.html \_ This is from a conservative perspective that the vast majority here are not going to be in tune with. It also mischaracterizes libertarianism on a number of fronts. Most egregiously when it suggests that libertarianism somehow has "contempt for self-restraint". He approaches the real problem when he suggests that most libertarians don't realize how easy it is to infringe on another's rights (I'm fond of pointing out that this is especially true in densely populated areas), but the article is mostly pandering to the "drugs and porn are bad" crowd, muddled thinking, and the putting up of a utopian straw man. (It is a small minority of libertarians that are utopian). I'm sure there are better criticisms of Libs out there, as there is much to criticize. -a libertarian \_ Huh. Thanks for the insight. \- libertarianism is a reasonably powerful and parsimonious theory about government. but there is a lot more to philosophy than the ordering of social institutions. and conclusions in other areas in turn feed back into beliefs about the ordering of social institutions. and that lack of a theory about say "what we owe each other" or the right and the good, justice, fairness etc is where libertaianism lacks in theory. where it lacks in practice in my opinion and experience is many adherent really are not committed to theory. they cleve to the ideology because the conclusions are what they like with rather than the fundamental principles and logic. the extrme form of these are randroids. those people dont even realize randianism isnt a philosophy any more. it is just a bunch of prescriptions which a sham theory behind it [sic]. there are also a minority of honest libertarians who are too obsessed with theoretical parsimony which is lacking in some messy but probably more honest and powerful theories [these are the nozick-heads. it is quite possible you dont know any of these people. although if berkeley you have some chance of meeting a few of these. they can be worth talking to.]. --psb \_ Interesting, though dense. Thanks for taking the time to elucidate. It's all pretty interesting when presented rationally without all the distracting acrimony. \- oh there should be acrimony but maybe not distracting acrimony toward randroids. there isnt enough acrimony towards them. --psb \_ agreed. -a libertarian |
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