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.

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.

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.

3/30    http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000717038088
        "Cingular tops in consumer complaints"

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:.

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

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.

3/30    Valet Girls:
        http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/novelties/like-omygod-valet-girls-037360.php

3/30    Go hybrid for cheap:
        http://www.mixedpower.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=440

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 !!

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.

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?

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?

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.

3/30    http://www.csua.org/u/bj7
        International study of human effects on Earth.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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