4/21    Woot!  Woot!
        soda [2] wc -l /etc/motd.public
             787 /etc/motd.public

4/21    Yay!
        "Republicans on Thursday moved closer to a showdown with Democrats
        over filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees, sending two
        judges under dispute to the full Senate. ... Conservatives during the
        last Congress accused Democrats of being anti-minority for blocking
        Brown, who is black; anti-women for blocking Owen, and anti-Catholic
        for blocking Pryor."
        http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/21/filibuster.fight.ap/index.html
        \_ Because it couldn't be that they're anti-psycho..

4/20    Why doesn't someone stick solar cells on hybrid cars?
        \_ I don't think hybrids have such big batteries...  Why add
           an expensive array of solar cells when the gas engine
           charges the batteries just fine?
           \_ Plus it adds weight, and maybe distorts the car's aerodynamic
              shape which increases drag.
        \_ Photovoltaic cells don't generate very much. The surface area of a
           hybrid might provide enough to run the CD player on a sunny day.
        \_ A house-sized system can generate a few kW on a good day.  A single
           horsepower is about 0.75kW.
           \_ You mean a few kWH on a good day? I was producing over 10 KWH
              a day with just a 3.3KW system, and my dad has a 6KW system on
              his house that produces I think approx 20 KwH per day ... He
              pays zero per year for his electricity, only a small bit for
              being connected to the grid.  But for a car it wou'dn't work,
              ordinary gasoline cars need almost an order of magnitude more
              power than a house.  This is why oil is so nice and why
              substitutes are hard without drastically cutting down the power
              requirements.
              \_ How much do the 3.3kW and the 6kW systems cost?
                 \_ I'm putting in a 3.3kW system; after rebates, it
                    comes out to about $18K.  -tom
              \_ No, I mean a few kW will be generated on a good day.  If you
                 generated 10kWH in say 8 hours of usable sun that means you
                 only averaged 1.25kW.  If you were generating the full 3.3kW
                 for 8 hours you would have generated 26.4kWH.  I talked about
                 kW, not kWH because kW, like hp is a unit of power, and is
                 applicable to the way people think about cars.
        \_ because the drag and weight of the solar sells wouldn't make up for
           the energy the generate?  Not to mention the weight.
           Besides, hybrid cars aren't about electric power, they're about
           'more efficient' gas power.   It's silly to think of them as some
           some panacea for energy savings and the environment, because
           ultimately they're still just burning gasoline.

4/21    I've been using Sun's JVM. I see that Red Hat ships BEA and IBM's
        JVMs. Which one is best to use and why?
        \_ As far as I know, IBM's JVM has better performance but more GUI
           bugs.

4/21    Buh, duh, huh?
        http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1559253,00.html
        France Backs China on Taiwan
        \_ The French gov't makes me feel icky.
           \-C HITCHENS had a great comment about J CHIRAC:
             "a man, like the banker in Flaubert's Sentimental Education,
             'so corrupt that he would willingly pay for the pleasure of
             selling himself".'
             --psb
        \_ It's wrong for France to back the Anti-Secession Law, especially
           when France is going against the countervailing current of world
           opinion that the law was unnecessary and increased tensions.
           As for the EU trying to convince the U.S. that it's okay for them
           to sell arms to China, the argument is:
           Russia is selling them the h07 sh17 w34P0N5 tech, so why aren't you
           blaming them?
           Then again, two wrongs don't make a right, so I consider the EU
           selling advanced arms to China as also wrong.
           \_ The US has been selling weapons to the world's worst people
              for a generation. It is amazingly hypocritical for us to
              complain about the EU doing the same thing.
              \_ Which country is not hypocritical?  France and other European
                 countries had been colonizing much of the world.  China
                 annexed Tibet and Xinjiang hundreds of years ago.  Taiwan
                 (the Nationalists) were oppressing the native Taiwanese
                 decades ago.
                 \_ So the French are simply following in their own best
                    self interest, instead of doing what we want them to
                    do. Is that your complaint? Especially after all the
                    cheese-eating surrender monkey crap, they probably feel
                    like we are not really an ally anymore. What a surprise.
                 \_ The term Taiwanese, used by the pro-independence groups,
                    actually refers to Chinese who settled there before
                    Japan annexed Taiwan, rather than the aborigines, whom
                    the pro-independence groups want to wipe out.  But it
                    was a very clever invention perfect for eliciting knee
                    jerk "Taiwan belongs to Taiwanese" slogan.
           \_  Before the law was passed, Taiwan's defense minister proposed
               arming missles with chemical weapons and its legistators boasted
               developing nukes.  That stopped after the law is passed. Seems
               like a good law.
           \_ increased tensions, yes, but why is the law unnecessary?
              \_ China doesn't need a law passed by the People's Congress
                 saying they can invade to invade.
                 \_ With a maturing government, China is becoming more reliant
                    on legal codes and protcol than short term political whim.
                    Every country goes through different periods.  Dont' forget
                    until < 100 years ago CA was the WWW and "the law" was a
                    joke.
        \_ This url goes to a pair of enormous floppy breasts.
           \_ And the above posters are just bots who react to the word China
              the way I have programmed them.
           \_ Fixed.

4/21    Is VPN a protocol?  Is it proprietary?  I use Cisco VPN to access my
        company network from home, and my friend uses Nortel VPN to access his
        company network from his home.  Are they compatible?  Thx.
        |_ ipsec
        \_ http://openvpn.net/articles.html
        \_ VPN is a concept.  There are many technologies that "do" VPN.
           ipsec is most prevalent among them; there are several ipsec
           variations.  -John
           \_ Got it.  Thanks!

4/21    When I go to the http://www.yahoo.com page, it displays a current time
        that's PST.  How does it know I'm in Pacific time zone?
        \_ Are you signed in?  if you are, it uses whatever timezone in your
           profile.
           \_ No, I don't even have a Yahoo ID.
              \_ javascript or other client side scripting knows your tz
        \_ It reads the transponders in your laptop.
        \_ It uses GPS to bounce signals off of your tinfoil hat
        \_ use the source, luke.
           <script language=javascript>d.getElementById('nw').innerHTML=time;</script>
           (see elsewhere for where the time variable is set)

4/21    Draft predictions:
        Rodgers -- top 5 selection
        JJ Arrington -- 4th rounder

4/21    Prank Paper accepted for publication:
        http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/21/academic.hoax.ap/index.html
        \_ Wow, that only took CNN about 2 weeks to report.
        \_ Dude that's already been reported on motd:
           http://csua.com/?entry=37223
                \_ it's already been reported twice on the motd.
        \_ Conferences are just social gatherings.

4/21    Dumb Q, how do you change the default open action on the Mac?
        \_ Control-[mouse button 1] or just mouse button 2. Then go to
           "Open with"

4/21    Is it possible to boot from an external Firewire or USB drive? I'd
        like to install Windows XP on such a drive and occasionally boot
        my SCSI Linux box into Windows from it.
        \_ depends on your hardware.  -tom
           \_ What is the requirement in the hardware?
              \_ If your BIOS allows it, then yes.  If not, then no.
        \_ Do we have to go through this every week?
        \_ "After many failed attempts and investigation, I believe Windows XP
           does not support booting off of a USB drive no matter how much
           wishful thinking" [Dec 15 2004]
           http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/425/how-to_boot_windows
           Lots of no, sorry, nope posts: [Apr 5 2005]
           http://csua.org/u/bsy

4/21    Is this making a big news in Berkeley?
        Dont steal laptops from Berkeley professors. Ever!
        http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000710040887
        \_ Funny:  http://www.brianpritchett.com/?p=163  -John
        \_ Snore.  Bullshit theatric stunt by jackass who lost his laptop.
           By the standards of Berkeley theatric stunts, this just isn't
           that funny, entertaining or clever.  I predict his chances of
           seeing his laptop again to be equal to the chances my friendly
           neigbor in oakland who stole my bike in 1998 decides to bring
           it back because he fears my secret ninja death ray powers.
        \_ go read this:
           http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/19/BAGKJCB2EV1.DTL
           (...+80col line deleted...)
           the prof who blackballed the assistant professor is the guy who
           basically admitted to all his students he is a whore for
           product activated corn and lost his laptop. - danh
           \_"Campus spokesman George Strait"?
             \_ He's in Public Affairs.  -tom
        \_ From the tone of the professor it sounds like *he's* the one who's
           in trouble.  He seemed pretty nervous, not surprising since he has
           to explain to all those companies he consulted for why he had so
           much data *on a laptop* and that it was not encrypted.  It's nice
           to see bad things happen to bad people.
        \_ The laptop has contacted Microsoft, the black hellicopters will be
           here any minute!  Save yourself while there's still time!!!

4/21    Uh, jvarga, you DO realize that by posting on /etc/motd.public, that
        EVERYONE can see it on the internet?
        \_ Of course, but I posted no names, no URLs, and said nothing of any
           real consequence.  The only people who can really connect the names
           and other details already know what is going on. - jvarga
           \_ Ok, just checking, in case you ever start to bitch and cuss on
              motd and she decides to reverse libel sue you.

4/21    Nikon announces D50, its new lowest end digital SLR.  I wonder how much
        the street price is going to be.

4/21    3 Job openings at Vidiator in Mountain View
        /csua/pub/jobs/Vidiator_3DSoftwareEng
        /csua/pub/jobs/Vidiator_MobileServerAppEng
        /csua/pub/jobs/Vidiator_ContractUIEngineer
        link:tinyurl.com/7px8o
        Email me if you have any questions. -dgies
        \_ Or just post them here... -dgies
        \_ Ha, with my old glasses at a distance, I thought I read
           "3 Job openings at Vibrator in Mountain View"
           \_ "3 openings with Vibrators in Mountain View"

4/21    Can we rename CSUA to "Computer Science Undergraduates and Alumni"?
        \_ I second that. Most motders are old guys (over 22 years old)
        \_ I thought it was the Computer Science Union of Alums
        \_ Then it'll be CSUAA.

4/21    How do you calculate and determine decibel? Say I have a 20db
        device. Does that mean it is 20db from X distance? And what is
        the X constant? In addition, if I have TWO 20db devices running
        simultaneously, clearly, it doesn't mean 40db. What is it then?
        Lastly, how much does db decrease relative to distance? Is it
        linear? quadratic?
        \_ 0 dB is the threshold of human hearing (humans with good ears).
           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel
           You determine dB by buying a meter and viewing the digital readout.
           Once you have a handle on the wikipedia link, then view:
           http://www.kodachrome.org/salt/sunderst.htm
        \_ If you have 2 sources that have 20dB noise individually, then you
           have 2x, or about +3dB power, giving 23dB.  Neglecting the damping
           effects of air and any echo effects, moving twice as far away from
           a point sound source gives 4x less power, or -6dB.  If you're moving
           away from a line sound source, such as a long narrow air vent, then
           if you're 2x as far away you are also exposed to 2x as much sound
           producer, so it would be -6dB+3dB=-3dB quieter.
        \_ If you have ten 20dB devices, they become 30dB.  If you have one
           hundred 20dB devices, they become 40dB.  A decibel is 10 times
           log-base-10 of something.  (A bel is log-base-10, and a decibel is
           one-tenth of a bel.)  So if you have two 20dB devices, they will be
           10 * log((10 ^ (20/10)) * 2) = 23.01dB.  Or think of it another way,
           20dB + 10 * log(2) = 23.01dB.