Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2005:April:25 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>
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2005/4/25-26 [Uncategorized] UID:37343 Activity:nil
4/24    What is the historical reason that 2x4 studs are really 1 1/2 by
        3 1/2? Ditto with 2x2, 4x4, etc.
        \_ They're 2x4 rough, before they're sanded.
        \_ Ever been to a lumber mill? Its not really the sort of equipment
           that can give you more than 1/2 in accuracy.
          \_ actually, they are standard 1 1/2 x 3 1/2
                and btw- 2x4 is within 1/2 inch accuracy
        \_ Old 2x4 studs (like in my old house) are indeed 2x4.
           \_ How old is your house dim?
              \_ 1928
        \_ I heard it was because they use 2" of raw lumber to make 1 1/2"
           of finished lumber.
           \_ Sounds kinda like how the 19" CRT is really only 18". ;)
        \_ It was done by the lumber mills to cut costs and improve their
           profit margins.  They used to produce dimensioned lumber in the
           actual dimensions, but started undersizing so they could make
           more product from each tree.  Since their customers were already
           used to similar differences in sizing between rough and surfaced
           boards, it was pretty easy to get their customers to accept it.
           As for the poster who thinks that the equipment in lumber mills
           can't provide 1/2" of accuracy, you're way off.  You'll notice
           more variation in the dimensions of wood from it swelling and
           contracting as its moisture content changes with the humidity
           of the surrounding air than from variations in the milling process
2005/4/25 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:37344 Activity:high
4/25    There are Cal students today who don't remember the Cold War.
        I'm old.
        \_ Do you remember viet nam?
           \_ you are ancient.
              \_ *I* don't remember viet nam.  I was asking OP.  I claim that
                 as the boundary of "old".
                 \_ As far as I know, Vietnam still exists.
           \_ Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
              \_ You mean how she said that we would meet again some sunny
                 day?  Wonder what ever became of her.
                 \_ She's a bit busy watching blue birds over the white cliffs
                    of Dover.  And "We'll Meet Again" is a bit older than the
                    Cold War.  Bonus points if you know the tune at the
                    beginning of Dr. Strangelove.  -John
                    \_ When I hear does anybody here remember Vera Lynn, I
                       think Pink Floyd 1980, an album my Neil Diamond
                       listening dad bought on advice of my cool uncle
                       think Pink Floyd The Wall (1980), an album my Neil
                       Diamond listening dad bought on advice of my cool uncle
                       and which I would blast all the time when I was a kid.
                       No "turn that crap down" could be claimed since he
                       owned it ...
                       \_ Vera! Vera! What has become of you?
                          Does anybody else in here, feel the way I do???
                          Thank God at least some of the new students know
                          what I am talking about when I make Pink Floyd
                          references. I think The Wall saved my life. You
                          think I am exaggerating, but I am not.
        \_ wow. so am I.
        \_ With all the interest last week in the viagra/cialis/levitra link,
           don't tell me you're surprised.
        \_ I know how you feel, my intern was only 3 yrs old when the Berlin
           Wall fell. He thinks that the USSR and Communism, &c. were all part
           of ancient history.
2005/4/25-26 [Science, Consumer/Audio] UID:37345 Activity:kinda low
4/25    http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050421/hypersonic_sound.html
        "Soundless" Sound System.  Cool!
        \_ Godz. imagine what that can do to your brain and skull. Having
           a hyper(super?)sonic signal beamed at your skull, causing
           hearing via cranial conduction?
           \_ hyper/super-sonic refers to speed of an object, not frequency.
              \_ ultra/infra sonic (ala UV/IR)
              \_ 50% Wrong.  A supersonic plane travels faster than sound.  A
                 hypersonic transmitter uses high frequency noise
                 hypersonic speaker uses high frequency noise
        \_ At least we won't have to worry about dying from cellphone radiation
           anymore.
2005/4/25 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:37346 Activity:high
4/25    Hey kchang, if you're going to track users, why don't you do
        something useful, and actually track who the anonymous MOTD
        censors are?
        \_ isn't that what the red bars are for?
           \_ learn to read. "track users"
              \_ I was referring to this: http://csua.berkeley.edu/~kchang/24
                 look for the big red bar
                 \_ "edited" with one 't'.  And "Certified motd trollers"?
                    Also if it's just guesswork, sure you can put what you
                    want on your personal page, unless you're safari, but then
                    people can also put on the motd that they think guesswork
                    is shit :)  -John
        \_ yeah, it's the red bar, thanks for whoever responded. Also, I
           addded text motd to HTML motd feature. Now motd "fits in"
           regardless of 80, 20, or 100 column. Just go to the same page
           as usual, and click "html mode" on top. It's still experimental
           so comments welcomed.                                -kchang
        \_ I love this.  http://csua.berkeley.edu/~kchang/24/?f1=13:33&f2=13:34
           has "emarkp?" 15 times.  None of those edits are mine.  What a great
           system. -emarkp
           \_ Ya, that's why there's a ? and it's in light gray. -!kchang
              \_ But that is so unintuitive! The whole site is TRASH.
                 \_ But you're such a dick.  WHAT HAVE YOU BUILT LATELY? -dans
           \_ Of course, you could just point to the latest diff, and note that
              ausman is listed as the first author of your post. -nivra
              \_ heh.  That's pretty funny.  Thanks for pointing it out.
                 -emarkp
           \_ you seem to think that the ONLY contribution to this site is
              user tracking. That is just one of many features. Also,
              according to the key, it is just saying *maybe* you wrote it.
              You can think of my site as the Wall Street Journal, the stock
              ticker section. It simply collects raw data and displays it in
              a different format, so that you can make your own
              interpretations. The WSJ doesn't tell you when a stock
              will go up/down, and neither does my site pinpoint the EXACT
              person who wrote/deleted motd. You know, we've already gone
              over this. Whatever. If you can do a better job, please do.
              \_ The WSJ doesn't try to guess individuals who are buying and
                 selling.  Since your site is such a dismal failure at
                 guessing, why not take out the guessing part? -emarkp
                 \_ Now, I'm no fan of kchang's stupid motd logging, but to
                    say that it's worse than the wall street journal is a
                    bit of a stretch.  Unless I see some evidence that kchang
                    is actually evil, and is using his website to try to
                    destroy America, I'm going to have to disagree and say
                    that the WSJ is far far worse.  I see no such evidence.
                 \_ First of all, you are not doing a good job convincing me
                    to take it off. Secondly, I will put whatever information
                    I want on my personal site. Thirdly, I may consider your
                    request if the majority of the people on my
                    credit/contribution list (it's on the bottom of the page)
                    give me convincing arguments.
           \_ It's clear to me -- by the question mark after your name in all
              15 instances and the light grey shading, and the underlined name
              of other users in bold preceded by a W: -- that you are ... ehh,
              never mind.  It's not worth talking about.
                \_ Maybe you have a higher IQ than the average motder. What's
                   your IQ? Just curious...
           \_ Geez emarkp, cut the dude a break.  It's experimental.  We
              all know it's not perfect. -jrleek
              \_ I get enough anonymous trolls as it is without morons taking
                 stock in the guessing of someone's over-hyped script.  The
                 fact that its guessing is so badly wrong makes me wonder why
                 it's included.  -emarkp
                 \_ whee... and apparently I wrote this one. -nivra
                 \_ I don't see how it changes anything for you, since you
                    always have the editor open, apparently you write
                    EVERYTHING.  Either you're schizophrenic, or you've
                    got pretty good plausible deniability. -jrleek
                    \_ whee... all motd edits are belong to me. -nivra
                       \_ And apparently none belong to me, though I'm
                          suspected in most of them. -emarkp
           \_ actually, for anyone who wants anonymity, plus courtesy, the
              current motd script is probably robust enough to modify
              to use scp from a different machine for the final post-merge
              version.  I should also mention that motdedit doesn't need
              a lock. motdedit -n, bypasses locks, and merges any conflicts
              with minimal error. -nivra
              \_ I alway use motdedit -n, I think the '-n' should be the
                 default behavior. It's fine. -chiry
        \_ I protest! Motd spying is unconstitutional.
2005/4/25-26 [Transportation/Car] UID:37347 Activity:nil
4/25    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/25/international/asia/25cnd-crash.html
        "At the Itami station, before the site of the accident, the driver
        overran the platform by 26 feet and was forced to back up. Last June,
        the same driver was reprimanded for overshooting a platform by 328
        feet.  Today, the driver apparently failed to negotiate the curve and
        braked suddenly, causing passengers to be tossed around inside the
        cars. The first two cars jumped the tracks about 200 feet from the
        apartment building, struck a car and eventually hit the building,
        though injuries inside the building appeared limited by the fact that
        the first car crashed into the parking garage."
2005/4/25-27 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:37348 Activity:nil
4/25    firefox question: how do you disable the "feature" where if you
        type e.g. "microsoft" in the urlbar it automatically goes to
        http://www.microsoft.com I hate that.
        \_ it doesn't default to http://www.foo.com it defaults to google
           search "I'm feeling lucky" button for "foo". -nivra
           button "I'm feeling lucky" for "foo". -nivra
           \_ Also, I think this is configurable through the keyword.URL
              about:config entry.
              \_ Ok I tried changing keyword.URL and keyword.enabled and
                 still get the described microsoft behavior. :(
                 \_ sounds like a bug.  You could always try modifying
                    your user.js instead of about:config  -nivra
                    http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/tips#beh_search
        \_ It always does that if you hit Ctrl-Enter after typing in a location.
           Otherwise I haven't noticed that.  It is configurable in full
           Mozilla.  Lack of all available preferences w/out resorting to the
           javascript config is one of the complaints about FF vs. Moz.
2005/4/25-27 [Science/GlobalWarming] UID:37349 Activity:low
4/25    Now, THIS is some awesome BS
        http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43956
        \_ Which facts do you dispute?
           \_ The "fact" claimed by the Senator that you only need an
              altitude of 1 or 2 miles to wipe out "all the electricity"
              in the US for years.
              \_ That's a good one all right.  How many nukes would it take to
                 produce enough EMPs to largely wipe out US tech?
                 \_ Probably hundreds.
                 \_ the smallest claim made was that a single high-altitude
                    nuclear detonation could bring down the electrical grid
                    for months - "wipe out US tech" in a literal sense is more
                    difficult, I agree
              \_ I thought the article said:  "height of 60 to 500 kilometers
                 above the continental U.S., one nuclear warhead could cripple
                 the country"
                 \_ You're correct.  Conclusion: the PP is a moron.
                    \_ Yes, but the article references a speech made by a
                       Senator who claimed one nuke 1 or 2 miles above the
                       earth would "bring us back to the 1880's"
                       \_ I can't seem to find that quote.  Where is it again?
                 \_ FTA: Detonated at a height of 60 to 500 kilometers above
                    the continental U.S., one nuclear warhead could cripple the
                    country . knocking out electrical power and circuit boards
                    and rendering the U.S. domestic communications impotent.
                    \_ FWIW:  Google for "tsar bomba", "fishbowl", and
                       "starfish prime".  -John
2005/4/25 [Politics/Domestic/California] UID:37350 Activity:nil
4/25    Billboard for TV newscast has 'CA' crossed out, Mexico added
        http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43973
2005/4/25 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:37351 Activity:kinda low
4/25    Is Bush and the Crown Prince actually holding hands in this
        photo?
        http://csua.org/u/bue
        \_ Looks like it.  That doesn't bother me.  You realize that's
           totally normal in a lot of countries, right?
           \_ I've been to a lot of different countries, but i've yet been to
              one where it's normal to be close personal friends
              with an evil theocratic dictator.
              one where it's normal to be close personal friends with an evil
              theocratic dictator.
                \_ Bush would drop down and blow him if it would drop oil
                   prices by $10/barrel.
                   \_ Actually, he wouldn't.  Bush is the man who blew $300B
                      and thousands of lives to "get saddam".
                        \_ The Iraqi resistance didn't go along with the
                           oil price reduction plan like they were supposed
                           to.
               \_ I heard it's normal for many Arab nations.  I presume when
                  you said you've been to a lot of different countries,
                  Arab nations are included, no?
        \_ They are merely exchanging long protein strings.  If you can think
           of a better way I'd like to hear it.
2005/4/25 [Uncategorized] UID:37352 Activity:nil
4/25    Now THESE are some awesome load averages
        load averages: 209.06, 207.24, 117.1
2005/4/25-27 [Recreation/Media] UID:37353 Activity:nil 54%like:37386
04/25   Star Wars TV Show in the works:
        http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=9301
2005/4/25-27 [Uncategorized] UID:37354 Activity:nil
4/25    There is a guy on motd who is almost an expert in video encoding /
        decoding and very active on doom9.  would you email me? got couple
        questions on theora.  thanks            kngharv
        \_ I do a lot of video encoding and am very active on doom9.  Not
           sure if I'm an expert though, and I don't know anything about
           Theora. --jameslin
2005/4/25-27 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:37355 Activity:moderate
4/25    Duelfer's WMD report is now officially complete.
        The only new stuff was addenda, the first one titled:
        "Prewar Movement of WMD Material Out of Iraq"
        ISG formed a working group to investigate the possibility of the
        evacuation of WMD-related material from Iraq prior to the 2003 war.
        ... The declining security situation limited and finally halted this
        investigation. ...
        ISG was unable to complete its investigation and is unable to rule out
        the possibility that WMD was evacuated to Syria before the war. It
        should be noted that no information from debriefing of Iraqis in
        custody supports this possibility. ISG found no senior policy, program,
        or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such
        movement of WMD. Indeed, they uniformly denied any knowledge of
        residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria.
        Nevertheless, given the insular and compartmented nature of the Regime,
        ISG analysts believed there was enough evidence to merit further
        investigation. It is worth noting that even if ISG had been able to
        fully examine all the leads it possessed, it is unlikely that
        conclusive information would have been found. ...
        Based on the evidence available at present, ISG judged that it was
        unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria
        took place. However, ISG was unable to rule out unofficial movement of
        limited WMD-related materials.
        http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004
        \_ Uhhhh... do I know you in person? If so, please call me. If not,
           can we meet and talk in person? You have my email. Let's sit down
           in a coffee shop or something, we can discuss this calmly  -kchang
        custody supports this possibility. ISG found no senior policy, program,
        or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such
        movement of WMD. Indeed, they uniformly denied any knowledge of
        residual WMD that could have been secreted to Syria.
        Nevertheless, given the insular and compartmented nature of the Regime,
        ISG analysts believed there was enough evidence to merit further
        investigation. It is worth noting that even if ISG had been able to
        fully examine all the leads it possessed, it is unlikely that
        conclusive information would have been found. ...
        Based on the evidence available at present, ISG judged that it was
        unlikely that an official transfer of WMD material from Iraq to Syria
        took place. However, ISG was unable to rule out unofficial movement of
        limited WMD-related materials.
        http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004
        \_ still trying to justify Iraq War?
           \_ no. -op
        \_ So, now we're up to possible weapon related programs by proxies?
           \_ well, if anything changed, the Intelligence Community is much
              more confident saying "we're not sure, or probably not on WMDs"
              rather than "NO DOUBT they got 'em!$!#52".
              \_ I don't recall the intelligence community EVER saying that
                 Sadam had WMDs.  I do remember Bush and a lot of politicians
                 acccusing Sadam without any reports to back them up, and with
                 several to contradict them.
                 \_ National Intelligence Estimate 2002
                    We judge that Iraq has continued its weapons of mass
                    destruction (WMD) programs in defiance of UN resolutions
                    and restrictions. Baghdad has chemical and biological
                    weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of UN
                    restrictions; if left unchecked, it probably will have a
                    nuclear weapon during this decade. ...
                    Since inspections ended in 1998, Iraq has maintained its
                    chemical weapons effort, energized its missile program,
                    and invested more heavily in biological weapons; in the
                    view of most agencies, Baghdad is reconstituting its
                    nuclear weapons program. ...
                    Confidence Levels for Selected Key Judgments in This
                    Estimate
                    High Confidence:
                    ...
                    - We are not detecting portions of these weapons programs.
                    - Iraq possesses proscribed chemical and biological
                      weapons and missiles.
                    Moderate Confidence:
                    - Iraq does not yet have a nuclear weapon or sufficient
                      material to make one but is likely to have a weapon by
                      2007 to 2009. (See INR alternative view, page 84)
                    Low Confidence:
                    ...
                    "We were almost all wrong" - David Kay, Jan 2004 to Senate
                    \_ As I have said before, the only way that David Kay's
                       statement makes sense is if you redefine "we" in such
                       a way as to only include war supporters. Since most of
                       the planet opposed the war, it is not a very useful
                       statement. Remember, at least two CIA analysts quit
                       over what they saw as the politicizing of intelligence
                       information. We also now know that Wolfowitz and
                       Rumsfeld set up the Office of Special Projects to
                       do an end around the CIA.
                       \_ Yes, I agree that saying
                          "The 2002 NIE on Iraq's WMDs was almost all wrong.
                          The NIE contained the official collective judgment of
                          the Intelligence Community."
                          would have been much more accurate.
                          As for your remaining points, the bi-partisan
                          Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of
                          the U.S. Regarding WMDs wrote:
                          "After a thorough review, the Commission found no
                          indication that the Intelligence Community distorted
                          the evidence regarding Iraq's weapons of mass
                          destruction.  What the intelligence professionals
                          told you about Saddam Hussein's programs was what
                          they believed.  They were simply wrong."
                          -- Now, it could be that the bi-partisan Commission
                          is wrong, too.  But why would I want to waste my time
                          arguing "Dubya LIED to us!" (which may be true, but
                          who's got the audio tapes?) with the 2002 NIE text
                          and Commission report as they are, when I can much
                          more easily argue incompetence at all levels of
                          government and lay down some facts:
                          56% of people polled mid-March this year STILL
                          thought Saddam had WMDs.
                          \_ Go ahead and believe the Washington whitewash
                             if you like. Read Sy Hersh's take on the whole
                             thing. He has more integrity than all eight of
                             thing. He has more integrity than all ten of
                             those politicians who signed that bogus report:
                            http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact
                             \_ Please note that I made no comment about
                                my confidence in various elements of the
                                bi-partisan Commission report.
                                My point is how you slam home the undeniables
                                to the average Joe's.
                                My point is that your approach is not very
                                persuasive to those who can be persuaded.
                          \_ No, you are misreading the PIPA report. Only
                             56% of Bush supporters believed that. Not
                             56% of all Americans. Unless are reading
                             the results of a different poll perhaps?
                             \_ http://csua.org/u/bv7 (CBS News)
                             \_ http://csua.org/u/bv7 (CBS News Jan 2005)
                             \_ http://csua.org/u/bdm (Post/ABC Mar 13 2005)
                                56% of ALL Americans.  The greatest tragedy
                                of Dubya's presidency is he has NOT been
                                loud and clear about what happened to the
                                primary reason he took the U.S. to war.
                                Dubya continues to let this misperception
                                linger among the majority of Americans, and
                                his people DAMN WELL KNOW ABOUT IT.
                                \_ If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance,
                                   baffle 'em with bullshit.
2005/4/25-27 [Uncategorized] UID:37356 Activity:nil 66%like:37813
4/25    /var is full.  Clean up your stuff.
2005/4/25 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:37357 Activity:moderate
4/25    I hereby re-file a motion to squish kchang, and this time, keep him
        squished for good. My charges are as follows:
        1997-- kchang uses a script to modify motd. This offense is so
        serious that the squishage should be permanent. 2003-2004--
        kchang's account is unconstitutionally reinstated. The person who
        unconstitutionally reinstated him should also be squished. 2004--
        kchang writes a web interface to expose our sacred motd to the world.
        This is like taking a private elite file and making it world
        readable, hence violating the "sharing your soda account with other
        people" law. 2004-- kchang tries to bring down the entire Berkeley
        network by fingering motd every second. 2005-- kchang writes a John
        Ashcroft script, thus violating our right to privacy. Let's reopen
        this case and this time, don't fuck up. PS this script is written by
        cat fuck_kchang.txt /etc/motd.public > tmp; cp tmp /etc/motd.public
        \_ Perhaps you should take this up with root.  Bellowing this here
           is akin to haranguing people in sproul plaza; while you might get
           a few people (possibly even quite a few) to agree with you, it's
           still basically just noise.  Rather than screaming your woes to
           a gang of other essentially powerless denizens, why don't you take
           your evidence of wrongdoing direct to the people that make
           these sorts of decisions?  You might save time and perhaps keep
           some needless invective off the motd; it already has more than its
           share....
           \_ twink
        \_ Uhhh, do I know you in person? If not, let's meet somewhere, like
           a coffee shop or something. Let's talk in person.   -kchang
2005/4/25-27 [Politics/Domestic/Gay, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:37358 Activity:kinda low 52%like:36226
4/25    So what was the gay male prostitute doing at the White House
        on those overnight stays? Why is the press not reporting this?
        http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/secret_service_gannon_424.htm
        \_ Because this is old news that Jon Stewart covered weeks ago.
           \_ Weeks ago we hadn't heard that he bypassed usual sign in/out
              procedures...
        \_ Because the press is owned by Fox, Bush, and affiliates.
        \_ Because no one cares?
        \_ Because the Gannon was performing his day job on various "members"
        \_ Because Gannon was performing his day job on various "members"
           of the press at those times?
           \_ A couple of the instances, there were no press conferences.
2024/11/22 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
11/22   
Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2005:April:25 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>