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| 2005/5/2-3 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:37441 Activity:high |
5/2 Can someone please tell me this memo is fake before the freepers do?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592724,00.html
\_ My UK minions assure me that it's real. Quote: "Death's too good
for him. They need to invent the Pit of Sysiphus for him.." -John
\_ Doesn't the Conservative Party practically run the Times? - danh
\_ Who's quote is that and who is it referring to? Blair's in
reference to Saddam? Your friend in reference to Blair? -dans
\_ I believe John is quoting his UK minion, who feels that
Blair should be in the Pit of Sisyphus.
\_ Okay, that was pretty much the only reading that made
sense to me. That said, my memory of the Myth of Sisyphus
is hazy... I know he was condemned to roll a boulder up a
hill in Hades for eternity, and every time he rolled it to
the hilltop it would roll back down and crush him.
Where's the pit come into the picture?
\_ Maybe he's wishing Blair an eternity of answering
silly, pedantic questions :-) -John
\_ This is it: the smoking gun. Proof that Bush lied. Good work.
\_ WTF are you talking about? You don't score too well on reading
comprehension tests, do you? This is proof that Tony Blair
lied, but it's quite a stretch to try to pin internal minutes
from an UK government meeting on the US president. Don't get me
wrong, I loathe Bush at least as much as you do, it's just that
you don't improve our collective credibility much by crying,
``smoking gun, smoking gun!'' every time some marginally
incriminating document pops up. Unless of course you're a
troll, in which case, way to go, Mission Accomplished! -dans
\_ You a dullard. Here, in the simplest possible terms for
you:
"AS a civil service briefing paper specifically prepared
for the July meeting reveals, Blair had made his
fundamental decision on Saddam when he met President
George W Bush in Crawford, Texas, in April 2002.
When the prime minister discussed Iraq with President
Bush at Crawford in April, states the paper, he said
that the UK would support military action to bring
about regime change."
I will find the quote from after that were Bush
contradicts that in a second. Are you sure you aren't
really a Republican pretending to be a Democrat?
" Straw warned that, though Bush had made up his mind
on military action..." -Aug 2002
" THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I have told the
Prime Minister that my hope is, is that we could
achieve a disarmament of the Iraqi regime peacefully.
I haven't given up on the fact that we can achieve
it peacefully. We have no plans to use our military
until -- unless we need to. I explained to the
Prime Minister, just like I explain to every citizen
who is interested in this, the military is my last
choice, not my first choice." -Oct 2002
Do you see how Bush claims that no decision to use
military force has been made, even though the decision
was made months before?
\_ And you are the bloody boy who cried wolf. I see how you
can make a case for your point, but what you're so-called
smoking gun lacks (aside from the smoke and the gun) is a
bullet-proof piece of evidence that the decision was,
indeed, made months before. Keep in mind that I *believe*
this to be the case, but it's one thing to believe that
events happened a certain way, and an entirely different
matter to have unassailable evidence (cf. The Pentagon
Papers) of what took place. -dans
\_ Did Straw meet with Bush or did just Blair? If Straw
didn't hear it from Bush directly, then it's all just
hearsay and not admissible.
\_ you've been trolled. that sentence is dripping w/sarcasm.
\_ you're stupid.
\_ I think there maybe an error. Jack Straw was not the foreign
minister at the time. Robin Cook was - he resigned in protest
over the invasion.
\_ From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Cook
"After the 2001 general election he was moved from the
Foreign Office to be Leader of the House of Commons.
This was widely seen as a demotion, but Cook welcomed
the chance to spend more time on his favourite stage.
As Leader of the House he was responsible for reforming
the hours and practices of the House."
Jack Straw was indeed Foreign secretary from 2001 on. |
| 2005/5/2-3 [Recreation/Media] UID:37442 Activity:high |
5/1 So, did anyone catch Hitchhiker's Guide? Was it any good? I love
the books.
\_ It was bad. Bad, bad, bad, horribly unfunny, do not ever even
rent it bad. I got a headache, someone else I was with actually
fell asleep, another one almost did and the last one just didn't
want to talk about it. Did I remember to tell you how ungodly
bad it was?
\_ For calibration: Which scifi movies based on books do you like?
\_ I'm not a fussy movie goer. I loved the books, I loved the
tv show, I read and enjoyed the radio scripts. The movie was
not funny. I'm sorry if saying the movie sucked is geek
blasphemy, but the truth is out there. Yes, the factory
floor was great. That was one of the few good parts and it
was a visual treat. It was not funny. Character
development? It was standard Hollywood drivel where 1
character goes from a heavy handed coward to a heavy handed
pseudo-hero. The script has characters telling us how they
feel with a heavy handed and highly contrived plot device.
We saw a very tiny number of guide entries which is where a
lot of the best Adams humor is in the books, etc. I saw the
previews and hour+ long chat about 6 weeks ago with the
makers and I was really looking forward to it. Sheer
unadulterated disappointment. Not funny. You may shoot the
messenger now.
\_ Sounds reasonable. But... as per the question: which
scifi movies based on books do you like?
\_ I'm not pp, but I'm having some real trouble thinking of
a Scifi movie based on a book I've seen. Could you name
a few you like to get me started?
\_ You're right. There aren't many are there? I liked the
SciFi channel version of Dune but I think what happened
here is typical (viz Blade Runner vs DADoES?) Movies
based on SciFi novels often become something completely
different. I hear Larry Niven is still out there trying
to get a Ringworld movie made.
here is typical. There have been a number of Philip K
Dick stories made into movies but what happened with the
HH movie happened to those, too. The movie was a
significant departure from the written version.
\_ It was great. Really f&%king great. Loved the factory floor. Alan
Rickman was a great choice for Marvin. I also appreciated the movie
introducing things to the mix like (gasp!) character development.
And for calibration, I read all the books back when they came out
and love them dearly. I can still quote sections from memory (not
to say that's healthy). Anyway, I saw it at the Grand Lake. The
audience ate it up all the way through, starting with a lively
response to the Star Wars trailer. -- ulysses
\_ Just to be different from the above two opinions, I thought it was
all right. Some LOL moments, but it could've been a lot funnier.
\_ British humor just can not be americanized. Even if you
have the original author inputting to the script. (I am still
amazed that the fact that Ford and Zapphod were relatives was
glossed over) . I know that most of the original HHG UK cast
are still around. I wonder why they just did not use them.
Having Simon Jones replace that wuss Martin Freeman would
have been a major improvement.
\_ Except that Simon Jones is pretty old now. You did notice him
in the movie, yes? -geordan
\_ Have not seen the movie yet beyond the standard
clips. The BBC doesn' think his age is an issue in the
new series of HHG radio shows.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers
\_ It was neither as bad as I'd feared nor as good as I'd hoped.
Ebert pegged it pretty well: if you're not already a fan, you're
likely to be torn between wanting to read more and not wanting to
bother making the effort. As a fan, I felt a lot of the gags fell
flat, but I thought most of the performances were well-done. Even
Mos Def did all right. It just... didn't shine. Ah, well. |
| 2005/5/2-3 [Finance/Investment] UID:37443 Activity:nil |
5/1 The Oracle of money speaks. Also, Buffett bets 21 billion dollars
against US dollars. I don't like Buffett but I share his view on
the strength of US dollars (go everbank!!!):
http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/30/news/fortune500/buffett_currency.reut
http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/01/news/fortune500/buffett_talks
\_ Heh, these guys don't hold anything back, do they?
\_ Buffett: "We're like an incredibly rich family that owns so much
land they can't travel to the ends of their domain. And they sit
on the front porch and consume a little bit of everything that
comes in, all the riches of the land, and they consume roughly 6
percent more than they produce. And they pay for it by selling
off land at the edge of the landholdings that can't see. They
trade away a little piece every day or take out a mortgage on a
piece.That scenario couldn't end well. And we, also, keep
consuming more than we produce. It can't go on a long time. The
world has demonstrated a diminishing enthusiasm for dollars in
the last few years as they get flooded with them every day
there's $2 billion more going out than in. I have a hard time
thinking of any outcome from this that involves an appreciating
dollar." YEAH FUCK US DOLLAR. -Bush and US Hater |
| 2005/5/2-6 [Industry/Jobs] UID:37444 Activity:nil |
05/01 Summer intern, recent grad, senior developer positions available
at Zone Labs. For an idea of the type of work see:
http://csua.org/u/bxo
though for intern, recent grad positions (not reflected in above
job listings) C++ and/or Java experience and interest in security
may be suffcient.
--sky |
| 2005/5/2-3 [Uncategorized] UID:37445 Activity:nil |
05/02 Hollow glass prevents drink spiking:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/04/27/spark.hollow/index.html
\_ There goes my sex life. |
| 2005/5/2-3 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java] UID:37446 Activity:nil |
5/2 Could someone offer a tip on how to write thread-safe (Java) code?
I have a class which performs some work, and I want to allow only one
thread to be in the do_work function, but allow many threads to enqueue
work. How would I do this?
class Worker {
private void dowork(Work w) {...}
public void enqueuework(Work w) { ...}
private Queue workqueue; // A FIFO queue of Work objects.
...
}
\_ Look into the synchronized keyword. If nowhere else, the Java
language spec has an acceptable description.
\_ The above answer isn't quite enough. Here's how you do it
in general, gross terms, you'll have to do some tweaking and
look up the Java-specifics yourself:
\_ The above answer isn't quite enough. This isn't 100% correct,
but it should point you in the right direction:
-- The do work thread should start running in a loop
which locks a synch variable, process anything
in the queue, and then waits on condition variable
-- The enqueue method should lock the synch variable
put stuff into the queue, and signal the condition
variable
See also: http://csua.org/u/bxq (java.sun.com)
- ciyer
\_ Shouldn't it be sufficient to use the synchronized keyword on
the doWork method? The enqueuework method doesn't need to
be synchronized, right?
\_ It does if you're writing unsynchronized data structures
in the enqueueing operation. |
| 2005/5/2-3 [Computer/Companies/Google, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:37447 Activity:kinda low |
5/2 What's the best way to transfer every single one of your UNIX email
(on Cory, etc) to http://gmail.com? Thanks.
\_ mutt.
T . ; b hoser@gmail.com
-tom
\_ I tried to bounce several thousand pieces of my personal email
via mutt to gmail from my machine, gmail decided I was a spammer
and stopped delivering email from my machine to gmail for a few
weeks - danh
\_ Does gmail support IMAP? If so, the (otherwise abominable) UW IMAP
package contains an excellent utility called mailutil, which can,
among other things, transfer messages from one IMAP server (or a
local unix mailbox format file) to another IMAP server, and it is
very good about preserving flags, date/time stamps etc. -dans
\_ No, I am not even sure why they support POP, unless it's some
kind of bait and switch.
\_ You could just read:
http://gmail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=194
\_ Did you reply to the right post? Their FAQ doesn't offer
any real explanation why it makes sense for them to
offer POP support for free.
\_ Perhaps only a small % of their users use POP, but those
who do are far more influential in reccomending
computer things to their friends. |
| 2005/5/2 [Uncategorized] UID:37448 Activity:moderate 75%like:37437 |
5/2 Poll, I have X number of characters in my password. Use . if just
letters, D if it is based on English words, # if it contains numbers,
and % if it has weird characters:
8: D#%
9: ##
10: %
\_ Weird characters are what? Symbols? Characters that aren't 7-bit
ASCII?
\_ non alpha numeric ?
\_ I just find it odd that periods, commas, or hyphens are
"weird". |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Uncategorized] UID:37449 Activity:nil |
5/2 Brewster Rockit comic
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/tmrkt/2005/tmrkt050424.gif
\_ Heh, thanks. |
| 2005/5/2-6 [Uncategorized] UID:37450 Activity:nil |
5/2 I'd like to be able to install thunderbird extensions from the command
line. Is this possible? if so, how? |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Functional, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:37451 Activity:nil |
5/2 I'm trying to figure out what delimiters inside the "scheme"
(protocol) portion of a uri may mean. (In http://foo.com http is
the scheme) I have seen ssl+http sometimes. Are there any other
charcters that have special meaning, like plus? The standard is
not very clear on this.
\_ The scheme of a uri is anything before the first :. I think
it needs to be word characters, but I haven't checked on that
in a while. The most common ones are probably http, https, ftp,
mailto, and things like rtsp and stuff. gopher, if you're old
school.
\_ Right, but I'm programming an RMI service, and I think I
need to support things like ssl+myprotocol://blah...
\_ From the rfc, the scheme must start with an alpha character,
and can contain alpha, digit, +, -, or . |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Uncategorized] UID:37452 Activity:nil |
5/2 Boondocks comic
http://images.ucomics.com/comics/bo/2005/bo050501.gif |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Uncategorized] UID:37453 Activity:low |
5/2 What the heck is this comic about?
http://www.ucomics.com/tomthedancingbug/index.phtml
\_ it's about wasting the time of people stupid enough to read
tomthedancingbug
\_ It means that the media is full of trash and that any 1/2 dim
witted guy can publish anything and still have a lot of readers
\_ I tried, I don't get the comic at all. It's still better
than Mallard Fillmore. - danh |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Computer/HW/CPU] UID:37454 Activity:moderate |
5/2 I'm that noise intolerant guy who wanted to make my PC noiseless.
Here is my update. In addition to changing my power supply to
Seasonic Tornado (which is nearly inaudible at around 20db), today,
I just received my brand new Papst 80X80mmcase fan. At $18.95 each,
it costs 3X more and weighs 2X more than the other fans. However,
it is only 12db and just as efficient as the other fans. It's
amazing to hold something noiseless and totally VIBRATIONLESS to
the touch, yet still being able to feel a huge amount of cool air
moving through. The other fan I got is the Silentmaxx 120mm air
intake blower (with filter). It pricey, at $22.95 each, but it
delivers a whopping 41.2CFM at only 19.0db. Both Papst and Silentmaxx
are import items from Germany. I'm now a big believer of quality
German engineering. ALL HEIL DEUTSCHE TEKNIC, and fuck
Yankee/Chinese made cheapo goods.
\_ PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!
\_ The standard quiet 80mm fan according to http://silentpcreview.com are
specific models of the (Panasonic) Panaflo. I got one last week,
it's quiet and pushes medium-amount of air:
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835180041
I got the Vantec 80mm below but it clacks and is annoying:
(probably only mine sucks - poor quality control)
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999602
My Athlon 64 is still louder than the old Pentium 3 866 MHz, but
I have now judged it "quiet enough" and will stop tweaking it.
(God, I also put in a Zalman 120mm /CPU/ fan. That thing is huge.)
\_ Sorry, but your cheapo $5 fan is 21dB. While that is pretty
quiet, it is not completely silent, like my superior
GERMAN MADE fans (12dB). Each 3dB increase means 2X the sound,
and each 6dB increase means 4X the sound. Also, try lowering
the speed of the fan. I find that a lower speed actually cools
the case better. The reason is that you want air flow to be
uni-directional, and too many fans will blow hot air everywhere.
By the way, what kind of power supply are you using? A rule
of thumb is that they account for 1/2-2/3 of total noise.
\_ Uh ... okay ... anyway, I have an Enermax power supply:
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103458
I do know the Seasonics are quieter.
Can you post a link to where you bought your Papst fan?
BTW, a 3 dB increase will increase sound POWER by 2x.
You need a 6 dB increase to increase sound PRESSURE by 2x.
Most people say you need 8-10 dB to increase perceived
loudness by 2x.
BTW, a 3 dB increase corresponds to an increase in sound POWER
by 2x. A 6 dB increase corresponds to an increase in sound
PRESSURE by 2x. Most people say you need 8-10 dB to increase
perceived loudness by 2x.
\_ I got my Papst fans from http://quietpcusa.com, the site German
John suggested. I can't find the db spec for your
\_ W00t! -John
Enermax, although it is using 2 pretty small fans (80mm).
I suggest you concentrate on the noisiest thing first,
which is usually the power supply. Getting a power
supply with ONE 120mm fans means it will run at a lower
RPM (mine runs at 750RPM, compare that with 1500 with
normal fans). Noise is quadratic with RPM. After you've
done that, then concentrate on secondary stuff like
fans. Like I said, adding speed controller arrays (and
using a digital thermometer) really helps you cool your
case better AND lowering fan noise. I've done all of
the above and have gotten noise down to a point that
the only thing I hear is the humming noise of my cheapo
Maxtor drives and the humping noise of my neighbor 2
houses down. I hope to fix #1 by replacing Maxtor with
completely silent Seagate Barracuda in the future. I'm
not sure how to fix #2 though.
\_ Yeah, I did say the Seasonics were quieter than my
Enermax. I do know the Seasonics use a big 120mm
fan, for lower noise. I'll try out the Papst and
the Seasonic for the next computer, I think.
\_ Amendment: Actually, I also took out my chipset fan
and my VGA fan. I replaced them with big heat-sinks.
Taking out the VGA fan was painful (and kind of scary
because I had to pry open the hard thermal glue)
But everything worked out at the end:
http://www.quietpcusa.com/vgainstall.html
In summary when I started the project, I had: 1 noisy
power, 1 loud intake, 1 loud CPU fan, 1 loud HD fan
1 chipset fan, and 1 VGA fan. In the end, I had:
1 22db Seasonic fan, 1 19db Silentmaxx intake (19db),
1 12db HD fan, and 1 semi-quiet (but not completely
silent) CPU fan.
\_ My Panaflo pushes 24.0 CFM of air at 21 dB(A), but
your Pabst pushes only 19.4 CFM at 12 dB(A).
Ha-ha! (according to the http://silentpcreview.com Excel file)
</sarcasm>
\_ I bought the Antec Sonata case to replace my existing case
which is too noisy. Although not completely silent, it is
significantly quieter than my old case. The Antec power
supply is pretty quiet, and the 120mm case fan is also
quiet and mounted on a rubber feet connected to the case.
The HD slot is also dampened by rubber feet, the only
component the HD actually touches. I also replaced my noisy
Intel CPU fan with a Zalman CPU fan, and replaced my video
card with one that does not have a fan. Actually in my
experience the CPU and video card fan generate quite a bit
of noise. I could install noise absorbing padding inside
the case, but decided it was not worth the money as the
case currently is very quiet. Is your setup completely
silent? (except the HD noise of course...). Silent PC is so
nice. I hard the Mac Mini is also very very quiet, too bad
it doesn't run XP, haha. -chiry
\_ I also have a silent PC. It costs me $0.50 and 5 seconds to
install. It's called a EARPLUGS. This whole conversation reminds
me of how dumb Harley bikers go to those dumb Harley conventions
and compare how loud their pipes are, except in a completely
different direction.
\_ Here's an even better idea, why don't you just perforate
your eardrums so that you go deaf.
\_ Huh? earplugs? you joking right? Instead of solve the
problem, you cover your ears. Who said PCs should be
loud? Have you ever used a quiet PC? Building a quiet
PC is just the same as building a quiet car, a quiet
home, you don't solve these problems by putting in
ear plugs. This is the stupidest argument I've heard
in a while, but then again I am feeding the trolls,
damn. -chiry
\_ I put mine in the closet and I hear NOTHING. |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Computer/Networking] UID:37455 Activity:nil |
5/2 I have an Apple Wireless keyboard, one of the Bluetooth jobbies. It
tends to momentarily lose connection a lot - oddly enough, it seems
to happen every time I sit at my desk. Is this normal? Is bluetooth
just an ass protocol?
\_ it's your keyboard going into powersave
\_ I use a DLINK bluetooth thingie and it is rock-solid. I don't even
notice that it's wireless. The older DLink BT modules had problems,
but the newer ones rock.
\_ ps: I also have a powered usb hub that the BT module is plugged
into.
\_ I just got a Mac Mini and have it connected via the DLINK bluetooth
USB connector. I never have a problem, except when I leave the
room for too long and the screen goes into hybernate mode,
or whatever Mac calls it. Then I have to push the button on
back of my computer and wait like 15 seconds for everything
to turn back on. Perhaps you have interference? Is your bluetooth
right next to your 802.11 LAN? How about your phone? |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Transportation/Car, Transportation/Bicycle] UID:37456 Activity:nil |
5/2 Is it legal to ride a bicycle through a crosswalk as if you're a
pedestrian?
\_ Here's the longer version of the story:
Car in the left lane, starts to turn left.
A bicyclist coming from the right side of the crosswalk
(who was possibly already in the crosswalk before the car
started to turn left) ends up hitting the front right fender of
the car. Pic at /csua/tmp/carvsbike.jpg
Whose fault?
\_ The bike, looks like. He should be riding in the road,
with traffic. (He is traffic.) -tom
\_ Agreed.
\_ Probably not. CVC 21200 says: "(a) Every person riding a
bicycle upon a highway has all the rights and is subject to
all the provisions applicable to the driver of a vehicle".
The sidewalk is not "a highway," but any public street is,
so if you're riding on the street, you have to ride the way
a car would.
(Note that this section does not ban riding on the sidewalk,
though it gives cities the authority to ban such riding.)
-tom
\_ No. You may walk it. If you are riding, you are not a pedestrian. |
| 2005/5/2-6 [Industry/Jobs, Computer/SW, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA] UID:37457 Activity:nil 66%like:36830 |
5/2 Senior Web Applications Engineer posting updated:
/csua/pub/jobs/AvantGo
--dbushong |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Uncategorized] UID:37458 Activity:nil |
5/2 Well, since it seems to be post-a-cartoon day...
http://www.andysinger.com/sample4.html
\_ yeah, but the other post was of a *funny* cartoon. Andy is
0/13 there. Didn't someone on the motd already point out
how UNfunny this guy is?
\_ Andy Singer is to political cartoons like G.W. Bush is to
executing political rhetoric. Hey, now that could be unfunny
cartoon number 14 for Andy. |
| 2005/5/2-4 [Computer/HW/Drives] UID:37459 Activity:kinda low |
5/2 To silent PC builders, make sure your HD is cool! You can download
a program that checks for the temperature, here:
http://www.quietpcusa.com/acb/showdetl.cfm?&DID=8&Product_ID=198&CATID=1
Click on "Click here to download DTemp"
\_ Interesting. On my desktop with good airflow, my Western Digital
is 37C, and my Maxtor is 28C. My laptop (with Hitachi HD) is 47C.
Using a laptop fan blower cools it by 1-2C. What about you guys?
\_ My Hitachi 7200rpm 60GB (7K60) notebook HD was between 42 and
47 today.
\_ Similar HD at ~36-37C without a pad cooler, around 35C with a
cooler.
\_ not sure how accurate smart data is... my thinkpad is reporting
37 C for the drive and the ambiant temp here is 37.7 C if
I can believe http://weather.com. I am running linux w/ laptop mode
so maybe I was lucky and the drive has been suspended for a
long while...
\_ INTERESTING. My ambient temperature is 30C and my Western
Digital Caviar 200G drive says 27C. Either WD drives are
really really cool, or they suck.
\_ this doesn't support external (usb2.0) drives, right? :(
\_ I tried it yesterday, didn't work for me on FireWire.
\_ As I was scanning through the motd, I saw 36-37C and thought hey ho,
this is going to be good, then I realized you weren't talking about
breasts. -ax
\_ hahahaha you are funny ax! LEARN TO INDENT. |
| 3/15 |