5/8     If the US spends millions on border patrol and can't even stop
        walking illegal immigrants from crossing, how are they going to
        stop sophisticated operations on moving illegal contrabands and
        new Islamic insurgents (thousands of America haters + growing)
        crossing Iraq borders from all sides?
        http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/05/09/iraq.main
        \_ On their own, they might find it dificult to secure the border.
           That's why they're calling on all Iraqi patriots with pickup
           trucks and lawnchairs to come out and monitor the border.
        \_ Because they all have weird names and talk funny, and TSA will
           be able to confiscate all the rocket launchers they hide in their
           shoes, and finally, all the kebab-grease they leave on the INS
           finger print readers is sure to give them away!  -John

5/8     Just saw Kingdom of Heaven. I'm not religious and I don't know
        much history to say much about it, except that it is very visually
        pleasing. Now I'm curious. How much of it was historically
        accurate? Did Muslims/Christians really get alone well back then,
        and were the events and provocations accurate, agreed upon by
        historians and confirmed by archeologists? I'd like to hear from
        HISTORIANS first. However, if you are Muslim/Christian/Jew and you
        must respond to this thread, do so but indicate your religion first.
        \_ Sometimes, sort of.  Jews and Muslims were sometimes tolerated
           in Europe, often persecuted and killed, and despite what you
           hear from a lot of blue-eyed utopian historians, infidels were
           second-class citizens in pretty much all of the muslim world as
           well, with the major difference that many of the muslim rulers had
           better things to do (think harems.)  -John
           \_ Yeah, that's a pretty good summary. Note that I sat through
              some of the most left-biased history classes available and
              even they never said anything other than that non-Muslims were
              second class citizens in Dar al-Islam. They just emphasized that
              being non-Christian in Christendom often got you killed and in
              pretty amazing and creative ways. There is a very readable
              version of this history in Larry Gonick's "Cartoon History of the
              World" volumes II and III. No, really! -- ulysses (okay,
              maybe I'm not a historian but I did get a degree in it)
        \_ The movie showed that some Christians were evil, and that Salahadim
           (sp?) the ugly looking Muslim was honest and kept his words, unlike
           previous barbaric Christians. I bet that confused a lot of Average
           Joes who were expecting a typical Hollywood GOOD/EVIL movie, or
           Xians=good/Muslims=bad movie. I liked the movie, not as a historian,
           but as someone who prefers seeing perspectives from both sides which
           the movie did pretty well. On the other hand, the loves scenes were
           the movie did pretty well. On the other hand, the love scenes were
           cheezy and I doubt the authenticity in them.
           \_ Saladin/Salahuddin/Salawhatever was a skilled tacician and
              strategist, and a reasonably decent and enlightened ruler, but
              it's always useful to look at these things in the context of
              the times.  -John

5/8     Architecture Virtualization:
        http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1762884,00.asp
        \_ This link goes to something about a gymnast/model
           \_ fixed

5/8     MP3 players might be causing permanent hearing loss:
        http://tinyurl.com/9qgr2 (news.scotsman.com)
        \_ ^mp3 players^loud music
           \_ I agree w/ that in general, but my iPod seems
              to be much louder even on the lowest volume
              setting than my discman.  It shouldn't be that
              hard to make the volume range larger (thus
           \_ I agree w/ that in general, but my iPod seems to be much
              louder even on the lowest volume setting than my discman.  It
              shouldn't be that hard to make the volume range larger (thus
              safer).
              \_ Rumor has it that The Steve is slightly deaf and kept telling
                 the iPod team to make it louder.
              \_ Rumor has it that The Steve is slightly deaf and kept
                 telling the iPod team to make it louder.
              \_ Actually, I have a similar problem on my laptop.  I use
                 it to listen to mp3s sometimes, but even the lowest
                 volume setting is higher than I like.  I need to get some
                 volume control headphones or something.
                 it to listen to mp3s sometimes, but even the lowest volume
                 setting is higher than I like.  I need to get some volume
                 control headphones or something.
        \_ Listening to CDs in inheriantly safer! -RIAA
        \_ Ben, nice news site.
           \_ ahem.  --scotsman
              \_ How much money did you donate to the Democrats?  To the
                 Republicans?  Who did you vote for in the last 3 elections?
                 What is your official policy on editorial bias?
        \_ Btw, I think I do get a bit of tinnitus sometimes. Like a really
           high pitched tone... but if I block my ears for a couple secs it
           goes away. I remember having that when I was a little kid too.
           Does any amount indicate hearing dmg? Is that what tinnitus is
           or would it persist?
           \_ It persists, so no -- it's probably not tinnitus.

5/9     Do you use a subwoofer in your apartment or condo complex?
        \_ I had one, but my downstairs neighbors complained, so I
           disconnected it.
           \_ did they knock on your door or leave a message on your door?
              \_ How in hell is THAT supposed to matter?
                 \_ curious
              \_ Well, actually they told my roommate who was a good friend
                 of theirs and him deliver the message.
                 of theirs and let him deliver the message.
        \_ ANNOYING.
           \_ You have neighbors who have a subwoofer?
           \_ Is it the subwoofer that's annoying, or is it your female
              neighbor's moaning while masturbating with the subwoofer that's
              annoying?

5/8     Poll. If you even had to return a HD, what was your experience like?
        \_ Hitachi: Regular RMA, No advanced RMA, test suite sucks
        \_ WD: Had 2 consecutive failures (same model) in 6 months, the RMA
           website is really good, has tracking and advanced RMA. Advanced RMA
           requires you putting in credit card number so that if you don't
           return the defective drive in 30 days they'll charge you. It's not
           the most reliable drive, but the return process is excellent.
        \_ Maxtor: WEB SITE IS HORRIBLE! Keeps getting JSP error. They might
           have fixed it though.
           \_Never had a problem with Maxtor.
        \_ Western Digital: awesome. Dell: awesome. Conner: awesome.
           \_ Conner? Eh???
                 \_ back in the day.
        \_ Seagate: not bad!  You have to pay for shipping.
        \_ WD, Seagate - No problems. Maxtor - took a long time but I
           got a new drive back (and then promptly sold it).
        \_ IBM/Hitachi x 2:  Punched in serial number in web site, received
           RMA #, mailed back drive, received refurbished drive which works
           fine.  Only hard part was ordering the special boxes since they say
           they'll void the exchange if you don't use approved padding.
           \_ Did you say REFURBISHED? Does the HD say that? I was hoping to
              eBay mine, now this totally ruins the plan. I bought a Seagate
              2.5" (w/5 year warranty) to replace my default Hitachi drive.
              \_ Yes, the refurbished drive isn't as shiny and it comes with
                 an orange "reconditioned" sticker or somesuch on it.

5/8     Architecture Virtualization:
        http://tinyurl.com/7ptc7
        \_ This link goes to something about a gymnast/model

5/9     So when is the Messiah coming?

5/9     So when is the draft coming?
        \_ "The last thing we need is a draft!" -D. Rumsfeld, Apr 27 2005
           \_ Are they preparing for the next "Bush big lie (tm)"?

5/9     So when is Jesus coming?

5/9     So when is the end of the world coming?
        \_ OOOOhhh!  BABY!  I'M COMING!  OH GOD!

5/9     I'm using Wells Fargo's online statement. I like it a lot better than
        ETrade and other companies because they output my statement to a PDF
        file which I can keep. This is important for me because of a lawsuit
        that I was involved in where I couldn't produce a statement because
        my old bank didn't produce a PDF file (just plain HTML) and didn't go
        back further than 6 months. What bank do you have, how long do they
        keep statements, and do they output PDF or HTML?
        \_ So they court would have accepted PDF or paper, but not HTML?  Why?
        \_ So the court would have accepted PDF or paper, but not HTML?  Why?
        \_ Personally, for my financial related documents, I choose to receive
           the paper version instead of the online version for exactly the
           reason you mentioned above.
           \_ Seconded.  I still choose paper statements for this reason, even
              though I know I'm risking ID theft at my mailbox.
        \_ I use TD Waterhouse as both a brokerage and a bank account. The
           statements they have on their website are in HTML format, but they
           keep them around / available forever.
        \_ Don't know which OS you are using, but most financial
           institutions with online services have a "view printable
           version of statement" link, which I click on, and then print
           the ensuing HTML page to a PDF file on my Mac.

5/9     Moonbats on parade!
        http://csua.org/u/bzs
        \_ Ungrateful Europeans! Let's nuke them all!   -Conservative Red Neck

5/9     How do you write to the motd and being anonymous? I mean kchang's
        script tag you as 'grey'. ;)
        \_ You could take the opposite approach: background a script that
           touches the motd within whatever interval kchang's scripts diff
           at whenever you're logged in.  Of course, that probably doesn't
           work at like 3am when it's only psb, mice, and YOU.
           at whenever you're logged in.
        \_ Slip kchang $20 and he'll anonymize you.
        \_ You go to http://csua.org/motd
        \_ scp
           \_ this doesn't make you gray. it makes you non-existant.  Oh, and
           \_ this doesn't make you gay. it makes you non-existant.  Oh, and
              don't edit over other ppl's comments, please.

5/9     http://www.thebricktestament.com
        Something both Athiests and Religious right wing nuts can enjoy
        \_ one fugly baby: .../exodus/too_many_hebrews/ex01_17.html
        \_ Keywords: lego legos bible bibles jesus funny

5/9     Here's someone who found a creative use for a math degree:
        http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/06/students.scheme.ap/index.html
        \_ What a lamer.
        \_ It crazy to do this for someone whose parents can donate $21m to a
        \_ It's crazy to do this for someone whose parents can donate $21m to a
           school.
        \_ This is like Catch Me If You Can. I half heartedly applaud this guy.
           I'd be much happier if he used those money to donate to charity.
           I want to see a modern Robinhood who takes money from big
           faceless corporations and land-owning aristocrats and redistribute
           wealth to people who need them.
           \_ You mean the big faceless corporations that employ the
              people who need the money?  And what "land-owning
              aristocrats?"  If you said, "Steal the money from ugly
              CEOs," it would at least sort of make sense.
              \_ Jrleek, small corporations in the past employed, trained, &
                 treated their employees as family members. Things have
                 changed a lot since the early 20th century. Today, big
                 corporations are owned and operated by shareholders,
                 who want many things, and among them, PROFIT as their #1
                 goal. They increase profit via training/nurturing employees,
                 attracting highly capable workers, giving out incentives,
                 bonuses, etc. However, they also increase profit via other
                 means, such as outsourcing, cutting employee benefits,
                 merger, hostile take-over, increasing work responsibility
                 (legalized increase of work hours), and other methods. And
                 in today's highly competitive world, corporations will do
                 all of the above. We already witnessed the monopoly of AT&T
                 (until 1983), the dominance of Microsoft, the abuse of F1
                 VISAs, the displacement of auto-workers, the use of child
                 labour in South East Asia, etc etc. These are not isolated
                 incidents, but rather, strong tendencies by corporations
                 for the sake of increasing profit. Right now ethical laws
                 exist to protect workers in extraordinary events such as
                 accidents, child bearing, etc. But if corporations had
                 a choice, you bet they'd get rid of these laws. In short,
                 big corporations have no allegiance to anyone, any ideology
                 nor have any compassion for its employees. Its primary
                 interest is PROFIT, period. I guess this is all difficult
                 to grasp but will be a lot clearer when you're force to
                 rethink about your career in the future.
                 \_ I totally forgot that jrleek works in the government so
                    most of what I said becomes totally irrelevant. -pp
                 \_ Do big corporations have allegiance to their shareholders?
                    \_ You asked a very good question. The point is,
                       unlike mom/pop stores, corporations don't have a soul.
                       Let me give you in layman's analogy. The corporation
                       Let me explain in layman's analogy. The corporation
                       (board membors) are like assassins, they take money
                       to do their job, which is to use money to earn more
                       money. If they fail to meet their objectives
                       (not getting their quarterly earning expectations),
                       they risk getting pounded by shareholders (stock
                       price going down, board members fired, take-over).
                       All corporations try to optimize, slime-line, and
                       do creative things to meet earning expectations.  In
                       some cases however, they become so desperate that
                       they take short-cuts or do things without ethical
                       considerations, such as polluting, cutting health
                       benefits, etc. If Ford and GM can double their
                       assembly line productivity by moving to Malaysia or
                       Phillipines (where they can hire cheaper, younger,
                       workers without having to pay them health benefits)
                       do you think board members would object due to ethical
                       considerations? Heck, they already did it in the 80s.
                       What makes you think corporations today are any
                       different?
                       \_ Interesting that you seem to have something of
                          an understanding of economics, and yet can't add
                          2+2.

5/9     The next nuke used in anger will be in:
        Clarification: The following will be TARGETS of the nuke
        \_ Korea
        \_ Israel
        \_ U.S. .
           \_ next nuke will be from a terrorist
           \_ Considering millions of people who hate United States before 911
              and billions more especially after the middle-east invasion, I
              also think this is a much more likely target than anything else.
        \_ Iran.
        \_ Taiwan
           \_ Do they have nukes? Are they part of the NPT?
              \_ It would be nuked by the mainland, like a woman
                 killed by her jealous lover who can't stand not
                 having her.
                 \_ fuck off!  we have balls.  We are nobody's woman.
                    \_ All right.  Like a man killing by his jealous lover who
                    \_ All right.  Like a man killed by his jealous lover who
                       can't stand not having him.  Okay now?
                       \_ Much better.
                    \_ Half of Taiwan's population would disagree.
                       \_ yea, the half that doesn't have to face the PLA.
                          \_ No women in the Taiwan military yet?
                    \_ But they're very small.
                       \_ It's not a matter of size, blah blah.
           \_ What would Taiwan do with a nuke?
              \_ Sell it.
        \_ Japan
        \_ India
        \_ Pakistan
        \_ Kashmir
        \_ MOTD
        \_ Was there a previous nuke used in anger?
           \_ Japan?  Have I been trolled?
              \_ No, those were for fun after a couple of beers.  Bonus points
                 if you can name all the ones dropped by accident (ICMB
                 complex at Laputa doesn't count.)  -John
                 \_ wasn't there a B52 which crashed with a nuke?
                    Also, wasn't there a sub with nukes which sank?
                 \_ If you count ones that dropped but didn't explode
                    (weren't armed) a couple were dropped off the coast of
                    Spain in the 50's.  I think the same thing happened
                    in Oklahoma or someplace.  Not as rare as one would
                    hope.
                    \_ Several subs, both US and Soviet.  5 accidental bomb
                       drops in the US alone.  Extra credit if you can name
                       the third one they were going to dump on Japan, the
                       original target of the Hiroshima bomb (and reason
                       why it was nixed) and the name of the B-29 that dropped
                       on Nagasaki (sorry, thought some useless nukular trivia
                       might be fun.)  -John
                       \_ Third one on Japan?  I thought we only made 3 at
                          first, and used them all.
                       \_ Original target of the Hiroshima bomb?  Tokyo,
                          but they didn't drop it because Tokyo was
                          already desolate.  Or Kyoto, but the ambassador
                          to Japan asked them not to because he didn't
                          want them to destroy to cultural artifacts.
                       \_ The original target of the Fat Man was Kokura,
                          but Nagasaki was chosen by the pilot of the
                          Bockscar due to cloud cover. Couldn't find the
                          original target of Little Boy.
                    \_ the thing in spain was in the 60s when McNamara was
                       still the SecDef.
        \_ Ann Coulter's mouth: .
           \_ Your nukular missile is so big and tax free?
              \- i dont think it will be india or kashmir. i think it would
                 be new york harbor or jerusalem. i dunno if he chechins
                 be new york harbor or jerusalem. i dunno if the chechins
                 are likely to be able to get ahold of one. in that case
                 the options are opened up a lot. --psb
                 \_ Then it'll be some moron's basement in Grozny.  "Allah
                    Akhbar, we have a bomb!" *clang* "oops" *BANG*  -John

5/9     Bush spying on terriorist communications!
        http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050509/photos_pl/mdf555296

5/9     FreeBSD 5.4 Released
        http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/announce.html
        \_ uh, who use FreeBSD nowadays?
           \_ uh, you?
           \_ Me, Soda, GTA, F5, M0n0wall, oodles of hosting providers, loads
              of security/network box providers, etc, etc etc.  Now go
              away.  -John
              \_ John, did you switch from OpenBSD to FreeBSD? I've been
                 using OpenBSD for my home firewall for sometime, but
                 I've been thinking about switching as well b/c pf is
                 now part of FreeBSD.  Is there anything that I should
                 be aware of in terms of FreeBSD patching/security in
                 comparison to OpenBSD? tia
                 \_ I just really like ports and cvsup; I got sick of OpenBSD
                    trying to be too secure and of plowing through piles of
                    docs to find what it had turned off today.  I have a
                    WRAP from pcengines.ch running M0n0wall (http://www.m0n0.ch/wall
                    and it's teh whoopass.  -John

5/9     Register files and SRAMs are built using 6 transistors right?
        If so, how come register files have a delay in the order of ~.1ns
        whereas SRAM have a delay in the order of 10ns? Is it mostly due to
        multiplexors, where the time to select large memories increase?
        \_ Do you mean discrete SRAMs and regfiles?  I suspect their speed is
           I/O-limited.  (Yes, there have been proposals to do SRAMs with
           SerDes interfaces, but I don't know that those proposals have
           gotten anywhere.)  On-chip regfiles and SRAMs do run at chip
           clock freq., and I guess there the speed is limited by loading
           of signals and buses.

5/9     Testing anonymity.
        \_ Test failed. Nice.
        \_ erikred   DV  36864   0:00.01 sed s/[Cc]unt/twat/g /etc/motd.public
           Why are you replacing one cuss word with another?
           \_ variety?
              \_ keeping twat and turning cunt to twat is minimizing variety
        \_ test
           \_ A silly experiment. All gone now.

5/9     More on the broadcast flag ruling:
        http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120748,00.asp

5/9     Can this be happening? Fox News reports gay/straight men's brain
        responses differ. "It is one more piece of evidence ... that is
        showing that sexual orientation is not all learned," said an expert
        on brain anatomy. I'd expect this to be on CBS news, but it is coming
        from a source that is suppose to assert that there is no global
        warming, that there is WMD, and most importantly that gayness is a
        choice (totally curable via religion).  What's happening to Fox News?
        \_ Maybe if you watched Fox News sometime instead of just hearing
           about it from your moonbat friends, you wouldn't be so
           confused.
           \_ How is this moonbat?  I thought one of the main arguments
              against fundie nutcase "keep the homos away from our children"
              frothing was that "you don't become gay, you are gay."  That
              would imply a difference, no?  -John
              \_ Huh?  I was just saying that, for the most part, Fox just
                 reports news.  So it's not really a surprise when they...
                 report news.  The editorial shows are where things get
                 wacky.
                 \_ Yes. However Fox blurs the line between editorial and news.
                    They advertise their editorial aggressively during prime
                    time or whenever there's plain news. Then they make a
                    smooth transition from news to editorial, and do it so
                    well that average Joe's don't even realize they've stopped
                    watching news. Unlike other news they don't even
                    call their  editorial "opinion" or "editorial." They call
                    it Talking Points, The Asman Observer, etc, and then
                    tag the word "The most watched news, fair and balanced."
                    Lastly, even when they present news from regular sources
                    like AP, they re-word it in ways that fit in their model.
                    For example, whereas CNN/NBC/ABC would say "Bush Visits
                    Iraq", Fox would say "Bush Spread The Word of Freedom in
                    the Middle East." It's subtle and hard to detect when you
                    only read one news source, but you can definitely see
                    it when you start reading a diverse source of news.
                    Lastly, during editorial, they stick in good looking men
                    like Brit Humes to represent one side, and then a small
                    weakly Colmes boy to represent the other, and call their
                    entire network "Fair and Balanced." This is fine because
                    other broadcasters do it as well, but at least they don't
                    advertise it as Fair and Balanced, because that's BS. No
                    news source is ever fair and balanced.
                    \_ Are you kidding?  Is there any news source that doesn't
                       claim it's fair and balanced regardless of reality?
                       \_ I haven't seen CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN advertise that
                          they are fair and balanced.  Please provide a
                          link.  -tom
                          \_ I don't recall having seen CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN
                             admit that they are biased.  Please provide a
                             link. -jrleek
                             \_ Read it again; pp said they all "claim to be
                                fair and balanced."  That's a positive
                                assertion for which proof should be available.
                                (If true.)  -tom
                       \_ Plenty of news sources wear their bias on their
                          sleves. La Repubblica is the official Communist
                          Party organ in Italy, for example. It is much
                          less common in the US, granted.

*/*     Old threads expunged, catenary thread preserved b/c it is still active.