5/9     This is just a quick note to say thank you to njh, dlong, and jvarga
        for your continued help maintaining the CSUA infrastructure. Without
        each of your efforts, and the efforts of many others on the root staff,
        our systems would be far more hosed than they already are. And happy
        birthday, njh. =) If you see non-idle logins, write(1) them and
        say thanks (if only to annoy them).

5/9     I'm going to Italy in a couple of weeks.  I want to rent a car but
        I don't drive manual transmission.  Will I be able to rent an automatic
        car around Europe?
        \_ Yes.  Depends on company.  Call their local office.  Why not just
           ask someone to show you manual?  It's not that hard, and you'll get
           a lot more out of Italian roads with it.  -John
           \_ I don't think I would recommend someone w/ "a couple weeks"
              experience w/ a manual transmission to use one in the alps.
              Shifting gears, braking, and making turns may be a bit much. :-)
              \_ Best way to learn.  Plus if he's confident enough to drive
                 _anything_ in an Italian city, he'll be fine anywhere. -John
        \_ All kidding aside, automatic cars are available on first-come-first-serve
           in at least the UK and Ireland. They do cost extra though, something
           like $10-20/day. My suggestion would be to practice, if $$ is an issue.
        \_ There are automatic Ferraris.
           \_ That's terrible.
              \_ No, it's not.  I believe the "automatic" Ferraris he speaks of
                 are those with gigantic engines in the the 600+ lb. torque
                 category (such as the Enzo).  Trying to shift these engines
                 with a traditional manual is challenging at best.  Most
                 "supercars" these days are equipped with F1 style paddle
                 shifters.  You shift the car, but the car handles the clutch
                 for you.  Even then, driving these cars is apparently
                 something of a challenge - paddle shift cars don't really
                 have a "slip" feature and the accelerator tends to act like
                 a switch, so the throttle is either on or off.  Parking at a
                 curb is probably something of a white knuckle experience.

                 Anyway, you can't "rent" a $750,000 car.
                 \_ Sure you can, it's just very expensive. Some of the GT
                    Porsches also do the weird tiptronic thing.  -John
                 \_ No, by "automatic Ferraris" I meant not the F1-style
                    shifter, but the real automatic as in the Scaglietti
                    4-seater.
                    \_ Oh, that thing.  I forgot about that.  Right.  The
                       Ferrari "sports coupe."  Geez.  Who wants a sports
                       coupe that spends more time in the shop than on the
                       road?  Ferraris make BMWs seem like paragons of
                       reliability.
                        \_ Isn't that true of Italian cars in general?
                           \_ What other Italian cars does anyone care
                              about?
                              \_ Uh, Lamborghinis & Maseratis for a start?
                                 \_ And Alfa Romeos.
                                    \_ And Fiats, ha ha!
                                        \_ Fix It Again, Tony

5/9     Solar Powered BT GPS Recv'r:
        http://tinyurl.com/cys3s (pcmag.com)

5/9     so... anyone know this girl?
        http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/10/technology/10cisco.html?th&emc=th
        \_ She is too large for the name "Wren".
           \_ You are insane. That no human being should be saddled with the
              the name Wren is another argument entirely.
              \_ Wren: http://csua.org/u/bzz (NSFW)
              \_ Wren: http://csua.org/u/bzz (NSFW)
                 \_ Racing stripe!

5/9     Filling the jail cells American's don't want to fill.
        Feds pay $5.8 billion to jail criminal aliens
        http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44184
        \_ Do you mean Americans want to leave them free, or kick them out of
           the country?
           \_ That is kinda the problem.  Sent them to Mexico, they just
              walk back, or pay to put them in jail and pay for them.
              \_ When USSR existed, it had the longest border in the world
                 and not even a fly could cross it.
                 \_ interesting. I'd guess that's because if left open, vast
                    amounts of people would have fled (bad for economy);
                    whereas, w/ the US, porous borders are places where
                    people enter (good for economy) ... so less incentive
                    to expend the large sums of money needed to guard them
        \_ Do you think that's more expensive than trying to deport them all
           and keep them out?

5/10    More grist for the Chicom/troll/reply/motd/debate mill:
        http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/05/10/china_riches/index.html
        China - reinventing capitalism? or feudalism?

5/10    will putty w/ ssh work tomorrow?
        \_ "putty w/ ssh"?
        \_ Putty should work, but make sure you have a recent version.
           It's what I use, at least. - amckee
        \_ putty supports ssh2, so yes.
        \_ If you have a session defined for soda, you may want to change your
           "preferred SSH protocol version" to 2, or "2 only" in the
           Connection->SSH options.
        \_ Logging in with putty to write this on 5/11 -erikred.

5/10    If you wanna be a hip drug dealer these days, you're gonna need an
        alligator.
        http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_fullstory.asp?id=34529

5/10    Please make sure you read the official motd for important
        announcements regarding CSUA services and server infrastructure.
        Thank you - amckee, root staff
        \_ root! How are you? You should join our elite motd more often.
           \_ I visit you all the time!  I ask you questions!  I troll!
              - jvarga
                \_ Fix the wall archiver.
                   \_ aaron the great Creator of Wall Archiver, punishes
                      us for our sins by taking it away. He who asks for
                      the wall archiver, shall first repent, then seek aaron

5/9     I have a problem with FireFox. I have a trackball and one of
        the buttons is set to Universal Scroll, where once pressed, I
        can scroll the application up/down (without moving to the right
        side to click on the scroll bar). I can do this for all the MS
        applications, but I can't do it for FireFox. How do I configure
        it to have the same behaviour? Cheers.
        \_ For me, when printing from http://NYTimes.com, the pdf often shows up only
           as one page when the story clearly continues on.  I get something
           like one page of print and three pages of blanks.

5/10    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5700204.html
        "Mozilla has changed its update Web service and advises people to
        temporarily disable JavaScript." WTF?
        \_ Micro$oft is behind this.
        \_ What do you mean WTF?  There's a security vulnerability in their
           software updater.  I think disabling "Allow web sites to install
           software" is also sufficient.

5/10    http://csua.org/u/c02 (ifilm.com - wear headphones)
        Chris Rock in:  How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by the Police
        Courtesy of http://freerepublic.com and "Police used Taser on pregnant driver"
        link on http://drudgereport.com.
        \_ Okay, that was great.  Where was that from?  Is there more?
           \_ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1400021/posts
                \_ And on Fox News today, "Taser Guns Used As Abortion Device"
              \_ No no no.  I mean more Chris Rock, and is there more video
                 where that came from?
        \_ that's really old. freerepublic my ass.

5/10    Today's title page engrish is pretty good:
        http://www.engrish.com
        \_ Six years of living in Japan, and I'm still astounded at how
           clueless Japanese people are about inherent racism. --erikred
           \_ "What do you mean?  There's no racism in Korea!" --most
              Koreans. (jrleek)
           \_ There was a brand of toothpaste in Asia called Blackman or
              Blackie toothpaste that had a picture of a black dude on it
              with a big white smile.
              \_ I used to use it exclusively when I was a kid in Hong Kong.
                 The brand name used to be Darkie and the Chinese name was, and
                 still is, "Black People's Toothpaste".  Then Colgate bought
                 the brand and renamed it Darlie and changed the logo.  The
                 idea was that most Hong Kong people had an impression that
                 black people's teeth look very white (probably because of the
                 contrast to the skin color), so if you want your teeth to look
                 like black people's, you'd better use Black People's
                 Toothpaste.  It was very popular because of the brandname.
                 You need to understand that it was not racism against
                 Africans.  I'd think of it as "positive racism", if there's
                 such a thing.
                 \_ No we don't need to understand that.  To say that ignorance
                    of this sort is not grounded in racism is to misunderstand
                    racism.
                    \_ Okay, at least please don't think that this is racism
                       *against* Africans in this case.
                       \_ Okay, raised with a cultural icon like that, what
                          is the immediate gut response when meeting a black
                          man for the first time?  It's as racist as the
                          portrayal of Chinese in Hollywood for decades.
                          \_ I checked out his teeth.  Yeah, it's funny.
                             \_ See, racism is about disrespect of a person or
                                people because they don't look like the people
                                around you.  It doesn't have to be "negative"
                                to be hurtful.  If it puts up a wall or causes
                                objectification when you interact with someone,
                                it's something to fight against.
                    \_ BTW, some other common impression in HK on black people
                       are "black people are better at jazz, rap and other
                       rhythm-centric music forms" and "black people are better
                       at sports that need either explosive power and very
                       short endurance (100m), or very long endurance
                       (marathon)".  On the other hand, the common impression
                       among Americans that "black people have big penes"
                       wasn't widespread in HK.
                       among Americans that "black men have big penes" wasn't
                       widespread in HK.
                       \_ OTOH, the sterotype of black men having larger
                          genitalia is alive and well in Japan. --erikred
           \_ If it's any comfort, there's also a brand of toothpaste in Taiwan
              called Whiteman. I have a tube of it.
        \_ Is that condom?
           \_ yes

5/10    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5700204.html
        "Mozilla ... advises people to temporarily disable JavaScript." WTF?
        \_ Micro$oft is behind this.
        \_ What do you mean WTF?  There's a security vulnerability in their
           software updater.  I think disabling "Allow web sites to install
           software" is also sufficient.
           \_ Quote updated.

5/10    What is the cisco command to reboot the server after X minutes
        (if not cancelled) if I screw something up and get disconnected and
        do not cancel it? (yes yes, my google fu is weak) -crebbs

5/10    RealID act passed (as part of the Afghanistan funding) in senate,
        100-0.
        \_ Deine pässe bitte.
        \_ Deine pM-dsse bitte.
        \_ Isn't time for Bush to do another carrier landing or something?
           \_ The mission isn't accomplished if the US is still solvent.
           \_ You have a narrow vision of history.

5/10    Our group is hiring, please see /csua/pub/jobs/efi for more
        information. We are looking for fresh/recent grads with 0-3
        years of experience. -chiry
        \_ What salary range are we talking about?
           \_ I don't know the specific range, since I am also
              relatively new here, but I think we are pretty
              competitive. Send me your resume and questions if you
              are interested, I'll forward it to the hiring manager.
              -chiry
        \_ You're setting the motd on fiery!
           \_ Hahahaha, is that you yuen? ;) -chiry

5/10    Yes!  Romber did not win The Amazing Race!  They were too lucky in
        other legs of the race.  It's about time someone else got the extra
        help needed to win.
        \_ what?
           \_ Rob & Amber from Survivor were on Amazing Race.  They were
              the last of the 3 teams.  As the previous poster said,
              they didn't win.

5/10    Bird Nest in Public Ash Tray:
        http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4534379.stm
        \_ Best news title ever.
           \_ Ha ha!  There are birds with "tit" in their names!  We're in
              sixth grade!
              \_ "The holes for butts on the box are the same size as on a
                 bird box..." huh huh huh! Butt!
                 \_
      Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca
      It's between Bolivia and Peru
      Lake Titicaca, oh Lake Titicaca
      With waters tranquil and blue.
      Oh Lake Titicaca, yes Lake Titicaca
      Why do we sing of its fame?
      Lake Titicaca, yes Lake Titicaca
      'Cause we really like saying its name!
      Titicaca!
      \_ is this from Animaniacs?