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2005/5/15-16 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:37686 Activity:nil |
5/14 Did you know that Iran has the world's second largest gas reserve, and the best thing is that it has not been fully tapped yet? http://www.netiran.com/?fn=artd(3550 \_ The Middle East has been blessed with plentiful oil and plentiful natural gas. The oil is much easier to exploit. With GTL cranking up much more of their natural gas can be used. \_ This is GREAT news! We can go into Iran, LIBERATE the people there and be greeted with uttermost awe and respect for Americans, while we tap into their rich resources. \_ Your sarcasm is only highlighted by your idiocy over Iraq. Yeah, we're really raping Iraq of its oil. My gawd oil prices are low. \_ There are numerous factors besides Iraq that determine the price of gas. Who knows, maybe the price would have been higher had Iraq not been 'liberated'. Or not. Who knows. -pp |
2005/5/15-16 [Computer/SW/P2P] UID:37687 Activity:nil |
5/14 'The sites which have been closed, such as LokiTorrent, UK Torrent and s0nicfreak, now carry warning messages from the MPAA that read: "You Can Click But You Cannot Hide."' http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4545519.stm \- Well it appears you can hide. See paper "Is p2p dying or hiding". --psb |
2005/5/15 [Recreation/Humor] UID:37688 Activity:kinda low |
5/14 Someone wanted an amusing link: http://csua.org/u/c2p Sort of like a mix between Walter Miller, The Eye of Argon and enormous amounts of drugs and too much free time. -John \_ On a scale of 0-10: Funny if sober=-1, funny if you're a retards=10 \_ get a sense of humor. It was amusing. \_ "if you're a retard" without the 's'. |
2005/5/15-16 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:37689 Activity:low |
5/15 Star Wars anti-Bush? http://csua.org/u/c2r (Yahoo Movies) \_ "Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy." Let's see, Bush=Dark side, storm troopers=Marines, and US=facsist? If that's what Lucas is trying to convey (consciously or subconciously), I totally endorse him. GO LUCAS! \_ Cue Empire / Darth Vader music. You should all play Kotor 2: "With all that talk about standing up on your own two feet, I shoulda known she was with the Dark Side!" \_ http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20050511 \_ I think it is pretty clear "turning to the dark side" is a reference to homosexuality and sodomy. \_ The more seductive side of the force? \_ And here I thought it was a reference to stouts. "Once you go black, you'll never go back." \_ I actually think Star Wars I (the very first one) favors conservative/religious thinking. In the end, when Skywalker flys the X-plane and disengages his computerized scope in favor of using the "force", it is like a subtle way saying that science and engineering is no match for the almighty super-natural force. It's not clear what that force is, but one can easily interpret it as the force of Jesus, Allah, or whatever you want it to be. \- mysticism != organized/dogmatic religion. i think it is more a case of romantic anti-rationalism. although "ironically" the man in metal perhaps puts this best: "Don't be too proud of this technological terror ... insignificant next to the power of the Force." ... That's part of the reason it seemed leem when the whole midichlorlian thing came up. ok tnx.--psb |
2005/5/15-16 [ERROR, uid:37690, category id '18005#9.005' has no name! , , Politics/Domestic/SocialSecurity] UID:37690 Activity:nil |
5/15 Humor for liberals only. http://dontblamemeivoted4kerry.com Also, read hate mails from conservatives: http://dontblamemeivoted4kerry.com/page2.html \_ You're wrong. That's comedy gold for us conservatives too. Heh. \_ Not according to all those conservative hate mails |
2005/5/15-16 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia, Politics/Foreign/Asia/India] UID:37691 Activity:nil |
5/15 17 dead in Afghanistan, and now Newsweek apologizes. http://csua.org/u/c2q \_ Woohoo! Go newsweek! \_ uh oh, they're gonna lose subscribers, just like CBS. GO FOX NEWS! \_ They are owned by the Washington Post. They are responsible for Admiral Boorda's death. |
2005/5/15-17 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:37692 Activity:nil |
5/15 Has anyone upgraded from a 300D (digital rebel) to the new Rebel XT? I was thinking of cl'ing my 300D and getting an XT this summer b/c the XT is lighter/smaller than the 300D and has usb 2.0, but I wanted to know if the reduced weight and size is noticable. |
2005/5/15 [Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:37693 Activity:nil |
5/15 Rethinking the Articles of Confederation http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1403342/posts |
2005/5/15 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton] UID:37694 Activity:nil |
5/15 Indictments Mount for Hillary Aides http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1403701/posts |
2005/5/15-16 [Politics/Domestic/Crime, Reference/Law/Court] UID:37695 Activity:kinda low |
5/15 Interview with Intelligent Design leader Phillip Johnson: Attended Harvard one year early, graduated first in class at Chicago law, and a Boalt professor emeritus - http://csua.org/u/c2t (Post) \_ Gee, I always get my biological science from lawyers. -tom \_ Indeed, those do seem to be odd qualifications. -emarkp \_ Lawyers should stay out of science, scientists have always voluntarily stayed out of law. \_ munson@csua graduated cum laude in astrophysics, went to law school, worked as an attorney, and is going back to get his astrophysics doctorate. So much for that theory :-) -John \_ Lawyers and empirical scientists are both interested in causation (the former to determine responsibility, the latter to determine laws of nature). The business of law and science is not that different. -- ilyas \_ Lawyers are interested in winning, regardless of the truth. Scientists are interested in winning too, but at least the data has to stand up to empirical truth \_ Some lawyers. Just like there are some good politicans. \_ You are thinking about litigators, most lawyers don't litigate. So far what I've learnt is that being a lawyer is a lot like being an engineer, you try to design solutions that will keep your clients out of trouble and make thier lives easier. \_ I think it's a matter of knowledge not principles. |
2005/5/15-16 [Computer/Theory] UID:37696 Activity:moderate |
5/14 I just flunked my theory of computation midterm. I'm a bit baffled at one of the questions that I got wrong. According to the answer key, L is finite state, but I'm pretty sure it's not. L={uvu^R | u,v in {0,1}*, |v| is even} So I see that u and u^R are reverse, which already tells me that this is like Leq (need counting), hence not finite state. Is the answer key wrong, or I'm missing something obvious and stupid? \_ u^R means u backwards, right? If so, any even-length string is in the language (let u be empty, and put the whole string in v). No odd-length strings are in the language, because |v| would have to be odd. So L is just the language of even-length strings. --mconst \_ Thanks, yes L must be even. However, FS means that I'm able to build a machine with finite states, which means I should be able to represent it using regular expression. However, I can't possibly represent uvu^R because I need a push-down automaton to count for the reverse, so the answer should be be that L is NOT finite state, right? \_ /csua/tmp/regular-language --mconst \_ How much space do you need to tell if a string has an even number of characters? -- ilyas \_ Yes you're right, it is L={v | |v| is even}. I get confused by that u^R thinking the string MUST conform to that, but when in fact, it doesn't have to. \_ If your getting confused by uvu^R thinking you have to check to make sure u is reversed with u^R, think of this: Let v' = uvu^R. Then consider u' = {} (and u^R = {}). Now u'v'u'^R is in the language because it was a string originally in the language (its just uvu^R). Maybe you can start to see that the language is all the even strings, because just consider both u and u^R to be the emptystring. So you just need to insure v is even (and hence can be recognized with a DFA.) -mrauser \_ Who takes midterms on May 14th? \_ Many people do. I had two on May 14th. \_ What kind of whacked quarter/semester system in that?! |
2005/5/15-17 [Computer/SW/Graphics, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:37697 Activity:moderate |
5/15 Has anyone read Foucault's Pendulum? If so, is it a good book to pick up? I'm split over whether to read it or not, based on reviews on amazon (which either love it or hate it). \_ This is a notoriously "difficult" book, so take reader reviews for what they're worth. Some people that I know who have read it say that it's difficult for the sake of being difficult, and others like it for the "depth." I couldn't finish it because all the years of video games and the internets have fried my attention span. \_ I read it twice: once to myself (I tend to skim) and once to my wife, out loud. (You have to read every word when you do that, though curiously you can zone out while doing it, intone every word perfectly, do different voices, and not remember the content of the last few pages.) At any rate, when I skimmed it I enjoyed it. When I read the whole thing I realized I was definitely "not tall enough" to be reading this book. If National Treasure is the working man's version of the Treasure w/ Clues Hidden Throughout History genre, this is the one for lit. majors. YMMV, but I probably understood this is the one for lit. majors. YMMV, but I probably under stood 95% of the vocabulary and 35% of the literary and historical references. (I was not a lit. major) Oh, and if you read this first then read DaVinci Code you'll have definite dejM-a vM-y. --dbushong then read DaVinci Code you'll have definite dejá vù. --dbushong \- I thought Name of the Rose was quite a good story. I didnt think FP was a great story. I think there were individual paragraphs which were well written. I think they would have been worth reading for an aspiring writer who wanted to see some samples of nice descriptions, but again from a plot/ characters/entertainment perspective, didnt do well "in my book" ... I finished the book in part because I was on expedition and it was one of the only books I had with me. I like history but I wasnt into all the stuff about I like history but I wasnt that into all the stuff about publishing. I dont understand why people consider it "hard". I think the Iliad is hard. There might be details one misses \_ No, Ulysses is hard :). -- ilyas \- I have read Ulysses once and the Iliad 6 times. I think the Iliad is more rewarding. IMHO, U is much more for people interested in literature while I has more to say about "life". U (and even more FW) in some ways are a little bit of a game or deliberate, conscious challenge while I is a stright up profound work. As they say, YMMV. Parenthetically, I think the Odyssey is very enjoyable but much more "partial credit" friendly than I. BTW, Professor Bishop is giving a talk about FW on 5/26 at UCB. in FP, but it's pretty amenable to "partial credit" unlike a work with high "barriers to entry". If you have not read 'Rose, read that. If you want other historical fiction recommendations, state your parameters. --psb \- BTW, one of the best historical fiction series I have read is Les Rois Maudits [The Accursed Kings] series begining with Le Roi de Fer [The Iron King] by Maurice Druon. It is difficult to find a (english) copy to own, although libraries ought to have them. It is about although libraries ought to have it. It is about Philip IV le Bel of France and his progeny. --psb then read DaVinci Code you'll have definite dejá vù. --dbushong Philip IV, Le Bel, of France and his progengy. --psb Philip IV, Le Bel, of France and his progeny. --psb \_ Name of the Rose was utter pap. Long-winded rants, unresolved plot threads and unsatisfactory endings don't make good books. Highly overrated (though far less irritating than the Da Vinci Code). \_ Da Vinci Code was Foucault's Pendulum light. FP is better written, more engaging, and imparts much more information than Dan Brown's rehashing of "Angels and Demons" and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." The reading level for FP is high, though straightforward; the literary and historical references are sometimes obscure. If you enjoy this, you may also enjoy the works of John Crowley, and you may even enjoy the Illuminatus! trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. As for The Name of the Rose, it was brilliant, but it is so well-written in the style of the period that the prose quickly becomes unwieldy to the modern reader. --erikred \_ I liked it. I did not understand all the historical references though I did have some knowledge of the history of secret societies during the Crusades, from my past experience as a DeMolay (Masonic youth organization). I liked the fact that parts of the puzzle were "missing" for me, because they were missing for the main characters as well and it kind of put me in their mind state. If you can stand being baffled half the time, it is a great read. -ausman \- FYI, Les Rois Maudits more or less opens with the scene of Demolay et al roasting over an open fire on the Ile de la Cite. \_ Jacques DeMolay, you are avenged! \_ It has great references and a fantastic premise but the writing style and conclusion left me a bit unimpressed. -John \_ Like Partha and the rest here, I read "difficult" books by choice. (With my name, how could I not?) I found FP to be like listening to the rant of a well-educated schizophrenic vagrant. It is occasionally brilliant but mostly just pleased with its own level of detailed erudition. The story beneath all the noise was hardly compelling, either. The Name of the Rose, on the other hand, I recommend. -- ulysses \_ I read it 10 years ago, so it's a little fuzzy, but I remember enjoying the book, though I wouldn't say it's a must read. The writing style and story are actually pretty straightforward, so, in that sense, it isn't particularly difficult, but I did find it really boring at points. The highlight of the book is a 200-300 page section in the middle in which the development of the Knight's Templar, Rosicrucians, etc. is historically explained. I thought that part was awesome. -ciyer |
2005/5/15-17 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll/Jblack] UID:37698 Activity:nil |
5/15 Justin Black, please expand all freeper URLs instead of using IPs. Until you do that, I'm deleting all of your stuff. \_ % finger jblack I'm confused. There are a lot of Clinton bashing, Reagan worshipping trash, mixed with quotes that point out why private land ownership is bad, mixed with why gun control is bad. Who the hell is Justin Black? |
2005/5/15-17 [Uncategorized] UID:37701 Activity:nil |
5/15 Does anyone happen to know generally how accurate getrusage() is? Can other activity on the system significantly influence the cpu time reporting? Thanks. |
3/15 |