5/19    http://tinyurl.com/bsyxx    http://Amazon.com
        I have never seen so many reviews written by a dumbass with so
        many negative ("0 of X people found the following review helpful")
        feedbacks. Half of what he writes, he writes VERBATIM in his other
        reviews as well, like "Socialism is the root of all evils!"
        Maybe you can help/unhelp him out as well.

5/20    East Antarctica ice sheet growing:
        http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050516/full/050516-10.html
        \_ as predicted by global climate models showing global warming.
           The gain in ice mass reduces ocean level rise by 0.12mm per year,
           but ocean levels are still rising at 1.8mm per year.  -tom
           \_ Where was this predicted?  I put this here not because it
              "disproves" global warming--just because it was interesting.
              \_ "But the panel also expected that climate change
                 would trigger an increase in snowfall over the
                 Antarctic continent, as increased evaporation from
                 the oceans puts more moisture into the air."
                 "This is a phenomenal piece of research, but it is what we
                 expected"  -tom
                 \_ So as the globe warms, Antarctica will expand? Isn't
                    this rather contradictory? Does that mean all the
                    stuff about poles melting is BS?
                    \_ No, it means that the process isn't linear.  As
                       ice melts, there is more moisture in the system
                       and thus more snow in some parts of Antarctica.
                       The snow doesn't compensate for the amount of
                       ice that melted; most of it goes to rising sea
                       levels.  -tom
                       \_ There's also the whole West Antarctica problem.
                          It'd be interesting to see how the expanding
                          eastern portion of the continent compares with the
                          contracting western portion.
                          As a sidenote, I don't have a URL, but every visual
                          portrayal I've seen of the expected global warming
                          trend includes pockets of cold, which expand for
                          a decade or so before collapsing and popping up
                          elsewhere.  Meanwhile the rest of the earth gets
                          toasty.  Yay PBS!
                 \_ "Predict" means to say before.  It doesn't mean, oh this
                    proves global warming because we expected it.  Where was
                    the expectation published prior to this result?
                    \_ http://www.csua.org/u/c5g  - bbc news link
                       \_ Way to post an irrelevant diagram!  Where does that
                          image predict thickening of any Antarctic ice?
                          \_ right where there's a cold front off the coast
                             of antarctica.
                          \_ what are you getting at?

5/20    These obscure and complicated US tax laws are really annoying.
        I just discovered that this 5-bagger stock (crxl: $3.67-$19) I bought
        is classified as PFIC (passive foreign investment company).  I would
        presume the law is made for foreign mutual funds but unfortunately,
        it also hits foreign biotech companies with lots of raised cash, but
        little earnings.  So now instead of a capital gains rate, I have to
        pay an income tax rate on gains.  Not only that, I also have to pay
        interest penalties to IRS, unless I pay tax on unrealized capital
        gains every year.  WTF?!  Now I am faced with two "choices":
        (1) Spend many hours to visit an accountant (TurboTax doesn't deal
        with PFIC satisfactorily), file an amended tax return, emails and
        phone calls to crxl to get the needed information to complete the
        tax forms, in order to pay like $6000 additional tax payment, and
        file election forms every year in the future as long as I own the
        stock.
        (2) Pretend I didn't know the company is a PFIC and not do anything,
        and just pay the capital gains rate when I actually sell.

        Choice (2) just seem so much more attractive.  I mean, first, the
        spirit of the law should not be applied to biotech stocks, and
        second, why does IRS make it so complicated and time consuming, and
        so much work to pay them additional taxes.

        PFIC tax laws:
        link:tinyurl.com/ajptl
        Anyone has any experience dealing with PFICs?
        \_ Just do (2). If the IRS sends you a bill for the remainder just
           pay that. The cost of dealing with this on your own, i.e. the
           cost of hiring an acountant/tax attorney can be deducted, however...
           With the IRS being as emasculated today under the Bush
           administration, I think they'll just be happy to receive a check...
           \_ Thanks.  I "transferred" (sold and rebought) the stock from
              my regular account to my Roth/IRA accounts.  I decided to take
              a tax hit now (or rather, next year) rather than let this tax
              issue fester while I continue to hold on to the stock.

5/20    DO NOT buy a Hitachi HD!!! Their return procedure sucks. I returned
        my drive 2 wks ago and they still haven't shipped my replacement.
        Service is just abysmal. FUCK HITACHI!!!
        \_ Just wait.  I remember it took a couple weeks from the day
           I dropped it off at the post office.
           \_ SEVERAL WEEKS? Western Digital gives you a new one the next day,
              even before you returned the defective one (provided that you
              give them a credit card). If you return the defective one within
              30 days they won't charge your card. It's called the Advanced
              RMA. Face it. Hitachi sucks.
              \_ Well, Hitachi RMA sucks, in terms of taking as long as
                 four weeks ("14 business days" + shipping).  But I still
                 trust Hitachi most in terms of reliability.  The
                 difference may not be that great for desktop drives, but
                 Hitachi/IBM makes superior notebook drives.

5/20    I read that the number of computer science majors is shrinking,
        and the number of business majors is shrinking, but the number of
        people attending college is growing.  What is everyone going into
        these days? Bio? Poly Sci?
        \_ Healthcare fields?  I heard that nurses make as much as senior
           CS engineers these days and they work four days a week.
           \_ A Male Nurse?  FOCKER?
              \_ Yup, Gaylord Focker.  Besides, we've seen male nurse on ER and
                 such.
        \_ law, business
           \_ OP says the number of business majors is shrinking.
        \_ This is the new America.  College networking good.  Edumacation
           bad.  God good.  Science bad.
        \_ Bio is probably a good bet. We will need a lot more doctors in
           the next 15+ years.  Maybe some people are going into other eng
           or science fields. I was MSE as ug but have been a coder for many
           years and I think that doing a real science is far more interesting
           than coding.
           years and I think real science is far more interesting than cs.
           \_ I don't think bio in terms of doctors, but in terms of
              biotechnology. I think hard science is more interesting, BUT
              there is a lot of competition for dollars. You have to slave
              away as a grad student and at the end of it you may or may
              not have a good job. It is so much easier to, say, go to law
              school. There are too many scientists competing for too
              little money and the rewards for being a scientist are small
              but for a few.
              \_ Biotech seems like a big hype job to me.  Sure it is
                 interesting and all, but most of work in the field is
                 low pay lab rat type stuff.
                 Funny you should mention LS. I'm currently in LS and I
                 find it much harder than grad school (I'm enjoying LS
                 more than grad school, though). You are spot on about
                 the money; it is far easier to make money as a lawyer
                 than as a scientist/engineer (which is why I'm in LS).
                 \_ what law school.  What was your UG GPA and LSAT?
                    Thanks.
                    \_ gpa 3.03, lsat 168. I'm going to santa clara
                       b/c it is the closest to my house (I'm in sj).
                 \_ Where did you go to grad school and in what field?

5/20    Does the FF error reporter actually work for anyone? When I allow it
        to report, it just sites there saying "in Queue" all day until I give
        and close it. Also, I've notice that FF 1.04 crashes from time to
        time on http://gamespot.com.

5/20    Turns out Newsweek was right, just as I predicted:
        http://csua.org/u/c4r
        \_ No, they didn't.  The article you link to does not confirm flushing
           the Koran.
           \_ The "flushing of the Koran" has been floating around the press
              for literally years.  The Newsweek story said that it was in the
              upcoming Southern Command report.  This doesn't confirm or
              contradict the Newsweek story.  It's just another data point.
        \_ Ummm, no.  This is exactly what the military already admitted
           to, except that it further specifies that they solved the
           problem.
           \_ Yup.  No more Koran flushing.  We've taken to chaining taxi
              drivers up by the wrists.
              http://csua.org/u/c4s
              \_ Quick, change the subject!  Not to meantion, this is from
                 3 years ago, so it hardly counts as "we've taken to"
                 (present tense).  However, yes, I agree that's horrible,
                 and those involved should be punished.  It also nothing
                 to do with the topic.
                 \_ What exactly is the topic in your mind?  That newsweek
                    is the root cause of our bad image?  As long as we are
                    holding people in secret, these actions will continue.
                    Do I have proof of that?  No.  But the assurance would
                    be to let third party observers in, not to blindly trust
                    Pentagon reports.
                    \_ The topic in my mind was ascertaining the truth
                       for the statement "Turns out Newsweek was right,
                       of the statement "Turns out Newsweek was right,
                       just as I predicted."
                       \_ So we've solved the koran flushing problem.  Okay,
                          how about the slightly broader torturing innocent
                          people problem?
                          \_ Start a new thread, dumbass.
            \_ Nice job censoring my reply.
               \_ It wasn't censoring.  Ilya overwrote like three big chunks.
                  Stop feeling special.
        \_ "We have received no credible and specific allegations" of
           Koran desecration or Koran mistreatment conducted by
           US personnel at Gitmo. -White House
            Koran desecration or Koran mistreatment conducted by US personnel
            at Gitmo." -White House
           \_ Translation: "No one took pictures this time. Praise Jeebus"
           The International Committee of the Red Cross documented what it
           called credible information about U.S. personnel disrespecting
           or mishandling Korans at the Guantanamo detention facility and
           pointed it out to the Pentagon in confidential reports during
           2002 and early 2003, an ICRC spokesman said Wednesday. -Tribune
           Damn that liberal media, printing the truth again!

5/20    I've noticed that FF 1.04 crashes from time to time on http://gamespot.com.
        Anybody else see this?
        \_ You sure it's not an extension you installed?  I had an old
           version of flashblock and it was doing that.

5/20    For the person who was asking how to best answer the question,
        "What's your weekness?" during the interview.  IMHO, the best
        way to answer that is to talk about how you'd like to be more
        proficient in an area that you are _not_ interviewing for.
        For example, if you are interviewing for a backend position,
        then talk about how you are not as strong in front end design
        but would love to get more exposure to it.  Or for non-managedment
        engineering positions in general, it is also okay to say you are
        not comfortable enough speak in front of hundredes or thousdands
        of people but you would like to take some public speech classes
        if the company can sponsor it (it is important to quatify the
        number of audience; you want to point out you are totally comfortable
        doing a technical presentation/review for your peers).
        This answer usually leads to discussion about company's education
        benefits, which is what you want to find out anyway.
        \_ The best answer is "I don't have any weaknesses"
         \_ I'd rather someone blew off the question than respond this way
         \_ No, that's the worst answer.a
            \_ I dunno -- the last thread about this had some pretty messed
               answers....
            \_ It's not the worst answer if it is true. If you're good at
               your job and you have good people skills to boot plus tons
               of experience in the relevant positions then why would you
               have any weaknesses? I mean, seriously, what the hell are you
               supposed to say? I don't have a good backhand in tennis?
               I don't play golf? I mean, seriously, wtf ARE you supposed to
               say if you have 10+ years of experience in the field, worked
               on various projects as follower or leader, have had a pretty
               good track record on those projects, given lectures on the
               field, published papers, etc. etc.. If you are the best
               candidate for the job, why SHOULD you have any weaknesses?
               \_ If you think you're perfect, that's a weekness.
                  \_ Perhaps if you think you are NOT perfect for the job,
                     now that's a weakness. If you don't think you're perfect
                     for the job, then why are you applying? Also, who said
                     anything about thinking that you yourself are perfect?
                     Not having a weakness != perfection.
                     \_ Okay, I'll emend that.  If you don't think you have
                        weaknesses, you're lying to yourself and others.
                        \_ So in other words, you don't believe that people
                           can be good at what they do. That's an interesting
                           attitude.
                           \_ No.  I believe that people who are never
                              introspective are dangerous.  I believe that
                              people who don't find they have things to
                              better in themselves are stunted and boring.
                              \_ Being introspective is one thing, being
                                 weak at something is another. Don't mix
                                 the two. You're confusing self assessment
                                 with being weak. Self assessment leads to
                                 improvement, even in things you are strong
                                 at. It's akin to saying that Tiger Woods
                                 has a "weak" short game. His weak short
                                 game still blows 99% of the population
                                 out of the water. He can improve on it,
                                 (heck, he can improve on all aspects of
                                 his game), but I wouldn't call it a
                                 weakness, especially if you're applying
                                 for a job. Seriously, this is one of those
                                 dumb corporate interview questions that
                                 should be banned. It's a dumb question and
                                 leads to no real answers.
                                 \_ Sounds like you're reading too much into
                                    the question.  This is exactly what they're
                                    asking about.  Things you'd like to be
                                    better at.  Maybe it's bad terminology,
                                    but you're being really obtuse.
                                 \_ If you asked Tiger Woods his biggest
                                    weakness and he said "My short game"
                                    it would make plenty of sense. How his
                                    short game compares to mine is not the
                                    question.
        \_ my biggest weakness is not being able to find more time to <stick
           in something irrelevant to work>. For example, I'm unable to find
           more time to read fine American literatures, take French/cooking,
           class, and do things that'll make me a better rounded person.
           Heck they don't give a shit how well-rounded you are, so why not.
        \_ The purpose of this question is to bait you into revealing a real
        show stopper flaw, or see if you dodge the question or throw up a smoke
        screen answer.  As long as you answer it honestly and don't throw out
        a juicy flaw like stealing other people's lunchs from the company
        refrigerator, you are probably fine.  -ax
           \_isn't hacking code and eating Doritos making you more well-rounded
                \_ Only in the chiapet sense.

5/20    So we've solved the koran flushing problem.  Okay,
        how about the slightly broader torturing innocent
        people problem?
        \_ Start a new thread, dumbass.
           \_ Okay.  Here ya go.
        \_ So who's innocent again?
           \_ According to AI, roughly 90% of the people we round up.
              Did you read the NYT article: http://csua.org/u/c4s
              \_ Oh yes, I've read it.  I've read people call things "torture"
                 that I wouldn't call torture.  And then there's the question
                 of determining innocence without interrogation, etc.
                 \_ You mean the stuff that doesn't cause death or major organ
                    failure? Some whiners actually call that torture!
                 \_ I remember there was a news article that the prisoners
                    called female interrogators stripping, rubbing their
                    breasts against their backs, sitting on their laps, and
                    commenting on their apparent erection torture.  Gee, where
                    can I get training to become a failed terrorist?
                 \_ Preach it brother! Interrogation is a wonderful tool that
                    should be used more often. And what does not kill them
                    makes them stronger, so we're helping them. Another tool
                    we should use is trial by fire. God will save them if they
                    are innocent.
                    \_ I remember there was a news article about someone
                       complaining about being raped.  Gee, where can I
                       myself raped?
        \_ well duh, that's obvious.  Get the foes to fight like a real army,
           wearing uniforms and all that.
           \_ Do you know that we do roundups.  Go into a community gathering
              and grab 50 people because 1 we want _might_ be there.  There's
              no 4th amendment in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Hell, there's no due
              process at all with the people in our prisons there.  We defeated
              the army that wears uniforms.  The people attacking us now are
              regular Iraqis who we went there to "liberate".  Yes yes yes,
              there may be some foreign influence, but they need the support
              of locals to operate.  And when we do shit like this, it doesn't
              help make them not want to support those foreign elements.
           \_ Just because they act like psychotic thugs doesn't mean we
              should.  Ever heard of the moral high ground?  And I believe op
              said "innocent", like that Canadian dude we delivered to the
              Syrian mukhabarat or whatever they're called because they
              aren't so restrictive about genital-clamping people with
              similar names as suspected terrorists.  -John
        \_ I think one aspect of this mess that's often ignored is the treatment
           of American citizen prisoners in American prisons.  All this stuff
           that generated international outrage -- that's the stuff that
           happens in American prisons every day, and passes mostly without
           comment from American media. -- ilyas
           \_ Prove it.
              \_ This is fairly well documented, you can stroll over to
                 http://aclu.org, for instance.  In fact, much as I am not fond of
                 some of the stances ACLU takes, I have to give them credit
                 for immediately linking prisoner abuses abroad with prisoner
                 abuses at home. -- ilyas
                 \_ Okay, I'll check it out.  Thanks for the pointer (though
                    perhaps not for the news).

5/20    Reading tech support stories.  This page is by far the funniest
        I've seen yet.
        http://rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_smoke.shtml
        \_ Heh.
          * Customer: "Hi. I have a Macintosh. I had a disk that I wanted to
            put in the computer, but it wouldn't go, so I pushed harder, and
            it wouldn't go, so I pushed REALLY hard, and now it's making funny
            noises. I think there was a disk in there already."
          * Tech Support: "Unplug the computer, now."
          * Customer: "I don't want to lose my paper!"
          * Tech Support: "Unplug the computer right now. Your paper is lost.
            Your floppy drive is lost. If you're lucky the Mac will be OK.
            Unplug it now."
          * Customer: "But I don't want to lose my paper!"

        After a few more repetitions of this, I heard someone, presumably the
        client's roommate, scream. Then I heard the dorm fire alarm go off in
        the background. Those things are awful loud, but she didn't seem
        interested in unplugging the computer, fleeing the fire in her room,
        or anything else other than arguing with me. Figuring I was doing her
        a favor, I hung up.

5/20    Has any republic in the history of the world lasted longer than 300
        years?
        \_ Is the English Commonwealth a republic?
           \_ No.  There is a monarch.
           \_ To be precise, it's a Constitutional Monarchy.
        \_ If you mean 'country' then sure.  If you mean 'continuous
           government' I'm not so sure.
           \_ I mean continuous government.
        \_ The Chow dynasty in ancient China lasted ~800 years under a
              continuous govt.  But it's not a republic.
           continuous govt.  But it's not a republic.  Switzerland has been a
           republic as the Swiss Confederation since 1291.
           \_ Confederation, not Republic :)  -John
              \_ According to http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook
                 (yeah, the CIA), it's a federal republic.  I don't know what
                 the difference is.
                 \_ Uh, erm, but they haven't broken our yodel code!  -John
           \_ Zhou Dynasty had total of 23 successions (e.g. 24 Emperors),
              most numerous successions in China's 5000 years history.
              In many ways number of successions is a better guage than
              number of years when one judge the length of regimes.
        \_ Rome.
           \_ 510 BC to 44 BC according to Wikipedia:
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_republic
              But wasn't the period from 133 BC on pretty much a mess?
        \_ The Thousand Year Reich lasted 12 years.

5/20    If I want a little basement for my house (to put wine, or hot servers
        to keep them cool), is it possible to do so? How much does it cost
        and what are some complications to it? Thanks.
        \_ Most houses in California (at least recent ones) are built on a
           slap of concrete.  They dig, fill with concrete, then build on top
           of that slap.  It'd be impractical to try to put a basement there.
        \_ Where do you put your hot wife?

5/20    If Germans heil to Hitler, does Hitler heil to anyone?
        \_ He hails Victory. Sieg Heil!
        \_ Well, Hitler is German, so he must heil himself.  But, when
           Hitler is heil'd he must always return the hiel. Therefore
           Hitler finds himself in an infinite recursive heil loop.
           \_ Austrian, actually, but good theory.  "Mein Leben!"  -John
           \_ no better place to be recursive than hell.
           \_ When he heiled himself in the mirror, he found himself in two
              infinite recursive loops.
              \_ That's when he shot himself.
           \_ This sounds suspiciously similar to the Al Bundy theory on
              garage sales.
              \_ I never watched Married With Children, what was the Al
                 Bundy garage sale theory?
                 \_ The theory involves 'the final idiot.'
                    \_ Sounds like the dot com stock market strategy.
        \_ Cross-reference http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086450
           "Heil Myself!"  -John

5/20    Headline of the day: "Bush promises probe into Saddam underwear
        pictures" (on Yahoo! news)
        Sadly now amended:
        http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/canderson/2005/05/20#23a505

5/20    Help. Sometimes on my XP, Hibernation fails. Worse, when I suspect
        for 1-2 hours and it tries to hibernate afterwards, it occasionally
        fails and keeps the laptop on. Why is this happening and how do I
        fix it? Thanks.
        \_ A real answer: The most likely reason for hibernation not working
           is due to network activity through one of your network interfaces.
           Attempt to disable network interfaces before hibernating and see
           if that affects it. If it does, then you need to mess around with
           the network driver settings and make sure that it is properbly
           power managed by your computer.
           Alternative reasons why hibernate fails:
           Your display driver (yes
           the display driver for your display subsystem also depends on
           ACPI) is buggy. Either get an updated version or mess around
           with the driver's settings.
           Your BIOS needs to be upgraded.
           Hibernation feature is unreliable (at times you cannot get it
           to come out of hibernate and forces you to restart) but if the
           problem persists, most likely it is one of the above problems.
        \_ The hibernation feature is not reliable.  Turn it off.
           \_ You're an idiot.
              \_ Actually, you're the idiot.  Many laptop bioses are
                 broken and resuming from hibernation is a tricky art
                 that doesn't always work.  After multiple hibernations,
                 even hibernation itself may fail.
                 \_ Yes, some BIOSes aren't up to snuff.  Do you know that's
                    the case for the op?  Just telling him that "hibernation is
                    broken" is useless and a waste of space.
                    \_ Your brain is not reliable.  Turn it off.
                       \_ Pot, kettle, black.   'nuff said.
                          \_ Ah, I can see your brain is off now.  Good job.
                             \_ Wow, your singlemindedness if impressive.
                                I would say keep it up, but it sounds like
                                nothing is going to get through your thick
                                skull in any case.  Poor guy.
        \_ Why not turn this feature off, reclaim some disk space, and
           use suspend instead?
           \_ I need to hibernate in cases that I need to swap battery
              (and I tried swapping with suspend and as expected, no luck).
              Also suspend doesn't save as much power as hibernate. ok thx.
           \_ Suspend consumes battery, hibernate does not.
        \_ What do you mean "fails"?  You can set your options so that it
           doesn't go from suspend->hibernate in the power options.
        \_ Have you checked if there is a BIOS update for your system?

5/20    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/20/politics/main697013.shtml
        Bush says "the way to honor [Pope JP] is to continue to build a
        culture of life where the strong protect the weak."
        Is that why we're torturing Iraqis and bombing civilians, so that
        they will not terrorize other people?
        \_ No, dumbass, it's the reason why we keep brain-dead people
           alive against the wishes of those with the power-of-attorney
           and also why we are defunding stem-cell research so that we'll
           be behind every other industrialized country in biotech in the
           near future. The torturing Iraqis and bombing civilians has to
           do with this nation being good Evangelical Christians in
           general. Your propoganda fu is weak.

5/20    I flunked calculus and now I'm struggling in my network class. In
        the lecture, the professor says p is the probability that a node in
        ethernet sends, N is the number of nodes, and the following is the
        slotted Aloha efficiency:
        N*p*(1-p)^(N-1) = ~1/e = 0.37
        I completely understand how he setup the equation, but got lost
        trying to derive it. He said it's junior high math and hand waived
        it, but I'd like to know how you do this. Any pointer to old
        calculus stuff would be appreciated, thanks.
           \_ http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wlr/12203/ethernet%201.pdf
              Ok fine, the slide is a mistake and he forgot lim
              \_ Also, it's (1-p)^(N-1) in the slide.
                 And he didn't forget lim.  It's an approximation.  As N
                 increases, S approaches 1/e.  His notation's a little strange,
                 but taking the lim would be even stranger.
        \_ As stated, this equation is simply untrue (what if N = 100?).
            -- ilyas
           \_ http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wlr/12203/ethernet%201.pdf
              Ok fine, the slide is a mistake and he forgot lim
              \_ Also, it's (1-p)^(N-1) in the slide.
                 \_ ... yeah.  Kind of important. -- ilyas
                 And he didn't forget lim.  It's an approximation.  As N
                 increases, S approaches 1/e.  His notation's a little strange,
                 but taking the lim would be even stranger.

5/20    Senior Java Developer position open in Pleasanton:
        /csua/pub/jobs/RHI-IT - jthoms

5/20    "In the United States if there's a terrible report, people don't riot
        and kill other people. And you can't excuse what they did because of
        the mistake -- you know, you can't blame it all on Newsweek."
        -Laura Bush
        \_ Another entry in the long "Uh, duh" column of public statements.
           \_ Well they DO riot and kill other people. Rodney King etc.
              \_ Uhm, if you can't tell the difference between the religious
                 fundamental culture of the Middle East and the United States,
                 then I have to wonder how in god's name you got into Cal in
                 the first place.
                  \_ Affirmative action.