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| 2005/8/16-17 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:39133 Activity:high |
8/15 So I am suddenly in the market for a new car. Looking at the insight
and prius. pros, cons? urls with facts to backup opinions? The insight
is listed at 55+ mpg, whereas the prius is 45.
\_ Looks like you can't wait. If you could wait until Jan 1st,
2006, you can benefit from ~$2500 tax credit (not deduction)
for the Prius (thanks for the new Energy Bill). This should
for the Prius (thanks to the new Energy Bill). This should
offset some of the price premium.
\_ The Prius is often cited as excellently engineered in all respects.
\_ The Prius is more expensive (~ $5K) than other similarly sized
cars. Even if gas goes to $5 per gallon, you will have to buy
1000 gallons to make up the difference. You might want to consider
that when making your choice (its not like a Corolla/Civic are
bad cars on their own, they get ~ 30 MPG).
\_ You also have to include tax and feel-good benefits.
\_ There is a tax benefit to driving a prius? I didn't know
that. Do you know how much it is? (Other than the Jan 1
benefit mentioned above).
One thing I read about in the paper today is that w/ a
Prius you can drive in the carpool lane, which makes the
Prius look a bit more appealing financially.
\_ What about the Civic Hybrid? -- !OP
\_ The Civic Hybrid is ~ $4K more than a regular civic so
you probably want to take that into acct. Also the Civic
Hybrid isn't as efficient as the Prius so it will take
you longer to recover your investment.
I guess my main concern re Prius/Civic Hybrid is that
I'd have to keep the car well past 70K miles to make
back the money and I've never kept a car w/ that many
miles on it b/c I've always started to run into probs
around 65K miles.
\_ I'm not knowledgeable enough about the details to informatively
comment, but, philosophically, I think the Insight is the
more appealing car. The Prius seems to be trying to be all
things to all people -- it's more or less a normal Corolla size
automobile with a hybrid engine; the Insight, OTOH, seems willing
to give up some of the "conveniences" of normal automobiles for
better fuel effeciency (Insight is quite small, has 3-cylinder
engine, etc), and I appreciate the gutsyness. There was a good
review of the Insight in ArsTechnica a few years back:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/3q00/honda/insight-1.html
\_ Yeah, except the Insight is hella gay, duuuuude.
\_ Just paint some bimbo pics on the sides.
\_ Even better - bimbo mudflaps.
\_ Talk about mudflaps, my girl's got 'em.
\_ Tell her to go get a buttlift.
\_ Or an anal bleach! |
| 2005/8/16-17 [Reference/History/WW2/Germany, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:39134 Activity:moderate |
8/15 Meet the new German NPD, same as the old German NSDAP:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/08/16/neo_nazis/index.html
\_ Somebody cracked one of their servers and found records detailing
donations from illegal neo-nazi groups (the NPD is a "legitimate"
party) and anonymously forwarded it to the German cops, who don't
have the same restrictions on acquisition of evidence... -John
\_ hmm. Does that qualify as "white hat" or "black hat" hacking?
\_ Good question. The guys who did it told me they felt pretty
white hat. Makes you think, though. -John |
| 2005/8/16-17 [Recreation/Food, Recreation/Food/Alcohol] UID:39135 Activity:high |
8/16 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050816/ap_on_re_us/hispanics_immigration "A majority of Hispanics born in the United States don't think illegal Hispanic immigrants should be given drivers' licenses, according to a new poll." \_ C'mon, folks, it's a sting operation. \_ That would be kinda funny. "Here's you driver's licence sir, and here's your border patrol officer." \_ Seriously, you don't see this happening? \_ In a word, no. \_ You don't need borders! How Cold War! Become a Citizen of the World! Get your Global Work Permit! Travel! See the sights! When there are no more borders, there will be no more war! Hey, what is the EU policy on non-EU people trotting about? How about Switzerland? \_ We have a treaty with the EU to allow bilateral work permits very easily. The overprotected, overpriced, mollycoddled Swiss markets could use it (just like the overprotected, &c &c US, Jap and EU markets could use some competition) as we're seeing an insane amount of super-qualified people coming in from Germany and Austria who are fleeing statist ham-handedness there, and really raising the quality bar here. And although the EU is a bureaucratic shitpile, its very existence is sure motivating the Poles/Czechs/Balts and friends into becoming lean, fast- growing economies. Global economics is not a zero-sum game, to be ruined by protectionist tax-horny command-economy government hacks. May I suggest a cabin in Montana? -John \- I am for sure going to have fun watching "libertarian" geeks sort themelves out into various flavors under the pressure of globalization. i wonder if there will be an attempt to vincent chin somebody in a pathetic geek way. \_ Partha once went on record as saying libertarians are libertarian because this allows them to excuse the way they naturally feel, or something like that. I am sort of they naturally feel, or something like that. I was sort of idly wondering if John is going to show up one day and accuse Partha of overgeneralizing and 'wrongthink,' but then I realized it's only chic to do that to me. -- ilyas \_ Dey took ur' jerbs!! \_ We'll just take our families and go start american food restaurants in Calcutta. That'll show 'em. -JOhn \_ Genuinely curious... Do they sell Garden Burgers in India? \- no, in india it is easy to find vegetarian food that actually tastes good. you dont have newly minted vegetarians who "miss" the hamburger experience. and burgers are generally mutton or chicken if memory serves. serving beef in a high profile way [like if you are mcd] is just asking for trouble. \_ Spoken like someone who's never tried a really good veggie patty. I am not a vegetarian, and I appreciate a good beefburger, but there is such a thing as a really tasty veggie burger. \- when i go to india, kolkata in particular, i basically become a vegetarian because the vegetarian food is better than about every- thing else and cheaper too. so while i dont typcally eat vegetarian burgers here, on statistical grounds this is pretty defensible. many of the vegetables here are really expensive or bland, especially tomatos. in much of india since you buy fresh vegetables at the market every day, they may look funky but they are vastly better than about any non-chez panisse level vegetables here. i think a better comparison is something like say flan ... flan will not take off in india anytime soon because there is nothing to cause the flan market to go through a "hyper inflation" phase. it's not a matter of whether flan is good or bad ... it's not enough better than domestic sweets. pizza on the other hand is an innovation that is taking off because of marketing and novelty. in spite of the pizza being bad. so yes if for some reason a company making really tasty veggie burgers dumps millions of dollars into mkting, then maybe they will taken off, but that's not going to happen. \_ I have a colleague originally from around about Hyderabad who went to the Bombay Inst of Tech. He complained (at length) about American hamburgers. His reasoning was the home of the hamburger (his idea, not mine) should have a huge variety of meat and non-meat hamburgers available. This because he bragged about the huge variety of specifically non-meat burgers available in (I presume) Bombay and Hyderabad. He also, IIRC, said meat hamburgers were uncommmon. That said, he may simply have been whinging since he was dealing with some pretty bad culture shock at the time. -- ulysses \_ There is a huge variety of meat and non-meat burgers available here in the USA. \_ Yup. One place has Ostrich burgers I think. Forgot the name. \_ Fuddrucker's does. It's also common to see turkey, buffalo, salmon, and many varieties of soy/veggie burgers. \_ There's also an awesome place on the main square in Sonoma that does a duck burger with foie gras. It's really good. -John \- well i think those still dont count as "common". mcd, bk, carls jr, wendys etc are mostly beef, some chicken options, one fish item, but no lamb, mutton, goat, turkey, pork [maybe turkey] etc. contrast to say a typical mexican facility with al pastor, carne asada, ground beef, chortizo, carnitas, tongue etc. same for a deli ... lots of options compared to a typical hamburger facility. --psb \_ Look in a Wal-Mart for what the "common" American eats. The places you mentioned have about as much food value as Viet Cong sandals cut from truck tires. As for Indian food, didn't the head of Congress' youth wing once chop up his gf and hide her in a tandoori oven? Mmh! -John \_ The discussion was about common hamburger options, not what is healthy or common to eat. \_ Yes, and the options meantioned were of Viet Cong truck tire sandal food value, allowing for crack about average Americans' dining habits, Wal-Mart and tandoori dismemberment. Capisce? \_ Almost every fast food joint offers a chicken sandwich/burger. Jack in the Box had the Turkey Jack. Once you stray from the big chains, though, you easily find the rest. Turkey burgers are especially easy to find, as are veggie burgers. Even the big chains have had veggie burgers at various times. I think some still do. \- BTW, one reason traditional burgers and pizza in india are ass is because you cannot get good "cheej". i dunno if you will "get" this if you dont know india, but i thought this was both hilarious & insightful in the horrible VS Naipaul way: http://csua.org/u/d26 [you have to click fwd to the first page of text]. you may also wish to see: http://csua.org/u/d27 for more fun with Sir Vidia. \_ There is lots of good vegetables \_ There are lots of good vegetables at reasonable prices here. You just have to go to Farmer's markets, like the one at the Civic Center in San Francisco. Organic produce from Whole Foods is also quite good, but pricey. -ausman |
| 2005/8/16-20 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java] UID:39136 Activity:nil |
8/16 I'm looking to write a Java app which initiates and maintains hundreds
of simultaneous, low-bandwidth HTTP connections. The prevailing
answer for simultaneous HTTP connections seems to be use the
HttpURLConnection class and one thread per connection. I'm wondering
if there's a better way, like maybe some way to have buffered reads
and writes from low-level sockets using only a pair or I/O threads.
Is this possible in Java or do I have to use something like a thread
pool?
\_ Since Java 1.4, you are supposed to be able to use something
equivalent to select(), as you would with BSD sockets. It's
all in the java.nio package:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/nio
\_ Thanks! -op |
| 2005/8/16-20 [Politics/Domestic/911] UID:39137 Activity:nil |
8/16 http://www.itv.com/news/index_1677571.html http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1548808,00.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes The innocent Brazilian killed in the tube shooting was a total fuckup by police. No baggy jacket, no jumping over the turnstile, no running until he saw a train was about to leave, probably no order to stop. \_ But you've got to admit, he did have the audacity to not look white. \_ And he wasn't one of the good shades either. \_ Okay, I'll bite -- What's a "good shade"? \_ my problem is that London police doesn't suffer any consequences as result. There are *NO* incentive for them to be careful before they unload all the rounds into one's head. |
| 2005/8/16-20 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39138 Activity:nil |
8/16 Funny. Sheehan didn't have a problem taking a picture with Bush last
year: http://www.csua.org/u/d1z
\_ You're not very bright, are you?
\_ Yeah, being in shock at the loss of your son is hilarious.
\_ Funny as in odd, not as in hilarious you fucktard.
\_ Someone's sarcasm detector is on the fritz.
\_ wow, she is obviously a hypocrite!
\_ No, just a nut.
\_ Hi jblack!
\_ It is not Sheehan that is the crazy one here:
\_ Perhaps it is not Sheehan that is the crazy one here:
http://csua.org/u/d2b (Yahoo News)
\_ Interesting article. You know, during the last days of
Germany, Hitler tried to moved troops that no longer
existed and talked about a final pushback that would
make his dream come true.
http://csua.org/u/d2c (Capitol Hill Blue)
\_ Heh. Damn Nazis. -- ilyas |
| 2005/8/16-20 [Industry/Jobs] UID:39139 Activity:nil |
8/16 GUI OS on 8-bit Commodore 64!
http://www.zimmers.net/geos
\_ Looks remarkably like KDE.
\_ BSW used to hire great numbers of UCB coop students. They were
in the building right next to the Berkeley BART station.
\_ BSW, later GeoWorks and then Geoworks, used to hire only co-ops
\_ BSW, later GeoWorks and now Geoworks, used to hire only co-ops
and only from Cal for engineers in its early days. The first VP
Engr started as a co-op. It was 1995 (when the dot-com boom
started?) when it had to resort to hiring fresh grads and hiring
from other schools. The company was in the penthouse of the
Great Western Bank building next to BART. The bank logo at its
entrance was, incidentally, "GW".
\_ I remember all the typefaces were named after streets in
Berkeley. There was a pc version that I ran on my first
laptop--a tandy 286.
\_ I think the latest version is available through
http://www.breadbox.com |
| 2005/8/16-20 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq, Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:39140 Activity:nil |
8/16 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050816/ts_nm/bush_protester_dc Take that, you godless liberals! \_ "we respect the troops, so we're gonna break your symbols of respect for the troops..." \_ One of the neighbors shot at her, too. How long till she becomes a martyr for her cause? \_ The guy fired a shot in the air. Even in this age of grade inflation and relaxed standards, you still have to die to become a martyr. \_ I give her a week before one of the deranged Freepers blows her brains out. \- Would you like to make a bet? --psb \_ No need. The neighbors are petitioning to ban protesters. This really IS Bush Country. \_ A neighbor (a relative of the guy who fired the shot) has offered them space on his land to stay. \- i am sort of suprised ROVECO hasnt found some iraqi mom whose son was shredded or boiled by S HUSSEIN to "spontaneously" reply saying something like "your son didnt die in vain, pls dont abandon us now. we love bush." --psb \_ Mom and Son probably got crushed to death together, you know the more the merrier principle of torture and despotism. |
| 2005/8/16-17 [Health/Disease/AIDS, Health/Disease/General] UID:39141 Activity:high |
8/16 Oregon passes law requiring a prescription to get Sudafed as a way of
"controlling" the meth problem:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050816/ap_on_he_me/meth_bill
How long will this idiotic War On Drugs policymaking last? Don't
they realize all the manufacturing will just move (or is already
moving) to Mexico, where you can get a lot more than just sudafed
over the counter? Plug one hole and thirteen more open. When will
they ever learn?
\_ "While increasing amounts of methamphetamine comes in from Mexico,
bill supporters say it could sharply reduce the number of home meth
labs"
\_ Great, more outsourcing.
\_ There is a lot of property damage and theft that result from local
meth production. I don't like this measure, but apparently it has
helped in other places.
\_ Isn't there a free market solution of some kind?
\_ yeah, how about a "meth tax" where the government
takes 10% of every hit, sells it, and uses the proceeds to
pay for the hotels and apartment buildings that get blown
up by meth labs. -tom
(The funny part is, some people will think this is a good
idea).
\_ Making meth labs a legitimate business will probably be
enough. How many apartment buildings do conventional
businesses blow up? -- ilyas
\_ I don't think so. Free market models presume that
people are basically rational. Meth heads aren't.
\_ Uh, what does the fact that meth heads (or most
people) are not rational have to do with making
meth labs a legitimate business? Current legitimate
businesses are often misused by people being
irrational (fast food, etc), yet this does not imply
we should make the businesses illegal, nor does it
imply McDonalds is going to start exploding things.
-- ilyas
\_ I think that's 'legitimate', man. I bet that's
just a lame troll-hack. -Benefit of the Doubt
\_ No, I think that's how jctwu thinks.
Sadly. -- ilyas
\_ ilyas, what have I done this time? -jctwu
\_ I'm not sure what ilyas is talking about,
so I'm asking him off motd. In any case,
I'm pretty sure ilyas either mispelled
on purpose, or he didn't know the right
spelling. I don't think that's related
to why he brought up my name, though.
I think he was just annoyed at my
"fight the power" comment. -jctwu
\_ Uh, what do you bet is a lame troll-hack?
\_ just your ass.
\_ If you get into an argument with someone about
whether methamphetamine manufacture should be legal
or not, you've probably already lost.
\_ Errr, no. Try the Economist special issue on
legalizing drugs for a nice refresher course.
\_ http://csua.org/u/d2e
\_ hey man, i'm not arguing with you ...
fight the power!
\_ Parse the words exactly as they're used,
please. To make it crystal clear:
"legalizing drugs" = No
"methamphetamine manufacture" = No
And now the new ideas:
Marijuana = Yes, for medical use
Which implies:
/Some/ currently illegal drugs = Yes
Which makes no specific comment about:
Cigarettes / Alcohol = Yes/No, Good/Bad
Incidentally, what I've written above is
also the same as how many, many Americans
feel, so none of this is new. |
| 2005/8/16-17 [Reference/Military] UID:39142 Activity:kinda low |
8/16 Two plane crashes and one earthquake together. The sky is falling.
\_ they should make the cockpitsbullet proof, chemical proof, and
have a separate safety feature for decompression.
\_ many airliners (737s included) keep cabin emergency O2 and
cockpit emergency O2 separate.
\_ Why is the Greek authority so sure at this early stage that
it's not a terror act? I remember there was a movie where
someone injected something into the AC system, making everyone
else unconscious.
\_ They're not sure it's not a terror act.
\_ I saw article yesterday saying they had ruled it out.
\_ Didn't this particular plane have a number of emergency
decompressions in the past?
\_ My theories:
(1) Either the pilot and co-pilot were taken by surprise
(perhaps by another crewmember), or one of them off'd the
other one.
(2) AC system really fucked up and pumped nasty gases much
faster into the cockpit than the cabin. Unfortunately,
the cabin was locked at the time.
\_ planes should also have an emergency over-ride. If necessary,
ground control can remotely control the plane.
\_ If terrorists on the ground take over the control room ......
\_ have a safety feature where there has to be agreement
between two or more locations in very different locations.
this would be a secret. This system would also help
prevent hijackers from taking over planes and crashing
them into buildings.
\_ "Each ship has it's own combination code..."
"...to prevent an enemy to do what we're attempting; using
our console to order Reliant to lower her shields..."
"Assuming he hasn't change the combination. He's quite
intelligent."
\_ ST:TNG? Which episode?
\_ Are you just trying to bait Star Trek movie guy,
or do you seriously not recognize the ship name
Reliant?
\_ Sounds like a good idea. It probably can't prevent
hijackets from crashing the plane onto ground (he can smash
everything in the cockpit with a suitcase), but it can
prevent crashing into specific targets. |
| 2005/8/16-20 [Politics/Domestic/911, Science/Physics] UID:39143 Activity:nil |
8/16 Once again, the onion news story sounds no sillier than the reality:
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2
"Even critics of Intelligent Falling admit that Einstein's ideas about
gravity are mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. This
fact, Intelligent Falling proponents say, proves that gravity is a
theory in crisis."
\_ The differential equation on the screen is awesome.
\_ What does it read? It's too small for me.
\_ dx/dt = 1 Cor. 1:10
\_ Sweet...
\_ Haha! This shows how silly the Evangelical "scientists"
are. Gravity is related to acceleration, which is dv/dt
not dx/dt.
Oh shit! I forgot that this is The Onion!
\_ tom's axiom 1
\_ What Newton said, in his own words:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity#Newton.27s_reservations
\_ Makes sense to me. That's why people say he came up with the
"law of gravity" versus "a theory of gravity". Not saying that
a theory is a full explanation, but at least it's more in that
direction. |
| 2005/8/16 [Uncategorized] UID:39144 Activity:high |
8/16 OKAY, HERE IT IS [Re: Lt. Col. Shaffer/Able Danger]
http://corner.nationalreview.com |
| 3/15 |