9/11    Hi John, I was the one who asked for recommendation for an entry-
        level telescope below.  I liked your suggestion of getting one
        that has a motor with usb controller port.  It will probably go
        way above my budget, but what the heck--can you email me the
        make and model of the one you have?  I'd also like to see what
        your Russian friend recommends. Thx. -tien
        \_ Sent.
        \_ just be warned. Even with the biggest telescope you can afford,
           you really can't see much.  At best, you can barely make out
           Saturn's ring on a good day, or barely make out the ice caps on
           mars.  Everything else is just a dot in the sky.  Unless you are
           really into it, you are not going to find telescope very
           helpful              - semi-astro geek too
           \- are the cheep russian/chinese models worth it unless you are
              buying pretty large ones? an associate of mine got a couple
              of "communist telescopes" but they are like 6ft long and
              i am sure are thousands of dollars. also can you really see
              much from the sf bay area?
              \_ My colleague just wrote a reply to tien--apparently it was
                 my mistake, the TAL scopes aren't entry-level, but rather
                 more affordable if you're up for higher-end optics.  The full
                 text is in ~john/scope
              \_ There is a major research telescope in the sf bay area, so
                 yes.  But you need to get up in the hills and away from
                 lights.  -tom
                 \- well i mean from your homebase. i mean there is a
                    major research telescope in LA too ...
                 \_ Do you mean the Lick Observatory?  I went there on a
                    company outing.  The only reason they can see anything is
                    because SJ has had a policy of sodium lamps (so that line
                    is lost, but the rest of the spectrum was clean).
                    Unfortunately, the city isn't paying as much attention to
                    that anymore.
                    \- there is also a small telescope south of gilroy
                       on freemont pk.
           \_ Saturn's rings are reasonably visible in my 90mm scope, even
              from light-polluted Berkeley.  I even once managed to spot
              the Eskimo Nebula (but it was a tiny faint gray blob that
              only showed up in averted vision).  But yeah, ice caps on
              Mars are hard to see.  Don't expect to see vividly colored
              nebula as pictured in ads; they're all gray.  Until you
              buy a CCD and do RGB exposures. -geordan
              \_ Have you tried viewing from Anthony Chabot Park?
                 \_ Not yet, although I did notice that the sky was pretty
                    bright when observing the Leonids some months back.
                    -geordan
        \_ ObDobson: http://members.aol.com/sfsidewalk/intro.htm
             \_ Dobsonian
                \_ The person's name was Dobson. Cf. beam in your own eye
                \_ The person's name is Dobson. Cf. beam in your own eye
                   before pointing out mote in another's.

9/11    It's 9/11. Where is Bin Laden? Why isn't anyone talking about 9/11
        and Bin Laden?
        \_ We have taken care of that issue after we invaded Iraq, don't
           you remember?
        \_ Who?
        \_ Give Bush at least twice as long as it took us to defeat the Nazis.
           Oh wait, he won't be President anymore then.  How old is bin Laden?
           Maybe natural causes aren't too many decades away ...
        \_ Mission Accomplished!

9/11    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050910/ap_on_hi_te/hybrid_showcase
        After slow sales and losing money and getting its ass kicked by Prius
        for 3 years, Honda finally unveiled its newest Honda Civic Hybrid,
        which is a lot more efficient than the old Honda Civic Hybrid. It's
        a whopping 50mpg/50mpg on both freeway/surface, a big improvement
        from 3 years ago. By the way, an old Prius is still 61mpg/51mpg on
        freeway/surface. Great job, Honda. They smoking weed there?
        \_ I'd own a civic b4 i'd own that wind-up car Prius anyday.
        \_ What's the actual gas mileage, since the EPA numbers are total
           fantasy ... (see latest consumer reports for more info)
           \- You should mail a machanical engineering professor a UofM
              and ask what car to buy.
        \_ Damn!  I didn't know about this car show.  Too late.
        \_ What's the MSRP?
        \_ Give me a hybrid Odyssey please!  -- minivan owner

o9/12   Tom Delay to evacuee kids: "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind
        of fun?"
        http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/page1/3346041
        \_ That's nice troll. Why don't I start posting some of race-baiting
           hate-filled comments Demos spout all the time that don't get
           reported? Why don't I quote it out of context as well.
           \_ What, like that John McCain has a black baby? Oh, wait, that
              was Republican race-baiting.
           \_ Indeed, why don't you?
        \_ What's wrong with what he said ... I'm sure to a lot of kids that's
           true, their perspective is vastly different.  The kids after WW2
           loved playing in the ruins, for example.
           \_ And it only cost them the occasional father.
                \_ There usually is a disconnect there that we don't have.
        \_ I thought that's the right way to lessen kids' pain.  For example,
           when my 1-yr old son trips and falls on the ground, if I rushed to
           him and comforted him and said things like "Does it hurt?  Are you
           alright?" he would start crying.  So now I changed to putting up a
           smile and say things like "Yeah, cool."  Then he won't cry and he'll
           get up by himself and go on.

9/12    Some vaccine requires 2 shots, 6-1 year apart. When will someone
        develop protection? A few weeks/months after the 1st shot? Or
        only after the 2nd shot?
        \- are you talking about say Hep A? some shots are configured
           to require boosters for longer term protection. so you will be
           protected for a while after the first shoot but if you get both
          you may be protected for 10-20 yrs.
           you may be protected for 10-20 yrs. the exact schedule recommended
           depends on the disease and the vacc type.
           \_ What about b that requires 3 shots? Are you protected after the
              first shot?
              \_ Each time your body reacts to an antigen, some B cells
                 targetting that antigen go into an inactive state with high
                 longevity.  By reactivating them with boosters after the
                 initial exposure reaction is over, more storage cells are
                 created, often with different ways of targetting the same
                 antigen.  So when you're infected by an active virus, your
                 body has a head start in dealing with it.  The boosters
                 give you even more of a head start, so that possibly your
                 body can fight off a virus before there are any symptoms.
                 \- You should go ask an immunology professor about this.
                    Or maybe Peter Deusberg. But stand with your back to
                    the wall.
                    \_ Or wear a chestity belt backward.

9/12    I need a domain registrar which also offers dynamic DNS service, and
        is hopefully reasonably priced and low-hassle.  Suggestions?

9/12    Can someone please post that one liner to run Firefox with low priority
        again?  I promise to write it down so the Sodalites can continue to wax
        poeticon politics and wipe out other posts.
        \_ http://csua.com
        \_ http://csua.com/?entry=39627
        \_ Poeticons!
           \_ Yes, it's "poetic on".  But whatever.  Thanks kchang.  The CPU
              still hovers between 08 - 15; is that high or low?  The memory
              usage is about 29MB, probably b/c of all these plugins I've
              loaded.  How much does FF consume on your machine?
              \_ Umm... reducing the priority of a process will NOT reduce
                 the amount of resources it requires.  It simply lowers
                 it's ability to aquire those resources from other
                 programs.
              \_ I think Poeticons makes for an awesome band name. Carry on.
        \_ On a related note: I don't have the problem with Fx eating up CPU
           cycles, but Fx eats up a lot of memory on my XP.  After browsing 10
           or 20 sites or so, the "VM Size" usually reaches 100MB.  I open a
           new window to browse every new site, and close the window
           afterwards.  Isn't Fx supposed to be leaner than IE and Netscape?
           \_ Actually, that's the exact same problem I have.  I usually open
              10 or 20 sites too, leave it open for a long time, and FF's
              memory consumption goes 200MB+.  I close the tabs eventually, but
              the memory doesn't seem to go down much to a bit under 100MB.
              Still, it crashes less than IE.  -op
           \_ Slowly but maturely, Firefox is becoming more and more like
              Netscape 4, the zenith of Netscape Corporation's incompetence.

9/12    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/site/newsweek
        "Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with
        disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by
        people who agree with him. ... When Hurricane Katrina struck, it
        appears there was no one to tell President Bush the plain truth:
        that the state and local governments had been overwhelmed, that the
        Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was not up to the job and
        that the military, the only institution with the resources to cope,
        couldn't act without a declaration from the president overriding all
        other authority."
        \_ link:tinyurl.com/cly9r [nyt] .  Yes, but in addition to that:
           "But decision makers in Washington felt certain that Ms. Blanco
           would have resisted surrendering control, as Bush administration
           officials believe would have been required to deploy active-duty
           combat forces before law and order had been re-established...
           'Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of
           the United States of one party had pre-emptively taken from the
           female governor of another party the command and control of her
           forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that
           she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that
           lawlessness was the inevitable result?' asked one senior
           administration official, who spoke anonymously because the talks
           were confidential."
           \_ He didn't have to do anything pre-emptively.  They put in the
              request for federal help BEFORE the storm hit.
              \_ LA requested federal help, but the governor did not
                 relinquish control over the National Guard (and still hasn't,
                 last I checked), which Bush & co. believed "would have been
                 required to deploy active-duty combat forces before law and
                 order had been re-established".  If you read carefully, it
                 would have been clear that the "pre-emptively" referred to
                 taking control of the National Guard.
           \_ Politics are more important than anything!
              \_ Apparently, since Blanco *still* would not relinquish of the
                 National Guard!
                 \_ And yet Bush & Co. didn't have the imagination to
                    federalize them without her permission ala the Kennedys.
                    All of that excutive power of the President and he can't
                    figure out how to use it.
                    \_ Yah.  I hate Bush but he should be declared King!

9/12    Maybe the Federal response wasn't as slow as we think:
        http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm
        \_ I don't trust the fact-checking ability of someone who writes that
           Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002.
           \_ Plus the levees broke on Monday, not Tuesday.
        \_ "We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like
           you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and
           waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree
           while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort
           were studying engineering."
           Yeah, I'm sure this "journalist" isn't trolling.  -tom
           \_ Man I wish there was some technology that allow us to fly in
              supplies and troops into places with no airstrips. I've seen
              things like that on some SciFi TV shows like MASH.
              \_ :-)
              \_ And why couldn't they find any choppers, I wonder?
                 \_ bush had em loaned out to his buddies?

9/12    http://www.google.com/search?q=failure
        \_ http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050911&mode=classic

9/12    http://www.pagerealm.com/tc2k
        http://www.custom3dgraphics.com/flash/hiphurts.html
        \_ That's pretty dang funny.
           \_ It is, though I almost feel like I'm a victim of this just by
              sitting through this.  --dbushong

9/12    http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1103581,00.html
        "... aides and outside allies concede, is what many of them see as the
        President's increasing isolation. Bush's bubble has grown more hermetic
        in the second term, they say, with fewer people willing or able to
        bring him bad news--or tell him when he's wrong. Bush has never been
        adroit about this. ... The result is a kind of echo chamber in which
        good news can prevail over bad--even when there is a surfeit of
        evidence to the contrary."
        \_ There appears to be an eery similarity to the US and Russia right
           now ... Remember that sub that got stuck and the wife of one of
           the sailors inquired if they would be ok and the response was
           "This is Russia.  Pray!" ... And only until she blew the story in
           the media did they get saved ... See any parallels?
           \_ Oh yeah, that's the same thing alright. Esp with the
              SUBSAFE progarm and the DSRV the Navy has.
                \_ Doomed people until the media forces the government to get
                   off their collective asses?
           \_ ilyas to thread.
        \_ "You're doing a heck of a job, Georgie!"

9/12    Blackouts in parts of LA. How you doing down there ucla guy?
        \_ "Police officers will only be responding to calls where there is a
           threat to life."
           threat to white women."
           http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050912/us_nm/energy_losangeles_dc
           Time to rape your hot female neighbor and steal the Porsche down the
           block.
        \_ which guy? There are over 5 ucla guys on motd. Anyways there is
           no black out. We have our own generator. Ditto with UCLA Medical,
           they have one of the newest and best backup equipments.
           \_ ucla guy is generic. Sorta like yermom, but easier and cheaper.
              \_ Cheaper?  My mom is free, you idiot!
                 \_ Crack doesn't grow on trees. Gotta get it from someplace.

9/12    Use public transit, win an iPod and a Bose SoundDock:
        "Great Race for Clean Air -- 4 Modes in 4 Weeks"
        http://csua.org/u/dcj (http://www.sparetheair.org
        \_ Dang, 4 modes is a lot.  I use 3 pretty regularly (bike,
           carpool, telecommute) but taking the bus from my house to work
           would pretty much blow, and it's too long for walking.-jrleek
           \_ I work in SF and live in Oakland; I use three modes every day
              (walking, carpooling, public transport), and I use a fourth
              (telecommuting) on weekends). Now where did I leave my digital
              camera? --erikred
              \_ When I lived in Albany for a week I used BART and bus,
                 but it doesn't fit in the timeframe. :( Now I live too
                 close to bother with public transit. -jrleek
                 \_ You should send in a copy of your mortgage payment/
                    rent payment with an explanation of how your move saved
                    the air much more than three people carpooling in an SUV.
                    \_ Good point.  -- OP
           \_ I live in Fremont and work in Foster City.  I only use three
              (carpool -> bus; telecommute).  My wife works in SF and she uses
              four (carpool -> BART -> company shuttle; telecommute), but I
              don't think she'd want her pictures taken.  -- OP

9/12    "The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael
        Brown, has resigned, two administration sources told CNN today."
        \_ Overheard in an elevator conversation between a white woman
           and a black woman in Los Angeles just 15 minutes ago:
           "Did you hear?  The head of FEMA resigned"
           "Huh?"
           "FEMA ... you know Michael Brown?"
           "?"
           "That guy fuckin' killed those people"
           "... Are you going to drop off that paperwork later?"
           "... Yeah ..."
           \_ Which begs the question: which woman said what?
              \_ Actually it *raises* the question you illiterate schmuck.
           \_ interesting report. so let me see guess how this plays out
              in your head. "black woman didn't know about FEMA. but her
              people are DYING! in fact, FEMA is KILLING THEM! why doens't
              she care? it's HER people. she's BLACK. those people dying are
              black! I'm asian. do they have no empathy?" i hope someone
              sends me a note when you die, so i can come piss on your grave.

9/12    I'm going to be in Spain and Morocco and I'm considering
        getting a GSM phone to use while I'm there.  I've heard
        it's best to buy the phone in the US and then get a sim
        card for the phone there (or maybe off of ebay while still
        here).  So, can I just get any GSM phone (assuming it uses
        the same frequencies as they use in Europe), or are some
        of them somehow not going to be compatible with the service
        providers in Spain or Morocco?  Would I be better off going
        to an independent cell phone store, or buying something off
        of ebay?  I basically just want the cheapest possible phone
        that will work.
        \_ Dear Aaron, I'm not so sure asking technical question on motd
           is such a good idea anymore. Over the years, it's turned into
           a freeper libper trolling ground. There are other good place
           to post these types of questions, just google them.
           \_ p0wn3d
        \_ You'll want a quadband phone or a tri-band phone with at
           least the 900MHz frequency and those phones are usually
           never cheap. Expect to spend $150 or more depending on
           what you're willing to shell for a phone. Go to
           http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/operators.html
           to get information on local calling cards.
        \_ the frequencies between Europe and NA are different, so you will
           need to get a world phone. Also, you need an unlocked phone- a
           phone that is not locked to a particular carrier. My parents
           went to China and got a GSM Motorola phone dirt cheap there.
           \_ Right.  I understand I need to get a phone that has the right
              frequencies, and of course it has to be unlocked.  Suppose
              I get any old phone that has the right frequency and is
              unlocked and then I go to some store in Spain to buy a sim
              card.  Do I need to be concerned that I will have somehow
              gotten a phone that's not compatible with the sim cards they
              sell in Spain (or at a particular store), or is this not an
              issue?  Also, how much is dirt cheap?  $10? -op
              \_ couple things:
                 1. look for so-called tri-band phone.  Rest of the world
                    uses 900Mhz/1800Mhz, USA uses 1900Mhz cuz military refused
                    to release the 1800Mhz band for civilian uses.
                 2. If the phone is unlocked, then, any SIM card will do.
                    you won't encounter any compatibility issue.
                 3. Phone cost about the same around the world.  Motorola /
                    Nokia if anything, cost a bit more than the develped
                    Nation... excpt that there isn't much channel to buy
                    phones retail in developed nation.
                 4. Phone actually cost a lot more than you think.  The
                    price you see is the subsidized price.  If you are going
                    to buy a phone at retail, you are looking at $300-400
                    for a mid-ranged phone.  A good phone (e.g. high end
                    SonyEricssion) is going to cost you $600-700 or more.
                 5. I bought a dirt-cheap tri-band phone for my parents.
                    The phone I got was Nokia 3100 (newer version is 3120).
                    It cost about $80 USD.  Unless you are willing to buy some
                    Chinese made phone (Bird, TCL), you are looking at
                    $80-100 for a Nokia/Motorola phone.
                 email me for detail                    kngharv

                   \_ I found one on ebay for $35.  I'm not talking about
                      the latest and greatest.  Just some piece of junk
                      that works.
                      \_ i posted more info, but someone censored it again.
                         email me for more questions.  I would be very
                         careful about $35 phone, as one can sell battery
                         for that price alone.
                         \_ Plenty of people sell old phones for below
                            $50.  Probably stolen, though.  :)  -John
                                \_ It could have been found in Lousiana
                                   recently.
                                   \_ Cell phones do not, in general, float,
                                      and react poorly to immersion.  My Nokia
                                      6130 took a drenching at Song Kran in
                                      Thailand, and had a cute little aquarium
                                      in the display.  Still made calls when I
                                      dried it, though.  -John
                                      \_ My Motorola StarTac fell into the
                                         Fox River, IL, and after a few days
                                         of drying, came alive again.
                            \_ again, I've posted this before but someone
                               censored it.  I would avoid used phone because
                               it is the battery which tend to show its age.
                               A typically used 2 year old phone will not
                               able to withstand 1 day of normal usage even
                               at the full charge.  And the cost of a
                               replacement Li-Ion battery will destory any
                               of the savings you are trying to do.
                                        -- been there, done that.
              \- You should ask one of the professors studying wireless and
                 cellular netowrking which phone to buy.
                 \_ won't they just forward your e-mail to a grad student,
                    who does all the work anyway?
                 \_ I only approach my profs with PROPERLY SPELLED QUESTIONS.
        \_ Get a prepaid SIM card.  Telefonica mobile, Movistar and I believe
           T-Mobile and a few others do this in Spain, and if you don't intend
           to call for hours, that should be fine for Morocco too.  Do some
           research on Spanish GSM providers, and send them a mail to ask if
           you can get a card at the airport.  If you've got the unlocked 3-
           or 4-band GSM phone, it'll fit in there.  -John
        \ What John said. Since I'm going to Spain too, here's what I did:
          For SIM Card, Amena is the cheapest I found. This guy from eBay (whom
          I've dealt with) got a bunch: http://stores.ebay.com/Phone-Call
          I paid around $25 for 12 Euro worth of starting balance. Remember that
          incoming calls in Europe and Asia are FREE (on European and Asian cell
                        Sometimes (not UK). _/
          numbers, of course) - so you may sign up for a callback service
          (<DEAD>kallback.com<DEAD> comes to mind) to save money. Read up on how it
          works (it's not as difficult as it sound).
          For cellphone, since you want barebone stuff, I just bought this:
          http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5807241582 An oldie
          but goodie Sony Ericsson T28World, UNLOCKED. (so any SIM card would work
          in it.
          If you miss this bid, don't worry, he's got more to sell, just find more
          items under his name. DO NOT get into a bidding war on this phone.
          Bid for the starting price ($9.99) and let yourself lose (since some
          eBay schmuck will trump you on the last minute). Wait for an hour or so
          and you'll get a second-chance offer for the last price you bid. (in this
          case, $9.99, plus $12.95 s+h plus 8.25% tax).