9/14    O for a voice like thunder and a tongue
        To drown the throat of war!--When the senses
        Are shaken, and the soul is driven to madness,
        Who can stand? When the souls of the oppressed
        Fight in the troubled air that rages, who can stand?...
        When Sin claps his broad wings over the battle,
        And sails rejoicing in the flood of Death;
        When souls are torn to everlasting fire,
        And fiends of hell rejoice upon the slain,
        O who can stand? O who hath caused this?
        O who can answer at the throne of God?
        The Kings and Nobles of the Land have done it!
        Hear it not, Heaven, thy Ministers have done it!
         --William Blake

9/14    So the NY Times is going to charge for reading Krugman, Dowd etc.
        online.  Does that mean I can stop hearing about them?
        \_ Yes, until they realize the error of their ways and move to a
           heavyweight ad supported model like Salon did.

9/15    Does anyone have the video of the Bill Gates vs Napoleon Dynamite
        spoof? http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/fun.games/09/14/gates.video.reut/index.html
        \_ http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2679657?htv=12&htv=12
           \_ And that is why Soda Search is better than Google!

9/15    Poll, I think Allen Greenspan is:
        Doing a great job: ..
        Doing a lousy job: ..
        Doing the best he can, and it's lousy: ..
        Should have retired 10 years ago: ..
        Can be doing Cialis / Levitra commercials: .
        \_ Did he ever bang Ayn Rand?
        \_ "You're doing a heck of a job, Allen"
           \_ You missed it.  It's "and Greenie, you're doin' a heck of a job"
        \_ If you mean the Fed Reserve chief, it's Alan.
           \_ Details.  Just because we don't know his name doesn't mean we're
              not qualified to pass judgement on the job he's doing.
              \_ I didn't say anything about not being qualified.  I was just
                 pointing out a mistake.
                 \_ I think you missed the point.
           \_ it's not the same guy who invented that wrench?
              \_ No.  Mel Allen is the wrench guy.
                  \_ Mel Allen is the sportscaster.
                     \_ Mel Allen was a sportscaster. Now his image is a
                        MLB plaything.

9/15    Does anyone know how to use the "Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.)" input
        language in XP?  When I tried to add it in Control Panel, there are two
        options under "Keyboard layout/IME".  One is "Chinese (Simplified) - US
        Keyboard" and the other is "Chinese (Traditional) - US Keybard".  I
        tried both, but I can't figure out how to enter any Chinese characters
        in either layout.  No matter what keys I press, it still gives me
        English characters.  Entering Chinese characters in "Chinese (PRC)" and
        "Chinese (Taiwan)" works fine on my XP, but I want to use Cantonese
        phonetic.  TIA.
        \_ I use a Tablet PC, it's more natural and easier.
           \_ But I only have a desktop PC running XP Pro SP2.
        \_ You need to provide more information, son.
           1. You need to decide what encoding you are going to use.
              Most people in Hong Kong uses Traditional Chinese and
              Big 5+HK extension internally.
           2. Assuming you are using T.Chinese + Big5, you simply
              get this package:
              http://www.microsoft.com/hk/hkscs/default.aspx
           3. If that package didn't work, then, you need to look for
              IME specific to Hong Kong.
           If you have more questions regards to CJK issues, email me.
                                        -kngharv

9/15    Come on all of you big strong men
        \- Post the text somewhere and give us al link.
           \_ Lame.
           \_ http://www.countryjoe.com/rag.htm
              This is the song everyone at UC Berkeley in the 60s knew by
              heart and is the song that changed the world.

9/15    Come on all of you big strong men
        Uncle Sam needs your help again
        he's got himself in a terrible jam
        way down yonder in Viet Nam so
        put down your books and pick up a gun we're
        gonna have a whole lotta fun

      (CHORUS)
      And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for
      don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam
      And it's five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
      ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die

        Come on generals, let's move fast
        your big chance has come at last
        now you can go out and get those reds
        cos the only good commie is the one that's dead and
        you know that peace can only be won when we've
        blown 'em all to kingdom come

        Come on wall street don't be slow
        why man this war is a go-go
        there's plenty good money to be made by
        supplying the army with the tools of its trade
        let's hope and pray that if they drop the bomb,
        they drop it on the Viet Cong

        Come on mothers throughout the land
        pack your boys off to Viet Nam
        come on fathers don't hesitate
        send your sons off before it's too late
        and you can be the first ones on your block
        to have your boy come home in a box

9/15    I have a stupid Excel question. It's easy to obtain the product of
        any two cells, but what is the syntax to specify that I want the
        product of, say, the previous two cells? That is, if I am in row
        A I want the product of A1 and A2 entered into A3, in row B I
        want the product of B1 and B2 entered into B3, and so on - sort of
        "relative to my position I want to do this". The rows can change
        lettering as things are inserted or deleted, but the idea is that
        I always want, say, column 1 and 2 multiplied into column 3 of the
        same row. How do I do this? I've RTFM.

9/15    US Deploys Powerpoint slides against Iran
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301837.html
        \_ See, last time we used presentation boards.  Powerpoint is MUCH more
           reliable.
        \_ How about India/Pakistan/N.Korea/Israel?  Why pick on Iran?
           Mind you that:
           - Iran is much larger country than Iraq
           - Iran is China's main oil supplier, and China's effort to
             diverse its oil supply kind of killed by USA couple months ago.
           - UN Security Council
           - China sits in UN Security Consoul...

9/15    Reuter's Dan Rather moment?                             -jblack
        Reuters Photo Is A Fraud? matches neither Bush's or Condi's
        handwriting.  Reuter's admits to photoshoping.
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1485300/posts?page=1,50
        \_ The fact is, according to Reuters -- and this has not
           been widely reported -- President Bush did indeed take a
           bathroom break after passing the note to Rice.
           http://csua.org/u/dee
        \_ I don't get it.  Why is it a big deal that someone had to use the
           bathroom in a long meeting and wanted his subordinate to break the
           meeting for some reasonable period of time so everyone could take
           care of basic human functions?  Why would such a note make someone
           look silly as someone says below?  Why would Reuters waste precious
           bits showing us such a note on a *news* wire?  Where's the news?
           It must be that nothing important is going on in the world... oh
           wait.
           \_ even the most powerful man in the world needs to pass a note for
              a bathroom break!
           \_ For the same reason they show Ashcroft with the seminude statue
              of Justice behind him, because it is humorous. Ye gods! Does
              Katrina mean the end of irony and humor AGAIN ala September 11?
        \_ As usual, the freeper comments are a bit over the top.
           http://csua.org/u/de9
        \_ You are mis-using "photoshoping", which implies that the photo was
           faked up.  Photoshop was used to adjust the exposure / white
           balance so that the words could clearly be seen.
        \_ Great freeper story
           \_ "Great" as in "totally wrong"?  Or "Great" as in "Showing them
              for the small minds they are"?
                \_ The latter.  It just shows you that any evidence is
                   immediately suspect by freepers if it doesn't show their
                   dear leaders in the best light possible.
        \_ I noticed it was sharpened/contrast-enhanced or whatever but I doubt
           it's a fake. It is possible though that the top of the note was
           written by Condi and Bush is replying, which would make Bush look
           less silly.
           \_ Possible, yes.  Likely, no.
              \_ indeed, isn't bush silly enough as it is?
        \_ I didn't see why it was newsworthy at all.  But I can't see a
           problem with adjusting the contrast etc. of a photo.  -emarkp
           \_ not newsworthy.  tabloid-worthy though!
              \_ This is like Tucker Carlson accusing John Stewart's comedy
                 show of being "partisan hackery".
        \_ Fake handwriting?  If you're talking about the upper part of the
           note, the capital "M" of "May" and the "th" of "think" along with
           the Reuters story are enough to convince me it's not faked.
           Both forms of capital "I" are also in the first URL.
           http://www.sheilalowe.com/images/gwbush.gif ('99 GW Bush memo)
           http://csua.org/u/ded (Reuters close-up)
           \_ What is facinating is the mishmash of upper and lower case
              letters along with the random cursive letters. The note lacks
              a Rovian consistancy that one expects from this president.
              \_ I go with the earlier freeper explanation of "he really had
                 to go"
                 \_ It'd be cool if the doctored photo was a freeper plant
                    to make the liberal evil media look mean.  -John

9/15    What's the best method for limiting the amount of bandwidth
        used by a particular directory (podcast mp3s) on a vhost
        with Apache2 on Linux?
        \_ http://www.ivn.cl/apache

9/15    The End Of The Binge
        http://www.amconmag.com/2005/2005_09_12/cover.html
        Of course, Kunstler also said that y2k would bring on the Apocalypse...
        \_ Vegas being deserted in 20 years is my favorite part.
           \_ Assuming air conditioning is no longer affordable by the
              masses, who would want to live in Las Vegas?
              \_ There's a lot of money behind Vegas.  I'm pretty sure given
                 the large area of desert around it some NIMBYism could be
                 assuaged to put in a nice modern reactor.  Electricity prices
                 aren't tied to fossil fuels everywhere.  Hell, doesn't Vegas
                 get its power from hydro now?
           \_ What's funn yabout it is that he assumes food can not be
              grown around Las Vegas.  Now, certainly you couldn't grow
              enough to support the current population, but it was
              originally setted my mormons from Salt Lake.  (That other
              desert they cultivated) and they didn't have any fossil
              fuels.  This guy's dark future is not particularly consistent.
                 \_ Yep. That's what makes it so humorous. The thing that
                    would kill Vegas would be the ongoing drought in the
                    Eastern Rockies.

9/15    CNET: So that would be the philosophical difference between
        Microsoft and what Google is up to at this point?
        Gates: Well, we don't know everything they are up to, but we do
        know their slogan and we disagree with that.
        \_ Insulting, isn't it? It's like having Bush accuse someone else
           of being dumb.
           \_ You mean someone like Kerry, who did worse in college than
              Bush did?
              \_ Election's over, son.  Time to move on.
                 \_ Just blame everything on Clinton.
                 \_ There's always next season.
                 \_ There's always the next season.
                    \_ Maybe the Dems should've had Kerry, Edwards, Dean, and
                       that whole lot singing Tomorrow from Annie. "Tomorrow,
                       we're all undefeated again." -gm
           \_ The scary part is that Bush is NOT dumb.  It's all part of a real
              plan.  Presumably to distract the American sheeple while the
              robber barons slowly plunder the country.
              plan - Strategic Ignorance.
              \_ It's particularly distrubing when you see old videos of him
                 where he doesn't have his fake texas accent yet.
                 \_ accents are learned

9/15    Emacs question.. I use meta-Q to reflow a paragraph. How can
        I set the right-side end-of row width for the text?
        \_ M-x set-variable <RET> fill-column
        \- C-x f runs the command set-fill-column  --mr. emacs
           \_ "set-fill-column requires an explicit argument"
              \- as RMS said to me about 15 yrs ago "universal argument"
              \_ C-h k C-x f
        \_ M-x set-variable <RET> default-fill-column to set it for all
           buffers.  Then you can override it in individual buffers by setting
           fill-column.
                \- i rarely want to set it for all buffers [or would
                   use a hook or .emacs setting]. also often you want to
                   set it to the current cursor column. anyway, ymmv.

9/15    We had to lay someone off at work because of the shrinking budget.
        Some people would like to take him to lunch. Some of us think it
        would be weird to go out with someone being (essentially) fired.
        What do you think? Would a card/gift be more appropriate? Should
        we do anything at all? We've worked with this guy for 2-3 years.
        \_ Take the guy out for a meal.  What's so awkward about it?  It's not
           like you made the decision to can him.
           \_ Agreed.  If you like him, give him a nice send-off.
           \_ Well, I didn't make the decision but I was party to it.
              \_ "laid off" = "we couldn't afford you, no hard feelings
                 please", "fired" = "you suck, we don't want you, go away".
                 Make sure you know which it is; I would find it extremelyy
                 odd to take someone whose firing I was involved in to lunch
                 unless I knew him personally.  Otherwise it seems very
                 disingenuous.  If it's a real layoff, you might also want
                 to consider passing his resume around and other nice
                 things.  -John
                 \_ Well, as you know, when there's a layoff there's
                    always the choice of *who* to layoff. It's not the
                    same as being fired, but there's the undertone of
                    "We chose to let *you* go." I personally might feel
                    odd going to lunch with coworkers if I was laid off.
                    I did offer to help him get another job. If anyone
                    needs a sysadmin, junior s/w engineer, or WWW developer
                    with a BS in CS from Caltech and about 3 years
                    experience let me know. I'm in LA, but I know his
                    girlfriend is in the Bay Area, so he might consider
                    moving. Oh, he is also a RHCE. --dim
        \_ Something more important to consider: that shrinking budget.  When
           is *your* turn?  Think about where you'd like to be taken to lunch
           when your turn comes.  Also, a single layoff for budget reasons
           sounds really weird.  What's really going on?  How big is your
           place?  Are you a C*O or founder?  If not, polish up your resume if
           he was really cut for budget reasons.  As far as lunch or no lunch,
           it doesn't matter if he was fired or laid off.  A particular job is
           not the be-all end-all of life.  If you like the guy take him to
           lunch.  If you hate him, don't.  Remember, in theory, someone who
           got laid-off will be re-hired when times get better.  I've seen it
           actually happen a _small_ number of times.
           \_ Well, I asked him if we could take him to lunch and he said
              "Yes". As for the rest of the story, who said it was a
              single layoff?
              \_ enjoy lunch.  No one said but if you re-read the OP it is
                 easy to come to that conclusion from context.  How many out
                 of how many total?