Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2005:October:24 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>
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2005/10/24-25 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:40238 Activity:moderate
10/23   Guys, I would like to fetch the 'opensolaris' logo from the website
        http://www.opensolaris.org
        What tools can I use to do that?  I am on WiFi.  And I want to fetch
        the logo just because they are making it hard to do so.
        \_ Uh, Firefox?  Any other web browser?  wget?  Why does it matter
           that you're using WiFi?
           \_ Have you looked at the html source?  i wouldn't considered this
              as a "class A" dumb question... and etheral doesn't work with
              wifi...
              \_ so use tcpdump - this doesn't even require that much fu (see
                 below).
              \_ Uh, are we talking about the same Ethereal?  You might want
                 to specify that Ethereal (or any sniffers) on Windows don't
                 work with wifi, due to ndis.  Ethereal on a Real OS works
                 just fine with wireless cards.  Or you could just use
                 Auditor/Kismet/Wellenreiter.  -John
        \_ Which one?  http://www.opensolaris.org/images/header.png ,
           http://www.opensolaris.org/os/open-final3.png or
           http://www.opensolaris.org/os/about/buttons/get_os_ribbon_03.gif ?
           Your magic fu is weak.  -John
           \_ header.png  and may I ask how did you do that?  When I use
              firefox + "view rendered source" extension, all I can see
              is an empty <div> that marked as "header"  I can fetch all the
              graphics, but the header.png was particularly difficult, and
              please shed some light.  Thanks
              \_ Try right-clicking on the image, or just drag it to the
                 desktop.  -tom
                 \_ Doesn't work.  It's loaded by a stylesheet.  Look at
                    source, you'll see /css/screen.css.  Load that, and you'll
                    see all the other css it loads, then just go through those
                    and look for pngs/jpgs/gifs.  -John
                    \_ Try a Mac.  (Worked for me in Firefox).  -tom
                       \_ This is on a Mac, with both Firefox 1.0.7 and Safari.
                          Dragging it to desktop just saves a link.  He means
                          the orange/blue "opensolaris" logo at the top left
                          of the page, not the multilanguage one.  -John
        \_ Here's what I did to get header.png (in Firefox on mac w/ no
           extensions)
           1. Get page source for http://www.opensolaris.org
           2. This says that the style sheet is /css/screen.css and
              that you are looking for MastheadLogo
           3. Get the page http://www.opensolaris.org/css/screen.css
           4. This gives you a list of several style sheets to choose
              from: layout.css, presentation.css, &c. As it turns out
              MastheadLogo is in presentaion.css, which you should be
              able to figure out by fetching each one in turn.
           5. Get the page http://www.opensolaris.org/css/presentation.css
           6. Look for MastheadLogo, which tells you that the image is
              located at ../images/header.png
           7. Get the img from
              http://www.opensolaris.org/css/../images/header.png OR
              http://www.opensolaris.org/images/header.png
           I agree w/ John, your FU is VERY WEAK.
           \_ LOL at you. You got pwned by the poster below.
              \_ Page Info hangs (comes up w/ empty window) for
                 me on Mac (1.5b2).
                 \_ come on now, don't be a poor sport.
                    \_ It works fine in 1.0.7 though. Does safari
                       have the same feature (other than via view
                       activity)?
        \_ Pshaw. You guys are all weak sauce. Tools | Page Info | Media
           in firefox.
           \_ Bingo. --Guy who thought this was a dumb question.
2005/10/24 [Politics/Domestic/Crime] UID:40239 Activity:moderate
10/23   So, I'm confused.  Perjury is impeachable, but not indictable?
        http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/23/hutchinson-technicality
        c.f.
        http://www.conservativeusa.org/impeach-trial.htm
        \_ People who worship money and Jesus at the same time, which is
           technically not possible, should have no problem holding that
           belief.
        \_ I'm not sure what you are getting at b/c perjury is indictable
           and the comments only specify that the Sen. Hutchinson would
           like the indictment to be for a substantive crime rather than
           for perjury.
           There is a colorable argument that perjury is insufficient
           to meet "high crimes and misdemeanors" requirement of the
           impeachment clause (Art 2 Sec 4) re civil officers and
           perhaps the VP b/c their Art 4 Sec 3 oath may not be have
           covered perjury but the Pres. oath in Art 2 Sec 1 cl 8
           does. (NOTE: I think this is a BS argument b/c perjury
           isn't the sort of "high crime or misdemeanor" the framers
           had in mind.)
           \_ I think the point is that the same senators decrying indicting
              government officials for perjury are *on the record* as saying
              that perjury qualified as "high crimes and misdemeanors" when
              it was Clinton lying under oath about something that wasn't
              even a crime.  The traitors currently under investigation are
              not the President, and ARE lying about a REAL crime, assuming
              the indictments are handed out.
              \_ That's what I assumed, which is why I said there is
                 a colorable argument that the std is different wrt
                 the pres. Personally, I think it is BS - it didn't
                 qualify then, it doesn't qualify now.
                 the pres (not that I buy it, only that it is there).
2005/10/24 [Health/Disease/General, Health/Women] UID:40240 Activity:kinda low
10/24   Dear motd baby experts, my wife and I have been trying to have a baby
        for over a year but haven't had much luck. We're both over 30. This
        month she had a fever and flu symptoms (muscle ache, chills, etc)
        on the week she usually has her period and the fever lasted 2-3 days,
        and she's about a week late. She doesn't want to "waste" EPT again
        and now I'm really REALLY anxious. Are these signs that I may
        finally be a daddy??!? Are these signs normal?
        \_ It pains me to see people replace their professionally trained
           doctors with motd.
        \_  <hush falls over the crowd> ...... I think the motd baby experts
           have spoken
        \_ It's possible, pregnancy hormones can do some pretty crazy
           stuff.  Those symptoms are pretty severe though, my wife starts
           getting nausea around her first skipped period.  Home pregnancy
           tests are pretty cheap.
        \_ How much does an EPT cost?
           \_ around $10 per test.  Still pretty cheap.
           \_ if you can't afford pregnancy tests, you really shouldn't be
              having children...
2005/10/24-25 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China] UID:40241 Activity:kinda low
10/24   I'm reading The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and I have a
        question about Chinese Names.  For example, Liu Bei.  Liu is
        his family name, Bei is his given name, and he seems to have a
        third name, Xuande.  What's this third name?  The translation
        refers to it as a "style."   What does that mean?
        \_ It is typical for Chinese to have at least two "First names."
           in the past.  What we call "first name" is roughly equivalent of
           "birth name," the name that goes to the family tree, and in the
           imperial time, not very polite to be called upon unless you
           are a very close friend or a member of family.   One tend to use
           "school name" or "zi" as the name to be used commonly.  In this
           case, "Liu" is the last name, "Bei" is the birth name, and
           "XuanDe" is the "school name" which everyone call him upon.
           It is not uncommon for well-established Chinese to have a 3rd
           "first name" or "hao" roughly translated as "as known as."
           So, in short, Chinese tend to have three first names.  I am from
           a very traditional family, and we managed to keep most of that
           tradition even today.        kngharv, the guy who has two
                                        first names as well.

        \_ It just means he's friggin' sweet.
        \_ Liu not Lui unless you are still using some non-PRC standard
           romanization.
           \_ No, just a typo.  Fixed.
        \_ How did you find the book?  Did you like Liu Bei, or thinks
           he's a weenie?  How about Cao Cao, the evil but cool dude?
           \_ I haven't gotten all the way though it yet, I just read
              about Liu Bei crossing the Tan.  (I'm pretty busy these
              days)  So far it's been really good.  I don't think I can
              really pass judgement on either of them yet.  Liu Bei is
              possibly a little over restrained sometimes though.
        \_ I'm surprised no one has mentioned the video game yet.
           \_ I recognized the name from "Destiny of an Emperor" an old
              NES RPG.
           \_ There must be at least a dozen games based on the story.
              Which one are you thinking of?
              \_ The one called "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
                 \_ There were several PC versions with the same name, and
                    now there are few versions of PS2 as well.
           \_ The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is huge in Japan as well; I
              used to get drunk at an izakaya called SanGokushi (Three
              Kingdoms). --erikred
        \_ The third name is used among friends, sort of similar to the use
           of tutoyer in French.
           \_ Ok, this seems to jibe with the other stuff I've heard.  As
              I now understand it, everyone is given a formal and an
              informal name at birth.  In this case, Bei is his formal
              name, and Xuande is his informal name.  Ok, does anyone know
              why the translator chose to call the informal name the
              "style?"
              \_ Because the translator's Chinese-fu is weak?
              \_ wikipedia is your friend.  "Chinese style name":
                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtesy_name
              \_ wikipedia is your friend:
                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_style_name
2005/10/24-25 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:40242 Activity:nil
10/24   King of real estate getting out of real estate, his reasons are
        interesting:
        http://tinyurl.com/7zeh9
        \_ Seems like the usual reasons to me.  His "deflation scenario"
           is a little more detailed that most, but it's generally the
           same.
        \_ I don't think construction material costs going up is a big secret,
           but this article is mostly focused on the high end buyers, not
           little people looking for a house.  If you already own your place
           and plan to live in it, you win.  If you can/must wait 2 years,
           you might win.  If you're buying casinos or ball parks for
           hundreds of millions, you should listen to this guy.
2005/10/24 [Uncategorized] UID:40243 Activity:nil 66%like:40248
10/24   Has anyone used GOOD?  http://good.webex.com
        Good/bad?
        --scotsman
2005/10/24-25 [Science/Space] UID:40244 Activity:nil
10/24   Ebert review of "Doom" is hilarious.  http://csua.org/u/dt8
        \_ not as good as his review of the recent deuce bigelow
           movie imo
2005/10/24-25 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/HW/Display] UID:40245 Activity:moderate
10/24   Can you convince me to get rid of my CRT monitor and buy a
        flat-screen LCD monitor?
        \_ Why would you need convincing? Text looks sharper, especially with
           DVI, there are no more ghosting problems, it uses less power and
           therefore generates less heat, it's much easier to move and
           maneuver around.  The only place were CRTs have the edge is in
           color fidelity (or so I've heard) which might matter if you're
           a digital editing nut and handling insanely high resolutions.
           \_ However, they're still a fair bit more expensive, and the
              resolution doesn't go as high unless you get a large LCD,
              which you pay even more of a premium for.
              \_ A 19" quality LCD costs today what a quality 19" CRT cost
                 4 years ago. (under $400). Besides, I think a display is
                 possibly the most important component of a desktop computer
                 system, so I'd definitely try to get the best I can afford.
                 A 19" LCD does 1280x1024 and you probably don't want to
                 have resulution larger than that on 19" display anyways.
              \_ I recently bought a 19" 1280x1024 LCD (700:1 contrast) for
                 $300 with analog and DVI inputs.  It's gorgeous.  Check out
                 these deals: http://www.slickdeals.net/#p6628
                 \_ Notice how I can't get 1600x1200 with a 19".
                    \_ I didn't want 1600x1200.
                    \_ I've never needed over 1280x1024 on any monitor,
                       including 21" CRT monitors.
                    \_ I noticed that my productivity scales pretty well with
                       number of lines of code I can fit on a screen.  That's
                       why I run all my desktops on CRTs at 1900x1200.  Odd
                       that my laptop screen is at 1920x1200, but I can't find
                       why I run all CRTs on my desktops at 1900x1200.  Odd
                       that my laptop screen is at 1920x1200, but I can find
                       an affordable standalone 19" LCD that will do that.
                       \_ Your screen is most likely the most expensive part of
                          your laptop.
                          \_ Almost certainly.  But why they don't make that
                             screen standalone is beyond me.
        \_ If you get an uber LCD which turns out to be lame (too much
           resolution for tiny fonts and images), you will regret switching.
        \_ More desk real estate. That in itself should be reason enough.
        \_ Do you wear glasses? I'm pretty near sighted and I always found
           color crts (esp. 19" and larger) strained my eyes and gave me
           headaches after prolonged use (6+ hrs). I switched to an LCD
           in 1999 and it helped a lot. I've subsequently bought a 20"
           Apple Cinema display and I no longer get eye-strain or head-
           aches.  I'm not sure if this is b/c of the refresh rate or
           just b/c the LCD is sharper than an CRT.
           \_ I read somewhere that CRT has a thick layer of glass and the
              images are "under" the glass so that your eyes are constantly
              having to focus and refocus between looking at the images and
              the surface of the glass and that causes the eyestrain.  LCDs
              just have a thin layer so the text and images lie right at the
              surface.
2005/10/24-25 [Uncategorized] UID:40246 Activity:nil
10/24   I find this amusing.  Apparently "Intelligent Design" folks are
        saying that "March of the Penguins" supports ID.  When I watched it I
        was thinking how natural selection is at every step of the way. -emarkp
        http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46989
        \_ They are capitalizing on the movie's hype and betting on people
           being too busy to watch the actual film to verify their claims.  In
           other words, what a smart deceptive move.
           \_ Even worse, Intelligent Design has nothing to with behavior.
              It seeks to explain the workings of life on a molecular level.
              It's akin to saying Democracy was caused by evolution.
2005/10/24-26 [Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:40247 Activity:kinda low
10/24   Dear motd.  I need some perl to randomize the lines in a text file.
        I know this is easy but i have no perl-fu.  Please help.
        \_ @lines = <FILEHANDLE>;
           print splice(@lines,rand(@lines),1) while @lines;
           \_ Let's hope your file is not bigger than the amount of virtual
              memory of the machine.
              \_ Yes, since motd so often grows to fill memory on soda....
              \_ Let's... How completely pointless.  This was a 2 minute perl
                 snippet, fer chrissake...
           \_ Maybe I should show what I have and you can tell me where I'm
              going wrong, This uses a fisher-yates randomization to be
              unbiased:
              #!/usr/bin/perl
              open(FILE, "+< $_");
              while (<FILE>) {
                  push(@lines, $_);
           while (@lines) {
             print splice(@lines,rand(@lines)%@arraylength);
              }
              @reordered = fisher_yates_shuffle(@lines);
              foreach (@reordered) {
                  print $_;
              }
              sub fisher_yates_shuffle {
                  my $list = shift;  # this is an array reference
                  my $i = @{$list};
                  return unless $i;
                  while ( --$i ) {
                      my $j = int rand( $i + 1 );
                      @{$list}[$i,$j] = @{$list}[$j,$i];
                  }
              }
              \_ Your function isn't returning the array.  @reordered is being
                 set to "0" (The return value of the "while").  Change
                 "foreach(@reordered)" to "foreach(@lines)" and this code
                 should work.
           \_ Careful about using rand with %.  You can get into distribution
              problems there.
              \_ The % doesn't do anything; perl rand called that way can
                 never return >= @lines.
                 \_ Upgraded as per dbushong.  I didn't trust perl enough.
           print splice(@lines,rand(@lines)%@arraylength) while (@lines);
                 \_ Upgraded as per dbushong
              \_ Where's $_ coming from in the open() line?
        \_ #!/usr/bin/perl
           die "usage: $0 file\n" if @ARGV != 1;
           open(my $fh, '<', $ARGV[0]);
           my @offsets = (0);
           push(@offsets, tell($fh)) while <$fh>;
           pop @offsets;
           while (@offsets) {
             seek($fh, splice(@offsets, rand(@offsets), 1), 0);
             print scalar <$fh>;
           }
           close($fh);
           ## this is how i'd do it.  --dbushong
           \_ My (extremely short) version:
              /msg dbushong hey, can you write a solution to that motd thing?
           \- i have had problems using perl rand to do this on files with
              more than 32k lines. you may want to test this out ... maybe
              rand returns more values than it use to but i had to re-write
              this for larger files ... this was +5yrs ago. if you want the
              codes mail me. oh also for larger files performance can be an
              issue. [i dont mean really large files ... i typically was
              operating on about 130k entries ... 2x/16netblocks of addresses]
                                                        --psb
           \_ Actually, it looks like it's not perl rand, it's just
              manipulating the slices efficiently on large arrays that's
              making things suck.  I'll ponder.  --dbushong
           \_ OK, redone to user fisher-yates as above.  Now it only takes
              22 seconds on soda on /usr/share/dict/words:  --dbushong
              #!/usr/bin/perl
              die "usage: $0 file\n" if @ARGV != 1;
              open(my $fh, '<', $ARGV[0]);
              my @offsets = (0);
              push(@offsets, tell($fh)) while <$fh>;
              for (my $i = @offsets - 2; $i >= 0; $i--) {
                my $j = int(rand($i));
                @offsets[$i,$j] = @offsets[$j,$i] if $i != $j;
              }
              for (@offsets) {
                seek($fh, $_, 0);
                print scalar <$fh>;
              }
              close($fh);
              \- hello my codes taeke about 5-6 sec on /usr/dict/words
                 on sloda but the sloda numbers are not that stable
                 it is interesting to see the memory growth variations
                 of the different approaches. ok tnx.
                 this time i didnt check the quality of the shuffle.
                 SSH-soda{12}[~/bin]% while 1
                  loop==>  ./rand1.pl /usr/share/dict/words > /dev/null
                  loop==>  end
                 0:05.46sec, [3.961u 0.100s 74.3%], [10080Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:06.56sec, [3.949u 0.146s 62.1%], [10078Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:05.42sec, [3.953u 0.108s 74.7%], [10080Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:06.70sec, [3.921u 0.172s 61.0%], [10082Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:08.29sec, [4.041u 0.182s 50.9%], [10074Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:05.19sec, [3.870u 0.185s 78.0%], [10074Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:04.79sec, [3.830u 0.176s 83.5%], [10078Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:04.55sec, [3.902u 0.159s 89.0%], [10074Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 0:06.07sec, [3.917u 0.182s 67.3%], [10076Kbmax 0pf+0#swap]
                 \_ How would an Intel Critical Asset randomize a file?
2005/10/24-25 [Uncategorized] UID:40248 Activity:nil 66%like:40243
10/24   Has anyone used GOOD?  http://good.com
        Good/bad?  --scotsman
        \_ shac >>>> all motd posters
           --scotsman
        \_ If it was bad, wouldn't the URL be http://bad.com
2005/10/24-25 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:40249 Activity:kinda low
10/24   Environmental group going after Toyota:
        http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/attackads24e_20051024.htm
        \_ "The hybrid version of the Highlander got only 20.6 miles per
           gallon in a week-long test drive this year on a range of
           driving conditions by Free Press auto critic Mark Phelan. The
           EPA rating shows the vehicle gets 33 m.p.g. city/28 m.p.g.
           highway in federal tests. The non-hybrid Highlander, meanwhile,
           was rated 19 m.p.g. city/25 m.p.g. highway by the EPA -- much
           closer to the actual results in the hybrid." Ummm... so what
           about the actual "test-drive" results for the non-hybrid...?
2005/10/24-26 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:40250 Activity:low
10/24   Brent Scowcroft interview with The New Yorker magazine
        http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001024.html
        Scowcroft supported the invasion of Afghanistan as a "direct response"
        to terrorism. ... The first Gulf War was a success, Scowcroft said,
        because the President knew better than to set unachievable goals. "I'm
        not a pacifist," he said. "I believe in the use of force. ..."
        [Rice and Scowcroft] also argued about Iraq. "She says we're going to
        democratize Iraq, and I said, 'Condi, you're not going to democratize
        Iraq,' and she said, 'You know, you're just stuck in the old days,' and
        she comes back to this thing that we've tolerated an autocratic Middle
        East for fifty years and so on and so forth," he said. Then a barely
        perceptible note of satisfaction entered his voice, and he said, "But
        we've had fifty years of peace." ...
        "The reason I part with the neocons is that I don't think in any
        reasonable time frame the objective of democratizing the Middle East
        can be successful. ... I'm a realist in the sense that I'm a cynic
        about human nature."
        \_ 50 years of peace?
           \_ I suppose everything looks rosy when compared to Iraq
           \_ 50 yrs of conflict without American blood... more or less.
              and I agree with Scowcroft's 50 yr of peace in the sense that
              Americans never really care about brown/yellow/black casualties
              \_ Umm... Vietnam? I presume he means "in the region."
                 \_ I do remember us losing soldiers in lebenon in the last 50
                    years.
        \_ 'Ere me now!  Dis my MAIN MAN, Bent Scocroff!  -alig
                    \_ "Lebanon".  And I guess all those Canadians we bombed
                       and the 150 or so guys we lost in Gulf War I don't
                       count.  As for Americans never really caring, that
                       would sure explain My Lai, I guess.  -John
2005/10/24-25 [Uncategorized] UID:40251 Activity:nil
10/24   Guy doing a flaming shot, and why it's a bad idea
http://www.badongo.com/pic.php?file=Guy+doing+a+flame+shot__2005-10-24_flame_shot.gif
        \_ I wonder what the 'Intelligent Design' folks have to say about this?
2024/12/24 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
12/24   
Berkeley CSUA MOTD:2005:October:24 Monday <Sunday, Tuesday>