11/11   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22435-2004May12.html
        I just found out that whenever you search for something and
        click on the sponsored link, the sponsors pay anywhere between
        a few cents to $30 dollars. YES $30 dollars, that means I
        have the power to waste $30 per click even if I'm not interested
        in that company. So I have a suggestion for all of you bored
        Green Peace liberals with nothing else to do. Search for
        Republicans and start clicking on "Republican Dating" or
        "The Republican Store" or any site that supports the GOP. Now
        that you are empowered to bankrupt their internet funding,
        spread this message to all of your hippy friends now!
        \_ Sorry, it didn't work that way many years ago when I was at a
           ad based company.  I'm certain it doesn't now.  No one is paying
           $30 for a click through.  They would pay $30 for an actual signup
           with a real CC# attached though.  For the click throughs (which
           were measured in $/1000 clicks in my day) we only got paid for
           real clicks after the logs went to a third party service for
           'cleaning'.  You can't honestly believe you're the first person
           to have ever thought of inflating someone else's costs with fake
           clicks?  Anyway, as a philosophical/political thing, if your
           philosophy was so great you wouldn't need to try 'dirty tricks'
           to win.  Your philosophy should stand on it's own merit at the
           ballot box.
           \- if you want to cost the Rs real money you have to be less
              lazy. one thing you might do is see if the cash checks for
              1cent. if you get pre paind fund raising englvelopes from
              them keep sentind them 1cent checks [i get free checks].
              that's a suggestion that doesnt involve leaving the house.
              you might also put like glitter in the envelope. i assume that
              is not illegal. yes, i know this doesnt cost them real money
              but it might deliver psychic satisfaction. i also realize
              it may not be the R machine processing these checks so you
              will have to decide if it is appropriate to fill the office
              of a R contractor with hard to get rid of glitter. anyway,
              this is after about 30 seconds of thought. i am sure i could
              come up with something better, but yeah, there is a no free
              lunch aspect to this. i certainly have no problem mailing
              empty prepaid envelopes back in cases of unsolicited junk
              i dont like. i guess you can look at their return addresses
              and subscribe them to gay vacation advertising lists etc.
              \- oh, you also may be better off trying to disrupt a small
                 unit ... like say infiltrating the BCR etc.
        \_ Having spent a summer working on ads analysis at Google, I can
           assure you that the cost-per-click can get outrageously high.
           However, you're unlike to be able to take advantage of this
           because (a) you won't be able to find out which keywords are
           expensive without alot of work and (b) Google has a many smart
           people working on detecting clickspam and they've gotten very
           good at it. --darin
           [ reformatted - formatd ]

11/11   Hey MOTD, I'm looking for a good webhosting service.  A coworker has
        recommended http://dreamhost.com.  Does anybody have any first hand experience
        with that provider?   Does anyone have any suggestions, warnings or
        general advice?  Ideally I'm looking for a place with a unix shell,
        php, perl, and possibly mysql & cron -- but it doesn't have to have
        heavyweight bandwidth, etc.    TIA.                    -mice
        \_ It may be more money & work than you wanted, but I've had good
           luck w/ http://johncompanies.com.  You get root on a jailed system: FreeBSD
           w/ ports tree available or some Linux distro w/ some pkg system.
           So you can run any sort of mail/web/anything server you want.
           Very responsive support.  But it's like $30 - $70/month.  --dbushong
           \_ Is that how much you pay for http://csua.org?
              \_ No, currently I just run it off my home DSL.  I'm thinking
                 about getting either a colo'ed box or something like this
                 one of these days just to have the option to scale a web app
                 to higher bandwidth on short notice should I ever actually
                 manage to market anything successfully (e.g.
                 http://floatingsheep.com/wishlist ), but for now it's not
                 quite worth the expense. --dbushong
        \_ I have friends who use dreamhost (and one of them gave me a login).
           AFAICT it seems to be pretty good (unix shell, perl, php, mysql,
           and I assume cron).  If I had to pay for hosting myself, I'd
           probably go with them. --jameslin

11/11   So, what's the spread on the USC vs. Cal game today, and how much will
        we satisfy it by?
        \_ Spread was 19 and USC will cover easily.
           \_ yay!

11/11   suggestion for home stereo? want to play mp3, digital fm, cds ..
        \_ iMac
        \_ Mac Mini, or look at http://www.mini-itx.com  -John
           \_ i want a stereo .. not a computer..
              \_ any good receiver w/ digital coax/toslink input, and
                 a soundcard in your Mac or PC with a digital output.
                 and enough extra inputs for your other sources.  more
                 detail requires more info on your budget, goals, and
                 level of audio-snobbery.
              \_ *Shrug* the difference is pretty arbitrary, but if you
                 just want a big lump of plastic sitting around doing nothing
                 but audio-stuff...an AV system with high quality
                 components is just that--a stereo/DVR/DVD player/whatever that
                 just happens to do "computer stuff".  -John

11/11   Two Carolina Panthers cheerleaders arrested after bathroom tryst:
        http://tinypic.com/fneaza.jpg (canada.com)
        \_ old old old. but entertaining nevertheless!
           \_ While you comment "old" adds nothing whatsoever.
           \_ While your comment "old" adds nothing whatsoever.
        \_ We need to encourage, not punish, cheerleaders making out.

11/11   I'm phone shopping and looking for suggestions. I don't need anything
        but good phone service and the ability to swap files easily with a
        computer. I'm on Cingular. I just found out the only data swap package
        for the Samsung phone I bought (SGH-X497) uses a serial port. No USB
        options available which kind of blows. -- ulysses
        \_ what kind of file you need to swap?  Best addressbook /desktop
           integration belongs to Microsoft :(  If you want to swap photos,
           ringtone, wall papers, etc, both Nokia and SonyEricsson has good
           data suite for their phones.
           \_ The addressbooki is all I care about. The rest is fluff AFAIAC.

11/12   I got my greencard 5 years ago, what's the cheapest and fastest
        way to get US citizenship? My mom did it through a 3rd party
        service where they did all the paperwork (for $310!). Thanks.
        \_ Seems impossible, since the application fee itself is $320.
           \_ They make up for it in volume.
        \_ 5 yr is not enough.  You need to wait for another year to apply
           for citizenship.  At least what is what I've done.  and FYI,
           they can revolk citizenship without any reason at any time, so
           behave.
           \_ I'm reading it's only for extreme cases like if you're a Nazi war
              criminal, etc.
              \_ citizenship is not protected by anything.  Yes, in pratice,
                 they don't do it very often, but who knows what kind of stunt
                 Dubya is going to pull in next few years.
                 \- unless you are being really cynical, and i dont think
                    there is need for that yet if you are white,
                    ^citizenship^naturalization.
                 \_ There is still this little thing called due process.
                    \_ that's why they've been setting up places in Cuba
                       and eastern Europe to detain people.  due process
                       was one of the first things to go.
                       \_ What kind of process is in question, but some
                          process is required before a citizen can be
                          deprived of life, liberty, &c. (see Hamdi)
                 \_ If Bush is reelected, rape will be legal! --Cameron Diaz
                    \_ Uhm, wow.  That's, well, impressive.
                       \_ Since rape is allowed according to the Old Testament,
                          and since much of Bush's base wants to see the
                          Old Testament become the law of the land in the U.S.
                          this is not so far off the mark.
                       \_ Rape is legal at the CIA torture prisons and
                          at Gitmo. At least according to the Bush regime.
                          \_ But only if you're doing it to protect the nation
                             from terrorism.
           \_ Nonsense. 5 years is ok. In fact, you can start the application
              process before the 5-year period ends.
        \_ The third parties seem unnecessary without any special circumstances.
        \_ The 3d parties seem unnecessary without any special circumstances.
           Download the PDF form from the INS web site, fill it up with acrobat
           reader and print it.  Add to your package a check for the processing
           fee and any required supporting documentation and you're set. You
           should get an appoitment notice for the interview within one to two
           months after sending the application. Now, if you really want to
           expedite the application process don't miss and don't try to
           reschedule the appointment. I forgot about mine and sent the form to
           reschedule the appointment. What a mistake! I had never heard back
           from them.  Another 8 months later I managed to schedule an
           interview after someone gave me a useful advice to call the local
           INS office directly (agaist the INS directions that said otherwise)
           instead of their useless country-wide 1-800 number where everyone
           yelled at me: "How dare you to call us because of this issue? Just
           keep waiting.  We'll schedule another appointment. Make sure not to
           call a local INS office. Oh yeah, your application will expire within
           call a local INS office. Oh yeah, your application will expire w/in
           a year after we got it if you don't pass the interview by then."
           \_ Which INS office was this? I had to reschedule and they were very
              reasonable for me ... I was dealing with the SF INS office.
        \_ Pretend you are a Mexican (or other Latin American) and
           sneak across the border?
           sneak across the border?                     -jblack
           \_ When did you stop beating your dead horse?
        \_ I don't know what 3rd parties will do for you but the process is
           easy. I put it off for a long time but finally applied in Feb 2004,
           and got sworn in in November. The form is long but fairly simple,
           the only complication for me was having to remember the dates
           for all the times I went to Canada since I got my green card (they
           don't stamp your passport, or at least didn't used to). The
           interview is a piece of cake.

11/12   Is there a way to create a javascript pop-up window using
        window.open() where the content of the pop-up doesn't have
        a URL (i.e. it's just text not contained in a file/URL)?
        If not, how can I create such a pop-up? Thanks.
        \_ Something like
           foo = window.open("", "foo","");
           foo.document.open();
           foo.document.writeln("...");
           ...
           foo.document.close();
           \_ Try using a data: url for the url to open.
              Here's an example: http://bushong.net/dave/popup  --dbushong