12/22   http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4552010.stm
        The Japanese are saying "we're fucked because our population is
        decrease, let's create more babies." Question. Are there
        examples of countries that thrive economically AND still
        have a shrinking population? Must a country gain population
        before thriving economically?
        \_ Can you ask questions without using racial slurs?
           \_ Nipper is a term for a young japanese person.
              \_ A derogatory term, maybe.  It's not even the term the OP
                 used.
        \_ I don't see why not.  It's just that one component of growth
           becomes negative.  Japan is doing ok these days.
        \_ I don't know... but if the economy shrink by 1% and the population
           drop by 3%, it would be a net economy expansion, no?
           \_ So if we killed off 90% of the population but only lost 80%
              productivity, this would be a net economy expansion, yes?  You
              got into Berkeley?
                \_ (s)he got into soda

12/22   Go BEARS!!!
        \_ Learn to spell. It's GO BEAH!
                           \- It's "it's".
           \_ yeah, I miss him too.
              \_ I remember awhile ago, he came to one of my classes to give
                 a talk, and he reminisced about wanting to be a basketball
                 player in the NBA when he was a teenager.         -mice

12/22   Anyone know of a vendor which sells AMD boxes (dual package, dual core)
        for resale (both in the US and internationally)?
        \_ What kind of AMD boxes are you looking for?  desktop? server?
           consumer? embedded?  industrial? enterprise?
           \_ Number-crunching workstation for use in hospitals.
              \_ so, essentially high end desktops?  does hospital has any
                 special requirements?  how many of those boxes are you
                 looking at?
              \_ How about Sun? The Ultra 20 is supposed to be pretty nice.
                 \_ i can assure you generic AMD boxes is going to be a lot
                    cheaper :p
                    \_ Yeah, but he wanted a vendor that sells AMD boxes
                       for resale both domestically and internationally.
                       Other than Sun, I think that the only major vendor
                       who meets that criteria is HP.
        \_ if you are serious about this, shoot me an email.  I have contacts
           with many server OEMs in Taiwan.             kngharv

12/22   I purchased an album through iTunes on my Mac (OS 10.4 completely
        up to date). I then burned that to a CDR using iTunes. I can play
        that CDR on my home stereo (DVD player), an old boombox (CD only),
        and the computers. I cannot play it in my car stereo (BMW stock).
        If I take that CDR and rip it on my PC using WMP to Windows Media
        Format (Lossless) and then burn *that* to a CDR (identical brand)
        using Nero then my car can read it just fine. This has happened with
        several albums and CDRs, so it is not the media. Any ideas what's going
        on? My car has always played CDRs burned from MP3s on the PC before,
        so it must be something the Mac is doing that affects the car and
        not the other players. The car does recognize the tracks (and
        often plays #1 and #2) but won't play the entire album. Ideas? --dim
        \_ BMWs are common these days. Have you tried playing them on
           other BMWs?
           \_ What would be the point? It plays when burned on a PC. Why?
              Isn't an audio CD an audio CD?
              \_ I'm just trying to see if it's maybe your particular BMW
                 CD player that's just sensitive to something the Mac did.
                 I have both a Mac and a BMW and it plays burned CDs just
                 fine.
                 \_ Let's say it is my particular BMW. What I really want
                    to know is what iTunes is doing that Nero is not and
                    why these CDs all work in a generic boombox.
        \_ Do you have Gap Between Songs set to 2 secs in iTunes? My cd
           changer doesn't care what the gap is, but my car's cd won't
           play cds if the gap between songs is less than 2 secs.
           \_ I thought this might be the problem, too. It was 2 seconds
              by default, but changing it to 0 seconds did not help. Are
              you saying I should make it *larger*?
              \_ 0-1 secs doesn't work for me, but 2 and 3 work. I need
                 to use 3 for CD-RW and 2 for CD-R. If you have Toast,
                 try burning a cd using that instead of iTunes to see
                 if the problem is only w/ iTunes. I've started burning
                 all my audio cds w/ Toast b/c iTunes doesn't do CD-Text
                 (the downside is that I've had to give up soundcheck).

12/22   http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/051223/economy.html?.v=10
        median price in oct: 234800
        median price in nov: 225200
        "However, sales fell in all other areas, led by a 22.1
        percent drop in the West, the biggest decline in this
        region since February 1995."
        \_ How is this going to affect the interest rate?
        \_ Finally. I've been watining for this to come for a long time.
           Now maybe I can afford something close to work. It's about
           time, damnit.        -bitter home buyer, 32 years old
           \_ How do you figure?  Rates are going up so your monthly will
              be the same (roughly) on the same house even if the buy price
              is lower.  If you're a home owner now, your house will sell
              for less also.  If you're bitter because you're a renter, then
              you don't even have th eold house to help offset the cost of
              the new.  This is sum zero for you, guy.  The prices and #s
              sold are slipping because rates are going up.  I feel bad for
              you but this isn't going to help you at all unless you're a
              high cash buyer.  If you had that kind of cash you'd own now.
        \_ Another 85% and my house will be back where I bought it.
           \_ And with a higher interest rate.

12/23   Thanks for the Taiwan visit tips.
        In the meantime I've found some links listing rates for ATM withdrawals
        and credit card purchases, and another link on travellers check cards.
        http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20050624b1.asp
        http://csua.org/u/efg (europeforvisitors.com)
        My conclusion (for a trip to Taiwan) is that the travellers check cards
        suck, ATM / credit cards are okay, and the AmEx Travelers Cheque is
        best (with an AmEx card membership to avoid the 1% fee) if you cash the
        checks at the AmEx office one stop north of the SOGO dept store.
        The biggest hassle is finding a local AmEx office where you can buy the
        checks at 0% (although they are 0% at Wells Fargo if you have an
        Advantage checking account with $2,000 minimum daily balance).
        Shee-it!  I just noticed the Capitol One credit cards charge 0% AND
        absorb the usual 1% Visa/MC conversion fee if you use it to charge
        something in foreign currency.  That takes care of restaurants that
        take credit cards I guess.
        Also, http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/graffiti81.html the consensus
        for Europe is ATMs, just like what another sodan wrote, and that
        travellers checks suck.
        \_ if you need help when you get here, shoot me an email.  kngharv

12/23   http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051222/ts_nm/science_evolution_dc
        Damnit! The ultra left liberals are fighting back again. We gotta
        fight back and show them how mighty God is.     -ID
        \_ Troll.
           \_ The article is actually somewhat interesting.      -mice
              \- Hello. If I'd only seen the headline "Evolution named 2005's
                 top scientific breakthrough" I'd have assumed it was a
                 ONGION article. BTW, the "don kennedy" in the article is
                 a former chief of the 'Fraud.
                 \_ Well, to be honest, the most interesting part of the
                    article for me consisted of the last two paragraphs.
                    I'll have to spend a little more time with Yahoo search
                    when I have the time to spare.  (Naming evolution as
                    the 'top breakthrough' seems to be aimed more at the
                    religious right proponenting ID than the scientific
                    community)                  -mice
                    \_ Well, if you think that's cool you should check out
                       other stuff like nuclear fission, the expansion of
                       the universe, quantum mechanics, genetics. Heck,
                       I even heard that this Einstein fellah discovered
                       something called "relativity."
                       \_ *shrug*  I have.  I've even studied some of those
                          in college.  What's your point?
                 \_ ONGION? Is that "G" some sort of in-joke humor?
                    \_ Yeah, they call it a "typo" in some circles.

12/23   worst Bad Religion link ever
        http://tinyurl.com/ds6rj - danh
        \_ Oh, sweet mercy, I think I'm going to cry. I hate you, linkman dan.

12/13   My sister's computer is a Linux box behind a router.  Is there
        anyway for me to ssh to her box?  Do I have to have the router
        forward the packets to her machine or something?
        \_ yes and yes.
        \_ e.g., outside port 22 to LAN port 22 and yer-sister's-static-IP.
           ob access to yersister's box joke.
           \_ I rooted your girlfriend's box and I didn't use a trojan.
              "best" defcon shirt ever.

12/23   Anyone have better pics? http://tinyurl.com/7sl9s
        \_ http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Wafah+Dufour%22
        \_ so why isn't she veiled like a good Muslim?