1/11    Listen to this with headphones, it's pretty cool.
        http://www.holophonic.ch/archivio/testaudio/Cereni%20-%20Holophonic.mp3
        \_ damn. that was awesome. it gave me multiple chills down my spine,
           and tickled, even.
           \_ Do you have a Mac? I'm working on some similar software.
              I can post a link to it when it's done, if there is interest.

1/12    More le parkour: http://ripe.tv/?movieID=m166
        \_ You might like to rent the movie Banlieue 13

1/12    Stupid Mac question:  Is there a way to cycle not just between
        apps but between individual windows within applications, similar
        to alt-tab?  -John
        \_ Try Alt-`.  It works for Terminal, at least.
           \_ No joy.  I'm kind of looking for the same as "application
              windows", but including minimized windows.  -John
              \_ I use Alt-` or Expose F10, but minimized windows don't
                 appear ein either of those.
        \_ There was some third party freebie that did this but my mind
           is blanking.

1/12    Oh man, I want to see these ads, but my work computer doesn't have
        a recent enough version of flash.
        (Canadian liberals accuse conservatives of being US symps)
        http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20060111

1/12    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060112/sc_nm/taiwan_pig_dc
        I am all in favor of genetic research, but this just seems
        wrong to me.
        \_  Mmmm... How long till I can get some green bacon?
            \_ I will not eat green eggs and ham.
            \_ Looks like sales of glowing condoms will drop in the future.

1/12    Blogger buys Gen. Wesley Clark's phone records.
        http://csua.org/u/elf
        \_ http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-privacy05.html
           Wider coverage.  It's pointed out that criminals could buy phone
           records of local cops to figure out who's snitching.  Bad mo-jo.

1/12    Iran: Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
        http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5183
        \_ Damn that is fucked up.
           \_ Ya it is. It's not stated in the article but I'm guessing that
              the rapists (intended rapists?) were probably part of some
              self-appointed militia that was "defending Islam". In Iran, it's
              illegal to be in public with a member of the opposite sex who is
              not close family (1st cousins often marry, so that's not
              allowed).
           \_ on top of it, how come some lunatic managed to become the
              president?
              \_ because it's a religious state and he's the biggest supporter
                 of that sort of thing going back decades?
                 \_ Because he's a fundamentalist politician with a history of
                    anti-corruption and  standing up for the poor. That doesn't
                    mean he's not a nutjob, but it sort of explains the
                    appeal to the voters.
                    \_ It also helps when the religious nut heads who actually
                       run the country decide who is and is not allowed to run
                       in an election.
                       \_ Excellent point. --pp

1/12    Gotta love protesters out in support of releasing wanna-be mass
        murders.
        http://csua.org/u/eld

1/12    Anyone has one of those old-style mailboxes at home that are made of
        thin sheet metal and has a lock?  How likely is my mail going to get
        stolen?  Is it worthwhile replacing it with aluminum ones, like the $60
        Mailsafe made by http://www.thesolargroup.com
        \_ I've never even heard of mail getting stolen outside of Berkeley.
           \_ There are many other bad neighborhoods in the Bay Area: East
              Oakland, East Palo Alto, San Leandro, ...

1/12    Help. I'm addicted to the motd. I end up reading the entire
        motd every 30 min just to check for updates. It is really
        interfering with my work. What can I do to get rid of this
        horrible addiction?
        \_ take up masturbation
           \_ That might be difficult if he works in an office....
              \_ Go to the men's room.
                 \_ Or, better, the women's
                    \_ Always assuming the sex starved person is male
                       gets lame after awhile.Not to mention sexist

                       gets lame after awhile. Not to mention sexist
                       \_ Sex starved people on the motd are generally
                          male. so people are going to assume they are
                          unless there is reason to believe otherwise.
                          Put your big girl panties on, and deal with
                          it (i'm manking no assumption of gender here).
                       \_ That's because women can get laid anytime
                          they want to.
        \_ kais motd intellidiff makes update-checking much faster
           \_ how do I use it?
              \_ http://csua.com/24/?incr=1
                 hit reload, new stuff appears in green
                 \_ I hate you.                                 -op
        \_ Are you hanging on my every word?
        \_ run /csua/bin/motdbrowser
        \_ Read new entries with diff, or motdwatch or something.

1/12    What's a good source on the web for background checks including
        criminal, credit, general info, etc?
        \_ http://intelius.net

1/12    http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5381851
        Chinse world map discovered.
        Wow!  I thought Gavin Menzies is a kook, but it seems like he
        may have a case.  Chinese might have circumnavigated the world
        and "discovered" the Americas before Columbus, and the western
        maps might have been derived from the Chinese sources.
        \_ Even if the Chinese did already know that the earth was round, would
           they have had the sailing ability, sans steam engines, to have found
           and map Antartica by 1418?
           \_ not to mention the Arctic Sea
           \_ The Greeks knew the world was round and even calculated the
              circumference. That doesn't mean they visited the Americas.
              \_ Wow!  URL please.
                 \_ Google: greeks world round
                    \_ Better: Eratosthenes
        \_ very cool link.  Thanks.
        \_ I would like to add one thing.  The common notion is that Chinese
           were looking for "barbarians" to pay tribute to the Ming empire.
           AFAIK, Chinese were never interested in "barbarians."  They only
           interested in foreign nations has decent degree of civilization.
           This is one of the reason why Chinese were never interested in
           Austrilia eventhough they are well aware of its existence since
           the Song dynasty (12-13th century AD).
           \_ More to the point, they were only interested in either trade or
              plunder. Australia offered neither.
              \_ Nah, they were neither interested in trade nor in plunder.
                 \_ Yeah, they were interested in both trade and plunder.
                    \_ Ahhh, but what about ASS-plunder? --!aspo

1/12    Iran all of a sudden says they want to talk now
        http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/12/D8F3BVG01.html
        \_ Talk about a play right out of the North Korean handbook.
           \_ True, but all the major players are at a consensus that they
              don't want Iran to have The Bomb, and are also in a position
              to actually punish Iran with economic sanctions -- unlike
              N. Korea, which is already isolated anyway so that the effect
              of sanctions would be diminished, and was a whole big mess
              with S. Korea and China not on the same page as the U.S.
              And you know what?  I credit international diplomacy.
                \_ You credit diplomacy with accomplishing what?
              The EU3 played a role because they want to negotiate first.
              The U.S. played a role because they pushed the EU3 to put
              teeth and a real stick into the negotiations along with the
              carrots.  They moderated each other.
              The IAEA is playing a role because their inspectors are actually
              there, monitoring critical equipment.
              Russia, China, and Annan are playing roles by acting as
              Iran's good buddies, telling Iran that they won't stop the West
              from imposing sanctions (which opens the door to other things),
              until they finally realize they can't play this game anymore.
              This game is playing out as best as it could, IMO.
              \_ oohhh, like good cop/bad cop?
                 \_ Yeah, Russia/China/Annan = good cop ; U.S.+EU3 = bad cop
                    The U.S. needed to infect the EU3 in order for them to
                    become the bad cop.
                    \_ Perhaps I'm an idiot, but what does the 3 in EU3
                       stand for?
                       \_ UK, Germany, France
              \_ Iran supplies close to 20% of China's oil need.  I am not
                 sure China is playing good cop, or is that China is simply
                 don't want to mess around with its main oil supplier (similar
                 to US would never mess with Saudis).  Further, IAEA and EU and
                 USA all have credibility problem.  If IAEA/EU/USA allow
                 India/Pakistan/Israel/N.Korea to have the bomb, why can't
                 Iran join the club?
                 \_ This is a stupid question, I hope you see why.
                    \_ no, I don't.
                       \_ Well, first off, IAEA/EU/USA didn't "allow" any
                          of those countries to get the bomb (except MAYBE
                          Israel, but I'm not even sure they "officially"
                          have the bomb, although they obviously have had
                          it for > 20 years).  Those counties got the bomb
                          secretly.  Can you honestly say the US
                          "allowed" NK to get the bomb?  Those are all
                          considered failures of the anti-nuclear
                          proliferation programs.
                          Furthermore, we don't like Iran, and we don't
                          trust them.  It's perfectly reasonable to try to
                          stop them from getting the bomb.  Sure, that's a
                          subjective measurement, but so is everything.
                          Whether 9/11 was good or bad is also subjective.
              \_ You credit diplomacy with accomplishing what?
                 \_ "This game is playing out as best as it could, IMO."
                 \_ "Our job is to form a common consensus.  This is what's
                    called diplomacy." -GW Bush, Genius (Jan 13, 2006)
                    \_ So the success here was getting the EU to go along with
                       the idea that being in range of Iranian nukes is a bad
                       situation?  In the meantime, they've broken the seals,
                       and restarted (if they ever stopped) working on a nuke.
                       Yay diplomacy!

1/12    Do you know the facts about Chuck Norris?
        http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com
        \_ Aren't these just recycled Vin Diesel facts?
           \_ http://www.4q.cc/vin (server sometimes times out)
        \_ Awesome.  Chuck Norris would approve.  -John
        \_ Chuck Norris vs Bruce Lee.  Who will win?
           \_ You know there's a movie where they fight, right?
           \_ Mini-Ditka, with the Bears bus.  -John
           \_ In real life, Norris was once a student of Lee.  On screen,
              Norris was killed by Lee in Way of the Dragon.
           \_ In real life, Chuck would win because Bruce is dead.
           \_ if you strike me down i will become more powerful than
              you can possibly imagine
                \_ Like that helped him so much being a ghost and getting
                   written out until the party at the end.
                \_ I ain't worried. Your fu was pretty weak in the first place.
        \_ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Norris_Facts