3/14    Cool.  Most recent episode of Battlestar Galactica riffs on Mario
        Savio's most famous speech. -dans
        \_ Which part?  (of the ep.)  --dbushong
           \_ Toward the end of the episode, when chief Tyrol(sp?) is
              speaking as the union president. -dans
              \_ Hmm.  It definitely sounded like it could have been based on
                 a famous speech ("we hold the tools of production, we have
                 the power, yadda"), but doesn't to me sound anything like
                 the Savio one.  --dbushong
                 \_ The podcast on http://scifi.com on the episode talks about the
                    tie-in with Savio's speech. --erikred
                    \_ Cool.  The podcast links are broken at the moment. -dans
                 \_ Ah hah!  I was looking at the wrong speech/part of his
                    speech.  I was looking at the autocracy bit, not the
                    odious machine bit; yeah, that's cool.  --dbushong

3/14    John, email me re: military sound effects.  Quoth my roommate Mike:
        ``ii have about two discs worth of military sound effects'' -dans
        \_ Why don't you just write him directly you weirdo. And BTW I'm
           pleasantly surprised you didn't find a way to stick in a "oh by
           the way I hate tom" spiel as you've done so well
           in the past few days
           \_ Wow.  You're a cunt.  Try signing your posts so I know who I'm
              calling a parasitic bottom feeding cunt. -dans
              \_ You seem to be enjoying being arumentative. -!op
              P.S. Do you make a regular habit of talking to people like that
              in person?  Do you get beaten regularly for it, or do you get
              away with it because you're big and buff?
              \_ You seem to be enjoying being arumentative. [sic] -!op
                 \_ Maybe.  Or maybe the motd is an argumentative place, and
                    the fact that I usually sign my posts biases your
                    observation.
                    observation. -dans
           \_ Because my soda account bounces all mail, and he probably does
              not know my main emamil address.  Lay off.  -John
              not know my main email address.  Lay off.  -John

3/14    I'm looking for a good tutorial/howto for setting up IPSEC
        on my *BSD router/firewall. Basically I want to be able to
        access my home network while I'm on the road (iBook w/ OSX
        10.4), and I don't want to set up a bunch of SSH port forwards
        to talk to various services. Any pointers?

3/14
 _______________
< FEEL THE LOVE >
 ---------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\   ~
                ||----w |   .   ~  smell the love!
                ||     ||  #=.#
                ||     || ,.#=..
        \_ There are a bunch of ways to do this.  Look at http://www.kame.net
           for one implementation (included in FBSD, I think).  The FreeBSD
           handbook also has a pretty good section on setting it up (just
           search the main handbook page for 'ipsec'.  Last but not least, may
           I humbly recommend running M0n0wall (http://www.m0n0.ch on WRAP
           or Soekris, as its IPSEC implementation is pretty airtight.  -John

3/14
 _______________
< FEEL THE LOVE >
 ---------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\   ~
                ||----w |   .   ~  smell the love!
                ||     ||  #=.#
                ||     || ,.#=..

3/14    Emacs TRAMP, best Emacs extension evAR!!!  In a nutshell, it lets you
        transparently edit files on remote hosts, e.g.
        Find File: /user@host.tld:/path/to/file/on/host.tld/file
        will open up file on the remote host.  It even supports remote
        filename completion.  I wanted this for years, and always considered
        writing it until a friend pointed out that someone had done it
        already.  It's built in to the build of Emacs 22.0.50.1 for OS X I
        have, but you can build it yourself if necessary.  Check it out. -dans
        \_ Someone wanna write me a edit the motd remotely mode?  thanks.
           \_ No.  Need.  With tramp:
              C-x C-f /user@soda.csua.berkeley.edu:/etc/motd.public
        \_ http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tramp and it uses scp!
        \_ Hmm... while I'm talking about my emacs wishlist, does anyone know
           if there's a way to save the `project state' of emacs.  i.e. if I
           have 17 files open in emacs, and need to close emacs to upgrade,
           reboot, or whatever, is there a way to open emacs, and have it
           automagically reopen all the files I was working with? -dans
           \_ http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki/SessionManagement
              \_ Okay, that's pretty cool -- thanks for posting that! -mice
              \_ Sweet!  Thank you anonymous motd emacs wizard. -dans
        \_ If you have DarwinPorts installed on OSX, you can install a new
           version of emacs w/ tramp enabled via:
           $ sudo port -d install emacs-devel
           TRAMP is unbelievably k3wl. Thanks dans.

3/15    Swimming ants:
        http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200603/s1589516.htm
        \_ nobody cares
        \_ I actually find that kind of creepy -- you could make a horror
           movie with a couple of 'unexpected' twists with that.  Just add
           an extended torture sequence, and you've got a low budget hit....
        \_ Mangrove ecology is rapidly rivaling deep sea vent ecology in the
           News of the Weird section. Cool stuff, thanks for the link.

3/15    Anyone here have any experience with Infiniband as a network
        interconnect? I want to run MPI over Infiniband, but also use
        TCP over the same network. How is the performance relative to
        ethernet? Any problems with stability, crashing, etc.? I am
        considering Silverstorm switches and not sure which cards
        (Pathscale?). The OS is Red Hat Linux. --dim
        \_ Only as local storage connect on a full rack device.  It could be
           Chocolate Donut Connect Interface for all I see it.  CDCI... I
           kinda like that.  mmmmm... donuts!
           \_ Now, Homer:  Don't you eat that interconnect!

3/15    Zfone Beta is out (secure VoIP software from Phil "PGP" Zimmermann):
        http://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/zfone/index.html
        \_ What do you have to hide?  Hmmmm?

3/14    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060315/od_nm/media_discovery1_dc
        Look you can look smart in front of your kids by relearning things
        you forgot in school! (In other words, people become dumber and
        dumber as they get older).
        \_ No, people forget things they don't use as they learn new things.
        \_ Just finished reading a Time article where it talks about how your
           brain becomes more efficient until around age 60 or so, when it
           starts to deteriorate.  Of course, if you DON'T USE IT, then yes
           you will become dumber and dumber as you get older.

3/15    Suggestions for cheap storage space rental in the
        east bay?  My requirements are... it exist.
        It can be on the 2nd floor, 3rd floor, i don't care.
        I don't need ground floor.  I need to disappear for
        about a year.
        \_There is a super secure place on 3rd St. in Oakland near Jack London
          Square called Safe Keep or something.  Not too cheap but much better
          than anything else I've seen. -scottyg
        \_ I'll tell you where NOT to go.  That place on Shattuck just south of
           Dwight.  Bad bad bad.  I'm amazed my stuff didn't get stolen, the
           place is falling apart and has shitty security, the people who
           work there are thugs, and they're a ripoff.  I shopped around a
           little before I found that place, and I tend to think that you want
           to be nowhere near the University if you don't want to get ripped
           off.  If you're leaving the area anyway, why not put your stuff in
           a more rural/suburban location on the other side of the hills?
        \_ find a deserted field, dig a hole, and bury it.
        \_ Disappear?  Storage space?  Damn it, you're giving me Primer
           flashbacks.
           \_ That's next week. Or was it last week?
        \_ How big and how cheap?  Storing stuff for a year can be pretty
           pricy.  Like, up to $1000.
        \_ Disappear?  Buy a bus ticket.  Don't contact anyone you know or
           use the asme name.  Use cash for everything.  If you wrote a serious
           post you might have got a serious reply.
           \_ After I disappear I'm still going to troll tom anonymously.
              \_ Nice to know I have anonymous supporters. -dans
           \_ I'm asking for advice about finding inexpensive storage,
              not tips on how to disappear.  Goddamn ADD nerds.
              \_ You asked stupidly, you got stupid answers.  If you hadn't
                 posted nonsense half your replies wouldn't have been garbage.
                 Find a mirror, the rest of us are a-ok.
                 \_ No he asked one specific question.  You chose to answer
                    a totally different one.  If I asked "hey, my wife
                    is pregnant where is a good place to get cheap
                    baby supplies?" and you responded by telling me to
                    make sure she takes her prenatal vitamins and sees a
                    doctor it wouldn't be answering the question now would it?
                    \_ I see it is anal retentive moron day on the motd.  If
                       he said, "Hey, my wife is pregnant where is a good place
                       to get cheap baby supplies?  I need to disappear for a
                       year", it wouldn't be off topic to tell him how to hide.
                       But you knew that.  He was dumb, several people gave
                       dumb replies.  Tough.  Being as retentive as you are
                       why didn't you correct his grammar errors while you
                       were here?  And mine too?  And spell check everything
                       and erase anything over 80 columns?  Why stop where
                       you did?  There is so much more to retain!  go for it!
                       \_ Err, why is it anal retentive to expect that the
                          question asked is the one that will be answered?
                          If you feel like ranting senselessly on motd -- hey,
                          go for it: motd without senseless rants would be
                          boring...but it's kind of pathetic to play the victim
                          when you get dinged for being uselessly OT.
                       \_ perhaps disappearing for a year might not have to do
                          with hiding.  perhaps it means leaving the area
                          without taking any of his material possessions.
                          \_ DING DING DING DING DING!
                       \_ It's the ops politburo-given right to post poorly
                          worded questions.  It's ours to respond with snarky
                          mis-answers. -dans
        \_ Look out for things like mold.  I've known people who stuck stuff
           in storage for a year or so, forgot all about them till then and
           came back to find everything rotted.
           \_ Most of the lots of random bins at public auctions
              are from crap people have abandoned or 'forgot to pay their rent
              for' at storage facilities.

3/15    Homeland Security is everyone's business:
        http://www.twotigersonline.com/banners.html  -John

3/15    Hey motd -- I'm pretty clueless about audio stuff: I have a handful
        of CD's that I'd like to rip into decent quality MP3's.  Can anybody
        recommend a reasonable freeware software package for win2k to help
        me with this?  Any help would be much appreciated.    TIA!        -mice
        \_ http://csua.org/u/f98 --versiontracker search.  unfortunately
           it looks like most of them are unrated... I use iTunes on my Mac.
           The windows version might be a bit too bloated for your tastes,
           since I'm guessing you wouldn't use most of the features.  -sax
           \_ huh, okay -- I'll check it out when I get home.  Thanks
              eric!      -mice
        \_ OS?
           \_ Ah, right...the OS.  heh.  Win2k.  -mice
              \_ One option is the built in windows media player.
                 Produces WMA format.  I think newer updates produce
                 MP3s but I haven't tried it.  Make sure you turn
                 off copy protection.
        \_ I use CDex in combination with LAME using the encoder setting
           --alt-preset-standard which gives very nice MP3s with ID3 tags
           at an average of about 192kbit.  Many other settings are available.
        \_ I would recommend EAC for extracting the audio tracks, and
           then lame to encode it in mp3 format. I personally archive
           my CD tracks in a lossless format (wavpack, but flac is
           equally good), and you can easily experiment between
           different encoding bit-rates in lame without re-ripping the
           CD. For music player, I use foobar2000. EAC and lame
           requires some slight configuration. Here are some links:
           requires some configuration. Here are some links:
           http://wiki.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?title=EAC_Drive_Configuration
           http://users.pandora.be/satcp/eac02p.htm
        \_ I've used 'FreeRip' to rip and encode Cd's into collections MP3's.
           It could be prettier, but it does the job with a minimum of effort.

3/15    Democratic Congressional Lead Among Registered Voters Largest Since
        '82 Midterm election
        http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=21928
        Pew Research Poll puts Bush at 33% approval rating
        http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=271

3/15    Beware the Ides of March
        \_ Too late.  They already killed him.  He's dead, Jim!
        \_ I'm more wary of the ides of April.
           \_ Which, curiously enough, turns out to be April 5.
              \_ You're thinking of the nones.
                 \_ True! The Ides of April is on April 13.
        \_ beware the ides of msft

3/15    Is it just me or it seems like Costco American Express is getting
        stingier and stingier wrt the % of rebate back? It's eearily similar
        to the old days when Discover+Costco had good deals and then Discover
        got cheaper and cheaper till Costco dumped them.
        \_ It's still 3% for restaurants and 2% for travel, right?

3/15    Most people in America - rich, poor, young, old - receive mediocre
        medical care.
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060315/ap_on_he_me/mediocre_health_care
        \_ Hmm, I haven't read the article, but this brings to mind a
           discussion I had with my grandmother regarding the pros and cons of
           universal health care.  The outcome was basically that socialized
           medicine raises the minimum care level for everyone, but
           potentially lowers the maximum care level for those who have the
           means and desire to pay for better care. -dans
           \_ In other news, fire is hot, water is wet, all babies must eat,
              'bad' means 'good' when teenagers or dans say it.
              \_ What the fuck are you talking about? -dans
                 \_ I think the guy was saying he or she was annoyed by
                    obviousness + wordiness.
                    \_ Most Americans/motd readers are not familiar with
                       foreign health care systems.  For example, the only
                       option for healthcare in the UK is the National Health
                       Service.  Thus, if a Briton wants healthcare services
                       that the NHS is unwilling or unable to provide, he must
                       seek them outside of the UK.  This option is only
                       viable for the super-wealthy.  Granted, I'm neither a
                       UK citizen nor an expert on foreign health care so my
                       facts may be off.  I fail to see how this is obvious.
                       -dans
                       \_ I think the guy thought the obvious part was
                          socialized medicine == minimum care level for
                          everyone increases (by definition), and maximum care
                          level for the rich potentially decreases.
                          Anyway, you have undergrads to near 40-year-olds on
                          soda, so you probably got a cranky alumnus annoyed.
                          \_ *nod* I consider it my solemn duty to annoy
                             cranky alumni.  Of course, I also happen to be
                             one, which is probably why I bother reading the
                             motd. :) -dans
           \_ socialized * raises the minimum level (often from 0) for everyone
              but usually lowers the maximum level available
           \_ It is noteworthy that it doesn't have to lower the max level. A
              private elite care system layered over the socialized
              infrastructure should allow the same max, unless innovation
              is harmed by lost profit potentials in some way (drug
              development?) or some kind of lower overall efficiency (not
              obvious).
              \_ Ah, but look at our schools.  The affluent being able to
                 opt-out of having their kids exposed to public education has
                 reduced the quality of the public system.
                 \_ Prove it. (also the max is still high, which was my point)
              \_ Currently, approx 1/3 of all the money spent on healthcare is
                 spent on PAPERWORK, so think of the efficiency improvement if
                 that could be reduced to 5% or lower.
                 \_ Medicare's administrative costs (includes paperwork) are
                    approximately 1%. -dans
                    \_ my googling is showing 3% Medicare, 15-25% HMOs.
                       -someone else
                       \_ mea culpa.  Even so, 3% < 5%, and still kicks the
                          shit out of private healthcare systems. -dans
                 \_ Are you arguing for or against the socialization? I don't
                    see paperwork necessarily being much better for either.
                    \_ Although I'm not saying Canada's system is perfect,
                       it seems pretty clear that it has less paperwork:
                       http://tinyurl.com/equd5
                       "On a visit to the 900-bed Toronto General, Dr.
                        Himmelstein recounts searching for the billing office;
                        it ended up being a handful of people in the basement,
                        whose main job was to mail bills to US patients who
                        had come across the border."
                       "Back in Boston, Himmelstein visited Massachusetts
                        General Hospital, which was similar to Toronto
                        General in size and in the range of services
                        provided. He was told that Massachusetts General's
                        billing department employed 352 full-time personnel,
                        all of them fighting tooth and nail with hundreds of
                        insurance plans, each with their own rules about how
                        to document every item used for every patient."
              \_ How is that different from what we have today?  I can go into
                 my employer provided (crappy but free) Kaiser system and I
                 might survive a serious illness, or do POS/PPO which costs
                 more but I'll live or do cash-only out of pocket for all
                 services which will cost me less/year for normal services but
                 wipe me out for a major issue.  If I was rich I'd get
                 fantastic service and survive.
                 \_ It isn't really, except we still have lots of people
                    uncovered, so that baseline isn't very good or very
                    solid. I'm just responding to the previous posters.
                 \_ The difference is that today the onus is on employers to
                    provide healthcare, and many part-time/low-wage workers do
                    not have healthcare as a result.  The high cost of
                    healthcare for uninsured individuals disincentivizes them
                    from seeking out preventative care, thus increasing the
                    risk that they will need urgent/emergency care.  Emergency
                    care is more costly, and puts a greater strain on the
                    entire system, which pushes prices up for *everyone*. -dans

3/15    My good friend Allen the chauvinist says "if chicks had an expiration
        date, it would be 27th bday if they're asians, 17th if they're
        latinas, 22 if they're whites. there are always exceptions, kinda
        like when you find something old in the fridge that is still edible."
        What do you guys have to say about this, that he's a crack or
        there's some agreement to that?
        \_ I say full of crap.  Women, like men, tend to get more interesting
           as they gain more experience with life and its various ups and
           downs.  If you're really only interested in women as a receptacle
           for your penis, then you get what you deserve, i.e. immaturity,
           selfishness and an inability to form any lasting emotional
           connection with your partner.
        \_ I say you're trolling.
        \_ I know you're trolling, but I'll add this: in Japan, they say that
           women who are 25 and unmarried are Christmas Cakes (i.e., eat soon
           or they'll go stale); a woman who's not married by 31 is sometimes
           referred to as New Year's Eve Cake (i.e., past the eat-by date).
           Of course, Japan is notoriously chauvinistic.
           \_ Can we stop generalizing so much and be a little more specific?
              Slavic women become giant beasts around 26!
        \_ I pity your friend.  His statement makes it sound like he has a
           history of dating sorry, broken women.  Then again, kickass, whole
           women generally don't waste their time chauvinists like your
           friend. -dans
           \_ Wait, dans aren't you dating some 20 year old girl because
              only someone that young is naive enough to put up with your shit?
              \_ I think you're off by +2 years
              \_ No, I'm dating someone who I respect, and who is, to name a
                 few qualities I like about her in no particular order, smart,
                 fun, sensitive, mature, and drop-dead gorgeous.  She happens
                 to be a month shy of 20.  Since you've probably never dated,
                 me, you wouldn't know that the amount of shit I bring to a
                 relationship is fairly low compared to the population at
                 large, and I am completely open, honest, and up front about
                 it.  As my grandmother says, ``Everyone has baggage.''  A
                 healthy relationship is one where all parties are honest
                 about their baggage, and willing to help one another with
                 their burdens when necessary. -dans
                 to be a woman who is one month shy of 20.  Since you've
                 probably never dated, me, you wouldn't know that the amount
                 of shit I bring to a relationship is fairly low compared to
                 the population at large, and I am completely open, honest,
                 and up front about it.  As my grandmother says, ``Everyone
                 has baggage.''  A healthy relationship is one where all
                 parties are honest about their baggage, and willing to help
                 one another with their burdens when necessary. -dans
                 \_ wait til you're older and 19 looks like a child.  you'll
                    find it hard to think of _any_ 19 y/old as mature.
                    maturity is relative.  no offense meant, just a comment
                    on life.
                    \_ Do you know how old dans is?
                       \_ no clue but obviously not old enough for a 19 y/old
                          to look like a baby yet.
                          \_ The term you are looking for is sour grapes. -dans
                             \_ Uh, no.  Been there, done that.  19 y/olds now
                                look like babies to me.  hint: I'm *not* 26
                                for a while now, but to the person who asked
                                if I knew how old dans is, ok now I know, what
                                about it?  Did you mean that at 26 I should
                                think of him as older and mature or that I
                                should understand that 19 can look mature to
                                a 26 y/old?
                       \_ Amusingly, as long as I've known dans, he's
                          pretty much only dated 19 year olds. -jrleek
                          \_ jrleek is correct.  I've often wondered why this
                             is the case, but, at present, have no complaints.
                             -dans
                             \_ Did you mark a day on the calendar for this
                                one?  Isn't she 20 next month?  Got another
                                one lined up?  ;-)
                    \_ I'm sorry, but you're wrong.  Maturity is a function of
                       experience.  Age allows you to formulate an upper bound
                       on experience, but equating the two is a bad idea.
                       Maybe you were a child at 19.  I had a lot of
                       responsibilities thrust on me at a young age.  As a
                       consequence, I really had my shit together by the time
                       I was 19.  I co-founded a company, pitched to well
                       known VC's and executives of major corporations by the
                       time I was 20.  I'm 26 now.  Have I learned a lot since
                       I was 19?  Sure.  Was I immature when I was 19?  No.
                       -dans

                       \_ You mis-read what I said.  I'm saying that from my
                          current age 19 y/olds look like babies.  I see them
                          in the malls, at the movies, etc, and just shake my
                          head that I once slept with anything that young and
                          thought of them as anything but children.  Of course
                          I was younger then, too.  I'm glad you pitched to
                          VCs at 19 but that has pretty much nothing to do
                          with social maturity or looking like a baby to
                          older people.  Since we're here I'm now somewhat
                          curious about your gf.  What has she done in her
                          life that makes her mature at that age in your
                          eyes?
        \_ I generally don't even look for too long at most women under 25.
           Assuming a woman keeps in shape, I've generally found that she'll
           have more poise, more taste (and less baby fat) than kids.  Yeah,
           18 year olds in bikinis are fun to look at, but that's about it.
           Also, it's been my humble experience that "older" (i.e. over 25)
           women tend to be far more at ease with themselves; maybe I just find
           self-confidence attractive.  -John
           \_ What John said.  Insecurity is a huge turnoff and a giant pain
              in the ass from a practical perspective.  Just wait until your
              insecure 22 year old girlfriend throws a fit every time you want
              to hang out with your friends or see a friend that might be
              (*gasp*) female.
           \_ Agreed.  25 seems to be the magic number.  People start
              extracting their heads from their asses about that time.
              \_ I'm 29 and my head is still lodged firmly up my ass.
        \_ Younger women are great if you just want a roll in the hay.
           They usually have better bodies, anyway. But if you are looking
           for a serious relationship, older women are a better bet.
           \_ My experiance has been that people (men and women) just get
              better in bed at least up till late 20s.  What's that quote
              about how everyone looks the same in the dark?

3/15    Anyone know what GUI library/toolkit iTunes uses?
        \_ Seems to be Carbon. I don't know the Carbon widgets, but
           I'd guess they have implemented a couple of custom UI elements.
          [~] otool -L /Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes

3/15    Hello my pedantic friends.  I wish to get storage space
        for lots of boxes of heavy books, cds, and the occasional
        skull.  I see suggestions of where to store my possessions
        for a year or more, in the East Bay.  The East Bay is defined
        as near Berkely and parts south.  I prefer not to
        cross the Bay Bridge.  I prefer to not go through the Caldecott
        Tunnel, but I will if I have to.  It's none of your business
        whether I am fleeing the IRS, becoming a sex tourist in
        Thailand, funnelling Google stock into debunking that
        whole AIDS causes HIV scam or buying Bolivia.
        \_ B5 > Star Trek!
           \_ I challenge you to GUN DUEL!
        \_ "HIV causes AIDS scam"

3/15    I'm having some wrist/hand pain in my right hand.  I'm right handed
        and use the mouse with my right hand too.  What mouse devices are
        you all using to prevent injury?  Doing anything else like stretching,
        etc?
        \_ If you tend to keep your hands all tensed up when using the
           computer, it helps a lot to relax and go slower.  It also helps
           if you can use your left hand for the mouse sometimes -- it's
           actually pretty easy to get used to.  Don't remap the buttons.
        \_ I had the same problem and this helped: http://tinyurl.com/cphra
                                        kngharv
        \_ IMPOSSIBLE. There is no correlation between repetitive tasks and
           pain. williamc says he uses his right hand to jack off several
           times a day but he has no penis or left arm pain. Proof:
           http://csua.com/?entry=38806
           http://csua.com/?entry=37970
           "There's no proof that computer usage through standard
            I/O devices causes RSI. People with real RSI are individuals
            who have to deal with heavy manual labor like meat packers
            or jackhammer operators.    -willamc"
            \_ I'll just ignore the infantile first comment, but that's right.
               I'm glad you're catching on. Also, FYI, there is no correlation
               between cell phone usage and brain tumors, or living close to
               power lines causing cancers. I think the whole thing started
               when someone commented that the mouse was the most RSI
               inducing device ever invented, which obviously is highly
               dubious. Since nobody ever directly refuted this with a
               comprehensive epi study, the statement still holds. I've
               been personally using computers for over twenty years with
               various input devices. I type well over one hundred words
               per minute, and I've never experienced any form of RSI. I
               know dozens of people who are in IT who type up a storm
               everyday, and they never experienced RSI. Just because you
               have symptoms of RSI doesn't mean that the various components
               of normal computer IO are causing it.Maybe you have weak fingers,
               may you've got diabetes (in fact, there is a correlation between
               diabetes and RSI), maybe it's all in your head, who knows, but
               it certainly isn't daily typing on a keyboard. Hell, people
               were using manual typewriters for decades, and there wasn't
               an epidemic of RSI until relatively recently. Hell, people
               used to wash clothes with their bare hands, and although they
               probably got arthritis later in life they didn't complain about
               RSI. So what's different now? Has the human race somehow
               devolved into having really weak hand muscles that can't even
               push a two ounce mouse around without getting neck cramps?
               I don't know, maybe you folks just have bad posture, maybe
               you're contorting your bodies in weird shapes while pushing
               your mice around, maybe you're sitting upside down or have your
               fingers in a pretzel, but the statistical data says that
               MICE and KEYBOARDS do NOT cause RSI. If you have some sort of
               problem with that, well, then maybe you also believe that
               consuming tiger penises will increase your libido, and since
               this is a free country, it is your right to believe that.
               -williamc
               \_ So are you left handed? Is that why you jackoff with your
                  right hand? How many times do you jackoff a day?
               \_ Go fuck yourself.
               \_ 20 years?!?  Wuow!  You must be a Critical Intel Asset!
               \_ I could say the same thing about decades of typing until
                  I changed jobs.  Something about my desk/kb/mouse/chair/etc
                  changed enough that my left arm felt like it was on fire.
                  After making some changes, things were ok for a while until
                  this last week, now my right hand is hurting.  Maybe kb/mice
                  use in and of themselves don't cause damage but 'improper'
                  usage certainly can.  Improper would be some combination of
                  poor posture, height, distance, typing style, and probably
                  a zillion other things.  I'm certain that if I wasn't at
                  this desk or never had a computer job my hand wouldn't hurt
                  now.  -op
        \_ ergonomics.  Good seat, good monitor position, good keyboard.
           Does your company have someone who can help you with ergonomics?
           \_ Yes, I've seen them several times.  They're quite helpful and
              willing to buy whatever.  They have a number of things I've
              tried but they're not doing it for me so I was wondering what
              other people are using.
              \_ a really good seat is important.  Good keyboard is important.
                 Same with posture, the position of the monitor.
                 I got a new keyboard, wireless optical mouse.
                 I need to upgrade my chair.
                 Also, take a break once in a while.  Seriously.  This is
                 important.
                 I've also seen hand braces that some people use.
        \_ it's time for dictation software!
        \_ I'm right-handed.  Years ago I had a sore right arm, so I switched
           to using the mouse with my left hand.  I've never switched back
           since.  It serves as little exercise for my under-used hand.  It
           doesn't bother my co-workers since my mouse is still a right-handed
           mouse and I don't swap the left and right buttons.  So all they have
           to do is to move the mouse to the right of the keyboard when they
           need to use my machine.

3/15    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1597017/posts
        Freepers respond to news regarding death threats to SCOTUS judges
        Ginsburg and O'Connor
        \_ And once again the conservatives on the motd are quiet.
           \_ of course they are. They're too busy reproducing more babies
              and home schooling their children so that they'd be exposed
              to the right teaching instead of libural's lefty edukashun.
           \_ Some of us cannot understand the motivations of the wakkos
              who would threaten the life of a judge, esp. a USSC justice.
              Only thugs and criminals would do this.
              BTW, I can't understand the whole thing about referring to
              foreign cases being bad: I mean CJ Marshall used to refer
              to KB/QB cases frequently.
              foreign cases being bad: CJ Marshall used to refer to KB/QB
              cases.
              \_ I thought Justice Kennedy was Mr Foreign Case dude?
                 Unless that's in the Freeper page.  I don't equate
                 rational conservatives with freerepublic so
                 I'm not reading the URL, they all live in a trailer
                 park in the Salton Sea or some other horrible place
                 and need somewhere to vent.
                 rational conservatives with freerepublic so I'm not
                 reading the URL, they all live in a trailer park in
                 the Salton Sea or some other horrible place and need
                 somewhere to vent.
                 \_ O'Connor, Ginsburg and Kennedy have all written
                    opinions where they cite to foreign decisions that
                    are in accord on a particular issue. Against my
                    better judgment I read the URL and it had something
                    about citing foreign cases as on reason to kill
                    these justices.

3/15    http://csua.org/u/f9h (latimes.com)
        If there were a board game called "Iraq Post-War Reconstruction" and
        you could play as the Shiites, the Sunnis, the Kurds, the Iraqi
        nationalists, the Iranians, al Qaeda in Iraq, or the U.S., who would
        you play and what would you do?
        \_ "What a strange game.  The only way to win is not to play".
        \_ Never fight a land war in Asia.
        \_ I'd prefer to play as Halliburton or Bechtel and I'd be laughing
           all the way to the bank.
        \_ This would be one of those games where the winning conditions
           vary according to faction; the easiest (from a simple strategy
           POV) would be to play the insurgents (goal: prevent the other
           groups from achieving their goals by turn 100).
        \_ I'd play the U.S. and leave, thus winning by being the most powerful
           faction.
        \_ It depends.  What are the rules and winning conditions for each
           side?  In the current game, IMO, the Shiites and Kurds have already
           won.  Everyone else is struggling to avoid last place.
           \_ I'd say the Kurds are arguably in the best place, insofar as
              they have the option of taking their toys and going home to an
              an independent Kurdistan.

3/15    dans, would you like to explain your accessing patterns? Why you've
        become really active all of a sudden?   -anonymous coward, dans #1 fan
        http://csua.com/?q=dans&type=hist&sort=d
        \_ Sure.  I'm writing lots of code.  The motd serves as an amusing
           distraction that gives my mind a chance to recharge and helps my
           subconcious chew on the problems I'm hacking on. -dans
           \_ Alright thanks. May I add that you've been very entertaining,
              especially the dans vs. tom cat fight. And thanks for sharing
              your emacs know hows, it's quite educational     -dans #1 fan

3/15    To the induction heating guy-- I also have a slow electric stove
        and it also bothers me a lot, but I took a very different route to
        remedy the problem. I went to Ranch 99 to buy a portable butane
        stove, you know, those you use on hot pots. I did a benchmark
        and it boils water ~60% faster than my electric stove.
        Total cost to my butane stove: $12.99 plus $1 each butane canister.
        Total cost to your hi-tech induction heating stove: $200-$2000.
        Hi-tech induction heating is for yuppies who have too much time
        and too much money. Lo-tech rules.
        \_ Be careful with Carbon Monoxide.
        \_ I think you have a lousy electric stove.  My electric stove boils
           water faster than the portable butane stove I bought from Ranch.
           Plus, how many pots of water can you boil with one butane canister?
        \_ It also depends on the cookware you use. Aluminum (and
           hard-anodized non-stick) heats up relatively fast, but
           stainless steel (even multi-layered) heats up slower. If
           your stove is slow, you may look at different type of
           cookware. I personally like Cast Iron. Heats up very fast
           and retains heat really well.

3/15    What's the best way to convert DVD->MPEG (assume you're ok with the
        loss of quality)?
        \_ DVDs are already MPEG2 data inside a wrapper.
           Do you mean "extract to mpeg2 files"?
           Do you mean "extract mpeg2, recompress to lower bitrate"?
           Do you mean "extract mpeg2, convert to smaller mpeg4"?

3/15    RFID tags can spread viruses:
        http://tinyurl.com/rnnd2 (cnn.com)
        \_ Couldn't you have done the same thing w/ barcodes? (I mean they're
           basically doing a buffer overrun, right?)