3/17    Satellite photo experts, what is this http://csua.org/u/fad
        \_ Uhm, Photoshop?  Paintbrush, maybe?
        \_ The site of the birth of christ's second coming.
        \_ Overexposure due to the sun reflecting off something.  -tom

3/18    Flipping a house? Buying something old and crappy, fixing it up, then
        selling it for a big profit? Screw that. Flip an entire town!
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060318/ap_on_fe_st/ebay_town

3/18    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060317/od_nm/italy_joyride_dc
        Naked 70 year old woman and 59 year old man having sex in the
        car while driving. Man, those horny Italians...
        \_ Didja hear about the lesbians having sex in the Florida bathroom?

3/18    I'm shopping for a LCD TV and as much as I like newegg, on a purchase
        like that I'd like to pay tax OR shipping, not both.  Can anyone
        reccomend a retailer with good prices and selection that is either
        local to the SFBA or else wholly out of state?
        \_ I used http://onecall.com (Oregon) for a 46" Toshiba projection TV.
           They also do LCD TVs, but probably not the cheep ones that newegg
           sells.

3/18    I'm looking for a file management utility that will copy files
        and create directories based on the date of the file.  I recently
        bought a new digital camera (old was canon; new is casio) and their
        file storage naming conventions and directory structures are totally
        differently.  Each different "loader" does a different thing.  And
        Picasa doesn't copy and create directories based on file date.  What
        I want to end up with is a directory structure like this:

        My Pictures/2006_03_18/img12345.jpg

        I don't care about the filename since each camera has their own
        naming convention.  But the directory name has to be customizable
        to that exact format.  SW doesn't have to be free.  I'll pay for this.
        Thank.
        \_ This sounds like a 5-10 minute perl hack to opendir/readdir a
           directory structure, cd'ing around, then moving files based on
           an fstat.  I suspect any of dozens of people here could write this
           blind folded, drunk, asleep and off their meds.  Or maybe a list
           created with find piped through perl.  There's a lot of ways to
           do something like this depending on what your starting structure
           looks like.
        \_ perl -MFile::Find -MPOSIX -e 'find(sub{-f&&rename($_,strftime("/My Pi\
ctures/%Y_%m_%d/$_",localtime((stat)[9])))},".")'
        \_ perl -MFile::Find -MPOSIX -e 'find(sub{-f&&rename($_,strftime("/My Pi\
ctures/%Y_%m_%d/$_",localtime((stat(_))[9])))},".")'
           Change the part after strftime to suit your format and run this from
           the directory you want it to start the search at.  --dbushong
           \_ This breaks if you have any %'s in your filename, btw, though
              that isn't hard to fix.  --dbushong
           \_ Thanks for the responses.  I guess I wasn't clear.  By the
              date I mean the date of the picture embedded in the EXIF header
              inside the jpeg file, not the date of the file itself.  And
              this has to be a windows xp program.  I can't write code anymore
              so I'm looking for some generic photo manager SW that can do
              this.  Thanks.  -OP
              \_ Oh, just download some real tool then, like Organizr or
                 Picassa.  (Though modding that line of perl to use EXIF header
                 Picasa.  (Though modding that line of perl to use EXIF header
                 is also easy :-) --dbushong

3/18    Check the thickness of the stone wall in the graphic here:
        http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software

3/18    Were any sodans involved in the apple hacking (getting XP to run on
        a Mac) project?
        \_ why you want to do that?  don't you want to do other way around?
           running OSx86 on a cheap laptop such as a Dell instead?

3/18    Any reccomendations on books that give accurate data on what % of your
        salary should go where (rent/mortage,bills,savings,food)?
        \_ What are we... in the 50s era where a person should spend a hard
           % of time doing laundry, cooking, rationing, and shit? The rule
           of thumb is you are responsible for your actions and consequences
           and you do what is best to minimize current AND future pains and
           maximize current AND future pleasures. The rule of thumb is, life
           should get a bit better and better as you get older, not the other
           way around. For example, let's say you do weed all day long and
           enjoy your time in your 20s. Since you wasted time, you probably
           won't enjoy your future. On the other hand you can stay in school
           a bit longer and deal with a lot of bullshit but when you graduate
           you'll find it slightly easier to get jobs/connections/whatever.
           How much pain/pleasure for now? As a rule, you should be as frugal
           as possible, and try to tolerate as much pain as possible in
           in beginning. Look at my mainland Chinese friends. 5 engineers are
           living in a 1 bedroom in Fremont to save money/utility/etc, and
           after only a few years they'll be able to put down 10-20% downpay
           for typical Santa Clara homes (typical meaning built in the 50s,
           really run down and need a lot of repairs, small, and still
           over $750K). If on the other hand I lived with them, I'd be
           depressed because I grew up in the US and I've been spoiled.
           My tolerance for pain is low and I totally need instant
           gratification. So the rule of thumb is you do what you
           can to tolerate pain and be a Jew for as long as you can.
           can to tolerate pain and be a Chinese for as long as you can.
           The money you save will be very handy when you're getting married,
           buying a home, raising up a child, buying a minivan, whatever.
        \_ My rule of thumb is that food, bills and rent should be less than
           40%, and the rest goes to student loans till that's paid off, then
           it all goes to stockpiling survival gear until I have enough to quit
           the System and live in my cabin in the deep woods.  YMMV.
        \_ I can't recommend any particular books for this, but I can tell you
           that the general rule of thumb is you should not spend more than
           1/3 of your monthly gross income on your monthly rent or mortgage
           payment.  As for the other things, try keeping a budget for two
           months.  Track *everything* you buy, no matter how small.  Then
           look over your budget and see where you might reasonably make
           changes.  One of the common things people find in recent years when
           they perform this exercise is that they are spending a ridiculous
           amount of money on coffee. -dans
           \_ That rule of thumb doesn't really make sense in the Bay Area
              where incomes are higher and so are housing costs. You can
              spend more if you make more and still have plenty to live
              off of. -ausman
              \_ Not if you plan to retire at 65 and continue living in the
                 life style you are accustomed to. -dans
                 \_ Actually, by 65 your house should be paid off.
                    Is this really that hard to figure out? Let's say
                    I make $50k/yr as a sysadmin in Atlanta, where I can
                    buy a house for $1000/mo, leaving me $3000/mo to live
                    on, or live in the Bay Area and make $100k/yr and buy
                    a house for $5000/mo, leaving me $3000/mo to live on.
                    How can I save faster for retirement on the Atlanta
                    $3k/mo than on the SF $3k/mo? -ausman
                    \_ because, according to Mr. Dim Wit, you can buy a huge
                       McMansion in Atlanta where you're far away from stupid
                       city folks, where you'll be able to listen to country
                       music as loud as you want without stupid Bay Area
                       Socialists knocking on your doors. And since you'll
                       be far from stupid city folks you'll have a better
                       quality of life and work better and live longer.
                    \_ Totally flawed thinking. By 45 you're old and
                       overpaid and companies will try to find whatever
                       excuse they can to replace you with smarter, more
                       knowledgeable kids, or really smart and cheap
                       Indians to replace your position that was once
                       considered sacred but now all too easy to replace with.
                    \_ I don't think the pay's necessarily commensurate, but
                       there are other compensations to high COL areas, e.g.
                       some goods are fairly fixed in price across the US:
                       cars, computers, etc.
                    \_ Are you seriously suggesting that the salary for a
                       sysadmin in SF is double that of a sysadmin in Atlanta?
                       -dans
                      \_ Are you being obtuse on purpose? The paragraph
                         was proceeded by a "let's say." I seriously
                         suggest that a sysadmin in th Bay Area makes
                         more than one in Atlanta, meaning that you
                         can spend more on housing and still have the
                         same amount left over for living expenses. -ausman
        \_ Spend less than you make.  Savings are good.  --dbushong
           \- maybe you should initially worry about what you agg savings
              percentage is rather than the composition. some people
              might pay more rent and live in manhattan and not have
              a $75k car ... others might may half the rent and have
              a commuter and a fun car. now if you agg saving is too
              low, then maybe you need to do some budget accounting and
              see where the money is going. it's like an analogy to
              dieting .. if you have 12% body fat and can run a 6min
              mile, you dont need to worry about your diet ... if you
              are a chubb, then maybe you should figure out where the
              colaries are coming from.
              a car ... others might pay half as much rent but own +75k
              in cars. now if you agg saving is too low, then maybe you
              need to do some budget accounting and see where the
              money is going. consider and analogy to dieting and exercise
              ... if you have 12% body fat and can run a 6min mile, you dont
              need to worry about your diet ... if you are a chubb,
              then maybe you should figure out where the colaries are
              coming from. additionally there is the temporal compotent ...
              somebody with $50k yr job in retail and no debt vs somebody
              making a comaprable salary with +$100k in medical school
              debt are in verfy diff positions obviously in teh med/long
              terms but in teh short term this also has different implication
              for how much discretionary income they are likely to have.
              \_ That was rather rambling and incoherent, and shouldn't it have
                 been in reply to the main thread, not the "you should save"
                 one?

3/18    Level 60 in World of Warcraft:
        http://tinyurl.com/qzl9e  -John
        \_ Wow, that's somewhere between hilarious and creepy...not sure which
           yet.        -mice
           \_ Ah, dorm life. There's reason why people want to move out after
              a little while.
              \_ Dude, I was gonna say the same thing. This is the exact kind
                 of thing that drives people out of dense populated areas to
                 live in the suburbs. I guess when you're young and stupid
                 (<18) you wanted to make friends so you live in the dorms
                 or something but then as you get older you realize that
                 it's a pain to live so close to so many idiots.

3/18    What is a good emacs mode for editing the motd? I'm looking for
        something that will do word wrap properly w/ M-q. I tried text-
        mode but it doesn't play nice w/ followups.
        \_ Is this the same as M-x auto-fill-mode? -dans
           \_ I think that M-q is different than M-x auto-fill-mode.

3/18    V for Vendetta: Fun, interesting, somewhat laggy in parts, but overall
        a fine cinematic experience. Rabid fans of the comic book will doubt-
        lessly be disappointed.
        \_ Laggy?  Were their Quake FPS shots?
           \_ Wai, yes, their whir.
                \_ WORST MOVIE EVE.   Hello let me speak long speeches
                   about the repressed freedom of man hidden in my soul
                   into a paperbag for 2 hours.  What's with the
                   gratuitous knife fights?  How about the indie
                   music on the Wurlitzer?  Or the flaming dude
                   flashbacks while natalie portman stands out in the
                   rain like a dying turkey?  The writer of the comic
                   book doesn't even appear in the credits.  I almost
                   liked the TOM CRUISE:3 movie trailer better
                   \_ Is this a quote from one of those http://somethingawful.com
                      reviews where they never bother to see the thing they're
                      reviewing, or are you just a flaming idiot?

3/18    Following his election (since he was appointed his first term), and
        feeling quite self-important, Bush commissions a postage stamp with
        his face on it, insisting it be of absolute top quality. The stamp
        is created, printed and distributed, and Bush is delighted. But after
        a few days, he begins receiving complaints that the stamp does not
        stick to the envelope.

        He summons those responsible and demands an inquiry. A committee is
        formed, and a few weeks later issue its conclusion:

        "There is nothing wrong with the quality of the stamps or the glue;
        the problem is that people are spitting on the wrong side."
        \_ Way too long for such a weak punch line.  The best one I've heard
           in a while was, "Well now at least *someone* in the White House
           has combat experience".  Not a gut buster, but short, to the point,
           your audience won't fall asleep before you get to the end, topical,
           and a bit mean without being so mean that everyone can't enjoy it.
                --motd humor nazi
           \_ Not to mention, dated; who licks postage stamps anymore?
              Plus postage stamps can't have images of live people.
              \_ Anyone using a small or large denomination stamp licks it.
           \_ Colin Powell had combat experience.
              \_ Didn't they run him out of the job?
        \_ In the related news, GWB is preparing to publish his autobiography.
           Those who pre-order the first 5,000 copies will receive a
           complementary set of crayons for free.