4/24    A friend of mine bought a cheapo bicycle for casual rides and
        he's pretty happy with it except that the front derailleur kind
        of sucks and doesn't downshift to 1 all the way. We tried adjusting
        the H and L screws and the cable tension and the positioning of the
        derailleur mount but nothing works. He's thinking about getting a
        new left shifter & front derailleur to replace the cheapo no-name
        brand derailleur. By the way his back derailleur is Shimano 515
        (or is that S1S?) and work pretty well so he just needs something
        decent for the front. What's a good front derailleur to get? ok thx
        \_ obshimano.
           \_ ANY type of Shimano will work?
        \_ It's 515, buying the same will be cheap and effective. -scottyg

4/23    any chance for jove to be installed?
        \_ Why is it that you cannot use emacs?  The staff should
           concentrate on higher priority things for which there is not
           a very good substitute ... a substitute which is vastly
           better than the original.
           \_ hey you know root can install jove with one command:
              apt-get install jove
           \_ On the other hand, installing jove is a lot less work than
              all the higher-priority things we ought to be doing.  Done.
              --root
           \_ Seriously, why does jove exist? Why does anyone use it? I
              am genuinely curious.
        \_ any chance for elm and micq to be installed?
           \_ I second elm. I like frm and newmail which polls for new mail
              every n seconds.
              \_ frm is already installed, newmail is a separate package...
                 do you still need elm for the mail client?
        \_ zip/unzip would be cool.

4/23    when will the functionality of .nofinger be
        ported to debian-soda ?
        \_ it's already there.   But in a slightly different form.  .nofinger
           is honored for non-local requests see man page for finger
           \_ And this is nothing new -- old soda had a /csua/bin/finger that
              didn't respect .nofinger (since anyone who cared could get all
              that information anyway). -gm

4/24    I finally got to scan some of the old photos for archive purpose.
        The problem is these scanned photos carry no EXIF data.  I want
        to add 'Date Picture Taken' information en masse.  I tried several
        tools that claim to do EXIF batch update but none could batch
        insert 'Date Picture Taken' information.  Does anyone have any
        suggestion for a batch EXIF editor? Thx.
        \_ jhead
           \_ Thanks.  I will try it out tonight.  The editor I have tried
              all lacked the ability to mass add new header information.
              Some could mass edit, but not mass add.  I hope jhead does
              what I want.
            \_ Just tried jhead, like other editors, it can update date
               fields but not add them.  Thanks anyway.
               \_ d'oh. do you have photoshop?  I've seen some exif tags
                  in jpgs saved by photoshop.
        \_ On a side note, while we're on photos, is there a way to remove
           a shadow (smudge on a lens) common to a large number of different
           jpgs?  -John
           \_ I doubt there's a really satisfactory way, but you might be
              able to do something with an adjustment layer in Photoshop.
                -tom

4/23    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12438812/site/newsweek
        Extreme Commuters. "The killer commute to and from exurbia
        is worth it." "Extreme commuters who travel more than 90 minutes
        to work, one way, are the fastest-growing group of commuters,
        according to the U.S. Census Bureau." ""...more people than ever
        are willing to trade time in their car for the American Dream:
        big house, big yard."
        \_ a law requiring people to live within X miles/minutes of
           their homes. discuss.
           \_ Why?  What is there to discuss?  What problems does this cause
              that need to be addressed?  Is that you Car Culture Guy?
           \_ don't be trolling the libertarians like that
           \_ just charge commuters per mile of road they use.
           \_ Perhaps you can explain why you hate extreme commuters?
              For example, you hate them because they cause traffic jams?
              Pollute the environment? Increase driving aggressions?
           \_ why discriminate against them? Just hike the gas tax and
              charge all the users' of the roads equally.
              \_ As we move towards more flexible fuel vehicles, gas taxes
                 aren't as good a way to fund roadwork anymore...
                \_ I think you are correct, but I am going to pull a number
                   out of my ass and say that 99.999999 percent of the
                   vehicles on the road use fuel conventionally.  There's
                   an interesting article in the Chronicle today about how
                   Toyota invested tons of money and effort into hybrid
                   vehicles over a decade ago and now they are the
                   9th largest company in the world. - danh
                   \_ Toyota didn't become successful by developing
                      hybrids -- They became successful by being not
                      stupid and developing hybrids is part of the not
                      being stupid part.  Hybrids are still a small
                      fraction of the market.
                   \_ It's certainly more than 0.000001%, and will be growing
                      quickly in the current geopolitical/reserve taxing
                      conditions.
                   \_ Hybrids are not selling well in Texas, Tennessee,
                      South Carolina, and other Red hick states that demand
                      big SUVs which make it possible for 51% of the people
                      in America to live their American dreams. You know,
                      big American SUV, suburbia lifestyle, and McMansion.
        \_ The high gas price caused by the current pro-free market gov
           is doing a good job detering people from enjoying the life
           the need desperately. It's too bad people really enjoy being
           alone on the road. They really need to get away from their
           whining nagging fat ugly wife and kids that drive them crazy.
        \_ Spending 3+ hours in a car every day is part of the American
           nightmare, not the American dream.  BTW, the longest commute is
           some idiot who lives in Yosemite and commutes to San Jose to work
           for Cisco.
           \_ Maybe he feels happy to get away from his family and work.

4/24    The Play on iTunes:
        http://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/ITCSBrowse.woa/wa/Browse/Berkeley
        Link is on the right.
        \_ for the rest of us who don't have itunes installed, tell us more.
           \_ It's the short video version of The Play.  -tom
              \_ how much do they want for it?
                 \_ free download.  -tom
              |_ if they keep things free and put more sports content up there,
                 this will be pretty cool. oh ya, you can now also (relitively)
                 easily find course lectures on the apple-hosted site.

4/23    Is there anyway to get the stacktrace from a Java Exception
        into a string?  There isn't any direct call to do it.

4/23    Is it possible to see the logs of the hits to my csua
        webpage?
        \_ /var/log/apache
           BTW, root types: it looks like whatever you have doing the rotation
           isn't HUP'ing apache after rotation: the server's currently
           (2006-04-24 16:41:52) ignoring "access.log" and is still writing to
           "access.log.1"  --dbushong
           \_ I cannot read them, as I am not a root type.
              \_ Oh hey, sorry, whoops; didn't check the perms.  There used to
                 be some system wherein you touched a file in your homedir
                 and logs to your /~username/* stuff got thrown there at
                 rotation time... though I could be thinking of something
                 else.  --dbushong
              \_ I believe apache logs on old soda were wolrd readable. -dans

4/23    Soda problem: I don't seem to be able to post to newsgroups
        with trn.  I get:
        cat: /var/lib/news/whoami: No such file or directory
        (re-entering cbreak mode)
        inews: From header: address syntax error
        -jrleek
        \_ On a side note, can someone install tin?
           \_ Whoever installed tin, thank you!!
              \_ Hmm.. tin says none of my newsgroups exist on the server.
                 \_ try "tin -r" and make sure you have the correct remote
                    server "NNTPSERVER=agate.berkeley.edu" in your setenv.

4/24    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060424/od_nm/germany_corpse_dc
        Illegal to drive a dead person in your private car.
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060424/od_nm/germany_brothel_dc
        URL self explanitory
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060420/od_nm/germany_toilet_dc
        Germany and toilet, oh nevermind.
        \_ Censorship!  Evil religious people forcing their view... oh,
            nevermind, they're Muslim.  Ok then.
           \_ It is very simple. Muslims are willing to hurt or kill you,
              and have demonstrated this. The other guys mostly don't.
              I bet people would be a lot more respectful of Christians
              if they blew people up now and then.
              \_ You mean, like, go to a country, drop a few tons worth of
                 bombs, leave a military presence to enforce policy, and
                 try to install our own governing body?  Right, it'll never
                 happen.....
                 \_ Well I'm referring to violence as punishment of "offending"
                    religious sensibility. Iraq is plain ol' geopolitics.
              \_ You mean like Ireland?
                 \_ Ireland is about ethnicity more than religion. They too
                    aren't offending each other's religious sensibility.
                    Muslims try to kill you if you create literature,
                    documentaries, or cartoons they don't like. That's
                    not what Northern Ireland is about.
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060420/od_nm/germany_toilet_dc
        Germany and toilet, oh nevermind.

4/24    Cal attire shown a few times in this trailer.
        http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/united93/hd

4/24    Dear motd photo gurus:  I have a Canon EFS 17-85mm lens that's got a
        ca. 1cm, thin and shallow scratch in the front lens.  Can this be
        replaced or ground out, or do I need to buy a new lens if I want to
        get rid of it? -John
        \_ holy crap that a long psb response..  anyway short answer..
           small scratch on front lens not bad and usually not at all
           noticable. scratch on rear glass is bad. dont let it happen.
           i agree w/ psb tho, buy a cheap UV filter and leave it on 100%
           of the time. look on ebay. try to search for Hoya 67mm HMC UV
           and expect to pay ~$60 -shac
           \- i doubt you'll save that much money on ebay rather than
              bhphoto. i'd start with bhphoto to get a sense of the
              "standard price" and the primiums for various brands
              and see what your options are. in fact you might just
              call them on the phone and have them recommend a reasonable
              protection filter for your lens. of course if you are
              international that might change the calculations a bit. --psb
        \- Um if you have dirt/smudging on a lens, that's generally not
           too bad of a problem ... you can keep shooting in the field and
           you can get a shop to clean that, but if you actually have a
           scratch substantial enough to cause diffraction problems, i
           you can get a shop to clean that, but IF YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A
           SCRATCH SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH TO CAUSE DIFFRACTION PROBLEMS, i
           think you may be hosed in terms of the resale value [that is a
           $500 lens, no?] since obviously that is the part of the lens people
           are going to care about the most ... and a scratch could potentially
           totally ruin a picture with an artifact rather than just cause a
           subtle amount of distortion. I've occasionally shot with my 52mm
           subtle amount of distortion. I've occasionally used my 52mm
           lenses without a skylight/uv filter but for my large front element
           lenses I keep some filter on them 100% of he time. [although
           somewhat ironically, the only filter i've cracked was a 52mm one,
           http://home.lbl.gov:8080/~psb/PSB_MISC/PSB_Nikon6.jpg but it saved
           a $350 lens]. it is possible the lens is in ok shape but i dont
           know how on the one hand you do full disclosure to the seller
           without totally killing the lens value. are you that chile fellow?
           if you wre in the BA area i'd suggest getting the opinion of the
           if you wre in the SFBA i'd suggest getting the opinion of the
           HORIZON ELECTRONICS people. if you havent done so already, buy a UV
           or skylight filter for all of your lenses. even the cheep ones...
           ... for the cheep lenses you can get the cheep $15
           filters. different people will give you different advice about how
           much to spend on a protective filter for a nice lens. ok tnx.
           for the cheep lenses you can get the cheep $15 filters. different
           people will give you different advice about how much to spend on a
           protective filter for a nice lens. ok tnx.
           protective filter for a nice lens. if you buy filter, either get
           them used in person or buy over the net. the markup on filters
           is often huge. ok tnx.
           \_ Thanks, good tips.  I don't think it's causing smudging (I
              thought it was resulting in some ugly blotches.)  As I don't
              intend to sell it anytime soon (great lens) it's not so much of
              an issue, I guess.  I've been using mainly a polarization filter,
              but I should probably get something protective for that.  -John
              \- You want to keep the UV/skylight filter on when you are
                 NOT using the CP. on a wide lens you may get vignetting
                 if you put two filters on [although "digital" lenses
                 may be more forgiving there]. the problem wont be
                 "smudging" but more of a flare-like problem or some
                 chromatic problem because of the scratch acting like a
                 diffraction grating. lenses,  especially like this one,
                 can take quite a bit of the kind of of dirtiness you
                 might think may cause a smudge on a picture. in fact
                 some people clean their lenses too much.
                 \_ I use microfiber towels I get from the optician where I
                    buy my shades--I have gotten quite a lot of smudging from
                    not-serious-looking dirt.  In fact, I thought the shadow
                    I asked about removing from large series of images in an
                    earlier post is something I thought stemmed from the
                    scratch on the lens.  I need to play with the UV filter;
                    I have found that the polarization filter lets me take
                    pictures with far nicer light, with effects that I haven't
                    managed just with camera settings (EOS 350D.)  -John
                    \- carry a blower/brush then. i'm not saying cleaning is
                       never necessary, just that a lot of people over clean
                       by rubbing. if you want to figure out if the "shadow"
                       is a "bug", i guess you are going to have to treat
                       this as a "debugging problem" ... maybe you can find
                       somebody else with that lens ... which should be pretty
                       common i think. the UV/skylight filter wont really do
                       that much for you ... there isnt really much to "play"
                       with. it is "lens insurance" ... to protect your $500
                       glass with $50 glass, rather than a functional filter
                       like your CP. i love my wildly expensive CP. yes, there
                       are definitely things you cannot do otherwise:
                    \_ circular polarizer!
                    \- you should get a blower brush and use that instead of
                       wiping mostly. sometimes wipe cleaning is needed but
                       a lot of people over do it. whether or not the scratch
                       is causing the shadow is a "debugging" problem you
                       probably will need to figure out by swapping the lens...
                       i'd think that would be a pretty common lens and should
                       be simple to analyze with a digital camera. there really
                       isnt much to "play with" with the UV filter ... it's
                       really $50 "lens insurance" for your $500 glass, not a
                       much of a functional component of your lens array.
                       i like CPs alot for use in the mountains ... you can
                       definitely get some dramatic exposures you cannot
                       otherwise although sometimes what you really need are
                       things like graded filters. this is a decent example of
                       very heavy pol:
           http://home.lbl.gov:8080/~psb/ANNAPURNA_01/AnnapurnaI-SWFace+ASG.jpg
           \_ Nice picture.  I need to wipe the lens a lot, it's a pretty
              dirty country.  And what sort of iso/WB/polarization do you use
              for those colors?  For example, GlacialStream-AnpSanctuary.jpg
              is a lot darker and more vibrant than the colors (esp. sky) I
              usually get.  -John
              \- all of the annapurna pix were either Fuji Velvia or
                 Kodak E-100 VS? [i havent taken a digital camera on a
                 serious mountain trip. used n90 and f4 and only shoot
                 slide film]. the big problem with mountain shots
                 is how to deal with snow on teh mnt but get detail of
                 the darker foreground ... e.g. by using graded filters,
                 but i think those are a little hard to use. the glacial-stream
                 picture i actually think is pretty boring. that's more
                 "documentary". i am not too fond of most of the digital
                 pictures i've taken.
        \_ it depends upon the scratch.  The scratch CAN BE cosmetic
           (in a realistic term).  If the scratch didn't really ruin your
           picture quality as far as you can tell, then, don't worry about it.
                                kngharv

4/24    Why China will Rule The World (NWS)  -John
        http://www.nickscipio.com/funstuff/archive14/images/university1.jpg
        http://www.nickscipio.com/funstuff/archive14/images/university2.jpg