5/2     Running into a weird php problem. When I do the following I get
        both "1" and "2":
                print "1";
                require_once('./print_something.php');
                print "2";
        However, when I replace require_once with require (because I
        want to print something multiple times), I never get "2", ever.
        The control flow is never returned to me. Why is that?
        \_ Syntax error or call to exit() or die() in print_something.php?
           (OK, not syntax error if it makes it through the first time....)
        \_ At that point in the file had print_something.php been already
           required?  It looks like print_somthing.php can't handle being
           loaded twice.  It isn't idempotent.

5/2     Finally found that jerk that never flushes.
        http://csua.org/u/fp5

5/3     Dan Silverstein Inquiry: You arent related to BSTEIN are you? ok tnx.
        http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/06/a_missing_piece.html

5/3     Where on the web can I find the video of the total solar eclipse
        of March 29 taken from the International Space Station that was
        shown on TV back then?  I tried to google for it unsuccessfully.
        \_ Does this help:
           http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse
        \_ Are you sure there's video? Here's the photos:
        \_ Can you confirm this video ever existed?  The closest I could
           find are two still images:
 http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/ISS_eclipse_03292006.html
        \_ Found it: -marked
           http://www.nasa.gov/eclipse
           \_ Wait a sec, from the photos one can deduce from the position of the
              station, earth, moon, and sun, that the eclipse wasn't viewable
              from the station.
            \_ The station didn't experience the eclipse, in the sense that
               they were not in the moon's shadow.  But they could see the
               moon's shadow on the earth from their vantage point in
               space.  A friend told me he saw a video taken of this from
               the ISS on the news, but maybe he was confused.  Maybe it
               was just an animation or something.  -op

5/3     Government getting in the way of free trade, *again*
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060503/wr_nm/telecoms_ftc_dc_1

5/3     Hmm.. got a message today dated 4/26.. Anyone else?
        \_ I got more spam.  Lots of spam.

5/3     Dan Silverstein Inquiry: You arent related to BSTEIN are you?
          http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2005/06/a_missing_piece.html
        BSTEIN is the son of HSTEIN. "I did not know that". ok tnx.
        \_ No.  My Aunt (Mother's sister) married a gentleman with the last
           name Stein so her kids (my cousins) have that surname, but they
           have no relationship to Ben Stein or Herbert Stein.  What led
           you to inquire?  You might as well ask if I'm related to Craig
           Silverstein of Google or Shel Silverstein, and the answer to both
           of those is no.  The name Stein, as well as combinations like
           Goldstein, Silverstein, etc., usually imply German and Stein is
           usually pronounced 'stine'.  I pronounce it 'steen,' and am of
           Russian descent on both sides, but family lore says my
           great-grandfather saw Silverstein on a cigar box, and used it in
           lieu of his actual surname, which he felt sounded too polish,
           when he immigrated. -dans
                \_ "My name is Fronkensteen"
                   \_ "Do you also say Froaderick"?
           \_ What color hair do your parent's have?
              \_ What kind of grammatical errors do your parents make? -dans

5/3     http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=47
        Funny only if you're a PhD student.
        \_ Comic author speaking on campus today.

5/3     I visited San Pedro de Atacama with some friends last week, and it
        had some of the most mind-blowing night sky views I've ever seen
        (in addition to being an all-around pretty amazing area.)  If
        anyone is into this sort of thing, I highly recommend checking it
        out; if you're there, you should give these guys a peek:
        http://www.spaceobs.com/en -- their "tour" was great.  -John
        \_ No money to travel :(

5/2     Zacarias Moussaoui verdict in 20 minutes (it's now 1:10PM, it'll
        be out at 1:30PM). What is your prediction? Death or life in prison?
        \_ Life.  He didn't actually participate, and his role was minimal.
           Death if the jurors are stupid / weak-willed.  I wouldn't be
           surprised if they vote for death just so they won't be outed as the
           juror who voted for life for a 9/11 terrorist.
           \_ 1:40PM LIFE!!! You're good. Let's play this game again.
           juror who voted for life for a 9/11 terrorist.  I might do the same.
              \_ Thanks, but I also thought the jury wouldn't convict Scott
                 Peterson.
        \_ The guy belongs in an asylum, but of course, we don't put people with
           deeply held, illogical religious convictions in asylums.  We praise
           them as "people of faith".
           them as "people of faith" (or, if we don't agree with the beliefs,
           just call them "evil").
           \_ It's okay to have faith and spiritual beliefs.  Really.
              \_ Sure it is, as long as they don't cause you to make dangerous
                 decisions because of an illogical spiritual conviction, like
                 "I can fly" or "God wants me to lead this country to war" or
                 "I will get 40 virgins in Heaven for this"
                 \_ But those are just as valid as any other non-fact-based
                    belief. Those beliefs are ok unless they aren't... well
                    maybe they're just not ok.

5/2     My local bike shops sell overpriced accessories. I'd like to buy
        a cheap bicycle bag or two, where is a good place for that? Thanks.
        \_ Online. Visit your local bike shops to get an idea of what you
           want, then look for it online.
           \_ If you are figuring out what you want to buy by going to
              a local store and browsing that store is providing a service.
              Maybe you should not be a twit and compensate them for that.
              \_ What, leave them a tip? Comparison shopping is the backbone
                 of the Free Market, son.
              \_ just remember that if you keep doing this, they wont' be
                 there the next time you need to comparisonshop local

5/2     Finally found that jrleek that never flushes.
        http://csua.org/u/fp5

5/3     In the light of what happened recently, should I stop using soda
        for any important communications and get a gmail account instead?
        \_ FYI, I am making my ISP account (Comcast) my main e-mail point.
           My problem with gmail is that the From: address is automagically
           replaced with your @gmail.com address, whereas I can make it
           whatever I want with Comcast as long as I authenticate.
           I do realize Comcast is the source of most zombie spam.
           This is after having used soda as my main mail account since '92.
           Props to all the undergrads who have kept soda up, anyway.
           \_ Comcast is a bad idea. Comcast is a spam target and also means
              you are tied to that ISP. Better to convert to gmail.
              \_ because, you know, gmail isn't a spam target.  -tom
                 \_ No, but it does have good spam filtering built-in.
                    Still, what is a good reason for using comcast over
                    gmail? I'd rather use soda. Or <DEAD>cal.berkeley.edu<DEAD>.
                    \_ I don't use comcast, but web interfaces to email
                       suck, and gmail still doesn't offer IMAP, right?  -tom
                       \_ Well, gmail is faster than any other webmail I've
                          used, and the searching/labeling/filtering system
                          is pretty good. Gmail is the only webmail I've used
                          that I could put up with daily... although I still
                          only use it for certain things. Maybe eventually
                          they will have IMAP. I saw some kind of beta 3rd
                          party attempts at providing IMAP gmail access.
                          Shrug.
                       \_ "web interfaces to email suck" ?? what are you
                          talking about? gmail is easy to use, has key-
                          board shortcuts and is accessible from anywhere
                          without worrying about ssh'ing or crap like that
                          \_ One drawback of web mail is that if you don't
                             access it within X time, your account can
                             go byebye. Although gmail's 9 months is I think
                             much longer than any other free webmail.
                          \_ Let me be more explicit; non-web GUI mail clients
                             have better interfaces than web-based mail
                             clients.  It can be useful to have access to
                             a web-based client, but the web interface is
                             signficantly less effective for day-to-day
                             activity.  -tom
                                \_ gmail supports POP/SMTP, so you can use
                                   other email clients like outlook and
                                   mac mail client.
                                   \_ but not with multiple mailboxes, so
                                      what's the point?  -tom
        \_ Most people stopped using soda for important communications a
           long time ago.
        \_ Yes, it's pretty obvious that gmail will be more reliable for
           things like that. I use both.
        \_ I echo the op's concerns and am switching to my primary e-mail to my
           ISP as well (SBC). If you lived in a neighborhood for 10 years,
           loved it, then all of a sudden couldn't get access to your house for
           2 weeks because their was a break-in, while the local police was
           processing your paperwork, I would move.  Again, not enough praise
           can be given to those volunteering their time and effort to maintaining
           this environment.  It's a testament that it's has as much uptime as it
           does.  But as your primary account, it would be awful to go
           through that again.  I think free e-mail services are risky because
           they can start charging at anytime or start going downhill
           (ie. Hotmail).  If you are happy with your ISP and plan to use them for
           awhile, why not go with them, at least you have greater control of the
           risks.
        \_ I'm still using soda for most things just because, it's really
           nice to be able to hand someone an email address you can be
           fairly sure will still be there in 5 years.
           \_ Why not just register your own domain ($2 to $30/year), and
              point it at a cheap virtualhosting/email provider ($10 to
              $50/month)? -dans
              \_ because there are free, or already-paid-for alternatives.

5/3     How do I capture the BoxMart jibjab video to MPG or AVI?
        \_ It's a Flash file.  Why not save it as Flash and use a Flash
           player?  It'll be smaller and won't degrade the quality.  Otherwise
           you'll either need to find a Flash => AVI converter (so far I'm
           unaware of any good free ones, though I'm sure Macromedia's Flash
           authoring package does it) or get a screen scraping program.
           --jameslin
        \_ Firefox VideoDownloader should do it.  It even points you to where
           you can get an, apparently Windows only, player for FLV files.
           -dans
           \_ That'll download it, but it won't convert it.  It's not clear
              exactly what the op wants though.
              \_ Looks like FFMPEG will convert FLV to foo
                 \_ But it's not an FLV.  It's just a normal SWF Flash
                    animation, isn't it?

5/2     Finally found that jrleek that never flushes.

5/3     Can anyone recommend an e-mail service that provides POP3/IMAP and
        SMTP with encrypted authentication, From: address to whatever you want
        it, isn't zombie-land, has minimal service interruptions, and won't
        go away?  Doesn't need to be free.  Really imporant to have minimal
        service interruptions.
        \_ Gmail!
           \_ From: address always defaults to @gmail.com.
              \_ I believe you can change this in Settings->Accounts.
                 There is no IMAP though.
                 \_ Cool, I just tested it.  Works through SMTP auth port 465
                    too.  Thanks. -op
              \_ Not if you're using SMTP, afaik.

5/3     So how do you guys like googlable wall?
        \_ URL?

5/3     So, is cgi-bin gonna be enabled any time soon?

5/3     What GWB has to say about today's trial:
        "Our cause is right, and the outcome is certain:
         Justice will be served. Evil will not have the
         final say. This great Nation will prevail." -GWB

5/1     BSP: May 12, Mars Bar 798 Brannan @ 7th St.
        http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/9396/piggiebankflyersm3iz.jpg
        Eat bacon, drink vodka, be merry.  Yes there will be girls there.
        \_ If there are girls their then I want to DO them!