5/18    dnm, a friend an occasional denizen of #csua has some hardware for
        sale.  He wanted to make it available to local geeks before
        advertising on craigslist or eBay so I'm posting this for him.
        No prices listed, email dnm with an offer.
        -dans
        * At least 5 HP Vectra VL420 DT desktop boxes, all Pentium 4 1.6 GHz
          machines
        * a boat load of UATA 133 drives of various sizes, 60 GB up to 250 GB.
        * 2 two 13" CRT monitors, one NEC and one eMachines
        * 1 19" Iiyama Vision Master Pro 510, an ex-Napster monitor, seems to
          have one dead color gun, and a small ding in the glass, but is
          otherwise okay.
        * 1 Apple TiBook 667 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 30 GB HD in decent shape.
        Of the machines and disks, dnm has this to say:
        These were used as data storage machines with four drives a piece, so
        there's no CD-ROM drive in any of them, and the disks are "well used."
        Everything is sold as-is, though I know all the drives to be good. If
        you get a drive that's DOA, I'll take it back and refund your money.
        They may, however, die later. Nonetheless, I've been okay.  I'm using
        one such box as my desktop and another is outfitted as a 1 TB (before
        formatting) NAS using FreeNAS. I can build this or other
        configurations if it's not much work, including FreeNAS, FreeBSD, or
        Ubuntu installs.
        Email dnm@pobox.com if you're interested: first come, first served.
        Pick up in San Francisco.  Cash or PayPal preferred. No cables,
        keyboards, or mice at this time.  Thanks!

5/17    http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/04/26/hip.and.pregnant.ap
        It's hip to be pregnant! Yeah, come on people, start to make
        babies like rabbits!
        \_ The babies themselves aren't hip. You should get pregnant a lot
           but have late abortions!
           \_ Get 'em while they last!

5/17    Can someone please point me to the web site that shows post-911,
        people had a lot of sex? A friend of mine who is a playboy said
        he never had so much sex with different women in his entire life
        the months following 911. I'd like to see a more scientific study.

5/17    sameer joines the marines
        http://www.creativedestruction.com/blog

5/17    Did you guys see the letter from Ahmadinejad?
        http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12984.htm
        \_ Translation issues aside, that is a frighteningly clear and
           reasonable letter. I say frightening because I still think of
           Ahmadi-Najad as a fundamentalist nutjob, but I wasn't aware he
           was so articulate.
           \_ He is/was a professor.  Being a fundamentalist nutjob
              doesn't mean you aren't intelligent (although they do tend
              to be correlated).
           \_ "Reasonable" in the sense that, as above poster put it very
              well, nutjobs can still put up logically constructed
              arguments.  Much of what he writes is true.  However, it
              reminds me of a joke involving a bunch of people who visit
              East Germany in 1975, and after being told for hours what a
              great place it is, one of them asks the guide about the stasi,
              oppression, and a whole bunch of other horrid things.  The guide
              snaps back, "Americans oppress their black people."  -John
              \_ Here in Berkeley that's not a joke, it's an inspiring
                 tale of a liberated East German "speaking truth to
                 power."
                 \_ I'm sure in Berkeley a lot of things would be
                   considered "inspiring tales" by people who haven't the
                   slightest clue what the fuck they're talking about.  -John

5/17    The RNC raised $35 million in the first quarter of the year and has
        almost $43 million in the bank. The Democratic National Committee,
        meanwhile, raised $18 million in the first quarter and has $10.5
        million on hand. Sadly, DNC is going to be as smug as it was in
        2000 and 2004 and probably screw up the campaigns again the way
        Gore and Kerry did. The DNC needs a strong leader like JFK, and
        a good campaign architect like Rove.
        \_ Kerry never got to the point.  Dubya did.  Bubba did.
           Bubba would have obliterated Dubya in a head-to-head.
           Hillary vs. McCain?  My money's on Hillary.

5/17    Freepers react to Murtha describing massacre of Iraqi civilians by
        U.S. marines after a fellow marine died
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1634085/posts
        \_ It's like reading National Geographic: fascinating, riveting, and
           utterly alien.

5/18    I want to use version control for some code on my laptop even when
        I'm not connected to the network with the SVN repository. Is there
        a good way to run a local svn repository on the laptop and synch it
        with the main repository from time to time? ok tnx.
        \_ http://svk.elixus.org  (haven't used it personally)
           but you might want to think about a revision control system that's
           designed for this from the get go, like "git"  On the other hand,
           I find git quirky and confusing.  YMMV.  --dbushong

11/04   Is it just me or Haggard looks like the grown up version
        of Steve Stifler in American Pie?
        http://www.gulfnews.com/world/U.S.A/10079630.html
        http://tinyurl.com/yxslwu (outsidethebeltway.com)
        \_ Go conservatives!!!
        \_ Go liberals!!! "the population of Black Jack according to Wikipedia
           is 71 percent African-American."

5/18    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060518/od_nm/germany_deposit_dc
        Another wacky German

5/18    I'm working with a developer who's used to C++/Java development
        environments that show you all the object relationships,
        inheritance, where functions are defined, where functions are
        used, etc.  We have a huge, painful application written in
        object oriented PHP that he's trying to figure out.  Do you
        guys know of and/or have you used any editors for PHP that have
        the kind of object oriented awareness like IntelliJ or Eclipse?
        He's really stuck in the high-level IDE way of working and I
        need him to figure this code out much quicker than his
        current pace.  Thanks!
        \_ There are PHP IDEs out there but I couldn't make any reccomendations
           Some people are working on a PHP add-on for Eclipse, but it's not
           ready for use yet.
           Since you have a huge, painful OO PHP application, may I ask why you
           haven't moved to an IDE?  I realize there's a bit of pride in saying
           VI is your IDE, but a real IDE can give big productivity gains
           even if you already know the project like the back of your hand.
           \_ You're preaching to the choir, trust me!  The group I work for is
              very security-conscious and I'm not allowed to install any other
              software, like a PHP IDE.  I've done most of my development using
              Java IDE's like IntelliJ, so I know how powerful and useful they
              are.  The PHP application in question is something that was built
              long ago by a CS student, and is undocumented, other than a feature
              spec.  I'm in charge of helping another group rewrite the
              application, from the spec, but using the existing PHP code as a
              secondary reference.  Really we should only be using the spec and
              not the code, but it is what it is unfortunately.

5/18    To learn ruby, are any books other than the "pickaxe" recommended?
        \_ The new pickaxe book is very, very good.  If you want something
           online and very, very quirky, try:
           http://poignantguide.net/ruby/chapter-1.html   --dbushong
        \_ Do yourself a favor... don't.  Ruby makes javascript look fast.
           \_ Do you understand there are many cases where prototyping
              speed and correctness are more important than execution
              speed.
           \_ Quirky and usless.
              \_ Hey, I never said useful.  --dbushong
           \_ Hmmm... it's interesting that he makes a lot of attempts at
              simple explanations a metaphores, but if I wasn't a
              programmer already, I would have no idea what he's talking
              about.
           \_ That is filled with way too much useless verbiage trying
              to be clever and failing.

5/18    I need to get a stove and from what I can tell, induction is the way
        to go. Is there any reason not to get an induction stove?
        \_ This was on KAIS MOTD a while ago but I can't search anymore.
        \_ http://theinductionsite.com/proandcon.shtml
        \_ You like to cook? If so, gas is the way to go.
                \_ I second that.
           \_ Remember that stoves and ovens often come together and gas ovens
              have the disadvantage that they generate water vapor and to make
              it harder to crisp foods.
           \_ Once you get used to it, electric has some advantages: much lower
              simmers, for one.
               \_ Bah.
               \_ What's another? The one I see is that it is easier to clean.
                  The glass-surface ones anyway. But the temperature changes
                  are so sloow. I much prefer gas but now I'm stuck with elec.
                  \_ For the same cost, a low-end electric burner seems to
                     deliver BTUs faster to a flat-bottomed vessel than a
                     gas burner.  They are slow, but you learn to deal with it
                     (take things off burner while cooling, leave extra time
                     for initial warmup)
                     \_ I don't care about cost. Yes you can deal with it but
                        the bottom line is electric is less versatile and also
                        less fun.
               \_ Usually not very fine control when simmering. It's very
                  easy to burn sauces when cooking on electric and much
                  less so on gas. With a high BTU gas burner, the heat is
                  almost instant (for searing, for example). My experience
                  with electric is that it's usually too hot or too cold
                  because it takes time for the coils to settle to the
                  correct temperature.
                  \_ Agreed that it takes a while for the coils to settle but
                     if you can wait for it, you get much finer control at low
                     heat with electric than with gas.
            \_ No self respecting cook would use anything except a gas range,
               period.  You lose all control with electric, and you are limited
               to flat bottom pots and pans.  If you want a lower flame use
               a cast iron flame tamer.  If you are worried about water vapor
               in the oven, they make combination stove ovens which have
               electric elements in the oven, and a gas range.  Personally gas
               is better in my opinion for the oven as water vapor helps to
               improve oven spring when baking bread and helps to transport
               heat.  I prefer convection ovens anyways.
               \_ Your points are valid, but you brand yourself an idiot by
                  beginning with "no self respecting cook..."  I'm pretty sure
                  I wouldn't have a hard time finding a chef who, even so
                  woefully handicapped by cooking on electric, could could the
                  pants off of you.
                  \_ Your logic does not follow.
        \_ Are you the infamous "induction" guy?
           \- do you guys pushing electrics work for msft?