6/1     New "bio-ooze" shooting super soaker.  Umm.. wow.
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdAIt4MgnHc
        \_ see also: archived http://amazon.com reviews at http://csua.org/u/g23

6/1     Juggling in a cone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqDAf_lg9Xs

6/1     Writing a hash/array/scalar traversing function. How do I tell
        if a variable passed to me is a hash, scalar, or array
        in Perl? Thanks.
        \_ You can't, unfortunately.  If you really want to do that, you
           have to pass a reference instead.  --mconst
           \_ Ah I got it. I need to dereference a variable, then
              do a ref($var) to see its type. THANKS SO MUCH mconst.
        \_ Guessing that you really mean you were passed a reference, call ref()
           on it, which will give you undef (it was just a scalar), 'ARRAY',
           'HASH', 'SCALAR', etc, meaning it was a reference to one of those.
           --dbushong
        \_ Welcome to perl, the worst of all typing worlds
           \_ How about PHP, where the only way to find out if something is
              an array or a hash is heuristically (i.e. "are the first few
              keys ordered ints starting from 0?")
              \_ And to be fair, ruby does some amazingly annoying things
                 with arrays as return values.
                 \_ Really?  Like what?  I've always found ruby's behavior
                    w.r.t. arrays to be as convenient as possible while still
                    completely flexible.  --dbushong

6/2     Zinc.
        http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/01/news/newsmakers/penny/index.htm?cnn=yes
        \_ 65% of the people think the penny should be eliminated. Yay!
           Now if only they can turn dollar bills into loonies and two
           dollars into toonies, that'd be cool too.
        \_ profit-making scheme:
           buy pennies for one cent each
           sell them for their zinc
        \_ Mark Weller tells us
           "Americans want pennies"
           Backed by zinc lobby
        \_ behold the penny
           heavy, useless currency
           uses too much zinc
        \_ we are galvanized
           in our monetary aim
           turn all bills to zinc
        \_ Modernization
           Of legal tender permits
           No place for pennies
           \_ In the current thread
              This haiku does not belong
              No mention of zinc

6/2     Um, the person who usually deletes stale posts has been slacking
        off for the past 2 days. I'm taking over for the next 12 hours.

6/1     http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NzZkNDU5MmViNzVjNzkzMDE3NzNlN2MyZjRjYTk4YjE=
        Top conservative songs
        \_ Wow. Unintentional comedy at its finest.
        \_ Hilfuckingarious!  On a related vein, have you heard Toby Keith's
           "The Taliban Song"?  I almost shat myself.
           \_ The national review is great at making liberals angry
              with their rhetoric.  Unfortunately if you ignore them,
              they don't go away, they're still there next year.

6/2     Some of my Mac OSX application windows (e.g. Firefox) don't extend to the
        far right side of my screen when I try to maximize the window. Is
        there a reason for this or a way to fix it? I'm using a 12" iBook.
        Thanks.
        \_ Dunno, but please post if you figure it out.  -John
        \_ There are different interpretations about the semantics of
           clicking a window's green button.  Some apps treat it as
           "maximize", while others understand the command as "enlarge the
           window to fit the contents of the window".  I assume FF is
           doing the latter.

6/2     This appeared briefly on http://craigslist.org. Deleted by author soon after:
        http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~erikred/batsuit.html

6/2     "O'REILLY: And in Malmedy, as you know, U.S. forces captured S.S.
        forces, who had their hands in the air. And they were unarmed. And they
        shot them down. You know that. That's on the record. Been documented."
        ... unfortunately, the Malmedy massacre was SS forces murdering 70+
        U.S. soldiers told to stand in a field:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malm%C3%A9dy_massacre
        Clips of O'Reilly making this claim 8 months ago and again last week,
        and his despicable response to a Fox viewer pointing out the error:
        http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-OReilly-Malmedy.wmv
        http://movies.crooksandliars.com/Countdown-OReill.mov
        Fox News rewrites the transcript (search for "documented"):
        http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197635,00.html
        \_ You can't blame O'Reilly for that. Sometimes he just forgets
           which side he was on.
        \_ So O'Reilly is a knuckle head.  What about it?
           \_ It's the solidness of the case.  Basically he repeated something
              verifiably wrong that had U.S. soldiers herding unarmed German
              soldiers into a field and executing 70+ of them with automatic
              fire, his response to the correction was disgraceful, and you
              have black-and-white evidence http://foxnews.com is covering it up.
              \_ Ok, so O'Reilly was wrong and covered it up although the
                 person below says it is uncovered now.  Again, so what?
                 O'Reilly is a commentor and rabble rouser, not a news
                 reporter.  He has no obligation to tell the truth or get
                 anything right.  He is an entertainer.  Were you equally
                 upset at Dan Rather's "false but accurate" statement or
                 was Dan ok because you wanted to believe the report despite
                 actively falsified evidence?  I don't get where you're trying
                 to go with all this.
                 \_ Another conservative with disdain for the
                    "reality-based community."  -tom
                 \_ Rush Limbaugh is the one who said he's an entertainer
                 \_ "I don't get where you're trying to go with all this."
                    Man, if that doesn't sum up willful ignorance, I don't
                    know what does. Nice attempt to work in a "Fair and
                    Balanced" attack tactic by bringing up Rather. Still,
                    no cookie.
                    \_ I'm not being willfully ignorant.  You haven't addresed
                       anything I've said.  The guy is an entertainer.  He's a
                       clown, just like at Ringling.  His job is to entertain
                       and collect advertising dollars.  Why do you care if he
                       makes boneheaded or out right factually incorrect
                       statements?  He isn't anyone of any importance.  He is
                       nobody.  A nothing.  Zip.  Nil.  Nada.  Clown.  Zero.
                       \- should we take away the press passes of anybody
                          associated with oreily/fox news? should we remove
                          their right to have their sources  protected?
                          [this is more food for thought than a reply ...
                          i think it's an interestign question why a "serious
                          blogger" might have less journalistic protection/
                          rights than a "journalist" from an "celebrity
                          tracking" show.
                          \_ O'Reilly?  Sure take away the press pass.  Fox?
                             No.  They have a slant like all news orgs but
                             they're still a news org, like it or not.
                             \_ Look, O'Reilly is broadcast on FOX News.
                                If he is intended to be entertainment,
                                they shouldn't broadcast him on a news
                                station.  Jon Stewart isn't on CNN.  As
                                long as they present his program as a news
                                show, on a news network, he has a
                                responsibility.  And even if he's only
                                entertainment, he has a human, moral
                                responsibility.  -tom
                                \_ When Rupert Murdock started Fox News he
                                   said he would revolutionize the format of
                                   broadcast-- it was unnecessary to make a
                                   clear distinction between news and
                                   commentary.
                          \_ Small point, there is no journalistic shield law.
                             \- small point: there are by-state Journalist
                                Shield Laws. More than half the states have
                                something. Including CA. Clearly it's not an
                                absolute thing, like if testimony is needed
                                in somebody elses criminal trial etc.
                                in somebody elses criminal trial etc. BTW,
                                worth looking at the recent WENHOLEE case.
                                \_ Right.  I should have said "federal JSL"
                             There is no "right" to protection of sources.
                             There is a tradition of journalists protecting
                             sources by facing the brunt of punishment
                             themselves
                       \_ I care because he's being packaged as news instead
                          of entertainment. The entertainment version of BOR
                          is Stephen Colbert.
                          \_ No sane person thinks hes a new guy.  His show
                             isn't packaged like a news show.  What about him
                             is packaged as news and not talking head?
                             \_ Hint: You don't have to be insane to be
                                uninformed.
        \_ fyi, http://foxnews.com changed the transcript back as recently as an
           hour ago, but I can tell you that the site most definitely had
           the fake transcript up at noon. -op
        \_ for completeness, U.S. soldiers did execute about 22-23 SS prisoners
           in Belgium and not in Normandy, although the "hands in the air"
           description is most often used for Malmedy.  the person interviewed
           described it as a matter of necessity, a stealthy night withdrawal
           with three panzer divisions nearby.
           http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=82142
           here's a longer description of Malmedy, where it's also suggested
           that killing the U.S. soldiers was a matter of necessity:
           http://www.historynet.com/wwii/blmassacreatmalmedy
           Unfortunately, I don't see how shooting kids in their PJs, etc.
           was a matter of necessity. -op
           \_ There's a massive difference between the massacre of POWs
              ("matter of necessity" is pretty fucking rich, "matter of
              convenience" would be much more accurate here) by the
              Waffen-SS at Malmedy and the execution of the German
              captives of Operation Greif as spies (they were wearing U.S.
              uniforms.)  -John
              \_ So, do you think we should be able to summarily execute
                 any Iraqi "insurgents" who dress up as police or
                 military?  What about dressing as civilians?
                 \_ I'm not John, but yes. If they are out of uniform then
                    the Geneva Convention should not apply.
        \_ http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/06/bill_oreilly_sc.html

6/2     PSP graps porn out of thin air!
        http://www.fox9.com/news/investigators/story.asp?1653685
        \_ page is blank in the middle for me in both IE & FF
           \_ Huh, the article disappeared

6/2     Hmm.. I need a good cheap pickup puzzle game for the Gameboy/
        Gameboy Advance.  Anyone got any recommendations?
        \_ Pokemon puzzle challenge (previously known as Tetris Attack)
           Awesome game.
           \_ Thanks, I bought the game yesterday.  It's a great game, and
              perfect for what I wanted it for.  Thanks. -op
              \_ Trying to stimulate your brain? Or is this for your kid?
        \_ "pickup puzzle"? what's that?
           \_ I just mean a puzzle game I can pickup and play without
              having to invest a lot of time.  I realized last night that
              all my games are very involved.  You invest a lot of time
              and have to get to save points and such.  Makes it difficult
              to use when you're just waiting on something.

6/2     I own a 1999 Taurus. I would like to replace the OEM in-dash
        cassette deck with a CD player that won't cost more than say $120 and
        which will have a "detacheable face". How likely is my car to be broken
        into if I do it?
        \_ The likelihood of your fancy shmancy CD player getting stolen
           10-15 years ago would be the same as those expensive fancy shmancy
           spinner wheels getting stolen today, you know, those wheels on
           SUVs and big trucks you see a lot of in Southern Cal, apparently
           as a status symbol in certain parts of S Cal. To rephrase what
           I just said, the chance of your CD player getting stolen today
           is as good as hi-tech Bose Dolbe cassette players 15 years ago.
           CD players are so common, thieves don't care about them anymore.
           Now if you're planning to get those expensive spinner wheels,
           lower your suspension so that you can scrape the curb and
           impress gangstah teenager girls, or add super electric forced
           air intake, or add a bigger pipe that increases 5 HP and
           100 decible, then yeah, chances are your insurance will triple
           and your car will very likely get stolen. CD player? Who cares.
           \_ evidence?
        \_ Not much. I did the exact same thing (although my cassette deck
           was only $80!) for the same reason, and my car hasn't been
           broken into once yet.  Knock on wood.
           \_ I am looking for one that preferably works with CDRs and computer
              audio formats which adds $20 or so to the price compared to
              plain-Jane models from the same vendor.
                \_ Oh, oops. I didn't see you wanted a CD player too. Mine is
                   just a cassette deck.
        \_ It's not a big deal now like it was 15 years ago. No one will care.
                \_ Well it made a big difference when I bought one with my car.
        \_ Until recently I had a 97 Taurus.  It had a tape but also had a 6
           slot CD.  I don't remember the details but I thought the CD came
           standard on the car.  Did you get some special stripped down job?
           \_ I have the cassette player which also has the controls for
              the CD changer in the trunk. However, I guess the CD changer
              was an option and it didn't come with my car. Those Taurus
              CD changers can be bought on ebay for $50 but I am worried
              they won't play CDR disks and MP3 files which is what I want
              to do.
        \_ Itrip?  Easier than lugging a bunch of CDs around... -John