6/15    Bush pushing giant NAFTA superhighway connecting Mexico and Canada.
        http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?print=yes&id=15497
        \_ I don't see any evidence that Bush has anything to do with this.
           \_ Bush is head of the administration. Of course he has something
              to do with it (even if he was so stupid that somehow he is
              unaware of it).
                \_ Bush doesn't read papers, doesn't asks questions during
                   staff meetings and tries to spend as much time as possible
                   clearing brush on his ranch....
              \_ This appears to be the work of a private corporation.

6/15    A co-worker checked out a file under RCS and then went on vacation.
        What is the right way to unlock this?
        \_ rcs(1)
        \_ rcs -u

6/15    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13350015
        Hip-hop music does NOT increase the rate of hearing loss.
        \_ How about brain cell loss?

6/15    Let's face it. Karl Rove is evil, but is also extremely brilliant.
        What new tricks do you anticipate in the upcoming elections?
        \_ Dubya simultaneously stays the course in Iraq and brings some
           troops back to a heroic homecoming.
           \_ Precisely. He announces that victory is complete and says he'll
              bring home troops. He brings back a minimum number and says the
              rest are merely support and on their way home Real Soon Now.
              At the same time, he paints Dems as cowards. Fox publishes
              retrospective on the war describing the entire venture in rosy
              terms ("sacrifices were made for the greater good," etc.).
              The best Dems can hope for after that is the assassination of
              the Iraqi PM.
              \_ Are you fucking nuts?  Why would you *hope for* the Iraqi
                 PM to be assassinated?  Why would anyone hope for that?
                 \_ Because it's ok if the middle east goes to hell and
                    millions die, as long as the Dems win the next
                    election!
                    \_ And yet, not surprisingly, it would be okay with
                       everyone involved if you were found drowned and
                       bloated, no matter who wins the next election.
                       \_ Oo, touched a nerve, huh? And, not surprisingly,
                          you cannot express yourself in an intelligent
                          manner.  Ook! Trog kill!
                          \_ It's always disappointing to me when this is
                             the best a college educated person can do.
                             -someone else
                 \_ You DON'T. That's the point. The GOP is so good at the
                    PR game that they're going to paint the Dems into a
                    corner where the only way out is if something absolutely
                    terrible happens.
                    \_ Paint into a corner?  What?  So Iraq taking a turn for
                       the worse is good for the party?  The logic behind that
                       is so painfully twisted I'm left speechless.  Nevermind,
                       it's only the motd.  I'm going to lunch.
                       \_ Here's my vain attempt to make this clear to you:
                          Bushco is going to announce victory and bring back
                          a minimum number of troops while promising to bring
                          the rest back at some vague date in the future.
                          He'll ridicule the Dems as cowards who would have
                          pulled out our troops before we were able to complete
                          the mission. Fox will kick into overdrive with
                          retrospectives of how the war _was_ terrible but
                          how it was utterly justified and how the troops
                          who died did so in the line of duty. The networks
                          will miss the point and will argue over the war,
                          but in the past tense, thereby solidifying the
                          idea that it's over. The public, faced with a
                          seemingly successful conclusion to the matter, will
                          go along with the GOP as the party of winners. The
                          Dems will then have no real means of regaining
                          Congress or the White House. The one thing that could
                          derail this plan is if something catastrophic
                          and sensationally public occurred in Iraq, such as
                          the assassination of the Iraqi PM; a public
                          reversal like that would be sufficient to prove
                          that the war is not won in Iraq, thereby short-
                          circuiting the PR war. Read carefully: I'm not saying
                          that anyone should be hoping for the assassination
                          of the Iraqi PM; I'm saying that the GOP is setting
                          up an airtight plan to continue their dominance.
                          \_ ok it does make me feel better that you're not
                             rooting for an assassination.  However, I'm not
                             buying that if there's still say, 30,000 US troops
                             there and bombs are still going off in Baghdad
                             that anyone is going to buy that it's over.  As
                             far as planning for political dominance, that is
                             a political parties reason for being.  I expect
                             both major political groups to spend all their
                             time plotting and planning to achieve and retain
                             power.  WTF else are they good for?  Once you
                             accept that political parties exist you can't
                             fault them for doing what they were designed
                             to do.
                             \_ I would buy this if there were oversight
                                worth a damn keeping them from acting
                                illegally and unethically. The sad truth is
                                (as DeLay mostly worked out) that if you
                                control the means of oversight, you can then
                                overlook your own excesses.
                                \_ I'm a glass half-full kinda guy.  I see
                                   DeLay and Jefferson's fridge stuffing and
                                   the many other times someone in either party
                                   got busted and booted and often jailed as
                                   the system working.  I see the Keating Five
                                   (sleaze bag McCain) getting off as a
                                   failure but that's the exception.  So, I'm
                                   not going for this "the people are stupid"
                                   line and I'm also not buying the "they
                                   always get away with it" thing either.  The
                                   overall record stands against that line of
                                   reasoning.
                          \_ airtight except for the fact that Iraq is still
                             a clusterfuck and it will get worse if we pull
                             our troops out.  That government wouldn't last
                             a week.  -tom
                             \_ And that's why they pull back a token number,
                                declare a public victory, and leave the rest
                                of the troops in place to be withdrawn at some
                                vague future date.
                                \_ People are stupid, but I don't think this
                                   administration has enough credibility left
                                   to turn things around with token gestures.
                                     -tom
                                   \_ I hope you're right.
        \_ Don't confuse "conniving" with "billiant."  -tom
           \_ Brilliantly conniving.  Not all connivers are on the same
              plane as Rove.
           \_ yosafbridge
              \_ Two words: "special hell" :D --michener
                 \_ quiet, this is a movie.

6/15    How the hell did GWB end up on the cover of Time magazine, twice?
        Is Time a mouthpiece for the administration?
        \_ Yes.  That's why I cancelled my subscription a couple years ago.
        \_ He may be an idiot, but he is the elected leader of the Executive
           branch of the US gov't. It's a wonder it's only happened twice.
        \_ C'mon, even Hitler made the cover at least once.
           \_ And Stalin a number of times
        \_ Because the cover is supposed to be about news makers.  Not about
           your political slant.  Any number of controversial people have been
           on the cover because mostly controversial people are the ones
           making news.  Excuse me, but "duh".  I think Time is a rag but at
           least I understand the point of the cover.  They've done a good job
           with that over the years even (or especially) when choosing
           unlikable people.  I suggest you cancel your sub and move on.
           \_ I'm sorry, but Bush is not controversial.  Pretty much the whole
              world except for 35% of the US thinks he's a total fucking
              idiot.
              \_ Ok, fine, he's an idiot.  Now tell me he's not a news maker.

6/15    Oh dear lord.  It seems SpamCop is blacklisting certain IPs used by
        Gmail.  Gmail does not reveal the sending IP for privacy reasons, so
        when Gmail users send mail to honeypots, Gmail's servers get
        blacklisted.  Has anyone else noticed this?
        \_ SpamCop has long been a bastion of incompetence. --scotsman
        \_ If you're a proxy for spam you should be blocked the same as direct
           spam.
           \_ I fully understand the SpamCop position, I just wish that if
              Google insists on hiding the originating IP that make damn sure
              legit mails don't get blocked by a widely used spam filter
              because of it. -OP

6/16    Friday Flash Fun: http://img252.echo.cx/img252/8159/006wo.swf
        \_ extremely boring.
           \_ also old
              \_ You're a tough, cranky crowd.
                 \_ and?
                    \_ also old

6/15    any tips for finding housing in UCSD? (med school) thnks
        \_ housing near ucsd is expensive. grad housing is relatively
           cheap, but the wait lists can get absurd. get on the grad
           housing waitlist asap at http://housing.ucsd.edu. you can also try
           the housing listings at http://offcampushousing.ucsd.edu, although
           that is mostly used by undergrads. beyond those two
           options, it's pretty much the usual... check craigslist,
           pick up copies of the free "apartment guide" at news
           stands, etc. email me if you have more specific questions.
           -jlau
           \_ I have lived in both UCSD owned "Single Graduate Apt" and
              "La Jolla Del Sol Apt".  "Single Grad" is on campus, you
              have your own room, but share the rest with 3 other grad
              students.  "La Jolla Del Sol" is off-campus, somewhat
              expansive, and feels like any other apartment.
              expensive, and feels like any other apartment.
              \_ Curious, not trying to nitpick: expansive or expensive?
                 \_ Fixed.  Expensive ($$$)

6/16    http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/cpu/intel-conroe-2-13-ghz.html
        "Here you can see the quintessence of Conroe's triumphal hymn. While
        the efficiency of Athlon 64 FX is higher by 58% versus Pentium eXtreme
        Edition 965, Conroe's efficiency is higher by 23% versus Athlon 64 FX!
        It seemed impossible to create something more efficient than the AMD K8
        core, but Intel engineers managed to do it." (June 15, 2006)
        \_ The damn intellitxt links on this page was the last straw to get me
           to install adblock.  Man I hate those things.
           \_ intelli-what links?  oh those, yeah I ad blocked them the very
              first time I saw them.  crazy obnoxious shit.
        \_ You're gonna need all that efficiency cuz Windows Vista, at least
           right now, is a dog.
           \_ Don't you mean Vista Server 2009?  Then again, with Gates
              semi-retiring into charity work, maybe they'll actually get it
              done sometime before we have a new President.
              \_ Previewers have noted that Vista sucks up ~ 40% more juice
                 from your notebook battery in Aero mode.

6/16    Is there anyway in Ant to change/append the value in java.library.path
        before starting the script?  I'm trying to use Ant to generate a DLL
        and then call a Ant task which needs native libraries in that DLL.
        I'd rather not have to modify my system path to include libraries
        before they have been generated...
        \_ Use perl.  Wait, sorry, nevermind.  :-)
        \_ Use ruby (rake).  Wait, sorry, nevermind.  :-)