7/12    First minute is one of the funnier Daily Show bits in a while
        http://movies.crooksandliars.com/TDS-North-Korea.wmv
        http://movies.crooksandliars.com/TDS-North-Korea.mov

7/13    Regardless of who's right or wrong (good luck on that), predictions
        on the outcome of the Israelis hitting Lebanon?  -John
        \_ I think it will depend upon what Syria wants to do.  There is a
           part of me want Israel go after Syria.  Adding ecnomic sanction
           against Iran to the mix... let the hell break loose in that region.
        \_ I dunno, but this doesn't sound good:
           http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/13/mideast
           'Earlier, Israel's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, told
           Israel's Channel 10, "If the soldiers are not returned, we
           will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years."'
        \_ It is clear that Iran is the provacoteur here and has
           been planning this for some time.
           \_ Israel has been very very stupid lately.  They need to learn
              that having a strong, functional government in Lebanon is
              actually better for Israel as a nation.  Instead, Israel is
              doing everything they can to weaken Lebanon's government,
              embolden those fractions who is already out of control as
              first place.  Again.  Lebanon is not a big deal, just like
              having massive famine in Gaza Strip is not a big deal neither.
              The trick is how much can Hezbollah in Lebanon drag Syria
              and Iran into this.  And right now, US policy is not
              encouraging neither nations to co-operate with them.
              By the way, such attack on Lebanon are the reason why
              Arab nations want to get nuclear weapons :p
              \_ I know what you mean, but from Israel's perspective
                 the part of Lebanon they invaded was completely under
                 terrorist control, not the Lebanese government.
                 \_ the war has escalated way beyond those ex-occupation
                    zones.
                    \_ yer both right.  the war is extending way beyond
                       contested lands, but Israel is primarily assaulting
                       Hezbollah areas.
        \_ What does Israel hope to accomplish by attacking Lebanon? I am
           guessing they want to hurt Lebanon's economy, but I don't see
           that these tactics are going to help return the soldiers or
           force Lebanon to take a stand against Hezbollah. Does Israel
           intend to occupy Lebanon? That's really the only way that these
           attacks might change anything, but I doubt Israel will go so far.
           \_ There are three objectives:
              (1) Occupy a Israel-dictated buffer zone (again),
              (2) Indicate that future kidnappings will be met with a
                  disproportione use of force (you'll hurt more than me), and
                \_ Terrorists only do kidnappings if there IS a
                   disproportionate response ... The only way they can keep
                   their movements going, by constantly radicalizing their
                   populace and making moderation untenable.
                   \_ I'd be inclined to say that there's TONS of evidence
                      that would seem to contradict this claim.
                        \_ And yet there was the leader of Hezbollah on TV
                           right after some of the early attacks calling on all
                           the world's Muslims to join him and attack Israel,
                           when is the last time you saw him on TV?
              (3) Getting the soldiers back.

        \_ The most likely outcome is a temporary ceasefire, with Israel
           holding onto a buffer zone in south Lebanon and airstrikes whenever
           Hezbollah fires another rocket into Israel while the press writes
           "wasn't there supposed to be a ceasefire?"

7/13    Really great mindmap I was sent, for anyone who does systems
        analysis and pen testing:  -John
        http://www.vulnerabilityassessment.co.uk/Penetration%20Test.h

7/13    I have about 80 .pdf graphics files, that are a mix of vector graphics
        and bitmaps, and I want to convert them all to bitmap of a specified
        resolution, while preserving the physical size of the original image.
        Does anyone have any suggestions for how to do this fast and
        efficiently?  I have access to the full Adobe suite if that makes any
        difference.  thanks.
        \_ Are they all one page?
           \_ Each file is much less than a page in size, and they're all
              seperate files.
        \_ Should be able to use ghostscript.
           Post a file if you want an example.
           \_ Ok, thanks.  I've been messing with Ghostscript, but I can't
              figure out how to get it to both be 600 dpi and to preserve
              the physical size.  If I were smarter, I probably would have
              specified all the sizes in the Latex code so that I wouldn't
              care, but that would be a lot of work at this point (180 page
              document).  Here is an example file:
              /csua/tmp/lafe/5point5huge.pdf
              Any pointers very much appreciated.

7/13    help. using gnome suddenly my mouse stops working. I think it might
        be related to vmware. I'm able to switch over to a linux virtual
        terminal ... I killed the vmware processes ... but still no mouse.
        the mouse works in the virtual terminal. anything I can do besides
        restarting or restarting gnome? there is work in progress i'd
        rather not lose. thanks.

7/13    Painful .pdf conversion question deleted by op.  I've decided to just
        be a man and edit the LaTex code the way I should have done in the
        first place.  Thanks to those who attempted to help.

7/13    http://csua.org/u/gf9 (globeandmail.com)
        U.S. casts lone dissenting Security Council vote on resolution which
        criticized disproportionate use of force by Israel, called for the
        release of an abducted soldier, and urged both sides to take steps
        toward restarting the peace process.  The vote was 10-1, with UK
        abstaining and the other three permt Sec Council members voting for.
        \_ Wow.  WWIII imminent.

7/13    http://www.usatoday.com/news/pdf/plame_lawsuit.pdf
        Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson sue Libby, Rove, Cheney, + John Doe's
        for retaliatory action under color of federal law for the exercise
        of free speech

7/13    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5175276.stm
        Yes, we're winning the war on terror like we are with the
        War on Drugs!

7/13    My feeling about the World Cup (you can select more than one):
        -just another sport: ..
        -it is what I live for:
        -stupid like football or baseball: ..
        -like the Roman colliseum, it is just another distraction away
         from real problems like the current administration: ..
        -none of the above: ..
        \_ Now that it's over, I get to go back to saying, "Eh, who cares"
           for two more years. Then I'll get sort of excited as the
           eliminations come up, and then I'll paint myself the colors of
           whichever country is not one of the big ones but stands a rat's
           chance of winning. Speaking of which, any ideas on how to remove
           this Ghanese flag I have tattooed on my back? --erikred

7/13    Whoa, I got an e-mail!  The header even says it was scanned by ClamAV.
        However, the two e-mails I sent myself 10 minutes ago haven't arrived.
        \_ root still hasn't fixed the problems with ClamAV

7/13    So I have a silly question regarding 401K pre-tax vs. after-tax.
        Suppose the tax rate now is x, and that in 20 years it'll be
        increased to say, 1.2*x pay for our failing Busheconomy and our
        expensive Iraq War. If I have 401K pre-tax then in 20 years I'd have
        to pay 0.2x more tax than now right? Would it make sense to do 401K
        after-tax instead if you strongly believe that the tax will increase
        in the future?
        \_ There is no way to do after-tax with a 401k, but you can do
           a Roth IRA. The other question is what your tax bracket/income
           might be then, even if each bracket pays higher taxes.
        \_ http://www.smartmoney.com/retirement/401k/index.cfm?story=which401k050609
           Be sure to check out Roth 401K (hybrid of RothIRA and 401K):
           "...For one, no one can predict with certainty what tax rates will
           be in the future, though the general consensus is that they're
           likely to rise to help the government offset growing budget
           deficits and pay for Social Security and Medicare. That's one
           reason why people in the top tax brackets have indicated their
           preference for the Roth 401(k)"
           \_ The Trush Translation:
              "No one can predict the tax rate in the future, but one thing
              many people agree is that we're in a big shit thanks to the
              failing experimental Busheconomy and the experimental
              BushIraqWar and the experimental BushCare and experimental
              BushSecurity plans. Every single one of the experiments failed,
              all of which we'll all have to pay for dearly in the future.
              So that's why people who are smart have indicated their
              preference for the Roth 401K."
           \_ If your employer offers this. Mine doesn't. Does yours?
              \_ Nope. I even asked HR to provide it. -ausman
        \__ So I have a bunch of money in a roll-over IRA. Can I convert
            this to a roll-over Roth IRA and pay the taxes now?
            \_ You need to check out your own situation, but this is
               possible in many situations.

7/13    Do you believe that in this world, there is good or evil?
        good: .
        evil: ..
        stupid: ...
        \_ first, please define good and evil.
           \_ ob dubya == good, suiciders == evil
             \_ but from some points of view, dubya = evil, suiciders = good
        \_ What does that mean?  Can't there be both?
        \_ No. There is only good or evil. Come on, most of the Americans
           learned this shit in grade school. Let me give you a few examples.
           -Jesus Christ good, athiesm evil.
           -America good, Al Qaeda evil
           -Freedom good, North Korea and Iraq Evil.
           -Family value good, gay marriage evil.
           -Capitalism good, socialism evil.
           -Pro-life good, abortion evil.
           -George Bush good, Sadam Hussein evil.
           -SUV good (freedom), conservation evil (letting terrorists win)
           -Border patrol good, immigrants evil.
           Everyone seems to get it these days. But if you need to relearn
           this shit, please report to your nearest Homeland Security Agency
           \_ To be sort of fair, there are plenty of morons who flip several
              of those bits but keep the same binary view.  The actual state
              of the bits is not what makes them morons.
              \_ This is really really cool and well-stated.  Thanks.  -John
        \- you do if you've been indoctrinated into certain belief systems.
           Christians and Muslims tend to be ethnocentrist, whereas
           overly educated academics tend to be relativists. In another
           word religious phreaks are opinionated and academics are
           wishy-washy, and you should not pay attention to either one.
        \_ No, good an evil are subjective.
           \_ To a degree.  -John

7/13    Record California power demand possible soon - Yahoo! News:
        http://www.csua.org/u/gfd
        Power off your machines and monitors when you leave work.
        \_ This looks pretty normal: http://www.caiso.com/outlook/outlook.html
           \_ The shape may be normal, but not the magnitude.  From the
              article: "Friday demand is forecast about 46,300 megawatts around
              4 p.m. PDT, which would break the record of 45,431 set last July
              20, the Cal ISO said."

7/13    How do you get milliseconds in C? I want to do something like:
        t1=sec;
        long_operation_that_needs_to_be_benchmarked();
        t2=sec;
        printf("This operation took %f seconds", (t2-t1));
        \_ You could try using clock() and CLOCKS_PER_SEC.
        \_ gettimeofday()
        \_ I think some OS'es have a gethrtime() call.
        \_ http://www.quepublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=23618&seqNum=8&rl=1
           struct timeval tv;
           // Obtain the time of day, and convert it to a tm struct.
           gettimeofday (&tv, NULL);
           // then access tv.tv_sec (in second) and tv.tv_usec (in
           // ***microsecond***). Yes it's missing millisecond, which
           // is kind of brain-dead.
              \_ cuz there's a great efficient type in C to from 0 to 100.

7/13    In Excel, is it possible to average every 24th column in a particular
        row.  I googled this and found http://www.exceltip.com/st/Calculating_the_Average_Value_in_Every_Nth_Column,_Excluding_Zeros%09/862.html
        though I can't get it to work.  In my spreadsheet, I have
        =AVERAGE(IF((MOD(COLUMN(C156:CP156)-CELL("col",C156),24)=0),C156:CP156))
        It makes sense, but won't work.  It seems to do the if logic only
        on the first column, and then just average the entire range, rather
        than the 1st, 25th, 49th columns, etc.