8/23    In Ant, is <target ...> a task?  I can't find any description for it in
        the 1.6.5 manual.  Thanks.
        \_ http://ant.apache.org/manual/index.html
           look under the "Using Ant" link
           \_ Got it!  Thanks.
        \_ I'm sorry, but any build system that requires this much work to
           understand sucks.
           \_ you are sorry.  How much documentation did it take you to
              learn Make?  More, I'd wager.  Or you had someone teach it
              to you.
           \_ E_TOOSHORT
              \_ Eh?
        \_ I find Ant documentation to be severely lacking.  But otherwise
           it isn't that hard to do simple things.
           \_ But it can be a serious pain in the ass to do complicated things
              if you don't want to write custom java code.  Unix shells are
              amazingly powerful, that's why make is nice.  Oh and when you
              have a bug in your make scripts ant is painful to debug.
              \_ Along the same lines, a system like rake is just a DSL
                 in ruby.  Need to do something that "the make system" doesn't
                 do?  Easy... you're already in a real programming language,
                 not in some let's-reinvent-the-wheel XML atrocity.

8/22    "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without
        the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be
        prescribed by law." - Third Amendment to the United States Constitution
        "They will greet us as liberators!" -some dumbass
        \_ Ok troll, I'll bite.  What does the first quote from the USC have
           to do with the unattributed pseudo quote about Iraq?
           \_ The troll has left the building.
              \_ I guess you're right. I was hoping for some rambling
                 blithering idiocy but I'll have to go elsewhere for my
                 entertainment today.
                 \_ Ever since they put the eye in the pyramid on the dollar
                    bill, it has symbolised the petrodollar conspiracy which
                    will soon invade Iran to solidify the New World Order
                    gulags in Montana built by Halliburton.
                    \_ Thanks, I appreciate the effort but it just isn't the
                       same as a real live troll.  :-)
                       \_ How much did Karl Rove pay you to disregard my
                          troll?  You're one of Them aren't you?
                          \_ No, but I am one of They and we're coming to
                             take your sunglasses away.
                             \_ I have put them someplace where you will never
                                find them.

8/23    Anyone looking for co-lo space?  We have a co-lo co-op looking for
        people to rent out the rest of a half-rack in downtown SF.
        Please e-mail for details - ck@soda

8/23    http://csua.org/u/gqs (Wash Post)
        Katrina Survivor Meets Bush at White House
        "It's amazing when a small man like me can meet the president of the
        United States"
        http://csua.org/u/gqt (crooksandliars.com)
        "ROCKEY VACCARELLA ... Republican. Born in New Orleans. ...
        Director of operations, Lundy Enterprises, as manager of 31 Pizza Hut
        restaurants and 450 employees."
        Dang, that's good press!  He's such a humble guy, too.
        \_ /smacks forehead.
        \_ Would you rather hear him say "It's finally time for an important
           man like me to meet the president of the United States."?
           \_ And when did you stop molesting goats?

8/23    I've been reading this background info on one this year's Field's
        Medal winners Terence Tao:
        http://www.gt-cybersource.org/Record.aspx?NavID=2_0&rid=11273
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Tao
        I'm really suprised that this guy turned out to be a productive adult.
        I read another study somewhere that tracked "gifted children" through
        adulthood and a large percentage of them turned out to be normal
        adults with normal jobs.  E.g., Marilyn vos Savant writes a newpaper
        column.  They still have high IQs but they're not doing extraordinary
        things.  Very interesting.
        \_ So what. I was categorized as a child prodigy and got sent to the
           magnet school and look what I'm doing now, I'm a fucking nobody
           posting on the fucking motd. Everyone expected me to do something
           great but now I'm just a fucking motd junkie. Fuck!!!
           great but now I'm just a fucking motd junkie. On the other hand
           half of my stupid friends who copied homework from me and cheated
           in cs150 152 162 170 are now rich from the dot-com days and
           semi-retired and all I've accomplished is posting stupid rants
           on motd. FUCK!!!
           \- i was talking to a mathematician here who said one of TTAOs
              brothers works for GOOG and the other one is austistic.
              MVosS hasnt worked on any "hard problems" has she? ... I mean
              answering questions from random readers doesnt mean much.
              Anyway, it owuld be interesting to see TTAO vs RBARTON:
              http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_Barton
              \_ MVosS is often wrong on those questions as well.  I'm
                 really not sure why she's famous.
                 \- what was she wrong about except the famous monty hall
                    fiasco? [that was her, right?]
                    \_ She was actually right on the Monty Hall question.  I
                       was never that impressed when I read her column, and
                       a remember one question about 1/2 chickens producing
                       1/2 eggs that she gave the wrong answer to.  I don't
                       keep around a list of offenses though.
              \- BTW, the article in he latest issue of the NYker on
                 THE POINCARE by Sylvia Nasar [the Beutiful Mind author]
                 and some other dude is really interesting ... Berkeley
                 features reasonably prominently. The protagostists are:
                 --PERELMAN: weird russian dude
                 --HAMILTON: american sex fiend mathematician ... math's
                             version of Kary Mulins
                 --YAU: evil chinese mathematcian [of Calabi-Yau fame]

8/23    FYI, in the last several months, Californians paid more per
        gallon of gas (adjusted for inflation) than any other period in its
        entire history.  (The record was close to being broken on a nationwide
        level, but not quite.  ob stricter emissions stds in CA.)
        http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gasoline_cpi_adjusted.html

8/23    "Gas prices mean more students take bus"
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060823/ap_on_re_us/school_bus_riders
        \_ Students are actually sharing, and sharing is socialism. EVIL.
           It is also giving in to terrorism. Fuck that! One person per SUV,
           the patriotic way!                                   -Republican
           \_ Don't forget to tow a boat when going grocery shopping.
           \_ When you're riding with other students, you're riding with
              Robert Owen.

8/23    In which countries is "macaca" a racial slur?
        http://tinyurl.com/efdmj
        \_ He never "made an apology".  Sidarth is still waiting for the call,
           and Allen's statements to the press have been excuses, not apologies.
           BTW, macaque/macaca is one of the less-frequent terms used by
           neo-nazi/white-power fucks.  Allen is a long time Confederate Flag
           defender.  His mother grew up in Tunisia.  When he says "macaca" he
           knows what he's saying.
           \_ Stormfront codewords!
        \_ '"This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or
            whatever his name is. ... He's following us around everywhere.
            And it's just great," Allen said to appreciative laughter.'
           'The young man at the center of this pre-JonBenet media phenomenon
            is S.R. Sidarth, an American of Indian descent. Which is to say,
            he is a person of color and the only one present that day in an
            otherwise pale crowd.'
           http://csua.org/u/gqx (Louisville, KY, http://courier-journal.com)
           Now imagine if he was describing "an American of" Chinese descent
           and called him Pingpong.

8/23    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2006/08/21/MNGP1KM9G01.DTL&o=2
        SF has a lot of bike roads.
        \_ uh, no.  "Protected pathways" are almost always shared-use
           sidewalks inappropriate for biking.  "Wide curb lanes" and
           "signed bike routes shared with vehicles" are not bike roads,
           although they tend to be good road design.  "Lanes reserved
           for bicycles" are the only real bicycle facilities listed,
           and those are only 4% of the mileage in the city.  (And probably
           half of that is shitty bike lanes which are more hazardous
           than the same road would be without the white paint).  -tom

8/23    http://csua.org/u/gqw (wsj.com)
        5-bdrm existing house in Virginia appraised for $1.1mill Sep 05, sold
        for $530K Aug 06.  Chart at bottom also shows year-over-year declines
        in median home prices for select areas.
        \_ Why bother?  Posting to the motd about the real estate bubble is
           like posting to a creationist message board about the latest
           in evolutionary biology--you can't argue with True Believers.
           \_ I'm posting important facts, which helps future discussion,
              since accompanied with the trolls, there is also an objective
              truth
           \_ I'm posting important facts which I think should reduce trolling
              (or at least reduce the boring trolls)
           \_ The same could be said for most of the motd's other regular
              topics.  BTW, nice attempt at trolling there with the bizarro
              comparison to creationists vs. evolutionists.  Maybe next time.
        \_ You're aware that Virginia had a Las Vegas style bubble that makes
           everything going on in CA look tame, right?  That's hardly the
           typical region.  Obviously the housing market has cooled off, which
           I think is a healthy thing, but this is not a useful example of
           what is going on.
           \_ dang, I knew I should have disclaimed "ob example is outlier"
              but all you need is one sodan to assume other sodans are stupid
              -op
              even though I thought it was obvious
              (even if I thought it was obvious)
              \_ When it's 50% of your post it isn't obvious you knew it.
                 \_ well, i concede my intent wasn't entirely troll-free ...

8/23    I've been primarily developing Java in Eclipse, but I need to do a
        project with embedded C++, and I'd like a better IDE than Emacs.  MS
        Visual Studio is way too windows-centric.  All I really need is
        something that can do context-assists and autocompletes and flagging of
        illegal syntax.  Suggestions?
        \_ Have you tried this: http://www.eclipse.org/cdt --oj
           \_ That looks pretty good, but another project is having a minor
              crisis so I'll have to investigate later.  Thanks.

8/23    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-fi-radio20aug20,0,5923744.story?coll=la-home-entertainment
        "Country music promotes patriotism and family values, and they've
        replaced it with something [hip-hop and hop] that just promotes
        money and hate." "If radio executives can focus on urban and Latino
        listeners, why can't they focus on white America?"
        \_ Because that's not politically correct.
           \_ Bullshit. It's because young white America is listening to hip
              hop and sporting bling.
        \_ The invisible hand of the free market is at work.
           \_ Yeah, no shit.  News flash: with a few fringe exceptions, white
              America's music sucks ass.  People all over the world have
              gotten into hip hop, both in terms of spending large sums of
              money on American music and making their own.  "White America"
              buys more hip hop than anyone, and yet getting anyone who isn't
              a white American in a very specific educational and economic
              set to buy a country music album will simply never happen.
              \_ Your love of country music seriously undermines your
                 credibility as a 'music critic'.
              \_ Kenny Rogers was very famous in Hong Kong two decades ago.  He
                 even held some big sold-out concerts.  So was John Denver.
                 Glen Campbell was famous there three decades ago when I was a
                 little kid.
              \_ Please don't call this P.Diddy, 50 cent crap that white
                 Americans listen to "hip hop." It's [c]rap.
        \_ Isn't like 50% of country music "my woman done left me"?
           \_ It's more like "my mom/sis/gf done left me and I miss *her*".
              \_ "...And then I lost my Job."
                 \_ And crashed my pickup truck into my dog and totalled both
                    \_ In the rain
                       \_ I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
                          And I went to pick her up in the rain
                          But before I could get to the station
                              in my pickup truck
                          She got runned over by a damned old train.
                          \_ It ain't country if there isn't a train somewhere

8/23    Canon EOS 400D:
        http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/9685/canon_eos_400d
        I'm glad I skipped the 350D/20D/30D.
        \_ And I'm sure you'll skip this one, too, for the upcoming 450D.
           Sheesh.  I got my 350D for $500 after rebate.  No complaints.
           Spent shit load on lenses, which will continue to be compatible.
           \_ I had a 300D w/ several lenses and I kept putting off an
           \_ I have a 300D w/ several lenses and I kept putting off an
              upgrade. I was planning on buying a 350D this weekend, when
              I saw this.
              \_ my question of the day is: why upgrade?  what is wrong with
                 300D?
                 \_ 7 pt af; small LCD; no usb 2.0; pentamirror instead of
                    pentaprism (pentaprism is brighter); detectable noise
                    at ISO400 and higher.
                    Don't get me wrong, I really like the 300D. I've had
                    since the first day it was available and have enjoyed
                    shooting w/ it. I just wanted to upgrade to something
                    w/ a bit less noise, usb 2.0 and a pentamirror; the
                    XTi/400D seems like it will be a very nice upgrade for
                    me.
                 \_ Another one is, 300D uses the outdated Digic1
                    processor, which is much slower and consumes more
                    power.  It also doesn't have the near-instant
                    startup time of the later cameras.  Between 350D
                    and 400D, 400D loses dedicated LCD display and
                    each pixel on the sensor is smaller (2 more
                    million pixels on the same size sensor).  I think
                    300D to 350D was a big jump, but 350D to 400D isn't
                    as obvious.
        \_ I bet it will be more expensive than those.
           \_ So ok, it isn't (much). This is odd though. I wonder how it fits
              with the 30D? And I wonder if it is as low-noise as the others.
              \_ According to this it should be low-noise:
                 http://tinyurl.com/jwkpb (livingroom.org.au)
           \_ Supposedly it will be ~ $900:
              http://tinyurl.com/j2paj (dealmac.com)
        \_ Official name is the Rebel XTi:
        \_ Official name in the US is the Rebel XTi:
           http://tinyurl.com/ojojt (canon.com)
           \- when do people think FF will be <$1500?
              or will it be artificially delayed to keep from
              competing with higher proced models?
              \_ late 2008 --old gypsy woman
                 actually though, I don't think they will all go FF. The
                 reduced size and weight of APS body and lens makes sense for
                 a lot of people. This 10MP thing seems to be on the money.
                 I like Nikon and Sony's lens selection better than Canon
                 though :( and on-body IS
           \_ only in USA, buddy. Everywhere else is called 400D.
              \_ Corrected.

8/23    It just keeps getting worse for Dell; Quantas says Dell owners must
        remove batteries and not use laptops on flights:
        http://tinyurl.com/njk8d (http://www.smh.com.au
        \_ If the terrorists were really smart, they would blow up the planes
           with defective Dell laptops.
           \_ What's scarier than Snakes on a Plane? Dells on a Plane!
                \_ Osama bin Laden is getting excited imagining
                   a beowulf cluster of Dell laptops ...
        \_ "Quantas never crashes"

8/23    http://www.gosportinggoods.com
        From a scale of 1-10 (10=hottest), how hot is the scooter girl
        in green?
        \_ +10 but then again I'm biased and I prefer them white and blonde.
           Asian girls are exotic to look at but blondes really turn me on.
           If only Berkeley admitted more Caucasians blondes *sigh*
        \_ 6.  Likely fake tits, way too skinny.
           \_ Chubby chaser!
              \_ "She ain't sexy until she's weak with hunger -- oh yeahhh,
                 bring on those skeletal ethiopian chix0r5!!1!one"
        \_ 5. Small tits.
        \_ Clarissa Flockhart smile, -10.
           \_ Calista
        \_ 7. Would be hotter, but she is too tall.

8/23    Uh, the story "Katrina Survivor Meets Bush at White House" in the
        motd, the Washington Post completely re-wrote the article, taking
        out the "small man" comment and making it look like the Bush
        administration was modest and humble.  Go Dubya!
        \_ What's Bush have to do with what the WP does to a story online?