6/3     I'm huge
        http://img3.glowfoto.com/images/2007/06/03-0953508471L.jpg
        \_ NOT work safe!

6/3     Are you a dog/cat/no-pet person and why?
        \_ Cat person. Dogs smell. Pets make my life better.
           \_ People smell too.  That's why they need to be bathed.
              \_ Dogs smell like dog. You can't wash that away.
                 \_ People smell like people.  If your dogs smell you're not
                    taking care of them.
                    \_ My dog smells like Tide and Fabreze _at_all_times_.
                       \_ Don't feed your dog Tide.
                    \_ I don't mind the smell of people. I do mind the
                       smell of dog. Therefore, I don't have a dog. I have
                       never met a dog that didn't smell like dog, even
                       dogs that appear to be well cared for.
                       \_ You don't mind the smell of people?  You went to
                          Berkeley?  Walked along Berkeley streets?  Wow.  All
                          I can say is "Wow" and "so don't get a dog".
                          \_ I don't mind the smell of people who wash
                             themselves. I don't intend to bathe my dog
                             every day. I'm sure most dog owners don't,
                             even though they bathe themselves every day.
        \_ No Pets, allergic to them. Wish I could have a dog, but just can't.
        \_ If I pick up its poop, it should support me in my old age.
           \_ I'm with you.  You clean up after a pet for 15 years, then it
              dies.  At least a child has the possiblity of becoming something
              useful.
              \_ Or a huge drain as it becomes a crack addict and pregnant
                 for the third time at 17 and you become the active parent
                 for another generation while she's in prison for a few years.
                 \_ If they're over 18, you never HAVE to take care of them.
                    \_ You don't have to take care of your crack addict kid
                       once they're 18 and in prison but what about your
                       crack baby grand kids?
           \_ Get it a manager and put it in the movies and it'll support you
              now.
        \_ I've had cats but prefer dogs because as pack animals they're
           naturally inclined to adopt you as their pack mate and be your
           buddy than cats.  Some cats will hang out and like people, but
           plenty of cats are just living mobile objects.
        \_ My personal feeling about dogs vs. cats vs. lizards:
           Reward dog(HumanWork w) {return (Reward) w / CONSTANT}
           Reward cat(HumanWork w) {return (Reward) w / (CONSTANT*CONSTANT)}
           Reward lizards(HumanWork w) {return 0}
           Reward cockroach(HumanWork w) {return -w}
           \_ Hopefully your constant is > 1.  And has no units.
           \_ Well what is this reward? Display of affection, interaction?
              Even a fish can display some "reward"... for example fish
              can learn that you are the bringer of food and they kind of
              get excited and swim around when you go to feed them.
              So arguably that is a nonzero reward. And some of these
              creatures just plain look cool and are fun to watch or
              impress guests with, and may have a lower minimum HumanWork
              value than more complex animals to be healthy. Thus the
              Reward:HumanWork ratio could still be favorable. I find
              cats require much less work than dogs.
              \_ It is a personal thing.  Cats do require less work but most
                 cats return less than most dogs.  YMMV.
                 \_ Value is a partial order. -- ilyas
           \_ Thanks, that was funny.

6/2     Is there a place (Bay Area) where I can get sushi-grade
        fish? The stuff they sell at the local Asian markets (99,
        Mitsuwa) seem to be of a lower quality and tend to have
        less diversity of seafood than what you would find at
        a sushi bar.
        \_ did you read the 800 page sushi article in Vanity Fair too?
        \- you can get bespoke sushi service:
           http://www.afeng.atfishmarket.com/afWelcomeE.aspx
           http://www.afeng.atfishmarket.com/afProductsE.aspx
           if you are in berkeley, try tokyo fish mkt on san pablo
           near gilman. of course different people have diff cutoff
           for sushi grade. also japantown sf but forgot the name
           of the fish mkt there.
        \_ IANASushiChef, but I've found that Berkeley Bowl occasionally
           carries sushi grade fish. Also, Tokyo Fish Market is okay, but you
           may need to get there early to get any good stuff. Has anyone tried
           the fish markets in SF? --erikred
           \_ Yum Yum Sushi in The Richmond is pretty good and quite
              inexpensive. Both fish markets in Japantown are very good,
              but quite expensive. I have had some luck at Whole Foods,
              but it can be hit or miss. -ausman
              \- ausman inquiry: it is claimed that yum yum fish has
                 become somewhat ass since an ownership change.
                 have you analyzed it in the past 6-10mos?
                 http://www.chowhound.com/topics/397287

6/2     Want to know the difference between round, shank, flank, loin,
        sirloin, rib, brisket, flank, plate, chuck? Want to know the
        difference between NY steak, filet minion, T-bone, rib-eye?
        http://www.thecookingcompanion.com/meats.htm
        \_ And to add to this, one of my favorite quotes from a chef:
           "What happens when a chef finds a tough, slightly skanky
           end-cut of sirloin that's been pushed repeatedly to the
           back of the pile?...he can 'save it for well-done'--serve
           it to some rube who prefers to eat his meat or fish
           incinerated into a flavorless, leathery hunk of
           carbon...The dumb bastard is paying for the privilege
           of eating his garbage!"
           So when ordering your steaks, order rare to medium.
           \_ Mmmmm, charrrrr....

6/2     Ever since having okonomiyaki in Japan, I've been trying to find
        a place in the Bay Area that serves it. Does anyone know of any
        in the Silicon Valley?
        \- i dont really like that stuff, on the other hand it isnt
           very standarized, but you can look here for advisories in your
           area: http://tinyurl.com/2u2soc sounds like japantown/sf isnt
           what you are looking for.
        \_ There used to be a place in SV, but they closed. Benihana's
           stuff is fine for tourists but crap for anyone who's actually
           eaten okonomiyaki in Japan. Sorry, no luck. --erikred
        \_ I've frequented a okonomiyaki place for locals next to an NEC plant
           in Yokohamai a decade ago.  Very good.

6/3     I find myself having to reinstall WinXP sp2 every 1 to 1.5 year
        due to sluggishness and problems (yes I've tried every single
        trick that you can Google for). I'm at a point where I think I
        should just install a fresh image and save the image so that I
        can just restore it. What's a good FREE *Windows* based software
        that can save and restore an entire disk image? Thanks.
        \_ Fry's periodically sells Norton Ghost in a bundle with Partition
           Magic and some internet security thing for $70 with a $70 rebate.
           Not exactly free, but it might be close enough.
        \_ I recommend Ghost as well. I've been told there isn't anything
           free for Windows that works well w/ XP.
        \_ Use VMWare and save the image after installing.
           \_ I'm actually planning this exact setup, but in addition to
              saving the image, I can also use the snapshot feature and
              revert back. - !op
        \_ Trick?  These things aren't magic.  There are no tricks.  Defrag,
           de-virus, uninstall all the stupid web toys.  The only time I've
           ever reinstalled my home machine was when I was upgrading to all
           new hardware and tossing the old one out.
        \_ DriveImage XML. http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm
           \_ Nice program. How reliable is it? No corruption? Is Disk
              to Disk copy still buggy?
           \_ XML? XML!?! Oh dear god, WHY....
              \_ Exactly what I thought before I tried it. The raw
                 data is in a bin file, the xml file describtes the
                 content of the bin file in detail, such as disk info,
                 boot sector, file list, etc. This makes it possible
                 to recover the data without having access to the
                 source program. A nice use of XML.
        \_ Nobody mentioned Acronis TrueImage? It's pretty good and not
           expensive. I just pirate these things of course. Their Disk
           Director is also a good alternative to Partition Magic.
        \_ If you have at least one detectable Seagate or Maxtor regardless
           if you actually copying to-from it, then Acronis' tools are free
           to download (DiscWizard includes TrueImage I think):
  http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard/discwizard-eula