6/25    Help. Costco's SanDisk II 2G card works on my Canon SD300, but
        it is unreadable on my laptop's SD card reader and my external
        card reader. What's going on?
        \_ Some card readers don't to more than 1GB.
        \_ Updating the XP card reader driver helps, surprisingly.
           Old drivers read 1G sdcard, new drivers read 2G sdcards -op

6/25    dim, what is it about LA you like and SF you don't like?
        \_ kchang, why do you insist on calling people out without
           leaving your name?
           \_ Huh? I live in LA and I love LA           -kchang
           \_ why do people using various motd trackers call people out even
              though these tools are provably unable to accurately identity
              posters?
        \_ Mostly the weather.
           \_ If so, you may prefer San Diego.
              \_ I like San Diego, but it's a little bit too provincial for me.
                 Maybe when I get a lot older. San Diego is basically a
                 suburb of LA anyway.
                 \_ Not as long as we have Camp Pendleton between us and them
                    it's not. As for provincial, well, sure, but I thought the
                    only reason you liked LA was the weather; SD beats LA.
                    \_ A main (not the only) reason I like LA > SF is the
                       weather. The weather is obviously not the reason I
                       prefer LA to San Diego, since the weather is pretty
                       similar (although San Diego's is *slightly* better).
                       As for SD being a suburb of LA, it pretty much is. I
                       even know people who live in SD and work in LA and
                       vice-versa. Maybe people in SD don't like to think it
                       is, but it is.
                       \_ And people can think that SD is a 'burb of LA, but
                          it isn't. Irvine is a 'burb of LA, as is Riverside.
                          \_ What's the difference between Riverside and SD?
                             They are both about equally far. In fact, a
                             lot of North County SD people commute to
                             Riverside and OC for work and there is commuter
                             rail service between SD and greater LA. Why
                             would you argue SD is not a suburb of LA? If
                             SD was the bigger city I'd call LA a suburb of SD.
                             \_ I don't live down there but I'd say it has more
                                to do with the size of SD and the cultural
                                identity of SD being distinct. Is Berkeley a
                                suburb of SF? Whereas Irvine and Riverside,
                                are pretty anonymous.
                                \_ Yes, Berkeley is a suburb of SF. I'd
                                   even say San Jose is, even though SJ
                                   is bigger. What about Long Beach? Is it
                                   a suburb of LA? I'd say it is.
                                   \_ Merriam-Webster: "suburb: 1 a : an
                                      outlying part of a city or town b : a
                                      smaller community adjacent to or within
                                      commuting distance of a city"
                                      A city is, by definition, not a suburb.
                                      However, Irvine is most certainly a
                                      suburb of LA, so I concede that this may
                                      be a matter of opinion.
                             \_ I graduated HS in '88 from San Marcos and my
                                parents still live there. Although some NC
                                folks may commute to LA, many, many more
                                commute to San Diego. The Pendleton divide is
                                both geographic and cultural.
                                \_ Pendleton Divide? 15, dude. Do you
                                   really feel the culture in SD is any
                                   different from LA? How so? (My sister
                                   lives in Escondido and has for 20 years.)
                                   The culture is all "Southern California"
                                   \_ If by Southern California Culture you
                                      mean strip malls and pre-packaged
                                      Jamba Juice-Starbucks-Panda Express-Gap
                                      pods, sure, North County's SCC. Downtown
                                      SD is not so.
                                      \_ How is downtown any different
                                         from Santa Monica or downtown LA
                                         or other large parts of LA area?
                                         \_ Baseball team and stadium, among
                                            other things.
                                            \_ Huh? So downtown LA has
                                               Staples and Dodger Stadium
                                               is nearby. These are
                                               amenities, not cultural
                                               issues.
           \_ Isn't the weather better in Redwood City than in LA?

6/25    http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/25/charitable.giving.ap/index.html
        Americans are very generous.
        \- that is a really lousy article. it's a very fair criticism
           that comparisons of just things like foreign aid from the
           govt isnt fair to the US where there is larger private sector
           donating, it is equally true you have to consider the lower
           taxes here, and some other issues relating to tax policy ...
           if somebody donates a huge amount of money to avoid taxes,
           it needs to be thought of a little differently [read about the
           history of HHMI]. this is another case of an article where it's
           unclear the facts add up to the conclusion suggested [as the
           OP writes, "americans are very generous"]. what should have been
           the biggest piece of news in there is how much "charity" is
           sucked up by religious orgs.  certainly a lot of this goes to
           good ends like church run hospitals [10-20% of community
           hospitals in the US are Catholic church operations] but a lot
           relig donations are sort of parochial, so to speak. also the
           large fraction of the donations going elite educational and
           \_ Parta, seriously, I could care less about the homeless people
              who are causing my property to depreciate. However, I've
              donated hundreds of dollars to Classical 102.1 KDFC. Am
              I an elitist? Do you hate me?
              \- no, i just think there is a difference say volunteering at
                 your kids school and say doing a doctors without borders
                 kind of thing. obviously i am not saying volunteering at
                 your kids school is bad, but a different phenomena is
                 going on.
           medical establishments and elite cultural orgs isnt really
           consistent with the "giving to the poor" conception of
           charity. [and reglig+elite educ/medica/culture is something like
                \_ Au contraire, mon frere!  Going back well into early
                   Europe, pretty much *every* artist, 'doctor', 'scientist',
                   and other 'elite' was only able to produce or research
                   because they had some rich benefactor.  You think all that
                   art was produced on the government dole?  Or by selling to
                   'The People' in the market square?
                   \- no, i'm generally opposed to public funding of the arts.
                      btw you also need to acknowledge the govt had a role
                      via their decision to enforce IP. to get middle class
                      novelists for example, you need to have copyright
                      enforced.
           60-70% of the total, i believe]. at least some amount of this
           number is no doubt more of a testiment to the creativity of
           tax profressionals here rather than a reflection on inherent
           generosity. note that there have been some studies looking at
           attitudes changing toward in attitudes toward social welfare
           as there is more mixing of population groups, so the benefits
           are less likely to go toward "people like me", e.g. some
           europeans are beginning to reconsider the high level of the
           social safety net in the face of high levels of brown immigration.
           \_ Wow, partha, you are a real shithead.  The issue of 'optimal
              giving' (e.g., if I want to go good, and I am willing to think
              about it, where should my money go) is completely orthogonal
              to 'generosity.'  I wouldn't give money to most 'conventional
              charities' you probably wouldn't have a problem with, like
              the Red Cross because I think they are a very inefficient use
              of my money.  The vast majority of people have a 'generosity
              impulse', but they aren't really willing to think very hard about
              their money and true causes of problems in the world.  It's true
              that the results they achieve with their
              money aren't as good as they could be, but it sort of seems like
              you are calling into question the morality of their act, which is
              in very poor form.  I am curious if, parallel to you taking a dump
              on the possible motives of Americans who give you might also
              have a spirited defense of the rest of the world (which gives
              a lot less).  I was also most amused by the importance you
              place on historical conceptions of charity as 'alms for the
              poor.'  I wonder if you will have moral objections to
              intentionally improving outcomes by 'counterintuitive means' (or
              objections to calling such things 'charity.') -- ilyas
              objections to calling such things 'charity.')  Sometimes
              Franklin's view is more appropriate than Mother Theresa's.
                -- ilyas
              \_ I believe he already addressed the "citizens of other places
                 don't give as much" when he said their taxes are higher which
                 implies they give through their government so are morally
                 excused from giving personally.  Anyway, we know all rich
                 people are automatically evil oppressors so it doesn't matter
                 if they give to charity or not.  They must be doing it for
                 evil and selfish reasons.
                 \- if i had to summarize my main point:
                    donating $500m in paintings to a museum != donating
                    to "help people". lumping them together clouds the
                    statistics. as i said, the facts dont add up to the
                    conclusions. we can probably say things like "one reason
                    the higher educ institutions are so good here is there
                    sucess getting private donations". by no means would i
                    "dump" on america by saying "but that's only because
                    of lousy public funding it is necessary." although
                    things like tax policy has consequences [like what is the
                    per capita spending at saratoga high school vs. an east
                    sj high school etc].
                    BTW, i think "american generosity" gets the short shrift
                    by not considering the "uncaptured" returns from
                    medical research [antibiotics, vaccines etc], and
                    agricultural reasearch ["green revolution"], but to
                    think about this issue sophisticatedly, there are
                    offsetting negatives as well.
                    \_ Charity is ineffective because determining effects is
                       hard.  I wouldn't even go so far as to say donating
                       to a museum isn't 'helping' -- I just don't understand
                       what 'helps' well enough.  I do know a lot of african
                       charity is extremely counterproductive. -- ilyas
                       \_ Some software is counterproductive.  Therefore,
                          we should stop using software.
                          \_ Where did you get the idea that I am claiming
                             charity is a bad thing or should be stopped?
                             Did you even read my other post?  If there's a
                             normative undercurrent to what I am saying at all,
                             it's that what people should be concentrating on
                             isn't SPENDING but understanding effects, and
                             understanding how complex systems evolve.  In
                             some sense donating is easy, but your conscience
                             shouldn't rest just because you donated to
                             something recently. -- ilyas

6/25    "Jessie Davis is not a hate crime because a hate crime by
        definition is committed by a tyrannical majority against an
        oppressed minority."
        http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1855650/posts
        \_ It's homicide. He murdered this woman. Full stop.
        \_ Defined by who?  And no, I'm not going to visit the freepers to
           find out.

6/25    For the guy asking for sources on Polish cavalry charges vs. tanks
        being a load of hoo-haw:  David Irving's claims about this were
        debunked pretty well by Tom Strasnov.  Also, the March 2007 issue of
        Strategy & Tactics (issue 241) has an article by Mark Lardas called
        "Polish Cavalry Charges in WWII" which makes this point with good
        primary sources.  Another reason for the persistence of this myth was
        the Polish film "Lotta" post-WWII (Soviet-sponsored to make the
        Polish officer corps look bad.)  Cavalry units quickly evolved into
        tank hunters; generally they used horses to move but fought on foot
        (except in the few instances, like Krojanty, Mokra and a few other
        battles.)  Regarding the battle of Krojanty (correct, wikipedia entry
        has no primary sources), look at Heinz Guderian's book (Achtung,
        Panzer!) as I believe it has a first-hand account how he had to send
        reinforcements from keeping large numbers of the 20th mot. infantry
        division from breaking and running.  link:tinyurl.com/2vkjfj also
        has some good info on this.  Yes I was bored.  -John
        \_ Thanks.  I do appreciate you taking the time to provide real sources
           and I happily stand corrected on my original statement re: tanks vs.
           cavalry.  It pushed a button seeing an unsourced wikipedia entry
           being used as an authoritative source.  Anyway, so it was German
           mechanised infantry vs. cavalry which still makes my point about
           German military superiority.  In this battle it threw the Germans
           due to shock value but it isn't the kind of thing that can be
           repeated successfully.  The idea that the Germans weren't militarily
           superior to their neighbors, including the USSR, is laughable.  I
           do apologise for using a bad example.
           \_ The German equipment was inferior and there was less of it
              against the French, the Soviets and the Americans. This is not
              laughable, this is historical fact. German tactics, strategy,
              morale and leadership was superior. That is why they did
              as well as they did. -ausman
              \_ German tanks and planes were not really inferior, especially
                 at the start of the war.
                 \_ Most (not all) were, and laughably so.  The main AFVs
                    were the Pz.I and II, with a smattering of Pz.38(t)s
                    captured during the Czech occupation.  The Wehrmacht
                    had a few Pz.IIIE and Fs, armed with the 37mm KwK36
                    (which couldn't penetrate the armor on most French tanks.)
                    In fact, its only advantage was a 3-man crew.  During the
                    Polish campaign, the vast majority of German forces were
                    foot-borne infantry with a bunch of motorized units.  The
                    Me-109E was a good plane for its time, but the E-1 and E-3
                    models in service in May 1939 were about "on par" for
                    tech of the age.  Likewise the He-111.  As ausman pointed
                    out, German success was due to a mixture of numbers,
                    combined arms ops as an innovation, surprise, chutzpah,
                    and a bit of luck -- look at the battles of Arras and
                    Stonne for what happened to the Germans when met with
                    reasonably similar forces and without the element of
                    surprise.  -John
                    \_ Unless are a student of WWII history, you might not
                       know what all that means. But the German panzer force
                       was overwhelmingly machine gun mounted tanks, which
                       were useless against other tanks. The French had more
                       tanks overall than the Germans and the French tanks
                       were better armed and armoured, the French just didn't
                       know how to use them. I have to check back on air force
                       stats for the Battle of France, but I remember that
                       the combined French/British air fleet was roughly
                       numericly on par with the Germans, and the British
                       fighters were better. The Stuka was a superior tactical
                       bomber, but mostly because the Germans invented dive
                       bombing. Similar statistics were true on the Russian
                       front at the start of that war, too. -ausman
           \_ 'Superiority' is not a scalar quantity.  Surely the Germans
              had technological superiority on every front on June 22nd 1941,
              but even a year later that was no longer true.  The Russians
              introduced a lot of cheap, but extremely effective innovations
              which the Germans later copied, and Americans ignored at their
              peril (barrel chroming, wide tank tracks, sloping armor,
              'cannery' submachine guns, etc). -- ilyas
           \_ It actually was repeated several times.  Cavalry is a tool
              that has a place in modern warfare.  You don't charge tanks
              with it, any more than you send unescorted tanks into urban
              warfare or attack entrenched machine guns with massed infantry.
              As for equipment, Ausman and ilyas are partially right, the
              Germans had heavy tech superiority in a few areas in the
              Polish, French and Russian campaigns, but generally success was
              due to a combination of superior German conduct of warfare and
              sclerotic, inferior leadership and training on the opposing side
              (i.e. in Poland's case, deciding to defend the borders instead
              of the Vistula, for France never having perfected combined arms
              ops despite vastly superior tank tech, and for the Russians,
              wiping out half their officer corps in stupid purges, to name
              a few examples.)  I didn't want to sound pedantic, but this is
              one of several common misconceptions about military realities
              that are propagated by convention, such as Japanese suicide
              pilots being locked into their planes, etc.  -John
              \_ Note that the Russians used Light Cavalry (Cossack)
                 units to great success in WWII, especially as a mobile
                 support element to provide small arms cover for tanks,
                 as well as the traditional cavalry role of raiding, scouting
                 and supply line interdiction. We are even using horse
                 mounted infantry today in Afghanistan, though not really
                 in the traditional cavalry role. -ausman
                 \_ "Mounted infantry".  -John
                    \- hello, you may enjoy also reading about
                       the Battle of Suomossalmi.
                       \_ Suomussalmi.  What's your point?  Pack horses? -John
                    \_ Yes, I used my words carefully there. -ausman

6/25    Recommendations on best place to buy a nice matress in the
        east bay?  thx
        -- sky
        \_ European Sleepworks.  Been very happy with mine.
           \_ Seconded.  We love ours.  I was skeptical about their
              fancy pillows, but they're great as well.
           \_ Do their mattresses come in twin/full/queen/king/cal-king sizes?
              Or do they come in ISO sizes?  How hard is it to buy sheets and
              blankets for those mattresses?
              \_ Queen and King.  Maybe cal-king.  Standard sheets work fine.
                 Oh, wow.  they have twin and full now.. That's new.
              \_ They appear to be normal sizes, as is ours:
                 http://www.sleepworks.com/pricelist.htm

6/25    Why do we keep hearing about how we're fighting "Al Qaeda" in Iraq?
        My understanding is that there are at least three competing groups of
        Sunni guerillas: "Al Qaeda in Iraq," Salafi Jihadists, and ex-Baathists.
        At any given time, it seems that these three different groups are
        referred to as "Al Qaeda."
        \_ You want to read my man Juan Cole: http://juancole.com
        \_ We are fighting Al-Queda probably 2 percent of the time.  The\
           rest of them are virulent american hating <IRAQI FACTION
        \_ We are fighting Al-Queda probably 2 percent of the time.  The
           rest of them are virulent american hating <IRAQI FACTION
           THAT HAS HATED THE OTHER GUY FOR LAST FIFTY YEARS>.
        \_ This is what the Sunnis and Shiites should do
           http://img.7chan.org/jb/src/118195646798.jpg
           \_ What, get breast implants?
           \_ Hot!
        \_ Two reasons: 1) The American public is lazy and bored with the war
           and wants it made simple for them. 2) The Bush Administration has
           deliberately spread falsehoods about the operation from the start.
           Why would they stop now?
        \_ We're fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them
           here! God bless.
           \_ This reminds of the Vietnam-era helicopter gunner who was asked
              how he could shoot women and children. He replied, "It's easy,
              you just don't lead them as much."
              \_ That was a line from a fucking movie dude.
                 \_ Based on an actual line as quoted by a correspondent.
                    See "Dispatches" by Michael Herr.
                    \- I thought In Pharaoh's Army was a better VN book.
                    \- I thought IN PHARAOH'S ARMY was a better VN book.
                       \_ A different experience written for different
                          reasons. I thought that IPA's description of life on
                          a boat was scarier than the description of VN.
              \_ Sidenote: Does a gunner actually need to lead when shooting a
                 human being?  Bullets from mounted guns travel much much
                 faster than human can run.  It's not like when a figher plane
                 shoots at another figher plane.
                 \_ I guess it would depend on how close the gunner was to
                    the target.

6/25    quota is not working for me. What are we up to, quota-wise, these days?

6/25    Why can't we move the Indenpendence Day holiday to the Monday or
        Friday closest to 7/4?  We're already doing that for many other
        holidays.
        \_ Because enough people actually think it matters that we
           celebrate the founding of our nation on the day it happened
           rather than make yet another excuse for a three day weekend.
           \- i would bet if you polled people, thye'ed love to move it
              it to friday ... call it "independence week".

6/25    From Matt Taibibibib
        Q: How long will it take for the Democrat hopefuls to realize that they\
        cannot simply pull out of Iraq?

        A: I saw an old episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street” on\
 the Sleuth     channel the other night. In it a highly annoying Vince D’\
Onofrio                 falls between a subway car and the subway platform and he gets
        stuck there, with the train basically holding his guts in. The
        medics come in and they look at him and realize that if they move
        the train at all, his guts are going to fall out and he’s going to
        die.    But if they do nothing, he’s going to slowly lose blood
        pressure and die. Either way, he’s going to die. Iraq is
        Vince D’Onofrio. It doesn’t overact as much, but it’s just as
        fucked. The bloodbath is coming as soon as we leave, whether thatâ€â„\
˘s              now or 20 years from now. But I’d be interested to hear your
        argument explaining how things are going to improve by
        us staying and spending a billion bucks a day or whatever playing
        Play Station in air conditioned trailers behind twenty-foot walls
        while Iraqis have six hours of electricity and pee into buckets and
        get their throats slit as soon as night falls. You’re probably
        right, a few more years of that, and this Sunni-Shia hatred
        thing will pass.

6/25    can someone post a link to rms' .emacs ? thanks.

6/25    SFW but NOT SAFE FOR BRAIN
        http://www.stallman.org/extra/personal.html
        \_ Ok, rms is more than a little creepy.
           \_ Sorry, why is it creepy? - waner

6/26    Japanese Tetris: http://www.glumbert.com/media/japtetris
        \_ Oh man this is )(#*$)# hilarious! Thanks for sharing the link
           \_ Seconded, very funny, thanks.  -John
        \_ Superb. Note that I'm 213cm tall. --erikred

6/26    SF Condo conversion laws gone amuck
        http://www.examiner.com/a-782304~S_F__condo_rules_snarl_FBI_agent_s_plans.html
        \_ Dude, she bought the place and it a part of the title report.
           The laws aren't amok in any way shape or form.  She should have read
           the damn title report.  SHE IS A LAWYER, HELLO!  Also her agent
           was unethical in not alerting her to the problem and probably
           can and will be sued, but it wasn't like this wasn't documented
           at the time of the sale.
           \_ Way I read it, she should never have been able to buy the place
              at all, and if she should have, it would have been at the
              'below market rate' low income buyer price.   She got swindled
              by the sellers. Boo hoo.  caveat emptor.
              \_ Well, the sellers and the Real Estate Agents.  And now she's
                 sueing everybody, which is actually the right thing to do in
                 this case.

6/26    Students have freedom of speech unless they want to talk to about
        bad stuff, says Supreme Court
        http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/06/25/free.speech/index.html

6/26    I have concluded that the most effect troll baits are, in the
        order of effectiveness:
        -GWB & his Iraq War
        \_ you gotta admit, Iraq is a major issue.
        -WW2 superiority of Germans, Russians, Americans
        \_ i dont think that was such a bad troll.
        \_ That's not really a troll.  Apparently a few motders are WWII nuts,
           and like talking about WWII, but if you notice the discussion is
           very civil.
        -The superiority of suburbs vs. cities
        -I love I hate free market
        \_ Don't forget gun control, a frequent motd favorite
        \_ Don't forget "Is global warming real?", "Is global warming caused by
           human?" and "Is hybrid vehicles the/a/not a solution to global
           warming?"  A now-less effective troll is "Are we running out of
           oil?" which has been superceded by the global warming trolls.
                                \_ I found out today it's "superseded". who knew.

6/25    From Matt Taibibibib
        Q: How long will it take for the Democrat hopefuls to realize that
           they cannot simply pull out of Iraq?

        A: I saw an old episode of 'Homicide: Life on the Street' on the
           Sleuth channel the other night. In it a highly annoying Vince
           D'Onofrio falls between a subway car and the subway platform
           and he gets stuck there, with the train basically holding his
           guts in. The medics come in and they look at him and realize
           that if they move the train at all, his guts are going to fall
           out and he's going to die. But if they do nothing, he's going
           to slowly lose blood pressure and die. Either way, he's going
           to die. Iraq is Vince D'Onofrio. It doesn't overact as much,
           but it's just as fucked. The bloodbath is coming as soon as we
           leave, whether that's now or 20 years from now. But I'd be
           interested to hear your argument explaining how things are
           going to improve by us staying and spending a billion bucks a
           day or whatever playing Play Station in air conditioned trailers
            behind twenty-foot walls while Iraqis have six hours of
            electricity and pee into buckets and get their throats slit as
            soon as night falls. You're probably right, a few more years of
            that, and this Sunni-Shia hatred thing will pass.