5/6     happy anniversary for Chinese Exclusion Act.
        and yes, please continue lecture China on human right... with a
        straight face... because I can't.
        \_ Hey chicom troll, that was in the 1800s. The US had a lot of
           atrocious policies, but we've evolved. China is still stuck in
           the 1800s.

5/5     Any idea why the AMD only added 8 more registers with the AMD64 arch.?
        Why 16 registers and not, say, 32?
        \_ To double the accessible register count, you need one more bit
           in the instruction stream _per_ register field.  x86 instruction
           set is already packed like rat's nest as is.

5/6     When I finger my account, it says:
                New mail received Wed May  6 07:13 2009 (PDT)
                Unread since Mon May  4 08:43 2009 (PDT)
        Acutally I haven't accessed my mail for several months, why does
        finger say unread since 5/4?
        \_ stop fingering yourself
        \_ Pretty sure it says that for everyone. Finger says that because mail
           was catastrophically hosed this weekend and steven spent a great
           deal of time moving us over from exim4 to postfix, while preserving
           your mail. Also in doing so he moved NFS to NFS4 on our new disk
           server, so stability should be better in the short term and much
           better in the long term. --t

5/6     My new Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP finally arrived. While it's only
        1/2 the cost of an Apple LED Cinema Display 24, it has very rich
        colors and is super bright. However, it is HUGE. It's about 5 inches
        thick and looks uber ugly on my little desk. Functionally, it
        does what it does well, and the specifications are superb. But
        it's like a PC-- full of features (CF card, SD card, 4 USB, VGA,
        displayport, DVI), 110% color gamut, etc etc etc. Yes on paper the
        specs look good. But it is nothing compared to Apple's 24 inch.
        I still think the Apple color looks better. More eye pleasing,
        less strains on the eyes, more crisp text display, more accurate
        colors. If it weren't for the fact that I can't do DVI->displayport,
        I'd get an Apple. Dell 2408WFP-- looks good on paper, but it's
        like a typical PC, loaded with features but lacks substance. I
        guess I'll just use this POS until I get a new laptop with
        displayport built in.
        \_ Dell brightness really hurts:
           http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?page=4&t=1908075
           Total piece of shit.
        \_ I have a dell 2405FPW, its an older model, I've had it almost 2
           years now, and it is still doing great.  It looks fine and I
           actually use the USB and CF slots in it.  I dismiss you as an
           apple fanboi.
           -ERic
           \_ No. The Dell is to the Zune as Apple Cinema is to iPhone.
              If you can't tell the difference, good for you. But to
              me, the Dell is just harsh on the eyes and badly built. By
              the way I'm not trying to insult you. Some people can't tell
              the difference between Merlot and Cabernet, and some people
              don't care. I don't know which category you fall into, but
              I can tell the difference, and I care. To each his own.
              \_ I think you mean the Dell is to Apple Cinema as the
                 Zune is to the iPhone.  The Dell compares to the Cinema
                 display, the Zune compares to the iPhone.  Back to the SAT
                 prep classes with you.
              \_ This is a terrible analogy on so many levels. For starters,
                 the Zune isn't a phone. So an iPod would be a better analogy.
                 But the iPod is not just an output device, there are actual
                 usability components, so it's not just straight technical
                 specs, industrial design, or quality of components to compare.
                 I work at Apple and like my 23" cinema display at work, but
                 at home I have a Dell 2005FPW and it's quite fine. OTOH, I
                 don't know how much you'd have to pay me to use a Zune.
           \_ I had a 2405 years ago.  I replaced it with an Eizo model
              within a couple of weeks and never looked back.  It's not
              just about the LCD panel (same Samsung panel in both).  The
              thing is cheaply designed using cheap components.  Lamp
              driver or some other high frequency switching circuit in it
              was emitting annoying high-pitched sound.  It was
              completely unacceptable to me.  Apparently, a lot of people
              are deaf thanks to the kinds and methods of music listening
              these days and can't hear it.  FYI, if I knew Eizo was
              going to release a 24" model within weeks of my 2405
              purchase, I wouldn't have even considered the Dell.
           \_ I have an Apple 23" and compared to my brother's 24" Dell,
              images on the Apple look better.  Still, if I had to replace
              my 23", I'd go with the Dell b/c it is so much cheaper. (I
              would probably have bought a Dell 24" in the first place, but
              I managed to get a huge discount on the Apple, so I got it
              instead).

5/6     http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_tale_of_two_exurbs
        \_ Nice article.  -tom
        \_ Starts slow but the comparison between the two towns is nice.
           Nothing new, but re-affirming. -op

5/6     I have a Dell linux box with 4 cores.  Is a normal load 4 ?
        or is a normal load 1 ? thanks.
        \_ What do you mean "a normal load"? Load is the number of
           processes in a runnable or uninterruptable state. So a quad
           core system can have a load of 4 w/o any process being blocked.
           [Addendum: This answer is for Linux.]
           \_ Dynix used to report load as number of processes divided by
              number of CPUs.  -tom

5/6     Wow!  none of the seven news headlines on http://www.yahoo.com today mentions
        the H1N1 flu.  I gues it's finally dying down.
        \_ No, not really, the press is just getting bored with it.

5/6     If Yao Ming (7'6") and Liu Xiang (6'2") were to race on 100-meter
        track event, who do you think would win?
        \_ uh, my money would be on the world-class track athlete.  -tom
           \_ Agreed. Now, if the race involves multiple turn-arounds,
              Yao Ming might have a chance.
              \_ uh, no.

5/6     "Wal-Mart pays $2M to avoid charges in death probe"
        http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_bi_ge/us_wal_mart_death
        "Nassau County District Attorney ... said that if she had brought
        criminal charges against the retailer for negligence in the worker's
        death, the company would have been subject to only a $10,000 fine if
        convicted."
        Choosing to pay $2M-for-sure over $10K-maybe?  Does Wal-Mart have a
        conscience now?
        \_ Of course not.  They're paying for avoiding an admission of guilt.
           They're also paying to avoid a wrongful death suit.  -tom

5/7     How were female chastity belt useful?  They offered no protection
        against the oral or anal sex.  Were those not issues to consider back in
        the Middle Ages?
        \_ All that mattered was the hymen.
           \_ More to the point, the point of a chastity belt was stopping
              reproduction. Also, they probably weren't all that common.
              http://csua.org/u/o7b
              \_ "In the duplex models, you had a somewhat larger aperture in
                 the back to permit defecation while preventing anal
                 intercourse."
                 How is this possible?  I'd think the average solid feces is
                 thicker than the average erect penis.  (Save your fun-making
                 of my size.  I realize that already.)
                 \_ All you need to do is prevent someone from getting
                    sufficiently close.
                    \_ I think some sharp edges would also work.
           \_ Oddly enough, this is still pretty much the case in traditional
              socities today.
        \_ good answers!  but if you do a little digging you'll find that
           the actual historical use and perhaps even existence of the
           chastity belt has been called into question...    --brain

5/6     I'm sure you've seen web sites that distribute software by making
        a user fill out a form and then e-mailing the user a randomly
        generate link to the software that works just once. What software
        is used to do this? I'd like to distribute software in such a way.
        \_ "Software"?  What web server/web application environment
           are you using?
           \_ Yes, software. Like let's say I have a software package I am
              distributing and it's a tar.gz. Right now people just
              download it, but I'd like to use one of these more
              sophisticated systems to track who downloads it and give
              them a link that works just once. I can use whatever web
              server or environment will do the job.
        \_ Uck.  Those types of links suck.  Please don't.
           \_ What sucks about it? I never had any issues with these. It is
              not acceptable to publish a publically accessible link, so
              what do you suggest instead?
        \_ I've never downloaded softward this way, but I have downloaded
           a secured copy of my tax return from my CPA this way.  They use
           something from LeapFILE.   -- yuen
           \_ I'll look into it, thanks. Any other suggestions? I am surprised
              most of you have never dealt with this. It's really common
              when downloading commercial software like compilers and such.
              \_ It's something I could build in an afternoon, and by
                 doing it myself it would be a lot easier to integrate with
                 all my existing deployments.  Sometimes it's just easier to
                 write it yourself.
                 \_ It's usually a lot more trouble to write it yourself.
                    Then you get to maintain it, too. These hacks are
                    always simple upfront and evolve into headaches later.
                    Seems a lot of people use PHP + MySQL for this and
                    continually reinvent the wheel, which I think is silly. A
                    perl module sounds like a good idea. It's also a lot of
                    baggage for something so simple. I need to install a
                    *database* and a scripting language just for this? Just
                    installing PHP will probably get me hacked.
                    \_ Gee, you already have a scripting language, it's
                       called perl.  You are going to need a database of some
                       sort no matter what.  (It doesn't need to be mysql
                       or a relational database, but you are going to need
                       some sort of data store.)  A perl module doesn't make
                       sense.  If (token in store) then (remove token and
                       serve application).  How hard is that to write?
                       \_ perl module makes a lot more sense than PHP to me.
                          You also don't really need a database of any kind.
                          Why for? You can do fancier things with a DB,
                          but it's not really needed. All you need is to
                          be able to do is generate a random URL and keep some
                          counters. It's not a matter of "how hard is that
                          to write" as it is that I'd rather spend $50 for
                          an app to do this than spend $100/hour for a
                          developer to write and maintain this, even if he
                          spends just 10 hours/year on it.
                          \_ Because you are forgetting the time to
                             install/set up the damn app in the first place.
                             That takes time too.
                             \_ Yes and it will have to be setup and installed
                                no matter if I write it or buy it. So that's a
                                wash.
              \_ curious, why go to the trouble?  What's to stop someone from
                 replublishing the software on their torrent site of choice,
                 unless you're also watermarking the software image, ni effect
                 customizing the copy for the downloader ?
                 \_ CYA. If someone else publishes it then they are the ones
                    that will go to jail. Whereas, if I publish it to the
                    world then it will be me in jail.
                 \_ There's a legal aspect to it. If I have a one-time link,
                    I can make sure you only get the software after you've
                    agreed to my license agreement. If you can download the
                    software without clicking through the license, you can
                    argue that you're not bound by the license.
                 \_ You might also want to avoid people being able to
                    "deep link" to the software, thereby depriving you of
                    ad revenue. The place I work for is in this situation.
                 \_ He wants to collect email addresses.