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2024/11/23 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
11/23   

2013/10/24-2014/2/5 [Computer/SW/Apps, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA] UID:54741 Activity:nil
10/4    Where is the CSUA IRC channel?
        \_ on freenode, it is rad, you should join us -ausman
2013/4/9-5/18 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:54650 Activity:nil
4/04    Is there a good way to diff 2 files that consist of columns of
        floating point numbers, such that it only tells me if there's a
        difference if the numbers on a given line differ by at least a given
        ratio?  Say, 1%?
        \_ Use Excel.
           1. Open foo.txt in Excel.  It should convert all numbers to cells in
              column A.
           2. Open bar.txt in Excel.  Ditto.
           3. Create a new file in Excel.
           4. In cell A1 of the new file, enter this:
              =IF(foo.txt!A1=0, IF(bar.txt!A1=0, "same", "different"), IF(ABS((b\
ar.txt!A1-foo.txt!A1)/foo.txt!A1)<1%, "same", "different"))
           5. Select cell A1.  Hit Ctrl-C to copy.
           6. Select the same number of cells as the number of cells that exist
              in foo.txt or bar.txt.  Hit Ctrl-V to paste.
           7. Hit Ctrl-F.  In "Find what:", enter "different".  In "Look in:",
              choose "Values".  Click "Find All".
           Another way is to write a C program to read the two files using
           fscanf("%f") an do the arithmatic.
        \_ does this help?
#!/usr/bin/python
import sys

threshold = float(sys.argv[3] if len(sys.argv) > 3 else 0.0000001)
list1 = [float(v) for v in open(sys.argv[1]).readlines()]
list2 = [float(v) for v in open(sys.argv[2]).readlines()]

line = 1
for v1, v2 in zip(list1, list2):
    if abs((v1 - v2) / v1) >= threshold:
        print "Line %d different (%f != %f)" % (line, v1, v2)
    line += 1
        \_ Something like this might work ($t is your threshold):
           $ perl -e '$t = 0.1 ; while (<>) { chomp($_); ($i,$j) =
             split(/ \t/, $_); if ($i > ((1+$t)*$j) || $i < ((1-$t)*j)) {
             print "$_\n"; }}' < file
2012/8/30-11/7 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:54470 Activity:nil
8/30    Is wall just dead? The wallall command dies for me, muttering
        something about /var/wall/ttys not existing.
        \_ its seen a great drop in usage, though it seems mostly functional.
            -ERic
        \_ Couldn't open wall log!: Bad file descriptor
           Could not open wall subscription directory /var/wall/ttys: No such file or directory
        \_ In theory, wall could be used as a sort of irc system, but maybe it's just fallen
           apart.
           Could not open wall subscription directory /var/wall/ttys: No such
           file or directory
        \_ In theory, wall could be used as a sort of irc system, but maybe
           it's just fallen apart.
2010/2/8-18 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:53695 Activity:kinda low
2/5     I like Adobe Flash. When written correctly, it scales along
        with your browser size. It looks consistent on every single
        browser. It is predictable. On the other hand, I'm not a big
        fan of CSS/HTML, which for the most part, look wildly different
        between browsers, and don't even work consistently or
        correctly at times. So why do so many people (like Steve Jobs)
        hate Adobe Flash?
        \_ It looks consistent!?  I guess.  They all look like an empty box
           with a little (f) circle in my browser.  There is no proper Flash
           support in FreeBSD.  I run a Windows version of Firefox under WINE
           sometimes, as needed, but I'd rather not.
           \_ LOL consistently bad is better than inconsistently good :)
              \_ And now we know what values have been affecting the art
                 community for the last few decades.
        \_ The player really only works on Windows (CPU usage on Macs is
           ridiculous), "predictable" display sucks from a user perspective
           (because users want to display things the way they prefer),
           and it's proprietary.  -tom
           \_ not to mention linux and solaris, whose builds are also slow,
              but until very recently lagged behind in versions and security
              updates, etc.  Also, flash folks appear to do the same thing
              many bad web developers do and assume everyone runs their browser
              fullscreen at 1600x1200+ resolutions
              \_ web devs are stupid. 95% love coding with constants. the
                 concept of % is foreign to them.
        \_ It's not part of his monopoly.
2024/11/23 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
11/23   

2009/12/24-2010/1/19 [Computer/SW/Apps, Industry/Jobs] UID:53599 Activity:nil
12/18   http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/12/09/175245/Company-Trains-the-Autistic-To-Test-Software
        Train autistic people to do QA. Perfect fit.
2009/3/26-4/2 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:52760 Activity:nil
3/26    Anyone here uses Heritrix?  I'm trying to read the Intro document at
        http://crawler.archive.org/An%20Introduction%20to%20Heritrix.pdf but
        both Adobe Reader 8.1.3 (Win32) and gv 3.6.5 (cygwin) display error
        messages and show me blank pages.  Adobe displays:
        "Cannot extract the embedded font 'FTXWSG+TimesNewRomanMS'.  Some
        characters may not display or print correctly."
        "An error exists on this page.  Acrobat may not display the page
        correctly.  Please contace the person who created the PDF document to
        correct the problem."
        "Too few operands."
        Is anyone able to read this file?  Thanks.
2009/3/11-17 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:52701 Activity:high
3/11    I have a potential gig at a large(ish) magazine that wants to setup
        a system like this to put a digital edition of their issues online:
        http://www.exacteditions.com
        There are many services out there that do this, and in fact they are
        currently using one. But they'd like to save money by moving this
        in-house. They're starting with PDF files and want to display them
        as images in the browser. That part is easy (convert them server-
        side). But they also want highlighted search results on the images,
        a la google books. I turn to the mighty motd for advice on how to
        do this. use a pdf manipulation library to highlight search terms
        and then convert to jpg? convert pdf to svg and highlight in svg
        before converting to jpg? drop the job cuz its too hard?
        sorry for the long post. thx.
    \_ I suspect drawing a rectangle or something would be the easy way to do
       it, but that doesn't solve the problem of finding the location of the
       text in the pdf...
        \_ I suspect drawing a rectangle or something would be the easy
           way to do it, but that doesn't solve the problem of finding
           the location of the text in the pdf...
        \_ How are you rendering these?  HTML --> PDF or using some sort of
           reporting service (Crystal/SSRS)?  If the former, I'd just set up a
           regular expression and drop in a custom CSS tag before and after
           the desired text that deserns what needs to be highlighted.  Then
           render the HTML to PDF.
           \_ well the starting point is InDesign. They export PDFs and send
          that to their print shop. is there some library out there
          to manipulate PDFs so that I could just like "highlight
          search terms" in the document?
          \_ InDesign has a development forum.  I found this there:
http://blogs.adobe.com/acrolaw/2007/12/highlighting_multiple_words_in_a.html
          \_ Probably not, if you mean have it automatically highlight the
             text for you.
        \_ http://www.devdirect.com/all/PDF_MAnipulation_PCAT_2070.aspx
2008/12/2-6 [Computer/SW/Apps, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:52140 Activity:kinda low
12/1    Just curious -- what do you guys generally use soda for? Why do you
        log on? Personally, I use it to keep a presence on IRC and AIM/gTalk
        at all times, and mess around with some Python programming (been
        setting up Twisted and such so I can play with making an irc bot).
        --toulouse
        \_ I use it to post SHIT, er, I mean, spill my guts about the company
           I work at... I use it to post to http://glassdoor.com and valleywags.
           My company has banned http://glassdoor.com's IP.
        \_ Website hosting, and, believe it or not, reading the motd; it does
           occasionally provide good or interesting info. --erikred
           \_ Speaking of this and that, what are the odds of turning cgi
              back on? --erikred
              \_ We'll turn it on for anyone who 1) wants it 2) knows
              how to write secure CGI 3) is willing to promise not to
              hose 4) emails root@  It's disabled by default just
              because that's the easiest way to get 0wned but I'm OK
              with having individual users use it.  -- Steven (VP)
        \_ motd, wall, nwriting, providing a place outside corporate firewall
           to do things no the internet (diagnose net problems, download stuff
           the firewall/virus-scanner stupidly  breaks)
           \_ Second all that, plus it gives me a place to goof off that my
              corporate security can't sniff, since everything is encrypted.
              I scrupulously avoid posting to blogs on the company wire, though
              I often read them.
              I often read them. Oh, I also use it as my repository of a
              bunch of stuff like phone numbers, that I want to be able to
              get to from everywhere.
        \_ trn remains the best newsgroup reader, and soda remains the easiest
           way to use it
           \_ there's something useful on usenet still?  I throught it was
              drowned in spam, porn, warez, and inanity.
              \_ Some (moderated) algorithm groups still have the luminaries
                 routinely.
              \_ obviously, you don't use
                 alt.binaries.erotic.caucasian.lolita.paolo-pollux.likes
                 \_ Newsgroup alt.binaries.erotic.caucasian.lolita.paolo-pollux.\
                    likes does not exist!
                 \_ Newsgroup alt.binaries.erotic.caucasian.lolita.likes
                    does not exist!
                    \_ alt.sex.stories.incest.
           \_ Berkeley's Usenet server is likely to be turned off soon.  -tom
        \_ Many decades ago I used it to finger hot women on Soda and
           uclink, uclink2, ocf clusters, etc. Nowadays, I just use it
           to forward joe@csua.berkeley.edu to my Gmail account. I still use
           my csua email on my resume. Nothing speaks louder than having
           BERKELEY in your email address. Go Beah!!! Speaking of hot
           women, toulouse... is it still fashionable to date Asian women
           these days?
           \_ dunno, but if so, I might be pretty fashionable soon. :D
              --toulouse
        \_ motd and personal website. I used to use soda for email and usenet,
           but mostly I've switched my email to gmail and have stopped reading
           usenet.
2008/11/2-5 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:51779 Activity:nil
11/2    I'm thinking about buying Adobe Lightroom 2. I understand that
        registration today is very much online driven. Does anyone know
        if purchase is limited to registering to ONE computer only?
        What if I reinstall Winblow (which I do every 12-18 months),
        will I lose the license?
        \_ there is no license.
2008/6/20-23 [Computer/Blog, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:50323 Activity:nil 85%like:50311
6/19    I love this blog
        http://preview.tinyurl.com/548kv8 [photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com]
2008/6/19-20 [Computer/Blog, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:50311 Activity:nil 85%like:50323
6/19    I love this blog
        http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2008/06/azoogle-this-was-really-well-thought.html
2008/4/11-16 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:49732 Activity:nil
4/11    Hilarious photoshop disasters.
        http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com
2008/3/17-21 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:49481 Activity:kinda low
3/17    Is there a way to compare differences between two substantially
        similar Excel and/or Powerpoint documents other than going through
        them manually?
        \_ In Excel 2003, there is a "Compare and Merge Workbooks..." option
           under the Tools menu.  (But for some reason it is greyed out in my
           Excel 2003.)  In PowerPoint 2003 there is "Compare and Merge
           Presentations...".  I've never used either, though.
           \_ Sounds great, but I cannot find this in Office 2004 for Mac.
              \_ Search for "merge workbooks" in Excel help, it explains
                 what you need to do to merge two workbooks. I think you
                 will need to share one of your workbooks and then make
                 a copy of it. In the copy you need to paste in the other
                 workbook. Then you can use the merge feature to merge the
                 two together and see the changes.
        \_ Save them in the office XML format and compare those with diff.
           \_ How do I save in XML? I don't see that as an option.
              \_ AFAIK, you need Office 2007/2008 to export to XML. Earlier
                 versions don't support XML.
                 \_ I thought you could always save in some sort of text
                    format (tab delimited or whatever). I'd look for that.
                    \_ For Excel you can but it is primitive. For Powerpoint,
                       I dunno.
                    \_ I think all versions of Excel can export to comma
                       separated and tab delimited text files, but it can
                       be pretty hard to compare these files.
        \_ My wife who's an accountant asked me the same question back when
           Excel 2000 was the latest version, and here's the solution I
           figured:
           1. Open the two files in Excel, say foo.xls and bar.xls.
           2. Find out how many rows and columns there are in Sheet 1 in
              foo.xls and bar.xls.
           3. Create a new file.
           4. For Sheet 1, Cell A1 in the new file, enter
                =EXACT([foo.xls]Sheet1!A1,[bar.xls]Sheet1!A1)
           5. Highlight Cell A1, click Edit -> Copy.
           6. Highlight the same number of rows and columns as in foo.xls and
              bar.xls.
           7. Click Edit -> Paste.
           8. Click Edit -> Find.  Under "Look in:", choose "Values".
           9. Under "Find what:", enter "false", click "Find All".
           You'll have to repeat this if there are multiple sheets in foo.xls
           and bar.xls.  You'll have to replace EXACT() with another function
           if you want case-insensitive comarison or if you want to find
           formatting differences.
           --- yuen
2008/1/5-7 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:48895 Activity:moderate
1/5     I'm an Excel novice who needs help. Let us say I have a column of
        data A. I then take the absolute value of A1 and enter it in B1:
        (B1=ABS(A1)). All is good. My problem is when I want to delete
        Column A, Column B is still referencing A. How do I tell Excel to
        stop referencing the source data and instead let me have the
        result standalone? I don't want to keep A around anymore, but I
        still want B.
        \_ You keep A around and hide it.
           Or, copy column B and Paste Special...Values and get rid of both
           A and B.  -tom
           \_ Hiding it was my solution, but that sucks. I will try "Paste
              Special".
        \_ Depending on what you're doing you may want to see A again.  You
           can hide it as tom said or move it to another sheet and just
           reference it from your 'scrap data' sheet.  I've yet to find a
           reason to actually destroy source data.  YMMV.
           \_ I don't need it again and I want to get rid of it.
2006/10/26-29 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:45001 Activity:kinda low
10/26   I seem to having this same conversation a lot recently:

        them: Hey get a Yahoo/MSN/hotmail account.
        me: No. I already have a gmail account.
        them: Just get one so I can IM you.
        me: Use AIM or gtalk like everyone else.
        them: But I don't use AIM or gtalk.
        me: Fine, I'll get one. Just don't send me email me there.
        (months later)
        them: Hey, I sent you an email/evite weeks ago and you ignored me.
        me: No you didn't.
        them: Yes I did.
        me: What account did you send it to?
        them: xxxx@yahoo/hotmail.com
        me: I don't check that account. Send it to my gmail account next time.
        them: Why not?
        me: Because it's not my freaking email address you moron. Get a clue.
        (repeat over and over and over again)

        What the hell? Why do people insist that you check an email account
        you never use and then bitch and complain when you don't respond to
        their emails?
        \_ You sure are bitchy.
        \_ I've never had that problem.  Maybe you need friends that
           aren't dumb?
           \_ seconded
              \_ Thirded, but I have a friend who only has gtalk.  "What's
                 wrong with gtalk?" ... When he IMs me I never notice it.
        \_ The invisible hand.
        \_ Forward e-mail from that address to the one you do read.
           \_ AFAIK, neither support forwarding.
        \_ AIM?  I thought nobody uses AIM anymore.  I stopped logging in to
           my AIM a couple years ago.
           \_ Really? Most of my interns (current EECS students) only use
              AIM, which is why I got an AIM account.
        \_ I got that same problem.  Here is how i solved it.
           1. use thunderbird and /or  client that supports both imap and pop3
           2. use mr.postman so all yahoo/hotmail account email will be
              end up in your local mail client
           3. use gaim so you can talk to every friends of you (5 total)
              using their IM software of the week.
           The only thing I can't solve right now is that my friends starts to
           use Microsoft's lives.space as their blog  service.  That service
           can not be accessed without using Microsoft's official client,
           using Internet Explorer.   Let me know if you guys find a way to
           get around that.             kngharv
2006/9/26-27 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:44550 Activity:nil
9/26    Is there a way to strip away parts of a pdf document in order to
        keep just one part of it, without buying Adobe Acrobat? Thanks.
        \_ convert to postscript, start editing with $EDITOR
        \_ unlicensed copying of Acrobat
        \_ Depending on the document and what you're trying to save, you
           may be able to select the text and copy and paste.  -tom
2006/9/25-27 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:44521 Activity:nil
9/25    Adobe Lightroom beta4 is out:
        http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom
        \_ played with it last night. enuf improvements over beta3 that
           its worth taking a look at (at least the PC version). changes
           to the UI and it looks like some performance too. -shac
2006/9/18-20 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:44430 Activity:nil
9/18    Are there any free/shareware tools to edit a pdf file?  Any OS is ok.
        Thanks.
        \_ I'm not sure what you mean by edit (ie do you mean move/delete
           pages or do you mean edit text), but the following might be
           helpful: http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk
           \_ I mean I have a pdf someone else at work generated but it has
              some colored lines and some text I want to remove.  I loaded it
              in photoshop but I'm not photoshop pro and it displayed/loaded
              only part of the file.  I've got no idea what's going on there.
              I'll check out the link, thanks.  I'd also be ok with something
              that can convert a pdf to a gif, jpeg, etc which I know I can
              photoshop.
              \_ Okay, now I understand. What you are looking for might be
                 a bit beyond what the free tools (or even basic Acrobat)
                 can do.
                 Re Photoshop - I think that PS can reliably only open the
                 first pg of a pdf doc.
                 The following may be of use to you (Universal Document
                 Converter Demo for Windows):
                 http://www.print-driver.com/download
                 It should let you print the PDF to a bunch of TIFFs that
                 you can edit.
                 I think that Ghostscript on Linux can do the same, but
                 it has been years since I've played w/ GS.
                 According to Google 'convert' (part of ImageMagick) also
                 works, albeit very slowly.
2006/8/14-16 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:43995 Activity:nil
8/14    Pretty cool Photoshop filter:
        http://www.hdrsoft.com/index.html
        \_ While the results look pretty, they also almost uniformly have this
           "otherworldy" look to them, where the back of your brain goes
           "there is something very wrong with this picture; i just don't know
           what it is"
           \_ Exactly.  I felt like I was playing a videogame.
2006/7/13 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:43668 Activity:nil
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.
2006/7/13 [Computer/SW/Graphics, Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:43656 Activity:kinda low
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.
2006/6/30-7/5 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:43545 Activity:nil
6/30    Can anyone recommend a good site that has professional looking
        Powerpoint templates, for free? Thanks.
        \_ screw powerpoint, S5 all the way
                \_ Well given what's available at this conference, it has
                   to be PPT. So forget the "screw powerpoint" advice. -op
        \_ Make your own.  It's not hard.  Drop me a line (email in my
           .plan) or sign your name if you want help.  -John
2006/6/27-29 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:43512 Activity:nil 66%like:43501 75%like:43539
6/27    http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~erikred/wallchart.pdf
        Updated: 1017 PST
        \_ Updated: 1418 PST
           \_ Next match: Germany v. Argentina, Friday, 0800 PST
              Expect Updates after that.
        \_ What are using to do the updates? Acrobat?
           \_ Acrobat Pro, Tools -> Advanced Editing -> Text Field Tool and
              Advanced -> PDF Optimizer.
2006/5/15-16 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:43062 Activity:low
5/15    MS Excel question: I have a moderately large sheet with one column
        filled with entries that are in this form: "num; stuff", meaning
        it's a number followed by a semicolon followed by anything. Is there
        a way to split up this column into 2, with the first containing
        the number and the second containing everything after the semicolon?
        Thanks.
        \_ Save as CSV, one line of perl, import from CSV
           \_ very clever.  Hope you didn't have any formulas.
              Try =RIGHT(), =LEFT().  -tom
                \_ The =LEFT() works perfectly; unfortunately, what's after
                   the semicolon is usually several letters or words long.
                   \_ Search Excel help for "Text Functions"; LEN may help.
                       -tom
        \_ tools->text to columns
                \_ Perfect, thank you! thanks to everyone else, too.
                   (btw in macs, it's data->text to columns) -op
2006/2/14-15 [Science/Electric, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:41845 Activity:nil
2/14    PKD droid does a runner:
        http://csua.org/u/ezf (Sydney Morning Herald)
        \_ Of course, there's no proof it ever existed except in photoshop.
           \_ I've seen video, so.. "except in photoshop and premiere"
2006/2/13-15 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:41816 Activity:nil
2/13    Adobe is looking for external study participants.  If you are using
        Photoshop elements with minimal Photoshop experience (and are using
        a PC) and don't work in a creative field, please contact me via
        Email.  -chaos
2006/1/30-2/1 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:41603 Activity:nil
1/30    What is an easy and free way to extract about 40 pages from a 180 page
        pdf document, so that I end up with one 40 page .pdf file and one
        140 page .pdf file?  I only need to do this once, so if there's
        some business that'll do this, I'd pay for it, but I don't want to
        buy software to only do it once.  I have Acrobat Professional, but I
        can't figure out how to use that to do this.
        \_ If you have Acrobat professional, the easiest way is top open the
           "Pages" pane, select the pages you want to extract, then right-click
           and choose "extract pages".  When that's done, right-click again and
           select "delete pages".
           \_ Wow, problem solved.  Thank you!!!
2006/1/18-21 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:41420 Activity:low
1/18    I need to gain 20-30lbs of weight and want to track my progress.
        I could do this in an Excel spreadsheet but I don't have it
        installed right now and would rather have some nifty web thingie -
        I googled and most of the stuff I found kind of sucked. Before
        I revert to Excel (if lazy) or write my own (if bored) does anyone
        have recommendations?
        \_ "need" to gain?  why?
           \_ My BMI is 15.4 . If it wasn't from being sick and/or I was a
              girl, I'm sure that's eating disorder range :) -op
        \_ http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-gnuplot
           Look at figure 8.
           \_ Sigh, duh. I actually have used gnuplot a fair amount. This
              should be perfect for an unpolished barebones thing. Thanks!
              -op
        \_ If I wanted to gain 30 pounds, I'd get a spiked tail grafted on to
           my ass.  This would help with both balance and self-defense, and
           seems like the best possible way to gain weight.  It might also be
           possible to use your mouse or trackball with the tip of your tail,
           increasing productivity.
        \_ Dude, just roll your own. It's a really simple bit of Perl.
           \_ I'm not a big Perl hacker. It is pretty trivial but a nice
              one with login/security, and pretty pictures rather than text
              would take me at least a few hours to write, because I'm not
              particularly familiar with the web/graphics libraries - op
        \_ The less you do on the couch, the faster you can put on that
           weight.  (or more seriously, vi does this just fine)
           \_ depends on what kind of weight.  he could put on a lot of
              weight sitting on the couch or in front of the computer, he
              just needs to eat more.  EAT MORE LARD!
              \_ I lost the weight because I was/am sick, and need to gain it
                 back in a healthy way or it defeats the purpose. Thanks
                 anyway! (defeating silly comments with reasonable responses)
                 - op
                 \_ So far as I know the only way to quickly gain weight is
                    to gain fat.  If you eat right and exercise a lot, you
                    might take a couple of years to gain 30lbs of lean-ish
                    body mass.  Unless you have naturally high levels of
                    testosterone and/or take steroids.  Though there are some
                    other drugs you could possibly take.
                    \_ Luckily (?), I am actually on (safe) steriods for medication
                       for a few months. I have seen a nutritionist... it's not
                       too bad to put on a pound a week, it turns out (eat a lot
                       and drink Ensure). More than that, maybe I'll get lucky -
                       if I'm underweight, maybe my body wants to recover or
                       something. -op
        \_ I know dawne wrote one a few years ago; I'll see if it's still lying
           around somewhere and easy to get working again.  --dbushong
           \_ Found it: http://bushong.net/dawn/widgets/tracker
              The graphing's a little sluggish b/c GD's broken under mod_perl
              for me, but otherwise it seems to work.  --dbushong
              \_ Oh, right, it doesn't handle weight _gain_.  I'll work on it.
        \_ If you have a palm use EatWatch:
           http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/palm
2006/1/7-9 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:41286 Activity:nil
1/7     I have an .eps file generated from Illustrator that is all vector
        graphics, and it's about 300k.  I need to get it to be as small as
        possible to upload it to an archive where they're anal about image
        file size.  What can I do to shrink the file besides zipping?  I already
        tried zipping, and it's still bigger than the 50 k they want for .gz
        files.
        \_ Sometimes you can reduce the line count at the expense of detail
           (a.k.a. "smoothing")
        \_ Convert it to png.   -tom
2005/11/10-12 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:40533 Activity:moderate
11/10   Which chat program is the most popular these days?  AOL IM?  Yahoo
        Messenger?  ICQ?  I'm trying to sign up for one.  Thx.
        \_ AIM in USA, MSN for rest of the world.  Don't bother with ICQ,
           as the protocol is merging with AIM anyway.  If I were you, I
           get account in both AIM and MSN and use GAIM/Adium/Trillian as
           client.
        \_ Most people use AIM but there's always enough people who don't
           that you need a multi-protocol client like GAIM, Adium, or Trillian.
        \_ Most geeks use something like GAIM or Trillian b/c then it doesn't
           matter what other people are using, you can use them all.  If you're
           trying to pick a main account to use, it really doesn't matter much.
        \_ Most popular according to what standard?
           \_ The most chatting activity, I guess.  -- OP
              \_ There are no objective studies that can answer your question.
                 Perhaps you can try an answerable question?
        \_ AIM seems to be the most popular, at least in the US, but a coworker
           of mine claims that it's not really used outside of the US, so he
           uses MSN to chat to his friends in Sri Lanka and Britain. An intern
           who I used to work at Microsoft says that MSN was a joke and he
           didn't know anyone at school (MIT) who used it, and the only place
           he's ever seen it used was at MS. Like pp says, it's hard or
           impossible to answer the question.
           \_ Well, when someone comes from a school where people think it's
              normal to write an English paper in LaTeX using vi, I find it
              difficult to take their ideas about what constitutes "normal"
              seriously.
              \_ English paper in LaTeX using vi?  That's silly.  I used troff
                 and vi.  --dbushong
                     \- i dont think people at mit use vi much. they use emacs.
                        they alsi used to use Scribe, not LaTeX. dunno about
                        they also used to use Scribe, not LaTeX. dunno about
                        now. maybe they have Word Creep too.
                 \_ You're silly. My English teachers were happy to accept
                    my punch cards.
                    \_ Ha ha!  Son, in my day, they accepted the fully
                       wired bread board -- and we had to improvise our
                       wire with recycled vaccum tube radio parts.
                    \_ My English teacher was happy to accept my three-hole-
                       punch on her.
                       punching on her.
                       \_ air tight seal?
                          \_ Tight, and sealed with lubes.
2005/9/15 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/Theory, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:39696 Activity:nil
9/15    I have a stupid Excel question. It's easy to obtain the product of
        any two cells, but what is the syntax to specify that I want the
        product of, say, the previous two cells? That is, if I am in row
        A I want the product of A1 and A2 entered into A3, in row B I
        want the product of B1 and B2 entered into B3, and so on - sort of
        "relative to my position I want to do this". The rows can change
        lettering as things are inserted or deleted, but the idea is that
        I always want, say, column 1 and 2 multiplied into column 3 of the
        same row. How do I do this? I've RTFM.
2005/8/23-24 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:39237 Activity:nil
8/23    Google IM is up.
        http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/08/im-on-google-talk-right-now.php
        \_ Great. Just what we need. Yet Another Fucking Messenger. I am so
           sick and tired of having to keep track of different logins and
           clients. I have YM, AIM, MSN, and IRC. Trillian is the solution?
           No. I can't get to certain features in YM like interactive games
           and Audibles. Fuck Google.
           \_ You might not know this, but you are too stupid to live.
           \_ I used to use AIM.  Now I don't even bother logging on.  If it's
              urgent, call me.  If it's not urgent, send me e-mail.
        \_ Holy fucking shit.  A branded Jabber server with no SSL support.
           Where are my smelling salts?  What will they think of next?!
        \_ Great, only socks proxy.  Woo.  That's sad.  -John
2005/7/13-15 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:38608 Activity:nil
7/14    what is some OCR software for OSX that doesn't suck? - danh
        \_ I hear the super-expensive Acrobat is good, but if you find
           a cheaper quality alternative, please let me know. -brett
        \_ I've used Photoshop + Acrobat to OCR magazine articles and
           papers and found that it works pretty well. If you want to
           save some money buy a copy of Acrobat v6. --ranga
2005/7/7 [Computer/SW/Apps, Recreation/Humor] UID:38449 Activity:nil
7/6     http://www.geekcruises.com
        \_ I thought this was a humor link until I clicked further and saw
           a plethora of PDFs that contain real information, or information
           too detailed to not have been a joke.
           \_ Wow.  I've only known about Linux Lunacy.  Didn't know there
              so many others.  The Photoshop Fling and Roaming Reflection
              seems like a good option for a photographer.
2005/6/27 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Perl] UID:38320 Activity:nil
6/27    PDF -> Excel question.  In a PDF file there are rows and columns
        of numbers (a spreadsheet).  Is there an easy to to copy and paste
        that into excel and preserve the format?  I tried it many times
        and spent a lot of time dicking around with the "paste formatter"
        manually putting in column delimiters.  And it still didn't come
        out ok because the columns couldn't line up.   Is there a third
        party software that can do this?  or some other way like export
        the highlighted PDF segment into some other format/document and
        then move it back into excel?   This is not for a small table.
        It's huge and I probably need to do this for several PDF files.
        Manual input is out of the question.  Thanks.
        \_ perl, Perl-PDF and Spreadsheet::WriteExcel  -tom
2005/6/13-14 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:38096 Activity:nil
6/13    Someone e-mailed me an Excel Spreadsheet. I can't see rows 1-7
        unless I choose "Full Screen". There is no scroll bar and Page
        Up/Down don't work. Is there a way to pull the spreadsheet down
        lower on my screen by dragging it? It seems I can make it bigger
        or smaller, but not move it around. I want to be able to view
        the top of the sheet w/o being in Full Screen mode. --dim
        \_ just go into a cell and use up arrow key tillu get to the top
           \_ This doesn't work. The cursor heads up to the top of the
              worksheet, but I can't see it (it disappears off-screen). I
              need the sheet to scroll up with the cursor.
        \_ hmm... did you try unfreezing panes? maybe someone froze
           them offscreen. also try scroll lock... maybe that will do
           what you want. can you put the sheet in /csua/tmp so i can
           take a look? i'm curious.
           \_ They are not frozen. Scroll lock does nothing. It is as if the
              sheet is too large for the pane that Excel chooses. I can't
              let you see the data, unfortunately.
              \_ View->Full Screen
                 \_ I mentioned that this works, but the idea is that I
                    want to view the top of the sheet in "normal" mode w/o
                    choosing "Full Screen".
                    \_ Window->Arrange...Tiled (or whatever).  -tom
                       \_ Voila! This worked. Thanks!
2005/5/6-9 [Computer/HW/Scanner, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:37564 Activity:nil
5/6     I have a 45-page typed manuscript that needs to be turned into
        a digital text document. Any recommendations for an OCR service
        that would do that with high reliability and low cost?
        \_ If you have a scanner, photoshop and acrobat (full version)
           you can do it yourself. Just scan each page in at 300dpi or
           higher and then use acrobat to OCR it into a pdf. I did this
           for lots of old papers that I lost the soft copies of and
           it worked great.
           \_ How many errors per page did acrobat OCR make?
              \_ My originals weren't particularly good, but acrobat
                 didn't make many mistakes on main text, maybe 2 or
                 3 per page not counting missing spaces. It had a
                 harder time w/ figures, but overall it wasn't too
                 bad.
2005/4/30-5/3 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:37436 Activity:low
4/30    What's the best PDF to WORD converter out there? I'd like to be able
        to highlight and scribble on it, and I don't want to go with Acrobat
        7.0 solution as it's expensive and slow. Thanks.
        \_ You don't convert from PDF.  PDF is an output format.
           \_ Acrobat is a PDF file *editor*.
              \_ Well, yes, but PDF docs are for layout.  Acrobat is for
                 touching up at best, and for adding annotations.  You wouldn't
                 want to create a document from scratch in Acrobat.
        \_ At least for some PDFs Acrobat Reader 7 lets you select the
           text, copy it and paste it into a word doc. You have to
           reformat the text, but it mostly works.
           \_ For "protected" PDFs, look at http://www.elcomsoft.com -John
2005/4/20-21 [Computer/SW/Virus, Computer/SW/OS, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:37277 Activity:high
4/19    Is it just me or did ZoneAlarm go from a decent home-firewall to a
        piece of crap? I have a version from over a year ago that works
        flawlessly. Twice now, I've tried to upgrade to the most recent
        version, and both times it's screwed up my setup so bad I had to
        downgrade back to the good one (the first time I couldn't connect to
        my work VPN, the second time it would not allow traffic between my
        two home computers to go through and any time I tried to copy files
        between them i would be disconnected from the internet).
        \_ No, it's ZoneAlarm. I've given up on it also and moved to
           Tiny Personal Firewall. It's just got so much unnecessary bloat
           that it's just plain stupid to run it. Stuff that also used to
           be decent but are really problematic include Symantec NAV,
           starting in 2004 it's really bloated up, the Symantec Firewall
           Suite, Adobe Acrobat 6.0+, the recent Quicktime versions, and
           Yahoo Messenger (it now takes up 25% of your screen with its
           unnecessary skins and stupid whizbang features you'll never use).
           This is why Free Software makes more and more sense, because
           commercial software needs to "improve" with time so they can
           continue making money. However, there is only so much you can
           do with simple software (such as a firewall) before feature
           creep totally destroys it.
           \_ I've worked at Zone Labs for over 4 years and sadly
              what you say is true.  I'm constantly fighting with upper
              management over new features vs code cleanup, and unfortunately,
              new features almost always win.  In our upcoming June
              release we are adding both a total re-rewrite of all the
              memory management that drastically improves performance
              of ZAP and P2P, but at the same adding "OS firewall" which
              hooks just about everything in the SDT and has the potential
              to prevent most rootkits, spyware, etc from being installed
              but unfortunately the code won't have enough time to stabalize,
              and will most likely cause thousands of new lockups, BSODs,
              etc...  Unfortunately, our sales are doubling every year so its
              very hard to argue with upper management.   It's very sad.
              --sky
           \_ I found I had accidentally left Acrobat 5.0 on my computer
              however many years ago. I made it the default and suddenly
              looking at pdfs just got much faster. I"m now wondering if I
              can get away with older bloat-free version of some other things.
              The hacked freeware version of Realplayer is pretty lightweight,
              too.
              \_ As a side note, Acrobat 7 seems a lot snappier than v. 6.
                 \_ If you look carefully, the subtitle to Acrobat 7 is "the
                    apology".  ctrl-mousewheel works as well.  And you can find
                    in page without the idiotic and bloated find sidebar.
              \_ I recall stumbling on a site with pointers to old versions
                 of software a while ago--a lot of companies seem to keep
                 these on their ftp servers, but don't link to them from
                 their download pages.  I'm sure there are several sites
                 specializing in this sort of thing.  -John
                 \_ http://oldversion.com
        \_ I use the current version of Zone Alarm with no problems. -ausman
           Zone alarm source:
           if ($user == "ausman") {
              not_suck(..)
               }
               else
               suck(..)
               }
        \_ I blame paolo. -geordan
           \_ I blame geordan. -God
2005/4/19-21 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:37266 Activity:kinda low
4/19    Is there anyway to open up a jpeg in Powerpoint, modify it with
        the built-in drawing tools, and then save it as a jpeg again (with
        modifications)? I'm wondering because I need a program on OS X to
        do simple drawing with (using tools similar to what powerpoint
        offers: lines, boxes, etc.). I have photoshop, but it doesn't
        have drawing tools. If powerpoint doesn't allow this, does anyone
        have recommendations for a free/cheap drawing program for OS X?
        Thanks.
        \_ i think most recent macs come with omnigraffle.  would that be
           sufficient?
                \_ I do have omnigraffle, but I can't even open jpegs.
                   does your omnigraffle open jpegs? -op
                   \_ File->Place Image...
                      Works w/ jpegs and pngs in OmniGraffle 3.2.1
                      (at least w/ the licensed version)
        \_ jpeg is lossy. Don't save a drawing as a jpeg.
           save the drawing as PNG. it will look a while lot better.
                \_ well the images are already in jpeg, so I'd prefer
                   to keep them that way. -op
                   \_ IIRC, each time you save em, they get more lossy.
                      who/what program created them in the first place?
        \_ Photoshop doesn't have drawing tools?  Eh?  Exactly what are
           are you trying to do?
                \_ photoshop is a paint program, so it doesn't have drawing
                  tools like a line tool, circle tool, etc. -op
                \_ I just want to add several lines and circles to an image
                   to point out certain parts. Pretty simple stuff. Photoshop
                   makes simple stuff like that difficult to accomplish.
        \_ Why don't you just import the JPEG into your PP presentation
           and draw on top of it using the PP drawing tools?
2005/4/15-17 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/HW/CPU] UID:37199 Activity:nil
4/15    http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/04/14/mit.prank.reut/index.html
        The lead author is a (recent) cal alum.
2005/4/9-10 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:37127 Activity:nil
4/8     Just out of curiousity, has anyone tried eBooks (Adobe reader,
        Microsoft reader)? What is it like? eBooks are a lot cheaper
        than regular books and they don't take up any space and allow you
        to do quick searches. However, I'm wondering if they're
        transferable between computers. Any comment on this? -ok thx
        \_ They're transferable between computers if you remove the DRM.
           Remember Dmitry Skylarov?
2005/1/11 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:35660 Activity:nil
1/10    I used the font "ITC Kabel Medium" to make a busines card, but
        I can't find the font on my disk anymore. Any idea what software
        this font might have been bundled with? Thanks!
        \_ Nevermind, Adobe says Pagemaker 7. Which I bought and
           returned because Quark is so much better. Font missing! -op
2005/1/7-8 [Consumer/Camera, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:35585 Activity:low
1/7     I'm trying to digitally restore a very old color photo.  I need to
        * Retouch scratches
        * Increase color saturation
        * Adjust brightness and contrast and hue ('Levels' in photoshop)
        What is the best order of operations here?  I can see spending several
        hours on this image and want to get it right the first time.
        \_ Levels before color (adjusting the levels will mess with your
           color saturation).  I don't think it'd matter much when you fix
           the scratches. --jameslin
        \_ Increase color saturation before retouching scratches, otherwise any
           artifacts from retouching the scratches will be magnified.  The
           same applies to Level if you're expanding the level ranges,
           otherwise the opposite applies.
           \_ I was thinking that too, but it'll only protect somewhat against
              artifact magnification.  If your monitor and printer aren't
              calibrated, for example, printing the picture might show
              artifacts you didn't see on the monitor anyway.  For retouching
              scratches I usually make a Levels adjustment layer with an
              insane gamma first so I can see potential artifacts, and then
              retouch the scratches on a layer below. --jameslin
2004/12/1-3 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:35144 Activity:nil
12/1    I have Acrobat Reader 5.0.1 on NT and 5.0.5 on XP.  In the Preferences
        dialog, I can go through different categories freely except "Web Buy".
        When I try to go to "Web Buy" for the first time since I bring up
        the Preferences dialog, Acrobat Reader locks up for up to a minute
        before it works again.  After than, I can leave "Web Buy" and go to it
        again freely.  Has anyone else seen this problem?  If I close the
        Preferences dialog and bring it up again, the same problem happens
        again.  I've already de-selected "Enable Web Buy" but it didn't help.
        Thanks.
        \_ I have seen similar behavior when it tries to update itself but
           can't reach whatever Adobe cave it's trying to get to.  Consider
           sniffing traffic to see what it's sending.  -John
2004/11/15-16 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:34902 Activity:low
11/15   In excel, how do I make the first row a header row? ie, each page
        printed will contain the first row again. thanks.
        \_ File/ Page Setup/ Sheet/ "Rows to Repeat at top" and then
           select the row you want to repeat in the spreadsheet.
           \_ Thanks!
2004/10/28-29 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:34422 Activity:nil
10/28   I have a powerpoint file that contains many jpegs. Is there a way
        somehow to extract the jpegs alone and save them?
2004/9/15 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:33538 Activity:high
9/15    http://www.electoral-vote.com
        Has nice popups per state which shows currently numbers and the way
        each state voted in 2000, gives details on how the numbers are
        gathered, compiled, and generated.  Excel spreadsheet and xml is
        available free from the site.  Updated once per day in the morning.
        \_ woah! bush wins!  I guess we don't have to have an election now,
           since the compueter and the polls tell us who should be president.
           \_ you're a moron.
        \_ This is a great site.  It was posted on the motd a while ago and
           I've been following it for a few weeks.  Every time a state poll is
           conducted the thing jumps around.
2004/8/31-9/1 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:33264 Activity:nil
8/31    How can I set the Page Setting to "Landscape" for all the
        worksheets of an excel file?
2004/8/19-20 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:33016 Activity:nil
8/20    Where can I get Photoshop filters that simulate halo, glare, ghosting,
        and others? I'm looking for FREE filters, but if you have
        recommendations on commercial ones please post as well, thanks.
        \_ warez are free.
2004/7/13-14 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Security] UID:32257 Activity:high
7/12    I have a pdf file that is somehow corrupted.  I want to recover
        its first page.  What tool can do that?  This is an image only pdf.
        \_ try opening it with illustrator.  I've seen that work.
        \_ Elcomsoft has a cool toy for breaking pdf security and saving
           the result as another file.  Maybe it can read it.  -John
2004/6/18 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:30910 Activity:nil
6/18    [reposted] What is the best software to use for making large posters?
        I have found that Illustrator goes crazy when you have too large a file
        with too many bitmaps imported, and obviously powerpoint kind of sucks.
        It's been suggested that i use latex, but that seems like a silly way
        to do graphical layout.  i  don't object to buying expensive software
        (i won't be paying for it) but I want to know what the *right*
        software is.
        \_ talk to someone at Kinko's. They'd know.
2004/6/18 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:30897 Activity:nil
6/18    can anyone suggest what software to use to make a 3 foot by 6 foot
        poster?  powerpoint is frustrating for stuff like this, illustrator
        seems to become somewhat broken when your file is this big with
        a lot of images, and latex seems like the wrong tool for the job.  i
        already have my graphics as seperate files, i just need to do layout
        and put some text on, but i'd like to be able to work in real units.
        tia.
2004/5/11-12 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:30172 Activity:high
5/11    I took pictures in my digital camera, but the date was set wrong.
        Now my computer has the wrong "last modification" and "date picture
        taken" values.  How can I adjust these values after the fact?
        \_ can't adobe photoshop or some other too modify this?
            \_ Thanks!  That solves only half the problem, though.
               Photoshop changes the "date picture taken" value, but not
               the "last modification" value.
                \_ uh, touch?
                   \_ in windows?
                      \_ http://unxutils.sourceforge.net
                         \_ Shit that's cool!  Why haven't I heard of it
                            before?
                            \_ There's also one that came with Borland C 4.5.
        \_ <whoops, wrong url. will find later>
2004/5/11-12 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:30164 Activity:kinda low
5/11    I hate Acrobat 6 -- the search function is overly cumbersome.  Any way
        to simply search "from this page"?
        \_ install Acrobat Reader 5
           \_ seconded. Reader gets worse every version.
           \_ Not terribly useful if the .pdf is created for ver. 6.
2004/4/6-7 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:13048 Activity:nil
4/6     What free software most closely matches the functionality of Adobe
        Illustrator?
        \_ I've never used it, but you might want to look into Sodipodi.
2004/3/17 [Computer/SW/Editors, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:12731 Activity:nil
3/17    I need to edit a PDF file, what's the best program to use?  It's
        strictly text changes, no graphics/format alterations, so I'd
        prefer something not too expensive but effective.  Cad-Kas's
        PDF editor didn't work too well, and a few others can't handle
        text when it's flipped 90 degrees.
        \_ Well, Acrobat (not Reader) is obviously the best choice. Fair
           warning, though, pdf isn't really made for editing.
        \_ agree with above.  Acrobat version 6 is a blowed beast, though,
           so you are being warned.  Moreover, not all PDF files are editable
           even if you have all the tools you needed.  No, I am not talking
           about digital signature what not.  I am talking about when PDF
           files are being made, there are number of things author can do
           which make PDF file editing difficult.  First, he/she can convert
           everything into bitmap, in that case, you are out of luck.
                 \_ Acrobat OCR is pretty darn good, actually.
           Secondly, if he/she embedded certain fonts inside the document,
           and if you don't have that font, I am not sure how would that turn
           out.                         -kngharv
2004/1/23-24 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:11922 Activity:nil
1/23    I've used RogerWilco for gaming and ICQ to send files directly to
        another user.  Now I've heard RW has some security issues and ICQ
        requires account setup etc. I'm interested in replacements for both in a
        corporate environment, preferably open source.  Any suggestions?
        \_ gaming in a corporate environment??
           \_ No, distance collaboration.  Right now we're using phone
              conversations (and sometimes Yahoo messenger voice chat) and a
              common ftp server to xfer files.  I'd like to xfer files directly
              from one site to the other without the interim point (these are
              scientific data sets and can be quite large).
              \_ ftp and a phone.
2004/1/15-16 [Computer/SW/Apps, Reference/Religion] UID:11796 Activity:nil
1/14    The Bible as IRC chatlog
        http://www.ircbible.destrukto-theater.nl
2003/12/23 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:29730 Activity:high
12/22   Urination question.  I walked into the men's room today and saw a
        guy using the urinal with his hands on his hips.  He was peeing
        "hands-free".  WTF?  I've never seen this.  Everybody is holding
        it.  Anybody else pee like this?  Thanks.
        \_ This RULES!!!!! we need more threads like this!!
           can someone dig up the ASCII graphic of pissing from the last
           time we had a thread like this?
           \_ What are you, fucking 10?  Urination is funny?  Moron.
        \_ What's so strange about it? I don't do it personally, but it's not
           like you really have to aim.
        \_ I only do it when I'm dead tired.  But never at a public restroom.
           \_ you have a urinal in your home?
              \_ I once looked at some new home in Mississippi, and they do
                 have urinals in the bathroom!  Never seen it before.  And the
                 agent acted like there's nothing special.
        \_ Btw was there some discussion a while back about the optimal way
           to avoid urinal splashback? I missed that. Please share your tips.
           \_ That was me.  Aim obliquely at a sidewall instead of straight
              at the center wall.  But it doesn't work if the center wall is
              too wide such that the side walls are too far away.  I didn't
              save my ASCII graphics.
        \_ There are several things wrong with it.  First, it's just looks
           unnatural.  I noticed it because it looks so strange.  Second,
           the fly has metal teeth.  If you don't hold your penis it rests
           on the fly teeth and can be uncomfortable.  Third, don't you need
           \_ Maybe he's larger than you, and this is not a problem.
           or want to control the aim?  Sometimes there's pubic hair or other
           junk in the urinal and I try to flush it down with my urine.
           \_ Nice public service.
        \_ Don't forget the "Russian Drunk": Leaning into the wall, one arm
           above urinal for support, one arm hanging, typically while mumbling
           or singing into said urinal with head down.
           \_ Eel.  Who'd want to touch a urinal?
2003/12/14-15 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:11457 Activity:nil
12/14   Is there a way in Excel to do

            y=0
            for n=1:100
              y=y+x^n
            end

        where x is the value in a particular box, say E2.  Obviously, I can do
        this manually for 100 boxes and then sum them, but I'm looking for a
        more elegant way.
        \_ I don't know how to do it, but i'm pretty sure the answer is
           yes, there is a way.  Excel will let you define macros using
           visual basic.  look under the "tools" pulldown menu.
        \_ A1 = 1, A2=A1+1, copy A2 to A3-A100
           B1 = X^A1, B2 = B1+X^A2, copy B2 to B3-B100
           B100 is your final answer  -nivra
        \_ Nothing is impossible with Excel:
           http://www.geocities.jp/nchikada/pac
2003/12/5-6 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:11326 Activity:nil
12/5    Photoshop question:  I'm using Photoshop 7.0 on WinXP.  I have swapping
        turned off, but Photoshop insists I have lots of swap, even though I
        have 768M RAM. Is there a way to tell Photoshop to not care about swap?
        \_ Does Photoshop still have it's own cache/swap setting? You set this
           to off or zero? What about the OS swap file? It is probably Windows
           that is swapping to disk, not Photoshop doing it on it's own.
           \_ No it does not, unless it's hidden in some file/registry key.
              Photoshop requires there to be a swap file, but then does not use
              it.  When there is a swap, windows uses it for other things when
              Photoshop is closed, even though there is gobs of memory free.
              When I have swap off, windows runs faster and doesn't run out of
              memory.
        \_ I'm not sure PS' caching works in the normal sense. I allow PS to
           use two of my partitions for swap, and with 512MB RAM, it rarely
           swaps. Only when I have, say, 10+ 12MB tiffs open at once does my
           HD start churning.
           \_ When I turn on cache for it, it doesn't swap, but turning on
              cache makes windows swap even when it doesn't need to.
              \_ I think it's just inefficiencies in PS. PS is a memory hog.
                 And I've found it has a problem unloading images from memory.
                 So it gobbles up more and more memory if you load more and
                 more files, even if you have saved and closed other images.
                 \_ I'm not doing anything crazy.  WHen I give it cache it
                    doesn't use it, so I'm looking for a way to run w/o cache
                    to improve general system performance.
        \_ Photoshop is bloatware.  It amazes me that people often talk about
           MS office being bloated.  But nobody talks about Photoshop or
           Acroread being bloated.  Anti-microsoft people can be quite
           selective in their criticism.
                \_ Nearly all major commerical software is obscenely bloated.
                   Microsoft is way more than most. Adobe is somewhere in
                   the top ten, but the distance between #1 and #2 is huge.
                   \_ Must add more features, so we can have new version, so
                      we can sell upgrades!
2003/12/1-2 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:29682 Activity:kinda low
12/1    Finally you'll be able to convert and read MS Word documents
        http://news.com.com/2100-1012-5111644.html?tag=nefd_lede
        \_ I'm still trying to convert MS Word users...
        \_ Huh.  That's what OpenOffice is for last I checked.
           \_  Huh.  OpenOffice is a broken piece of shit, last time I checked.
           \_ Huh.  OpenOffice was a broken piece of shit, last time i checked.
              delete it again, and i nuke the thread.
              \_ Whatever.  I didn't delete it.  I use version 1.1 all the time
                 and rarely have problems.  It's also quite useful for opening
                 Word docs that crash Word.
        \_ Does it hurt M$?  If so, good.
        \_ Hmm.  The article says the schemas will be available to "customers
           and partners"  That's not very promising.
2003/10/24 [Computer/SW/Apps, Science/Physics, Computer/Theory] UID:10762 Activity:high
10/24   IF AIM WAS AROUND WHEN QUANTUM THEORY STARTED
        http://www.makeoutclub.com/03/page_messageboard.php?topic_id=323705
        hahahahahahahahahahah!  --maxmcc
        \_ Dumbass.
                \_ =(((((((((((((((
                \_ ??????
                   PROFIT!
2003/10/13-14 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:10614 Activity:kinda low
10/13   WTF?!
        link:csua.org/u/4pa
        \_ Are you meaning to mock my representative on earth? --god
        \_ JESUS CHRIST!
        \_ that's a nimbus.
        \_ http://csua.org/u/4pc
           \_ It's not photoshopped.  There's a presidential seal in the press
              room, and for some reason people get a hard-on from taking a
              picture of the Pres. in front of it like it's a halo.  Never seen
              this with any previous president.
2003/9/27-29 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:10348 Activity:nil
9/26    Now that Yahoo is clamping down on use of their IM protocol by outside
        clients, I'm wondering if there is an effort to create an interoperable
        open-source instant messenger protocol/service?
        \_ You mean like IRC, ICB, or Jabber?
           \_ Yup, thanks. :)
        \_ URL?  Does this mean Trillian will not work any more?
           \_ http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,39020369,39116464,00.htm
              All third party apps are hozed for the time being.
           \_ Trillian saw this coming and did nothing proactively.. so yes
              their client was screwed for a couple days. As of last night
              (saturday night) they already had a beta patch out for at least
              Trillian Pro 2.0.. which seems to work fine.
              \_ How could they proactively adapt their client to a protocol
                 that wasn't known until they got cut off?
         \_ why does everyone just use aim?
            \_ do you mean "why DOESN'T" ...
              \_ Whoops.  Yeah I do.
            \_ I don't use anything.  IM'ing is just another way of losing
               time to relax.  Let them send email and wait for a response.
        \_ am I the only one who thinks that Trillian UI sucks and people who
                use a zillion IM apps are silly?
                 \_ the default trillian skin sucks, but there are one
                    or two that are good.  Mostly I just hate using clients
                    that make me look at ads.
                    \_ which ones would you recommend? (considering checking
                        it out)
2003/8/9-10 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:29289 Activity:nil
8/8     savvy Photoshop people:  is this faked?
        http://www.smuthosters.com/www/latinass/col/catch/mg/a.htm
        \_ Completely. Don't even have to be an expert to tell (different
           skin tones from face to body, shifting @ the neck). Who's that
           supposed to be, anyway?
           \_ not necessarily- sometimes the girl's foundation is lighter
              than her tan in real life.  Not very professional, but it
              happens!
        \_ It is real. the color of her face matches her breasts.
2003/7/16-17 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:29063 Activity:nil
7/16    Does WindowsXP have a Print-to-PDF functionality built-in?
        \_ haha is this a serious question - that's like asking
            do we have to pay for each piece of commercial software?
           \_ exactly. if it were built-in, then adobe wouldn't be charging
              $150 for acrobat 6.0.
                \_ macs have it built in and adobe still sells acrobat for
                   os x.  Acrobat does a lot more than just convert to PDF.
        \_ Your best bet is probably print to ps and then use ps2pdf. But
           Adobe really is the gold standard ... they make "better" pdf
           than anyone else (ps2pdf, pdflatex, etc.) ... smaller, cleaner.
2003/7/5 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:28932 Activity:nil
7/5     Excel 2000 question: is there a way to shrink a worksheet to
        print on only 1 page - but by adjusting only 1 dimension - i.e. i
        want the width shrunk down but i don't want the height shrunk?
        thanks.
2003/7/4-5 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:28921 Activity:nil
7/3     I need to convert powerpoint files to web-presentable form.  No, the
        built-in functionality doesn't work because my cms can't handle
        anything with FRAME in it.  Any other easy way (yes, i could output
        everything to PNG files and write whole bunch HTML myself) ?
        Thanks
        \_ ok, I installed 50+mb Open Dufus just for this purpose.  Stupid,
           but it works.
2003/6/6-7 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:28656 Activity:nil
6/6     Is there any sort of utility that takes an acrobat file that is
        mostly text and then extracts the text and outputs it as a word
        document?
        \_ Omnipage Pro
           \_ And by that, I mean you don't have to print it and scan it.  It
              can open .pdf files.  Sadly, it doesn't appear to extract the text
              (I've had documents that I could copy from in Acrobat, and while
              the text was there and correct, the formatting was lost.  Omnipage
              got the formatting right, but some of the text was wrong.  Go
              figure.)
        \_ pdf2ps | ps2html does a pretty good job, and then you can open in
           word, save as .doc
2003/5/13-14 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:28424 Activity:kinda low
5/13    Is there a way to make Matlab plot something similar to an Excel
        "XY-Scatter plot", where it takes the data points, connects them,
        and also smooths them?
        \_ spline
                \_ But I don't know the shape that I want to fit it to.
                   Specifically, I'm drawing a loop; I have about
                   20 points that make up the loop, but if I just plot
                   them and connect them, it'd be jagged. All I want
                   to do is smooth it all together.
                   \_ lowess using polar coordinates?
                        \_ That's in the Curve Fitting Toolbox, which
                           I don't have. Any other suggestions?  -op
2003/5/12-14 [Computer/SW/Editors/Emacs, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:28419 Activity:nil
5/12    Are there any "good" Windows capturing softwares out there that is
        capable of capturing every action of an application that I specify?
        Such as all of the typings in Word, Excel, Emacs, IM, Explorer,
        NetMeeting.  Best if it also capture sounds in addition to to the
        actions performed within the application.  I have searched at Google,
        but have only found softwares that are capable of capturing to images
        and an alpha that does what I want, but crashes too often.  Best if
        everything is captured in either AVI or MPG3 formats.
        \_ point a digital video camera at the screen.
        \_ Camtasia.  I gave useful information on the motd, and feel dirty.
2003/4/13 [Health, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:28102 Activity:nil
4/11    http://www.brandonvedas.com
        \_ And we should care about him because...?
           \_ Apparently some IRC chatters, taking a break from their busy
              masturbation schedule, watched this guy die from a drug
              overdose on his webcam.
2003/3/20 [Computer/SW/Apps, Politics] UID:27766 Activity:nil 56%like:27882
3/20    CNN close caption IRC channel, EFNet (try
        the server <DEAD>irc.he.net<DEAD> from Soda, sirc
        is a fun irc client), channel #CNN-LIVE
2003/3/19 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:27757 Activity:nil 73%like:27747
3/19    Is it bad for a pimp to need micro-management from his ho to get
        things done?  I just realized I'm in that situation.  Do good hos
        need to micro-management?
        \_ Yes.  No.
           \_ Oh shit.  Thanks.
        \_ I don't like micro-management, but I do like a pimp that
           engages me.  Some pimps are like totally hands-off and
           leave the underlings to fight one another for work and projects
           and stuff.  The pushy aggressive people benefits in such cases.
           \_ I like my previous two pimps.  They seemed to be able to sense
              when I want them to go away (like when I'm surfing the web or
              when I'm in the middle of the problem and have nothing to report)
              and when I'm happy to talk to them.  My current pimp seems to
              always want to check out what I'm doing at the wrong time.
        \_ These clowns have me doing time sheets per project.  Yes it's bad.
         \_ That isn't an evil in and of itself.  If you are working on
            multiple projects it can be very helpful for them to have some
            idea what you are spending your time on so they have a better
            idea about scheduling.
            \_ except in my case these morons couldn't schedule themselves out
               of a wet paper bag.  theyre just pretending to do what they
               think pimps are supposed to be doing.  unlike the person
               above who is left alone when in the middle of something i'll
               get interrupted every 15-20 minutes of a 6 hour task so they
               can get me "to communicate a status update report on my
               progress".  im not kidding with the quote either.
                \_ I'm just saying time sheets are not the evil bit.
                   \_ In general, probably not, but here it's just a tool for
                      furthering more evil and oppression.
               \_ That's the problem with having too many mid-level pimps /
                  project pimps.  When they have nothing better to do,
                  they need to show that they are doing something, so they
                  invent various processes to collect meaningless and useless
                  data.  Based on those meaningless and useless data, they
                  create nice excel spreadsheets and powerpoint presentations
                  to show various improvements effected by some of their other
                  not very useful processes.  The people below know what kind
                  of data they want, so they just enter the data according to
                  what they know these pimps want to see.
        \_ So you're doing the pimp's job? It does insure job security.
           Hey if you did my job, I wouldn't fire you either.
2003/1/20-21 [Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:27161 Activity:high
1/20    I have a pdf file that contains type 3 font.  Since it is bitmapped
        I can understand why it does not scale nicely, but why does it look
        jagged even at 100% on acrobat reader while the print out looks fine?
        How can I convert it to type 1 font?  The program dvistripp.exe
        that google points me to no longer seems to exist.  Ok tnx.
        \_ does this file have anything to do with ps2pdf? -chialea
           \_ Yes typically I have the ps file and convert it to pdf using
              ps2pdf or distiller.  I don't have access to the original tex
              or dvi files, however.  --op
              ps2pdf or distiller.  It seems to be the problem of the ps
              file, since many other ps files converts just fine.  I don't
              have access to the original tex or dvi files, btw.  --op
              \_ ps2psd does not do the right thing.
2003/1/7 [Computer/SW/Apps, Health/Men] UID:27008 Activity:moderate
1/6     I got a Gillete mach3 turbo shaver in the mail.  Why is Gillete
        giving it away for free?  Are they stupid?
        \_ Anyone tried using a straight razor? They do it in the movies
           and it looks so easy.
           \_ It looks so easy when they jump 10 feet up too.
        \_ They want you to love their product and spend the rest of your
           life buying replacement blades.
        \_ Did you try it? Is it any better than Gillete Sensor?
           \_ The regular Sensor razor is little better than a disposable
              Bic.  With Excel you get little rubber flaps that reduce
              cuts.
           \_ Sensor Excel is a smoother shave than the mach3, but it is
                more likely to cut you. it's not good for heads or legs or
                sensitive faces. the mach3 turbo doesnt seem to be any
                different than the mach3, but it is 50% more expensive. i got
                gyp'd...
                \_ I second everything you said, except I never tried it
                   on my head or legs.  - op
                \_ no way.  Mach3 is a much closer shave for me than the
                   Sensor Excel, and I have some serious facial hair. -aspo
                   \_ Oh I forgot.  The one thing I don't like about the
                      Mach3 vs. the Sensor Excel is that if I don't shave
                      for a few days the Mach3 hurts more when I shave (but
                      still is less likely to cut up my face.)  The Mach3
                      Turbo doesn't seems to be a bit better in this respect.
                        \_ does or doesnt?
                \_ yeah, I learned the hard way too that Sensor Excel is bad
                   for my sensitive face ..
                   \_ I have a suspicion that Gillette purposely lowered
                      the quality for sensor excel blades so people would
                      move to mach3.  It's a damn blade, how many years
                      do they need to perfect it?
                      \_ Mach3 sucked ass last time i used it.  i have no
                         troubles with the excel...
        \_ I think they sent me mach3 when I turned 18.  Yeah, it's basically
           to get you to buy their blades, but a lot of people, including
           myself like mach3.  Oh, and I've known quite a few girls that
           liked it for their legs.
           \_ Damn!  No wonder my ex-girlfriend refuses to return me my
              mach3, relegating me to my crappy old sensor excel.
              \_ brilliant! you've figured out how to get STD's from your
                 ex without sex.
        \_ This is getting very boring.  Can someone start a thread discussing
           the relative merits of different brands of female hygienic products?
           \_ Finally a man's-man instead of csua-man discussion on them motd
2003/1/5-6 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:26999 Activity:high
1/5     I want to split a PDF file by half, page by page, so that I can view
        one column per page instead of two.  It is entirely made up of tiff
        images, but I'd rather not convert it to tiff, slice tiff,and
        convert back, nor do I know how to do the first two.  Please help.
        Ok, tnx.
        \_ if you didnt make page breaks to start with you can add them
           in using Acrobat... or if you want to actually split it up,
           you can do that... with Acrobat.
        \_ suck it up and convert it to tiff.  If it's entirely made up of
           images in the first place, it's not as if it would be easy to
           have automated tools to do what you want.
           \_ Huh?  pdf has internal marks so it knows where page breaks are.
              wtf are you talking about?
2002/12/5 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:26711 Activity:nil
12/4    M$ Excel qn: I have a column of 10000 numbers.  Is there any easy way
        to create another column of 1000 numbers where each number is the sum
        (or average) of the corresponding 10 numbers in the first column?  Thx.
        \_ should be do-able with the Fill-Down menuu item.
        \_ what exactly do you mean by corresponding 10 numbers?
        \_ he means you have column A which has "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10", and
           he wants column B to have just one number (55) which is the sum of
           the 10 in column A.  There is probably an automated way to do that,
           but I can't think of it off the top of my head.  One thing you can
           do is to use an IF statement in column B; it should be easy to
           have the entry in column B be blank except for each 10th row.
           Having the column B rows contiguous probably takes some scripting.
            -tom
           \_ can't you have column B have the SUM(A1:A10) then just fill
             down?  You'll have more info than you need, but you can work
             with that.
             \_ combining with tom's idea:
                (IF((some rule to check if this is the 10th), SUM(A1:A10), "")
                then fill down
           \_ Yes, I can use the Subtotals function if I can let it be blank
              except for each 10th row, but I need the numbers to be next to
              one another.
              \_ then I think you probably have to write a little macro to
                 put a formula in each cell.  There might be a different way
                 but I've never figured out how to get "fill down" to be
                 more intelligent about how to increment the cell references.
                  -tom
        \_ "On the Accuracy of Statistical Procedures in Microsoft EXCEL
            97" B. D. McCullough, and Berry Wilson    Abstract:  The
            reliability of statistical procedures in Excel are assessed in
            three areas: estimation (both linear and nonlinear); random number
            generation; and statistical distributions (e.g., for calculating
            p-values). Excel's performance in all three areas is found to be
            inadequate. Persons desiring to conduct statistical analyses of
            data are advised not to use Excel.
            (McCullough, BD, Computational Statistics and Data Analysis v31
            (1999) 27-37.) [ reformatted - formatd ]
            \_ gee that matters when you're trying to add.
            \_ It's not that I like using Excel.  I'm just required to use it
               for this particular task.  Otherwise I'd just write a C program
               from scratch to calculate the stats and it'll still be much
               faster than looking through the Excel Help.
2002/10/23-24 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:26302 Activity:moderate
10/23   Does anyone know the keyboard shortcut in MS Excel for going
        between two or more different sheets that are currently open?
        \_ Ctrl+PgUp/Ctrl+PgDn to switch between sheets within an Excel
           document.
        \_ Ctrl-tab if you have two instances of a worksheet open; use the
           Ctrl-pgup/pgdn to go between worksheets in a workbook.
                \_ sorry, just realized I misphrased my question. how do I
                   go between two different excel FILES that are open?
                   (instead of going to the Window menu and choosing
                   between file1 and file2? thanks.
                   \_ Ctrl-tab will also go between two different Excel files
                      that are open.  Ctrl-Shift-tab will cycle it the other
                      way.  In Excel 2000, the different files also show up on
                      the Windows task-bar, which means Alt-tab will also let
                      you switch back and forth.  I'll leave Alt-Shift-tab
                      as an exercise for the reader.
2002/9/30-10/1 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:26060 Activity:very high
9/30    http://www-bcs.mit.edu/people/adelson/checkershadow_illusion.html
        (self-documenting link)
        \_ Amazing.  Even after measuring the shade of grey with Photoshop, I
           still find it hard to believe the two checks are of the same gray.
           \_ yeah I had to do that also, I cut and pasted them side by side.
        \_ Uhm... I simply blocked out the rest of the screen with some paper.
           I don't see how they're the same.
           \_ The "A" and the "B" letters are still deceiving your brain.
              \_ I blocked that out too.  Maybe I'm just blind.
                 \_ maybe this animated GIF will help.
          http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~jameslin/tmp/checkershadow-AB-anim.gif
2002/9/17 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:25914 Activity:very high
9/17    How fucked yp art your eyes getting from st4ring at screens wll day?
        \_ i hereby nominate this for the dullest fucking thread all week.
           \_ I can start posting some common sense anti-gun control urls.
              My favorites are the ones showing murder rate per capita has
              minimal correlation to strictness of gun control laws.
        \_ I turn the contrast all the way up and the brightness as low as
           I can read the text to reduce the emitted light level.
              \_ fine. do it.  i see you talking, but all i see at the top
                 of the motd is some BASH shit that makes this thread almost
                 look interesting.
                 \_ sorry, an actual work thing came up.  it happens.  you're
                    going to have to fend for yourself for a few hours.
           \_ Can't help it, anything more interesting gets censored.  It's
              the price of censorship.
        \_ Practice good vision habits. Move your head (try a <DEAD>naturalpoint.com<DEAD>
           device), rest your eyes every hour for a few minutes,
           and every few minutes for a few seconds, remember to
           blink, don't squint, sit comfortably.
           [motdformatd]
        \_ If your monitor is fucking up your eyes you need a new monitor.
           I've been staring at screens for 25 years since green screens that
           could literally burn an image you could still see with your eyes
           closed and my eyes are fine.
        \_ I turn the contrast all the way up and the brightness as
           low as I can read the text to reduce the emitted light
           level.
           \_ Me too! Is this common practice?
              \_ no. it is common practice to turn the intensity all the
                 way up, turn off the room lights, and program naked
                 with very dark sunglasses on.
           \_ that's total BS. If you are really concerned about your
              monitor, you need to calibrate it. Basically turn
              brightness down until you don't see anything on a black
              background, and turn contrast down until dark, medium,
              and bright white text appears reasonable. dark visible,
              bright not too vivid. Calibrating is especially
              important if you are viewing/editing digital images.
              Your eyes will thank you too. You do need a really good
              test pattern to do this (but plain old full-screen DOS
              prompt will do if you know how). check out the demo
              version from http://www.displaymate.com/demos.html
              Manufacturers by default cranks the contrast to 100% to
              impress customers in a showroom, this will surely
              shorten the life of the tube, and most importantly, your
              eye!!
              \_ Why is low contrast better on the eyes as compared
                 to high contrast?  I also like to turn contrast
                 high, so would like some evidence before changing
                 my behavior.
                 \_ The blurriness makes your eyes work harder so they get a
                    good workout instead of slacking all day.
                 \_ You are not setting a low contrast. You are
                    setting the correct contrast. Too high a level and
                    it's the same as looking at the sun, too low a
                    level and your eyes gets tired too quickly. the
                    correct level will allow you to comfortabely view
                    the monitor without much effort, the light output
                    level matches more or less with the ambient light,
                    and that's the key. Your 100% contrast might work
                    ok if your monitor is out in the sun, but at
                    night, it will kill your eyesight. The point is it
                    needs to be adjusted to match the ambient light
                    available so it doesn't put too much effort on
                    your eyes. If you are used to the 100% setting, it
                    may take you a few days to get use to the new
                    setting.
                    \_ I usually find more contrast feels more comfortable
                       for me.  I hate it when contrast is low
                       especially when there is also reflection from
                       the back.  I turn my contrast all the way up.
                       Also, I think high brightness is more like
                       looking at the sun, not high contrast.
              \_ Nah.  If you are really concerned about viewing/editing
                 digital images, you should use Adobe Gamma in Photoshop to
                 calibrate your monitor.  Besides contrast and brightness, you
                 also need to adjust the color temperature on the monitor as
                 well as the RGB color curves on your video card.  I use two
                 settings.  One is for coding and web surfing where I crank the
                 contrast all the way up and the brightness very low to reduce
                 the light.  (And I use black background and black wallpaper
                 too.)  The other is for digital imaging where I use the
                 settings that Adobe Gamma recommends in order to get correct
                 colors.
2002/9/9 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/HW] UID:25812 Activity:moderate
9/8     What are some professional (or at least very high-quality) video
        editing programs, for a PC? I've heard lots about Adobe
        Premiere...is that powerful? thanks.
        \_ professional?  Avid.  Otherwise, a lot of people prefer Vegas
           Video over Premiere.
        \_ I got a Pyro firewire/Premiere bundle a few months back. If it
           wasn't for the included CDROM video tutorial, I don't think
           I would've really figured out Premiere. It's not very intuitive
           if you haven't video editin before and the manual is suck.
2002/7/12-13 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:25344 Activity:very high
7/12    Is there a acrobat read that will fit in a floppy disk?  I have a
        PDF file that I want printed.  I'd like to get acrobat with me so
        that I can print it on any computer.  But acroread is like 2.8 megs.
        Is there a "lite" version or a self-extracting pdf file kind of a
        deal?  Thanks.
        \_ Can you print your .pdf to a PostScript file and then carry the .ps
           around?  -- yuen
                \_ ps files are much larger than their corresponding
                   pdf files.
        \_ print to level3 postscript and then zip that file as
           self-extracting if you desire.
        \_ there doesn't seem to be a way to print a PS file to a network
           printer in windows.  I can do "copy foo.ps lpt1:" but I haven't
           been able to get something to print over a network.
           \_ I did it by "copy foo.ps \\myserver\myprint".  You can do
              "net view myserver" to see what share name it uses for printing.
              --- yuen
              "net view myserver" to see what share name it uses for the
              print queue.  --- yuen
              \_ oh I didn't about this.  Thanks man!
        \_ <DEAD>www.printme.com<DEAD>  You don't even need a PC at the destination
           to print.
2002/4/14 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:24438 Activity:high
4/13    Can somebody recommend a software title for managing address lists
        for printing out onto address labels?  I know MS word has some
        label printing functionality, but I'm wondering if there are
        other ones that has better address management and label printing
        integration.  Thanks.
        \_ avery
        \_ FileMaker
        \_ Woot!  In 1992 I was an in-house tester for Labels Unlimited!  You
           should go find the most recent version (if it still exists) so my
           time wasn't completely wasted.  Thank you for supporting slave
           labor summer interns during a bad economy (the last one).
2002/2/14-15 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:23868 Activity:very high
2/14      It was actually really funny this morning in one of my lectures
        the prof totally bagged on Ms_word as being the product from the
        devil in how it deals with images. if you have ever used it you
        know exactly what I mean
          He then proceeded to say USE TEX- for a 50yr old guy saying that
        I was fairly impressed- he them proceeded to say that unlike
        MS-word and others TEX will still be exactly the same 50yrs from
        now, and that it has been the same for the last 20yrs it was the
        standard back then is the standard now and will be the standard
        forever.  - kinney
        \- dont you think it is more likely for a 50yrs old to be using TeX
           than a 20yrs old. Well, some TeX stuff does change like NFSS. --psb
           ["ok tnx" omitted due to smace considerations]
        \_ Doesn't this belong on /csua/tmp/motd.kinney?
           \_ well, it's actually short and concise this time...
           \_ dunno.  is TeX the standard anymoe when more and more things
              are going to pdf?
              \_ You can't author in pdf. You author in TeX and rip to dvi
                 then ps then pdf. It looks great. Many academic papers/
                 dissertations are done this way.
                 \_ Uhm. See also: pdftex/pdflatex. No PS involved, and the DVI
                    is PDF-tailored internally.
                 \_ Why can't you author in PDF with Acrobat?
                    \_ Acrobat isn't an authoring application. It's for
                       putting together docs of all different kinds into
                       a single format. Adobe would have you author in
                       FrameMaker or PageMaker, Microsoft in Word, etc.,
                       but Acrobat isn't the app that does the authoring.
                        \_ not to mention, try laying out an equation in
                           anything but the TeX family -- no way!
                           \_ How about the Equation Editor in M$ Office?  POS?
                              \_ It's crap.  Not even worth mentioning.
                                 TeX can be gnarly, but its equations writing
                                 capabilities are delectable.
        \_ when I was in Cal, it seemed most profs went from powerpoint  to
           pdf and only added ps as an afterthought.  These profs were from the
           28 -> 40 age range
        \_ TeX!  TeX!  TeX is the STANDARD!  -- not the ED guy
2002/2/3-4 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:23758 Activity:high
2/2     Can somebody recommend software that will create forms to be printed
        out on paper (not web forms)?  Thanks.
        \_ Adobe PageMaker.
            \_ A.K.A. "RageMaker"
        \_ QuarkXPress is awesome.
        \_ Microtheft Word can do this, at least for basic forms you can make
           tables and shade them if you wish, change borders, etc.
        \_ Adobe Acrobat can create PDF files which can be filled out by
           anyone with Acrobat Reader and then printed out.  -tom
           \_ yeah i am lazy, i want to use acrobat
2001/12/20 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:23314 Activity:high
12/19   A few days ago, someone posted that I should irc over to ugrad
        and join /hozerchat to get in touch with fellow MacOS X coders
        and users. Can anyone recommend a decent irc client on soda
        which I can use for this purpose. tia.
        \_ mirc, etc. and it was #hoserchat - with an "s"
        \_ irc
        \_ or you can ssh to ugrad.csua (screwdriver) and use bitchx
           \_ are the username/passwords on screwdriver the same as
              on soda?
2001/11/7 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:22965 Activity:high
11/7    What's the difference between Adobe Photoshop and Adobe PhotoDeluxe?
        Which one is better for editing photographs?  Thanks.
        \_ PhotoDeluxe is the neutered, given-away-free-with-stuff version of
           Photoshop.  If all you want to do is a bit of cropping, you'll be
           fine with it.  If you want full layers, layer effects, filters,
           etc, etc, you want Photoshop.  --dbushong
        \_ several hundred dollars
        \_ I am Jude Law.  I am nobody's bitch!
           \_ That line rather summed up the quality of the movie.
        \_ Photoshop is what professional photographers use; PhotoDeluxe is all
           about providing extreme novices with "guided activities" (so, it's
           what grandmothers who want to put the grandkids on their homemade
           Christmas cards use).  You may want to check out Photoshop Elements;
           it's a new ~$100 version that's got less functionality than the full
           ~$600 PS, but has also had substantial engineering work done (plus
           some new features added) to make it more focused toward the casual/
           consumer photographer/photo editor.  -- kahogan
           \_ Photoshop Elements is excellent for digital photos, whether
              you want prints or Web images as your final product.  -tom
2001/8/10-11 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:22073 Activity:moderate
8/10    I have a ps file with a small bug (when I jump to page 1 from a later
        page, gs barfs). I used ps2ps and it fixed the problem. But ps2ps
        made all the text into ugly graphics. How do I make it keep text as
        text? (running ghostscript 5.50 under linux).
        \_ hand-edit the old file? diff the old and new file to try to find
           what was the fix?
        \_ how about converting it to pdf?  speaking of which, is ps2pdf any
           good yet?  last I checked, a lot of documents kept getting vector
           glyphs replaced with bitmaps.  Acrobat Distiller, on the other hand,
           did a fine job with the same files...
2001/7/24 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:21922 Activity:kinda low
7/23    http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200107/20010723dcma.html
       \_ they deleted it. It's archived at www.csua/~mikeh/dmca.html
        \_ are you sure?  i went to the adobe url and hit
           super reload several times, it's still there.  don't be too
           paranoid
           \_ That's not the same file -- read both.
              \_ what mikeh means to say is that the one he has archived
                 was the page as of this morning, which has since been taken
                 down and replaced with the new one that's still posted.
                 Reading both is recommended, for greatest dramatic effect.
                 -alexf
                 \_ for best effects, open 2 netscape windows, and read them
                    side by side using the power of vdiff. - paolo
        \_ How funny.  In the original version they even explicitly mention
           that the offense (for lack of a better word) took place in Russia,
           and that since they could not prosecute there, it was justifiable
           to arrest Skylarov here for committing a US crime overseas.  -John
2001/7/19 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Linux] UID:21857 Activity:high
7/19    here's more on the cryptographer who got arrested in vegas monday:
        http://zork.net/mailman/listinfo/free-sklyarov with a companion
        website: http://www.boycottadobe.com - the non-social new guy on soda.
        \_ PROTEST IN SAN JOSE ON MONDAY. Information at:
           http://zork.net/pipermail/free-sklyarov/2001-July/000183.html
           Transportation may be available from fremont and berkeley;
           contact alexf.
2001/4/28 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/Domains] UID:21129 Activity:nil
4/27    I'm trying to get some warez off IRC.  There are a lot of people
        advertising sites that require you to visit some other site and
        register and give them an email address.  Anybody know if they're
        spammers?
        \_ probably, but if you're getting something for nothing, what do you
           care?  just go register for a temporary hotmail account or something.
        \_ don't ever deal with that kind of crap. it's not worth the time
           or hassle. newsgroups and ftp pubs are the best. -1337 W@R3Z K1D
           \_ you need a good newsserver for newsgroups.  even then it will
              like panning for gold.  and pubs will be  slow and few and
                 far between.
2001/4/23-24 [Computer/SW/Apps, Finance/Investment] UID:21062 Activity:moderate
4/22    I need something to keep track of my stock purchases, sales,
        gains, loss, splits, dividends, etc.  Should I just use Excel?
        \_ Quicken would probably be better than Excel.
           \_ not to mention quicker
           \_ Not to mention you can then transfer your data to TurboTax.
           \_ not to mention excel is a general use tool not designed for
              this.
        \_ On a related note, anyone know of a service where you can
           track foreign currenies and various other non-US financial
           instruments? My Yahoo! lets you get quoted prices for most
           of the ones I'm interested in but it doesn't do anything more.
           There are no histories, graphs, news items, etc...
                \_ You want to go into arbitrage like the guy in 9 & 1/2 weeks?
                   BTW, the original story didn't end with her 'empowerment'.
                   That was the Hollywood PC feel-good-about-being-a-woman-all
                   -men-suck version.
                   \_ forget arbitrage. Do Options now.
        \_ agreed.  Quicken is better.  But I believe if you want to
           customize your own analysis of your portfolio, Excel may be
           more flexible.
        \_ ObLinux: has anyone used GnuCash? 1.5 series looking good?
           \_ BOOT TO THE HEAD!!!
                \_ And he RIDES BIKE!
        \_ For those of you using Quicken for stocks, do you use
           their transaction download (from broker) feature.  I
           tried it with E*trade and it was full of mistakes.
                \_ You should be using Excel.
        \_ Is there somewhere where I can get a Excel worksheet
           already customized for stock tracking purposes?
                \_ http://www.google.com
2001/4/9 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:20910 Activity:low
4/8     Is a study that surveyed only 20 people statiscally significant:
        http://www.nngroup.com/reports/pr
        I don't remember much statistics but I do remember something
        about needing 33 subjects at a minimum for this kind of thing.
        \_ You have not enough clue. Mine more clue.
        \_ Usability testing is a far different realm than statistical
           sampling.  Many usability tests have only 5 or 6 participants.
           Don't worry, the people in the Nielsen Norman group know far far
           more about usability testing & statistics than you could ever hope
           to - they've created many of the techniques and wrote the papers &
           books and designed the products to back them up.  (Much of the
           modern GUI is based on work Tog did at Apple to refine the original
           Xerox designs and millions of websites are based on Jakob Nielson's
           design strategies.)
                \_ Not the point of the question. I was trying to get at
                   why isn't statistical sampling typically used in usabliity
                   studies?  Just because usablility tests typically ask a small
                   number of people, it doesn't make it right or
                   statistically valid.  Sure cost is an issue but
                   that doesn't mean that you can just make conclusions
                   up after sampling a (usually) small number of people.
                   BTW, I know who Nielsen is. I used to sit across
                   the hall from him at one point. I asked the question because
                   it has always bugged me that he almost always
                   uses sample sizes smaller than seems right. After being
                   the subject once and seeing how my comments ended
                   up in the final report, I feel the whole process that
                   these experts have set up is questionable.
2001/3/12-13 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:20759 Activity:high
3/11    can somebody please repost the command to join csua irc?
        \_ The IRC server is currently broken; we'll post another
           announcement when it's working agian.
        \_ ~brg/bin/hoserchat
        \_ % must be this tall to enter
        \_ icb -s <DEAD>icb.cp.net<DEAD>
        \_ icb -s http://icb.soda.net
        irc $USER localhost
        once you're on, everyone's piling into channel "#csua", so just:
        /join #csua
           \_ don't forget:
                touch ~/.openident
        \_ we have wall, why do we want irc?
           \_ because paolo is a twink.
2001/2/6 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:20519 Activity:moderate
2/6     i had acrobat reader 3.x and it allowed me to search through an entire
        doc.  Not just the page being viewed.  I installed reader 4.x in a diff
        directory and IT does NOT have the functionality AND it seems that my
        version 3 has lost it as well!  What the fuck?  So now i've uninstalled
        them both, but i can't seem to find an old version of 3.  What should
        i do?  (other than use a real OS)
        \_ There used to be a searching and a non-searching version of AR.
           Make sure you grabbed the right one.
        \_ dont know what your computer's smoking, my acrobat 4 can search
           entire pdf's (100+ pages long) fine.
        \_ you are a gay whiner.
        \_ you have to click on the right button first
        \_ Think it depends on how the PDF is encoded. If they saved
           it out wrong there's nothing to index, thus nothing to search,
           thus the app. takes the feature out of the menu.
        \_ what kind of search are you doing?  just a regular Find?  A Search
           Query?
2001/1/15-16 [Consumer/Camera, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:20331 Activity:nil 58%like:20323
01/15   Can someone recommend a reference/introduction to photo negative
        retouching? (_not_ digital, ie !photoshop)
2000/11/1-2 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:19631 Activity:very high
11/1    MS Word (on NT/Win98) crashed while modifying a document.
        Now, I can only open that file in read only mode.  How
        do I get rid of the lock?  I can't delete the file because
        its says I have a sharing violation.  Would a reboot help?
        \_ Been in a similar situation.  I did a control-A (copy all) and
           pasted the entire document into another file.  I lost some
           special formatting but better that than lose the whole thing.
           Good luck.
           \_ why didn't you just copy the file?
           \_ Ya, this guy is dumb. A "Save as" would also have worked.
                \_ Nice of the two of you who *weren't there* to tell me to
                   try things that *didn't work* and then tell me I was dumb
                   for moving on and doing what *did work*.  Next time I
                   need help with something, I'll be sure to come to you for
                   the *obvious but _wrong_ answers*.
                   \_ don't group the two together please.  The first
                      may not have been malicious (the second may just
                      lack tact).  Of course, motd posters are not always
                      good models of tact.
                   \_ Why didn't those two suggestions work? As for lacking
                      tact, you're asking an MS Word question on the motd...
                      You deserve to be insulted once or twice before getting
                      a solution, if you get one at all. If the answers were
                      obvious but wrong, you should have mentioned, "I tried
                      x and y but they didn't work." Otherwise, people should
                      assume that you're either dumb or didn't think of the
                      easy solutions (because you're dumb).
                      \_ He is not asking a Word question. He answered one.
                         Giving useful information. Unlike you. --Galen [who
                         is not any of the above]
2000/10/25-26 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Languages/Functional] UID:19564 Activity:high
10/25   Here is an interesting article about s/w. It goes against
        the typical silicon valley s/w mentality, and even some of
        the anti-female sentiment often shown on this motd:
        http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html
        \_ "Yet everyone complains how bad software is, with all the
           defects." Everyone? I personally think that software quality
           has increased in the past 20 years. Look at the accomplishment
           we've made with OS, application, database, network, etc.
           \_ Okay: M$ Win*, M$ Excel/Word/PowerPoint, M$ Access/FoxPro,
              M$ TCP/IP & IE, etc.
              Things have become much worse.
        \_ "something wrong with the way its being written"
           If only writers had some process of their own.
        \_ You don't want to know how much this software probably costs.
           When there's no profit on the line then things are typically
           done well/right. Most software companies aren't about good
           software but about (duh) making a profit. --dim
           \_ And most software companies also have competitors, both for
              customers and for funding.
        \_ Yes, we're all familiar with slashdot, thanks.
        \_ I worked at NASA and yes there are people that write good
           code there but there is little innovation. The reason that
           it is reliable is because each change or improvement or
           idea has to get approved by ~ 50 people (and most ideas don't
           make it through the process). The atmosphere does appeal to
           a lot of mothers (mine included, AI research @ Ames 13 yrs)
           though. They like the slow non-aggressive work enviroment.
           Also efficiency isn't a top priority, many programs make
           the worst possible use of resources in order to ensure max.
           reliability. And this doesn't change even when you point out
           that the same thing can be done faster with equal reliability,
           because it would be "dangerous" to change it (the reality is
           that it would mean that some people would have to do work,
           which is avoided at all costs).
           \_ 1) resources aren't important.  In a situation like this
                 correctness is everything.  Resources are pretty damn
                 cheap.
                 \_ You are wrong. Resources on the shuttle are exteremely
                    expensive. You can't just launch the latest 2GHz PV
                    Q3A/UT FRK proc into orbit. The computer systems on
                    the shuttle are quite slow and every cycle on them
                    is precious. If you can do something faster then it
                    worth doing, esp. if it is provable safe. Improvements
                    in operational efficiency translate to longer cheaper
                    missions. Ultimately someone has to pay for this and
                    that is the US tax payer, if this thing gets too damn
                    expensive it will stop flying, regardless of all that
                    science is great and wonderful and should be done
                    regarless of the cost bs that you see on Star Trek.
              2) if it works and is BugFree(tm) them changing it IS
                 dangerous.  It means you have to go make sure there are
                 no problems with the code and change it in the painstaking
                 process you described before (which yes may be painful
                 for someone used to coding in a more freeform style, but
                 let's face it, it does work for what they want).
                 \_ The problem is not that it is dangerous to change
                    and test it, the problem is that beuracrats don't
                    like change because that means they have to do work
                    and they hate doing work. Nasa is run by inertia,
                    a body at rest remains at rest unless otherwise
                    compelled by an external force. And that external
                    force needs to be pretty damn strong. The reason
                    that there are so many women there is that they
                    like the fact that most of the time there is nothing
                    to do and when asked to do something they can just
                    say that it would take too long.
                    \_ It's all about risk versus gain. Change for the
                       sake of change is not wise in such an environment.
                       Further, even the smallest change can be *very*
                       expensive considering all the testing and validation
                       that must be redone. When there's sometimes code
                       that's been around for 30 years and consists of
                       millions of lines you can see why people are loathe
        \_ It's a four-year old article.
                       to change it unless there are requirements to do
                       so. It's not sloth. --dim
                       \_ @ Ames its sloth. I routinely got, yeah we could
                          change it or we could fix it, but I don't feel
                          like it, I just want to surf the web and go home.
                          We could maybe do it next month.
                          \_ change it != fix it != optimize it
                             \_ In the context of the code I was dealing
                                with change|fix == optimize, basically
                                most of the stuff ran slow and no one
                                wanted to even clean it up, because that
                                would get in the way of putting in a solid
                                7 hrs (they always take min 1 hr lunch) of
                                playing solitare or bz or web surfing.
           The people described in this article probably also write in
           ADA.
           \_ until recently (not sure how the advent of RTOS's affect this)
              all FAA certified software for ATC was exclusively hand coded
              and verfied assembly code.
              \_ At Nasa, the shuttle guys were ADA, the aeronautics guys
                 were FORTRAN and the AI guys were Lisp.
                 \_its amazing the thing ever got off the ground.
                   \_ well it was only 10 yrs late and over budget.
        \_ It's a four-year-old article.
2000/5/8 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:18202 Activity:nil
05/08   http://www.google.com/search?q=%22suck+ass%22&meta=lr%3D%26hl%3Den&btnG=Google+Search
2000/5/2-3 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:18155 Activity:high
4/31    I'm writing a research paper. What vector drawing programs do
        people use to incorporate into the body?
        \_ xfig
           \_ I've found xfig to be cool until you start trying to add
              the pics into a document.  There's no interchange format
              between xfig and wordperfect (hpgl works but the drawing
              gets fucked up) or MS word (again, cgm format fucks up
              the drawing).
                \_ are you the same moron who didn't understand that you
                   can convert an xfig drawing into ANY FORMAT YOU WANT? -tom
                   \_ If you're so damn smart (which you're not) which
                      FORMAT do you suggest? fig2dev only supports a
                      limited set of formats so why don't you recommend
                      a converter and a format instead of writing the
                      same bullshit you always do.
                        \_ converter: "convert" (ImageMagick) or xv or gimp.
                           format: any format you need.  -tom
                   \_ <--- I'm with tom
                        \_ Can I convert xfig to ascii art?
                \_ yes, actually.  -tom
        \_ Sometimes commercial software does the job best.  Adobe
           Illustrator is REALLY nice for this sort of work.  I usually
           just output it as .eps and include the postscript.  Depending
           on the program, it won't display on screen in that form but
           will print.  If I need screen display, I have it export as
           some random bitmap format.  -nweaver
                \_ I tried to do some of the figures for my book using
                   xfig and other OSS software products. I eventually
                   gave up and used Illustrator. The export to EPS was
                   extremely handy when interacting with the production
                   dept. at my publisher. Sometimes closed source is
                   better cause they are more focused and better managed.
                   \_ My version of xfig can export to EPS format.  I'm
                      using "Xfig 3.2 patchlevel 2 (Protocol 3.2)".
                      Maybe you should upgrade.  Xfig rocks.
                \_ ACK!  OPEN SOURCE!  LINUX!  BIKE!  TRAITOR!
1999/11/5-12 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16833 Activity:high
11/11   **Adobe Systems Infosession, TODAY**: happening from 5-6 PM in the
        Lewis/Latimer Room of the Faculty Club.  We'll be offering the usual
        stuff: refreshments/free food, a raffle for the Adobe product of your
        choice, and details on available jobs for graduating seniors who are
        interested in working on exciting products.  Show up & bring your
        resume.  Any questions, E-mail me.  -- kahogan (khogan@Adobe.COM)
        \_ how many positions are for development vs. testing?
           \_ I don't know what the exact ratio is (because the list I have of
              each group's needs/wants doesn't exactly correspond to currently
              open positions) -- but almost every major group within the
              company looking for NCGs is hiring for both, with the balance
              slanting towards development.  If you're interested in dev
              positions and sound like a good person, that's what I'll
              recommend you for -- I don't try to shoehorn people into QA who
              don't want to go there.  -- kahogan
                \_ CSUA is a sys adm farm. It's a wrong place to recruit dude
                   \_ Unless you want a syadm.
                        \_ work you technopeasant!
                                \_ run you infoslave!
        \_ Don't work for Adobe.  Work for Scientoligy...I mean Microsoft.
           There you'll learn the art of brainwashing, extortion, deception,
           and satanism.
        \_ Still don't like how your company name sounds when spoken out loud.
        \_ ^Faculty^Fight
        \_ Still don't like the way Adobe sounds out loud.
           \_ Get over it.
                \_ I'm in therapy now.  Sending you the bills.
1999/9/28 [Computer/SW/Unix, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16609 Activity:nil
9/27    Is there any sort of "acroread" that will display a pdf file on a
        tty terminal?
        \_ ghostscript can read PDF's - maybe it has a crude pdf2ascii like
          the ps2ascii
          \_ why not just pipe it through a pdf2ps | ps2ascii
1999/9/10 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16499 Activity:very high
9/9     Hi -- is there a tool for rendering excel spreadsheets into text
        kinda like "catdoc" does for word?  I get excel attachments
        sometimes, and I want to add a simple thing to my mailcap to
        handle excel files.
        \_ excel
                \_ Would that be excel for dos, excel for windows, excel 95,
                   excel 97, or excel 2000?  And what about star office?  Help!
                        \_ Yes.
        \_ perl
        \_ handle?  what does handle mean?  you want to see the content from
           your mail reader or just save it to a file as a regular excel file?
           saving is easy, use procmail or slocal.
1999/9/10-13 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16498 Activity:moderate
9/10    Dear Motd, please squish tom. Thank you.
        \_ Don't squish tom.  As the Chief Fanatic and Know Nothing, Tom's
           loss would be mourned by all clear thinking people with the
           healthy sense of humor required to enjoy Tom's little rants and
           to see Tom for what he is.  -not tom but amused by him
        \_ T0M RUL3Z D00DZ! H3 15 3L33T & W1LL 5QU15H U!
           \_ Ye who underestimates the power of the MOTD will suffer its
              wrath!!  -motd.deamon
        \_ the motd does not have the authority to squish tom
        \_ handle?  what does handle mean?  you want to see the content from
           your mail reader or just save it to a file as a regular excel file?
           saving is easy, use procmail or slocal.
           \_ umm, the former which I thought was obvious -- hence the
              catdoc hint.  But you are so smart I guess you missed that.
              Do you know the answer?
                \_ I don't take hints for help on the motd.  It is your
                   responsibility to explain exactly what you need and mean.
                   Yes, I know how to do what you're asking for excel files
                   that are a single sheet.  I don't know how to do multi
                   sheet files which reference each other's cells.
1999/8/28 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16418 Activity:nil
8/26    HOw do I save my contact list in ICQ? Just got a new home machine and
        don't want to request authorization from all these folks on my list.
        \_ copy your DB (or NewDB, depending on version of icq you're using
           from your old machine to your new machine.
           \_ What I do is first on new machine set up ICQ account with your
              ICQ number. Shut down ICQ. Copy DB/NewDB over. Run the database
              converter if necessary (newer version of ICQ, etc), and restart
              ICQ
1999/8/24-26 [Computer/SW/Graphics, Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16388 Activity:kinda low
8/24    Boss in my 4 person company wants to pay someone to do our
        web page. He doesn't want to deal with fancy Photoshop graphics,
        icons, layout, etc. How much do web pages cost? We want a 5 page
        static web page, and maybe some electronic scheduler dynamic
        web page.
        \_ if you sign your name i can forward a few freelancer names
           to you.  --caliban
        \_$700-$1000
        \_It depends.  Did you already pay the $70 for two years InterNIC
        fee for the domain name registration?  Do you guys already have a web
        hosting service?  If you pay them extra, they'll do the pages for you,
        and each host charges differently.
1999/8/22 [Computer/SW/Apps, Transportation/Motorcycle] UID:16369 Activity:nil
8/21    Anyone have a hard copy of A. Illustrator and want to lend it to
        me? [suzuki]
1999/8/17-18 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:16332 Activity:high
8/17    Does anyone know of any security holes with the latest version of ICQ?
        I've found references to holes in ICQ, but they all refer to the older
        versions.
        \_ The biggest security hole is that you have to run windows to run
           it, which is intself the biggest security hole you could have.
           \_ USE WINDOSE. WINDOSE REWLZ. WINDOSE CAN DO ANYTHING. RIDE
              CADILLAC
           \_ Wrong!  "licq" has been out for FreeBSD for awhile now.  Look
              in the ports directories.
                \_ There's dozens of ICQ clones, covering just about every
                   OS imaginable.  Search freshmeat for a sample.
                \_ in a bout a week, all you freakos who installed nt sp 5
                   are going to wish you didn't.
                   \_ Just out of curiosity, what happens in a week? --dim
                      \_ he must be a |<rad haqr writing some super kewl exploit
                \_ can somebody install icq on soda?  Or if you have it in
                   your directory, can you make it accessibble?  Thanks.
1999/2/6-9 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:15369 Activity:high
02/08   Adobe Systems Infosession _TODAY_, Feb. 8: happening from 7-8 PM in
        the Lewis/Latimer Room of the Faculty Club.  We'll have pizza and
        refreshments, we'll have a raffle for the Adobe product of your
        choice -- but most of all, we have jobs for graduating seniors who
        are interested in working on exciting products.  Show up and bring
        your resume.  -- kahogan (khogan@Adobe.COM)
        \_ Exciting? you gotta be kidding me.. what's sexy about a drawing
        program.  --shieh
          \_ depends what you're drawing
          \_ Pardon me -- I guess I _should've_ said "exciting, if you happen
             to be into the kind of things we do".  And Adobe is a big
             company, with more going on than "a drawing program" -- my path
             hasn't come anywhere near Illustrator (or Photoshop, or
             PostScript) in the year and a half I've worked here.  -- kahogan
        \_ prepare to be flamed by the GIMP zealots -muchandr
1998/11/11 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:14943 Activity:high
11/10   I have a large .txt file with data in it that I want to open
        in excel. In order to do that, I need to delete all the
        carriage returns from the file. Whats the fastest way to do
        this?
        \_ If you have Word, you can search for returns ("^n", I think)
           and replace them with nothing, or a space.  Most word-processors
           should do this, but I assume that if you have Excel than you
           also have Word.  - mikeym
        \_ eh? you want to remove CRLF (PC returns) or just CR?
           Last I remember Excel imports fine with CRLFs.
        \_ as common an operation as this is, you'd think they'd put in a
           quick point'n'click operation to switch betwen unix and dos
           end-of-line format. Oh wait, this is a microsoft product -- there
           are no valid non-dos formats. -ERic
        \_ echo `cat infile.txt` > outfile.txt  -- yuen
1998/11/2-3 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:14878 Activity:moderate
11/2    What is better, Adobe Illustrator 8.0 or Freehand 8.0?
        \_ GIMP 1.0
1998/10/29-31 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:14851 Activity:low
10/28   For those who already have Photoshop 5, what are some of the key
        features you like? Is it really worth upgrading from 4 to 5? Thanks.
        \_ multiple undos = GOOD THING. also smarter selection tools.
           much better text manipulation. but is this and more worth the
           upgrade? judgement call here... imho, no.
           \_ and for about $0 you can get a lot of the same high quality
              image manip tools as Photoshop. http://www.gimp.org
              \_ And it works with my Wacom Artz II =)  --dbushong
                 \_ what is that?..some kind of pen input device? The last
                    time i used one of those i found it to be more annoying
                    than helpful
        \_ The text manipulation is only good for non-web graphics (ie
           print graphics)... There's a kerning bug in PS5 which prevents
           it from rendering decent web type. -- chucky
           \_ chucky needs to be sodomized
           \_ seano needs to be sodomized
        \_ I like Dr. Watson.
1998/8/25 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:14501 Activity:nil
8/24    Los Angeles School District accused of software piracy (to the
        tune of $5 million) See:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/08/cyber/education/12education.html
        \_ They only paid $300K in fines, right?  More $ -> Bill!
1998/5/28 [Computer/SW/Apps, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:14147 Activity:low
5/27    Is there a program that can generate jpeg images from text files?
        \_ make text into a jpg, or a jpeg into text? - danh
           \_ text into jpeg (or some graphics format)
              \_ Try to get it into postscript first. --dim
        \_ if you're desperate, read a flat file into excel, SelectAll, then
           <shift> Edit->Copy Picture (Bitmap Format), and you'll have a bmp.
           Then find some way to convert bmp to jpg.
1998/4/7 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:13912 Activity:nil
4/7     Hose yer local ICQ user!  http://www.wpi.edu/~smm/icq
1998/3/31-4/1 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:13880 Activity:moderate
3/31    Soda's irc client generates a random login causing lots of
        servers to reject.  Is there anyway to force it to generate
        valid login(no stupid "[" character), or do I have to compile
        my own client?!         - irc d00de
        \_ Maybe its soda's identd that is doing that. Its there to
           protect everyone here's identity, don't whine about it. Compiling
           your own irc, while a worthwhile project, won't solve this
           particular problem.  If youwant to irc from your home mahcine though
           you can put whatever ident server on it you want. -ERic
        \_ Maybe its soda's identd that is doing that. Its there to protect
           the identity of everyone here, while still maintaining some
           accountability, so don't whine about it. Compiling your own irc,
           while no doubt a worthwhile educational exercise, won't solve your
           particular problem.  If you want to irc from your home machine
           via a ISP dialup or HIP account, however, you can put whatever
           ident server on it you want. -ERic
        \_ It is soda's identd, read the manpage.  If you really want to,
           there exists a way to let you shoot yourself in the foot and
           let other easily forge identd tokens.  again, read the man page. Jon
           \_ oh no someone might be able to pretend they were me on IRC!
              the horror!
            \_ Well, uh, then, gee, they could uh, ruin your IRC rep!  Yeah!
1998/2/16-19 [Computer/SW/Apps] UID:13679 Activity:low
02/18   ADOBE SYSTEMS INFOSESSION _TODAY_: happening from 4-6 PM in the
        Wozniak lounge.  We have pizza and refreshments.  We have a raffle for
        copies of Illustrator and Photoshop.  Most of all, we have jobs for
        graduating seniors who are interested in working on exciting products.
        (If you're interested in internships, show up too; bring a resume.)
        Any questions, please ask me   -- kahogan (khogan@Adobe.COM)
1993/5/13 [Computer/SW/Apps, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA] UID:31318 Activity:nil
5/12    Announcing the first CSUA Bike Ride Against IRC!  It is
        tentatively planned for June 5th starting at 10:00 AM.  There
        will be 3 routes ranging from an easy 15 miles to a challenging
        35.  If you are interested, or just want more information,
        mail tom.
        \_ Pardon my h0zerness, what's IRC?
        \_ It stands for Internet Relay Chat.  It acutally is good, for
           what it is, but there is a faction that wants to turn soda
           into an IRC server, which would be, in the opinion of many
           soda stalwarts, a Bad Thing.
         \_ Who the hell wants to run an IRC Server on Soda!!??
          \_ IRC Server?!?  C'mon... slow down other
        computers... not ours...  --nevman

        This event was inspired by, and planned over, /bin/wall.  Don't
        let them turn soda into Just Another Unix Machine.
        \_ Them should be HIM (Adam Glass).  The rest are just sheep
           who follow their fascist leader.
        \_ Is this against IRC itself, or just the idea of running a
           server on soda? - norby
        \_ It's against the idea of changing wall to IRC.
        \_ It's not going to change to IRC... don't be hysterical. --marco
        \_ Oh, excuse me, it's going to change to something that looks and
           works like IRC.
        \_ You mean another decision was made at the Politburo meeting
           concerning wallall besides reversing the syntax of the 'S' bit?
           Why is the elitist Politburo hiding this information?
2024/11/23 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
11/23   
Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Computer:SW:Apps: [Media(205) ]
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