|
12/24 |
2012/11/7-12/18 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:54526 Activity:nil |
11/7 If I don't need to print for a few months, do I need to keep adding new ink to inkjet printers to prevent them from drying and clogging heads? Or will it just magically work once I add in new ink in a few months? \_ The nozzles will clog. Print a test sheet every couple weeks. Or remove the cartridges and put cellophane tape over the nozzles, like they were out of the box. |
2012/9/24-11/7 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:54484 Activity:nil |
9/24 How come changing my shell using ldapmodify (chsh doesn't work) doesn't work either? ldapsearch and getent show the new shell but I still get the old shell on login. \_ Scratch that, it magically took my new shell now. WTF? \_ probably nscd(8) |
2012/7/29-10/17 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:54447 Activity:nil |
7/23 Hey mconst, check this out: int main() { int i_value = 16777217; float f_value = 16777217.0; printf("The integer is: %d\n", i_value); printf("The float is: %f WTF????\n", f_value); printf("Their equality: %d WTF?!?!?\n", i_value == f_value); } Isn't it peculiar? \_ "%f" expects a double argument, not a float argument. -- !mconst |
12/24 |
2012/7/23-29 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:54443 Activity:nil |
7/23 Hey mconst, check this out: int main() { int i_value = 16777217; float f_value = 16777217.0; printf("The integer is: %d\n", i_value); printf("The float is: %f WTF????\n", f_value); printf("Their equality: %d WTF?!?!?\n", i_value == f_value); } Isn't it peculiar? \_ "%f" expects a double argument, not a float argument. |
2012/6/9-7/20 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer] UID:54415 Activity:nil |
6/9 I have a pair of Levi's jeans newly purchased (gift) and they are so damn thin I am afraid they might rip just going into the drier. WTF has happened to Jeans in the last few decades and which brand has the highest thickness to cost ratio? \_ I've been wearing Kirkland jeans from Costco for a few years. Quality-wise, including thickness to cost ratio, has been very good. Style-wise, I can't tell. \_ http://www.ehow.com/list_7222998_jeans-older-men.html \_ Sadly, I actually find this appropriate for me. -- PP \_ I spend $100 on Banana Republic jeans and they are reasonably sturdy. Even those have gotten thinner over the years. \_ I spend $100 on Banana Republic jeans and they are reasonably sturdy. Even those have gotten thinner over the years. \_ I like Diesels. Great quality denim (good feel+endurance) but you'll have to spend $$ on em. Totally worth it though as they look great. Get the made in Italy ones. I've worn some for about 2-3 years straight so amortized cost is low. \_ If you majored in computer science at Berkeley, and have to worry about the amortized cost of your pants, then somewhere along the line something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. \_ Arizona Jeans through JC Penney's Big and Tall: durable, comfortable, and, let's face it, you probably need the room. |
2012/5/17-7/20 [Computer/SW/Languages, Industry/SiliconValley] UID:54391 Activity:nil |
5/17 Anyone have the guts to short Facebook out of the gate? I think it's overvalued, but at this point it looks like there are enough suckers to float this castle in the air for quite a while \_ I don't think you can find the shares to short yet. I am long personally, but only with 200 shares. It is a moon shot kind of stock. \_ how are you doing FB lover? har har har \_ Not very good so far. I am holding for the long term. |
2012/4/23-6/4 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:54365 Activity:nil |
4/11 This looks like something that Nick Weaver writes ("if you're in CS for money, you're most likely an incompetent engineer"): http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/07/when-code-is-hot |
2012/4/23-6/4 [Politics/Foreign/Asia/China, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:54364 Activity:nil |
4/12 USA! USA! USA! We ranked #11! http://www.businessinsider.com/hackers-the-best-all-come-from-one-country-2012-4 |
2012/3/15-6/1 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:54340 Activity:nil |
3/15 Why does MS put double-quotes around the '8' in Windows Server 8, like the following? - Windows 8 - Windows Server "8" \_ Because when they didn't do it, code didn't see the '\0' and went over? Looks better than '8','\0' *shrug* |
2011/2/13-4/20 [Computer/SW/Languages/JavaScript, Computer/SW/Languages, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:54037 Activity:nil |
2/13 Prototype based programming/delegation (not the pattern). anyone use this at all in real world? Does it really solve the problem of OOP brittleness? |
2010/8/29-9/30 [Consumer/Camera, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:53939 Activity:nil |
8/28 Hi, anybody printed a photo image to a big plotter? Something like 36"x36"? I'm wondering how many megapixels the image need to have in order for the print to "look good". There is a rule of thumb? Like 6 megapixel is good for X size print. 10 megapixel is good for Y size print. Thanks. \_ You don't need that many more megapixels for much bigger prints, because people tend to view bigger prints from farther away. \_ exactly. Pixel peepers are stupid. Anything beyond 20MP, is mostly a waste anyways. \_ Try thinking of it in terms of dpi on the final print. Is 150dpi good enough? If so, then you need a 29 megapixel image for 36"x36" (36 * 150)^2 = 29,160,000. The resolution of the printer can also limit the quality of the printed image, so make sure the plotter can handle your target resolution. If you're doing this with a plotter, presumably you're not trying to produce a photorealistic image anyway. |
2010/8/12-9/7 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:53921 Activity:nil |
8/12 Judge Walker denies Stay. Prop 8 null and void from next Wednesday: <DEAD>ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cand/09cv2292<DEAD> |
2010/3/7-30 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:53743 Activity:nil |
3/7 My sister is graduating soon with a decree in information management. She was orignally CS, but couldn't cut the math, so her GPA sucks. However, she has had a couple of internships and did fine. She did desktop support at RockYou and is currently doing web programming at UC Santa Cruz, but they can't keep her on after graduation. Anyone got any jobs? She wanted to be a network admin, but right now she'll take anything. Probably work cheap too. -jrleek \_ Where does she want to work (geographic location)? \_ She was hoping to get out of the states, but she's not picky. She currently lives in Santa Cruz. \_ out of states to... Canada? Mexico? Can you be more specific? \_ Preferably somewhere English or Japanese speaking, those are the languages she knows. She's not picky here either, although Afganistan is probably out. |
2009/4/5-5/3 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:52801 Activity:nil |
4/5 Tuesday at 10:00PM I will be taking down Soda temporarily to migrate disk arrays. This is an expected part of our move to the new server. The downtime should be minimal - I'll be remounting /home read-only for an hour or so while I run a final mirror over to the new array and then will reboot Soda onto the new array. The final migration will come at a slightly later time - this is in preparation for moving mail handling. We apologize for the inconvenience. |
2008/2/20-22 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:49202 Activity:moderate |
2/20 Does anyone else think that the new http://sfgate.com web site sucks? Did they _really_ have to redesign the old one, which seemed just fine? \_ Be boring like me and use this instead: http://newsbuffet.org/sfchronicle.htm - danh \_ I hate this facet of the WWW. People redesign just to look like they are doing something and be 'fresh'. \_ you think that's limited to the WWW? \_ No, but it's more annoying than when, say, the grocery store decides to move the aisles around. \_ The problem is that in the grocery store, the person who is moving the aisles around is a grocer who knows his customers. On the Web, redesigns are often controlled by people who have no clue what web customers need. Particularly when the web site has a print publication side; print design and web design are two completely different things. It's like having the grocery aisles laid out by someone whose only experience is in warehousing. -tom \- often when groceries move stuff around they are doing it to sell more stuff, not for customer convenience. lots of research on the path people take thro stores, effect of placement, getting paid for placement etc. \_ On the other hand, sometimes there is value when a web site bears some resemblence to the print publication side. Old-fashioned print subscribers will feel more comfortable using the web site. \_ Having the web site bear resemblance to the print edition, and having the web site be usable, are not mutually exclusive goals. But you need to have a real web designer in charge of the project if you want to reconcile them. -tom \_ Good luck finding a 'real web designer'. \_ Lipstick on a pig. |
2008/2/8-11 [Computer/Companies/Ebay, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:49097 Activity:nil |
2/8 When do we usually get the 1099-INT from PayPal? It's already February and I still don't have mine. \_ If you got less than $10 in interest, you don't get a 1099-INT. But since PayPal is a money market fund, it's probably a 1099-DIV. I'm not sure what the rules are on that. |
2008/2/7-11 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:49084 Activity:low |
2/7 Hi I'd like to learn Flash. I have no UI experience but I just want to learn for the sake for curiosity. I just want to create something that is interactive and fun, and don't care about scalability/extensibility/ reliability/efficiency/blah-blah. What language is Flash most similar to and how easy/difficult is it to get started (e.g. "hello world")? -kchang \_ I had to learn Flash from scratch on the job a few years back. I found the tutorial that came with Flash to be amazingly informative for the basics, and the following website had everything I needed for programming in ActionScript (Flash's programming language): http://www.actionscript.org/resources/articles From zero to this in a few months: http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~erikred/ecosystem_game_now.swf \_ Cute. Except my whale ate my seal which wasn't good for the seal. \_ Thanks. I wanted to add Japanese whalers, but my boss objected for some reason. \_ I've never done flash but I seem to remember that actionscript is pretty damn close to JavaScript. |
2007/12/13-19 [Computer/SW/Unix, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:48796 Activity:nil |
12/12 Why do I get an error about /etc/tabset not existing when I type reset? Is reset no longer the command to use to clear the screen ? \_ Try 'clear' like normal people. Or Ctrl-L if your shell supports it. |
2007/11/28-12/6 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:48708 Activity:nil |
11/28 T gold indicator forms rare double sell signal http://www.minyanville.com/articles/gold-T-mr/index/a/15012 \_ This is the funniest thing on the motd. Thanks. \_ Agreed. This is superb. |
2007/10/31-11/2 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:48502 Activity:nil |
10/31 X11 question. If I set XUSERFILESEARCHPATH in my .cshrc and source my .cshrc then my app finds the app-defaults file I want. If I do a setenv in the shell then my app cannot find it. Why will this work when the variable is set in my .cshrc and not at the prompt? \_ look at how your apps are started. Do they spawn from your shell (if so they're resetting their environment). If they are started by something else (i.e. your desktop) you need the setenv set before the desktop starts. -ERic |
2007/10/17-18 [Computer/SW/Languages, Recreation/Media] UID:48354 Activity:nil |
10/17 Have you seen the print ads for the new Bionic Woman tv show? Are the main characters breasts as huge as they look, or is it a trick of the light? \_ Take a look: http://www.fitnessmodelsmagazine.com/MICHELLERYAN.htm |
2007/7/20-22 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:47350 Activity:nil |
7/20 Does anyone here know anything about the quality of the software product/programming team at a company called Permabit (http://www.permabit.com Are the brilliant hackers, goobers, or somewhere in between? Thanks. |
2007/7/13 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:47289 Activity:nil 66%like:47283 |
7/13 bull scores double kancho http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070713/481/f04561bb3d2e4c869c591e641a16cf3a&g=events/lf/070607sanferminbulls;_ylt=AjZ0AaXW7wKzuB5opCApOaJbbBAF |
2007/6/18-21 [Computer/SW/Languages/JavaScript, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:47003 Activity:moderate |
6/18 Is this the end of the line for Chomskyan grammar? The strange language of the Piraha http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/04/16/070416fa_fact_colapinto \_ Their notion of color makes more sense than ours, I think. Daniel Dennett talks a lot about this phenomenon, how seemingly atomic concepts in our language aren't really. -- ilyas \_ Chomsky: brilliant, or just good at getting on the rolodexes of anyone needing a linguistic expert? \_ dunno, but I read the article, I don't think you did. \_ You should read the article, it's really interesting. \_ I did, sorry! I thought it was really interesting, too. \_ Amazing article. |
2007/4/13 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Security, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:46294 Activity:nil |
4/13 Can someone w/ root fix this: $ ls -l /dev/null crw------- 1 root csua 1, 3 2007-01-25 19:41 /dev/null |
2007/3/21 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:46043 Activity:moderate |
3/21 I just saw a double penetration XXX video for the very first time and it is sick sick sick. I completely understand the humor behind goatse where it is so dumb that no one in the world could possible enjoy that stuff. Double penetration however is another story and people actually like that kind of crap? I don't understand what kind of sicko would find anal penetration appealing. It stinks and is unsanitary. Secondly, I don't understand why two men would ever want to double penetrate a vagina since you're going to touch each other's penis and share fluids. Like anal sex it is disgusting and unsanitary. I can't believe how much crap there is on the internet, and why people like that stuff. \_ them's what makes horse races. (no pun intended) |
2007/2/10-13 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:45707 Activity:nil |
2/10 http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Design_Patterns |
2006/10/3-5 [Industry/Jobs, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:44643 Activity:kinda low |
10/3 My manager and the project manager refuses to have a project plan (i.e., schedule). Instead, they opted to track progress via bugzilla. Now my manager wants to know when we can release the product. I told him that we really need a schedule to know that. He then placed the blame on me for not having a schedule. How would you respond to this? -abused employee \_ http://csua.org/u/h35 \_ Let me counter with something more useful: http://csua.org/u/h37 \_ It sounds like you are the technical lead. The PM is the PM, and your manager is just a middle manager. As the technical lead, you should obtain whatever data you can from above on what the schedule requirements are (this can even be just a "complete by" date), and create an implementation plan according to any dates. \_ Just do your own project management. I have often had to do this at various points in my career when my bosses were idiots. This also helps make you ready for the jump to the next level, if are so interested. -ausman \_ This is a pretty standard problem. Check out the author Steve McConnell, and browse through his books Code Complete, Software Estimation and Rapid Development. Trust me, you are not alone. There are plenty of good discussions and data out there to help you deal with bad software management. --peterl there to help you deal with bad software managers. --peterl \_ You made a mistake on day 1 when you knew you needed a schedule and didn't make one. Next time just make a schedule. Print it and email it to your manager. At that point it becomes his problem if he doesn't like it or it doesn't fit business needs. For your current situation, you can either flip him off and get another job, or you can take the mature approach, tell him it isn't about finger pointing but team success, blah blah, and sit his dumb ass down to write a real schedule from the point you're at now. \_ He was adamant about not having a schedule. He made it clear that he did not believe in it. He has tried it and it has failed every time. I don't mind working on a schedule now, but knowing him, I know he will then turn around and say that's something I should have done at the beginning. So instead of being praised for taking the initiative, I will get blamed for starting it late. \_ Yeah, a lot of incompetent and/or inexperienced software managers behave like this. I would suggest browsing through those books, or similar ones, that I mentioned. If your manager is unwilling to make changes and continues to blame you even after you discuss professional engineering standards with him, then you'll probably have to transfer, quit, or bring it up with his bosses. Feel free to email me if you want to talk about this further. --peterl \_ In this case, if he didn't want a schedule, you should have showed him an implementation plan, but one without dates. \_ Wow, that sucks. What I have learned (the hard way) to do with shitty managers who refuse to follow common good practice or make bad calls is to send them an email spelling out what they told me to do and ask them to confirm. "So, Bob, just wanted to make sure we're on the same page and you don't want a formal schedule for this project." The smart ones get the message. The dumb ones will fail and blame you no matter what. If your manager really is that dumb then sometimes quitting (or finding a new job in the same company if the place is big enough) is the only answer. It still sounds like your situation might be salvagable but I'd have my resume up to date just in case. BTW, according to my tech recruiter friend there are lots of jobs now but no one applying for them. \_ I tried that. I think my manager falls into the later category. I would send out minutes and he always later claims that I shouldn't dwell on what we decided before-- as a startup, we need to be nimble and adapt. Bottom line is, regardless what I do, I am always wrong, even if it were his bad decision. \_ Just go get another job then. There are plenty out there right now. if it were his badi decision. |
2006/9/14-16 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:44382 Activity:nil |
9/14 I forward a lot of spam to /dev/null, and I just got this error: Message from syslogd@soda at Thu Sep 14 17:07:54 2006 ... soda procmail[16442]: Error while writing to "/dev/null" Ummm, what kind of error does one get while writing to /dev/null? \_ the kind one gets when something stupid involving soda, it's MTA, its ridiculously huge mail queue, and everything between that and user's inboxes does a "chmod go-wrx /dev/null" --Jon, evil alumni trying to clear all the undelivered email. |
2006/8/25-28 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Compilers] UID:44149 Activity:nil |
8/25 Why are iterators "superior" or more recently popular over the traditional method of using for loops and indexing? \_ I guess it's because you can change an array to some other data structure (linked-list, tree, ...) without changing the loop code. \_ This is a limitation of your language, not the concept of looping \_ They handle multithreaded use cases better. They hide implementation details. You can pass iterators around between functions and they do what you want witout much hassle. \_ Traditionally doing pointer comparisons is faster than dereferencing by index. (Good compilers probably will transform the latter for you for simple data structures like arrays, though.) Also, they're simply an abstraction that better describe what you're trying to accomplish (reverse_iterator) or what your needs are (const_iterator). |
2006/8/17-19 [Computer/SW/Languages, Recreation/Humor] UID:44048 Activity:nil Cat_by:auto |
8/17 http://www.madore.org/%7Edavid/programs/unlambda The Unlambda Programming Language. Your Functional Programming Language Nightmares Come True. The act of learning Unlambda is oh so boring and meaningless and you just want to kill yourself. In another word, it is like being in grad school. -kchang |
2006/8/11-14 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:43969 Activity:nil |
8/11 Double Agent's release date announced (Oct 19): http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2771048463/m/6961091964/p/1 |
2006/3/31-4/1 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW] UID:42569 Activity:nil |
3/31 Growing Dragons: http://tinyurl.com/lqk5c (economist.com) |
2006/3/7-9 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:42123 Activity:nil |
3/7 Say I use http://mpix.com to print out my digital pictures. Say I have a really large picture, 3000x2000 and I print only a 4" print instead of poster size. How many DPIs will mpix's printer print? I'm trying to gauge the quality of their prints vs. my 600dpi printer before I decide to get anything from http://mpix.com. ok thx \_ yeah, it's much better to ask an unanswerable question on the MOTD rather than spend 29 cents to see for yourself. \_ We don't know what printer http://mpix.com uses. Costco uses Noritsu QSS-3111-1. Anyway, DPI is not the only factor to quality. \_ Why don't you contact them?. Ask "what PPI will you print". It should print at whatever size the PPI * number of pixels ends up being. I don't know anything about mpix but it's common sense. \_ For what it's worth, an amateur photographer I know (used to work on iPhoto) uses mpix and speaks highly of them. |
2006/2/25-27 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:42002 Activity:nil |
2/24 Has anyone ever used a nonblocking sendile with the glib Main Event Loop? Both the file and the socket are set to O_NONBLOCK, but we can't figure out how to get a watch to watch both file descriptors. |
2006/1/31-2/2 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:41608 Activity:nil |
1/27 I have a file I want to stream to a socket. (Read file, write socket) A loop that copies 1K at a time seems a bit silly, is there a way to directly stream it? \_ sendfile(), if you don't need to be terribly portable. -gm \_ Perfect, thanks. \_ netcat is ideal for this, its as simple as: nc < file |
2006/1/9-12 [Computer/SW/Languages/Java, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:41303 Activity:nil |
1/9 I'm using Java's BufferedImage.getRGB(int, int, int, int, int[], int, int); to read in a whole image for manipulation. According to my profiler it looks like this method is allocating a ridiculous number of objects ... on the order of 7000 per call for standard-size jpegs and pngs. I am reading back the whole image anyway. Does anyone know a way to load standard-format images in Java without creating a bajillion objects? |
2005/12/9-11 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/HW/CPU] UID:40938 Activity:nil |
12/9 Does anyone know if there are FOSS diff tools that are somewhat syntax-aware? E.g., it would understand that comments and whitespace don't matter (well, for languages where it doesn't), and that expressions can span several lines but still be the same? It doesn't even have to be smart enough to strip redundant sets of parentheses or anything. Thanks. \_ Compile the code and "cmp" the binaries. :-) \_ Canonicalize the sources and diff those, e.g. run through a pre-processor and auto-indenter? Or, get your hands on MOSS, depending on what you're trying to do? |
2005/11/1-2 [Computer/Theory, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:40394 Activity:high |
11/1 Teaser: write an algorithm for finding prime numbers. \_ boolean isPrime(int x) { return true; }. It correctly identifies any prime number as being prime. And boy is it fast. For non-prime number use boolean isPrime(int x) { return false; } which works JUST AS FAST! Note that sometimes users may have problems with the package because they use the wrong function for a given piece of data. Morons. \_ That doesn't answer the question. Try this instead: int findPrime() { return 37;}; \_ How about an algorithm for getting other people to do your homework for you? \_ Here's a homework hint: go look up the strict definition of "algorithm". \_ Al Gore does more of that bizarre swaying thing. I don't think he has much rhythm at all. \_ Are you new to math or new to programming? \_ Are you new to asking homework questions on the motd? |
2005/10/27-29 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:40293 Activity:nil |
10/27 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051027/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_oil Exxon Mobil, Shell Post Record Profits \_ Exxon first U.S. company to have $100 billion in quarterly sales! USA USA USA! |
2005/9/24-28 [Computer/SW/OS/FreeBSD, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:39858 Activity:low |
9/24 Hi, I'm finding myself having to convert network order to host order for uint_16 as follows, is there a cleaner way? src = buffer[2]; src = src << 8; src += buffer[1]; \_ man htons \_ Uhm, I don't think your way is even correct. 1. Do you really mean to use 1-based array indices? 2. You're always storing the most-significant-byte in the position of the least-significant-byte. (Note that this is irrelevant to whether your host is big- or little-endian.) Simply writing src = buffer[0] << 8 | buffer[1] should be sufficient. \_ I thought network order was LSB first? So it should be: src = buffer[1] << 8 | buffer[0] \_ You thought wrong. Do some homework. \_ If you are overlaying a buffer onto the short, that is inherently endian-dependent. Use htons, duh. \_ He's not overlaying a buffer onto a short. He's reading it into a buffer first. When he reads it out of the buffer with shift and bitwise operators, the endianness of the host is irrelevant. (And I'm not suggesting not to use htos, I'm just saying that what he wrote originally was wrong.) \- "is there a cleaner way" ... gee, ya think? if this is for work, have them buy you all the stevens books. if they will only buy you one, probably get STEVENS: Network Programming v1. I have the 2nd ed but I am sure the edition++ is fine if not better eventhough STEVENS -> dead. This is "the standard". oktnx. --psb STEVENS -> dead. Like VAX BSD 4.2/4.3, this is "the standard". oktnx. --psb |
2005/9/21-23 [Computer/SW/Editors/Emacs, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:39784 Activity:nil |
9/21 Dear motd loser who posted "Female wants to keep last name, male wants her to take his, marriage this summer, what do you do" guy: http://csua.com/?entry=17194 Did you ever resolve the issue and how? \- to the guy: she gets to keep the name ... since it is hers. but since you are buying the ring, you get to choose between DIAMOND and DIAMEL. --not debeers \_ if the man hyphenates his last name, then the kids can have the same hyphenated last name too! emacs user was here \- you may wish to use: (defun next-line (arg) "Move cursor vertically down ARG lines. ... If at the end of the buffer, it will add up to next-line-max-inserted-newlines newline characters to allow moving to the next line." (interactive "p") (if (= arg 1) (let ((opoint (point))) (forward-line 1) (if (or (= opoint (point)) (not (eq (preceding-char) ?\n))) (if (< (- (point) (save-excursion (skip-chars-backward "\n") (point))) next-line-max-inserted-newlines) (insert ?\n)) (goto-char opoint) (next-line-internal arg))) (next-line-internal arg)) nil) \_ Just add (setq next-line-add-newlines nil) to your ~/.emacs. \- the above lets you pick how many blank-lines are ok. i set to 2. i find this more useful than the binary option. |
2005/9/12-14 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:39641 Activity:nil |
9/12 http://www.pagerealm.com/tc2k http://www.custom3dgraphics.com/flash/hiphurts.html \_ That's pretty dang funny. \_ It is, though I almost feel like I'm a victim of this just by sitting through this. --dbushong |
2005/9/2-3 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/SpamAssassin] UID:39462 Activity:nil |
9/2 Is it possible to set up an auto-reply on cusa account? How to do it? Create a .auto-reply file? \_ man vacation \_ follow the vacation man, my test account get an auto-reply containing "|/usr/bin/vacation (reason: Command line usage error)" \_ man procmailex \_ thanks procmail auto-reply worked for me. \_ How is your loop detection? -tom |
2005/8/20-22 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:39200 Activity:nil |
8/20 Anybody know if QuickBooks pro can export plain-text invoices? \_ What do you mean by "plain-text"? Export for printing it, or exporting it using some kind of script to grab the data? You can export it to a shitty PDF, or print it out as a text file. Or you can set up a report that reflects only the data in that invoice, and export that to an Excel spreadsheet, or to a PDF, or to a text file. And finally, you can unlock the Debug menu and actually export an invoice to IIF, which is a text format of sorts. But not sure what would actually suit you out of all of these, if any. -phale \_ Export to plain text that I can easily paste into an email. \_ Probably printing it to a text file would work best then. Try printing an invoice, and then in the print dialog you should be able to save it to a text file instead. Perhaps a quicker thing to do for pasting to an email is run a transaction journal report for the invoice, then export that report to Excel, and then copy and paste the text from the spreadsheet. I'm not sure which one will be better looking. -phale \_ Thanks. |
2005/6/19 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:38189 Activity:high 76%like:38198 |
6/19 Programming Jobs Losing Luster in U.S. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Tech-Job-Decline.html?pagewanted=print \_ Oh darn. You mean those opportunistic little shits who clogged up all of my project groups in CS classes aren't around anymore? Cry me a fucking river. \_ is there a CSUA password? \_ No, some dumbass disabled it. Just use http://bugmenot.com. |
2005/6/1-3 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:37928 Activity:nil |
6/1 In order to improve the performance of your machine, please add the following in your .cshrc file in all of your accounts: ping -s http://www.microsoft.com 50000 > /dev/null & \_ I would, but after your last speed tip my computer can't see any of my files, so I think it should slow down and maybe it will be able to see them. \_ What is port 50000? \_ http://csua.com/?entry=32148 |
2005/5/11-12 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:37619 Activity:nil |
5/11 Since when have the articles on http://nytimes.com been double spaced? |
2005/5/3-4 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:37493 Activity:nil |
5/3 "It sure beats computer programming because it's flexible, and I get to be outside," he said, refering to his new dog poop job: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/odd_pooperscooper_dc |
2005/4/6-7 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Security] UID:37084 Activity:high |
4/6 My banks, brokers and credit card companies are promoting paperless statements. If I tell them to stop mailing me paper statements, and later there's a gitch on their computers, will I be in a disadvantage proving my case with prinouts from their web pages compare to if I have their paper statements? I'm trying to see if it's a good idea to stop the paper statements in my mailbox in order to avoid ID theft. Thx. \_ Can you ask them whether they can somehow sign their statements that they send to you (x.509 cert, pgp, etc.?) What's the situation on digital signing/non-repudiation in the US right now anyway? Even if there's no precedent or legal basis for it, it might still be better than just an occasional email or web page printout. If you're worried about ID theft from paper statements, there are easier ways of doing it (credit card slips, for example.) You could just get a PO box too. If your bank is putting info that could be used to compromise your authentication details on paper statements, find a new bank. -John \_ All my bank and credit card paper statements have account numbers on them. I think stealing mail from my mailbox at the front of my house in broad daylight is very easy. \_ my friends in comp security all say digital signature and non-repudiation is a non-issue. the courts don't care and will accept all kinds of strange records if presented w/ an avidavit/oath of truth. hell, fax'd signatures are enough, and anyone can forge one of those. records are the starting point for deliberation, not the endpoint. \_ It's an issue in countries with a proper legal framework, and with banks that give a rat's ass (American banks are notorious in that regard, and for not paying a lot of attention to proper authentication.) Will a paper statement serve as proof in court in case of a dispute? I'm asking because you're essentially trusting their record keeping (such as transaction serial #s, etc.) to verify the authenticity of the documentation. -John \_ I think you should do a risk assessment of using the bank's record keeping vs. your own and see which is more likely to fail. \_ Yes my record is more likely to fail, but that's not the issue. If my record has a mistake, the bank is not going to go by my record to determine how much I have left in my account. But if the bank record has a mistake, the bank will most likely go by its record unless I can prove otherwise. Now my question is: does a printout from a web page as good a proof as the fancy paper statement from the bank? \_ I think you'll find neither of them can prove a balance. the record of transactions is useful so you can ask for details on any transactions that occured which are not in your records, e.g. reconciliation of accounts. \_ I filed a small claims lawsuit and needed to print out a statement. 8 months passed between when I filed for the claim and when the trial's gonna happen. That month I tried to print out bank statements but it said "Sorry we only go back to 6 months." I had no choice but to delay the trial date. What a drag. \_ I think if you care about these sort of things, then you should keep the paper copy. I do the same thing for the very same reason. |
2005/3/30-31 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:36981 Activity:very high |
3/30 Is there a school that has an uglier website than Cal? http://www.berkeley.edu \_ There are plenty of schools with ugly websites. Generally, one of two things causes a bad university web site: 1) The process gets taken over by people who are only familiar with print publications, and they think the web site is like a print publication. 2) The process gets taken over by bad corporate web designers who think Flash is great. Berkeley's situation is #1. -tom \_ http://www.stanford.edu \_ <DEAD>stanford.edu<DEAD> doesn't work. \_ http://www.florida.edu \_ http://www.texastech.edu \_ I would argue we have a worse website than Stanford. \_ Ya get what ya pay for. \_ Why do you all hate cal so much? Why didn't you just work harder to get into a better school back when you had a choice? Regardless, why don't you share with us an attractive university website? Or do you only know how to mock? \_ I (and I imagine others) DID get into "better" schools. We/our parents couldn't afford them. \_ Then be bitter at yourself, for not being able to work while in school. You have no right to be such whiny bitter bitches if you attend(ed) Cal. \_ Wow, you need to loosen up and get the stick out of your ass. It's pretty common for students and alumni to mock their own school. It's part and parcel to having a sarcastic sense of humor that exists in decent institutions of higher learning such as Cal. Anyway, Cal's fine. I doubt you can get a much better education somewhere else. In terms of price/education ratio it's the best deal on the market. \_ No, I agree with you about the humor and all. It's only that the anti-Cal sentiments on this motd are pretty strong and frequent so I just wanted to comment. Sure I don't think Cal was perfect, but I still do believe it is an outstanding university. \_ How do you measure the quality of education a school provides? As someone in the business of hiring the product of schools, I tend to measure the quality of a school by the quality of the graduates (which is of course unfair, since I do not take into account the quality of the incoming students, but just the graduates). However, just measuring by the the quality of the graduates, Cal is far from the head of the pack. \_ You have a self-selecting sample. You remind me of the recruiter at BofA who said that I must be bad at math because I had average grades in math. Nevermind that the people with a 3.8 in math are trying to get tenure at Princeton instead of applying to work at BofA. Cal grads compete very well overall. \_ Well, I don't think I self-select in the sense you mean. It's somewhat unlikely that I would see nth quartile students from other schools and (n-1)th quartile students from Berkeley. Cal new grads just aren't that competitive compared to new grads from other "good" schools (mit, the farm, caltech, or even utaustin (just 1 interview trip there, but I was impressed)). If it's a sop to your school loyalty, I found CMU students were even worse for what I was hiring for (EE, not CS, with some knowledge of circuits and transmission lines). \_ *YOU* don't self-select. The students do. Maybe your project did not attract the best, because it was not interesting. Perhaps Cal students are not strong at that one particular field and you are over-generalizing. I *do* know that Cal turns out an awful lot of graduate students who do top notch work, as well as the standard doctors/lawyers/businessmen. At my work, I don't come across a lot of good Cal grads either, but that's because I am in aerospace and Cal has no department. Schools like Purdue, UT, and MIT dominate there. What it says about the average Cal student is absolutely nothing. \_ So you're claiming that some difference in Cal students cause them to be somehow uniquely less interested in the companies I'm hiring for. I find this claim incredible. Perhaps you would explain what is so different with Cal grads (vs. MIT, Caltech, 'fraud, UTAustin etc.)? I've already specified what I look for in new grads (EE, some circuits and transmission line). Could any EE program that doesn't cover some circuits and transmission line be considered a "good" program? \_ Completely possible, for example, if the jobs you are hiring for are in another state from CA. However, what I am saying is that you are probably not evaluating the *best* students from *any* of the schools. After that, it's not given you are comparing second quartile to second quartile or, if you are, what exactly that means. \_ Of course the average MIT student is better. Their incoming scores are higher on average (as you state). However, for same level of achievement I find Cal students better than those from, say, Stanford. Also, I hired a guy from Caltech as smart as all hell but who is a terrible employee who has to be told what to do all of the time. He's been close to fired several times now for incompetence. There are other ingredients to success than being book smart. \_ I found Caltech grads to be impractical (in the sense that they spend too much time arguing over and working on the optimal thing rather than the good enough thing). They are very good once you've slapped them around enough to break them. Small sample size of only 2 though, so definitely ymmv. \_ I guess it depends what you mean by "better school". I think Cal was a lot of work for minimal reward. By that I mean not that the rewards are small, but that the work was large. It would have been easier to go to "lesser schools", learn less, and do less work. Heck, the main appeal behind Stanford is not that it is "better" but that you can do less and still get a 3.2+ GPA while also having a name on your resume that people care about (and fewer alums from that school in the workforce because of the size). However, you pay $100K+ for that honor. |
2005/3/10 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:36618 Activity:high |
3/10 Online hunting (real animals are killed): http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/03/10/MNGHOBN6LT1.DTL&type=tech http://www.live-shot.com \_ How long before we can do that in Iraq? |
2005/3/9 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:36593 Activity:high |
3/8 Favorite shell colors? White on black: ... Black on white: .. \_ Does it still count as black on white if you have transparency turned on in Terminal.App, but its primarily black text on a "white" background? \_ And here I read this question about what color shell I should wear under a suit. I thought the choices were egregious. Multicolor on anything: . Amber on black: . \_ Amber sounds nice, how do you set that? \_ I use RGB 255,160,0 ...like old monitors. --op \_ Me too -- RBG 189, 174, 81 with about 30% transperancy on the black background. Cursor and highlight text dark and light blue, respectively. \_ Amber reminds me of the old 80x25 monochrome days. Green on black: .. Yellow on black: . Yellow on black: .. (Yellow on black has a very high vis. contrast.) \_ light gray on black: . Wheat on black: . \_ tan on dark green: .. \_ heh, i think that's the default i started out with that eventually led to me using wheat on black -pp SGI colors - white on midnight blue: . Back in Black: . Asian on White: . Blacks on Blondes: . |
2005/2/27-3/1 [Computer/SW/Languages, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Motd] UID:36447 Activity:low |
2/26 I've been a slashdot reader for longer than I care to admit, but I'm wondering about other sites out there that maybe have a higher signal to noise ratio, and/or are more programming-focused. \_ It's called CSUA MOTD if jwang did a better job nuking political trolls. Email jwang@csua.berkeley.edu if you want him to do a better job. \_ Fuck you and die, motherfucker. \_ The CSUA motd, of course! \_ And a double dumbass on you, too! |
2005/2/18-20 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:36234 Activity:moderate |
2/18 To show I am a better man (and christian) than ilyas, here is a solution to the hw question asked yesterday (maximum contiguous sequence). Pass 1: coalesce adjacent elements of the array A into blocks with the same sign (dropping 0) by summation into array B, meanwhile keeping track of their range in array A . Finding the max of the array B during this pass as well. Pass 2: starting at the max block, extending up and down the array B (and hence A), finding the max stretch. You have to prove that it works and it is linear. :) \_ anti-semite alert!!! \_ I don't think ilyas is Jewish \_ No, he's either Tzimisce or Silverfang lupus theurge. Aren't you paying attention? *sheesh* \_ mislycanthropy alert?! \_ Doesn't this give 4 instead of 5 for A = B = (4, -8, 3, -1, 3)? \_ What's wrong with you dude? We solved this already in one pass. Just stop already. \_ Was it O(n) or O(n^2)? \_ One pass, O(n). I don't see what's the big deal. Keep a running count of the "current sequence", and the value/index where it was highest. The "current sequence" is over if (count + next) < next. Store the best sequence as you go. \_ Except that doesn't work. -- ilyas \_ Counterexample? You may call me stupid rather than lazy. Although being anonymous helps me in either case. \_ Think of one yourself. Lazy bitch. -- ilyas \_ I choose to think I'm right and you're stupid. \_ Let me know what you get on your homework. -- ilyas \_ cool! christians rule. \_ Not only have you encouraged the deadly sin of Sloth in the original poster of the question, but you have succumbed to the deadly sin of Pride yourself (by posting something that doesn't work). You -> Hell. It's trivial to see that starting from the max block can fail to work. -- ilyas \_ You just succumbed to the deadly sin of Stupidity for getting trolled again. \_ Nay, for ilyas knoweth not what he does. |
2005/2/18-19 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Computer/SW/Languages, Recreation/Humor] UID:36232 Activity:nil Cat_by:auto |
2/18 A parent's primer to computer slang http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/kidtalk.mspx -John \_ "Was this information helpful to you? Yes" \_ "Please tell us more:" "omgwtfbbq" -geordan |
2005/2/17 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:36222 Activity:insanely high |
2/17 Quiz: What is an optimal algorithm for finding a contiguous sequence in an array that when added will yield the greatest sum, where the array contains both positive and negative numbers? \_ -5 1 -2 8 -5 1 -1 100 -3 where the greatest sequence is 8-5+1-1+100 \_ Do you mean the greatest sequence of five numbers? The greatest sequence is just all the positive numbers if I understand your concept of "sequence" correctly. \_ The numbers must be adjacent, and the length of the sequence is arbitrary. -!op \_ The algorithm to solve this is still linear time. Email me if you want the solution. Hint: partition the array into 3 sums. -- ilyas I ask again, do you partition the array into lumps of -/ positive and negative blocks, and go from there? Mine I think works but requires you to do so first. \_ No. I ask that you email me for a complete solution, because I want to make sure this isn't homework. -- ilyas \_ This is trivially linear time. -- ilyas \_ No it's not. Assuming you're looking for the contiguous subset of the input which has the largest sum, there are around N*N/2 possibilities, and a simple 2-pass linear search is not gauranteed to find the right answer. \_ does your algorithm first repartition the array into a sequence of alternating positive and negative integers? \_ Look, maybe you didnt state your problem correctly, but as stated, the problem is easily solved by going through the array once, and putting all positive numbers into the sequence. -- ilyas \_ don't be a moron, obviously he means a contiguous sequence in the original array. -tom \_ Maybe he meant 'greatest increasing subsequence.' Sequences have nothing to do with adjacency. Obviously indeed. You seem really smart, tom. -- ilyas \_ It *is* obvious that op is not asking "what is the set of numbers which adds up to the greatest sum, given a set of positive and negative numbers"? You seem really stupid, ilyas. -tom \_ That much is clear from my reply: 'you probably didn't state the problem correctly', etc. What you seem to be missing is that there are multiple interesting problems he may in fact be asking that all involve arrays and sequences. I am not sure why I am wasting my time explaining this to you. -- ilyas \_ Wow, I didn't realize you meant that in "This is trivially linear time" -!tom \_ -5 1 -2 8 -5 1 -1 100 -3 where the greatest sequence is 8-5+1-1+100 \_ Do you mean the greatest sequence of five numbers? The greatest sequence is just all the positive numbers if I understand your concept of "sequence" correctly. \_ The numbers must be adjacent, and the length of the sequence is arbitrary. -!op \_ The algorithm to solve this is still linear time. Email me if you want the solution. Hint: partition the array into 3 sums. -- ilyas \_ Add all the positive numbers in the array and return that. In other words, maybe you want to define sequence, or give us more information. \_ What is the optimal algorithm for finding the hottest, best match for a long-term monogamous heterosexual relationship? \_ Not sure this is right. But take a running total. Mark the array index when the total is the lowest. Mark the array index when the total is the highest. The sequence starts with the number after the first array index, and ends with the number at the second array index. \_ This greedy algorithm fails. -- ilyas \_ Usually you provide an example. \_ For instance what happens when the lowest cumulative sum is after the highest cumulative sum? If you constrain the former to appear before the latter, it's not a global max/min anymore, etc. Lazy bitch. -- ilyas \_ Let's add one more feature. Track the highest single positive value. If the highest single positive value is greater than the sum of the sequence, then the final answer is just the single value. "Lazy bitch"? Dude, what's wrong with you? \_ This still doesn't work. You didn't address the problem of min occuring after max. -- ilyas \_ Yeah. I was a little eager to post originally. Sigh ... but if the global minimum running total occurred befored the global maximum running total, I'd be schweet. Again, though: "Lazy bitch"? Dude, what's wrong with you? \_ It's the price you pay for not thinking of a counterexample yourself. Lazy bitch. -- ilyas \_ Dude, you need to stop with the anti-social behavior. \_ And you need to stop being lazy. We all could use improvement. I thought I was being eminently reasonable in both providing the requested counterexample, and gently chiding the sin of sloth, which, as our Christian friends will tell us, is deadly. -- ilyas \_ You must play a Silverfang. Probably a a theurge, I'd guess. Nowhere else would you see a combination of cryptic utterances, arrogant stubbornnes, and haughty condescending intellectualism all wrapped around a core of inflexible superiority bound together by a completely unapologetic nigh impregnable psyche. Bravo -- I'm impressed. Now, the question is, are you this way in real life, or are you just giving motd a non-stop demonstration of your rp abilities? I'd guess the latter, but I'm sure there are motd denizens that would disagree with me. --!pp \_ Paolo says I am Tzimisce. -- ilyas \_ In this context, that's quite a compliment -- though perhaps somewhat backhanded iir all the details.... \_ Seems like you can just keep a running count. If your next number is bigger than your count would be by adding it, then you remember your previous sequence if it's the biggest so far and start a new one. You'd also have to keep the high point of the current sequence. \_ Okay, I think this works. It's a two-pass solution. Pass 1: Take the running total solution. Find the array index where the minimum running total occurs. Find the index for the max running total. If the min occurs before max, the sequence is between the two. Pass 2: If the min occurs after the max, then find the index of the max after the min. The sequence will occur between the min and and the new max. Edge cases should be straightforward. \_ This doesn't work either. The point of 170 homework is that you prove the thing works. -- ilyas |
2004/12/8-9 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:35217 Activity:kinda low |
12/8 When people say null string or empty string in C, does it mean a char pointer that's NULL, or a char array whose first char is '\0'? Thanks. \_ Both, because it's essentially the same. However, I think they probably mean the latter. I assume you mean a pointer pointing to NULL, and not a pointer which is NULL, which makes no real sense. \_ What's I'm thinking is that for "char *str", it can be either "str == NULL" or "str[0] == '\0'". So you're saying that for the former, there is no string; and for the latter, there is a string but it's a null/empty string. Correct? \_ Possibly, but if you were to malloc a string and assign its lvalue to *str's rvalue then str==null means that you are checking to see if you lost the rvalue for the str. So theoretically the string could still exist if it hadn't been probably freed and you'd have a memory leak. For the latter if you created an automatic character array the memory stays assigned to str regardless of terminating it at the beginning. There is no way to release the memory for an automatic variable unless you do something really wonky. So neither really checks for a lack of a string. The former checks to see if the pointer is pointing to a string, the second checks to see if the first char of a string is the terminator. \_ The latter. "Empty string" is a better term to use than "null string". \_ I always assumed that an empty string is a string that exists but is empty, ie "", and that NULL string refers to the case where the string pointer is NULL. /me shrugs \_ Typically you see this as char* p = NULL. p is a char pointer. p points to NULL. \_ If the term uses "string", that means it's NUL-terminated. Therefore it means "". A char* that's NULL is a null pointer. But probably prefer "empty string" for clarity. \_ You mean a char* that points to NULL. a char* that is NULL, well, that doesn't exist. Since an array is passed like a char* in C, a string which is "" is essentially the same a char* pointing to NULL. \_ Err, yeah. I think you might want to rethink that position. \_ What? The previous poster's explanation and terminology was correct. \_ char* cptr = NULL; // null pointer char* cptr = ""; // empty string (== "null string" (?)) // "" is \0 in memory. Those aren't the same. You can deference the empty string. |
2004/12/7-8 [Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:35200 Activity:low |
12/7 Optimization time: gprof shows 310k calls to a certain constructor (a very simple, very important object that is often stack-allocated into large arrays- eg "MyObject msgs[1000];"). Rather than calling the constructor 1000 times, is there a way to have a special array ctor that's called (once) and zeroes out the array en masse? TIA. \_ Geezus, why are you constructing 310k objects? Make a static array of objects at the beginning of runtime. \_ I am, when possible. It's a realtime system (= no dynamic memory allocation) so e.g. several queue objects have to buffer about 15k messages statically. The rest are open to optimization, but a specialized array constructor (if it exists) would be nice. (nb: by "nice" I mean "not at all critical") Oh, and if it helps for those in a similar situation: MyObject contains a couple small arrays; it's much faster to zero these out manually with a for loop than with memset(). -op \_ Man, I hate people like you. Why didn't you give the complete environment information in the first place? What type of RTS system are you using and in what form factor? How much total RAM do you have and what form is it in? And why the hell are you using an OO language for small RTS apps? \_ Sorry, I was just curious if C++ had a specialized ctor for objects created in an array; I didn't realize I was creating a tone of urgency. Anyway, system is not resource- constrained at all (P3 in a VXI chassis, 512M ram, etc) & I'm coming to the conclusion that I can't just define MyObject::MyObject[] (). \_ Yes you can, you can overload new[]. \_ Ok, this might be helpful; can you elaborate? What would the constructor declaration look like? \_ If you want the array zeroed out without any object construction occuring, there are a few things you can do: (1) Create a default constructor which doesn't do anything (2) Overload new[] as suggested above to accomplish this (3) Allocate the space for the array using malloc or calloc instead of new and then use placement new to do the construction. Specifically, placement new lets you construct an object into a memory location you have allocated yourself. The benefit of this is that your program would only need to spend time constructing an object when you want to put it in the array instead of when you allocate the whole array. -emin |
2004/12/7 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:35192 Activity:high |
12/7 I'd like to run a program and save the output to a log file while still seeing the program output on stdout. I tried using the tee command as in "foo.exe | tee mylog.txt" but tee only seems to print to stdout every once in a while instead of when foo.exe generates a line of output. How do I save output to a file while having every new line of output sent to stdout? Thanks. -emin \_ The problem is not in tee, but in foo. By default, the stdio library produces output a line at a time if it's outputting directly to a terminal, but buffers its output in large chunks otherwise (see "man setvbuf"). When you pipe foo's output to another program, it's no longer outputting to a terminal, so it turns on its buffering. The easiest cure is to create a fake terminal for it to run on: ssh -t localhost foo.exe | tee mylog.txt I know, it sucks. The default buffering really ought to be smarter, or at least configurable. --mconst \_ foo and tee BOTH buffer, don't they? \_ Tee actually never buffers its output. Even if it used the default stdio buffering, though, it wouldn't be a problem here since it's outputting directly to a terminal. --mconst \_ what about foo | cat | tee mylog.txt? \_ That won't help anything. foo is still writing to a pipe. \_ The mconst has spoken. Woe to those who will not listen. \_ You have to redirect stderr to stdout. In bourne-like shells, foo.exe 2>&1 | tee log In csh derivatives, I think it's something like foo.exe |& tee log \_ Another possibility you might explore is using 'screen' to run your process, with screen logging to a log file. SCREEN RULES!! \_ "Sounds like a virus. Reformat and start over." \_ Advice like this will destabilize your computer for years to come |
2004/12/6 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:35182 Activity:high |
12/6 Is there any way to place/enforce DRM on an application written in a scripting language, short of having it "phone home" to decrypt itself each time it runs? \_ Die. \_ I dislike DRM as much as the next guy, but I'm still curious. No need to be a knee-jerk jerk. \_ Depends on what you mean by "enforcing". There is no way to produce uncrackable DRM without an external control mechanism or the aid of the hardware. If you just want to make it harder, you can use those scripting language to bin programs and then apply an executable encrypter or successively more complicated schemes, but with enough work, it's still crackable (and there are some very enterprising crackers out there). \_ Yes. Will it be cracked in minutes? Maybe. Hours? Most likely. Days? Without a doubt. The fundamental problem with all DRM mechanisms is that, at some point, you give the user the decryption key. At that moment, you (the DRM vendor/fascist content owner) lose. This is true regardless of how obfuscated your mechanism for transmitting the key is. Aside from their hard-on for extracting (even more) money from consumers by granting themselves new rights that don't exist under conventional copyright law, one of the reasons content industry execs bought into DRM was that they were too technically clueless to recognize that the ``give the user the key'' flaw that is inherent to all DRM systems. The empirical evidence of numerous trivially cracked DRM systems (hold down the shift key, use a black sharpie on the edge of the CD, etc.), and the 20/20 vision of hindsight has made their obvious `Whoopsie' clear to them. The DMCA and the continuing legal onslaught is a crass and sorry attempt to use to law to patch over a gaping technical hole. -dans \_ You sir, are a moron. \_ Care to expand on that? What are the flaws in his argument? \_ Use rot26 encryption, anyone who cracks it will be violating the DMCA and you can ask the feds to put them in jail! \_ Crap! Merely by reading this sentence I violated the DMCA! |
2004/11/11-12 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Mail] UID:34825 Activity:moderate |
11/11 Simple question I suppose, but this happened to me with an ISP in Japan. Have two email accounts set up. First account has forwarding to the second account. The 2nd account recently set up a vacation reply. So mail arrives in first account, is forwarded to 2nd account, which in turn generates vacation reply, which the first account gets, it forwards that email, another vacation response is generated and received, etc, etc. Pandemonium ensues. The ISP called it a denial-of-service attack and is threatening to cut off service. But this was an honest mistake (2nd account is used by a colleague and he set up vacation response on his client without telling me.) Question: would any other ISP (or Soda) have been able to prevent this, or at least stop it before it brought down their system? \_ a reasonable vacation reply mechanism would implement loop detection headers and/or duplicate message-id checks (as should any other auto-responder). \_ Not to mention keeping track of recipients. Your first ISP should also have some kind of reasonable loop detection. Tell them both that the gaijin tech gods have spoken and that they should get /<l00 or we'll whip out the black ships. -John \- Thanks for the replies. Should these checks have been implemented on server software, client software (maybe there is a setting for "reply once"?), or both? \_ basic rule of computing: never trust clients, never rely on clients to do the right thing. your isps are both stupid. \_ Not even a 'trust' question--this is basic mail server config 101. \_ I was making a more general statement about all client/ server relationships, not just mail. \_ But isn't a vacation responses a separate piece of e-mail similar to when the user does a reply, instead of a re-route of the original? How does loop detection help in this case? \_ It should not be similar; it should have a Precedence: junk header, among other things. And as noted above, the vacation program should keep track of recipients. -tom \_ it should notice its own message sent back to itself and not reply. this would solve OP's problem. you are right that this might not help two vacation systems in a volley, but that is caught by not sending vacation notices to the same recipient within some time period, e.g. a week. |
2004/11/5-7 [Computer/SW/Unix, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:34712 Activity:high |
11/5 Anyone with biology fu happen to know whether there are any theories out and about on 'junk' DNA being a form of ad hoc error correcting code for mutation robustness? -- ilyas \_ google for exons introns error-correct, e.g., http://post.queensu.ca/~forsdyke/introns.htm \_ human DNAs are persistent because of the redundancies in it. They estimate that over 80% of the DNA doesn't actually do anything. \_ isn't this thinking actually being overturned now? I seem to recall reading an article in Sci Am or Discover that supposed "junk DNA" may not be so junk afterall. \_ Ah, okay. Found it. Scientific American, Nov. 2003. Article titled "The Unseen Genome: Gems Among The Junk" \_ I would be interested in reading this. Would you please help make that easy by putting it online? --PeterM \_ http://www.sciam.com \_ I, perhaps immorally, was hoping to see the article without paying. Perhaps I'll simply go visit the library. --PeterM \_ Communist bastard. -- ilyas \_ On a related note, LBL scientists delete a bunch of junk DNA from mouse genome. Mouse is fine. http://www.llnl.gov/llnl/06news/Employee/articles/2004/10-22-04-newsline.pdf link:tinyurl.com/6pvp3 \_ Ah, but if you do that to a whole population of mice, what would be the effects on their decendants in a few generations? \_ They will create a web site called "freerepublic4mice.com" and make laws outlawing gay marriage among mice \_ You know...I'm not sure how I should feel about this subthread. -mice \_ Are you a gay mouse or do you have genetic mutations? \_ Well, I'm not gay. -mice \- I strongly recomment the book GENOME by Matt Ridley. It's a little out of date [as observed above there has some recent work on junk dna, including at places like LBL] but anythign is this field will be going out of date. --psb \_ partha what do you do at LBL? |
2004/10/31-11/1 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Unix] UID:34472 Activity:low |
10/30 How do I prevent variable substitution within double quote in tcsh? The manual says I can quote it with backslash but the following does not work: echo "\$ " \_ There is no way to prevent variable substitution within double quotes in tcsh. Usually it's easiest to use single quotes; failing that, the best you can do is echo "foo"\$"bar". --mconst \_ echo "blah"'$'"blah" |
2004/10/28 [Computer/SW/Languages] UID:34402 Activity:moderate |
10/28 Gah! HOw do I keep spamassassin's files from putting me over quota? I have STFW. I spent a couple hours, actually. I lack sufficient clue to find the answer. \_ Add a 'rm -f LSPAM' line to your .login. \_ What does that do? I don't know of an "LSPAM" file. \_ Um, if you never see LSPAM files, never mind. \_ Does this mean someone else is using ifile? \_ Guilty as charged. \_ Wow. \_ Link the following files in ~/.spamassassin to /dev/null (using ln -s): auto-whitelist.db@ -> /dev/null bayes_journal@ -> /dev/null bayes_seen@ -> /dev/null bayes_toks@ -> /dev/null \_ Hmm. Maybe I'm asking too much, but is there a way to stay under quota that doesn't involve crippling bayesian filtering? I don't get why I'd be the only person whose bayes_* files are going over quota. I just haven't heard what people are doing about it given sa's populariry. \_ You aren't the only one. I asked for a quota increase. It's not like it's a lot of space. \_ Google for Mail::SpamAssassin::Conf, and look at the following configuration settings: bayes_journal_max_size bayes_expiry_max_db_size bayes_auto_expire bayes_learn_to_journal \_ Alrighty. The trouble is answers web-wide are good for the quotas on particular systems. I would like some suggested values for these items (which all go into .spamassassin/ user_prefs for others trying to learn from this thread) that are good for soda. \_ I have all these files like bayes_toks.expire7965 that I am pretty sure I did not used to have. What is going on? \_ http://csua.org/u/80t |
2004/10/21 [Computer/SW/Languages, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:34265 Activity:nil |
10/21 My digital camera (canon powershot) doesn't have the functionality of adding date/time at the bottom right hand corner of every picture. And I develop the pictures at Costco and their machines do not print date/time at the back of the paper. I really do not want to use software and manually open up each file and add the date/time into the pictures. Too time consuming. Are there other printing services that will print the date on the back of the pictures? Or some software that will automatically add the date in. Like some programs will create thumbnails on all jpgs in a directory and name them appropriately. Thanks. \_ I suspect ImageMagick could do this if there's some way to extract the timestamp from the EXIF data. ImageMagick is great for scripted image manipulation but I don't know how to extract EXIF data with it or any other program. -dgies \_ I use Imagemagick's convert wrapped in a shell script to do "thumbnailing" |
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