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| 11/26 |
| 2010/9/8-30 [Science] UID:53953 Activity:nil |
9/8 Y2K is nothing. You should be worried about 2038. The end of unixtime
on 32 bit machines.
\_ I will be 63 then, long retired. It will be somebody elses problem.
Maybe I will do what I did for Y2K though, go vacation in some
remote off the grid location, if there are any left.
\_ I will be amused if the smartphone religion apocalypse comes thru
as millions of kids will cry because they cannot tweet for a while.
\_ kids don't tweet. Middle-age white boys tweet.
\_ True. I read that use of Twitter in the 12-18 year old
set is much, much less than in the 35-45 year old set.
The biggest Twitter user I know is a 42 year old white woman.
She is addicted to that crap and Facebook, too. You cannot
even invite her to dinner as part of a group, because she
will be typing into her Droid the whole freaking evening
like a 14 year old - except that her 14 year old doesn't
do social networking at all except the occasional post to
YouTube. I wonder if one day people will wake up and realize
how much time they have wasted keeping in touch with people
they don't know well and who probably won't go to their
funeral while ignoring their real friends sitting at the
dinner table with them.
\_ Actually this makes total sense. Here's my take on it.
That woman did not grow up with that technology, she grew
up on nintendo, vcrs, etc. Consequently she doesn't care
about THAT technology (it was always around, borrring)
but the facebook/always in contact with people is new.
Her kid, probably grew up more around that sort of thing
(Web 1.0, 2.0) and so he don't care about it.
\_ You're on to something here. I find that f/b is populated
mostly by people reliving high school or killing time
with F-ville... or both. That's generally folks my age
(~40). The younger ones text each other. That's their
social network. Why f/b (where everyone sees what you
post) when you can snipe and snicker to your friends? |
| 2010/2/11-3/9 [Science/Space, Science] UID:53702 Activity:nil |
2/11 Is anyone watching Caprica. Is it worth it? Do you like it?
I recently started watching SG:U and it's not bad, oddly.
\_ Not watching either; oddly trepidatious about Caprica, and
SG:U lost me at SG:A. However: reviews of Caprica sound good,
and at least one excellent hard SF writer (John Scalzi) is
writing for SG:U, so... maybe worth checking out?
consulting for SG:U, so... maybe worth checking out?
\_ You should know that it was in the contract stipulation
for working as a writer for SG:U that you could have never
written for SG:A. Atlantis was that bad. and they know it.
SG:U is pretty good, if you like moral ambiguity, will to power
and examinations of people striving for power. Plus it has
Begbie.
\_ So you directly contradict this? http://tinyurl.com/yzka2hh
> The complete writing staff from Stargate Atlantis is
> back to kick off the new series,
\_ Yeah, I work in the industry. |
| 2010/1/20-29 [Science, Politics/Domestic/President/Reagan] UID:53645 Activity:nil |
1/20 Food for thought: kids today are more responsible and less selfish
than kids from 80s... the REAGAN era.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19518_3-10434969-238.html
\_ As a parent of a kindergartener, I don't think so. |
| 2009/12/6-26 [Science, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:53570 Activity:nil |
12/5 If Harry Potter is rewritten in a modern style using science
instead magic, and using real people and references instead of
fiction, what could it include? I'll start:
-Slytherin Pureblood = Nazi Ayran
-Muggle = melting pot
-Dobby = Black slavery, illiterate
-Voldemort = GWB? Hitler? ??
-Wizards = scientists? lawyers?
-Giants = jocks?
\_ fundamentalists
-Muggle = melting pot
\_ pragmatists
-Dobby = Black slavery, illiterate
\_ the working poor, economic slavery, child labour
\_ Underpaid H1B visa holders in Silicon Valley doing shitty
coding stuff that greencard holders don't want to do
-Voldemort = GWB? Hitler? ??
\_ any charismatic leader leading with fear. There's a
tonne to choose from.
-Wizards = scientists? lawyers?
\_ professionals. Magic replaces science/engineering.
Check out Dresden Files. Wizards there can't even be in the
same room as technology, it breaks/shorts out, glitches, dies.
-Giants = jocks?
\_ neanderthals, or people soon to be culturally irrelevant
\_ you mean the Jews? -Ahmadinejad
\_ 'old europe'
\_ libertarians
\_ the middle class -GWB
\_ check out the many journey to the west versions. there is one
by leiji which is sci-fi space/android themed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyqTPkiEteQ |
| 2009/11/21-30 [Reference/History, Science] UID:53537 Activity:nil |
11/21 http://abstrusegoose.com/strips/a_wise_man_once_said.PNG What scientific event does the first frame "Do not disturb my circles" refer to? Thx. \- not really a scientific event. story about Archimedes's last words before being mistakenly [contrary to orders] killed by a roman soldier after the occupation of syracuse. note: this was the battle where the Mythbuster etc parabolic mirror solar heat ray thing comes from. oh, i just saw the comic ... hence "roman centurion" with the "shing". |
| 2009/7/6-16 [Science, Politics] UID:53115 Activity:nil |
7/6 In arithmetic, repeated "plus" is "times", while repeated "times" is
"to the power". Is there an operation that stands for repeated "to
the power"? My kid asked me and I have no idea. Thx.
\- yes, see "up arrow notation". there is a little field of math
dealing with "rapidly increaseing sequences". from UCB CS you
may be familar with the POWER of the ACKERMAN FUNCTION for example.
you also may be interested in RAMSEY THEORY but that is beyond the
scope of this motd post. UMESH's ex-student Scott Aaronson has a
good writeup on the WOB about the constrution large numbers.
\_ Thanks. -- OP |
| 2008/11/17 [Science] UID:52025 Activity:kinda low |
11/18 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/17/triggerfish The technology, known as Triggerfish, pretends to be a base station so that mobile handsets happily connect to it and identify themselves. A Triggerfish deployment can wait for a specific handset to pass by, or just grab nearby identities for later analysis. lulz. \_ Switch to Verizon. |
| 2008/11/11-26 [Science] UID:51919 Activity:nil |
11/11 MSNBC plans to leapfrog CNN's "hologram" technology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8H_bGAhLPY |
| 2008/9/17-19 [Science, Reference/Military] UID:51211 Activity:nil |
9/17 did anyone watch Generation Kill? The 'gay' Marine is a real Marine,
and was in the unit Generation Kill is about. |
| 2008/8/1-8 [Science, Politics] UID:50753 Activity:nil |
8/1 "The power to bargain for higher wages, a power that we assume was
dismantled, may not be so feeble"
-Richard Fisher, President, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
I doubt it. Calm down, Skippy. -me |
| 2008/6/30-7/14 [Science/Electric, Science] UID:50419 Activity:nil |
6/30 Does the average tech worker in SV really make $144k/yr???
http://preview.tinyurl.com/5atgq6 (Business Week)
\_ Average is meaningless. Median is the statistic that you should
care about.
\_ The smaller headline reads "And with the number of tech grads
falling, demand will only rise". The author never took Econ 1.
\_ The comments to the article don't seem to agree with the article.
\_ Is this because all the tech workers who made less were sufficiently
replaceable that their jobs were outsourced out of SV? |
| 2008/5/21-23 [Science, Politics] UID:50019 Activity:nil |
5/21 How does surge protectors that removes power for devices on
standby work? My VCR needs power or else it loses the clock
and beeps everytime I turn it on. If power are cut then it
doesn't really work for me. I have other devices that needs
power or else it will lose its setting. Or do these devices
still supply power but at a very low setting? |
| 11/26 |
| 2008/3/1-4 [Science] UID:49308 Activity:nil |
3/1 this is the best song and video ever made by man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=antUcw20V1w
\_ That's weird, I thought 92% of the farms in the US are corporate
managed, with professional management team dealing with market
studies, technology purchase (computerized GPS tracker, etc),
fertilizer, etc. Then they hire a bunch of Mexicans to do the
grunt work for minimal wages and little benefits.
\_ Wow, it's like Weird Al Yankovic for red necks. I'm a 4th
generation son of a farmer, have driven harvesters, have blocked
traffic and I laughed my ass off. |
| 2008/2/5-7 [Science, Industry/Jobs] UID:49069 Activity:nil |
2/4 http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/01/31/tech-salaries-on-the-rise-if-youre-male Salary data points for hotshot programmers. \_ Regurgitated TechCrunch anonymous postings don't qualify as "data" |
| 2008/1/10-12 [Science] UID:48925 Activity:nil |
1/10 Did anyone watch MonsterQuest on History Channel last night about
"Rods". That was the most stupid show on History Channel I've ever
watched! It looked more like a parody to science shows than a real
science show. I felt like I was cheated at the end. (I usually like
the science shows on History Channel.) |
| 2008/1/10-12 [Science] UID:48924 Activity:very high |
1/10 Finally reading Freakonomics: Not terribly impressed. Your thoughts?
\_ It's popular science writing. What did you expect? Hav you read
any of the original papers that Levitt wrote or referenced?
-dans
\_ No, I haven't. Given the way people were talking about it, I
somehow expect revelations. Instead I got loud, unnecessary
admonitions about not leaping to conclusions, often followed by
the writer's leapt-to conclusions.
\_ Keep in mind, many people, even well educated ones don't
grok the simple idea that correlation does not imply
causation. Freakonomics explication of this is remarkably
good. Have you read many other pop-sci books? Were
there any that you did like? -dans
\_ Your first statement is key here and most of why I'm
still boggling. You're right, but that scares the hell
out of me. From here to "weighs the same as a duck"
is not a large leap.
\_ Causation is harder than it looks. For example, is the
converse of above true (e.g., does lack of correlation
imply lack of causation?) Or how about this: "when
DOES correlation imply causation?" -- ilyas
\_ Statistics attempts to answer these questions. I
took an econometrics class at Cal which
attempted to answer similar questions w.r.t.
economic data. That's probably more useful than
Freakonomics.
\_ So are you suggesting 'people on the street'
should read statistics literature in order to
gain an understanding of causality issues?
What DO you suggest they read? -- ilyas
\_ I suggest they go home and have a beer and
not worry themselves about it. Otherwise,
go take a stats class.
\_ Despite you dismissing the entire genre of
popular science books in a single stroke, I
am glad the scientific establishment
continues to produce them, and the general
public continues to read them. Maybe you
should have a beer, and stop commenting on
things you don't understand. -- ilyas
\_ I didn't dismiss the entire genre. I
just said that if someone really
wants to learn then they take a
class. Otherwise, it's not clear
what they might be getting. Some
popular science books are great and
some are garbage. If you don't care
then it doesn't matter, I guess.
\_ I am going to assume that you are not asking me
to recount the scientific method here.
\_ I enjoyed it.
\_ Some topics were surprising to me, but over all I now use it as
tool for explaning causation and correlation to others who are
not as experienced with science as I. Freakonomics is great
a great popular science. As with all popular science, there is
cost involved when explaining the complex to the dull minded. |
| 2007/10/29-11/1 [Science] UID:48469 Activity:nil |
10/28 Hey has anybody used this ice walking technology called "yaktrax".
do they actually significantly increase your stability on ice?
Any drawbacks? I'm trying to avoid crampons. |
| 2007/9/4-6 [Science] UID:47894 Activity:nil |
9/4 kchang are you using advanced internal Google api technology
to crawl the motd?
\_ Dear anon coward, I have no idea what you're talking about -kchang
\_ I assume you must be leveraging the vast tech you have
at your disposal, to better your motd classifying.
at your disposal, to improve your motd classifying.
\_ It is my belief that any reference to proprietary
technology requires all parties to sign NDAs -kchang |
| 2007/7/11-14 [Science] UID:47255 Activity:nil |
7/11 Hey, why was the link to the pretty girl talking about technology\
deleted? Does that kind of stuff offend some psycho on the motd? |
| 2007/7/9-10 [Science] UID:47239 Activity:low |
7/9 YAMP: Iran: peaceful electricity generation or going for nukes?
Peaceful:
Nukes: ..
Both: . |
| 2007/6/12-15 [Science] UID:46927 Activity:nil |
6/12 Nifty image technology.
http://clipaday.com/videos/ridiculous-image-technology-coming
\_ That's amazing. |
| 2007/5/29-6/1 [Science] UID:46781 Activity:nil |
5/29 Student Intern job at Riverbed Technology in SF:
/csua/pub/jobs/Riverbed |
| 2007/4/27-5/1 [Politics/Foreign/Europe, Science, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:46465 Activity:nil |
4/27 Commentary on Aristole found in the Archimedes Palimpsest:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6591221.stm |
| 2007/3/14-15 [Science/Biology, Science] UID:45971 Activity:nil |
3/14 Sprint announces new phone tracking
technology: http://www.phonetrace.org |
| 2006/9/25-27 [Science] UID:44520 Activity:nil |
9/25 Wartime gatchphrase generator:
http://oaktowncrack.com/war
\_ Viewing source on that's more fun than actually using it. |
| 2006/2/28-3/2 [Science/Space, Science] UID:42032 Activity:nil |
2/28 Pics of an elaborate underground weed growing facility in TN.
http://www.phishhook.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=550448
\- wow, DIY hydraulic door.
\_ I can't wait to read the details on all of this.
\_ Doesn't look like it helped.
\_ The cops worked on it for 5 years before the warrant was
served. Which means they were probably running if for
10. If they had kept their heads down and quit when
they were ahead. They could've gotten away clean.
\- i met a fellow at a dinner party recently who was in
the marijuana business on a moderate scale [he isnt
retired but it paid the bills] in NYC and Boston and
his view was you pretty much have to get out soon because
no matter how careful you are some of the flakey people
who have to deal with will either be turned or will
slip up. i would think you could find people by applying
FREAKONOMICS type techniques but we probably dont care
enough to do that [e.g. by looking at electricity
consumption etc].
\_ Or they could spend gvt. dollars on something more
worthwhile than arresting people who grow a plant.
\_ Don't try to apply logic to the War on Drugs.
\_ Yeah, like catching all those music pirates!
\- i am not necessarily advocating more stringent
crackdowns on dope fiends and more than i think
crackdowns on dope fiends any more than i think
we should necessaily be more aggressive about
speeding or illegal immigration when i dis-
passionately comment on things like photo-
speeding tickets, speed traps, cracking
down on employers of illegal aliens etc.
if anything it is interesting to see the
data mining potential for things like
SAFETYWAY CLUB cards. years again some
"acquaintances" bought a mirror and some
razor blades at the college ave safeway
razor blades at the college ave 7/11
at something like 3am. i'm not saying that
should be probably cause for a search warrant
should be probable cause for a search warrant
but, it would be interesting to see the
empirical numbers. studies often show that
"intuition" is often a lot less accurate than
statistical decision making [e.g. from examples
of medical diagnosis to jury selection ... say
people over estimate what "body language"
people overestimate what "body language"
conveys vs say the zip code somebody lives in
as a predictor of prosecution/defense bias],
so some of this type of analysis may be much
better than informal/naive "profiling". like
the spped trap law seems to say "if i try to
the speed trap law seems to say "if i try to
measure the speed more scientifically that is
illegal" as opposed to letting "trained" cops
eyeball you. this anti-technology rules are
probably to preserve discretion in teh system
eyeball you. these anti-technology rules are
probably to preserve discretion in the system
so police/judges can get rid of tickets
for friends/insiders. i agree the deference
to the media industry and capturing of
public policy to private ends in this area
is an abomination. we have good evidence they
were sending theatening letters based only on
the "prima facie" evidence of having some
common p2p [ephemeral] ports open. ok tnx.
\_ Encore! Encore!
\_ psb, do you have a blog?
\- i do not know how to blog but i blog
about cheese and antibiotics. |
| 2006/2/24 [Science, Politics] UID:41983 Activity:high |
2/22 [ nuked as promised. FEEL THE POWER! ]
\_ Your ultimate ninjaness is exceeded only by your wisdom.
\_ Please explain why anyone gives a shit about this long, context-
free excerpt or I'm nuking it. You have till 23:59 2/23 -dans
\_ I'm glad I have provided a tiny forum for you to exercise
your ultimate ninja power!
\_ No, if I had ultimate ninja power, I could kill anyone I
wanted! I could cut off the op's head and not even think
twice about it. Though that is a tempting option, I've
already thought about it three times. Clearly, I lack
ultimate ninja power. -dans
\_ You mean REAL ULTIMATE POWER!
\_ AWESOME POWER! NO CONTROL!
\_ No, I mean REAL ULTIMATE POWER.
http://www.realultimatepower.net
\_ Wow it would be cool to be a leader of a cult and wake up one
morning and decide something like "hey red is good" and tell your
underlings everyone should wear red and pretty soon millions of
sheeple are wearing red every day.
\_ Take off that red shirt!
\_ Old jungle saying: Never wear red shirt. |
| 2006/2/7-9 [Science, Science/Space] UID:41757 Activity:nil |
2/7 http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20060206/tc_zd/170810 Want to buy several vacation penthouses in Santiago Chile? Be an SAP Functional Consultant. \_ SAP, Functional? That's funny. \_ I lived in Santiago for nearly 2 years, and while I really liked the people, you'd be hard pressed to pay me enough to move there. For one thing, the smog makes LA look like a small town. -emarkp \_ It's not that bad right now, but whenever you ask people what's good to do in winter, they say "leave"...ugh. -John |
| 2006/1/24-25 [Science] UID:41496 Activity:nil |
1/24 To the person looking for a quiz generator earlier:
http://www.breadbox.com/proddetail.asp?id=84 |
| 2005/12/12-14 [Science] UID:40973 Activity:nil |
12/12 Anyone reccomend a good site for excel table templates for displaying
scientific data?
\_ Not all scientific data is the same.
\_ If you don't have to use excel I'd recommend R for scientific
computing work: http://www.r-project.org --darin
\_ umm, huh? What are you doing exactly? That would help with a
recommendation. |
| 2005/11/8-9 [Health/Disease/General, Science] UID:40497 Activity:nil |
11/8 5 cases of polio in MN Amish group. link:tinyurl.com/atvhz \_ Good for them! They resisted the evil tyrannical gubbament and its attempts to inject nasty SCIENCE chemicals into their god loving children! \_ Hey, nice strawman. Did they get cervical cancer via HPV too? \_ Heh, thanks man. \_ Contrary to popular belief, the Amish embrace modern medical science. Note that the baby that spread the disease got it in a hospital. The amish are more hostile to technology that helps you get stuff done quickly. \_ Yup. See #4 in http://www.amish-heartland.com/?topic=FAQ |
| 2005/11/7-8 [Science, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:40469 Activity:nil |
11/5 LED Lightbulbs: http://www.inhabitat.com/entry_714.php \_ Beautiful! Can't wait for these to hit the market! \_ Apparently, they are (not the fancy ones) http://www.nam.lighting.philips.com/us/led |
| 2005/10/25-26 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science] UID:40263 Activity:nil |
10/25 Civ 4 is out tomorrow!
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/620/620513/img_3162231.html
http://pc.ign.com/articles/660/660495p1.html
"Leonard Nimoy for his amazing voiceover work reading a short
quotation as each new technology is discovered"
\_ http://media.pc.ign.com/media/620/620513/img_3162250.html |
| 2005/10/15-16 [Science] UID:40116 Activity:low |
10/15 Can anyone recommend an author for a reader who likes Michael
Crichton and Dan Brown (i.e. page turners that are based in
science/technology). I don't care what you think of either of
these two authors in terms of quality; rather I'm just looking
for a similar author. thanks.
\_ How about Neil Stephenson?
\_ Well, for me, "page turner based on science/technology" is
synonymous with Neal Stephenson, but not everyone finds his
stuff to be page turners. You have been warned.
\_ Iain M. Banks (his scifi stuff.) I haven't read anything by Dan
Brown, but I got annoyed by Michael Crichton stuff for being
repetitive a while ago. Also you might enjoy the Hyperion series
by Dan Simmons. -John
\_ Nothing by Dan Brown is based on anything.
\- at all costs, do not read "Rule of Four" ... people who bought that
book should be able to file a class action shuit for their time
and money. it's so horrible you have to wonder if the authors
are well connected or there is some other unnatural explanation
of why that book was published and so heavily promoted after
da vinci code. note: it's not a "techno thriller". --psb |
| 2005/8/8 [Science, Computer/SW/Security] UID:39036 Activity:nil |
8/7 I heard something about someone attempting to utilize NIS
authentication on Sloda. What was the exact nature for this,
was it to allow for a centralized system to manage users
amongst the different computers within the CSUA? What is
currently being utilized for this, and why was NIS chosen
vs. a less obsolete technology like LDAP?
\_ Why do you think somebody owes anonymous you an
explanation? Check the wall, motd logs. |
| 2005/7/6-8 [Science, Politics, Science/Electric] UID:38429 Activity:nil |
7/5 When I unplug my Uninterruptible Power Supply to simulate power
outage, it makes this light buzzing sound. Is this normal with UPS?
\_ it sure is. UPS is letting you know normal power flow has
been interrupted, please fix!
\_ I'd guess this is the result of DC power being converted to AC. |
| 2005/7/1-2 [Science, Recreation/Dating] UID:38394 Activity:kinda low |
7/1 Luther Vandross, RIP
\_ http://tinyurl.com/8ys3c (newsday.com) |
| 2005/5/20-23 [Science, Academia/GradSchool] UID:37780 Activity:moderate |
5/20 I read that the number of computer science majors is shrinking,
and the number of business majors is shrinking, but the number of
people attending college is growing. What is everyone going into
these days? Bio? Poly Sci?
\_ Healthcare fields? I heard that nurses make as much as senior
CS engineers these days and they work four days a week.
\_ A Male Nurse? FOCKER?
\_ Yup, Gaylord Focker. Besides, we've seen male nurse on ER and
such.
\_ law, business
\_ OP says the number of business majors is shrinking.
\_ This is the new America. College networking good. Edumacation
bad. God good. Science bad.
\_ Bio is probably a good bet. We will need a lot more doctors in
the next 15+ years. Maybe some people are going into other eng
or science fields. I was MSE as ug but have been a coder for many
years and I think that doing a real science is far more interesting
than coding.
years and I think real science is far more interesting than cs.
\_ I don't think bio in terms of doctors, but in terms of
biotechnology. I think hard science is more interesting, BUT
there is a lot of competition for dollars. You have to slave
away as a grad student and at the end of it you may or may
not have a good job. It is so much easier to, say, go to law
school. There are too many scientists competing for too
little money and the rewards for being a scientist are small
but for a few.
\_ Biotech seems like a big hype job to me. Sure it is
interesting and all, but most of work in the field is
low pay lab rat type stuff.
Funny you should mention LS. I'm currently in LS and I
find it much harder than grad school (I'm enjoying LS
more than grad school, though). You are spot on about
the money; it is far easier to make money as a lawyer
than as a scientist/engineer (which is why I'm in LS).
\_ what law school. What was your UG GPA and LSAT?
Thanks.
\_ gpa 3.03, lsat 168. I'm going to santa clara
b/c it is the closest to my house (I'm in sj).
\_ Where did you go to grad school and in what field? |
| 2005/5/9-11 [Science, Computer/HW/CPU] UID:37576 Activity:nil 66%like:37580 |
5/8 Architecture Virtualization:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1762884,00.asp
\_ This link goes to something about a gymnast/model
\_ fixed |
| 2005/4/25-26 [Science, Consumer/Audio] UID:37345 Activity:kinda low |
4/25 http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050421/hypersonic_sound.html "Soundless" Sound System. Cool! \_ Godz. imagine what that can do to your brain and skull. Having a hyper(super?)sonic signal beamed at your skull, causing hearing via cranial conduction? \_ hyper/super-sonic refers to speed of an object, not frequency. \_ ultra/infra sonic (ala UV/IR) \_ 50% Wrong. A supersonic plane travels faster than sound. A hypersonic transmitter uses high frequency noise hypersonic speaker uses high frequency noise \_ At least we won't have to worry about dying from cellphone radiation anymore. |
| 2005/4/14-15 [Science] UID:37195 Activity:nil |
4/14 NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - IBM, one of the world's largest technology
companies, stunned Wall Street by reporting first quarter earnings and
sales that were well below analysts' estimates.
\_ Down over 5.5%. Couldn't have happened to nicer folks. |
| 2005/4/6-7 [Science] UID:37088 Activity:nil |
4/5 Wow, this is the first time I've seen so many red and green bars:
http://csua.berkeley.edu/~kchang/intellidiff
Oh and if you have a better spy technology please email me -kchang
\_ What is the significance of the red and green bars? -dans
\_ red means delete, green means add. Bar size ~ file size.
\_ Your red bar is so big and tax free! |
| 2005/4/5 [Science, Politics] UID:37070 Activity:very high |
4/5 In one line, how do you determine if X is a power of 2? If you already
know the answer, please don't answer.
\_ echo "is X a power of 2?" > mail mrsmartguy@hostname.berkeley.edu
\_ In one line of what? If it's one line of C code, I just figured out
the answer.
\_ One line doesn't mean what you think it means.
\_ bool power_of_2 = (x == 1) ? true : (x == 2) ? true : (x == 4) ?
true : (x == 8) ? true : (x == 16) ? true : (x == 32) ? true : (x ==
64) ? true : (x == 128) ? true : (x == 256) ? true : (x == 512) ?
true : (x == 1024) ? true : (x == 2048) ? true : (x == 4096) ? true
: (x == 8192) ? true : (x == 16384) ? true : (x == 32768) ? true :
(x == 65536) ? true : (x == 131072) ? true : (x == 262144) ? true :
(x == 524288) ? true : (x == 1048576) ? true : (x == 2097152) ? true
: (x == 4194304) ? true : (x == 8388608) ? true : (x == 16777216) ?
true : (x == 33554432) ? true : (x == 67108864) ? true : (x ==
134217728) ? true : (x == 268435456) ? true : (x == 536870912) ?
true : (x == 1073741824) ? true : (x == 2147483648) ? true : false;
\_ Are you assuming a certain number of bits in an integer?
\_ Both solutions are nonportable.
\_ Yes. I'm mocking the person asking the question. His
question doesn't have an answer.
\_ (f && (!(f & (f-1))))
And a better way to ask this question is can you
determine if a number is a power of two in O(1) time.
\_ None of your operations are truly O(1).
A naive solution like doing a bunch of & operations
is just as O(1) by your criteria.
\_ In modern processors all 3 operations
( &, &&, and -) are constant time.
That makes it O(1). The naive solution on the
other hand is O(n) where n is the number of bits
in an integer. If you double the width of the
integer the time to check doubles. That's not
O(1) in any way shape or form.
\_ That's my point. Those operations are only
constant time up to a certain number of bits.
After that it's going to cost you, e.g. with
bigints.
\_ By the same reasoning, lg(n)<64 so it's constant
time as well.
\_ I think it is pretty obvious you don't
understand bigO notation.
\_ So you're assuming unsigned and twos-complement?
\_ If it's unsigned, it wouldn't be two's complement,
would it?
\_ That's what I was looking for but I'm curious if there
are smart ways to do it in other languages. -op
\_ I'm assuming unsigned. f>0 is a simple signed check.
Twos complement isn't an assumption, as negative
numbers aren't ever an issue.
\_ -2147483648 is not a power of 2.
\_ ((f > 0) && (!(f & (f-1)))) -- !PP
\_ power_of_2 = (rindex(sprintf(%b, x),'1')==1) ? true : false;
assuming I put the parenthesis in the right place and x>1?
of course, I'm a tard and don't really understand bitwise ops.
\_ Ugh, why do people write "boolExpr ? true : false"? It's
redundant. Is "(boolExpr ? true : false) ? true : false" even
clearer for you?
\_ I suspect your solution doesn't actually work.
\_ Is it safe to say that any solution will take O(n) time considering
an arbritary number of bits?
\_ I suspect so, but I'm not sure --person who gave O(1) forumla above |
| 2005/3/2-3 [Science] UID:36492 Activity:kinda low |
3/2 emarkp, I can't wait till we have ET contact. I hope they come down
and use their superior technology to convince us that their
religion is better than all the religions on earth.
\_ Then run SETI@@Home with your idle CPU cycles. |
| 2004/12/10-11 [Science, Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll] UID:35240 Activity:moderate |
12/9 I'm bored.
\_ Find a place to do your thrice-daily jacking-off
\_ Impressive.
\_ You just have to space 'em out
over the day. 3 is easy!
\_ who are you who are so wise in
the ways of Masturbation?
\_ Geez. Just post a troll and get it over with.
\_ has someone written a troll generator yet? |
| 2004/11/6-7 [Science, Politics] UID:34719 Activity:very high |
11/5 http://www.supadubya.com \_ fight the power! \_ nice idea, but it's probably better if: 1) someone famous was in it 2) if it gets on MTV \_ Fuck MTV. I think it's time to buy some RF power amps. 3) less profanity to get the point more clearly 4) if it's not rap. acoustic guitar would be nice. you want white listeners don't you? \_ Most people that listen to rap are white. But of course you already knew that. |
| 2004/11/5-6 [Science] UID:34701 Activity:low |
11/5 What is the difference between acidity and alkalinity? Doesn't
one determine the other?
\_ I think they are the same. If the pH value is less than 7, they
call the measurement acidity. Otherwise they call the measurement
alkalinity.
\_ Yes. Ph = -1*log10(concentration of H+ ions) =
Ph = log10(concentration of OH- ions) +14
But the acids and bases contributing to the overall acidity
can have complicated reactions. Ph=7 = neutral
\_ Yes, 10^-14 = [H3O+][OH-]
So you see, if [H3O+] increases, [OH-] decreases, and vice versa.
If there's more [H3O+], it's acidic; more [OH-], alkaline.
-Former Chem1A/B TA
\_ It's like asking if hotness and coldness are the same thing.
They're different ways of refering to the same property, in this
case oxidation/reduction ability.
\_ Oxidation/reduction is actually different than acidity. |
| 2004/9/14 [Science, Science/Electric] UID:33514 Activity:high |
9/13 The Bush "Guard memos" are forgeries!
by former CMU professor Dr. Joseph M. Newcomer. I would expect
\_ "senior scientist" is not a professor
\_ wow, that changes everything. !op
\_ He's only an *adjunct* senior scientist.
most here would respect his credentials.
http://www.flounder.com/bush2.htm
\_ why am i reminded of the Hitler diaries? - danh
\_ Newcomer? This is a joke.
\_ Care to post your own typographical credentials? |
| 2004/9/13 [Science, Science/Electric] UID:33502 Activity:nil |
9/13 Superscript and kerning from an "expert". Notice the cute "I don't
like Bush" "disclaimer" to excuse this packet of lies...
http://www.flounder.com/bush2.htm
\_ You don't need to even read that URL. Just see the blog entry
three threads down. At least one memo is probably fake.
Don't be a dumb liberal! |
| 2004/9/8 [Science] UID:33424 Activity:nil |
9/8 OK, I think daylight-saving time is kinda stupid, but i thought of
*one* benefit in modern times. During the summer, electricity demand
spikes during the day as people run their air conditioners. There is
also an evening spike as people come home and turn on TVs, lights and
ovens. By setting clocks forward in the spring, it makes people get
home later in the 'solar day' when it is cooler. This way the 2 demand
peaks overlap less and it reduces the amount of electricity required
at peak. Anyone have some thoughts?
\_ if you can't think of any other benefit, you're a moron
\_ Jeez! Who pissed in your coffee?
\_ just go with it, dude. if this guy can start a two page
flamefest about daylight savings, i'll be deeply impressed
(not to mention entertained.)
\_ Doesn't setting the clock forward make people go home earlier?
\_ Here's my 2 cents on why I think we use DST (something I wrote to a
friend a few years ago): /tmp/daylightSavingsTime.txt. --- yuen |
| 2004/9/5-6 [Science] UID:33361 Activity:high |
9/4 Open ended question for you military guys. If the British SA agents
or the American Delta Force/Special Forces were involved in the
now Russian debacle, would it have helped the situation, given that
the special forces had better tactics, technology, and experience
in hostage situations than say, the Russian army? I mean, we've had
technology like Counter Strike to train kids as early as say, 5
for heaven's sake.
\_ Answer: you can't know. If you check the chest tags of some
of the Russians involved, you'll note "Spetsnaz", which are highly
trained for counterterrorism. The only antiterrorist operations
I can think of that went flawlessly are GSG9 storming an airliner
in Mogadishu, and the 1984 London Libyan embassy siege, along
with some major cockups in many countries. -John
\_ HEIL John! Der Spezielle Kraft Deutch Agent! HEIL!!!
\_ HAHAHAHA CS train kids?!?! CS teaches nothing about how to hold
the weapon, proper breath control, or even how to clean the
weapon (yes, that is very important). Also, look at the #s of
hostages, size of the buildings, and you can see why the Russians
sent more than one. Most SF/SWAT units do not operate in such
large numbers. In any case, 8 KIA of FSB's elite Alfa. . BTW GSG9
can no longer operate outside of Germany, KSK has taken overn.
You forgot OPeration Jonathan in Entebbe, only 1 KIA operator.
By Israeli Sayaret Matkal : alums include Benjamin Netanyahu (his
bro was the KIA in Entebbe), Ehud Barak and Danny Lewin (who died
in 9-11, co-founder,CTO of Akamai. |
| 2004/8/27 [Science] UID:33182 Activity:nil |
8/27 How does a technology such as http://NoMachine.com's "NX" eliminate X11 roundtrips? Is it just a caching technology, does it batch requests or does just make them asynchronous somehow? |
| 2004/7/24 [Science] UID:32464 Activity:high |
7/24 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2004/07/01.html From /. : just want to point out this (male) professor is hot. \_ he's okay |
| 2004/7/9-11 [Computer, Science, Academia/GradSchool] UID:32205 Activity:low |
7/9 Subject: Graduate School
A copy of your e-mail to our Admissions Office has been forwarded to
me. I will send you information about our graduate program,
however, I wanted to be sure that Crop Science was the department
you are interested in. Your e-mail indicated a bachelors in
computer science.
Please let me know if your request was directed to the right
department. |
| 2004/6/29 [Reference/Law/Court, Science, Politics/Domestic/President] UID:31059 Activity:nil |
6/29 Supreme Court rejects Internet porn law
"Holding a new trial will allow discussion of what technology, if
any, might allow adults to see and buy material that is legal for
them while keeping that material out of the hands of children.
Justices John Paul Stevens, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed with Kennedy"
(There's no pubic hair in Justice Thomas' Coke!)
\_ Given that he has heard so many trials, he must have shaven it all
while in the courtroom. |
| 2004/6/28 [Science] UID:31036 Activity:high |
6/28 our soldiers should be tagged so we can find them easily
\_ and the enemies can find them easily too?
\_ americans stick out like sore thumbs. better to
put deep implants so they wont get beheaded
\_ The enemies don't have the technology. This is a great idea,
because it also allows us to find the people who abducted them.
\_ The enemy might not have the technology to decode whatever
data the device is transmitting, but does the enemy have the
technology to detect that there is simply some radio
transmission coming out of somewhere?
\_ It depends, but I am referring to these thugs in Iraq.
I doubt they do and if they do there is no reason for
them to suspect it. Technically, they can probably
just jam the transmission but if we do not advertise
what we are doing they probably do not do this
typically. If we announce this then we are stupid. |
| 2004/6/4 [Politics, Academia/Berkeley/Classes, Science] UID:30600 Activity:kinda low |
6/4 another power outage?
\_ Not campuswide-- uclink and kalx were unaffected.
\_ nope, try again:
soda> uptime
10:56AM up 41 days, 16:31, 150 users, load averages: 7.28, 5.09, 3.08
\_ Those sounds... could be imitated! --Thufir |
| 2004/5/8-9 [Science] UID:30107 Activity:low |
5/8 How long will it be now before the US government and their corporate
allies try to force DRM style restrictions on digital cameras to
prevent them from being used in certain locations? I predict that
less than two months from now we'll start hearing about some new
buzzword that describes technology which would render digital cameras
inoperable whenever a certain local RF signal is sent with a
do-not-use code which would be available to the government and
to corporations. I predict that we'll hear about it on slashdot
but that the mainstream media will ignore it until it's already
starting to be implemented and laws are already being drafted to force
the use of the technology. What do you think?
\_ Are we letting annoying freshmans join CSUA again?
\_ We always have. The paranoia of youth is almost as charming the
paranoia of the bitter and old.
\_ We always have. The paranoia of youth is almost as charming as
the paranoia of the bitter and old.
\_ I don't know about you, but it's illegal for me to to bring any
sort of camera, digital, cell phone, or otherwise, into my work
place.
\_ heh, where I work, it's okay to bring cameras and such to work,
but you could get in trouble of you're seen taking photos
outside or on the northern part of the campus.
\_ work at the NSA?
\_ LLNL |
| 2004/4/30-5/1 [Finance/CC, Science] UID:13513 Activity:kinda low |
4/30 Given that the Fed now has huge databases about us (like the info.
all the arilines provided after 9/11 which contains address and credit
card #), would it be long before some rogue employee share it with
google, spammers, mafias, terrorists, or rogue states? And the
spammers probably have better data technology than FBI.
\_ You think the feds didn't already have your address? Uhm, duh, have
you ever paid taxes? Kids today....
\_ not me, pal. I happen to own a *large* black magic marker,
and have removed my name from all the phone books I can get
my hands on!
\_ The IRS does not have my c.c. #. |
| 2004/3/31-4/1 [Science, Politics] UID:12961 Activity:nil |
3/31 Is the difference between Prism 2.5 and 2 just the power of the
transmitter? So is 2.5 a power hog? |
| 2004/2/23 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll, Science] UID:12356 Activity:high |
2/22 Which soda user would you be most interested in reading a blog by?
On movies, social trends, politics, technology etc.
\_ it's a toss between psb and BDG. BTW, can we get whung a CSUA
account?
\_ psb? we get enough of him already.
account? \- join me and let us rule
the blogverse together --parth vader
\_ Can I still sleep with my sister?
-- BDGwalker
\_ psb? we get enough of him already. \- i dont recommed
blogging about it
\_ danh |
| 2004/2/8-9 [Science, Politics] UID:12159 Activity:nil |
2/7 Are "silver" projector screens ok for projecting images from my
laptop? (say a power point presentation or something like that)
Is white better? Does it make any difference?
\_ Most important thing to look for is lumens, the resolution
(for PPT. for other applications, res might be more important)
\_ power point? shoot yourself.
\_ Power point has it's place. I may have to deal with some
annoying things, but a boss isn't one of them, so it is a small
price to pay. How's your boss?
\_ My boss sucks cock but I never have to touch power point.
I can get a new boss. When will you stop using PP? |
| 2004/2/5 [Science, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:12113 Activity:nil |
2/5 The "have-a-baby" troll below piqued my curiosity: which countries
currently have the most advanced fertility treatment? Are they also
leaders in cloning technology?
\_ By the way, thank you for correctly spelling "piqued". We do
appreciate it.
\_ Its all about propper grammer, and, spelling.
\_ western ones. yes.
\_ I think Italy especially has loose laws about cloning/fertilization
\_ Mmmmm, loose Italian women...Mmmmm, Monica Bellucci...mmm....
\_ Not Italy. Italy is very Catholic about these things. I think
Korea is the most liberal about fertility tech.
\_ Yeah, shit, I mean, check out those mass Moonie weddings. |
| 2004/1/28 [Science] UID:11988 Activity:nil |
1/28 Trying to find out how Echelon works, the technology it uses to
filter out data (algorithm, etc), they type of database it uses
to store huge amount of data, the infrastructure, etc etc. Google
doesn't seem to help. Thanks.
\_ "Google doesn't seem to help" because it doesn't even officially
exist. obDuh! Now what I can tell you is that there are places
in other countries where government/military buildings are sitting
"just so" in line with public transmitters are almost certainly
slurping up the air waves.
\_ This stuff is all classified (why did the AMC delete this comment?) |
| 2004/1/23-24 [Science] UID:11912 Activity:nil |
1/23 What's the profile of a troll? I don't think I'm a troll
but people here think I make trollish statements.
\_ people here will apply the word "troll" to a lot of things.
\_ Motd troll: anyone who disagrees with someone else when that
anyone doesn't have a good counter statement.
\_ Anyone who posts on anything non-technology related, as sodans
are clueless and/or angry about any other subjects. Thus said
non-technology related post can only serve to incite flamewars.
\_ but can't you have technology related flamewars? geek-wars?
\_ what for? you can get more than enough of that at slashdot
and other garbage sites trolled by the ignorant masses of
wanna-be know-nothing fan-boys.
\_ we seem to have some of those here too.
\_ but we don't have to feed and encourage them. |
| 2003/12/5-6 [Science, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:11329 Activity:nil |
12/5 Bush Backdrop Generator: Fun for the Whole Family!
http://home.comcast.net/~freshlaundry/bush.html |
| 2003/11/13 [Science/GlobalWarming, Science] UID:11052 Activity:high |
11/12 Hey M16 basic-training guy -- shoot me an email; I'm interested in
finding out more about your experiences. TIA. -mice
\_ are you interested in shooting M16s? - !basic-training-guy
\_ As an end unto itself, no. Though I'm interested in hearing
about the guy's experiences in Basic, and in the Military in
general from the POV of an educated guy. I'm also interested
in the technology of the weapon system -- some of his information
general from the POV of an educated guy. I'm also interested in
the technology of the weapon system -- some of his information
contradicts information that I have which is quite reliable.
So I'm curious. -mice
\_ Thanks for the tip. -mice
\_ I recommend History Channel's Tales of the Gun
- !basic-training-guy
\_ Thanks for the tip. -mice
\_ YES! -neither
\_ You bunch of NRA fascists, get off the net! Stop voting for BushCo!
Next you'll be screaming that the 2nd amendment is all about the
government choosing who gets to have or not have a weapon to
defend themselves from the government.
\_ I'm genuinely perplexed. I'm interested because I find this
thingy called 'technology' fascinating. I also enjoy the
history surrounding the development of technology. I really
enjoyed those 'Connections' shows with James Burke when I was
growing up. The funny thing is that very few things tend to
push the technical envelope harder than weapons technologies
largely due to the restrictions placed by human limitations
(weight, physiology, etc). I realize that I'm most likely
being trolled, but it's a little hard to tell sometimes.
\_ We should push progress peacefully not by looking for better
and better ways to kill each other. We can already destroy
the planet 150,000 times over. Stop the madness!
\_ I share your point of view.
history surrounding the development of technology. I really
enjoyed those 'Connections' shows with James Burke when I was
growing up. The funny thing is that very few things tend to push
the technical envelope harder than weapons technologies largely
due to the restrictions placed by human limitations (weight,
physiology, etc). I realize that I'm most likely being trolled,
but it's a little hard to tell sometimes.
\_ I help develop geothermal and biomass powerplants. Green
energy, and all that noise. I agree with the sentiment,
but still have interest in technology.
\_ I share your point of view.
\_ Watch History's Channel "Tactical to Practical",
how military technology affects us in every day life. |
| 2003/11/11-12 [Science, Politics] UID:11031 Activity:nil |
11/11 Power question for you guys... Could bad sectors on a hard drive be
caused by an insufficient power supply? I have a good-quality 300W
buy have an athlon 1700, 3 7,200 RPM hdds, 2 optical drives, and a
GeForce FX 5600. Am I pushing for a brownout?
\_ I don't think that would cause bad sectors but anything's possible.
Check the power consumption specs for your devices and add up the W.
Just a guestimate: (20*5)+75+50+20=245 you're getting close to 300W.
(disk*5)+CPU+Video+mobo/etc=total
\_ Yes. Insufficient or poorly regulated power can cause HDD problems. |
| 2003/10/27-28 [Science, Politics] UID:10807 Activity:low |
10/27 I am looking for one Cal Berkeley "True Blue" t-shirt w/ the Power
Bar logo on the back. These were given out for free to student's
who bought the CAL football season ticket. Offering $15 OBO.
Please email eyip. Thx.
\_ is this not the same shirt you can buy for $13 on http://calbears.com?
\_ No, that one doesnt have the red Power Bar logo in the back.
\_ ok, why you're so insistent on having a corporate logo
on your back is beyond me, but good luck in your search
\_ he's a slave to the Man. |
| 2003/10/9 [Science] UID:10550 Activity:nil |
10/9 I just want to say the technology behind OSes is cool.
Reading about some the cool shit that is done behind the scenes
make me intellectually wet.
\_ really? try reading an abstract or linear algebra book sometime.
\_ nerds
\_ No no no, its NEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDS!!!!!!
(with a bit of gutteral growling in the lower register of
the "E" sounds)
\_ Yeah, especially the http://BeEmployed.NET (TM) technology that Micro$oft
engineers invented which creates security holes in the OS at run-
time periodically. |
| 2003/9/4 [Science] UID:10075 Activity:nil |
9/4 Is pam (pluggable auth modules) a worthwhile technology? All I
ever see are fixes for it, and it seems hard to implement.
\_ i prefer secure pam.
\_ looks like spam. Heh. Ok I'll stay outa booze. |
| 2003/7/30 [Science, Politics] UID:29186 Activity:nil |
7/30 Damned chocolate power bars. So nasty.
\_ The "power" part should've clued you in with regards to taste. |
| 2003/7/21 [Science] UID:29086 Activity:nil 75%like:29044 |
7/14 NBT Technology is now looking for good QA Engineers:
/csua/pub/jobs/NBTTech
crack user was here
(used your gf's crack) |
| 2003/7/15-20 [Science] UID:29044 Activity:nil 75%like:29086 |
7/14 NBT Technology is now looking for good QA Engineers:
/csua/pub/jobs/NBTTech
emacs user was here |
| 2003/6/10 [Science, Politics] UID:28695 Activity:nil |
6/10 aaron, why do you misuse your power at Google? Have you no ethics?
\_ what is the point of having power, if you can't misuse it? -!aaron
\_ google has no power.
\_ why are you wasting time trolling me --aaron
\_ what did he do? |
| 2003/4/24-25 [Health/Men, Science] UID:28212 Activity:very high |
4/24 It seems to me that, ultimately, there are only three
applications of technological research: consumer use,
health advancement, and military. I'm wondering if there
are any other ones?
\_ use in science and further technology developement.
\_ uh... industrial use?
\_ Agricultural use.
\_ Entertainment. It seems to me, that, ultimately, every aspect of
society can benefit from applications of technological research.
\_ Viagra falls into scientific discovery and entertainment.
\_ I went to Viagra Falls once... its so beautiful |
| 2003/4/21 [Science/Electric, Science] UID:28178 Activity:very high |
4/20 I have a 3 year old computer and the power supply fan just
started making much more noise. Is this a fire hazard?
Will something bad happen to my computer or is it just noisy?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
\_ Pabst fans. Very high quality, very quiet. -John
\_ It means that your fan is getting dirty. If you don't clean out
your fan and just let it run, it'll continue to make more and more
noise as time goes by. It is a fire hazard if your fan ever fails,
then your powersupply will overheat and potentially damage your
computer's innards. I've had this happen to me once on a cheapie
server, and I've seen this happen a couple of times when power
supplies have failed on my customers' computers.
The chance of that happening depends on the quality of the power
supply, but is usually rare. The chance that it affects the
lifetime of your power supply is common, since the dust coats
everything in your powersupply, and if you don't clean it out
every year or so it becomes like insulation.
I generally like to clean out my fans and the vents every once in
a while. It just is really annoying in general to use a computer with
an overly loud fan anyway.
\_ I have an old P-75 I use as a router. The fan started making
noise several years ago and I used to stick wads of paper in it
to make it stop. Now the fan doesn't run at all; the box still
runs fine with no fan, but a computer that old probably doesn't
produce much heat.
\_ Forgive me, but what sort of twisted freak logic encouraged
you to stick kindling in an overheating electrical
appliance? I'm not trying to flame, it worked and
everything, but what the fuck were you thinking?
\_ yah, this puzzles me also. it's like, putting a bullet
in someone's brain cuz they have a bellyache. not to mention
the fire hazard, etc. Please elucidate, P75-router-guy....
\_ hmm, i removed the fan from my hard drive bay unit
because it was noisy. am i dumb too?
\_ Yes. Absolutely. No question about it.
\_ Thanks for the info. Just one more question: how do you clean
the power supply fan? I removed the power supply from the
machine but the fan is encased in the power supply. Also,
the power supply has a sticker which says "THIS PART IS NOT
USER SERVICABLE DUE TO RISK OF ELECTRIC SHOCK." Thanks. --op
\_Obviously unplug the power supply before servicing. You need
to dissassembly the powersupply, which is easily do-able with
a phillips head screwdriver. Once you have the cover off you
want to use either a small vacuum or compressed air to clean
out the power supply. If the fan needs deeper cleaning or
needs to be replaced, you need to unscrew the fan from the
outer casing. There is also a 4 pin power plug you need to disconnect
so that you can remove the whole unit. Once that is done you can
easily clean the fan. Make sure you are able to clean the bearings
which is not easy to do. You may also want to inject some
lubricant such as silicon gel to smooth out the bearings.
If the fan is so old or gunky that the
blade wheel is spinning off kilter, get yourself a new fan.
This usually means that the bearings or washer (some of these
cheapie fans don't even have bearings) has gone bad. No amount
of cleaning is going to save that.
And I can't stress this enough, MAKE SURE YOU CLEAN THE VENTS.
I don't know how many people go through the trouble of cleaning
a PS and forget to do that then complain that the thing gunks up
after only a couple of weeks.
If this sounds too complicated for you, get yourself a new
power supply if the original is one of those cheapie ones.
And yes, you are on borrowed time if you don't properly ventilate
a power supply, opposite of what the fellow who stuck paper into
his powersupply might say. Just FYI, power supply problems are
probably the leading cause of electronic equipment failure. The
worst part is that a bad supply leads to other failures, especially
on cheapie PCBs which use inferior parts.
One more thing, if you are savvy enough (which you probably aren't)
check the caps in your powersupply. If any of them don't look right
you can jerr-rig a multimeter to see if they're still good. The
first things to go in a powersupply are the caps. Since I deal with
Sun boxes, it's worth it to my customers to get the powersupply
fixed vs. use-and-throw.
\_ You're talking to CSUAers here. They are professional fan
cleaners. This task is not for the weak of weak or other
non-professionals lacking in critical computing skills.
\_ Very useful reply. Thank you.
\_ goto http://endpcnoise.com buy a Nexus PSU. quiet, clean power.
\_ One thing with opening up the PS case is that there will be
electricity left in the capacitators, and it can shock you.
Unplugging the computer from the wall and then turning it on can
help dissipate it before you crack the case. |
| 2003/1/8-9 [Science] UID:27033 Activity:low |
1/8 I was in a medical office recently, and saw that they had screens
that could only be viewed straight-on, and looked totally blurry
from all other angles. What is the name of this technology?
I want to know how it works, but don't even know what to search
under.
\_ I don't know what it's called, but you've been able to buy
privacy screens that tack onto monitors for a long time now. -John
\_ It's called cheap old LCD's
\_ I was gunna say that.
\_ If it's a screen filter in front of a regular CRT monitor, it just
has some microscopic honeycomb grids. It works the same way as the
metal grids instaled on the center dividers of some freeways. I
metal grids installed on the center dividers of some freeways. I
don't know what the technology is called either. |
| 2002/10/22-23 [Science, Politics] UID:26281 Activity:kinda low |
10/22 Anyone know about the power outage in Berkeley?
\_ yeah, the power went out. i think its back now. |
| 2002/9/25-26 [Science, Politics] UID:26004 Activity:nil |
9/25 bad times for Bell Labs:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Lucent-Bell-Labs.html
This is just sad, although I think the editorial staff at Science
and Nature share some small part of the culpability. |
| 2002/6/25-26 [Science, Politics] UID:25192 Activity:moderate |
6/24 http://www.geekissues.org/quotes/?top --jon \_ DAMN YOU JON! I was trying to get work done today, too. DAMN YOU. |
| 2002/3/27 [Science, Science/Space] UID:24244 Activity:high |
3/27 Big Brother is coming:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1859000/1859699.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1869000/1869457.stm
\_ america has plenty of gun owners. if you really want to
be prepared to fight tyrrany, learn microwave engineering.
\_ Microwave engineering? Say what?
\_ That's right. When the soldiers come, they're going to
want to eat food. And when they try to use your cleverly
built microwave -- BOOM! -geordan
\_ my point was that many of these big brother type
technologies could be easily thwarterd by someone who
has a basic knowledge of electronics above a GHz.
if the evil governmnent is better armed then you,
your only hope is to be able to hack their technology,
which is within your grasp as an electrtical engineer.
and they *are* better armed than you.
\_ And cryptography.
\_ Picture Jack Boot Thugs(tm) twisting your arm with gun in
your face telling you to unencrypt all your shit or they send
you to the gulag to sit in solitary darkness for the rest of
your miserable life. You'll have the rats to keep you
company and provide additional protein to add to your gruel
if you're tough enough to kill one.
\_ if it is that important, you have split keys.
they then have to go after N people. -phil
\_ you'll all be in the gulag together. good plan. it is
certain *you*'ll be in the gulag until they round up the
others and either way you're not getting out since some
one just committed a gross violation of human rights.
It's safer to just kill you and dump your corpse with
the others. |
| 2002/3/14 [Science] UID:24109 Activity:high |
3/13 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/business/2849637.htm Valley teens lacking interest in high tech jobs, study says. \_ Except for asian boys (ie future cal eng. grads). \_ those not interested in technology think "the work seemed boring or intimidating" \_ "Asian students were most likely to be interested in technology careers. They were also the most likely to have parents working in technical careers." Talk about self fueled stereotype. \_ Yeah much better to fight the stereotype and all be slackers! \_ You know what? High tech jobs ARE boring and intimidating. Most of them involve long hours and dick sucking politicking. \_ What do you have against sucking dick? \_ Oh? You know of a high paying job that doesn't involve long hours and politics? Care to reveal the secret? \_ doctor? \_ What? Short hours? High pay? Think HMO controlled fee structure, many years of school, high debt, and then you get to work for peanuts in a hospital doing 36 hour shifts for a year or two until you can finally get your license. I'd rather be a tech, thanks. \_ also, i *like* the people i work with, and most doctors i've met are fucking arogant moron assholes. \_ And probably arrogant, too! \_ And they have big egos! |
| 2002/3/10-4/1 [Science] UID:24064 Activity:nil |
03/08 Campus wide electricity failure Thursday March 7th 5:00pm.
Soda Hall electricity was restored at about 6.00pm Friday.
Network connectivity was restored Saturday Morning. -mikeh |
| 2001/11/29 [Science, Politics] UID:23137 Activity:nil |
11/28 We just had a power surge in our company building. All the PCs
rebooted while none of the Sparcs/Irixes did, even though they were
all randomly plugged into various power outlets via surge protectors.
Amazing. |
| 2001/5/23 [Science, Politics] UID:21329 Activity:nil |
5/22 Why is there a power shortage you ask? Well, it seems that maybe
the power companies are holding out on us:
http://www.latimes.com/business/reports/power/lat_suit010518.htm
\_ Not a bad troll.
\_ Nah, this is crap from last Friday. Read the article. It makes
it clear from other state level officials that the power plant
people were always helpful and friendly. She's just a political
hack. If you're going to troll, the article shouldn't contradict
your by-line.
\_ Not all the power plant operators were friendly. Some of the
out of state ones have been going off line whenever stage 1
is reached. |
| 2001/4/6 [Science, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:20888 Activity:nil |
08/28 Like 3D graphics? On September 6th at 7pm in 306 Soda, NVIDIA engineers
will talk about 3D graphics technology, games, and more. And if that
doesn't interest you, there will be free food! Be there. |
| 2001/2/14-15 [Science/Electric, Science] UID:20590 Activity:moderate |
2/13 Costco's selling a 6000W power generator for only $500. Maybe I'll
buy one and put it in the backyard and sell the excess electricity
to my neighbor. Does anyone know how much it is to generate your
own electricity?
\_ the fuel is more expensive than your power bill, per watt.
also, typical houses get 20-40 KW service, and 6 KW
isn't going to handle much. a real hair dryer can use >1KW.
\_ It isn't about running your whole house. Just making sure you
can still run your home network to code and play LAN q3a after
the Coming Fall Of Civilization.
\_ That's why I have a sat. uplink. Don't want to depend
on telcos for internet access after Civilization collapses.
\_ which Costco? they don't have anything that cheap on their
website. |
| 2001/1/20 [Science, Politics] UID:20388 Activity:nil |
1/20 Monkey to take power today.
\_ Curious George? |
| 2001/1/18 [Science, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:20362 Activity:nil |
1/18 What's the job environment look like for technology professionals?
Is it as hot as it was last year, or have things started cooling
down?
\_ market still hot, as always, but the dotcoms layoffs have created
(temporarily) more supply so quality now counts.
\_ dotcoms != technology. If you're in technology you're
probably ok for the long run. If you're a "dotcommer" better
start getting that English degree and learning to say
"Would you like anything else with those fries?"
Same goes for information non-technology. |
| 2000/11/7 [Science] UID:19666 Activity:nil |
11/6 http://www.theonion.com/onion3636/counterpoint_technology.html |
| 2000/8/30-9/8 [Science, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:19124 Activity:nil 77%like:19117 |
08/28 Like 3D graphics? On September 6th at 7pm in 306 Soda, NVIDIA engineers
will talk about 3D graphics technology, games, and more. And if that
doesn't interest you, there will be free food! Be there. |
| 2000/8/28-29 [Science, Computer/SW/Graphics] UID:19117 Activity:nil 77%like:19124 |
08/28 Like 3D graphics? On September 6th in 306 Soda, NVIDIA engineers will
talk about 3D graphics technology, games, and more. And if that doesn't
interest you, there will be free food! Be there.
The uncensored messages below this line may not reflect opinions of the CSUA. |
| 2000/8/19-21 [Science, Politics] UID:19047 Activity:nil |
8/19 How do i disable the front power button on an Ultra 5?
But I still want the green power light to work.
\_ Open it up, and pull the red wire. |
| 2000/7/17-18 [Science, Computer/Theory] UID:18699 Activity:very high |
7/17 i think micro$oft's new language should be called C-
to match the grade i got in cs164 -- Social-Science Major
\_ WTF were you taking cs164 for as a fuzzy major?
\_ To take space away from an EECS major? BTW I didnt
really get a C-, but it's a better post that way.
The major is only fuzzy because Math, CS and Bio havent
figured it out yet.
\_ Anything that needs to add the word "Science" to it's
description probably isn't. Yes, including computer
science. -cognitive science alum
\_ Amen to that. Computer science is either math or
engineering, depending on which side you're on. And
cognitive science, is, of course, bullshit.
\_ No, Cog Sci is either linguistics or neuro anatomy.
Don't judge it from the cogsci 5 course you took.
-cog sci alum
\_ I am judging from CogSci100, CogSci101, and
CogSci110 courses I took. Linguistics is
all seem to warship at berkeley?
either bullshit or linguistics. 110/115 series
or the 130's. Neuro anatomy is neuro anatomy
and those who call it cogsci are simply trying
to cover the rest of cogsci's bare ass.
-- original poster
\_ oh, yeah? which of those is the idioitic
arguments of that anti-AI crusader who you
all seem to worship at berkeley?
\_ Wow, and this wasn't even me. -- ilyas
\_ I don't "warship" John Searle. He's a
pompous arrogant ass who has nothing to do
with anything. -cog sci alum
\_ I don't like John Searle NOR George Lakoff,
and yet I loved being CogSci at CAL. - Marco
\_ At least Lakoff wasn't an asshole
like Searle even if you don't like
his lecture materials. What'd you
not like about him?
\_ warship? We have a warship? Let's put our
football team on it and sail to Palo Alto.
\_ We have a speeling disfunkshun. |
| 2000/5/26-27 [Computer/SW/P2P, Science] UID:18345 Activity:high |
5/25 set lARS Ulrich on Napster fire.
http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/05/26/1251220.shtml
\_ English speak go need you to school good yes?
\_ which part of his simple sentence confused your
fancy book-learned little head?
\_ i think what he means is that guy just sounds dumb. he starts
off ok but then starts rambling a bit in fragments, and starting
one sentence and then jumping to another. DUHeeeeeeerrrrr!:
Lars trying to speak (typical sentence):
I mean, I can just barely ...
I know how to get onto AOL, and I will say
that I have used AOL a couple of times to check some hockey scores.
Lars trying to speak again
And I believe, and the people that we talk to about this, we believe,
that the minute some of these companies become active,
when they basically come to a point that they become fully
funcitonal, we believe that there will be technology and a
way to go after them in the way they can invent this technology
and make it untraceable. We believe that as quickly as
they can make it untraceable And I believe, and the people that
we believe that you can find a way to fuck with it, and we
have already heard about different ways of doing that.
So I think it's clear that there is nothing that
people can talk about for the future that becomes bulletproof.
I can see what he's trying, but man, it's damn ugly grammatically...
\_ People, give Lars a break. Drug induced coma in which he likely
spends most of his time aside, most people don't speak in complete
grammatical sentences in everyday speech, and this interview is
an unedited transcript of a phone interview. -- ilyas
\_ Tell us of the stars....
\_ Yeah, he's lucky he can use a phone. Imagine if he had
tried to type this up on his AOL account. And uhm, no, I
don't really understand where he's trying to go when he
talks about the future and untraceable technology. I'm
not sufficiently drugged to enter his zone of understanding.
LARS IS A DRUMMER. Other than dpetrou, how many rock drummers
do you know who have any brains?
\_ Hi, Paolo |
| 2000/4/26 [Science] UID:18114 Activity:nil |
4/25 What is the recent Jefferson Starship song with the music of "White
Rabbit", but lyrics about technology? |
| 1999/7/29-8/3 [Science, Politics] UID:16194 Activity:nil |
07/23 A power failure in the north east side of campus caused soda, scotch,
and other CSUA machines to fail today; delays in reactivating an
unhappy power conditioner prolonged the downtime. "We apologize for
the inconvenience" -brg |
| 1999/6/15-16 [Science] UID:15962 Activity:moderate |
6/16 I love technology. A co-workers sends a group email, then goes
around to each of our cubicles to tell everyone he sent an email.
\_ That guy was a dumbass. |
| 1999/2/3-5 [Science] UID:15355 Activity:nil |
2/3 http://www.patents.ibm.com/cgi-bin/viewpat.cmd/5163447 Can I get one that plays mood music? \_ Black Magic Woman |
| 1998/10/5 [Science, Politics] UID:14733 Activity:nil |
10/4 By the power of Grayskull!!!
\_at least put some real humor here little boyz |
| 1998/9/10 [Science/Space, Science] UID:14569 Activity:moderate |
9/10 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is looking for Bachelor's, Master's
and Ph.D. graduates in all majors for our Information Technology
division. If you are smart, motivated, and interested in solving
business problems through technology, MSDW IT may be the place
for you! Attend our info session to find out more:
when: Monday, September 14
4:30pm - 6:30pm
where: The Faculty Club - The Howard Room
Datails available at:
<DEAD>csua/~prashant/MSDW/recruiting.html<DEAD>
\_ I am even better than smart.I am DAMN GOOD.
\_ DAMN GOOD works... it's almost a requirement! -- prashant
\_ Eekgad. They must have a Y2k problem. Yet another sign that
Alan Greenspan is the MOST powerful person on earth.
\_ Who doesn't... ours seems to be under control...
I doubt that any CSUA alum would end up in Y2K!
(Morgan Stanley's been recruiting from all majors
for quite a few years now.) -- prashant |
| 1998/4/16 [Recreation/Dating, Science, Politics] UID:13972 Activity:high |
4/16 Power Nipples.
\_ freaky-huge!
\_ Help! I am pussy whipped by my gf with power nipples, what can
I do? |
| 1998/3/25 [Science, Computer/SW/Languages/C_Cplusplus] UID:13858 Activity:nil |
3/24 International Semiconductor Technology is looking for Java/C/C++
programmers. Nowhere do I see jobs where I'm more appropriate, and this
is true with a lot of companies nowadays. What the hell is going on?!?!?
\_ You've become irrelevant. Report to your nearest re-education
camp to be re-engineered to new core competencies.
\_ Will going to grad school just for a year or two and get an MS
help?
\_ That's a waste of time and money. Yeah go ahead.
\_ Only if you learn something there. |
| 1996/10/28 [Science, Science/GlobalWarming] UID:31962 Activity:nil |
10/27 Hey! It's our own cdaveb! On the back page of the Business/Technology
section of the Sunday SF Chron/Ex! Go buy a copy now!
\_ Was she cute?
\_ Yes, and so is her husband. -- Marco (-8
\_ She was interviewed, not pictured, since unlike sexist pigs
such as you, others realize she is an intelligent person with
something interesting to say, no matter what she may or may
not look like. -- a soda male who has no idea what she
looks like, but knows what type of person she is via walls
\_ No one in real life is like they are on walls.
\_ Speaking from experience, she has poor taste in cuisine,
art, and music, and her technology skills are rudimentary
at best. - psb
\_ "Speaking from experience"? Are you courting my
wife? - Mr. cdaveb
\_Partha's just jealous he isn't in the paper
\_ If style, grace, charm, wit, social skills, and technology
skills summed to a constant, I would fear Mr. Psb as
a programmer. Gee, Cari managed to graduate and
get a real job in under four years. -ekim
\_ and partha is our resident Martha Stewart
\_ partha, go pick on the xcf instead. leave
cari alone. --chris
\_ cuisine, art & music are all personal preference - what
you consider poor, others may love - and at least
she's not afraid of computers, she may not be an
expert, but learning UNIX, perl, html, etc.
makes her much more computer-literate than
99% of americans
\_ Unfortunately, this is not a difficult achievement
\_ for csua members, no - go hang out with
people in the real world - non-technical
types and realize just how stupid the
average american really is these days
\_ neither is having more clue than partha |
| 1996/9/29 [Science, Industry/Jobs] UID:31908 Activity:nil |
9/26 Co-op position for spring semester for a cs major who is familiar with
visual basic and excel. Not a buff job, but good for a first time
intern experience. Oh, yeah, the company is HMT Technology.
Mail me if you're interested. -corinney |
| 1994/12/15 [Science, Politics] UID:31675 Activity:nil |
12/14 Someone just stole a back pack from an office in Soda and tried to
steal a power book from another office, but unfortunately got away.
Please be alert to any strangers in the building.
The thief actually walked into an office where someone was working
and picked up the power book. It was retrieved but the person got
away. If you see anyone who looks suspicious, don't give chase but
\_ shoot them, then
call the campus police immediately at 2-6760. - cogan |
| 1994/3/6 [Science, Computer/SW/Security] UID:31503 Activity:nil |
3/6 New cryptology advance renders DES _insecure_. Read sci.crypt for
more info. Basically a machine like soda can break a 10 char crypt
in about 8 hours. This has SERIOUS security ramifications.
\_This technology is not that new. The U.S. government has not
allowed DES for use with classified documents for years. This would
imply that the government has cracked DES long ago. If the
civilian population has been able to crack it too, I would not
be surprised.
\_Yeah, and I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you, ya twink.
\_Nice try.
\_ Actually, I'm not the owner of the account of the person who
wrote this. I broke into his account using the new super-duper
technology fu thingy.
\_ DES never was secure. They've had DES-cracking LSI chips for at
least a year that simply do an exhaustive search of the key-space
really fast. |
| 1993/4/10 [Science, Politics] UID:31265 Activity:nil |
4/9 Massive campus power failure from 7:15 to about 11:30 hoses lots
of things. Soda didn't come up properly; one disk didn't power up
and scrambled all the mount entries for the rest of the partitions.
This made entire users directories appear gone. This has been rectified.
Everything seems to have survived this ordeal relatively intact... -ERic |
| 11/26 |