Archive for May, 2007

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Would you like some Benzene with that air?

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

I’ve talked about chemicals in tobacco smoke before, and this chemical, benzene is a toxic by-product of smoking cigarettes and has many bad qualities. Before I hear the nay sayer in the back row, I know everyone is exposed to benzene on a daily basis, even our body produces very, very small amounts of it. I’m talking about large amounts of benzene.

If a chemical company spills 10 pounds of benzene, they must let the EPA know! This is a serious chemical that hurts your health in serious ways, and half of the exposure in the United States to benzene comes from just one activity: smoking tobacco. Yes, I’m fully aware that cars put off benzene, but you’re taking it out of proportion. Being in a room with a smoker, or heaven forbid, being the smoker, you are getting a _LOT_ of benzene.

So, before you light up your next smoke… take stock of what you’re really putting in your body besides a pesticide.
If you want to quit, you must become aware of what you are doing, if you intend to stick with it.

Posted in Chantix, Health, Quit Smoking, Smoking, Tobacco, Varenicline | No Comments »

Ignorant smokers

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Apparently, if you search google for ignorant smokers, I show up in the #2 link. Believe it or not, many people don’t search that way.

I just want to set the record straight. I’m not calling you stupid, just ignorant. My thoughts are you probably qualify as one of these things:

1. You are killing yourself and enjoying it
2. You deny you are killing yourself
3. You won’t take medicine for your depression ‘you are a natural guy’
This is not directed at one person. It’s a really, really, common smoker excuse.
4. You believe smoking keeps you razor sharp
5. You think smoking makes you work better
6. You think second hand smoke couldn’t affect your children

If you won’t take the time, read my blog, make a better judgement for you life, maybe you are like one of my friends.

You want to die, but Russian Roulette is too messy. In that case, you are not ignorant, you are well informed, and are making the right judgment.

As my friend just reminded me, I’m not saying you are ignorant if you are aware that smoking kills more people than any other drug, legal or not, and don’t believe it. If you believe it, and know it kills, has a good chance of killing you: congrats, you’re not ignorant.

Posted in Blindness, Smoking, Tobacco | No Comments »

Will Chantix make acid reflux worse?

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

Will Chantix make acid reflux worse?
Honest questions are hard to come by, and this is one of them. I can say that in my case, Chantix caused midsection pain, with increased reflux/heartburn. The fix was simple: different forms of antacids from the doctor who prescribed the Chantix. The same rules apply here, if the doctor gives you a medicine to take, it’s because there is no other option.

In the end, your stomach will feel better, as nicotine has a way of relaxing your lower sphincter of your esophagus. Once you are off nicotine, your reflux might actually go away! So stick to the path you’ve chosen. Your whole body will thank you soon for quitting, however unlikely it might seem now.

Remember, you’re now on 1 chemical, and off 4,000+ others. There is no comparison in the health benefits.

Posted in Chantix, Quit Smoking, Smoking, Tobacco, Varenicline | No Comments »

Where oh where is _Why?

Wednesday, May 30th, 2007

I’ve posted about HacketyHack before, and I believe it’s a wonderful tool that will no dbout grow to a huge fanbase. But Holy Smokes Batman, something is wrong at the Batcave!

I wonder what’s wrong? This all started as a problem with the shared programs, not being able to well… share them.
Let’s hope that _Why gets back from dreamland, or at least back home and gets the problem fixed. I was hoping to get more lessons, and especially past lesson 5a sometime soon.

5/31/07- 500 server error is gone, but the shared programs do not work. It’s a really neat feature that needs fixed!

Posted in Programming, Ruby | No Comments »

I do have two cents, and two cores

Tuesday, May 29th, 2007

I’m a Python developer, dabble in Ruby, run FreeBSD on over 20 machines, plus I like to boot Ubuntu once after Saturday in order to still prove that Linux trumps Windows any given ‘Sunday’.

When I see articles like this on parallelism, I wonder if they really know why there can’t be more split work on threading. Intel given compilers aside, there is only so much extra work that can be divided among threads before there is too much overhead involved in the processing of said work.

In the end, you can call octacores the end of all, or you can wonder what the world will be like when you have 200 terabytes on board, with your 80 core machine running on an 8 gigabit connection. We simply don’t know what to split all those tasks into, let alone the system being able to reach any efficiency about it.

Posted in FreeBSD, Intel, Programming, Python, Ruby, Teraflop | No Comments »

More Joost invites as always

Sunday, May 27th, 2007

Don’t have Joost yet? I’ve still got a ton of Joost invites. Leave a comment for an invite!

Posted in Play | 2 Comments »

Talk about no forethought with CCP

Saturday, May 26th, 2007

I like EVE. I play many MMORPGS, and the space aspect has always been one of my favorites. I loved Homeworld, still upset they won’t be making another one, let alone a MMORPG version.

EVE, with all the CCP rumors and crap flying around has hit me with another line of junk.

Back in March, I got an email stating that I could 7 free days to reactivate my account with no payment required. I put it off, since I had looked VERY CLOSE at the email, there was no expiration. There has been recent news on Slashdot concerning CCP, so I had some feelings coming to the surface for a good game of EVE, so I decided to take them up on the offer.

Guess what?
Your account is not eligible for re-activation offer at this time.

  • Your account may not be suspended.
  • The re-activation offer may be expired.
  • Your account may already have taken advantage of this offer

I’ve sent an email to support, let’s see what they do about this. I’ve got copies of the email in question. If they deny my reactivation, I’ll post the email, including evidence I simply cannot have forged.

Update 5/28/07:
Still no word from CCP Customer Service. So we have strike #1. They don’t answer email within 48 hours, even for a customer.

Update 5/29/07:
After the Memorial Day weekend, I guess they verified my email offer, and I now have the 7 day trial. On another note, CCP has appropriately answered the new allegations. I’m satisfied with their answer, that’s for sure.

Posted in Business Practices, Disclaimer, Eve, Play, mmorpg | No Comments »

Ubuntu will finally swarm

Thursday, May 24th, 2007

I’m a big fan of Ubuntu. I’ve been on some form of Linux since at least Slackware was big. I’ve tried many times to at least get a few customers of mine interested in Linux, but it’s always shot down since apparently customers know how to ‘fix’ windows 98, me, 2000 and XP.

I’d disagree with the fact that customers know how to fix most of the windows problems, and Ubuntu/Linux puts them in just the same boat. So it’s really nice to see that Dell is at least saying “Hey, if you want to save some money, come and get it”. Most computer stores, including the one I work for, refuses to do so, even though (imho) more support and help is available for free than with Vista.

Posted in Blindness, Business Practices, Linux, Ubuntu | No Comments »

Get all Hackety

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

I’m a big why fan, and there are a number of reasons for that distinction. I was finally getting around to reading my blogs again. I found out via redhanded that he has focused himself into a new project called hacketyhack.

I thought tryruby was his best work. I think I’m going to be swaying my vote a bit :)

Posted in Ruby | No Comments »

Does chantix make cigarettes taste bad?

Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007

Does chantix make cigarettes taste bad?

From this month’s search log comes this question.

Well Timmy, I can’t tell you that like some other products that purport to make smoking taste bad, I can tell you that from my personal knowledge, no. Chantix makes cigarettes taste like they really do: bad.

Cigarettes taste bad, but then again if you do any illicit drugs, they taste bad until you are addicted, then you like the taste. I compare it to beer really. Beer tastes bad until you like getting drunk off of it, then you move on to others that taste different.

So in my abbreviated opinion, Chantix makes cigarettes taste what they really are: burnt Tobacco.

Posted in Chantix, Health, Quit Smoking, Smoking, Varenicline | No Comments »

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