Slashback: Bugfixed, Attribution, Atkins

Slashback brings you another flurry of updates (below) on the recently reported Mozilla security leak, the Greek gaming ban (you'll never guess), the mega-hour TiVO mod mentioned earlier today, the long-term healthiness of the Atkins Diet, and more. Read on for the details.

Go ahead and get this one out of the way. Seth Scali writes: "The decision last week that ruled the Greek ban on video games as unconstitutional has been overturned, and a new trial has been ordered. Story from TheRegister is here. Don't take your GBA on that trip to Athens just yet ..."

It takes a strong man. Reader edrock200 submitted the story about a TiVO mod which could expand system capacity to more than 1000 hours of recording. The story as shown says that 9thTee is the card's developer; edrock200 corrects this "'The QuadCard, like the AirNet and TurboNet adapters also sold through 9thTee, were developed by a TiVo user named Nick Kelsey (known as 'jafa' on the TiVo Community Forum.) 9thTee is the distributor - though I don't want to take anything away from them, they have been remarkably supportive of the TiVo community and they deserve kudos for taking the financial risks of selling these add-ons.'

'It is truly amazing what Nick has been able to do with his electronics expertise.'"

Thanks for the clarification!

The Lizard sleeps with one eye open. An anonymous reader writes "MozillaZine have updated their article on the recently reported minor security bug in Mozilla [Note Slashdot posting]with the news that a fix has been completed. The bug allowed the webmaster of a site to find out where a user went after their site. The fix means that there are again no known security bugs in Mozilla. Presumably, updates to Mozilla-based browsers (Netscape, Galeon, Chimera etc.) will follow."

What about the all-shrimp-and-chili-paste diet? Schlemphfer writes "A few months back, Slashdot featured a NY Times story that talked about the Atkins diet in glowing terms. This week, the Times has published a Jane Brody article raising serious questions about whether Atkins-style diets are dangerous and unsustainable. Brody is one of the most prominent and respected nutrition journalists, so it's worthwhile to read her take on the matter. Brody's article, which cites some important new research, may be an eye-opening read for Slashdot readers who took the plunge with Atkins back in July." (The NYT requires free registration.)

Suddenly everyone is in deadly earnest. Ian Cumming was one of several people to write with evidence of smileys predating the smileys unearthed by Mike Jones of Microsoft Research. He forwarded an informative message from Brian Dear of Birdrock Ventures, which reads in part:

"On the PLATO system, emoticons were much richer -- made using multiple characters displayed on top of each other. It was possible to type, say, a single character, then press SHIFT-space (which moved the cursor exactly one space backwards), then type another character. The second would display on top of the first. You could keep doing this for multiple characters and create many different faces, beer glasses, martini glasses, all kinds of things. And people peppered their emails and notesfile (PLATO's newsgroups) postings with them all the time."

And what is the PLATO system? The short version is this: PLATO was (is) an education-centered computer system developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Luckily for you, Dear is writing a book about PLATO. His site is fascinating, and the book promises to be as well. Here is a page showing the richness of PLATO emoticons.

Reader Grant Barrett also writes: "The earliest (not first: you can never precisely say which was first) recorded smiley in print discovered so far was found by etymologist and word researcher Barry Popik who posted this message to the email list of the American Dialect Society. He discusses the yellow smiley face which everyone knows, but this particular smiley is the familiar punctuation-based emoticon. (On a side note, he has uncovered some evidence that Harvey Ball *did not* invent the familiar yellow-faced smiley.)"

That reference puts the typographic smiley all the way back to 1953, and as Barrett mentions, was in print rather than online. He also points out that "ESR's Jargon File cites a 'rival claim by Kevin McKenzie, who seems to have proposed the smiley on the MsgGroup mailing list, April 12 1979.'"

But there's only one groove per side ... To all those who thought that the optical-scanning method for playing vinyl was an elaborate joke, note that you can download the creator's code if you'd like. This is not the easy way to do things, but is one way.

Comments

Charting progress

[DarthVeda]

I've been keeping track of my progress since July 13th on Atkins and as of today I am 41 pounds lighter. How about that? Nutritionalists be damned...

Re:Charting progress

[slashmo]

Well... since I don't know how much you weigh(ed) and what kind of general shape you were in, I don't really have enough information, but I wonder whether you know enough about your "progress." For instance, of the 41 pounds you lost, how much was water, muscle, and fat? How much and what kind of exercise have you been doing daily? For how long do you intend to follow this way of eating? What will happen if/when you begin eating carbohydrates again? You can damn as many nutritionists as you'd like, but unless you protect your lean body mass (muscle) by exercising strenuously and regularly, anything like the amount of loss you reported will result in a terrible, catastrophic dive in your metabolic rate which will result in a fatter body than you had when you began, and future efforts to lose fat will be much more difficult. Be careful.

plato story

[rvr]

Back in the 80s I was going to UofAlberta and I stumbled upon the plato system. I tired it out a few times and it seemed pretty neat. I remember wondering why I had not heard of it before.

One time I was doing some medical simulation. I remember that I had a patient and no matter what I did he didn't seem to be doing better. I recognized all the medical terms except one so I tried it. I selected Lumbar Puncture and man did his vitals ever drop fast! He was the only patient that died under my care. Actually the correct procedure was to immediately transfer him to a hospital at a major centre.

I've lost fifteen pounds with Protein Power

[goingware]

A similar diet to Atkins, but probably not so radical, is Protein Power. I've been on this for a few months, but haven't been completely faithful to it.

I've lost fifteen pounds, and am still losing weight. I also have stopped having attacks of hypoglycemia, which used to happen almost every day.

The diet emphasizes low carbohydrate (max 30 grams a day - I can eat half an english muffin a day, and that's about it), and moderately high protein, but really emphasizes eating lots more vegetables.

They don't pretend that it's balanced nutrition, and explicitly say that one must take vitamin and mineral supplements, which I do.

Once I lose all the weight I want, I can increase the amount of carbo I eat, but I don't think I ever want to go back to the level of carbohydrate intake I used to have - a couple of cans of Coca Cola Classic a day along with a heaping plate of spaghetti.

I've tried low-fat diets before and never had any luck with them. Neither have I been able to lose weight purely from exercising since I've been in my 30's (worked in my early 20's though). But I feel better enough with the Protein Power diet that I have started bicycling again for the first time in several years (but I haven't bicycled so much that my weight loss can be attributed to exercise yet).

I weigh 235 pounds, down from 250. My aim is to weigh 180. I'm 5'11".

Re:I've lost fifteen pounds with Protein Power

[danamania]

Just to add in my few cents worth...

I was on the atkins diet during 1991/1992, and worked down to my goal weight at the time. It worked well for me when it came to the ability to lose, but the big downfall (and this is a personal preference thing) was the lack of carbs - I just love my carbs :)

Fast forward to 1997, and I weighed 376lbs (no it's not a typo), and this time did Weightwatchers. That worked just as well for me, and I hit goal weight (195lbs - right for my height) again a few years ago. It's curious about the comments on kidney stones, as I've had gallstone problems since - which my current doc puts down to the process of rather quickly losing the incredible amounts of weight from 1997-2000.

Either way, throwing the exercise thing into the mix is a major MAJOR part of losing, if you're over where you should be.

a grrl & her server

Be very careful with this diet!!!

[Critical_]

Make sure you drink a lot of water since your kidneys will need it. High protien diets eventually lead to kidney stone formation. Have you ever tried to pass a stone? Trust me, its not a walk in the park. As much as you are trying to lose weight based on the type of food you consume, you must also excercise. I run about 3 miles a day which takes me about 30 minutes to complete. I make sure that I eat whatever I want, but I am capping my calorie intake at 1500 cal/day. That 3 miles of running is about equal to 500 calories burned so in essence i take in only 1000 cal/day. Once I reach the desired weight, I can increase calorie consumption to 2000 cal/day and run every other day to maintain it. I weight 215 at the begining of July. I weight 184 as of this morning.

Whatever you do, just remember... high protien diet MUST MUST MUST be accompanied by lots of water and frequent trips to the bathroom! Good luck.

Re:No Known Security Bugs

[NineNine]

Also, Mozilla is relatively new. More importantly, Mozilla has about 1/100 of the users that IE has, meaning that that's also 1/100 fewer people seeing any potential bugs.

Atkins Trolls?

[NineNine]

What I'm wondering, is with the overwhelming number of posts saying, "I'm on the Atkins diet! I'm thin, trim, good-looking, and healthy!", is the Slashdot audience really such a fat, lazy, gullible, stupid bunch, or are there a lot of people who work for Atkins posting here? This is very, very wierd.

Re:Diets suck

[jjo]

The real key to all of this is that people are different. Something that works for you may not work for me. (In fact, you realize this when you comment on your own metabolism.)

Myself, I exercise over an hour a day, and eat a healthy diet, but I'm still fat (less fat than I would be otherwise, but still fat). Yet some writers treat fat people as if they were filthy scum with zero willpower and no motivation to better themselves.

It's REALLY annoying when someone assumes that if something's trivially easy for them, it should be trivially easy for anyone else.

TAPEWORM DIET and Dieting TIMELINE!

[xintegerx]

Interesting STUFF
From http://fitfat.ctvnews.com/interactive/timeline/che wycenter_timeline.html
VERY INTERESTING:

1997 - The American magazine Psychology Today's body image survey finds that 15 per cent of women and 11 per cent of men in the U.S. said they'd be willing to give up at least five years of their life in exchange for the ability to reach their desired weight. That same year Redux or Fen-phen is taken off the market after studies link it to heart valve disease.

EARLIER HIGH-FAT LOW-CARBS DIETS:

1900 to 1920 - Although unconfirmed, there is reason to believe that TAPEWORM diet pills were marketed in the U.S. during the first two decades of the 20th century. Women allegedly swallowed "magic" diet pills that were actually TAPEWORMS in capsules. After they had shed enough pounds, women would take deworming pills to rid themselves of the parasite. (!!!)

1961 - Herman Taller's Calories Don't Count, which recommends a diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates is a best seller in the U.S.

1967 - Physician Irwin Stillman publishes The Doctor's Quick Weight Loss Diet. He advocates a high-protein, low-carb diet, but includes a recommendation to drink 10 eight ounce glasses of water per day to combat "water loss." Twenty million people try it.

1972 - Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest coins the terms "junk food" and "empty calories" in reference to candy, snacks and soda.

Snapple introduces a new bottled fruit drink that is marketed as an healthier alternative to soft drinks.

And Robert Atkins publishes Diet Revolution which advocates eating all the fat you want as part of a high protein, low-carb diet. It quickly becomes a bestseller. (In 1992, he re-issues pretty much the same exact book.)

1982- Jane Fonda's Workout video is credited with creating the phenomenon of exercise videos. After selling millions of copies the tape was discontinued by the manufacturer after many of Jane's moves were found to be unsafe (!!!!)

1995 - North America sees a resurgence of low-carb, high-protein diets. (Back to this again!)

Also interesting : Bulemia first discussed in 1926, Anorexia brought to light in 1983 when a celebrities dies on stage; in 1929, Candy TV Ads say "candy is good for you."

I Drink Like a Fish

[goingware]

I have often heard advice that one should drink lots of water, especially on diets.

I have always thought it very odd that some people have to make an effort to drink more water.

I don't know why, but I have been thirsty all my life. Even since I was a small child. I constantly crave water. So I drink it, gallons per day. That's where the Coca Cola I mentioned above comes in. I also pee with great frequency.

It happens that one of the warning signs of diabetes is uncontrollable thirst. I've been tested a number of times for diabetes and have been found to be normal.

The last time I had my blood sugar checked I brought up my hypoglycemia with the nurse who tested me, and she said to eat a good lunch and have a couple snacks in the afternoon, which helps when I remember it but never made the problem go away. The only thing that did help was to increase the amount of protein in my diet and (ironically) reducing the carbohydrates.

I am never without a beverage at hand. Unfortunately, this is often coffee which I know is bad for me, especially in the quantity I drink it (2 or 3 pots a day). But I drink lots of pure water too. (Note that I was drinking just as much coffee before I started losing weight - I weighed 250 for about seven years.)

Many people on diets drink artificially sweetened sodas, but I find artificial sweeteners to taste foul. Nowadays when I'm out driving or something and stop into a convenience store for something to drink, I buy a mineral water.

I recently discovered some flavored but completely unsweetened carbonated waters from Poland Springs. They are flavored with the essential oils of various fruits and berries, like mandarin orange and raspberry.

Re:I Drink Like a Fish

[Reziac]

Firstoff, I just read the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/10/health/nutrition /10BROD.html?8vd, and was struck by the lack of basic *biochemical* knowledge. Stuff I learned about zero-carb diets in first year college biochem classes, fer ghu's sake!

But in general, more protein means less appetite, even if you stay within the limits of normal nutritional balance.

As to your thirst -- some people's systems don't conserve water well. A high-fibre *or* low-protein diet exacerbates this by keeping more water in the intestine and losing more water in stool volume. (You can QUADRUPLE how much water a dog requires per day, and how much it pees, just by stupidly switching it from a meat-based diet to a soy-based diet!!) And for some people, coffee is a diuretic. But if I were you, I'd have my kidney function checked, just in case.

Another cause of excessive thirst is not getting enough salt. If you can't seem to get enough water no matter how much you drink, particularly if your throat feels dry and tight, try eating a very small pinch of salt (or dry gatorade mix). If that more or less cures your thirst, your salt balance was off and you really needed the salt.

As to the hypoglycemia, that, and uncontrollable munchies, are common when people eat refined carbs before noon (typical cereals, donuts, toast, etc.) Have a peanut butter sandwich or a hamburger or leftover pizza for breakfast, and as you've discovered, the problem goes away!!

Note: Soy protein doesn't count, as it's not well-utilized and tends to lead to amino acid imbalances (producing "cravings"). Plus it's a broad-spectrum allergin and in excess can bollux your immune system.

Atkins

[LRJ]

I must have debates on this diet at least 3 times a week and most people that I have these debates with don't really know anything about it (hmmmm...sounds kinda like /.) The high protien, low carb part of this diet is really only for the first couple of weeks. The purpose of this 'induction' period is to train your body to start burning fat instead of carbs - like it's supposed to. After your body has relearned what to process for energy, you are supposed to gradually add carbs back into your diet.

My wife has been heavier set most of her life and has worked VERY hard (LARGE amounts of excercise and watching everything she eats) to try and control this as long as I have known her - mostly to know avail (anybody that didn't know her would never believe she's a fitness nut). She also had reservations about this diet (for many of the same reasons stated in the above article), even after a good friend of ours started showing excellent results after being on it for a couple months (we're still wondering who stole the other half of that fat man =). Her first attempt was too try and integrate some of the ideas into her current diet but she saw no results and kinda gave up on it. After some persistance from our friend, and after I did a bunch of research on the net, we finally got her to just try it fully. Within three weeks she was definitely seeing results and not all of it was weight loss. She also has (had) problems with Rosacia (adult acne) but she hasn't had a flare-up since being on the diet. She has also had irregular periods almost all her adult life but since starting the diet she's been on time - to the day! Her energy level is also completely different. She has always been a high energy person but it was like a fake energy (just do something to be doing something), now she's has the same type of energy but she can actually focus it now - she also actually seems to make more intelligent decisions and doesn't fly off the handle over stupid things as much either (because she thinks about it first).

My opinion is that this diet, like any diet, may not work for everybody but for some people it's exactly what they need. If you are overweight you're already unhealthy anyways so I don't think trying this diet for a few weeks is going to be any more unhealthy for you than lugging around all that extra weight.

Here is a link

[rnd()]

The original article on the Atkins diet from the times makes some very valid points, however I think it misleads the reader in one respect: by showing evidence that the low-fat high-carb food pyramid is flawed and then concluding that the logical alternative is to eat a high-fat low-carb diet, a la Dr. Atkins.

In reality, studies have shown that both high-carb and high-fat diets can lead to health problems.

Keep in mind, the original food pyramid myth was promoted because of discoveries during the Vietnam war that American 18 year olds had tons of plaque built up on their arteries and 18 year-old Vietnamese did not. The conclusion that was drawn was that the American high-fat diet was the cluprit. Hence, the food pyramid as we know it.

However, if you think about what the research has actually shown, the ideal diet is as follows:

Lots of vegetables, some high-fiber grains, and a small amount of meat, preferably fatty fish.

Now think for a moment about the nutritional conditions that existed during the majority of human evolution. We were engineered by evolution to consume a diet very much like the ideal diet described above. Of course, exercise is critical to health as well, and our ancestors got plenty of that in the course of their daily lives.

Re:Diets suck

[BlackHawk]

I like to call the Atkins diet the "make yourself sick diet" (someone elses quote, can't remember who - some registered dietitian) - If I remember correct, you survive off of ketones instead of glucose, which makes you somewhat ill and accordingly, you lose your appetite, eat less, and lose weight.

Sorry. It's not true. I've been on the Atkins for almost 2 months, my wife's been on it for three. We have not had the 40+ pound weight loss, but we didn't want that to happen so quickly anyway. I've lost slightly over 20 pounds. I have kept my carb consumption to under 20 grams per day, as the diet specifies, and here's a big one: there actually are no forbidden foods! If I want to chow on a candy bar, I can... but that will use up all of my carb allotment for the day. I just decide where I want to spend my carbs, and eat that.

Two weeks ago, Jen had her bloodwork done, just like she'd planned to do when she started. The results? ALL indicators improved. Her BP was normal, iron up in the healthy range (it was low before the diet), triglycerides, LDL, HDL... everything was improved. We both have more energy, we're lighter, and we've both gained muscle mass. Your body has to do something with all that protein, after all.

Oh, and the nausea? It doesn't happen. Ever. Not even a smidgen. I have no idea where the common belief that it causes nausea came from, but it wasn't from anyone I know on the diet.

I strongly recommend that you read Atkin's book, or visit his web site (http://www.atkinscenter.com/) and read the data. There's a perfectly good explanation of why the program works, but it's too lengthy for me to spew on about here.

As for the long term effects fears, and the article's pointed reference to the fact that there's been no long-term study of the safety and efficacy, try this: find the long-term safety and efficacy studies for rBGH, Viagra, and most importantly, the DPT vaccine. Good luck, and think on the implications of those.

Re:Atkins article in NYT

[Anonymous Coward]

Unscientific? Hardly.

Did you notice the pages and pages of studies cited in the book? Have you read http://atkinscenter.com fact vs. fallacy section?

You doofus.

What you call "unscientific" is actually the process of making this very scientific stuff accessible to everyday folks so they can actually benefit from it...

just because he doesn't use big words all the time he's wrong? you are a doofus.