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More To Coffee Buzz Than Caffeine

MrByte420 writes "WebMD has story about every computer geek's favorite beverage enhancer. Seems like there's more to the kick than just the caffeine that makes coffee a favorite amongst the sleep deprived programmers of the world. Some more information can be found here with some interesting details why decaf can keep ya up and wired too. In related news, scientists report no progress in determining why the best computer code is written at 4:27 AM on a tuesday morning surrounded by a box of Mountain Dew."

5 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. The real mystery by Phexro · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...is how anyone can fit in a Mountain Dew box. Seems like a pretty tight squeeze, even if the contents have been consumed to make room.

  2. Could it be that "decaffeinated" != caffiene-free by QuietRiot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's How this stuff works - decaffeination anyway.

    More info and how to Kick the habbit, amongst other infos.

    The caffiene in your cola/other drink often comes from the coffee decaffeination process.

    Perhaps the reason your heart keeps beating is that these processes do not remove all the caffiene? I tend to believe other magics are at work here (chemicals), but they don't discount that in the article....

  3. That's easy by Jerf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In related news, scientists report no progress in determining why the best computer code is written at 4:27 AM on a tuesday morning surrounded by a box of Mountain Dew.

    If the scientists would just get a good night's sleep and return to the code the next day, they would discover that the reason they are having difficulty figuring out why the code is so good at 4:27 AM is that the code is complete garbage when seen in the light of day.

    Unless you're one of the single digit percentage people in the world with truly unusual sleep needs, if the code you're writing at 4:27 AM is the same quality as the code you write during normal hours, your code must be seriously shitty all the time!

    Sleep! Most of us need it, and I often wonder how many of those who don't are just fooling themselves...

    Take this post for instance. What I ought to do is just hit CTRL-W to close the tab and go to bed, 'cause this is worthless flamebait. Instead, because my judgement is impaired because it's late where I am, I'm going to post this and subject myself to CowboyNeal-only-knows how many self-styled "sleep masters" explaining how they need only 10 minutes of sleep a week. Learn from my incipient disaster... sleep!

  4. For the biologist out there ... or wannabes by foniksonik · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Coffee with or without the caffeine contains significant numbers of expectorant and diuretic alkaloids, ie: oils and along with caffeine these are known to strip out calcium from the body... calcium being the major nerve insulator with it's major contribution being the meyelin sheath surrounding nerve bundles. So if you drink a lot of this stuff that sucks off calcium from your nerve bundles you end up with 'twitchy' nerves that arn't insulated enough and start 'cross-talking' and causing lots of electrical feedback loops/shorts... ...kind of like when you play the bass too loud for too long on unprotected audio cables (oxidation), the signal gets a little scratchy and fuzzy.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  5. Wait... by minesweeper · · Score: 5, Funny
    So does this mean that my regular ol' decaf soap I've been using all along has the same effects as caffeinated soap?

    This is indeed a disturbing development...