Don't even think about going to a doctor who isn't thorougly familiar with each potential side-effect. Bring a list of questions, and run screaming if they don't instill you with confidence that they know how to recognize and treat every one effectively. Not doing so could at best cost you time and money, at worst your eyesight.
I know five people who've had Lasik within the past three years. Three of them had great procedures and outcomes, and are very happy that they did it.
One person had a procedural problem where the microkeratome damaged the corneal flap while it was cutting it. This person was out of commission for several weeks, under strict order not to use her eyes for anything but basic life functions. No reading, no TV, no driving. As she said, "thanks goodness for books on tape." The outcome once she got past this problem was fine -- even though she's not happy with the procecure itself, she's very happy with the outcome.
The last anecdote is my sister, who is now blind in one eye after a rare (but not rare enough) complication called Diffuse Lamellar Keratitis, knows colloquially as DLK or as Sands of Sahara. The cause is foreign matter that is introduced between the flap and the underlying tissue during the procedure. This matter is sterile, so this isn't an infection. One of the dangers is that it's often mistaken for an infection and treated as such. This is critical, because time is your enemy if you have DLK. The cornea attacks the foreign matter, essentially destroying itself in the process, if not caught early enough. Most people come out of DLK just fine, as long as it's caught early. If your doctor doesn't know about DLK, turn around and leave.
I realize my anecdotes aren't a scientific sampling, but if you're contemplating this surgery, I urge you to get familiar with the possible side-effects, common and rare. Almost everything we do in life has potential downsides -- but realize that this surgey is 100% elective, not a treatment for a life-threatening illness.
Read as much as you can about side-effects: if some of them don't scare you, you're going into this procedure blind, and you may end up going out of it blind as well. As much as the local Corneas-r-Us tells you in their radio ads that this procedure is simple and takes only a few minutes, complication rates (according to my eye doc of 13 years) are still around 1% (I'm not clear on whether that means 1% for each eye, or 1% for each person). It's still not clear what, if any, are the long-term sideeffects.
Don't get me wrong: Lasik is a wonderful thing when it succeeds, as it does the vast majority of the time. As long as you're comfortable with the risks, the reward is pretty cool.
So the people who made the site worth reading (the people who comment lots), are now going to be charged more than the people who don't give anything of value to the site?
A possible solution to that problem is to award free ad-less page views along with the karma points we get for being good citizens.
In other words, if I like what you say and mod you up, you get 10 free page views along with that karma point. If I mod you down, you lose 10 free page views (not ones you've previously paid cash for, just your 'bonus' views).
As pointed out, RAID won't protect you against mother nature. However, I've never lost data to anything other than simple head crashes.
For my money, it's hard to beat the new ATA RAID cards that are out. Most can be had for less than $100.
Couple that with two or four 80GB drives, for less than $150 each, and you've got yourself a pretty nice array that will keep your data safe against all but the most horrendous problems.
Even with this, you're probably wise to have some offline backup solution to go along with it.
What data would you really want back if your house was swallowed by a hole in the ground? In that situation, do you really need access to your 30GB of MP3 files?
If the anwers is that you really only need access to your Quicken files, then arranging to have those backed up online should be pretty cheap and easy.
Summary: cheap ATA RAID for hardware redundancy, online backup for truly life-critical files.
It's main advantage is that it has a programmable touch screen interface and hard keys. The touch screen isn't nearly as programmable as the Pronto, but I don't mind that so much, because I find the hard keys indispensable.
I owned a Pronto and found that having to constantly look at the screen to see what I was doing made for a bad user experience, at least for me.
Another nice thing about the TheaterTouch is that it has an RF box that you can buy, which makes the remote much more useful. I've put most of my equipment into a cabinet, and strung IR emitters into the cabinet.
Also, an excellent place to find out about remotes is Remote Central.
Re:You have a very American point of view
on
Morals and Layoffs
·
· Score: 1
In most european countries, people can't simply be fired without compensation - a (quite hefty) severance payment must be payed when firing someone.
Which helps explain why the unemployment rate in Europe is 2-3x what it is in the US.
Netscape chose the safe route and only provided Java applet support.
Either I misunderstand your point, or you're rewriting history.
What about the Netscape Plugin API? Much less elegant, download- and certificate-wise, than ActiveX, but it, too, provides access to 'unsafe' languages.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm interested to know about the 5x difference between the article and CNN's headline this evening: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/22/global. warming.ap/index.html?
I wonder if it's coincidence that ODMC was recently awarded $15 million by a jury in litigation with Amazon.com:
t ml/
http://www.capv.com/Store/publications/pub00722.h
According to this CNET article, X10 has filed for chapter 11 as a result of this ruling.
I know five people who've had Lasik within the past three years. Three of them had great procedures and outcomes, and are very happy that they did it.
One person had a procedural problem where the microkeratome damaged the corneal flap while it was cutting it. This person was out of commission for several weeks, under strict order not to use her eyes for anything but basic life functions. No reading, no TV, no driving. As she said, "thanks goodness for books on tape." The outcome once she got past this problem was fine -- even though she's not happy with the procecure itself, she's very happy with the outcome.
The last anecdote is my sister, who is now blind in one eye after a rare (but not rare enough) complication called Diffuse Lamellar Keratitis, knows colloquially as DLK or as Sands of Sahara. The cause is foreign matter that is introduced between the flap and the underlying tissue during the procedure. This matter is sterile, so this isn't an infection. One of the dangers is that it's often mistaken for an infection and treated as such. This is critical, because time is your enemy if you have DLK. The cornea attacks the foreign matter, essentially destroying itself in the process, if not caught early enough. Most people come out of DLK just fine, as long as it's caught early. If your doctor doesn't know about DLK, turn around and leave.
I realize my anecdotes aren't a scientific sampling, but if you're contemplating this surgery, I urge you to get familiar with the possible side-effects, common and rare. Almost everything we do in life has potential downsides -- but realize that this surgey is 100% elective, not a treatment for a life-threatening illness.
Read as much as you can about side-effects: if some of them don't scare you, you're going into this procedure blind, and you may end up going out of it blind as well. As much as the local Corneas-r-Us tells you in their radio ads that this procedure is simple and takes only a few minutes, complication rates (according to my eye doc of 13 years) are still around 1% (I'm not clear on whether that means 1% for each eye, or 1% for each person). It's still not clear what, if any, are the long-term sideeffects.
Don't get me wrong: Lasik is a wonderful thing when it succeeds, as it does the vast majority of the time. As long as you're comfortable with the risks, the reward is pretty cool.
A possible solution to that problem is to award free ad-less page views along with the karma points we get for being good citizens.
In other words, if I like what you say and mod you up, you get 10 free page views along with that karma point. If I mod you down, you lose 10 free page views (not ones you've previously paid cash for, just your 'bonus' views).
Yo, where's Count Dookie?
Yo, Count Dookie! Pick up the phone!
Wassuuuuuuuup!
How long before someone: (1) cranks up the repeat rate on their keyboard and (2) tapes down the space key.
Netcraft says it's running Solaris...
One interesting point: in the article, the author notes the default values of the channels as being in the range B5-C0.
In my case, those settings were mostly FE.
So, setting them all to 80 was a big win, I think.
For my money, it's hard to beat the new ATA RAID cards that are out. Most can be had for less than $100.
Couple that with two or four 80GB drives, for less than $150 each, and you've got yourself a pretty nice array that will keep your data safe against all but the most horrendous problems.
Even with this, you're probably wise to have some offline backup solution to go along with it.
What data would you really want back if your house was swallowed by a hole in the ground? In that situation, do you really need access to your 30GB of MP3 files?
If the anwers is that you really only need access to your Quicken files, then arranging to have those backed up online should be pretty cheap and easy.
Summary: cheap ATA RAID for hardware redundancy, online backup for truly life-critical files.
This is a matter of personal preference, of course: do yourself a favor and play with a bunch of remotes before you pick one.
My remote of choice is the TheaterTouch from RTI.
It's main advantage is that it has a programmable touch screen interface and hard keys. The touch screen isn't nearly as programmable as the Pronto, but I don't mind that so much, because I find the hard keys indispensable.
I owned a Pronto and found that having to constantly look at the screen to see what I was doing made for a bad user experience, at least for me.
Another nice thing about the TheaterTouch is that it has an RF box that you can buy, which makes the remote much more useful. I've put most of my equipment into a cabinet, and strung IR emitters into the cabinet.
Also, an excellent place to find out about remotes is Remote Central.
Which helps explain why the unemployment rate in Europe is 2-3x what it is in the US.
Netscape chose the safe route and only provided Java applet support.
Either I misunderstand your point, or you're rewriting history.
What about the Netscape Plugin API? Much less elegant, download- and certificate-wise, than ActiveX, but it, too, provides access to 'unsafe' languages.
I'm pretty pleased with my SonicWall SOHO -- very plug and play, if that's of value to you.