I hope the offshore aspect solves the NIMBY mentality I often encounter whenever wind energy comes up.
It won't. Toronto Hydro wants to build a wind farm 2-4 kilometers offshore near the Scarborough Bluffs, and residents are up in arms over that... source.
If built, the development would see up to 60 turbines planted on a reef, two to four kilometers offshore, in a line stretching from Toronto's east end to Pickering. Tyrrell says the project is a key element of Toronto's green policy to cut the city's greenhouse gas emissions - in this case, by boosting renewable energy generation. He's aware that the proposal has stirred opposition, but says he agrees with an opinion he first heard voiced by Mayor David Miller:
"Would you rather have a gas plant in downtown Toronto, or would you rather have a renewable energy source offshore?"
Scarborough Councillor Paul Ainslie argues that the turbines mar the view: Couples having their wedding photos taken at the Guild Inn with the lake in the background don't want turbines in the frame.
They're more concerned with protecting the scenery in wedding photos than producing clean electricity. You can't win with these people.
The U.S should adopt election laws like the ones we have up here in Canada. Take a look at the Federal Accountability Act.
Here are some key points:
Corporations, trade unions, associations and groups can no longer make political contributions.
You can make a political donation to registered political entities only if you are a citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
You can donate a maximum of $1100 to each party or candidate every year.
You can no longer make a cash contribution of more than $20 to registered political entities. Also, all contributions over $20 must be receipted and reported.
If you are running as a nomination contestant or a candidate, you can make an additional contribution up to $1,000 in total per election from your own funds to your own campaign.
Candidates cannot accept any gift that might influence them as eventual members of Parliament.
Are they TRYING to put themselves out of business? This seems like a perfect way to ensure no one plays the demo and instead downloads a pirated copy of the full game.
Fixed that for you.
This will alienate potential customers and most likely increase the rate of piracy.
I know you were joking, but I doubt your processor (or any component in your computer case for that matter) would run hot enough to ignite paper/cardboard.
Your processor's temperature probably ranges between 30C and 50C. The autoignition temperature of paper is 218-246C.
It's all in your head. You want organic food to taste better, so it does. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsuT3mndOKE (watch from 0:20 to 1:30 and then fast forward to 3:40).
I'd be wary of downloading any software (especially something like an operating system) from a site like the Pirate Bay.
Off topic: For me downloading a torrent is actually slower than a direct download most of the time, thanks to my ISP throttling bittorrent. For example, I can download Ubuntu at 1.5MB/sec via http or ftp, but only 300KB/sec with bittorrent...
Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design.
This sentence really pisses me off. The only competition going on is the big carriers fighting for exclusive handset contracts, they sure as hell aren't competing with each other on price and/or service quality. Also the handset makers are the ones doing all the work, how exactly is Verizon innovating?
We work closely with our vendors to develop new and exciting devices that will attract customers. When we procure exclusive handsets from our vendors we typically buy hundreds of thousands or even millions of each device. Otherwise manufacturers may be reluctant to make the investments of time, money and production capacity to support a particular device.
So basically if it wasn't for Verizon, handset manufacturers wouldn't bother to put in the time and effort to make handsets at all? Thank god Verizon is here to save those poor companies (Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, RIM, etc..)
Opera also has this feature, except instead of implementing it in typical OSS fashion, a totally unguessable interface function (middle-clicking a bookmark folder? seriously?), you click on the item at the top of the bookmark folder called "Open All Folder Items".
Firefox works the same way, you can either right click the folder and choose "Open All in Tabs" from the context menu or mouse over the folder and select "Open All in Tabs" from the drop down menu. I didn't even know middle-clicking a folder was an option until I read this thread.
I'm glad this girl was finally able to find out what was causing her digestive issues.
Coincindentally, I've also been suffering for 8 years with severe digestive issues. I can barely eat anything without throwing up. Doctors here in Canada haven't been able to give me a diagnosis or help me at all. I've had dozens of tests over the last 8 years: endoscopes, upper and lower GIs, ultrasounds, cat scans, MRIs, blood and urine tests, etc.. Every test always comes back normal. Because I can't eat anything, I'm extremely frail and malnourished. I'm 26 years old, 5'9 and I weight just over 100 pounds. My entire body aches and I wake up every morning feeling like I have a severe flu. I have to take gravol every day to deal with my nausea. I'm so sick it feels like I have cancer, yet I've received no medical help or drugs to allieviate my pain.
I was originally going to start college back in 2001. I've been programming since I was 13, both my parents are also computer programmers and it's always been my dream to be a programmer aswell. Right before I was about to start college I started getting sick. It's been 8 years now, time has really flown by. I've been unable to work or go to school and I've been on disability for the last 2 years. I've pretty much given up all hope of ever getting better or being able to do anything with my life. I've tried to kill myself numerous times, my mental is really deteriorating. The last 6 months have been particularly bad for me, I recently started going blind and my hearing is going out aswell. I'm scared, I know the end is near for me, I only wish it would come sooner.
I have a lot of anger towards the medical establishment for not being able to help me. I know I have severe food sensitivities, if I eat diary, beef, pork or wheat/glutten I get extremely ill. I've had tests to see if I have Crohns or Celiac disease, but they came back negative. I've been told that it's hard to diagnose Crohns and Celiec disease, so maybe I have it and doctor's just haven't been able to diagnose it for 8 years, similar to the girl in this article?
This is really sad news. I've been reading Mad Magazine for the past 20 years aswell. I got my first Mad Mag when I was 8 years old and I've been reading them ever since. I hope they change their minds, I need my monthly Mad fix.
The memory controller is now integrated with the CPU (instead of the north bridge). If you mess with the RAM settings and/or voltage, it messes with the memory controller, and that could potentially damage (or destroy) the CPU. That's my guess anyway.
Not just ram prices, hard drives aswell. Take a look at my old post from October 2007.
Back in October 2007, Apple was charging $395 to add an additional 500GB SATA drive to a Mac Pro. Seagate and Western Digital 500GB drives cost around $100-125 back then, yet Apple was charging $395 (a $270 price difference).
I just checked the Apple Store again today and it appears that Apple has brought the prices down a bit.
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s [Add $200.00]
It's now only $200 USD for an additional 500GB SATA drive (for a Mac Pro) from the Apple Store. If I go to my local computer shop, I can get a 500GB drive for $79 CAD. I could get two 500GB drives for less than it costs me to get one 500GB drive from Apple.
I've heard of St. John's Wort a lot over the past 5 years, that and 5-HTP, I've never tried them though. I've also seen Cammomille tea at my local health food store, but I've never tried it either. I usually drink Peppermint, Fennel Seed or Ginger tea. I mainly drink those three to help with my stomach. Peppermint tea is my favourite and I find it helps calm my stomach the most. Some days my stomach is worse than others though and I have to take gravol on those days.
My stomach/gastrointestinal illness is a lot more than just nausea, it's constant pain, bloating, discomfort and a bunch of horrible symptoms. It almost feels like stomach+bowel cancer or something serious. I've had extensive testing done over the years, and all the tests come back normal. I've researched Crohns and Celiac disease, but I've never had any testing done for those.
As for the gastroenterologist, I went to one several years ago and he told me it was "all in my head". I'm planning on going back to one in the near future though. I've been sick for 8 years and I'm tired of it. I used to be able to eat everything, now I can barely eat anything. I developed a ton of food sensitivities and I can no longer eat red meat, wheat, or any products with milk for example. If I eat something that I'm not supposed to, I'll have major digestive issues and I'll usually throw up. Now all I can eat is the most basic foods like brown rice and chicken (it gets really boring eating the same stuff every day).
Thanks for the suggestions. I wouldn't mind trying St John's Wort or Cammomille, it couldn't hurt.
I can deal with the bullying. I'm 25 now, I haven't been bullied in over 10 years. It's my father that really fucked me up and I'm still trying to deal with it.
Here's a quote from my blog to give you an idea:
As the abuse, anger and yelling continued, I developed a fear of my father. I slowly became more and more afraid of his outbursts over time. Eventually I was so afraid of him that I would be physically ill before he even picked me up for my weekend visit. During my weekends with him, I was so afraid of setting him off that I tried my best to appease him. The thing that I learned to dread the most were meals with him. I was so nervous I could barely eat I was trembling so much. Eventually I started throwing up after meals because I had so much nervous tension built up that I couldn't keep food down. When I did throw up around him, he would beat me and scream at me, which only made me more afraid to throw up, and it became a vicious cycle. This belief was reinforced into my head many times as I threw up and he would beat me.
I don't think you'd ever understand what I went through, it was traumatizing and I can't even describe how horrible it was. It's not a matter of being able to "grow up", this fear was put in my head at a very early age and it's been with me the majority of my life. It was my father who gave me my fear of vomitting, and it controls my life. I can't just get rid of this fear overnight, it's not like bullying where I can just "toughen up". It's a serious illness and I have yet to get the therapy that I need. It doesn't help that I now have a serious stomach illness and I've been extremely ill for the past 8 years. I can't leave the house most days as my fear of vomitting and my fear of embarrassment (from vomitting in public) prevents me from going outside.
Here's a page on Emetophobia. There's a ton of good info on that site, too much to quote it all here. But I'll quote some of the stuff that I feel is important.
Emetophobia is an irrational or excessive fear of vomiting. But nobody likes to vomit. A phobia is distinguished from an ordinary fear by the irrational and excessive anxiety caused by the stimuli for the phobic individual. For example, many people would not want to explore caves because of a fear of snakes. But some people with a snake phobia, called ophidiophobia, are afraid to walk on the sidewalk in downtown Chicago because a snake might be there.
So, hundreds of millions of people may fear vomiting, but they don't alter their daily lives because of it the way emetophobics do. The fear is also all-consuming; for most emetophobics, vomiting is their single worst fear. In casual conversation, many phobics say they'd rather die than vomit. (We hope that's overstated.)
That last sentence is very true, I'd rather die than be sick.
How did emetophobics get that way?
A good many cases of emetophobia were triggered by a particularly traumatic episode of vomiting that occurred between the ages of 6 and 10. Most of these incidents came on unexpectedly. After the frightening emetic incident, most phobics were very careful to avoid vomiting. If they experienced it at all, it was with a tremendous amount of fear and anxiety. So they never came to experience vomiting as something normal or routine.
Some emetophobics say their parents were not supportive of them when they vomited as children, and some say that their parents even made them vomit.
However, many emetophobics have no idea why they have this phobia. Many people believe it's an issue of control. Some say emetophobics want maximum control over their bodies, or that they are making up for a lack of control they had over situations as children.
Some experts think that anxiety over separation from a parent or other loved one during childhood contributes to emetophobia. And some therapists, not emetoph
I'm one of those people who suffer from "real severe depression". From my personal experience, those drugs *DO NOT* work for me.
I was severely abused by my father and I was bullied throughout school. Halfway through grade 9 I tried to kill myself. I was forcibly put on paxil when I was in the hospital recovering. My life has been shit ever since then. I'm now 25 and I've been mentally ill for the past 12 years and physically ill for the past 8 years. I haven't been able to work or go to school in the last 8 years. I can't even leave the house most of the time because of my chronic nausea and my emetophobia (fear of vomitting).
I can't take anti-depressants anymore because they make my stomach even sicker than it already is. I've been on paxil, effexor, celexa, wellbutrin and a bunch of other anti-depressants over the past 12 years, none of them help. I fucking hate anti-depressants to be honest, I rather be miserable and depressed than sick as hell from all the side effects.
I lost hope in getting better several years ago. I stopped seeing psychologists because all they wanted to do was give me more and more drugs. I was once on 60mg of paxil and 150mg of wellbutrin at the same time, and that wasn't working, so my psychologist wanted to put me on a third one ontop of the paxil and wellbutrin. That's when I said enough was enough and I've never seen a psychologist since then. I hate the state of health care in Canada, I have to see naturopaths to get the care that I need.
I can live with my depression, it's the anxiety, stomach issues and isolation from the outside world that bothers me.
I've been a long time FPS gamer (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom 1 and 2, Quake 1, 2 and 3, Duke Nukem 3D, Unreal Tournament 2004, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2).
Nowadays I play a huge amount of Team Fortress 2. I really enjoy the death effect where it shows you who killed you and how they did it. It allows me to learn from my mistakes and do better the next time around.
If Time Warner was smart, they'd offer similar packages. Rogers doesn't enforce bandwidth caps (even though they could). I have the Express package and I often go above the 60GB/month limit. Not once in 8 years has Rogers ever sent me a complaint for going over the limit.
And the IBM PowerPC chip - now that's a popular chip for the mainstream market if ever I saw one!
Are you serious? All three current generation consoles use chips based on IBM's Power Architecture.
The Xbox 360 uses a PowerPC based processor. The Wii uses a PowerPC based processor. The PS3 uses a Cell processor with 1 PPE (Power Processing Element) and 7 SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements). The Power Processing Element is based on the Power Architecture.
His first four points are all about a lack of standards:
1. Cordless tools and equipment--all with different kinds of battery packs and chargers. 2. Flashlights and other small electrical devices that run on exotic batteries. 3. Cellphones that all come with different chargers and power-supply units. 4. AV equipment that has different types of hookups and remote-control protocols.
And his other three points are all about bloat and poor design choices:
5. Computer operating systems loaded with stuff I don't want and will never use. 6. Automobiles with obnoxious electronics. 7. Cars designed to make it tough to do maintenance.
Overall he makes some pretty good points.
In response to his first three complaints, I don't think companies will ever give up their non-standard battery packs... they make too much money on replacement batteries.
As for complaint #4, I thought AV equipment was pretty well standardized already. All of my TV and AV equipment accept the same types of audio cables. I'd agree with his point about remotes though. I've never owned a "universal remote" that "just worked".
In complaint #5, Jamie is mainly complaining about the bloat in Windows (more specifically Vista). I think the problem is that Operating Systems like Windows have to be designed with a wide user base in mind, so they have to have features that only 10% of the users would use. It would be nice if Microsoft actually made a modular OS where I could uninstall everything that I don't use (Outlook and IE for example). I have to give Jamie props for advocating Linux in the article.
Here's a quote from complaint #5 which I totally agree with:
And high-tech companies--stop messing with us on your treadmill of upgrades while making the old stuff obsolete. It may be that any software company that didn't routinely upgrade its product would go out of business. But what if the rest of the world worked this way? Oh, I lost a sock. I need to get a whole new wardrobe because the replacement sock is version 2.0.1, and the stores now only sell version 2.0.3.
His main complaint in #6 is that he doesn't like cars that beep at him to buckle his seatbelt and he doesn't like cars that auto-lock the doors. Personally, I don't mind these features, but I can understand why someone might find them annoying. As for all the other electronics going in cars nowadays, I don't mind them. If you've ever driven in a BMW, you'd probably fall in love with all of the electronics. Whenever I drive in my toyota, I'm constantly adjusting the temperature as it's always fluctuating between too hot or too cold (I can never seem to find that comfort zone). But in a Beamer, I can set the temperature to 22C and forget about it. Some electronics I can live without, like those onboard navigation screens, but others I tend to enjoy.
And finally, complaint #7 is all about poor design choices (in cars). Here's his example of a bad design: "One late-model sedan I worked on required the removal of a front wheel, plus a bunch of other stuff, just to replace the battery". I'm not a mechanic, and I have little to no experience under the hood, but are a lot of cars really designed this poorly? I can't think of any car where I actually had to remove a tire just to change the battery (Does anyone know what car Jamie was talking about?).
You make a really good point, and I'd agree with you that the NES is probably one of the greatest consoles. Personally, I prefered the SNES, but I never had the privilege of owning an NES (I owned a Sega Master System instead). Pretty much all of my NES experience came from playing it over at a friends house.
If I had to choose the greatest console of all time, I'd say it was the Playstation 2. The PS2 had some of the best game franchises in my opinion. Also, I never owned a PS1, so I could enjoy a lot of those classic PS1 games (like Final Fantasy 7 and 9) on my PS2. Also, the PS2 was the first DVD player in my house.
Here's a list of my favourite games for the NES, SNES and the PS2:
NES:
The Legend of Zelda Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3 Excitebike Mega Man 2 (my favourite in the series) Double Dragon Final Fantasy Dragon Quest/Warrior Donkey Kong 1, Donkey Kong Jr & Donkey Kong 3 Castlevania 2 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 & 2 Blades of Steel Duck Hunt Gradius Ninja Gaiden Metal Gear Ghouls 'n Ghosts
SNES:
Super Mario World Super Mario Kart Zelda: A Link to the Past (my personal favourite) Donkey Kong Country Contra 3 Street Fighter II Mortal Kombat Killer Instinct Final Fantasy 4 & 6 Secret of Mana Chrono Trigger Super Punch-Out! Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts Super Adventure Island Super Metroid Mega Man X Final Fight Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time Aladdin Cool Spot Uniracer NBA Jam Mario Paint
PS2:
Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3 Gran Turismo 3 & 4 Final Fantasy 10 & 12 God of War 1 & 2 Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City & San Andreas Tony Hawk 3, 4 & Underground Ratchet & Clank, Going Commando & Up Your Arsenal Devil May Cry 1 & 3 Guitar Hero 1, 2 & 3 NBA Street 1 & 2 Kingdom Hearts Shadow of the Colossus Mark of Kri Ico Silent Hill 2 & 3 Hot Shots Golf 3 Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat
The reason I chose the PS2 is mainly for the Metal Gear Solid series, Gran Turismo series, God of War series, Final Fantasy series, Grand Theft Auto series, Tony Hawk series, Ratchet & Clank series, Devil May Cry series, Guitar Hero series and NBA Street series. Those PS2 games have kept me very busy over the past 7 years. I still play most of my PS2 games quite frequently, even though I've finished most of them several times.
The main reason I bought a PS3 was for those Playstation franchises (Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, Ratchet & Clank and Final Fantasy). I also own a Wii so that I can enjoy those Nintendo franchises (Zelda, Mario and Metroid). I still enjoy playing those classic NES and SNES games from time to time. I own Mario 1, 2, 3, Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link To The Past on both my Wii (Virtual Console) and my Nintendo DS (GBA versions).
I also miss my Lego collection. My mom sold all of my Lego at a garage sale 10-15 years ago. I think I had over $5,000 worth of lego at the time. I mainly collected the Lego City sets, but I also had some Space, Medieval and Technic sets. Before Lego, I was playing with Tinkertoys. I also had some Meccano, Capsela, Fisher Technic, Straws and Connectors, Marble Runs and K'Nex.
Lego was probably my favourite toy as a child. During my lego years (5-12 years old), I wanted to grow up to be an architect or an engineer (I ended up becoming a computer programmer).
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It won't. Toronto Hydro wants to build a wind farm 2-4 kilometers offshore near the Scarborough Bluffs, and residents are up in arms over that... source.
They're more concerned with protecting the scenery in wedding photos than producing clean electricity. You can't win with these people.
The U.S should adopt election laws like the ones we have up here in Canada. Take a look at the Federal Accountability Act.
Here are some key points:
I recommend http://zetcode.com/tutorials/qt4tutorial/ for learning the basics. Nokia also has some excellent tutorials examples and documentation.
Fixed that for you.
This will alienate potential customers and most likely increase the rate of piracy.
I know you were joking, but I doubt your processor (or any component in your computer case for that matter) would run hot enough to ignite paper/cardboard.
Your processor's temperature probably ranges between 30C and 50C. The autoignition temperature of paper is 218-246C.
It's all in your head. You want organic food to taste better, so it does. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsuT3mndOKE (watch from 0:20 to 1:30 and then fast forward to 3:40).
What's wrong with getting the torrent from the distro website?
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/downloadmirrors#bt
http://www.debian.org/CD/torrent-cd/
http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
etc..
I'd be wary of downloading any software (especially something like an operating system) from a site like the Pirate Bay.
Off topic: For me downloading a torrent is actually slower than a direct download most of the time, thanks to my ISP throttling bittorrent. For example, I can download Ubuntu at 1.5MB/sec via http or ftp, but only 300KB/sec with bittorrent...
This sentence really pisses me off. The only competition going on is the big carriers fighting for exclusive handset contracts, they sure as hell aren't competing with each other on price and/or service quality. Also the handset makers are the ones doing all the work, how exactly is Verizon innovating?
So basically if it wasn't for Verizon, handset manufacturers wouldn't bother to put in the time and effort to make handsets at all? Thank god Verizon is here to save those poor companies (Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, RIM, etc..)
Firefox works the same way, you can either right click the folder and choose "Open All in Tabs" from the context menu or mouse over the folder and select "Open All in Tabs" from the drop down menu. I didn't even know middle-clicking a folder was an option until I read this thread.
I'm glad this girl was finally able to find out what was causing her digestive issues.
Coincindentally, I've also been suffering for 8 years with severe digestive issues. I can barely eat anything without throwing up. Doctors here in Canada haven't been able to give me a diagnosis or help me at all. I've had dozens of tests over the last 8 years: endoscopes, upper and lower GIs, ultrasounds, cat scans, MRIs, blood and urine tests, etc.. Every test always comes back normal. Because I can't eat anything, I'm extremely frail and malnourished. I'm 26 years old, 5'9 and I weight just over 100 pounds. My entire body aches and I wake up every morning feeling like I have a severe flu. I have to take gravol every day to deal with my nausea. I'm so sick it feels like I have cancer, yet I've received no medical help or drugs to allieviate my pain.
I was originally going to start college back in 2001. I've been programming since I was 13, both my parents are also computer programmers and it's always been my dream to be a programmer aswell. Right before I was about to start college I started getting sick. It's been 8 years now, time has really flown by. I've been unable to work or go to school and I've been on disability for the last 2 years. I've pretty much given up all hope of ever getting better or being able to do anything with my life. I've tried to kill myself numerous times, my mental is really deteriorating. The last 6 months have been particularly bad for me, I recently started going blind and my hearing is going out aswell. I'm scared, I know the end is near for me, I only wish it would come sooner.
I have a lot of anger towards the medical establishment for not being able to help me. I know I have severe food sensitivities, if I eat diary, beef, pork or wheat/glutten I get extremely ill. I've had tests to see if I have Crohns or Celiac disease, but they came back negative. I've been told that it's hard to diagnose Crohns and Celiec disease, so maybe I have it and doctor's just haven't been able to diagnose it for 8 years, similar to the girl in this article?
Heavy Rain is made by the same developer that made Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit). If it's anything like Fahrenheit, it's going to be really good.
This is really sad news. I've been reading Mad Magazine for the past 20 years aswell. I got my first Mad Mag when I was 8 years old and I've been reading them ever since. I hope they change their minds, I need my monthly Mad fix.
The memory controller is now integrated with the CPU (instead of the north bridge). If you mess with the RAM settings and/or voltage, it messes with the memory controller, and that could potentially damage (or destroy) the CPU. That's my guess anyway.
Also, in case anyone doesn't believe me that Apple was charging $395 for an additional 500GB hard drive back in October 2007, I found an old screenshot that I took:
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9052/applerippingoffcanadianwj8.jpg
Not just ram prices, hard drives aswell. Take a look at my old post from October 2007.
Back in October 2007, Apple was charging $395 to add an additional 500GB SATA drive to a Mac Pro. Seagate and Western Digital 500GB drives cost around $100-125 back then, yet Apple was charging $395 (a $270 price difference).
I just checked the Apple Store again today and it appears that Apple has brought the prices down a bit.
It's now only $200 USD for an additional 500GB SATA drive (for a Mac Pro) from the Apple Store. If I go to my local computer shop, I can get a 500GB drive for $79 CAD. I could get two 500GB drives for less than it costs me to get one 500GB drive from Apple.
I've heard of St. John's Wort a lot over the past 5 years, that and 5-HTP, I've never tried them though. I've also seen Cammomille tea at my local health food store, but I've never tried it either. I usually drink Peppermint, Fennel Seed or Ginger tea. I mainly drink those three to help with my stomach. Peppermint tea is my favourite and I find it helps calm my stomach the most. Some days my stomach is worse than others though and I have to take gravol on those days.
My stomach/gastrointestinal illness is a lot more than just nausea, it's constant pain, bloating, discomfort and a bunch of horrible symptoms. It almost feels like stomach+bowel cancer or something serious. I've had extensive testing done over the years, and all the tests come back normal. I've researched Crohns and Celiac disease, but I've never had any testing done for those.
As for the gastroenterologist, I went to one several years ago and he told me it was "all in my head". I'm planning on going back to one in the near future though. I've been sick for 8 years and I'm tired of it. I used to be able to eat everything, now I can barely eat anything. I developed a ton of food sensitivities and I can no longer eat red meat, wheat, or any products with milk for example. If I eat something that I'm not supposed to, I'll have major digestive issues and I'll usually throw up. Now all I can eat is the most basic foods like brown rice and chicken (it gets really boring eating the same stuff every day).
Thanks for the suggestions. I wouldn't mind trying St John's Wort or Cammomille, it couldn't hurt.
Here's a quote from my blog to give you an idea:
I don't think you'd ever understand what I went through, it was traumatizing and I can't even describe how horrible it was. It's not a matter of being able to "grow up", this fear was put in my head at a very early age and it's been with me the majority of my life. It was my father who gave me my fear of vomitting, and it controls my life. I can't just get rid of this fear overnight, it's not like bullying where I can just "toughen up". It's a serious illness and I have yet to get the therapy that I need. It doesn't help that I now have a serious stomach illness and I've been extremely ill for the past 8 years. I can't leave the house most days as my fear of vomitting and my fear of embarrassment (from vomitting in public) prevents me from going outside.
Here's a page on Emetophobia. There's a ton of good info on that site, too much to quote it all here. But I'll quote some of the stuff that I feel is important.
That last sentence is very true, I'd rather die than be sick.
I'm one of those people who suffer from "real severe depression". From my personal experience, those drugs *DO NOT* work for me.
I was severely abused by my father and I was bullied throughout school. Halfway through grade 9 I tried to kill myself. I was forcibly put on paxil when I was in the hospital recovering. My life has been shit ever since then. I'm now 25 and I've been mentally ill for the past 12 years and physically ill for the past 8 years. I haven't been able to work or go to school in the last 8 years. I can't even leave the house most of the time because of my chronic nausea and my emetophobia (fear of vomitting).
I can't take anti-depressants anymore because they make my stomach even sicker than it already is. I've been on paxil, effexor, celexa, wellbutrin and a bunch of other anti-depressants over the past 12 years, none of them help. I fucking hate anti-depressants to be honest, I rather be miserable and depressed than sick as hell from all the side effects.
I lost hope in getting better several years ago. I stopped seeing psychologists because all they wanted to do was give me more and more drugs. I was once on 60mg of paxil and 150mg of wellbutrin at the same time, and that wasn't working, so my psychologist wanted to put me on a third one ontop of the paxil and wellbutrin. That's when I said enough was enough and I've never seen a psychologist since then. I hate the state of health care in Canada, I have to see naturopaths to get the care that I need.
I can live with my depression, it's the anxiety, stomach issues and isolation from the outside world that bothers me.
See my sig or my blog for more info.
I've been a long time FPS gamer (Wolfenstein 3D, Doom 1 and 2, Quake 1, 2 and 3, Duke Nukem 3D, Unreal Tournament 2004, Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2).
Nowadays I play a huge amount of Team Fortress 2. I really enjoy the death effect where it shows you who killed you and how they did it. It allows me to learn from my mistakes and do better the next time around.
"int n = 0; while(1 = 1) { n++; int array[n]; }"
Using an assignment operator instead of a relational operator, minus 5 geek points.
If Time Warner was smart, they'd offer similar packages. Rogers doesn't enforce bandwidth caps (even though they could). I have the Express package and I often go above the 60GB/month limit. Not once in 8 years has Rogers ever sent me a complaint for going over the limit.
Are you serious? All three current generation consoles use chips based on IBM's Power Architecture.
The Xbox 360 uses a PowerPC based processor.
The Wii uses a PowerPC based processor.
The PS3 uses a Cell processor with 1 PPE (Power Processing Element) and 7 SPEs (Synergistic Processing Elements). The Power Processing Element is based on the Power Architecture.
1. Cordless tools and equipment--all with different kinds of battery packs and chargers.
2. Flashlights and other small electrical devices that run on exotic batteries.
3. Cellphones that all come with different chargers and power-supply units.
4. AV equipment that has different types of hookups and remote-control protocols.
And his other three points are all about bloat and poor design choices:
5. Computer operating systems loaded with stuff I don't want and will never use.
6. Automobiles with obnoxious electronics.
7. Cars designed to make it tough to do maintenance.
Overall he makes some pretty good points.
In response to his first three complaints, I don't think companies will ever give up their non-standard battery packs... they make too much money on replacement batteries.
As for complaint #4, I thought AV equipment was pretty well standardized already. All of my TV and AV equipment accept the same types of audio cables. I'd agree with his point about remotes though. I've never owned a "universal remote" that "just worked".
In complaint #5, Jamie is mainly complaining about the bloat in Windows (more specifically Vista). I think the problem is that Operating Systems like Windows have to be designed with a wide user base in mind, so they have to have features that only 10% of the users would use. It would be nice if Microsoft actually made a modular OS where I could uninstall everything that I don't use (Outlook and IE for example). I have to give Jamie props for advocating Linux in the article.
Here's a quote from complaint #5 which I totally agree with:
His main complaint in #6 is that he doesn't like cars that beep at him to buckle his seatbelt and he doesn't like cars that auto-lock the doors. Personally, I don't mind these features, but I can understand why someone might find them annoying. As for all the other electronics going in cars nowadays, I don't mind them. If you've ever driven in a BMW, you'd probably fall in love with all of the electronics. Whenever I drive in my toyota, I'm constantly adjusting the temperature as it's always fluctuating between too hot or too cold (I can never seem to find that comfort zone). But in a Beamer, I can set the temperature to 22C and forget about it. Some electronics I can live without, like those onboard navigation screens, but others I tend to enjoy.
And finally, complaint #7 is all about poor design choices (in cars). Here's his example of a bad design: "One late-model sedan I worked on required the removal of a front wheel, plus a bunch of other stuff, just to replace the battery". I'm not a mechanic, and I have little to no experience under the hood, but are a lot of cars really designed this poorly? I can't think of any car where I actually had to remove a tire just to change the battery (Does anyone know what car Jamie was talking about?).
You make a really good point, and I'd agree with you that the NES is probably one of the greatest consoles. Personally, I prefered the SNES, but I never had the privilege of owning an NES (I owned a Sega Master System instead). Pretty much all of my NES experience came from playing it over at a friends house.
If I had to choose the greatest console of all time, I'd say it was the Playstation 2. The PS2 had some of the best game franchises in my opinion. Also, I never owned a PS1, so I could enjoy a lot of those classic PS1 games (like Final Fantasy 7 and 9) on my PS2. Also, the PS2 was the first DVD player in my house.
Here's a list of my favourite games for the NES, SNES and the PS2:
NES:
The Legend of Zelda
Super Mario Bros 1, 2 & 3
Excitebike
Mega Man 2 (my favourite in the series)
Double Dragon
Final Fantasy
Dragon Quest/Warrior
Donkey Kong 1, Donkey Kong Jr & Donkey Kong 3
Castlevania 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 & 2
Blades of Steel
Duck Hunt
Gradius
Ninja Gaiden
Metal Gear
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
SNES:
Super Mario World
Super Mario Kart
Zelda: A Link to the Past (my personal favourite)
Donkey Kong Country
Contra 3
Street Fighter II
Mortal Kombat
Killer Instinct
Final Fantasy 4 & 6
Secret of Mana
Chrono Trigger
Super Punch-Out!
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Super Adventure Island
Super Metroid
Mega Man X
Final Fight
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4: Turtles in Time
Aladdin
Cool Spot
Uniracer
NBA Jam
Mario Paint
PS2:
Metal Gear Solid 2 & 3
Gran Turismo 3 & 4
Final Fantasy 10 & 12
God of War 1 & 2
Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City & San Andreas
Tony Hawk 3, 4 & Underground
Ratchet & Clank, Going Commando & Up Your Arsenal
Devil May Cry 1 & 3
Guitar Hero 1, 2 & 3
NBA Street 1 & 2
Kingdom Hearts
Shadow of the Colossus
Mark of Kri
Ico
Silent Hill 2 & 3
Hot Shots Golf 3
Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat
The reason I chose the PS2 is mainly for the Metal Gear Solid series, Gran Turismo series, God of War series, Final Fantasy series, Grand Theft Auto series, Tony Hawk series, Ratchet & Clank series, Devil May Cry series, Guitar Hero series and NBA Street series. Those PS2 games have kept me very busy over the past 7 years. I still play most of my PS2 games quite frequently, even though I've finished most of them several times.
The main reason I bought a PS3 was for those Playstation franchises (Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, Ratchet & Clank and Final Fantasy). I also own a Wii so that I can enjoy those Nintendo franchises (Zelda, Mario and Metroid). I still enjoy playing those classic NES and SNES games from time to time. I own Mario 1, 2, 3, Super Mario World and Zelda: A Link To The Past on both my Wii (Virtual Console) and my Nintendo DS (GBA versions).
I also miss my Lego collection. My mom sold all of my Lego at a garage sale 10-15 years ago. I think I had over $5,000 worth of lego at the time. I mainly collected the Lego City sets, but I also had some Space, Medieval and Technic sets. Before Lego, I was playing with Tinkertoys. I also had some Meccano, Capsela, Fisher Technic, Straws and Connectors, Marble Runs and K'Nex.
Lego was probably my favourite toy as a child. During my lego years (5-12 years old), I wanted to grow up to be an architect or an engineer (I ended up becoming a computer programmer).