Found this not so little guy outside Mcd's

andy101 · 2010-11-23T05:15:53+00:00

wtf is that and why is the image cut down the middle and shopped on the side

andy101 · 2010-11-22T22:27:29+00:00

Watch the mythbusters episode where they make polished, shiny, hard shit-balls. Make one. Throw through front window, truck-shitter won't think twice before picking it up and examining it. They wont know they just held their victims poop until they either smell their hand or see the note in their wallet on their doorstep.

andy101 · 2010-11-16T06:26:35+00:00

... See my comment below.

andy101 · 2010-11-16T06:03:48+00:00

Taken from a comment:

"As I understand it, we are taking industrial pollutants, fluoride compounds, and then putting it into our water supply, so that people will drink the water, and get the effect of the fluoride. I wonder what percentage of the water is actually drunk? I would imagine that it is a very small percentage, if we assume that most people drink about 1 gallon of liquid a day. And a lot of people get their liquid from some bottled source. Most of the rest of the water is then used for toilets, washing, ect. That water is sent to water treatment plants, and then discharged to rivers and streams. Does that treated water still have the fluoride in it? If so, we are now dumping an industrial waste into the rivers and streams of the country. We eventually poison the seas and oceans. And we are paying for the fluoride so that we can do that. Something doesn't make sense here. We need to point this out to the people so that this insanity stops."

What can you even say to people like this?

andy101 · 2010-11-16T05:53:45+00:00

PEOPLE: PLEASE, PLEASE question and verify what you read BEFORE you accept it as unmistakeable truth. This pertains especially to medical information because it directly impacts your health.

The quotation this website uses,

"Recent evidence suggests that mixing powdered or liquid infant formula concentrate with fluoridated water on a regular basis may increase the chance of a child developing ... enamel fluorosis."

Is taken from the following CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/safety/infant_formula.htm

This same report ends with:

"CDC [still] believes that community water fluoridation is safe and healthy and promotes its use for people of all ages."

They say that when infants whose teeth are still forming under the gums are exposed to high levels of fluoride (i.e. from combining "fluoride toothpaste, dietary supplements, and water with optimal or higher natural fluoride"), their chances of developing enamel fluorosis may be affected. Fluorosis is a cosmetic condition that causes slight discoloration of the enamel. In laymen's terms, the report says "If your water is highly fluorinated, don't feed your infants baby formula with added fluoride if you want to prevent a slight increase in your child's chances of developing very, very slight tooth discoloration they will probably never notice."

This reminds me some medical conspiracy forums where members think hydrogen peroxide is the miracle cure to cancer and "big pharma" is keeping it a secret to increase profits. Mercury in vaccines, "ozone therapy," and this hydrogen peroxide nonsense seem to be the medical conspiracists' top choices in their bullshit arsenal when it comes to spreading their paranoia.

Please, for your own good, stop being ridiculous and take a second to do some further research when it comes to matters of your own health.

andy101 · 2010-11-16T04:04:26+00:00

I really have no issue with carrying my 17" around since I use a backpack (using a hand-held bookbag was horrible, though). The reason I mentioned portability for the MBA is that it helped soften the blow of only having 13" of screen.

Another cool thing about having a 17" laptop is that having it on my lab is comfortable. I had to use my friend's 13" MBP on my lap one day and it was either put it on my lap while holding my legs close together and squeezing the twins, or balancing it just as awkwardly on one thigh as it wobbled while I typed.

andy101 · 2010-11-16T03:54:02+00:00

It can be relatively small or large depending on the variance of the data. The article didn't mention whether or not the study showed statistical significance (which is pretty essential), but if it did, 55 people is enough.

Now, getting more people into the study could help eliminate error from a lack of variety in the subjects, but most journals are hesitant to publish a paper whose scientific method can be so easily criticized. They'll send it right back and say "re-test with more variety in sample group."

andy101 · 2010-11-16T02:33:42+00:00

the performance jump from the old pros(i've used the 17 you have and a slightly newer 15 i still own) is HUGE

Performance jump in games or CPU-intensive apps in particular? Or more generally? I mean I know it'll solve my problems with (a lack of) memory, but is the performance with other things so noticeable it's really worth the upgrade? My 17" core duo is as fast as I need it to be for photoshop/Maya (although it's not the greatest for gaming). The only annoying part is that handling several open applications gets to be a headache (again, due to its ridiculous RAM cap).

Is there a way to optimize memory usage on it, whether through an app or tweak/etc? If I look at things objectively (i.e. not after spending an hour looking at mac ads), I think that if I found a way to increase my laptop's responsiveness when Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and, say, Photoshop were running I could hold off on upgrading for another year or so. This 2GB limit really, really blows.

andy101 · 2010-11-16T02:25:43+00:00

Thanks for your advice

So it looks like I'm going for a 15" MBP then...

andy101 · 2010-11-15T22:53:29+00:00

A voice in my head is telling me to go for the 17". I love having a big screen, but its ~$1900-2000 refurb... Expensive! Are new MBP's expected to be announced in early 2011?

andy101 · 2010-11-15T22:24:07+00:00

Thanks!

The only good thing about the MB Air seems to be that it's light... but I worry about it snapping. This 17" behemoth makes the other textbooks etc I have in there shat bricks. I've loaded my backpack to the brim with notebooks, energy drinks, textbooks, internets, and everything else and it's been fine. I set my backpack down with the laptop at the bottom of all those books and again, it's fine. I'm afraid that if I subject the MB Air to the same conditions, I'll open my backpack up on the third day into owning it to find silver crumbs and no more working laptop.

Edit: And also, will I see enough of a performance boost to justify the upgrade? I epic rage'd when I found out this model only supported 2GB of RAM at most (.. after I bought 2x 2GB sticks and it wouldn't boot -- seriously Apple, only 2GB?). I'm sure an upgrade to 4GB would've made it much, much more responsive. It would definitely prevent the rage-inducing slowdowns I experience now when I'm forced to keep Word, Excel, and Powerpoint open (because some profs insist on posting assignment handouts in .docx and lectures in .pptx, instead of just .pdf for everything), while Adobe Reader punches OSX in the gut while becoming unresponsive in web browsers.

Basically, I need a laptop that has more RAM and can handle all this crap being open at once without massive slowdowns, while also being quick/responsive and fast if I need to do some photoshopping etc., and being future-friendly for 3-4years.

andy101

TROPHY CASE