@BMarie What I like about Modafinil is that it is not an amphetamine so you don't get the same resistance to it after taking it for years. Admittedly, I use adderall on the weekends or to speed things up, but intentionally not very often.
You can get Modafinil at http://modafinilcat.com/ (Modalert or Wakalert) - I know the person who actually runs it and I order tons from there, way cheaper than other places, and it takes about 1-2 weeks to get. This is not a paid endorsement.
Open Fire is fairly easy to setup, though things like LDAP and MySQL can be confusing for novices to that kind of thing, since in general Java makes dealing with those things about as easy as walking on a bunch of marbles. I do like its ability to force users to have the same contact list and so on, though.
@scottalanmiller The Spark Client, a hunk of dog crap, doesn't do that or much of anything, but the great news is one can use any Jabber client out there. We mostly use Pidgin 'round here, and you can set the idle time fairly low and there may be a plugin for that, I don't know, or some other Jabber client.
@BMarie said:
@thanksajdotcom do you have AD.D. to?
I do, and Modafinil helps; I take a lot of it and have for years.
The fontawesome CDN is running fine, so everyone point at @IRJ and laugh.
Font awesome must not be loading for you, clear your cache and try again. 
What are you my.cnf settings? If you're giving too much space for indices in memory, caching, etc that could definitely be the problem. Some of the example my.cnf files are for MySQL-only servers, and you may have used one of those so MySQL is working as if it's the only thing, in other words.
Oh yeah and you have a boat load of threads, so again, we're back to my.cnf
Edit: @scottalanmiller mentioned that one already, he always beats me to stuff.
@scottalanmiller said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
Getting a tattoo with the autism jigsaw in it in honor of my brother...what's ironic is I'm also autistic, and I do mean that in what ironic means...we're just at different ends of the spectrum.
No AJ, you don't.
SW ad that shows up almost every page load now, I must have given it a billion impressions by now:
It's like he's jumping out at me like Clippy.
@scottalanmiller said:
None of those eliminated whole crops in a single season. It's completely different.
That goes into what I was saying about clones, especially nothing but clones.
You'll notice what I felt should put people in jail is patenting life.
Sorry, I misread that, but I do agree there that is really bizarre and I've always thought so, especially when it got into the realm of moving beyond plants into animals and the sexist animal of all, human.
Anyway, don't get weight loss surgery. Boom now it's an on topic post
@scottalanmiller Has that large reflective power generation system that uses steam taken off in Spain? I recall seeing a lot about that several years ago, but it seems fairly inefficient to me, but I don't know that much about it honestly, nuclear power on the other hand, well that's my wheel house, well sort of, after programming.
@scottalanmiller said:
There are entire countries in Africa where crop production is almost gone now because of GMO food. GMO food might be "more productive" but only by certain measurements. By others, it is unsustainable and has caused large portions of the world's crop production, in the regions most in need of it, to go fallow as it not only isn't self sustaining but destroys the natural crops as well.
Honestly, I think making a patented living thing should be a crime with penalties akin to murder. I truly believe anyone making GMOs should be taken out of society as what they are willing to do to people and our planet is unthinkable.
Bad farming practices destroy things way faster than any type of food, and planting the same things over and over has been known to be a bad idea in the US since the 1940s/50s, however in the developing world this isn't usually the case. I don't blame GMOs for those problems, but certainly one could blame the perception that the GMO crop was somehow capable of even the worse farming that lead to carelessness. If they did the same things with monocultural organic crops the same thing would've happened, especially if it's something that pulls nitrates out the soil like crazy, like corn.
Additionally the overuse of cloning constantly puts things on the edge of destruction.
A lot of what you say about GMOs sounds more like bad science coming out of anti-capitalist groups like Green Peace rather than reality. That isn't to say GMO is automatically good, in the same way large "organic" crops destroying the countryside with massive amounts of arsenic and other highly poisonous things.
Jumping to the conclusion that doing essentially the same thing as selective breeding, except faster is akin to murder is pretty alarmist and basically anti-science. In fact switching or off specific genes in a plant is more accurate than just regular selective breeding or pushing for genetic irregularities with radiation (more popular before GMOs, still used on wheat). Of course I'm not talking about wilder GMO attempts that have been made in labs and in test crops.
Bad farming practices and cloning have done a hell of lot more damage than any GMO, just look at the dust bawl, similar things still happen, just now anti-GMO people blame GMOs rather than the farmers.
@s.hackleman Well, what you said is absolutely true and it is a concern of mine, and I often think about how there has to be a better way to do it. Unfortunately, I don't have the expertise, but fortunately I do have money and I do put investments into projects related to those ends.
However, agriculture of any kind is unsustainable, primarily because it destroys top soil, so even the most "sustainable agriculture" has a finite limit unless one finds ways to improve crop efficiency. In fact, human life in general is unsustainable, and so in general we've got a hell of a lot to do in the world.
Also farm land for meat production can't just be switched to plants, and in fact a lot of land that cows, pigs, etc can "grow" on, our crops cannot, at least not without genetic modification, though most of the people I've talked to who bring up what you do tend to be against that as well. Though also a lot of farm land would be regained that's currently being used to plant food for the animals on the other farm land. However too there's also a lot of farm land wasted on stuff like corn-based ethanol or just isn't farmed period in order to create artificial price controls.
I think for the most part we are both on the same page, but our desires and ends aren't exactly the same, but over all, the big picture of just not breaking down the entire planet is something that if worked at from either one of our perspectives could only be good. I'd hope you'd agree with that, even if you don't think what I want is as desirable or as necessary as what you do, because I feel the same, but opposite.
For me, veggies certainly help, but I'm really bad at eating them, because I'm just a picky eater, and I love really high (animal) fat foods, I smother my veggies in real butter, not only is it more filling, but it also gets me through to the other side. That and Tabasco sauce.
@scottalanmiller said:
I'm very hopeful that the change to the European lifestyle - fresh food, eating later, no preservatives or additives, walking everywhere, lots of hills, fresh air - will do something for me as well.
Americans always thought I was unusual for either never eating breakfast or eating something small, and same for dinner/supper, but a slightly larger lunch, and lunch a little late too. In fact on two different occasions I made people angry by saying I don't really eat breakfast or like the traditional English/American breakfast food. It's no wonder people are tired as hell by 10am.
Anyway, I don't have a problem with preservatives in general, unless it's scientifically proven by double blind studies and peer review in a real journal, then I'll avoid at. As such in this house, we don't buy anything organic, ever, unless it's on sale or something and it's cheaper than alternatives. Primarily because organic is a non-logical false-standard based on marketing rather than science, and also because I love GMOs and I prefer food that's been made more efficiently.
Yes, I am one of those people who thinks humanity is more important than nature, but I do love nature and I do believe in climate change, but I also believe in bending it to the will of humanity instead of living like the first 10,000 years of "organic" agriculture that was full of mass starvation, blights, etc.
I love hiking in the woods/hills and such as well, I love forests in fact.
@s.hackleman When people ask me how I lost weight, I'll usually say either methamphetamines or if I'm eating my mostly semi-paleolithic+dairy diet I'll say I switched to raw veganism. I'm just a general smart ass I guess.
In all seriousness, a friend of mine gets sick when he eats meat, and for years he didn't even figure this out, he did so accidentally by switching to veganism to impress a girl. Pretty funny, but anyway, his main problem is protein and various vitamins, but not that big of a deal if you put in the effort.
Definitely not a lifestyle for me, I eat a lot of animal fat, but interestingly we go to the gym together and we're essentially equal on health when it comes to weight, blood pressure, cholesterol (good and bad), etc. I find that fascinating, especially because the general belief is that eating fat makes you fat and eating saturated fat will kill you, yet the opposite has happened to me and initially without any exercise, and the same thing happened with him and he eats the exact opposite way.
Humans are adaptable that's for sure. Unfortunately he has yet to get his genes analysed so we can't see if there are any major differences there.
@thecreativeone91 said:
@scottalanmiller You just don't have flash installed.
Who the hell still makes new sites with flash? There's almost nothing that can be done in flash now that can't be done in JS+HTML5 with less effort.
I've got an older sister with severe autism and epilepsy, and back home, in that culture having anyone mentally handicapped at all is taboo as hell so people often abandon children in dangerous, state run homes where they are neglected and abused. My sister is in a home, but it is a private one, and I spend a hell of a lot of money on it and they treat her well. My second-to-youngest sister visits her often, usually twice a week. Unfortunately even the well treated people there from wealthy families tend to almost never be visited by anyone.
So I think awareness is important because, at least in South Eastern Europe, the taboo has to end because many loved ones are being mistreated and it's simply ignored by the population at large. People are even advised to simply forget they have this infirm and/or disabled relative and just move on. It's disgusting. My own family even did that with my sister until I was able to do something about in my early 20s -- she now has her own room, with her own personal things in it, where as before she had a large adult crib in a huge room.
I think saying "diet and exercise" really is meaningless unless you describe what that even means (@JaredBusch did though, I'm just saying when people say that in general), and I hate tracking things, I really despise any extra effort; I am truly lazy. So, here's my story.
I got up to 375lbs and just did Atkins, didn't even bother exercising until after I lost the weight. Atkins works if you stick to it and continue to essentially stick to low-carb (under 50g of carbs per day for me) for good, eat a lot of fat (especially saturated), etc. I've never been more healthy, had better blood pressure, etc.
I did notice the biggest thing was getting off the sugar soda, switched to diet, and I found that I liked Diet Mountaindew the most, it seemed to taste most like the regular, plus sugar free redbull as well, which does have like 3g of carbs though.
The hardest was avoiding bread since I'm just completely in love with pizza, so I have it every once in a while. The second hardest was drinking enough water, 4 litres a day, which was hard at first but got easier.
I don't worry about salt or anything either, especially since I drink a lot of water. I hate lettuce, so I eat spinach instead, but I still have a hard time with vegetables in general.
What I liked was that so much protein allowed me to gain some muscle too whilst doing nothing, it was kinda weird, though I do have a genetic predisposition to muscle gain, and most people don't have this. Though most people who stay on Atkins or some form of it tend to report at least some muscle gain.
My main problem is that I've got a gene for overeating*, i.e. not being able to realise that I'm full. High fat helps a lot with this and also usually what I do is figure out how much I want to eat and just cut that amount in half, seems to work ok, no measuring or any BS like that. Fat doesn't make you fat, though most Americans seem to think so, but then again if what you ate directly correlated to what was in your body, then I guess I got a lot of bacon and hamburgers in my arms **.
*I had my genes analysed that's how I know this.
**I feel a lot of guilt about not keeping kosher, but I just eat bacon, no other pork products
In the end it doesn't matter what sort of diet or surgery you get if you don't change your life style. Plus also when it comes to exercise, stuff like running and walking doesn't really burn many calories. In fact, human beings are so efficient at running that we burn like 150 calories per mile, which is garbage.
If you want to ramp up weight loss, what eats fat more than anything else, is muscles. Lift weights, free weights, just get some crappy ones from a yard sale or something, don't waste money when you don't to.
Plenty of people get the surgery and just gain it all back slowly, because they go back to eating carbohydrates, and that's something to consider if you're genetically inclined toward type 2 diabetes (like me, and possibly you too), that your body will basically convert all sugars (carbs included) into fat, and counting calories will only work if you're running on like 700 calories a day for you, it certainly didn't work for me and was pure hell. Counting calories does work for about 25% of people though, so it may work for you.
I feel awesome. I lift weights like I used to in college and now I'm getting more attention from the ladies, and a few dudes too, but hey, a complement is a complement. My wife is still on my ass about vegetables though.
Just gotta stick to it.
2600 always does one, but so far not this year, I hope Emmanuel Goldstein didn't fall in the shower or something.