7 Ways to Speed up and Optimize Windows XP

A few simple but useful things you can do to speed up Windows XP. The font one helped me out a lot.

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10 Things that make Ubuntu a Neophyte's Distribution

Ubuntu has been gaining in popularity day by day. This article lists 10 points which makes it so likable among the new converts to Linux.

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Hundreds of Free Textbooks on one website

This is a collection of free textbooks from around the web. The site is non-commercial, easy to browse or search, and has links to hundreds of free books and educational sites in a variety of subjects. Users can leave reviews of the books in the registration-free comment fields.

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Baby Boomer Health Issues + Ruby Roo

Gail and Catherine with Ruby, October 2005 @ Zed's

Baby Boomer Health Issue Woes in Canada

We are well and truly into the Christmas hype of things around here. Bob has bronchitis, on his way to pneumonia, and needs to check back to the clinic on Thursday to get a requisition for a chest Xray. The doctor thinks that might be a good indicator of pneumonia, but I am pretty worried about it. The last chest Xray he took showed some kind of spot in the lower right lung. Not having a family doctor is just so bad. And yet politicians are constantly bulling up our failing health care system.

For the Baby Boom generation (ours) the peri-retirement years should be the last, relaxed hurrah before the calm. Yet how many of us can truly "relax", knowing that our steadily-waning health issues are not being addressed at any level of provincial or civic medicine? There are NO family doctors. There are lots of medical clinics where family doctors occasionally practice on a rotational schedule to boost up their annual salaries. So if you go to a clinic 3 times a week, you could be seeing three different doctors. How much of a continuum is that? You find yourself repeating the exact information three times and getting three different diagnoses. So, in effect, BC MED has been billed thrice for the same problem. If there were more doctors practicing family medicine OR if the "system" would allow family doctors to bill as many hours as medical clinic doctors, the problem would resolve itself.

You see? The core of the beast is the fibrillating, monetary heart of provincial politics. Each municipality has different hours for the cap number of hours any family doctor can bill: the hours that can be billed for medical clinics, with their extended hours, are much higher. Is it any wonder that doctors prefer to work in a clinic? They went through gruelling university experiences because they love their profession. Come on, GOVERNMENT, let them DO their jobs! Extend billing hours for family physicians so that those of us nearing retirement or already seniors, can derive some benefits from a medical system largely funded BY US, over our working lives since the 1960s.

Dying is inevitable. Dying of a cold, that is really bronchitis, that turns out to be double pneumonia, is a crime in our society at our level of medical awareness. If we who are well-educated and savvy, cannot get adequate medical intervention...

Who the hell can?

~~*Pacific Myst*~~

How To Make an Origami CD Holder

Have you ever burned a mix CD only to have it scratched after a single trip in the car? You could buy a plastic CD holder....
...For a penny or two, you can make a cd case that will do the job. When the case gets old, just recycle it.

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Anti-cancer Compound In Beer

A micronutrient called xanthohumol is present in beer and according to scientists "is one of the more significant compounds for cancer chemoprevention that we have studied"!

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Ubuntu: Best Linux Desktop for Business?

ZDNet has been testing Linux for business, trying to work out what the best distro is for small businesses. After testing Mandriva, Novell Linux, Red Hat Desktop, SUSE Linux and Ubuntu Linux. After installing them all-- Ubuntu came out as the winner.

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Never remove CPU cooler- VIDEO

This is a video on what happens when you remove your CPU cooler. It shows the temperature, as well as the type of processor and if it has been nuked or lived to fight another day.

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500+ Colours

This page lists over 500 colours by colour name, Hex value, RGB value and Microsoft Access code number. Best webdesign tool ever. For me at least. I use this page the most.

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In The End, Do We Even Need Our Brains?

Fascinating and baffling cases in consciousness research: what the world looks like to a man whose vision is restored after 50 years of blindness; how a roomful of people missed seeing a man in a gorilla suit walk through their midst...

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The Face of Tomorrow: Composite Faces

Ever wonder what an average face looks like in Hong Kong? This site travels to different countries and takes many pictures of the natives there. Then they average all the faces together to form a composite, providing you with an idea about what an "average" person of that nationality looks like. Pretty cool, the composites look pretty good!

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Cool free software

Here's a list of very interesting free software. Includes applications for backing up your data to a hosted serverfarm, self-publishing (and printing) a book, downloading free music (and books), encrypting your hard drive, displaying lyrics to music playing in iTunes, and more. Cool stuff.

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Da vinci's intellect tested

Was the great Leonard Da Vinci really as intellectually superior as we think he was? A recent scientific study tries to find out just that. Read on

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New Little Tree

Here's our new little fibre optic tree before any decorations are added. It was so easy to upload this picture onto my blog via Picasa! If you don't have Picasa yet, why...why...why??? It's fabulous and is now my program of choice for editing, saving, and displaying photos. Sooo easy. So free.  

Scientists prove seeing without the eyes

Scientist at Rice have shown that people when temporarily blinded using a big magnet (TMS) can still process visual information thru other means. This is a phenomenon known as blindsight. sweet.

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My Secret Weapon Against THE COLD

Okay, the color of this font has to be cool because, uh, we're gonna talk about colds.

You know? Sniffles. That hot, crunchy feeling at the back of your throat.

That sweater that sticks in your esophagus each morning and no matter how many times you grate out your best "ahem", you still have phlegm.

Yes loyal readers, I DO have a secret weapon. In fact, I have two of them.

First of all, and well documented, is Cold Fx. It's a pill, you can buy it at many stores including drug stores, and it has as two of its ingredients different extracts of ginseng. Actually does work to lessen the amount of time that you are suffering from a cold.

Next is the real kicker. I discovered it a few years ago and accidentally. The product is not advertised as preventing colds, or even lessening their duration. But for me, it works to prevent any symptoms of a cold from manifesting. In other words, I don't know if I have a cold or not.

The product is a nose spray that I use to alleviate symptoms of allergies (that is what everyone uses it for). It's called fLonAse. Here in Canada, you need a prescription but I have seen it advertised on American TV as if it were an OTC (over the counter) product. During the winter cold season, if I use fLonAse just once a week or even once every two weeks, I do not get colds.

I am not advertising these products. I am not suggesting that YOU use them. I am only saying that for me, they really do work, especially the spray.

Not only are these products my secret weapons, with the spray in my nostril, I am a sniper taking aim at germs. Common colds BEWARE. Be afraid. Be vewwy, vewwy afwaid!!!