Geeks on keto

(Consensus is Politics) #121

My last few years of service in the USAF I became the go to guy for computer issues in my fighter squadron. That led me to doing it on my own time as well to make a few extra bucks.

I had two elderly ladies that I helped out. They just happened to live in the same retirement condo, but other than that I don’t think they knew each other.

The first of the two ladies (80ish years old) had bought a computer to be able to use email to keep in contact with extended family. She knew nothing at all about it. NOTHING. She said she can follow directions, and was very careful to follow them exactly. The problem she was having was using her back up floppy. This was about 1995, and her copy of the 3.5” disk wouldn’t be recognized by her computer. She said she followed the directions exactly. When the manual told her copy the 3.5” disk, she did. It said insert it in drive a:, which she did. But when she clicked continue it just made some odd noises and said no disk found. She said it was still in the drive, but she didn’t know how to get it out. I had some very slim tweezers and was able to remove the photocopy of the disk out of the drive. I swear, it was the toughest thing in the world holding in the laughter. I kept choking on it, and she said go ahead and laugh, and then tell me what I did wrong. Instead of laughing I purposely put my foot under the leg of my chair for some immense pain so I wouldn’t laugh at this dear lady. I explained what a disk was and what it meant to copy it. And she said, “well if they said what you just said I would have understood it!” She had a good laugh.

The other lady similar situation for getting a computer. Family contact. This was in the Phoenix Az area, in a retirement town called Sun City. Required 55+ yrs old to live there, and Antoine younger had to have special permission to stay over night.

So, she has her new laptop. It was a top of the line ThinkPad. You remember, the one with the little pencil eraser looking thing sticking up out between G and H I think? So she had just finished setting it up. She did a decent job. She hooked it to an external monitor, a printer. She did a really good job because this was in the early days of USB where you could really screw the pooch if you plugged in the printer before being prompted to, and creating a composite driver connected to nothing that was a struggle to remove, not to mention getting the printer installed after that.

So her issue wasn’t obvious at first. Everything worked, I was impressed. But then she pointed under her desk and said, “but how do I use that?” She was pointing at the mouse. It was plugged in, and the cord ran down behind the laptop and desk to the floor. I asked why it’s on the floor and she seriously said, “I thought it was a foot pedal, line on a sewing machine”.

That made my day. :crazy_face:

(Brian) #122

I think I still have one of those. It’s been tucked away in storage for years now, no idea if it may still work. Yup, I remember the little “pencil eraser” well. LOL!!

(Doug) #123

:smile: The “pointing stick.”

Great stories, Robert. I remember one technical-support horror account of someone calling in, and then it seemed like they could not get anywhere in doing what the tech representative told them to do. Finally, the tech heard the sound of the person knocking the computer mouse against the glass of the computer screen, as they tried to ‘click’ on things.

(Running from stupidity) #124

We called it something different, because it was apparently so hard for blokes to find and use correctly, but we have Americans here, so…

:smile:

I really hated that thing. So hard to be precise with it.

#125

Are you still talking about computers? :slightly_smiling_face:

(Running from stupidity) #126

Tangentially :slight_smile:

(A ham loving ham! - VA6KD) #127

…yet strangely I was more precise and preferred it over a touchpad or thumb-mouse ball on the side of the early Compaq 386 laptop screens.

(Consensus is Politics) #128

I actually had a Kensington trackball. It was effing huge. The ball was about the size and weight of a cue ball from a pool table. It had a lot of inertia when used. I kinda miss that thing now. *** sniff*** :sneezing_face:

[i might be hacking a game, creating a database or a spreadsheet, an feel/look like I was playing missile command] :sunglasses:

(Running from stupidity) #129

Me too, when I was having RSI issues. It was pretty damn awesome. Needed more (programmable) buttons, though :slight_smile: My Razer has 12 under my thumb, it’s the BEST THING EVER.

#130

Geez, I couldn’t remember what they all do!

(Running from stupidity) #131

You can change them per application, if that helps :slight_smile:

#132

Oh yeah, even better…thanks. :unamused:

(Running from stupidity) #133

I also have a Logitech G13 gamepad for more macros (by left and), and it also switches between apps :slight_smile:

TBF, though, because the mouse is a Razer, the software is not working properly so I can only have one set of macros on it. I think I have about 16 currently.

#134

The first step of recovery is to admit you have a problem. :grin:

Seriously, I’m not a gamer, so the use of these is so far beyond me, but I’m sure their very handy for gaming, and I would assume Photoshop or something with a lot of variables.

I do like to use keyboard commands as much as possible. Way faster to hit a few keys then trying to place you pointer on a certain spot on the screen.

(Running from stupidity) #135

Even quicker to hit the “5” key on the mouse to effectively hit the delete key, or the 3 key to alt-tab, or the 12 to bring up your clipboard history, and so on :slight_smile:

it’s like keyboard shortcuts on steroids. I love it.

And they game pad is great, too, I just don’t use it as much, it’s for more esoteric things. However, I might put my “rules for noobs” in there so I can trigger it with just one key :slight_smile:

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #136

Hilarious as the story is that’s not actually an unreasonable thing to think. Kind of like the disappearing cup-holder a client of mine used to have on his PC.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #137

My women friends complain about that all the time . . . :grin:

(Consensus is Politics) #138

Like the fabled “free gift from Coca Cola” email circa 1996. iirc it said, “click here for your free cup holder/coaster”. Of course the link was a script that ejected the CD.

(Consensus is Politics) #139

Attention fellow science geeks, nerds, brainiacs, et. al.

Over the past few years there has been a product on the market that claims, nay, they avoid the claim moniker, suggest (?) that their product can assist the body with its self healing.

At this time, I want to avoid the name. Personally, I think it’s snake oil. Or to be more precise… salt water.

The product is indeed salt water. They make no claim otherwise, but then go on to say its more than just saline. They’ve made it better. They’ve added Redox Signaling Molecules to it by the trillions.

OK, I’ll start with this… I might just be showing how little I actually know about a few things here, but dammit, this smells of scam. As far as I know, there are no “redox signaling molecules” other than the ones that are actually used to signal something in the body. There are several molecules that lend them selves very well to being used to communicate information in this fashion, Hydrogen being an example, so I’ll use it in my example for “reasons” :sunglasses:

So this company sells expensive salt water. Roughly $100 a liter. For salt water. H20 with sodium chloride. Thats the ingredient list. They claim their (31 patented) process, of which no patents I can find for it, so I’m sure if they did patent it its under a different name, creates Redox Molecules.

Redox is a process, not a thing. Which is why I said there are no redox molecules. But what was it I said about hydrogen? Its a redox molecule? Well, its well suited to be used as such, but its only a redox molecule while its being used to communicate between cells, or the mitochondria and the rest of the cell (yes, my ignorance begins to show, bear with me).

They say that the water is so saturated with their redox, that you only need 4 to 8 ounces a day to have its beneficial effect. The effects that were described all sounded very familiar to me. Hormone levels, weight loss, brain fog, energy, blood pressure, a very familiar list continues on. WTF? Sounds like ketones in use.

Looking into redox and how it works led me to link Ketone bodies to redox. Some of the articles began using these two terms interchangeably, Redox Signaling and Reverse Electron Flow.

So, now I’m thiking, what is it they are doing to the water that makes it ketogenic like? Is the water causing ketone bodies to be created? Do they add exogenous ketones to the water?

No. The use electrolysis to force the creation of Redox Molecules (again, from what I understand, Redox signaling molecules arent a thing until the signal is sent. Redox Signaling is a process, not a tangible thing, like a water molecule.

Here is where I’m beginning to get worried. What happens to water during electrolysis? Several things happen. Most obviously, you split the H2O into Hydrogen gas and Oxygen. Next, the water left behind becomes alkaline. Finally, the water is effectively being removed, even as if being evaporated off. Causing the density of any minerals to be more concentrated. But there is something more in water than just H2O. About 1 part in 3,000 H2O is D2O. D2O is Heavy Water. It occurs naturally, in very low levels. But it has a higher boiling point than water. It evaporates slower, and it is more resistant to electrolysis. So what can happen here is using electrolysis, you can distill even tap water down to D2O.

D2O isnt harmful in small amounts. You could drink a glass full of it and not even notice it was different. Since it is denser than H2O, you could get dizzy from it as that water gets to your inner ear. But it will eventually become harmful if you continue to drink it.

D2O is water made with Deuterium. Its a non radioactive isotope of Hydrogen. The hydrogen atom contains 1 electron, 1 proton. Deuterium contains that plus a Neutron. Makes it about twice as heavy as Hydrogen, but still acts pretty much the same, having only 1 electron to bind with. So it can create its own version of water, be it a bit heavier. Ice made from heavy water will sink in normal water.

How drinking D2O can be harmful. Since it behaves like water, the body will attempt to use it in the same manner. I’m pretty sure our bodies use some form of electrolysis to break down H2O and make use of both the Oxygen and Hydrogen. The problem arises when Deuterium is used in place of H. Its a slightly different chemical now, and may not work as it should. According to PubMed, if the 25% to 50% of the bodies H was replaced with D the result would be death. Cell function wouldn’t be possible, and the cells would just die off.

Indeed it took me a long time to get to the end here. Sorry for my poor writing and research style here, it shows I know. But with what I was able to convey, what do you think? Just snake oil? Worst case people over paying for water? Or unintentional poisoning by people that know less than I do about chemistry? The latter really scares the crap out of me.

(Diane) #140

Good morning! This was an effective wake up call for me today as I recall just enough of my chemistry for you to scare the crap out of me!!