Useless Conversation

[Gwion]

An English degree is no handicap and you shouldn't be thinking it is.  Most in IT can't communicate to save their fucking lives; I've found that my degree has given me an edge from day one.

*blink*

Wow. You're right. I've been stuck with a bunch of dysfunctional, arrogant weirdos for so long I've come to see the way they are as normal. They say "The users like you" as if I have something gross stuck in my teeth. It's not my fault they can't write a proper email, or explain anything without pissing everybody off in the process. Thanks.

I've decided to go with Oracle. It looks closer to what I want to do with more emphasis on actual DBA skills and I don't think I need to re-learn RDBM theory. It also turns out hardly anybody has signed up, while the SQL program is "getting full" according to the program director guy. All the more reason to not go that direction. Thanks for the advice, everybody. I really appreciate it.

And yes, that's an aye-aye! A baby. I always wanted a pet that looked like Edward Gorey drew it.

[bhodi]

Good luck!

[Soln]

take it from a complete stranger on the Interweb: if you can communicate well, act with integrity, be likable, and actually complete technical tasks people like Project Managers request you will be loved.

[MuffinMan]

Ready to get my face melted by Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth tonight in San Antonio.

[Selby]

Ready to get my face melted by Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth tonight in San Antonio.

Oh it will be a most excellent show.  I just saw it earlier this month.

[Rasix]

Always funny when someone signs you up for a conservative newsletter.     

[Yegolev]

I'm conservative and even I don't read that horseshit.

[Ingmar]

At least they didn't give your name and address to the Scientologists.

[Paelos]

Does anybody have any negative experiences or reactions to the sweetener aspartame? When I drink more than a couple of diet soda with that shit in it, I get all anxious and notice a change in my breathing, but there's no caffeine in it. I tested this against drinking the same amount of regular coke with caffeine, and I felt normal.

Just wondering if yall have any similar expereiences with those kind of sodas. The web seems to be innundated with all kinds of crazy crap on the subject.

[Engels]

Does anybody have any negative experiences or reactions to the sweetener aspartame? When I drink more than a couple of diet soda with that shit in it, I get all anxious and notice a change in my breathing, but there's no caffeine in it. I tested this against drinking the same amount of regular coke with caffeine, and I felt normal.

Just wondering if yall have any similar expereiences with those kind of sodas. The web seems to be innundated with all kinds of crazy crap on the subject.

Gives my SO a migraine pretty consistently.

[Sky]

Always funny when someone signs you up for a conservative newsletter.     

Downside to getting into gmail when they were first offering accounts: everyone in the world with my first initial and last name who is the slightest bit techtarded signs up for shit using my email addresses. Conservatard newsletters, veterans updates, LEGAL DOCUMENTS, family gatherings, medical info, verizon wireless, the list goes one. They're lucky I'm professionally ethical, the lawyer in particular. I send a nice reply to the sender and delete the email unread.

I really want to forward something to the clients and tell them their lawyer is tarded, or reply to the family info with a "Oh, Becky? She's sleeping with Dave!" Then the moment passes.

[WayAbvPar]

Does anybody have any negative experiences or reactions to the sweetener aspartame? When I drink more than a couple of diet soda with that shit in it, I get all anxious and notice a change in my breathing, but there's no caffeine in it. I tested this against drinking the same amount of regular coke with caffeine, and I felt normal.

Just wondering if yall have any similar expereiences with those kind of sodas. The web seems to be innundated with all kinds of crazy crap on the subject.

Gives my SO a migraine pretty consistently.

Yeah it gets to my wife pretty badly too. Migraines, mouth sores/hives/somethingorother, etc.

[Chimpy]

This is what happens when you fast track a product through the FDA without doing thorough research on it. All due to one study that linked saccharine to cancer in rats but was not ever reproduced.

[Nebu]

I wish I could explain the aspartame thing, but I'm baffled.  Aspartame is the methyl ester of two amino acids (aspartate + phenylalanine).  There's really nothing about it chemically that could produce those reactions, unless...

Do any of you have undiagnosed PKU?

PKU = Phenylketonuria

[Nebu]

This is what happens when you fast track a product through the FDA without doing thorough research on it. All due to one study that linked saccharine to cancer in rats but was not ever reproduced.

What?  There's a HUGE difference between saccharine and aspartame.   HUGE.

[Chimpy]

I know they are chemically different. I meant that the reason Aspartame was pushed through FDA approval in the early 80s was because of the "OMG Saccharine causes cancer and we have to have some kind of artificial sweetener on the market." I was not saying they are the same thing at all.

[Engels]

Do any of you have undiagnosed PKU?
PKU = Phenylketonuria

Pretty sure my SO doesn't smell like a mouse.

[Nebu]

I meant that the reason Aspartame was pushed through FDA approval in the early 80s was because of the "OMG Saccharine causes cancer and we have to have some kind of artificial sweetener on the market."

I'm still wondering why you think this.  Testing became more rigorous as a result of the saccharine findings, not less.  Aspartame wasn't exactly rushed out the door because of the gap in the sweetener market, but rather that is was a pretty harmless molecule with incredible potential.  

If you want to see an example of the FDA rushing things out the door, look at drugs for cancer or things like tamiflu.

[Nebu]

Pretty sure my SO doesn't smell like a mouse.

PKU does explain the migraines though.  Does she get headaches when she drinks alcohol?

[Engels]

Uhm, you mean other than a hangover? Not that I have ever heard her complain about.

[Bunk]

Aspertame hasn't ever bothered me, yet Sucralose/Splenda gives me a guaranteed headache everytime. One 500ml bottle of Nestle Splash will give me a headache for hours.

[rattran]

Aspartame give me blinding headaches and horrible cramps, and I do not have phenylketonuria. I was happy when for a while all the nutrisweet stuff was labeled with the phenylalanine warnings, though that seems to have stopped in the last couple years.

[Paelos]

Pretty sure my SO doesn't smell like a mouse.

PKU does explain the migraines though.  Does she get headaches when she drinks alcohol?

What does alcohol have to do with PKU? Serious question, I don't know. Also, I'm going to test Splenda sodas next in a side by side to see if I get a similar reaction. Right now, regular sugar doesn't bother me, nor does caffeine. It seems to be specifically diet sodas with aspartame.

[Yegolev]

Are you allergic to BPA?

[Sky]

Hmm. My fiancee has been having a lot of undiagnosed headaches lately, and we both drink a lot of diet coke. Do you have any good dumbass links about PKU? That link seems to talk about children, major brain defects and mouse smells. :) IANAD!

[Paelos]

Are you allergic to BPA?

No, that would be canned things I believe. The sodas I'm drinking some out of 2 liter plastic bottles. In any case, I've never had problems with food in cans or hard plastics.

[SnakeCharmer]

Fuck PNY Technologies.  Fuck them right in their tiny little ears.

[Engels]

Er, I take back everything I said. It was splenda that gave the SO headaches, not asparaugustine.

[Sky]

Fuck PNY Technologies.  Fuck them right in their tiny little ears.

My first flikr item:

[Viin]

Er, I take back everything I said. It was splenda that gave the SO headaches, not asparaugustine.

Splenda gives me a headache too.

[Nebu]

What does alcohol have to do with PKU? Serious question, I don't know. Also, I'm going to test Splenda sodas next in a side by side to see if I get a similar reaction. Right now, regular sugar doesn't bother me, nor does caffeine. It seems to be specifically diet sodas with aspartame.

Alcohol has nothing to do with PKU.  I asked because some people get migraines from drinking alcohol.  Aspartame produces minute amounts of methanol when it gets hydrolyzed and this can also precipitate headaches in people that get migraines from ethanol.

[Paelos]

Hmm, interesting. I know so little about biology it's frankly amazing I can use the bathroom by myself.

[Ingmar]

Hmm, interesting. I know so little about biology it's frankly amazing I can use the bathroom by myself.

That's more physics. 

[Lantyssa]

Practical application of fluid dynamics is more engineering.

[Paelos]

Further testing of splenda reveals is doesn't have the same negative effect on me as aspartame. It's definitely the diet cokes of the world that are rocking my socks. Unfortunately the only soda I can find with splenda in it so far is Diet Rite.