The Mac mine is a very cool piece of computer hardware, the only problem I had with mine was the measly 512 MB of Ram.  But when buying Apple hardware new, they really soak you on the memory upgrades AND require you to order on-line rather than pick up from their store, so I heartily recommend getting the base model from them and upgrading the Ram yourself.  With most Apple systems this is super easy, like with our aluminum iMac, it took about 5 minutes.  The Mini takes this normally straightforward computer task
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Cartoon by award winning illustrator Tony Auth

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Despite the best laid plans disaster does, occasionally, strike.  in in the IT world that means you need good backups of your systems since, occasionally, your systems will melt down.

As you may have noticed, ExistentialBlues.com recently underwent just such a catastrophe.  Power blackouts shouldn't tank servers connected to UPS, but somehow things that shouldn't happen, do.  And on an annoyingly frequent basis, I might add.

The backup was, hmmm, not good, being three months old, I'll have to do better next time.  But at least it worked, which is much better than I've seen on other ocassions but much more sophisticated operations than mine.
After a looong weekend of being unable to give the server the attention it needed in order to rise like a Phoenix from its ashes, it's back.  Let the e-mailing and web server continue!
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I read food labels all the time.  I've been doing it so long, it's habitual and I've developed something of a knack for it.  I can spot wheat almost instantly no matter how long the list of ingredients is.  Other foods like milk, peanuts, and corn, almost as fast.

One ingredient that's still tripping me up, however, is natural flavors. 

There's two reasons for that, one being that I only recently added it to my food blacklist, the second being that I haven't been able to fully identify it as a problem ingredient in my own mind because, well, sometimes it is an allergy problem for me, but not necessarily.

The actual definition of natural flavorings under the US Code of Federal Regulations is: “the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional” (21CFR101.22).

Additionally, to show up as "natural flavor" and not, say, "natural strawberry flavor" the flavoring has to be a combination of two or more flavor compounds. 

So a company can put just about any combination of things in their food and call it natural flavors so long as the "significant function" is to be a flavoring.  As a guy allergic to a variety of foods, what are the chances that I'm not going to be allergic to "natural flavors?"  I'd say zero, and so from here on out, I'm avoiding any food which contain "natural flavors" and would suggest others with serious allergies do the same.


Reference:
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/CF101-22.HTML

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Is that you can buy dolls of goth chicks on-line.  It's for the greater good that I learn about dolls about goth chicks; higher education is always a greater good, right?

Sadly, my own site analysis was on a grocery store.  I coulda been having a lot more fun in this class than I am...

...guess I'll just stick to figurines of chicks with multi-color hair taking their fish for a walk.

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I'm at a loss to explain how I didn't know about this site sooner.  It's hilarious, though it's focused on the excesses of the IT world, so the uninitiated may not be as amused as I have been.
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Special thanks to Jeremy for passing this along:
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Kurt Vonnegut 11/11/1922 - 4/11/2007

American writer, his works were often darkly humorous, satirical and philosophical. By combining them all with a writing style that some called inspired and others derided as incoherent Vonnegut produced powerful works which forced readers to evaluate their own place in the real world as well as the characters places in the fictionalized world the books created.


Wikipedia entry

NY Times Story on the passing of Kurt Vonnegut

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