Seriously, what?!

I keep hearing about how NSAIDs are projected as the next big thing for preventing cancer in combination with other drugs/supplements. I find it odd that it conflicts so directly with my background information from medicine and actual medical practice.

It's fine and all that we are desperate to find cures for cancer but it's also time to stop and think about what we know from the clinics. Do I think that people should start taking low dose aspirins (an NSAID) willy nilly because it might, at some vague point in the future, reduce their chances of cancer? In all good faith, I cannot support this view.

NSAIDs are no friends of your gastric lining. Doctors have known this for ages. They have the potential to induce gastric lining damage. Late last year, a study threw some light on the prospective dangers of chronic NSAID use (yes, not even abuse. I said, regular use.)

See ::READ PDF::

The study has been running for several years and women in the study fill out questionnaires and mail it back at regular intervals. The researchers looked at spans of use and followed up on these women, including who ended up with cancer and who didn't. They found that women who reported taking more NSAIDs in their daily life over several years were more likely to be diagnosed with renal cancer.

Why doesn't this surprise me? All that we know about the "good effects" of NSAIDS come from cross-sectional studies that take a snapshot of a section of population at any given time, ask them what they are eating and what disease they have. They are poor representations of what happens to our bodies over a long time. NSAIDs, among several other drugs are metabolized through our livers and kidneys - two main excretory organ networks in vertebrate living systems. Thus, long term use are more likely to impact these organs.

So short term or acute doses could damage your gastric lining. Long term use impacts your kidneys and livers. Do we still want to push this "golden drug" beyond the very rare as-and-only-when-really-really-needed basis? I think it's short-sighted at best. Sometimes, it's important to make reality-checks with medicine. In this particular situation, I don't see any of that essential precautionary measure.

The constantly dragging workload and grey skies are getting to me. What I need is this happy song from Boney M to pick me up and accelerate on my work so I can clear some more hurdles (read: chapters).


Lay your problems on the floor, clap your hands and sing once more.

For a LOOOOONG boot-up time. Seriously, I could put the kettle on and have it reach a boil, or be halfway on my way to my office by the time the login screen comes up.

systemd-analyze blame
61002ms sm-client.service
60146ms sendmail.service
24223ms iscsi.service
17281ms udev-settle.service
4148ms fedora-loadmodules.service
4050ms systemd-vconsole-setup.service
2578ms fedora-readonly.service
2556ms media.mount
2513ms dev-mqueue.mount
2492ms dev-hugepages.mount
2472ms sys-kernel-security.mount
2471ms udev-trigger.service
2452ms sys-kernel-debug.mount
1426ms systemd-remount-api-vfs.service
1419ms remount-rootfs.service
1163ms systemd-readahead-replay.service
992ms udev.service
975ms fedora-storage-init.service
820ms fedora-storage-init-late.service
775ms systemd-sysctl.service
709ms NetworkManager.service
555ms avahi-daemon.service
535ms rsyslog.service
531ms chronyd.service
531ms sys-kernel-config.mount
412ms systemd-logind.service
390ms ip6tables.service
386ms mcelog.service
384ms console-kit-log-system-start.service
381ms sshd-keygen.service
374ms iptables.service
374ms abrt-vmcore.service
364ms auditd.service
363ms irqbalance.service
326ms dbus.service
325ms abrt-ccpp.service
324ms boot.mount
296ms livesys.service
295ms home.mount
281ms netfs.service
266ms iscsid.service
234ms systemd-readahead-collect.service
172ms mdmonitor-takeover.service
154ms systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
81ms lvm2-monitor.service
76ms fcoe.service
47ms fedora-wait-storage.service
44ms sandbox.service
39ms systemd-user-sessions.service
31ms console-kit-daemon.service
29ms livesys-late.service
6ms accounts-daemon.service
2ms rtkit-daemon.service
0ms sys-fs-fuse-connections.mount

Why on earth does the sendmail service need to run? I don't even run a mail server.

And in the category of weird business names, I got this email today:

"Price Protector is now Eyeona"

Eyeona?
Eyeeeeeeyyoooooonnnaaaa?

Like in a wild hyena laugh? What does bargain-hunting have in common with hyenas? Is that supposed to be a riddle? I know I can follow the links on that email and read the back-story and all that in the time it has taken me to write this out here. But really, first impressions are the worst and the most fun.

In addition to the default apps that came with the Nexus one phone, I have the following additional ones installed:.

1. estrip
2. ezPDF Reader
3. File Expert
4. GNotes
5. Opera Mobile
6. Pomodroido
7. Maildroid
8. Quickoffice
9. Wifi file transfer

Out of that list, I see these as apps with a ton of access and with the potential for troublemaking

• Wifi file transfer

Access:
Storage (modify/delete SD card contents)
Network communication: full internet access, view network state, view Wi-Fi state

• Maildroid

Access;
Your location (coarse- network-based location, fine GPS location
Your personal information: read contact data, read sensitive log data
Storage (modify/delete SD card contents)
Network communication: full internet access, view network state,
Phone calls: read phone state and identity
System tools: prevent phone from sleeping, automatically start at boot
Hardware controls: control vibrator

MAN! that is a hell of a lot of permissions. But this app is SO useful because it keeps me updated about my work email - a paleolithic MS Exchange server 2007 based system

I think these came with the phone. I don't use them and want them out. Someday, I will root this phone and chuck them out.

1. Amazon MP3
2. Car Home
3. Facebook
4. Goggles
5. Magic Smoke wallpapers
6. Music Visualization Wallpaper
7. Twitter

Huh? What do these even do?

1. HTC Radio Info
2. KickBack
3. Google Backup transport
4. Google One time Init
5. Google Partner Setup
6. Pico TTS
7. SoundBack
8. TalkBack

Traditionally, it has been very tough or very unsatisfactory for virus-creating hackers to target the Linux OSes because the field is so fragmented. There are as many distributions as there are stars in the sky... and possibly more.

I was recently wondering about the situation in Android because the field is somewhat unified with limited number of variants. Anyone who writes an application can get entry into the Android market and peddle their apps. This is great for reaffirming the open source and free nature of the Android operating system but is quite a nightmare in terms of security.

And sure enough, I spotted this article:

I am kind of spooked. I try out random apps all the time and I certainly am one of those people who just says yes to the permissions screen. No one, apart from expert hackers can actually tell whether or not an app is going to cause extensive harm just by looking at them in a cursory fashion. But everyone can definitely pay more attention when it comes to what apps they choose to install.

I am going to start a running list of apps I have on my android devices here, I started this for chrome apps a while back but it has fallen into oblivion. I need to revive that as well. Hacking chrome is somewhat tougher but the basic playing ground is the same. I think, for non-hackers, knowledge about the apps they are using is 3/4ths of the battle against the viruses. The other 1/4ths is resisting temptation to download chunks of the whole marketplace willy nilly.

I went to check how much a simple 32 GB micro sdhc memory card was. All these choices and classes tumbled out of the closet.

It blows my mind that someone actually took the time to benchmark all these cards:

Sandisk 16 GB Class 2 Read: 7.5 MB/sec    Write: 5.5 MB/sec    
Samsung 8 GB Class 6 Read: 16.8 MB/sec    Write: 7.6 MB/sec    
Lexar 32 GB Class 10 Read: 20.3 MB/sec    Write: 8.1 MB/sec    

And those numbers don't tell the entire story. Apparently the higher classes have a tendency to burn out faster.

Nothing is simple anymore. I should have known that.

My wacom stylus has started some crazy erratic behaviour. Its eraser-end works but the pen tip does not. I recently found this "cure" on the internet:

You just whack the stylus against a padded surface (for example, your palm) till it starts behaving. The technique works around 70% of the time. For the 30% of the times it doesn't, even if you are tempted to search ebay and random shady websites for replacements, grit your teeth and whack the stylus a few times more. Chances are, the beating you gave it earlier is not sufficient enough to make the errant stylus realize who is the master here.

Wacom. Whack 'em.

NB: I am really not sure how much more whacking the pen can take. Maybe I should get a replacement.

I have to read around 500+ PDFs in the next few weeks or so. I absolutely hate printing on paper and accumulating physical stacks. It inevitably ends in lost notes, lost pages, and lost time.

Reading on the computer screen is nice and all, but I want to be able to interact with the pages like I would with paper. I have a Nexus S and a Nexus One, but the screens are too tiny. I am thinking 10" reading area or more would be a far better idea.

Guess it's time for a tablet. A big generously-size Android tablet. (Apple is out of question). Strongly leaning towards the Le Pan II.