Posts by nic.wise

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  • Hard News: Some things I've been meaning…,

    Well, last week portishead, live at the hammersmith apollo, was BLOODY FANTASTIC.

    review

    The new stuff fitted well into the old stuff, so I dont expect it to be too bad at all :).

    The scalpers were out in force around Brixton last night, for the Portishead gig there last night. Should have been a good show.

    Mine is on pre-order from itunes UK :)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: Episode One,

    @russb: just watched the podcast. Really enjoyed it, both the content and the podcast format. Thanks heaps! If needed, a short ad on one or more of the segments would work, I think - if the funding is needed.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: Psst! Got any Earl Grey?,

    Secret ingredient until the authorities twigged: ephedrine.

    Oh hell yes. I didn't know when I was using them - damn, that was a LOOOOONG time ago - but they were good. I've had ephedrine from the US (as sold by EAS (and 100's of others) until they banned it in the US), and it had less of an impact on my body (except for the desired impact - fat loss) than the "safe" replacement. Go figure.

    As usual - and it's the same with BZP and most other stuff - fairly limited or controlled use is very very safe (assuming you dont have a heart condition - I have/had high BP, and I was able to use ephedrine safely by monitoring my BP closely*). Abuse it, and it can mess you up. Nothing new there - alcohol is the same, and if you smoke a whole packet of ciggies - and are not a regular smoker - that may kill you on the spot (nicotine posioning).

    Hows this for a piece of interesting law (which has now been amended): If you bring in a bottle of ephedrine tablets/caps into the country, they get taken off you - ephedrine is illegal. However if the bottle said "ephedra" (which is the plant name), you are fine. Which is like saying caffeine is illegal, but gurana is fine - except its the same thing. Needless to say, that got cleared up - and I must say, the folks at Medsafe in Takapuna are a nice bunch of resonable people. Or they were circa 2003.

    * ultimate catch-22: BP drops if I lose weight. Weightloss is easiest/quickest/best with exercise, and enhanced by use of thermogenics, the gold-standard of which is (syn)ephedrine/caffine/asprine, which can raise BP.... (sigh). Queue caution and a portable BP monitor.

    Once I moved from Auckland (90 min commute 2x a day) to Wellington (20 mins in a bus, worst case), my BP dropped sharply (from crazy to just above normal). Yes, folks, the rumours are true: Wellington IS good for you!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: Episode One,

    Russell: no joy with the RSS feeds. They are not epty feeds, they just go to a search page.....

    needless to say, itunes aint happy about that

    :)

    Nic, needing his media7 fix on the tube on a morning.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: Psst! Got any Earl Grey?,

    @delaway: synephrine is extracted from bitter orange :) Or atleast, thats where the molecule came from. I serously doubt there is any orange in there these days.

    Grapefruit is a scary thing, esp for women on the pill. Basicly makes it like they never took the pill. Seriously. It's well documented, last time I looked, but most doctors dont point it out. As much as a glass a day is enough. Somethings it does that to (negates the effects), something it amplifies - it's something to do with liver enzimes.

    Try a glass of GJ with an espresso chaser - see how it effects you. Just make sure you have only one. And dont have a major heart condition.

    I've used Synephrine-containing products (those "dodgy" weight loss pills, which are anything bit - it's quite a science, with no lack of large companies making them - think EAS, the (previous?) sponsor of the warriors). It definitly gets you going, but I wouldn't call it even close to BZP - or speed. ZERO euphoria, not a hell of a lot of energy (in comparison), no jaw clenching etc, tho my body temp did go up, but that was the point - run a little warmer, burn more fat.

    BTW, for fat loss, they do work, but you have to exercise too. No surprise there.

    Having not tried them (i'm in the UK), I can't say for sure, esp as Mr Bowden has a history of putting some strange stuff in pill form and selling them (Ease, anyone? They were quite good....). But if synephrine is the only magic ingredient, I'd have to rate them a "meh". Useful, yes, but not as a party pill.

    Bring back "the bomb", I say :)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: The Universal Intercept,

    BTW: Kudos to Vodafone's Paul Brislen for having the skills and sense to post information in his official capacity, as he did on Stephen's blog. I wish comms people did that more often, rather than insisting on routing the information through a third party in the news media.

    He does this quite a bit, and I'm guessing he's a fairly busy lad (or, he spends his time surfing all day :) ). But yes - he's about the only rep from the likes of a Telco (except maybe WordXchange) who does it.

    Bravo that man, even if we dont see eye to eye all the time.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    Hows this for joining two threads:

    the first mac I hever "had" outside of the ones we used at uni was a Powerbook 100 (even if it was just for a weekend), on OS8 or OS9:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_100

    ... owned by one Kim Schienberg (sp?).....

    As for joining the threads - well, I guess Russell would know the connection, as would David Slack and the a-fore-mentioned Mr Ram. Anyone else from that era here?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    I sometimes like to amuse myself by totting up what my current monthly usage would have cost me back in the old days. 60GB a month, anyone?

    Um, something similar to what it would cost if you got 60GB thru Telecom or Vodafone?

    ;-)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: They don't make 'em like they…,

    I remember Netscape's arrival. Word got about (well, my buddy Richard Ram told me) in late 1994 that a new, much faster version of the NCSA Mosaic graphical web browser was on the way. It duly arrived. You could download it (good lord, the beta was nearly a whole megabyte!). For free!

    Ah, the days of ICONZ (before it became Asia Online then back to ICONZ again), $10/meg and $50/meg for email. and PPP over (newly invented) 33.6K modems. Stacked on a bookshelf. With desk fans blowing in to keep everything cool.

    Seriously.

    Everything changed. Microsoft, which had planned to own everything via the Microsoft Network, built in to Windows 95, had to start making stuff up, quickly. It shoved a barely functional browser called Internet Explorer into the new OS, declaring that it would be henceforth looking to "embrace and extend" the internet. Ya, rly.

    That should maybe be "they bought / licensed a browser", I think it was actually mosaic, with a new front end.... Look in the IE copyright, it was Portions (C) NCSA for a LONG time (like, IE5.5 long time)

    Ah, good old days ;-)

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

  • Hard News: TV is social. Already,

    I bought a macbook expecting to run windows in parallels for a lot of things, or vista in bootcamp.

    I've not installed bootcamp, and I almost never use parallels. Everythng else just works as I want it to.

    It's fun to use a PC again....

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 87 posts Report

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