Baked Potato In 2004, Duke University completed a study of the Atkin’s diet and released the results to the world. The results of the study showed that not only did people lose more weight on the Atkin’s diet when compared to the conventional low-fat diet, their blood cholesterol profile also improved, ultimately reducing their risk of heart disease. Prior to the Duke study, most people in the medical community passively dismissed the Atkin’s diet as both unhealthy and even dangerous. Robert Atkins, despite having a thriving medical practice which treated over 50,000 patients, was labeled ...

When I was about 23 years old, at the encouragement of a family member, I read a book called The Wealthy Barber. The book chronicles the fictitious life of a small town barber and, through a series of stories, tells how he managed to become a millionaire despite having a relatively modest salary. There are two main take-aways from the book, both of which form the crux of personal finance these days. The first main idea is to pay yourself first – basically you set aside a fixed portion of your income (often 10%) and dedicate that towards a retirement fund. The second main idea is to take advantage ...

Well, that’s a wrap. WordCamp Vancouver went off yesterday without a hitch, and it seemed to be very well received. It was hard for me not to contrast yesterday’s experience with WordCamp Whistler, since that one was comparable in terms of size and planning. They were both unique, so I can’t say one was better than the other, but they were definitely both a lot of fun. WordCamp Vancouver was a bit more grass roots than WordCamp Whistler I think, partially because the conference was split between three areas instead of just one. I actually liked that about it, and it was nice to have people ...

I’ve been busy lately, busier in fact that I’ve been in quite some time. WPtouch 2.0 Pro has been a lot of work and a lot of fun, and we’re getting ready to release it shortly. If you’re interested in checking it out, sign up for updates. WordCamp Vancouver is this weekend as well, and the last week especially has been a lot of work. The event is shaping up to be really great, so I’m definitely looking forward to being there. That said, I’m also looking forward to being on the other side of it so I can get back into my normal routine. With everything going on these last few weeks, ...

As we all know, oil has been gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico now since April 20th, nearly six weeks now. It’s an unprecedented environmental disaster that will damage the economies of many of the communities along the affected shorelines, and also impact the wildlife in those areas. 11 people lost their lives in the original explosion, and I can’t even fathom how many birds and fish have probably died as well. This is an accident that many people believe should not have happened. In an ideal world, there would have been multiple blowout preventers and a chain of quick-to-implement disaster ...

If you haven’t seen the finale, then don’t read this. Obviously there are a lot of spoilers below. I gotta say, I really liked the finale. I wasn’t a fan of this entire season, but the finale sort of made the journey worthwhile. First, I’m glad a few of my predictions came true, namely with regards to Desmond being involved in helping save the island, the redemption of Ben Linus to some extent, the duality of Locke dying in the island timeline and Locke’s legs being fixed in the sideways timeline. A few people seem disappointed with the ending. I for one loved the focus on each of the ...

Well, this is it. We’re down to only one episode left. If you haven’t seen tonight’s episode, then don’t read any further. First, I’ll honestly say that this season has been a pretty big letdown. I mean, we spent five seasons getting to know these characters, learning about the Dharma Initiative, and also the others. Pretty much all of that has been irrelevant in the context of season 6. I’ve been trying to figure out what I think will happen in the final episode. The key to the whole mexican standoff that’s undoubtedly going to occur in the season finale will be Desmond I’m pretty ...

I was in bed, reading the BBC’s website on my iPad using their ultra cool application, when I came across an article showing new research linking blood fats with heart disease. The link to that article is here. First, I should point out that there’s never really been a definitive link between high fat diets and heart disease. That comes as a surprise to a lot of people, mainly because it’s recited over and over so often as to be the conventional dogma. But research has never really backed that up in any capacity. There is a mild link between cholesterol and heart disease, but it’s often ...

Most people probably don’t know it about me, but I used to be involved in weather forecasting a long time ago. My first exposure to it was a co-op job I had in the summer of 1997 up in Whitehorse, YT. I was working for Environment Canada’s weather centre, helping to develop JAVA programs for visualizing some of their data. JAVA was a new technology at the time, so it was essentially one big prototype. It worked decently enough, but I doubt it survived much past the end of my co-op term. Years later I would be employed by the Department of Ocean Sciences at UBC as a part time software developer. ...

A while ago I decided that I would take a little break and have a little ‘me time’. I’ve bounced around a few ideas in my head, and ultimately come up with a pretty good weekend adventure. I’ve been keeping the actual location to myself, simply because I want to just disappear for a few days, put the cell phone on vibrate, and get in a little rest and relaxation. The last vacation I took was back at the end of last November, so it’s been nearly six months without a break. I don’t really feel like I need a week off at this point, but a nice relaxing weekend adventure complete with a ...

As many people know, Rogers announced the 3G data pricing for the iPad in Canada. As expected, many people are upset about it, partially due to the lack of bandwidth, and partially due to the lack of an option to couple it with the iPhone data plan. One good aspect of the announcement is the lack of a contract required for the data portion for the iPad. I for one am sick of locking myself into multiyear contracts, and think it’s a step in the right direction. That said, I am currently paying $30/month for the 6G/mo data plan for Rogers, so it seems silly that I can’t use some of that bandwidth ...

We’re getting pretty close to releasing WPtouch 2.0 soon. We haven’t officially set a date, but the release will probably be counted using weeks, and can probably be counted using the fingers on one hand. We’ll hopefully firm that up next week. Dale wrote a pretty informative post over on BraveNewCode, so check it out. In short, we’ll be releasing a very reasonably priced paid version that includes support first, then will eventually roll out another free version using the new codebase. The major addition to WPtouch 2.0 is a new theme framework for creating mobile themes. WPtouch 2.0 will ...

I spent most of this weekend chilling out around the house. I took a bit of time out on Saturday to hit a few legs of the circle farm tour with Raeleigh and Eileen. One of these days I’ll manage to hit the rest of the places on the tour, but I’m slowly nailing them, a month at a time. I’ve been meaning to take a weekend trip somewhere, but with the rain I haven’t been motivated enough to get in the car lately. I want to get rid of my travel VISA soon, since it has a yearly fee attached to it, but before I do that I need to blow off a pile of points on it, and I plan to rent a pretty nice ...

I was talking to someone the other day, and we were both sort of lamenting the long gone days of adolescence. I remember being 17 years old, working a part-time summer job at Bonanza. While summer was only two months off, a good chunk of that was spend up at Cultus Lake, working as a dishwasher 20 hours or so a week, and spending as much time with my friends as possible. As a kid, you really don’t have to worry about where your money is going to go since you really don’t have much to spend it on, other than the world’s crappiest car and the occasional trip to the waterslides. Unfortunately, ...

Given that summer is just around the corner (at least, I hope it is — it’s really hard to tell with this weather), I decided about 6 weeks ago to try and get in better shape. One of the things I wanted to do when I moved out to Chilliwack was to be a bit healthier. I’ve definitely done that in terms of what I eat, but not so much in terms of how much exercise I get in a typical week. Summer is usually better for me as I like hiking and playing tennis, so I’m sure it’ll increase. When I got back from Hamilton at the start of March I decided to start hitting the gym hard and being very ...

Ever since I’ve moved back to Chilliwack, I’ve been having a lot of sinus headaches and routine problems breathing through my nose. I’ve never really had allergies before (at least, nothing other than an allergy to penicillin ), so I haven’t really known what to do with it all. While cleaning my office last weekend, I found a few medical reports from my injury in 2006, most notably my first CT scan. While the doctor pointed out the obvious facial fractures, he also made note of sinusitis in both sinuses, something that was never pointed out to me. Regardless, I’ve been taking a lot of ...

As I get older and a bit wiser, I’m starting to see the wisdom in not always buying the cheapest items. That’s never been a problem when it comes to technology, as I’m attracted to shiny objects. But when it comes to items like food, it’s a bit more challenging to spend an extra dollar or two on a dozen eggs, or to buy hormone free ground beef. Lately I’ve been making purchases that I wouldn’t have made in the past, mostly people I’ve been trying to go out of my way to help smaller businesses. One such transaction I made before Christmas was to go to a local tire shop and buy a set ...

I’ve made a few posts about the little tube amp project I’m probably going to tackle in the fall, but decided to put the entries on its own blog, as I want it to be a single glimpse into a big design and build process. If you want to follow along, subscribe to the feed over at tubeamp.posterous.com. It’ll probably only be an entry every week or so for the next few months as I debate things in my head, but I’m hoping to be in a position to build something in the fall or early winter. ...

Yes, the rumours are true: today is in fact my birthday. Unlike other years though, I’m purposefully taking this one a bit slower. There are no bar nights planned or anything of that nature, and the highlight of tonight will probably be me eating a nice dinner in front of the TV while catching up on Lost. And that’s the way I wanted it this year. Last night my dad took me to the Canucks game in Vancouver, and we had a lot of fun. I slept in a bit this morning, a little treat to myself, and am currently at a coffee shop about to do another day of work. Strangely enough, lots of things have ...

I spent the last hour before bed last night searching out the type of tubes I want to use my home amplifier. Generally you need at least three variants – one for the power supply rectification, one set for the pre-amps, and one set for the power amplifier prior to the speakers. There are lots of different ones to choose from, each with its own unique set of pros and cons. One of the most well known power tubes for home audio is the KT88. Not only does it produce a really great tone, but it has a cool shape which I think would look really nice on the chassis. The KT88 pictured above is a reissue ...