SoylentNews

My final paycheck for the completion of my current project, as well as the ability to focus completely on my next client, just got a lot closer.

High Sierra - I think High Sierra's System Integrity Protection - clobbered the permissions on my log file, so my daemon couldn't write to it.

We don't really need that particular log file so I just removed it from my installer.

I think Apple has a bug in High Sierra, in that a completely fresh install - starting by erasing a volume - would clobber that permission.

But a non-fresh install such as installing on top of Sierra, or a - stale? - install that's been in use for a while led that log's permission to be what I wanted it to be.

The other part of the fix was to remove the "StandardOutputPath" from my launch agent's property list.

If there are no such paths then after forking launchd will close stdout before exec'ing my agent.

I've been tinkering with various B vitamins recently since discovering what seems to be an MTHFR polymorphism or six in my genome. It's just a guess, as I can't spare the money for testing, but the immediate positive effects I've felt from certain forms of certain vitamins all but confirms a) MTHFR SNPs and b) an over-methylation pattern. Which *sounds* paradoxical at first, but really isn't.

People tend to be a little flippant with vitamin C and the B-family since they're water-soluble, reasoning "eh, if I overdose all it means is I get really expensive and really yellow pee." Nooooot...exactly. That's not wrong, but the little buggers will do plenty else before they exit via the kidneys. Here's what I've noticed:

Niacin/B3 - Produces the famous "niacin flush," though much less pronounced than in the first week of taking. About 100-200mg daily. Supposedly there's no harm in taking small (10) integer multiples of this dose, even though 200mg is supposedly almost 2 weeks' worth. Calms me down immensely and helps me sleep. It's also supposed to be good for lowering cholesterol, which is well within normal limits for me, but every little bit helps. Overall definitely a positive.

Pyridoxine/B6 (as pyridoxal-5-phosphate) - Holy crap, this is bad for me. It makes me sleepy and weak and ravenously hungry, then incredibly angry after I eat. How angry? I scared off an almost seven foot tall, 300-pound-plus man at work today. He actually decided not to order because, and this is a direct quote, "Your body language. You're angry and it's scaring me." Now yes, I look pretty much like a six-foot, Caucasian version of my namesake in glasses, and yes, I've been nicknamed "Grumpy Cat" by three separate co-workers at three separate jobs, but that is *bad.* Not touching this one again, at least not before work. Seems to be amping up my metabolism and producing (a lot) more catecholamines such as adrenaline, which would explain the effects.

Folate (as 6(S)-5-methylfolate) - This is the big tell that I've got an MTHFR problem. I felt immediate relief within half an hour after my first dose. Makes me feel, somehow, wet and cool and "fluffy" inside. Not as calming as niacin but still helps, just in a different way. Good synergy. I'm taking this once every few days now, after having spent 2 weeks repleting myself with a daily dose. I don't seem to need anywhere near as much caffeine since starting this one either.

Cobalamin/B12 (as adenosylcobalamin) - Another one for the "nope" column, at least no more than once every two weeks. Has similar effects to B6, though produces more anxiety than outright hostility. I am guessing it's causing either too much glutamate in the brain or, like B6, possibly upregulating stress hormones.

Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid with bioflavanoids, e.g., rutin and quercetin) - I can't tell if this is having any effects, but it doesn't seem to hurt and is important for iron processing, which in turn is necessary during Shark Week. Taking daily seems not to hurt anything, and might have helped me fight off the last two incipient colds I got.

People need to treat these things with more respect. We get people saying "oh supplements don't work," but if that were the case, there's no way they'd be having such pronounced and immediate effects. And, it seems everyone's body is different and even their metabolisms differ from day to day, so in the end, everyone needs to tailor their supplements and the doses thereof to their own physiology. Overall this is a net positive for me, but I'm probably going to avoid the B6...

AMD Ryzen 2nd Gen Details: Four CPUs, Pre-Order Today, Reviews on the 19th

These are not the 3rd-gen "Zen 2" 7nm Ryzen parts you are looking for, but 2nd-gen "Zen+" 12nm Ryzen.

No submission yet since there is no review.

Some chick just schedules a phone call with a mortgage company for tomorrow afternoon but gave them _my_ email address not hers.

I figure that a mortgage must be pretty important so I called the mortgage company then got as far as leaving a message that informed them that "mdcrawford@gmail.com is my email address, not hers". But I expect that will only confuse them.

Doubtlessly she will try another broker. I'll let you know after I am approved for a mortgage meant for her.

A certain Dr. Crawford is a transplant surgeon in Australia. Whenever someone particularly sick checks in the staff of that hospital is prompt and certain to let me know about it.

https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=18/04/09/0138218

In 1972 or so I asked my father how much a Talos antiaircraft missile cost.

"About a million dollars."

"Surely it's not a good use of the taxpayer's money to spend a million on something that's just going to explode!"

"That's OK: the planes it shoots down cost sixty million."

Topless Protester Arrested at First Day of Cosby Retrial Used to Be on The Cosby Show

Legalize it.

Vatican police arrest ex-diplomat over 'child pornography'

Police at the Vatican have arrested a priest who previously worked at the Holy See's US embassy on suspicion of possessing child pornography.

Carlo Alberto Capella was taken into custody after an investigation.

Monsignor Capella was recalled from the US in September 2017 after US authorities told the Vatican about a possible violation of child pornography laws by one of its diplomats.

He was ordained in 1993 and joined the Vatican's diplomatic corps in 2004.

The arrest could draw fresh attention to Pope Francis's efforts to snuff out child abuse in the Catholic Church. He has pledged zero tolerance but critics say he has not done enough to hold to account bishops who allegedly covered up abuse.

Also at NYT and The Guardian.

Are Water Worlds Habitable?

Rehash of this article. But here is a detail that may have been overlooked:

Take the fifth planet within the TRAPPIST-1 system as an example. Cayman Unterborn, an exogeologist at Arizona State University in Tempe, and his colleagues think that the liquid water here extends down about 200 kilometers—roughly 20 times deeper than Earth’s Mariana Trench. That much water would create a large ice layer at the bottom of the ocean which would seal the ocean from the land and effectively shut down a geochemical cycle that plays a crucial role in Earth’s habitability.

... via instant message.

She said "Yes", also via instant message.

<3 :-) <3

I at first planned to take her to some romantic place such as a beach at sunset, but last night our Facebook Messenger chat seemed to be the right time and place.

She's from some - I won't tell you where because she's very shy - other country. I'm going to get her a fiancé visa. I don't know the procedure yet but I handled Bonita's green card completely on my own. I expect I can figure out how to smuggle her into the US despite the National Guard.

I'm going to start shopping for a ring soon. When I complete my contract I will have the ducats required to buy it. I won't take out a loan.

The Western Digital WD Black 3D NAND SSD Review: EVO Meets Its Match

Very fast sequential speeds and high IOPS. Endurance could be problematic (600 TB for the 1 TB model, calculated as 0.3 DWPD). I wonder what that ratio will be for QLC 3D NAND SSDs.

Western Digital bought SanDisk in 2016.