David Bottomley's Blog

This is a topic I've discussed before, but it's so important that it bears repeating.  The Standard American Diet is killing us.  In 2019, a  staggering 75% of the American population are either overweight (BMI > 25) or obese (BMI > 30), projected to be 85% by the year 2030.  If you are overweight or obese, you are almost certainly insulin resistant.  Other risk factors for metabolic syndrome, which is derived from insulin resistance, include abdominal fat, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low HDL cholesterol, or high triglyceride levels.   Insulin is the body's "fat storage" hormone and the higher your insulin levels, the fatter you will be.   The "Standard American Diet" has produced this epidemic over the past several decades.  In 1954, only 15% of the American population was overweight or obese.  Insulin resistance leads to pre-diabetes which leads to type 2 diabetes.  As of 2019, 60% of Americans are either ...

We purchased the Renpho Bluetooth Smart Scale over a month ago and I wanted to report our experience with it.  We have been very impressed with this scale, especially for the price.  It has been a very reliable scale.  What is particularly impressive is the amount of data that it automagically provides based on nothing more than your weight and the electrical contact pads.  You do need to be barefoot for the scale to work properly, though it will work with socks too, just perhaps not quite as accurately.  It will weigh you with shoes, but you don't get any other data other than weight if you do that. If you use it properly, it provides you a wealth of data that it tracks over time for you, via an app that you install.  When you setup the app you create an account, so it maintains your data when you log back in even if you lose the app.  The data points that it tracks include: Body Weight Body Mass Index (BMI) Body Fat Percentage Body Water Percen...

As a geek, and someone who has worked in information technology for over 25 years, when I find a cool technology solution, I like to share my findings and experiences with other geeks.  I've used RAID arrays for nearly my entire career, which are redundant arrays of independent disks.  This is where you configure multiple hard drives in an array to provide for enhanced capacity, speed, redundancy, or all of the above.  Traditionally speaking, there were multiple ways to configure your RAID arrays depending on what you're trying to accomplish, I'm not going to cover them all because this can get very long but the common RAID configurations have traditionally been: RAID 0 which uses data striping across disks, which provides greater capacity and speeds up data access, but provides no redundancy.  If one disk fails, all data is lost. RAID 1 provides data mirroring, but no striping, so the capacity is that of half the disks, but if a disks fails, no data is lost, and ...

I remember listening to a news story in 1993 on NPR about how a previously scientific and educational global network called ARPANET was being opened up for commercial use.  I thought to myself- this is going to change the world.  I had a 386 PC at the time running Microsoft Windows 3.1, with a 2400 baud modem, and was very familiar with the world of dial-up bulletin board systems (BBS's), and the larger networks like CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online, all of which I tried out to see what they had to offer.  Early systems like Usenet and Email allowed inexpensive global communication and the exchange of ideas and information that would come to revolutionize the world as we knew it. In 1997, my friends and I founded the fourth Internet Service Provider in Evansville, Indiana, and we grew it into a business that helped thousands of people take their first steps onto the Internet and many businesses launch their first web sites so they could present their products an...

I have worked in information technology management for over 20 years, and part of my duties during that period have involved finding, vetting, and hiring IT personnel including engineers, technicians, analysts, developers, supervisors, and project managers at corporate IT departments and IT consulting firms.  So I speak from experience when I say there are a plethora of individuals on the job market that hold degrees, even advanced degrees such as masters and doctorates, but have little to no real world experience or marketable skills and have a very hard time competing in the job market.  I have hired roughly 50 people during my career thus far, interviewed hundreds, and unfortunately have had to fire several as well.  I've had several people with advanced degrees reporting to me over the years, some have been good, others not so much, but in every case, it's the individual's willingness to learn and succeed, and not the degree that has led to their success or failure....

We are witnessing a paradigm shift in energy production.  We've seen dramatic shifts like this across numerous industries over the decades, most recently by computers, the Internet, and cellphones.  The industrial revolution changed markets dramatically as steam power, driven by coal, and later the internal combustion engine, primarily driven by gasoline and diesel derived from oil, changed the face of the planet through mechanization and automation.  Horses and oxen were no longer needed to plow the fields, or to pull wagons, as they were replaced by tractors and automobiles.  The electric light, electric motor, and a myriad of electrical appliances followed, driven primarily by coal and hydroelectric power sources.  Coal was inexpensive and plentiful, with decreased demand from steam locomotives and tractors, it was the perfect fuel for the power generation plants that were needed for electrification projects.  Coal has therefore been a mainstay of relat...

When it comes to our children, humans are naturally wired to be protective and caring.  Therefore, when it comes to discussions about the well-being and protection of our children, it's natural that these are some of the most emotionally charged discussions we can have.  These topics can include health care, education, and other decisions relating to the care of our children. A family in Chandler, Arizona was recently thrust into the news as a result of just such a situation.  Their two year old son experienced a fever.  As concerned parents, they took their child to the doctor.  The doctor observed a 105 degree fever, and took note that the parents opted not to vaccinate their children.  The doctor, fearing that it could be meningitis, recommended that the parents take the child to the emergency room (ER).  However, to the parents' relief, shortly after they left the doctor's office, the child's fever dropped (to 102 degrees) and the child was behav...