Dave Mancuso dot Com

An article from the New York Times is making a big splash around the Net. It’s a positive article about low carb diets (free registration required). It’s about time. I felt awesome when I was on the diet–I lost 45 pounds, I felt more alert than I’d been in years, my cholesterol went down to normal levels from high risk, and did I mention I lost 45 pounds? I’m glad that a diet that gets so much respect outside of the US is getting a new look here.

Bush Calls Ruling About Vouchers a ‘Historic’ Move. President Bush on Monday hailed last week’s Supreme Court decision upholding the use of public money for religious school tuition as a “great victory.” By Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: Education] I like the idea of choice in vouchers. The big problem in my mind is multifold, mostly revolving around charter schools. Several of the charter schools I’ve seen are frankly very poorly run. No one seems to understand that education is a tough business to run–do we really want to experiment on our kids with charter schools? Secondly, charter schools get to “cherry-pick” their choice of students–they don’t have to serve the varied population or follow the same rules that public schools do, One school accidentally got students last year with learning disabilities that they had to actually–gasp–teach. This year, they plan to be more selective with their applicants so that “this doesn’t happen again.” Finally, the inescapable fact is that vouchers will weaken public schools. Vouchers will make it tougher for public schools to do an already difficult job. The playing field is not level here–it’s slanted against public schools all the way.

Apple to expand iMac LCD display. The company will introduce an iMac with a 17-inch monitor at next week’s Macworld Expo in New York, according to sources. [CNET News.com]

No way. A news leak already–a full week before MacWorld? It makes sense, though. A 17 inch screen would really make the new iMac come of age. I foresee a new form factor for the minitower “Quicksilver” Mac, myself–it’s about time. And I predict that Apple will come out with something surprising in line with its digital hub strategy–a new peripheral or enhanced iPod. Apple didn’t put handwriting recognition technology into the Jaguar OS for nothing–they have a plan.

Yep, armchair prognostication is great, isn’t it?

The irock looks pretty freaking awesome, especially for $29.99.

There is now a demo of the Mac version of realMYST out. I’ll download the demo–I just wish I had time to play the full version again.

I had a tilt table test last week, which confirmed that I don’t have a heart issue. They made me pass out on the table to confirm the diagnosis, which wasn’t a pleasant experience. What I have it vaso-vagal syncope, an exaggeration of the triggers that everyone has to slow down or speed up their heart. My case is pretty mild, so I just need to make sure I drink lots of fluids and eat plenty of salt (no lie–my blood pressure is pretty low, actually–108/72, generally). If I feel faint I need to lie down to get blood to my head. I haven’t had an incident since the one time in March, though. My wife says that a diagnosis involving lack of blood flow to the brain would explain a lot (but she says that males think with another part of their anatomy anyway, so I guess that wouldn’t be a problem).

Seriously, it’s good to define what was happening to me. As I lose more weight and get back to being more active, I think that the symptoms will go away permanently. Lots of camping and hiking this summer for me, which is awesome.

eWEEK has a good story on the early release of the next update to Mac OS X (codenamed Jaguar). I like the article’s rundown on all the new featues Jaguar will have for us. Pretty cool. My TiBook runs OS X 10.1.5 right now, and it’s awesome. When I get our PC laptops this month, I can draw direct comparisons to Windows XP.