Ask MetaFilter posts by davar

Side Pain

davar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:22:32 -0800

Constant pain on left side, sometimes on right side: what's wrong? Three weeks ago my husband felt ill. He had a fever and developed pain in his left flank. His urine was clear (at least from a dip-stick test, it has not been sent to a lab). Our GP diagnosed an adrenal gland infection and prescribed antibiotics.
The fever went away soon, but the pain got worse and he went for blood tests. There were a few elevetad values (d-dimer and CRP) and the doctor was thinking about pneumonia but said to wait if it got worse. The pain got a lot better, but did not go away completely. He went back a few days later and the blood was fine. The lung doctor did not see anything wrong with the lungs.

This was a week and a half ago. The pain is manageable, but it is still there all the time. It gets worse when he takes a deep breath, then he feels a stitching (I hope that that is the right word) pain. Sometimes (a few times a day), unrelated to his breathing, he feels the same stitching pain at his right side as well. The pain is not sensitive to touch or pressure.

He normally is a very healthy man. He is 33 years old and a runner. He was training for a marathon (he is not running now) and never had any injuries. He eats healthy and does not smoke or drink.

The GP says it is probably myositis, which she explained as "muscle ache" and that he should take painkillers (she prescribed Diclofenac).

He will go back again if the pain does not go away, but we wonder if any of you may have any clues to other causes of this pain or other tests that he might want to discuss with the doctor.

Best DBA certification?

davar — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:26:53 -0800

What DBA certification should I pursue? MS, Oracle, something else? I am a stay at home mom. Before the birth of my daugther, four years ago, I worked in various simple IT jobs. I made a few websites with Postgresql backends and I think I would like to be a DBA.

I want to stay home for at least another year, and would like to get some certifications or diploma's in the meantime, to show prospective employers that I am motivated to learn and understand at least the basic concepts to hire me as an entry level database person. I understand that there is no substitute for experience, but I do have my websites and (at least where I live) people with completely unrelated college educations are hired in these positions as well, so it does seem possible. Unfortunately, I do not have a college degree, so I will have to work a little harder to convince prospective employers that I am smart enough.

My budget for these certifications or diploma's is about 1000 euro's for both exams and course materials (I study well through self study), which unfortunately rules out an Oracle OCP certification, because they require a hands-on course that is expensive (even the online instructor led courses are very expensive).

I consider the following options and would like to hear your opinion about them. If there is another option I should consider I would like to hear it too, but please realise that the budget limit is not very flexible at the moment and that it is very important that the certificate impresses potential employers at least enough to want to talk to me. I thought about Brainbench, but I don't think they are well known enough with HR people at the moment. There are no community colleges with inexpensive options where I live.

- Get an Oracle OCA Certifaction and take the exams for the OCP, just not the hands on course. I could mention on my CV that I passed the 1Z0-042 and 1Z0-043 exams. Knowledgeable HR persons will hopefully see the value in this and understand that all they have to do is send me to a course and I'll be an OCP.
- Get an MCITP: Database Developer (the successor of MSDBA) certificate. This would allow me to get a full "real" certificate by self study.
- Get entry level certificates for both. OCA (exam 1Z0-042) for Oracle and MS Certified Technology Specialist for SQL Server (exam 70-431). This would hopefully show prospective employers that I am able to and like to learn new technologies and that they could have me get further certificates.

I don't have a personal preference for either Oracle or MS SQL server. I am comfortable with command line tools and both Windows and Linux. If money wasn't a problem, I think I would choose Oracle, perhaps because I somehow (perhaps unfairly) think that MS certifications aren't worth all that much. The most important consideration for me is what will get me a good job. It seems that Oracle DBA's are more in demand than MS DBA's, but I wonder if just getting those two exams would be enough to get me hired. I will of course also start using the database I end up studying for in some projects so that I have at least some experience with that database to show.

I searched and read these previous ques tions

I am in the Netherlands, but I would like my certificates to be valuable in the rest of the world as well.

Nausea

davar — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:05:46 -0800

My good friends suffers from severe nausea during pregnancy. She is seven weeks pregnant now. It is not just morning nausea, and she is very sick. She went to the doctor and tried most home remedies already, but nothing works. Doctors in our country tend to see pregnancy as a beautiful natural thing that should not be messed with. That's good, usually, but she is having a very hard time now and from what we see online, doctors in other countries are sometimes able to do more.

The only medication for sickness that she can get is a combination of meclozini hydrochloridum (12.5 mg) and vitamin B6 (25 mg), which she takes twice a day. Unfortunately, it does not seem to do much. She tried morning sickness bands, ginger, eating small amounts during the day, eating a cracker before getting up, etc. During her last pregnancy (during which she was also sick, but not as bad) she tried accupuncture. Eating small amounts helps, but not enough. Prenatal vitamins do not seem to make it worse.

The nausea is very reminiscient of migraine-nausea (she suffers from migraines and I used to too, so I recognize a lot of what she says). She is very sensitive to light and hard sounds and cannot watch television or even look at a computer screen. She does not throw up and her urine did not show signs of ketosis (the doctor did not perform any other tests on the urine).

My questions are:

Do you know a specific medication or a specific test that she might discuss with her doctor?
The GP called a gynecologist, but I wonder if it makes sense to go to a specialist with experience with nausea?

If you have any other advice it is also welcome.

Should I buy a crockpot?

davar — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 03:36:01 -0800

Does a crockpot really improve the flavor of the food or make your life easier? I am considering buying a crockpot/slow cooker. One of the things I think I like, is that I can put a lot of stuff in it in the morning and will have dinner ready in the evening. But then again: it seems that vegetarian crockpot recipes are mostly stews/soups/chili's. Couldn't I just make the recipe in a regular pot in the morning and reheat it in the evening? I often hear that the crockpot improves the flavors, but so does leaving food in a normal pot during the day or overnight. Does a crockpot really make a difference in flavor or ease of use? I am vegetarian, so the fact that crockpots make nice soft meats is not relevant for me.

Where I live, a crockpot is hip and new instead of old fashioned, so I cannot just go to a second hand store and buy one on the cheap to see if I like it. I also don't know anybody with a crockpot.

Should we leave Afghanistan?

davar — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:45:51 -0800

Should we leave Afghanistan? I know that our reasons for going to war with Afghanistan were flimsy at best. But now that the war is a reality, what should be done? I am interested in informed opinions and well thought out online articles to read. Most things I read seem one sided, I find it hard to form an opinion because there is so much propaganda from both sides. My primary concern is the people in Afghanistan, I don't think us being in Afghanistan does anything to prevent terrorism.

Halo craft ideas wanted

davar — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 10:26:40 -0800

I would like to make some Halo (the video game) things for my husband's birthday (next week). I am thinking about a Halo-cake (any good ideas? I don't want to make a photo cake) but don't have any other ideas. I don't live in the US and cannot buy many special products here. I also don't want to spend a lot of money. It's the idea that counts. Any ideas?

I wish video game characters had GPS devices.

davar — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:12:44 -0800

How do I improve my spatial ability with fun short video games? I am not bad at video games. I play 2D platformers, rhythm games, 2D fighters the new brain games and puzzle games all without a problem. I get totally lost in large worlds. I wish I could enjoy games like Zelda. Also: in platformers like Sonic I often have no idea of all the different ways I can take.

I am looking for simple games like Big Brain Academy and Brain Age to improve my spatial ability. In fact, I thought of this question because I noticed that in Big Brain Academy my worst category is the one where I have to draw lines to complete a picture when the direction is different than the original picture. I thought that that is probably related to why I suck at RPG's. I also thought that maybe playing Big Brain Academy would improve my spatial ability, but maybe there are other games that would be even better? I am also open to non game approaches, btw. I also realize, like was suggested in some previous threads about this problem, that just playing those large games will probably help, and I do do that sometimes. I also think that almost all video games will help with this somewhat, but I am mostly looking for games that are especially good at this.

I am not very good in finding my way in real life as well, so that is probably related. As soon as I have seen (or occasionally drawn) a map of where I am, the problem is gone though, so this is not a big problem for me.

(I saw these two somewhat related questions)

Can you recommend a gaming forum?

davar — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 04:06:08 -0800

Can you recommend a good gaming forum? I am looking for a forum about video games with the following characterics:

intelligent discussion
varied population (men, women, younger, older) and women friendly. I have no problem with an occassional "yay, boobies" post, but would prefer to join a place where that is not the standard commentary on every game that features women.
varied interests. From Gameboy to PS3 and from EA Playground to Manhunt II.
a place where people can ask simple questions about specific games ("I am stuck in level x in game y, what do I do?") as well as have general discussions about gaming and the gaming industry.
nice people.
active. I like lots of posts, as long as I can still feel part of the community if I skip lots of them.

Best gameboy for young child?

davar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:55:38 -0800

Is a Gameboy Micro too small for a four year old? I want to buy my four year old daughter a gameboy advance. I really disliked the original GBA because of the screen that was often hard too see. I know that in the US there was a version of the GBA SP with backlit screen, but not where I live. So, screen quality wise the Micro seems like the best option (a DS is too expensive and I do not think she is careful enough for a DS yet). I also like that the Micro is oriented horizontally, but I wonder if it is too small for a four year old. Any opinions? It has to be a GBA, not one of those "educational" handheld consoles that are designed for young children. She will play Dora and Mario games, at least for now.

Why doesn't Nintendo do something about pirated games?

davar — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 04:52:45 -0800

Why doesn't Nintendo do something about the enormous amount of pirated GBA and DS games and other "licenced" Nintendo stuff on eBay and other marketplaces? I remember that many years ago (in the Gameboy color days) Nintendo sued Bung, a company that sold products that allowed customers to play homebrew games on their gameboys, because the device could also be used to play illegal games. I thought that that was a bit shady. I did not like the fact that technology can be made illegal just because people may use it for illegal purposes. However, I understood their position.

Now that I just bought a counterfeit "officially licenced" Nintendo product off eBay and read a bit more about the fact that most GBA and DS games on eBay (and other online marketplaces) are illegal copies, I cannot help but wonder: why doesn't Nintendo do all they can to stop that? Sure, some of them aren't easy to spot, but many are, if you know what to look for. This would not only be in their best interest, but also in that of their customers, since I bet that most of them do not even know that they just paid 20 euro's for a counterfeit game instead of the real one.