Jason's Notes About Stuff

So it turns out my personal experience with zinc has some scientific backing now! Several years ago I realized that I had a zinc deficiency -- a very common mineral deficiency these days due to our ever worsening diets. In addition to eating foods high in zinc, like pumpkin seeds, legumes and meat, I also started taking supplements when I felt a cold coming on. I personally found that if I took too much at once (15mg+), especially without food, I would get severe nausea for a few minutes. Instead, I eat a few of the 5mg zinc lozenges, spaced throughout the day. They're chewable, taste good, and may actually help with absorption by spreading it out over time. A recent study has shown that of all "common" supplements (vitamin C, echinacea, ginseng, etc.) only zinc had a substantial effect: At least two trials indicated that children who took 10 or 15mg of zinc sulphate daily had lower rates of colds and fewer absences from school due to colds. Read more: 

Here's a quick e-commerce lesson for you: Don't validate credit card transactions based on IP address location. I left the internet fax provider I've had since 2003 because they wouldn't let me pay them . I wasted an embarrassingly long time trying to find a cheap/free way mask my IP address. I eventually gave up trying to give them money. I Googled, read a few quick reviews, and found a new, better provider in 5 minutes . Lots of customers travel or live outside of their home country . Don't make it difficult (or impossible ) for them to pay you.

I've only tried Evernote a few times in passing, but it always came across as a bit of a bloated and unreliable POS. Seems like perhaps I wasn't too far off... See:  Evernote, the bug-ridden elephant More discussion on Hacker News here . Most people seem to agree. Sort of like some operating systems, they've been locked into a piece of software that keeps getting larger and less reliable over time. If you're looking for an alternative, you may want to try  Google Keep .