Happy Birthday Greta

Today, September 18th, is the birthday of film legend Greta Garbo. If you were to stop anyone on the street and ask them who she was you would probably get a variety of guesses. She's probably most known in contemporary culture from the phrase "[she's]... the next Garbo", referring to anyone who believes the latest actress on the scene is the next big thing - Greta Garbo was (and still is to some degree) the standard to which movie actresses are held up to. Still, Garbo that made only 34 movies during her short career (many of them silent), she continues to be regarded as one of the most acclaimed actresses of all times.

Her films often imitated her life - loneliness, seclusion and heartbreak. She shunned the press and media and essentially stopped all public appearances after the early 50s - the Sphinx answered to no one. Yet, over 100 years after her birth, we are still fascinated with her.

What is it about her that makes us interested in her? Was it her reclusive lifestyle and secrecy, her incredible beauty, her unfulfilled talent? Greta Garbo is the stuff of legends, and legends of the best kind, America's royalty: the Hollywood film star.

Garbo, herself, would have never appreciated any news blurbs about her. She believed her films would stand the test of time and speak for her. So, if you have TCM you're in luck. They're having a Garbo movie marathon running all day. If you don't get the channel, I recommend the Garbo Signature Collection DVD Set.

AOL Offers Free Streaming XM Radio

AOL, in a move to offer more free services and cut back less on it's dial-up internet subscriber base, which has been losing significant amounts of money since the introduction of widespread broadband use, causing a drop in AOL dialup subscribers.

AOL, or America Online, has become a culture icon in the years since its inception. Both lamented by some for it's excessive mailings of unwanted software CDs, to being the premise for a title of a movie. In 2000 the company was purchased by media giant Time Warner and has never been the same since. Still, AOL has maintained a large presence in the online world, being one of the largest internet service providers in existence, it has tried an enormous variety of tactics to keep itself alive. It has seen the purchase of Netscape and it's open source spinoff, Mozilla, Nullsoft, makers of Winamp, and other companies providing a laundry list of products and services, sometimes related to the companies goals, and sometimes not. At one time, AOL was rival only to Microsoft in it's battle for internet dominance, and there was talk of it purchasing RedHat to create an operating system to directly compete with Windows.

With AOL's recent decline in providing paid internet services, it has modified its business model to allow for a large variety of free services. Billing itself as "The New AOL" it has begun to offer a free version of it's internet software, that includes a free AOL email address and a Security Suite. However, the client has brought significant skepticism from privacy advocates, akin to other so called "free software" that comes with hidden adware not mentioned anywhere except in the pointless EULA. It's been well known that most of the recent versions of it's AIM Instant Messenger client include built in spyware and adware that cannot be removed easily, leading many to opt for alternatives like GAIM or Trillian. For those wishing to use the official AIM client, a free AIM Ad Hack is available to not only get rid of the banner ads, but completely strip it of all the unwanted addons. AOL has also recently come under fire for publicly releasing search data from all it's subscribers. A public relations headache for AOL as it's still unveiling all it's new services from its "free AOL" concept business strategy.

Even before AOL offering up their free services, they allowed anyone with an AIM screenname a free webmail address at aim.com with 2GB of space and antivirus/antispam functionality to rival Yahoo and Gmail. These accounts seem to have been, at least partially, converted over to the newer Free AOL Mail accounts, so it appears that they can be used and possibly even created without installing the new AOL software client. When I went to open my mail, a rogue window of Windows Media Player opened for some reason and then Firefox crashed.

Now, AOL has unveiled their video service, AOL Video, an attempt to mirror services like Google Video and YouTube. Even better, AOL Radio offers anyone with a freely available screenname to listen to streaming XM Satellite radio, virtually uninterrupted by ads, and with a long list of stations, previously only available to people who paid for an expensive and cumbersome radio unit & receiver, along with a monthly fee for the service. Yahoo! Music, which plays ads unless a subscription is paid, also allows skipping songs (to some extent in the free version) and the creation of customized stations based on listeners preferences. AOL's XM Radio doesn't allow any skipping, and rating songs data supposedly only goes to the stations DJ's to "help them choose music". One problem with both AOL Video and Radio is that they require installation of their own players into the users browser. When I attempted to use these services in Firefox, I was prompted to load a "Mozilla ActiveX Plugin" that never worked and does not show up under my Extensions list, making me wonder if it just didn't get installed, or if it installed on my system somewhere without my knowledge and not having the ability to remove it. I had far better luck using the AOL services in Internet Explorer, but still, other services do have an advantage of using preexisting players to stream media, such as Macromedia Flash or Windows Media Player.




It's hard to understand how this new business model for AOL is expected to work. The Dot Com bubble that burst in the late 90s was a model that was somewhat similar, relying on converting high traffic to view advertising and paid subscriptions. The days of AOL may truly be limited now, but it's demise has been predicted many times in the past, and part of AOL's legacy is it's longevity and ability to act as a chameleon in constantly changing landscapes. At least we can all enjoy the free radio while we're waiting to find out AOL's fate.

XP-AntiSpy Now Includes WGA Disabler

Windows Genuine Advantage, or WGA, is a tool that has met which much scorn since it was first released a few months back. WGA is a background utility that is required to be installed on all Windows XP machines in order to download manual updates. The program checks to determine if the copy of Windows is properly registered and has a valid license key. If it doesn't have the proper credentials, it won't allow the user to run Microsoft Update and in some instants nags the user that they are using an invalid copy of Windows and they should purchase and install a correct one. This can happen to not just people who are knowingly pirating copies of Windows, but individuals who might happen to buy a computer from a non-licensed Microsoft Partner or one that includes a copy of Windows on a retail PC that comes with a false OEM version of Windows .

The other main concern about WGA is from privacy advocates. WGA purportedly sends data back to Microsoft on each boot of the machine and it is unknown what this data is or why it does this. It has clearly annoyed enough people that the main discussion on WGA is how to disable or crack the program. One site which was mentioned in a article on C|Net News was forced by Microsoft to remove the links to the cracks they had posted, but a simple Google search will turn up others.

However, now, a popular program for removing background and foreground annoyances in Windows XP, XP-AntiSpy, has included a function for a work around to the WGA issue. The program now has an option included in it's latest version to "Disable [the] WGA check at logon" which it describes as:

If you see this setting it means you installed the WGA check utility through a windows update. This check utility contacts the microsoft website everytime you logon to your Windows OS. If you don't want that to happen, disable this setting. If you want to get this setting back to work you have to install the WGA update again.

I'm unsure exactly what it does to disable the WGA check, but it is either a registry hack or it somehow uninstalls the utility. XP-AntiSpy has many other useful functions for privacy and security, such as disabling the automatic sending of data back to Microsoft in the form of error reports, Windows Media Player data, and it's time server. It allows users to completely uninstall MSN Messenger, which is otherwise unremovable.

Hopefully, Microsoft won't pressure the publisher of the software (who seems to be located in Germany) to remove this feature of the program, as it is an extremely needed one.

Download XP-AntiSpy 3.96-2 English

UPDATE 9/5: I've come across another program that has a similar function to disable the WGA Notifications. It's called RemoveWGA and simply disables the data that the WGA tool sends back to MS, but doesn't have any effect on the authentication of XP's validity.

Enables you to remove the Microsoft "Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications" tool, which is calling home and connect to Microsoft servers every time you boot (pilot version), or every two weeks (current release).

Once the WGA Notification tool has checked your OS and has confirmed you had a legit copy, there is no decent point or reason to check it again and again every boot. Moreover, connecting to Microsoft brings security issue for corporate networks, and privacy issues for everyone. It is also unclear which information are transmitted (Microsoft published an official answer, but an individual study brought some questions). All of that, along the fact that Microsoft used deceptive ways to make you install this tool (it was told you it was an urgent security update, whereas it is a new installation giving you no extra security) makes me calling this tool a spyware.

Also, Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications is different than Windows Genuine Advantage Validation. RemoveWGA only remove the notification part, phoning home, and does not touch the Validation part. As the time I'm writting this, the Validation part is mandatory for some not critical downloads from Microsoft, but the Notification part is not mandatory at all, and you are able to install all of the security updates without installing this one. This may change in the future thought, I don't know what are the Microsoft plans.

Note : once the WGA notification is removed, the Automatic Update will bug you about installing the update again. This is normal, and out of the scope of RemoveWGA (since at this point, the WGA notification is uninstalled from your system). If you are concerned about tweaking Automatic Update to prevent Microsoft trying to push the update on your computer.

Source

T-Mag Slams Muscle Milk

T-Mag, now known as T-Nation or Testosterone Nation is an online bodybuilding zine that's well known to most in the supplement world as a fairly biased, yet still a worthwhile read most of the time (I syndicate their RSS feed here on my blog). T-Mag is owned and operated by supplement maker BioTest, and has always had somewhat of a laughable element behind many of the articles, since they generally go to great lengths to pimp BioTest supplements. The online magazine was an enormous promoter of some of the worst supplements in history, including the ill fated Methoxy Isoflavone and the so called Myostatin blocker, CSP3. However, despite those failings, much of the information found on T-Mag is very well written and they have some excellent articles on training, much news about the latest happenings in the bodybuilding world, and some of the best writers around. BioTest has also come along way with its supplements, including making one of my personal favorites, is their jitter-free stimulant, Spike.

Another common complaint is of the T-Nation forums, which are reported to be heavily censored towards any criticism of BioTest products and the articles on the site. For a long period of time, T-Mag and BioTest have had a running feud with fellow supplement maker, Syntrax. They were one of the first to have serious criticisms of the compound glycocyamine. A substance first seen in Syntrax's first incarnation of Swole, and the subsequent tide of copy cat formulas that followed. Since Syntrax has turned into SI03 and it's online message board disappeared, it left them in a limbo, with people wondering who is now behind the scenes at Syntrax and does the renowned Derek Cornelius still reside as president? But, the debate over the safety of glycocyamine is a valid one, the concern being that it raises homocysteine levels, which is generally answered with the inclusion of Betaine (also known as TMG) in most supplements.

Now T-Mag has made another striking accusation against glycocyamine - that it is a neurotoxin. Unfortunately, the research they use to validate this is questionable. Used as their first source for this is the study Activation of GABA(A) receptors by guanidinoacetate: a novel pathophysiological mechanism. Quoted from this studies abstract for the method to determine that the compound is neurotoxic: "To examine a potential role of GAA accumulation, we analyzed the electrophysiological responses of neurons induced by GAA application in primary culture and acute murine brain slices." To be clear this study was conducted in vitro and is not sufficient to define glycocyamine as a toxic compound.

The next claim to be made by Dave Barr, author of the article, is that glycocyamine inhibits the "sodium pump". According to the Wikipedia, the sodium pump is correctly termed as:

Na+/K+-ATPase (also known as the Na+/K+ pump or sodium-potassium pump) is an enzyme .. located in the plasma membrane (specifically an electrogenic transmembrane ATPase). It is found in the plasma membrane of virtually every human cell and is common to all cellular life. It helps maintain cell potential and regulate cellular volume.

In essence, the sodium pump is not simply a brain enzyme as defined in the article, but actually a critical transport that regulates potassium and sodium, two highly important electrolytes, on a cellular level. Again, we see the author quote a study not done on humans, or even more pertinent, male athletes. Rats are the subject of this March 2006 study, titled Intrastriatal administration of guanidinoacetate inhibits Na+, K+-ATPase and creatine kinase activities in rat striatum. In the next study we see for the purported evidence against glycocyamine, is - surprise, surprise, "...the pathogenesis of the brain dysfunction in this disorder is not yet established. In the present study we investigated the in vitro effect of GAA on Na+, K+-ATPase and Mg2+-ATPase activities in synaptic plasma membrane from hippocampus of young rats."

However, just because these studies are not in vivo, or even done in male weightlifters or the human species, does that mean there is not valid evidence against glycocyamine? No, the evidence should be weighed as it, since it is some of the only good studies that show the activity of glycocyamine. There is one other problem with the studies all mentioned by Barr. All studies involve symptoms of an "inherited neurometabolic disorder" called a "GAMT deficiency" or Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase deficiency. Guanidinoacetate being another term for glycocyamine. But, what exactly does this mean? What is a Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase deficiency? The answer can be found through a quick Google search with the first result, a PDF study from the UK in 2001.

Guanidinoacetate methyltransferase (GAMT, EC 2.1.1.2) deficiency is a newly recognized inborn error of creatine synthesis. The clinical phenotype is variable including a spectrum of neurological involvement from progressive extrapyramidal movement disorder and severe muscular hypotonia, to epilepsy and mental retardation. Biochemical findings include high urinary excretion of guanidinoacetate (immediate precursor of creatine and substrate to the deficient enzyme activity), low urinary excretion of creatinine, and depletion of creatine in brain and muscle. Enzymatic diagnosis is possible by the demonstration of deficient GAMT activity in liver, skin fibroblasts and virus transformed lympho blasts. Prenatal diagnosis has not been performed so far. Symptoms are partly reversible under oral supplementation of creatine-monohydrate. GAMT deficiency is an autosomal recessive inherited disorder. In the 9 patients known so far in the literature, 5 mutant alleles have been identified which are located in exon 2 and exon and intron 6 of the GAMT gene. The most efficient way for investigation of patients at risk seems to be determination of guanidinoacetate in body fluids. Several analytical methods including gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectrometry and column chromatography are available for this purpose.

So, not only is the author of the Muscle Milk article using studies that were not conducted in humans, but they were conducted on specimens that had a specific disorder that already had a deficiency of glycocyamine in the first place, making them totally irrelevant for weight lifters.

Still, despite all the banter back and forth about the mostly non-existent dangers of glycocyamine, Muscle Milk is still not a great MRP. The author is right about the fats, but he fails to mention the high GI carbs in the protein shake - made of maltodextrin, it will raise insulin levels which will in turn put the body in a prime state for fat storage. Still, MCTs aren't as bad as the author made it out to seem. The other negative for me for Muscle Milk is the worst sin of all - whey protein concentrate. For anyone who is the slightest bit sensitive to dairy products, it will send the user running straight for the bathroom.

But, for most, Muscle Milk should be a "cheat" protein shake. With all the flavors, which are all incredible, anyone could find Muscle Milk as enjoyable as a shake from McDonalds. It should be used sparingly, when you get sick of the Neapolitans - chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, try a root beer or pina colada. But, worry more about the high GI carbs, low quality protein, and questionable fat content in the MRP - not the glycocyamine.

Testosterone Nation - Consumer Report: Muscle Milk

The Final Blow for Ephedra

On August 17th, the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the previous ruling by a Utah Judge that the FDA's banning of ephedra was invalid, thus allowing supplement manufacturers to sell it in over the counter supplements in 10mg per capsule amounts.

The Consumer Health Digest newsletter said the following:

Appeal court upholds FDA ephedra ban.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld the FDA's ability to enforce a ban against the selling of ephedra products as dietary supplements. In 2005, a Utah federal judge limited the FDA's ability to enforce a ban against the selling of ephedra products as dietary supplements. That ruling temporarily prevented the agency from taking action against Nutraceutical Corporation, a Utah-based company that sued to block the ban. The 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act (DSHEA) states that to ban a product, the FDA
must prove that it poses an "unreasonable risk of illness or injury." http://www.quackwatch.org/02ConsumerProtection/dshea.html Ephedra products have been linked to several deaths and thousands of complaints from consumers, many of whom have filed lawsuits. The FDA has concluded that "in the absence of a sufficient benefit, the presence of even a relatively small risk of an important adverse health effect to a user may be unreasonable." But the lower court judge ruled that to ban all ephedra products, the FDA would have to prove that they are unsafe "when used as recommended and suggested in the labeling." Concluding that a single dose of Nutraceutical's 10 mg product would not be dangerous, that judge ruled that the FDA could not stop the sale of dietary supplements containing 10 mg or less of ephedra alkaloids. He also ruled that DSHEA did not permit the FDA to compare benefits and risks as part of its evaluation of unreasonable risk. (In other words, whether a product is completely worthless is not relevant to judging whether it is reasonable to permit it to
continue to be sold.)

On August 17th, the Appeals Court disagreed and ordered the lower court judge to enter summary judgment in favor of the FDA. Its ruling concluded that Congress intended to integrate a risk-benefit analysis into DSHEA and that the FDA had met its legal burden by doing extensive research before ordering the ban.
http://www.casewatch.org/fda/court/ephedra/utah2.shtml

After the Utah ruling, some manufacturers and vendors decided to sell the herbal ephedra, despite the shaky legal ground the ruling set. In January, the FDA seized supplies of the supplement, Lipodrene, which contained 10mg of ephedra, from a warehouse in Pennsylvania. This did not determine some, though, as the supplement continued to sell through other marketers. The main hindrance for most to decide whether or not to sell ephedra had more to do with legal and insurance reasons than monetary ones. Some companies are trying to get rid of their final stock of the product now, while others believe that this most recent ruling will start to be enforced after a certain time period. Whether or not this is true is unknown at this time.

However, not all - even some in the government, disagree with the ruling. In an article in the Salt Lake Tribune, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) who authored the DSHEA, is quoted as saying "I can live with ephedra being off the market," Hatch says. "But if you give bureaucrats the right to determine the risks and benefits of supplements, the same standard used to evaluate drugs, [supplements] will be priced out of the marketplace just like drugs are now." The article goes on to discuss the possibility of supplement companies being forced to test new ingredients to the standards pharmaceutical companies are now required to do before bringing a new drug to the market. Sen. Hatch believes the original wording of the DSHEA is sufficient to allow for supplement makers to bring ingredients consumers want to the market without the lengthy evaluation process.

For now, however, consumers will no longer be able to purchase the natural herb, ephedra, and instead have to rely on the currently legal synthetic drug ephedrine HCl which is still available over the counter to anyone 18 and older.

FDA Statement on Tenth Circuit's Ruling to Uphold FDA Decision Banning Dietary Supplements Containing Ephedrine Alkaloids

FreePay gone Bankrupt?

According to a recent post from a purported ex-employee of FreePay, the company might be filing for bankruptcy. FreePay, formerly known as Gratis Internet, is a company that gives away free products using a referral marketing based system.

In March, the company changed its terms of service so that users only had ninety days to complete the requirements to get the prize, where as previously, they had an unlimited amount of time. After this change occurred, many people stopped doing the FreePay sites altogether, while some tried to finish the requirements in time to get their gifts (myself included). Since the beginning of May, I have been waiting on a Macintosh Mini and a iPod Nano to be delivered to me by FreePay. Many others have reported similar problems with FreePay, prompting Anything4free to drop the company to a "D" rating, and Referral Swapper to remove them completely. In some cases, people are only reporting that they are receiving their merchandise after reporting the company to the Better Business Bureau.

According to the anonymous ex-employee, FreePay has been hit hard by a lawsuit filed in New York against the company for violating their privacy policy by selling their email list. However, in a strange move, FreePay seems to have started a new blog here on Blog*Spot. They previously had a blog on their regular web site. Why they have chosen to do this, I'm not sure. I can only hope it is a good sign that they are actively still at work and will hopefully continue to fulfill their contract obligations and send out customers (some who have been waiting since January) products.

Get $10 to Promote Freedom Online

The authors of a proxy software program called Circumventor are willing to pay anyone who installs it $10. Circumventor was created to help people who are firewalled in (either at work, school, or by country censorship) and allows them to view web pages they otherwise wouldn't be able too.

Unlike other proxy systems which rely on main servers that can be blocked, Circumventor wants to have a range of many IPs, so individuals can connect through your personal computer to blocked sites. By using this method, it would be virtually impossible for firewalls to be configured to block out a range of IPs.

There is very little documentation on Circumventor, except that it is reported to be based off of a similar proxy called CGIProxy. Circumventor can only run on systems running Windows XP or 2000 and you must run it for at least 2 weeks to get your $10. I have not run it myself so I don't know how much bandwidth or system resources it uses. However, the reasoning behind it is genuine, as it was mentioned in the EFF's newsletter. Their intentions are to allow people who live in countries that censor their internet connections, so it is a worthy cause.

If you sign up and run it, leave me a comment and let me know how it's going.

We will pay you $10 to install the Circumventor and share it out