Benchmark

Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Apple Safari — the Big Five browsers out there.  But which one is the best?  There’s a lot of reviews on the matter but at the end of the day, it’s a question of which browser meets your requirements as a user — which one is best for your computer.

I’ve come across this neat website that lets you compare the performance of different browsers on your computer. And for this particular machine that I am using right now (a Pentium 4 2.80GHz desktop), the test gave the following results (click for a larger image):

on a Pentium 4 2.80GHz desktop

Safari rocked the tests overall, and topped the Social Networking and Data categories. Chrome was a close second, topping the Rendering and Text Parsing categories. Chrome also topped the Complex Graphics test, but results from this test weren’t considered in the overall results because the technology used wasn’t supported yet by all major browsers (which I guess is why IE scored zero on this).  Internet Explorer scored miserably in all categories. See below for details. (See their FAQ for details on the individual tests)

Firefox’s scores were mediocre compared to the top 2, but what makes it shine is that it’s open-source. So as a result, lots of useful extensions/add-ons have been developed for it.  For instance, it supports a Gmail notifier that can manage multiple accounts.  I’ve stuck to Firefox for so long just because of this one add-on. Only recently did I discover a similar extension for Chrome, which made me switch.  Safari would’ve won me over, but it lacked this feature.

a lost song, found

There’s this song that I loved as a child, but it faded in memory as I grew up until all I had was a melody and the feel of a cozy Saturday morning while watching the Cartoon Network.  I’ve tried many times to forcefully recall the words so I can track the song down, to no avail.

And then this morning, a part of the song played in my head out of nowhere. Roam if you want to. Roam around the world. A few clicks later (thank you so much Google!), I’ve found the song: Roam by The B-52’s.

I’m Back!

I’m back to work after two weeks of staying home following the surgery.  It was a success — they were able to remove all of the hygroma.  The incision is about 5 inches long, curved to match  my neck lines so it won’t stand out too much. It actually looks better than I had imagined – there are no apparent stitch lines! (I’m thinking maybe the stitches were done underneath.)

The anesthesiologist was sneaky!  After explaining to me that I’d be put under general anesthesia for the procedure, he gave me an oxygen mask. “It’s just oxygen,” he says.  I was asleep after several breaths.  And I had wanted to count down as I fell asleep, like they do in Grey’s Anatomy. Haha. xD

Anyway, as of today the wound is still a bit tender, but it appears to be healing well.

In other news, I woke up this last saturday to a spinning ceiling.  I was a bit terrified so I went to the doctor (for the nth time these past two months), who told me it’s positional vertigo.  Basically, certain orientations of my head will result to dizzyness, so when I turn in bed the room starts to spin.  They gave me meds for the dizzyness and some vitamins for the nerves.  Thankfully the vertigo has been lessening as the days pass. I can’t wait for it to be gone!

Where did it come from?  The doctors don’t know since all the tests says everything was normal.  It was probably a hereditary thing, which was stress-induced. O_o

scheduled surgery

I’ll be undergoing surgery on July 11, 2009, 7AM at the UST hospital.  The lipoma (a cyst composed of fatty cells) that formed on my front lower neck/shoulder  around the collar area is currently harmless, but the doctor said that if it is left alone, it could grow dangerously close to a major vein, and even constrict the throat area. Right now it’s around 6 inches long and 2 inches thick.

So where did it come from? I don’t know. I swear it wasn’t there last month.  The doctor said that unlike cancer, things like this seem to just appear out of nowhere — it has nothing to do with the food you eat or lack of exercise.  You could be perfectly healthy and still develop it.  So I guess I’m just unlucky. O_o

I’ll be admitted on July 10th, Friday around noon, since there are preparations that need to be done before the surgery.  They’ll give me general anesthesia, which is great since I don’t want to be awake while they cut me up.  I’m just apprehensive about falling unconscious and then waking up in pain in a different room.  If all things go well, I could be discharged as early as the next day, but will need at least two weeks of rest to fully recover.

Meanwhile I have to take care of paperwork and stuff to make sure I don’t have to spend much for all this.  Thank God for good medical plans!

Unwell

Thanks to www.cartoonstock.com for the image.

This has not been a very good month for my health.

Three weeks ago, I ate and drank too much at a party, which resulted to vicious stomach and intestinal action for two days.

The following day, while taking a shower I noticed a strange soft lump at the base of my neck around the collar area. It didn’t hurt or anything. In fact I wouldn’t have noticed it was there if I hadn’t touched it  (And thank goodness it’s not disfiguring). Worried by this weird mass I had an ENT doctor look at it, and he told me to go get a CT scan.  Since I was not really sick, it would take two days for me to get the results, which means Monday because I took the CT scan on a Thursday.

On Saturday of the same week, I had high fever, body pains and fatigue.  We got worried so my fiancee took me to the hospital, where I was confined for 4 days.  It was my first time to live with an IV.

Since the hospital was not a high-end one, my health insurance was able to afford me a private airconditioned room with its own toilet and shower and cable TV.  The nurses were nice and caring too and the meals weren’t too shabby.  But the good things about that hospital ended at that.

I guess the biggest complaint of mine was that the doctor mostly kept me in the dark about my condition. All I knew was that it wasn’t dengue (thank God), flu, diarrhea or typhoid fever.  Only when asking for the medical certificate did I find out that I had an “acute systemic viral infection”.  Later on a friend of mine who is a nurse told me that usually that’s what they diagnose when they don’t know what to diagnose.  But well, at least I’m cured of it, whatever it was.

So, back to the weird lump. The CT scan says it’s a benign lipoma.  Due to its size, the doctor recommended that I have it removed via surgery, but told me to see a general surgeon since the lump is mostly on the shoulder area, which is outside the ENT’s area of expertise.

I’m going to see the general surgeon later. Wish me luck.

UPDATE (July 1, 2009): I’m scheduled for surgery on July 11 at the UST hospital. More details later on a new post.