Avatar

Went to see Avatar tonight. The 3d effects were very good, much better than I've seen in the past, but then I seldom go to movies. The technology has certainly improved!

I'd recommend seeing Avatar, and this is one to see in the theatre, not waiting to see it at home. The 3d *made* this movie, that and the special effects. Plotwize, it was pretty derivative, but there was a good bit of campy humor...maybe it was intentional, let's hope so anyway.

Replacing the VCR

Good luck if you have to replace a busted VCR!

I've been "time shifting" TV for 20 years now. Seeing as I work most week nights until 9pm, if I want to see 'prime time' TV I have to time shift. The last few years it has been getting harder and harder to find VCRs to replace the 2 or 3 I have running. Now, well as I said...good luck...finding a new VCR. Yes, there are still a few dvd/vcr combos out there, but only a few brands and in limited supply. I strongly suspect they've stopped making them and are just drawing down their inventories now. Sigh! It is the end of an era.

One of the three VCR's I use to record TV died about a month ago. I'm making do with the last two and playing the tapes back on the VCR/DVD combo in the TV room. I've been looking and no replacements are to be found. I will have to pick up a combo unit this Christmas season before they are all gone, and that should hold things together for a while, but only for a while.

So, how am I to really replace the VCR? I don't think DVD-RW is the way to go. The recorders are too expensive and the disks only hold about 4 hours each, and that's not enough for the 6 hour days I have sometimes. I think I'm going to have to go to the DVR solution.

DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) come in 3 varieties: Tivo, the cable/satelite company's box, and Media PC's. I don't want to go the monthly subscription route with Tivo or the Cable company...and they would require me moving to "digital cable" and I can't see a reason to do that yet. So, that means I'm looking at a Media PC...and nobody seems to be selling one that does what I want. Some come close, but I'm going to have to customize, upgrade, and jury rig a bit to get to what I've currently got with Cable, VCR's, TV's and coax cables.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to "spec out" what I need and start acquiring the parts. I don't have a PC I can dedicate to this project, so I'm going to have to buy one and customize it. I'm hoping I can get the entire setup done for under $700...we'll see.

The Problem With Health Insurance

There's been a lot of smoke and heat over "health care" in recent months, but most of it is only peripherally about health care, mostly it's about health insurance. I'm pretty sure that almost everyone with some sort of health insurance will get better health care than those with no health insurance. So getting everyone covered is a good idea. One, it should actually save money overall if everyone is covered. Two, it might not be a "right" in the Constitutional sense, but, by golly it's something that this country should do

But is that all health care is about? Getting everybody in some sort of health insurance plan? I don't think so, but those other issues are topics for another day. Today let's address this question ...

Is your health insurance plan worth the money you’re paying for it?

At one extreme is the government-run, single payer plan...represented by Medicare. Medicare isn’t allowed to drop you if you get sick, doesn’t care when you first came down with rickets, and accounts for 3.5% of the total health care cost of participants. That's important...3.5% overhead, 3.5 to cover all the administrative costs. Yes, Medicare has some limits on what doctor you can see, has limits on who gets what treatments, and it's not up to just you and your doctor about those treatments it's up to "a board" somewhere.

Pretty much everyone else is on some sort of private health insurance plan. Private insurance companies are businesses who are in the business, first and foremost of earning profits. The quality of health care for their clients is secondary, and if you don't believe that I've got this bridge I'd like to sell you. Private insurance will drop you if you gain weight, get sick, or age, considers freckles to be a reason not to treat your melanoma, and administrative overhead costs 30% of the total bill. Thirty percent of the total bill? 30%...30%! Think about that!

Now keep in mind that most of us are in some sort of HMO where you can only see certain doctors, there are limits on who gets what treatments and it's not up to just you and your doctor deciding about a lot of those treatments, it's up to "a board" somewhere Geeze! How is that different from Medicare, how is that better for anyone?

Okay, private insurance must offer something that Medicare doesn’t, right? Private insurance advocates will tell you that private plans will eliminate waste that government run Medicare doesn’t eliminate. Er....3% vs 30%...what I'm I missing here? Is the claim that private insurance saves you money by costing you nearly ten times as much as government insurance costs you? No, that can't be it! Just what “waste” do these private plan advocates mean? It can't be the overhead. Oh, I know, they must mean the waste of treatments that doctors advise their patients to take that insurance administrators refuse to allow. Oy vey, I shudder to be the cause of such waste.

A useful tool to understand what I'm actually talking about here is to understand what health insurance actually does. You give somebody some money every month, and when you need medical attention, they give some of your money to doctors, hospitals, etc. That’s it! That's all health insurance is. Well, to be fair it's a bit more than that...folks, like me, pay in several thousand dollars a year and hardly ever see the doctor are financing all the sick folks out there. Hey, but on the bright side, maybe I'll come down with something and get all of my money back one day, maybe if I'm lucky I'll get really sick and get back more than I put in! Oh, but I'm sure my private insurance company will drop me before that happens...that would be the business like thing to do, don't you agree?

If you took the money you and your employer pay to your insurance company and put it into a bank instead, by the time you really needed it you'd probably be able to pay for all the treatment you would ever need, and pay for your retirement, too. Most people haven't done that, won't do that, many simply can't do that! It isn’t realistic to expect people to start doing it now, and it wouldn't protect you if you came down with something really costly. But the fact remains that with private insurance, in essence, you are paying an extra 30% to a company to hold your money, then to tell you how you are allowed to spend it, and giving them the right do drop you if you become a drag on their profits.

Does Medicare do this to you as well? Yes and no. Yes, they are taking your money, charging a 3% fee to hold it, and paying it out when you need it, but no, they can't drop you if you cost too much. Maybe they can deny, or delay, certain costly treatments, but are they any worse about that than private companies?. Nope. But according to the people who prefer private insurance, government run plans don’t do as good a job and would do it worse if they were the only ones allowed to insure you. Frankly, I don't believe it.

If we had a state-run, single payer plan for everyone in America would it tell you which medical treatments you are allowed to receive? Sure, it would! But, so does a privately run HMO? But, if Medicare is any prognosticator (and we have no reason to assume it is not), it will cost 27% less in overhead than what you're getting from that HMO to get what treatments you do get. That looks like Medicare you do a better job not a worse one. Maybe those guys mean a worse job in the sense that they, the executives of those private companies, wouldn't get as much money.

I did a little reading. In 2007, 60% of American bankruptcies were said to be due to medical costs. Of those bankruptcies, nearly 80% held private insurance at the beginning of their medical emergency. To narrow that down even more, half of that 80% had lost their insurance by the time they filed for bankruptcy. Private health insurance seems to be a fine idea, as long as you're healthy, but if you get really sick down the rat hole you go!

In conclusion, here's my take on Single Payer Government vs Private Health Insurance. Neither system is great. Neither system is without flaws. Both could be better, but...

A Government run system, like Medicare, needs some reformatting to keep up with tax cuts, which threaten to put it under water. But this is doable. It's doable, but it means taxes would have to go up to cover it. We'd have to pay the government what we've (and our employer) has been paying some HMO, but most likely no more and maybe even less...remember that 3% is a lot less than 30% On the plus side, 3% costs and being required by law to, mostly, be there for you when you need it seems like a win to me.

Private insurance, otoh, is a boil on the butt of America. It’s painful, unsightly, and interferes with your life. I'm trying really hard to think of something nice to say about it...ur...still thinking...okay, I've got it! At it's best, it is no worse than a Single-Payer system.

If you listen to all the talk, nobody disagrees that the current system is broken, but I'll lay odds that many of the "players" are lying when they say they want to see it fixed. There is a lot of money getting passed around over over health care, and the pigs at the trough might grunt about reforms, but what they want is more slop, not less. That's why "health care reform" won't include a real Public Option and that's a crying shame!

What do you think?

Ode to NetFlix

I subscribed to Netflix a little under two months ago. I hadn't done it before because I don't watch many movies and paying $10 a month to see an occasional movie I wouldn't pay to see in a theater seemed like a waste, but shoot was I a dope!

I've gotten about 20 discs delivered in the past 2 months, and not once have I rented a recent theatrical release! Who knew I could get all of these old shows! I've rented mysteries from the 30's... The Thin Man, Mike Shane, Phio Vance, Bulldog Drummond. I've rented old series that, once upon a time, were on PBM Mystery...Sgt Cribb, Tommy & Tuppence, the original Mrs. Marple. I've rented old Marx brothers comedies, TV shows I liked once upon a time like The Avengers, The Man From Uncle, and that's not all!

Netflix has this online streaming feature now. Man this is great!!! I can look at old favorites like The Good Life, Waiting for God, Perry Mason, Murder She Wrote whenever I want, not just if/when some network wants to broadcast them. I can discover English comedies, mysteries and detective shows that I never would have known about...and have: The Last Detective, Rising Damp, Hamish McBeth. Oh, and with my PC2TV setup, I can watch those streams on the TV in the living room...cool!

And all for $9.65 a month!

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Wow!
I just discovered them and...wow!

See what I mean?

Textbook Blues

I went down to the office today. Pre-planning at the college doesn't start until the 19th, but I wanted to check in. I especially wanted to double-check that the new text book for our Computer Concepts course was in. It wasn't and probably won't be in the campus bookstores until the 21st.

So much for getting a jump on planning!

Listening To

Astral Weeks by Van Morrison.

Van Morrison has been a favorite of mine since the middle 60's when he was singing Brown Eyed Girl and Gloria. In the late 60's and early 70's he produced some of the best songs ever! Astral Weeks was his first sole album and the beginning of a string of great work. I think substance abuse (drugs/alcohol) derailed Morrison in the early 70's, but he seems to have overcome those problems as he continues to produce music today. Sometimes great music.

Astral Weeks has songs like Cypress Avenue, Madame George, Ballerina as well as the title song. This is perfect album to listen to when you need to mellow out, or get stoned...on life and music, not artificially. :)

Walking!

I've been doing the "10,000" steps a day thing for the last 3 months. Yes, I've lost some weight, but to be honest, I lost more in the 3 months before I started exercising. :)

Most days, I do three miles either on the road or on a treadmill. That gives me 6,000+ steps right there. I can get another 1 to 2 thousand just walking around the house before I go to bed. The rest I get from just moving around.

When I get back to teaching later this month I'm going to have a problem keeping up this pace. My schedule is going to keep me at work until about 9 pm three nights a week. I'll have time during the day to get in the steps, but if I do the *work* while at work, I'll also sweat like a pig. That's going to be a problem.

Well, we'll see...

Watching

The Last Detective, Series 2 staring Peter Davison


Dangerous Dave is "the last detective" his governor would assign to a case, but Dangerous always seems to solve the cases he is on. Sometimes those cases are minor ones, like a string of break ins at local businesses or a missing man dying of cancer, but sometimes those simple cases uncover murder...and Dangerous always gets his man, or woman. This isn't a "shoot 'em up" series, it's as quiet and thoughtful as you can find. I highly recommend it!

Listening To

Good Times by Edie Brickell.

This is from Edie's Picture Perfect Morning album. You might remember it from the music video that was included with an earlier version of MS Windows.

I've been a fan of Edie's thoughtful lyrics since her early days with The New Bohemians. Mrs. Paul Simon, Edie, seems to take several years off at a time between albums and tours, but she and The Bohemians reunited for an album and a tour last year.

New Blogs

Yes, blogs might be "ancient" technology now. They are, what, five years old? But conservative old me has just gotten interested in them. I started the Kid Chaos blog earlier this year to hold general comments about any old subject. I planned to start a couple of others to cover "specialty" areas that interest me...specifically, programming and role playing games. Well, I've finally gotten around to creating them.

The first new blog is called Programming 101. In there I will write about computer programming and technology. I will offer up some programming tips I've run across over the years. I'm sure I'll be posting on various languages: C, C++, C#, Java...etc. My advice, ideas, tips won't always be traditionally or conventionally correct...all I can say is In My Opinion and let it go at that.

The second new blog is called RPG Fever. I'm not entirely sure what I'll be posting in there, other than it will be about role playing games. I want a place to write about Traveller, D&D, and 4th Edition (which isn't really D&D IMO). I want a place where I can post ideas for various game systems: a really, really, simple fantasy rpg (SimpleD20); a fantasy rpg based on a 2d6 mechanic (Wanderers); and various mods I've made (and continue to make) to Traveller. It will also be a place where I can post links I've found to other people's websites and blogs.

I'm sure my postings will be sporadic, but I think I'll have fun. Maybe if you choose to follow along with me you'll be able to share in...even add to...the fun.

Just Another Day

Listening to: Sister Lost Soul by Alejandro Escovedo.

This is from his Real Animal album. Alejandro is the brother of Pete Escovedo (drummer for Santana) and uncle of the infamous Shelia E. Alejandro has been bouncing around the music scene since the 60's, but never hit it big. This song, however, I really like.

I can't say I was enthused about the rest of Real Animal, though.

Thinking about: Sixth Sense Technology as demoed by Dr. Pattie Mae.

I thought MicroSoft's Surface was cool, but that pales in comparison to this! I really think this will be the break through technology of 2010 or 2011. Imagine being about to project information from the internet onto any surface and manipulate it. Imagine walking up to a stranger and having information about him projected onto his shirt, or whispered in your ear. Imagine getting real-time reviews of books just by picking them up. This is going to be hands-free IPhone, IPod, Surface, your new Digital Personal Assistant! Of course, I will still want my Dynabook. :)

Reading Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh.

Having exhausted Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie, I've started on Ngaio Marsh. Enter a Murderer is the second book of the Inspector Alleyn series. I finished the first book, A Man Lay Dead, a few weeks ago...it wasn't great, but it was Marsh's first effort and has been universally rated as her worst. It is with this second book that she begins to "hit her stride."

-- 30 --

Newseum

Heard about a new site today. Newseum the worlds most interactive museum. The really cool thing is the newspaper map. You can click on one of the buttons and that city's newspaper's frontpage is displayed

Cold Fusion?

Cool!

So when can we be looking for our home fusion kits?

'Cold Fusion' Rebirth? New Evidence For Existence Of Controversial Energy Source
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090323110450.htm
March 23, 2009

ScienceDaily (Mar. 23, 2009) ? Researchers are reporting compelling new scientific evidence for the existence of low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR), the process once called "cold fusion" that may promise a new source of energy. One group of scientists, for instance, describes what it terms the first clear visual evidence that LENR devices can produce neutrons, subatomic particles that scientists view as tell-tale signs that nuclear reactions are occurring.

Everything old is new again! I have always thought that something was going on back when Fleishmann and Pons reported their findings way back when. Maybe not fusion, per se, but something. Now it looks like somebody else has found something...and that something looks an awful lot like fusion.

Low-energy nuclear reactions could potentially provide 21st Century society a limitless and environmentally-clean energy source for generating electricity, researchers say. The report, which injects new life into this controversial field, will be presented March 23 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting.*

"Our finding is very significant," says study co-author and analytical chemist Pamela Mosier-Boss, Ph.D., of the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego, Calif. "To our knowledge, this is the first scientific report of the production of highly energetic neutrons from an LENR device."

The Cranberries

I was browsing through some old CD's the other day and ran across Stars, a greatest hits collection from The Cranberries. I enjoyed their music, not just the hits. They were rock, but not metal, and I really liked the Celtic edge they brought to rock.

So, yes, now I'm overdosing on Dolores O'Riordan all over again! I understand she's done some solo work recently. I'll have to check it out.

Test Time!

I've been busy, and will continue to be busy with tests for another week. I don't really like tests, but they seem to be a necessary evil.

The Professor

A cable, a cable, my kingdom for a cable!

Wouldn't you know it! Here I am ready to sync files...and I don't have a USB cable with the correct connector!

What is it with the multitude of connectors for USB? Isn't it supposed to be *Universal*, can't be universal if you've got a half dozen different...mutually incompatible plugs to deal with.

Grumble, Grumble!

And here comes USB 3.0 with, you guessed it, YACC...and I don't mean yet another C compiler...for us to deal with!

The Digital Age

I got my first copy of digital PC Mag yesterday. I was hoping for a pdf. I got some sort of proprietary format requiring a proprietary reader...yuck! At least, the reader worked okay. I liked the way it scrolled up and down the columns rather than making you page up and down all the time, however, I can't curl up with a monitor on my lap.

John Dvorak was writing about "The End of History" the other day. He thinks that print newspapers, magazines and eventually books are doomed, and when they go so will long term archival.

He might be right. I sure hope he isn't.

Retrenchment...

...is just another name for ain't got nothing to lose.

The college at which I work is talking about "retrenchment"...fancy talk for "so long, been nice to know you!" We are facing a shortfall of a million six this year and maybe twice that next year, so economies must be made, but don't you think layoffs should be the last resort...not the first?

So, who is getting fired...teachers, that's who! And how is the college going to cover classes after letting teachers go? With part-timers (who get no health insurance and have very low pay) and Administrators! Errrr, yeah that's the right way to do this!

Well, why should education be any different from the rest of the country?

Tough times, tough times!

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda...

...got into this whole blogging thing long ago! Especially, seeing as I have an opinion, often two or three opinions, about everything and it's cousin. Ah! Well, just a case of rampant procrastination I guess.

In any case, here I am at last.