As someone who as worked in the within the Medical establishment, the issues you are talking about are more vendor specific. The equipment used in Lasik cases and others have been thoroughly tested, because of the fact they have to be so precise. Calibrations on these machines are often conducted before every use, or on a very regular basis. As far as MRI's diagnosing problems, that's not the case. MRI's take the pictures, and the Radiologist then interprets the MRI results. So, human error is the consideration in this case versus a software error.
IT is moving rapidly within the Medical arena. Utitilizing systems such as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) for X-Rays and other radiological procedures to be available via computer versus hard copies would be one example. Also applications that properly document, bill, and track a patients travels through a hospital are becoming more and more prevalent.
What this Open Standard is driving for, is to standardize that information, so that it can be easily passed from one medical facility to another. Currently, the extensive use of Fax machines, to fax entire patient records to other Doctors, and hospitals is common. For the patient, the results are positive, because their care can be more continuous, and well documented. Having a standard format to facilitate this will be a tremendous advantage, and probably help cut down on cost in the long run.
I totally agree with the above posts. As a person who has used PHP since it was in the 2.* versions, I have went from the newb programmer to someone who writes complex applications. PHP I believe has facilitated my ability to understand procedural versus object-oriented approaches (regardless of the opinions of its broken OO model).
As someone who started with C, then moved to Perl, I found PHP's syntax very understandable and quite managable. Now that I've been learning Java, and seeing PHP5's movement in the Object-Orientation arena, there are extreme similarities in PHP's migration toward better Object-orientation. As mentioned above, I too have replaced many of my perl scripts with command-line PHP scripts, which is pretty handy.
One must also consider that ANYONE can write crappy code, with ANY language. Any inexperienced programmer can destroy data just as easily with C, Java, Perl, and others, as one can with PHP. I think because of PHP's friendly syntax and functions it tends to attract more inexperienced programmers. But, everyone has to learn somehow, and I view programming as a creative outlet similiar to playing music. I'd rather someone create something they consider useful, than be frustrated because they have a lame compile error that they can't solve for 6 hours, and ultimately have a negative programming experience.
I think every language has strong and weak points, and as posted above PHP is not the end all of programming languages. I think it's in the programmer's personal interest to have a wide span of knowledge and tools to be able to evaluate which language would best be suited for individual projects. I look forward to many years of PHP development. I appreciate the developers that have worked so hard to make it such a usable language.
May whatever forces that keep us moving toward whateverness please please please put Kerry into office. Not because I think he's a better man, but he's hella better than Bush.
From what I've seen, look around at a few billboard signs posted in various areas.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?sto ry Id=3916173
Nice new job recruiting strategy.
Re:I interned at Wal-Mart's IT department...
on
Inside Wal-Mart IT
·
· Score: 1
Granted, their pay isn't spectacular, but ed_dawg is right. As someone who lives in NW Arkansas, my entire montly rent including utilities, and full out cable is less than $500 / month. That's pretty hard to beat anywhere in the country.
As far as the whole pay and all goes.. YOU ARE WORKING FOR WAL-MART!!! Anyone working in retail in general can't expect much as far as pay and benefits go, the same would apply to Wal-Mart in my opinion.
Re:I interned at Wal-Mart's IT department...
on
Inside Wal-Mart IT
·
· Score: 1
Seems just about any major corporation has some sort of "spirit" builder.
I'm sure Microsoft has an "Ode to Bill" that they chant harmoniously.
As someone who lives near Bentonville, also knowing numerous employees that work at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart strives at all costs to reduce extraneous spending. As the article presents, Wal-Mart is entirely "on the ball" when it comes to every aspect of distribution, sales, consumership, etc. This is why they have come to dominate the market. I've been impressed with some of the interesting stories that have been related to me by Wal-Mart employees that work both in the IT Dept, and various other Depts in the WallyWorld HQ. Of course various other underhanded business methods have also helped move this company further to success, but that's another can of worms:P
I've been fed many meals over the years, simply stemming from helping people with the various problems with computers. Hook-up a printer, set-up a scanner, remove all the games and demo programs from the beast. All sorts of little problems that take an experienced computer user a few *clickety-clicks* to resolve, but hours of suffering for a user without the knowledge.
Those of us that are using computers regularly tend to forget there's still a population out there that fear these machines.
Point being, I've received a desk, books, dinners, dates, money, and other stuff, most time I really don't care to get any sort of monatary reward.
But as the Poster above said, it's the ungrateful users that make it most difficult. But, helping the ones that learn, and appreciate your help make it most rewarding.
On the contrary, it's your job as a professional and as an employee to keep your employers in tune with what is possible, and what is most efficient for the manhours/money involved. As employees you are also responsible to your employers to keep them informed of ways to actually save money also if there is a place this can be done. If this particular job would require hundreds of manhours to do, versus paying a place that actually specializes in these services to do it. Which I'd guess the university either has this equipment on campus, or has contracts with some company already for something similar.
Besides the fact, it sounds like they are not aware of the time involved in scanning off 10's nonetheless hundreds of pages. It doesn't sound like they are too anxious to make it easy for him to get the job done either (not buying him new equipment, using the secretaries Win2k box after hours??).
I've volunteered my efforts before on a simple scanning job that required hundreds of regular photos to be scanned in at relatively good quality (why else do it otherwise), and ended up taking forever. Upon informing the client of the amount of time required, they adjusted the way the job was being handled.
I think being straight with your employers, and clients is the best approach to any situation where too much is being expected. The times I've had these instances come up, and recommended different approaches that resulted in money being saved, or manhours on a task being reduced, I saw benefit in my paycheck through raises or promotions.
I think this is just another sign that Apple actually benefits from cross-platform applications. The roll-out of the IPod, then ITunes, it's all ultimately to make Apple products easier to use on Windows, since unfortunately it is running on a large share of home users desktops.
Being someone who has ADD, and also works within the psychiatric profession. I can speak from both a patient and a professional level. The simple fact is when it comes to any medication, what may be beneficial to one person may be a nightmare for another.
Over the last 20 years, there's been many approaches to treating this disorder. Many of which have included using various anti-depressants (including tricyclics which were notorious for tons of side-effects, and newer ones like Strattera, Adderall, Wellbutrin).
Why is Ritalin prevalent? Because it has been around the longest, has been tested in hundreds of studies, and has a pretty good rate of success for treating the symptoms. It's about like why do you take Tylenol for headaches? Because it has a history of success. But, even Tylenol doesn't treat all headaches. That is the same case with medications that have been used to treat ADHD, and is why there are continually more options of treatment becoming available.
Within the field itself, there have been many disagreements as to the cause of this disorder. Medications like Adderall for instance tend to work on Dopamine, and Norepinephrine. While the newer non-stimulant based Strattera is entirely on Norepinephrine alone. In my personal experience, taking Strattera was living hell.. But, taking Adderall (as prescribed) has benefitted my life, and my lifestyle beyond anything I could imagine.
An argument I see a lot of the time is "it makes *me* do this". A simple abstraction of the same instance would be with diabetes. If the average person took an insulin shot, they would most definitely have undesirable side-effects. However, a person with the disorder and lacks the chemicals necessary to perform a certain vital function finds it to save their life. This instance can be carried over to the effects of ADHD medications on a non-ADHD'er.
So I have these symptoms should I take a medication? is a question that is commonly asked. And the answer comes down to one thing, Quality of Life. If you have lost jobs due to your inability to maintain constistancy, inability to complete tasks, and meet other criteria, then consider a medication to assist you in acheiving your maximum potential. Of course the opposite side of the coin are the side-effects mentioned in posts above, and at that point, again Quality of Life needs to be considered, and decided on by the patient, and the doctor if necessary.
Bottom line is, everyone's different.... Not everyone has the same results.... If you're struggling with a disorder of any type, and you feel there may be benefits from a medication, or various medications, it is your option to pursue those to improve your Quality of Life.
Most definitely! A statistic I heard was that the only market mp3's had done any damage to was the "singles market" which before mp3 swapping accounted for 3% of music sales. MP3 swapping as a result lost them a whole 1%, and in return their shares of Albums took up that slack. So, really they are probably making more money.
But, it is exactly what you're saying, it's control of the market, control of distribution, and control of what we the listeners get the opportunity to hear.
You made a point that I mention everytime I get in this discussion with anyone. The likelihood of me buying an album at the current prices are pretty slim unless I really want the CD. Then I am willing to support the band, and buy their music. I think this is a common amongst most individuals who use P2P sources. But, I will say, back in the day when cassette tapes were the only way to go, I "pirated" and recorded tapes from my friends a LOT more than I have mp3's.. The arguement could be made that quality was lessened from one tape to the other, but isn't there a similar arguement with CD's versus mp3's?
I recall a few years ago, Dave Matthews Band released a new song on Napster or another sharing network (whoa!) before releasing it elsewhere. From that point on I was a further devoted fan, I knew that they embraced music lovers. There have been other instances of this, and I'm sure the end result was positive for the bands. In many cases, local bands release music on P2P networks just so their music will get heard.
Music artists CAN embrace the freedom that these networks provide, and in the end gain more respect from their listeners because WE know they aren't about the bottom dollar.
After Metallica's attack on Napster, I trashed all of their CD's and refuse to spend ANY money on them. This coming from someone who went to numerous shows, and bought every one of their CD's. It sucks to see bands chasing money rather than fanship.
I think that as long as Linux distro's keep the kernel, and libs all common there's not much to worry about as far as "Balkanization" is concerned. I agree that Linux is made to be flexible and there is no right distro. Unlike M$ Linux and it's users can be as flexible as they want, not confined to a certain order of things. As for the different variations of MS Products, I believe it comes down to money. It's human nature to want bigger and better and MS knows that if they come out with something new, and "fix" the problems with the old they'll have more money to go buy small companys that challenge them:)
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As someone who as worked in the within the Medical establishment, the issues you are talking about are more vendor specific. The equipment used in Lasik cases and others have been thoroughly tested, because of the fact they have to be so precise. Calibrations on these machines are often conducted before every use, or on a very regular basis. As far as MRI's diagnosing problems, that's not the case. MRI's take the pictures, and the Radiologist then interprets the MRI results. So, human error is the consideration in this case versus a software error.
IT is moving rapidly within the Medical arena. Utitilizing systems such as PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems) for X-Rays and other radiological procedures to be available via computer versus hard copies would be one example. Also applications that properly document, bill, and track a patients travels through a hospital are becoming more and more prevalent.
What this Open Standard is driving for, is to standardize that information, so that it can be easily passed from one medical facility to another. Currently, the extensive use of Fax machines, to fax entire patient records to other Doctors, and hospitals is common. For the patient, the results are positive, because their care can be more continuous, and well documented. Having a standard format to facilitate this will be a tremendous advantage, and probably help cut down on cost in the long run.
I totally agree with the above posts. As a person who has used PHP since it was in the 2.* versions, I have went from the newb programmer to someone who writes complex applications. PHP I believe has facilitated my ability to understand procedural versus object-oriented approaches (regardless of the opinions of its broken OO model).
As someone who started with C, then moved to Perl, I found PHP's syntax very understandable and quite managable. Now that I've been learning Java, and seeing PHP5's movement in the Object-Orientation arena, there are extreme similarities in PHP's migration toward better Object-orientation. As mentioned above, I too have replaced many of my perl scripts with command-line PHP scripts, which is pretty handy.
One must also consider that ANYONE can write crappy code, with ANY language. Any inexperienced programmer can destroy data just as easily with C, Java, Perl, and others, as one can with PHP. I think because of PHP's friendly syntax and functions it tends to attract more inexperienced programmers. But, everyone has to learn somehow, and I view programming as a creative outlet similiar to playing music. I'd rather someone create something they consider useful, than be frustrated because they have a lame compile error that they can't solve for 6 hours, and ultimately have a negative programming experience.
I think every language has strong and weak points, and as posted above PHP is not the end all of programming languages. I think it's in the programmer's personal interest to have a wide span of knowledge and tools to be able to evaluate which language would best be suited for individual projects. I look forward to many years of PHP development. I appreciate the developers that have worked so hard to make it such a usable language.
May whatever forces that keep us moving toward whateverness please please please put Kerry into office. Not because I think he's a better man, but he's hella better than Bush.
From what I've seen, look around at a few billboard signs posted in various areas.
o ry Id=3916173
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?st
Nice new job recruiting strategy.
Granted, their pay isn't spectacular, but ed_dawg is right. As someone who lives in NW Arkansas, my entire montly rent including utilities, and full out cable is less than $500 / month. That's pretty hard to beat anywhere in the country.
As far as the whole pay and all goes.. YOU ARE WORKING FOR WAL-MART!!! Anyone working in retail in general can't expect much as far as pay and benefits go, the same would apply to Wal-Mart in my opinion.
Seems just about any major corporation has some sort of "spirit" builder.
I'm sure Microsoft has an "Ode to Bill" that they chant harmoniously.
As someone who lives near Bentonville, also knowing numerous employees that work at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart strives at all costs to reduce extraneous spending. As the article presents, Wal-Mart is entirely "on the ball" when it comes to every aspect of distribution, sales, consumership, etc. This is why they have come to dominate the market. I've been impressed with some of the interesting stories that have been related to me by Wal-Mart employees that work both in the IT Dept, and various other Depts in the WallyWorld HQ. Of course various other underhanded business methods have also helped move this company further to success, but that's another can of worms :P
I've been fed many meals over the years, simply stemming from helping people with the various problems with computers. Hook-up a printer, set-up a scanner, remove all the games and demo programs from the beast. All sorts of little problems that take an experienced computer user a few *clickety-clicks* to resolve, but hours of suffering for a user without the knowledge.
Those of us that are using computers regularly tend to forget there's still a population out there that fear these machines.
Point being, I've received a desk, books, dinners, dates, money, and other stuff, most time I really don't care to get any sort of monatary reward.
But as the Poster above said, it's the ungrateful users that make it most difficult. But, helping the ones that learn, and appreciate your help make it most rewarding.
On the contrary, it's your job as a professional and as an employee to keep your employers in tune with what is possible, and what is most efficient for the manhours/money involved. As employees you are also responsible to your employers to keep them informed of ways to actually save money also if there is a place this can be done. If this particular job would require hundreds of manhours to do, versus paying a place that actually specializes in these services to do it. Which I'd guess the university either has this equipment on campus, or has contracts with some company already for something similar.
Besides the fact, it sounds like they are not aware of the time involved in scanning off 10's nonetheless hundreds of pages. It doesn't sound like they are too anxious to make it easy for him to get the job done either (not buying him new equipment, using the secretaries Win2k box after hours??).
I've volunteered my efforts before on a simple scanning job that required hundreds of regular photos to be scanned in at relatively good quality (why else do it otherwise), and ended up taking forever. Upon informing the client of the amount of time required, they adjusted the way the job was being handled.
I think being straight with your employers, and clients is the best approach to any situation where too much is being expected. The times I've had these instances come up, and recommended different approaches that resulted in money being saved, or manhours on a task being reduced, I saw benefit in my paycheck through raises or promotions.
I think this is just another sign that Apple actually benefits from cross-platform applications. The roll-out of the IPod, then ITunes, it's all ultimately to make Apple products easier to use on Windows, since unfortunately it is running on a large share of home users desktops.
Being someone who has ADD, and also works within the psychiatric profession. I can speak from both a patient and a professional level. The simple fact is when it comes to any medication, what may be beneficial to one person may be a nightmare for another.
Over the last 20 years, there's been many approaches to treating this disorder. Many of which have included using various anti-depressants (including tricyclics which were notorious for tons of side-effects, and newer ones like Strattera, Adderall, Wellbutrin).
Why is Ritalin prevalent? Because it has been around the longest, has been tested in hundreds of studies, and has a pretty good rate of success for treating the symptoms. It's about like why do you take Tylenol for headaches? Because it has a history of success. But, even Tylenol doesn't treat all headaches. That is the same case with medications that have been used to treat ADHD, and is why there are continually more options of treatment becoming available.
Within the field itself, there have been many disagreements as to the cause of this disorder. Medications like Adderall for instance tend to work on Dopamine, and Norepinephrine. While the newer non-stimulant based Strattera is entirely on Norepinephrine alone. In my personal experience, taking Strattera was living hell.. But, taking Adderall (as prescribed) has benefitted my life, and my lifestyle beyond anything I could imagine.
An argument I see a lot of the time is "it makes *me* do this". A simple abstraction of the same instance would be with diabetes. If the average person took an insulin shot, they would most definitely have undesirable side-effects. However, a person with the disorder and lacks the chemicals necessary to perform a certain vital function finds it to save their life. This instance can be carried over to the effects of ADHD medications on a non-ADHD'er.
So I have these symptoms should I take a medication? is a question that is commonly asked. And the answer comes down to one thing, Quality of Life. If you have lost jobs due to your inability to maintain constistancy, inability to complete tasks, and meet other criteria, then consider a medication to assist you in acheiving your maximum potential. Of course the opposite side of the coin are the side-effects mentioned in posts above, and at that point, again Quality of Life needs to be considered, and decided on by the patient, and the doctor if necessary.
Bottom line is, everyone's different.... Not everyone has the same results.... If you're struggling with a disorder of any type, and you feel there may be benefits from a medication, or various medications, it is your option to pursue those to improve your Quality of Life.
Most definitely! A statistic I heard was that the only market mp3's had done any damage to was the "singles market" which before mp3 swapping accounted for 3% of music sales. MP3 swapping as a result lost them a whole 1%, and in return their shares of Albums took up that slack. So, really they are probably making more money.
But, it is exactly what you're saying, it's control of the market, control of distribution, and control of what we the listeners get the opportunity to hear.
You made a point that I mention everytime I get in this discussion with anyone. The likelihood of me buying an album at the current prices are pretty slim unless I really want the CD. Then I am willing to support the band, and buy their music. I think this is a common amongst most individuals who use P2P sources. But, I will say, back in the day when cassette tapes were the only way to go, I "pirated" and recorded tapes from my friends a LOT more than I have mp3's.. The arguement could be made that quality was lessened from one tape to the other, but isn't there a similar arguement with CD's versus mp3's?
I recall a few years ago, Dave Matthews Band released a new song on Napster or another sharing network (whoa!) before releasing it elsewhere. From that point on I was a further devoted fan, I knew that they embraced music lovers. There have been other instances of this, and I'm sure the end result was positive for the bands. In many cases, local bands release music on P2P networks just so their music will get heard.
Music artists CAN embrace the freedom that these networks provide, and in the end gain more respect from their listeners because WE know they aren't about the bottom dollar.
After Metallica's attack on Napster, I trashed all of their CD's and refuse to spend ANY money on them. This coming from someone who went to numerous shows, and bought every one of their CD's. It sucks to see bands chasing money rather than fanship.
I think that as long as Linux distro's keep the kernel, and libs all common there's not much to worry about as far as "Balkanization" is concerned. I agree that Linux is made to be flexible and there is no right distro. Unlike M$ Linux and it's users can be as flexible as they want, not confined to a certain order of things. As for the different variations of MS Products, I believe it comes down to money. It's human nature to want bigger and better and MS knows that if they come out with something new, and "fix" the problems with the old they'll have more money to go buy small companys that challenge them :)