Yes and no. See, I am very interested in what will happen if / when socialized medicine manages to make its full debut in the US.
Why, you ask? Well, there has been a long-standing argument about whether or not the US medical patient has been subsidizing the developmental costs of those drugs...and whether the rest of the world's citizenry has gotten to ride for free as a result. On one hand, you have the pharms, who have political lobbyists, IP trickery, loads of scams, but occasionally some novel drugs coming out; on the other hand, you have host governments claiming that pharms are overcharging for new drugs, benefiting from basic research on the public's dime, etc.
If socialized medicine takes place in the US, and new drug research drops off a cliff, then we have a fair idea that the US medical patient was, in fact, subsidizing the rest of the world, and that, the prices charged by the pharms were possibly, on some level, aside from whatever inefficiencies and graft taking place, necessary (for lack of a better word). Up until now, we've only heard that the pharms have been raping us, and that socialized medicine will save the day; perhaps it's because I'm a programmer, but I am curious as to those odd end cases or exceptions where that might not be true. The above scenario, of course, comes with many caveats, so getting a simple yes or no, in the even that the US actually does run that way, may take a fair amount of analysis.
'Tis quite alright. In the future, the public internet (what's left of it) will only run encrypted data-streams. That's ultimately where this is headed. And since encryption is easier to make than decryption....well, the censors will always be on the losing side. Eternally.
The real fun part will be, of course, if / when humanity runs into other sentient lifeforms out in the universe. I'm sure that they will, of course, naturally have chosen similar schemes for controlling information within their own populations, as well as limiting reproductive choices, and implementing artificial castes. And that when they gaze upon what our great planet has invented, the very jewel of our solar system, the fruits of brightest minds and the labor bought off the backs of millions of straining peoples, they will acknowledge that we truly are just like them, and worthy to open trade negotiations / some sort of alliance. When our drones are flying over enemy territory, our borders, even our homeland itself, we are telling those with peering, but hidden eyes far up in the heavens exactly the kind of freedom America stands for. And they will know, like in all our broadcasts and films, that when they wish to pay homage to our wonderful civilization, exactly which building to visit and which leader they should strike up a conversation with.
But...but...the law says they have to offer a locally competitive salary that-*snort* yeah, it was pretty much proven bullsh*t recently. Surprising that it took a leftist (hah) think-tank (haha) looking at economics (basic supply and demand) to realize that if the wages for STEMs have remained stagnant this past decade, there can't be a shortage. It's soooo blindingly obvious, yet apparently the legislature, which is being told to ram through that bill at top speed (did it go through, anyone?), needs a think-tank to tell them it's going in the wrong direction.
“I come in peace,” it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, “take me to your Lizard.”
”It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see”
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I though you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
“What?”
“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.
“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
But do not worry, all of their problems will be solved with a move to the cloud. Yes, with the cloud, the websites will upgrade themselves, so they will continue to save money. The magical cloud which becomes whatever your local sales team tell you it is.
On a more serious note, I'd love to know who these people are that have nuked their own maintenance / internal upgrade paths. The costs for writing new stuff (inevitable?) might be rather..punitive, compared to just paying the bill.
Still, 135K€ for cleaning a bunch of PCs...what did they do, piss off the resident BOFH? Did someone make a lewd comment to IT about their jobs being outsourced to the 'cloud' that week? 'Tis the kind of prices you pay after you insinuate that someone's parents were blood relations...to their face...and then proceed to draw them a diagram outlining family relationships to ensure that there's no chance of a misunderstanding.
I know...I swear to God, it's like watching Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein argue about how best to implement and protect a democracy; and the sad part is, they're doing it in earnest, they're really trying, but they just can't fight some of those inner tendencies of theirs that cause things to kind of drift off course...
The more I watch these courts bend over for the J. Edgars, the more I contemplate being cremated and having my ashes stuck in a rocket, because I simply refuse to be buried on a planet with this kind of nonsense ongoing.
And yet, sadly, there are some people who cannot get into the HHGTTG...they read the first few chapters, completely skipping over the humor, and think it awfully dull. I have known two such individuals, and I don't think even therapy can save them now...
More likely the employee offered it up as a way to get the ball rolling, hoping to play hero and score some points with the company brass at the same time.
Unfortunately, the company decided to screw him, since it gets them out of a bad deal (what's personal bankruptcy?), and the courts get another headache to sort out.
I used to wonder why humanity needed the courts...now I wonder how a judge can walk around without facepalming all day.
A knee-jerk response from the people who have been readily expanding their surveillance / power base since 9/11...so, business as usual.
The fact of the matter is that no amount of additional surveillance is going to prevent 'terrorism'...nor would it have helped with the Boston Bombings...not without turning the US into a country that no one would want to live in, and people would be desperate to leave. There are hundreds / thousands / millions of people milling around cities every day with suspicious looking packages / bags, and no magical apparatus will tell you that there is a dangerous device within (don't ask).
Well, of course there's a shortage of cheap STEM graduates! Your local business school is putting out 10x what your STEM schools are putting out, and as you know, the business people are 'idea' people who deal with abstractions....there simply aren't enough local programmers for every business grad with a me-too Facebook idea...so they'll get some from abroad! As a business major once told me, he can hire some Indian to write a program for him for lunch money, so why does he need me? Better keep my head down, and accept my lot in life.
So what if they've been caught lying through their teeth, and have possibly been single handedly responsible for killing the tech sector at home...they made some great short term gains that will no doubt keep them afloat in some foreign country while the rest of us suffer.
I can see that he's this generation's Marie Antoinette. "Derp, derp, no pr0n from wifi hotspot, do it because I'm a political bigwig!" "My lord, it's impossible to censor anything without whitelisting..." "Just do it, DERP!" 10 weeks later. "OMG, I can't get anywhere on these hotpots, WTF did you guys do?" "Only what you asked us to." "I didn't ask you to do this! Fix it!" "I shall have the elves get to work on it right away sire, but it may require one of the Crown Jewels..." "Umm...what?" "Nothing" 10 weeks later. "OMG, people can get to pr0n sites!" "Umm, h@x0ors?" "Ah."
Most programs don't need a GUI...but they tend to function better with one. Most computers don't need a SSD...but they tend to run faster with one, and users tend to agree that you can have your SSD back when you pry it from their cold dead fingers.
You don't have to fly First Class, you're getting there at the same time as the people in Business or Economy class...but it's a lot nicer.
Thank you. The people spouting nonsense about 32-bit programming, and how they can't understand why 64-bit computing would be faster (in the x86 world) drive me loony...it's like they missed an entire year's worth of classes where we went over, in detail, the various changes, and why it's faster...and they have the gall to ask for your notebook the night before the final. I mean, it's impressive, that kind of blindness, but they're aren't getting the notebook without a pimp slap to go with it (extra baby powder).
It's kind of like watching the functional programming people slowly reinvent OOP...makes me scream inside. "Dude, we've figured out a new way to organize our methods / fields so that it's easier to keep them straight in our heads..." "Please God, let it not be OOP." "*talks for a bit*" "Damn it."
He's never written anything that's tested the limits of computing...
Meanwhile, I need only load up my badly coded evolutionary program to see my machine scream at the ~12 GB hit to the RAM. I say badly coded because I have found a few tricks to help get some additional memory savings out of it...also on topic, the aggression level was kind of low, so I imagine future tests might break the 32 GB barrier easily. Currently thinking of giving it a SSD for virtual memory...
32 GB Ram High-Five! Seriously, anytime Asus is feeling poor, they can release a Crosshair motherboard that takes 64 GB or perhaps 128 GB of RAM.
I am not through upgrading until I can virtualize the speed and location of every particle in the universe. Then I'm going to see what exactly this Time dimension actually looks like from a different angle. Maybe. I have a few other ideas, but I probably won't be allowed near a computer this powerful if I announce them all at once. =^_^=
Yes, but what doesn't make sense it this -> it's a bleeding business expense! You get tax credit / write-offs / whatever the latest scheme is for it, because it's necessary to your vocation! Even if the doctor was doing less than $10K of business per year, they'd probably be getting money back!
And the real problem is this -> that upgrade is probably being written by a handful of guys in a small office with a stack of forms that detail all the changes they need to make, and it's probably not a few of them. What I'm saying is, the program might be a bit of a dog...because it's a grueling experience. Possibly.
This. I am willing to hear out any doctor who can prove that they cannot afford the $10K upgrade by faxing me proof that they have not bought a new car in the last three years. It's a piece of office equipment, it requires upkeep...ask us how we feel about our annual licensing costs / training materials which can easily trump $10K. And that's on a salary nowhere near what doctors are earning today, and what sadly is often-times not even expensed properly (so no tax credit).
This is technology...a new OS comes out every 3 years, you need to make the boat every 6 years on average (Vista non-withstanding). Now, this doesn't mean paying out $10K every few years...to be honest, that's a complicated scenario: you're paying for a handful of programmers to work on a single task for which there is a very small market...on the other hand, a lot of the medical software I've seen is painful to look at, so I imagine the code is much worse. So, if I wanted to avoid the tax in the future, I'd inquire about future-proofing the software, or hiring a programmer that actually knows what that means. The thing the doctor in the post is probably really getting hit with is the driver change between Windows XP and Vista / 7...it's a different design, with no way to plan for it. However, that's assuming that the programmer was half-decent...they could have also used platform-specific features or even ASM that doesn't like later editions.
But the real test is this -> bring in a laptop, install the software on it, and see if it will actually run! If it does, you're probably in the clear, if it doesn't, try to negotiate.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes and no. See, I am very interested in what will happen if / when socialized medicine manages to make its full debut in the US.
Why, you ask? Well, there has been a long-standing argument about whether or not the US medical patient has been subsidizing the developmental costs of those drugs...and whether the rest of the world's citizenry has gotten to ride for free as a result. On one hand, you have the pharms, who have political lobbyists, IP trickery, loads of scams, but occasionally some novel drugs coming out; on the other hand, you have host governments claiming that pharms are overcharging for new drugs, benefiting from basic research on the public's dime, etc.
If socialized medicine takes place in the US, and new drug research drops off a cliff, then we have a fair idea that the US medical patient was, in fact, subsidizing the rest of the world, and that, the prices charged by the pharms were possibly, on some level, aside from whatever inefficiencies and graft taking place, necessary (for lack of a better word). Up until now, we've only heard that the pharms have been raping us, and that socialized medicine will save the day; perhaps it's because I'm a programmer, but I am curious as to those odd end cases or exceptions where that might not be true. The above scenario, of course, comes with many caveats, so getting a simple yes or no, in the even that the US actually does run that way, may take a fair amount of analysis.
'Tis quite alright. In the future, the public internet (what's left of it) will only run encrypted data-streams. That's ultimately where this is headed. And since encryption is easier to make than decryption....well, the censors will always be on the losing side. Eternally.
The real fun part will be, of course, if / when humanity runs into other sentient lifeforms out in the universe. I'm sure that they will, of course, naturally have chosen similar schemes for controlling information within their own populations, as well as limiting reproductive choices, and implementing artificial castes. And that when they gaze upon what our great planet has invented, the very jewel of our solar system, the fruits of brightest minds and the labor bought off the backs of millions of straining peoples, they will acknowledge that we truly are just like them, and worthy to open trade negotiations / some sort of alliance. When our drones are flying over enemy territory, our borders, even our homeland itself, we are telling those with peering, but hidden eyes far up in the heavens exactly the kind of freedom America stands for. And they will know, like in all our broadcasts and films, that when they wish to pay homage to our wonderful civilization, exactly which building to visit and which leader they should strike up a conversation with.
But...but...the law says they have to offer a locally competitive salary that-*snort* yeah, it was pretty much proven bullsh*t recently. Surprising that it took a leftist (hah) think-tank (haha) looking at economics (basic supply and demand) to realize that if the wages for STEMs have remained stagnant this past decade, there can't be a shortage. It's soooo blindingly obvious, yet apparently the legislature, which is being told to ram through that bill at top speed (did it go through, anyone?), needs a think-tank to tell them it's going in the wrong direction.
Why not remove the market from the house of law? The two are not meant to mix, you know.
“I come in peace,” it said, adding after a long moment of further grinding, “take me to your Lizard.”
”It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see”
“You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I though you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates to the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
“What?”
“I said,” said Ford, with an increasing air of urgency creeping into his voice, “have you got any gin?”
“I’ll look. Tell me about the lizards.”
Ford shrugged again.
“Some people say that the lizards are the best thing that ever happened to them,” he said. “They’re completely wrong of course, completely and utterly wrong, but someone’s got to say it.”
Ganked from: http://www.craigsirk.com/Craigsirk/archives/2005/07/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy.html
It helps if you upgrade your equipment, rather than look for the world's greatest ROI on 10 Mb hubs...
Hmm. Actual knowledge versus functionalism. Pity humans beings do not live love enough to completely master the former.
But do not worry, all of their problems will be solved with a move to the cloud. Yes, with the cloud, the websites will upgrade themselves, so they will continue to save money. The magical cloud which becomes whatever your local sales team tell you it is.
On a more serious note, I'd love to know who these people are that have nuked their own maintenance / internal upgrade paths. The costs for writing new stuff (inevitable?) might be rather..punitive, compared to just paying the bill.
Still, 135K€ for cleaning a bunch of PCs...what did they do, piss off the resident BOFH? Did someone make a lewd comment to IT about their jobs being outsourced to the 'cloud' that week? 'Tis the kind of prices you pay after you insinuate that someone's parents were blood relations...to their face...and then proceed to draw them a diagram outlining family relationships to ensure that there's no chance of a misunderstanding.
I know...I swear to God, it's like watching Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein argue about how best to implement and protect a democracy; and the sad part is, they're doing it in earnest, they're really trying, but they just can't fight some of those inner tendencies of theirs that cause things to kind of drift off course...
The more I watch these courts bend over for the J. Edgars, the more I contemplate being cremated and having my ashes stuck in a rocket, because I simply refuse to be buried on a planet with this kind of nonsense ongoing.
Because the kid's parents have never told them about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or...
And yet, sadly, there are some people who cannot get into the HHGTTG...they read the first few chapters, completely skipping over the humor, and think it awfully dull. I have known two such individuals, and I don't think even therapy can save them now...
More likely the employee offered it up as a way to get the ball rolling, hoping to play hero and score some points with the company brass at the same time.
Unfortunately, the company decided to screw him, since it gets them out of a bad deal (what's personal bankruptcy?), and the courts get another headache to sort out.
I used to wonder why humanity needed the courts...now I wonder how a judge can walk around without facepalming all day.
A knee-jerk response from the people who have been readily expanding their surveillance / power base since 9/11...so, business as usual.
The fact of the matter is that no amount of additional surveillance is going to prevent 'terrorism'...nor would it have helped with the Boston Bombings...not without turning the US into a country that no one would want to live in, and people would be desperate to leave. There are hundreds / thousands / millions of people milling around cities every day with suspicious looking packages / bags, and no magical apparatus will tell you that there is a dangerous device within (don't ask).
Well, of course there's a shortage of cheap STEM graduates! Your local business school is putting out 10x what your STEM schools are putting out, and as you know, the business people are 'idea' people who deal with abstractions....there simply aren't enough local programmers for every business grad with a me-too Facebook idea...so they'll get some from abroad! As a business major once told me, he can hire some Indian to write a program for him for lunch money, so why does he need me? Better keep my head down, and accept my lot in life.
So what if they've been caught lying through their teeth, and have possibly been single handedly responsible for killing the tech sector at home...they made some great short term gains that will no doubt keep them afloat in some foreign country while the rest of us suffer.
Indeed. Grandparent suffers from a common misunderstanding, that is, if it's a conspiracy, it cannot be happening.
I can see that he's this generation's Marie Antoinette. "Derp, derp, no pr0n from wifi hotspot, do it because I'm a political bigwig!" "My lord, it's impossible to censor anything without whitelisting..." "Just do it, DERP!" 10 weeks later. "OMG, I can't get anywhere on these hotpots, WTF did you guys do?" "Only what you asked us to." "I didn't ask you to do this! Fix it!" "I shall have the elves get to work on it right away sire, but it may require one of the Crown Jewels..." "Umm...what?" "Nothing" 10 weeks later. "OMG, people can get to pr0n sites!" "Umm, h@x0ors?" "Ah."
Well...it appears time to thin the herds again...those who understand and respect electricity will survive, those who do not will not.
I expect heavy losses among the 'All you need is swagger' generation.
Hmm. Depends. The global economy is a bit too unstable to make much progress for now, and people are still getting used to the 64-bit changeover.
We have multiple cores, but the software kits haven't evolved enough yet to take full advantage of them, or so I'm told.
Personally, I think the next big leap should be optical processing.
Most programs don't need a GUI...but they tend to function better with one. Most computers don't need a SSD...but they tend to run faster with one, and users tend to agree that you can have your SSD back when you pry it from their cold dead fingers.
You don't have to fly First Class, you're getting there at the same time as the people in Business or Economy class...but it's a lot nicer.
Thank you. The people spouting nonsense about 32-bit programming, and how they can't understand why 64-bit computing would be faster (in the x86 world) drive me loony...it's like they missed an entire year's worth of classes where we went over, in detail, the various changes, and why it's faster...and they have the gall to ask for your notebook the night before the final. I mean, it's impressive, that kind of blindness, but they're aren't getting the notebook without a pimp slap to go with it (extra baby powder).
It's kind of like watching the functional programming people slowly reinvent OOP...makes me scream inside. "Dude, we've figured out a new way to organize our methods / fields so that it's easier to keep them straight in our heads..." "Please God, let it not be OOP." "*talks for a bit*" "Damn it."
He's never written anything that's tested the limits of computing...
Meanwhile, I need only load up my badly coded evolutionary program to see my machine scream at the ~12 GB hit to the RAM. I say badly coded because I have found a few tricks to help get some additional memory savings out of it...also on topic, the aggression level was kind of low, so I imagine future tests might break the 32 GB barrier easily. Currently thinking of giving it a SSD for virtual memory...
32 GB Ram High-Five! Seriously, anytime Asus is feeling poor, they can release a Crosshair motherboard that takes 64 GB or perhaps 128 GB of RAM.
I am not through upgrading until I can virtualize the speed and location of every particle in the universe. Then I'm going to see what exactly this Time dimension actually looks like from a different angle. Maybe. I have a few other ideas, but I probably won't be allowed near a computer this powerful if I announce them all at once. =^_^=
Yes, but what doesn't make sense it this -> it's a bleeding business expense! You get tax credit / write-offs / whatever the latest scheme is for it, because it's necessary to your vocation! Even if the doctor was doing less than $10K of business per year, they'd probably be getting money back!
And the real problem is this -> that upgrade is probably being written by a handful of guys in a small office with a stack of forms that detail all the changes they need to make, and it's probably not a few of them. What I'm saying is, the program might be a bit of a dog...because it's a grueling experience. Possibly.
This. I am willing to hear out any doctor who can prove that they cannot afford the $10K upgrade by faxing me proof that they have not bought a new car in the last three years. It's a piece of office equipment, it requires upkeep...ask us how we feel about our annual licensing costs / training materials which can easily trump $10K. And that's on a salary nowhere near what doctors are earning today, and what sadly is often-times not even expensed properly (so no tax credit).
This is technology...a new OS comes out every 3 years, you need to make the boat every 6 years on average (Vista non-withstanding). Now, this doesn't mean paying out $10K every few years...to be honest, that's a complicated scenario: you're paying for a handful of programmers to work on a single task for which there is a very small market...on the other hand, a lot of the medical software I've seen is painful to look at, so I imagine the code is much worse. So, if I wanted to avoid the tax in the future, I'd inquire about future-proofing the software, or hiring a programmer that actually knows what that means. The thing the doctor in the post is probably really getting hit with is the driver change between Windows XP and Vista / 7...it's a different design, with no way to plan for it. However, that's assuming that the programmer was half-decent...they could have also used platform-specific features or even ASM that doesn't like later editions.
But the real test is this -> bring in a laptop, install the software on it, and see if it will actually run! If it does, you're probably in the clear, if it doesn't, try to negotiate.