AC noted: "Actually, I think teachers stopped teaching anything interesting when NCLB was enacted. I've seen it with my kids' teachers. If it's not on the test, they won't waste their time with it."
Very true. Ironically enough, simple common sense (and not much policy interpretation) brought me to understand that Americans have been sold a bill of goods in the NCLB.
I, too, use Win 98se on my IBM Stinkpad. After a long day of beating on servers and network equipment, the LAST thing I want to do when I get home is to wrench on my laptop.
I think this is a very different attitude than one I used to possess ten years ago, when I was relatively new to doing IT in a corporate environment. Back then, every new hardware and software release was like Christmas (or Hannukah, Kwanzaa, et al.). Now, it's just BLAH.
Don't get me wrong--I love technology. I'm just less apt to implement it for my own personal use just because it's shiny and new. I'll replace it when it stops working.
Anymore, I'd rather spend my time travelling, reading or listening to music. Either I've become burned out on IT or I've acquired a life (or both).
I see where you're coming from. I would note, however, that the Creative Commons license I've used specifically notes that I can grant permission to waive some of the aspects of this license.
Interestingly enough, I applied this license to something I wrote about Burning Man, which works hard to maintain a non-commercial atmosphere. I'm definately not opposed to this piece being redistributed commercially: I'm just opposed to this piece being redistributed at a cost that _I believe_ is not nominal.
I disagree. I've written several prose pieces where I have used Creative Commons to limit how it's used. As the creator and copyright holder of the piece, I believe I have the right to say how it's used.
In my case, I permitted free distribution of the piece, restricted anyone from selling a reprint of it without my permission, and did not want anyone to build upon to work to preserve it's artistic integrity. I'm not entirely sure what's wrong there.
I don't know what your definition of summary is, but as far as most readers are concerned, Roland doesn't summarize. Anyone with decent writing skills will tell you that developing an abstract or summary is far more than pasting in the first or last paragraph of an article. Roland adds very little value to the articles he is citing.
I think the main gripe is that Roland's links do not go to primary source material. How many Slashdot articles have you read that takes you first to a journal like Roland's? They generally take you directly to the source.
It's time for Slashdot's editors to raise the bar on story quality. I know too many engineers who've stopped reading Slashdot because the quality of the articles and reviewers has been declining.
EVEN IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THE JOB, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LEAVE YOUR TEAM ALONE.
The worst thing is the engineer-turned-manager who constantly has to have his hands in everyone and the dog's work because he thinks he is still hot and knows better than those kids how to do stuff. Even if this is the case: If you find out your team is staffed with total idiots rather fire them and get better ones than try to do their work for them. Just won't work out.
Amen to that. I've been both an engineer and a lead engineer ("lead" because I didn't have an MBA, but did the management anyways). There's no worse feeling than a competent engineer perceiving that you don't trust them.
Other rules which served me well: 1) It was MY job (NOT my engineers') to ensure that our team's objectives were clear. It's your job to push back on management if there is going to be a problem with project scope, resources or time. It was, however, my job to involve my engineers' input prior to a final decision being made.
2) Hold your engineers to high standards in work, quality and ethics.
3) At the same time, respect your engineers' need and rights to having a life out of work. I had a standing rule that if there was a problem involving close friends, family or self, and time off was needed, they needed to take it. A job is something that we have for a few years, maybe more. Family, friends and well-being are things we need for a lifetime. I've never had an engineer abuse this.
4) If your engineers are working overtime (especially if they're salaried), you'd better be there damn near all of the time.
Other must reads: * The HP Way, by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. You may have heard of Bill and Dave.
* The Five Temptations of a CEO. Very short, insightful read.
* The Lucifer Princple - Howard Bloom. A must read for anyone who works in "leadership."
* Project Management for Dummies. Yes, it's a dummies book, but I've yet to find a book that covers risk management and proper planning (an area that I've seen countless managers fail in) in a manner that isn't complete TLA gibberish.
The first two are, perhaps, more about the attitude one should have about being a manager, in an idealistic sense. The Lucifer Principle can help bring a little realism to understanding that not everyone in the company is going to be drinking the altruistic Kool-Aid.
It's amazing how many people complain that they don't have enough money to put back as savings but drive a $20,000 or up car and spend $50 - $80 a month on cable or satellite.
Here here! I was definately in this class at one point: while life was rather pleasant tooling around in my Mercedes and eating out constantly, I never saved money, and that became a tremendous source of stress later in life.
I get by just fine right now driving my ailing (but still working) $800 Volvo wagon and cooking at home. On that note, I get more dates now that I cook:-)
While I'm not terribly fond of unions, I'm going to have to disagree about your apparent disbelief in RSI.
I've been working as a systems engineer for about ten years. I don't play contact sports, but eat well, exercise moderately and am in good health. How exactly do you think I developed tendonitis? I'd say that 60-80 hours a week with poor ergonomics over the last few years certainly didn't help.
You know it's bad when your neurologist says that it may be time to find a new job, and the pain in your wrists and forearms may be permanent.
With all due respect, I have to comment that your issue with paying $1200 for a new EPIRB should be tempered with consideration of the tremendous resources required for Search and Rescue (SAR). An average search for a person, much less a plane, will easily exceed $1200. Forgetting volunteer time (which for simple searches could be worth anywhere from $100 to $2000+ per hour for the search team), the (taxpayer) paid staff alone will exceed $1200 a day.
I've been a volunteer EMT for five years, as well as an Aircraft and Ground SAR volunteer with various groups (CAP, local sheriff, Red Cross, etc.). The amount of resources required to find someone are both expensive and complicated. The only reason why it's vaguely affordable is because of the large number of volunteers that work with paid staff (sheriff, the folks who monitor SARSAT, FEMA, etc.).
Quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing stories about accidental ELT operation, and the tons of hours spent finding and mitigating the problem--at least an EPIRB transmitting GPS data will be easier to find and turn off. This isn't to say that I won't be more than willing to look for a person or aircraft in a serious and professional manner, even if I suspect it's an accidental ELT/EPIRB trip, but geez, man....
Da_Biz Writes: "Exciting new articles from Roland Piquepaille enrich the lives of Slashdot readership. It's been known for a long time that his postings are notable for links to a website that provide summaries that a four year old could have written, as well as an opportunity to drive traffic to advertisers on his page. How does he do it? Where does he get the balls to quote large quantities of an article, while providing little to no opposing or insightful opinions? What is the history behind his methods? Read on for more details!"
... because a high volume of encrypted traffic would never attract the attention of the authorities...
What about using steganography to create an VPN tunnel? Perhaps this already has been done...
For example: 1) An application makes an HTTP connection to www.DearLeader.com., and downloads pictures of Kim Il Sung--likely not content the censors would be very concerned about.
2) Server and client side applications encrypt/decrypt data into the pictures.
3) Visit a different website a few minutes later.
Sure--you'd probably end up with a 56k virtual connection while using broadband, but your motives are safer...
First off, I'd remind everyone who is in IT that your company has a right to drop @stake as a security consultant.
Secondly, I would point out that I disagree with Zeinfeld on the value of Geer's (et al.) paper. Believe it or not, but most people, especially corporate management wonks, do NOT read Slashdot. They read white papers.
And by the way, exactly what would be wrong with Geer grinding an axe? Before I am accused of being a Linux bigot by anyone--please note that the vast majority of my career involves Windows infrastructure. While I do not think Windows or MS is all evil, I'd stand firmly behind the statement that they have a long ways to go, in terms of software quality and competitive practices.
What @stake did is very likely not illegal, but very likely unethical.
1) First, this seems to conflict with principles of a free market. Without a doubt, Microsoft clearly has engaged in anti-competitive practices. But, aren't open source solutions at the point where it really is a viable option, if organizations take the time to implement it carefully?
2) Second, wouldn't an organization like Microsoft merely jack up negotiated costs on software to accommodate for the "loss" of a percentage of sales for monies moved to fund open source development?
Very interesting stuff. I have to admit, back in the streaming media team, we used to say that the BOS acronym would be more correctly spelled without the O. Then again, teamwork was never Enron's forte, so I can believe I missed seeing something.
There were some serious kooks running around there: Diane Hetzel, that director of networks (both from Level 3, rather suspicious), Peter Ghavami, just to name a few. Good god man, I try to forget about it as much as possible.
Fastow gets $30 million, I get chronic tendonitis from working at the Portland NOC for long hours. What a great deal I got!
I'd be curious to see, specifically, what the "functionality" the case is talking about. I was the lead QA engineer for a time on the Broadband Streaming Media platform.
The organization had a LOT of sharp engineers. Unfortunately, the management was completely incompetent and didn't allow many of the better engineers to have a say in functional requirements/technical specifications.
There was also a disturbingly bad attitude that pervaded the works at EBS as well. Case in point: during one meeting, I made the point that the service level metrics they were using were horribly vague. I didn't believe we should do business like that (goodwill is, I think, an important concept in business), but their response was "oh, if they'res a problem, we'll just sick our lawyers on them." Assholes.
From my anecdotal observations of friends with kids, I'd note that someone needs to try to stay home. The service levels at day cares are pretty decent, but nothing beats having a mom or dad there.
I've had friends of mine come from families that did just fine on something akin to an entry level sysadmin job. Sure, they didn't have three SUVs and a big house in suburbia, but I'd say that they got a much better quality of life than the kids who got shipped off to day care.
Quite frankly, I used to make a sizeable amount of money and tool around in a Mercedes. These days, I make less, drive a Chevy beater, live a simpler life, but am happier. I'm discovering that I don't really need all the expensive toys to feel good about myself or be happy. Friends, warm clothes, good food and an occasional bottle of nice wine suffice me fine. Reading Slashdot certainly doesn't hurt:-)
5. The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries. There is a persistent myth that hundreds or even thousands of years ago, long before anyone knew that blood circulates throughout the body, or that germs cause disease, our ancestors possessed miraculous remedies that modern science cannot understand. Much of what is termed "alternative medicine" is part of that myth. Ancient folk wisdom, rediscovered or repackaged, is unlikely to match the output of modern scientific laboratories.
First, I'd note that I am certainly supportive of many elements in Western medicine. The statement about "modern scientific laboratories" is, however, incredibly smug.
Mind you, modern medicine has managed to produce pharmaceuticals which have managed to cause serious harm to people (weight loss drugs that caused cardiac damage, thalidomide, etc.). While I don't disagree that modern medicine has certainly done some great things, people who write off traditional medicine are guilty of the same crime as Flat Earthers.
Second, as someone who is going into the healthcare profession (starting as an EMT again, then transitioning into a PA program, then perhaps acupuncture), I'd note that there is a significant amount of research, study and use of traditional modalities in a Western medical setting. My father, a chiropractor and acupuncturist, studied at the UCLA Medical School Center for East/West medicine, and felt that it was an incredible experience. He has taken many referrals from Western doctors to assist with pain management, using a modality many consider "quackery"--never mind the strong anecdotal AND scientific evidence.
The Chinese herbal medicine doctor I go to reads Western medical research extensively, has contacts with doctors at Oregon Health Sciences University (ranked as a top US medical school), and is well versed in Western and Eastern treatment systems. He was able to successfully treat my friend's Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, after many Western doctors turned him away.
Granted, we should be judicious people. Just because we don't exactly understand how something works doesn't mean we should discount it.
I'm studying to get my NREMT-Basic certification back in Oregon, and my instructor (a 25 year veteran Paramedic) was really impressed by this stuff.
http://www.traumadex.com
This is a link to their distributor--there is another website for the parent company which has other cool stuff in case the above link doesn't work. Free samples available from the above link!
Apparently, this is being considered for inclusion in the protocols for Paramedic (and EMT-B) folks in Oregon. Neat stuff.
I am still looking for the palm-sized AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillator) that the military is apparently deploying as well. For the cost of a gaming PC, you can buy something that can dramatically improve survival (every minute without defib for pt. in V-Fib or V-Tac decreases chances of survival by 10%, especially without CPR). This might be of more interest to those of us geeks who are, ahem, a bit on the thick side.
Slashdot Mirror
AC noted:
- behind-or-so-wed-like-to.html
"Actually, I think teachers stopped teaching anything interesting when NCLB was enacted. I've seen it with my kids' teachers. If it's not on the test, they won't waste their time with it."
Very true. Ironically enough, simple common sense (and not much policy interpretation) brought me to understand that Americans have been sold a bill of goods in the NCLB.
Link to essay:
http://petelee.blogspot.com/2005/02/no-child-left
(NOTE: Excepting the link to a booklist at Powell's, a local independent bookseller, I derive NO monetary compensation for this blog [cough, Roland].)
I, too, use Win 98se on my IBM Stinkpad. After a long day of beating on servers and network equipment, the LAST thing I want to do when I get home is to wrench on my laptop.
I think this is a very different attitude than one I used to possess ten years ago, when I was relatively new to doing IT in a corporate environment. Back then, every new hardware and software release was like Christmas (or Hannukah, Kwanzaa, et al.). Now, it's just BLAH.
Don't get me wrong--I love technology. I'm just less apt to implement it for my own personal use just because it's shiny and new. I'll replace it when it stops working.
Anymore, I'd rather spend my time travelling, reading or listening to music. Either I've become burned out on IT or I've acquired a life (or both).
I see where you're coming from. I would note, however, that the Creative Commons license I've used specifically notes that I can grant permission to waive some of the aspects of this license.
Interestingly enough, I applied this license to something I wrote about Burning Man, which works hard to maintain a non-commercial atmosphere. I'm definately not opposed to this piece being redistributed commercially: I'm just opposed to this piece being redistributed at a cost that _I believe_ is not nominal.
The Man Has No Hands
I disagree. I've written several prose pieces where I have used Creative Commons to limit how it's used. As the creator and copyright holder of the piece, I believe I have the right to say how it's used.
0
In my case, I permitted free distribution of the piece, restricted anyone from selling a reprint of it without my permission, and did not want anyone to build upon to work to preserve it's artistic integrity. I'm not entirely sure what's wrong there.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.
Actually, this could be a part of a homebrewed heads-up system you've always wanted in your car.
I don't know what your definition of summary is, but as far as most readers are concerned, Roland doesn't summarize. Anyone with decent writing skills will tell you that developing an abstract or summary is far more than pasting in the first or last paragraph of an article. Roland adds very little value to the articles he is citing.
I think the main gripe is that Roland's links do not go to primary source material. How many Slashdot articles have you read that takes you first to a journal like Roland's? They generally take you directly to the source.
It's time for Slashdot's editors to raise the bar on story quality. I know too many engineers who've stopped reading Slashdot because the quality of the articles and reviewers has been declining.
And I'm sorry, what does a person with a BA in Medievial history have to do with being the CEO of a tech company?
Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are college dropouts.
I can't believe they're letting dropouts run a company.
EVEN IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO THE JOB, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LEAVE YOUR TEAM ALONE.
The worst thing is the engineer-turned-manager who constantly has to have his hands in everyone and the dog's work because he thinks he is still hot and knows better than those kids how to do stuff. Even if this is the case: If you find out your team is staffed with total idiots rather fire them and get better ones than try to do their work for them. Just won't work out.
Amen to that. I've been both an engineer and a lead engineer ("lead" because I didn't have an MBA, but did the management anyways). There's no worse feeling than a competent engineer perceiving that you don't trust them.
Other rules which served me well:
1) It was MY job (NOT my engineers') to ensure that our team's objectives were clear. It's your job to push back on management if there is going to be a problem with project scope, resources or time. It was, however, my job to involve my engineers' input prior to a final decision being made.
2) Hold your engineers to high standards in work, quality and ethics.
3) At the same time, respect your engineers' need and rights to having a life out of work. I had a standing rule that if there was a problem involving close friends, family or self, and time off was needed, they needed to take it. A job is something that we have for a few years, maybe more. Family, friends and well-being are things we need for a lifetime. I've never had an engineer abuse this.
4) If your engineers are working overtime (especially if they're salaried), you'd better be there damn near all of the time.
Other must reads:
* The HP Way, by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. You may have heard of Bill and Dave.
* The Five Temptations of a CEO. Very short, insightful read.
* The Lucifer Princple - Howard Bloom. A must read for anyone who works in "leadership."
* Project Management for Dummies. Yes, it's a dummies book, but I've yet to find a book that covers risk management and proper planning (an area that I've seen countless managers fail in) in a manner that isn't complete TLA gibberish.
The first two are, perhaps, more about the attitude one should have about being a manager, in an idealistic sense. The Lucifer Principle can help bring a little realism to understanding that not everyone in the company is going to be drinking the altruistic Kool-Aid.
It's amazing how many people complain that they don't have enough money to put back as savings but drive a $20,000 or up car and spend $50 - $80 a month on cable or satellite.
Here here! I was definately in this class at one point: while life was rather pleasant tooling around in my Mercedes and eating out constantly, I never saved money, and that became a tremendous source of stress later in life.
I get by just fine right now driving my ailing (but still working) $800 Volvo wagon and cooking at home. On that note, I get more dates now that I cook
While I'm not terribly fond of unions, I'm going to have to disagree about your apparent disbelief in RSI.
I've been working as a systems engineer for about ten years. I don't play contact sports, but eat well, exercise moderately and am in good health. How exactly do you think I developed tendonitis? I'd say that 60-80 hours a week with poor ergonomics over the last few years certainly didn't help.
You know it's bad when your neurologist says that it may be time to find a new job, and the pain in your wrists and forearms may be permanent.
Amen amen--in Oregon, the homeless rate increased as mental health services decreased.
Or, at the very least, make the link to his blog in text and not clickable?
With all due respect, I have to comment that your issue with paying $1200 for a new EPIRB should be tempered with consideration of the tremendous resources required for Search and Rescue (SAR). An average search for a person, much less a plane, will easily exceed $1200. Forgetting volunteer time (which for simple searches could be worth anywhere from $100 to $2000+ per hour for the search team), the (taxpayer) paid staff alone will exceed $1200 a day.
I've been a volunteer EMT for five years, as well as an Aircraft and Ground SAR volunteer with various groups (CAP, local sheriff, Red Cross, etc.). The amount of resources required to find someone are both expensive and complicated. The only reason why it's vaguely affordable is because of the large number of volunteers that work with paid staff (sheriff, the folks who monitor SARSAT, FEMA, etc.).
Quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing stories about accidental ELT operation, and the tons of hours spent finding and mitigating the problem--at least an EPIRB transmitting GPS data will be easier to find and turn off. This isn't to say that I won't be more than willing to look for a person or aircraft in a serious and professional manner, even if I suspect it's an accidental ELT/EPIRB trip, but geez, man....
Da_Biz Writes: "Exciting new articles from Roland Piquepaille enrich the lives of Slashdot readership. It's been known for a long time that his postings are notable for links to a website that provide summaries that a four year old could have written, as well as an opportunity to drive traffic to advertisers on his page. How does he do it? Where does he get the balls to quote large quantities of an article, while providing little to no opposing or insightful opinions? What is the history behind his methods? Read on for more details!"
...I'll just wait for the astute "summary" from Roland Piquepaille (aka, F-ckyface). What a tool.
What about using steganography to create an VPN tunnel? Perhaps this already has been done...
For example:
1) An application makes an HTTP connection to www.DearLeader.com., and downloads pictures of Kim Il Sung--likely not content the censors would be very concerned about.
2) Server and client side applications encrypt/decrypt data into the pictures.
3) Visit a different website a few minutes later.
Sure--you'd probably end up with a 56k virtual connection while using broadband, but your motives are safer...
First off, I'd remind everyone who is in IT that your company has a right to drop @stake as a security consultant.
Secondly, I would point out that I disagree with Zeinfeld on the value of Geer's (et al.) paper. Believe it or not, but most people, especially corporate management wonks, do NOT read Slashdot. They read white papers.
And by the way, exactly what would be wrong with Geer grinding an axe? Before I am accused of being a Linux bigot by anyone--please note that the vast majority of my career involves Windows infrastructure. While I do not think Windows or MS is all evil, I'd stand firmly behind the statement that they have a long ways to go, in terms of software quality and competitive practices.
What @stake did is very likely not illegal, but very likely unethical.
I'm concerned about this idea on two fronts:
1) First, this seems to conflict with principles of a free market. Without a doubt, Microsoft clearly has engaged in anti-competitive practices. But, aren't open source solutions at the point where it really is a viable option, if organizations take the time to implement it carefully?
2) Second, wouldn't an organization like Microsoft merely jack up negotiated costs on software to accommodate for the "loss" of a percentage of sales for monies moved to fund open source development?
Hmm.
Very interesting stuff. I have to admit, back in the streaming media team, we used to say that the BOS acronym would be more correctly spelled without the O. Then again, teamwork was never Enron's forte, so I can believe I missed seeing something.
There were some serious kooks running around there: Diane Hetzel, that director of networks (both from Level 3, rather suspicious), Peter Ghavami, just to name a few. Good god man, I try to forget about it as much as possible.
Fastow gets $30 million, I get chronic tendonitis from working at the Portland NOC for long hours. What a great deal I got!
I'd be curious to see, specifically, what the "functionality" the case is talking about. I was the lead QA engineer for a time on the Broadband Streaming Media platform.
The organization had a LOT of sharp engineers. Unfortunately, the management was completely incompetent and didn't allow many of the better engineers to have a say in functional requirements/technical specifications.
There was also a disturbingly bad attitude that pervaded the works at EBS as well. Case in point: during one meeting, I made the point that the service level metrics they were using were horribly vague. I didn't believe we should do business like that (goodwill is, I think, an important concept in business), but their response was "oh, if they'res a problem, we'll just sick our lawyers on them." Assholes.
From my anecdotal observations of friends with kids, I'd note that someone needs to try to stay home. The service levels at day cares are pretty decent, but nothing beats having a mom or dad there.
:-)
I've had friends of mine come from families that did just fine on something akin to an entry level sysadmin job. Sure, they didn't have three SUVs and a big house in suburbia, but I'd say that they got a much better quality of life than the kids who got shipped off to day care.
Quite frankly, I used to make a sizeable amount of money and tool around in a Mercedes. These days, I make less, drive a Chevy beater, live a simpler life, but am happier. I'm discovering that I don't really need all the expensive toys to feel good about myself or be happy. Friends, warm clothes, good food and an occasional bottle of nice wine suffice me fine. Reading Slashdot certainly doesn't hurt
Of course, I want one, and I want to mod it.
That's great, I can see it now under the FRESHBRAIN category:
Now, on SourceForge: version 3.7.233 build 19 of Brainzilla.
Bugs corrected in this release:
* Problems causing frequent "kernel panic"--no need for Xanax patches
Major enhancements:
* Better memory for girl's names at bars
This statement concerns me:
5. The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries. There is a persistent myth that hundreds or even thousands of years ago, long before anyone knew that blood circulates throughout the body, or that germs cause disease, our ancestors possessed miraculous remedies that modern science cannot understand. Much of what is termed "alternative medicine" is part of that myth.
Ancient folk wisdom, rediscovered or repackaged, is unlikely to match the output of modern scientific laboratories.
First, I'd note that I am certainly supportive of many elements in Western medicine. The statement about "modern scientific laboratories" is, however, incredibly smug.
Mind you, modern medicine has managed to produce pharmaceuticals which have managed to cause serious harm to people (weight loss drugs that caused cardiac damage, thalidomide, etc.). While I don't disagree that modern medicine has certainly done some great things, people who write off traditional medicine are guilty of the same crime as Flat Earthers.
Second, as someone who is going into the healthcare profession (starting as an EMT again, then transitioning into a PA program, then perhaps acupuncture), I'd note that there is a significant amount of research, study and use of traditional modalities in a Western medical setting. My father, a chiropractor and acupuncturist, studied at the UCLA Medical School Center for East/West medicine, and felt that it was an incredible experience. He has taken many referrals from Western doctors to assist with pain management, using a modality many consider "quackery"--never mind the strong anecdotal AND scientific evidence.
The Chinese herbal medicine doctor I go to reads Western medical research extensively, has contacts with doctors at Oregon Health Sciences University (ranked as a top US medical school), and is well versed in Western and Eastern treatment systems. He was able to successfully treat my friend's Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, after many Western doctors turned him away.
Granted, we should be judicious people. Just because we don't exactly understand how something works doesn't mean we should discount it.
I'm studying to get my NREMT-Basic certification back in Oregon, and my instructor (a 25 year veteran Paramedic) was really impressed by this stuff.
http://www.traumadex.com
This is a link to their distributor--there is another website for the parent company which has other cool stuff in case the above link doesn't work. Free samples available from the above link!
Apparently, this is being considered for inclusion in the protocols for Paramedic (and EMT-B) folks in Oregon. Neat stuff.
I am still looking for the palm-sized AEDs (Automatic External Defibrillator) that the military is apparently deploying as well. For the cost of a gaming PC, you can buy something that can dramatically improve survival (every minute without defib for pt. in V-Fib or V-Tac decreases chances of survival by 10%, especially without CPR). This might be of more interest to those of us geeks who are, ahem, a bit on the thick side.