Ours are working much better now that they hang off of the network instead of a WinNT4.0 machine. They really shouldn't, and I'm sure that it's the fault of the HP driver (having had far less trouble with Windows than the average/.er it seems).
But I think I made the right choice. The guy who does our copiers also works on the fax machines and laser printers. Took a look at the HP's and said "I'd sell you a service contract on them, but I'd be ripping you off. You'll be money ahead to just ask me to replace a few bits in five or six years." That was three years ago. He's worked on the fax and copiers several times. Hasn't done anything with the HP's except to ask if we would buy our next ones through him.
Sent an email to the address listed at the bottom of the webpage in your user info. If that's wrong, shoot me an email at the above address (or any of the three or four others you may find. They all are welcomed by the same procmail and spamassassin combo)
Hang a cheap assed Linux box between the three printers and the rest of the network. Use a generic PS driver on the Windows boxes.
We use 4000's, 4050's, and 4100's at work (depending on when we needed printers). We don't print anywhere near what you are printing, making the printers overkill. But that's a good thing: if it's overkill, they're less likely to die. I also must say that I love being able to install almost any Linux printing system on the handful of Linux boxes, and the things JUST work.
I've never timed it, but the printing seems to be close to spec, even when not printing duplicates of the same page. The printer is about 50 feet from my desk. I hit print, and most jobs of 10 pages or less are done before I make it to the printer.
Okay, so HP gave 'us' lots of different printer stuff. But they fired Bruce (I thought he quit, but, whatever...) So does that mean we buy HP printers because they don't suck and because they gave back to the community, or do we boycott them in a show of solidarity?
Can't speak for anyone else, but they make a good product, so I'll still be buying the printers. And registering with a note indicating my OS is "Linux and I'm pissed at what you did to/with Perens".
But I'll buy drill and fill toner, so that should even things out.
Are you still a karma whore, even if the topic of discussion is your own firing/resignation?
Does your karma say: Not even CT can code perl fast enough to deny me a +1 bonus to postings?
In all seriousness, why not a run for public office? Well, besides the fact that you probably wouldn't win (let's face it, you don't look like what the average slob thinks of when they think 'congressman'), you'd be left destitute, and you wouldn't have much time for your son? Okay, a paid position with a PAC? Any offers?
(Note: the questions, while somewhat serious, are an attempt to prevent my karma from being burned for making light of your obvious popularity on slashdot. You may not be a karma whore, but I clearly am.)
michael, learning to write/edit headlines/blurbs that are more appropriate for Weekly World News?
Ever heard of GURPS? White Dwarf? Hell, I go to the local comic book shop, look at their collection of RPG stuff, and see shelf after shelf after shelf of stuff I've never heard of. And the owner claims she sells at least a little bit of it. So someone is playing it.
The only RPG I've ever played is D&D. But such is not the case for many gamers. D&D is a subset of RPG's, not the other way around.
Newsflash: slashdot fires michael! Will slashdot cease to exist? Is this the end of crappy headline sites?
And now, for a small question from me... What is the point of a science fiction channel without science fiction?
Maybe John Edwards knows?
Re:That obviously means it's not interesting :-)
on
Libranet 2.7 Released
·
· Score: 1
* You should try to look at the web page for FooBar1244. If it's Not Slashdotted, this means that the product isn't interesting enough for very many people to care about, so unless you're one of the few people for whom this would actually be useful that didn't already know about it, you've wasted your time by reading the web page.
Funny. They never explain what IIS, Win2k, Win98, Word, Outlook, etc. are in stories. And that site is NEVER slashdotted.
Re:Installation not so hard -- and not so importan
on
Libranet 2.7 Released
·
· Score: 1
Couple of guys at the white box shop wanted to install Linux on their machines. Asked me what was what. I said "Debian is good, but it'll take a little more to set up. RedHat is..." "No, no, RedHat is lame!"
Anyway, they went with Debian. Luckily, they have a fast 'net connection, so I could go and fix some things they probably missed (adding security.debian.org to apt.cache, etc.)
I'm glad things are working out for them, but it took me a fair bit of work. But I figured that the more people in the area who know Linux, the better... Now, I just hope they learned enough not to screw other people's Linux machines up and give Linux a bad name.
Ordering a laptop. They'll be moving Win2k into a small partition. I'll be installing Gentoo with every possible P4 optimization set. We're all looking forward to that one.
We dropped our automatic phone attendant years ago. Those who are viewing this post with a colored dot next to my name know that I work for a doctor's office.
Ignoring all of the claptrap, we have three problems. First, old people. Second, dumb people. Third, poor people.
The first two have great difficulty in getting in touch via the menus. The last category still has rotary phones (I'm not sure if my grandfather who died in '93 ever had a touch tone phone. Just not available in that part of the county.) And these are the people who NEED to get through. The old person wants to know what the shooting pain in their left arm is, the dumb people want to know if it's bad that the festering wound from stepping on a nail three weeks ago is bad, and the poor people are usually only calling because that festering wound is causing their foot to fall off.
Then there is the other side of the coin: young, smart, rich. They WANT service. They don't want to deal with voice answering system hell. Basically, in my industry, nobody likes it.
So we ditched it. At the time, everyone was happy.
Problem is, like others have mentioned, human beings are expensive and error-prone in their own ways. Even with 15 phone lines (in a four doctor office) we still have times when all lines are 'lit' for hours. People complain about this. But when we mention the alternative (computer answerer) they quickly say that the wait wasn't too bad. (BTW, it's set up so that if no incoming lines are available, the pt. is told to call answering service. The answering service gets through 90% of the time. Other 10%, and they go straight to cell phone)
So my only question is: why did it take so freaking long for others to figure it out? Remember those 15 voice lines? Double that. That's how many lines we have in the various locations. I dropped our ILEC for a CLEC because I got tired of waiting on the stupid computer (that and getting 30 bills per month instead of one).
Business school story: Guy from a corporation in Baltimore came to speak to the class (marketing?) and said that these computer answering devices were the worst thing ever invented (this was '96-'97, BTW). He used to love 'em. But one day, he was at lunch with a colleague/customer. Customer complained about how long it took to get through the menu. Speaker said "What are you talking about? I just dial the direct number and..." Customer interupted "Here's my cell phone. Call the main number and try to get to your secretary". After ten minutes, the speaker finally got through. Instead of checking on messages, he told secretary "get some people together to ditch the phone system. The meeting will be in 30 minutes, as soon as I get back from lunch."
That's nice and all, but I'd be happy if they made a game that didn't suck ass. I know lots of people loved B&W, but I found the game unplayable. I have a kid, a dog, and a cat. One throws random stuff, one eats various turds, and one (or more) is virtually untrainable, with or without a leash.
Why did I pay $50 for more of the same?
Here's another hint: SimCity and the Sims can get along just fine without having goals. It's simple to set your own goals in these games. In a game with so many goals as Black and White, don't pretend that they don't exist or that you have an open-ended game.
I remember the original articles about the creature in B&W. Wasn't supposed to be the whole game. They spent so damned much time futzing with them that there was nothing else left. If the same thing happens here, we'll see add-on packs like "Take your people to Middlebury to learn ANOTHER language." Internet play will consist of seeing whose player can develop Esperanto first.
Call me cynical, but this game better be more than the one trick pony that was B&W.
There's an interesting couple of things that arise out of your comments (which I was aware of, but chose to ignore, when I wrote the original comment that you replied to. Shame on me for doing that. Kudos to you for mentioning that.)
Where are the studios in the lawsuit and the proposed suit by the DGA? It looks like those mentioned (Scorcese, Spielberg) do have 'final cut'. And I'm pretty sure Spielberg retains ownership and is both technically and legally the films 'creator'.
So my question is: on average, does the DGA have any dog in this fight? Sounds like this should be the studios' battle, not that of the directors.
I read that Hopper's first cut of Easy Rider was around 6 hours long. And that Lucas was lucky that he stumbled upon some good script editors prior to American Graffitti (and had the sense to hire a director for Empire and Jedi). I'm sure you've heard much more than that. Could make a good book.
But you're wrong about the Camaro. It didn't have popup headlights. The RS model (?? Can't keep the RS, SS, and RS/SS straight) had grills in front of the headlights. Same on the '67-'71 Cougars. The grills rotated 90 degrees, up over the top of the headlight, still concealed by the rest of the car's nose. Look here for the Camaro and here for the cougar.
Sorry I couldn't find any pictures with the grills up.
FWIW, it's usually trivial to fix problems with headlight doors. In vacuum systems, it's an old, rotting vacuum line. In mechanical systems, you've got a shot bushing or bent linkage. Sometimes the motors crap out, but it's more likely to be one of the causes I listed, or a bad relay, fuse, etc.
In any event, I'm not buying a $5500 fixer upper like this. If it were based on a Ford Fox body, maybe. But an Escort? Nope. Not having it. (BTW, I assume that the seller is using an American Escort, not a European Escort. The two are quite different.)
This thing... Needs some work. The dimensions appear a bit off. Nose too long, pods not quite the right size. Others have mentioned the obviously Ford dash. A trip to Dakota Digital could have quickly solved that. And a Grant steering wheel would have been nice. After spending this much money, they could have at least grabbed the seats out of an Escort GT.
And what's with the nose? There is no reason to have those huge cutouts for the headlights. Either put them behind the grill, or let the grill roll up when needed ('69 Camaro among others). Please tell me it has this feature, and they were just rolled up for the pictures.
Finding a competent glass shop isn't always easy. If you can find a Corvette specialty shop, you might be okay. Otherwise, you are stuck with boat shops. And most of them are more worried about the structural repair than the appearance.
It's not as simple as that, even. This is a 'kit car' (regardless of what he says, regardless of it being a one off, this is a kit car). The rules and regulations vary by state. And the odds of finding the rules in your state are... varied.
Some states require only the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), working lights and turn signals, etc. Other states require emissions testing and other things. But if you can fill out the right papers, there's not much you can't drive. I believe the thinking is "if you're stupid enough to drive it, you're stupid enough to die in it".
Ignore the legalities, and listen to some of the rhetoric. The DGA is full of shit. Totally. "These films are for a certain audience" "We can't tolerate random cuts and edits"
Bullshit. Look at any movie that makes it to broadcast tv (and channels such as TBS, TNT, TNN on cable) and you will see movies shown and marketed to a different audience. Look at movies shown on planes, and you will see random cuts and edits.
The directors don't care as long as they get their money.
This has nothing to do with artistic freedom. The DGA has shown that the artistic integrity of the members can be bought and sold.
I'd like to see the product being rented by the plaintiffs. Is it marketed as an original, or is it clearly marked? If the latter, how is it any worse than what is done by broadcast and cable stations 1000x per day? Oh, yeah, they probably didn't write a big fat check to the studios.
There are solutions. In some cases, the studios do the editing. They should make these tapes available to rental shops looking to cater to... whatever invented market they cater to. There could be a flat, low cost, fee to allow the shops to do their own editing, provided it is very obvious to someone renting a movie.
But here's the very best idea. DVD. The studios spend some time making sure that it's near impossible to skip the FBI warning, the Interpol notice, and the ads for the next 12 Disney films to come out. So why not program a 'safe for kids' title? Same disc, you just hit the 'for kids' option, and it automatically skips and/or edits the title on the fly.
There is obviously a market for this. First, there are the plaintiffs in this case. Second are the airlines, cable networks, broadcast networks, etc. Clearly, some people disagree with the 'artistic vision' of the studios.
This is another case of technology being available, and large (powerful), entrenched organizations being afraid of it. Anyone with an ounce of sense would see this, not as something to be afraid of, but something to embrace, a new market to tap.
Artistic vision be damned. It's all about the Benjamins.
Having never worked for a large company, I wouldn't know. But from talking to friends (on both the management and employee side) who do work for big corps, I would tend to agree with you. I really don't mind when folks slag large companies. But slagging small companies is a little too close to home (plus, the day I wrote the original thing, someone just decided not to show up to work one day. Never asked for a raise, never asked for different position, nothing. She just didn't feel like working). OTOH, I know of more than a few small companies that excel at treating their employees like shit.
What it boils down to is that I work for/run the exception to the rule, and it really chaps my ass when others screw it up for me.
Let me suggest you never take a job in the medical field.
Lots of folks clamor about how their medical privacy needs to be protected. Guess what? Monitoring email and phone calls is a price paid.
Unlike in the real world, privacy breaches in medicine carry big time penalties: $10000 per incident.
Someone replied to you something along the lines of "legality does not mean morality". That's right. In your freshman philosophy class, that is true. I work in the real world. What that means is defining our highest moral draw. That is providing healthcare. Since 1973 (the day the practice started) we have accepted Medicare and Medicaid patients. No other primary care practice can say the same thing.
But back to the point: the most ethical thing we can do is provide quality medical care. The risk of egregious fines would seriously impact our ability to serve the public. Therefore, there is a large system of checks on our systems. Including the blocking of all internet access. (BTW, this is changing, but there is still a default DENY policy. Opening up access to various and sundry sites is trivial)
Slashdot Mirror
They laughed at my Mac,it had no CLI. They laughed at Linux,it had no GUI. I installed MacOS X, and shut them up.
Hmm... That looks a little bit familiar...
Ours are working much better now that they hang off of the network instead of a WinNT4.0 machine. They really shouldn't, and I'm sure that it's the fault of the HP driver (having had far less trouble with Windows than the average /.er it seems).
But I think I made the right choice. The guy who does our copiers also works on the fax machines and laser printers. Took a look at the HP's and said "I'd sell you a service contract on them, but I'd be ripping you off. You'll be money ahead to just ask me to replace a few bits in five or six years." That was three years ago. He's worked on the fax and copiers several times. Hasn't done anything with the HP's except to ask if we would buy our next ones through him.
Sent an email to the address listed at the bottom of the webpage in your user info. If that's wrong, shoot me an email at the above address (or any of the three or four others you may find. They all are welcomed by the same procmail and spamassassin combo)
Hang a cheap assed Linux box between the three printers and the rest of the network. Use a generic PS driver on the Windows boxes.
We use 4000's, 4050's, and 4100's at work (depending on when we needed printers). We don't print anywhere near what you are printing, making the printers overkill. But that's a good thing: if it's overkill, they're less likely to die. I also must say that I love being able to install almost any Linux printing system on the handful of Linux boxes, and the things JUST work.
I've never timed it, but the printing seems to be close to spec, even when not printing duplicates of the same page. The printer is about 50 feet from my desk. I hit print, and most jobs of 10 pages or less are done before I make it to the printer.
Okay, so HP gave 'us' lots of different printer stuff. But they fired Bruce (I thought he quit, but, whatever...) So does that mean we buy HP printers because they don't suck and because they gave back to the community, or do we boycott them in a show of solidarity?
Can't speak for anyone else, but they make a good product, so I'll still be buying the printers. And registering with a note indicating my OS is "Linux and I'm pissed at what you did to/with Perens".
But I'll buy drill and fill toner, so that should even things out.
Bruce,
Are you still a karma whore, even if the topic of discussion is your own firing/resignation?
Does your karma say: Not even CT can code perl fast enough to deny me a +1 bonus to postings?
In all seriousness, why not a run for public office? Well, besides the fact that you probably wouldn't win (let's face it, you don't look like what the average slob thinks of when they think 'congressman'), you'd be left destitute, and you wouldn't have much time for your son? Okay, a paid position with a PAC? Any offers?
(Note: the questions, while somewhat serious, are an attempt to prevent my karma from being burned for making light of your obvious popularity on slashdot. You may not be a karma whore, but I clearly am.)
Damn! If that's really her picture, you should arrange to give her a spanking. That could make up for some loss of pay.
michael, learning to write/edit headlines/blurbs that are more appropriate for Weekly World News?
Ever heard of GURPS? White Dwarf? Hell, I go to the local comic book shop, look at their collection of RPG stuff, and see shelf after shelf after shelf of stuff I've never heard of. And the owner claims she sells at least a little bit of it. So someone is playing it.
The only RPG I've ever played is D&D. But such is not the case for many gamers. D&D is a subset of RPG's, not the other way around.
Newsflash: slashdot fires michael! Will slashdot cease to exist? Is this the end of crappy headline sites?
No. It's a chance to get rid of the trash.
Damn! Are you serious? If so, it's no wonder you wound up on my friends list.
Get this: I saw BOTH of those TWICE in the theatre.
Maybe John Edwards knows?
Funny. They never explain what IIS, Win2k, Win98, Word, Outlook, etc. are in stories. And that site is NEVER slashdotted.
Couple of guys at the white box shop wanted to install Linux on their machines. Asked me what was what. I said "Debian is good, but it'll take a little more to set up. RedHat is..." "No, no, RedHat is lame!"
Anyway, they went with Debian. Luckily, they have a fast 'net connection, so I could go and fix some things they probably missed (adding security.debian.org to apt.cache, etc.)
I'm glad things are working out for them, but it took me a fair bit of work. But I figured that the more people in the area who know Linux, the better... Now, I just hope they learned enough not to screw other people's Linux machines up and give Linux a bad name.
Ordering a laptop. They'll be moving Win2k into a small partition. I'll be installing Gentoo with every possible P4 optimization set. We're all looking forward to that one.
I thought Step 3 was 'Profit!'.
We dropped our automatic phone attendant years ago. Those who are viewing this post with a colored dot next to my name know that I work for a doctor's office.
Ignoring all of the claptrap, we have three problems. First, old people. Second, dumb people. Third, poor people.
The first two have great difficulty in getting in touch via the menus. The last category still has rotary phones (I'm not sure if my grandfather who died in '93 ever had a touch tone phone. Just not available in that part of the county.) And these are the people who NEED to get through. The old person wants to know what the shooting pain in their left arm is, the dumb people want to know if it's bad that the festering wound from stepping on a nail three weeks ago is bad, and the poor people are usually only calling because that festering wound is causing their foot to fall off.
Then there is the other side of the coin: young, smart, rich. They WANT service. They don't want to deal with voice answering system hell. Basically, in my industry, nobody likes it.
So we ditched it. At the time, everyone was happy.
Problem is, like others have mentioned, human beings are expensive and error-prone in their own ways. Even with 15 phone lines (in a four doctor office) we still have times when all lines are 'lit' for hours. People complain about this. But when we mention the alternative (computer answerer) they quickly say that the wait wasn't too bad. (BTW, it's set up so that if no incoming lines are available, the pt. is told to call answering service. The answering service gets through 90% of the time. Other 10%, and they go straight to cell phone)
So my only question is: why did it take so freaking long for others to figure it out? Remember those 15 voice lines? Double that. That's how many lines we have in the various locations. I dropped our ILEC for a CLEC because I got tired of waiting on the stupid computer (that and getting 30 bills per month instead of one).
Business school story: Guy from a corporation in Baltimore came to speak to the class (marketing?) and said that these computer answering devices were the worst thing ever invented (this was '96-'97, BTW). He used to love 'em. But one day, he was at lunch with a colleague/customer. Customer complained about how long it took to get through the menu. Speaker said "What are you talking about? I just dial the direct number and..." Customer interupted "Here's my cell phone. Call the main number and try to get to your secretary". After ten minutes, the speaker finally got through. Instead of checking on messages, he told secretary "get some people together to ditch the phone system. The meeting will be in 30 minutes, as soon as I get back from lunch."
Well, duh!
Blah, blah, blah. They were the only game in town first time. Second time was inertia. This time, so long Verisign.
Verisign has given me about 15 days to renew my registration of domain.
Not gonna happen.
Hello gandi.net
It's an excercise for the reader.
That's nice and all, but I'd be happy if they made a game that didn't suck ass. I know lots of people loved B&W, but I found the game unplayable. I have a kid, a dog, and a cat. One throws random stuff, one eats various turds, and one (or more) is virtually untrainable, with or without a leash.
Why did I pay $50 for more of the same?
Here's another hint: SimCity and the Sims can get along just fine without having goals. It's simple to set your own goals in these games. In a game with so many goals as Black and White, don't pretend that they don't exist or that you have an open-ended game.
I remember the original articles about the creature in B&W. Wasn't supposed to be the whole game. They spent so damned much time futzing with them that there was nothing else left. If the same thing happens here, we'll see add-on packs like "Take your people to Middlebury to learn ANOTHER language." Internet play will consist of seeing whose player can develop Esperanto first.
Call me cynical, but this game better be more than the one trick pony that was B&W.
There's an interesting couple of things that arise out of your comments (which I was aware of, but chose to ignore, when I wrote the original comment that you replied to. Shame on me for doing that. Kudos to you for mentioning that.)
Where are the studios in the lawsuit and the proposed suit by the DGA? It looks like those mentioned (Scorcese, Spielberg) do have 'final cut'. And I'm pretty sure Spielberg retains ownership and is both technically and legally the films 'creator'.
So my question is: on average, does the DGA have any dog in this fight? Sounds like this should be the studios' battle, not that of the directors.
I read that Hopper's first cut of Easy Rider was around 6 hours long. And that Lucas was lucky that he stumbled upon some good script editors prior to American Graffitti (and had the sense to hire a director for Empire and Jedi). I'm sure you've heard much more than that. Could make a good book.
I agree that it's pretty cool that it was built.
But you're wrong about the Camaro. It didn't have popup headlights. The RS model (?? Can't keep the RS, SS, and RS/SS straight) had grills in front of the headlights. Same on the '67-'71 Cougars. The grills rotated 90 degrees, up over the top of the headlight, still concealed by the rest of the car's nose. Look here for the Camaro and here for the cougar.
Sorry I couldn't find any pictures with the grills up.
FWIW, it's usually trivial to fix problems with headlight doors. In vacuum systems, it's an old, rotting vacuum line. In mechanical systems, you've got a shot bushing or bent linkage. Sometimes the motors crap out, but it's more likely to be one of the causes I listed, or a bad relay, fuse, etc.
In any event, I'm not buying a $5500 fixer upper like this. If it were based on a Ford Fox body, maybe. But an Escort? Nope. Not having it. (BTW, I assume that the seller is using an American Escort, not a European Escort. The two are quite different.)
This thing... Needs some work. The dimensions appear a bit off. Nose too long, pods not quite the right size. Others have mentioned the obviously Ford dash. A trip to Dakota Digital could have quickly solved that. And a Grant steering wheel would have been nice. After spending this much money, they could have at least grabbed the seats out of an Escort GT.
And what's with the nose? There is no reason to have those huge cutouts for the headlights. Either put them behind the grill, or let the grill roll up when needed ('69 Camaro among others). Please tell me it has this feature, and they were just rolled up for the pictures.
Finding a competent glass shop isn't always easy. If you can find a Corvette specialty shop, you might be okay. Otherwise, you are stuck with boat shops. And most of them are more worried about the structural repair than the appearance.
Still, a fun link for a Saturday afternoon.
It's not as simple as that, even. This is a 'kit car' (regardless of what he says, regardless of it being a one off, this is a kit car). The rules and regulations vary by state. And the odds of finding the rules in your state are... varied.
Some states require only the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number), working lights and turn signals, etc. Other states require emissions testing and other things. But if you can fill out the right papers, there's not much you can't drive. I believe the thinking is "if you're stupid enough to drive it, you're stupid enough to die in it".
Ignore the legalities, and listen to some of the rhetoric. The DGA is full of shit. Totally. "These films are for a certain audience" "We can't tolerate random cuts and edits"
Bullshit. Look at any movie that makes it to broadcast tv (and channels such as TBS, TNT, TNN on cable) and you will see movies shown and marketed to a different audience. Look at movies shown on planes, and you will see random cuts and edits.
The directors don't care as long as they get their money.
This has nothing to do with artistic freedom. The DGA has shown that the artistic integrity of the members can be bought and sold.
I'd like to see the product being rented by the plaintiffs. Is it marketed as an original, or is it clearly marked? If the latter, how is it any worse than what is done by broadcast and cable stations 1000x per day? Oh, yeah, they probably didn't write a big fat check to the studios.
There are solutions. In some cases, the studios do the editing. They should make these tapes available to rental shops looking to cater to... whatever invented market they cater to. There could be a flat, low cost, fee to allow the shops to do their own editing, provided it is very obvious to someone renting a movie.
But here's the very best idea. DVD. The studios spend some time making sure that it's near impossible to skip the FBI warning, the Interpol notice, and the ads for the next 12 Disney films to come out. So why not program a 'safe for kids' title? Same disc, you just hit the 'for kids' option, and it automatically skips and/or edits the title on the fly.
There is obviously a market for this. First, there are the plaintiffs in this case. Second are the airlines, cable networks, broadcast networks, etc. Clearly, some people disagree with the 'artistic vision' of the studios.
This is another case of technology being available, and large (powerful), entrenched organizations being afraid of it. Anyone with an ounce of sense would see this, not as something to be afraid of, but something to embrace, a new market to tap.
Artistic vision be damned. It's all about the Benjamins.
Having never worked for a large company, I wouldn't know. But from talking to friends (on both the management and employee side) who do work for big corps, I would tend to agree with you. I really don't mind when folks slag large companies. But slagging small companies is a little too close to home (plus, the day I wrote the original thing, someone just decided not to show up to work one day. Never asked for a raise, never asked for different position, nothing. She just didn't feel like working). OTOH, I know of more than a few small companies that excel at treating their employees like shit.
What it boils down to is that I work for/run the exception to the rule, and it really chaps my ass when others screw it up for me.
Let me suggest you never take a job in the medical field.
Lots of folks clamor about how their medical privacy needs to be protected. Guess what? Monitoring email and phone calls is a price paid.
Unlike in the real world, privacy breaches in medicine carry big time penalties: $10000 per incident.
Someone replied to you something along the lines of "legality does not mean morality". That's right. In your freshman philosophy class, that is true. I work in the real world. What that means is defining our highest moral draw. That is providing healthcare. Since 1973 (the day the practice started) we have accepted Medicare and Medicaid patients. No other primary care practice can say the same thing.
But back to the point: the most ethical thing we can do is provide quality medical care. The risk of egregious fines would seriously impact our ability to serve the public. Therefore, there is a large system of checks on our systems. Including the blocking of all internet access. (BTW, this is changing, but there is still a default DENY policy. Opening up access to various and sundry sites is trivial)