if an aparent member of your social group blatantly cheats and gets away with it, you become far more likely to do the same.
I like to consider myself a moral man. I try very hard to do the right things. Very often, when I follow my heart, I find myself beaten down by both society and family and friends. Examples? I try to steer people away from the two party mentality and get (figuratively) beaten over the head for it. I offer to talk about computer security to newbies and I'm frequently not invited over to their house except to work on their computer when it is broken. (People place no effort into the tips I offer them. They make no effort to educate themselves about computers.) I speak to my professor about a problem in class and he doesn't have time for me. I explain issues to my boss about work who then doesn't have time to see me so it will cost the company lots of dollars in the long run -- and I have to pick up the pieces afterward.
I am sick and tired of being beaten down by society and then standing back up after my beating so that I can quietly, peacefully, and logically explain the problems to these very same people. I look around and I see how far cheating, lying, and outshouting someone (instead of having a civil discussion) can get you. How often does society beat moral people into immoral ones? Too often I'm afraid. Most of the time, I feel isolated and lonely because I find it difficult to "just follow the group". For being a social creature, this is a very difficult thing for me to bear.
Yeah, I get that statement of yours. It hits home for me. It probably does for a lot of slashdotters. It's probably why I still lurk here -- so I don't feel so lonely. So that I can find the courage to stand up and keep trying to change the world one person at a time.
I don't know how companies are doing it these days, but about 8 years ago, I got shafted on "extended warranties". They weren't warranties at all. If the product breaks outside of the initial warranty, but within the extended warranty, they would replace it. My specific example involves Best Buy but it is the same at other companies too.
I was confused when Best Buy asked if I wanted to pay for an extended warranty again. I asked why I would want to do that. That's when they explained that I could use the extended warranty only once. I complained. They said it was in black and white. I looked at the warranty and it was ambiguous. (I actually had them get a dictionary and it could be interpreted both ways.) I was furious and said not a chance in hell. I went to other stores and looked at their "extended warranties". They were more clear in writing than Best Buy, but the end result was the same. You could only use it once.
Wow.
I submit this so others don't get bitten. I'm not saying don't get it. Just be aware of what you're actually buying and check the black and white print. It will be buried.
You make it sound as if ownership of code and responsibility are a bad thing. On the contrary, had I been given crap and turned it into a shining example of greatness as in the example the GP gave, I'd be proud to sign my name to it and be given recognition for helping the company so much. It's also a great story to tell new potential employers in the future. You can beat your chest and say what a great programmer you are.
I'm a person who's worked on a huge system that dealt with multiple millions of dollars every day. I started on that team about 3 or 4 years after it went live. On that system, there was no one there that understood how the system started from start to finish. I'm not talking details. I'm talking about generalities. No one could trace definitively say "we press the start button here" and then trace where the program got all of its data, how it processed it, and where the outputs were. No one knew where all of the programs even ran on which servers. The documentation was so bad that when the original developers (external contractors) left, I hoped and prayed it wouldn't fail because I knew no one would be able to pick up the pieces. It took another 3 to 4 years before we had enough internal experience as a team to say that we had a good handle on the system -- which servers executed what and where the data came and went. There is still no good documentation. What happens when those one or two critical people leave and no one knows how the system runs again? What if they are sick when there is a bad day at the office? That system wasn't exactly trivial.
Son, I was born and raised there. Maybe them fancy educated Cajuns up north have their word for da state, but da proper term where I grew up is "Lousyana".
An interesting reply. I don't do a lot of torrenting myself. I haven't done it in a long time actually. (I certainly have nothing against torrenting. The idea for large distributions is very sound.) I'll look more heavily into it and keep your comments in mind. Thanks.
I agree about the finite amount of money thing and maybe the devs didn't know what they were getting into. (I wouldn't. I'm much more developer than salesman.) What I also see, however, is that 3104 users out of 3318 users would prefer to pirate a brand new game than look for the demo and download the demo. I've seen some people argue that this is simply advertising, but I disagree. Why would anyone assume that a program on a torrent is from the original developers unless they go to the original website itself and see that it is being distributed by torrent? How could they not see the demo and the game being sold... unless they never looked in the first place? Their website makes it pretty clear that the game on the torrents is probably not legit. 3104 users would prefer to potentially infect themselves than work with an indie developer. That hurts.
It hurts the developers of this game. It hurts me who wants one day try my own hand at programming in an indie environment. It hurts the community because the community won't get more good programs in an indie environment. You can argue that this game is crap or that my stuff is crap, but there are other programmers out there who aren't crap who are thinking the same thing as me and when they don't write their software because they know they'll be torrented then it hurts the community as a whole.
You say these guys are whining. I disagree. I read their "blog". 93.6% non-legit downloads is not whining. That's a wake up call to the morals of our society and the morals of our IT community. These guys did everything I want a gaming company to do. They put out a demo for free -- try before you buy. They made a cheap game and put an affordable price tag on it. Maybe they suck at advertising. That's their problem. 93.6%, however, is everyone's problem -- theirs, mine, and yours.
Wow. Someone got burned playing the "cracked" version.
I think the game devs made their point and the numbers speak for themselves. He's not the first to say something like this either. As a person who might decide to make his own independent programs so I can put food on the table for my family, this is yet another story which gives me pause. Should I attempt something like this? What this guy says ultimately hurts the programming community -- and rightfully so. I like freeware. I use LibreOffice, VLC, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. Reality is reality, though. These guys made a program to put food on their table. I may or may not buy this game, but I choose not to pirate. They didn't even have to post this and I would have chosen not to pirate this. What's your choice? To rail them with comments like this?
AC, maybe instead of ranting against the devs, you should comment about a way around this mess that we as developers and consumers have dug ourselves into.
We have a saying here in America: "The beatings will continue until morale improves." You don't like our style of peace? We have a fully armed drone that'll fix that. We can easily send it your way. Don't you forget that! All you foreigners always complainin' 'bout the way we do things. Ha! You're just jealous because of the beat down we gave everyone after World War 2. Since then, we've preserved the peace in... uh... that middle eastern place. Or were there two? Or three? I lose count. But we also took care of that Vietnam thingy back in the 60's. Or was that the 70's? Don't matter none. What's important is that we give beat down around the world so you don't have to. We do the fightin' so you can live your lives in peace. That's what peace means. If you don't like us policing the world then make your own damn police force to do it. Just keep in mind we'll beat them down too. Can't have more than us givin' the beatings around here. That wouldn't be very peaceful.
I honestly don't know why every language doesn't include something like. Default to strict syntax. Add a line if you don't want strict. During compilation, a strict programmer knows that every file will be strict. (There's no way to forget to add the "compile strict because it doesn't exist.) If a programmer doesn't want strict compilation (think untyped variables and undeclared variables and no closing tags), they'll see a syntax error if they forgot the "don't want strict" thing. One line added and they are on their way. Simple. Easy. Everyone goes home happy.
I'm not the best person to comment about Flash specifically, but Javascript fails the KISS principle. Better, more secure languages adhere to the KISS principle. I suspect Flash fails because they they scope-creeped a video viewer into a programming language, but someone else can correct me if I'm wrong.
I think the value of long-term employees often depends very heavily on your corporate culture. In the startups (or startup culture) businesses I have worked at, the longest-tenured employees have been the most valuable due to their tribal knowledge. In older, more bureaucratic companies where I have worked, the long-timers are usually the biggest obstacle to getting things done. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I wonder which category of corporate culture Yahoo! fits into?
I agree with your statement, but I wonder why. Are they just fed with corporate BS and don't care or is it the dead sea effect?
I'm going to add a couple of articles I liked for your consideration. The articles and some of the technology are old, but the ideas are probably still sound.
I'd be curious to see responses to these since these articles are old. I haven't been to these websites in a while, so maybe they have some other interesting and more up to date articles.
As for PostgreSQL, I'd recommend this book. The first few chapters apply to any database. The next relate to PostgreSQL specifically. If you're a code head (like me), this book may be better suited for the DBA, but we don't know your specific needs.
However, I know for a fact that my co-workers do care when I fart.
I had a good laugh, but somehow, I don't think you publicize a warning on twitter or facebook when you drop an SBD. I think you just let them discover the surprise on their own.
That's a very high percentage, but I have an anecdotal story that may shed a little light on that.
A number of years ago back when I was in college, I was in a statistics math class. It was the only math class I found easy in college. Two girls (a blond and brunette) and I formed a friendship that semester. They quickly realized I could help them with math and I decided that since others had helped me in my other math classes, I should help others where I could.
The blond became flirtatious with me. I was pretty well convinced she had a thing for me. I wasn't the only one who noticed. The brunette understood my background as a nerd, understood that I had learned to be better in my social skills (making friends was becoming easier), but also understood that asking girls out was not easy for me. She heavily encouraged me to ask the blond out. About eight or so weeks into the semester, I did.
"I have a live-in boyfriend." Talk about a punch in the gut. When I reported back to the brunette, she was utterly confused too. In all those weeks we were together, she never once mentioned to either of us that she had a boyfriend.
I went to a guy friend of mine who was a couple of years older than me. We never really hung out together (different interests), but our families are close, we grew up together, and we are good friends. He was also really good at picking up women. I asked him what kind of game the blond was playing. He said she was probably in a bad relationship and thinking about getting out of it. She wanted to know if she was still attractive and I was her test.
It was an interesting idea. I have no idea if my friend was right or not. A few days later, I told the blond that I didn't appreciate what she had done, but that I'd continue helping her with math if she wanted. She took me up on the offer, but I let the friendship cool between us. I didn't trust her anymore. The brunette couldn't understand why I continued to help the blond. In all the weeks I was with the blond, it was because it was the only falsehood that I detected from her (and my B.S. detector -- like most people on Slashdot -- is pretty good). I knew from the look on her face that she realized she made a mistake. She let a nice guy slip through her games. Neither of us talked about it after that. She learned from her mistake and I learned about life from her. In a sense, we were even.
Coming back to the parent's post: I don't understand why so many married guys go to dating sites. I'm in a very happy 12-year marriage. Today, looking at a couple of my friends who are thinking about divorce or have a very rocky marriage, I suspect that my guy friend was on to something. A really bad marriage with an emotionally abusive wife could lead guys to turn to something like a dating site to boost their self esteem -- just like the blond might have been doing with me. This means it may also cut the other way with gals and an abusive husband. It's an interesting idea, but I have no scientific data I can show to back it up.
I'm not sure China would like the U.S. to come in and do that. An interesting twist is if China invaded them and did the nation building. Not sure how likely a scenario that is, but one I have yet to see proposed.
I would add that a company who files a patent should be required to allow every other company to use the patent. The amount of money for use of the patent would be equal for every company that uses it. Determining how much that would be is the only hang up to the idea.
I don't think you fully understood me so I'll explain a little more. I agree with you: sjbe's comment is excellent. I also agree with you that “To level criticism at providers is not a compelling answer.” You ask a generic question, though: why do patients need access to their records.
Nobody cares about my health more than me. Nobody will investigate my ailments more than me.
That cuts both ways.
I agree. To just go full helter skelter is a bad idea. People need to understand that there will be things that they do not understand. I'm not good at hardware nor O.S. systems. I like to think I'm an uber nerd, but the reality is that I'm not. However, to withhold any information from me concerning my ailment is bad. I have a chronic ailment that I'll never get rid of. Doctor gave me some bad advice. At the risk of TMI, a book from a woman who's helped people with the disorder (because she's had it for more than twenty years) worked wonders. (She's not a doctor.) I almost had to stop working because of it. She saved me. Not the doctors. The last doctor I saw doctor could have cared less about me and he was the best of the bunch. It would be nice to know everything the doctors saw and noted so that I can look up the specifics about me. Apparently, this woman encountered the same thing. "Personally, I simply couldn't wait for my doctors to get their acts together -- I had to get mine together without them." (Introduction, page xxii, 2nd paragraph). Also, "... by the time someone is finally diagnosed they are often desperate for information, may well have turned to searching for answers on their own, and they not only want to know absolutely everything there is to know about the illness, they also want to know it all right now." (Introduction, page xxiii, last paragraph). That struck a very strong chord with me.
Maybe there is some mundane detail in the records that isn't so mundane to me. I just got done speaking with a guy on Slashdot who's allergic to aspartame. More knowledge. More power. Every detail is invaluable for searching on the Internet.Doctors don't give that up easily. Yes, sometimes people will be buffoons with the information, but nothing can stop that anyway.
I've lived in three different states (in the U.S.) and in two different countries (U.S. and Germany) in 12 years. That's why.
That's not compelling. Medical records are not secured documents (meaning they are not useful as factual evidence). Saying I went to such and such is much safer and is the only way you will see foreign (foreign meaning not a medical entity) records used is via direct communication. You bring in physical records, they will simply ask for copies from the remote source. When you presume to think that doctors trust patients, you've made a serious medical error and a basic error in why the medical profession works in any capacity.
I didn't mean medical records are secured documents. As a matter of fact, having lived in so many places, and not remembering what I ate for breakfast, it's better to have the records in my hands so I can give the doctor the papers. He can do what he wants with it... and I'd be very happy if they talked to the other office.
I've had doctors give diagnosis and "remedies" to me that other doctors said was blatantly wrong and in one case unethical. I can't correct my record so subsequent doctors may be incorrectly influenced. That's why.
I'm sorry you think you've bene wronged. However, you're expanding on the reason I mentioned, that is not compelling.
I'm an American whose married to a German. The BBC is still fairly biased, but IMHO it is a fair bit better than most (all?) of their American counterparts.
Slashdot Mirror
if an aparent member of your social group blatantly cheats and gets away with it, you become far more likely to do the same.
I like to consider myself a moral man. I try very hard to do the right things. Very often, when I follow my heart, I find myself beaten down by both society and family and friends. Examples? I try to steer people away from the two party mentality and get (figuratively) beaten over the head for it. I offer to talk about computer security to newbies and I'm frequently not invited over to their house except to work on their computer when it is broken. (People place no effort into the tips I offer them. They make no effort to educate themselves about computers.) I speak to my professor about a problem in class and he doesn't have time for me. I explain issues to my boss about work who then doesn't have time to see me so it will cost the company lots of dollars in the long run -- and I have to pick up the pieces afterward.
I am sick and tired of being beaten down by society and then standing back up after my beating so that I can quietly, peacefully, and logically explain the problems to these very same people. I look around and I see how far cheating, lying, and outshouting someone (instead of having a civil discussion) can get you. How often does society beat moral people into immoral ones? Too often I'm afraid. Most of the time, I feel isolated and lonely because I find it difficult to "just follow the group". For being a social creature, this is a very difficult thing for me to bear.
Yeah, I get that statement of yours. It hits home for me. It probably does for a lot of slashdotters. It's probably why I still lurk here -- so I don't feel so lonely. So that I can find the courage to stand up and keep trying to change the world one person at a time.
Warranty or Insurance? It's neither.
I don't know how companies are doing it these days, but about 8 years ago, I got shafted on "extended warranties". They weren't warranties at all. If the product breaks outside of the initial warranty, but within the extended warranty, they would replace it. My specific example involves Best Buy but it is the same at other companies too.
I was confused when Best Buy asked if I wanted to pay for an extended warranty again. I asked why I would want to do that. That's when they explained that I could use the extended warranty only once. I complained. They said it was in black and white. I looked at the warranty and it was ambiguous. (I actually had them get a dictionary and it could be interpreted both ways.) I was furious and said not a chance in hell. I went to other stores and looked at their "extended warranties". They were more clear in writing than Best Buy, but the end result was the same. You could only use it once.
Wow.
I submit this so others don't get bitten. I'm not saying don't get it. Just be aware of what you're actually buying and check the black and white print. It will be buried.
You make it sound as if ownership of code and responsibility are a bad thing. On the contrary, had I been given crap and turned it into a shining example of greatness as in the example the GP gave, I'd be proud to sign my name to it and be given recognition for helping the company so much. It's also a great story to tell new potential employers in the future. You can beat your chest and say what a great programmer you are.
I'm a person who's worked on a huge system that dealt with multiple millions of dollars every day. I started on that team about 3 or 4 years after it went live. On that system, there was no one there that understood how the system started from start to finish. I'm not talking details. I'm talking about generalities. No one could trace definitively say "we press the start button here" and then trace where the program got all of its data, how it processed it, and where the outputs were. No one knew where all of the programs even ran on which servers. The documentation was so bad that when the original developers (external contractors) left, I hoped and prayed it wouldn't fail because I knew no one would be able to pick up the pieces. It took another 3 to 4 years before we had enough internal experience as a team to say that we had a good handle on the system -- which servers executed what and where the data came and went. There is still no good documentation. What happens when those one or two critical people leave and no one knows how the system runs again? What if they are sick when there is a bad day at the office? That system wasn't exactly trivial.
Son, I was born and raised there. Maybe them fancy educated Cajuns up north have their word for da state, but da proper term where I grew up is "Lousyana".
Reply to undo accidental moderation point. (I used the keyboard and the focus wasn't where I thought it was.)
An interesting reply. I don't do a lot of torrenting myself. I haven't done it in a long time actually. (I certainly have nothing against torrenting. The idea for large distributions is very sound.) I'll look more heavily into it and keep your comments in mind. Thanks.
I agree about the finite amount of money thing and maybe the devs didn't know what they were getting into. (I wouldn't. I'm much more developer than salesman.) What I also see, however, is that 3104 users out of 3318 users would prefer to pirate a brand new game than look for the demo and download the demo. I've seen some people argue that this is simply advertising, but I disagree. Why would anyone assume that a program on a torrent is from the original developers unless they go to the original website itself and see that it is being distributed by torrent? How could they not see the demo and the game being sold... unless they never looked in the first place? Their website makes it pretty clear that the game on the torrents is probably not legit. 3104 users would prefer to potentially infect themselves than work with an indie developer. That hurts.
It hurts the developers of this game. It hurts me who wants one day try my own hand at programming in an indie environment. It hurts the community because the community won't get more good programs in an indie environment. You can argue that this game is crap or that my stuff is crap, but there are other programmers out there who aren't crap who are thinking the same thing as me and when they don't write their software because they know they'll be torrented then it hurts the community as a whole.
You say these guys are whining. I disagree. I read their "blog". 93.6% non-legit downloads is not whining. That's a wake up call to the morals of our society and the morals of our IT community. These guys did everything I want a gaming company to do. They put out a demo for free -- try before you buy. They made a cheap game and put an affordable price tag on it. Maybe they suck at advertising. That's their problem. 93.6%, however, is everyone's problem -- theirs, mine, and yours.
Wow. Someone got burned playing the "cracked" version.
I think the game devs made their point and the numbers speak for themselves. He's not the first to say something like this either. As a person who might decide to make his own independent programs so I can put food on the table for my family, this is yet another story which gives me pause. Should I attempt something like this? What this guy says ultimately hurts the programming community -- and rightfully so. I like freeware. I use LibreOffice, VLC, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. Reality is reality, though. These guys made a program to put food on their table. I may or may not buy this game, but I choose not to pirate. They didn't even have to post this and I would have chosen not to pirate this. What's your choice? To rail them with comments like this?
AC, maybe instead of ranting against the devs, you should comment about a way around this mess that we as developers and consumers have dug ourselves into.
We have a saying here in America: "The beatings will continue until morale improves." You don't like our style of peace? We have a fully armed drone that'll fix that. We can easily send it your way. Don't you forget that! All you foreigners always complainin' 'bout the way we do things. Ha! You're just jealous because of the beat down we gave everyone after World War 2. Since then, we've preserved the peace in... uh... that middle eastern place. Or were there two? Or three? I lose count. But we also took care of that Vietnam thingy back in the 60's. Or was that the 70's? Don't matter none. What's important is that we give beat down around the world so you don't have to. We do the fightin' so you can live your lives in peace. That's what peace means. If you don't like us policing the world then make your own damn police force to do it. Just keep in mind we'll beat them down too. Can't have more than us givin' the beatings around here. That wouldn't be very peaceful.
Peace!
Ban Windows too. 7-Zip can easily achieve this too... either through a GUI or command line interface.
This. And also just because a government tells you that you must do something doesn't mean that it is morally right to do it.
I honestly don't know why every language doesn't include something like. Default to strict syntax. Add a line if you don't want strict. During compilation, a strict programmer knows that every file will be strict. (There's no way to forget to add the "compile strict because it doesn't exist.) If a programmer doesn't want strict compilation (think untyped variables and undeclared variables and no closing tags), they'll see a syntax error if they forgot the "don't want strict" thing. One line added and they are on their way. Simple. Easy. Everyone goes home happy.
I'm not the best person to comment about Flash specifically, but Javascript fails the KISS principle. Better, more secure languages adhere to the KISS principle. I suspect Flash fails because they they scope-creeped a video viewer into a programming language, but someone else can correct me if I'm wrong.
I think the value of long-term employees often depends very heavily on your corporate culture. In the startups (or startup culture) businesses I have worked at, the longest-tenured employees have been the most valuable due to their tribal knowledge. In older, more bureaucratic companies where I have worked, the long-timers are usually the biggest obstacle to getting things done. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I wonder which category of corporate culture Yahoo! fits into?
I agree with your statement, but I wonder why. Are they just fed with corporate BS and don't care or is it the dead sea effect?
I'm going to add a couple of articles I liked for your consideration. The articles and some of the technology are old, but the ideas are probably still sound.
http://highscalability.com/amazon-architecture
http://highscalability.com/scaling-twitter-making-twitter-10000-percent-faster
http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1142065
http://www.webperformancematters.com/journal/2007/8/21/asynchronous-architectures-4.html
I'd be curious to see responses to these since these articles are old. I haven't been to these websites in a while, so maybe they have some other interesting and more up to date articles.
As for PostgreSQL, I'd recommend this book. The first few chapters apply to any database. The next relate to PostgreSQL specifically. If you're a code head (like me), this book may be better suited for the DBA, but we don't know your specific needs.
Man... I'd hardly be able to work anywhere.
However, I know for a fact that my co-workers do care when I fart.
I had a good laugh, but somehow, I don't think you publicize a warning on twitter or facebook when you drop an SBD. I think you just let them discover the surprise on their own.
That's a very high percentage, but I have an anecdotal story that may shed a little light on that.
A number of years ago back when I was in college, I was in a statistics math class. It was the only math class I found easy in college. Two girls (a blond and brunette) and I formed a friendship that semester. They quickly realized I could help them with math and I decided that since others had helped me in my other math classes, I should help others where I could.
The blond became flirtatious with me. I was pretty well convinced she had a thing for me. I wasn't the only one who noticed. The brunette understood my background as a nerd, understood that I had learned to be better in my social skills (making friends was becoming easier), but also understood that asking girls out was not easy for me. She heavily encouraged me to ask the blond out. About eight or so weeks into the semester, I did.
"I have a live-in boyfriend." Talk about a punch in the gut. When I reported back to the brunette, she was utterly confused too. In all those weeks we were together, she never once mentioned to either of us that she had a boyfriend.
I went to a guy friend of mine who was a couple of years older than me. We never really hung out together (different interests), but our families are close, we grew up together, and we are good friends. He was also really good at picking up women. I asked him what kind of game the blond was playing. He said she was probably in a bad relationship and thinking about getting out of it. She wanted to know if she was still attractive and I was her test.
It was an interesting idea. I have no idea if my friend was right or not. A few days later, I told the blond that I didn't appreciate what she had done, but that I'd continue helping her with math if she wanted. She took me up on the offer, but I let the friendship cool between us. I didn't trust her anymore. The brunette couldn't understand why I continued to help the blond. In all the weeks I was with the blond, it was because it was the only falsehood that I detected from her (and my B.S. detector -- like most people on Slashdot -- is pretty good). I knew from the look on her face that she realized she made a mistake. She let a nice guy slip through her games. Neither of us talked about it after that. She learned from her mistake and I learned about life from her. In a sense, we were even.
Coming back to the parent's post: I don't understand why so many married guys go to dating sites. I'm in a very happy 12-year marriage. Today, looking at a couple of my friends who are thinking about divorce or have a very rocky marriage, I suspect that my guy friend was on to something. A really bad marriage with an emotionally abusive wife could lead guys to turn to something like a dating site to boost their self esteem -- just like the blond might have been doing with me. This means it may also cut the other way with gals and an abusive husband. It's an interesting idea, but I have no scientific data I can show to back it up.
I'm not sure China would like the U.S. to come in and do that. An interesting twist is if China invaded them and did the nation building. Not sure how likely a scenario that is, but one I have yet to see proposed.
a chain of morons was all following so closely
You're describing 95% of the drivers out there who don't know about and / or don't follow the two second rule.
I would add that a company who files a patent should be required to allow every other company to use the patent. The amount of money for use of the patent would be equal for every company that uses it. Determining how much that would be is the only hang up to the idea.
I don't think you fully understood me so I'll explain a little more. I agree with you: sjbe's comment is excellent. I also agree with you that “To level criticism at providers is not a compelling answer.” You ask a generic question, though: why do patients need access to their records.
Nobody cares about my health more than me. Nobody will investigate my ailments more than me.
That cuts both ways.
I agree. To just go full helter skelter is a bad idea. People need to understand that there will be things that they do not understand. I'm not good at hardware nor O.S. systems. I like to think I'm an uber nerd, but the reality is that I'm not. However, to withhold any information from me concerning my ailment is bad. I have a chronic ailment that I'll never get rid of. Doctor gave me some bad advice. At the risk of TMI, a book from a woman who's helped people with the disorder (because she's had it for more than twenty years) worked wonders. (She's not a doctor.) I almost had to stop working because of it. She saved me. Not the doctors. The last doctor I saw doctor could have cared less about me and he was the best of the bunch. It would be nice to know everything the doctors saw and noted so that I can look up the specifics about me. Apparently, this woman encountered the same thing. "Personally, I simply couldn't wait for my doctors to get their acts together -- I had to get mine together without them." (Introduction, page xxii, 2nd paragraph). Also, "... by the time someone is finally diagnosed they are often desperate for information, may well have turned to searching for answers on their own, and they not only want to know absolutely everything there is to know about the illness, they also want to know it all right now." (Introduction, page xxiii, last paragraph). That struck a very strong chord with me.
Maybe there is some mundane detail in the records that isn't so mundane to me. I just got done speaking with a guy on Slashdot who's allergic to aspartame. More knowledge. More power. Every detail is invaluable for searching on the Internet.Doctors don't give that up easily. Yes, sometimes people will be buffoons with the information, but nothing can stop that anyway.
I've lived in three different states (in the U.S.) and in two different countries (U.S. and Germany) in 12 years. That's why.
That's not compelling. Medical records are not secured documents (meaning they are not useful as factual evidence). Saying I went to such and such is much safer and is the only way you will see foreign (foreign meaning not a medical entity) records used is via direct communication. You bring in physical records, they will simply ask for copies from the remote source. When you presume to think that doctors trust patients, you've made a serious medical error and a basic error in why the medical profession works in any capacity.
I didn't mean medical records are secured documents. As a matter of fact, having lived in so many places, and not remembering what I ate for breakfast, it's better to have the records in my hands so I can give the doctor the papers. He can do what he wants with it... and I'd be very happy if they talked to the other office.
I've had doctors give diagnosis and "remedies" to me that other doctors said was blatantly wrong and in one case unethical. I can't correct my record so subsequent doctors may be incorrectly influenced. That's why.
I'm sorry you think you've bene wronged. However, you're expanding on the reason I mentioned, that is not compelling.
I'm an American whose married to a German. The BBC is still fairly biased, but IMHO it is a fair bit better than most (all?) of their American counterparts.
The parents link is exceptional. It's a long yet concise list.