They go to the doc-in-the-box because that is what their state insurance (yes, they work for the state - both of them) covers. And since their doc-in-a-box of choice is near where many state employees work, the staff there has ample knowledge of what is and isn't covered by their insurance.Simple as that.
Based on stories related to me, they can get 'normal antibiotics', but not 'narrow' or 'new' kinds of antibiotics. And forget getting it for more than a ten day cure - and hope you don't hit the ceiling on spendings in a single year...
On the upside, their insurance DO cover glasses - one set every two year.
They go to the doc-in-the-box because that is what their state insurance (yes, they work for the state - both of them) covers. Simple as that.
If they could afford a primary physican, they would - but they can't, so they don't.
Being a Norwegian married to an American, I feel I have a grasp of both sides of the issue - although I'll admidt that I don't have first hand experience of the US health care system.
Yes, compared to their US conterparts Norwegian doctors are really stingy with antibiotics.Off course, part of what allows them to be - apart from the whole mindset - is a) that Norwegians can take up to three sick days off* without a note from their Doctor, and b) Norwegians have a single Doctor they need to relate to** so the Doctor knows the patient better and the patient knows the Doctor. In fact we - my better half and I - seldom gets away with any less than half an hour in the Doctors office; with as much time spendt catching up since last time as on the actuall medical stuff.
Compare this to my inlaws who has to go to the Doc-in-a-box if they are feelign poorly, sit among other sickly people and wait for a Doctor - any Doctor who happen to be free - to have a look at them, give them a note and send them home (after a detour to work to hand in the note); probably with a prescription for a drug choosen not mainly on basis of what will help the most, but on what their insurance will cover. The staff isn't interested in making usre the patients gets the best care - it's all about processing them fast.
So yes, I can see how easy it is to prescribe aome broad specter antibiotics if someone comes in with a fever - if it's an infection it'll knock it down, and if it's caused by something else you'll get the placebo effect. The patient is happy (and sick), the Doctor has done his job in ten minutes and my inlaws has spent half a day to get two days off work... whereas I could have picked up the phone, called my boss and told him I would stay home, rolled over and let my body handle it.
And yes, I know I'm overgeneralising - but I'm trying to get a point across and that often work better if done with broad strokes.
*) Part of the horror of a 'socialist healt care system'.
**) Another part of the horrible 'socialist healt care syste' - if you don't like your Doctor you can go online to change; up to two times a year, more if you move.
Because GSM was designed to have a moderate level of security, not a high one? Because in 1990 - when the GSM specifications were published - breaking cipher streams were a magnitude harder than today? Because back then the hardware needed to implement the encryption standards you suggest were both costly and ate a lot of battery?
We could probably do a lot better if we scrap the current cellphone systems and start from scratch. But like the railways with their standard gauge of 4'8½", it's going to cost a LOT of cash to tear up the infrastructure and start over... not to mention that everyone would need to buy new cellphones (or rolling stock, to stick to the analogy).
Seriously... Why are we bothering with this nonsense. There is no way this system can produce that much power and it seems ridiculously destructive to the environment.
Nuclear power is the way to go! The Greenpeace crowd needs to acknowledge that they've done more harm than good, in lobbying against nuclear power.
Luddites the lot of them.
We're bothering, as you put it, due to several reasons:
- First off, this is taking place in Norway. Norway has plenty of rivers which delivers lots of fresh water to areas where there is lots of salt water. Norway also decided many years ago to NOT build any nuclear power plants.
- Secondly, there is this idea that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Reactors are nice and all, but what do you do with them when you run out of fuel? Uranium is a finite resource, but the water cycle goes on forever.
- Thirdly, what about nuclear waste? Should we store it in your back yard?
And for the record, this is about as destructive to the environment as letting rivers flow into the sea... and you don't see Greenpeace protesting rivers, do you?
On the other hand, you got Norway: Lots of oil, one of the wealthiest countries in the world in fact... at the same time, it has an educational system head and shoulders above the other oil rich nations you mention; a LOT of money is poured into making your neighbour (well, your neighbours kids) as smart as possible.
Off course, that don't mean they arn't proud of what they are. I'll be the first to admit that Norwegian can be pompous bitches...
It's all about cultural differences though; I strongly suspect Texans has been anti-science for much longer than they have had oil seeping out of the ground.
And let me add that in my experience, 99% of all people who calls the scientific theory of evolution for "Darwinism" is from the US, just like a large majority of the hardline creationists...
The rest of the western world seems happy enought to accept that the theory of evolution fits the known facts and is a valid scientific theory, just as they accept that religion - while nice - has naught to do in science class.
Okay, I may be biased here, being a career officer and all...
BUT: he writes a piece of software at home, and then brings it to work to 'test'? In fact, he's running unverified, non approved software on a military computer, most likely networked to other military computers? Seriously, WTF?
It boggles me that IT security is that lax in a military organisation - our setup won't let me run anything than the approved, verified apps delivered over the network - operational security being key. And don't even think of executing something of a removable media...
We all know that pretty much anyone can be bought (if the offer is high enought) - what if he had been less upright and loyal and had put a trojan or two into his program?
Provided you don't want to write anything down (no proper keyboard), connect your digicam or any other device (maybe one USB port, no other ports), play anything but the simplest of simple games (again, no keyboard/ports), no photo editing (not enought horsepower)...
So, yes, if all you do is to look at facebook and call people up with skype this is "as usefull as a desktop". But if that is all you do, why not get something like a Eee 2G, an Elonex One or a MSI Wind?
A bit off topic, I know, but I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in knowing:
Does anybody know if there is a chance for the G1G1 thing to happen in Europe too?
I could have gotten one of my inlaws in the US (yes, my wife is from the USofA) to get one for me, but then the issue had been getting it over here... Norwegian Customs would likely have slapped a big fat import tax on it:(
You learn something every day I guess... since my otherwise decent wireless keyboard lose reception from one end of my coach to the other - ie I have to sit on the left side of the coach to use it - I figured that putting in even rudimentarty encryption would be kinda pointless from a security point of view (short range - evesdropper would have to sit in my livingroom). And judging by the article, encryption is empoyed more to associate a keyboard with a reciver thanas a measure of security.
In a high security enviroment I could see the need. Even if the intuitive guess would be that a wired keyboard might be safer, this is not necesarry the case; the unshileded wire used on most keyboards acts an an antenna (see TEMPEST on Wikipedia). I've seen demonstrations where the keystrokes have been picked up by sensitive antennas 50m away thru a normal wall. A highly encrypted wireless keyboard might be safer; I'm not sure if such a product even exists today. A simpler option might be to place the computer and keyboard in a faraday cage...
First, this car is produced in Norway, where the overwhelming majority of power is generated by hydro-electric plants.
Secondly, the manufacturer was bought out by a company that specialices in solar energy.
So yes, it makes perfect sence for them to talk about a 'carbon free' car. Off course, the marketing blurb, reality in Norway and reality in [country of your choice] isn't always the same thing...
Bandwidth is practically free. It is soo goddamn cheap nowadays it might as well be free.
Practially free is far from actually free. Even if each page they serve might only cost 1/10th of a cent (number pulled out of thin air) in bandwidth, it adds up when the number of pages they serve are counted in the millions. Lets, for the sake of the argument, say they serve ten million pages a day (they probaly serve more - according to Wikipedia they have around 3500000 members). Thats ten thousand dollars each day, in 'practically free' bandwidth.
I don't know about you, but 10,000 don't sound like 'free' to me...
Okay, I'll bite... I live in an European nation, namely Norway. Wife is from the USA, so I feel I'm in a decent position to compare. Now, do tell us what freedoms you have (or even had, before the 'War on Terror' stripped them from you) that I don't enjoy here in Norway?
As opposed to the ones that have a powered ejection seat...
As opposed to the ones that have any form of escapesystem at all. The Gemini and the Vostok used ejection seats (the use of which was the normal mode of ladning in the case of the Vostok - the cosmonaut did not ride his capsule all the way down). The majority of manned spacecrafts (Mercury, all the various versions of the Soyuz, Apollo, Shenzhou and the planned CEV) fetures escape towers - a rocket that will pull the part of the spacecraft with people inside away from any accidents (and hopefully high enought up for parachutes to work). As far as I can tell, the Shuttle shares the dubious distinction to be one of two (the other was Voskhod, which was basicly a juryrigged Vostok) to have flown in space with no escapesystem at all.
Back in the 'good, old days', a lot of thought went into weird and wonderfull ways to bail out from orbit, but these days it seems like there is little will to admidt that things can go horrible wrong up there...
There are a number of fraudulent actions on eBay... but there are also quite a few scammers posing as buyers. A few ways to avoid them include:
* Do not be tempted to end the action early if they ask.
* Don't ship abroad - at least not to 'certain countries' in Africa.
* Don't accept moneyorders, WU, MG or the like - card is king, and PayPal (while evil) is also decent.
* Definitly don't accept a deal going like I'll send you a check on a higher amouth, you send me the item and the money left over. The check WILL be false.
* Educate yourself:
** www.scampatrol.org
** crime-online.info/blog
** www.fraudaid.com/index.htm
* Don't expect everyone online to be as honest and upright as yourself.
My father in law called us from the states last week to test the connection. He reported he got a better connection calling us in Norway, than he did calling a friend in Texas (my inlaws are in WV). My guess is that it all depends on 'the last mile' of copper, from the remote server to the receiver of the call.
That, and I guess the amouth ot traffic on the network would also affect the call quality. We off course have the benifit of six hours time difference, so when he call us in the afternoon here, it's still morning in the states and less people on.
We're totaly getting Skype as soon as we get our paws on a decent headset - dialing PC-toPC is a lot cheaper than calling the US from Norway:)
Slashdot Mirror
Or, as someone mentioned higher up, don't fly and get fired. Some of us do have to go places as part of our job...
They go to the doc-in-the-box because that is what their state insurance (yes, they work for the state - both of them) covers. And since their doc-in-a-box of choice is near where many state employees work, the staff there has ample knowledge of what is and isn't covered by their insurance.Simple as that.
Based on stories related to me, they can get 'normal antibiotics', but not 'narrow' or 'new' kinds of antibiotics. And forget getting it for more than a ten day cure - and hope you don't hit the ceiling on spendings in a single year...
On the upside, their insurance DO cover glasses - one set every two year.
They go to the doc-in-the-box because that is what their state insurance (yes, they work for the state - both of them) covers. Simple as that.
If they could afford a primary physican, they would - but they can't, so they don't.
Being a Norwegian married to an American, I feel I have a grasp of both sides of the issue - although I'll admidt that I don't have first hand experience of the US health care system.
Yes, compared to their US conterparts Norwegian doctors are really stingy with antibiotics.Off course, part of what allows them to be - apart from the whole mindset - is a) that Norwegians can take up to three sick days off* without a note from their Doctor, and b) Norwegians have a single Doctor they need to relate to** so the Doctor knows the patient better and the patient knows the Doctor. In fact we - my better half and I - seldom gets away with any less than half an hour in the Doctors office; with as much time spendt catching up since last time as on the actuall medical stuff.
Compare this to my inlaws who has to go to the Doc-in-a-box if they are feelign poorly, sit among other sickly people and wait for a Doctor - any Doctor who happen to be free - to have a look at them, give them a note and send them home (after a detour to work to hand in the note); probably with a prescription for a drug choosen not mainly on basis of what will help the most, but on what their insurance will cover. The staff isn't interested in making usre the patients gets the best care - it's all about processing them fast. So yes, I can see how easy it is to prescribe aome broad specter antibiotics if someone comes in with a fever - if it's an infection it'll knock it down, and if it's caused by something else you'll get the placebo effect. The patient is happy (and sick), the Doctor has done his job in ten minutes and my inlaws has spent half a day to get two days off work... whereas I could have picked up the phone, called my boss and told him I would stay home, rolled over and let my body handle it.
And yes, I know I'm overgeneralising - but I'm trying to get a point across and that often work better if done with broad strokes.
*) Part of the horror of a 'socialist healt care system'.
**) Another part of the horrible 'socialist healt care syste' - if you don't like your Doctor you can go online to change; up to two times a year, more if you move.
Because GSM was designed to have a moderate level of security, not a high one? Because in 1990 - when the GSM specifications were published - breaking cipher streams were a magnitude harder than today? Because back then the hardware needed to implement the encryption standards you suggest were both costly and ate a lot of battery?
We could probably do a lot better if we scrap the current cellphone systems and start from scratch. But like the railways with their standard gauge of 4'8½", it's going to cost a LOT of cash to tear up the infrastructure and start over... not to mention that everyone would need to buy new cellphones (or rolling stock, to stick to the analogy).
Sudo apt-get install (package name)
Repeat 50X.
And the hardship is... where?
Same thing with women
Ah, so you're still single then?
Seriously... Why are we bothering with this nonsense. There is no way this system can produce that much power and it seems ridiculously destructive to the environment. Nuclear power is the way to go! The Greenpeace crowd needs to acknowledge that they've done more harm than good, in lobbying against nuclear power.
Luddites the lot of them.
We're bothering, as you put it, due to several reasons:
- First off, this is taking place in Norway. Norway has plenty of rivers which delivers lots of fresh water to areas where there is lots of salt water. Norway also decided many years ago to NOT build any nuclear power plants.
- Secondly, there is this idea that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. Reactors are nice and all, but what do you do with them when you run out of fuel? Uranium is a finite resource, but the water cycle goes on forever.
- Thirdly, what about nuclear waste? Should we store it in your back yard?
And for the record, this is about as destructive to the environment as letting rivers flow into the sea... and you don't see Greenpeace protesting rivers, do you?
On the other hand, you got Norway: Lots of oil, one of the wealthiest countries in the world in fact... at the same time, it has an educational system head and shoulders above the other oil rich nations you mention; a LOT of money is poured into making your neighbour (well, your neighbours kids) as smart as possible.
Off course, that don't mean they arn't proud of what they are. I'll be the first to admit that Norwegian can be pompous bitches...
It's all about cultural differences though; I strongly suspect Texans has been anti-science for much longer than they have had oil seeping out of the ground.
They did register it in the US, way back in '96; see http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=75215401 for details. Off course, that won't stop a couple of other companies trying to take the trademark away from Psion... Psion also have an interesting statement at http://www.psionteklogix.com/documents/com/specSheets/Psion_Netbook%20_Trademark_%20Statement.pdf
Speaking from my own experiences - I should have made that clearer. Mea culpa.
THIS! A hundred time THIS!
And let me add that in my experience, 99% of all people who calls the scientific theory of evolution for "Darwinism" is from the US, just like a large majority of the hardline creationists...
The rest of the western world seems happy enought to accept that the theory of evolution fits the known facts and is a valid scientific theory, just as they accept that religion - while nice - has naught to do in science class.
Blame the US education system I guess...
Okay, I may be biased here, being a career officer and all...
BUT: he writes a piece of software at home, and then brings it to work to 'test'? In fact, he's running unverified, non approved software on a military computer, most likely networked to other military computers? Seriously, WTF?
It boggles me that IT security is that lax in a military organisation - our setup won't let me run anything than the approved, verified apps delivered over the network - operational security being key. And don't even think of executing something of a removable media...
We all know that pretty much anyone can be bought (if the offer is high enought) - what if he had been less upright and loyal and had put a trojan or two into his program?
Provided you don't want to write anything down (no proper keyboard), connect your digicam or any other device (maybe one USB port, no other ports), play anything but the simplest of simple games (again, no keyboard/ports), no photo editing (not enought horsepower)...
So, yes, if all you do is to look at facebook and call people up with skype this is "as usefull as a desktop". But if that is all you do, why not get something like a Eee 2G, an Elonex One or a MSI Wind?
Actually, the previous (well, still current in fact) 700-series uses a resolution of 800x480.
It's remarable usable if you take some care to tweak firefox into eating less vertical real estate.
A bit off topic, I know, but I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in knowing:
:(
Does anybody know if there is a chance for the G1G1 thing to happen in Europe too?
I could have gotten one of my inlaws in the US (yes, my wife is from the USofA) to get one for me, but then the issue had been getting it over here... Norwegian Customs would likely have slapped a big fat import tax on it
You learn something every day I guess... since my otherwise decent wireless keyboard lose reception from one end of my coach to the other - ie I have to sit on the left side of the coach to use it - I figured that putting in even rudimentarty encryption would be kinda pointless from a security point of view (short range - evesdropper would have to sit in my livingroom). And judging by the article, encryption is empoyed more to associate a keyboard with a reciver thanas a measure of security.
In a high security enviroment I could see the need. Even if the intuitive guess would be that a wired keyboard might be safer, this is not necesarry the case; the unshileded wire used on most keyboards acts an an antenna (see TEMPEST on Wikipedia). I've seen demonstrations where the keystrokes have been picked up by sensitive antennas 50m away thru a normal wall. A highly encrypted wireless keyboard might be safer; I'm not sure if such a product even exists today. A simpler option might be to place the computer and keyboard in a faraday cage...
The obvious solution should be to turn of Java by default, and only turn it on for trusted sites.
Problem off course is that the avrage websurfer is unlikely to a) know how to do it, and b) know what sites to trust.
You're forgetting two things.
First, this car is produced in Norway, where the overwhelming majority of power is generated by hydro-electric plants.
Secondly, the manufacturer was bought out by a company that specialices in solar energy.
So yes, it makes perfect sence for them to talk about a 'carbon free' car. Off course, the marketing blurb, reality in Norway and reality in [country of your choice] isn't always the same thing...
News on Google, reported by Yahoo...
Irony, thy name is Internet.
Bandwidth is practically free. It is soo goddamn cheap nowadays it might as well be free.
Practially free is far from actually free. Even if each page they serve might only cost 1/10th of a cent (number pulled out of thin air) in bandwidth, it adds up when the number of pages they serve are counted in the millions. Lets, for the sake of the argument, say they serve ten million pages a day (they probaly serve more - according to Wikipedia they have around 3500000 members). Thats ten thousand dollars each day, in 'practically free' bandwidth.
I don't know about you, but 10,000 don't sound like 'free' to me...
Okay, I'll bite... I live in an European nation, namely Norway. Wife is from the USA, so I feel I'm in a decent position to compare. Now, do tell us what freedoms you have (or even had, before the 'War on Terror' stripped them from you) that I don't enjoy here in Norway?
As opposed to the ones that have a powered ejection seat...
As opposed to the ones that have any form of escapesystem at all. The Gemini and the Vostok used ejection seats (the use of which was the normal mode of ladning in the case of the Vostok - the cosmonaut did not ride his capsule all the way down). The majority of manned spacecrafts (Mercury, all the various versions of the Soyuz, Apollo, Shenzhou and the planned CEV) fetures escape towers - a rocket that will pull the part of the spacecraft with people inside away from any accidents (and hopefully high enought up for parachutes to work). As far as I can tell, the Shuttle shares the dubious distinction to be one of two (the other was Voskhod, which was basicly a juryrigged Vostok) to have flown in space with no escapesystem at all.
Back in the 'good, old days', a lot of thought went into weird and wonderfull ways to bail out from orbit, but these days it seems like there is little will to admidt that things can go horrible wrong up there...
There are a number of fraudulent actions on eBay... but there are also quite a few scammers posing as buyers. A few ways to avoid them include:
* Do not be tempted to end the action early if they ask.
* Don't ship abroad - at least not to 'certain countries' in Africa.
* Don't accept moneyorders, WU, MG or the like - card is king, and PayPal (while evil) is also decent.
* Definitly don't accept a deal going like I'll send you a check on a higher amouth, you send me the item and the money left over. The check WILL be false.
* Educate yourself:
** www.scampatrol.org
** crime-online.info/blog
** www.fraudaid.com/index.htm
* Don't expect everyone online to be as honest and upright as yourself.
Thats odd.
My father in law called us from the states last week to test the connection. He reported he got a better connection calling us in Norway, than he did calling a friend in Texas (my inlaws are in WV). My guess is that it all depends on 'the last mile' of copper, from the remote server to the receiver of the call.
That, and I guess the amouth ot traffic on the network would also affect the call quality. We off course have the benifit of six hours time difference, so when he call us in the afternoon here, it's still morning in the states and less people on.
We're totaly getting Skype as soon as we get our paws on a decent headset - dialing PC-toPC is a lot cheaper than calling the US from Norway :)