Re:But healthcare doesn't make value.....
on
The Engine of US Jobs
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Healthcare does not really build value. Nothing has been made because Aunty Tilly got a $20,000 bypass instead of a $5 bottle of asprin.
Nothing has been made because Aunty Tilly got a massage or haircut either. Healthcare is a service industry, and if selling services is a valid business model, then healthcare is a valid business model.
Healthcare doesn't build value, it preserves value. Healthcare is one of the best investiments in workers. If you have ailing workers, their productivity is lowered by far. Do you work as well when you're running a high fever? Or does it take you longer to do less? Aunt Tilly's $20,000 bypass saved her life. If Aunt Tilly's $20,000 bypass allows her to continue in specialized, highly-skilled labor, it's by far the economically correct choice to give it to her. Maybe that $20 K could have been spent on cars or toys or gadgets, but if that money keeps a productive worker producing, it's not a bad usage of money (and in fact is a very good usage of money). Think of it as maintanence on our machines. Maybe getting your car serviced doesn't produce any tangible good, but it sure saves a lot down the road when your car functions in 5 years instead of just dying on the highway.
Another issue with the lack of hard numbers: there is no basis to compare whether the us has more spam than previous years. Maybe the %s haven't changed but there's 5,000 less spam per minute than in 2004 (or something). Alternatively, you could measure the intensity of the spam: how likely is it to cripple your computer? It's illogical to draw any real conclusions about how serious an issue spam is these days (compared to prior days) by simply measuring what countries the spam originates in. If you want to investigate spam, it's not a particularly insightful or interesting question to measure what country the spam comes from.
Wait, wait, vision in my third eye is clearing: I see, Microsoft is going to lose. And yet, losing major litigation still won't stop them from spying on folks.
Anybody else smell a class action law suit in the air? You slashdotters should seriously start going to law school in droves- I'm sure Microsoft does something every day you could sue them for.
Well, but if you think about it, it makes no sense whatsoever. Why pay 10 bucks to ship something FedEx when you can easily transmit content electronically? It's not so difficult or expensive to burn dvds. I somehow doubt that any DVD smuggling ring worth their salt is FedExing DVDs.
But the real point of this story is that The Industry Is Noticing That You Americans Are Copying DVDs. And they don't like it and they're powerful so they can impose futile, invasive, and draconian attempts at controlling you hoi polloi. And that's just what you get for possibly engaging in activities The Industry just doesn't like.
No, you don't get it. Regular citizens don't have the resources to legally challenge anything. Half of whatever lease you have is probably not legally enforcible. Why? Because you don't know enough to really fight it or you don't have the resources to if a problem arises. If Apple is sending out these letters, I'm betting it's an informed and intentional legal strategy. It's not some corporate troll making decisions - that's not how the legal world works. It has nothing to do with common sense, employee stupidity, or the merits of the case. It's really about the resources to challenge the legality of Apple's assertions.
Not to mention, of course, that in actual litigation Apple fares best by claiming all potential legally gray areas at the earliest date.
I just sat down at my computer with a yoghurt, go to slashdot, and this is the first thing I see. Thanks, slashdot, for making my breakfast just that much more inedible.
So, all I have to do is buy some small plot of rural land in upstate NY, then lease it to the government to get 3K a year in rent? Awesome! If I can rent out 34 of these plots, I'm a millionare without any effort on my part!
There might a crash in the stars
Whose damage leaves oddly-shaped scars
Astronomists patter,
"It might be dark matter
That's making the warp so bizarre!"
I disagree. My little brother learned to read from Harry Potter. Most of what I know about geography, I learned from playing Sid Meyer's civilization. What do I remember from my formal high school education in any subject? Almost nothing. The philosophy of American education seems to be this: make information as boring as humanly possible. I have found that higher education, for the most part, can be described as an exercise in tedium tolerence.
It's one thing when you're pursuing knowledge on Wikipedia because you're interested in a topic, but it's another when you *are being forced* to study mad cow disease for a paper due next thursday. The difference is astounding. Why should you care about subjects when your professors are blackmailing you (via GPA) to 'learn'?
So maybe this batch of educational software is going overboard, but the idea is fundamentally sound. You have to be able to engage the student for there to be any meaningful learning to occur. At least the software companies are trying- that's more than I can say for 90% of the teachers I had.
1. Adjust moniter brightness. Don't you have some kind of control panel for that? 2. Change the white background or, if that's not possible, maybe wear colored sunglasses- the world is pretty in pink! 3. Get glasses to help your concentration. Also, if you've been getting headaches too, it's because you really need glasses/contacts. 4. Increase text size. Then your eyes won't have to work so hard. 5. Have moderate amounts of light. If everything is too bright or too dark, that can hurt your eyes.
And don't worry. Eventually medical technology will make invincible robotic eyes, so don't let anyone strongarm you into making too drastic & uncomfy lifestyle changes.
Yup, they're branded. Firefox also seems to be working MUCH slower with the google pack version, especially with icons and graphics. The google search bar seems convenient, but not convenient enough to outweigh the slowness it induces. My bet is there's some kind of spyware embedded in it.
My second complaint is the pop-up google added to the bottom right corner of my screen. Every now and then it shows me news headlines and summaries. I find this annoying, mostly because the install never asked me if I wanted this feature.
Even still, I told my stepfather to download the google pack. For the computer illiterate, it's not all that bad a deal. At least all his apps will be updated and he'll have a browser other than IE.
Well....the funny thing is, if you set back your calendar in 6 months when Norton gives you a friendly reminder it's about to expire, you can extend the life of its 'trial period' indefinately. I've tried this before with success. If it doesn't bug you to have the calendar off, it can be a handy tool to not have to pay for stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
Nothing has been made because Aunty Tilly got a massage or haircut either. Healthcare is a service industry, and if selling services is a valid business model, then healthcare is a valid business model.
Healthcare doesn't build value, it preserves value. Healthcare is one of the best investiments in workers. If you have ailing workers, their productivity is lowered by far. Do you work as well when you're running a high fever? Or does it take you longer to do less? Aunt Tilly's $20,000 bypass saved her life. If Aunt Tilly's $20,000 bypass allows her to continue in specialized, highly-skilled labor, it's by far the economically correct choice to give it to her. Maybe that $20 K could have been spent on cars or toys or gadgets, but if that money keeps a productive worker producing, it's not a bad usage of money (and in fact is a very good usage of money). Think of it as maintanence on our machines. Maybe getting your car serviced doesn't produce any tangible good, but it sure saves a lot down the road when your car functions in 5 years instead of just dying on the highway.
Another issue with the lack of hard numbers: there is no basis to compare whether the us has more spam than previous years. Maybe the %s haven't changed but there's 5,000 less spam per minute than in 2004 (or something). Alternatively, you could measure the intensity of the spam: how likely is it to cripple your computer? It's illogical to draw any real conclusions about how serious an issue spam is these days (compared to prior days) by simply measuring what countries the spam originates in. If you want to investigate spam, it's not a particularly insightful or interesting question to measure what country the spam comes from.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=187839&cid=154 93469
Wait, wait, vision in my third eye is clearing: I see, Microsoft is going to lose. And yet, losing major litigation still won't stop them from spying on folks.
Anybody else smell a class action law suit in the air? You slashdotters should seriously start going to law school in droves- I'm sure Microsoft does something every day you could sue them for.
Well, but if you think about it, it makes no sense whatsoever. Why pay 10 bucks to ship something FedEx when you can easily transmit content electronically? It's not so difficult or expensive to burn dvds. I somehow doubt that any DVD smuggling ring worth their salt is FedExing DVDs. But the real point of this story is that The Industry Is Noticing That You Americans Are Copying DVDs. And they don't like it and they're powerful so they can impose futile, invasive, and draconian attempts at controlling you hoi polloi. And that's just what you get for possibly engaging in activities The Industry just doesn't like.
I'm sorry, did you need my resume or something? WTF? Why do you care?
I work in a law firm, thanks.
No, you don't get it. Regular citizens don't have the resources to legally challenge anything. Half of whatever lease you have is probably not legally enforcible. Why? Because you don't know enough to really fight it or you don't have the resources to if a problem arises. If Apple is sending out these letters, I'm betting it's an informed and intentional legal strategy. It's not some corporate troll making decisions - that's not how the legal world works. It has nothing to do with common sense, employee stupidity, or the merits of the case. It's really about the resources to challenge the legality of Apple's assertions. Not to mention, of course, that in actual litigation Apple fares best by claiming all potential legally gray areas at the earliest date.
I just sat down at my computer with a yoghurt, go to slashdot, and this is the first thing I see. Thanks, slashdot, for making my breakfast just that much more inedible.
Yes, yes. My post was absurdly wrong. This is why rum and slashdot should never mix. Just remember, friends don't let friends drink & post.
So... a millionare after 100 years? That'd be a millionare after 10 years, thanks. If my math is bad, yours is too!
So, all I have to do is buy some small plot of rural land in upstate NY, then lease it to the government to get 3K a year in rent? Awesome! If I can rent out 34 of these plots, I'm a millionare without any effort on my part!
Oh dear. Only a slashdotter could think having a computer would impress a chick. You don't talk much to women, do you?
There might a crash in the stars
Whose damage leaves oddly-shaped scars
Astronomists patter,
"It might be dark matter
That's making the warp so bizarre!"
I disagree. My little brother learned to read from Harry Potter. Most of what I know about geography, I learned from playing Sid Meyer's civilization. What do I remember from my formal high school education in any subject? Almost nothing. The philosophy of American education seems to be this: make information as boring as humanly possible. I have found that higher education, for the most part, can be described as an exercise in tedium tolerence.
It's one thing when you're pursuing knowledge on Wikipedia because you're interested in a topic, but it's another when you *are being forced* to study mad cow disease for a paper due next thursday. The difference is astounding. Why should you care about subjects when your professors are blackmailing you (via GPA) to 'learn'?
So maybe this batch of educational software is going overboard, but the idea is fundamentally sound. You have to be able to engage the student for there to be any meaningful learning to occur. At least the software companies are trying- that's more than I can say for 90% of the teachers I had.
1. Adjust moniter brightness. Don't you have some kind of control panel for that?
2. Change the white background or, if that's not possible, maybe wear colored sunglasses- the world is pretty in pink!
3. Get glasses to help your concentration. Also, if you've been getting headaches too, it's because you really need glasses/contacts.
4. Increase text size. Then your eyes won't have to work so hard.
5. Have moderate amounts of light. If everything is too bright or too dark, that can hurt your eyes.
And don't worry. Eventually medical technology will make invincible robotic eyes, so don't let anyone strongarm you into making too drastic & uncomfy lifestyle changes.
That's brilliant! Can we apply the same logic to marketing too? You know they just make those ads to annoy you.
Yup, they're branded. Firefox also seems to be working MUCH slower with the google pack version, especially with icons and graphics. The google search bar seems convenient, but not convenient enough to outweigh the slowness it induces. My bet is there's some kind of spyware embedded in it.
My second complaint is the pop-up google added to the bottom right corner of my screen. Every now and then it shows me news headlines and summaries. I find this annoying, mostly because the install never asked me if I wanted this feature.
Even still, I told my stepfather to download the google pack. For the computer illiterate, it's not all that bad a deal. At least all his apps will be updated and he'll have a browser other than IE.
Well....the funny thing is, if you set back your calendar in 6 months when Norton gives you a friendly reminder it's about to expire, you can extend the life of its 'trial period' indefinately. I've tried this before with success. If it doesn't bug you to have the calendar off, it can be a handy tool to not have to pay for stuff.