And so I present to you, fellow geeks, the Fractal Cow.
Make sure to check out the pictures.
If these were statuary, Nighthawk and I would have to buy two, because we’d fight over whose desk would get it if there was only one.
Yearly Archives: 2008
Bionic Office
As cube farms go, my day job is in a very nice cube farm (and I have a big cube), but my desk at home is in the corner of the living room that looks right out the front window, so work would have to stretch quite a bit yet to get me a cube as nice as my house.
I don’t know that I necessarily need to work here, but I do know that some day I’d like to work somewhere as nice.
a quick observation on how the iPhone has changed my info-seeking habits
I’ve moved to a new department at work and shifted my role from that of a tech support guru to a fledgling information architect. Since I’m new, I’m trying to assimilate new information on my role in the website building process at a much higher rate than I’ve had to learn anything since my master’s. It feels good.
At the same time, I’m finding that the information gathering is also much easier than studying 5 years ago, because of my iPhone. I’m currently reading a great book on information architecture which constantly constantly constantly references other works. In the past i’d’ve jotted them all down and then promptly lost the list. Or i’d’ve read in front of the computer, a difficult task on nights like tonight when my head is throbbing.
Tonight, though, when I trip over one of these gems, I’m grabbing my phone and hitting Safari. The websites are going right into my “investigate these” bookmark collection and the book titles are getting thrown into Amazon via their iPhone beta site where I can dump them right into my info architecture wish list for later buying. Best yet, I can easily access either list from my work computer (once I sync the phone tonight at home) and get recommendations for a reading priority from the more tenured IAs at work.
I can even blog about it while finishing chapter three.
I like this. It’s like having an external hard drive for my brain.
Trying to make sense of the world.
It’s interesting to see the view from the other side.
This is rambling and I don’t guarantee it properly summarizes my point, but I have 2 minutes so here goes.
An article from UK website The Telegraph: Don’t treat the old and unhealthy, say doctors.
Among the survey of 870 family and hospital doctors, almost 60 per cent said the NHS could not provide full healthcare to everyone and that some individuals should pay for services.
I work hard every day to make sure that Nighthawk and I have adequate healthcare, and we’re still paying much more than I’d like to ideally, but we’re also the problem: the long-term expensive treatment for a degenerative condition.
In the States, it’s dog-eat-dog but easy — either you have a job or the money to pay for your healthcare, or you don’t. I don’t like deciding between medication and, say, electricity (though in my case it’s more like medication and extra video games) and I really don’t like the yearly rigamarole of determining which plan to choose and what it’s going to cost this year. On the other hand, there’s no question of who gets treated. Either you have the money or you don’t. It’s not a right, it’s a product you purchase.
This article (like so many others) reveals one of the little twists behind national healthcare: it’s a right — we think — maybe — if the taxes are high enough…. And when someone says, “wait, the government can’t afford all this either”, some moron comes along and says, “then we’ll cut treatment for the elderly and the smokers and the drinkers who are dying from age and cigarette damage and cirrhosis.” And believe you me, that’s a dangerous road to walk.
It’s a product. If the government can’t afford to buy it for everyone, they’ll decide who really has the “right” to free healthcare anyway.
I happen to have some spies over the pond who’ve mentioned that you can get insurance in England, and the purpose is to bump you to the front of the line. In the States, since generally health care is based on “we treat those who can pay and the rest we don’t”, then you usually have surgery, etc. in order of need. It’s a product. And your insurer actually becomes your advocate at that point, because whose company is going to buy a spot at the back of the line? No insurance company can afford that kind of treatment for their patients. Can you see the war that would break out here of Aetna found out BCBS’s patients were getting preferential treatment?
Despite the bashing insurance companies get and the instinctual hatred that comes with wading through red tape, I’ve had insurance companies bend over backwards to fix billing issues, provide services, and do everything possible to keep Nighthawk and I healthy. That’s the goal, right?
For now I think I’ll keep our products over the UK’s rights. Thanks.
A List of Regional Pizza Styles
A List of Regional Pizza Styles, and in every region I’m betting they swear that theirs is “real” pizza and the rest are fakers.
We in Philly don’t get a listing for a pizza style, probably because we’ve cornered the market on most other junk foods.
