Barnson.org

Heard on the news today:

Your average outpatient today would have been hospitalized in the 1970s. Today’s average inpatient would have been in ICU. Today’s ICU patient in the 1970s would have been dead.

The discussion centered around the current nursing shortage in the USA. According to this woman in her sixties — I don’t remember her name — the current ratio is something like 7 or 8 patients per nurse, varying a little better during the day and a bit worse at night. California controversial law, apparently, mandates a minimum 1:5 ratio for nurses to patients in medical/surgical, and 1:2 in ICU.

Is it really true that your average ICU patient from, say, 1975 is in regular inpatient care, while those in today’s ICU would have been dead then? Is this ostensible increase in survival rates due to nurse staff increases, technology advancements, medical inventions, or something else? Or a combination of the three?

I’m interested in knowing just how true this quote is. Mortality statistics from hospitals, however, are a little difficult to quantify for your Joe-Average blogger.

For those interested in how a high-end lithium polymer pack is constructed, I ran across this video disassembly of a Kong Power Lithium Polymer battery pack.

Yeah, I know, not really interesting to a lot of us, but the useful thing is that it dispels rumors about the pack that it had cardboard to disguise puffing batteries, among other issues. I prefer packs that use PCBs rather than just soldering the poles together, as it’s easier to repair or modify the pack if necessary. I also think that I prefer packs with spacers inside, because the few batteries I’ve run to over 300 cycles all had spacers, while among those which didn’t last as long, none did.

Can anyone help with this?

Recently, MS decided to run its automatic update for several service packs:

–Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 Service Pack 1 (KB110806) –Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Service Pack 1 (KB929300) –Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 1.1 Service Pack 1 (KB928366)

These updates have failed several times. no amount of re-downloading and running the install works. The result is that certain mission-critical software applications won’t open (e.g., QuickBooks). I’m stuck in a cycle of turning off the computer, rebooting, waiting for updates to install…and then no avail. Repairing the software doesn’t work.

Ideas?

How do they get away with this scam?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2279347,00.asp

It’s supposed to be illegal to make autodialer calls to mobile phones. In addition, it’s illegal to call a telephone number with a recording unless you have a prior business relationship with the caller, or else if it’s a non-profit or a political candidate. Yet I have received no less than forty recorded messages over the past two months telling me “your warranty is about to expire or has already expired”. If I try to ask questions, I get hung up on. If I try to say “put me on your do not call list”, I get hung up on. In fact, if I do anything other than roll over and give them my VIN number and personal information, I get hung up on.

This is illegal and unethical. I am finding myself wishing I were with Verizon so that I might have someone on my side tracking down these abusive telemarketers.

And I have a sneaking suspicion this is not just any old telemarketing scheme. From reading various forums online, they ask several innocuous questions before getting to the meat of the matter: your credit card number, security code on the back of the number, last four digits of your social security number, etc.

It just makes me so angry that I’m paying for their damn telephone calls every time! I don’t know what to do except rant here. Thanks for putting up with me.

EDIT: Seems similar to this report on ripoffreport.com: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/317/RipOff0317034.htm

In my inbox this morning, I ran across an article relating the sad economic truth regarding stay-at-home parents in What’s a Homemaker Worth? The Shocking Truth.” on MSN.com.

The email chain says a homemaker is worth $500,000 a year.

The actuarial tables say $30,000.

Now, I agree that having a wife and mother stay at home with the children is wonderful. The kids get more love and more treats, more hugs and more kisses, and who can deny the value of raising great kids with a parent at home rather than out in the workplace? But those values are personal and intangible… not financial.

But the article ended with some helpful hints that, despite the gloomy reality of the financial value of a stay-at-home parent, there are a few options to mitigate it:

Go forth and get your ducks in order You should understand just what youre giving up, though, in order to make a rational decision about whether to stay at home and for how long. You also should do what you can to make sure your finances, both short- and long-term, remain sound:

# Disaster-proof your finances. Pay off debt, contribute as much as possible to retirement funds and keep a hefty emergency fund. Single-income families typically should have at least six months living expenses in a safe, liquid account.

# Get insured. You almost certainly wont be able to buy disability insurance for a stay-at-home spouse, but you should be able to get life insurance coverage — and if you have children, you almost certainly need some. The younger your children are, says former insurance agent Catherine Gretta, corporate vice president for New York Life Insurance, the more insurance you need to cover their care. To determine how much insurance you should have, you can talk to an agent or use MSN Moneys Life Insurance Needs Estimator; increase the estimate of your current living expenses by the amount your family would need to pay for child care and housekeeping services.

# Make sure you have retirement savings in your own name. Your spouse can contribute up to $3,000 a year to an Individual Retirement Account for you. (You also can claim half your spouses Social Security benefit if youre married for at least 10 years, and may be able claim a portion of his or her workplace retirement plans as well.)

# Consider working at least part-time once your children reach school age. You may lose much of your wages to the costs of working — taxes, child care, commuting costs. (For more views on this subject, read ” Second incomes: twice the work, half the return,” and “Cost of being a stay-at-home mom: $1 million,” on MSN Money. And try MSN Money’s Second Income Calculator. ) Those losses, however, could be offset by other benefits, such as keeping your job skills current and being able to contribute to a retirement fund or earn pension credits.

The case: e360 vs. Comcast.

Judge James B. Zagel issued a landmark summary judgment against notorious spammer, e360. Basic findings in his “you have no case” dismissal: spam is not protected free speech. Filtering spam is not tortious interference in business. Filtering spam is normal, everyday business practice and e360’s spamming campaigns deserve to be blocked under the Communications Decency Act.

Now I just have to figure out how to refine my email filters to stop the latest round of throw-away-account spam coming from major email providers…

I have a smart phone that incorporates, among other things, internet explorer. I recently ran across a couple web based applications that can be run from my PDA. The two great applications work with Windows Mobile for mapping and finding locations, and both work with or without GPS. Using Internet Explorer on your mobile device, just go to the following websites. (These links only work on your PDA.)

Google Maps google.com/gmm

Local information, directions and maps

Get Google Maps with My Location and find out where you are. Find the nearest…cup of coffee, late-night pizza or last-minute bouquet. Find out if there is traffic up ahead and how to avoid it. Type your destination and get directions

Windows Live Search wls.live.com

Local information and navigation

Find local businesses and restaurants, and click to call them. Get turn-by-turn driving directions. Explore interactive maps with satellite imagery. View current traffic information and find cheap gas stations. See movie show times by theaters.

I thought you all might find these useful.

Yesterday marked the 75th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition! Historians note that Prohibition officially ended on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. But earlier that year, newly-elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt took steps to fulfill his campaign promise to end the national ban on alcohol. He spurred Congress to modify the Volstead Act to allow the sale of 3.2 percent beer in advance of the Twenty-first Amendment being ratified. Thus on April 7, 1933 there was legal beer once again!

Sounds like a good reason to raise a glass today.

I’ve had barnson.org on register.com for a very long time, but all good things must come to an end. Their prices are three times as much as godaddy.com and I simply don’t use their advanced services enough to justify the cost. So I’m moving!

Unfortunately, there may be a brief disruption in service as a result. The web server isn’t going anywhere, but I’ve rarely had a seamless transfer of domains.

People sometimes ask why one would want to go with A123 batteries for radio-controlled aircraft, rather than Lithium-ion Polymer batteries. A123 batteries are heavier, lower voltage, and lower capacity than comparable LiPo batteries. Well, in addition to their tremendous cycle life (more than 1000 recharges, compared to roughly 300-500 for a LiPo), faster recharge times, and slightly lower cost, there’s this reason.