samantha_dega

I saw X-Men origins the other day. I was amazed by the stupidity inherent in the plot, but I think they're taking their lead from the real world.

X-Men:
Stryker says "Find him [Wolverine] and cut his head off."

Nobody asks how. They just go to it. Given this is just after Wolverine got his skeleton infused with indestructible adamantium, "how" strikes me as a good question that needs answering before tackling the job.

US Government:
Obama earmarks 19bn dollars for installing equipment to process electronic health records.

Nobody asks how. Nobody asks what an electronic health record is. To me electronic health records are stuck in the limbo of stupid. They cannot be standardised in the old way until the medical industry has some form common practice to standardise. There is no common practice, because senior management do not want to buy two computer systems (one now, and one when the standards come in) so they are not developing common practice for electronic store of health records. Until they do there can be no standards based on the common practice of the industry.

I guess we'll just have to make do with standards constructed from the top down model. Market Research will decide what doctors need, and programmers will program to that specification. Statute can then be used to force doctors to use the system however much time and however many lives it costs.

So in the few days since I heard about Fravia's death I've found myself close to tears many times. I never met the man, and never saw even a sample of his handwriting. nevertheless, he wrote text that I was able to learn from; text that told me the author wanted me to learn. It is a special thing to close the join between seeker and wiser seeker, and I regret never emailing the man to tell him that I would forward his wisdom to any person that told me they wished to learn.

He wished a viral spread of knowledge of how to manipulate the internet for your own personal ends. I support this and believe it's good for people to understand whom the servers on the internet serve. Also how those people instruct their servers. Also how those instructions can be subverted.

You too, can be Neo fae The Matrix hunting down the knowledge that you desperately need to know. Also you have the hope of finding most of it. Everything will be uploaded eventually.

Only the heat death of the universe, or more balls than we have, can turn off the internet.

woohoo

Just paid off my credit card. My quest to graduate with no money is one step closer to completion.