Healthcare in the USA

It's a fact that other Western democracies have single-payer socialized healthcare systems that are both higher in quality and lower in price than the healthcare "system" in the United States. By "quality" I'm referring to widely accepted standards of healthcare quality, such as infant mortality rate, life expectancy, disease control, etc. So I ask, who could possibly be against higher quality and lower price? Seriously.

If we can't do this in the United States, I ask why not? What magical potion do other Western countries have that we don't? Why can't we get this done? Are they better or smarter than us?

Any opinions I hear on this subject, and I've heard more than I care to, seem to neglect the simple truth that others are already enjoying a healthcare system Americans can only dream of. It's not a pie-in-the-sky goal here.

I understand the Conservative fear of change, even if I disagree with it. But fearing change when something is so fundamentally broken isn't fear anymore. It's batshit, kool-aid-drinking, moon-howling insane. Repeating the same ineffective actions and thinking the outcome will change is, in fact, the definition of insanity.

And if you think, "I have great healthcare already, why would I want to change?" then you're probably in Congress and already on a single-payer government-run system. I know Canadians who have been through major health issues and let me tell you, the worst of their public healthcare system is better than the best private, for-profit system available in the U.S.

Update: After re-reading this, the accusations of insanity are a little over the top and a little out of character for me. But I wrote 'em, so I'll leave 'em there, damn the torpedoes. I do have one other observation though. I see a number of healthy rich and middle class people coming out against single-payer insurance, many claiming that they are happy with their current healthcare options. But I've yet to see one poor or uninsured person coming out against single-payer. What we have here is a class struggle within a fundamental moral disagreement.

What I wrote to the FCC today

I have "high speed" internet. What this means is a connection that's
acceptable for browsing the web and streaming low-quality video. I
realize many people in our country are still confined to dial-up. But
that's not the whole issue. I'm a web developer and I want more. I
need more. I want what other countries already have: fiber-to-the-curb
level access. This is not just a luxury. In order to fully participate
in the cloud-computing infrastructure and the inevitable conversion of
the web to a real-time data platform, my grossly assymetrical (read:
very low upstream bandwidth) connection just doesn't cut it. Believe
me, I've tried. I spent months trying to convert my workflow to take
advantage of the cloud and ultimately gave up in frustration. We're
not third-world when it comes to bandwidth, but we're second world at
best as consumers. I have the best consumer connection money can buy
and it's lacking. I'm considering moving to one of the few locations
in the US where connectivity rivals that of Japan et al.
 
This is not an issue of luxury. This is our economy. The writing is on
the wall. If we don't do something about this now, we'll fall farther
behind. We're 22nd now. The last I looked we were 16th. We're going
the wrong way.
 
If the FCC caves to the well-funded pressures of telco giants, we'll
keep going the wrong way. They're corporate profits and myopic
sensibilities don't serve our needs. As government officials please
remember who it is you're working for. I sincerely hope you can help
the citizens of our country on this vital issue.
 
Thanks for your attention.

Online Backups

A response I left on the NY Times Bits blog. It looks like the moderator dumped it, which suprised me. This is a from-the-trenches opinion/report. I’m getting so sick of abstract technical analysis.

Original story

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/online-backups-could-use-googles-expertise/

My response

The problem with online backup is not the lack of existing services. I’ve tried a few and they each more or less get the job done, with Dropbox and ZumoDrive being exceptional.

The problem is lack of bandwidth in the US. I have a “high speed” internet connection and pay for the “turbo boost” package. Despite the cute marketing terms and the hefty bill, what it boils down to is grossly asymmetrical bandwidth that’s piss-poor on the upstream side. At best, I can push 200MB an hour. At that rate it takes about 500 hours to upload 100GB, which is not even that much data in these days of massive photo files, HD movies, etc. I gave up in frustration and went back to external drives.

While other countries, most notably Japan, work to provide fiber connections to the majority of their citizens, we’re still partying like it’s 1999 here in the US. As a web developer and heavy internet user, I feel strongly that the bandwidth issue is more than just a PITA; it’s hurting our economy.

Don’t think for a second that Google doesn’t know how terrible the user experience is with online backup. They’ve been buying dark fiber on and off for years. But until that fiber gets to the curb, my guess is that they’d rather not deal with the support issues that would arise from a large-scale consumer-focused online storage system.

Awesome FAIL

This is so unbelievably FAIL, that I’ve got to record it for posterity. Unlike my last Time Warner Cable rant, I’m not at all angry, even though it did waste about a half-hour of my time on a Sunday afternoon. I’m more amused than anything.

I haven’t used the old PayXpress system in a while because it was just sorta weird and broken. It’s been so long, I’ve forgotten exactly how. But I got an email that their new system is extra-special shiny, so I went ahead and registered.

I did the usual: created a random strong password. After I registered and paid my bill, I logged out, with the intent of saving the login form in 1password. But, for some reason it wasn’t working. So, I used the username and password reminder options. The username looked fine. But the password had been downcased. WTF?

I copied and pasted the password they sent me into the form. It didn’t work. I double checked and tried again. Here’s the message I got:

You have exceeded the maximum number of failed sign-in attempts. As a result, online access to your account is temporarily disabled. To reset your password, please go to the Sign In page and click the “Forgot Password” link. To retrieve your Username, please go to the Sign in page and click the “Forgot Username” link. Follow the easy on screen instructions to receive your username or password.

So, what, you’ll send me the same password that I’ve been trying unsuccessfully, so that I can attempt to login to an account I’ve been locked out of?

FAIL

Auto Bailout

I’m sitting here listening to some “experts” debate a potential Big 3 auto bailout. Here’s why we need to nix this whole idea and let the chips fall where they may.

I’m in my mid-thirties. For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a negative opinion of American cars. Not because they were American. That’d be silly. It’s because they suck. I remember my father agonizing over the decision to buy our first Japanese car: a 1982 Honda Accord. I also remember that after we bought it, we loved it. We’d say, “is it running?” after we turned it on, because it ran so quiet. It was fuel-efficient, problem-free, and cheap to maintain. You know what my family has done ever since 1982? We’ve bought Hondas. Too many to recall. In the mid-nineties I had a Ford Explorer for a few years. It’s the only car I’ve ever driven that I didn’t like. It’s also the only American car I’ve ever owned.

I’ve got 2 Hondas in my driveway right now. One has 114K miles and one has 175K miles on it. They both run like champs. I change the oil, keep up with regular maintenance and they reward me with reliability. They’re both paid for. I feel like I’ve gotten great value out of these cars.

So, when the Big 3 tell us their big plan is to release a hybrid electric in 2010, when the Japanese automakers are already there, it just reinforces my negative opinions. They tell us to give them tens of billions to play catch-up. No thanks. They’ve had close to 30 years to play catch-up and they’ve done nothing but fall farther behind. Releasing a hybrid vehicle in 2010 is going to do nothing to change my opinion. If the Big 3 can survive and make reliable cars for a number of years, then my opinion will change. But a single car just ain’t gonna do it.

Now, I do feel for the many people who would lose their job if the Big 3 collapsed. But, you know what? Nobody gets a job for life. Nobody gets to rest on their laurels. In my business (software development) if you rest on your laurels for even a couple months you’re gonna get burned. These people can expand their skillset. I’m sure they’ll get nice payouts that give them a cushion. Those that take advantage of that time to improve themselves will be fine. Those that sit on their ass waiting for a job just like the one they had are not going to be fine. I’ve been laid off. It sucks, but you get resourceful and you bounce back. That’s the American way.

A regular joe on the banking crisis

My response to the 9/26/08 edition of John Mauldin’s frontlinethoughts.com, which was sent to me via email. I’d link to the article directly, but apparently Mauldin doesn’t just put content online like a good web citizen would. You have to subscribe to his email newsletter for that. Whatever.

Mauldin makes a lot of points that I don’t have the expertise to diagnose as accurate or inaccurate. And therein lies the problem. Very few people, including those within the financial industry, seem to know what the hell is going on. Every financial analyst gives you his theory, but you start to see a pattern when people like Jim Cramer are right about some things (we’re gonna have a huge mess on our hands) but wrong about others (Wachovia is in good shape). If these experts don’t know what’s up, then who does? Who do I believe? Who do I trust? Is Mauldin right that we have to save the banking industry from itself? Or is Ron Paul right that we let them go into bankruptcy, let the investors take the loss, and keep the dollar from collapsing? All these people are grandstanding and claiming they’re right, yet none of them agree. It all seems like a bunch of self-preservation to me. Which is exactly how not to lead people.

This whole thing happened within a shadow financial system (hedge funds and all) that sprung up, was never regulated, and has now apparently died, all within the space of 20 or so years. It’s the same kind of opaqueness and greed that led to the quick ascendency and ultimate utter failure of Enron, Arthur Andersen, et al. It’s rich people playing games behind closed doors. But the recurring pattern is that the game players get filthy rich and the regular joes of this country just get gamed. Did Enron execs take the hit? Hell no. They gamed themselves enough money to last many lifetimes. But the worker bees who were encouraged to put their meager life savings into Enron stock sure got screwed.

So, regular people are starting to put two and two together. They see the Enron debacle that made a few people very rich, then failed. They see a war that we were urged to support based on what we now know was at best gross misinformation and at worst a pack of lies. And now they see a banking and finance industry that somehow managed to squander away billions of dollars while the executives led platinum-card lifestyles. Hell, even Mauldin, in this article, ends up by telling us how he’s jetsetting all over the world as soon as he gets done telling us he’s the one we should really trust.

I could go on forever about this, but here’s the thing: regular citizens no longer trust the corporate executives and politicians that are running this country. (And I level that criticism at both parties.) They’re fed up and for good reason. They see that wealth is polarized more so than it’s ever been. They know that they’ve gotten lied to and screwed a couple too many times. And it’s about damn time that to draw the line. If this turns out bad for everyone, so be it. But for once it’d be nice to see the truly rich in this country bear some of the burden.

My Time Warner Cable story

So, I have to write this down because it’s at least mildly entertaining.

When I moved into my home a couple months ago, one of my first priorities was to get my internet connection up and running. I scheduled Time Warner Cable (TWC) to come out to the house the day I moved in. At some point that evening I get a call from a guy who says he’s lost and that he’s giving up - it’s already dark outside and he won’t be able to make it in time. But, they’ll send someone out tomorrow morning. Fine. Next morning, nobody shows. I call TWC. They’ll have someone here by 4pm. By this point, I’m ready to get back to work, so I need an internet connection. 4pm comes and goes. No TWC. More phone calls, all on my mobile phone because I have a Vonage phone line - no internet, no land line phone for me. Finally at around 5pm someone shows. He does a little bit of work then comes back in and says, “I’m sorry, the line to your house is completely dead. We’ll have to get a line crew out here to fix it.”

More calls to TWC and it’s finally revealed to me that a line crew will be out in two weeks. Unacceptable. I depend on an internet connection to work. I’ll have to call up the chain at TWC. But one thing is certain: I have no internet and I won’t have it any time soon. So, after setting up my home office, I disassemble it, move my desk to my parents guest room, about a half-hour drive away, and go back to work the next morning. So, I work and I call TWC from my mobile phone line. Lots of calls, lots of being put on hold. When you call TWC and ask for a manager it’s pretty typical to be on hold for 45 minutes.

At some point over the next couple days I decide to check my (totally crappy and regretful) Verizon mobile minutes. I’m already more than 200 minutes over on my allowed minutes for this month. Of course, I’ve never actually even come close to going over before, but without rollover minutes it’s certainly not difficult. I end up changing to a higher plan, just so I can have the time I need to call and sit on hold with TWC.

At some point I’m on a first-name basis with a service manager over at TWC. I think she probably hates me, but nevertheless works it out so that they’ll be out in about five days instead of fifteen. Okay. So a few days come and go and the line crew comes out. Instead of fixing the box that’s on my property, the tunnel under the driveway next door and run the line from the box two houses away. That makes no freaking sense to me, but at this point I don’t care how I get an internet connection, just freaking get me one.

So, I’m online, I’m happy. A couple weeks down the road I get a bill from TWC for something like $700 for unreturned equipment. What? I moved the equipment from my last residence to my new one. I ignore it. I’m just not up to dealing with them on the phone. I thought they’d figure it out. Boy was I wrong.

Days later my cable service gets cutoff for non-payment. I call them and straighten it out. I’ll say this - they’re damn efficient when it comes to collecting your money. I pay them what I actually owe them, get the unreturned equipment thing squared away and within a few minutes my connection is back on.

I’m not sure if it’s related to my service getting cutoff or not, but soon after my internet connection slows to a crawl. I call their tech people. They don’t see a problem in my area. But something’s wrong. I explain that I think it’s a DNS resolution issue. I’m not sure they have any idea what I’m talking about. So, I decide to email them. A few detailed messages later and I’m still getting scripted responses, so I give up on that angle.

I finally decide - you know what, fuck them. I’m switching to DSL and satellite TV. I had been eyeing the pretty satellite TV brochure I got in the mail a few days earlier. Actually I could pretty much care less about TV. The only thing I care about is watching hockey games occasionally. But I need a totally clean break from TWC. I call around. To make a long sub-plot short: I cannot get DSL in my area. I live in a new construction area that’s fairly rural. Oh well. If it’s “high-speed” (and I say that with sarcasm just oozing from my pores) internet I want, it’s TWC I’ll get. Oooh, yes it’s true, I’m so (un)happy to be stuck with you TWC.

A few days later and I’m still being charged $45/month for the AOL dial-up version of the internet and now the TV is going out too. I tell you what, when you call TWC and tell them your television signal is bad, they act like you’re losing blood. I hang up the phone and a TWC van pulls up in front of my house with red lights flashing. The service man gets out of the truck wearing a Jeffrey Bewkes mask. Well, okay, not really. But they were here the next day. They tell me that the line to my house is bad, again. They’ll have to get a line crew out. Again, they are johnny-on-the-spot. The line guy is out over the weekend. I see a TWC van going up and down the street. I figured I’d walk over and say hello and let him know that he’s driven past my house about twelve times. He’s messing with a cable box down the road and muttering something about engineering maths. But he’s there on a weekend and he’s a good guy. He tells me cable for the whole neighborhood is screwed up. Something’s wrong with their network on my street. But, he rubs some cream on it or something and gets it running. A network engineer will be out within a couple days.

My tv is working but my internet connection still sucks. DNS takes forever to resolve. Loading google.com takes 30 seconds. Loading slashdot.org takes over a minute and half the time I don’t even get the styled version of the page, just text. A day or two later there’s a knock at my door and a well-dressed TWC employee with a business card informs me he’s re-splicing the neighborhood. A small army of Time Warner Cable vans is crawling the streets. It’s a little spooky. They’re finally fixing the broken cable boxes, including the one on my property line. Of course, neither me nor anyone else is actually hooked up to that one, but hey, it’s standing proud and ready for action.

A couple hours later the nice, well-dressed man re-appears at my door and tells me that Anderson Cooper will be by my house tomorrow with a fruit basket and sorry for my trouble. I think Fuck Yeah! because I thought Anderson Cooper was a doofus on The Mole, but he’s great as the only actual journalist on CNN. But then I realized the whole Anderson Cooper part was just in my head, but the guy did apologize. And lo and behold, web pages are loading quickly. I’m happy and ready for more web programming action!

Then about 5 minutes later my cable modem is again playing that game where it acts like a dial up. I tell it to stop, but it doesn’t listen. So I drive to Chapel Hill and trade it in for a new one. My new modem is doing the same thing so I call TWC technical support. About half-way into the conversation where they keep re-assuring me that nothing is wrong, even though I’ve tried several computers hooked directly to the cable modem, I get cut off, because my phone is internet-based and my connection blows. I call back again and get someone that asks me to do a traceroute. Hey, this person maybe knows what she’s talking about and we’re making headway into the problem. The traceroute is stars for every hop, even the first one. For those of you who’ve actually read this far and don’t know what that means - it’s proof that my connection sucks, everything is timing out. The tech support person asks me to connect directly to my cable modem. She’s going to do some work on it. In my excitement I say okay and promptly remove the ethernet cable from my router. Oops. No router means no phone. Bye bye helpful and knowledgeable lady. I’ll send Anderson Cooper and his fruit basket your way.

I call back on my mobile phone (and think about how the only reason I have a higher allotment of mobile minutes is because of TWC in the first place). I get a guy who is less knowledgeable but really eager to help. It sounds like it’s his first week on the job or something. He sees the notes from my last call. We re-run the traceroute. This time I get some results on the first 7 or 8 hops and he asks me to read them to him. What? You want me to read these freaking results to you. Again, for those who have actually read this far and who don’t know what a traceroute looks like, imagine reading the VIN numbers for every car on your block over your mobile phone. Seriously. I beg the guy for another way to do it. He actually tells me he’ll get fired if I copy and paste these numbers to a Backpack page and tell him the link. He tells me “I have a family to feed.” Woah. This is getting creepy. So I start reading him the IP adresses, domain names, and every thousandth of a fucking millisecond for each hop. We actually make it through the first 6 hops. All the while my mobile phone connection is sputtering. I was worried about it cutting off. Of course, my worries were justified, the phone cutoff.

IIRC I sort of stumbled through the house ranting at the walls. TWC had reduced me to an incoherent, enraged, directionless fool. At some point, I decided to re-try opendns. My router is an 802.11b dinosaur that doesn’t actually support the configuration needed for opendns. What I didn’t realize is that you can set it up on your computer. I gave it a shot. And miracle of all freaking miracles, it worked!!! The internet was “high-speed” again. Can I get a w00t?!

Of course, going back to my initial call with TWC I suspected that something was wrong with DNS. Instead of listening to me, they just assumed the problem was on my end and that I was misdiagnosing the issue or just making shit up. Either that, or their support protocol demands that we jump through 7000 hoops before they even consider that the issue is on their network, not mine. Whatever.

The moral of this twisted tale is: DO NOT USE TIME WARNER CABLE DNS SERVERS. All that writing and just that one moral. Well, I really just needed to document this and get it off my chest. Later, much later, I’ll read this and laugh about it. For now, the frustration is still fresh.

Dear CNN

Here’s what I emailed CNN this morning. I have about zero chance of anyone paying attention to it. They’ll see my reference to Obama and think “Oh, Obama-bot” and shitcan the whole message, if it even gets that far. Oh well, it still feels good to have said it:

After watching your election coverage over the past couple of months, I’m pretty much convinced that it’s mostly just entertainment. When you push stories just to stir the pot, for example by re-surfacing the baseless claims that Obama is not patriotic because he doesn’t wear some stupid lapel pin, you guys are no better than the contrived conflict moron-a-thon that is reality tv. I’m done watching CNN. Sad a bit about it too, because Anderson Cooper, is a worthwhile journalist. But the rest of your network is contrived, beautified, airbrushed, talking-head shite. Really, you guys are getting your butts kicked by bloggers, which is crazy because they have such limited resources compared to you. And don’t worry, I won’t switch to MSNBC either. They’re just as bad.

Faux news

As anyone who reads reddit knows by now, Ron Paul has not been included in the Fox-sponsored Republican debates in New Hampshire. Furthermore, it appears as if Fox is actually editing AP stories in an attempt to remove any mention of Ron Paul.

Now, I’m not a Ron Paul supporter, even though I respect his views far more than any of the other Republican candidates. But, if it’s not obvious by now exactly what Fox News is, I’ll spell it out. Fox News is not the Republican talking points channel. Fox News is the sponsor of the evangelical Christian religious right/neocon/war mongering people of this country. Simple as that. I can’t believe it’s taken so long, but perhaps finally people will stop viewing them as a legitimate news source.

Actually, Fox News is definitely the worst, but I stopped taking anything CNN has said seriously for years now too. Sorry, I’m just now down with a media conglomerate that promotes as serious journalism a show in which the host has never even used the internet.