Some topics covered:
Read it here. And if you like it, digg it.
If you think you have a story for the UWN, email ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com.
We went to JapanFest Saturday. Lots of vendors hawking their wares, a few food vendors, but we missed the good stuff and some of the lines were too long.
All the pictures can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/boredandblogging/tags/japanfest/
Over at ZDNet.com, Dana Blankenhorn blogs about how insurance companies are controlling the information that should be kept between doctors and patients. Electronic health records (EHR) systems cost $44,000 to install, $8,500/year to maintain, per doctor. But money isn’t the main concern. The insurance companies subsidize the costs of the systems and lock in proprietary systems and “if insurers are able to control EHR architecture privacy will never be protected, as it’s not in their interest to protect it.”
And this is where Blankenhorn gets OSS:
But in the end it’s the transparency of the code, not its cost and not who it comes from…[it's] not that doctors want to write code. But if they can see the code, they can pay people to protect that code in their interest.
It’s an interesting question, one which also impacts other professions as well. When the code is visible you can easily hire someone to protect your interests in what it does. When it’s invisible others have that power.
Also, there is an interesting (Slashdot-like) site devoted to Linux in the medical profession: GNU/Linux Medical News. On the sidebar, it states
GNU/Linux Medical News is THE site for Linux, Free and Open Source medical software news. We actively cover news about Free and Open Source: Electronic Health Records, EHR, Medical Billing, Electronic Medical Record, EMR and Practice Managment systems…Can free and open source medical software provide less expensive, better medical care? Yes! We provide insightful articles and maintain a comprehensive listing of open source and Linux medical software projects.
One story mentions how the Swedish state pharmacy will be using RHEL in 900 of its pharmacies.
Its good to see Linux spread its wings and make an impact in a field we don’t traditionally discuss.
Yes, if you haven’t seen my previous Meerkat Manor post, I am a bit addicted. Either way, watch these promos for the third season of Meerkat Manor (which has already started). They are short and include Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears:
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Martin Owens (DoctorMO) and the Massachusetts Team has organized the purchase and distribution of high quality aluminium case badges to LoCos and individuals.
At the moment, they are in the process of mailing out the ordered badges.
Awesome project, Massachusetts!
Update: if you or your LoCo is interested in getting some badges, email Martin. You will find his email address on the wiki.
Some topics covered:
Read it here. And if you like it, digg it.
If you think you have a story for the UWN, email ubuntu-marketing-submissions@lists.ubuntu.com.
While preparation for the Gutsy installfest has begun, the Georgia US Team will be holding a Gutsy release party in the metro Atlanta area in a few weeks:
Meehan’s has wifi, so bring along your laptops.
Just like the installfest, Joshua Chase did a great job finding a place to hold the release party.
So, if you are in the Atlanta metro area and would like to be notified of the details as the date gets closer, please join the mailing list, keep an eye on the wiki, or drop by #ubuntu-georgia on irc.freenode.net.
Last night, my Internet connection got very choppy. I couldn’t pull up any sites in the browser and couldn’t ping any IPs at all. Stuff happens, so I went to sleep thinking that it would probably be fixed this morning.
Around 11am this morning, I notice that the lights are all solid green. So I try to pull up some sites in the browser, and I keep getting sent to a static “Welcome to Comcast…” page. Calling the Comcast support line, a customer support rep tells me that they need to reprovision some of the cable modems and that my service should be back up in an hour or two, but definitely by 2pm.
Being one of those people who can’t seem to live without the Internet, I call Comcast back around 2:30pm when I’m still getting the same static page.
This time a different rep tells me that the first rep was wrong, and it could take about 6 hours, so I should have service back by 5pm. Ok, again I think, stuff happens, who knows.
While knowing that the front-line tech support does not always know what is really happening in the field, I ask the rep what the problem was. He told me (and I assume with a straight face), that I hadn’t logged into my @comcast.net email account for a long time and it probably triggered a security issue.
Yes, that obviously must be the problem.
Update: After being down for more than 24 hours, my Comcast service is back up. The last tech support rep I talked to said that Comcast does indeed check email logins as a security measure, but that wasn’t related to my issue. There was some kind of upgrade around the Atlanta area that required my cable modem to be provisioned again. On the upside, my speeds do seem better than before.
