BOFH: Loss adjuster discovers liability is a two-way street BOFH logo telephone with devil's horns It turns out that our major network core upgrade didn't go as planned. Replacing a three-stack switch AND a firewall in one go is no one's idea of fun, so we decided to run all the new kit up in a storeroom and push the existing configs across to it. Everything went seamlessly until the …
Just in case you were wondering. ;)
If you trust some gratuitous browser AI that kicks off with:
People also ask "Has there ever been a full moon on February 29th?"
What people ? Not normal people surely ? El Rego commentards excepted of course perhaps.
They are unusually close together for full moon on leap days. I had guessed it would be a one in 28 chance every 4 years so averaging out at one day every 112 years. However that random AI tells me that the synodic month is 29.5 days making it average out to 118 years. Then it factors in the fact that we only apply the leap day 97 times (ish) in 400 years so the frequency averages out at one day ever 122 years. All of which makes if just perfect for inclusion in insurance policy fine print.
That sounds even worse than Oregon which Jeff Foxworthy described as "almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction".
I live East of the Cascades so it rains less and I mark seasons by events. Fall, the irrigation canals are drained, Winter the crunch of studded tires , Spring the irrigation canals are refilled, Summer, the first hotshot crews arrive. (forest fire season). At least we get enough snow in winter for good skiing
saving the best bit until last
And thus died a new keyboard
Ps... we had a pushy salesman leave his car in front of one of the roller doors.... nothing a large wooden pallet and the forklift didnt cure ..
Along with... " I'm sure I never parked there" when said salesman was pushed out.....
A previous lead worker of mine had difficulty bending down, so for convenience, he would use a forklift to raise his vehicle to above head-height to do the oil changes, out in the company's back lot.
CAUTION: You must spread the forks, and drive the forklift sufficiently-accurately to ensure the forks are positioned directly beneath the reinforced jacking points on the vehicle*. If you fail in this, vehicle damage will occur.
* Optional step when lifing annoying persons' vehicles.
The Boss's insecurities force him to act busy while the team is doing things that he won't/can't understand.
It can be a useful thing to create a diversion for those kind of people. Like when a woman is ready to give birth they tell the men to "go tear up cloths." It gives them something to do.
When young children do that it is called "parallel play".
Happy Friday the 13th all.
>It was only water.
Not just 'water' but likely quite pure water as well. The kit should survive just fine after drying out.
Roof runoff, seawater etc., all bets are off.
(FWIW -- We used to cool a bit of kit using de-ionized water. The cooled part was sitting around 10kV so the cooling system circulated this non-conductive water through a couple of flexible plastic pipes.)
Insurance is the epitome of the Catch-22. If you do something to prevent the accident, you foresaw the accident, and are therefore likely guilty of insurance fraud. If you do nothing to prevent the accident, you are careless, and therefore guilty of negligence.
Heads the insurance company wins; tails you lose.
"Heads the insurance company wins; tails you lose."
True, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun in the process. A mate of mine (who already knew that in terms of insurance his coverage didn't amount to more than the scrap value of his car) once claimed the cost of a crane and tow truck because his car had water in the carburetor.
Insurer: "Why on earth did you need a crane and tow truck to deal with water in the carburetor?"
Mate: "Well, it's got to do with how the water got in there."
Insurer: "So how did it get in there?"
Mate: "The handbrake failed."
Insurer: "How is that relevant?"
Mate: "That's how the car ended up at the bottom of the canal."
Insurer: "The... canal?"
Mate: "Yes. That's how the water got into the carburetor."
I went thru a rather nasty claim all of last year. Hail, roof damage. Insurance delayed, denied, etc. Ended up getting a lawyer. Worked out. I got 70%, lawyer got 30, and insurance was out 100 in the end. Dropped them like a stone after it was over. State Farm in case anyone wonders. Although I imagine my new carrier is just as bad. All those premiums I paid for 20 years loyally really got me something. The buggers never even bothered to get on the roof to look before denying for almost a year.
About par for the course from what I've heard about State Farm.
It's an evil industry, especially the US's "health insurance" system, which is merely the most egregious out of all the insurers. There's a reason the guy who gunned down that CEO is a folk hero to so many people. It's inherent in the way insurers work, namely to get people to pay monthly but never paying out. Their whole business model is predicated on taking your money and never letting go of it. Homeowner's insurance, say, for wildfires in California or floods and hurricanes in Florida is prohibitively expensive if available at all.
Just to give non-USians an idea on the healthcare one, my premiums for that went up 50% this year, and my provider is supposedly a non-profit. I'm paying about $300 a month, and that's with my workplace covering 80% of the premiums. I just got a bill for over $500 for a CT scan. They decided to only partially cover the procedure and I had no notification that they were going to do that. And that's on top of the series of co-pays they took. And that's with both insurer and provider being different tentacles of the same beast.
Yeah healthcare is the worst. Although I saw about state farm was chilling. They view claims as a profit center. Like WTF.
But back to health. For decades I paid my own as self employed. When I first went solo, what a shock insurance was. And as I got older, frightening. I was shelling out around 800/mo with a 9500 deductible. And they paid nothing until I hit the deductible. Fortunately, healthy so wasn't a problem, but yikes. Close to 18 grand a year before anything is covered.
Now medicare, and old school medicare not medicare disadvantage. I've had a couple things now, and what a difference. Its handled and practically any provider. I just had a basal whacked off my nose and I think it would have been 5 grand. Covered since my deductible (around 200 bucks) had been met by a routine doc visit earlier in the year. Really, you can't wait to get on medicare. US has such a weird system. Make it to 65 and you get good inexpensive coverage. (although if you meet IRMAA, it starts to get a little more like regular health premiums)
That's the crappy thing. I'm looking for another job, but I'd have to go 90 days without coverage if I quit where I am. No way I could make the >1500 a month that mine would cost without work picking up most of the tab just to keep coverage. At least my max deductible is already hit ($250) and my max out of pocket is about $7k.
It's horrifying.
My maximum out of pocket is £114.50 for an NHS prepayment certificate. (Though you do need to remember to get it less than a month after your first prescription.)
The other interesting thing is that the NHS massively reduces the cost of private health insurance. The average monthly premium for a family of four is apparently under £200 a month.
Private health insurance is a taxable employment benefit, so you'd pay income tax on the premium if your employer pays - so the above premium would effectively cost you £40-£90 a month, depending on your salary. The deductible is generally zero.
Ha ha, had me splitting my sides, that one.
I know someone who suddenly developed several medical conditions after a particularly bad bout of CoViD. They are now on three different types of medication which were originally prescribed fortnightly, so at £9.90 per item that would be £59.40 per month, or about as much as it costs to fill the car with petrol, a car necessary for work. Fortunately this person is in Wales, so prescriptions are free for all and also over time the regime has settled down and the doctor is now prescribing on a monthly cycle which would have halved the cost anyway, but prescription charges can still be a major worry for some people.
NHS Prescription Charges Information.
M.
I'm quite jealous. I kinda wish that private insurance was just to cover the "extras" or for concierge care. And a primarily private system just doesn't make sense in the first place. The only way they could even break even here[1] would be some combination of subsidies, charging arm + leg + firstborn, and denial of care. And of course, investors want to make huge and endlessly growing profits on top of that, further taking public funds, everything a person can pay and still say "no" for a necessary procedure.
[1] Of course, more money is spent just dealing with the fscking billing than actual patient care.
If you have insurance through your current employer, check into the possibility of COBRA coverage from them. An interesting thing about COBRA is you have 60 days to enroll and pay the premium. So if you are willing to roll the dice a little you can wait until day 59 to sign up.
The only time I was faced with the COBRA choice, I had up to day 59 to enroll, but then another 30 days to pay the premium or give up the policy. I left that part out because I don't know if that 30-day payment window was specific to my situation/policy, rather than the 60-day enrollment that is guaranteed by law.
So I really was only at risk for 1 day; I had to sign up by day 59 but then had until day 89 to pay the premiums for days 1-90 if I wanted the policy to be in effect.
During those 90 days, I had to take a child to the ER. It turned out paying the hospital directly for that visit was still cheaper than the COBRA premiums would have been, so I never did elect to pay for the policy, but it was a good thing to have available in case of a catastrophe. If the ER visit had been more serious, or if someone in my family had been injured or needed surgery, etc., then I would have paid.
Good luck!
I have worked in the US years ago and had direct experience of the US health system after an accident in a best built American car. It was crap! I now live in Australia with a reasonably good socialist (USians will read communist) health system. Costs me $7.20 a script, doctor visits are free. Over the years I have had several job offers to come and work in the US. With my previous experience of the health system and the incredible love of guns (I was in Texas) I just said no
One of thee many reasons that i would never want to live in the United States,
The healthcare in the UK may not be brilliant but we do not have the concept of going bankrupt because of healthcare bills.
Please note: I visited the usa once (Just before COVID) once and we had a great time and the people were friendly.
Would i visit again, with TRUMP in power NEVER.
I'd like to get out, personally. Just a number of things making it difficult at the moment. I'd much rather be complaining about the NHS (or local equivalent) than this current issue. My last raise was basically wiped out by premium increases and now this nonsense. As much as people criticise the NHS for waits, I've got those *and* am paying through the nose.
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