* Posts by Southernboy

25 publicly visible posts • joined 2 Mar 2018

Patients wrongly told they've got cancer in SMS snafu

Southernboy

Re: Error correction was worse

I agree. The canned "we apologise for the inconvenience" follow-up is crass. Inconvenience??

How about "we apologise for the worry and concern that the email could have caused" or similar?

Southernboy

Re: We take patient communication, confidentiality and data protection very seriously

See above. It wasn't telling the patient they had cancer.

It was to another medical professional relating to an administrative task. Unfortunately had cancer etc. in the text.

Still a fuck up though.

Southernboy

Re: Is this common?

Yes, that's how I read it.

A DS1500 is completed by a medical professional, not the patient. So it's not telling the patient they've got cancer, and if I'd got the message, I would have realised it wasn't intended for me.

*However* - I'm reading this as someone married to a GP, who's used to reading this sort of stuff. I can quite understand the upset this would have caused for a patient receiving it.

In reply to other comments. I regularly get texts from my practice, never with anything confidential, but reminding me of appointments, or to check for results if I've got my NHS app. All very useful.

As others have pointed out - why send out a "Merry Christmas" message anyway? Just a chance for things to go wrong - as has been demonstrated.

Elon Musk starts poll with one question: Should I step down as head of Twitter?

Southernboy
WTF?

Dubious governance/process?

How valid is a poll of only those who happen to follow him?

Classically not-thought-through process on his part. But hey, this is Elon.

How do you solve the problem that is Twitter?

Southernboy

But given how he meddles, he'll have a view on which bit of elections he thinks *should* be interfered with. On a whim.

CT scanning tech could put an end to 100ml liquid limit on flights by 2024

Southernboy

The dim and distant past and X-Ray film

I've told this before but hey.

Many moons ago (1980s), my wife was travelling to Tanzania carrying X-Ray film, as the hospital she was going to be working at needed new supplies.

Arrived at security.

1. "This can't go through that X-Ray machine, as it contains X-Ray film"

2. "No madam, this machine won't damage film"

Repeat 1 and 2 above several times.

Eventually, she had to change her approach.

"Look carefully, X-RAY FILM on this packet. X-RAY MACHINE in front of us, get the connection?" (yes even aged 24, she wasn't fazed by authority).

They eventually took he packet (and her, I fear!) into a darkened room to fumble with the packet (the packet I said) to check it wasn't going to explode, and she was allowed through.

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison

Southernboy

Re: Were people at risk?

Well, from the book or podcast on it (can't remember which). There's at least one patient who suffered as a result.

A lady who'd suffered at least 2 miscarriages. Theranos result showed she was going to lose her current baby. Doctor flummoxed by results, had reliable reputable test done, all OK.

Just think of the distress that mother went through.

FTX collapse prompts other cryptocurrency firms to suspend withdrawals

Southernboy

And 134 affiliated firms??

Is this a typo - 134 affiliated firms filing for bankruptcy?

Hot, sweaty builders hosed a server – literally – leaving support with an all-night RAID repair job

Southernboy
Mushroom

Need cooling? A jet engine's the answer

Reminds me of this very important research work. Glad it's still available.

https://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/

Icon for what could go wrong.

September 16, 1992, was not a good day to be overly enthusiastic about your job

Southernboy

I actually made money on it!

At the time we were living in New Zealand.

We'd gone out early 1992, and returned late 1993. We bought a boat for $23,000 (IIRC) July 1992 and sold it for less when we left, around late 1993.

However, when converted back to sterling, we got more back than we'd taken out with us.

For once...

IBM tells POWER8 owners: The end is nigh for upgrades

Southernboy
FAIL

Externalized???

"While we have not yet externalized..."

WTF is "externalized"? How about "published'?

Say what you see: Four-letter fun on a late-night support call

Southernboy

Reminds me of x-ray film fun and games

My wife, as a very young medic, was travelling by air with x-ray film in her hand baggage

Got to the security gate (smart readers may see where this is going).

Wife: "I've got x-ray film in here, it can't go in the x-ray machine"

Security guard:"It's ok madam, it doesn't harm film"

Wife: "It's x-ray film, it will harm this"

(Repeat above several times)

Wife: "Look" holds package saying "x-ray" on it up near x-ray machine. "x-ray film, and x-ray machine".

Eventually the penny dropped for the guard, and they went into a darkened room (those were the days) where the guard fumbled with the package to make sure it didn't contain stuff which might go bang.

OneCoin lawyer trial kicks off in NY as cryptocurrency founder remains on the lam

Southernboy

Re: Earned A Precarious Living By Taking In Each Others Laundry

Except it's not a simple as that.

It wasn't promoted as MLM - more like a revolution which would 'Bank the unbanked' - making it attractive to people who weren't financially literate and who were outside what we consider a normal banking system.

Coupled with the immense cult-like marketing and following it garnered, as is often the case, those least able to afford to lose money were drawn in and lost their houses (literally in some cases).

Southernboy

Re: Earned A Precarious Living By Taking In Each Others Laundry

The scheme was powered by MLM and yes some of the people at the top of the pyramid did make money out of it.

But a huge number of ordinary people were taken in by the promises of the returns, and have lost money which they could not afford to lose. As is often the case, it's those with the most to lose and the least resources to pursue justice who suffer.

The BBC podcast 'The Missing Crypto Queen' is an interesting and depressing listen. Try listening to the Ugandan asking the BBC presenter if he's got good news for his mother, who spent all her savings - earmarked for opening a maize store - on OneCoin. That money's never coming back.

IR35 blame game: Barclays to halt off-payroll contractors, goes directly to PAYE

Southernboy

Re: "having more than one client at a time almost certainly puts you outside IR35"

No it's not enough. Each client and contract is assessed individually. I had two part time contracts. One was in IR35, one wasnt.

I don't have to save my work, it's in The Cloud. But Microsoft really must fix this files issue

Southernboy

They're still blackboards

Southernboy

I reefuse to call them chalkboards.

They are boards. They are black. They.are blackboards.

Just like whiteboards are white.

Are you sure you've got a floppy disk stuck in the drive? Or is it 100 lodged in the chassis?

Southernboy
Happy

The best for a long time

I have only just managed not to end up with a keyboard covered with half-chewed doughnut. This is the best I've read for some time!

Not so smart after all: A techie's tale of toilet noise horror

Southernboy

Musicians too

My daughter's boyfriend is a runner and violinist in the local orchestra.

She spotted the flaw in his claim that his (fitness device had said) he'd run 5k during rehearsals.

Reliable system was so reliable, no one noticed its licence had expired... until it was too late

Southernboy

1998 system still running

Visited a small engineering company last week, to review their request for an order management system.

The current system is using Lotus Approach - the about screen showing 1998 and references to 'Year 2000 updates' (from memory - seems a bit early to be thinking of 2000). So it's been in use for 20 years.

It's still running and the advice was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

To be fair - it is running on a Windows 7 machine - so something has been updated in the meantime.

We are going to fix it though - they use QuickBooks and there are add-ons which do all they want, integrated into QuickBooks. So recommendation is to move to this.

Progress!

German competition watchdog tells Facebook to stop combining user data without consent

Southernboy

Re: The "But I don't care about them slurping my data" argument

Who says I need to be rational?

Southernboy

The "But I don't care about them slurping my data" argument

I'm not on Facbook for all the above reasons.

My wife is happy to use Facebook and doesn't care if they're harvesting all her activity and her friends' activity and details. She says "So what - I've got nothing to hide, and I don't care that they are doing this".

Has anyone got a good argument against this? Apart from my stock "But they just shouldn't be doing it, 'cos it's evil" response. I really need to give her a proper reasoned argument.

Responses here or links welcome!

Microsoft liberates ancient MS-DOS source from the museum and sticks it in GitHub

Southernboy

Some gold in the QUICK.txt file

This is a quick reference to internal and external commands.

Some really honest descriptions in here:

EDLIN

Ridiculous editor

PRINT

The infamous background file printing utility which

fools you into thinking MS-DOS can do something it

really can't.

CONFIG.SYS

A special file which will do all sorts of wonderous

things when the system is booted.

Uber and NASA pen flying taxi probe pact

Southernboy

So how dangerous are helicopters?

So these will allegedly be safer than helicopters?

Guess what, helicopters don't fall out of the sky just because a single component fails. (Or at least it's very very rare).

And the wonderful idea that auto control is better than pesky pilots... no time to get into that discussion.

My PC is broken, said user typing in white on a white background

Southernboy

Re: No computer experience in 2005?

Nice reference. Just finished watching the series.