Шаманско-компьютерное с ithappens.ru

#1102: Опасайтесь подделок
27 июля 2009, 20:30
рейтинг: 1034

Работал я как-то в компании, достаточно крупной, чтобы иметь IT-отдел из 4-х человек. Проблем с оборудованием и программами было много, поэтому отдел имел график сверхурочных дежурств. Основная задача «группы продлённого дня» заключалась в том, чтобы с 18 до 22 «прыгать с бубном» вокруг сервера.

Бубен действительно был, правда, плохонький, переоборудованный из детской игрушки — помогало, но мало. Мне было жаль ребят, поэтому из поездки в Хакасию я привез копию шаманского бубна, купив его в краеведческом музее Абакана. После пары сеансов количество проблем пошло на убыль. Думаю, если бы удалось достать оригинал, отдел можно было бы смело сократить до одного человека.

#1099: Подъём с переворотом
26 июля 2009, 09:00
рейтинг: 1924

Вызвали как-то мастера-аутсорсера в бухгалтерию одной из фирм-клиентов. По прибытию на место бухгалтер, женщина средних лет, спокойно рассказала, что принтер (так скромно был назван МФУ) плохо печатает, «полосит», но если его перевернуть и потрясти, то некоторое время работает нормально.

— Так вы и картридж вытаскивать умеете! — воскликнул умилённый приёмом мастер.
— А зачем его вытаскивать? — сказала настоящая русская женщина и, взяв агрегат в руки, без усилий подняла его, перевернула и потрясла.

A Canadian's View on Health Care

A cross-border health care crisis

If Barack Obama were elected Prime Minister of Canada, how would he fix health care? It is not an idle question.

American politics is necessarily interesting to Canadians for several reasons. It's inherently fascinating, even horrifying, because it's so exuberant. In American politics things actually happen, whereas here you get the feeling that if Christ were to return in glory, commentators would assess its impact on Tory prospects in Quebec.

Also, American politics affects what the hyperpower might do next, interesting to everyone but especially its largest trading partner and closest neighbour. And finally, while in many ways unique, the U.S. also shares many traits and some public policy problems with Canada. Including the crippling stress of public health care on the government budget.

I know, I know, people say the U.S. doesn't have a public health care system. It's time to wonder what else such commentators don't know, since Medicare and Medicaid already consume 20 per cent of the American federal budget, with much worse to come. [...]

I asked at the outset what Barack Obama would do about Canadian health care. In fact I don't even know what he'll do about the American stuff since during the election he promised a massive expansion of a system already threatening the federal government with insolvency and abdication of its core responsibilities. Yes, he also said he'd go through the budget line-by-line eliminating waste. But I downloaded the detailed "Appendix" to the "Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year 2009" and it's 1,314 pages long. If Mr. Obama can get through one page an hour deciphering the items and making intelligent judgments about what to cut, by how much and how, and devotes 10 hours a day to it seven days a week despite a few other duties attendant on the presidency, he'll be at it from Inauguration Day until late on the morning of June 1, so after lunch he can start trying to get Congress to go along with his cuts. Which will either come from the 54 per cent of the budget that's entitlements or won't make much difference. And either way won't alter the lethal long-term trends.

If he were in charge in Canada, he'd have a remarkably similar problem and dismal lack of solutions. Which surely tells you something about the sustainability of public health care. And politicians who promise to save it by expanding it.

Full article at http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=e8efa1d3-6042-403d-adb8-9a7319d9955a

Mortgage Deja Vu

Some time ago I started hearing mortgage ads on the radio. EastWest Mortgage is advertising FHA loans, including - get this - "no-income and no-asset verification loans".

Hmm... Where have we seen this before?