Microsoft

I don't hide the fact I hate Microsoft. And yes I live in the Puget Sound where that stupid company is king behind Boeing. They're still a company to be hated, and I learned even more why this week when I had to create an account on a medical laboratory system to retrieve my test results.

The lab no longer mails test results to the patient, only the doctor. They have pushed people to enroll on their Website to review and retrieve their results, and they use Microsoft's HeathVault system for their database which means you have to enroll in Microsoft's database too.

I don't have anything Microsoft and never planned to until now, and even after a month of waiting to get them to mail my results they didn't, I had to enroll in their system, but first I had to enroll in Microsoft's system.

That's bad enough since I don't use Microsoft and they now have my information, but it's worse than that as I learned, because they already had my information even when I've never had anything to do with Microsoft, their services or their products.

I know this because when I created the account they showed me all the places I've lived for the past 35 years and asked which one wasn't correct (one was wrong), down to the street name, and I suspect even the house or apartment number too if they wanted.

I don't know how or where they got the information but that's spooky to me since I haven't dealt with them and haven't put past addresses going back 40 years or so in any on-line database or on any application outside of the government.

What also bothers me is that lab company using Microsoft and their software/database system, which may make work easier for them, doesn't create any sense of security in their customers when they see a software company now has your health information.

And all the privacy laws now under the Affordable Care Act are meaningless as they share this information with any company with an interest disguised as a need. Yeah, you're a customer and a product, a product for them to sell you and your information.

All the more reason to really hate Microsoft more. If I could get out from the lab company I would but it wouldn't change the fact Microsoft still knows more about me than they should, they showed me now and teaching me not doing anything with a company doesn't mean they don't know you or have you information.

Healthcare System

The problem with the medical system in the US is that unless a problem is obvious with a patient from the signs, symptoms and the tests, no one in the whole system has a clue what's wrong or any idea what to do next, other than to tell you it's normal and make you feel guilty for being sick, or start the guessing game of conditions and tests and hope something happens to make the problem obvious. Such is the state of our "advanced" healthcare system today. All that money and they still can't answer questions or solve problems to make people better.

Adobe CC 2014

Well, I updated my Adobe CC applications, and discovered some interesting stuff Adobe is doing, but it's becoming clear that Adobe has abandoned Creative Suite (CS) applications, from CS6 on back and moving people to the subscription Creative Cloud (CC).

But then they also decided to abandon CC applications for CC 2014 applications. All of the updates are new applications. So what happened. For one Creative Cloud generates spindumps message and crash reports when you open it.

For one, they've lost the order of the applications in the application window. They used to be alphabetically, but now it's random bunches totally out of order. Did anyone actually test anything before they released it or are they relying on users?

Ok, onward. One, Dreamweaver (DW) CC 2014 won't open. No messages, nothing. It won't open. Muse CC 2014 generates a ton of CoreTex performance note messages, about Client called CTFontCreateWithName... messages.

For another Photoshop CC 2014 takes a long time to open files and the cross-hairs are hard to see in images in the window. I had to use a cursor coordinator application to show me where it was in the window.

I haven't checked others yet, in part because I'm angry DW CC 2014 won't open to see if they fixed anything they've known with DW CC. I'm even more angry they've known about problems with DW CS6 since Apple released OS-X 10.9.0.

All I got in response from them is that the problems have been known and are on the list to fix, maybe with DW CC 2014. So are they with DW CC 2014? I'd like to know if the application would open.

Change

I'm only a casual observer of the political landscape but over the last few years, as many analysts and pundits have noted, the two political parties are changing. That's obvious to anyone, even me, but it's changing in ways no one thought let alone predicted.

With the loss by Eric Kantor in his primary race to a far right Tea Party candidate, and rather soundly too, that leaves questions and a hole in the short-term future of the Republican party, one that more and more House Speaker Boehner has failed to manage let alone control.

With that in mind, to me there are now four political parties. There's the two in the Republican party, meaning the right wing and Tea party members and the old guard traditional conservative members. The moderate, more centrist, members are out on a limb going "WTF."

The Democratic party has two groups, and likely 3 or more if you look at subgroups. There's the ever present left wing liberals which include many progressive independents, like myself. And there's the old, traditional moderate democrats who have shown abslutely no backbone to stand up for the American people, for their own party and against the Republicans.

One lesser group in numbers is the old conservative (blue dog) democrats who are almost extinct in the party and politics, replaced with republicans. What's missing in this mix are the libertarians who are in the Republican party but even they have become their own subgroup.

What all this means is which party has the leadership to keep themselves from splintering apart, and so far it appears to be the Democrats but underneath the surface there's the same tension and stress as in the Republican party, just less public.

The Democrats have the problem they made political decisions in negotiations with Republicans which angered their members because the Republicans have always reniged on their agreements to make the Democrats look weak, taking the blame for everything.

The anger within the Democrats has shown their problem is the divide between the traditional groups of moderates and liberals, moderates winning within the party but losing with the Republicans, causing the liberals to blame their own leadership for their failures.

So in 2014, for what it's worth, that's what I see, lots of divisiveness in both parties, and both need to change to win. The question is the November election to control the House and Senate, and then set up the fight for 2016 in both and the President.

The Republicans need to resolve their internal fight which isn't likely as both sides are far apart on the issues and only united against President Obama, something that's not sustainable in general elections. The Democrats need to stand up and fight for the American people or lose. It's that simple for them. Get some backbone and a voice.

As Rusty Wallace said, "Stay tuned Hotrod, we're just getting started."

VA

With all the problems of the Veterans Administration (VA) some proposals on the table see great short term solutions for getting through the backlog and waiting list for care for veterans.

First, the VA can authorize veterans to access and use private healthcare providers for services and treatment currently not available or with long wait times similar to Medicare.

Second, the VA can simply buy basic health insurance for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to get immediate healthcare, through the health exhanages in the states or through a national program where it's not availble.

Third, the VA can move non-war related healthcare for older veterans, eg. WWII, Korean war and Vietnam-era veterans, to their private health insurance with voucher to afford the insurance for their healthcare.

Fourth, the VA can review the current backlog to prioritize healthcare. This they have been doing but should do more. I know some veterans using the VA facilities for healthcare not service related and have access to alternative healthcare services.

This Congress can immediately authorize and fund and help veterans get healthcare and give the VA time to resolve their longstanding problems to eventually return veterans to VA professionals and facilities.

It's been reported the vast majority of veterans eligible for VA service, like myself, use their own health insurance for their healthcare. This works as we don't want to make the VA's problems worse