While I agree the health care system certainly needs to be revamped, I don't believe the method they came up with is the best way to go about doing so.

Why make it so damn complicated ? Four levels of plans, different levels of coverage / premiums, availability determined by regional areas, IRS involvement, etc.
Really ?

There are more than a few countries who already have national health care systems in place ( France and Canada right off the top of my head ) so why would we try to reinvent the wheel here when systems already exist ( and have for many, many years ) that work ? I would rather pay a slightly higher Federal Tax and be totally covered than deal with the debacle that we now have. I know they were trying their best to get folks to believe that this wasn't a new " tax ", but only the naive still believe that. Hell, even the Supreme Court allowed it to stand because:

"The Affordable Care Act's requirement that certain individuals pay a financial penalty for not obtaining health insurance may reasonably be characterized as a tax," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling. "Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness."

So, now that the cat is out of the bag and it's officially a tax, just raise the overall Tax on everyone to pay for it already. Would be far easier than the debacle we now have.

I don't see where the current implementation is going to do much good. When, in the entire HISTORY of the United States Government, has ANYTHING ever came in at or under budget projections ? Ever ? Anyone ? So when this monstrosity does what I think it will, what do you think the premium prices are going to do ? ( Hint, they're not going to go down and guess whose pocket it will be coming out of )

Another thought I've had is the coverage itself is woefully inadequate without one other "fix" in place.

Here's why:

Years ago I had a family member who had a heart bypass performed. He was in the hospital for about a month. When it was all said and done, the bill came in and checked in at just shy of HALF A MILLION DOLLARS.

Assume the health plan picks up a generous 75% of that bill. That leaves us with roughly $125k. Annual limit out of pocket expenses are $6k. So the remaining $119k the hospital is going to harass you for -eternity- to get because when you get admitted to the hospital, you sign a form that agrees YOU will pick up any costs the insurance doesn't cover. If you don't sign it, you don't get admitted. Failure to pay it will result in debt collectors, phone calls, letters, threats of litigation, etc. etc.

Does anyone really think that folks who are utilizing last resort government health care plans can EVER pay off a debt like that ? Hell, can you ?

And should you ? This is the real fix that needs to happen. Health care industry pricing is the ENTIRE reason we even have to HAVE insurance to begin with. No one can possibly afford the prices they charge without insurance. ( You 1% types don't count ) It's just insanity. Anyone who has ever looked at their hospital bill will agree. ( Really ? $5 for a Q-Tip ? )

So the easier fix for this is two-fold:

1) One plan that covers everything for everyone paid for by an increase in the Federal Tax and
2) The regulation of the health care industries out of control price gouging.

Hell, maybe we can help pay for this with some of the NSA's budget :D Punishment for their questionable behavior as of late. If we quit playing World Policeman, we could also cut our defense budget in HALF and use that to help pay for this thing. ( Hint, it's how the other countries pay for theirs. They don't have the largest defense budget on the planet :D )

can watch and learn a lot from their Hollywood brethren since they seem to be on the same path.

Games with a story ? Bah. Story takes a back seat to effects and eye candy these days. Give me a good story and I can forgo crazy visuals. Give me a good story AND crazy visuals and you've got a rare gem on your hands.

With all the silliness in the courts anymore, looks like in order to maintain any sort of confidentiality we're gonna have to take a chapter from the military's book on how to keep the secret stuff. . . well . . . secret. ( Not their new book mind you, since the Chinese are stealing secrets left and right these days :D )

Radical, probably. Effective ? Absolutely.

Of your hard drive stack, ensure the top slot is available. Open an old drive chassis and gut it. Fill with Thermite. Place said unit above other drives. I leave it to you to figure out how to wire it out to initiate the burn. Perhaps a key or, for the really paranoid, wire it to fire by opening the chassis ( intrusion switch ) or ( insert your own imaginative idea here ).

The idea here isn't to make an explosive, just some molten metal to wreak havoc on the drives below it. See you recover the keys for those. . . .
( Oh and remember, a little Thermite goes a long way. Don't go crazy with it )

" Your honor, I don't recall the passwords "
Call it the Ronald Reagan defense. ( Or political defense for that matter ) Works for them all the time.

"Unless it is junk, it is more than likely that they brute forced the encryption passphrase for that hard drive. "

That would worry me, though it would have to be a ridiculously short key length / space to be plausible.

< tin foil hat time >

I have always been curious, what would stop manufacturers from basically throwing a keylogger on a chip
into the keyboard hardware itself ? Ever play with a keylogger dongle ? It was an inline unit between the
keyboard and computer that simply logged everything you typed. To activate it, you simply typed a certain
password / passphrase in and it would open up in note / wordpad and show you the entire log.

It would be dead simple to add this within keyboards today and no one would have a clue it was even there.
Would certainly make sure those failing memories of yours wouldn't hinder their ability to figure out what your
encryption keys were now would it . . . . .

Thoughts ?

< /tin foil hat time >

Once upon a time, we had games that required the latest-bleeding-edge-state-of-the-art-nuclear-powered system that money could possibly buy to run at anything other than minimal settings. I remember the days when the games capability exceeded the hardware available at the time to run at the " best " settings.

The gaming market is pretty much what drove the hardware. Workstations running content creation software was, and still is, a niche market by and far.

Once the console matured to the point where the graphics were pretty close to the PC experience ( sans the $2k price tag ) everyone switched to the consoles. Now, we really don't have much of anything that pushes the limits of modern era desktops in the gaming world. The average system will run damn near anything out there pretty well. A high end system today will likely run content for the next several YEARS at the pace the software is lagging behind.

Of course, even IF the games were pushing the envelope a bit more, the PC gaming market is becoming so annoying to stay in ( DRM, DLC, etc ) that fewer and fewer want to even bother with it. Easier to fire up a console. So, unless the hardware makers want to move into the console / tablet / phone markets, they need to convince the software folks to cool it with the bullshit. I won't even get into the debacle that is Windows 8.

Hmmm . . . . maybe Nvidia needs to spin off a gaming division to help keep their product necessary :D

While your methods for living off the grid are valid, in this day and age living in a way that you described
will quickly put you at the top of a surveillance list. Ultimately putting you right back in the spotlight you're
trying so hard to avoid :D

Why ?

Because only terrorists apparently have any need for privacy :D

OMGHESPAYINGWITHCASH!!!! Call the FBI !!
What do you mean you don't have a Facebook / Twitter account ?
No cell phone you pinko-commie ?

You . .you . . spawn of Ted Kaczynski . . . you

*chuckle*

ALL 3D modeling software is extremely complicated.

It's probably the most complex software I've used to date. The specific flavors I'm familiar with are: ( In order of greatest to least knowledge )

Softimage | XSI
Rhino 3D
Zbrush
Maya
Max

Your interests seem to be in content creation destined for CnC system. As a result, I would try to emphasize sticking with a package that
is strong in NURBS. Rhino kicks much ass in the Nurbs department, but that is ALL it does without some third party plugins. ( Like T-Splines
or the like ) Oh and Rhino doesn't play on Linux. Windows only. Figure that's an important point to make on this site :D

Of my list above, Maya is probably the strongest candidate for both Nurbs and poly-modeling. In addition, it's pretty much the current industry
standard, so you should have no issues finding training material to learn with.

Tip: I suggest the purchase of a punching bag or stress ball. Like I said, this software is among the most complex you'll ever use. You have
to be both engineer / programmer and an artist at the same time to make anything you'll be happy with.

Intelligence and / or academics are not looked upon favorably within the United States. You could have multiple doctorates, cure cancer, and broker peace on Earth and you would STILL rank behind, both in compensation and popularity ( insert the currently popular celebrity, or professional athlete here ).

While not so much bullying once you become an adult, ( pissing off the people who fix your computer is on par with pissing off the folks who fix your food ) it does make for a damned annoying work environment. ( Unless you work for a company who employs extremely intelligent folks. Think Google. )

The snide comments from those who know your little secret are never ending I assure you.

This was actually brought up in the Mensa forums once upon a time about folks who hide their membership and why. Many related stories very similar in nature to my own experiences. Folks get turned down for jobs for being " too " smart, employee hostility, managements forever go to guy, etc.

With few exceptions, if you DO fall into the category of higher than average intellect, I would highly suggest you put forth the extra effort to keep that information away from fellow employee ears lest you add some misery to your life. That, or remind them how tragic it would be to find their corporate system loaded with animal porn, clown fetish images and draft emails to the boss about your desire to smear yourself with Jello and run naked through the streets with nothing but an inflatable horse around your waist for clothing during the next security audit :D

If the media didn't portray this as the " END OF TEH WORLD ! " then I may pay more attention to it.

The bottom line is, while tragic, the damage is pretty much what is expected from a Category One Storm. Could have been a lot worse. There are four more categories of stronger storms to contend with . . .

Lots of rain, storm surge, high winds for a while, fire, flooding, no power for several days to months ( YES months. Some places here after IKE had no power for MONTHS ), the usual. At least it didn't spawn a dozen tornadoes over the city for you. Nothing like dealing with a hurricane AND the friggin tornadoes they usually spawn on top of it all. ( Hurricane Alicia - 1983 I think it was )

Lots of lessons are going to be learned. ( Like not putting emergency generators and / or their fuel tanks in the basements. Realizing your home insurance doesn't include Flood insurance. Etc. )

The only folks that are shocked at the damage are those that have never been through this. They may have seen it on TV in past years when Florida, Texas or Louisiana got hammered by similar storms and didn't think that much of it. Now, at least, this regions generation has a healthy respect for what a hurricane is capable of. If another one comes along, they'll be much better prepared to deal with it.

Chuckle. I still consider it sensationalism :D
Some news sites are basically saying " If you don't evacuate, you'll DIE !!!! "

The reality is . . . well no not really. You'll be damned uncomfortable since you'll likely have
no power for a few weeks. No gas either since pumps rely on electrical power to run.

Yes, btw, I DO live near the ocean so I'm very, very familiar with what a hurricane is capable of.
Work about a mile from the beach. ( Galveston, TX )

The last hurricane we dealt with was IKE. Strong Cat-2 with a storm surge in the 10-14' range.
You should have seen what this island looked like post storm. :| Water levels reached 15-20
feet in some places.

It wreaked havoc, but the world didn't end. Thousands and thousands didn't die. The island
is still rebuilding in places but that's the way of things. The price you pay for living near the ocean
I'm afraid.

The news loves to hype up and scare everyone to death because it makes for great news.

In the end, the storms are rarely as horrific as the media likes to portray them.

The news is treating this like the Wrath of God is coming to destroy the East Coast. You can't flip to ANY news station in the US that doesn't have some junior reporter standing on the beach in the wind talking about how civilization as we know it is about to end. :|

IT'S A CATEGORY 1 STORM FFS.

It just barely meets the requirements of even getting a mention at all. Yet, the news is going nuts with it.
To those of us who deal with these damn things yearly, a Cat-1 storm is nothing more than heavy rainfall for a day or two.

Put it on the news when a strong Cat-2 or Cat-3 comes rolling in. THEN it will actually be newsworthy.
( When your junior reporter gets blown off their feet and the wind overturns the news van that's your que to start filming )

Admittedly though, it is a nice break from all the politics BS. :D

There is no way on this fucking EARTH the powers that be ( read that governments ) are going to let anything tarnish the holy grail of surveillance tech that people stand in line for weeks to buy of their own accord.

Birthers will recind their claim against Obama, Dawkins will get Baptised, and Ron Paul elected president before this will happen.

Rest assured, if it DOES, it is with full blessings of the aforementioned governments.

games actually drove the PC hardware market. The latest, greatest game would only run the top end settings by
utilizing hardware that didn't even EXIST when the game was released.

These days we have consoles and very, very few games are built with PC only in mind. Too much money to be lost
by ignoring the console market. Thus, any games made for the PC have to be " dumbed down " for lack of a better
word to ensure it will run on current generation consoles. Even though top end PC hardware can absolutely crush
any console on the market today.

In fact, it seems these days the games are made for consoles FIRST, then ported to the PC platform.

Other than 3D / CAD software and the like, there really isn't anything to push the hardware makers to innovate anything.
Especially at the consumer level.

I mean, seriously, how much horsepower do you need for Facebook or Twitter ?

If you want another example of how peaceful protests are pointless, try to organize one any where near where the ( insert elected official here ) will be speaking. You'll find yourself herded into a " Free Speech Zone " several blocks away where you are free to protest to your little hearts desire. Ignoring the zone and organizing a protest closer to your intended audience will see you arrested and carted off somewhere.

So yeah, while you get to protest, no one will even hear or see you doing it. Making the entire thing pointless to begin with.

In addition, it is not unheard of for the police to plant LE's in plain clothes within the protesting crowds to give the Riot Geared folks a reason to step in. In fact, the sooner they start the silliness, the sooner they get to clear the protesters out. Otherwise, they might be stuck there all day long waiting for something to happen.

With the only exception in recent memory being the huge backlash over SOPA, I can't think of any peaceful protests in this country that have made a difference about anything for quite a long time. When the peaceful versions of protest are finally regarded as a pointless exercise that will only serve to get you arrested, folks will start resorting to the non-peaceful variants. In this, I fully agree with girlintraining.

Either use a semi-auto weapon ( SKS, AR-15, and the like ) or outfit your bolt gun with a suppressor and quietly take down the coyotes without them even realizing what's happening. Hell, your neighbors will thank you too :D ( So will your ears )

My Savage .308 is equipped with an AAC Cyclone and you will NOT hear it beyond fifty yards or so. My similarly equipped Savage MK-II ( .22lr ) is on par with a pellet or BB gun when fired. A coyote or wild pigs worst nightmare.