They also targeted progressive groups, in fact more progressive groups than conservatives. Of course since the congresscritters specifically ordered the IRS to **ONLY** report on actions against conservative (well, really, radical right-wing rather than actual conservative) groups that's the only news that you saw on Glen Beck's show so you may not be aware of the reality.

You do realize that they also admit to targeting openly liberal groups as well, don't you? They also gave extra attention to any group with the word 'progressive', 'occupy', 'rights' and several other key words in its title. The paper they presented to Congress only mentions Tea Party groups because Congress specifically told them to ONLY report on attention that they gave groups with 'tea party' in the name.

The teabaggers could have easily avoided the entire issue by choosing one of the other non-profit statuses that **do** allow political activities (which they were openly engaged in before even filing the paperwork), but those statuses wouldn't allow them to hide their donors, and the fact that that they're Astroturf groups rather than grass roots.

Good rant. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one.

Right, the hospital that spent a gazillion dollars on an MRI machine should just throw it away because the control software runs on XP and Win7's security model breaks it. Get out in the real world and see what end users have to work with.

Well, not breaking the law, but breaking the PCI contract. Even then, it's only if you're doing CC processing on that machine or some transaction related to the processing. The receptionist could be using Win95 for all the PCI cares, as long as she can't touch the financial system.

The climate control system in the building that I'm sitting in uses some Linux version that's close to a decade old, if not older. Don't know what they're going to do when the current "server" (a desktop PC shoved under the maintenance guy's desk) dies. There are a lot of these out there, I know of an access control system running Win 95 in 2008, which hadn't been rebooted in over eight years because they weren't sure whether the machine would come back up and they had no way of getting the data off it. That box finally died a couple of years ago and they had to spend a week recreating everything from scratch, and replacing $18,000 of installed hardware that wouldn't work with the newer versions.

Place I used to contract had a knee-high pile of Compaq 386 laptops in the radio system engineers' office. When I offered to surplus them and get them out of the way they almost attacked me. They had a half million dollar radio tower that used a bleeding-edge control system when it was first installed. The manufacturer got bought out and the new owner didn't support the thing any more. The control system software would ONLY run on a 386 running DOS 3, nothing else, and that pile of laptops were their backup tower controllers. The last time I was there I noticed the pile was gone so they must have upgraded the tower.

There are a lot of expensive legacy systems that rely on outdated operating systems to function. I personally have encountered MRI machines, an access control system, metal lathes, a sawmill, and a factory floor automation system that will not run on anything higher than NT 4.0, a company isn't going to throw away a multimillion dollar automated lathe just because the OS is outdated (or at least they shouldn't). The security model in Server 2008 broke a lot of software, for companies that aren't on the continual upgrade treadmill Server 2003 is going to be around for quite some time.

Panasonic, Sony, and a bunch of other very large manufacturers send out their **security** cameras with trivial username/password like admin/12345 (Panasonic) or admin/admin (Sony) and do not require the installer to change them. This is why we prefer cameras from Pelco and Axis, which at least require the installers to change the password from the factory default on first use (although they do allow idiots to change it back to the factory default if they're so inclined). A couple of the large manufacturers of very high-quality cameras (crappy software, but nice hardware) have only one user (root) and do not allow the password to be changed. It's a bit sad when a customer's security system becomes a security hole.

I regularly used to take the shortcut through the cemetery, even after sundown. That scared me worse than the thought of bears.

My wife wants to retire later with more money, I want to retire earlier with more health. She said, "With more money we'll be able to travel more." I said, "I'll be damned if I'm going to visit the Great Pyramid using a walker." The debate continues.

Actually legal pot in Washington is cheaper and higher quality than what was available before. My only complaint is that I don't really care for the high-potency stuff, I prefer to smoke a joint or a bowl and then go out and **DO** something, weed the garden, paint a bedroom, go for a walk, whatever. Don't really like being so stoned I'm non-functional. Give me a baggie of leaf and I'm a lot happier, but then I'm not typical either.

I think that's the old normal. It wasn't until about 1900 that having a physician present actually improved your chance of survival, in many previous eras it would have increased your chance of dying instead. (George Washington was bled to death by his doctors, for example.)

You know what they call the guy who graduates dead last in his class at medical school? Doctor.

Actually the 'new normal' will soon be charging for those bits. Currently the data is free only because administrators don't realize that there is any actual value to it.

If hospital IT departments weren't such shitholes to work in you might be better staffed. HCA is notorious for underpaying IT staff and understaffing their department. In Anchorage they insisted on paying Lower-48 salaries, with the result that the entire IT department quit the same week. If your manager won't ask to increase head count then he's in the wrong position. If he asked and got turned down then he's working for the wrong employer, as are you.