Comment Re:Tell us what it's called... (Score 4, Interesting) 244
I'm genuinely curious how you produced an AC's name.
Submission + - Acne can Make you Uninsurable
pickens writes: "Hugh Pickens writes:
The Washington Post reports that health insurers have issued guidelines that deny coverage to people suffering from such conditions as acne, hemorrhoids and bunions. Documents obtained from a California insurance broker show that other uninsurable conditions included pregnancy, and being an "expectant father" was grounds for "automatic rejection." There was also this more general disqualifier: "currently experiencing/experienced within the last 12 months symptoms for which a physician has not been consulted." As Congress works on legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system, one of their main objectives is to stop insurers from denying coverage on the basis of health status. Proposed legislation would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions or charging them higher premiums because of their medical history — practices known as medical underwriting. The internal insurance company documents reveal that insurers deny applicants based on occupation, age, weight, use of a wide range of common prescription drugs, minor health conditions or mere "symptoms" that have not been reported to a physician. "What these documents show is the lengths to which insurance companies are willing to go to make a profit," said Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director of Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization. "What it shows is that insurance companies want premiums without any risk.""
The Washington Post reports that health insurers have issued guidelines that deny coverage to people suffering from such conditions as acne, hemorrhoids and bunions. Documents obtained from a California insurance broker show that other uninsurable conditions included pregnancy, and being an "expectant father" was grounds for "automatic rejection." There was also this more general disqualifier: "currently experiencing/experienced within the last 12 months symptoms for which a physician has not been consulted." As Congress works on legislation to overhaul the nation's health-care system, one of their main objectives is to stop insurers from denying coverage on the basis of health status. Proposed legislation would prohibit insurers from denying coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions or charging them higher premiums because of their medical history — practices known as medical underwriting. The internal insurance company documents reveal that insurers deny applicants based on occupation, age, weight, use of a wide range of common prescription drugs, minor health conditions or mere "symptoms" that have not been reported to a physician. "What these documents show is the lengths to which insurance companies are willing to go to make a profit," said Jerry Flanagan, health-care policy director of Consumer Watchdog, a nonpartisan consumer advocacy organization. "What it shows is that insurance companies want premiums without any risk.""
Submission + - Synthetic Binaural Audio Comes to the iPhone
An anonymous reader writes: This past Friday, a $1 app came out on the iPhone, Aves. The app itself is a brief 3D shoot-the-bird game, but there's some awesome technology under the covers — the entire game is rendered with synthetic binaural audio, something I've never seen before in anything, much less a throwaway game for the iPhone. It has to be played to be believed, and it will have your head swiveling the first time you try it. (if you've never heard of binaural recording before, the Virtual Barbershop is the ur-example online.)
Submission + - Jack Kirby Heirs Reclaim Marvel/Disney Rights
lbalbalba writes: "Heirs to comic book legend Jack Kirby sent 45 notices of copyright termination to Marvel Entertainment, prospective Marvel buyer Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and others studios that that hold licensed media rights to Marvel characters, this according to a Sunday afternoon report published on the New York Times website. New York Times"
Submission + - EU showcases evidence of Intel bribing manufacture (pcmag.com)
An anonymous reader writes: EU showcases email evidence of Intel's coercion into making manufacturers' distribute Intel-based computers for rebates/incentives. Emails lists from 2003-2006, could have resulted in AMD losing market share. Opteron apparently superior to Xeon according to Intel internal email.
Submission + - FCC Chair Proposes Net Neutrality Principles
adeelarshad82 writes: "The Net neutality debate got another boost Monday when FCC chairman Julius Genachowski proposed the addition of two Internet policy principles that would require reasonable and transparent network management. Genachowski proposed expanding the FCC's Internet policy principles, a set of four principles released by the agency in 2005 that serve as a framework for broadband Internet access. The first addition would prevent ISPs from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications. The second addition would ensure that ISPs are transparent about network management."
Submission + - SPAM: Dell buying Perot Systems for $3.9 billion
alphadogg writes: "Dell has agreed to buy Perot Systems for around $3.9 billion in cash, and intends to make the company its global services delivery division, the companies said Monday.The deal will allow Dell to expand its range of IT services, and potentially allow it to sell more hardware to existing Perot customers, it said. Dell's rival Hewlett-Packard expanded its own global services unit with the acquisition of EDS for $13.9 billion in May 2008. Over the last four quarters, Dell and Perot together had revenue of $16 billion from enterprise hardware and IT services, with $8 billion coming from enhanced services and support, Dell said. Perot's contribution to that is relatively small: In 2008, the company reported total revenue of $2.78 billion."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Submission + - Microsoft launches new pre-Windows 7 anti-Linux of (itwire.com)
davidmwilliams writes: "Microsoft has been making steps to educate U.S. retailers that Linux is a limited operating system that works with only few peripherals or online services, and that what most customers want is Windows.
Highlights include the fact that "Windows Live" is a free download for Microsoft Windows but not available for Linux. What I want to know is where is the "one-stop updater" and "license free" checkboxes?"
Highlights include the fact that "Windows Live" is a free download for Microsoft Windows but not available for Linux. What I want to know is where is the "one-stop updater" and "license free" checkboxes?"
Submission + - Ubuntu 10.4 will "help build next Google" (pcpro.co.uk)
Barence writes: "Mark Shuttleworth has begun drip feeding information on Ubuntu 10.04. In a video message to attendees of UbuCon he claimed that "Lucid Lynx is the platform for anybody who's building large-scale infrastructure, whether you're trying to build the next Facebook, or the next Google, or the next eBay. If you want to start on [Amazon's cloud-platform] EC2 and migrate to your own managed cloud, Ubuntu 10.04 is going to be the platform for you." On the desktop side, Shuttleworth claimed that Lucid would bring together the very best developments from the Gnome 2 desktop environment project, before the team turns its attention to Gnome 3."
Submission + - Vegetative patients 'still learn' (scienceblog.com)
enigma48 writes: "Scientists have found that some individuals in the vegetative and minimally conscious states, despite lacking the means of reporting awareness themselves, can learn and thereby demonstrate at least a partial consciousness. Their findings are reported in today's (20 September) online edition of Nature Neuroscience.
It is the first time that scientists have tested whether patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states can learn. By establishing that they can, it is believed that this simple test will enable practitioners to assess the patient's consciousness without the need of imaging.
The abstract is available in the advance issue of nature here: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2391.html"
It is the first time that scientists have tested whether patients in vegetative and minimally conscious states can learn. By establishing that they can, it is believed that this simple test will enable practitioners to assess the patient's consciousness without the need of imaging.
The abstract is available in the advance issue of nature here: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nn.2391.html"
Submission + - Internet radio exec: don't mention Linux! (pcpro.co.uk) 1
Barence writes: "It might be reliable enough to power their device, but it seems some companies are still a bit reluctant to use the "L word" when talking about their products. Speaking at the launch of the touchscreen Pure Sensia digital radio, director of marketing Colin Crawford was pressed for specifics of the new device's software. But after his CEO reminded him that the new radio was based on a Linux OS, Crawford remarked: "I don't like the using the word 'Linux' on a radio.""
Submission + - #twatch Open Hardware Networked LCD Screen
An anonymous reader writes: Dangerous Prototype's #twatch is a DIY network appliance that displays real-time topic trends from Twitter. It can also show system statistics, RSS feeds, mail notifications, and more using a TCP server on port 1337 that accepts commands from LCD control programs like LCD Smartie (Windows) and LCDproc (Linux). Everything you need to build your own is on the project's page. We've covered this hardware hacker's work previously.
Submission + - Mark Shuttleworth Announces Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lyn (twistedlogic.co.cc)
Extend writes: "Mark Shuttleworth spoke via video to UbuCon at the Atlanta Linux Fest 2009 and announced the name of the next Ubuntu release. Ubuntu 10.04 will be code named Lucid Lynxand will be an LTS release with support for the desktop for 3 years and for the server for 5 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l02bhwofEqw"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l02bhwofEqw"
Submission + - WMaker development revived (net23.net)
pseelig writes: "As much as i tried other windowing environments in Debian, i always went back again to Window Maker, although for some years already it looked like its future was less than promising. Since quite a few weeks or even months now, there is some real activity going on behind the scenes. WMaker has been revived and is not only having a large amount of long due bug fixes, but also some new features being added. All my major gripes i had with the official Debian packages are fixed, and it doesn't look like one has to switch to anything more main stream like Gnome no more."
Comment Johns Hopkins University... (Score 1) 835
...it varies.
IT@JH (the enterprise university-wide technical department) has Linux running on a number of servers, though they would love it if you'd only run RHEL4 and nothing else, for reasons too complicated to go into.
The new VPN software claims to support Linux, but doesn't, and one look at the installer script shows it couldn't have possibly worked for a very long time.
The undergraduate networking documentation has Linux explanations (though conveniently this is "plug in, have fun", with a few notes for brokenness in an old version of NetworkManager and another footnote for WICD being Just Broken in certain forms of PEAP).
So, sort of.
But heaven forbid you call the support line about Linux. They'll make a best-effort attempt to fix it, but...I've seen them claim that having Ubuntu in your boot menu could cause your optical drive to not work. At all. (As in, physically won't eject, after a hard power cycle.)
