I call RSS “power internet”. When web sites are updated there is a machine readable way to be notified via RSS. Check out this video, its a “silent movie” but demonstrates the procedure. I prefer getting news this way, it saves a bunch of time and bandwidth!

How To Subscribe Using RSS

Let me know if you have any comments.
MissM

• Ninite Easy PC Setup and Multiple App Installer – Great For Win7 Upgrades
  I think this looks fantastic! And seems to make getting the latest applications VERY helpful. I haven't tried it yet, but when I go to 64 bit win7, I'll need it. I installed win7 32 bit first, just to minimize the potential conflicts, but decided that 64 bit is the way to go.
  (tags: Windows7 geek tech tools free software utilities apps installer)

• Adventures In (Health-Insurance-Claim) Wonderland — Redig 28 (5): 1515 — Health Affairs
  Wow. Just wow. A medical student fell while jogging beside the lake, while breaking her fall, she broke both arms. When the bill from the ER came and she became aware of an insurance error, that's when the "fun," aka 2 years and still not fixed, begins. Read the story. "SEVERAL WEEKS LATER — AND BLISSFULLY CAST-FREE — I found an EOB (explanation of benefits) statement from the insurance company in my mailbox in the foyer of my apartment building. Its contents left me half-shrieking and half-wailing in outrage. As I shook the envelope with its rustling plastic window in one hand, holding the horror of the EOB in the other, all thoughts of anyone being nearby vanished. I ignored the sidelong stares and raised eyebrows of my neighbors to focus on the neatly itemized bill for my fractures: nearly $6,000. My estimated share? Almost all of it."
  "
  (tags: for+profit health+care public+option)

• The Boomer Chronicles » Blog Archive » Dan the Early Retired Man: What’s Happened to Customer Service?
  This is a post I've been meaning to write, and boom boom pow! it shows up in my google reader. During these troubled times [drink] companies can keep customers by giving good service and recognizing that times *are* tough. I plan on supporting stores that DO value my business, by showing me. "My cousin Dan from Minnesota, who retired from the U.S. Postal Service this year at age 53, offers his thoughts on today’s astonishing lack of good customer service:"
  (tags: Customer service tough+times)

• Pat Tillman: Jon Krakauer and Army Colleagues on Tillman's Death – ABC News
  ' Tillman's personal journals and letters to his wife, Marie, seen publicly for the first time, offer a glimpse into the life of the man that very few people knew.

  "My life at this point is relatively easy," Pat Tillman wrote in a letter to his family dated April 8, 2002. "It is my belief that I could continue to play football for the next seven or eight years and create a very comfortable lifestyle. My job is challenging, enjoyable and strokes my vanity enough to fool me into thinking it's important. For more reasons that I care to list, my job is remarkable. However, it is not enough." '
  I've been familiar with Pat Tillman's real feelings about the Iraq war for a long time. I'm glad that this book was written and I can't wait to read it.

  (tags: pat+tillman hero)

• philosecurity » Blog Archive » What Does DHS Know About You?
  A copy of a real Dept. of Homeland Security report of what they have. Darn scary
  (tags: security privacy government DHS US)

• philosecurity » Blog Archive » What Does DHS Know About You?
  A copy of a real Dept. of Homeland Security report of what they have. Darn scary
  (tags: security privacy government DHS US)

• Wampum: NOLA used to be a Port of Entry
  "The Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for Border Searches of Electronic Device runs to 51 pages, [<a href=http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/privacy/privacy_pia_cbp_laptop.pdf>link</a>], and after reading the first few pages I fail to see how laptop searches (as well as any other form of data storage device, e.g., ipod, memory stick, …) is going to discover, let alone interdict, "merchandise" (what on earth?) or industrial espionage or … I'll read the whole thing eventually, but not yet."
  (tags: privacy border security)
• Robert Reich's Blog: The Guns of August, and Why the Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care
  "What we learned in August is something we've long known but keep forgetting: The most important difference between America's Democratic left and Republican right is that the left has ideas and the right has discipline." Dr. Reich reminds us what the real goal is in the "health care debate." NOT what the rethuglicans are reframing it as.
  (tags: health+care government)

XKCD strikes again! This is exactly what I do to try to figure out how some program works!

Tech Support Cheat Sheet

Click here and hold your mouse just over the image to read the real punchline.

• Wampum: Unintended Consequences
  "Single payer would dislocate hundreds of thousands of workers in the insurance rackets, and end dividends to hundreds of thousands of racketeering stockholders, and hundreds of heads of organized crime families would be … without." This post elucidates the reasons I'm so disappointed in the Democratic majority in both houses of Congress AND the White House, regarding health care. Single payer is the only way to go.
  (tags: health+care dems failure)