EconTech

Apparently, it doesn’t get funding:
Why Medicine Should Care Less About ‘Sick,’ More About ‘Normal’
If you had died 50 years ago, your body would have stood a pretty good chance of serving science. In the 1960s, autopsy rates at US hospitals exceeded 50 percent. Pathologists weren’t necessarily looking for what killed people — they were taking [...]

I’ve long thought that licensed ‘purchased’ materials is an asinine business plan that some day some hero will come through and shatter. Much of our cultural history has been created through sharing and reshaping. Now that the technology has come along to do it, companies and governments are attempting to create technological and legal barriers [...]

Jason over at Healthcare Economist seems to think this is a good idea. I have to disagree with the specific instantiation described here (going solely on Jason’s description). Besides the obvious problem, pointed out by Jason, that most people have way too little expertise in medicine to properly document their health history, making that history [...]

I have previously said that privacy is more than just about keeping secrets. Here is a real life account of a major figure who has had problems maintaining his on-line privacy. No, I do not expect the government to be any better at maintaining secure systems than the private sector (though creating clear liabilities for [...]

It is unfortunate, too. There may be e-voting Luddites, but most of the objections I am aware of come from e-geeks who are generally excited about technological developments. However, these are also the people who are very aware of how badly companies can muck up software and hardware products. Not only that, some of us [...]

Anyone who knows me knows I am not an ACLU-hater, though as with any organization, I have some issues. My problem with their privacy angle to many of these questions is that people do not understand what privacy is. Ask 99% [a completely fabricated number] of people what it is, and you will get a [...]

So, I noted recently that keeping an open wifi hotspot is a desirable thing to do, especially if you can limit its bandwidth so your neighbors don’t sop up too much of your pipe. Obviously there are security implications to doing this, though. That is why I always access my router via ssh when using [...]

That is what they are saying over at Ars. The description of what is happening just doesn’t sound right to me. This would be insanely annoying with no real benefit that I can see. I don’t even see how this benefits Microsoft. And, despite being an OpenOffice user, that is just not an attractive alternative. [...]