Year: 2014
HEALTHCARE DEPT.
Sloppy Renewal Plans for Obamacare?
I used to work on healthcare insurance enrollment systems. This is a bad sign for the next Obamacare open enrollment period: People will be renewing at the same time that others are enrolling for the first time, starting a week and a half before Thanksgiving, on Nov. 15. To ensure that they have a new… Read more
GOVERNMENT DEPT.
The Extractive Economy of St. Louis County
Radley Balko finally published the story he was working on in St. Louis County. It’s an amazing piece of work, detailing numerous examples of the abusive relationship between the suburban communities and their residents. When the officer showed up, Bolden filled with dread. “He was really nice and polite at first,” Bolden says. “But once… Read more
PRIVACY DEPT.
A Note to All My Nude Readers
So, if I’m following the story right, it appears that someone managed to hack into a bunch of cell phones or iCloud accounts or something belonging to celebrities and find a bunch of nude photos, which they then apparently dumped on the internet. I haven’t looked at any of these photos because (1) I already… Read more
UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT DEPT.
Undercover Colors Under Fire
Have you heard about the idea for nail polish called Undercover Colors that can be used to detect so-called “date rape drugs” in drinks? It seems to be just a concept for now, but the idea is that a woman having drinks with a date could discretely dip a fingernail into her drink, and the… Read more
OPERATIONS DEPT.
WordPress Jetpack Comments — WTF?
WordPress’s Jetpack plugin is a nice collection of features for bloggers. I host my blog on a server I pay for instead of on the big WordPress.com cluster because I appreciate the extra flexibility, but by using Jetpack, I can also get some of the more powerful cluster-based features, like improved search and uptime monitoring.… Read more