Divemedic

I have been toying with getting rid of Windows. It is a very unstable
system, and after awhile, the computer becomes unstable and begins
randomly crashing. I get tired of having to trash the entire operating
system and reload it every 6-12 months. I last did it to this machine
about 16 months ago, and it is nearing time to do it again because it
crashes and requires a hard reboot about twice a day now.

Not only that, but Windows is a highly insecure operating system,
and I am not sure that I am willing to accept this any longer. I used
to be a gamer, but this is not really the case any longer, as the only
game I really play any more is Kerbal Space program. The hassle of
learning to use a new operating system is now becoming outweighed by the
risks of staying.

Apple’s OS has its own issues,
chiefly among them being cost, and so I am left to consider Linux. There
are two problems with Linux:

1 I know nothing about it.
2 Compatibility

I need to find ways to run or replace the following software:
1. The MS office suite to include: MSWord, Excel, Power Point, Outlook
2. I am one of the few people that still uses Quicken, and I need to find a replacement.
3. Finding a way to run TrueCrypt on it
4. Handling multimedia files like pictures, video, etc
5 Running iTunes

The iPhone stores its SMS messages in an SQL database file named sms.db. When a text message is deleted, the information contained in the text is still there, and all that happens is that the header information is deleted.

 If you look at the file itself, you can read the contents of the text, just not the other information in the database, like sender, time received, etc. The contents of each text message in plain text are contained in the file, but are intermingled with other characters. SQL readers don’t display the “deleted” messages, but the contents are still there.

What I am looking for is software that will extract the readable text from the file. Does anyone out there know of such a program?

I recently posted a warning to people considering making the emergency services a profession. Falling pay and benefits, poor working conditions,  and an attitude among employers that you are replaceable is just making the profession untenable.

A good example is found here. The families of 19 firefighters who worked 52 weeks a year, 40 hours a week are denied survivor benefits by their employer because they were considered “part time seasonal” employees. One of the widows wanted to speak to the Mayor during a council meeting, but was told to sit down.

There are those who claim that the widow received a Federal benefit of $350K, so she has nothing to complain about. To them, I ask you this: Her husband was 29 years old, and they had four kids, who are all less than six years old. She will now have to raise those children and support herself, not on the pay that he would have earned, but on that three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

We as a nation have enough to pay for single mothers to pop out kids, we give these women and their kids free healthcare, simply because they cannot close their legs. We do this, and we expect these brave young men and women to step up and enter the military, enter the emergency services, and then turn our backs on them and their families when they die serving us.

Shame on the Democrats for shitting on the military and emergency services, and sneering at honor, duty, and sacrifice while honoring lazy breeders popping out more welfare kids.
Shame on the Republicans for seeing the emergency services as simply unions that must be crushed.

Shame on employers for doing all that they can to screw over a group of men who died to protect your possessions.

Two women that are related to you are pulled over by a cop. You pull up behind the scene, and watch as the women you are related to scream for help, because the police officers are sticking fingers in their rectums and vaginas while they are bent over the police car.

That is what happened to Brady Hamilton and Alexandria Randle- they were sexually assaulted on this side of the road during a traffic stop, as relatives in another car watched.

I don’t care what the law says about it being illegal to use force to resist a cop: A person would be justified in shooting both cops here, and if I were on the jury there is no way that I would convict a person who did so.

To the cops that are doing this sort of thing, and to the cops who know about it and aren’t speaking out: Fuck you, I hope one of your victims shoots and kills you in self defense, you statist animal.

An editorial at Bloomberg is talking about raising wages for places like McDonald’s to a ridiculous $15 an hour, and how the company can afford to do it with minimum impact. I say bull crap. Here is why:

I wrote here that paramedics made $14 an hour in 2002, and Florida’s minimum wage (pdf alert) was $5.15.
The Florida minimum wage is now $7.79 an hour, or 151% of what it was ten years ago. A paramedic now makes $13.23 an hour, or 94% of what it was ten years ago.

You reach a point where a person with no skills, no education, and no experience is making the same amount as a person who took the time to get an education or learn a skill, and you have just removed all incentive for anyone to go to school or work in a risky profession.

Many claim that a raise in minimum wage causes a “trickle up” effect by forcing everyone else higher, but that just doesn’t happen unless the employers can raise revenue by raising prices. Since the federal government has price controls in place through Medicare billing laws, there is no way for an employer to come up with the money to give his paramedics a raise.

You eventually hit a wage point where a job that requires no education, no risk of injury, and no responsibility becomes attractive. I think we have already crossed that point.

I just saw the trailer for the movie based on the book Lone Survivor. It looks to be a good one.

The Federal government studies everything. One of the things that are studied is enrollment rates of colleges by various demographics. The demographic that this post will focus on is part of my continuing discussion on race that various people say that they want to have: college enrollment rates of 18-24 year olds by race.

According to the government, 41 percent of all people aged 18-24 were enrolled in college in 2010, with enrollment in 4 year colleges being about double of 2 year colleges. This is to be expected, since it takes twice as long to complete, there should be double the enrollment.

38 percent of black Americans age 18-24 are enrolled, compared to 43 percent of whites. Pretty close, especially when you understand that Asians, with an 82% enrollment rate, are counted as white for statistical purposes in this report.

Which brings us to the next fact. The gap between white and black college enrollment disappears when you eliminate high school dropouts: 46% of black versus 48% of white high school graduates are enrolled in college.

What we see as the problem here is that large numbers of blacks are dropping out of high school. In fact, 124,000 blacks dropped out of high school during the 2011-2012 school year.

graduates per dropout by race:
White: 12.29

Asian:  9.15
Hispanic: 5.20
Black 3.79

There is a problem here. For every black that enters college, there is one that dropped out of high school. I hear many people complain that blacks have lower credit ratings, incomes, and higher rates of incarceration than other races. Perhaps the best way to fix this is to fix what appears to be a broken culture of fatherless children, high school dropouts, the gang lifestyle, all of which contributes to multiple generations of government dependency. This will likely be more difficult than blaming racism, but will undoubtedly be more successful.

There was a time when I viewed the Smithsonian Institute of being one of the finest museums in the world. With this article, I believe that its reputation has been permanently stained, as our President again uses his position to unite America…

The museum’s director, Lonnie Bunch, said Mr. Martin’s
hoodie, the one he was wearing the night of his death on Feb. 26,
2012, represents a unique opportunity to further the discussion about
race in America,

 So the thug Trayvon Martin is being used as the poster boy for black history? Why not pick someone who did something other than attack a man because the thought he was a soft target.

I was offered a job today. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they are a nationwide provider of EMS services. The job is a paramedic position, and would require me to commute about 40 miles each way, paying $5 in tolls round trip.

Before I go further, let me explain my credentials:
I have been practicing in EMS for over 24 years. I have been an instructor for ten of those years. I not only have my paramedic school done, I also have three Associate’s and two Bachelor’s degrees.

The job market is very tight, and this illustrates why: They offered me a rate of $12.53 an hour. That rate is two dollars an hour less than what my last job was hiring new paramedics for ten years ago. I already collect a pension that pays me more than that, and I don’t NEED the money, and I am not sure that I want to drive 80 miles round trip to work a 12 hour shift that will net me about $7 an hour.

I could get a job working at a hamburger joint and take home the same amount of money.