What I am told is that the problem we are facing are rising health care costs.  Over the last few years health care costs have continued to rise and are going to increase at a more rapid pace.  I am not going to say that this doesn’t happen, because it does, but let’s take a look at the reasons that health care costs have been rising.  Health care costs can be split into two different categories from my point of view, medical insurance and out-of-pocket, or a-la-carte, expenses.  First, the insurance costs go up because insurance companies have to make a profit and their costs go up because of both administrative costs and reimbursement costs.  Let’s say that administrative costs only need to go up when there is a raise in the minimum wage or there is added red tape, and therefore could be pretty much static.  That leaves us with the reimbursement costs being the main factor in the rise of medical insurance rates.  There are also two main factors in the rise of reimbursement costs, rising cost of service and increase in the number of services performed.  We’ll say that reimbursement costs are equivalent to costs incurred by someone paying out-of-pocket.

Okay, we’ve looked at the problem, so let’s take a look at the solution.  The proposed governmental solution is one of socialized health care in the form of a tax based public insurance option.  In other words, everybody pays into this system and is helping to support it.  Well, gee, if it is another insurance option, isn’t it still affected by reimbursement costs.  Why, yes, yes it is.  And the only way that an insurance company can cut those costs are by decreasing the number of services performed or to lower the cost of service.  To decrease the number of services performed, the government could put in age restrictions or just other restrictions on procedures.  And to lower the cost of service, the government can put caps on the price of services performed.  Are either of those options going to make health care better?

What I’m not saying is that insurance companies are the best option.  What I am saying is that a government run insurance company isn’t a better option.  What our Nation was founded on is Capitalism and competition breeds lower prices and innovation.

The next post I came across was “15 PHP regular expressions for web development.” This post goes across some basics of regular expressions but then goes on to list some very useful and commonly used ones.  There are a couple strictly WordPress regular expressions in there, but most of them are universal.

This is one of the biggest problems with talking to people over the phone (especially with people that have a different accent than you), you are just very limited in ways of communication. When you are chatting with someone in person, there is body language, you can watch the way their mouth moves, hand gestures, and even writing or drawing things out on a piece of paper. I have heard that video chats work better but then you are stuck with slow imitation of the real thing.

BTW, I think the person I was talking with meant foreach.

Okay, really, he was great for pop back in the 80′s and 90′s, but recently he hasn’t even done anything notable. I think this just goes to show the sad state of America where we care more about one person two weeks after his death than the state of our Nation.

// ==SPICEWORKS-PLUGIN==
// @name          Help Desk Customizations Clone
// @description   Adds minor enhancements to your Help Desk, including ticket status in the toolbar, colors for past due tickets and private messages, and information on devices in the Related To field.
// @version       0.8
// ==/SPICEWORKS-PLUGIN==
//
// Author: Brent Wong
// Date: June 30, 2009
// SW Version: 3.6, 4.0

var is4 = SPICEWORKS.version && SPICEWORKS.version.is(">= 4.0");
var helpdeskCustSettings = [
 {name:'past_due_color', label:'Past Due Highlight Color', type:'string', defaultValue:'#ffdede', example:'Default: #ffdede'},
 {name:'private_note_color', label:'Private Note Color', type:'string', defaultValue:'#cccccc', example:'Default: #cccccc'},
 {name:'tickets_open_display', label:'Display Open Tickets', type:'checkbox', defaultValue:true },
 {name:'tickets_due_display', label:'Display Past Due Tickets', type:'checkbox', defaultValue:true },
 {name:'tickets_unassigned_display', label:'Display Unassigned Tickets', type:'checkbox', defaultValue:true }
]

// Setup based on Spiceworks version
if (is4){
 // For version 4.0
 var strToolbar = 'main-toolbar';
 var strToolbarDown = 'span.right';
 var strDevLink = 'related_to_property';
 var strDevLinkDown = '.value a';
 var strDevURL = 'devices/';
 var strDevInfoAdd = 'related_to_section';
}else{
 // For older versions
 var strToolbar = 'toolbar';
 var strToolbarDown = 'span.advanced_controls';
 var strDevLink = 'ticket_review_summary_view';
 var strDevLinkDown = 'p.related_to a';
 var strDevURL = 'id-';
 var strDevInfoAdd = 'ticket_purchase_container';
 helpdeskCustSettings.push(
 {name: 'expanded_height_enabled', label:'Enable Increased Window Height', type:'checkbox', defaultValue: false},
 {name: 'expanded_height', label: 'Ticket Window Height (in px)', type: 'string', defaultValue: '500', example: 'Default: 500'}
 );
}

plugin.configure({
 settingDefinitions: helpdeskCustSettings
});

function refreshToolbarTicketInfo(){
 // display ticket stats
 if (plugin.settings.tickets_open_display || plugin.settings.tickets_due_display || plugin.settings.ticket_unassigned_display){
 var displayString = '';

 if (plugin.settings.tickets_open_display){
 displayString += '<span><strong>Open:</strong> ' + SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find('all', {filter:'open'}).length + '</span>';
 }
 if (plugin.settings.tickets_due_display){
 displayString += '<span><strong>Past Due:</strong> ' + SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find('all', {filter:'past_due'}).length + '</span>';
 }
 if (plugin.settings.tickets_unassigned_display){
 displayString += '<span><strong>Unassigned:</strong> ' + SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find( 'all', {filter:'unassigned'}).length + '</span>';
 }

 var toolbarTicketInfo = $(strToolbar).down(strToolbarDown + ' span.toolbar_ticket_info');

 if (toolbarTicketInfo){
 toolbarTicketInfo.remove();
 }

 $(strToolbar).down(strToolbarDown).insert({top:'<span>' + displayString + '</span>'});
 }
}

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ready(function(){
 // set styling
 if (is4){
 SPICEWORKS.utils.addStyle("\
span.toolbar_ticket_info{margin-right:20px;padding:0 5px;border:1px solid #999;}\
span.toolbar_ticket_info span{margin-right:5px;}\
#related_to_summary{clear:both;border:1px solid #ccc;padding:10px;margin:5px 0;overflow:hidden;}\
#related_to_summary ul{margin:0;padding:0;text-align:left;}\
#related_to_summary p{float:right;}\
 ");
 }else{
 SPICEWORKS.utils.addStyle("\
span.toolbar_ticket_info{font-size:1em;color:#000;float:right;background:#e8e8e8;padding:3px 5px;border:#888 1px solid;}\
span.toolbar_ticket_info span{margin-right:5px;}\
#related_to_summary{clear:both;border:1px solid #ccc;padding:10px;margin:5px 0;overflow:hidden;}\
#related_to_summary ul{margin:0;padding:0;}\
#related_to_summary li{float:left;width:200px;}\
#related_to_summary p{float:right;}\
")
 // Only Expand the height on version 3
 if(plugin.settings.expanded_height_enabled){
 SPICEWORKS.utils.addStyle("body.tickets #active_overview {height: " + plugin.settings.expanded_height + "px !important;}");
 }
 }

 // mark past due ticket rows
 $$('td.past_due').each(function(item){
 item.up().setStyle({backgroundColor: plugin.settings.past_due_color});
 });

 refreshToolbarTicketInfo();

});

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ticket.closed(function(){
 refreshToolbarTicketInfo();
});

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ticket.ready(function(){
 // color private messages
 $$('li.private').each(function(item){
 item.setStyle({backgroundColor: plugin.settings.private_note_color})
 });

 // add device summary
 var deviceLink = $(strDevLink).down(strDevLinkDown);
 if(deviceLink) {
 var deviceURL = deviceLink.readAttribute('href');
 var startIndex = deviceURL.indexOf(strDevURL);

 if(startIndex != -1) {
 var substring = deviceURL.substring(startIndex);
 var deviceID = substring.gsub(/[^\d]/, '');
 var device = SPICEWORKS.data.Device.find(deviceID);
 if(device) {
 var displayInfo = '
<div id="related_to_summary" style="display:none;">
<ul>'
 var listStyle = '
	<li>'
 if(device.ip_address && !device.ip_address.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>IP:</strong> ' + device.ip_address + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.mac_address && !device.mac_address.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>MAC:</strong> ' + device.mac_address + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.manufacturer && !device.manufacturer.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Vendor:</strong> ' + device.manufacturer + '</li>
';    
 }
 if(device.current_user && !device.current_user.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Last Login:</strong> ' + device.current_user + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.primary_owner_name && !device.primary_owner_name.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Owner:</strong> ' + device.primary_owner_name + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.asset_tag && !device.asset_tag.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Asset Tag:</strong> ' + device.asset_tag + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.operating_system && !device.operating_system.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>OS:</strong> ' + device.operating_system + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.serial_number && !device.serial_number.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Serial No:</strong> ' + device.serial_number + '</li>
';
 }
 displayInfo += '</ul>

<a href="#" onclick="new Effect.BlindUp(\'related_to_summary\', {duration:0.20}); return false;">hide</a>
</div>
';
 $(strDevInfoAdd).insert({after: displayInfo});
 deviceLink.insert({after: '&nbsp;&nbsp;(<a href="#" onclick="new Effect.BlindDown(\'related_to_summary\', {duration:0.20}); return false;">info</a>)'})
 }
 }
 }
});

• Right size your estimating process to the project
• Use qualified people
• Constantly monitor your estimates and estimators
• The estimate is what it is

I’m a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you’re willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now. You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would horribly feel so disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut job am I? Will you please tell me?

Well, these are briefly my views and issues for which I seek representation:

One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I’m not a racist. This isn’t to be confused with legal immigration.

Two, the TARP bill, I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you no, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars, I want the circumvention of our checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There is more to say.

Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision. Don’t you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night and then go on break. Slow down!

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real obligations. Why don’t you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes. Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census over with our taxpayer money. I don’t trust them with our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs. That is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person. Why do you want me to hate my employers? Why ‑‑ what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we’ll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. Have you ever ripped off a Band‑Aid? We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let’s have it. Let’s say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please try ‑‑ please stop manipulating and trying to appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.

Take a breath. Listen to the people. Let’s just slow down and get some input from some nonpoliticians on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I’m busy. I’m busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not. It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is such urgency and recklessness in all of the recent spending.

From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on you to bring our concerns to Washington. Our president often knows all the right buzzword is unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don’t want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we’re morons.

We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we’re so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work , pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone and we are now looking up at you. You have awakened us, the patriotic spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office. We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn’t ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us when hewill rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don’t care. Political parties are meaningless to us. Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you. If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

I then went and checked my helpdesk and aghhh, the helpdesk customization plugin I helped write was no longer working. That just wouldn’t do, so I decided to fix all the things that were broken in it. I also removed the expanding height for the ticket responses box since the height is now liquid with the new version. I also went and shared the new version of the plugin.

It looks like it hasn’t been updated with the new release yet and I’m not sure how long it will take, but there is a direct link to the plugin by going here. There is also the new source below. Enjoy.

<pre>// ==SPICEWORKS-PLUGIN==
// @name          Help Desk Customizations Clone
// @description   Adds minor enhancements to your Help Desk, including ticket status in the toolbar, colors for past due tickets and private messages, and information on devices in the Related To field.
// @version       0.4
// ==/SPICEWORKS-PLUGIN==

plugin.configure({
 settingDefinitions: [
 {name: 'past_due_color', label: 'Past Due Highlight Color', type: 'string', defaultValue: '#ffdede', example: 'Default: #ffdede'},
 {name: 'private_note_color', label: 'Private Note Color', type: 'string', defaultValue: '#cccccc', example: 'Default: #cccccc'}
 ]
});

function refreshToolbarTicketInfo(){
 // display ticket stats
 var numOpenTickets = SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find('all', {filter:'open'}).length;
 var numPastDue = SPICEWORKS.data.Ticket.find('all', {filter:'past_due'}).length;

 var toolbarTicketInfo = $('main-toolbar').down('span.right span.toolbar_ticket_info');

 if (toolbarTicketInfo){
 toolbarTicketInfo.remove();
 }
 $('main-toolbar').down('span.right').insert({before:'<span style="margin-right: 40px; padding: 0 5px; border: 1px solid #999;"><strong>Open Tickets:</strong> ' + numOpenTickets + '&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Past Due:</strong> ' + numPastDue + '</span>'});
}

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ready(function(){

 // mark past due ticket rows
 $$('td.past_due').each(function(item){
 item.up().setStyle({backgroundColor: plugin.settings.past_due_color});
 });

 refreshToolbarTicketInfo();

});

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ticket.closed(function(){
 refreshToolbarTicketInfo();
});

SPICEWORKS.app.helpdesk.ticket.ready(function(){
 // color private messages
 $$('li.private').each(function(item){
 item.setStyle({backgroundColor: plugin.settings.private_note_color})
 });

 // add device summary
 var deviceLink = $('related_to_property').down('.value a');
 if(deviceLink) {
 var deviceURL = deviceLink.readAttribute('href');
 var startIndex = deviceURL.indexOf('devices/');
 if(startIndex != -1) {
 var substring = deviceURL.substring(startIndex);
 var deviceID = substring.gsub(/[^\d]/, '');
 var device = SPICEWORKS.data.Device.find(deviceID);
 if(device) {
 var displayInfo = '
<div id="related_to_summary" style="display: none; clear: both; border:1px solid #ccc; padding: 10px; margin: 5px 0; overflow: hidden;">
<ul style="margin: 0; padding: 0; text-align: left;">'
 var listStyle = '
	<li>'
 if(device.ip_address && !device.ip_address.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>IP:</strong> ' + device.ip_address + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.mac_address && !device.mac_address.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>MAC:</strong> ' + device.mac_address + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.manufacturer && !device.manufacturer.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Vendor:</strong> ' + device.manufacturer + '</li>
';    
 }
 if(device.current_user && !device.current_user.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Last Login:</strong> ' + device.current_user + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.primary_owner_name && !device.primary_owner_name.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Owner:</strong> ' + device.primary_owner_name + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.asset_tag && !device.asset_tag.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Asset Tag:</strong> ' + device.asset_tag + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.operating_system && !device.operating_system.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>OS:</strong> ' + device.operating_system + '</li>
';
 }
 if(device.serial_number && !device.serial_number.empty()) {
 displayInfo += listStyle + '<strong>Serial No:</strong> ' + device.serial_number + '</li>
';
 }
 displayInfo += '</ul>

<a href="#" onclick="new Effect.BlindUp(\'related_to_summary\', {duration:0.20}); return false;">hide</a>
</div>
';
 $('related_to_section').insert({after: displayInfo});
 deviceLink.insert({after: '&nbsp;&nbsp;(<a href="#" onclick="new Effect.BlindDown(\'related_to_summary\', {duration:0.20}); return false;">info</a>)'})
 }
 }
 }
});

An Open Letter to our Nation’s Leadership – The Petition Site

Speaking of decals, PunishUM is starting to have monthly giveaways just for being a member of their site. This months giveaway is a commemorative final Drift event shirt from the stadium and a limited edition PunishUM window decal.