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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • Todays results:

    • Diarrhea for a week. Didn’t think he needs to see a GP but today he felt it does not get better and he needs to see someone now.

    • Diarrhea and didn’t feel good. Yeah. That’s it.

    • Had a fall three days ago. Now the elbow hurts. Does not want to go to the GP/ED,but now the daughter has arrived and basically forced the patient.

    • Fall. Zero injuries. But the nursing home wanted to get

    • Another fall yesterday. Zero pain when not moving, minimal pain in slight bruise.

    To be fair we had a massive multi vehicle (5 cars) accident as the last call (5min before the end of our shift) that required helicopter backup and everything (severe brain, spine, thorax and abdo trauma). But still…




  • Absolutely - me,too.

    But, to play the optimist for once - Canva could bring some good to Affinity/Serif. Canva is available as a native linux app and Serif in the past has stated multiple times it’s mainly the lack of Linux resources and experience that stops them from providing Linux support. So maybe that could be a good influence.

    Canva also has a workflow that is based on a webapp that is more “beginner friendly” than Affinity and a good integration between these services could be a good thing as it may remove barriers.

    And Canva for a long time had a desire to provide a full production workflow, so maybe affinity gets the long missing library features.

    BUT: Now enough with that optimism, sadly I am rather sure enshitification is around the corner. Which will be a sad day for me.



  • Blue-Ray Discs are basically the only viable WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) that is available to normal and small scale professional users. The cheapest alternative, Tandberg RDX is a few hundred bucks per TB. And these are far inferior in terms of protection against outside influences compared to BD media.

    And considering that a lot of professional data (e.g. tax reports) are legally required to be saved on WORM in a lot of countries it is indeed an issue, even more so in times of crypto/ransomviruses. None wants to loose their precious baby or wedding photos to a untimely virus. And no, normal Dropbox/OneDrive is no proper backup. And USB drives/external harddrives degrade over time, especially if not used.








  • If you count cars: A Skoda Octavia PHEV.

    I love Skoda. I love the Octavia. It was my fourth Octavia and I already ordered two more for my staff. PHEV would have been ideal for our use case.

    Well,things didn’t go as planned.

    The whole car was bugged with software and hardware problems from day one - controll units randomly crapping out, when my dealer wanted to replace them he often had to get 5 units because four would be DOA and the one that worked kicked the bucket before I left his premises. Highlights:

    • A steering wheel coming loose (only slightly,but still)
    • The main display that shows your speed,etc. randomly shutting down. (Especially nice as I live close to Switzerland with their exorbitant speeding tickets)
    • Randomly playing a screeching sound at full volume (especially nice at 3am or when on a highway)
    • Randomly shutting of AC, some motor controls , etc.

    It took 12 months for VW to take that steaming pile back, and only we sued them (Shortly before the hearing).

    Second place goes to LG which sold me a OLED TV for 2k that randomly showed faulty pixel lines exactly 3 years and 3 days after I bought it (so it’s out of the extended warranty programs as well). And when asked for a quote for the repair they had the audacity to ask for almost the new price for the TV back then, aka 150% of the current market value - without even looking at it first. Good way to make sure that I never buy LG anymore.




  • Both.

    The US never had a comprehensive EMS system as it was never seen as an essential service, both because EMS is expensive to run (especially in the healthcare/insurance/taxation environment the US has) and because there was significant lobbying against it (there is money in EMS on a large scale if you operate it in a very cut-throat way).

    But the recent downturn in healthcare availability and county-tax-income in rural regions and the dwindling volunteer numbers and enshitification of medicine have all done their part in making the whole situation so much worse.

    There is actually a good study showing “ambulance deserts”. (Just as a reminder: That does not mean that no Advanced life support provider comes…it means that no Ambulance is available at all. So not even one staffed by an EMT-B and an emergency medical responder. And we’re not talking about "what happens if we need two ambulances at the same time)


  • A EMT is in no way qualified to handle emergencies on their own (and yes,I know their curriculum very well). And no, the majority of ambulances are not paramedic-staffed in the US - Actually only 25% of all licenced providers are Paramedics and there are large areas which have only BLS available in a reasonable timeframe. Or no EMS at all, as ambulance services are NOT an essential service in most states. (Only 11 States see it differently).

    So no, not even remotely “most ambulances” are paramedic staffed. Mathematically impossible.

    Besides: The shortest current timeframe in the US for paramedic training is 6 months.

    That is incredibly short in international comparisons, especially when one does compare it to the skills allowed with it.

    Comparison: Australia: 3 year bachelor degree to even make it on a Emergency ambulance (not counting very rural WA&NT), a master degree for the more serious skills.

    Germany: 3 Year apprenticeship to be in command in the ALS ambulance, but emergency physicians are tasked to more serious cases

    Switzerland: 3 year degree, emergency physicians being somewhat common, though, often additional nursing and critcare degree required for more serious cases.

    Hungary: 2 Year EMT course for EMT, 4 year Bachelor for Paramedic

    Poland: 3year Bachelor as minimum.

    South Africa: 1year minimum for the entry, 2 year’s for most jobs, 4 years for paramedic.