US Health Care

Health care:
In a recent posting one of the commenters  suggested that I was being a bit over the top regarding issue of health care.  As I noted there all the information I provided was based either on my direct experience with insurance companies or were covered in multiple news sources. Seems to me this was someone who wasn't following the news for the last year or two during the health care debates.

Wendell Potter, previously the chief spokesperson for insurance giant CIGNA, tried to stop the Michael Moore film 'Sicko' from being seen.  The insurance companies set up a phony PR company that sent out incorrect health care information that was never fact checked by journalist among other things. He himself has now turned a new leaf and has written a book about the realities of American Health Insurance companies.  Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans.

Here's an interesting interview where he says the health insurance was planning to push Michael Moore off a cliff.





For those interested here is some recent health care news:
A Republican was complaining his health care didn't start fast enough:


For those Republican's who said that government health care was socialist, they have been asked to give up their health care, which is government based. Oddly, they all seem to like government healthcare just fine.


I do find it baffling that those who can ill afford health care want to avoid any reduction in costs and in fact want to provide tax cuts for the richest Americans.

Notes to Store 1.32 released for iPad

Notes to Store version 1.32 just released for iPad. Faster, easier brush color and size selection.
16 user defined color presets and other new features.

Notes To Store 1.2 for the iPad

My iPad app, Notes To Store has been updated to version 1.2
Faster paint, more background images (darker grids, full lined spiral and legal pads), and photos added in the app can now be full size of the iPad (useful for marking up photos).
Good reviews from users.


Website
App Store

Notes To Store for the iPad

Just completed an iPad app that was accepted by Apple. It's called Notes To Store and allows treating the iPad like a spiral notebook (actually multiple notebooks). You can type in notes (virtual keyboard, bluetooth keyboard or dock keyboard) and draw sketches and images. You can also import photos and draw on top of those. I have stacks of spiral notebooks and end up sketching a lot of ideas and notes so wanted something similar for the iPad. I'm sure after I actually get a real iPad (this was all on the limited simulator) to try it out I'll be making changes and improvements. If you have suggestions for it please send me an email.

I'm gathering various ideas for real VFX support apps for the iPhone and iPad so send me an email if there's something you'd like to see.

I'm hoping to post soon regarding the Townhalls and related issues.

Reworking Blog

Reworking the blog and updating the template. Will have to restore many things so it may be awhile.

Update on Dallas Cook

When I started this blog I had posted news on a young man who was killed by a drunk driver.
Ryan Dallas Cook was in the band Suburban Legends, which my daughter saw quite a bit.
The drunk driver worked for Hyunda of Korea and the local company helped him to escape back to Korea.

He has finally been tracked down and extradited back the the U.S. for trial.

Here's the information from a few weeks ago:
News Story

(As a side note: If any one has any photos of the memorial they did for Dallas at Downtown Disney please let me know. His family would like to gather some of the pictures or videos. Thank you)

Fliparoni update

Just a note that Fliparoni (iPhone and Touch game) is available free for a very short time as a promotion on the App Store and iTunes.

Spring cleaning

I'm doing a bit of adjustments to the blog as time permits to make it more useful.
On the left I've included permanent links to the main effects postings to make them easier to find.
I've put key tags to all (most?) so you can click on the tags at the bottom of a post and it will display related postings.
There also some more crew gear and additions to the book lists.

News on Ryan Dallas Cook

This is non-visual effects posting:

The above is a link to an LA Times article on the Hyundai executive who caused the death of Dallas (from Suburban Legends) and fled the country with the aid of executives at the company. How people can drink and drive and kill someone and how company executives allow them to get away with it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hyundai23may23,1,781890.story?track=rss



Original post
2006 update

Topics?

I'm writing up some more podcasts and articles.
Are there specific topics people want me to be covering so I can try to prioritize them?

Preferences regarding podcast vs written articles?

Just post as comments and I'll try to sift through them.

Thanks.

Ryan Dallas Cook update

As mentioned a few months ago one of the band members of Suburban Legends, Ryan Dallas Cook, was killed by a hit and run driver.

Police have now found out this was a man from Korea who works for Hyundai Motors. He showed the car damage to executives at the company and took the first plane back to Korea without checking in with police. They hope to pursue him there. I think it's a shame for a car company to be hiding a criminal like this.

Click the link of the name above to get a video report of the story.
Or this link: News Video
Original Post
May 2007
Latest update May 23, 2007

Blogger outage

Blogger had a major outage the last couple of days so this web site was unavailable. Sorry about that. I'll hopefully be able to start posting new podcasts in a week or so.

Server down

Well I switched to a new provider over the holidays but it appears the server is down.
Sorry, looks like I may be moving again.
Anyone have any experience with http://www.dreamhost.com/ or other ISP that can provide service, storage and bandwidth?
Thanks.

Bandwidth issues

Evidently the podcasts have been doing too well. My service provider has warned me that I may be exceeding their bandwidth so I may have to move the files elsewhere. If you have suggestions for responsive web service providers that provide large storage and large bandwidth (without breaking the bank) let me know via email. You can click on profile on right and click on email.

[My service provider stopped my file transfers. I'm hoping to have podcasts available again after midnight tonight. I've had to remove the video cast for now]

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all.

I'm working on a video cast and had hoped to have it up by now but it'll probably be a few more days.

Comments and iTunes

Just so everyone knows, right now when you post a comment it sends me an email and then I have to approve it. So if your comment doesn't show up immediately don't worry, I'm probably just slow getting to it.

On a side note if you have problems using the original feed on iTunes you can click on the Effects Corner on iTunes link on the right.

Thanks.

Update

Hoping to get the next podcast uploaded tomorrow.

I've started listing this site on various podcast directories. iTunes kicked it back for some reason and their system seems to be broken so I've been unable to resubmit it. Those of you with iTunes will have to manually add the feed for now. Sorry.

As mentioned post comments, suggestions or questions here or send me email to effectsNOSPAMcorner@mac.com (remove NOSPAM when sending)

I'm considering posting the transcripts of the podcasts here if people are interested.

Suburban Legends

Last Staturday I saw Suburban Legends perform in Oakland for iMusicast. If you ever get a chance to go to a concert of their's - go! In addition to the great music it is an amazing, energetic and entertaining show. The amount of life this group provides on stage inredible.
This makes the death of one of their members, Ryan Dallas Cook, from a hit and run driver the week before, all the more tragic.
Update on Hit and Run criminal

Dallas Cook

I know this is a Visual effects blog but sometimes you have to take time out for reality.

A few days ago Dallas Cook was killed in Orange County. Dallas was a member of band called Suburban Legends.
This is one of my daughters favorite bands. I had seen them perform a few times and had talked to them about doing a possible music video. All the guys were extremely nice and full of energy on the stage where they put on amazing performamances.

You will be missed Dallas.
More on Suburban Legends can be found on their site: http://www.suburbanlegends.com/
Update on Hit and Run criminal
Update on Hit and Run criminal May 2007