I have an idea for an accounting related business that I think has good prospects.
Basically the idea is that I hate having to deal with medical bills. If I
hate it, that leads me to suspect that there are other people who hate it
too. It's something many of has have to deal with, any many of us hate. So
maybe there is a business opportunity here.
The idea is collect all of a persons medical bills and insurance statements
and verify that they agree, and then send one monthly bill to the person for
them to pay.
To make this a viable business you would need to be automated as possible,
which would mean computers and someone to keep them operating. You would
also need someone who knows the ins and outs of medical billing.
How would you make any money off of this? One way would be to combine it
with a credit card. As soon as the bill is verified as correct, we would pay
the Doctor's. They might be willing concede one or two percent for prompt
payment.
On the other hand, people who have to deal with these bills might be willing
to pay a monthly or annual fee to have these issues resolved.
The big question is how many people would be interested, and how many would
be willing to pay a fee?
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Friday, May 20, 2005
What's happening
Took the boys to see the latest Star Wars movie last night. We all enjoyed it thoroughly.
Mutual Materials (what kind of name is that?) is delivering 6 pallets of concrete bricks to the house today. Landscaper is finishing the base (4 inches of gravel) today and laying bricks tomorrow.
Owner where I work is scurrying aroung trying to get ready for a trip to HIF next week. HIF: Hydrological Instrumentation Facility, government operation in Mississippi. They have a working scale model of the Mississippi river basin.
Manufacturing is trying to find a printer that will print labels with individual ID numbers for some BlueTooth radios we build. Tried to find one once before, but couldn't get a printer vendor interested in talking to us. Owner said he was going to take care of it, but it's been three months, and he hasn't done diddly, and now the situation is getting critical. I expect we will have an explosion here before the end of the day.
Went by Aaron Brothers art supplies last weekend and picked up a do it yourself metal frame for a poster of "Middle Earth" a vendor dropped off at work. It's a cool poster, 160 degree panoramic view of New Zealand farms and mountains. Picture measures 36" by 8". Had to go back to the store and exchange the rails because I got the wrong size the first time.
Anne & Ross & I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" last weekend (two weeks ago?). Tremendous movie.
Reading "Blood of Victory", spy novel about trying to disrupt the supply of Romanian oil to Germany in 1940.
War, war and more war. If you have too much peace, make up a war, war on drugs, war on poverty, war on education.
Subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Interesting reading.
Still don't have a real good idea just how the world works, but I'm working on it.
Ross is rehearsing a play.
Daughter has rehearsal today and performances tomorrow (dance).
Mutual Materials (what kind of name is that?) is delivering 6 pallets of concrete bricks to the house today. Landscaper is finishing the base (4 inches of gravel) today and laying bricks tomorrow.
Owner where I work is scurrying aroung trying to get ready for a trip to HIF next week. HIF: Hydrological Instrumentation Facility, government operation in Mississippi. They have a working scale model of the Mississippi river basin.
Manufacturing is trying to find a printer that will print labels with individual ID numbers for some BlueTooth radios we build. Tried to find one once before, but couldn't get a printer vendor interested in talking to us. Owner said he was going to take care of it, but it's been three months, and he hasn't done diddly, and now the situation is getting critical. I expect we will have an explosion here before the end of the day.
Went by Aaron Brothers art supplies last weekend and picked up a do it yourself metal frame for a poster of "Middle Earth" a vendor dropped off at work. It's a cool poster, 160 degree panoramic view of New Zealand farms and mountains. Picture measures 36" by 8". Had to go back to the store and exchange the rails because I got the wrong size the first time.
Anne & Ross & I saw "Kingdom of Heaven" last weekend (two weeks ago?). Tremendous movie.
Reading "Blood of Victory", spy novel about trying to disrupt the supply of Romanian oil to Germany in 1940.
War, war and more war. If you have too much peace, make up a war, war on drugs, war on poverty, war on education.
Subscribed to the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Interesting reading.
Still don't have a real good idea just how the world works, but I'm working on it.
Ross is rehearsing a play.
Daughter has rehearsal today and performances tomorrow (dance).
Monday, May 9, 2005
Kingdom of Heaven
Saw "Kingdom of Heaven" this weekend. I enjoyed it. Problem I have, as I have with many historical films, is I want to know just how accurate it is. I spent a few minutes searching the web this morning and this is what I found:
From imdb.com: All characters, except Godfrey, existed in real life. In reality, Baldwin, the leper king, died in 1185 at the age of 24, a year before the start of the story.
From the Christian Science Monitor: The two university scholars who read the script did not agree on its historical accuracy. Father George said that the 12th-century Crusader state was, as shown in the film, relatively tolerant, and that Saladin did in fact order his troops to give no quarter in the fighting in Jerusalem, an order he later rescinded. But Mr. Fadl said the Crusader state was by its nature discriminatory and oppressive of other religions. He said that the Muslim knights took the idea of granting quarter very seriously, and that the notion that Saladin would thank Balian for teaching him chivalry, as the script had it, was laughable. "Pick up any book on chivalry, it's exactly the opposite," he said. "The whole idea of knighthood and chivalry came from Muslims and was exported to Europe." He noted, as did Father George, that at the time of this Crusade, science and scholarship were far more advanced in the Islamic world than in Europe.
From imdb.com: All characters, except Godfrey, existed in real life. In reality, Baldwin, the leper king, died in 1185 at the age of 24, a year before the start of the story.
From the Christian Science Monitor: The two university scholars who read the script did not agree on its historical accuracy. Father George said that the 12th-century Crusader state was, as shown in the film, relatively tolerant, and that Saladin did in fact order his troops to give no quarter in the fighting in Jerusalem, an order he later rescinded. But Mr. Fadl said the Crusader state was by its nature discriminatory and oppressive of other religions. He said that the Muslim knights took the idea of granting quarter very seriously, and that the notion that Saladin would thank Balian for teaching him chivalry, as the script had it, was laughable. "Pick up any book on chivalry, it's exactly the opposite," he said. "The whole idea of knighthood and chivalry came from Muslims and was exported to Europe." He noted, as did Father George, that at the time of this Crusade, science and scholarship were far more advanced in the Islamic world than in Europe.
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Computer Business
I see two big problems in the business world today, and that includes the computer industry.
The first is the Republican free market fixation on driving down costs. Witness Bill Gates request for more visas for foreign engineers, and the outsourcing of code development to India.
The second problem is boss's. I used to give people who were in charge the benefit of the doubt. I assumed they knew what they were doing, because the people who put them in charge knew what they were doing. It took me years to realize that most of the people I worked for were terrible managers. Maybe I have had a string of bad luck, or maybe I haven't been as discriminating in where I work as I should have been.
Maybe there are a few companies around with some good managers, and maybe some of these companies reward their employees with compensation commesurate with their worth. I would like to find one of these companies. I certainly have never worked for one. But then I can be "difficult to work with". Among my troublesome characteristics is that I "don't suffer fools gladly".
I find it very difficult to evaluate a prospective job from an interview, even a lengthy one. And it usually doesn't make any difference. If they offer me a job, I'll take it.
Recently I was thinking that I needed an agent, someone to promote me and my skills. It used to really bug me that employment agencies got these huge commissions for doing virtually nothing. But now I am beginning to understand.
I recently came up with the idea of using a 32-bit microprocessor for our next product instead of the 8-bit processors we have been using. I am the only developer here. My rational is that it is easier to develop an application using a cpu with a larger address space than having to manage exteneded memory using a small chip.
There are numerous reasons from the standpoint of software development to use a bigger, faster chip. If we were building millions of units, it would probably be worth it to expend the extra effort to write the program to run on an 8-bit chip. Since our total volume can be measured in hundred's, the development cost will far outweigh the extra cost of the bigger processor.
The first is the Republican free market fixation on driving down costs. Witness Bill Gates request for more visas for foreign engineers, and the outsourcing of code development to India.
The second problem is boss's. I used to give people who were in charge the benefit of the doubt. I assumed they knew what they were doing, because the people who put them in charge knew what they were doing. It took me years to realize that most of the people I worked for were terrible managers. Maybe I have had a string of bad luck, or maybe I haven't been as discriminating in where I work as I should have been.
Maybe there are a few companies around with some good managers, and maybe some of these companies reward their employees with compensation commesurate with their worth. I would like to find one of these companies. I certainly have never worked for one. But then I can be "difficult to work with". Among my troublesome characteristics is that I "don't suffer fools gladly".
I find it very difficult to evaluate a prospective job from an interview, even a lengthy one. And it usually doesn't make any difference. If they offer me a job, I'll take it.
Recently I was thinking that I needed an agent, someone to promote me and my skills. It used to really bug me that employment agencies got these huge commissions for doing virtually nothing. But now I am beginning to understand.
I recently came up with the idea of using a 32-bit microprocessor for our next product instead of the 8-bit processors we have been using. I am the only developer here. My rational is that it is easier to develop an application using a cpu with a larger address space than having to manage exteneded memory using a small chip.
There are numerous reasons from the standpoint of software development to use a bigger, faster chip. If we were building millions of units, it would probably be worth it to expend the extra effort to write the program to run on an 8-bit chip. Since our total volume can be measured in hundred's, the development cost will far outweigh the extra cost of the bigger processor.
Big Idea
Last night daughter's dance team had their end-of-season banquet. A video of their performance at the state competition was shown. The senior girl's moms put on a dance/skit lampooning the teams that placed above Glencoe. It was hilarious.
But back to my idea. The problem here is that the camera aspect ratio is all wrong for this kind of show. The image needs to be 3 or 4 times wider than it is tall. If you zoom out so that you can get the whole show in the image, the people are tiny. If you zoom in so the performance fills the screen top to bottom, it cuts off the edges.
Seems to me there are a lot of performances that are like this: stage shows, concerts, half time shows, some sporting events, etc.
So what we need is a camera that takes a picture with an extremely wide aspect ratio. Or maybe you could do it with three cameras and special computer software. Then when you play it back on your TV you could select which portion of the complete image you wanted to see. If you want to see the whole thing, you might want special playback equipment.
Is there a market for this? I am sure there is.
But back to my idea. The problem here is that the camera aspect ratio is all wrong for this kind of show. The image needs to be 3 or 4 times wider than it is tall. If you zoom out so that you can get the whole show in the image, the people are tiny. If you zoom in so the performance fills the screen top to bottom, it cuts off the edges.
Seems to me there are a lot of performances that are like this: stage shows, concerts, half time shows, some sporting events, etc.
So what we need is a camera that takes a picture with an extremely wide aspect ratio. Or maybe you could do it with three cameras and special computer software. Then when you play it back on your TV you could select which portion of the complete image you wanted to see. If you want to see the whole thing, you might want special playback equipment.
Is there a market for this? I am sure there is.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Weekend
DVD Player, Part 1
Friday night (or was it Thursday night? I really don't remember and it doesn't make much difference anyway) the remote control for my DVD player quit, or at least I thought it was the remote. Changed the batteries, no help. So Saturday morning I start looking into the problem. Maybe it has fixed itself (remote controls are notoriously flaky in my house), but no, and the new batteries check out. So I look on the Internet, and Philips has replacement remote control that goes for $10. The also have a remote control that goes for $400. The blurb I read about them claims they have sold hundreds of thousands of them. I was stunned and amazed.
http://www.remotecentral.com/tsu3000/index.html
Eventually I realized that the remote controls for both the TV and DVD could be programmed to run the other one. So I tried it. I tried a dozen different codes in the TV remote but none of them enabled it to control the DVD player. Then I tried programming the DVD remote and got instant control of the TV. So it wasn't the remote after all.
Books
Saturday afternoon Johnny and I walked to downtown Hillsboro. He was very angry with his brother. He steamed and stewed and fussed most of the way. But then we went to the used book store and he forgot about his troubles. He found five or six "Star Wars" paperbacks. I found a mystery by Sue Grafton ("L is for Lawless"). You've probably seen her books in the supermarket. She has a whole series. They are not great, but they are entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was finished by Sunday evening.
Fund Raiser
Saturday evening a friend of mine (Bob Coussens) invited Anne and I to join him and his wife at a fund raiser for the Hillsboro Schools Foundation. They fund educational enrichment programs for the Hillsboro Public Schools. It was held at the "Tiger Woods Center" on the Nike campus in Beaverton. A very bizarre experience for me. There were some real heavy-weights there. Three former Intel employees: Keith Thompson, Luis Machuca and Steve Packer.
I didn't get to speak to Keith. He and Luis were VP's at Intel. I actually couldn't remember his name till several hours later when it finally popped into my head. The only time I talked to him was 15 or 20 years ago when I was working at Intel's Deer Valley facility in Phoenix, Arizona. There was a big meeting with all employees and Keith was the speaker. Something about Intel making CPU chips for PC's and selling them to people who were making motherboards, and not wanting to be in the motherboard business because we would be competing with our customers. I stood up said it sounded like Intel was afraid. What's the difference if we sell chips on our own motherboards, or we sell chips to other people to put in PC's? Every PC is going to have an Intel chip, it doesn't matter who makes the motherboard. Anyway, before that, Intel didn't make or sell motherboards, and after that they did, and it was all because of my conversation with Keith (ho, ho, ho).
I had never met Luis before. He asked whether I was with "the labs" and I said I couldn't tell, we were being reorganized every two weeks when I was there. He said that was his doing. He is now running Kryptiq:
http://www.kryptiq.com/
Steve Packer was a manager in PCEO (Personal Computer Enhancement Operation) when I was working with the "SatisFAXtion" faxmodem there. He has forsaken computers and gone into politics as a liberal and I believe he is fervent about his cause. Time for men of good will to step up the plate and squash these neo-conservative fascists.
http://www.washcodems.org/
DVD Player, Part 2
Sunday we went to Costco to pick up a new DVD player. I wanted to get a DVR (digital video recorder), but the only one they had was a Tivo and it comes with a subscription requirement, and I continue to be opposed to monthly payments if I can avoid it. We picked up a Toshiba unit for $50. It is much smaller than our four year old Philips model (also purchased from Costco for $190). The old one barely fit in the new box with all the foam packing material removed. The TV and DVD player both support three kinds of video signals:
because component video no longer works. When I tried it with the new DVD player I get a picture, but it is completely red. Must have blown something on the blue input circuit. Hard to imagine, these are just low level signals, no current to speak of, but something bad happened. So now I'm stuck with composite video, not that I can tell the difference.
Coffee
While we were at Costco we also picked up a "Senseo" coffee maker. It uses little premeasured packets of coffee and it only makes one cup at a time. It says it will make two cups, but the cup size they are talking about is four ounces, so two of their cups only makes one of my cups. Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea. Quick, easy, good cup of coffee. Turns out it's not that much quicker or easier, you still have to fill the reservoir. It's made by Philips, one of my least favorite companies. While I was hemming and hawing about whether we should get it or not, Anne picked it up and put in the cart and walked off down the aisle. I made a cup of coffee with it when I got home, and it was pretty good. But the unit leaked a little bit. I could have lived with that, but it was horribly noisy. It has some kind of pump inside it makes a horrible racket. Anne couldn't abide with the leak, so we packed it up and she took it back. I'm glad to be rid of it, but I still need to find a new coffee maker.
Friday night (or was it Thursday night? I really don't remember and it doesn't make much difference anyway) the remote control for my DVD player quit, or at least I thought it was the remote. Changed the batteries, no help. So Saturday morning I start looking into the problem. Maybe it has fixed itself (remote controls are notoriously flaky in my house), but no, and the new batteries check out. So I look on the Internet, and Philips has replacement remote control that goes for $10. The also have a remote control that goes for $400. The blurb I read about them claims they have sold hundreds of thousands of them. I was stunned and amazed.
http://www.remotecentral.com/tsu3000/index.html
Eventually I realized that the remote controls for both the TV and DVD could be programmed to run the other one. So I tried it. I tried a dozen different codes in the TV remote but none of them enabled it to control the DVD player. Then I tried programming the DVD remote and got instant control of the TV. So it wasn't the remote after all.
Books
Saturday afternoon Johnny and I walked to downtown Hillsboro. He was very angry with his brother. He steamed and stewed and fussed most of the way. But then we went to the used book store and he forgot about his troubles. He found five or six "Star Wars" paperbacks. I found a mystery by Sue Grafton ("L is for Lawless"). You've probably seen her books in the supermarket. She has a whole series. They are not great, but they are entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was finished by Sunday evening.
Fund Raiser
Saturday evening a friend of mine (Bob Coussens) invited Anne and I to join him and his wife at a fund raiser for the Hillsboro Schools Foundation. They fund educational enrichment programs for the Hillsboro Public Schools. It was held at the "Tiger Woods Center" on the Nike campus in Beaverton. A very bizarre experience for me. There were some real heavy-weights there. Three former Intel employees: Keith Thompson, Luis Machuca and Steve Packer.
I didn't get to speak to Keith. He and Luis were VP's at Intel. I actually couldn't remember his name till several hours later when it finally popped into my head. The only time I talked to him was 15 or 20 years ago when I was working at Intel's Deer Valley facility in Phoenix, Arizona. There was a big meeting with all employees and Keith was the speaker. Something about Intel making CPU chips for PC's and selling them to people who were making motherboards, and not wanting to be in the motherboard business because we would be competing with our customers. I stood up said it sounded like Intel was afraid. What's the difference if we sell chips on our own motherboards, or we sell chips to other people to put in PC's? Every PC is going to have an Intel chip, it doesn't matter who makes the motherboard. Anyway, before that, Intel didn't make or sell motherboards, and after that they did, and it was all because of my conversation with Keith (ho, ho, ho).
I had never met Luis before. He asked whether I was with "the labs" and I said I couldn't tell, we were being reorganized every two weeks when I was there. He said that was his doing. He is now running Kryptiq:
http://www.kryptiq.com/
Steve Packer was a manager in PCEO (Personal Computer Enhancement Operation) when I was working with the "SatisFAXtion" faxmodem there. He has forsaken computers and gone into politics as a liberal and I believe he is fervent about his cause. Time for men of good will to step up the plate and squash these neo-conservative fascists.
http://www.washcodems.org/
DVD Player, Part 2
Sunday we went to Costco to pick up a new DVD player. I wanted to get a DVR (digital video recorder), but the only one they had was a Tivo and it comes with a subscription requirement, and I continue to be opposed to monthly payments if I can avoid it. We picked up a Toshiba unit for $50. It is much smaller than our four year old Philips model (also purchased from Costco for $190). The old one barely fit in the new box with all the foam packing material removed. The TV and DVD player both support three kinds of video signals:
- Composite
- S-Video
- Component or Chrominance/Luminance
because component video no longer works. When I tried it with the new DVD player I get a picture, but it is completely red. Must have blown something on the blue input circuit. Hard to imagine, these are just low level signals, no current to speak of, but something bad happened. So now I'm stuck with composite video, not that I can tell the difference.
Coffee
While we were at Costco we also picked up a "Senseo" coffee maker. It uses little premeasured packets of coffee and it only makes one cup at a time. It says it will make two cups, but the cup size they are talking about is four ounces, so two of their cups only makes one of my cups. Anyway, I thought it might be a good idea. Quick, easy, good cup of coffee. Turns out it's not that much quicker or easier, you still have to fill the reservoir. It's made by Philips, one of my least favorite companies. While I was hemming and hawing about whether we should get it or not, Anne picked it up and put in the cart and walked off down the aisle. I made a cup of coffee with it when I got home, and it was pretty good. But the unit leaked a little bit. I could have lived with that, but it was horribly noisy. It has some kind of pump inside it makes a horrible racket. Anne couldn't abide with the leak, so we packed it up and she took it back. I'm glad to be rid of it, but I still need to find a new coffee maker.
Friday, April 15, 2005
April 15
We still have lunch at the Panda most every Thursday. Yesterday, Don, Dennis, Elliot and I were there. Topic at lunch was 13 year old girls. Dennis brought a friend from work. He has a 13 year old daughter. She had 3 friends over for a sleepover a couple of weeks ago. They snuck out of the house about 3 in the morning to "go pick some flowers". Mom found out and rousted Dad and daughter was grounded for two weeks: no phone, no TV, no computer, no going anywhere.
Don has a 13 year old niece who is a meth addict, she ran away from home and hasn't been seen for I don't know how long. Her mother, Don's sister, lives somewhere in Southern Washington. She recently got a divorce from her marijuana dealer husband. The whole town, including the mayor and the sheriff, are in on the dope business.
My son John (12) has gone out for track, but his ankles hurt when he runs, so I don't know if he will continue. Daughter (14) is still dancing and hating school. Her dance team came in 5th at the state competition about a month ago. Very disappointing after coming in 1st for the last three years. Ross participated in a mock trial a few weeks ago. Grumbled all the way, but I think he actually enjoyed it. He finally got his driving permit this week.
My mother-in-law wants to give us her old car. All we have to do is figure out how to go get it. She and it are in Iowa. Do we drive out and drive two cars back? Or do we pay round-trip prices for a one way ticket? Decisions, decisions.
Finally got my taxes done this week. Never again. Every year I say I am going to get started early and finish early, and I hardly ever do. Problem is that I just hate it. I don't want to do it, I have no interest in it, and if it weren't for the death penalty, I would probably blow it off completely. So I've decided I'm going to hire an accountant to do it. We are going to meet and get her all the information she needs, and we are going to get a list of what she will need from us next January and that will be the end of it. No more digging through old records, no more reading pages of instructions (did you buy a hog this year? did you get stuck in a bog? did you form a partnership for getting hogs stuck in bogs? did you dissolve a partnership for .... gawd, it's just endless).
I've been saying I need a new job for years, but what I really needed was a new boss, and I finally did, almost. They announced a new guy would be running the company and concentrating on sales, which is what we REALLY need. He moves up here from Texas (ride up North, coast back South), is here for a few days, and then he ends up in the hospital with a burst appendix. He got out a couple of days later and is now recuperating at the old boss's house. So the old boss is still around, hopefully for not too much longer.
Don has a 13 year old niece who is a meth addict, she ran away from home and hasn't been seen for I don't know how long. Her mother, Don's sister, lives somewhere in Southern Washington. She recently got a divorce from her marijuana dealer husband. The whole town, including the mayor and the sheriff, are in on the dope business.
My son John (12) has gone out for track, but his ankles hurt when he runs, so I don't know if he will continue. Daughter (14) is still dancing and hating school. Her dance team came in 5th at the state competition about a month ago. Very disappointing after coming in 1st for the last three years. Ross participated in a mock trial a few weeks ago. Grumbled all the way, but I think he actually enjoyed it. He finally got his driving permit this week.
My mother-in-law wants to give us her old car. All we have to do is figure out how to go get it. She and it are in Iowa. Do we drive out and drive two cars back? Or do we pay round-trip prices for a one way ticket? Decisions, decisions.
Finally got my taxes done this week. Never again. Every year I say I am going to get started early and finish early, and I hardly ever do. Problem is that I just hate it. I don't want to do it, I have no interest in it, and if it weren't for the death penalty, I would probably blow it off completely. So I've decided I'm going to hire an accountant to do it. We are going to meet and get her all the information she needs, and we are going to get a list of what she will need from us next January and that will be the end of it. No more digging through old records, no more reading pages of instructions (did you buy a hog this year? did you get stuck in a bog? did you form a partnership for getting hogs stuck in bogs? did you dissolve a partnership for .... gawd, it's just endless).
I've been saying I need a new job for years, but what I really needed was a new boss, and I finally did, almost. They announced a new guy would be running the company and concentrating on sales, which is what we REALLY need. He moves up here from Texas (ride up North, coast back South), is here for a few days, and then he ends up in the hospital with a burst appendix. He got out a couple of days later and is now recuperating at the old boss's house. So the old boss is still around, hopefully for not too much longer.
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