Tag: scanner

HIPAA and other things that go bump in the night…

(HIPAA) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Being and IT guy for the last 35 years, I am no stranger to HIPAA, SOX, FISMA, and many other regulations from the government, including the federal mandates as to how this is to be accomplished.

While HIPAA is designed to protect your privacy, I wonder if that is how it is actually being used.

From a DR (disaster recovery) standpoint, your data must be backed up and off site. Your data must be recoverable; meaning that you have successfully tested the process on a regular basis.

The easiest way to do this is with CLOUD technology but, I am here to tell you that the hackers attack the cloud… If you’re data, and my data, and your competitors, is in some nebulous storage arrays out there in some data center…that is a central target for the bad guy…

You must have written policies and procedures regarding same… This would be part of your DR plan, run book; or even your living document that is your DR plan.

SOX or Sarbanes Oxley is another set of rules that apply to all publicly traded companies that share many of the same tenants of a good DR plan. E-mails must be stored and retrievable in the event the government wants to see them. Stored off-site and recoverable…

The government, for the government’s own use, has stricter policies and procedures which I wrote about some time back when the Hillary e-mail fiasco came to light… That is why this whole e-mail scandal is laughable as there is no possible way that those e-mails should have been lost, just like there is no way that she should have had a server of her own, dealing with Top Secret Classified e-mails. Why she is already not wearing orange, and living in Club Cupcake Penitentiary, is a testament to the corrupt policies and procedures that our wonderful government seems to enjoy for the rich and famous or in this case the political elites.

Calling and talking with any of the folks at your insurance carrier, you are told that your call may be recorded and monitored for security and training purposes… Now please tell me how this does not violate HIPAA?

When visiting your doctors you had to sign a release, basically nullifying HIPAA so they, the office staff or doctors can talk about your case, health or anything that is needed to whomever that they have to deal with to get paid. Again, how is this not a violation of HIPAA? Working behind the scenes at these places I have heard many cases talked about from end stage renal disease, to genital warts complete with names. I was once working in a plastic surgeons office where his desk was littered with open pictures of nude women with before and after breast augmentation etc etc. This stuff should have been put up before I was ever allowed into his office.

The simple facts are, that we are living in an age of no-privacy; either expressed or implied. The idea of HIPAA is great but, like the thousands of pages of tax code, it is virtually meaningless after the lawyers get through with it. It’s like living in Chicago with all sorts of police vehicles, and one cop who lives at the donut shop. There is the illusion of security, but it simply does not exists.

The airport is another place where you have no privacy but, still the TSA misses about 95% of the threats that their agents try to smuggle through, while testing their efficiency.

While we parade through scanners that strip us naked, and expose us to ionizing radiation, they still miss 95%…! How the hell is that possible?!

While in the waiting room the other day I could hear the office staff talking about patients and their treatment options… That was not bad enough… One of the ladies at the reception desk was calling patients who owed them money between greeting people, taking credit card info… Yep, she read back the guy’s number complete, the billing zip code and expiration where everyone could hear it. I take credit cards and I thought to myself… you did not get the CVV code… A few minutes later she called him back to get that…. And repeated it to where anyone in the waiting room could have heard.

While I have since written a letter to my Doctor…it does not end here…

This same doctor prescribed some meds that I went to CVS to pick up… While in line, the cashier, after getting your name and date of birth, grabs the meds off the shelf, and tells you what they are so everyone in line and the immediate area can hear.

Name and DOB are nobody’s business and certainly what you are buying is nobody’s business…

While I may be over sensitive to this, I don’t really think so…

Either we have HIPAA or we don’t. Either we follow the rules and policies set forth…or we don’t.

The illusions of security is not enough. The illusion of privacy is not enough. Collecting everyone’s Meta data without warrant, is wrong on many levels.

We need to look at and re-vamp all of these policies as we have given up so much of our privacy for the sake of laziness on the part of the employees.

Instead of me telling the lady behind the counter she should ask me to see my ID verifying who I am and my DOB without saying it aloud. After she pulls my meds she can show me what they are without voicing them… Simple policy changes prevent unauthorized or in this case nosey people in line getting into your business.

There are simple answers for all of these things but one simply has to think… We are too damned lazy to think…

-Best

GreCom PSR 700

Tacky radio

Well, one would think that I was about to write a commentary on some DJ, or perhaps some radio personality that was messy, or ill fit for their job but, that is not the case.

This is actually a technical article regarding the GRECOM PSR 700.

This radio is actually a very nice, easy to use scanner, for the person who wants to listen immediately without punching in all of those dozens of frequencies.

The data base comes on a small SD card that you simply install in the radio under the batteries and it is then menu driven with familiar controls as it mimics the old iPod in many respects.

I picked up the radio the other day as I have not used it in over a year. With Trumps visit coming up and all of the protesters I thought that listening in might prove interesting.

When I picked up the radio it literally stuck to my hand. This thing was made in China and I am guessing that like their famous capacitor flub up they too did not do something right with the chemical makeup of the case on the radio. The plastic actually started to break down and reacted with the atmosphere “I am guessing.”

If you run your fingernail along the back of the plastic the “sticky” actually comes off and adheres to your fingernail much like the glue on those nasty little labels that you find on so many things that you buy now days.

Going on the web looking for a solution there was not one. There are others that have reported this but, Grecom is out of business. I am guessing that the refund or warrantee of all of the radios that this affected was too much for them and they abandoned those customers.

I took the battery cover off and simply tried to wash it. Dish soap and a brush just made a sticky mess of both the brush and my hands.

Even if it worked you could not run the radio under water so some other form of “fix” was going to have to be discovered.

Goo Gone to the rescue.

Using Goo Gone and that little plastic tool that you use to take laptops of smartphones apart worked nicely.

Simply get a little goo gone on your finger and rub it on to the area that you want to clean.

After it sits for a few minutes use the tool much like a scraper and small deliberate strokes and you will see the sticky crap come off and pile up at the end of the stroke.

If you feel comfortable dismantling the radio first that might be your best bet as any mistake will have this stuff inside your radio.

I carefully did this too all of the surfaces removing as much as the sticky stuff as possible. I then got a cloth rag and with some force rubbed and buffed the rest as best I could.

I finished the process with “Windex,” and a paper towel. Dampen the paper towel with Windex, never spray it on to the radio. Small deliberate forceful strokes, removed the rest of the nastiness that was nothing more than flypaper on my radio. Cosmetically the radio is not as pristine as it once was, and the lettering that was under the sticky mess disappeared as well.

The radio is still usable, and does not stick too anything any longer.

If you are thinking about buying one of these online think twice as you may be buying a sticky mess.

This is not for the faint of heart and I am disappointed that I spent that kind of money and have a radio that clearly is not as pristine as it was when I bought it.

If you have one of these here is the page for downloads and if you want third party out of warranty service.. I contacted them several days ago and no response so, your mileage may very…

http://www.greamerica.com/

-Best

#Protests, #Respect and #Cops #handsup #icantbreath

The recent protests over Micheal Brown’s death were ill advised and predicated on lies.

There are senators, football players and people in all walks of life holding their hands up screaming don’t shoot. They are perpetrating a hoax on society to further an agenda that could have very dangerous consequences. This would be fine if it were not based on a lie!

Don’t resist arrest. Parents, teach your kids not to resist arrest. Teach them from a young age to respect folks, not just their elders, but the man in Blue. Stop with the victim mentality..

The man in blue has a tough job, they have to do everything right. Each and every decision needs to be automatic as some must be made in a split second. If you brandish a weapon, the Cop now can fire at you. If your behavior makes him or her fear for their life, they can shoot you. It is not as if they are going to mull it over in their minds. If they see a weapon pointed at them they are going to use deadly force! Shoot first ask questions later. That goes with the territory of being a cop. They deserve to go home at the end of the day, as do you.

Eric Garner should still be alive. Unlike Mr. Brown, Eric Garner was simply not complying with orders to put his hands behind his back. He was no stranger to the police; and the judicial system. Mr. Garner has a criminal record that includes more than 30 arrests dating back to 1980 on charges such as assault, resisting arrest and grand larceny.

Unlike the Ferguson case where the facts were released and people choose not to read them, or believe them, here, all of the facts are not released. They released enough relevant facts to justify their ruling however; a mistrust exists so it is unlikely that if all of the facts are released that the outcome will be any different.

We could get off into the weeds and talk about how this opportunist came to be a petty criminal, selling un-taxed cigarettes and that is certainly worthy of another blog. The outcome was unfortunate.

The press is playing loose with the facts to stir up interest which relate to ratings. It was clearly not a choke hold but calling it one or misleading the reader to believe that it could have been one, will get more readers, thus more ratings. It also leads to more mistrust and possibly more violence.

If he could talk, he could breathe, clearly if it was a choke hold, he could not have talked. Mr. Garner had asthma which complicated his arrest and most likely added to his eventual demise. Had he not resisted arrest he would still be here. Had he not been violating the law, he still would be here. He clearly had no respect for the man in blue and that is the dangerous message that it being propagated by these two deaths.

To craft the narrative in such a way that Mr. Brown, a black teenager headed to college, was executed by a white cop is a dangerous narrative as more black folks are liable to believe it, and disrespect the cops.

Mr. Brown was a troubled individual that had a long criminal history. Mr. Brown’s lifestyle and lack of respect for the law lead to his demise, and nobody but Mr. Brown is responsible for that.

Mr. Garner had underlying medical conditions which evidently played a role in his demise. That would seem to be the facts as I can gather them from the various sources.

So who wants to be a cop?

Cops have a real tough job. They have to deal with some pretty crappy people. Watch Alaska troopers of some other Nat Geo shows about troopers.

If you want to know about the cops in your area, get a police scanner and listen in. You will hear all sorts of non-sense and wonder who those people are that are pulling that crap.

Unlike what the media would want you to believe, neither of these deaths had anything to do with race. The perps happen to be black and the cops happen to be white. The interesting thing is, when a black officer shoots an unarmed white guy; it hardly makes the local news much less the national news.

Here is the message that is to the point. “All life matters!”

I would like to see all officers wearing body cameras that have to be on and recording when they are on duty. This data, as it is being recorded, should be uploaded to the cloud so it is “non-volatile.” This data should be on screens that their supervisor has access to, live as it happens. With the radio going and the cameras streaming video, it would take the cop question out of the equation.

If you are going to protest make it count. Push for this technology to be in use so the cop gets a fair hearing and the people that he deals with cant claim something that is fallacious, calling the officers actions into question. With the use of the camera, the “bad cops” if any; will quickly be looking for another job.

I know of cases where cops acted too harshly so I am not blind to the fact that some need to be doing something else beside wearing a gun and “serving you!” When the facts are there in HD color with audio and video from many different angles, it would be difficult for the cop to claim an untruth, and it would be difficult for someone to say that he was kneeling on the ground with his hands up when he was shot!

-Best to you and those that you care about… Be careful out there if you are protesting, we don’t need to have any “Accidents.”