From The Street... 
  corner   



HOME

ARCHIVES


Random links and comments on technology - and economics - and telecommunications. "Live" from Bull Shoals, Arkansas. Jim Walsh jmw8888@aol.com

EMAIL ME


 

Monday, September 30, 2002

HR Testing - Don't Feed the Monkeys who run HR....

 
A brilliant little blog site about the way HR monkeys mistreat real people. Classic. I've received two requests recently to complete questionaires, one the TJTI.com exercise, described below.

====================================

Don't Feed the Monkeys

Bass-Ackwards: EVEN WHEN monkeys actually take advantage of the latest Internet technology, something in their primitive nature makes them resort to antiquated communication techniques. Observe as Charles J. Wytiaz, executive vice president of a monkey cage called Hire Golden Inc. takes us from 1999-era Internet searching to 1984-era print-and-fax communications:

"While searching Chief Monster's database [1999], we came across your resume. Your background is of interest to us. Hire Golden is a fast-growing firm with a huge breakthrough in employment screening technology [1999]. While your background is of interest to us, for you to be considered for this opportunity, we will need more information. Specifically, we would like you to take the Thomas-Jung Type Indicator. It is a simple, 10-minute test that will determine your Myers-Briggs (personality) type. To get a free copy of the test, please go to TJTI.com and pull it down. After completing the test, please fax it back to me [1984] along with another copy of your resume. I look forward to your early response. Regards, Charles J. Wytiaz, Executive Vice President, Hire Golden, Inc."
The TJTI page he refers to is a handwriting and personality test. You write the page twice - once in handwriting and once in printing (pity the fool for whom they're one and the same) - on white unlined paper. The page is mostly quotes from JFK and Mark Twain, until this bizarre paragraph with a clever miscalculation at the end. Guess they'll find the "thinkers" in the crowd!

"I am very happy today. My mother is very beautiful. I see the opportunity clearly. 12 36 = 48 and 9,000 - 75 = 8,950."

=================================

Welcome To Personalysis Corporation

The other was "Personalysis" (Copyright 1975...! ) wherein after answering 94 A/B choice questions - ( "Do you like (A) Yellow or (B) Black ?" - "Puppies or jackhammers?" , "Warm hot gravy or Black Blood Vomit?" ...etc.) Pretty sick stuff. But for $250, you get a 13 page report with Data and a Multicolored Chart plus An Interpretation By A Distinguished Business Professor - well he mighta been one 27 years ago.

Telling these companies that I'd be ashamed to work for, much less represent, an organization that relies on such foolishness in making hiring decisions, is the least I can do to see to it that they continue to hire fools, and thus fail in real world markets.

FWIW.




Thursday, September 26, 2002

Hospital Bills - Utilization Review

 
Here are some suggested ways of challenging seemingly aribtrary hospital bills. Haven't tried this, but it reads well:

Utilization Review and related systems: a function performed (almost) daily by a specially trained team of RNs. Each nurse is responsible for reading a patient's Entire Medical Record and alerting the attending physician and other responsible staff to such things as (1) "proper" documentation (2) signatures to indicated record/lab reports, etc. have been reviewed and the findings duly noted. (3) Being a "silent member" of the treatment team.

A Utilization Review Nurse meets with the treatment team, but does not usually meet directly with the patient....

UR nurses are paid members of the hospital staff and required by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of HealthCare Organizations (JCAHO). UR nurses may be brought in by the attending (as a consultant) or by the family (as a family-requested consultant.

Possible phone Script: (F=family; S=assorted hospital staff)

S: Good morning this is San Ramon Regional Hospital; this is Sarah, how may I direct your call?

F: Good morning, Sarah. Who is the Director of Medical Records?

S: Althea Ruth-Goldman

F: Thank you, Sarah, May I speak with Althea?....Althea, my name is JMW and I was a patient at your facility on (this day). I am interested obtaining a copy of my medical records. Could you please tell me what I must do

S:(Runaround on how long it will take, how much money it will cost . . . forms, signatures, $$ for staff time, $ per copy of page, and so on.)

F: Can you put that in the mail to me or should I meet with you at the hospital?

S: Mail okay.

New call to hospital billing dept.

F: Hi, this is JMW, I was a patient at your hosp on This Date. I been receiving some bills from you which frankly I am having difficulty understanding-- but the I'm a techie, not a hospital person (haha). Now I've already requested a copy of my complete Medical Records, what I want to know is if your current coding system might be made available to the Utilization Review nurse I have hired.
S: duh
F: Would it be easier if the UR nurse just came to the hospital??
S: duh
F: Have you had breakfast? You seem a little vague.
S: duh

F: Is there a supervisor I could talk to Miss (Duh).....Would you please notify me when we will be ready to proceed? Now what is your name again? And you will be the person I will deal with? Good. Thank you so much. You can reach me at . . . .. . . . . .. I'll wait to hear from you.

Cuppla Paragraph Script:
Administrator,
San Remo Regional Hospital bla bla bla

Dear Ms. Cheatem:
I am requesting your assistance in obtaining a copy of my Medical Records from _______dates_____ to SS# 888-88-8888 (I'm just a lucky guy). Attending physician: Mr. Doey. Diagnosis/Procedure: Vaccination with a phonograph needle.

I am somewhat confused by the correspondance and phone conversations I have had with your Billing Department, so I have been advised to obtain a copy of the Medical Records and all related reports, and to have a Utilization Review Nurse review the documentation. I would also like a copy of your billing codes as they apply to this procedure.

Thanking you in advance for your cooperation.

Sincerely JMW

PS I just remembered that my son XXX was treated at your facility on _____ for _____ and my mother-in-law NanaZ on _____ for _____ . I would also like a copy of their records for my review.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at I am available from the hours of 9-7pm.
========

I'm assured that often all future contact with you from them ceases by executive order....





Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Gilder on China

 

Excerpted from George's Technology Report:

The China Phenomenon...

With the U.S. in dreamland, I think power in the world economy will shift toward China, Korea, India, and other countries that take technology seriously.

As Nick Tredennick showed in the August Dynamic Silicon reporting on his trip to China, this country of 1.3 billion people is no paper techer. With Taiwan in tow—and integration of the Taiwanese economy on the Hong Kong model continues apace even if political integration lags— China already commands the world’s best independent semiconductor facilities in TSMC and UMC.

With TSMC preparing to invest $898 million over the next four years on the mainland, mainland China will offer the world’s second largest foundry capacity by next year. With 167 million users, China is already the world’s largest cellphone market, and it is set to double in two years.

China is determined to use this market dominance to achieve technical and commercial dominance as well. A possible spearhead will be its proprietary TD-SCDMA Time Division Duplex Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) 3G cellular system that exploits smart antenna technology and time division multiplexing to enhance spectral efficiency—the number of bits per second carried per hertz of frequency.

Essentially the smart antenna isolates users in space and TDMA spreads the signals through time. Enhancing the signal along the vectors of time and space incurs a burden of complexity and cost. But CDMA itself trades complexity and cost for the systemic benefits that are giving it dominance today.

Contrived in a ten-year partnership with Siemens (SI) of Germany, TD-SCDMA is designed as a seamless upgrade for the world’s billion GSM phones. As a CDMA system, TD-SCDMA tramples all over Qualcomm’s intellectual property. Even Chinese use of TDMA for separating upstream and downstream transmissions asymmetrically repeats the essential insight of Qualcomm’s Data-Only 2.4 megabit per second system that rotates the users in time. But with most of the world’s cellphones in China and TDSCDMA targeted at GSM users, intellectual property rights may not matter.

Writing in IEEE Wireless in April, engineers from China, Taiwan, and Siemens/Infineon (IFX) explained the reason the country was pursuing this anomalous cellphone standard. They declared the new system to be vital in case of a "possible war with the U.S. and its allies." The bald bellicosity of this Chinese article might add a political caveat to projections of revenues from Qualcomm’s relationship with China Unicom (CHU) and EZchip’s (LNOP) breakthrough design-win at the Chinese router company ZTE.

Tredennick’s Dynamic Silicon report stresses the awesome two-edged sword of this emergent Titan with 700,000 engineers graduated annually, ten times as many as in the U.S., and soon a wireless market three times as large as the U.S. There is no reason to panic. China is turning toward free markets, as the article also avers, and free markets are not zero-sum. The riches of China can also be our own, if we cultivate this coming capitalist colossus, enhance our educational and entrepreneurial energies, and unleash new opportunities though free market trade and investment policy. We have to cut tax rates, stabilize the dollar, and deregulate telecom. It would be easier if potential allies in the industry did not disable their minds with fantasy.

—George Gilder and Bret Swanson, September 20, 2002



Sunday, September 22, 2002

Friend in Beijing writes...

 

Last night was the Mid-Autumn festival - full moon, stand-up dinner at the
stalls near Wangfujing, stroll through Tiananmen. Beautiful. Families
exchanging moon cakes. We found pineapple moon cakes a Carrefour.
Delicious with jasmine tea.





Tuesday, September 17, 2002

New Assignment ?

 

My assignment with TTI Medical has ended. I am actively back looking for consulting or full time assignments in sales and marketing in either the medical imaging or digital video markets. Updated resume below :

James M. Walsh
535 Rolling Hills Lane
Danville, CA 94526
(925) 362-9883
JMW8888@aol.com
www.jmwalsh.blogspot.com


Twenty years of Senior Level experience in international sales and marketing of high technology products.

Summary:
- Experience in the setup and management of domestic and international sales regions.
- Extensive background in all phases of digital communications.
- Comprehensive knowledge of markets for high technology products.
- Experience in Digital Asset Management.
- Proven high-level negotiating skills.
- Strong knowledge of the broadcast television, digital video, data compression, digital entertainment, data recording and mass storage markets.
- Recent experience in medical imaging products and technologies.
- Expertise in broadcast automation, video storage technology, video and data compression, and HDTV
=====================

Professional Experience:

TTI Medical, San Ramon California 2002
Director of Sales. Developed sales and marketing plan, including web site development, HD product development, distribution reorganization, and ecommerce strategy.

JMW Associates, (Silicon Valley, CA) 1994-Present
Providing senior management with practical business advice on exploiting technology driven markets and opportunities.

Began publishing blog site From The Street, writing about digital television and other economic and political matters. http://www.jmwalsh.blogspot.com

Selected Recent Assignments:

Technicolor, (Division of Thomson MultiMedia) 2001 - 2002
Director of Business Development, Digital Media Asset Management

- Worked with television networks and Hollywood studios to manage intellectual property assets generated in program and film production.
- Participated in drafting business plan for board approval.


Major Accomplishments

- Assisted a wide range of technology-based clients by providing sales and marketing recommendations for restructuring and channel development.

- Key partner to strategic product planning groups in the video storage and digital infrastructure business.

- Prepared specifications and solicited digital transmission and distribution system bids for telecommunications and terrestrial broadcasting companies. Evaluated responses and made technical and purchasing recommendations.

- Examined the markets for digital video technologies in the medical imaging and security markets, making specific product recommendations.

- Assigned as Consiglieri to the President of a $500m division of a $2B domestic electronics manufacturer. Provided technical and business advice on a wide range of matters, including acquisition evaluation, market development, and product strategies..

- Developed and implemented a Business Plan for an established domestic electronics manufacturer to revitalize their line of digital video infrastructure products.

- Successfully and rapidly negotiated a joint development and distribution OEM contract between a domestic broadcast television products company and a Japanese supplier

- Successfully organized Asia-Pacific regional distribution and marketing strategies for major electronics manufacturers.


Ampex Corporation, (Redwood City, CA) 1981-1994
Ampex Corporation, ($700M+), develops and manufactures high performance magnetic recording systems for the professional television industry.

Director, New Business Development, (Redwood City, CA) 1993 -1994
- Joined sales and marketing group to develop market for DST (Digital Storage Technology).

Managing Director, (Ampex World Operations, Hong Kong) 1984 – 1993
- Built and directed an organization headquartered in Hong Kong with responsibilities to market, sell and service all Ampex products in Pacific Rim countries from India to Korea.

Significant accomplishments:

- Localized standard products for the Asian market
- Grew sales 400%
- Regularly exceeded performance targets by 10-20%
- Consistently earned recognition the top-performing region worldwide.

Senior Sales Engineer, (Chicago, IL) 1981 -1984
- Awarded first Rookie of the Year, then several Salesman of the Year awards for record-setting performances.


Previous Assignments:

- Rockwell/Collins Radio, Marketing and selling Commercial and Government Antenna Systems; Assistant Director of Army Marketing.
- Hy Gain Electronics, Director Commercial and International Sales.
- Regional manager for video systems integrators and dealers in Iowa and Missouri.

Education
- BS Electrical Engineering (BSEE), University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana
- Executive Training Program, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
- Dr. Kristine Kneib MPEG Compression Seminars
- John Watkinson's Digital Video, MPEG and ATSC Seminars

======================

Languages and Other Skills

- Working knowledge of written and spoken Chinese.(Mandarin and Cantonese)
- Extensive exposure to Korean, Malay, and Thai
- Some understanding of French and Japanese.
- Ability to understand English as spoken by engineers and customers in Seoul, Beijing, Taipei, Tokyo, Bangkok, Jakarta, Bombay, Colombo, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney...and San Jose, California.




Friday, September 13, 2002

Video imaging

 
My current assignment has helped me see close up how digital imaging is really what is happening as "video" becomes decoupled from "television".

We offer a four chip CCD camera from a Japanese manufacturer - two green channel chips offset give "HD". The camera lists for over $22K. The HD video comes out in wide band analog form (RGB) and records on nothing directly except a specialized wideband "HD" analog vhs machime To do anything else, it must be converted to NTSC/S-video via a 6K scan converter. Then it is digitized somehow and downconverted to a "computer video" format to fit in a file, to fit in a Powerpoint Presentation. Lovely pictures, great color resolution, 1080i out, if you want it - and 4x3 (closer to the circular images from optical instruments). 40-50K mebbe full up with a monitor and cart running at the curb...


(Aside - all optical lenses are circular, right? I saw a neat little Minolta (?) camera with a vertical prism, which bends the light down into the camera while allow ing a zoom to operate vertically; result, a very thin zoom camara. Big Lens cameras are inherently "long". Some applications, like big imagers in space, are generally "wide". Here's a commercial application of that. About $350, as I recall...)

More on the low end later....




Tuesday, September 10, 2002

Powell Play

 
(lifted from somewhere....)

Another step in the downward/upward? path towards free telephony. The End Of The Phone Companies, chapter three...Sell, bro'

=======================


Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell has received universally poor reviews for his work. In fact, much of what's happened under his watch, bad and good, has nothing to do with anything he's done.

Critics have sought to blame Powell for the WorldCom implosion and the generally sorry state of competition with the incumbent Baby Bells. The truth is, Powell has merely implemented the sorry framework that the 1996 Telecom Act -- passed almost unanimously out of Congress -- handed him. If telecom's a mess, it's not Powell's doing.

Similarly, the fixes on the horizon will not be of Powell's doing either. The Bells may finally have something to worry about as the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) begins to snake its way into consumers' homes.

VoIP rides cable lines into homes and can provide telephone service via a small router/converter that hooks up to a standard phone. Right now call quality can be spotty, but it's improving rapidly.

The kicker is that VoIP can be significantly cheaper -- cheap enough to get people to cancel their traditional phone service. That'll get the Bells' attention.

In addition, VoIP calls by definition exist outside the old circuit-switched network. The Net's packet-switched network bypasses all the old fees and subsidies that account for so much of the cost of a phone call. Routing around that old system that Congress is loathe to dismantle allows VoIP providers to offer things like flat-rate prices that make per-minute rates a thing of the past.

Expect a tough fight. The Bells, in the form of the United States Telecom Association, is already hinting that VoIP needs to conform to the same regulatory straightjacket that the 1930s-era phone system operates under. Plus, the FBI is beginning to notice that VoIP calls are difficult, if not impossible, to tap.



Wednesday, September 04, 2002

Lousy Sound...

 
Is it just me, or is the sound on British-made TV shows really bad?

Old English movies, of course, are notorious for scratchy noise filled sound. Combined with the accents, they were always somewhat challenging. Most Americans now have few problems with Received English - or Royal English. But as stories get made about folks farther north and into Scotland and parts of Ireland, comprehension fades fast. In modern UK TV dramas (on Arts, Bravo, Trio, PBS, BBC, and others), most of the of scenes are done on location...which is always a challenge, especially for the quiet reserved lines of the typically understated characters in these things. But never ever have I heard of anybody having audio understanding problems with a Hollywood-made film, no matter what the scene location. Are the Union Audio guys in California better that the Union Audio Guys in UK? Hard to believe.

The cinematography is most always superb, as is directing and editing. But listening to the Edinburgh-born Detective outline his suspicions in a fast snappy manner to the chippie next to him, walking down the concrete corridor of Birmingham Police Headquarters, is a challenge even for those of us with Replay TV boxes. "What was that? Roll it back again and turn it up...again...there". This is not the interactivity envisioned by the makers.

So, if the plot is good and the show grabs you, to get it all is an interactive experience. One-Second-Max-Editing is pretty common, and usually you don't have to "replay" stuff to "resee" things - they are properly designed to give it all to you visually in the first, leaned-back experience of watching.

But unless your mother came from Yorkshire, or points north, keep your finger on the replay button...




Sunday, September 01, 2002

French Crack Down On TV Sex...

 

Man Bites Dog? (no, that one they can't show anymore either...)

French May Ban Late-Night Porn

By JOHN LEICESTER .c The Associated Press

PARIS (AP) - For nearly two decades it has been France's Saturday night naughtiness: no-holds-barred pornography, beamed to TV sets in millions of homes across the land.

All the while, few people complained about ``le porno du Samedi soir,'' as the French cheerfully call it - until this summer. Then government-appointed regulators touched off a cultural debate by urging channels to drop the porn, and at the same time lobbying the legislature for the power to force compliance if TV executives don't go along.

The TV porn started back in 1984, when pioneering broadcaster Canal Plus introduced X-rated films on the first Saturday of the month to help build its image as a brash and racy new alternative to France's stuffy old channels.

Canal Plus, France's first pay-TV channel, has since blossomed into a darling of the cultural establishment, because it provides much-needed financial support to French filmmakers battling Hollywood domination.

But regulators and others say TV porn has gotten out of hand. They cite concerns that the increasing amount of such shows threatens the moral and mental well-being of young people.

It's not that France, long known for sexual openness and liberal mores, has suddenly grown prudish. Rather, the debate exposes the intensity of French fears that young people are becoming caught up by drugs, violence, sex and crime.

Crime, particularly increasing youth crime, was a dominant topic of presidential and parliamentary elections last spring. Among cases that made headlines: gang rapes of teenagers by other teens.

Few lay the blame for such violence squarely at pornography's door. But some experts argue that porn may help push some young criminals over the edge, and more generally that it degrades women and encourages unsafe sex practices.

One of the first actions of the center-right government that won June legislative elections was to commission political philosopher Blandine Kriegel to study violence on TV, including sexual violence.

``Doctors, psychologists, teachers and educators, lawyers, judges, journalists and finally parents think that violent images remain too easily accessible and available on television,'' said Culture Minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon. ``The government cannot remain indifferent to such a situation.''

The TV watchdog, the Conseil Superieur de L'Audiovisuel, says five French broadcast, cable and satellite channels carry 103 X-rated shows each month. When pay-per-view movies are included, the number rises to 943.

``Erotic programs always sell. Sex still interests people,'' said Richard Maroko, programming director for AB Groupe, whose porn channel XXL reaches 1 million cable and satellite subscribers.

But Maroko, speaking in a phone interview, said he did not want to comment about the proposed ban on TV porn. ``Too complicated,'' he said.

Other TV executives and critics of the proposed ban say singling out television will not stop young people from seeing porn on the Internet or videotapes, and say no prohibition can curb adolescent curiosity about sex. They also argue that banning porn from TV would infringe the rights of adults who watch it.

Canal Plus, which claims 4.9 million subscribers, says it has no intention of changing its programming. It says it broadcasts porn only between midnight and 5 a.m. and, in any event, parents can prevent children watching by unplugging the special receiver needed watch Canal broadcasts.

According to a study commissioned by the regulatory commission, 11 percent of children ages 4 to 12 in households that subscribe to Canal Plus see at least one minute of porn a year.

Some critics suggest part of the answer would be to punish adults who let children watch.

But for well-known French pornographer John B. Root the problem is not one of genre, but of the poor quality of many of today's porn movies.

``No one would have thought to make porn the scapegoat for society's ills if it offered amusing, well-made films, aphrodisiac works, stories of desire and of pleasure,'' Root wrote in an impassioned appeal against the proposed ban. ``Its subject matter is physical love - a subject that has offered masterpieces to painting, sculpture and literature.''

09/01/02 13:20 EDT

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.





This page is powered by Blogger.