Another reason I really look forward for them being sued in Europe - This is a highly illegal practice in the EU and has already brought sizeable penalties for various other media outlets, both conventional and online.
And weeks ago the Dutch and German consumer protection agencies as well as the GDPR ombudsman already commented that they are looking into Reddit (Reddit has it's European office in Amsterdam).
That will be fun.
Former (small scale) data protection officer here. While I am long out off the data protection game and there are surely a lot more qualified people out there I maybe can clear up a few misconceptions here and answer a few questions that come up regularly:
(BTW: My first language is not English and all my comments/books on that topic are not in English so excuse me if my translations are sometimes not 100% accurate)
Does the GDPR even apply to a instance hosted outside the European Union? It absolutely does. And in fact it is harder to comply to the GDPR outside of the European union. The GDPR does apply to all data collectors (from now on DCs) that collect data of European citiziens. While §2 Section 2a GDPR limits the application of the GDPR to usage within EU laws the collection of EU citiziens information clearly falls under the EU law as long as the EU citizien is within the EU during the collection process.
So why is it harder to comply to EU law outside of the EU? Because of local laws. A good example are US homeland security laws that do contradict the GDPR (and various other EU laws) and therefore make it impossible for someone to host EU data in the US complying to the GDPR. Facebook made a pretty costly experience in that regard recently. To comply to the GDPR one would need to keep EU citiziens out of their service AND defederate all EU instances. More of that later.
Does the GDPR even apply to Lemmy posts? It absolutely does! GDPR §4.1 states clearly that all information relating to an "online identifier" (aka username) is already protected. So the IP adresses, etc. collected by the initial server aren't even the only personal data. This makes the whole topic a clusterfuck in terms of federation.
But what about my small/medium size instance? I am not a business! I make no money. The GDPR does not care a bit about ones intentions here - it applies to all instances that are beyond "personal or intrafamiliy" data collection. This basically means that you can absolutely do what you want with the data you collected at the last family reunion. Maybe one can even get away with a invitation only private instance that only caters to a group of friends knowing each other. But any DC having a public instance is not, by definition, a private DC anymore. Therefore the GDPR does absolutely apply.
Can I simply the user for permission to use their data indefinitly and however I want? One surely can ask that. But that automatically invalidates the agreement. (Funnily enough this is exactly what reddit does and why reddit is not in compliance. Which might turn out costly.) The consent always has to be revokeable, amongst other things.
So what does the GDPR stipulate? There are three main topic we need to look at: Data deletion, traceability of data transfers and connected to this information about data usage.
Lets start with traceability. Because that makes the federation a federation!
What does traceability of data transfers mean? It basically means that a DC must record its data transfers to third parties and ensure that data is handled there according to the consent agreement with the user and the GDPR. Usually a data transfer agreement is necessary to ensure the rights of all parties. This makes it so difficult for a federated system: In theory a instance would need a data transfer agreement with ALL instances that federate data from it. And these instances woud then need to make sure that they don't transfer OR their transferpartner is covered in the original data transfer agreement as well their own one. A receipe for a pretty nice clusterfuck.
What does data deletion mean? Under the GDPR every user has the right to have his data deleted from a DC. This does not include data necessary for legal obligations but basically everything else. So the user can at any point revoke his consent and make the instance delete all their data.
Okay, I deleted the data on my instance, do I now comply to the GDPR? Surely I can simply ask the user to go to the other instances and ask them to remove the data? No. And here is another problem: The original DC (the users instance) is responsible for the data handled through transfer. That's why one needs a transfer agreement. To ensure that the data is deleted on all instances it was transfered to. There are two exceptions here: "Involuntary data transfer" is generally seen as not being part of the data handling. But that mainly applies to datascrapers like the web archive and similar usage where the data is transfered through general usage of a page that the DC cannot reasonaby prevent without limiting the usage of their service massively. That would very very likely not apply to a service that does provide a specialised api for the transfer. The other one is a data transfer partner not complying. In that case the user can sue the DC, but the DC can sue the transfer partner for breach of contract.
What does right to information usage mean? Basically a user has a right to know what happened to their data. So in case of the federation: To what instances got my data transfered to? How did they use it? Did they transfer it?
The end: What does that mean for Lemmy? To be honest: I can not fathom a way that put Lemmy in a position that is fully GDPR compliance. There might be one, but I can't imagine one that does not entail full defederation. But Lemmy can and must urgently improve the GDPR compliance as far as possible:
In theory even then someone can sue an instance owner. Even then we are not 100% in compliance. But it is a far better position in court if one can argue that they did basically everything they can to ensure the users right compared to "I don't give a f****, your honour".
Additionally we should lobby for change in the GDPR to include better rules for federated systems. Also because E-Mail as another federated system is not in compliance - that can easily be weaponized as a good point.
Patients are asked to clean their guts before major rectum and colon surgery,similar to what you do when you get a colonoscopy. Ideally that removes most if not all fecal matter and a significant portion of the bacteria.
Furthermore of course the colon is rinsed before the actual surgery and often during the surgery as well if necessary, if necessary with disinfecting solutions (but far less than one would think - it's actually important to do so to the least amount possible,see below). Additionally wound closures are done with techniques that allow extremely easy healing in the most problematic parts and often multiple sutures are made to adapt tissue borders on multiple layers and in multiple ways. And during and after the surgery strong iV antibiotics are given to prevent infection. But it's actually not a good idea to totally get rid of all bacteria. Especially the guts need a healthy bacterial flora to function and,and this is important here, to avoid "bad bacteria" to take over the space. There is more and more focus to make the right bacteria grow back on the colon/and to some extent the rectum, so there are some procedures that are now done with direct faecal transplants afterwards. Nevertheless often patients will not be allowed to eat for quite some time after an operation and are fed with intravascular solution during that time. Not a pleasant experience but sadly necessary. For more external operations (rectum) patients are also given stool softeners (medication that makes the passing of faecal matter easier) and advised to do disinfecting baths often, sometimes three times a day.
And of course the body is quite good at fighting bacteria and the colon and rectum - it is built to do so,the end of the whole "waste producing" system is outside the actual abdomen inside the pelvic sack,separated by a barrier. And the whole area is heavily supplied with blood (which is actually a good thing for infection control).
And last but not least for major operations there is always the option to create an enterostoma - an artificial opening/shortcut for people to get rid of fecal matter through it. These are usually done through the abdominal wall. After everything has healed up (usually after 6 months+x) the now healed colon and the small intestine/unaffected large intestine are connected back together and the artificial opening is closed.
(Sadly this is not always possible - then patients are getting a "Barbie Butt" - a behind without an opening. Mostly for cancer.)
Home Assistant. It is an incredibly powerful smart home solution that is far more capable than any other solution one needs to pay for.
As someone who is doing disaster response consulting for healthcare and public health: I fucking love you guys. You make my job sooo much easier.
Seriously.
The surveillance you folks do is pretty much indisputable and far more incorruptible compared to everything else we do, in healthcare especially.
Very often you are my "discussion ending gun" when decision makers endlessly want me to prove their (flawed) point of view. A "nope, here are validated wastewater based numbers, you are wrong" is extremely satisfying sometimes.
Thanks folks!
You still have times when there is nothing to do?
I haven't seen that.... in decades.
If there is no patient care there is documentation. If there is no documentation there is administration/supplies. If that is done there is something to clean.
And if that is done there might be a paper/medical book to read.Or discuss a case with someone.
...Okay, you got me...I am a former manager.....
But tbf, we have sacred break times here, but when you work you work. (And well, we have less hours than people in other countries)
As someone who does live in a "fully smart" home, used quite some time to plan it and had to fend of "smarthome" manufacturers like flies aroud a shitcake:
90% of all products on the market are a scam and shouldn't be called smart at all - they are fancy "remotes" either via voice or mobile phone. Nothing about that is smart. That's dumb. It is not more convenient compared to a proper lightswitch if I need to know a long specific voice prompt or take my mobile out of its pocket to switch on a certain light.
What the autor of the article requests is already on the market for decades - KNX/EIB any a few other standards (Modbus, Onewire, etc.) are available for ages, are not depending on one brand and one central component. There is no fucking need to stay within a walled garden but the point is: These systems exist for such a long time that they do not show up as "big introduction" at IFA or CES. They evolve gradually and to stay within German exhibitions are found at the Light and Building rather than the IFA. Because the first one is a builders/electronics exhibitions, the later a multimedia/TV trade fair. The Verge is simply at the wrong place.
To give you an idea of my (actually very common, nothing about it is very special) setup/usecases and what I mean with "smart": KNX does everything that requires switching, all sensors, basically all background work excluding the doorbell (works via LAN) and Fingerprint (works via LAN).
Lights:
The system does recognise people automatically when they enter a room and their positioning in a room. Paired with enviromental data (natural light level in the room, outside light, time of the day, our schedule according to our calenders*) it determines the appropriate level of light based on the human centric lightning concept. Light will be brighter and more blue in the morning (unless I am coming home from nightshifts), darker and more orange in the evening (unless we have a party), very dark if you go to the loo at night. It furthermore recognises your positioning in the room (e.g. when you are in a certain part of the kitchen certain lights go on) or that certain power sockets draw power according to a certain charateristic (e.g. the TV goes on)
Temperature:
The system knows current inside and outside temperature and the expected forecast*. It will heat the rooms accordingly, e.g. will turn down the kids rooms during schooldays but have them back at temperature when school ends. If the system recognises that someone is still in the room for long after school should have started it determines that someone is sick/schools off unexpectedly and temps are adjusted accordingly. In the summer the system shuts the blinds according to the light level to keep the heat out - based on the current position of the sun(e.g. the eastern blinds are lowered in the morning but not the western ones) and outside light levels. It will let enough light in for everyone to work but at the same time keep the heat out.
Air quality:
The system measures the air quality of the rooms and outside air quality&temperature and does ventilate accordingly - or ask us to manually open a window if that doesn't provide sufficient clean air. (But won't do so if the Air quality outside is bad)
Windows/Doors:
All of them have sensors showing their opening status, some if they are properly locked.
Doorbell/Fingerprint:
The Doorbell/Fingerprint system is the only system not on the bus as Video is beyond the scope of what the system can transfer.
Devices/Appliances:
Most things are "dumb" integrated first- we see when the washing machine is done because of the power charateristic, we see if the refrigerator is broken the same way. While we use Home Assistant for additional comfort, it is not really necessary.
Visualisation:
We use both KNX only as well as Home Assistant. But I could change over to openHAB, ioBroker or whatever we want tomorrow.
*: This data has input from external sources.
My point is: This is done without much user input. And by using around 30 different brands. With dumb actors and sensors (blind e.g. are just a "on off" motor, windows are binary contacts, same goes for leakage, etc.) so the components can be exchanged easily. And you don't pay the hefty premium everyone tries to sell you for their "remote controlled blinds" (twice the price for a shitty remote,another useless gateway and Alexa...) and it's far easier to use different brands. And if the blind actuator brand goes bust (way more unlikely compared to a smarthome startup) it will work without a cloud and can be exchanged seamlessly with any other brand.
We are there. But it is not fancy enough for the media.
From my understanding your colleague committed a crime under the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981 and you can refer the matter to the police - which I would strongly recommend as this is beyond an employee-employer relationship.
And it brings the employer into a position that the company is forced to make sure that the offender cannot reoffend against anyone (not just you). While the first offense is nothing the company can really be held liable for, anything after they have (officially) made aware they can be held liable for.
Ikea is hiring people for it's Robolox branch. But generally Chat moderation(aka being a fake chat partner in the more,well, infamous partner seeking platforms) is an option, same goes for normal phone support/callcenter work.
Fiverr is an idea, there are similar jobs as well.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/ikea-roblox-workers-virtual-store/
I do disaster planning for counties,hospitals,big companies,etc.
I had a presentation for a hospital and basically showed them very very detailed how they need to prepare for flash flooding. And I was absolutely shot down and basically booed out of the room. "We never can get flash flooding here, it is impossible, you have no idea what you are talking about!"
Exactly two weeks later you could see them on national news, they had 120cm(around 4 feet) on their ground floor, including their ED.
Even if they had signed us it wouldn't have changed a thing (our recommendations take years to show effects) and people died (it is actually part of one of the worst flash flooding disasters in history,over 220 people died). So I can't be happy about it at all.
But my team and I were very very very much proven right. (And meanwhile even multiple court ordered experts have agreed on our assessment)
Emergency Medical Service/Ambulances are a ridiculously low qualified in a fair shair of industrial nations, especially the US,France, or Austria.
Even in the countries with more training/physician based services (Germany, Belgium, Italy)the actual qualification of the responders varies widely - most of them wouldn't be allowed to care for a single emergency within a hospital on their own.
For woodworking: Add the "old machines were soooo much safer,you need to use this 1968 Asshole-Wankerville saw if you realllllyyy want to have safety"(not true, especially when using planers) and the "if you don't do it this way you should not be let close to a pencil!"(does it in an antiquated, overly complicated way that is safe but if you do one little thing wrong it isn't anymore)-Gatekeepers.
Especially the whole story around saw-stop and how it was perceived by amateurs (even when they were unaffected by the manufacturers propaganda) is a shame.
Old machines can be good. Old machines can be a deathtrap. And things decay over time and something rotating with 30.000 RPM for 50 years close to someones groin/stomach maybe isn't a risk someones should take lightly.
And most people who talk like this are old idiots who learned/teached themselves how to do things somewhere in the 70ies/80ies and then never developed after that. But they are so fucking sure about themselves.
I have an emergency medicine background, including some accident research. And even then people try to argue with me. "No,that kind of injury can never happen with this brand". Idiot, I have seen it myself,talked to the person who nearly killed themselves, etc.
oh wow... another semi-open source project management software. another one! Just what we waited for!
Like Open Project, Leantime, Taiga, etc. etc.
God damn it, build one fully open source and free or update Redmine properly.
That's why I am so happy that I switched to Matrix - selfhosted with Signal and WhatsApp Bridges(amongst others) and now I only need to keep one App on our mobiles, Notebooks,desktop,etc. but I can still communicate with everyone. (we have have a few mixed groups now)
In a family and SOHO setting there is an easy way around it,even without alternative media creating tools and Win11:
Active directory. Yeah. Microsoft. But not really.
Samba can be used as an AD server for ages now, it's free,cheap and can run on a Pi or some NAS. These days it's fairly easy to set up as long as you only use it for Identification services and basic networking. And Microsoft won't bother you with their shit ever, as they don't dare to push corporate clients too much.
I can recommend it very much. There are also full GUI distributions available,e.g. univention.
Had a similar one as well in a former neighbourhood I used to live. Turns out the guy is one of the biggest online sellers and keeps the shop for some legal reasons/for customers to come and see an object in real life/to keep him entertained while in reality he had tremendous trade volumes online.
It has two components. While Rifampicin and Rifabutin (and Penicillin,Amoxi and a few others) are directly showing effects on the contraceptives drugs effects, there is another factor that shouldn't be underestimated: ABs can and will cause digestive symptoms, fastening gastric passage and that alone is known to reduce the effectiveness of hormonal contraceptives countless times.
Smarthome well done is good and I think it will be necessary to tackle some challenges of the future - we need smart solutions to use ressources much more efficiently.
But: 85% of all smart home products are neither smart nor good. They are glorified remote controls. Nothing more.
AMAZON ALEXA IS NOT A SMART HOME PRODUCT.
A smart house doesn't need you to use your phone/voice/etc. to turn down the blinds or switch on a light. It knows when the blinds need to be where depending on your location, the weather (blind based cooling in summer, heating in winter), the time, etc. It inherently doesn't need a internet connection to control itself - it only does need the internet to expand its knowledge of the outside world,e.g. by getting disaster alerts, weather forecasts or off-site-location. When done this way there isn't much "hacking" that can be done. There aren't many components that can turn into botnets.
This is all possible for ages and it is all easily achieved - KNX and other systems are good examples. Matter can possibly achieve that. But currently it's the big hype to call everything that can be voice controlled smart.
For fucks sake. It takes me longer to say "Alexa turn on the living room lights" than to do it myself or use a Clapping sensor from the 80ies.
Had a lengthy mail exchange on that topix with them - before them being bought, though.
While they don't plan a native Linux version they absolutely were open to optimise towards better Wine usability - which I totally could live with for now.
But I have no idea how the buying by Canva influenced things - Canva does have a linux app so maybe there are more resources and a different focus now.
I work in disaster planning - so if you want a really good disaster to happen then give me a call.
To be more serious:
I write disaster response plans mostly for the medical field, e.g. hospitals, nursing homes. That starts with ordinary fires and flooding, but also includes things like "IT outtakes"(which kill far more people than fire each year), "supply line collaps", etc.
We also train staff, mostly management, and conduct full scale exercises. Additionally I write medical intelligence and evacuation reports. These are basically "plans" for aid workers, expats. that go to risky places: "Oh, I broke my leg in bumfuck nowhere South Sudan! What now? Is there a hospital? Which one do I go to? Which one has actual doctors? Is there a chance that a medical evacuation plane can reach me?"
Originally I am a critical care paramedic and I am currently studying towards (another) master degree in healthcare management. Before I founded my current company I worked as a consultant for various healthcare related firms, before that as an ambulance service director.
But mass casualty situations always were "my thing" and the multi-stakeholder approach I take during planning talking to basically all roles in a hospital, from the higher ups to the guy in charge of waste disposal, is something I enjoy immensely.
*Sights. Every time we discuss this. Every fucking time. * Under the GDPR are they are. See §4 part 1.
How did Matrix fail?
It's the base for numerous messengers used by governments around the world, it has a userbase of more than 70 million core users (not counting the various closed messengers). Various competitors (e.g. Rocket Chat) have changed their base to Matrix.
And Beeper is Matrix with Bridges (which you absolutely could deploy yourself). In theory anyone could recreate the Beeper functionality with existing other apps/bridges AND be able to communicate with Beeper on their native standard - Matrix.
Especially frustrating if you are a healthcare professional. It is astonishing how many people give out bad medical advice here,on Reddit, Facebook,etc. with the notion of "well it worked for me".
Often it didn't even work.
I mean, yes, I know, it is a way for people to recover control after they "lost it" to their body. But at least don't brag about it on the internet and even more don't start a fight with someone who clearly has more knowledge due to professional training and years of experience.
I've seen people fight the world leading specialist team on Reddit before.....
Paramedic and former ambulance calltaker: Children, especially that age, were by far my preferred callers. They usually are easy to calm down, they follow commands, they answer questions directly. (e.g. "Does the patient currently have trouble breathing?" - an adult answers "Well,he always had this slight wheezing since he caught the Vietnamese Bubblebuttvirus back in 1972, but it got better in 1992, and then he had...' - a kid simply replies: "he is coughing a lot and breathing like he ran a lot".).
But back to topic: Same age as you were, probably 10. I was a huge fan of the local fire department back then. One day the adult son of my next door neighbour jumped off their roof,easily 8 to 10m. (Mix of suicide and drugs)
I called the ambulance service, specifically asked them if they would send a helicopter (they frequently do around here), rode my bike to their usual landing spot and led the crew to the patient.
..While three adults forgot to call the ambulance or called the police (different number here) or the local hospital (not helpful,they do not operate the ambulances here.
Maybe,just maybe my career as a paramedic was predestined on this faithful day. (Guy made it,btw. But had more success a few years later)
First aid courses at school do have an effect, I cannot recommend them enough,I have countless sucess stories I came in contact with over the years, including a group of three 12 year olds that resuscitated their teacher.
The penalty isn't the main good thing coming from it - it's the fact that now the system is deemed illegal unions/workers councils and local inspectors can easily go after it on a local level. This is actually far more powerful than one might think, as the local government inspectors are the ones that can really put the pressure on the companies. (E.g. Amazon got ordered to shut down part of a main distribution center due to insufficient workers protection once - that really really hurts them as the lost profit is worth more than the penalties)
The francogermanophone system works slightly differently here, that's why it's often "disappointing" from lay persons POV, but it works - just not by extremly high penalties.(These come from the fact that we don't really know class action law suits - there are some new ways for them, but generally it's not an often used instrument )
Yeah,the first games were quite good. I actually know someone who got into policing because of these games - and was a full detective by the time Open Season released - who was appalled by this Open Season and the following games.
It's a shame,really,because after that there weren't any good "beat cop" games to this day anymore, at least I am not aware of any. (Police Simulator is well... not having any story and so PG-washed that it's basically parking enforcement...)
Worked in an ED/still work as a paramedic occasionally.
You don't want to know how many times I had to explain this shit to a grown woman, sometimes 30y older than me.
That's actually a cognitive disorder called Prosopagnosia.
And welcome to the club - I had a stroke and while luckily all major deficits returned to normal with timely treatment, I developed prosopagnosia.
It's fairly freaky at times. While it's not my main job anymore I still work as a paramedic occasionally - and when I get a massive trauma at three o'clock in the morning I can hand it over in the ED to the full resus team with every detail without looking into my notes once. But if they ask me for a name I need an ID card or my notes.
I had one with my countrys version of the "Van". Then ubiquity had a zero day exploit become public knowledge back then and someone renamed the SSID "NotThePolice". Didn't do anything else. Just that.
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:
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.
You can thank me later - I literally installed Linux back as my primary OS after being back on Windows for ages on the day before this report came out the first time.
Never did manage to do that, but was close twice (none of my car would let you drive with a open fuel tank cover).
First was babybrain. Extended periods of not sleeping more than 1.5h in a row and not more than 4h a day in total because your kid is sick/toothing are doing weird things in your brain.
The second time was during COVID. I work as a paramedic part time and we did change our shift model to 24h shifts due to so many sick colleagues. Was the second shift "in a row" (24h on, 24h off, 24h on). Well..None of those shifts were 24h, most were 25-26h. Because we got hammered by calls. Literally no downtime, one critical patient after another. When driving home I had to get gas. Forgot to pay (we post pay here), forgot to take the god damn hose out. Nearly cried when the fucking car didn't start (due to the hose being in).
So TLDR: Not enough sleep is the answer for me here.
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.
Sure. Choose one that still let's you default connect to a HDMI input (or display port if you are really lucky) and connect a KODI box to it. Either a Raspi 4 or something similar will do.
That solves most of your problems as the smart part is on the Kodi Box and not on the TV and Kodi is (mostly) OS and can be configured to your liking.
We both know the answer very well, don't we....
This is so depressing...
When we renovated we put Ethernet everywhere - according to my sparky we might have more ports than some medium businesses he did.
...And I still find areas where I would need one or two more. ...And I am still mad at myself for not putting a run into the kitchen and the bathroom.
(German)Homeowner and (small time) landlord here: Yes. And I look forward to it. We bought an old house (think 1940ies) a while back and did renovate it. While it was expensive the absurd thing wasn't actually the price but the price for craftsman and material. The former already crashed heavily here (sadly not for the ones I need).
I rent out three apartments in the same house I live in. We have an average rent index here and I stick to it (even though I could easily get more as we don't include extras in our calculations that we normally could add to get more rent - and with that market we easily could get more.
The way we financed the house is based on the premise that the market will crash - it is not a regular investment in the sense that we will come out with a net positive. It is a way to make sure that we don't need to rent anymore (which is hell at times) and that we do have a place where we must not worry about rent when we are old. If the kids do inherit something,nice,but not a must.
We initially didn't even want something to rent out, but the perfect house was one with more than one apartment. So we said why not.
So why do I want the market to crash? Renting is absurd these days. Craftsman prices are insane. Both of these problems can only be solved once the market has crashed - which means either we have much less people (likely to happen,but late) or first pick up building subsidized apartments on a much larger scale (which makes the later problem much bigger). But if we don't do something soon it will make basic services (nursing is a good example) even unobtainable as people in these jobs won't be able to afford their rent in the more expensive regions. This will affect everyone.
Paramedicine/Emergency medicine?
We often have no idea what we are doing. And we can't have.And there is literally no idea that we ever can.
Imagine this: To study medicine you go to uni full time for 6 years around here. And then you have another 6 to 10 years until you become a specialist in your respective field. Only then, we as a society believe and trust you enough that you can deal with everything life can throw at you and you will work without any consultant, etc. covering your back in some way, including all emergencies, no matter how rare it is. Now, that's of course only valid for your own field, none would expect a cardiologist to deliver a baby, even less a breach position. In the back of a car in a snowstorm.
Now. Paramedicine and EM? We get everything whenever they are worst off. My last few shift (I only work occasionally these days, more in a management role) we had to deal with life threatening emergencies from 6 different specialities: Vascular (Typ A aneurysm),neuro(Cerebral bleeding),Gyn(acute postpartum hemorrhage leading into cardiac arrest), paediatrics (patient with a syndrome even the ED Paediatrician had to google it), trauma.
Sure. We don't have to operate on the cerebral bleeding, but these are the easy ones. (And we won't be sure it is one anyway, no imaging besides the emerging ultrasound for us...)
The first breach delivery I did was the second birth I ever saw - and my colleague with 20 years more experience never saw one that wasn't his wife before.... The first real life-treatening paediatric emergency? A 4 year old traumatic cardiac arrest post high speed collision.
And now,after 20 years in all roles this field can offer,from remote/wilderness work, helicopter, fixed wing, crit care,etc....I can safely say: While the "normal stuff" like heart attacks or strokes do no longer make me feel thrilled - there is always that stuff waiting around the corner you either never saw before or -almost as bad- haven't seen in a decade. Only to be hit three times in a week by it. (When training to become a paramedic after working as a EMT I did not see a single cardiac arrest for the whole multi -year traing period. After graduation? Five in my first week....)
This makes this profession only viable for people who are good at ignoring this or people who can really fake it well - competence simulation is a key. But no matter how much you fake it,you will never make it fully. Because people REALLY don't want to see a panicked paramedic. (And in the end it comes down to an old joke of the profession being true: If the patient is in a situation we can't make sense either it's not urgent or it will soon be a situation we know very well: Cardiac arrest)
That's why one uses an industry standard that is brand-independent,operates offline by design and does not require a central component besides a power supply.
Sounds like utopia?
This standard has been available since 1990 in its archaic form, since 2002 in its current form. It is downwards compatible and over 400 companies worldwide are part of the standard. HomeAssistant, ioBroker, openHAB,etc. all support it directly and there are multiple crossover gateways with other standards like DMX, ModBus, Dali,etc. exist. And no, it's components are not more expensive once you look at the TCO.
For fucks sake, people, use KNX.
(PS: There are even a few open-source/DIY components available)
In the name of every medical professional out there:
Fuck Masimo. You piece of shit garbage company.
Masimo does strategically patent troll other companies to keep their monopoly on oxygen saturation technology, deliver a subpar product that is very likely designed with planned obsolescence (which actively endangers patients). It's an absolute shit show.