I run an asterisk PBX, largely to handle the complex telephony needs of Sacramento Medical Oasis, Inc. If you don’t know what an asterisk PBX is, you can stop reading now and you won’t miss anything. I promise.
Continue reading Managing an Internal Dialtone with asterisk
Dear “Virgin Mobile” pranksters:
Thank you for an entertaining couple of days. You really had me going! At the end, I expected some “Candid Camera” guy to pop out from behind my sofa, or at least to have a YouTube video of my odyssey go viral.
| People keep asking me why the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Behavioral Health Services (to spare my fingers, hereinafter known as DBHS) is dismantling effective community programs in favor of a monolithic county bureaucracy. Lately, attention has also turned to the Sacramento County Mental Health Treatment Center, affectionately known as SCMHTC, or “schmick,” and why the county keeps paying for this dinosaur rather than replacing it with Medi-Cal funded Psychiatric Health Facilities (PHFs). Earlier today, I found myself answering the question in an email to a prominent mental health activist, and thought it would save a lot of time and trouble to just post it publicly. So here’s my take on why DBHS keeps insisting on spending more money to provide less service. |
On 26Mar2010, at 15:54, =====@======.=== wrote:
I’ve specifically been praying for $1M for TCORE. Is that about right?
Understand that I have no inside knowledge of the budget of TCORE, DBHS, or the RSTs. I’m going by things I’ve heard, so these numbers might be wildly wrong. On the other hand, after 13 years in this system…
Ponder this:
Hard on the heels of my experience with the San Juan Unified School District came one of startling contrast, even more so because it came from such an unexpected quarter: the much-maligned California Department of Motor Vehicles. Was the experience a good one? Not really. Did it contrast in almost every way with the one at San Juan? Remarkably so, in that the DMV has clearly put thought into almost every aspect of their interaction with their customers, all with an eye toward reducing the anxiety of the public. To wit:
Continue reading The DMV Gets It!
In the late 1990s, word around the internet was that web search was pretty much a closed book. The search engine du jour was a site named Alta Vista, and it’s where nearly everyone went to get their searching done. They needed to productize and monetize their site, and so their search page started growing ads and portal features and flashing ads and animated ads… it was said that advertisers could even pay to influence the placement of search results. Alta Vista had to, right? Else how could they stay open, let alone make any money?
Continue reading Getting It: how the San Juan Unified School District could do better
All I wanted an implementation of reCAPTCHA for my TWiki. What I got is reCAPTCHA almost anywhere.
A year and a half ago I bought a Honda Civic Hybrid. I still miss driving a convertible, but otherwise it’s a wonderful car. I wish, though, that someone would make a charger for the hybrid battery.
It was the summer where the giant pool and bounce house stood side-by-side. Continue reading The Summer that Was
José is not a poster person. He’s not a starving doe-eyed child. He isn’t a struggling single mother. He isn’t bravely fighting cancer. He hasn’t risen to national prominence despite humble beginnings and devastating misfortune. He’s 45. He is Mexican. His face is weathered from too much time in the sun. He is obese from too much of a gringo diet. He has bipolar disorder, and does not really understand his disease. He speaks very little English. His hands are large and roughened from so much real work. And he is undocumented.