blog.payne.org

Well this is interesting:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts says it will become the first health insurer to participate in Google Health, a medical records initiative by the online search engine.(from this article).   

(I’m an HMO Blue of MA subscriber.) 

I’ve wondered for a while why, with all of the technology available, someone hasn’t finally figured out how to make health care and health insurance more efficient.  (And I’m sorry to say that I’ve developed a small set of forms my family uses to streamline replies to incoming HMO paperwork).

I’ve got mixed feelings about Google handling medical records, but if they can help stop my HMO premiums from going up 10-25%/year, I’m interested in learning more. 

Well, I’ve now got three decent options for video on demand:  Hulu, iTunes movie rentals, and the Netflix/Roku set-top box (which just arrived a few days ago).  

Hulu is free, ad-supported, with mostly TV content.  Netflix’s “watch instantly” has old-run DVD content (movies and TV shows) with no ads, free for existing subscribers.  And iTunes has newer movies and content for a pay-per-view (err, “rental”) model.

I think we now officially have a competitive market for on-demand TV and movie content.

I’m starting to choose (or avoid) hotels based on the broadband speed.

Between Web apps (like Gmail) and streaming-only content (like Hulu), hotels with crappy bandwidth are downright painful.

Yesterday, I was at a gadget “demo day” with some friends and got a hands-on, up-close view of Apple TV and the Slingbox client running on a Windows Mobile phone.  This past weekend, my daughter got addicted to Hulu content on her EEE PC.

I’ve written before about IP video.  I keep repeating myself, but it feels like 2008 will be the tipping-point year for full-on IP video:  full-length, full-quality TV and movie content (not 10 minute clips at sub-NTSC quality).

The iPhone SDK party in Cambridge on Monday was a little disappointing.  It was much more networking than substantive content.  The iPhone store has a tough layout for large crowds + presenters.  Jonathan Zdziarski spoke about the genesis of the open SDK, but I think it’s pretty much dead given Apple’s official SDK release. There were a few demos, but if you’re relatively current on iPhone development, there was no new data.

But hats off to the organizers; there’s always risk in organizing events like this.  Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t.  

(But it was good to catch up with folks!  I saw:  Antonio Rodriguez, Beth Winkowski, Ted Morgan, Ryan Sarver, Daniel Cozza, Dan Slavin, Jeff Glass,  Michael Campbell, Dan Allen, Ajay Agarwal, John Keyes, and others.)

I’ve written before about the future of television being just a fat IP pipe into your house. “What’s cable TV, daddy?”

We’re another small step there with Hulu going public tomorrow, with a bunch of content. This could be the tipping point for the “classic” network content providers to do a good job with on-line delivery.

And they have Alfred Hitchcock.

In this post from Official Google Blog, David Drummond writes:

So Microsoft’s hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It’s about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation.

(from: Yahoo! and the future of the Internet)

While I appreciate Google’s openness (certainly relative to Microsoft’s historical behavior) and innovation,  I’m enthusiastically applauding any effort that challenges them.

Google’s building an on-line position of dominance not unlike Microsoft’s off-line monopoly.  And they’ve earned it:  they’ve executed well, they have good technology, they’re incredibly profitable, they’re hiring the best people, and they’re investing heavily in R&D.

But the system works best when there’s competition.  Yahoo and Microsoft certainly each have their issues, but anything that’s a threat to Google’s dominance…..it’s all good.

Well, I finally found the Leatherman Fuse multi-tool I had gotten for Christmas. It was in my laptop bag, and had (unknowingly) flown with me a bunch of times across the country.

So much for crack TSA x-ray screening.

And now we know why Netflix opened offered movie “rentals” for unlimited streaming: Apple’s announcement yesterday about moving into on-line movie rentals.

All of this competition and choice is great for consumers.  With Apple, Netflix, Amazon and others duking it out for movies, we’ll have great options with great features (like HD) at fair prices.

And, this is a great example of why there’s nervousness about network neutrality.

A very plausible scenario:  watch a bunch of Apple HD movies, and Comcast dings you with a “too much bandwidth” warning for the month and threatens to disconnect you.  Of course, you can watch all of the Comcast-provided movies you want — is that fair?

Today is Jan 15th, and Q4 2007 estimated tax payments are due (in the US).  If you’re self-employed, you estimate your tax liability during the year and make “withholding” payments (4) along the way.

If you’re self-employed, you have the privilege of paying two additional taxes (on top of income tax):   self-employment tax (12.4%) and Medicare (2.9%).   The SE tax phases out at $94,000, but the Medicare tax applies to your entire self employed income.

If you’re consulting, keep in mind when setting your rates that your marginal tax rate (combined state and federal) may be over 50%.