In the other corner…

While Google has not yet declared Android ready for use in tablets, they are flooding the market. You can buy them on line and in Walmart. The quality and size varies greatly though. The two form factors that seem most popular are 7 inch and 10.2 inch. They offer different CPU speeds and storage. What is nice is almost all of them have a slot for adding a micro SD memory card to increase storage. Some come with GPS, cameras, or even 3G connectivity. Prices range from $77 to $600 depending on who you buy from. Verizon and T-Mobile both now offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab with a 3G plan.

If you shop for one of these interesting devices, remember that it is NOT an iPad. Even the slowest and cheapest of the Android tablets work wonderfully for eBook use. In fact, some come with a Kindle client installed and you can install the Nook reader as well as other eBook readers on the device. Battery life varies greatly, but the market is still young.

One area that is a problem is that the sellers often do not know enough about the devices. Often they will confuse the specs of the device and tell you things like, “It has Android 1.9!” For the record, the current Android versions are as follows; 1.1, 1.5, 1.6, 2.0, 2.0.1, 2.1, and the current version, 2.2. What they are often doing is giving you a revision number for the chipset. That version has nothing to do with the Android version, but some diagnostic apps for Android misreport it as the Android version.

Apps for Android is one area where Apple can not compete. Apple has one app store, Android has at least three other than the one sponsored by Google. Not only that, but you can download the tools to make your own if the mood strikes you. There is no fee to pay or kit to buy in order to start making apps and sell them to other users.

I recently got my hands on a wimpy, slow, quickly discharged, android tablet running version 1.6. I love it! It cost all of $110. Web browsing is nice. Media playback works fairly well. The high point is the ability to read eBooks and create documents with Documents to Go. I also love to use it to get current weather and such.

As I see it, Apple has a LOT to worry about. Next year, Google has hinted they will release the first version of Android that they think is ready to be used in a tablet. By then, hardware vendors will hit the market with devices that promise to blow our minds. If I were a certain Mr. Jobs, I would be working on price breaks and heaping on the features before the market shifts to a consortium of vendors with choices for the users.

On the other hand, New York City has become a dictatorship run by an attempted “Mayor For Life”. Bloomberg has hampered efforts to control the rougue agency known as the MTA. When they see advantage to it, they act as a private company. When cornered about breaches of ethics and laws governing corporations, they are suddenly a city agency. A city agency that is in no way officially answerable to anyone. They raise the rates and leach off taxpayers at will. People working for minimum wage are paying full time salaries to fat managers who outnumber actual workers by a ridiculous margin and paying for them to have a free car and fuel to run it on. When there is a public outcry, the gluttonous management point to a select few who “double dip” the pension system and scam the overtime system. When they run out of people who played the system at the lower levels, they vilify the union in general as the true cause of the public’s woes, while cutting services and raising rates. All supported by the mayor and other key people in government. This makes people feel insecure enough to think they need a “money man” in the mayor’s office. So the City council gets pressured until the term limit laws are set aside, without any attempt to give the people of the city any choice in the matter. Now, it already looks like he will try it again! Term limits were put in place democratically, they should not be removed in any other way.

If these acts of evil bother you, act on it. No, do not throw mud. Do not throw anything or break anything. Simply pull across the street and buy gas at another place. The consumer has the power to kill a company by choking off their income. Vote with dead presidents.

It makes me ill to realize that we, the richest country in the world, can not care for our sick. We send millions of dollars in aid to other countries in both government and private money, but we fail the people who live on our own streets. Evil corporations move every job they can to India, Mexico, and China to avoid paying enough for people to live on. Other companies hire people who have entered the country so that they can work them like animals and treat them like slaves. Just the money that legal employees would feed into our system by paying taxes would pay for a large portion of any “public option”.

All the people who have no insurance become a burden on our emergency care systems and clinics as well. ER’s can’t turn you away for be uninsured… If the type 1 diabetic I mentioned dies, the government will foot the bill not only for his burial, but also for the continued care and feeding of the family he leaves behind. Over the next 17+ years that will add up…

I say we all watch for who votes down the “public Option” and we make sure NOT to vote for them when they run again. Remember, in the end, WE are the bosses. WE should fire politicians who are not doing the best job for us.

Subject: New York State Budget Negotiations – Impact on Hospitals

WE NEED YOUR HELP: The New York State Legislature and the Governor’s Office are now in negotiations regarding the State Budget. While negotiations are on-going, under the current proposals the Medical Center stands to lose significant resources. Other medical centers would also experience significant losses. Cuts of this magnitude will seriously jeopardize our ability to meet the needs of some of the patients who come through our doors each year by forcing cuts in essential healthcare services, as well as limit our ability to invest in the latest medical technologies and make much-needed improvements to our infrastructure.

I urge you to send an email from your personal computer and personal email address to Governor Paterson and key Members of the New York State Legislature, opposing the proposed cuts to Graduate Medical Education (GME) funds to our Medical Center and the gross receipts tax (a tax on our total revenues). The email can simply say:

“Please oppose cuts to Graduate Medical Education and the imposition of a gross receipts tax, as proposed in the New York State Budget discussions.”

Please send your email in opposition as soon as possible to:

Governor David Paterson- www.ny.gov/governor/index.html and go to the bottom of the page and click on “Contact the Governor”.

Speaker Sheldon Silver- Speaker@assembly.state.ny.us

Assembly Health Chair, Richard Gottfried- gottfrr@assembly.state.ny.us

Assembly Member Jonathan Bing- bingj@assembly.state.ny.us

Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh- kavanaghb@assembly.state.ny.us

Senate Health Chair, Tom Duane- duane@senate.state.ny.us 

Senator Liz Krueger:  lizkrueger@gmail.com

You may also want to email your own Assembly Member and Senator about these proposed cuts and ask them to oppose the cuts too. To find your Assembly Member and Senator you can go to the website of the Healthcare Association of New York State at http://capwiz.com/hanys/state/main/?state=NY and put in your zip code.

Your support on this issue can make a big difference in the outcome of the budget negotiations. Thank you for taking the time to voice your views on these important issues.