I think I now need to take the bull by the horns and work towards the release of CynicalLeave, the hospital leave tracking and management system.

There are some features that are still to be implemented (details later!) and the error management/logging modules to be incorporated. Hopefully committing to this on the blog will motivate me to move towards a release before April 2008. 4 months of hard work. This in addition to the other projects I am working on for clients.

Yesterday, I installed Webroot, SpySweeper, I usually am happy with the inbuilt windows defender, but decided to install SpySweeper because of the offer of a free license.

The installation went fine and required a reboot. After rebooting Vista discovered an unknown device and attempted to install drivers for it and coudn't.

Upon investigation the unknown device appeared under "Other Devices" in Device manager. The entry had no identifying strings and looking through the registry I could not find any pointers to the device's origin.

Disabling SpySweeper from starting up with Vista did not solve the problem.

I guess this was the software hook from SpySweeper installing a new device driver to monitor KeyLogger activity. After trying several times to sort the problem out (unsuccessfully) - by disabling KeyLogger shield in WebRoot, and rebooting several times - I uninstalled WebRoot.

On a positive not, their technical support seems very responsive and commendable - I raised a support question via their website and had a response within 10 minutes. It instructed me to uninstall SpySweeper using a cleaning tool and then reinstall the software. I elected not to do this.

My main gripe is with software that installes devices and drives that are unexpected and cause unnecessary hassles and fuck with the basic operation of the OS.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/sexdrive/2007/04/sexdrive_0406

True and hilarious!

Watched Sicko last week. A grave indictment of the healthcare system in the United States. I am sure that there was poetic license in depicting certain issues, however, it did make me feel fortunate that I live in the United Kingdom and don't need to worry about being left without healthcare. The NHS was depicted very well in the movie and Michael Moore was very surprised and amazed that all treatment is free for everyone in the NHS. I work in the NHS and believe in it.

The NHS is not without its faults and problems, however, knowing that if anyone becomes ill, whatever their social or economical status they will be treated well and never have to worry about how much it costs. Of course, all of us taxpayers are paying for the NHS in the form of National Insurance and I am glad that we haven't descended to the depths of thinking why the employed should be paying for the healthcare of people that are not taxpayers.

Privatisation is creeping in gradually into the NHS with outsourcing of elective surgical procedures and managed healthcare being held up as the mantra  for solving the NHS problems. Let us not forget what a great system the NHS is and at the heart of it lies the fact that everyone deserves healthcare whether they can afford to pay for it or not.

I think that the movie should be mandatory viewing for every politician, healthcare "meddler", doctors and NHS managers - especially those who cannot stop from whining and criticising the NHS.

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