PDRater – Page 21 – PDRater – workers' compensation calculators

2008

Road Warrior Checklist – Techie

Jay Shergill Sep 15, 2008 Tagged with Additions, Battery Power, Cable Wire, Cdrw, Database Program, Ethernet Hub, Flash Drives, Hub Installation, Installation Cd, Laptop Backpack, Laptop Hard Drive, Main Top Header Menu, Portable Hard Drive, Ports, Power Cord, road warrior, Trunk Space, Twist Ties, Usb Hub, Velcro Ties, Wire Crimpers

In an earlier post I gave my “my road warrior checklist for the car.” Within the last year I occasionally worked as computer tech support and/or mobile techie.

Sometimes I was on location fixing a problem, writing a database program, or doing a small bit of programming on a friend’s larger program. I enjoyed being a techie, but wouldn’t want to do it for a living.

When I’m a road warrior techie, here’s what I carry with me:

Laptop backpack
Laptop, extra battery, power cord
Portable hard drive, 120 GB (Actually a laptop hard drive in an enclosure)
Flash drives (4G, 128meg)
CDRW – rewriteable CD’s
DVD-RW – rewriteable DVD’s
USB hub, 3 ports
USB cable, A to B
USB cable, A to mini
Ethernet cable, 6′
Phone cord, 6′

If I had to keep a techi backpack stocked, here’s what else I’d put in it:

Zip ties, twist ties, and/or velcro ties
Labels
Small screwdriver set

What do you take with you?

Update: A (techie) friend suggested the following additions, trunk space permitting:

Ethernet cable, wire crimpers
Ethernet hub
Installation CD’s

Sep

2008

Calculators, Free, Open Source, PDRater, Technobabble, Workers Compensation Resources

Google Chrome compatible with Workers’ Compensation Calculators

Jay Shergill Sep 12, 2008 Tagged with Added Benefit, Beta Version, Browser War, California Workers Compensation, California Workers Compensation Law, Disability Rates, Firefox, Google, Internet Explorer, Main Top Header Menu, Mozilla, New Browser, New Vision, new year, Percentages, Safari, Web Apps, Web Broswer, Web Browser, Webkit

Google jumped head fist into the browser war last week.

The big players at the moment are Internet Explorer, Firefox/Mozilla, Opera, and Safari (Mac). From Google’s information about Chrome, it looks like it was designed based on Apple’s popular Webkit and Mozilla’s very popular Firefox. An added benefit is that this new browser is open source. Google’s online comic about Chrome and their new vision of how a web browser should look and behave is actually fairly interesting.

The other bit of good news is that I’ve downloaded and installed the beta version of Google’s Chrome in order to see whether it is compatible with this website and its web apps.

Good news! Chrome works flawlessly with my workers’ compensation calculators! So, feel free to use your choice of web broswer to calculate permanent disability percentages, temporary disability rates, life pension rates, and nearly every other kind of benefit available under California workers’ compensation law.

Sep

2008

Not Workers Compensation, PDRater, Technobabble

The End of the World: Moving On

Jay Shergill Sep 11, 2008 Tagged with Absolution, Bad News Good News, Boss, Cern, Cern Lhc, Credit Counseling, Federal Wildlife, Gym Membership, Large Hadron Collider, Lawsuits, Lawyer, Main Top Header Menu, new year, Papal Indulgences, Pointers, Receipts, Renting An Apartment, Solicitation, Survival Guide, Wildlife Protection

Okay, I’ve got good news and bad news.

Good news: The CERN LHC was fired up yesterday and the world didn’t end!

Bad news: If you followed any of my suggestions from the past few days, you might need some pointers on what to do now.¹

Give up smoking and drugs.
You’ll need a new will and gym membership.
You kept receipts, right?
You’ll probably need to go back to renting an apartment.
Work on your resume. There’s no way your boss is taking you back.
Get a good lawyer to deal with the DUI, solicitation, and federal wildlife protection charges.
Face facts, you’re probably uninsurable now.
Two words: credit counseling.
Consider switching to a religion that offers absolution or papal indulgences.
STD tests for everyone!

Something most of those CERN / LHC lawsuits forgot to mention is that even though the Large Hadron Collider was fired up yesterday, it won’t warm up to smash things together for a few weeks. So, we’re not totally out of the woods yet…

(Too bleak for a Thursday?)

End of the World Survival Guide, The End of the World: A To Do List. [↩]

Sep

2008

Free, Open Source, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates

Another WordPress Update

Jay Shergill Sep 11, 2008 Tagged with Free Open Source, kitten it, Main Top Header Menu, new year, Virtues

Last night I upgraded from WordPress v2.6.1 to WordPress v2.6.2. You’ve heard me extoll the virtues of WordPress. Free, open source, easy to modify and customize, highly secure and… updated (infuriatingly) often.

If you see any weirdness, please let me know so I can take a look at the issue.

Sep

2008

1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, Author, Business, Calculators, Combined Values Chart, Downloads, Free, Links, Multiple Disabilities Table, PDRater, Workers Compensation Resources

Top five PDRater.com features that make your life easier

Jay Shergill Sep 5, 2008 Tagged with California Code Of Regulations, California Labor Code, California Search, California Workers Compensation, California Workers Compensation Law, Compensation Professionals, Compensation Resource, Dentists, forms, happy new year, Medical Doctors, Medical Provider, Multiple Disabilities, new year, Physician Search, Podiatrists, Provider Network, Psychologists, Searchable Versions, State Of California

I am constantly trying to think of ways in which to improve this website and to make it a better resource for California Workers’ Compensation professionals. If you’ve got an idea as to how I can improve this site, drop me a line and let me know.

Links to online Medical Provider Network lists of physicians for a lot of different carriers
- Click on “Medical Provider Network Links”
The ability to search for occupational codes by the occupational title or to search for an occupational title by occupational code
- Click on “Rating Calculator” and then “Occupation”
Links to free searchable versions of the California Labor Code and California Code of Regulations
- Click on “Workers’ Compensation Resource Links”
Links to the State of California search pages for medical doctors, chiropractors, osteopaths, podiatrists, accupuncturists, optomotrists, psychologists, and dentists
- Click on “Physician Search Links”
Downloads for numerous Permanent Disability Rating Schedules – 1988, 1997, 2005, and the draft for 2009
Combined Values Chart / Multiple Disabilities Table calculators
- Click on “Rating Calculator” and then “CVC” or “MDT”
A list of Commonly Used Terms in California Workers’ Compensation law

What’s that? I only promised the top five PDRater.com features? Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of the first rule of business: Under promise and over deliver.

Happy Friday!

Sep

2008

Author, Business, Technobabble

Road Warrior Checklist – Car

Jay Shergill Sep 4, 2008 Tagged with Comfortable Shoes, Compensation Defense, Cup Almonds, Cup Holder, Defense Attorney, Depositions, Dress Shoes, Flashlight, Glove Compartment, Hand Sanitizer, Jumper Cables, Main Top Header Menu, Northern California, Paper Towels, Passenger Seat, road warrior, Rubber Bands, Tire Gauge, Ukiah, Water Bottle

As a workers’ compensation defense attorney I travel throughout Northern California for hearings and depositions. To date I’ve been as far North as Ukiah and as far South as Fresno for cases. I’ve compiled a list of the various things I’ve found come in handy when I’m on the road.

Always in the car:

Cup holder
- Quarters
- Hand sanitizer
- Moist towelettes
- Water bottle
- Rubber bands
Glove compartment
- 1/2 cup almonds in a sandwich bag
- Tire gauge
- Flashlight
Driver’s seat
- Umbrella (underneath)
Front passenger seat
- Roll of paper towels (underneath)
Trunk
- Jumper cables
- Two blankets
- Rope
- Second pair of shoes (comfortable shoes for driving, dress shoes for appearance)
- Extra tie, extra socks

Am I missing anything?

Update: I added flashlight to the glove compartment.

Update: I added umbrella under the driver’s seat.

Sep

2008

Calculators, Commutation, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources

New Retroactive Benefits Calculator Launched!!!

Jay Shergill Sep 3, 2008 Tagged with Benefit, Calculator, Google, Interest Rate, kitten it, Launch, Main Top Header Menu, new year, Payment Date, Retroactive Benefits

Google

Google has a saying, “launch early and iterate.” Launch your idea, get feedback, make it better, keep doing it! As a friend of mine has delicately suggested, I’m no Google. This doesn’t mean I can’t learn from Google, right?

Two of the calculators I’ve been developing are a commutation calculator (for pre-1/1/2003 injuries) and a retroactive benefits calculator. I’ll discuss the commutation calculators more closer to their launch.

However, today is the day I’m publicly launching my Retroactive Benefits calculator! Its fairly straight-forward. You tell it the weekly rate, start date, end date, payment date, and an interest rate. It tells you how many days, how much is due, how many days the benefit was delayed, and how much is due with interest.

Take a look, play around with it, let me know what you think. Drop me a line or post a comment.

Sep

2008

AJAX, Free, Javascript, Open Source, PDRater, PHP, Technobabble

Homemade WordPress 2.6+ Plugins

Jay Shergill Sep 2, 2008 Tagged with Accordion, Credit Card, Main Top Header Menu, new year, Paypal Account, Programming Code, Subscriptions, Tweaks, Wordpress

If you’re at all curious, I’ve written about four eight of the plugins for this website. WordPress was specifically written to allow users to create their own plugins. A “plugin” is a little piece of programming code that will modify how a program behaves.

I’ll discuss them later on, but for the ravenously curious my plugins include:

A plugin that creates rounded corners throughout the website
A plugin that creates the “accordion” menu effect on the Links and Calculator pages
A plugin that adds AJAX effects throughout the website
A plugin that creates a “gray-out” screen over certain pages when you’re not logged in or a registered user
A plugin that redirects a user to the calculator page when they log in
A plugin that changes the look and operation of the registration page to be more user friendly
A plugin that makes lots of little tweaks to the site to make it look and act better (I’m constantly adding to this one)
A plugin that allows users to sign up for automatically recurring subscriptions using a credit card or their PayPal account (I’m still working to make this more user friendly)

Sep

2008

1997 PDRS, 2005 PDRS, Business, Free, Links, Marketing, PDRater, Workers Compensation Resources

Free advertising

Jay Shergill Sep 1, 2008 Tagged with Compensation Law, Disability, Free Advertising, Guest Article, link, new year, Submission Guidelines, Thomas Richard, Totally Free, Wiggins

I’ve just published the this website’s first guest article courtesy of Thomas Richard of Wiggins, Richard & Romano.

If you’re a workers’ compensation professional and have something interesting or informative to say about workers’ compensation law in California, drop me a line. Lots of different people come to this website for information and to use the permanent disability calculators – so why not put your name in front of them?

There are a few submission guidelines, but its totally free advertising.

Aug

2008

Business, Free, PDRater, Search Engine Ranking, SEO, Technobabble

PDRater.com – climbing search engine results!

Jay Shergill Aug 29, 2008 Tagged with Advertisers, Blogger, Bottom Line, disability calculator, Dooley, Few Days, Free People, Gold Standard, Google, Google Ranking, Google Search, Interplay, Main Top Header Menu, Many People, new year, Other Search Engines, Permanent Disability, Psychology, Search Engine Rankings, Search Engine Results, Target Keywords

A blogger I respect very much, Roger Dooley, recently posted about “The Power of FREE.” His Neuromarketing blog is mostly about the interplay between marketing and psychology. You should read the article for yourself, but the bottom line is that offering something for free is an incredible incentive – even where someone might get just as as good a deal for “almost free.”

Many people measure their success by their search engine ranking for their “target keywords.” I would wager that most people care about their Google ranking over other search engines. Most search engines alter the search results by placing paid advertisers at the top. Google does not sell search engine rankings. I would say this is one of the biggest reasons it’s considered the gold standard of search engines.

My own target keywords are “permanent disability calculator free.” I discovered a few days ago that this website is the top ranked Google result for these keywords!