Technobabble – Page 12 – PDRater – Permanent Disability Calculators

Ogilvie and Almaraz, en banc

By Jay Shergill Posted on February 5, 2009 Posted in Calculators, Case Law, Downloads, Free, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources No Comments Tagged with almaraz, almarez, City And County Of San Francisco, Compensation Insurance Fund, Crazy Stuff, En Banc, Enviroserve, guzman, Keenan, Kesselring, Majority Opinion, Milpitas Unified School District, new cases, Pdrs, rebut 2005, rebut dfec, rebut pdrs, Rebuttal, Sfo, Sjo, State Compensation Insurance, State Compensation Insurance Fund, Wanda, Wcab, wcab en banc

Whats the WCAB doing NOW??? — What's the WCAB doing NOW???

UPDATE 9/3/2009: Download the new en banc Ogilvie II and Almaraz/Guzman II decisions here!

Need a FREE sample Ogilvie analysis brief complete with citations?

Some crazy stuff has happened in the last two days. ((Photo courtesy of Kyle Kesselring)) Two big en banc decisions were just handed down from the WCAB. Here they are, hot off the presses and ready for downloading:

Wanda Ogilvie v. City and County of San Francisco, ADJ1177048, SFO 0487779, (en banc) (2/3/2009)
Mario Almaraz v. Environmental Recovery Services (a.k.a. ENVIROSERVE) and State Compensation Insurance Fund, ADJ1078163, BAK 0145426 (en banc) (2/3/2009) and Joyce Guzman v. Milpitas Unified School District and Keenan & Associates, ADJ3341185, SJO 0254688 (en banc) (2/3/2009)

Of the two cases, I enjoyed Ogilvie v. City and County of San Francisco much more. This case describes to what extent the 2005 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule may be rebutted ((Basically just the DFEC portion.)) and how one might go about doing this.

Pages 22 through 32 are basically nothing but math. ((Yay!)) These pages detail the information and methodology necessary to rebut the DFEC portion of the 2005 Schedule.

Last night I wrote a prototype calculator which will allow you to determine whether you may or may not be able to rebut the DFEC portion of the 2005 Permanent Disability Rating Schedule. This calculator would only perform the DFEC rebuttal calculations suggested in the majority opinion, since this is now the law of the land. My plan is to test it this weekend and launch it Monday.

However, if anyone is interested in helping me test it, I would appreciate the help. Just drop me a line and I’ll give you the link as soon as its ready.

In the meantime, if you want to crunch the numbers yourself (or follow along with the WCAB in Ogilvie), you will probably find Table A and Table B page 1-7 of the 2005 PDRS to be very helpful.

FYI, there are a lot of “footnotes” in Ogilvie that reference various online documents or websites. I’ve downloaded a copy or provided a screenshot of each of these pages for your reference:

Dell Customer Service!!!

By Jay Shergill Posted on January 9, 2009 Posted in Business, Laptop, Technobabble 2 Comments Tagged with Corporate Customer, Customer Service Experience, Dell Customer, Dell Customers, Dell Inc, Dell Laptop, Dell Xps, Dell Xps M1210, E Mail, Integrated Graphics, Motherboard, Next Computer, Nvidia, Nvidia Graphics Card, Technical Emergency, Warranty

Dell’s customer service has been my single greatest customer service experience with any product, ever.

Let me break it down for you:

My computer, a Dell XPS m1210 was out of warranty. ((It died within 1 year after my warranty expired, but by the time I talked to Dell it was more than a year out of warranty.))
It had a bad nVidia graphics card.
I wrote one e-mail to Dell’s Chief Blogger, Lionel Menchaca, stating the nature of my technical emergency. ((It was a very simple and short e-mail, so it took me forever to write.))
He told me someone was going to contact me.
Less than 24 hours later someone from Dell’s corporate customer service called me to tell me they were going to replace my entire motherboard. ((The only way to fix a bad integrated graphics card.))
Less than 24 hours later I got a call from their local technician – James. He came to my home that very evening and swapped out my motherboard. ((“Rock on completely, with some brand new components!” – CAKE))

Here’s Lionel’s e-mail to me from just after midnight this morning:

“Jay:

That’s great news. I’m really glad to see it all worked out smoothly. I appreciate you being a loyal Dell customer. Feel free to tell any other Dell customers how to contact me directly if they need some assistance.

It’s customer’s like you that make this the best job I’ve ever had.

Sincerely,

Lionel Menchaca

Chief Blogger, Dell Inc.

www.dell.com/blogs

e-mail: lionel_menchaca@dell.com

Twitter: twitter.com/LionelatDell

phone: 512.728.8685″

If you’ve got an issue with your Dell, get a hold of Lionel directly. He’s an incredible guy working for an incredible company. Lionel and Dell took care of me. This Dell XPS m1210 is my third Dell laptop, and my next computer will absolutely be a Dell too.

Dell Corporate Customer Service – WOW

By Jay Shergill Posted on January 8, 2009 Posted in Business, Laptop No Comments Tagged with Corporate Customer, Customer Service Program, Dell Customer, Dell Service, E Mail, Extended Warranty, Menchaca, New Computer, Nvidia, Nvidia Video Card, Paramount, Repair Warranty, Replacing A Motherboard, Serial Number, Service Tag, Tag Code, Warranty Extension, Xps M1210

I think Dell just made me a customer for life.

I’ve already spent nearly $200 repairing my laptop. After three total repairs ((Two of which were under Paramount Technology’s repair warranty.)), my laptop finally died – again.

Since I had nothing to lose, I sent an e-mail to Dell’s head blogger, Lionel Menchaca about my problem. He was lightning fast in responding to me – asking for my Dell service tag. ((This is a number on a little sticker underneath the laptop. The service tag code is essentially a serial number they use to track your computer when its being repaired or you call for technical support.))

When Dell had lost my prior laptop and replaced it with the XPS m1210 I purchased a warranty extension. I had spent a fair bit of change on that laptop and I was expecting to keep it around a while. However, that extended warranty lapsed a little over a year ago. ((Although, less than a year from when I first started having this problem)) I explained my problem with the bad nVidia video card. He responded telling me that I would be getting a call from someone soon.

Sure enough, less than a day later I received a call from Dell’s corporate customer service program. They told me that as a “gesture of good will” they were going to replace my computer’s motherboard – by sending a technician to me to do the repair.

Replacing a motherboard is so expensive its almost always cheaper to buy a new computer. Offering to repair an out-of-warranty laptop by sending a tech to me to replace the motherboard???

All I can say is WOW.

How to Buy a New Computer: Part II Netbooks

By Jay Shergill Posted on January 7, 2009 Posted in Business, Laptop, Technobabble No Comments Tagged with Buying A New Computer, Caption, Dvd Drives, Hard Drives, how to buy a computer, How To Buy A New Computer, Laptops, Media Card Readers, Modem Port, nerd, netbook, Netbooks, Port Modem, Portability, Portable Computers, Solid State Drives, Spreadsheet, Usb Ports, Wireless Connectivity

Yesterday I discussed the basics of buying a new computer. The most important first step is figuring out what you need and what you want out of a new computer. There are three main types of portable computers available these days: netbooks, basic laptops, and high-end laptops. Today is all about “netbooks.” ((Photo courtesy of Ciccio Pizzettaro))

(Scroll to the end to see my picks…)

Netbooks

A netbook is a very small laptop designed to extremely mobile and portable. They are optimized for portability and wireless connectivity.

Netbooks typically have a display of 10″ or less. ((TV’s and monitors are always measured by the diagonal.)) They usually don’t have any CD or DVD drives. ((This means they’re no good for watching DVD’s or playing CD’s.)) They usually have very small solid state drives or mid-sized hard drives. On the plus side, they usually have bluetooth, media card readers, and WiFi. They’re typically between 2 to 3 pounds, depending upon brand and type of battery. They’re also relatively cheap – between $350 to $500.

My requirements may differ from yours. If I were to buy a netbook, I would want:

Minimum 2 USB ports, preferably 3
Minimum 100 GB hard drive
1 GB RAM
Bluetooth
WiFi aka 802.11a/b/g, and preferably also 802.11n
Ethernet port
Modem port

Other things people might care about (but I don’t):

Webcam
Keyboard size
Monitor size

Keep in mind, I’ve never used any of these laptops – I’m just evaluating them based on their prices and my own opinions as to their respective brands and specs. Although, I’m enough of a nerd that I put together a spreadsheet to compare those five netbooks as well as about another dozen or so models and submodels. If anyone is interested in seeing the spreadsheet, mention it in the comments below or drop me a line.

Dell has a new netbook too, but it only has solid state drive options – which are too small to be of use to me. ((8 GB of hard drive space is barely enough to run an operating system and a few programs these days…)) However, I’m sure it would be perfect for some people.

My picks are, in rough order of preference:

HP Mini Note 2133 – $497.80
Samsung NC10 – $477.95
Acer Aspire One – $370.99
MSI Wind U120 – $429.99
ASUS Eee PC 1000H – $382.00

If I were to buy a netbook today, I’d probably go for the Acer Aspire One. It occupies a sweet spot in terms of price, is a decent brand, and has very comparable specs to the higher-end models.

Next, basic laptops!

How to Buy a New Computer: Part I: Balancing Want and Need

By Jay Shergill Posted on January 6, 2009 Posted in Laptop, PDRater, Technobabble No Comments Tagged with Computer Usage, Computer User, E Mail, Exact Problem, Good Manners, Graphics Chips, how to buy a computer, How To Buy A New Computer, Intensive Activities, Motherboard, netbook, new year, Number Converter, Nvidia, Nvidia Chips, Old Laptop, Program Surf, Programming Code, Repair Warranty, Video Editing

Old Laptop

Out With The Old…

Unfortunately, its that time again. When my laptop died for the first time I got it repaired. When it died again, it had the good manners to at least do so within the repair warranty.

My trusty sidekick died for the third and final time on December 31, 2008. ((Photo courtesy of Just Us 3))

…And In With The New!

Now its time to get a new laptop. I’m reluctant to buy another Dell. Dell installed nVidia graphics chips on the motherboard. Those nVidia chips have a critical flaw in that they overheat and pull away from the motherboard. Sound familiar? Well, this was the exact problem I was having with my laptop. Apparently this problem has spawned a lawsuit against nVidia.

I’m undecided what kind of laptop I want/need. A netbook? A basic laptop? A high-end laptop? ((Photo courtesy of Ciccio Pizzettaro))

Figure out what you need, then figure out what you want

Needs

Its all about what you want and what you need. I need a laptop that will let me program, surf the web, listen to music, and send e-mail. This accounts for roughly 98% of my computer usage.

The last 2% of computer usage is comprised of processor intensive activities such as watching DVD’s, video games, video editing, DVD and CD burning, and manipulating large amounts of programming code. For instance, the WCAB legacy number to EAMS number converter involved more than 4.6 million lines of code. ((Seriously. 4.6 million.)) My previous laptop struggled with that one. I probably only do these things once every six months or so.

For what I need, a netbook would actually work very well for me.

Wants

As any computer user knows, its very frustrating to have a computer that will not do what you want or takes to long to do it. My wants are a super slim, light-weight, battery efficient, computer that has the processing power to deal with large amounts of data and the ability to burn DVD’s and CD’s.

A netbook fulfills the wants of a slim, light-weight, and battery efficient computer. A basic laptop would suffice for the processing power and CD/DVD burning capabilities.

Having it all

When it comes to laptops, sometimes you can have it all – it just depends how you’re going to compromise.

If money were no object, this would be a no-brainer: buy a high-end light and powerful laptop. These cost $1500 and start climbing steeply after that.
The other compromise is not so intuitive. A very decent external CD/DVD burner combo drive would probably only cost $75 or so. If I’m only burning discs 2% of the time, this is a very reasonable solution. The bigger problem is the underpowered processors in netbooks. They simply do not have the ability to play new games, handle large amounts of data, or deal with too many simultaneous tasks. The only possible work around here is where you use your underpowered laptop to remotely control a more powerful computer and use that more powerful computer to crunch numbers. ((Scroll down to the part about TightVNC.)) However, this won’t help with video games. ;)

Decision Time

What am I going to get? I’m going to run down the pro’s and con’s of netbooks, basic laptops, and high-end laptops next time. Stay tuned!

Category: Technobabble