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By Posted on Posted in Free, Not Workers Compensation, Open Source, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Wordpress Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,
Feb
12
2009

Wordpress Upgrade
Wordpress Upgrade

I upgraded to WordPress v2.7.1 as soon as it came out (after testing on another website, of course).  I can honestly say WordPress is the only software I use that I actually look forward to upgrading.

Since version 2.7 RC 1, upgrading to the next version of WordPress has been this easy:

How to Upgrade WordPress
How to Upgrade WordPress

You click “Upgrade Automatically” and wait about 5 seconds.

You’re done.

Not entirely off topic: a friend of mine asked me yesterday about the best way to put up a new website.  She had thought about using Yahoo Site Builder or some such.  Yahoo and its like are great at building free, quick, and ugly websites.  If you’re going to publish on the internets, why not just opt for something just as easy and that has hundreds, if not thousands of possible totally free themes to choose from?  I say, go with WordPress.

I used to code sites by hand – that’s a chump’s game.  Just install WordPress and call it a day.

By Posted on Posted in 2005 PDRS, AMA Guides, Calculators, Free, Ogilvie, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,
Feb
11
2009
So Many Calclators, So Little Time
So Many Calclators, So Little Time

After some additional testing and feedback, I have launched the Ogilvie Calculator aka DFEC Calculator aka Diminished Future Earning Capacity Calculator.1

To all of my friendly beta-testers:  Thank you!

So, what are you waiting for?  Signing up for this website is totally free and takes 30 seconds.  Log in, give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

  1. Photo courtesy of teclasorg. [↩]

By Posted on Posted in Case Law, Downloads, Free, Ogilvie, PDRater, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb
10
2009
California Court of Appeals, First Appellate District
California Court of Appeals, First Appellate District

The First Appellate District of the Court of Appeal of the State of California has affirmed the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board in Benson v. WCAB and the Permanente Medical Group, affirmed (2/10/2009).  The Court of Appeals held, in relevant part, that “[t]he Wilkinson doctrine is inconsistent with the apportionment reforms enacted by Senate Bill No. 899.”

The basic upshot is that barring “limited circumstances” each distinct industrial injury will require its own Award.

First Ogilvie and Almaraz/Guzman, now Benson?  Its been an exciting two weeks to be a Workers’ Compensation attorney.

Office of the Clerk
Office of the Clerk

By Posted on Posted in 2005 PDRS, AMA Guides, Calculators, Free, Ogilvie, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb
10
2009
A modern hacker #1
A modern hacker #1

I launched the Ogilvie DFEC Rebuttal Calculator on Saturday morning to a select group of beta-testers. 1 When I upgraded a person’s access to the website they had no problem seeing the workers’ compensation calculator.

Unfortunately, not one of them was able to actually use the thing.  Last night my wife suggests the problem might be, “maybe they are using a different version or its not refreshed or something”?

And you know what?  She was right.  My wife, the hacker.2

I’ve written several protections into these calculators to insulate my users from having to deal with problems or bugs from newly installed code.  I would much rather a user sees nothing than get a wrong answer.  And nothing is exactly what my users saw.  I had remembered to allow my beta testers to see the Ogilvie DFEC Rebuttal Calculator – but forgot to give them access to calculator.

So, the beta-test period will continue for another day or two while I await feedback from my users.

If you’d like to see what the Ogilvie DFEC Rebuttal Calculator looks like or want to try to use it, just sign up for free and shoot me an e-mail asking for access.

  1. By “select group” I mean anyone who asked me if they could help. [↩]
  2. Photo courtesy of gutter. [↩]

By Posted on Posted in 2005 PDRS, AMA Guides, Calculators, Free, Ogilvie, PDRater, Technobabble, Website Updates, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb
9
2009
How to build a calculator: Its like smashing a calculator - only in reverse
How to build a calculator: It's like smashing a calculator - only in reverse

I’m going to delay the launch of the Ogilvie DFEC rebuttal calculator for a day or two. 1  I believe it works just fine, but I would like to test it a little more.  This said, I will grant anyone who is interested access to this calculator.

Why the delay?  Well…

The interesting thing about taking apart a set of calculations is that you find all sorts of “hidden steps” to the calculation.  The majority in Ogilvie does a respectible job of going through the steps of this new formula and even gives several examples.

When performing most calculations one will need to round numbers at some point.  However, rounding almost invariably takes place at the very end.  In the case of the Ogilvie calculations, it appears that the WCAB rounds various figures throughout the calculation.

Even though the DFEC rebuttal calculator was giving correct answers, the fourth or fifth decimal places on some intermediary figures occasionally did not coming out right.  It took me a little while to track down all the spots where the WCAB was implicitly rounding their figures (and to what decimal place!).

I am fairly confident the calculator will work without a hitch, but I’m going to test it a little more before I make it available to the public.  If you’re interested in testing this Ogilvie DFEC rebuttal calculator, please drop me a line and let me know.

If you’re not a registered user for this website, its free to sign up and free to use all the workers’ compensation calculators.  Seriously, free as in free!

  1. Photo courtesy of mhuang [↩]