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Things I still can't do in November 2014

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Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#12
post #6

I remain frustrated that world financial systems are unable to handle instant money transfers between institutions. There seems to me to be no good reason that I shouldn't be able to transfer money between my accounts without waiting until midnight for the funds to clear. Worse, the routine seems not to run on weekends. Why is this? Is power unavailable on Saturday night?

I'm pretty sure this is to enable an acceptable level of fraud protection. Within some countries (UK) it is more or less instant most of the time.

Since 2008 the UK, the Faster Payments Service[1] on infrastructure run by Vocalink[2] enable bank-to-bank payments that usually clear in a couple of seconds. This should work 24/7, depending on the sending and receiving bank. Many banks will "soft post" the payment during the day in a mirror ledger, and then run overnight batch processes to "hard post".

Of course, their batches only run on business days. Because there's no-one around at the weekend to crank the handles on the machines...?

I'd expect to see Faster Payments rolled out in the US in the next 5-7 years.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster_Payments_Service 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VocaLink

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#13
post #3

first world problems of somebody living in the silicon valley ? sorry but most of those things either stems from politics or lack of market development.

> 31. Be able to get a $100 MRI. It can be done for this price.

> 32. Be able to get into an ER for under $100. It's ridicoulous that a mere 15 min consultation can cost somebody (the system) $1000+.

A good number are Silicon Valley (or US) problems, the $100 MRI is pretty much the cost of an MRI in Europe, but then, it's free for the patient. Same goes for the ER.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#14
post #9

All of these score 1 on one of my favorite HN comments, the Yudkowski Ambition Scale[0]. That's OK, but it's a bit disappointing for a post that clearly tries to come off as visionary. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4510702

You're right that none of these ideas are ambitious, but that's exactly the point. The list is "Things I still can't do in November 2014".

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#15
post #3

first world problems of somebody living in the silicon valley ? sorry but most of those things either stems from politics or lack of market development.

I found it a little bizarre too, e.g.

> 11. Get a quick, binding divorce online.

This makes absolutely no sense to me, in so many ways. Presumably a divorce should be a rare enough occurrence that doing it in person is not a burden?

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#16
post #9

All of these score 1 on one of my favorite HN comments, the Yudkowski Ambition Scale[0]. That's OK, but it's a bit disappointing for a post that clearly tries to come off as visionary. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4510702

You're right that none of these ideas are ambitious, but that's exactly the point. The list is "Things I still can't do in November 2014".

Yeah ok. I must've not had my coffee yet.

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#19
Most of these revolve around non-tech industries having horrendously bad tech/web presence. Laundry, musicians, hospitals, government, banks- all of these are extremely traditional fields with many of them mired in incredible amounts of regulation.

Hospitals are particularly embarrassing- even just moving to electronic records is taking them over a decade and ~100 billion dollars to do. Many hospitals are still fighting the transition heavily despite every estimate I can find pointing to massive cost savings several times the initial expense. Unfortunately I suspect we'll all be waiting a long time for even basic conveniences like home blood drawings, let alone cheap MRI's.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/5/1103.long

Re: Things I still can't do in November 2014

#20
post #13
post #3

first world problems of somebody living in the silicon valley ? sorry but most of those things either stems from politics or lack of market development.

> 31. Be able to get a $100 MRI. It can be done for this price. > 32. Be able to get into an ER for under $100. It's ridicoulous that a mere 15 min consultation can cost somebody (the system) $1000+. A good number are Silicon Valley (or US) problems, the $100 MRI is pretty much the cost of an MRI in Europe, but then, it's free for the patient. Same goes for the ER.

> A good number are Silicon Valley (or US) problems, the $100 MRI is pretty the cost of an MRI in Europe, but then, it's free for the patient. Same goes for the ER.

FWIW, while the patient-facing cost is about that, I think the actual cost (after accounting for taxes, charitable donations, the radiographer's time, etc) is quite a bit higher.

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