Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Can PACS Be Politically Incorrect?

Ms. PACS: If you thought it was just an iron-on T-shirt, think again. The PACSman is on a 'politically incorrect' rant again.

PACS Jr.: The PACSman sent this to me relating how PACS and school have both become extremists. I’m not sure I share in all of his sentiments about how we took something so simple and made it complex, but do agree that certain aspects of PACS have become more convoluted than they need to be, especially when it deals with standards support and such.

Anyway, even though the PACSMan is much older than I and can relate to this much better than I can, I enjoyed this and hope you will too.

Scenario:
Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1958 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2008 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario:
Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1958 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2008 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario:
Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.
1958 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2008- Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario:
Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1958 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2008 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario:
Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1958 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2008 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1958 - Ants die.
2008- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated,
Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario:
Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him..
1958 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2008 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Scenario:
A PACS breaks down.
1995 - PACS breaks down. PACS admin calls the vendor support person they've worked with for the past five years who diagnoses the problem and FTP's software patch. PACS is up and running in 20 minutes.
2009 - PACS breaks down at new imaging center. After confirming the service contract is current the customer is sent to Bhopal to talk to "Joe" who runs through 4 hours of online diagnostics and finds 16 reasons why it isn't the vendor's fault. After numerous back and forth discussions, the problem is finally fixed - two weeks later - using a known software patch - and the imaging center is billed $7,524 for non-covered support unrelated to the patch. Revenue losses during the downtime put the company so far in the red that the shareholders ultimately fold the business and sell the PACS on e-Bay....

Remind me again, what happened??

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