Show Some Mercy
The Quality of which CAN Be Strained...All sorts of computer errors are now turning up. - Isaac Asimov I received this bill in the mail several years ago. I had gone by the hospital more than four months earlier to have a test run. It took only a few minutes, and I paid before leaving (luckily getting a receipt). I heard nothing further from the hospital regarding the matter until I got this bill. I thought it was funny and called them up to point that out. They didn't laugh. (They blamed the "stupid" computer.) Further, I received another bill the next month along with a call from a collection agency. The bill collector didn't laugh, either, but it did eventually get straightened out. (The whole affair wasted a bill, a phone call, another bill, another two phone calls, a letter, a copy of my receipt and another letter, though.) For IT-related articles on snooping, usage, the future, e-diaries, piracy, flickers, cyborgs, browsing, trends, jokes, philosophic agents, artificial consciousness and more, press
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