Here's a more technical one: health information
It's a huge pain trying to transfer health information, between patients, doctors, different clinics, hospitals, etc. If you try and move far enough, your records might get transferred as a bunch of PDFs or scanned images on a CD.
There is no good standard that ticks all the boxes, so it's not just a matter of getting everyone to agree. A solid standard that addresses all the needs would be amazing, and it would help improve healthcare so much.
People would get control over their own health information (as much as appropriate without causing unnecessary harm), and we could properly use health tracking data from biometrics devices for personalized care. We could do large scale studies using properly anonymized data, and we wouldn't have proprietary systems to try and work around.
Best of all, you could go to a new clinic/hospital/ER and you wouldn't need to enter the same information all over again (likely missing clinically relevant data along the way).
Have you tried the OpenEHR standard? What's wrong with it?
I should have worded it differently, it's possible there is a best standard that I don't know enough about. I don't know enough about OpenEHR, but that's something I'll read more about :)
I completely agree. All the different EMR systems make doing any research just that more tedious. And like you said it’d be so nice to just walk into a health care facility and not worry about paperwork
FHIR is an excellent standard.
Some EHRs are pretty good about this nowadays. Epic, for example, allows you to share info across health systems. The user has to enable it though, which is a problem due to low adoption among older patients.
Also, this will be less of a problem in coming years due to increasing consolidation of health systems.
I can't speak to much of this, but I have a friend who works on the technical side of health insurance. Specifically he is helping with FHIR. I did some HL7 work a long time ago which lets health systems talk to each other. FHIR is supposed to be a more comprehensive offshoot (I asked if it was HL7 on steroids and wasn't corrected).
Unfortunately, I may have misunderstood. My career took me a different path than his so I'm way out of date on it.
Date formats. Can never tell if dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd…
The yyyy-mm-dd format (ISO 8601) is the only one that is unambiguous, because no one so far in history has ever used the yyyy-dd-mm format (at least until some xkcd-reading jokester probably will start using it just out of spite). I use ISO 8601 everywhere. It has the additional benefit that filenames get sorted correctly in lexographical order.
As someone that works with huge amounts of data with dates in varied formats… PLEASE let this be standardised. :')
I was gonna reply the "S" in "ISO" stands for "standardization" but apparently ISO doesn't stand for anything.
I was expecting a KFC situation, but no:
Because 'International Organization for Standardization' would have different acronyms in different languages (IOS in English, OIN in French), our founders decided to give it the short form ISO. ISO is derived from the Greek word isos (ίσος, meaning "equal"). Whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of our name is always ISO.
Many years ago, I came across a forum that formatted dates yyyy-dd-mm. That was such a traumatic memory that I still remember it.
Only way I'd do it is by pissing everyone off. DD/YYYY/MM
how about YYMDMDYY
YMDYYDMY
YMCA
IFTSAT
YTMND
Yeenage Tutant Minja Nurtles D
Let there be carnage: DD/YY/MMMM
ISO-8601 has the answer for computers, and maybe humans too. It's the last way you mentioned for everyday use.
This is why I always use letters for the month when I can. There's no confusing 3 Oct 2023.
March 8th, 2023?
Yes, very good, you used the letters just like they said.
The key you need to press to get to bios.
Fuck yeah. I can't believe this isn't already standard
It's just five options, no?
F2, F8, F11, F5, Hammer?
Esc
Del
Also some laptops will have you push a paperclip into a hole or press some special vendor button (like the "vantage" button or what have you on Lenovo laptops).
Don't forget Del
CEO compensation vs employee compensation.
CEO pay has skyrocketed in comparison to the pay of the employees, this needs to change.
Why is that an issue? If they are the founder of the company I think they deserve it, and if not, there must be some logical reason why they pay that person so much…
I think they're saying it's an issue specifically in reference to how employee wages have grown in comparison. If we look at previous decades, you'll see that CEO and other executive level pay has increased substantially, and has absolutely left employee pay in the dust. That isn't to say people shouldn't be paid more for a good or important job, but we should probably be keeping a watch to ensure those with plenty don't take even more from those with little. And if those at the top are taking more, historically, than their fair share, then that needs brought in line.
This is a very good response. Thanks for writing.
I’d bet most people can get behind the idea that those in leadership positions or saddled with greater responsibility should be compensated more. The issue for me is the magnitude of that compensation.
If they are the founder, they are likely not a public company yet and can grant themselves stock at great rates. Most do-ers aren't CEOs, they are busy doing.
Pants sizes. For women, drop the even/odd numbering for women and juniors and move to waist and inseam like men. For everyone, implement some sort of standard policy where the actual measured size can't be more than an inch off the stated size (to account for variability in manufacturing and such).
Yes, great answer! Not just pants though, we need a standard size for all women's clothing.
standard policy where the actual measured size can’t be more than an inch off the stated size
Yes please, I'm so tired trying to guess if this 33 is a 34, 35, or 36.
sometimes the clothes measurements are body measurements, and sometimes it’s the exact measurement of the cloth itself, and sometimes it’s the circumference of the relaxed waistband.
In the USA, it would be to metric. Pretty much everywhere else in the US, NASA, military, science, it's all metric.
It's not even a case of 'everywhere else', it's actually 'everywhere'.
It's just that some sections of that 'everywhere' take the metric system and add an abstraction on top of it.
The imperial system literally defines itself by the metric system.
Power tool batteries.
It's not quite what you're talking about because they're still brand-specific, but the batteries are a big part of why I went with Ryobi. They've done a really good job of sticking with their battery ecosystem IMO, and it's now kind of a big part of their marketing so I think they're going to stick with it for a while, at least for their regular 18v hand tools. If I ever come across some old blue Ryobi tools at a yard sale they should work just fine with the lithium batteries even though they were designed for NiCad batteries, and I'm pretty sure you can still get a dual chemistry charger that works for both kinds of battery.
I'm pretty sure that in the same time Ryobi has been around using using essentially the same batteries most of the big names are on their 2nd or 3rd battery standard.
Admittedly they haven't been perfect, they've done pretty well sticking with their 18v and 40v lines, but I think they've had a couple different standards for smaller, lower-powered tools that have come and gone, although I like what they've been doing with their newer USB lithium line so I hope that sticks around. I think they also had a riding mower battery that was only around for a couple years before they replaced it with a new incomparable one.
And I'm very much a DIY homeowner weekend warrior type, if I used my tools professionally I don't know that I'd want to depend on Ryobi, but they're more than adequate for what I need them for.
This factor was why I decided to use Bosch blue cordless. They haven't changed the battery interface so all the 18v tools are compatible and continue to be. Good to know about Ryobi.
The thing is, when you open up any of these batteries, they all have either standard lithium ion 18650 or 21700 cells and they are all nominally 3.7v/cell. In other words, they are standardised in every way except the interface, which just happens to fit one brand of tool.
I have an old Makita NiMH drill that I've converted to use the Bosch batteries. This 25 year old tool can continue to serve me because there's no such thing as a Bosch electron and that's what's so beautiful about the universal laws of physics.
After moving into a house, I decided to buy a small collection of power tools for household work. Batteries were a major consideration. I previously had a 12v DeWalt drill that served me well (still works too), and leaning on that, picked up a kit with a skilsaw, hammer drill, drill/driver, work light, oscillating tool, and a sawsall… all from the 20v line from DeWalt. Since then we added a hedge trimmer, string trimmer and electric mower, all using the same 20v system. We have a small fleet of batteries, which work with all of our tools.
The risk is if DeWalt decides that they're just going to abruptly stop selling the batteries between now and when we need replacements. If so, I'm sure we'll have several expensive options to pick from in order to continue to have tools. I don't think that will happen anytime soon, since all of the batteries we have are compatible with their flex volt thing, which they seem to be happily supporting across their entire ecosystem.
The next tool I'm looking at buying is an impact wrench for some light automotive work; the only power tool type thing I wish that they had, which they currently do not, is a snow blower. If they ever release one that takes the flex volt or 20v "Max" batteries, I'm going to jump at that.
Shoveling snow sucks.
Feels like a snowblower would need a pretty meaty power source, 20V might struggle to cut the mustard. I ended up going with a corded one because I couldn't face another noisy 2 stroke engine.
I'd be okay with them putting out a wired one, they're not foreign to making wired appliances. We have a wired shopvac type thing from DeWalt. It works great.
I don't know about just one thing, but I'd love to see electric tools all use the same battery interface set of specs. It's like the bad old days of cell phone chargers
Camera lens mounts, increased competition within systems would be great.
I thought everyone bought Canon adapters and called it a day lol
Micro Four Thirds was an attempt to do that. It didn't work out so well.
Sometimes I think about standardized retail packaging. What if there was a set of boxes/containers, and they all stacked together nearly and transported nearly. Could save a lot of time and cost on shipping and shelving and potentially make automation easier
Well, it's not cardboard, but I am absolutely fascinated by euroboxes.
A europallet is 1200x800mm.
Then there are euroboxes of 800x600mm, 600x400mm, 300x400mm etc.
They are stackable, reusable and recyclable and come in different types. Fully enclosed, with lid, with grid walls etc.
Machinists use them as toolboxes, bakers to transport bread and veggie vendors stack have their products on the market in euroboxes.
Interesting! Here's a Wikipedia link for anyone wanting to know a little more
Singular front panel connector plug.
Fucking file formats in the scientific community. Way too many ways to do something in science and every place has their own way.
Can we agree on .hdf/.h5?
Didn't have any knowledge about this but I will definitely note this for future projects!
check out the linux community, whole chat about file formats rn
I think this abides by the idea of this post, but I would standardize language across the world. Whether it is an existing language or a new language doesn't really matter or maybe a mix of the biggest existing languages.
I remember reading a book where in the future everyone spoke a combination of English and Chinese. They seem pretty incompatible though.
It’s such an interesting idea, isn’t it? Theres a lot to gain but also, a language can mean a lot to people: identity, community, history. If we’re at A, I can look ahead and see the benefits of getting to Z, but I have no idea what all happens in between.
What a dystopian nightmare!
Is it? When migrant workers are able to speak the same language as the natives, they would be able to integrate faster and look out for one another better.
Right now, large corporations make use of migrant workers who are unaware of their rights in host countries to undermine the working rights of the host workers. A diverse workforce is much less likely to unionize, and large corporations know that.
Gonna have to disagree there.
Each language is a culture and each is special, different from every other, and removing or transforming them changes that.
A set of standards of course!
Social networks should be standardised on activity pub.
Networks are a winner takes it all situation. Standardise and allow competition within a network. Then innovation will happen much faster. We are like Romans not using the steam engine. Future historiens will wonder why we were stuck so long.
We're getting there, with Threads implementing AP soon and any network that doesn't do so will be locked into their own world (usually, for the worse).
The problem is that we might get a Google situation, where at first the company adheres and complies to the standard, but then they innovate so fast and confusingly, that they essentially define the standard, and all other networks have to keep up to remain part of the main flock.
In a winner takes all – that would be Google, and we will see much of the same dark patterns with AP protocols as we do with Browsers now.
Exactly
So often, the big players who have the power to grow and support standards in a major way are shitty corporations, and the altruistic, ethical organizations are tiny and broke and feeble
