Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Carputer update 1

We have GPS... and mobile internet...

Here's the hardware manifest so far:
- Computer: Sony Vaio SR7K, 256Mb Ram, 12Gb Disc, 600Mhz process (whee!)
- OS: Microsoft XP Media Center Edition
- GPS: Microsoft Streets and Trips with GPS antenna
- Phone: Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone, connected via bluetooth
- Targus bluetooth USB
- Targus wireless mini mouse
- Carputer front end: Centrafuse

I wiped the Vaio clean of 5 years of accumulated junk - took 'er down the bare metal as it were and started with a fresh install of XP MCE. I added the bluetooth USB connector, and I was able to easily connect to the internet via my smartphone. Should be nice for driving around - Nancy can navigate and check email while I drive.

Picked up a car power supply for the laptop... ready to go mobile with the rig and start testing this weekend on a trip to North Carolina...

Monday, March 14, 2005

Project: The Carputer

It seems time for a new project. So here we go...

I started by looking at ways to install a nice GPS/Navigation system in my car (2002 Infiniti I35). After looking around the web, I decided to aim a little higher and install an full Windows-based computer in the car. It looks like there are a lot of components arriving so that one could purchase a fully blown system right now, but I think it will be more fun to construct it from the ground up.

My initial requirements are:

GPS/Navigation
Connection to Internet (via my smartphone for now) - for weather, road conditions, restauraunts...
Bluetooth (for connection to smartphone)
Control of the phone - dialing from directory, hands free

Future upgrades may be to replace the car's sound system with DVD/MP3/CD play. For now, I'm leaving that alone, as the I35 has an insanely complex Bose system integrated into the dash that may be difficult to extricate. But the ultimate goal would be to pull that out and replace it with a touch panel video display.

For first steps, I've ordered a Holux GPS USB GPS receiver and a USB bluetooth dongle. I'm using an old Sony Vaio 700mhz laptop that weighs only a pound and a half and is very tiny. Initial testing will just use the laptop as is, powered by an inverter. The whole affair should slide under the passenger seat if needed.

Software testing has commenced while I wait for the GPS receiver... http://gpss.uk.co has shareware for non-commercial use. I'll take a look at some other GPS/Nav software also - iGuidance looks interesting.

I'm also testing CenterFuse as the controlling application - looks very nicely done and is also available as beta test version for free from http://www.mediaflux.com

I'll keep this updated and add photos as the project progesses!

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Investigate like the pros

The New York Times has a nice little portal from where you can launch a lot of different kinds of lookups....

"Navigator is the home page used by the newsroom of The New York Times for forays into the Web. Its primary intent was to give reporters and editors new to the Web a solid starting point for a wide range of journalistic functions without forcing all of them to spend time wandering around blindly to find a useful set of links of their own. Its secondary purpose was to show people that there's a lot of fun and useful stuff going on out there.


The list is by its nature highly selective and constantly changing. Suggestions are always welcome."

Link

Slim Devices releases Squeezbox2



About 2 years ago I took the plunge and dumped our entire CD collection (about 400 discs) to a small server. We purchased a SlimP3 player and a Linksys wireless to ethernet connector and we were broadcasting from the "media server" to the living room with full access to our collection from the handy remote control. We've since added a TiVo, which can play music from the same media server.

The SliMP3 has performed flawlessly. The large display is readable from quite a distance, and the remote is intuitive. I chose this device because it has this great display and doesn't require a TV set or entire media center to set up. We have ours in the living room where there is no TV set - it seems like most similar devices require that for display purposes.

The SlimP3 continues to evolve, and I just received word that their newest device is ready to go:


"...Slim Devices has been hard at work on Squeezebox2, our next-generation network music player. Squeezebox2 features include:

- True 802.11g wireless
- Lossless compression (FLAC) support
- Audiophile-quality digital and analog outputs
- Enormous audio buffer
- Grayscale display with more than twice the resolution
- Pure-software audio decoding on a screaming fast processor
- Bridging, cross-fading, visualizers, and more..."


Link

Google Maps



Engadget has an interesting article about how to make your own annotated multimedia Google map.

Their method allows you to take out a camera and a GPS and "annotate" a google map with pictures taken on location. You can create a virtual walking tour of your neighborhood with photos of the mean neighbor, the cat lady, the house where the lawn is never mowed, etc.

Link

More fun with maps - World Wind by Nasa


World Wind is another cool product of your tax dollars, and it allows you to visualize earth data such as Landsat images very easily.

"World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.

Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara."


Link

Monday, March 07, 2005

Travel: Visit North Korea...


Boingboing.net has an interesting story about a game of cat and mouse with the Korean Friendship Association. Seems the KFA posted a flash movied inviting one and all to join their group and come along on a magical tour of the DPRK. Boingboing found that interesting, and posted a link. The KFA website (apparently run out of Barcelona) posted an interesting reaction:

Access to the requested object was denied.
Due to some inconsiderate people linking directly to our multimedia we were forced to take the content offline since it generated too much traffic.

This kind of careless linking to high-profile sites is typical of the internet where people no longer respect that such links could make free content less available.

We will never charge money to pay for the bandwidth, so if people are going to expect high-quality content they should make their own copy of the large file and share it from their own server.

Questions can be sent to support@korea-dpr.com for technical advice.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Link to the movie

Link to the story

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Article: Healthy Results from IT Investments

My company (Lancet Software) has been working closely with one of our partners (Solutions for Healthcare) to create a commercially viable, lightweight, electronic medical record for small to medium sized clinics. The Minneapolis StarTribune was kind enough to run an article by me this morning in the business section.

Wanting health care costs to go down is a lot like talking about lousy weather and the playoff performances of Minnesota's pro sports franchises: Everybody wrings their hands, but the weather vane keeps spinning and the scoreboard totals are depressingly correct.

But in health care, at least, solutions that look promising are emerging. The recent federal government report, "The Decade of Health Information Technology," issued to coincide with formation of a national private-sector consortium (the Health Information Technology Leadership Panel), estimates that if patient records were in electronic form, 10 percent of the nation's annual health care bill -- $140 billion a year -- could be saved.

The reality piece is where it gets sticky.

According to a New York Times story by way of the Gartner Group, health care investment in information technology (IT) is slow and minuscule: Only 13 percent of the country's 6,000-plus hospitals currently use any kind of electronic patient record system. Meanwhile, the $1.5 trillion-dollar health care industry spends on average $3,000 on IT investments for each worker. That compares with $7,000 per worker in private industry and almost $15,000 in banking.

Hospitals and clinics argue that the dollar and time costs of investment are significant barriers to making the much-needed change. But those comparative investment figures seem to be asking, "What's more important, your money or your life?"

And that's disturbing, because the federal report makes clear that health care IT benefits don't stop at mere cost savings, they extend into quality care and longevity.

According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, today's medical errors associated with paper handling and patient record-keeping alone are estimated to be responsible for 45,000 to 98,000 deaths a year nationally.

Related stories in the Star Tribune and a recent talk by Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the Mayo Clinic in January indicate that Minnesota must shore up its IT inadequacies in the medical arena as soon as possible.

While no system will ever be perfect, health care IT applications can contribute significantly better results than the ones being posted in the old-school way, especially with patient records and doctors' chronically illegible handwritten notes.

The new-school method relies on the quick electronic entry and delivery of patient information across several departments, doctors, administrative roles and even billing procedures.

The benefits shown by one physician-owned clinic system in central California (Visalia Medical Clinic) that switched to an electronic patient data record are worth noting for our health care institutions here in Minnesota. (In the interest of full disclosure, my company played a role in recrafting the clinic's master patient index -- MPI -- along with another Minnesota-based company, Health Care Solutions.)

The Visalia clinic faces many of the same operational issues as other health care organizations. As the leading medical provider in the area, Visalia's patient administrative data, clinical records and physician transcriptions represented a sizeable challenge in managing the organization's increasing information database.

Visalia's former CEO (now a consultant to other central California clinics), Bill Brouwer, encouraged the clinic "to think five steps ahead" in managing health care. That's sound advice for everyone.

Today the clinic has an Intranet model that serves as a data warehouse for transcription, radiology reports and lab results. By providing anytime, anywhere access to a more complete and readable record of its patients, the new MPI is revolutionizing the way Visalia patient data is made available to all health care professionals in the clinic. The Web-based application is improving operating efficiencies -- and the bottom line -- by speeding the workflow processes. The benefits are telling:

• A once-costly and cumbersome transcription process has been altered so that now physicians use digital recorders that are easily input into the master patient index, with pertinent patient-related information made available over a protected internal Intranet site.

• Patient records are scanned into the index, including numerous forms and data that reside on other clinic computers, centralizing all the information in one location.

• The index integrates scheduling information, which captures appointment dates and the reason for the patient visit.

• Billing information is made available more quickly and accurately via the same Intranet.

It's a creative and innovative health care management toolset. And it's pulling its weight.

"The MPI gives the clinic physicians, management and administration greater access to patient information, while reducing the time and cost of accessing that information, its delivery, analysis and storage," Brouwer said.

The MPI benefits the clinic's physician-owners, the operation of the clinic and, most importantly, its patients. It's a model program and it couldn't come at more propitious time: The Institute of Medicine would like to eliminate "most handwritten clinical data by the end of the decade."

It's an achievable goal.

But the onus is on physicians and the health care business. According to the nonprofit Markle Foundation, if health information sharing is to be improved, technology must be adopted by physicians in small and midsize practices, because this group represents more than half of the nation's physicians and the ones least likely to use IT advances.

If this large segment of health care providers can take that simple first step of throwing away the notepads and pencils and adopting electronic devices and intranets, that will put us on the path to reining in health care costs, life-threatening mistakes and endless complaints.

Link

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Keyhole - Google does Satellite Maps



Very, very cool. This software ($29.95 for a one year subscription, 7 day free trial) allows one to fly, virtually, around the world, hopping from place to place using satellite imagery. Where it is hi-res, its great - a lot of the urban areas of the world are very hi-res. Manhattan, London, etc. The software allows you to tilt the viewing angle so it appears you are flying in a plane with a good sense of the terrain below.

Link

Recommended Reading: Influence







Buy it



This is not a "how-to" on Influence, but more of a survival guide. Robert Cialdini has updated his classic. I think this book is unique in approaching the subject from a scientifically based perspective. Influence discusses how "compliance professionals" use our instincts, that usually help us navigate a complex world, against us. He offers some good advice on how to be on guard against being scammed, without being so cautious as to become disfunctional.

This book explains a lot of behavior - and its an easy read.

Crazy Packaging


If a pink crazed rabbit likes 'em, who am I to say no?

Yes, they were delicious.

Imagine the uses!

I'm about to put the finishing touches on my home theater, and I'm going to need to find some wires, buried in a wall nearly 3 years ago.



I'm thinking that might justify dropping a few hundred bucks on this gizmo...

The 'Fiber Optic Borescope' is "like a combination of a periscope, telescope and microscope for mechanics and builders (or anyone else) who needs to see inside really confined spaces - a truly useful tool that is almost magical and also a heck of a lot fun to use. And the image is very clear."

Apparently its based on the medical type scopes used to peer inside us...

Check it out here.