eInk

Saturday morning coffee [August 17 2013]: Elysium, Pharmacogenomics, Gonorrhea, Limo Joust

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So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

The coffee mug below comes straight from Canada. My family and I spent a little time in Victoria, British Columbia this summer. What a beautiful place. It’s a great little town, and we were blessed with awesome weather. It was sunny and in the 70’s-80’s the entire time we were there. We spent some time milling around the town, rented a car and drove around the beach areas, and took a short trek to Butchart Gardens. I’m not a gardens-type of guy, but Butchart Gardens is really neat. We took a boat tour of the area and stayed for the fireworks show that took place late one night. Great memories. I would do it again.

MUG_Canada

Just a quick side note: this is the last coffee mug in my collection. Not sure what I plan to do for my next SMC. Any suggestions?

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Saturday morning coffee [December 8 2012]

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So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the tabs that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

The coffee mug to the right comes from Jason DeVillains, better known to many as The Cynical Pharmacist. Jason and I met via Twitter (@TheCynicalRPH) and have been chitchatting via the web ever since. I mentioned that I was running low on coffee mugs and he decided to help me remedy the problem by sending me four of them. When my daughter and I opened the box this particular mug made her laugh, so I felt that it only fitting that it be the first one to make an appearance online. Jason also has a blog aptly called The Cynical Pharmacist, where he talks about all kinds of stuff; some healthcare related, some not. He has an interesting blogging style where he makes good use of video clips. Check it out.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 2 was #1 at the box office last weekend pulling in just about $17.5 Million. Skyfall was a close second with $16.5 Million. That says something about the quality of Skyfall as it continues to draw big crowds even after being out for four weeks.

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Reading pharmacy literature on the go

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Like many pharmacists I read a lot of journal articles. This is especially true because of the dual role I play at my hospital. It’s not uncommon for me to read a couple of articles a day through the week and a few more thrown in on the weekend. The articles come from various medical and technology journals that I regularly visit plus the occasional article recommended by a friend or colleague. I still receive some journals in hard copy, but many now arrive electronically. Because I look into a computer screen 12-14 hours a day, I’m not particularly fond of reading articles on my laptop or tablet pc; it gives me a headache. As I’ve said many times, looking at a normal LCD monitor is like looking into a flashlight. Instead of reading PDFs on my computer I print them out and take them with me wherever I go (I can hear the collective moan from the conservationists in the crowd; sorry). This kind of defeats the purpose of having electronic documentation and certainly isn’t very “green”. With that said, advances in e-ink technology and e-reading devices may change my approach.

I’ve been waiting for an e-reader that will allow me to read PDF files without having to zoom in and out or dance around the screen. I’ve tried reading on my Droid and my iPod Touch, and while possible, I wouldn’t want to do it for an extended period of time. It’s just not convenient.

The Kindle DX was the first e-reader to hit the market with a screen big enough to accommodate my needs, and it was my front runner for quite a while. However, before dropping $500 on the DX I wanted to see some of the new devices that have been “on their way” since early 2009. Some of these devices are listed below.

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Great new idea for “InkPad” at GottaBeMobile

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Matthew Dillon at GottaBeMobile has come up with a great concept for a new tablet device that he calls “ink pad”. The most entertaining thing about the concept is that I have designed several of these on paper over the years myself. My scribbles are recorded in various notebooks lying around the house. Like Matthew, I too love Tablet PCs but have always felt that there is still a yet to be developed device that would be better.

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