“Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture your heart…” – Native American saying
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….
Welcome to the first SMC post of 2014. Last Saturday was the first Saturday of the year, but I was too busy enjoying my birthday to do anything else. Which brings us to the new coffee mug below. I received it as a birthday gift from my brother Robert and his wife, Kim. Thanks guys!
Moto X – Jerry’s new phone, and it is awesome. We discuss both the hardware and software features of the device. Nexus 5 was also mentioned as was the HTC One.
NFL Football – Little bit of chit-chat about the state of the NFC North, i.e. mediocrity at its finest.
Android – It appears that Rob is ready to do a little Android development.
Personal Clouds – Rob and Jerry talk discuss what “personal cloud†means to each of them as well as some potential solutions:
Tweet that started the conversation via @lawremipsum – “Oh, home network storage/servers are now “Personal Cloud”s. #noâ€
Steve Frank Tweet – “If you care, the links I used to have on Pinboard are now here http://stevenf.com/links/ as part of ongoing de-cloudification.â€
Some quick ramblings about physical photos in a digital age. A conversation for another time, perhaps.
Questions, tips or recommendations for upcoming Garage topics? Find Jerry on Google+ or Twitter (@JFahrni). Find Robert on Twitter (@Fahrni)Â or App.Net (Fahrni).
I missed my regular Saturday morning coffee post yesterday for a couple of reasons. I have a cold that has been kicking my butt all week. Not sure why this cold feels particularly weighty, but it does. Is it that I’m run down or that I’m aging? I pray that it’s the former, but fear that it is the latter. My good friends acetaminophen, antihistamine and decongestant have helped me through the week. Top that off with one of the worst travel weeks I can remember in a while and I’m ready for a day on the couch.
Yesterday was a bit of a reprieve as I found myself in Los Angeles visiting my daughter and watching the UCLA men’s basketball team lose to Oregon in an exciting game. I would have preferred that UCLA won, but at least I had some downtime with my family and the weather in Los Angeles was spectacular.
However, life goes on and there were at least a few things I read this week that are worth sharing: (more…)
I’ve been using Google Music to listen to and store all my music for a while now. The reason I’ve been using it is obvious, i.e. it’s well integrated with all my Android devices; of which I have four. It’s fairly easy to use. I dump music on any of my computers and Google kindly syncs it to my other devices in addition to the cloud. It offers all the essentials including offline listening, which I use while traveling.
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 the University of Texas in Austin, home of the Longhorns. I picked it up last week while the Fahrni crew was on vacation terrorizing the Lone Star State. Feel free to read about what we’ve been up to here.
- Dark Knight Rises remained #1 at the box office last weekend. I’ve already seen Dark Knight Rises so my wife and I went to see The Watch instead. The Watch is a terrible movie, but it’s funny as heck. If you’re looking for a crappy movie that will make you laugh out loud at times, then the Watch is for you. I don’t regret seeing it as I was due for a good laugh, but I wouldn’t see it again. It’s a Redbox rental, if you know what I mean.
– Music for this morning’s blog composition, Candlebox. (more…)
My favorite cloud music service is no longer Music Beta, but rather Google Music. Ta-da! I’ve been using Google Music for a while. I’ve found it to be quite nice. I especially like the integration with my Android based phone. Go figure.
It’s not uncommon for me to find myself with the need to get a large file onto someone else’s machine. The problem is that I’ve moved away from many of the more traditional ways of moving files back and forth. I try to carry a flash drive with me, but someone always needs one and I end up giving them away. I don’t have a CD-RW on either of my travel machines. I don’t carry an external drive. And my corporate email limits email attachments to 10MB, which really isn’t that big these days.
Anyway, I found myself in a situation where I needed to move several large files and had no easy way to do it. Fortunately I use SuargarSync, which is capable of quickly and easily sharing files.
Anyone that knows me personally or has read this site must realize that I like technology and think that the cloud is the future for a great many things. While I don’t necessarily think the cloud is ready for primetime for everyone, I believe that we have yet to realize the full power of moving away from the desktop storage model.
Google recently unveiled the availability of its Chromebook, a laptop “optimized for the webâ€. I haven’t had an opportunity to see one in person, but I have every intention to purchase one of these machines and give the concept a shot. Based on internet chatter it may be easier said than done as I believe the Chromebook will be a hot commodity when it becomes available.
I am a fan of web-based healthcare applications, including EHRs. I especially like the web-based EHR available from Practice Fusion. The application is full featured, easy to use and free. I spent a little time playing with it back in June 2010. One of the things I noted during my review was that “there appears to be no cross checking between allergies and newly entered medications.” As a pharmacist this was pretty important. Well, I’m happy to say that allergy checking no longer appears to be an issue.
EHR Bloggers: “We’re excited to bring you a major new feature for your EHR account today: drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction alerts. It’s a frequently requested enhancement and also a big step towards Meaningful Use. And, like all our features, this clinical decision support system (CDSS) is entirely free.
Drug Interaction Alerts
You will now be automatically alerted when a drug you are adding, prescribing or refilling interacts with another drug or with an allergy listed in the patient’s chart. The following video shows you how to set permissions, heed alerts and override alerts. “
To gain access and begin using the Practice Fusion EHR simply sign up for a free account here. I would encourage any practitioner that needs a robust, easy to use EHR system to give Practice Fusion a look. It’s a solid application.
I was going to try the new feature for myself, but forgot my credentials; how embarrassing.
Medgadget: “Yet on the whole, playing with the CR-48 is like peeking into the future – the far, far away future. And though it’s hard to fill in all the details now, there’s a lot of potential for Chrome OS in the world of medicine.†– The author does a great job of covering why the Chrome OS, and a CR-48 like device, would be good for healthcare. Reasons include disposability in which “the ultimate machine for the medical world is the one in which the doctor, nurse, patient, etc, cares the least about if it’s dropped, lost, or brokenâ€; interchangeability by allowing any user to simply log into any CR-48 and have their information instantly available; security; and hardware customizability. It’s a refreshing change to see someone thinking outside the box when it comes to computing in healthcare. (more…)
