Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Google

  • A view of pharmacy through Google Glass [simulated]

    I haven’t been this excited about a technology in quite some time. Google Glass makes hands-free operation a reality in the pharmacy. I don’t think it’s a long term fix as I believe that robotics will likely take over the distribution process someday, but not today. Today robotics remains expensive and clumsy.

    Unfortunately Google Glass is hard to come by. And there’s little chance I’ll get my hands on any (one?) in the foreseeable future. I did however stumble across a website that allows one to create a reasonable facsimile of what the view through Google Glass might be like.

    So I took a minute and did a quick mock-up of what a pharmacy technician might see if they were directed to pull a medication from a static shelf while wearing Google Glass. Click on the image below to get the full effect. A little information along with a little augmented reality (red box and arrow) would be cool.

    GGPick

     

    I think technology like this would be a great addition to any product that utilizes barcode scanning or requires photos. “Ok, glass, take photo”. Products like DoseEdge or Pharm-Q In The Hood that utilize cameras to document the compounding process could benefit from being able to snap a quick hands-free photo with only a voice command. Crud, you’re already looking at the product, which means Glass is too.

  • Saturday morning coffee [May 11 2013]

    MUG_Talyst3So 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 is from the company I work for. Strange little story to go along with how I ended up working there, but that’s probably better saved for another time. I ended up with a mug from the company long before I came on board. It was part of a swag bag at one of the past user group meetings that I attended as a customer. I believe it was my first ASHP Summer meeting way back in June of 2009; can’t be sure though.

    Iron Man 3 was #1 at the box office last weekend raking in a cool $174 million. No surprise there as Iron Man 3 was expected to be a blockbuster. I wasn’t able to see it over the weekend, but did manage to catch it Monday night. Was it good? Absolutely, it was a very good move. However, I was a bit disappointed. There was a lot going on in the movie, and some of it felt “off”. I’d still see it again. It’s a bummer that this is likely the end of the Iron Man franchise. Oh, just in case you were wondering Pain and Gain was a close second with $7.5 million in weekend gross; a mere 23 fold difference.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [April 20 2013]

    MUG_IndianapolisSo 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 straight from Indianapolis. I was there for work as part of a multi-city five hospital rampage through that section of the country. It was pretty nice for the most part, but trying to get home turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Indianapolis was hit by severe thunderstorms the day I was supposed to leave – high winds, lightning, hail, and so on – which caused all sorts of chaos and delays at the airport. The delays made me miss my connection in Denver, which just happened to be the last flight out to Fresno on the night in question. I got lucky as the last flight to Los Angeles from Denver had been delayed by an hour so I grabbed an available seat and headed for the city of Angels. I landed at LAX about 1:00AM Friday morning, rented a car, got a hotel room, stole a few hours of sleep and finally drove the short four hours home. Total travel time from Indianapolis airport to my front door: approximately 20 hours. Not how I planned it. When I talk to the sales guys they tell me this is “no big deal”. If you were to talk to me I’d tell you it sucks.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [April 6 2013]

    MUG_AlienJerkySo 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 April 2013 everyone. The year is flying by.

    The coffee mug to the right comes straight from Alien Fresh Jerky in Baker, CA. Baker is small town located near the Nevada border. The population is less than a thousand people, but they do have the worlds tallest thermometer, and of course Alien Fresh Jerky. My family and I drive right past Baker, CA every time we head to Las Vegas. I’ve seen the Alien Fresh Jerky sign a hundred times, but for one reason or another had never pulled in for a visit. This time I decided to swing in and take a look. Turns out that it was a good decision. Not only did I pick up a coffee mug, but I purchased some seriously good jerky. I’m a traditional kind of guy so I stuck with the beef in two flavors: Honey Teriyaki and their Road Kill Original. Great tasting jerky. Oh, I’d recommend staying away from their “Invisible Jerky”, it just doesn’t fill you up like the others.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [March 2 2013]

    MUG_WisconsinWelcome to March everyone. 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….

    I picked up the coffee mug to the right in Fitchburg, WI last summer while on a business trip. I drove there from Chicago after stopping off to visit a hospital in Winfield, IL. Wisconsin was a pretty nice place to visit in the summer. I wasn’t able to do a bunch of touristy stuff, but I did get a chance to see a movie at one of the nicest movie theaters I’ve ever been in. The theater was big, and it had a piano in the lobby. Strange thing about Wisconsin, they have the nicest highway rest stops I’ve ever used. If you’re ever in California I’d avoid the rest stops; good place to skip.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [February 23 2013]

    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….

    MUG_MinneapolisThe coffee mug from the right is straight out of the Twin Cities area, i.e. the Minneapolis-Saint Paul in Minnesota. I picked it up at a Caribou Coffee shop in Minneapolis. Apparently Caribou Coffee is a locally owned business in the Twin Cities area. I have no idea really, but that’s what I was told and the website does list a local address (3900 Lakebreeze Ave N., Minneapolis, MN 55429). The coffee is pretty good I thought the mug looked cool. It was the first time I had ever been to the Minneapolis area. I don’t recommend it as a tourist spot in the winter. It was cold boys and girls. The first night I was there it was a cool 0 (zero) degrees F. One neat thing about the trip was that I got a chance to go to the Mall of America. Impressive place.
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  • Quick review of things worth reading this week

    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:
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  • Initial impression: Samsung Chromebook

    New ChromebookI am the proud owner of a brand new Samsung Chromebook that my wife so generously left for me under the Christmas tree. Clearly I’m a lucky man, for more than one reason.

    There’s no shortage of Chromebook reviews on the internet, and you’re likely to get more out of them than you will by reading this, but I thought I’d put my initial thoughts on paper nonetheless.

    The Samsung Chromebook is an attractive little machine. I didn’t know what to expect, but it surprisingly small and light. It has a nice 11.6-inch LED HD screen, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of drive storage. That’s not a lot of physical storage, but it has an SD card slot and comes with 100 GB of free Google Drive storage for 2 years. What’d you expect, it is a cloud based device after all.

    My new Chromebook was stupid easy to setup. I simply turned it on and logged into my Google account. When I opened the browser – which is the entire computing experience in this case – all my familiar extensions, bookmarks, etc were all exactly where they should be an ready for use. I’ve been an avid Google user for quite some time so everything feels pretty natural. Browsing the internet, interacting with social media, and so on is exactly the same as it is on any other computer.

    I’ve already had people ask me about using a “cloud-based computer” and what happens when you lose connectivity. Well, it’s a lot like using any other laptop when you don’t have WiFi connectivity. Google has done a good job of making certain functionality available when you’re offline. I’m able to create and edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentation while offline. I’m also able to manage my email and calendar. As soon as I’m able to hop back online everything syncs up as it should. In addition there is a section of the Google Web Store that contains applications for use when offline.

    Battery life is as advertised, i.e. it’s great. Not exactly scientific but I started using the Chromebook on and off around 11:00am on Christmas Eve morning, December 24 and didn’t need to recharge it until this morning about 9:00am. So I got a couple of good days use on a single charge. Not continuous use mind you, but my typical couch surfing, emailing, social media type sessions. In comparison my work laptop would require three charges over the same period of time with equivalent usage.

    The keyboard is solid on the Chromebook. I’m composing this post on it and haven’t had any problems. Spacing is good and there’s no flex when I type. Overall, it’s a good experience. I will say that I find it odd that the keyboard is missing some keys that I use quite often: home, delete, page up and page down. That will take some time to get used to.

    The only major complaint that I have is regarding the touchpad. I hate it. I prefer physical buttons on my touchpads. I like to rest the fingers on my left hand on the buttons and drive with my right. The Chromebook has a multi-touch touchpad, which means that it registers my hands as multi-touch. Go figure. It’s not a deal breaker for me, but so far I’ve found it quite irritating.

    That’s it, my initial thoughts on the Chromebook. I’ll be using it as my daily driver while I’m on vacation so I should have more to report in another week.

  • Saturday morning coffee [December 22 2012]

    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….

    Christmas MugThe 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. This Christmas themed mug is one of four that he sent me a few weeks ago. And what do you know; it just so happens to be the perfect occasion to bust out a Christmas mug. Boo-ya!  Jason also blogs over at The Cynical Pharmacist. Check it out.

    The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was #1 at the box office last weekend. No surprise there. It did a respectable $85 Million, which is a record for weekend openings in December besting the previous record holder, I Am Legend’s $77 Million. My family and I contributed to the Hobbit’s box office success by going to see it last Sunday. Was it good? Yes, of course. Was it great? No, I don’t think it was. It was visual appealing, and never boring, but it was hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea of a trilogy of movies based on the book. I definitely recommend you see it on the big screen.
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  • Saturday morning coffee [October 27 2012]

    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 is from Galveston, TX. Galveston is an interesting place. It’s a beach town, but unlike any beach town here in California. Galveston has the warmest ocean water I’ve ever been in. Almost like bath water. That may sound like a negative, but it’s really not. Instead of having to inch my way into the water I was able to jump right in and spend some time with the kids without freezing half to death. It was a nice change of pace from the California coastline. The other distinct feature of the beach is that it has a gradual slope into the water from the shoreline. I was able to walk more than 100 yards from shore without getting into water over my head. It made for some great fun as my wife and daughters joined me and we played in the water for quite some time. I hadn’t been in ocean water for a long time. It felt good. By the time we were finished at the beach I was sticky with salt, worn out and slightly burnt. In other words, perfect.

    Paranormal Activity 4 was #1 at the box office last weekend. It’s that time of year again. Because we’re nearing Halloween we’re seeing a whole slew of scary movies hitting the box office. Not my thing.  I’m not a big fan of Halloween in general. Give me Thanksgiving or Christmas every time. You can keep Halloween and the movies that go along with it.
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