Category: Uncategorized

I ran across google base… http://base.google.com/ …  allows you to save stuff like recipes in the google database, searchable later – without putting those information bits on any sort of web page.  Their recipes function is pretty nicely put together – you can search based on ingredients and meal type and course and so on. 

Although I think the idea is kind of cool, I probably won’t use it.  I read something recently that observed that technology shoppers fall into two categories.  The first category includes people who are seeking a technology that will aid them with something they’re already doing.  The second category adopt a technology so that they can start doing something new.  The former group are far more likely to be actually use the new tool over the longterm.

The observation rings true.  How many people buy home treadmills only to discover that they still have no interest in exercise?  How many fancy new cameras fall into disuse after a couple months, because people just don’t have the interest in recording their life in pictures after all? 

By this metric, I probably won’t use google base much.  I have never tended to bother much with storing and retrieving recipes. I am the sort of cook who doesn’t follow a recipe; I just think “OK, I want something that will taste like …” and then throw together the ingredients that seem like they’ll achieve the effect I want. 

So… I think the technology (being able to store and retrieve bits of information off the google database without having them on a webpage somewhere) is cool, but suspect I’m not the target user.  Are you?

Haven’t got it yet but have been entertaining myself by browsing apps and reading up.

Looks like I will want to download one or more of the iPhone reader apps and download some books to read.  I wish there were some converters out there to let me go back and forth between eReader and Kindle format.

K figured out how to convert a DVD movie to iTunes today, and downloaded some stuff onto his iPod that we could watch on the plane.

Yeah, so we’re likely to make this trip trucking along an iPhone (maybe if I get it on time), one or more iPods, a Kindle, and two laptops.  And a camera.  What geeks we are… I’d skip the laptop except for that thing where I’m looking for a job and want to remain accessible.

I like the app that lets you pinpoint your location, and then email it to someone.  Good for hooking up on the fly with friends particularly in another city.

And haven’t quite figured out the data roaming deal.  Is wi-fi connection counted as part of the data plan?  As in, if I turn off the G3/phone/data roaming, can I still hook up to a wi-fi in a coffeeshop without paying megabucks per minute of contact?  The AT&T site is a bit vague about this.

On other fronts…. unproductive day in which I mostly took care of little administrivia.  Looks like I am invited to give a talk to the 2009 American Veterinary Informatics Association… I don’t entirely understand why yet but the simple explanation seems to be that humans are animals too, so I can be accepted as sort of a limited stupid vet even though I can’t treat all those other species.  It’s so true that vets are orders of magnitude smarter than MDs.

And I finally got thank-you notes written to our hosts for the 4th July family reunion.  Not quite a month later.  I’m a bit ashamed but I did have a few things happen in the meantime 😦

And my Dad’s book got accepted by a publisher, yay! 

Well, not quite yet but I ordered one and it should be arriving Real Soon Now. 

Which leads to a question:  What exactly comes with the phone?  As in, what sort of charger? Do the fancy earbuds come with it? 

I figure I will want to be able to charge the phone off a wall outlet or from my car, I will also want some sort of case to keep it from smashing into a million pieces first time I drop it… What else will I want, accessory-wise?

And any must-have downloads from the app store?

All things to ponder while waiting for my cheddar-apple-bacon quiche to finish baking 🙂

General message to no one in particular:

First observation.  If you drive like a self-centered a**hole, I’m going to assume you’re an a**hole in more ways than just your driving. 

Second observation.  If you plaster stuff on your car proclaiming your religious beliefs, then you drive like a self-centered a**hole…. not only will I think you’re an a**hole, but I’ll consider the possibility that everyone who practices your religion is as unpleasant as you are.

Do you really want to be giving your religion such bad advertising?

You know my job that I’ve mentioned I really like?

Company had some serious investment money fall through and is now screaming its way toward bankruptcy as far as I can tell.  They’re scything through corporate cutting anyone they can and though I haven’t got a pink slip in hand, I have been given the word that my time there is very short – probably less than two weeks.

So I’m brushing up my resume and putting out the call for contacts.  If you know of anyone looking for people with dual clinical and IT expertise, please point them my way… or me their way!

On the bright side, K was headed to Cambridge England for a conference and I wasn’t going to get to go because I really didn’t have enough accumulated vacation time.  But now that I’ll be unemployed, that is no longer a barrier.  Booked tix yesterday.  So… suggestions about things to do and enjoy in the Cambridge area?

I’m looking at quiche recipes on the web and seeing a broad variety of ratios of egg, cheese, and milk/cream.

I’d like to make quiche using egg whites (better’n’eggs or similar), skim milk, and cheese.  What ratios do my culinary friends recommend?  Also, what are good cheeses to add?

We are heading out for my Mom’s family reunion in Ohio.  Currently I don’t have a seat on the plane so this could be a long, unpleasant travel day.  I have ipod with hours of podcast content, several paperbacks, and a puzzle book.  Hopefully that should keep me happy during any long waits. 

Meanwhile, a food for thought:  in the past couple years, gas prices have risen more than 100%.  Now I’m seeing news services gleefully congratulating the American public for decreasing gas consumption by 2-3%.  Um…..? 

Part of me feels sorry for those members of the public who find themselves stuck with a long commute and a gas-guzzling car.  The other part of me remembers that I’ve spent the last decade paying twice as much for half the square footage so I wouldn’t have a long commute, and risking my life on the roads because their SUVs and Hummers would squash my little energy-efficient car. 

Now my < 5-mile commute and Prius look worth the cost, hmm? 

I haven’t posted in a while so I’ll do the book meme.

From many:

I may yet read a fiew of those left untouched – they’re things I have no objection to reading but haven’t got an immediate plan to go find them and read them…

Anyone know where this list came from?

As I drove home, I noted a huge to-do on W loop 610 northbound blocking all lanes of traffic… I didn’t take the time to look much so as not to worsen the gaper’s delay on the southbound side. But there were flashing lights and ambulances and firetrucks and people on foot milling around and as I said all lanes of traffic were blocked. Oh, and helicopters, there were helis but I didn’t look to see if they were news or lifeflight or both. Other people, of course, were making crazy lane changes to the left to better survey the potential gore and destruction.

I was curious enough to google it to see what might have happened – about an hour after I arrived home, I tried a variety of google query combos on both regular google and google news. I tried the local newspaper site. And… nothing. No report of whatever event went on there.

I recently implemented a tool that lets my users send a prescription directly to the pharmacy electronically, rather than calling it in, faxing it, or printing it out. Most have been delighted to adopt it. One woman, though, simply refuses to trust that it works. I’m monitoring activity really closely right now since it’s a new thing and I don’t want any mistakes to lead to medications being delayed… so all day long I was seeing this woman’s notes. There’d be the automatically generated text showing that a presription was submitted electronically, followed by a additional note: “faxed to pharmacy just to make sure”.

I have showed her the audit trails that confirm that the pharmacy receives the prescription, showed her the proof of multiple successful prescriptions sent over the past week, etc… she still simply refuses to trust that this magical electronic thing will really work. But the fax, of course, that’s always reliable, right?

Sigh. Loads of pharmacists in Katy will be cursing this woman as they process all those duplicate prescriptions….