Laptops in Hospital
In a previous post, some of the comments were about smart phones in hospitals.
I’m all for allowing patients to have laptops in hospital. I had my stroke in Hong Kong and I was allowed one there. It allowed me to do things like listen to Radio 5, talk on Skype, do the Sudokus in The Times and send e-mails, that I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.
I could also have done things like watch videos, which I never do anyway.
In Addenbrooke’s laptops were effectively banned and I don’t think it helped me.
The reason they are banned is that if they were allowed, it would mean they’d lose all that money they get from that crap Patientline system. The bandwidth wouldn’t be a problem, as they can now get enough Megabits easily.
The laptops could also be integrated into patient care and support. For instance, a physio in Hong Kong told me that typing would help my hands work properly again. She was right!
So let’s have some 21st century, healthcare thinking!
Remember too, that happy patients are less trouble for staff and might even leave earlier.
To me allowing laptops in hospital is a no-brainer. But then what do I know about healthcare? But I have seen good healthcare at work and know what works.
I am also in contact with universities, where they are developing computer games to help stroke patients. Let’s make those free and downloadable!
Long Live Visual Basic
I program in Visual Basic 6, which is a language that Microsoft dropped in 2008 for customers. But not as I understand it for themselves as VB6 still works in all versions of Windows and they’re going to keep it way. A man high-up in the company, told me that if they have serious problem, then often VB6 is the way they solve it, as they have so much expertise there. It’s a bit like the plumber, who uses a hammer for everything! But, hey, as someone said to Dan Dare after fixing his spacecraft, “it’s not very pretty, but it works!”
So in the turnout, I’ve found complete sets of Visual Basic 3 and 4, discs and documentation and already after posting to a forum, I’ve had requests for them. I’ll probably copy the discs to my server, so that if anybody wants the software to fix aegacy problem, they’ll be able to do it.
So just like the High Speed Train, Visual Basic appears to be one of those technologies that refuses to die.
The Shareware Version of Daisy
I have decided to make the shareware version of my software, Daisy, available through this blog.
Download the software from this link!
You’ll need user and registration codes. These are VagueShot2 and 1052621012. Some of the examples don’t work, but I’ll be updating the software to the 2011 version in the first month of 2011, when I get everything setup in the new house.
The only problem is that I’ve been slow to set everything up, as I’ve been removing the work of Jerry the builder from the house.
The Daisy 2011 Presentation Browser
I’ve just rewritten the first of my suite of Daisy Web Tools, the Presentation Browser.
Presentation Browser Screen Shot
I originally wrote the program for three reasons.
- You can control the size of the browser window, so that it fits your on-line Internet-based presentation. In the screen-shot above, the browser has been set to 800 x 600 pixels and some of the tolbars have been removed to give a cleaner view of the web page.
- The program allows you to print clean copies of pages from the Internet. The classic is wanting to print say a recipe or a set of instructions and instead of one page with what you want, you get the first bit on one page, the second on another and ipmteen pages of garbage. The Daisy Presentation Browser, allows you to select the part of the page you want and then print it.
- The program also allows you to take copies of web pages and then paste them into other programs, like Word and Paint. It makes producing manuals and on-line documentation a lot easier.
The software is free and can be downloaded from this page. There is a simple registration process to unlock some features of the program. As I hate spam with a vengeance, I only use e-mail addresses collected in the registration process to return user and registration codes.
The software works on any version of Windows later than 2000 or NT4.
To run the software you need to have Internet Explorer installed on your computer, but it doesn’t have to be your default browser.
Producing PDF Files
PDF files have lots of uses.
- They are smaller than Word documents and are easier to transfer between computers or to the web because of this.
- Nearly everybody has an Adobe Acrobat Reader to display them and it’s free software available to all types of PC’s.
But what if you want to create PDF files from your Word Documents say? Adobe does have professional software, but it tends to be comprehensive and for that reason it’s not that affordable.
There are cheaper alternatives. I for instance use PDF Complete, but even that costs $49.95, but in my case it may have been bundled with this HP computer.
There are also a host of products found, if you type “creating PDF documents” into Google. Some are even free. One that looks like giving a trial to is CutePDF. But I haven’t tried it, so use it at your own peril, after first seeing if there is a review of the software somewhere. If anybody has used it perhaps they would post their opinion here!
This overview on Gizmo’s web site is worth reading, as it lists and reviews free PDF file creation programs. It’s probably worth searching Gizmo’s site for other free software you need.
Trying the iPad
I went into PC-World at Tottenham Hale to try an iPad. The reason is that I need a simple to use computer to take with me on my travels. Currently, I use a Samsung Netbook, but the keyboard isn’t the best for my hands.
So what do I need to do on the move.
- Browse the Internet.
- Send and receive e-mails.
- Update this blog.
- Buy travel tickets.
- I might want to write a few applications.
- I would also want it o be able to run my software Daisy, as I feel the two concepts are made for each other.
The iPad seems to fit a lot of these criteria and I was also able to use the touch screen keyboard easily. The last bit surprised me.
But the trouble with the iPad is that it’s an Apple product and is more about style rather than substance. I also feel strongly that the device needs to be Windows-based so that I can run Daisy. That may seem a bit of a small need, but just wait until I find a suitable Windows-based one and install Daisy!
Thanks though to Kevin in PC-World, who showed me professionally what the device can do!
A New Test for Autism
This report on the BBC shows the way that modern medicine is going. I know that I don’t suffer from autism, although I’m a bit weird, but then programmers are a lot of the time. These sort of scans though, will help doctors sort out stroke sufferers like me.
Let’s hope the medics and the programmers, who work with them keep going!
They have had one of the researchers involved, Christine Ecker, on BBC Breakfast this morning. She reckons that soon they will be able to use the test with children. They have even developed a quiet non-claustrophobic scanner, so children won’t be frightened.
I am very enthusiastic about this test and feel it will have other beneficial effects. Obviously, as the research techniques get better and we know more about the brain, they will benefit people like me, who have had strokes to those with more serious brain problems or injuries.
I also think that C, my late wife, would have welcomed this test. She was a barrister and most of her work was with families, divorce and children. She said to me many times, that childen with things a like autism and ADHD, put a tremendous strain on the marriage and often caused the break-up. Sometimes, that strain was caused by the difficulty of getting a diagnosis.
Hopefully, this test will reduce those problems and might even help couples to stay together!
The Definitive Stroke-Friendly Keyboard Driver Specification
I have had further thoughts on this and one of my late son’s best friends has sent me an e-mail, describing the programming techniques that need to be employed. Unfortunately, his company don’t have the time to write the driver.
The objective is to write a driver similar to the one that comes with the Microsoft Wireless Comfort Keyboard 5000, which allows certain keystrokes to be disabled. The driver version is 6.0.6002.18005. When you install this driver it gives more details about the files involved.
But the ability to disable keystrokes needs to be extended.
- Microsoft allows you to disable a lot of keys, but I want to disable, such as control, Shift, Windows and Alt.
- In fact, I would like to be able to disable both left and right control and shift keys independently, as I sometimes find it easier to give up on my left hand completely and say do Shift-O, by spanning my right hand.
- I would also like to allow certain pairs of keys, like Control-C and Control-V, as I use them extensively to cut and paste.
- I think the Microsoft driver allows various profile of keystrokes to be setup, so that should be retained, so that if two users use the same machine, their optimum keystroke settings can be used.
There is an alternative approach to this driver, that I am investigating. The Microsoft Driver must store the list of key reassignments in the Registry. If I could find out how they do this, then I could write a Visual Basic 6 program to adjust that instead. That would in some ways be my preferred solution.
After all, there isn’t anything that a good Visual Basic 6 programmer can’t do! Microsoft know this and still use it to get themselves out of big holes. Otherwise, why would they have spent millions of dollars making sure that all Visual Basic 6 programs work on Vista and Windows 7? Not for charity for old farts like me!
I have made a bit of progress in this approach in that I have found where the Registry stores the settings. It is detailed on this web site.
Let’s Have Some Simple Computing!
I am getting more and more fed up with computing.
A few days ago, I went back to the computer in my office, that hosts my favourite computing language, Visual Basic 6. How refreshing to use something that was designed for sensible and sane people to use? It doesn’t lead you down blind avenues, that have been dreamed up by nerds in Seattle or Mumbai, who have phDs in computing, but no experience of life.
Here are a few things that are annoying me at present.
- The keyboard driver still hasn’t materialised.
- Google maps used to be simple, but now it’s been loaded with so many features, that I don’t need, it doesn’t do the simple trhings quickly enough. For instance, I’ve just booked a B & B in Middlesbrough and want to print a map, which shows the route from the station. It doesn’t seem to drag like it used to after typing in the post code.
- Internet Explorer 8 greets me with a screen, which asks me if I’d like a tour of the new features. There is no button, to say, that I’m competent and would you please stop wasting my time.
- Java anf Flash always want to update themselves, but I don’t do this, as Java updates have caused me problems in the past. There is no way to say no!
- HP always want to check my computer. It works, so please leave it alone.
- Microsoft are always wanting me to use Bing. Why would I want to deal with a dead crooner? Does he sing you the results of the search?
I could go on, but I have better things to do!
A Classic Analysis for Daisy
Daisy is my software for analysing databases. Some of the most successful analyses has always been to take a series of date/time based events and draw a Date and Time Daisy Chart of them. Patterns in the data are often immediately visible.
Some years ago, one of our clients, a UK county, analysed low birth weight babies, by month, day of the week and post code, to see if there were any patterns. We didn’t find anything immediately, but we did in the end find a peak of twins, nine months after Christmas and the New Year. As the type of twin, identical or fraternal was not known, we could not explain the pattern. I have since told this to an honest man, who used to run fertility clinics in the United States. He felt that there were some times of the year when it was better to have IVF. He left the fertility business, as he felt this was not the sort of service, you should give couples desperate for a child.
But to return to the reason, I have written this post. It is being reported that babies born outside of office hours are more likely to die.
I don’t think the researchers are using Daisy, but it is the classic type of analysis for which the software was designed. All you need to do, is get all the events in an Excel spreadsheet as a table and then run Daisy.
The Anonymous Widower 