I try to avoid The Vole, as Microsoft is referred to by one of my favorite tech sites, The Inquirer, but, much like Chun The Unavoidable in Jack Vance’s The Dying Earth, it sometimes is, well, unavoidable. One reason I can’t completely cut the tie to Bill Gates et al. is the electronic medical records… Continue reading A Microsoft Morning
Author: mannd
I am a retired cardiac electrophysiologist who has worked both in private practice in Louisville, Kentucky and as a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver. I am interested not only in medicine, but also in computer programming, music, science fiction, fantasy, 30s pulp literature, and a whole lot more.
The Bronze Age
I don’t think I would be going too far out on a limb to claim that I am the the only electrophysiologist in the world who has read all of the Doc Savage novels. This is actually quite a feat, as there are 182 original novels by “Kenneth Robeson” (mostly written by Lester Dent between… Continue reading The Bronze Age
Moving a WordPress Blog to a New Server
Time doesn’t stand still, even at EP Studios. Sluggo the original $100 eBay-purchased Pentium III computer was showing signs of age. Nevertheless, sitting in my closet, hooked to an ethernet cable, exposed to wilds of the Internet on ports 80, 22, 26 and 110, it was an adequate web server for my website/blog for 5… Continue reading Moving a WordPress Blog to a New Server
The End of Books
Borders is gone. Barnes and Noble stock has fallen 80% over the last 5 years. Amazon now sells more eBooks than print books. Public libraries close on Sundays and have turned into internet cafes where the books are ignored and noise levels are too high to concentrate. There is no doubt that print books are… Continue reading The End of Books
Free Software That's Not Free
Facebook has some ads off to the side, and one of them aroused my curiosity — an ad for the ProFlight Simulator. I have used flight simulators since the very first version of what was to become Microsoft Flight Simulator, subLOGIC’s FS1 which ran on my Apple II+ back in the 1980s. I have… Continue reading Free Software That's Not Free
Social Media and Medicine — A Good Mix?
Businesses have been quick to latch on to social media: isn’t it great that you can “Like” your septic tank cleaning company? Books have been written on optimizing use of social media in business settings. Yet in the medical business, there are reasons to hesitate before jumping onto the social media tidal wave. Medical blogging… Continue reading Social Media and Medicine — A Good Mix?
Multaq Woes Multiply
There’s more bad news about the heavily marketed atrial fibrillation drug, Multaq (aka dronedarone). Fast on the heels of reports that the drug can cause liver failure, we learned yesterday that the PALLAS trial was stopped prematurely due to increased cardiovascular events in the group on Multaq. Incredibly the PALLAS trial was designed to test… Continue reading Multaq Woes Multiply
In the Garden of Beasts
Having recently read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, it was impossible to pass up this new release during a visit to my local Barnes and Noble. In the Garden of Beasts refers to the Tiergarten, the large central park of Berlin, but of course also refers to the human beasts who were… Continue reading In the Garden of Beasts
New Laptop at EP Studios: Lenovo X220 (aka SuperKrell)
Old Krell (a Panasonic Pentium-III Toughbook laptop circa 2002) having served its various purposes but getting somewhat hoary with age, I decided to invest in a new laptop. My criteria for selecting the new laptop included: relatively lightweight, good battery life, and Linux compatibility. I was sorely tempted to buy one of the new MacBook… Continue reading New Laptop at EP Studios: Lenovo X220 (aka SuperKrell)
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich — Review
This is one of those books that, especially now that I have read it, I feel everyone should read — all 1,000+ pages of it. Up until recently, I never got around to it. Growing up in the 50s and 60s, there was a lot more interest in the Second World War then than there… Continue reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich — Review