I’ve been a little mesmerised by the wonder that is Wolfram Alpha. The extravagantly titled “Computational Knowledge Engine (CKE)”.

By calling it the CKE, for short, they’ve probably scared away a lot of people. That is until you give it a shot.

For example, as a paramedic, you visit a 30 year old fella who says he weighs 110kg and is 5′8″. That looks overweight, but with the Wolfram CKE you can see how bad this really is. Just type into the box: 30yr male 5′8″ 110kg and hit enter. Soon you’ll be informed that:

Captain Tubby’s specs are:

• BMI of 36.9 = obese.
• His ideal weight is 68.5kg (he’s 41.5kg too heavy).
• He’s got 6.1 litres of whole blood pumping around.
• His lung capacity is 3.9L.

Click the more button and you’ll get:

• His basal metabolic rate – 2138 calories/day.
• Other stuff.

How amazing is that? Type in your own details and be prepared to be scared.

Need help with that crossword on a cold lonely night shift? Type in _a_a_edic and voila out pops “paramedic”.

Need to know how much that apple and carrot just cost you in calories and how much protein you just gobbled up? Type in 1 apple + 1 carrot and you’ll see that you just had 104 calories and 761mg of protein. I wonder how much that cheeseburger just cost me? 550 calories apparently.

Type in drug names, places, formulas, electrical calculations, words, peoples names, blah, blah, blah. You will learn something new.

The best thing for paramedics? Next time you have someone in the back of your truck you’ll have some new tidbit to chat about. No more painful silences and pretending to do paperwork. Bonus.

Anyway, I’m just scraping the sides of what this thing can do. And by the sounds of things Wolfram Alpha is just getting started as well.

Wolfram Alpha. The new google or just a plaything. Could be both. I reckon there may just be a synergy that could work out nicely.

Enjoy. Let us know what you can find.

I made my first big App store purchase “the other day”.

The ECG Guide by QxMD.

It’s starting to be a bit of a trend with this company, but hey if they’re putting out the good stuff then the flock will follow.

This time the good people of QxMD have packaged a pretty standard ECG guide for beginners and formatted it for the iPod touch and iPhone.

That’s all well and good. And that was all I was expecting from a $5.99 application. You’re looking at 6+ times that amount for a decent ECG book for beginners.

So what’s it good for:

• Learning the basics: lead positions and ECG interpretation including descriptions of the ECG segments.
• Learning about the effect chamber enlargements have on the ECG.
• Detailed descriptions of ischaemia and infarction.
• Learning about the ECG’s of arrhythmias: its mechanism, blocks, and a whole lot more.
• Showing that there are other reasons for ECG changes: Hypothermia, thyroid problems, pulmonary disease, and more.

The other bonus is the large amount of sample ECGs. Click on Atrial Fibrillation, turn the gadget on its side and blow up the sample for closer inspection. Nice.

The other little feature is the quiz. This brings up a random ECG for you to interpret. Click the info button to find out what it was. Then click next for another one. This quiz functionality could have been done with finesse but they’ve copped out a little. Multi-choice perhaps and a scoreboard to track your progress. Whatever.

Anyhoo, overall this is a neat little piece of kit. It’s just a re-badged basics of ECG book, but if that’s what you’re after then go for it. If you’re in the medical business it’s a tax deductible $5.79.

We’ll give it 3.5/5.

Pros: For a repacked basics of ECG book, it’s neat and comprehensive. Good selection of ECGs. Utilises the iPod/iPhones screen rotation functionality well. Cheap.

Cons: Not greatly useful on the road. The quiz could have been slicked up a bit.

Cardio Calc for the iPod Touch and iPhone is an interesting piece of software. It contains a whole group of calculators all compiled together, and with their “question flow technology” it’s extremely easy to use.

But not if you’re on the road. Sorry.

Unless you can perform a full blood workup you’ll find it next to useless. Which by definition isn’t totally useless. Just in the neighbourhood. Two doors down.

The Body mass index (BMI) calculator will give you an idea when the Krispy Kremes need to stop.

Exercise capacity will show you how good your treadmill skills are.

And the ideal body weight calculator is going to scare you.

But that’s about all of the useful stuff for the paramedic.

A lot of other sections make for interesting reading and if you’re on an inter-hospital transfer you might be able to sift through the patient’s paperwork and calculate some scary stuff, like:

• APACHE II score: gives you the patient’s predicted death rate.
• the patient’s risk of stroke (yearly) with no intervention.
• estimating the patient’s size of cardiac infarction.

And it has some nice definitions, like classes of angina and myocardial infarctions.

It also has some other non-cardiac calculators, like gastroenterology, haematology and nephrology. All totally useless on the road but interesting nonetheless. Especially the calculator that tells you you chances of relapsing into alcoholism.

Lastly there is a pregnancy calculator section that can calculate the gestational age and due dates. Again not good for the road, but good for the paramedic with a family in mind.

Overall, the Cardio Calc is a curious piece of kit. Some great calculators, especially for the doctor in the family, but not much for the paramedic on the road.

Check it out anyway. It’s a free app from the iTunes app store.

We give it: 3 ECG dots out of 10*

*From the paramedical side of things that is.

Having access to your files anywhere, and being able to send and edit them in that same anywhere place would be handy (cloud computing on the go). Not that I’m a super important high flyer. But hey, we’re all important in our own special way.

As geektastic as it sounds, having a wee little computer that starts up quickly and has a 3G network connection at its disposal would allow me to crank out the bloggish thoughts (before I forget them as I always do) or look up what an AVM is when a patient tells me they have a big one, err.

On the ‘puter side of things there are a multitude of options. Take this site for example. Liliputing. This site goes to great lengths, gathering information about “netbooks” or cheap ultra-portables. They collate reviews and images as well as list the upcoming models. Nice.

But then the deal breaker arrives in the form of the all important web connection.

At home we’ve got a nice ADSL2+ connection that has all of the bandwidth and data limits we’ll be needing for now. So at home I’m set. But out and about I’d be needing a 3G style connection (I’m not prepared to creep into peoples backyards to leech off their unsecured wi-fi connections) or fatten myself up at the golden arches with their free wi-fi.

So 3G it is. But there’s the rub. I can’t find anything (pre or post-paid) that has a lifespan of more than a month or so. For something that I’d use sporadically I’m not going to fork out to recharge every 30 days or pay $4 per Mb for incidental access. Vodafone have their 365 day mobile phone plan but no one has a 365 broadband plan. Why? I’m sure there is a huge market for it.

I suppose that may cut into the carriers bottom line of incidental data use but a product like this could really take off. I’ll even let them call it the “azureblues.com 365 mobile broadband plan”.

I emailed Savvytel (several times) who’ve apparently won awards based on their phone plans whose credits don’t expire. I thought they may have something in the pipeline. But they never replied. Perhaps they were blinded by the colours on their website and couldn’t read the emails.

So there’s the conundrum.

I’d love a netbook. I’d love broadband on the go. But at this point, never the twain shall meet.

Let us know out there if you hear of one of those “azureblues.com 365 mobile broadband plans”.

I wait with breath held.

Moving from analogue or film photography took a long and painful time for me. It was the smell as you opened the film canister. It was the satisfying click and motor sounds as you reel off each shot. The holding of the breath as you take your first peek at the developed images.

Digital doesn’t have the mystique. Don’t get me wrong. I love my digital EOS. But I really loved my old one.

I have fond memories of my Dad breaking out his pristine Polaroid instant camera and just marvelling as the photo developed as if by magic in front of our eyes. The colours were amazing.

All of that is gone now. We take our memory cards and wander down to the local department store. Load up a machine. Click to order. Done. No surprises.

That was until I found this. The Impossible Project.

These guys have re-leased a Polaroid instant film making factory and aim to bring it back in a newer, more advanced, more modern way. Their aim is to breath new life into the classic instant cameras of the past. And it appears they’re backed by photographic big boy Ilford.

Lovely.

They’re looking for help. Sign up at their website and they’ll let you know what they need. They’re aiming for 2010.

Any chemical engineers out their?