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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

I then get asked by a mate about upgrading the maps on his HP Travel Companion GPS. It ran Tom Tom software and because he’d bought it 3 years ago he thought a map upgrade would be on the cards. Besides, a whopping great new expense-way has just popped up in Melbourne and his GPS understandably ignores it and thinks you’re going to crash into a cow if you travel down it.

So I send off an email to HP and cover my bases by lobbing one at Tom Tom and remarkably get unhelpful replies. What, a company in this day and age unwilling to support their product? What a surpreeese!

HP blamed Tom Tom and Tom Tom blamed HP. You need Tom Tom version 7. But you can’t upgrade. Maps are up to their version 8 and a bit, but for the HP/TomTom you can only upgrade to version 6 and a bit. What a surprise, we’re already running version 6 of the maps. Can I smell bovine dung anyone?

I was under the impression companies were supposed to support products for 7 years after being discontinued. Maybe that’s just me dreaming.

Overall – HP support – bah bow – cow pat central. Tom Tom – bovine guano time people.

I think I’ll tell my mate to get the paper version.

• Take one broadband connection from a participating isp.
• Take one Tomizone compatible router.
• Load up the Tomizone firmware.
• Share your internet connection with the world.
• Earn 50% of the income generated by sharing said connection.

Now the earnings may be ok if you get a bit of traffic past your place, like near the MCG or a busy shopping strip. You’ll be looking at 1/2 of the $3 hour pass/$6 day pass/$30 week pass, as long as the user remains connected to your router. You get pro-rata otherwise.

When you sign up for Tomizone you appear on their map. Just type in your location and shazaam!

Then comes the problaymos!

I thought I’d give the system a go. I typed in my location and found some likely culprits. I then trundled around and like a stalker tried to connect to their hotspot.

Hotspot #1: No hotspot found. Nice. Great to see that the Tomizone map is up to date or could the signal be too weak? Hang on I’ll just climb their back fence and get a little closer. It Rubs The Lotion On It’s Skin. Nah, not doin’ it.

Hotspot #2: Hotspot found! Huzzah! Connecting…failed to connect…wait…connecting…Back fence again? Nah.

Hotspot #3: No hotspot found. Big dog peering through the fence. Definately no back fence action.

So there lies the erm…rub.

People shell out for these “Tomizone” routers and expect to recoup the costs. But the fact of the matter is that if you want to earn cashola you’ll need to upgrade the antenna and make sure you live in a decently trafficked area.

The other side of the coin is that if a road warrior wants to use your connection they have to park outside of your house like they’re casing the joint. Some people may not be comfortable doing that.

I reckon the most legitimate way to go is to get the big antenna or repeater and do a letter drop in to the neighbours. They don’t need to know it’s you but it may get you some cash from their casual use and they won’t feel like stalking.

Problem is that her phone was playing up. Periodically locking up and causing angst. She contacted her mobile provider who in turn asked her to drop the phone off at one of their contracted repairers.

Two weeks later the phone was ready after what should have been a firmware upgrade. She collects the phone and upon getting home finds that the slide out keyboard on her HTC Touch Pro is no longer locking into place. Bugger she thought and contacted the network again.

An hour later, after speaking to unhelpful people on the sub-continent, she is left with the remark, “well, maybe you should take it back to where you bought it from”.

Thanks 3, typically all care and no responsibility. They distribute electronics and recommend repairers and then pass the buck. Is 3 alone? I doubt it.

Is this typical of all the networks and resellers? What kind of experiences have you folks out there had with 3, Vodafone, Telstra, Optus and co?

Gus Tinkle responded to some of my generic questions in the great forum on Whirlpool.

About the policies of the telcos on returns of handsets under warranty:

Where it gets tricky is finding the correct information between the Telco’s, retailer’s and Dept of Fair Trading.

Usually the handsets sold come with a 12 month warranty. During this time if the handset faults it will be sent to an authorized repair agent for assessment and repair/replacement.
Once the 12 months is up and the warranty is over, the standard practise is ‘you’re on your own’. The Telco’s will argue they provide a network service, the handset is your responsibility.

Some people argue that under ACCC/Fair Trading guidelines if a phone is sold on a 2 year contract then it should last 2 years. Also, if a phone faults during this time it should be replaced or refunded, not simply repaired. Everyone has a differing opinion here.

On multiple failures:

Telstra have a policy to cover repeated faults. There are some conditions on it, but if it appears as though a handset can’t be repaired successfully then they will replace it. I’m unsure of the other networks, I would assume they all have similar policies in place.

When, if ever, will they replace the handset:

Most handsets come with a 14-30 day ELF (early life failure) period. Basically if a handset faults within this time then the place of purchase can swap it and return it to the manufacturer/supplier as it is clearly faulty.
Once this ELF period has expired the handset is usually sent for repair. Also, not all companies offer the ELF period, so it depends on the place of purchase.

What compensation can be expected:

Generally nothing. Some times you can get a credit on your bill, depends how nice you ask and the individual circumstances around it.

The ‘comman acceptance’ is phones are sent away for repair, not swapped. If it’s out of warranty then too bad, you need to buy another one. Most shops operate this way and most customers follow this.
Should you wish to fight it (as others have posted about on the forums here) you can. Expect a lengthy and mind numbing fight. Only when you become ‘more annoying than its worth’ are you usually given your desired outcome. Most people don’t have the time or patience to take it to this level.

If you are having problems speak to a team leader or manager at your Telco. Try lodging a complaint with the manufacturer as well, they can sometimes authorise a replacement handset.

Once you have exhausted all your opportunities within your Telco, you can then contact the TIO if you wish to take it further.

Anyway Gus, thanks for your time.

She’s a lawyer, she writes great scary letters. Maybe she can get a free coffee out of them. But perhaps she should have taken out some insurance.

You just pay a small fee per hour. You could link that to their S3 cloud storage. This would give you a remote computer running your software and with a feasibly unlimited storage space. All for, let me find my calculator, um, not much by way of dollars.

Now some bright spark has thought to use this power for evil instead of good. I originally read about this idea on Hackzine and subsequently at the original authors site.

He uses some server side, php based, bittorrent software called TorrentFlux. This allows the server to act as your torrent downloading machine, freeing up your own bandwidth so you don’t get stung by your ISP’s excess usage charges and also prevents your torrent habit ruining your web browsing/VOIP/gaming experience by hogging all the bandwidth. Clever.

For the average user this may take some learnin’ but it could really open up the possibilities of left of centre cloud computer usage. I just can’t think of any at this point in time. Give me a bit and I’ll get back to you.

Cheers.

The first was his brand new baby boy. Not so much a toy as a baby, but I digress. The second one is the one we’re all hanging out to play with. Although the new addition to their family is adorable.

This second “toy” is in fact a super-gadget. An iPhone to be exact. Apart from wanting one immediately I was intrigued by what this little wonder of technology was capable of. It turns out it can weave magic.

With the click of a couple of virtual touch screen buttons this iPhone was transformed into a white noise generator that can simulate the sounds of the rain, fireplaces, the beach and the Amazon, plus others. I didn’t hear the last one but it may be a little scary for the uninitiated if it has monkey screams and snake hisses!

Now to the magic part. Take one restless baby. Place in cot. Turn on sounds of white noise magic. Voila! Sleeping baby.

Just hope the phone doesn’t ring.

This little postette is about taking one old PC or a really cheap new PC and not spending a cent on software. That can equate to quite a saving. To pile it all up this adds up to roughly (at CentreCom prices):

• Windows Vista Home Premium – $300.
• Windows Office 2007 standard – $600.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements – $160.
• Norton Systemworks (antivirus/antispyware) – $74.

All up that’s more than fingers and toes for software that has an operating system, an office suite, a photo editing program and an antivirus/antispyware program. On the other hand you could download and install a Linux distribution. All for nix.

The problem with all of this is in its history. People are scared of Linux because it used to be scary. No graphical user interfaces, just a text based operating system. But now the super brains have created operating systems based on Linux that are more user friendly than Windows and Apple flavours.

I recently installed the Ubuntu flavour of Linux on a Grandad’s computer. His computer was running Windows XP and had slowed down over time until it became lethargic and unreliable. When it came to reinstalling XP we didn’t have a usable serial number, something about something falling off the back of a truck/bittorrent.

Anyhoo, the install involved downloading Ubuntu from their website (or from your ISP as they sometimes have a “freezone” for downloading these sort of things and the download then doesn’t count towards your monthly allowances, nice). The software is normally in an ISO format which when burnt correctly to a CD/DVD ends up like a “bought” copy. I then restarted the computer with the disk in the CD drive and followed the on screen prompts. Username, password, pc name, done.

Once all of this is completed you’re greeted with a desktop that is in some ways better designed than windows and one that is really intuitive. It’s already loaded with office software of the Open Office variety, all MS office compatible. Also included is “The Gimp”. Scary name but not scary software. In effect it’s a Adobe Photoshop challenger.

The only problem I experienced was when I tried to play a DVD. It popped up that it needed some extra codecs to play the movie. It then, with a click of the button, installed what was needed. Extra nice.

However, if you don’t want to bother with the extra little installs, head on over to here and download the “Super” version of the latest Ubuntu package. This includes all of those pesky codecs and just about everything you’ll need for a great home PC including Skype.

Now if you’re really after an operating system that caters to those of little computer expertise then give gOS a try. This, according to themselves is, “Linux for the rest of us”.

With gOS, or in a way, “google operating system” gives you the stability and features of the Ubuntu system with a simplified interface. Big “apple-ish” buttons run along the bottom of the screen allowing you to run the fantastic Firefox browser, access gmail, google docs, google calendar, skype, open office word processor, spreadsheets, and publisher clone, as well as other bits and pieces. You can also have the google gadgets floating all over the desktop like the “water-able” pot plant, laptop battery meters, the weather and assorted clocks. All very nice and easy in a google-centric way. But the quality of these google products makes this a worthwhile choice. Especially great for the road warrior, the salesperson out on the road, or the student.

A snippet from the gOS website.

So there we go. I’ll sum up by saying this. If you’ve go a spare old/new pc that needs some software to get it running then give Ubuntu or gOS a go. Try and break the shackles set in place by Microsoft because you’ll still be able to handle those word documents that get sent to you or the funny Christmas slide show in office format. Don’t get me wrong, MS products are generally great, I’ve never really had a problem with them. Feed Bill’s coffers for all I care, but if you, like me don’t have the big bucks to splash around then download one of these fellas. Make a nerd near you proud.

Simply genius. It even has a little FireFox plug-in that lets you drag a file from your desktop onto a little red symbol and voila. You get a unique web address that links to a page containing your file. This making no sense to you? Be patient, grasshopper.

Instead of me explaining it all to you just take a peek at the video:

Easy as pie. Useful too. Have visitors pay to access the drop via an Amazon service, have complete access control including passwords and other guest permissions. Set drop expiry conditions. Plus more. As the video says, 100mb drops for free. Genius.

That said, I’ve been doing some digging. Digging into the “cloud”. You see, I’ve been asked by a few people who’ve said, and I quote, “Erik, what’s up with this cloud computing bizzo?”. And I’ve been saying back, “um, dunno”. But, oh yes, I’ve been mulling over the concept and have made some realisations.

The computer as we know it is dead. And good riddance. Stupid computer thingee.

So as far as I can gather and reduce it to the smallest divisor, there are two main categories of cloud computing that everyone is going to fall into. I’ll make up a third to cover myself and put IT service providers into that basket. But firstly we’ll cover the “average punter” category. The mum, dad, grandma, budgie, and school kid category (although some of these kids are pretty smart, IT wise, these days).

The average punter may already be using some version of cloud computing. GMail or Hotmail are a simple version of cloud computing where your emails are stored away from your computer, in a server farm a long way away. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s not really cloud computing but the concept still stands. Your computer/PDA/mobile phone/toaster connects via the Internet to a server that provides you with a little web application allowing you to avoid running outlook at home. Your emails follow you around the world and allow easy access from any web enabled gadget. Your computer explodes, killing the cat, no worries. Your emails are safe.

Take this concept one step further and you have online desktop environments. We’ll focus on one example, Airset, who claim to allow you to “manage every aspect of life with cloud computing”. I’m yet to find the make me spaghetti application but I’m sure they’ll keep their word. Anyhoo, this site, once you’re logged in gives you the appearance of a desktop within your browser. You then have access to a word processor, messaging, calendars, forums, photo albums, ya da ya da. You can also store your files online (1Gb free) and allow access to family members or shady accomplices. The great thing about Airset and the other online desktop environment providers is that you can have access to “your computer” from anywhere around the world.

Lastly we’ll have a chat about another part of cloud computing. Online storage. This is the area that most interests me because, if you’re anything like me you will have had a computer die spontaneously just before you back up that thesis or dodgy photo collection (so I’ve heard). So companies like Microsoft and their Mesh, newcomers Livedrive, and US based Jungle Disk all allow you to backup your data to “the cloud” or server farms in bizarre places around the world. Some offer automatic synchronization of your files (change a file on your pc and the change appears in the remote storage), some offer free storage (Mesh is 5Gb free at this stage), and some offer expandable storage options (Jungle Disk charges per Gb). I think any of these options is far better than relying on the $100 hard drive sitting in your computer at the moment. Just make sure you have a decent Internet plan at home. Providers like iiNet have plans that don’t count the uploads (outgoing data to the remote servers) in their bundled data. Grouse.

Let’s now head on over to the second category. Businesses. They have, in the past spent mega-bucks buying servers, server software, desktops, office applications, ad infinitum. If the business expands so does their IT costs due to upgrading their server capacities, software licenses, and new high end desktops with their office software. But with the advent of cloud computing these businesses will be able to scale to meet demand. How so? Well with services like Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2 for short. What this allows the IT boffin to do is utilise “virtual” servers. Take a peek at the video and then we’ll continue our chat.

Hope that wasn’t too painful. Now, that hopefully explained how the tech boffin created a “virtual” server. His company could then utilise this as their office server. If the business grows then they can just tick another box and get a second, third server online or just get one that’s a little larger. Instead of outlaying thousands and thousands of dollars the company pays a small fee per hour. Talk about keeping control of the IT spend. If your company hits the skids then you can scale back your server capacity. No wasted servers lying around.

So the company has these fantastic “virtual” servers, what next. They can then deploy server based applications including office applications and accounting software. They can also back up to the cloud. Again Amazon provides that service for a fee. All very manageable. Beats paying for racks of hard drives and enclosing them in your office in a dedicated, climate controlled room. Did someone say save the trees?

As a result of outsourcing your servers, storage, and allowing the company to purchase low powered desktops or laptops they have just reduced their carbon footprint and can then save big time on power bills. A climate controlled server room doesn’t run on the smell of an oily rag you know. Big bickies.

So in a nutshell the big or small business, with the help of a savvy tech guy or gal, can utilise a server in the clouds and run all of their applications and storage remotely. All nice and secure. Just find a reliable provider. Amazon have been doing this for a while but there are others. The business has then reduced IT costs, carbon footprints have been slashed and the tech section can expand and contract relatively easily without producing tech waste. Good all round I reckon. One catch – make sure you have a big, fat, super-fast connection to the interweb!

Lastly we have the third group. I won’t spend too much time here but suffice to say this will be revolutionary for the IT sector. It almost creates the perfect business.

Once upon a time an IT provider would build servers, load them with software, build some desktops, load them with software, grab a load of routers, hubs, printers, blah nee blah na, and connect it all up. Hope for the best. Now they can sit at a desk and install servers that are located over the other side of the world. “Hey Bob we need another server”, “No, worries”, CLICK. Done.

The IT business for the 21st century can build and provide products without a warehouse, without cracking open a server case, without leaving their office. What a marvellous world we live in.

Like I said, the computer is dead. Long live the computer. If you have no need for high end CAD work or video editing then get yourself a cheap PC and get your head up in the clouds.

I also love mobile phones. Not to talk on but to do the other things that mobiles do, like: GPS’ing, texting, photo’ing, facebook’ing, ad infinitum.

The only problem that I have is that the week after I get a new mobile, on the generic 24 month plan, I’m bored with the phone. I start reading reviews about the new Nokia N96 or the Apple iPhone or blah, blah, blah. But now I’m really interested. Google has a phone.

A mobile phone operating system to be more accurate. HTC just released the G1. But of course it’s going to take ages to get down under. So depression ensues, ya da ya da. Then along comes Mr Kogan. The entrepreneurial type with some big ideas and he decides to fast track the Google thing down under.

Pop on over to Kogan’s site and check out their Agora Google Android mobile in two flavours. They seem pretty cheap too.

For some that is. Any freebies Mr Kogan? Damn that 24 month plan!

Just some food for thought.