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.

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?

Friends often ask me about their tech problems. “Hey, what d’ya reckon about cheesmakers? Which would you buy?” or “What’s with Blu-ray? D’ya think it’ll overtake VHS?”, etcetera, etcetera.

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.