Used to be, in the dark ages of blogging (thank Mr Gore, PBUH) that to keep up with the intarwebs I needed to be at my big computer in the house. While waiting for someone else to post, I’d blog.

Now that I can see the intertubes easily while on the move, my desktop is less and less relevant. Twitter has contributed to this as well, as keeping up with the Vals, Ramonas, Tims, Vijays, Robs and lobsters is easy.

Change I can live with.

I’m trying to appeal to more readers.  Click here for a preview.

via InstaPundit.

I’ve been using the above iPhone program for the last month or so, and here’s a short review and interview of the programmer.  Disclosures: they gave me a free $1.99 copy to use.

My review: a very useful reference for those new to medical terminology, or who teach the same group.  Could use a search function, but otherwise it’s worth the price.

My review after the fold:

Read the rest of this entry »

Unsurprisingly it’s technical, but excellently explained:

I’ve tucked it below the fold, as it autostarts and that’s annoying.  Also, I’m not smart enough to keep it from autostarting…

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, thanks to all for the quick and informative replies.

Following Phil’s advice, the Trojan Remover did an excellent job of scraping out the major trojan, which freed up the rest of the system to check out normally.

SpyBot S&D then found another trojan, a bunch of malware, and it all got scrubbed.

Taking the advice of Robin, I will make a restore point after ad-aware finishes, deleting the older versions.

I really like the 9 of you that read this blog.  Thanks.

My son is home from law school, which is terrific. He brought his laptop, which apparently has a good, or a series of good, malware programs.

The combo has it so his IE won’t go to windows update, other addresses get hijacked in the browser, and it seems to prevent Spybot Search and Destroy from launching. Likewise Adaware.

I tried running Spybot from a copy on USB, no luck. The antivirus cannot find it, let alone fix it.

Ideas?

From the Telegraph.co.uk:

Doctors have reported the first ever case of someone using the internet while asleep, after a sleeping woman sent emails to people asking them over for drinks and caviar.

The 44-year-old woman, whose case is reported by researchers from the University of Toledo in the latest edition of medical journal Sleep Medicine, had gone to bed at around 10pm, but got up two hours later and walked to the next room.

She then turned on the computer, connected to the internet, and logged on by typing her username and password to her email account. She then composed and sent three emails.

Really, how do these cases wind up in doctors’ offices?  I have experience with med-induced sleep driving, but that’s a different tale…

Cleaning today, I came across the information for my first desktop computer, a 1997 Gateway.

We’re come a long way from the Pentium 166 with 32 MB RAM and a 2.5GB HDD.

Aah, memories.

Clinical Cases and Images – Blog: 10 blogging myths debunked from a medical blogger perspective

Too true.  Good things to know if you’re thinking of blogging.

via CNET, alerted by Slashdot:

Apple removed an old item from its support site late Tuesday that urged Mac customers to use multiple antivirus utilities and now says the Mac is safe "out of the box."

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesperson Bill Evans said.

"The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box," he said. "However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, running antivirus software may offer additional protection."

So, they want it both ways: you don’t need it, but it’s a good idea.  Corporate-speak gibberish.

The End is nigh. Is it time to move on?

When PalmDoc recognises the end is near for Palm, game over.

You’ll be surprised at his answer for a successor platform.

In a note posted on its support site in late November, Apple said it wanted to "encourage" people to use anti-virus to stay safe online.

The move is widely seen as a response to the growing trend among cyber criminals of booby-trapping webpages that can catch out Mac users.
…
Apple recommended users try McAfee VirusScan, Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11, or Intego VirusBarrier X5.

For me it won’t be Norton; does anyone have experience with the Mac versions of McAfee ($36.55) or Intego ($69.95)?

Per the Typealyzer I’m a Guardian:

The organizing and efficient type. They are especially attuned to setting goals and managing available resources to get the job done. Once they´ve made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things.
The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

Well, I could quibble around the edges, but that seems about right.  I think this is the digital equivalent of the sheepdog, and I do seem to fit that.

via WhiteCoat Rants

People with better than average web searching ability are said to have “GoogleFu”, which is not to be confused with their latest creation, which I call GoogleFlu, and they named Flu Trends.

They say it’ll allow users to find out where the flu is faster than the CDC maps, which is both true (faster than the CDC maps), and a little misleading: they’re not actually tracking the flu.

What they are tracking are keywords (via WSJ Health):

for instance "cough," or "fever." It displays the results on a map of the U.S. and shows a chart of changes in flu activity around the country. The data is meaningful because the Google arm that created Flu Trends found a strong correlation between the number of Internet searches related to the flu and the number of people reporting flu symptoms.

So, they’re not tracking flu cases, they’re using keywords with a demonstrated correlation to draw a map.  So, this will not be specific to influenza, but would also show where people are searching about their cold symptoms.

It bears watching, but remember it’s not counting actual flu cases like the CDC.

Life’s been good to me, and today I wanted to upgrade two of my regular DirecTV boxes to HD boxes.  So, a call to customer service to get a couple.

(I had tried to do this online, but stopped when it wanted to charge me for an HD installation, which I already had: that should have told me the legendary DirecTV customer service was slipping).

The phone call started fine, through the phone tree that has very good voice recognition, and within a few minutes I was talking to a nice rep who knew her stuff.  She was unfailingly polite and professional throughout; this isn’t about an individuals’ poor service, it’s about a company that’s setting policies designed to drive away customers.

me: I’d like to upgrade two of my DirecTV receivers to HD, please
dtv: I’d be glad to help you with that.  Oh, I see you ordered an HD receiver last December, so I can only give you one.
me: Why’s that?
dtv: You can only order 2 in a year.
me: Why would that be?  I’ve never heard of a company that didn’t want business…odd.
dtv: It’s just the policy.  (appropriately business-polite expression of sorrow).
dtv: I can have an installer come out (second week of November) to do an installation.
me: Installation?  We’re swapping boxes.  I’m going to unplug one and plug in the replacement.  I really don’t need an installation.
dtv: It’s a no-charge installation.
me: It’s not about the charge, it about waiting two weeks for someone to swap a set-top box.
dtv: Your account isn’t able to have a drop-ship.  (Apologies again).
me: Well, let’s cancel this order while I decide whether to keep this service.
dtv: (in that ‘let me see if I can fix this’ voice’) Hang on just a second.
me: Ok
three minutes on hold here…
me: What are we waiting on?
dtv: I’m canceling your order.
me: You need me to stay on the phone to cancel my order?
dtv: Yes.  If you hang up your account information goes off my screen.
me: You’re kidding?
dtv: No sir.

I’d like to reiterate this isn’t the phone-persons’ doing (unless she really really misunderstands several policies, which I doubt), it’s about a company that has made some really bad choices about equipment, and set up some terrible customer service interaction software for their personnel.

I’ve got an email out the the good people at Weaknees for the same boxes (whom I should have turned to first anyway), so we’ll see.

Update: Weaknees sold me two, and assures me by email (after hours) that they’ll be activated without a problem. I suspect that’s the case. (They hadn’t heard of a limit on receiver numbers, either).