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Journey to the (Revoltionary, Evil-Hating, Cash-Crazy, and Possibly Self-Destructive) Center of Google
I’ve been reading an interesting article about Google, Journey to the (Revoltionary, Evil-Hating, Cash-Crazy, and Possibly Self-Destructive) Center of Google, which describes the way Google was formed and the people behind it think. It’s an interesting read, a show of power, of revolution by a small group of men (two, to be exact) that can be succesful. Very inspiring. Although I don’t agree fully with the founders of Google, the read is still envigorating for me. I don’t want my company to “conform” either. We do things the way we want them to do. And if people don’t like it, we’ve got one hell of an example to show them.
Health Care Monitoring of Mobile Patients
I just read and article called “Health Care Monitoring of Mobile Patients” about integrating IT in health care. It has some really good pointers. I can see some really viable spin-off that will increase people’s independance and keep them healthy.
You can see really ingenious health monitoring systems sometimes in Sci-Fi movies (like this one, although it’s a simple system in this movie), but I don’t understand why such things haven’t been effectivly pursued yet. Of course, the mere idea of having a computer monitor someone’s health signs is scary. Of course, computers can break down, can misinterpret data (let’s face it, if it isn’t 100% computabel, you’ll probably always need a human mind to interpret data). That tends to scare people. But deployed in a sensible, humane way, it could be a very interesting tool for general practitioners and hospital personel. Even ‘homes for the elderly’ will benefit by such systems.
And they aren’t really that hard to implement. We (as in, humankind) can already make portable sensors. We have the technology to make those energy-efficient and that technology is constantly improving. Also, we have the technology to transmit the data wirelessly and even encrypted in a secure way. Why aren’t we all implementing all this technology to make us live healthier? Or at least more secure?
Well, as I noted earlier, there are some problems that make an implementation difficult. First of all there’s the computer interface. We’re not as much accustomed to computers as we’d like to think. Most of us think those overgrown calculators are incapable of actually improving our living standards. That’s more a flaw in logic than a real fear, since computers are tools and tools by themself are incapable of improving life. When we say we hate to depend on a computer for a certain thing, it’s like saying you’d hate to depend on a door to keep burglars out. It may not be perfect but, hey, at least it’s something that seems to be effective. Sure, sometimes doors are forced open and they fail in that function, but is everyone replacing doors with some other technology?
Of course, doors are far simpler than a computer, but they are in essence the same, an invention by humankind to solve some kind of problem. And computers are built to solve a lot of problems. Let’s depend on them and make them better, when they fail. Perhaps that’s what scares so many people, that they can fail. Yes, they can fail but, you know what? So can humans. I would loose my trust in my own doctor when I actually let numbers of malpractise sink in. I don’t, I rather trust in the person. And I would do the same for a technology.
Another problem is communication. When you built those kinds of machines, you need a way for them to talk to each other. And it wouldn’t help if the language used, the protocol, was propriertary. I would never, ever trust a machine which used proprietary protocols to communicate to other appliances with my vital statistics. Not ever. Those statistics are way too valuable. I’d consider using a propriertary programme to collect or even analyse the data, but no way in hell will my personal data be transmitted by a proprietary protocol. That’s dangerous and simply not controllable. I wouldn’t want to take the risk of those data falling into the wrong hands. And I’d like an account of who accesses and analyses my personal data. You know, this might even be one of those things for which DRM would be a solution. Well of course, only if it was some sort of Open DRM, since having this proprietary would create the same trouble as with another proprietary protocol.
There are more hurdles. Just think about the availability of my own medical records. Who should be in control about the data? I want sole control, knowing when anyone accessed my medical records, controlling who can access them and, most importantly, having a copy for myself. Of course, this cannot be possible if you need some sort of proprietary programme to access the data. How about inventing a DTD for XML which can hold all medical records. Including comments made by doctors and even results from tests done in the past. We need such a definition. Globally. Really we do.
Well, that’s enough ranting for today. Monique will be here soon to pick me up for dancing. Maybe I’ll continue on this topic later. Maybe not.
Constantine
Last Friday Monique and I went to see Constantine. It’s a nice movie. Keanu Reeves in one of his best roles, in my personal opinion. He plays a shadowy, pessimistic demon-hunter who tried to commit suicide once and therefor will go to hell. He’s trying to rid the world of demons and thereby get a spot in heaven. Well, the plot may be a bit strange, but the story-telling is quite nice.
The only thing I didn’t get (and something you might explain to me, if you know the answer) is why in hell (sorry for the pun) did Isabel commit suicide? I can’t remember the proper explaination for it anywhere.
Well, if you have some spare time and a nice date to bring to the movie, go see it. And report back when you know the answer.
Discothek E-Dry, Geldern
Discothek E-Dry, Geldern is where I was last night. Together with friends from Monique, we went there around half past nine and I was back home at half past six… So you could say I enjoyed myself 
Although I’m not really a party-goer, I think we need to go there more often, I had a really fun time! If you’re in the neighbourhood, make sure you visit it. There will be another update after this one.
Using air to charge cellphones? IIT-Delhi does it!
I’ve come across an article called “Using air to charge cellphones? IIT-Delhi does it!” which talks about using a small wind turbine to generate a little power to recharge a cell phone. You know, this isn’t even such a bad idea, in fact, it’s a great way to start conserving energy. There should be a lot more of these small little things on all kinds of machines. Just to save energy. Ah well.
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WordPress 1.5
Okay, the spam was really killing my fun in blogging, so I decided to upgrade to WordPress 1.5, since Bart told me it had many features to kill spam. Let’s hope they work. The first thing I noted though (in between all the good things I saw, I should have upgraded earlier 
) was a small error in the header of the administration-page. Ah well, you won’t have to see that, right? 
Slow posting
Yes, I know, I haven’t been posting much lately. But really, nothing really interesting has happened lately, so I have little to talk about. We’re still working on the programme for the customer, but we’re hoping to have it finished this week. We’ll see. When something happens, I’ll write some more.
Ow, I just deleted 40 comment-spams. I hate those spammers.
Feeling good
You now, I’m feeling quite alright again. Today I went to the accountant, which was a nice conversation. Bart called me when I was there to tell me our new customer wanted to sign the contract next Friday, tonight on IRC Bart and Peter told me they expect to be finished with the programme Friday. And then all the things I talked about with the accountant, how he’ll help us with acquisition and that he wants a new website from us.
And of course, I know now that CIDEV will eventually succeed in its mission; promote real information technology for a fair price, with happy customers and happy employees and, of course, happy Bart and Tim, who will be able to live from their work. So I can live with Monique soon. Yes, very much dopamine in my body at the moment.
Called awake again
I really should change my rhythm into something compatible with normal working hours *yawns* Someone lost her password… ‘Nuff said.
Monique liked the CD’s I’m always glad when I can do something to make her happy. She doesn’t really care about what I do or how expensive it is or anything, just that I do things to make her feel special. And personally, I don’t mind making her feel special because she is special. Very special. To me, at least.
On another note, I noticed a lot of people came to this page while looking for Mandrake Mini Install. Since I don’t want to disappoint you, here’s the link to Mandrake Mini Install ISO. Hope this helps! O and by the way, since you’re here already, you might want to check out my own experiences with mandrake mini install and my conclusion about Mandrake Mini install. Have fun!
Working hard, things settling down
As you may have guessed, I’ve been quite busy working these last few weeks. Also, as I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of stuff that happened here and I didn’t want to blog about. I still don’t, but hey, you don’t want to know everything about me
At the moment we’re working hard on the programming project, to make sure it’s finished by next week. Mostly because we’re bored by it and hope to start with our new customer soon. I did however find time to go to my accountant last week, to help him with some computer-trouble he was having. Alas, I was only able to determine that the fault lay within the Windows configuration somewhere, but since I’m an Open Source-guy, I didn’t know how to pinpoint the setting. All I could do was advise him to have the machine reinstalled. He had a guy over there last Saturday to do that, I think.
Today is Valentine’s Day, but Monique and I really don’t do anything with it. Well, I bought a CD of Phil Collins a few weeks ago that I copied for myself (it didn’t play normally, so I had to rip it) and now I’ll be giving it to Monique tonight. Eventually we’ll live together anyhow and I know she’ll like the CD’s, so she can have them for now
Nothing really interesting to report, further. Hanneke went home again yesterday and all’s quiet now. I’ll be working on the programming project for most of this week, although I will be visiting a potential new customer on Wednesday. Hopefully there will be an assignment out of that.
Now that I think about it, it’s kinda funny to tell this, though. The new customer called me last, um, Thursday, I think. Early. Well, early for me. Around 9.30 in the morning. I was still sleeping when my phone rang and since it’s a mobile, it lies next to my bed (in case Monique sms’es or a client needs help or something). So I talked to the woman on the line while I was just awake. Very annoying, I need to get myself a secretary I think she really thinks me on drugs or something. Ah well, I’ll sort that out Wednesday. We’ve got the meeting at 11u, so I’ll have plenty of time to rest
Sleeping phonecall
I was just called awake by a new potential customer. I’m a bit annoyed that I wasn’t awake already before she called. I don’t think the telephone call went very well But I’ll be meeting her next Wednesday. I’ll have another chance to make a good impression then.
Difficult times
Sometimes my life is in a difficult phase. I used to attribute this to esoteric stuff like biorhythm and the like, but these days I’m more down-to-earth about it. one has good times and one has bad times. Even though last week was absolutly fantastic (mainly because we’ve got that new customer), last weekend was dull and unpleasant at times.
Someone who knows me might say it’s because the time of the year and the province in which I live (the first is Vasteloavend and the latter Limburg), but I don’t think that’s the case. It’s more like a lot of things coming together. First there’s Hanneke, who I don’t mind staying here, but who does brings a lot of trouble along. Second, there’s the visit of a good friend of mine this Wednesday. Someone who Monique really dislikes, so I think Monique is a little bit pissed about that, even though she says she isn’t. Thirdly there’s the stress. I always thought I was impenetrable for stress, but it seems it can even catch me. I’m unproductive and really hating myself for that.
I am, however, working on a story again, which lightens my spirit every so often. In Dutch though, but for you Dutch readers out there, I might publish it here. It seems my way of dealing with stress is reading and writing stuff. Which isn’t too bad. I’d prefer hot, steamy sex to deal with stress, though…
While searching for some nice links to add to this post, I found an online biorhythm calculator and tried it, just for fun. Although it told me my emotional “rhythm” was somewhere near the top, I don’t feel like that at all. So, I can scratch biorhythms. Let’s look at my horoscope…
Comment Spam
I just removed 36 comments from the “Awaiting Moderation” queue. All spam. *sigh* Stupid spammers.
Small update
A lot of things are going on, but most of them too personal to talk about here, sorry.
On another note, we’ve got the client we wanted so badly and they didn’t even haggle about the price. So my week has been positive mostly.
