Warning: this is a re-post of an old blog entry. Things have moved since I’ve written this, and mostly in a better direction. Just remember that you’re reading a 4 year old entry. Introduction and outline This document is a guide for the software developer who is interested, or forced to be interested in open_EHR_. Let’s be honest, you may not be interested in the idea of semantic interoperability for healthcare or better healthcare services for everyone (including you). It is OK, this guide would still be helpful. On the other hand, if you are excited about open_EHR_, and you want to figure out what it means for you, than hopefully this guide will give you an overall view of open_EHR_, and help you out in using the other documents. ...

With the announcement of a tablet from Microsoft, I found myself really excited about the possibilities. I have not felt this way since MS decided to go into healthcare, and unfortunately that adventure did not exactly go in the direction that I’d like it to go. This one however, may work. The reason I have high hopes for this one is that when it comes to creating a software market, there is simply no company that can match Microsoft. You may claim that Apple has done a better job via the iPhone and iPad, but as impressive as mobile market may be, it is still MS that is providing the OS that runs on 95% or more of world’s desktops. ...

Well, not through clinical versions of these applications of course. That would be an interesting approach though, especially the social networking idea may have many applications in health IT, but I’d like to talk about something else that is happening in front of our eyes. Facebook, Twitter, Angry Birds and other big names of the mobile application market are doing something for us that would normally take a lot of effort, and would not probably be as effective, these applications are training clinicians for mobile device usage. ...

Recently, I heard a question targeted at my colleagues at Ocean, something in the lines of “what do you think is your greatest accomplishment ?” Ocean’s software stack has a lot of impressive components, the template designer with its TDO support, the back end repository, Tom’s Eiffel work that is called the Archetype workbench, and clinical knowledge manager are all polished pieces of software with a lot of work behind them (and don’t forget the archetype designer) ...

UPDATE: Adobe updated the blog bost linked below, so some of the concerns expressed below are not really valid now. The situation is not as clear as I’d like, but it is still better than the original. Last week Adobe announced that whey would not be supporting Flash player for the mobile platforms in the future. Lots of web sites responded with laughter, with Steve Jobs being referred to, at an astonishing rate. ...

Metro style applications. This is what Microsoft is trying to get people excited about these days. When I say people, I mean the technical bunch and related demographics and companies. The end users are always after something that works and preferably looks pretty (which has made Apple a tech giant) Microsoft is actually quite good at learning from its mistakes and adopting. Windows 7 is much better than Vista, and .NET platform is in many ways better than its predecessor: COM, COM+ and all that. However, MS is again getting ready to do the big jump: .NET style application development is rumored to be going away for Metro applications, and Silverlight, which was supposed to be the killer front end for web applications, is going to go to that nice place where all the left and right shifted bits go. ...

Yes, I know that you people at Google want to make sure that even my mom can easily use your products, and for your search engine, that is definitely a possibility. However, when it comes to browsers, Google Chrome is way, way too simplified for anyone who’d like to use it for daily work.I am a developer, a PhD student and many other things, and most of my hats require me to use the web all day. I use tabs, I love tabs, I can’t understand how we used the web browsers without tabs (thanks to Opera, who did this first), but tabs have also evolved in time.For any slightly experienced user, the configuration of tab behaviour matters a lot. For some reason, Google people are not letting plugin developers (called extensions for Chrome by the way) to tap into that functionality.Just so you know, this hurts. This is the only thing that makes me remember that I am more productive with Firefox. Please, for whatever reason you’re doing this, reconsider your approach. Apple also makes things very simple for users, but one way or another, they manage to provide power along with simplicity, and when it comes to managing features, you can learn a thing or two from them.

It appears I just can’t give up on Sci-Fi. Here is a list of the recent readings, with very brief notes.Peter F. Hamilton: The Night’s Dawn Trilogy. I think this trilogy exceeds 3000 pages, or something like that. I’ve managed to read it all, and if you want a really long sci-fi book, give your strength a challenge with this one. It is called space opera for a reason! Hamilton likes to go into every potential outcome of a quite interesting event in this book, and to be honest, you can not easily guess the main story until it begins in an unexpected way. I am not happy about the ending though, so be warned, it won’t give you a very creative ending. ...

There is no single answer to this question. Actually the question is wrong, but I’ll go ahead and write an answer anyway. In fact, I want to write a couple of things as I think about the books I’ve read so far. These may help me pick my future books better, or who knows, you may want to send me suggestions? Ok, rule number 1: dear writers, please, please, do not go into pages and pages of descriptions to make the setting more plausible, or believable, or whatever you call it. Don’t! Good books give that feeling without describing every little detail in the surroundings. When the main character is walking towards a key meeting, or a very dangerous encounter, the last thing I am interested in, is the history of the city/planet/road/town/whatever the character is in. ...

A while ago, Google acquired Instantiations, the makers of the fantastic UI development plugin for Eclipse. The plugin named Windows Builder Pro, allows you to develop user interfaces for your java and gwt projects, along with xwt support. Google first made the tools available for free, then today I’ve received an e-mail that says that it will be open sourced in 2011. For a quite long time, the lack of a free (as in beer) UI designer in Eclipse was a big issue. The only serious option was the Matisse port under MyEclipse, but MyEclipse made me hate their distribution so much, I have simply given up on that option. ...