RMstudents Technology meets medical education

GIVE [dive into mark] is a Gentle Introduction to Video Encoding by Mark Pilgrim.  It’s an on-going, really well-written set of articles on all parts of video and audio encoding.  Considering these topics took up a large part of my livelihood in the past, the articles definitely grabbed my attention.  So far they’ve all been really informative, and they’ve been great in catching me up on things that I’ve lost track of in the past few years.  Even if you’re not interested in backing up your movies on a computer, I found the article on container formats and especially the one on lossy audio encoding incredibly informative.

The dystopian short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut is an interesting tale of life in the year 2081, when all humans have been made “equal.” They’re equal because anyone who is exceptional is given government-issued handicap devices: masks for the beautiful, constant weight for the strong, and mind-numbing noise for the intelligent.

The premise in this story is an interesting one. It makes you think about some arguments for “equality.” The premise is reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged for me, although the dystopia was not as fully developed. The story is being made into a (short) film called 2081, which is how I first heard about it. I am a big fan of Vonnegut, so it’s always nice to get to read some of his work. I’m hoping that the film can expand the dystopia and make it more tangible for non-readers. Keep an eye out for it in the future, and read the story today. See the first link for the full text.

4/5

The following are the most popular Medical Pastiche posts from 2008:

1: "Hi, everybody!" -- Dr. Nick Riviera as the Model Consumerist-driven Physician

2: 7 Famous Medical TV Shows

3: Healthcare Concept Map

4: 13 Somewhat-forgotten Medical TV Shows

5: Adverse Selection in Health Insurance _uacct = "UA-569368-3"; urchinTracker();

(Part One)


(Part Two) _uacct = "UA-569368-3"; urchinTracker();

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I’ve been listening to a copy of Where The Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks, and I’m really enjoying it. The album is live in front of a crowd of about 7,000 in L.A. John plays a set of 5 acoustic songs, including an interesting cover of Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’. The acoustic sounds are done well, and you definitely get a sense of his passion as he sings, which is something I find lacking in performances from other bands. The concert then dramatically changes over to an electric guitar-laden blues album that had me at the first riff. This set includes a cover of Hendrix’s Wait Until Tomorrow and (I think) a few originals. One of the best quotes of the album comes when Mayer speaks to the crowd early in Out Of My Mind, when he proclaims something to the effect of, “It’s 2007. We just launched into a slow blues, and 7,000 people in L.A. just went nuts. All is not lost.” The album continues with some more familiar Mayer tunes in a “band set,” including an impassioned take of Gravity that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I think I’m partly enjoying this album so much because it was so unexpected. I had heard a few of Mayer’s songs on the radio, but never had an album. I put this on in the car one day and found myself almost instantly loving the acoustics. The fantastic blues set in the middle of the album was an unexpected and very welcomed surprise. It was definitely the highlight of the album. You can buy a CD of Where The Light Is on Amazon ($15) or buy the DRM-free MP3 album from Amazon MP3 ($14). For a 2-disc album, the money is well worth it! You could also grab a DVD of the concert ($15), which might add another dimension to the performance.

All-in-all, this is an awesome live album by John Mayer.

4.5/5

After a somewhat belated New Year’s resolution last year, I did manage to complete my goal much more easily than I previously thought possible. In the last 9 months, I can probably count on my two hands then number of times I’ve booted into Vista or XP. I’ve been using Ubuntu on a regular basis since at least February. Now you may ask why I made the switch to Linux. I intend to answer that by giving a summary, including the ups and downs, of my first year with Linux.

I had heard of Linux in the past, but it always seemed like something that was beyond my ability to comprehend. I had become a huge fan of WordPress and Firefox, and I love the ideals of free software. As I sat there and thought about it, I couldn’t believe that I was still using a proprietary system like Windows when a free operating system like Linux was out there. I did some research on Linux and found Ubuntu to be exactly what I was looking for. It’s self-proclaimed as “Linux for Human Beings.” It’s got the best support for hardware of any Linux distribution and a very welcoming community for newcomers. Since I was a new medical student, the last thing I wanted was something I had to pore over for hours and hours in the command line just to use it.

Ubuntu is everything a person could want being new to Linux. You can download it for free and burn it to CD to install it. It’s a LiveCD, so you can run the entire operating system from the CD to test it out without changing anything on your current system. Just restart your computer with the CD in your CD-ROM drive, and you will boot into Ubuntu. In order to install it, you just run through the installer on the LiveCD, which asks a few fairly easy questions, and after installing for about 45 minutes, you’ll be booting into Ubuntu. If you’re not ready to completely ditch your current system just yet, you can shrink your installation of Windows. If you’d rather not mess with Windows at all (just in case you don’t like Linux), you can install Ubuntu just like a program right inside of Windows using the wubi installer. Using the wubi installer is a great idea for someone who just wants to try Linux, since it is a little bit tougher to uninstall Linux after installing via the LiveCD, which changes the partitions on your computer.

My first few weeks with Ubuntu were great. I couldn’t believe how much this free operating system could do. Nearly any type of application you could think of was either built-in or easily installed right from inside Ubuntu. It came with Firefox, the OpenOffice.org office suite, Evolution Email, Pidgin (for multi-protocol instant messaging), and the GIMP Image editor. Plus the “eye candy” was easily enabled to check out Compiz-Fusion’s desktop effects and the Avant Window Navigator, a dock similar to that found in Mac OS X.

My friend Usama and my dad were both interested enough to try it out for themselves. They played with Ubuntu for a few weeks, but neither of them took to using it full-time. They’re both “power users” on Windows, and getting used to new applications and setting up a completely different type of system might have been too much trouble for them. I don’t think either of them have given up on it completely, but I think they probably needed a little bit of direction in setting things up effectively. I couldn’t see what the problem was since I had very little trouble with my hardware and I didn’t have any pressing software needs. One of the things that helped ease my transition to Ubuntu was that I forced myself to use the system every day and only boot into Windows if I couldn’t do something in Ubuntu that I absolutely needed to. I quickly realized that there was almost nothing that I couldn’t do in Ubuntu. My new webcam worked after an upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 (the Hardy Heron) and Amazon MP3 released a Linux client so I could buy full DRM-free mp3 albums.

With the release of Ubuntu 8.04 (the Hardy Heron), GNU/Linux seemed better than ever to me. I began to wonder how there could be so few people using it. I mean, sure it’s not for everyone (notably computer gamers, since few computer games were released on Linux). Around this time, I heard about the Linux Hater’s blog, which was causing somewhat of a ruckus in the Linux community. This is mainly because his rants, though crude, were strikingly poignant. He obviously had an in-depth knowledge of the various Linux communities and software, and he loved to point out their flaws. After a few months, he threw in the towel, but not before opening my eyes to some of the shortcomings of GNU/Linux. I think reading this blog was important for me. Although it often depressed me, it helped me see where Linux is strong and where it needs improvement. I knew all the software wasn’t perfect, but I thought it was just a matter of time before this was fixed. The blog helped me see some of the discordance and problems in the communities themselves that are, in some instances, preventing their own success. Yet as I continue to read about the progress that’s being made in all of these areas, I am hopeful that this problems will solve themselves. There are a lot of developers doing great work who understand the problems, and with the rise of netbooks more companies are contributing resources and manpower to solve some of these issues.

With the release of Ubuntu 8.10 (the Intrepid Ibex), some of Ubuntu’s warts began to show. My webcam no longer worked. One of my favorite new productivity applications, Gnome-Do, started showing some significant bugs that make it unusable at times. My wireless card, which was already a little bit buggy, started causing some more issues. My desktop’s CD/DVD-ROM drives no longer functioned correctly. All-in-all the release brought some great new features, but broke some of my confidence in Ubuntu’s stability. Some of these issues have been resolved and some have not. Some of these issues are specific to Ubuntu and some are not. My problem was that these issues were known prior to release time. I know releases can’t be held up for just anything, but when all CD/DVD drives fail to function properly, it seems like a show-stopper. Unfortunately, Canonical seems to value their time-based release schedule a bit too highly over quality, which is really, really going to hurt them in getting people to try and stick with Linux. I would much rather have had them do what Automattic did with Wordpress 2.7 and delay the release date for a month so that all the bugs could be ironed out.

Now, I don’t want you to get the idea that I’m growing weary of Linux. Despite some flaws, I’m confident that things will be resolved in future releases, and I have no intention of giving up on an operating system that I love using. It’s just that flaws like these (along with some usability issues and a lack of centralized documentation) make me understand why adopting Linux might be harder than I first envisioned. I do hope that some of the higher-ups understand these issues, since it’s a major barrier to adoption. Ubuntu tends to do a better job at handling these sorts of issues, but as they continue to push for more users, I hope they continually readdress how to keep their current users happy while still progressing their system.

One of the things I like best about using GNU/Linux is how much I learn while doing using it. I’ve learned a lot about security and operating systems in general, and I’ve done it all using free software. I’ve discovered a number of free software applications that I probably never would’ve even heard of. By using free software, I began paying attention to its development to find out about great ideas and features in upcoming versions. I’ve also been keen on helping to test new software and report bugs. I’ve installed both new versions of Ubuntu while they were still in beta to help with bug reporting.

Since one of the cornerstones of Linux is its variety of distributions, or “distros,” I’ve also started using VirtualBox to test some of them in virtual machines inside Ubuntu. One of the things about Linux that really interests me is its versatility to run on a wide variety of hardware and using a variety of software. It’s used to run super-computers at big companies and to resurrect ancient hardware that’s not capable of running any modern version of Windows. Linux can also be used as a “green” operating system both in its own right and through the LTSP. LTSP can be used to connect many low-power, lightweight computers to a single workhorse machine, so an entire computer lab can be run on minimal power. Linux can be used to power your home media center and your cell phone. The versatility of Linux allows it to underlie many great technologies of today and tomorrow.

So how would I summarize my first year with Ubuntu? I think it’s exactly what I needed. It has helped me plan for the future in medicine and my life and better understand some technology along the way. It’s definitely not for everyone, but I do think Ubuntu and Linux is a viable operating system for a majority of users who have never given it a chance. Besides addressing some of the underlying issues in development (as highlighted by The Linux Hater’s blog) and preventing regressions, the Ubuntu community could use a effort to implement or improve a centralized, up-to-date set of documentation for new users. Far too many problems and issues are only addressed in random blog posts or on online forums, both of which tend to be outdated or doing things in an overly complicated manner. Ubuntu would be greatly improved by including some significant “Getting Started” documentation for new adopters and finding a way to point directly toward an up-to-date official wiki with more complicated tasks. The Linux community is continuing to lower the barriers to adoption, and addressing some key usability issues might be just the thing they need to attract the swarms of users leaving Windows and even catch a fed-up Apple user or two. Great strides have been made already and more are planned for the coming months and years. I’m excited to keep participating and to see what’s in store in my free software world. If you’re interested, try out Ubuntu. It’s simple to burn and try. The risks are pretty minimal, and you’ve got a lot to gain. You’ll never have to pay for any computer software again, you’ll learn a lot, and you’ll be ensuring the future of your digital life. Just don’t forget that Linux is different and for the most part you should try to enjoy it.

(Also, this is my sort-of convoluted thoughts on Jono Bacon’s meme)

In light of a recent opinion piece, commented on by others, it deserves to be shown, through game theory, how two groups of physicians (specialists and generalists) are being pitted against each other by a third party, namely the federal government through CMS through the RVS Update Committee (RUC).

Game theory helps to predict and explain interactions in social decision-making. The classical problem is the "Prisoner's Dilemma" wherein two prisoners are pitted against each other by a third party seeking to expose the crimes of the imprisoned through betrayal of each other.

The incentive for prisoner A to betray prisoner B is the possibility that if the betrayer (prisoner A) is alone in betraying the other, prisoner A will go scot-free while the other prisoner receives the full prison term. If both prisoners betray each other, they both go to prison, but both receive a shorter prison term.

Do physicians cooperate or do they betray each other?


Generalists fight RUCGeneralists betray
Specialists fight RUCThe broken system is removedGeneralists' pay increased
Specialists suffer
Specialists betrayGeneralists suffer
Specialists' pay increasedRUC is maintained
All physicians suffer

Rather than cooperating with each other to get rid of a corrupt payment system which favors certain groups of physicians versus others in a budget-neutral fashion, these groups of physicians fight each other to get a larger piece of an increasingly smaller pie.

The only real winner is the government at the expense of all physicians.

Unlike the original prisoner's dilemma, the medical game is not over yet. Physicians still have time to set aside past wrangling over the payment system and to fight the RUC. _uacct = "UA-569368-3"; urchinTracker();

I miss CITES from UIUC. Why doesn’t my school have policies like this:

As you consider your options, please note that the CITES Help Desk supports Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, and Mozilla Thunderbird, and is best equipped to address technical issues if you are using one of these email clients. Detailed directions on configuring these clients are available below. [1]

They support Thunderbird, an open-source desktop email client. My school doesn’t even support Outlook I don’t think. Only Lotus Notes

The original is here. _uacct = "UA-569368-3"; urchinTracker();

I finally had the time to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 last night. Nothing should be “broken”, but the comments look a little goofy for the time being since I’ve only half-implemented the new threaded comments. I’m posting this from the new QuickPress feature. You can see all the new technical features at the Codex. Look for a more thorough review in the coming weeks, but suffice it to say, it rocks!

WordPress › Blog » WordPress 2.7 “Coltrane”. This is going to be awesome. I can’t wait to upgrade on Friday!

Yo Frankie! - Apricot Open Game Project » Yo Frankie! Online Release!. The folks at Blender, responsible for the “open movies” Elephant’s Dream and Big Buck Bunny, have finally released their completely open source computer game. It’s available for Linux, Windows and OS X.

The Many Ways to Configure Your New Dashboard « Blog « WordPress.com. I can’t wait for the final version to be released to the public!

Hacking Knowledge: 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better | OEDb.

James Boyle’s “The Public Domain” — a brilliant copyfighter’s latest book, from a law prof who writes like a comedian - Boing Boing. It was simultaneously released for free online under a CC license.

Thanksgiving: Free Software We’re Most Thankful For from LifeHacker. It’s a list worth taking the time to browse. Some great projects are listed.

Aaronth posted a photo:

Taken with my iPhone using panolab while waiting to board an airplane on our way to California.

It's a lot like creating panographies...just on a phone :)
- Camera phone upload powered by ShoZu

Aaronth posted a photo:

Taken with my iPhone using panolab while waiting to board an airplane on our way to California.

It's a lot like creating panographies...just on a phone :)
- Camera phone upload powered by ShoZu

Check out the weekly best of medical blogs at Grand Rounds. My featured post is about surgery in Afghanistan. _uacct = "UA-569368-3"; urchinTracker();