Why I'm Excited About Apple's 'Spotlight' Technology
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Rumor has it that Apple will release its next iteration of MacOS X, code named 'Tiger', in April. One component of it that is not a rumor is its new built-in search engine called Spotlight (tech preview pdf). The list of supported files types includes (but is not limited to):
- Plain text
- RTF
- PDF
- Mail
- Keynote presentations
- Microsoft Office Word documents
- Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheets
- Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
- iChat logs (if logging is enabled)
In other words, all the file formats in which clinical reference information might exist on my computer hard drive will be searchable
by content, not just by title.
How might this be useful to a clinician? For years now, I've been dropping files onto my hard drive because they contains information I want to have access to in the future. I have an entire textbook of anesthesiology as html files. Literally hundreds if not thousands of pdf files of articles I've saved from NEJM, Anesthesia & Analgesia, and other journals. Every lecture I've ever given. All the CME I've ever done (if available electronically).
I have tried mightily to keep it all organized. Seth Dillingham actually made some software for me to be able to use a local webserver to organize, index and serve all those files on my local machine. Extended to something we called the Reference Laptop Project, we endeavored to put everything an anesthesia resident could need during their training on a $1,000 20 GB Apple iBook, complete with automatic updating of reference materials via wireless LAN. I've installed Plone and learned some Python to be able to make a system that works for me. But now, finally, coming to OS X, is the core technology that will allow me to do what I want as a feature of the operating system itself, or perhaps even as a custom application.
Underneath it all, there's even an API that lets applications access Spotlight's power. Imagine a new application that imposes a structure on the information you already have or will add! As an example, imagine an outline of relevant topics in anesthesiology. For each topic, the application would use Spotlight to create Smart Folders for, say, information on malignant hyperthermia, and airway management, and peri-operative beta blockade. I have a great deal of information on each of these topics already on my hard drive. Some in the Documents folder, some under Sites. Some exists as HTML files, some as PDF, some as powerpoint. And as I add more information, the Smart 'Chapter' will automatically update. Perhaps the very capable makers of Delicious Library will explore creating 'Delicious Reference' just for me.
The future is here. It's just not evenly distributed yet. --William Gibson
Using Passwords? Switch to Pass-phrases, Instead.
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Slashdot points to a very interesting blog entry by a Microsoft engineer in which he makes it perfectly clear how single
passwords are not secure any longer:
" So with all of these highly successful, highly effective attacks on passwords (dictionary attacks, brute-force attacks, pre-computation attacks) I've come to the conclusion that there is simply too much risk associated with passwords and that users of Windows should simply stop using them to avoid this risk. "
Instead, he recommends pass-phrases:
" Pass-phrase LENGTH, not complexity defeats these attacks. Short, but complex passwords should be shunned as they are not truly secure anymore and you are deceiving yourself if you think they are. Long pass-phrases (14 characters or more) are the future (along with 2-factor or more authN, but that's another blog for another day) and are the only way to go if you want to ensure that you won't get hacked via any type of password based attack of any kind. "
Palm Anesthesiology
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PalmSource maintains an excellent resource for anesthesiologists (thanks to Donald M. Voltz, M.D.) at Palm Anesthesiology which includes:
Software
- Medical Calculators
- Drug References
- Case-Tracking Software
- Educational Software
- Medical Billing Software
- Quality Assurance Software
- Clinical Information
E-Books
User Stories
Web Resources"
Included is some billing software I'm going to have to review...
RSS for PubMed Searches
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Orac Knows points to a really nifty use of rss for those of us that use PubMed for literature searches called HubMed and use RSS. HubMed offers 'RSS feeds of literature queries - updated daily'. For example, I can enter a search string like 'liver transplant anesthesia' and get a nice list of hits on a web page. Encoded in the html of the page is the url for the rss feed of this search. Handing the html page url to your news reader/aggregator allows it to 'discover' the rss url for you. After that, your news reader will highlight any new references the search turns up.
Google--Preventing comment spam
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Google--Preventing comment spam:
" "If you're a blogger (or a blog reader), you're painfully familiar with people who try to raise their own websites' search engine rankings by submitting linked blog comments like 'Visit my discount pharmaceuticals site.' This is called comment spam, we don't like it either, and we've been testing a new tag that blocks it. From now on, when Google sees the attribute (rel='nofollow') on hyperlinks, those links won't get any credit when we rank websites in our search results. This isn't a negative vote for the site where the comment was posted; it's just a way to make sure that spammers get no benefit from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists." "
Read the rest for details of how to implement this tag
Be A Firemonger
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Firemonger:
""After some initial problems, the Firemonger project is now finally ready. The goal of the project is to create CD images which contain Firefox and which users can download, burn and give away to friends and family. The first CD is now available and includes Firefox, Thunderbird and various plugins, extensions and themes.""
[Via rakaz]
CME Watch
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CME Watch:
""Now there's a freebie, CME Watch v0.4, to help you keep tgrack of your CME activities!
![]() Description:
Introducing CME Watch - Track your CME Hours Easily on your Palm.
No more worrying about whether you've accumulated enough hours.
Use the summary function to add up all the CME hours!
Useful for : Physicians, Nurses, Respiratory Therapists....anyone who needs to attend and keep track of Continuing Medical Education Time!
Featuring:
- Automatically Adds and Summarizes Total CME Hours
- Ability to also track days for CME Allowance.
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""
[Via The Palmdoc Chronicles]
