by Bob Click
Greater Orlando Computer User Group
From the July, 2007 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter
E-mail Address Change
I’ve had my fill of Earthlink as an ISP. Talking to techs with bad English is
frustrating, not to mention ongoing e-mail problems. The final decision came
when my phone became accidentally disconnected by Bell South. After it was
reconnected, but no DSL, the tech I spoke to had me unplugging and plugging
wires, and finally asked me to unplug the very line I was talking on from the
wall plug (I asked if she was sure before I did it), and she never called me
back. Also, their price was too high. I finally decided on AT&T who offered the
best deal I found, but I still have to rely on techs speaking bad English. My
new e-mail address is bobclick at bellsouth dot net . (I hope that strange
formatting will avoid address spiders). Already I ran into poor tech support. I
was three days late getting my DSL up and running because their own network had
problems, and their tech support was slow getting someone to the house for
further troubleshooting. They do not enter the house without a charge, but will
check up to the outside box. She called the office for DSL light and I was
finally in business.
Help For The Sight Impaired
I saw this article in ComputerWorld about the efforts of the city of Stockholm
to provide voice instructions for guiding the blind, or people with poor vision,
to wherever they want to go without other help. It is a serious undertaking and
sounds promising. See it
here.
What About The Centralizing Of Medical Records?
I’m sure you’ve read about the desire for a centralized database of medical
records for every individual so doctors can have quick access to your complete
records. This interesting article talks about some of the efforts. Yet,
that has not even come close to fruition so far. Everybody has a different
approach including the many companies trying to develop products to accomplish
it. Then there’s the HIPPA law, along with other concerns about confidentiality,
and your medical records. I worked in a UAW retiree office for two years helping
retired members with benefit problems. Most were trying to get medical bills
paid. Calling insurance companies and medical centers was an exercise in
frustration after the HIPPA law took affect. You had to hope for a friendly
person who would try to work around that law to solve the problem, even after
telephone permission from the subscriber. The office person on the other end
couldn’t actually see us both sitting there and often refused to help.
When I ran the Medistick product a few months ago (a USB Flash Drive to contain
your personal medical information in PDF format for doctors to access), I
thought that was a good idea, but now I’m not so sure because of the different
software and office procedures used by doctors, and their efforts to keep office
costs down. When I tried a new cardiologist last year I mentioned various
doctors I had seen in the last few years. He wanted to contact them all for my
records to do his homework. On my next visit, he had done that and most used
paper records, but he gave me two CDs with medical information from other
offices saying his software was not compatible with their format. Those were
extremely important medical records that were useless to him that way. I visited
those offices to get my records on paper, although it was difficult to find a
helpful secretary.
If I had a USB Medistick, how would a doctor want my medical information
organized and formatted to be useful? It’s a safe bet that few doctor’s offices
will put that information on your Medistick since they are concerned about the
time to prepare it for you.
So far, even President Bush’s intervention has had little affect on the push for
centralization of medical records. We are the ones suffering the repercussions
of this lack of coordination. If I could simply get a report on the office
visit, or procedures performed, from that doctor’s office, perhaps I could type
it up myself on the Medistick if there was a centralized format. As you know,
there are other problems if you want to record doctor data for your own
reference since they often aren’t willing to give it to you. Also, the public is
very suspicious about any governmental control of that information, and who
would be exceptions to the rules, such as a prospective employer? If you got
sick on a distant vacation, seems like that central database could be invaluable
to a doctor or ER.
Be Aware!
These are announcements I received, but I have not tried any of them.
Keep Track of Your Ink
AVPSoft.com has announced APFill Ink Coverage Meter 4.2. You can determine the
cost of a document, and if needed, optimize the pages to spend less ink or toner
and consequently money. APFill Ink Coverage Meter is ideal for home users who
have a color printer, or print shops that print a large number of copies.
Usually printer owners rely on the printer manufactures that describe ink usage
as being 5% ink coverage of an A4 page. With APFill Ink Coverage Meter in place,
you will know the exact ink coverage and determine the accurate cost of a
printed copy based on such properties as paper density, paper format and
original color density.
APFill users can measure the ink coverage of the highlighted screen area when,
for example, they preview the page in a graphic editor before printing. It's
also possible to measure the ink coverage for every single page, or for the
entire document in either PostScript or PDF format with CMYK separation up to 8
color spots. There's also a 'Selected area surface measurement' feature,
allowing you to measure the area filled in with a specified color. The
measurement results can be displayed in either pixels or any user-defined units.
APFill Ink Coverage Meter 4.2 is available for $79.95 (US) for a single-user
license. We offer user group members a 10% discount on the purchase of APFill
Ink Coverage Meter. The coupon code is APFILL10PR.
The product requires Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. Registered users are
entitled to free upgrades and technical support. Additional information on the
product, as well as its 30-day evaluation copy is available from
http://www.avpsoft.com.
Smart Data Recovery is an effective and powerful, easy-to-use software program
that enables the recovery of lost data. Restore your important files absolutely
free. Smart Data Recovery is compatible with almost all kinds of data storage
devices from computer hard drives to digital cameras. It supports flash drives,
floppy disks, memory sticks, PC cards, multimedia cards, and secure digital
cards. Smart Data Recovery restores all sorts of files, including electronic
documents and pictures. It restores files from FAT32 and NTFS hard drives and
has a really simple interface with Windows operations systems.
Even if the partition table is lost, the program gives you a chance to retrieve
your important files. Smart Data Recovery applies a simple yet powerful
algorithm that allows restoration of your lost data quickly and effectively.
Smart Data Recovery also recovers any deleted files, including MS Office files,
images, MP3 and zip files!
Smart Data Recovery runs on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. The current version
is downloadable free at http://www.smartpctools.com. 820 kB. There are other
interesting Freeware products listed on their Web site.
PDF Anyone?
Acrobat is costly and there are cheaper ways to create a PDF. PDF995 can be
found at http://www.pdf995.com. (There are three free downloads that are
adware). People who have used the product say it produces a different file size,
but works as well as other PDF software. The free versions display a sponsor
page in your web browser each time you run the software. If you prefer no
sponsor pages, you may upgrade by obtaining individual keys for each product at
any time for $9.95 each, and also get e-mail support.
That's it for this month. I’ll have more new product announcements on my Web
site (not offering a discount). Meet me here again next month if your editor
permits. This column is written to make user group members aware of special
offers or freebies I have found or arranged, and my comments should not be
interpreted to encourage, or discourage, the purchase of any products, no matter
how enthused I might sound. Bob (The Cheapskate) Click bobclick@bellsouth.net.
Visit my Web site at http://www.dealsguy.com.
For more information on the Tulsa Computer Society click here