Random Neurons Firing
Thoughts about Software, Networking, and Life
Category: Life
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Why can’t the IRS tell me how much has been reported? Various companies and entities forward the same information to me and to them. If only I could look at the IRS’ notion of what has been reported, I could avoid rummaging around for all those scraps of paper at tax time. Well, now you…
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My MacBook Pro (10.9.2) was running slowly. I saw frequent spinning beach balls, systemstats was consuming 100% of the CPU on a regular basis, Apple Mail was grinding away indexing files, etc. The forums at discussions.apple.com contain all kinds of dicey recommendations about rm -rf /.Spotlight-V100 followed by “Works for me!” and “Didn’t work for…
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What a great weekend! What interesting ideas came from the H@ckfest! My team, the inforMED project, presented an idea for helping first responders (EMTs, ED triage) to get relevant data on their cell phone/tablet when they first encounter a patient. If the patient has one, the EMT would scan the token (RFID, QR code, NFC,…
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While chatting with people who play hockey just for the pure fun of it, especially those who are no longer whippersnappers, I am amazed that hardly anyone knows about this essay from the New Yorker magazine. Charles McGrath wrote this gem for the Shouts & Murmurs column of the 4 October 1993 issue. “Rink Rat”…
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I was a member of the team that won the “Most Likely to Succeed” award at the MedStart Hackathon at Tufts Medical School (http://tuftsmedstart.com/) Our four-member team (Bryan Bordeaux, Michelle Qi, Elaine Wu, and I) produced a tool that helps a primary care physician by listing recommended screenings for patients. This was a great event.…
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I just ended a call from a telemarketer who was pitching some vacation deal. I just don’t do these things over the phone, so when she paused to take another breath, I said in a kind way, “Thanks for calling, but I’m not interested.” Of course, they’re (well) trained to answer objections, but I broke…