Comments | onemintjulep: If I only had a brain...

onemintjulep

If I only had a brain...

Sep 16, 2004 16:43

And speaking of shopping in response to stress...
(well, someone on my friends list was - oh wait, that was me.)

I've decided to buy a brain. And I need your ( help )

Comments 10

beowabbit September 16 2004, 15:30:30 UTC

I didn't have time/energy to look through all the specs and pictures, I'm afraid, but I have some opinions:

The Most Important characteristic in a PDA (as opposed to a pocket computer, perhaps) is how quick it is to use. Every tenth of a second counts. So you have to add up the amount of time to take it out of your pocket, open the case, turn it on and have it wake up, get the stylus out, position the PDA and the stylus for use, and switch to the application you want. A case has a huge impact on this. Personally, I'd want a case that opened up, with the hinge at the top, reporter's-notebook-style. That way, I pull it out of my pocket with my left hand, undo the clasp if any and flip the cover up with my right hand, and take out the stylus with my right hand. If I have a case that opens on the side like a book, then I have to take the PDA out of my pocket and use two hands to open the case and position the PDA (with the case folded behind it) in one of my hands. Might add as much as a second and a half or even two seconds, ( ... )

onemintjulep September 16 2004, 15:47:47 UTC

Damn dude, you're the bomb. Thanks for the input. I'm itching for shopping therapy (and an emergency backup brain - nervous much?).

PS: I got a big ol' piece a furniture in my living room with your name on it. Have you thought about it?

This is what it was supposed to look like... docorion September 16 2004, 18:31:52 UTC

Case: the Nutshell is looking good to me, too. As with beowabbit, I have had Bad Experiences with anything less than sewn on belt clips. Which are then riveted on. And glued on subsequent to that. And I still manage to catch 'em on something and rip 'em off. The belt clip needs to be One With The Case, as much as possible.

Software: well, my favorite is good ol' Epocrates, which if you're on Windoze has a PDA copy of the "5 Minute Emergency Medicine Consult", IIRC, under their name of Epocrates Dx. Cool stuff, quick to look up-I've always liked the 5-Minute books-wrote an article for one of 'em. Epocrates Full Boat also comes with some not so hot calculators; better ones, and some other cool stuff, is available (well, linked to) here.

On the Mac, you can't automatically sync the 5-Minute stuff as it happens-I haven't tried it any other way yet (but I only just got the Mac...)

Re: This is what it was supposed to look like... onemintjulep September 16 2004, 23:20:46 UTC

...(but I only just got the Mac...)

*stutter**
You got a Mac??
Mr. "wrong operating system" docorion?

{checks sky for elephants}

err...and thanks muchly for the shopping advice. It's looking pretty nutshell-y.
'Specially now that I have such a sudden renewed appreciation for your sense of taste.
Are you sure you're not gay? Mm..Pity.

Re: This is what it was supposed to look like... docorion September 17 2004, 19:00:57 UTC

Yes, well, I had several opportunities since then to look under the hood of a Mac with a Real Operating System (OSX, based on FreeBSD), and I changed my mind. I admit it was a bit of a wrench for me; I'm still feeling the aftereffects. (What?! No Blue Screen of Death? No GPF's? No unexplained crashes in the middle of the Most Important Presentation of My Career? Whatever shall I do?!)

A different 5 minutes? onemintjulep September 17 2004, 09:22:59 UTC

Looks to me like Epocrates Dx is actually 5 Minute Clinical Consult. Skyscape does have the EM Consult here. Actually, its 10 bucks cheaper here or here. They also have a Tox version (ok, I'm a tox dork), as well as a general Peds version (not that pediatrics make me at all nervous, you understand - just for teaching purposes *cough*). Hey- maybe I could just stay home and send my PDA to work!

By the way, have you checked out the Washington Manual since they split it into two editions? It was useful on the wards, but I haven't seen copies of the new ones.

Thread 5

houseboi September 17 2004, 07:56:50 UTC

Did you see this one? One-handed operation! Like surfing the internet.

onemintjulep September 17 2004, 09:32:29 UTC

Looks cool..(oh who am I kidding, they all look dorktastic)...but keeping in mind that my good hand and my good eye are on opposite sides of my body, I'm afraid I might strain something at a critical moment.
Like, "Don't worry Mrs.Pumblewhatsit, we'll have you feeling better in...Ow! Ow! Dammit! Somebody bring me a hammer and a pair of needlenose pliers! STAT!"

houseboi September 17 2004, 09:39:12 UTC

Phew. As long as we got that out of the way - they all look dorktastic - then it's cool. I was starting to worry that you might actually like some of those cases. Tolerate, okay, but uh...wow. Have there been no scientific advances in case design since the cell phone was invented and people other than doctors and drug dealers had pagers?