FREE iPAD! Really!

Through extensive research, I have found a site giving iPAD away for free!  Yes, folks, it's true.  Would I lie to you?  Of course not!  Click THIS LINK for details. 

Oh, wait, you thought I meant a free Apple iPad?  Oh, sorry, silly me, I can't get that for free.  It isn't even for sale yet!  It seems that Stanford offers its iPAD software free to the radiologic community, at least those who have Mac's and use OsiriX.  From Stanford's BIMM (Biomedical Image Metadata Manager) website:

iPAD is an annotation tool for radiology images, to make the semantic content (the meaning and other key metadata) explicit and machine-accessible. iPAD, a plug-in to the popular OsriX image viewing workstation, implements the AIM standard (Annotation and Image Markup) of the caBIG project. The problem iPAD addresses is the medically-important content in images--the anatomy, radiology findings, and quantitative features, are not recorded in a way that machines can access the information--they are either in graphical overlays or in unconstrained text in the DICOM header.

With iPAD, we can store and share information about image anatomy, visual features, and quantitative assessments in a computable format. The user draws an ROI on the image, and then types into the iPAD, recording the observations and anatomic location information. Behind the scenes, iPAD records all this information in the AIM format (XML). This can then be stored in a database or serialized to DICOM-SR.

Here is what it looks like:

Not bad for the price, if you happen to need something like this. 

I'm guessing iPAD won't work with the soon-to-be available OxiriX for iPad.

Star Wars Vs. Star Trek

Finally, someone answers the question:  which is better?

Fantastic amateur videography, although any Trekkie knows the sensor dish on the front of the Enterprise is not a phaser emitter!

The Doctor Dalai Show Looks At The iPad

The Tablet

I have to admit some level of curiosity about the upcoming Apple Tablet, the iSlate, or the iPad, or the iTablet, or the iWhoCaresIt'sCool, or whatever.  By this time tomorrow, we'll all know whether the hype is deserved or not. 

Some photos of the device have supposedly leaked already:

and

The only things we know so far is that there will be something introduced tomorrow, almost certainly a tablet, and whatever it is, it will have a 10" screen, based on Apple's orders from its suppliers. 

Having had a Newton 110 way back when, I can attest to the fact that while Apple was always innovative, it didn't always hit the mark.  The Newton

was certainly ahead of its time, but it didn't work all that well.  It was based on a handwriting recognition algorithm that wasn't quite ready for prime time, and the applications were very limited.  I've still got the thing in the back of a closet somewhere.  $1,000 for not too much functionality.  The cost of the iTablet is supposed to be about $1,000 as well. 

Will the iTablet be a boon for Radiology?  Well.....

Maybe.  The lack of a keyboard might prove to be somewhat of a problem, and frankly, that's the one glitch I've found in my iPhone.  The gesture-based Multi-Touch approach might work quite well for PACS.  One could pinch and stretch to zoom, use a flick of the finger to set a MIP spinning, and so on.  If the screen resolution is adequate, we'll certainly see some PACS viewers ported to the iTablet.  Of course, we don't know if the thing runs MAC OS (Snow Leopard cub version?) or some yet-to-be-announced flavor of the iPhone OS.  But where does this thing fit in the great scheme of things?  It is better than an iPhone for PACS applications, certainly, but likely has far less horsepower than even a basic laptop.  It might be good for field-viewing, or other limited approaches, but will it replace a workstation?  That seems unlikely.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, we'll know everything tomorrow, it's only a day away. . .

ADDENDUM:

It's here!!!  Steve Jobs himself announced the new. . . iPad!  From Gizmodo:

It does indeed run a flavor of the iPhone OS.  PACS developers, start your engines!

Did someone ask about pricing?

 

3G service is provided by AT&T for $30 per month.  I think Kindle and all the other eBooks just became obsolete. 

This is not a Newton.  The iPad is certain to be a winner.  I sure wish I had bought some Apple and AT&T stock yesterday. . .

Here's a better PACS paste-up:

A Sign at the Hospital

Ummm. . .OK, stop them from what?  OHHHHH, they are supposed to wear masks!  Gotta read the fine print! 

You're Welcome!

(Click "Play" and give it a minute to load. It'll be worth it!)

What You Don't See Can Hurt You

Imprint of a fine feathered friend who wasn't looking where he was going. . . from within the glassed-in walkway connecting two of our hospital buildings.  Poor little birdie. . .

Credit to Wendy for the photo!

Two For Us

I'm going to do something I have never done before on this blog.  I'm going to ask you to contribute money.  Not to me, of course, but to two gentlemen who might just be able to interrupt the abominable health-care juggernaut bulldozing through Congress as we speak.

First, let me mention Scott Brown, candidate for Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts.  A friend emailed this to me, and I can't state the case any better:

After almost five decades spent represented by Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate, Massachusetts is on the verge of electing a Republican to replace him.

Frankly, it’s astonishing.

This morning, the liberal Huffington Post online blog announced, “Republicans Have Already Won Massachusetts Special Election.”  “This race is not about Ted Kennedy…,” says the article, “This is about how in one year, the day before Obama's first inaugural anniversary, Democrats have gone from Superpower status to beating back anything moderate or Republican in philosophy.”

Republican candidate, State Senator Scott Brown is ahead by one point in a recent Public Policy poll, and recently picked up major endorsements from the State Police Association and the Boston Herald newspaper.

By all accounts, this race is going to be a squeaker.

The stakes are huge. If elected, Brown would deprive Democrats of the 60th vote needed in the Senate to sustain their filibuster-proof supermajority. Assuming Obama’s healthcare bill doesn’t pass the Senate before Massachusetts' new Senator is sworn in, it is even possible that this single election could cause a sea-change in consideration of the healthcare bill.

Recapturing one more seat in the Senate will allow us to stop “Cap and Tax,” and the gamut of liberal proposals being advanced by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Scott Brown is close, and needs our help. Your contribution right now can make a real difference in what’s happening in Washington, D.C. Losing a statewide race in a typically blue state like Massachusetts will send shockwaves through the Democratic Party establishment and bring Barack Obama’s administration back to the center from the far left.

Please, please, PLEASE go to Scott Brown's site, http://www.brownforussenate.com/ and contribute something.  Anything.

The second fellow I would like you to meet is our state's Attorney General, Henry McMaster.  I've known Henry a long time, and he is a good and honest man.  He is currently running for Governor of South Carolina, but in his post as AG, he has the potential to disrupt that horrible bill I've mentioned.  Here's Henry's take on the situation:

The Obama health care bill is an assault on the US Constitution and our basic freedoms.

It's so flawed, so unpopular, that Democratic leaders had to load it up with special interest deals, kickbacks, and payoffs just to get Democrats to vote for it. Sadly, this has become part of the culture of corruption in Washington, DC.

It is clear to me and many state Attorneys General that the most shameless payoff - given to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson in exchange for his vote, the last vote Democrats needed for passage - is unconstitutional and must be challenged.

This "Cornhusker Kickback" requires the federal government to pay for 100% of Nebraska's share of Medicaid costs, while the taxpayers in the 49 other states have to pay their share and pay Nebraska's share too!

Fourteen states attorneys general have joined me in warning Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid that they must remove the unconstitutional "Cornhusker Kickback" or face action.

So far, they have refused. So has President Obama. Senator Nelson has even asked me to "call off the dogs." But we will not stop because our American way of life is at stake.

While a contribution toward Henry's Gubernatorial campaign won't directly help this fight, it will tell him that we stand with him, and he needs to know that he has our support.  So, please consider sending a donation to Henry's campaign. 

Actions speak louder than words, especially typed words on a screen.  Click the links and help those who are trying to help us and the rest of the country.

President For A Day

David Rice Atchison, Images Courtesy Wikipedia

My partnership is governed by a five-man executive committee.  I happen to be a member of this elite group, with the lofty title of Chief Technology Officer, by virtue of the fact that I'm the most computer-savvy radiologist among us.  In other words, no one else wanted to do it.  But that's OK, I'll take the glory any way I can get it.  Sadly, there isn't much glory involved.

This week, three of the other guys are at a meeting in Mexico, and another is off doing something else.  Thus, I'm the only EC member actually working, and so I am the Acting President of the group.  Yawn.  In honor of my temporary ascendancy to the X-Ray Throne, I issued the following message to the gang:

I hereby double your salaries, effective immediately.  However, various fees, bookkeeping, withholding, and so forth will require the deduction of half of your new salary.  Your pay stub will reflect this lack of change.

I'm reminded of someone else who had a very brief reign.  Have you ever heard of David Rice Atchison?  Few have, actually.  He claimed the title of "President For A Day", which may or may not have been deserved.  From the official United States Senate website:

A proslavery Democrat, David Atchison served in the U.S. Senate from 1843 to 1855. His colleagues elected him president pro tempore on 13 occasions. In those days, the vice president regularly attended Senate sessions. Consequently, the Senate chose a president pro tempore to serve only during brief vice-presidential absences.

Until the 1930s, presidential and congressional terms began at noon on March 4. In 1849, that date fell on a Sunday, causing President Zachary Taylor to delay his inauguration until the next day. For some, this raised the question of who was president from noon of March 4 to noon of March 5. Of course, we now know that Taylor automatically became president on the fourth and could have begun to execute the duties of his office after taking the oath privately, a day before the public inauguration.

In 1849, the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in line of presidential succession. That era's ever-present threat of sudden death made it essential to keep an unbroken order of succession. To ensure that there was a president pro tempore in office during adjournment periods, the vice president customarily left the Senate chamber in an annual session's final days so that the Senate could elect this constitutional officer. Accordingly, the Senate duly elected Atchison on March 2, 1849. His supporters, to the present day, claim that the expiration of the outgoing president's and vice president's terms at noon on March 4 left Atchison with clear title to the job.

Unfortunately for Atchison's shaky claim, his Senate term also expired at noon on March 4, thereby denying him the chance to become president. When the Senate of the new Congress convened the following day to allow new senators and the vice president to take the oath of office, with no president pro tempore, the secretary of the Senate called members to order.

No one planning to attend Taylor's March fifth inauguration seems to have realized that there had been a "President Atchison" in charge. Nonetheless, for the rest of his life, Atchison enjoyed polishing this story, describing his "presidency" as "the honestest administration this country ever had."

You might wonder what "President Atchison" accomplished in his day of possibly being President.  By one account, not very much.  From the Wiki: 

Family lore suggests that Senator Atchison told his housekeeper on the evening of March 3 that he was going to his bed and under no circumstances was to be awoken before Monday, March 5. Despite an attempt to rouse the good Senator from Missouri by a delegation of Senators on Sunday March 4, Mr. Atchison slept through his alleged 'one day presidency', hence the reason he never acknowledged it in the first place.

So it seems he didn't do much at all.  However, in other legends, Mr. Atchison made a few proclamations of his own:

He used his executive powers in a playful manner for that day, calling for a national day of celebration of pandas, granting a raise in salary "to all gentlemen with attractive teenage daughters," declaring war on Lake Superior, and ending slavery. These executive orders were all rescinded the next day, but they provided a source of fun for a crabby nation.

History doesn't seem too impressed with Mr. Atchison's one day term, and clearly there is much confusion as to whether he actually served it at all, and if so, if he was even supposed to do so.  There will, of course, be no question about my term of leadership.  The history books of the future will refer to this week as the "boringest" in the history of our group.  At least I won't sleep through my entire term. 

2009: Obama's First Year In Review

From "Why Are We Tiring of Obama?" by Victor Hanson at Pajamas Media:

Constant apologies abroad for everything from slavery to Hiroshima

Bows to Saudi royalty, the Japanese emperor, and Chinese autocrats

The on-again/off-again Guantanamo shut-down mess

The fight with the former CIA directors

The public show trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed

The reach out to Ahmadinejad Castro, Chavez, and assorted thugs

The Honduras fiasco Czars everywhere

The serial “Bush did it”/reset whine abroad

The Queen of England/I-pod fiasco

Gordon Brown gets snookered in his gift-giving

Unceremoniously shipping back the Churchill bust

The end of the special relationship with the UK

The New York on-the-town presidential splurge

Anita Dunn and her Mao worship

Timothy Geithner/Tom Daschle/Hilda Solis and their taxes

What ever happened to Gov. Richardson?

“No lobbyists” = gads of them

The Podestas’ insider influence-peddling empire

Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” chauvinism

The Special Olympics silly quip

Trashing Nancy Reagan

The Skip Gates/police acting “stupidly” mess

The get-Chicago-the-Olympics jaunt to Copenhagen

Cap-and-trade boondoggle

“Millions of green jobs”

Ignore gas, oil, coal, and nuclear power production

Cash-for-clunkers

The Joe Biden gaffe machine

Jobs “saved” or “created” rather than references to the actual unemployment rates

Van Jones, the racist and truther

Desiree Rogers won’t testify

The blowback from, and silence about, the Rangel/Dodd corruption

The White House party crashers plan to take the 5th Amendment

The ‘bipartisanship’ con

The pork-barrel stimulus spoils

The demonization of the Town-Hallers

The Acorn Mess

The Kevin Jennings/Safe School Czar embarrassment

The SEIU direct access to the White House

The Asian Tour comedown

The politicization of the take-over of GM and Chrysler

The Obama readjustment in the order of paying back car creditors

Car dealerships closed on shaky criteria

Obama as “Caesar”

The Emanuel “never let a serious crisis go to waste” boast

The Black Caucus/Rangel/Waters bid to bail out the inner-city radio stations

Yosi Sergant and the NEA $1.7 trillion deficit

The planned $9 trillion added to the national debt

New income tax rates; health care surcharge talk; and payroll tax caps to be lifted

Rahm Emanuel’s promised payback to those states that trash the stimulus

The supposed C-span aired health care debate

The promised website posts of pending legislation

Czechs and Poles sold out on missile defense

Sermons to and finger pointing at the Israelis

The failed ‘Putin helps to stop a nuclear Iran’ gambit

Voting present on the Iranian reformers in the street

Serial but empty deadlines to Ahmadinejad

The good war/bad war twisting and turning on Iraq/Afghanistan

The months-long dithering over Afghanistan

Renditions, tribunals, Patriot Act, etc. once trashed, now OK

Healthcare take-over

The 2,000 page proposed new health code

The embarrassing Nobel Peace Prize nomination

The attacks on surgeons, Chamber of Commerce, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, etc.

The Islam mythologies in the Cairo Speech

The al Arabiya “Bush did it” interview

Obama’s TV “my Muslim faith” gaffe

If I were over-the-top emotive, and took everything personally, I would be screaming like a petrified child watching a slasher movie. This administration, and the enabling Congress, is a complete and utter disaster. Thanks to everyone who helped this happen: the media, the white-guilt-mongers, the leftists, George Soros (his background deserves a separate post which I'll provide someday), ACORN, and most of all Senator McCain and the Republican Party, who bungled the 2008 election.

I can only hope for change (ha ha) in 2010. November is coming fast, and maybe, just maybe, some of the Socialist damage will be reversed.

By the way, the list left out the latest insult to our sovereignty by our very own Dear Leader, I mean President:

http://threatswatch.org/analysis/2009/12/wither-sovereignty/

Last Thursday, December 17, 2009, The White House released an Executive Order "Amending Executive Order 12425." It grants INTERPOL (International Criminal Police Organization) a new level of full diplomatic immunity afforded to foreign embassies and select other "International Organizations" as set forth in the United States International Organizations Immunities Act of 1945. By removing language from President Reagan's 1983 Executive Order 12425, this international law enforcement body now operates - now operates - on American soil beyond the reach of our own top law enforcement arm, the FBI, and is immune from Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

For Immediate Release December 17, 2009

Executive Order -- Amending Executive Order 12425

EXECUTIVE ORDER- - - - - - -AMENDING EXECUTIVE ORDER 12425 DESIGNATING INTERPOL AS A PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION ENTITLED TO ENJOY CERTAIN PRIVILEGES, EXEMPTIONS, AND IMMUNITIES

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1 of the International Organizations Immunities Act (22 U.S.C. 288), and in order to extend the appropriate privileges, exemptions, and immunities to the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), it is hereby ordered that Executive Order 12425 of June 16, 1983, as amended, is further amended by deleting from the first sentence the words "except those provided by Section 2©, Section 3, Section 4, Section 5, and Section 6 of that Act" and the semicolon that immediately precedes them.
BARACK OBAMA
THE WHITE HOUSE,December 16, 2009.

What does this mean? From http://patriotroom.com/article/obama-exempts-interpol-from-search-and-seizure-on-us-lands:

It means that we have an international police force authorized to act within the United States that is no longer subject to 4th Amendment Search and Seizure. The "property and assets of [INTERPOL], wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall be immune from search, unless such immunity be expressly waived, and from confiscation."

INTERPOL, an international criminal police organization, is now poised to reside above the United States Constitution - in a place of sanctity beyond our FBI, CIA, DIA, and all other criminal investigatory domestic organizations.

President Obama has just placed our Constitutional rights under international law.

For all of those who howled like wounded animals about Bush and the Patriot Act. . . this is your reward. INTERPOL agents can come into your home in the UNITED STATES and do whatever they want, without fear of interference from any US law enforcement agency. What is it about Europe that makes Leftists salivate and prostrate themselves? Now we entrust INTERPOL with our very freedom. This is absolutely unbelievable.