Health care, the quantified self, web 2.0

Health care, the quantified self, web 2.0

The Evidence Gap - Health Care That Puts a Computer on the Team - Series - NYTimes.com: "MARSHFIELD, Wis. — Joseph Calderaro, 67, is one of health care’s quiet success stories. Over the last four years, he has carefully managed his diabetes by lowering his blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol with diet, exercise and medication."

Quantified Self
Introspection 2.0

Web 2.0.
O'Reilly's notion of Web 2.0 is profoundly more powerful than the buzzword its become. The core difference is collection of relevance implicitly vs. explicitly. One feels alive; one dead.

When
--individuals collect and selectively 'publish' personal metrics
--when health care systems possibly Kaiser, Cleavland Clinic mine and selectively publish that data
--others use the result for new research on both a personal and institutional level
we will have an explosion of knowledge and practice

Heart rate monitors and GPS :: the landscape

Many players; many products.

These notes focus on products which can export their measurements in some machine readable format.
Some gadget oriented people have older models to loan. If you want to try one, ask your gadget oriented friends.

Garmin

Garmin makes a bewildering variety of GPS devices. A few are specialized for exercise and training. They are sold under the Garmin Forerunner brand.

Suunto

Suunto also has a wide variety of devices. In most of them don't support GPS. However, just as many photographers sync photos with GPS routes by getting the timestamps in sync, Suunto exercise logs can be synced with GPS routs.
Chris Carmichael, best known for being Lance Armstrong's coach, has a company which specializes in on line training advice and coaching. They are partnered with Suunto -- using the Suunto T6. However there are many similar coaching services. If one signs up with Carmichael, but one has been using Polar, the old Polar logs are curently useless.

Polar

I still have a Polar device I began using about 20 years ago. Now they also have a wide range of offerings and like Suunto, they usually don't include GPS, but many work with a special GPS pod sold by Polar.

Trainers and Training Software

Chris Carmichael, best known for being Lance Armstrong's coach, has a company which specializes in on line training advice and coaching. They are partnered with Suunto -- using the Suunto T6. However there are many similar coaching services. If one signs up with Carmichael, but one has been using Polar, the old Polar logs are currently useless.

Training Peaks evidently does offer some integration of data from multiple devices. It claims to support data from 70+ devices. A quick look indicates that the underlying model is primarly one of time and calories burned integrated with a record of calories consumed. I'm sure many people find that interesting, but not me. I wonder if it only uses a common subset of data? Could a better product be designed by examining its weaknesses? Their costs start at $20/month, a fraction of Carmichael's Train Right.
TrainingPeaks provides links to a variety of articles. Personally, I'd like to see a platform that would allow plug-ins to provide specific approaches to analysis and training program generation. Some may be a bit specific to the TrainingPeaks tools, but offer significant insight.

Problems to Solve

• Integration of GPS data with HR data -- probably through use of timestamps to integrate the two data streams
• Integration of exercise/GPS data from multiple devices/vendors.
• Common View/Controller for all data streams.
• Provide constant evaluation of risk :: too little exercise and stress vs danger of breakdown, illness and stale feeling
  

SapphireSteel :: How To Create a Ruby On Rails Blog - Part One

SapphireSteel :: How To Create a Ruby On Rails Blog - Part One: "How To Create a Ruby On Rails Blog - Part One
by Huw Collingbourne
Part One: Entering Posts

For many people, the one thing that really ‘turned them on’ to Ruby On Rails was the twenty minute demo given by Rails’ creator, David Heinemeier Hansson in which he showed how to create a weblog complete with user-submitted comments. You can watch his original demo online here: http://www.rubyonrails.com/screencasts."

Interesting combination :: using a .Net version of Ruby; generating a popular reference application.

Com-Pac Yachts: Trailerable Cat Boats, Trailerable Cruisers, and Cruising Sailboats

Com-Pac Yachts: Trailerable Cat Boats, Trailerable Cruisers, and Cruising Sailboats: "Welcome to the Com-Pac Idea

Com-Pac Yachts began business in 1974 with our first boat, the Com-Pac 16. The idea then was to build a seaworthy yacht with a strong commitment to value. (For the full story, see Hutchins Company Profile.) Since then we have expanded our line and today we have nine models, four cat-rigged and five sloop rigged. The Com-Pac line covers a wide range of sizes from a 14' day sailor to a 35' bluewater cruiser. Each model, regardless of size, is built with the same exacting attention to detail and that same commitment to value."

These trailerable boats, especially the cats that look like they have a lot of room for living and simple rigging seem very attractive. Can they sail? If so they might be perfect for the Delta and Baja.

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: For Obama, Will Familiarity Erode Contempt?

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: For Obama, Will Familiarity Erode Contempt?

This is, flat out, one of the most interesting comments on the election I've seen. A taste:

My focus is on the South in particular, because it's not clear if there are especially meaningful patterns in this data outside of that region; Obama had no trouble winning over white voters in relatively black non-southern states like Michigan, New York, or Maryland. There are fifteen states that I define as Southern. Obama drew a larger percentage of the white vote than John Kerry in five of them, a smaller share (sometimes substantially smaller) in four of them, and got exactly the same percentage in the other six.

The driving factor in determining how Obama performed vis-à-vis John Kerry, however, appears as though it might not be race, but rather how much Obama camaigned in a given state. According to the New York Times candidate tracker, Obama campaigned extensively -- by which I mean, he actually went out and spent a lot of time on the ground -- in 6 of the 15 Southern states. These include Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Missouri (where Obama campaigned extensively in the general election cycle), as well as South Carolina and Texas (where Obama campaigned extensively in the primaries). The other nine Southern states, Obama did not have more than a couple of apperances in, and several he did not visit at all.

I said 'interesting'. I'm not sure if I believe it. I'd like to.

Adobe Acrobat.com

The adobe tool suite enters a new phase with air-based tools like Buzzword (word processing) and AdobeConnect (desktop sharing & communication).
Buzzword is quite slick, but I'm not. My spelling is poor and I would not consider use of a word processor w/o a reasonable spell checker. Buzzword has spell check on a menu, but it is lame, lame, lame.

Adobe Acrobat.com

Gmail: Voice and video chat

Nice. Especially if it works.

Gmail: Voice and video chat

Live Election Coverage?

Little House on the Trailer

Modeled after an early 20th century house, but small enough to put on wheels and move around, this little house has everything.

Compact kitchen
Incinerating toilet
6,000 BTU propane space heater
Recycled fir featured throughout
Outdoor hot shower with on demand hot water

What a nice 'little' country retreat!
$60,000
Designed in Pt. Reyes Station

Fresh Air :: Michael Gazzaniga

The show talks with neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, director of the University of California-Santa Barbara's SAGE Center for the Study of the Mind. One of the pioneers of split-brain research, he's been studying the way the left and right brain work individually for 45 years. Gazzaniga also serves on the President's Council on Bioethics. His new book is 'Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique.'"

Welcome to Hiveminder! - Hiveminder

Offloading things from the brain ...and on to other brains...

If you're like us, you forget half of the things you're supposed to be doing because you spend time trying really hard to remember the other half. Hiveminder lets you take your mind off getting things done so that you actually just do them. Let us show you around!

Below is a To Do List - where all of the tasks in your Hiveminder account hang out. It's kind of like your email 'inbox.' Check out some of the features below by mousing over the numbers in the blue circles."

Geocode Photos and Create Google Maps or Export KML and KMZ Files to Google Earth

I still want a gps camera, but...

"You don't need a Digital Camera with a built-in GPS!

RoboGEO v5.4What's new in RoboGEO v5.4

You need RoboGEO, a 'software only' solution for geocoding photos with latitude and longitude information.

It provides the same functionality as a GPS camera, but without the bulk, expense, inconvenience, and hassle of wiring the two together.

And, for less money, RoboGEO does a LOT more..."

Liam’s Alaskan Adventure | Ke Nalu

I need to know more about that inflatable ULI. In many ways it makes more sense than the Pope Trisect SUP. Liam's account is amazing in any case.

Liam Wilmot of C4 Waterman submitted this interesting story of an Alaskan SUP adventure using a ULI inflatable SUP board.

–ALASKA June 6th. Field Report.

Being a surfer in a surf-orientated family that lives on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, a trip to Alaska in the middle of summer may seem a strange choice of destination. However, with the onset of stand up paddling and its potential to make any day on any body of water a blast, a trip to the land of 10,000 glaciers with a sun that never set promised to be a real adventure."

O'Reilly Radar - Insight, analysis, and research about emerging technologies

Related to "Predictably Irrational" and ____. Worth looking at columns for clues to upcoming book.

David Brooks gave a talk last week in Aspen that inspired me and that I can't stop thinking about. Note that it comes in three parts. His book is due to come out in the fall of 2009."

The Web-Based User Interface for Managing Your Servers : How GoGrid Works!

The Web-Based User Interface for Managing Your Servers : How GoGrid Works!

Dave Thomas on Metaprogramming and Ruby

The Ruby Object Model and Metaprogramming:

"Metaprogramming lets you program more expressively. This makes your code easier to write and easier to maintain and extend. Learn both the hows and whys of metaprogramming Ruby from Dave Thomas, one of the most experienced Ruby programmers in the western world."

A series of podcasts at $5 each. Free sample.

Erlang and Amazon's AWS -- s3, ec2, sqs, etc.

Nabble - Erlang Questions - Book: Hardcore Erlang: "Re: Book: Hardcore Erlang
Click to flag this post

by Joel Reymont Nov 09, 2007; 07:24am :: Rate this Message: - Use ratings to moderate (?)

Reply | Reply to Author | Print | View Threaded | Show Only this Message
It will be done!

On Nov 9, 2007, at 2:51 PM, Zvi wrote:

> I would like to see full real-life example of how to deploy
> OpenPoker on AWS
> (EC2, S3) and full life-cycle management of such a system:
> * initial deployment
> * monitoring and management
> * handling Mnesia persistence and distribution
> * hot code upgrades"

350 Science | 350

350 Science | 350: "'If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.'"
---James Hansen

Word.

Halloumi

Halloumi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Halloumi (Greek: χαλλούμι, Turkish: Hellim) is a cheese indigenous to Cyprus. It is traditionally made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk, although some halloumi can be bought that also contains cows' milk.[1] Industrial halloumi contains more cows milk than goat and sheep milk. This reduces the cost but changes the taste and the grilling properties.

The cheese is white, with a distinctive layered texture, similar to mozzarella, and has a salty flavour. It is stored in its natural juices with salt-water, and can keep for up to a year if frozen below −18 °C (0 °F) and defrosted to +4 °C (39 °F) for sale at supermarkets. It is often garnished with mint. The mint adds to the taste while some claim that it has natural anti-bacterial action that was traditionally helpful to increase the life of the cheese."

I had some of this last night. Fry it. Grill it. Perhaps some garlic? Eat it.