HDGraph and WinDirStat

There are many free disk drive space management and scanning tools out there in the Internet available to use.

I have used HDGraph (www.hdgraph.com) for a while to show disk space; I liked the circular graph it displays. I have some vague memories of some showing me a tool, and I think it was Space Monger, but it never did appeal to me as compared to HDGraph. This morning, I decided to look for other alternatives and compare HDGraph. I downloaded WinDirStat and found that it had advantages right away. Please note, you'll need to look beyond the unattractive yet informative WinDirStat website, and consider the tool on the value it delivers. Also, please note, this is but my simple review of the two products, and I am very appreciate of all of the people involved with building and making available these great tools!


1. WinDirStat shows all the directories being processed/read and allows you to navigate the file system and see the sizes while it is processing other directories.

2. The TreeMap in WinDirStat allows you to see large files versus small files that there are many of very quickly.

If you are looking to manage your disk space, and have difficulty keeping enough space free, I would recommend WinDirStat or the many alternatives for other platforms.

Best wishes!
Pete Gordon

Killing Innovation and Reforming Health Care

I just read this morning, that the Health Care proposal coming out of the finance committee; contains a $40 billion dollar tax on the Medical Device industry. So, I dug in deeper. Turns out it is $4 billion dollars a year for the next 10 years, it is on all medical device manufacturers with revenues over $5 million dollars and it is to be based on "relative market share".

Some background, the medical device industry in the U.S. is just less than $100 billion; that means this is a greater than 4% tax on some of the most innovative companies in the United States. Will already having a high barrier to entry through the FDA 510k process and the device registration fees required by the FDA; is this really the smartest tax to apply to our economy--or, as David Auth, a Medical Device inventor and pioneer, states, "Our government rewards dummies and punishes geniuses".

Some references for more context and reference:
New health propsoal is industry's favorite so far. -- AP, Yahoo News
Finance Committee Proposal -- Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee
Medical Device Pioneer David Auth Seethes Over $40 Billion Industry Tax Idea, FDA Delays

Market Size References [1] and [2] and FDA Annual Device Registration Fee Reference [3] and to even create a device for the market FDA 510k Fee [4] and don't forget the 10's and 100's and of thousands and even millions of dollars to create FDA approved products [5]

Medical Device Manufacturers Association

Fiber Optics in Health Care and Pulse Oximetry

Photonics textiles eyed for pulse oximetry

I have been fascinated by the idea of using fiber optics in Medical Devices for the past couple months. I have a fascination with technology innovations that use Light. So, this blog will likely be diverse in it's discussion of technology, but don't be surprised if there is a bias towards, BioPhotonics. (Yesterday, I did ask a friend of mine who is in med school to contribute to this blog also, so that should bring diversity to this blog also--smile). Even with my Light fascination I haven't yet taken the plunge, committing time, and tried one of the training kits I found a couple months ago.

I stumbled on this today, and it involves Pulse Oximetry (which is close to my heart--figuratively--smile).

The immediate question when I showed someone else, was "how do you clean it?". Interesting, I am wondering, and am fascinated by the potential. I often see nocturnal oximetry studies that the finger probe falls off of the patient. And, for no other reason, than this looks cool and includes fiber optics and pulse oximetry, I hope this succeeds!

Meeting Martha (15 yr old) and her family

Whoops, this was too be posted on http://hearthecryhiv.blogspot.com/... I guess it can be at both. The problems of having two blogger accounts.



Andrew, Craig and I met Martha, a 15 yr old that cares for a large family in a compound outside of N'Dola.

Child headed households are one of the most significant problems that come with HIV/AIDS and poverty.

The challenge is food and school/education. And, how do you establish trust and make a real difference--not just take pictures, and just go away?



--Posted by Pete

Memex and the beginning of the Internet (Tower of Babel)

I stumbled on this article "As We May Think" written in 1945 and credited with the beginning ideas about hypertext and the Internet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_hypertext_technology

It is amazing... here are some of my favorite quotes. The concluding remarks are the best part...

Science has provided the swiftest communication between individuals; it has provided a record of ideas and has enabled man to manipulate and to make extracts from that record so that knowledge evolves and endures throughout the life of a race rather than that of an individual.

There is a growing mountain of research. But there is increased evidence that we are being bogged down today as specialization extends. The investigator is staggered by the findings and conclusions of thousands of other workers—conclusions which he cannot find time to grasp, much less to remember, as they appear. Yet specialization becomes increasingly necessary for progress, and the effort to bridge between disciplines is correspondingly superficial.

A record if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted

This is a much larger matter than merely the extraction of data for the purposes of scientific research; it involves the entire process by which man profits by his inheritance of acquired knowledge.

The human mind...operates by association.

Selection by association, rather than indexing, may yet be mechanized.

Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursions may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important.

Remember this was in 1945; amazing; and we have only scratched the surface of the empowerment that comes with the existence of the memex/Internet. Man's spirit with definitely "be elevated" as he "analyze[s] more completely and objectively".

Open Source and Technology Choices

I have been reading about HealthCare IT; since it is the industry I have been focused on the past year or more (critsys.net, apneicare.com, sleepcareinc.com).  Let me start off by saying I love the Open Source community--it amazes me, fascinates me and stirs up idealism that I so wish to realize and I am very grateful to all that contribute to Open Source (see earlier interview I did with KDE News site, now archived).  I have been following VistA and more specifically OpenVistA or WorldVistA as an open source Health Care EMR, so tonight as I was reading I found that Larry Augstin is on the board of MedSphere which has this technology stack that is kind of frightening (MUMPS, GtK, C#, etc.).  For those that don't check out the wikipedia link on Larry, or recognize the name, he founded SourceForge and is an Open Source genius!  But, what was that, he is also on the boards of Compiere (I did an install many years ago as a test, Java, thick-client, Oracle database, and I thought it had a lot of potential until I went through the install, and looked more closely at the User Interface); and not only Compiere, but Hyperic--Andy Danser and I were just evaluating Hyperic for IT monitoring and it didn't make our short list compared to Nagios and/or SpiceWorks (maybe we will have to revisit Hyperic, especially since I have a sales/followup person contacting me, and not only Hyperic but JBoss has Larry Augstin on the board.  I'll mention it again, "he is an open source genius!".  But, I was hoping Compiere, JBoss, and most recently Hyperic would work for my needs--but in my experience they seemed to be too far away from my needs, more technology complicated to use, distracting from my specific goals and needs.  I would love to find opportunity to work with them to improve them, but it is a contanst delima of having to first get over the initial need/goal and then being able to contribute to help improve.  I remeber submitting a patch to Tomcat back in like 2003 for the JSP Taglib code and it was fun, but I was already getting value from Tomcat, and it was easy to work with because I was already in the mix of it.  Seems like Compiere, JBoss, Hyperic, MedSphere haven't been able to pull me into the mix as of yet.  And, it makes me wonder how many more people are like me and can't get over the open source hump to be pulled into the project.  Maybe MedSphere will be the one that pulls me in, I do belive in Open Source Health Care IT--it is a great choice--if they wrap the legacy code (MUMPS) with standard web services maybe it can take off and I can get some immediate value from it--first thing, I would like to see is a Overview Guide... maybe I can come up with one... I haven't even come close to digest all that I need to that is already out there... seems very scattered, not centralized or clear.  Hopefully, I can help at some point but often times I am scattered and unclear also!  

http://vistapedia.net

Just some random thoughts today about Open Source, Software/System Design, and adoption.  Really needs a few cups of coffee or a couple beers to talk through fully.

As always, love to hear comments and thoughts.

Best wishes!

Pete Gordon

me@petegordon.com

Twitter Community -- How I use Twitter; love and hate.

So, Twitter is an amazing micro-blogging, social phenomena the idea that peoples thoughts would be streaming on to the Internet in a way that is searchable and with an open API is amazing. (Think single consciousness of mankind)

Bahá'í Faith
Quran -- Mankind Oneness
Bible -- Mankind Oneness (Please pay special attention to this one, considering the Internet--smile).

So, this morning; I was communicating with someone I met through odesk about doing some programming work with me through email. I saw they had experience with TestComplete, so I read about it; and did a little question/research of it compared to Selenium (especially for Silverlight). Anyway, I did a search on twitter for TestComplete and boom, JonKruger's tweet popped up. So, I sent him a reply tweet asking if he got any responses and what he knows. A couple notes: 1) Jon lives in the same cityI live in (Columbus, Ohio); we have met once or twice; and I see him several times a year (and a lot more if you count codemash.org--smile) he works at QSI with a very good friend of mine (SteveHorn). 2) I am not following Jon on Twitter, I just randomaly found him by doing a search for "TestCompete" amongst the millions of users using search.twitter.com. I think this experience is a good example of showing the power of twitter for an individual to jump into the mankind consciousness that is the Internet; and for it to return connections to you locally.

Now a little bit of disappointment, I have not figured out the following/friend thing yet. I am an open networker in the sense I agree with Tim Sanders book, Love is the Killer App. I must always give away my network, knowledge and compassion; but I can't really "follow" even 33 people on twitter; let alone the thousands and tens of thousands some people follow. So, I started using TweetDeck some, and I follow only four people closely, and others I categorized by interest and commonality (is that the definition of different communities?). What's even more interesting is most of my closest friends are not even on twitter (my wife, my children--except for the photo of me with them--a little young for twitter--smile, and even most work colleagues). So, I am still trying to figure it out; how do I do, who do I follow--and am I really following them--or am I just lucky to read something they post sometimes before it scrolls on by in the other tweets I get.

I met someone the other day, I introduced myself to him in Panera (because I overheard him talking about Drupal with someone else, and the opportunity came up to strike up a conversation). The interesting part was once he handed me his business card, I recognized the company from the Columbus Tech Life community and then after we said good-bye and I went to send him my contact information by email I realized he was following me on twitter already (but I wasn't following him at the time). I think the best use of social software and twitter is when the use of the internet intersects with real world.

It is fascinating and engaging to think about social software and how it is useful and it intersects with real life, and at the same time a little scary--there are many thoughts out there from me in blog and twitter--that people could research to speak to my personal side and potentially manipulate conversations. There is no way for me to remember all that I have put out into the internet (blog, twitter, linkedin, facebook); that could be used to manipulate (or better sounding--direct) a conversation and decision.

I don't understand how it (Internet, social software, community) all works, and where it is going, but I am trying to figure it out, if anyone else is reading this, and you are trying to figure it out also, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.

Best wishes!
Pete Gordon

Invest locally; better yet Invest in yourself!

So, I was watching one of those meaningless "money" talk shows on CNN. Although, I liked listening to Robert Reich on the show say "prepare for the worst, hope for the best".

I started thinking, maybe I should put some money into Columbus, Ohio Fortune 500 companies (Large Cap Stocks); or maybe in the State of Ohio fortune 500 companies So I looked at this list on USA today, to find the Central Ohio Fortune 500 companies from 2004....

Cardinal Health
Nationwide Mutual Insurance
American Electric Power
Limited Brands
Big Lots

Then I found that of these Fortune 500 companies in Central Ohio; Nationwide Mutual Insurance is no longer a public company (NFS, as of January 1st, 2009). That made me immediately think why invest in "public" companies, seeing that Nationwide just took their $2.4 billion subsidiary private. Which made me think, why are companies public. Well, the basics are that a company goes public to raise capital it could not raise in a private market, and it is often an exit strategy for the founders and original investors of a company. Wait a minute if that is the reason to go public than why would I spend so much time looking to invest in public companies, wouldn't it be more valuable to invest in private companies that I have transparancy into; or, even better, to invest in myself and my own work/companies/businesses.

Hmm, lots to think about.

With all of that said, if you are looking for a small investor or worker in your ideas and/or are interested in becoming a small investor, worker in my ideas; drop me an email, and let's talk about working and investing together.

Best Wishes!
Pete Gordon

2009.....

10 Goals for 2009... (in no particularly special order)

More International Exposure. Visit Africa and Amsterdam. This should be a definite; because we have already been planning it for hearthecry.org. Take a course in Mandarin Chinese http://www.columbus-occs.org. Deepen my international relationships, in my field of expertise (sofware, hardware, technology, health care) and outside of my field of expertise.

Organize and Automate my business more. Business filings, taxes, structure must get automated this year. So that everything is submitted on-time, and the process flows! This may mean, I get a new accountant--if they don't get with the 21st century! And, I am thinking my daughter is now old enough at eight that she can maybe start doing some minor paperwork, scanning and emailing. That just occurred to me; and that would be great; maybe I can hire her as my assistant, perfect!

Do Video on the Internet. I am going to use video to communicate with others this year. I have neglected it, and don't have a good video camera. Kinda funny, since I have a software portable usability lab that uses Apple iSight cameras (iSights are now no longer available). But, I am thinking about maybe video taping interviews with Film/Television Producers, Building Architects, General Contractors, Professional Engineers; and then maybe getting them transcribed; and using them as resources for publishing an industry comparison for the software industry compared to other industries (Steve and I had talked about it; see earlier blog entry). The bottom line, there is a lot of value in communicating with video and I am going to do more of it this year.

Repeatable Sales Model. Repeatable Sales for Critical Systems; selling Health Care Managed IT Services and increasing Critical Systems revenue by 100%, with 2-5 new clients.

Time with family. Have a wonderful vacation, with my family. And, take Blake and Rachel to school at least once a week.

Lose 10 pounds. And exercise consistently. (wii fit, recumbant bike, and treadmill)

Dress more professionally. I'm still a little uncertain on this one; I love my t-shirt and jeans.

Spend time daily in worship and prayer. I'm pretty good at this, but some days and then some weeks--it slips away from me and that is when things fall apart.

Give more away. I'm really thinking of time and software here, but it is true across every area of life. I want to give more away in open source, like codeplex.com/edf. I want to have a couple open source projects that I am committed to, and see them grow in momentum and value. I want to see open source succeed in a sustainable business model, they are not mutually exclusive. It makes me thinking of communities of needs, creating mutually beneficial software and making it open source. Open Source Polysomnography software anyone?

Listen more and talk less. Enough said.