So I replaced my personal phone this week and had to decide on iPhone, windows or android. I carry the iPhone for work and miss the android OS so it narrowed it down. I ended up with the Galaxy S3 and am really happy with it. It seems everything I do with my iPhone I can do still with my galaxy and performance is better. There is not a clear winner, but I'm using the galaxy more than the iPhone for certain.
Zagg keyboard for the iPad2
I finally got my Zagg keyboard for my iPad 2 and am very pleased with it. From a pros perspective, it connected with no trouble at all and types very well. I have another blue tooth keyboard for my droid X and while it works well, the set up was a little painful. I like the fit over my iPad, as it completely covers the device much like a turtle shell, so while in the case / keyboard, it is completely protected. From a con perspective, I wish the device could nest in the case face up when you are not using the keyboard, and the rise of the case means adjusting your hand position a bit to avoid having it rub the sides of your hands while you type. The keys are also a bit smaller than a normal keyboard, again, requiring a slight adjustment to typing style.
On balance, I think it is a great device, making the iPad even more useful. I have only had it a couple of days now so the real test will be a couple of months from now when we see how much use it has gotten.
At this point, the keyboard case has replaced my original iPad smart cover as the default cover and I am typing this review using the keyboard.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Lukewarm and Loving it–Francis Chan thoughts
Our pastor talked about this topic and referenced Francis Chan, so I had to look it up. This was a message he shared a few years ago and it really helps put some things in perspective and forces you to think a bit if you let it.
I had to pause the video a couple of times to digest what he was saying the ponder it. I hope you get something out of this and if nothing else, it expands your perspective.
Thought on the Electronic Lab Notebook
This topic is becoming more interesting to me every day as we see the technologies and the processes evolve. A simple definition of an Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) is becoming almost impossible to agree on as can be seen in a recent discussion group I am a member of over on LinkedIn that points to the LimsWiki definition.
An electronic laboratory notebook (also known as electronic lab notebook or ELN) is a software program or package designed to replace more traditional paper laboratory notebooks. Laboratory notebooks in general are used by scientists and technicians to document, store, retrieve, and share fully electronic laboratory records in ways that meet all legal, regulatory, technical and scientific requirements.[1] A laboratory notebook is often maintained to be a legal document and may be used in a court of law as evidence. Similar to an inventor's notebook, the lab notebook is also often referred to in patent prosecution and intellectual property litigation. Modern electronic lab notebooks have the advantage of being easier to search upon, support collaboration amongst many users, and can be made more secure than their paper counterparts.
A mouthful and it scrapes the surface of what may be meant when speaking of an investment in an ELN. I gave a talk at an informatics conference in London a couple of years back and showed a chart with overlapping functionality intersecting the role of traditional LIMS systems and the growing ELN segment. That chart has moved forward to the point where now you find markets where they are almost one and the same.
This brings up a couple of interesting discussion points
- Do we need both, or should we blend the systems to make it one experience?
- What is the value of a lab notebook? (GxP / Exploratory / Other – context is a big part of this but I am thinking beyond those aspects to the scientific thought process)
- Does the act of capturing free thought in a (paper?) notebook encourage a different type of thinking than the act of capturing data in a structured system that
allowsencourages free text or unstructured input as a part of the structure?
Clearly there is room for a discourse on all these topics, and many more that dive deep into the specifics, but as we look at the tools, I can’t help but come back to the question of what are we really trying to do? The technology is not the barrier to capturing data, or even in most cases, information. But are we making the technology a barrier to the process of creative thinking?
LIMS are by design typically built to capture structured information and results sets, manage samples and lifecycles and other common analytical workflow. Paper lab notebooks have for centuries been used to record everything from wild ideas that need to be formed into hypothesis and examined before even approached as a test, to being used as evidence of test execution or development. Now, in the litigious world of drug research and development, they hold a very high burden depending on where in the lifecycle they sit, acting in some cases as patent defense platforms!
I wonder how much we have moved away from creative thinking and free capture of those ideas in our pursuit of the right toolset to capture our data. I know a common theme I have heard from my scientific associates over the years is that there is less and less time for thinking, and more and more effort devoted to execution. Looking at the innovation cycle and the pharma pipeline as a whole, I wonder sometimes how much of the hollow sound in that pipe is regulatory pressure, or external pressure, and how much is a shifting in innovation and creative thinking.
The Journey to Captain Chuck a Mucks
While on vacation in Virginia with my bride, we were driving down around Newport News and decided on a crab shack for dinner. As luck would have it, the one we selected as at the tip of the coast, without clear markings to get there and we ended up on one of the longest bridges I have been on. (one of, not the longest, but loooong)
For those of you who know me – you know this is not a thing I seek out. So, here we are on this bridge to…. no idea where.
We look it up and it turns out we are headed for a somewhat famous place called the Isle of Wight. Now, I learned a bit of Ham trivia here. It turns out that there is a pretty selective process to get a ham called Smithfield Ham, and this is the only place to garner that distinction.
The ham history goes back to the 1700’s and if you are ever in the area, look it up and have some Red Eye Gravy while you are there. That’s a good story in itself. So – back to the original mission, finding dinner.
We are now on this island and looking for some dinner so we hit up the GPS and see what is around. We settled on Captain Chuck a Mucks, sight unseen and made our way there. The journey on the island was interesting and for a bit there it felt a little like a scene from a deliverance knock off or something. Tiny little towns, abandoned homes, twisting into the backwoods of this island.
After twisting around the island for a while, we ended up pulling into an almost empty parking lot and a river dive kind of first impression.
We got in and found we were just a bit early as they were in the process of opening for dinner, but the staff was great – friendly and making us at home from the get go. We got our menus and went with the seafood – kill your diet kind of dinner, but hey, it was vacation.
We took a few snapshots outside as well while there and were pleasantly surprised by the general location and atmosphere. It is worth making it over there if you are ever in the area, and they get fresh fish and serve customers right from the attached dock. We also learned about the fire that shut the place down for some time due to a boat incident that the waitress shared with us along with a photo album. Very Chummy!
The dinner at Captain Chuck a Mucks was unexpected and unplanned, but a good time – sometimes serendipity is the best way to experience things.
Links:
Blogger outage continues
I have noticed my posts seem to have disappeared, as mentioned would happen in the blogger status update, but then they still appear to be showing up and going away.
I have had some posts available, then hours later, while visible in search, are not there when clicked on.
According to http://status.blogger.com/
Friday, May 13, 2011
Blogger is back now. We're still working on restoring some of the data. For more details, see this post: http://buzz.blogger.com/2011/05/blogger-is-back.html
Posted by Chang at 10:32 PDT
Following the included link in that post, we get this bit of update.
Update (5/14 5:37 PM PST): We're making progress restoring comments, some blogs with a lot of content are taking a little more time. Thanks for bearing with us.
Summary – if you are looking for content on this blog that you expect to find, especially recent posts, please be patient while Google figures out how it screwed things up and works to make it right. It will be forthcoming. Feel free to reach out directly to me as well since I often have offline copies of posts in my blogging editor.
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