Ehealth.eletsonline.in Review:
eHEALTH Magazine | ICT in healthcare | Latest updates on Medical equipments and health IT trends in India - eHEALTH is a leading magazine, covering case studies, research papers, policy briefs, expert articles, executive interviews, industry trends and market updates pertaining to health IT and medical technology, dedicated to consumers of technology, private and public sectors, business and academia.
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- M. Scott "SPT" - Windows 8 is the unsung hero for 2013Almost every review fails by proclaiming that Windows 8 is only for touch screens and tablets. This is a result of Microsoft creating an OS that DOES work well and flawlessly on touch screen and tablet devices, but it does not mean that desktop or regular notebook users get left behind.
If you are on the fence, here are few reasons to ignore any anti-Windows 8 reviews/arguments for desktop/notebook users:
1) Keyboard Shortcuts - Windows 8 added more keyboard shortcuts and navigation than any previous version of Windows since 1995. Using the new UI portion of the OS, you can literally fully navigate and use 99% of App using only the arrow keys, tab, enter, and the Menu/Windows keys.
2) Search - Microsoft has brought a new set of search tools to all the new Apps. Just start typing and the search opens and Windows returns local results. However, the beauty is that you can click through your installed Apps and every one will do a full search as well. So if you were looking for anything, you could search Netflix, Hulu, or even Wiki, Maps, IE/Bing all in a couple of seconds. (Current no other computer or phone offers anything close to this functionality.)
3) Apps - There are a lot of great Windows 8 App that you simply do not have access to on previous versions of Windows. This alone is reason enough to upgrade, even if you just use your notebook for Netflix, as the App is far faster and more elegant than Netflix via the browser.
4) Performance - There are a lot of low level optimizations and new features like low RAM mode that take even an marginal computer like a P4 with 1Gb of RAM will feel as usable as the latest high end desktop. Microsoft also added in new video rendering technologies, so that even if you don't have a DX9 level GPU, you still get all the visual effects, as it uses a software renderer and composer now. (An Atom based Netbook from 2006 will run faster with Windows 8 than it ever did with Windows XP.)
5) Microsoft knows where the UI heading and have done a brilliant job of making an OS that can be used on a tablet or a desktop and neither system has to give up functionality. Every user will find themselves using the new Start Screen and Apps more than expected, and miss features when working on an non-Windows 8 system.
If you have loved ones/friends that are less technical inclined, Windows 8 will make them fare more proficient as the new UI truly does make things easier. Power users will also enjoy the new UI Apps and features, but will find the performance and other features that are seldom discussed like (File History, Account Sync, etc) to be essential. - Sam Vaknin - Maltin's Movie Guides Keep GivingMaltin's Movie Guide requires no booting, minimal "surfing", and no software, or special hardware. It is always on and it is authoritative in the best sense of the word: implying erudition, not bullying. It is updated sufficiently frequently to remain relevant in its field, though, admittedly, a web presence with real-time capsule reviews, peer-reviewed content, and user-generated commentary would have leveraged the Maltin brand to good use. An iPhone/iPad app of the Guide is a step in the right direction, hopefully to be followed by a comparable Android offering.
In an age of crowdsourcing and mob "wisdom" made available on every mobile device, why invest in a reference book? With dozens of user reviews available on websites such as imdb.com and rottentomatoes.com for each film ever shot, however obscure - why bother with Maltin's voluminous fine-print doorstopper movie guides? Because Maltin is the Britannica to imdb's Wikipedia: he offers expertise where laymen merely register opinions.
There are two Maltin movie guides: the veteran and venerated "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide", annually published since 1996 and a lighter-weight but equally authoritative "Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide" whose second edition covers movies made no later than 1965. The Guides are mutually exclusive: most films would be listed in either book, but not in both. Each volume proffers between 10,000 (the Classics Guide) and 17,000 (the annual tome) capsule reviews of movies and what a marvel these snippets are!
Each capsule review comes replete with a plethora of information culled from hundreds of sources: date of release, viewing time in minutes, a quality rating assigned by the Guide's editors (more about them later) as well as the MPAA's parental guidance rating, credits of directors and actors involved, a brief synopsis of the plot, and even gossip, cameo appearances, anecdotes, and the social and cultural context of the work - all neatly and articulately folded into a Tweet-like 100 words or less!
The annual Guide also includes an incisive and insightful essay (in the form of an introduction) about the current state of the cinematic arts and commerce; lists of movies by topic (this year it is the Favorite Films of the New Millennium); mail-order and online sources for home videos (a USA-centric feature, admittedly); a widescreen glossary; and an index of film stars (gone is the index of movie directors, alas!) each with his or her respective oeuvre. The Classic Guide augments these offerings with "25 vintage movies you really shouldn't miss."
Back to our opening salvo: why not stick with imdb, or rottentomatoes, both of which now aggregate critics' reviews from a wide variety of sources, print and digital?
When one is faced with a health problem one consults a doctor or two (for a second opinion.) No one I have heard of confers with 10, 70, or 5000 doctors. The element of expertise is crucial. The authors-editors of the two Guides are not merely the world's leading critics (which they are) - but some of them have actually worked in the film industry, bringing to the proverbial table invaluable insights gleaned first-hand. Moreover, the usefulness, indeed indispensability of an informed impartial guide grows in an environment of cacophonic background noise and random "lists".
But surely cinema - as opposed to medicine - is a matter of taste and opinion rather than facts and figures? Well, yes and no. Filmmaking is a discipline which must be learned and assimilated methodically and in-depth. Many of its aspects are utterly objective. The same applies to film historiography. And when it comes to taste and opinion I would rather rely on Maltin's than on any Joe Schmo with a keyboard and time to kill. Even when I wholeheartedly disagree with Maltin ("Black Swan", "Blade Runner" and that's only on one page of the Guide!), I find myself challenged, enlightened, provoked, and informed by the collective intelligence and unfathomable knowledge of the crew behind the book.
No lover of the movies should go without a Maltin Guide (or two.) Sam Vaknin, author of "Malignant Self-love: Narcissism Revisited" - H. Lodge - Great book, fascinating responseI don't generally write reviews, but I thought this book was great - moving and with really good life lessons. I've given it as a gift to 4 other people, who also loved it. I went on Amazon today to buy yet another copy to give to one of my daughters and was surprised to see all the 1 star reviews that had popped up in the last few days. When I looked at them, they all seem to be mass produced variants on denying that the Cultural Revolution actually took place.
The Turks won't admit the Armenian Genocide, Serbs won't talk about the Bosnians, the Japanese won't admit what they did in China and Korea in WW2, and the Mullah's issued a fatwah against Salman Rushdee for criticizing Isalm. This seems like a cultural variant on that, and somewhat of an organized campaign as well (sort of a variant of Swiftboating or the Birthers).
South Africa did a great job with the Truth and Reconciliation process, and we have come a long way in confronting the injustices in our past. It's sad that China has not done this, and it's sort of creepy to see such an (apparently) coordinated outpouring of Stalinist propaganda about what's really a very moving book about how people survive and triumph over a terrible time in human history. It's not a knock on China, but on the potential of all peoples for evil, and ultimately on our potential for good.
This is just a book, so the stakes are low, but the tactics are the same as totalitarian states and theocracies used with such devastating results over the course of the 20th century (read any/all of Alan Furst's great novels for a glimpse of the period leading up to WW2). I'm going to keep checking out of interest to see how this little microcosm of freedom of speech vs organized suppression plays out. The book seems to be selling well, and no burnings reported yet, so at the moment, the good guys are winning! - leigh - Super product! Bad shipper!Shark makes one of, if not THE best, vacuum cleaners on the market. Better (and cheaper) than Dyson. Mine was shipped from Buy Happier in KY and arrived broken. The problem arose when I discovered the shipper had not included any paperwork or return label, prepaid or otherwise. I am now fighting my way through a thicket of e-mails and phone calls trying to get my hands on ANY paperwork that will permit me to return the product and get my $$ back. I'll buy another. Just not from that company.