As I posted earlier, I am working mostly with the literature review of our project. So what IS our project? My group is delving deep into the depths of the modern day technical issue, electronic medical record systems.

There are many arguments for EMR stating that it could greatly reduce health care costs, improve patient confidentiality, and save lives due to accuracy and ease of transfer. However, only a small portion of health care providers have been utilizing the technology in their establishments. One might wonder why the benefit of IT in other industries can't be utilized in the medical field as well.

There are undoubtedly confidentiality concerns, temporary loss of revenue or productivity as a system is installed, and other unforeseeable conflicts that could arise with the implementation of such a system. A few of the more well-known American providers are Allscripts, MedicWare, and Advanced Data Systems. They provide in-house as well as remote server hosting solutions.

With the usage of EMR, health care costs can be greatly reduced. A Rand survey estimated that $77 billion could be saved. If privacy can be guarenteed, productivity is increased, and records could be transferred quickly and easily, it is without question that an EMR could save more lives and provide quicker, more efficient treatment than exists today.

Part of the class's syllabus requirement this semester was to continually comment on each others' blogs. We were supposed to do four per week, totaling 48 all together. I've been a mediocre commenter at best, and was excited to hear in our last class that commenting would no longer be graded. With the way my finals week is looking, it was going to be quite a feat to pull off...ahem...30 comments?

So anyway, our commenting was dropped because of the fact that a large portion of the students in the class haven't even activated the commenting system yet. This, I was admittedly a little shocked at. I mean, I am glad I don't have to do it anymore, but it got me thinking why there wasn't enough commenting participation in a class of 40 students. Hell, why didn't I participate more?

I believe the problem stems from a poor design of the system which houses the Penn State blogs. I am not sure whether this is a Movable Type (which I have heard decent reviews about) issue, or Penn State gunking up another IT system. At the beginning of the semester, the class had many various problems setting up blogs. I am just going to list a few examples for organizations' sake:

• A classmate and I had to go through some permission setting alterations in our PASS space.

• Blog widgets were cumbersome and had to be spoon-fed to most of the class by our TA.

• The blogs that the system produced weren't very customizable:
• The blog backgrounds were about the only thing you could change, and the layout remained the same in all of them.
• Students still have blog widgets that remain abandoned and inactive (I am assuming because they don't know how to take them off.

• How the hell do you put code into your blog, and what is up with that shady “<a>” button HTML editor? I think I still haven't figured out how to center a Youtube video on here. Layout LAYOUT LAYOUT.

Wow I guess I had more to complain about than I thought. Hypothesis: a poor blog system leads to a poor commenting system:

• The commenting function wasn't enabled until a few weeks into semester, and even then you had to take the initiative to activate them.

• Students weren't commenting because it was often a pain to do so. Just going by 40 text names on the side of everyone's blog made it difficult to establish relationships between authors. I couldn't tell whose blog was whose, or keep track where I commented and what I commented on.

• I often had trouble posting comments, as movable type would give me errors now and again.

• You had to click a link to see comments on articles, which would redirect you to an entirely different page.

• Our professor never gave us an incentive to post comments on our own blog as a response to comments we received.

• It may have just come down to content. Not everyone is destined to be a great blogger or be able to create articles that generate interest. If it is a dull posting, I am not going to have much to say about it.

So...there you go in a nut shell. In my “expert” opinion, these are the reasons that commenting didn't work. I am sure at least one of my unsupported assumptions are true, but hey, its a blog, not a research article.

Too bad this posting won't get commented on....

Oh and great news about the downtown skateshops. Appalachian is now carrying Loaded boards, which I have heard nothing but great things about. Also, Christian, the
owner of SkatePenn on E. Calder Way (where Dragon Chasers used to be) is soon placing an order for LandYachts boards. LandYachts makes some of the highest quality downhill boards ever. Make sure you stop by

and say hi if you get a chance. The first video is some nasty downhill shredding courtesy of the Landyachts team, and the second is one I found on the Flexdex website. ENJOI.

Check out this video of one of their hit songs, Alive with the Glory of Love.  (Bonus points to whoever can guess what it is about).

Meanwhile, as I am bathing in the glory of this announcement, I hear from a friend that this Sunday night at Heritage Hall, fav band #2, The Fall of Troy will play a free concert as well.  You couldn't get much more fun at these prices.  The Fall of Troy will be playing with The Dear Hunter, Foxy Shazam, and Tera Melos.

Check out one of The Fall of Troy's songs here

.

My budget isn't huge, so I typically just pick up one of the free phones that come with a 2-yr contract, but the

So anyway, after using it a week, I have definitely noticed a few positives and negatives.  The first positive was the price.  This refurb phone ran me $30 (plus the new phone fee plus the contract renewal fee).  I didn't think that was too shabby considering what the price could have been.  Second, the slide phones are mad fun to slide open and closed (I won't get into this, but you'll see).  Third, there is a little "multitasking" button on the side.  If you are in the middle of a text and need to get a number, check something online, or change a setting, the push of that button will give you a whole new screen to work with (kind of like the multi-desktop feature offered with many operating systems).  Finally, the ability to get information on the internet has been helpful from time to time.  You can find the weather, sports scores, and email quickly and easily.  You can tell the phone isn't as suited for internet browsing as the iPhone, but it does a decent job.

Now for the downsides.  The navigation button thingy is a BITCH.  Its hard to get where you want to quickly, and I am constantly selecting items I don't want.  There's just not enough friction to get it to move where you want to. 

All in all, I am liking the phone, but I will definitely need a few more weeks to play around with it (and to drop it on the floor).  A few of its rivals you might want to check out are the Samsung SGH-D807, and the LG Chocolate.