Geek Salad: 2010

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Don't get soap in your eyes - Geek Salad will not meet this Tuesday Dec 7

Why aren't all shampoo and conditioner bottles labelled like this, for my presbyopic eyes?
[cid:B352861D-FC9B-4499-BFC0-BAC77D88B1B0]

These bottles below are more typical.
[cid:D90E558C-4907-46BC-9ABB-D6B75B196D85]

Most bottles are labelled with lush typography and are otherwise unreadable to 40+ year old eyes, without their reading glasses, in the shower trying to figure out which bottle to use first.
It's a usability issue seldom addressed.
I bet all the graphic designers are twenty-somethings.

I'm in the throes of CPOE (computerized physician order entry) conversion these two weeks, and I'll need the extra waking hour to cope with that project.
It's gratifying to feel needed and wanted, I suppose.

So, sleep late, or linger over your morning coffee all by yourself.
See you in two weeks, a few days before Christmas.

________________________________
Jeff Belden MD | beldenj@health.missouri.edu<mailto:beldenj@health.missouri.edu> | 573-489-4206 m
Geek Salad | Tossing Ideas Around
meeting every other Tuesday at 0700
at Kaldi's Coffee on 9th and Cherry
http://geeksalad.posterous.com/
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Friday, November 19, 2010

Shop Class as Soulcraft - Geek Salad hosts Brian Page, Locksmith, Tue Nov 23 at 7 AM

I've learned a lot from my friend, Brian Page.
He's officially retired, and a man of leisure who doesn't mind coming in at 7 AM to meet a group of creative, curious people like you.

He and I have talked about the declining value our culture expresses for those who work with their hands: the craftsman, or the plumber who can feel behind a wall with his hand through a hole in the wallboard and visualize and problem solve the flow of your life's fluids, or the seamstress who skillfully produces clothing that fits exquisitely.

There's a book we encountered and recommend:
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work
by Matthew Crawford.

[cid:AC716F54-EA05-4917-B65E-03528849040F]

Come join the conversation with Brian as we talk about the value of work with the hands.
And maybe about judging the quality of locks: pay me now or pay me later.
Or maybe about the evolving technology of locks.

He knows how to make your creaky locks sing.

Jeff Belden MD | beldenj@health.missouri.edu<mailto:beldenj@health.missouri.edu> | 573-489-4206 m
Geek Salad | Tossing Ideas Around
meeting every other Tuesday at 0700
at Kaldi's Coffee on 9th and Cherry
http://geeksalad.posterous.com/
Calendar<http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=fhf2e2qvq9rt2va5vhabn201a0@group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Chicago>
to unsubscribe, reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in subject line

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Graphic design is more than color choices. Geek Salad meets Tue Nov 9 | 7 AM | Kaldi's

Wonder what a good graphic designer has to offer your work?
Over the past 3 years, I've been learning more and more of the roles that go into good software and web design.

I started digitally stalking Charlie Triplett (web dev for MU Engineering) somehow a few months ago.
Maybe Twitter was the hook, maybe not.
I like his visual style, the way he writes, and his attitude about work and life.
Anyway, I finally met up with Charlie in person today and had a great time chatting.

Charlie will come to Geek Salad to share his ideas about the role of graphic design and more.
Hint: he knows a lot about application guts, too.
It should be fun.

Here's his web site: http://charliecharliecharlie.com

[cid:1036EEA5-A7BB-4833-A030-D508D879EAE6]

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Geek Salad takes a hiatus, but David Fannin will be there each week if you get lonely

Gone Fishing
I'll be doing some traveling the next few weeks, so we won't have an official meeting.
Don't bother trying to rob the house; it will be occupied and well-guarded.

David is a morning regular at Kaldi's, so you can find him there, if you arrive by 7 or so.

Here are some other alternatives to get your Geek Fix in the meantime:

* Mid-Mo iPad Users Group - Thu Oct 21 at 5:30 PM - Reynolds Journalism Institute: Lambert room - U of Mo

I'll be back to meet again on Nov 9, so stay tuned.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

using The Back of the Napkin - on visual communication...

Brian Whorley from Boone Hospital Center forwarded this link about Dan Roam's book, "The Back of the Napkin". David Fannin and I highly recommend it, too!

Here's a cool book I ran across: http://www.thebackofthenapkin.com/

As it applies to healthcare: http://digitalroam.typepad.com/digital_roam/2009/08/fixing-health-care-on-the-back-of-a-napkin-4-napkins-actually.html

[cid:9D91A0C8-E461-43AC-8969-8386F6AE61CA@Kaldiscoffee.com]

Monday, September 27, 2010

Tell a story with Animated Video - Geek Salad meets Sep 28 at 7AM

I love the videos produced by CommonCraft.com<http://www.commoncraft.com>, like this one on "secure passwords"<http://www.commoncraft.com/secure-passwords-video>. They use cardboard cutouts, fingers moving things around, and creative visualizations.

I came across this storyboard tool<http://www.lilipip.com/templates/Script_and_Storyboard_Template.pdf> that one of the companies in the CommonCraft network uses to help it's clients think through a new custom project.

[cid:2430402F-2C27-4596-9355-94F00521778C@WRVS4400N]

I'll print a few copies of the form, and we can play with the tool, imagining that we have a complex story to tell. I like the idea of creative constraints (e.g. voice-over is 20 words) to shape the work.

See you at Kaldi's!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Get Mental! Shake up thinking that got stuck - Geek Salad meets Tue Sep 14 at 7 AM

September has gotten busy for me, and I suspect others as well.
Vacation months are over.
The quarterly meetings are happening this month.

This creates deadline thinking, and inhibits the creative spark we all have.
I recently got my deck of "Mental Notes<http://www.getmentalnotes.com/>" in the mail, designed to spur "out of the box" thinking, based on sound principles.

[cid:6E7DDF3D-FCE3-4449-81B0-B995B4C6220E@dhcp.missouri.edu]

Come join us Tuesday AM at Kaldi's and we'll play with these together.
We'll imagine we're stuck (okay, maybe we won't have to imagine it), and use Mental Notes to get us thinking openly again.

See you then.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

iPadversaries! (alternatives to the iPad) | Geek Salad meets Tue Aug 17

Nice post by Harry McCracken on Technologizer.com<http://Technologizer.com>.
[cid:6390F898-A6AB-44E8-8754-AA7F34E48A18]
He does short reviews (with links to longer ones) on 32 alternatives to the iPad.
Most of them are not yet, but soon, to be released.
Some look vapory.

<http://technologizer.com/2010/08/12/ipad-alternatives/><http://technologizer.com/2010/08/12/ipad-alternatives/>Lin<http://technologizer.com/2010/08/12/ipad-alternatives/>k to the article.

See you Tuesday AM at Kaldi's.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Learn How To Pitch From The People Who Have Been There

Entrepreneurs & Innovators:

Learn How To Pitch From The People Who Have Been There

Workshop and Pitch Event

Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute

August 16 – 17, 2010 (Mon-Tue)

Who should attend:

Anyone with a technology or media business proposal to pitch:

• University of Missouri students

• Students from other colleges

• Missouri entrepreneurs and innovators

What you’ll do:

• Discover resources nearby to help you develop your idea into a marketable proposal

• Pitch your idea to a panel of investors with a chance to win a trip to a global competition that will select the 100 most

innovative ideas in the world

• Get a professional evaluation of your pitch to refine it for the next pitch

More at rjionline.org/innovate.

Thanks to Keith Politte for passing along this info.

Jeff Belden MD | beldenj@health.missouri.edu | 573-489-4206 m
Geek Salad | Tossing Ideas Around
meeting every other Tuesday at 0700
at Kaldi's Coffee on 9th and Cherry
http://geeksalad.posterous.com/
Calendar
to unsubscribe, reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in subject line

Friday, July 30, 2010

Peek under the hood at iPhone app-making | Geek Salad meets Tue Aug 2 at 0700

Tyten Teegarden will show us what it’s like to design an iPhone app. You don’t need to be a programmer to enjoy what he has to say.

He (mostly) and his team wrote the True/False Film Festival iPhone app last year.

I love what happens when you rotate the phone to landscape view!

So, come see, ask questions, and enjoy.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Cover Ups - Geek Salad meets Tue July 20 at 7 AM

I was noticed this odd-unique iPad case in Ragtag Cinema Saturday night after viewing “Winter’s Bone” (which I highly recommend seeing). I stopped and asked the owner about it. It was a canvas prototype made by Cory McCarter. Cory also designed the True-False Film festival canvas bag. It made me aware of the cottage industries that are fueled by popular innovations.

Anyway, other kinds of cases have been in the news, including the rubber bumper or case for the iPhone 4, in case (no pun intended) you have troubles with signal reception.

And then somebody prominent, with barely a cover: the Old Spice Guy. They made a hundred viral videos in one day! The story behind that is an interesting read.

See you Tuesday! I’ll need to leave a little early again.

hide

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Paper and pencils make good EHRS

You may find the report about Dr. Belden on the newest Healthcare IT News Pg31. Congratulations!

http://healthcareitnews.com/news/designing-emrs-paper-and-pencils

His photo is shown on the print issue.

Have a nice day!

-Yang

Tel: 573-882-5772

Fax: 573-882-6158

From: Belden, Jeffery L.
Sent: Friday, July 02, 2010 10:26 AM
To: post@geeksalad.posterous.com
Cc: jeffbelden.geeksaladmembers@blogger.com
Subject: When information doesn't change behavior, try emotions. Geek Salad meets July 5 at 7 AM

I had the iced mocha today.

Then logged my calorie intake and was dismayed at how much it was.

So am I going to change my behavior?

Stay tuned.

Maybe I should weigh in again when I get home.

See you at Kaldi’s.

Link

Friday, July 2, 2010

When information doesn't change behavior, try emotions. Geek Salad meets July 5 at 7 AM

I had the iced mocha today.

Then logged my calorie intake and was dismayed at how much it was.

So am I going to change my behavior?

Stay tuned.

Maybe I should weigh in again when I get home.

See you at Kaldi’s.

Link

Re: When information doesn't change behavior, try emotions. Geek Salad meets July 5 at 7 AM

Did you run home after the drink and how did that affect your cardiac risk factors?
Best,
annie

On 7/2/10 10:25 AM, "Belden, Jeffery L." <beldenj@health.missouri.edu> wrote:

I had the iced mocha today.
Then logged my calorie intake and was dismayed at how much it was.
So am I going to change my behavior?
Stay tuned.

Maybe I should weigh in again when I get home.

See you at Kaldi's.
[cid:3360911027_28247601] <http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/foods-from-starbucks/9520/2>
Link <http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/foods-from-starbucks/9520/2>

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Geek Salad won't meet this week June 22

We'll be taking our youngest son, Mark, to Denver to start film school.
I'll be there in 2 weeks on July 6.
I may have someone there to show us a bit (10-15 minutes) about making an iPhone app.
I've even learned a bit about the process, though I won't be the one presenting.
Stay tuned.

By the way, there will be monthly meetings of a new iPad User Group, meeting on Thursday at 5:30-6:30.
I'll forward the details when I get them.

Monday, June 14, 2010

First gathering of Columbia Tech Network - Tuesday, June 22, 5:30-7:00 p.m. at ABC Laboratories

Please join us for the first gathering of Columbia Tech Network. This will be an informal 90 minutes with Columbia's high tech community – executives, entrepreneurs, investors, vendors, and anyone else committed to Columbia's high-tech success.

Tuesday, June 22, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
ABC Laboratories • 4780 Discovery Drive, Columbia
Attire is business casual • Hors d'oeuvres will be served
$10/person – online or at the door
RSVP required – seanspence@earthlink.net<mailto:seanspence@earthlink.net> or 573-823-1308

Featured Speaker Keith Politte
Manager of the Technology Testing Center
Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute

Featured Company PetScreen
Tariq Shah, Commercial Director

http://www.columbiatechnetwork.com/

Monday, June 7, 2010

Nice HTML5 demo. Geek Salad meets Tue Jun 8

Geek Salad meets without me Tue Jun 8 at 7-8 AM.
I'll be at Apple WWDC.
David Fannin will anchor.

See what HTML5 has to offer at
http://www.apple.com/html5

Being a typography geek, I played with the font toy first.

There's an iPad group forming in Columbia.
First meeting is 5:30-6:30 at Reynolds Journalism Institute on 9th Street across from Starbucks.
There's a lot to learn and explore there.

Monday, May 24, 2010

It's getting cloudier - Geek Salad meets Tue May 25 at 0700

I’m getting more of my stuff to and through the cloud.

With the iPad, I put stuff in DropBox and it’s on my iPad without a wired connection.

We are remodeling, so my wife had photos of someone else’s closet layout. I put the SD card into the Mac, pulled off the photos and put them into a DropBox photo folder. In 2 minutes, we were upstairs walking through our remodeled shell of a closet, looking at the photos on the iPad via the DropBox app. “The shoes would go on this wall…”.

TripIt made it a snap to add my June flight to San Francisco to the calendar, with flight details.

What cloud tools are you using?

See you Tuesday AM at 7 at Kaldi’s on 9^th & Elm.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Let's make more mockups of an iPad "manage the home BP" app - Geek Salad meets Tue May 11 at 7-8 AM

I read a page in Tim Brown’s book “Design Thinking” this AM.

It set off a cascade of ideas.

As a doctor, is the patient my target, or my partner?

My attitude makes a big difference.

That got me thinking about our session a month or two ago when we paired off to sketch mobile app ideas for managing home BP. Everyone was so engaged!

This AM, I made a number of sketches that raised an equal number of questions.

Here’s one I refined into a mockup.

Join us Tue AM to explore those questions and point toward some answers.

I’ll bring the rest of my sketches, and stuff for you to sketch on.

Feel free to bring your own crayons or markers, if you prefer.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

I think my medicine is giving me side effects! - Geek Salad meets Tue 4/27 at 7

See you at Geek Salad this Tuesday Apr 27 from 7-8 AM at Kaldi's at 9th and Cherry.
I'll bring along the iPad again. More apps specific for the iPad keep appearing.
---

RXplore: New Regenstrief tool lets docs instantly track down drug reactions
Video<http://www.rxplore.com/AMIA/> (2:44) no sound.
[cid:D9B77352-0A17-45A7-B91D-E074E0630C13]

This tool, being developed at the Regenstrief Institute, lets you know the likelihood of a particular medicine causing a particular side effect.

I've wanted a tool like this for some time.
Now, if it just integrated with my electronic medical record, or your personal health record, that would be nice.

You might wonder "which of my medicines could be causing swelling?"
This tool helps.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

iPad is Here - Come to Geek Salad Tue Apr 13 to play with one

Geek Salad meets Tue Apr 13 from 7-8 AM at Kaldi’s on 9^th and Cherry.

Steve Mays, George Kopp, and who knows who else will bring along their new iPads for show, tell, and play.

Wash your hands.

The instruction manual is incredibly short.

Jeff Belden MD | beldenj@health.missouri.edu | 573.489.4206 m | www.toomanyclicks.com

Friday, March 26, 2010

Playing with Prototypes at Geek Salad | Tue Mar 30 | Kaldi's 7-8 AM

I'm on a prototyping binge.
The iPad is coming April 3. I saw a blog post by OmniGroup, one of my favorite companies for Mac applications. They describe making a couple of iPad prototypes so they could start designing apps for it before they had their hands on a working model.

That got me to thinking.
What would an iPhone app look like for an EMR? What would I expect from it as a family physician? Would I use it in clinic at all? On hospital rounds? How would it be better than a laptop or an iPad? Would I glance at the schedule of patients for my office if I was 7th person in line at the coffee shop?

Those musings had me taking 8 pages of notes in my pocket notebook.

What if I had an iPad prototype?
Well, I had some foam board, black electrician's tape, a sharp shop knife, a yardstick, and access to Apple's website where I could get the exact dimensions. In no time I had a prototype. Make that 4 prototypes. Now I have 5.

One of them is a teacher's $3 masonite white board, including the first-grader writing lines on the flip side. Another one has a giant fluorescent green PostIt note consuming the screen area.

So, come and play with my iPad prototypes.
We'll role play doctor/nurse/patient managing blood pressure control using home measurements.

Bring your imagination, too!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Calendar for Geek Salad meeting dates

Want to add Geek Salad meeting dates to your calendar?
Here are two calendar links:
iCal
HTML
Check the blog for the rare cancellations (around holidays mainly).

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Geek Salad meets Tue Feb 15 at Kaldi's - Hear me rave about the Siri iPhone app

I just heard Merlin Mann of 43 Folders recommend this iPhone app on the MacBreak Weekly Podcast.
Siri uses voice recognition (powered by Nuance, who else?) to make finding things drop dead simple.
Just ask it "find Indian restaurants near here" or "what's the weather Sunday?"
I couldn't stump it.
Available for Blackberry, too.
Gorgeous interface. Nice tutorial. Guides novice users with suggested searches, leading you down a short path to treasure.

http://www.siri.com

Of course, we only talk about whatever you, the attendees find interesting or stimulating.
See you then!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Geek Salad Special Event Feb 2. See Office 2010 Preview with Windows Live simultaneous collaboration

Andrew Hutson will demo MS Office 2010 beta,
and with the help of Carl Hooker will demo simultaneous editing of documents in the Windows Live cloud.
We plan to have 3 computers attached to the TV via HDMI cables, so we can toggle between computers. Should be interesting to see that!
I like the new Sparkline feature in Excel 2010.
I'm on the bus. No way to grab a screenshot of 2010 right now.

We might mention the new Apple iTab.
[cid:3347462847_4664314]
I followed the Apple Event on Twitter via MacLife. Nice and comprehensive.
[cid:3347462847_4675266]
... And more.

--
Jeff Belden MD | beldenj@health.missouri.edu | 573-489-4206 m
Geek Salad | Tossing Ideas Around
meeting every other Tuesday at 0700-0800
at Kaldi's Coffee on 9th and Cherry
http://geeksalad.posterous.com
to unsubscribe, reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in subject line

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Type tells a story

Type tells a story: "

If you write it down, we're going to judge it.

Not just the words, we're going to judge you even before we read the words. The typography you use, whether it's a handwritten note or a glossy brochure, sends a message.

Some typefaces are judged in a similar way by most people you're addressing (Times Roman in a Word document or Helvetica on a street sign or Myriad Pro on a website) but even when you choose something as simple as a typeface, be prepared for people to misunderstand you.

If you send me a flyer with dated, cheesy or overused type, it's like showing up in a leisure suit for a first date. If your website looks like Geocities or some scammy info marketer, I won't even stay long enough to read it.

Like a wardrobe, I think a few simple guidelines can save amateurs like us a lot of time:

1. Invest some time and money up front to come up with a house style that actually looks the way you want it to, one that tells the story you want to tell. Hire a designer, put in some effort. A headline font, a body font, one or two extras. That's your outfit, just like the four suits you rotate through your closet.

2. 'What does this remind you of?' No need to be a pioneer (unless that's the story you want me remember). Find a combination of typefaces that remind your chosen audience of the sort of organization you want to remind them of. Hint: italic wedding invitation fonts in the body of your email remind me of nothing except other people who have wasted my time...

3. Be consistent. Don't change it when you get bored. Don't change it when your staff gets bored. Change it when the accountant and marketing guys tell you it's not working any longer.

Bonus! Books from John McWade, Adobe and Chuck Green

Monday, January 18, 2010

Geek Salad meets Tue Jan 19 at 7-8 AM at Kaldi's at 9th & Cherry

Google’s Phone – Nexus One. Apple’s iWorks.com public beta.

Jason Cafer now owns the Google Nexus One phone. We’ll have him tell us about the features.

Maybe he’ll let you touch the phone, if your hands are clean!

I stumbled across a new Apple cloud service that’s in Beta.

It’s called iWork.com. It requires an Apple ID login.

I’ll show you if there’s time or interest.

Both Microsoft and Apple are creating the kind of cloud computing and collaboration environments that Google has succeeded at.

Let’s see if they can make the formatting of “less than simple” documents do better than Google does.

Not sure what I mean?

Try exporting a Google document with a numbered outline. Makes you want to kill.

Only PDF exports are obedient. Not to Word. Not to RTF.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Geek Salad meets Tue Jan 5 from 7-8 AM at Kaldi's on 9th & Cherry

Happy New Year!
What juicy 2010 opportunities do you need to say "no" to, in order to enjoy the ones that are really good?

Visually, here's a way to remove the other distractions as you read on the web.
"Readability" was mentioned in David Pogue's latest blog entry.
http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

[cid:3345388837_24834119]
I tried it and I like it.
You can control font style, size, column width. Columns that are too wide drive me crazy.
Just drag the little bookmark to your Firefox toolbar. Works in all browsers.

See you Tuesday.

--
Jeff Belden MD | beldenj@health.missouri.edu | 573-489-4206 m
Geek Salad | Tossing Ideas Around
meeting every other Tuesday at 0700
at Kaldi's Coffee on 9th and Cherry
http://geeksalad.posterous.com
to unsubscribe, reply with UNSUBSCRIBE in subject line

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Friday, November 19, 2010

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Monday, September 27, 2010

Monday, September 13, 2010

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Friday, July 2, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Monday, June 14, 2010

Monday, June 7, 2010

Monday, May 24, 2010

Friday, May 7, 2010

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Friday, March 26, 2010

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Monday, January 18, 2010

Sunday, January 3, 2010

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