Clinging

....And if I should live to be
The last leaf upon the tree
In the spring,
Let them smile, as I do now,
At the old forsaken bough
Where I cling.

Oliver Wendell Holmes' - The Last Leaf

As we are born, we are at death's door. "What day? What time?" we sing.
Laugh and cry, laugh and cry endlessly 'till the end; and 'till the end we cling.
We cling. To what do we cling? To death we cling, for life passes by, such a busy thing.
We cling to that certain thing. That dependable end. Ashes that are immune to life's sting.

Heedfullness

"Just as, of all root fragrances, black aloes-root is reckoned the foremost; in the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in heedfulness, converge in heedfulness, and heedfulness is reckoned the foremost among them.

"Just as, of all wood fragrances, red sandalwood is reckoned the foremost; in the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in heedfulness, converge in heedfulness, and heedfulness is reckoned the foremost among them.

"Just as, of all flower fragrances, jasmine is reckoned the foremost; in the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in heedfulness, converge in heedfulness, and heedfulness is reckoned the foremost among them.

- The Buddha
selection from the Appamada Sutta A.N. 10

Life and Leisure

Leisure

"What is this life, so full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath boughs
And stare as long as sheep and cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
Not time to turn at beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
Not time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare."

Leisure - W H Davies

Electronic Health Records? Not until...

Electronic Health Records have definite advantages. Already implemented in some countries, it has shown its advantages as well as disadvantages. There is also development of Personal health records, putting the responsibility for them to the consumer. That Microsoft and Google seem to be racing each other for this market, shows their ignorance of its complexity. Since both companies are offering the services free, it is a pity that they do not collaborate.

The danger of developing EHRs without collaboration at the international level, behoves that people will have their healthcare in one state or one country for the whole of their life. Yes, even in the same country, different states have developed their own system, based on different commercial software vendors. If a patient moves from one state to another, his wonderful comprehensive medical record becomes rubbish in the new state!

Therefore, EHR should not be developed without international collaboration. We need international open standards to ensure

• interoperability
• machine and software system independence
• free communication of information between different systems
• communication and data transfer, with and to, different hardware devices
• security
• governance
• funding and therefore cost effectiveness

Until then we will only be wasting money and resources. We need to work on a long lasting marriage and not a one night stand.

Google spits out Chrome

The announcement and the release of the new Chrome web browser by Google today is really important to the web. The Cartoon Story is here. The reason is that this company is doing everything in the web, and depends entirely on the web for its business. Therefore when they develop a browser from scratch, they are obviously going to make all their services part of the browser.

The success of Google, and the trust they have earned, is what makes this software uniquely important. This will enable users to do things in a different way, in a stable, truly multimedia enabled browser. Everything Google has developed here and there, will become "One".

Initially, Chrome will seem like competition to other browsers. But eventually it will be something quite different from what browsers were expected to be. Google would be planning to bring the Mobile web service providing devices into the Chrome scene. They have been developing software for this market too. Chrome may enable the dvelopment of a multitude of wholly different third party software for the Mobile platform. At the moment the "forgotten browser", Opera, is making inroads into the mobile market. If Chrome should also enter the mobile market with the platforms already in development by Google, then definitely we will have "The One".

Google's timing maybe just right. Let us watch.............