Various Rubbish

I thought I'd start off this page with a photo of me (by way of introduction)...

Me

...and here's an even scarier one:

Me in the NHS
Me after 7 years working in the NHS.


I don't want to frighten you even more so here are some hints`n`tips instead (you might want to print this out).

These specs are aimed at fellow doctors who want to buy or use a computer to help them work.

Computer Specifications

If you want a blisteringly fast, extremely secure, very stable (uncrashable) computer, then for heavens sake don't buy a pile of rubbish (otherwise known as Windows).
This is a good (previously top of the range) setup to have 
Apple Power Mac G4 1.67 GHz (this actually out performs an equivalent Pentium chip by a factor of 3)
1Gb DDR-SDRAM @ 333MHz (RAM's more important than processor for speed)
80Gb UDMA Ultra-ATA 5500rpm Hard Drive (I've added an external 500Gb drive to mine)
nVidia Geforce or ATI Radeon Ultra 128Mb graphics card with DVI-out
Any 64bit soundcard (e.g. Yamaha or Creative)
Internal voice or fax Modem (K56flex and V.90)
Built in Firewire 800/USB 2.0-EDR/Wi-Fi/Ethernet connectivity
Internal 5-6x DVD-ROM/DVD±RW/DVD±R Drive
Internal CD-reWriter for backing up data (may prefer a combo DVD or CD-RW drive)
17inch viewable screen (TFT ones are now quite good and take up v little space)
Optical mouse (nothing fancy like a scrolling wheel or trackball is needed)
Microswitched Backlit Keyboard (worth the extra, these click so you can type much faster)
USB Inkjet Printer capable of photoreal 1200x1200 dpi colour printing (I have a Canon)
Yamaha subwoofer & satellite speakers (excellent and cheap)


Software needed
A popular misconception is that you can't do much with a Mac...WRONG, you can run just about anything...FASTER & BETTER. 
MAC OS X.4.8 comes pre-installed with extras like Safari, Quicktime, iTunes, iMovie iPhoto  etc.
MS Office for Mac vX (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Entourage)
Skype (make free voice calls to other Skype-enabled computers)
Pastor (encrypts and securely stores your passwords - freeware)
Virtual PC / Parallels (windows 2000/XP/msDOS emulator to run ANY MS software if you want to)
Adobe Photoshop CS (the ultimate Photo/Graphics package out there)
Pic2Icon (free - allows you create preview icons...useful to 'see' them in the Finder)
iConvertor (allows you to save the embedded icon files within programs and create your own - freeware)
BBEdit / TacoHTML (a "Super TextEdit" that colour codes html text for easy editing)
Transmit (allows you to upload multiple files to your webserver/site)
Toast Titanium (allows you to burn multi-session CD-RW's and DVD's - the same company makes Nero)
Chicken of the VNC (allows you remotely view & control other computers on your network - freeware)
AppZapper (allows you to completely remove apps and their associated pref and extra files)
File List (free - allows you to batch rename multiple files, essential if you have lots to work with)
Disk Inventory X (allows you to see the sizes of the contents of a drive (inc. 'dot' files) - free.
Little Snitch (lets you know if a program tries to "phone home")
KeyViewer (standalone app that replaces the OSX native KeyCaps - freeware)
Pacifist (allows you to selectively install components from discs)
Onyx/TinkerTool (customise your GUI...and they're free too)
XMenu (freeware menu bar extension similar to the classic Apple Menu)
QuickSilver (freeware launcher that is even better)
Plus there are hundreds of great free widgets out there that allow you to do much much more
DO NOT use any software from Symantec on your Mac. Both Symantec Norton products, DiskDoctor and AntiVirus, do something that is frowned upon in OS X, and which is a sign of poor programming from Norton. That is, these products add Kernel Extensions to Mac OS X, but OS X was specifically designed by Apple to get away from the instability that adding extensions causes. So despite what Symantec claim on their packaging, these products are NOT optimized for OSX and, indeed, may well damage your machine......DO NOT USE THEM AT ALL......FOR ANYTHING.
The same goes for Allume/Smith Micro Stuffit Deluxe (installs kernel Extensions) and the Unsanity haxie Application Enhancer - APE (installs frameworks that destabilise OSX).

My current computer is a laptop (PowerBook G4 [Aluminium]) that, because I've upped the RAM to 1Gb, generally performs as well as a 5Ghz P4. I also have the improved 128MB ATI graphics card installed.
Mac OS X is also actually Unix built to look like Mac and therefore is Hard Core stable and WON'T CRASH (Microsoft take note...)


Well, I hope that's been useful. If I have any more tips I'll stick them up.


11th Nov 1997