I hate cables; I wish everything were wireless. I spend hours trying to find ways to hide wires at my home and office. I went so far as to build a faux wall in my office to hide all the television cable (it is hard to explain to contractors why you want a wall that doesn’t do anything).
Besides being unsightly, cables are often overpriced. Retail stores typically carry only expensive ones, blaming the price on quality.
A few weeks back, right before the second digital transition, I went to pick up a couple digital converter boxes with my government coupons. With the $40 coupons, I grabbed two different converter boxes from the shelf - one costing $29, the other $55. As I began to walk toward the checkout, an employee asked me if I needed any cables. I tried to blow him off, inching my way towards the door. But he strongly suggested I get a $74 indoor antenna and a $24 Dynex six-foot Composite Video/Stereo Audio Cable because I would need a quality connection.
I also dislike big box stores, so I usually make an effort to avoid eye contact with employees to avoid theses types of situations. So in my defensive state, I wasn’t sure how to respond to the suggestion of buying $100 in accessories for a $30 device I planned to keep under glass for emergency purposes and knowing I could get an equivalent six-foot composite cable online for $3. After a pause, I asked him how well it worked at his home. As he began to brag about his HD satellite setup, I slipped away.
Retail stores make money off consumers’ accessory and cable purchases. Their margin on the Blu-Ray Player you just bought isn’t great, but the margin on the $100 HDMI cable they helped you pick is. Sure, they sell a $13 HDMI cable if you check on line, but good luck finding a store that has the $13 model in stock.
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As Internet speeds continue to increase, service providers are able to utilize the expanded bandwidth for new services. Phone companies are now offering TV services, while cable companies are providing phone services. Mediacom has been providing phone services to homes for a while and just started a business phone service, providing much needed competition to CenturyLink (formerly CenturyTel).
Already a Mediacom cable and Internet subscriber, we at Tech 2 were offered the chance to be the first customers of Mediacom’s Business Phone Service.
It felt risky being the cable company’s guinea pig. But I was willing to take the risk because of Mediacom’s track record with its phone service to homes. Also, our office is directly across the street from Mediacom, so we knew where to find them if we had problems.
I felt even more confident after the preliminary visit by a Mediacom representative. I was copied on an e-mail sent to Mediacom corporate with the subject line, “It doesn’t get any better than this!” The e-mail outlined all the things that would make the Tech 2 install easy.
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So, I was sitting on the couch with my feet up on the ottoman watching a CenturyTel technician working on the company’s 2Wire wireless router. It had been randomly cutting out for the past week, and I finally had called to get someone out to my house to look at it. Though I knew I would soon be sailing on the Internet again, for the moment the CenturyTel ship had run aground.
But wait. I was still able to write this in Google Docs online. How?
No, I didn’t steal the neighbor’s WiFi (it’s illegal, and besides, it’s locked); I used the new Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot. The MiFi instantly creates a wireless Hotspot for up to five computers anywhere on Verizon’s Network.
I’ve written about wireless broadband devices for laptops before (http://tinyurl.com/koyqjw) and typically run around town with an AT&T ExpressCard (http://tinyurl.com/5hvcaj) for my MacBook Pro. But the MiFi is different. Unlike the other devices I used, which connect directly into my laptop, the MiFi is a small, black device about the size of a pack of gum that operates independently of the computer.
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Last week, I noticed in the lot of Joe Machens Ford one of those Smart cars I keep seeing downtown. The bright yellow car parked on the corner was hard to miss. Being an eco-friendly city driver and intrigued by new technology, I decided to check it out.
Eating sunflower seeds at the corner of the building was salesman Willis Robb. I asked Robb about the little electric deal on the corner of the lot, and he surprised me: It’s gasoline-powered. Instantly fascinated, I had to take a closer look.
The car, manufactured by a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, runs on unleaded gasoline - nothing else. Under the hood is a 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine (that means John Deere has a lawn mower with a larger engine). But even with the small engine, the car has a surprising 70 horsepower (the 2009 Corolla has 132) and an EPA rating of 33 miles per gallon in the city (41 on the highway).
The smart Fortwo holds as many passengers as its name in surprising comfort. Each door is almost the entire length of the car, so getting in and out is easy. There’s a lot of leg room, and the seat fits my six-foot frame with room to spare. In fact, there’s so much space the cup holders at the front of the center console seem too far away. I like my coffee close.
Fortwo
But how does it drive? The folks at Joe Machens Ford lent me the car for the afternoon so I could run a couple errands.
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May 12 marked the one-year anniversary of a little-known department of the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine: The Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Clinical Simulation Center. The simulation center is an amazing new facility and resource for medical and nursing students, but remains unknown to most of the general public.
University of Missouri medical students and a nursing faculty member discuss the importance of safety and communication in preparation for a simulation exercise.
Tucked away on the sixth floor of the new Clinical Support and Education Building (between the medical school, hospital and the Maryland Avenue Garage), it is not a spot most hospital visitors find by accident. I was lucky enough to see it as a part of a larger Columbia health-care tour and was blown away by the concept and technology.
The simulation center provides the medical student equivalent of student teaching. As a part of their curriculum, first-year medical and nursing students in their first eight-week block use the center to simulate experiences such as taking a patient’s history as a primary care physician and working in a busy emergency room. In the second block, the students do their first simulated physical exam.
What makes the Clinical Simulation Center impressive is its use of technology. Often technology is used because it can be, not because it helps educate. That’s not the case here. Here, the technology is the patient. While some of the simulations use actors or older medical students, many of the simulations use state-of-the-art mannequins. Originally developed for military in-the-field medical training, these mannequins allow medical students to interact and make mistakes without endangering a human life.
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