Quicksilva thoughts...

Such a great idea in so many respects. Taking established hardware used for fun by millions of children around the world to monitor something that is so important and then transforming it into a fun task. Games and their hardware can go some way in enabling us to be fitter and deal with stress, so why not help us with the routine tasks, even the important ones like this.

As a parent of a competitive 3yr old who's daily routine includes medication and then walking her Nintendogs™ I can see many applications here. The fact that it turns the task into something they want to do is great, though from a parenting point of view I really like the fact that it will empower a child to take control for themselves – albeit under a level of parental supervision.

Maybe this application will be the first of many, I remember seeing a Pulse Monitor that Nintendo showed off earlier in the year – I wonder what they hope to achieve with that...?!

Quicksilva thoughts...

A House of Lords report has recommended that the government place the development of a national electronic health record at the top of its agenda. Their argument is based on the use of a centralised electronic record in the detection of diseases and conditions through genetic analysis. The ability to access all the relevant information on a particular patient or condition requires powerful IT tools. They go on to argue that the greatest benefits to be incurred from the burgeoning science of genetics can only occur when the information is linked to the medical records, which in turn means that standardised electronic records need to be available widely. In particular the report advises that any such records need to be able to support the inclusion of genetic data and the latest research.

Despite significant advances in genomics used to tackle common diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease, the report warns that the lack of a centralised and easily accessible records system has meant some consumers are making use of genomic tests found on the internet without proper medical advice or the expertise needed to understand the results.

For desired electronic records programmes to happen, any systems will need to be carefully designed and implemented, with integration software and security forming key components in the overall architecture. I believe that in order to gain the benefits across all areas of health, then the integration of data sources from all health sector sources will be vital and that the use of fast, secure and reliable integration software will be essential.

Quicksilva thoughts...

It's amazing how simple concepts that the government try to bring in always seem to get bigger and bigger. The ID card scheme originally started off with the intention of just storing the card holder's basic personal and biometric information but it seems as if the government have forgotten to say no enough is enough because they are now considering the idea of storing medical records on the cards as well.

If you started designing a toaster and ended up with a coffee maker your manager would question at what point your realised you had lost the initial idea and I hope this will come sooner rather than later for the government. With the public already having to pay £20 to renew a driver's license and £72 pounds to renew a passport can the public really afford to have to pay for an ID card as well!

With India launching their own ID card scheme, which will provide biometric data and a photograph for its 1.2 billion population, I only hope that when India's project has been rolled out and completed that Britain's scheme has either been completed or it has been scrapped. However there's a little voice telling me that it will still be rumbling on in the political background no closer to finishing than it is now.

Quicksilva thoughts...

After reading this article, I visited the NPG's website just to have a look and see if I could view the images or whether there would be a charge.

Well firstly its free, so the idea that another person, as an individual or acting as a company would pay to use those images purely to display them for public use, not in anyway change they them or use them in any revenue earning way, does seem to me a little bit cheeky. If the NPG are saying that they want Wikipedia to contribute to the £1m that they spent on the digitisation project then surely ordinary people should have to pay to see the high res images? Not just be able to access them freely?

I can appreciate that the NPG took steps to digitalise the portraits and this incurred costs and to have them in high resolution is the best way for an image to be shown. But to have them on the internet in that format and expect people not to copy them and use them, was in my opinion not really very bright, after all the whole idea of the internet was and I hope still is free movement of information .

The whole basis of the NPG's threat of legal action against Wikipedia seems to me very flimsy, after all their argument is a breach of copyright, a breach which in the US isn't a breach, so who will decide which country's laws are to be applied, which country's right?

Quicksilva thoughts...

As an environmentally friendly company, with ISO 14001:2004 certification, we are always interested in new initiatives to help the environment. This study has intrigued me to say the least. On the one hand it has the potential to significantly raise awareness of our waste and perhaps improve our recycling and on the other it could itself be contributing to the waste and ushering in further Big Brother activities into society where even our waste disposal is tracked. There are definitely big pros and cons to this.

As a short term study it will be very interesting to see the results and I commend the attempt to raise our awareness of waste disposal. However, today most people in the Western world have a mobile phone and maybe another device like a laptop or a wifi computer, 1 or 2 transmitters per person per year or so. Now imagine every piece of trash containing a transmitter, we're not talking about doubling the numbers, but perhaps multiplying by 10,000 fold. I am not one that believes in the danger mobile phones and masts may have for our health, yet if it was ever proved we couldn't simply switch off all these transmitters.

Certainly any initiative to attach these devices to every piece of trash will not happen overnight and without a fight, so lets just wait and see the results of the study and do our best to dispose of waste in an environmentally friendly way.