techies, what's your feeling about this OQO mini personal pc? (link)

THAT THIS THING IS WAY TOO FUCKING EXPENSIVE!!!

1899 for the base computer? GAH!


Give it a few months. If the thing starts selling, economies of scale kick in and the price will drop.

On edit: Where' the Linux option? ;-)

It IS expensive- but I can easily see a large metropolitan hospital shucking out the bucks to give these to its nurses and doctors and implement a software system that would allow truly efficient hospital operations to take place.

Bronson Methodist Hospital, located in Kalamazoo, MI, has just put such a software system in place (it runs on XP). Doctors and nurses have instant access to the current status of any patient who is checked in, and can view the movements of patients from one area of the hospital to another in real time (no, not a map, just a numerical code for the part of the hospital each patient is in). As a matter of fact, the patients in triage can see the status screen on the monitors next to their beds. It's fascinating to watch, knowing these are real people. Every once in a while you see something ominous and helplessly wonder what it's about. That screen, by the way, does not contain any names.

I'm unaware of the other capabilities of the system, but I imagine it has the ability to forward specific information to any named person in the hospital (given security precautions, of course). For example, a surgeon on another floor could be silently paged to a critical patient, and be forwarded that patient's chart and other information while they're en route. This can save valuable time once the doctor reaches the patient in question.

This device would go perfectly with the system they already have in place- so well, in fact, I just might inform them of these devices, perhaps to be given to their surgeons only as a test run. It's worth a shot- I can see the potential these things would have in a variety of situations.

and other Bluetooth gadgets at much less cost.

That's my single biggest complaint about PDAs- they are way too small. When I read, I read quite a bit, be it on the bus, on break at work, or wherever I have a pause and a book. I need a lot of screen space so my eyes can scan as fast as they do by default.

Doctors do the same thing; they need to be able to see large amounts of data quickly in a critical case. The size of the screen is the biggest part of the cost of these things.

I'm waiting for electronic paper to come out. Then we'll be having some hugescreen displays- like a wall for a PC monitor. Now THAT would be cool!

and it's been experimental for years now.

One day it will be here, and knock us all on our asses. An entire library in one book of blank pages-- with web access, email, and hyperlinks.

Can't wait.

and small screens with coarse graphics to spend 2 grand on this gadget.