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Adium Tech Newsroom

A tech blog covering all things tech in our ever evolving digital world.

PHP in Healthcare

12/15/2020

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Written By Daniel Burns
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As healthcare systems around the world evolve into a fully digital experience, developers in the healthcare industry look for a language and platform to focus their attention on. PHP has not been a slacker by any majority. From its easy database integration to its ever evolving speed and maturity, PHP in the healthcare industry today is a widely adopted tool and it may surprise you just how widely it is used.

    PHP has been around since the mid 90s originally created as a scripting language to interface with binaries written in the C-programming language (5). After iteration and iteration popularity has blown up to create the basis for over 80% of the active web today (1). Thats right, 8 out of every 10 websites you have visited are most likely made with PHP. A couple major sites you may know of is Facebook, WordPress, Flickr, and Wikipedia just to name a few (1). PHP is known for its ease of use and fully integrated server side scripting. Since its been around for a while and still considered modern, you’ll be hard pressed not to find any senior developers to hire who know how to program in PHP. That is not to discredit younger developers either. In the past 10 years, we have seen a market share grow from 11% to 26.2% worldwide. That is only about ~6% less than the already popular C# and ~15% less than Java at 40% of the market share. (6). This gives anyone in the industry hope that PHP as a language should stick around for at least the next 10 years. (Obviously until something way better comes along.) So why choose PHP for programming in the healthcare industry? Simply because of its high availability, adoption, and great integration with databases. Something hospitals have an ever growing number of as we approach an always connected world in 2021.

    From 2004 to 2017, hospital adoption rate of digital EHR (Electronic Health Record) systems has blown up to 96% (2)! And for good reason too. Having an EHR compared to paper records have helped save lives by having live, up to date, accurate information that can be sent from floor to floor, hospital to hospital, or anywhere that’s needed really. This amount of data created is massive and what other language to handle large amounts of data in conjunction with a database than PHP. Data needs to be entered in forms all the time, and having an always available system or webpage to import patient data is vital to the EHR system’s success and PHP is perfect for sending forms of information into a system. PHP is huge in creating web apps in healthcare. An application that can be added and accessed from any device, whether desktop, mobile, tablet etc is an amazing tool to collect and retrieve vital data, records, and insurance connections for the patient (1). The exponential impact on quality of service isn’t just for the patient, but for the healthcare workers, ie doctors, nurses, techs, is highly beneficial to them and the industries success. As a patient, being able to order prescriptions online, schedule appointments, see past visits, or view lab results instantly or as soon as they become available is amazing. Something unheard of 20 years ago! Especially in 2020 with our current COVID-19 pandemic, seeing test results as fast as possible is vital to everyone’s safety and its all mostly done with PHP! PHP isn’t just for web apps too, its a full blow programming language that enables developers to create great applications for any app store to help, for example, connect patients and doctors over video chat. Easy migration of web apps to standalone phone, tablet, and pc apps is a wonderful experience that expedites development, cuts down on costs, and reaches an even broader audience for patients. Something the industry has been trying to solve to save lives and make everyone live healthier as a result. Many EHR systems are connected to massive databases run using MySQL, SQLite, FrontBase, Oracle, IBM, OBDX and so much more, all highly compatible with PHP (1). PHP is famously web based and used for many social media platforms, so it is known to handle large amounts of simultaneous visitors at once. This is exactly what any healthcare EHR system needs to run efficiently, stay available at all times, and cater to any number of users, anywhere in the world (3).

    Development, integration, and high availability enable lots of data to be produced and stored for many many uses. Big Data comes to mind and its impact on the healthcare industry and as a whole (7). With vast amounts of data about patients, visits, location, sickness etc, trends and predictions can be produced to help us as humans understand what’s going on around us. Specifically prediction, finding when the next pandemic may hit and how to isolate it and stop it is now most likely priority number one in the industry. Enabling real time alerts based off location, patient data, and past results is already a thing today. For example, if you have an Apple Watch and lets say you fall with fall detection on or your watch tells you that you’ve been having irregular heart rates, that data can be sent to your doctor with a push of a button to diagnose you before anything major, like a heart attack, could even occur. And with all that data collected, the watch can suggest different workouts and ways to keep you in shape if it detects anomalies that can be corrected. Isn’t that amazing! PHP, if implemented correctly, is also highly secure (5). With more secure ways built right in to handle user data connecting to servers to be stored. After chatting with a few friends in the healthcare developer side of the industry, they all confirm that they have seen a push with prediction, analytics, and just broadly, the impact of Big Data information integration. All thanks to the input and systems that run using PHP. 
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    This highly customizable, expandable, and reliable platform to develop with here to stay and I can only predict its adoption will grow exponentially in the healthcare development world. PHP is widely adopted, easy to develop on, and highly secure if built right, perfect for the healthcare industry.


Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

Resources:
  1. Sharma, S. (2020, September 07). Why To Choose PHP For Healthcare Web application Development ? Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://code.likeagirl.io/why-to-choose-php-for-healthcare-web-application-development-28ac76b017e8
2. Non-federal Acute Care Hospital Electronic Health Record Adoption. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://dashboard.healthit.gov/quickstats/pages/FIG-Hospital-EHR-Adoption.php
3. PHP for Healthcare Industry - What can be done? - PHP Development. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://sites.google.com/site/phpapplicationdevelopmentindia/php-for-healthcare-industry
4. Which is Best Programming Language For Healthcare Apps? (2020, July 06). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://www.enukesoftware.com/blog/which-is-best-programming-language-for-healthcare-apps.html
5. History of PHP - Manual. (n.d.). Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://www.php.net/manual/en/history.php.php
6. Liu, S. (2020, June 11). Most used languages among software developers globally 2020. Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/793628/worldwide-developer-survey-most-used-languages/
7. Durcevic, S. (2020, October 21). 18 Examples of Big Data In Healthcare That Can Save People. Retrieved December 14, 2020, from https://www.datapine.com/blog/big-data-examples-in-healthcare/
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It may be the end for DirecTV as streaming services thrive.

3/10/2020

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Written By Daniel Burns
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   This week I was surprised to read about the direction AT&T has put out for the future of its acquired satellite tv service DirecTV. At an investor conference John Stankey, president of AT&T, admitted that DirecTV is no longer seeking subscribers for its service. DirecTV has seen its subscriber count fall from 20 million to 16 million since they bought the company for $49 billion back in 2015. Initially seen as a great addition to AT&T’s media arsenal is now becoming a pain in the neck that might have to eventually be cut off.​
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    Stankey said AT&T will continue to sell DirecTV but only in “more rural or less dense suburban areas.” Given that DirecTV was originally launched in 1994 as a way for rural subscribers to watch tv in areas not covered by traditional cable, its not much of a surprise that strategy isn’t working too well today. “But in terms of our marketing muscle and our momentum in the market, it will be about software-driven pay-TV packages." AT&T TV (Starting at $50), not to be confused with dying Uverse, made its debut this past week and has been greeted with poor response due to its need for equipment rental and a two year contract upon signing up. This structure is exactly what people are trying to avoid by streaming in the first place. Anyone can go out and buy an Apple TV or streaming device that can run apps and services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and YouTube TV. So the need to rent a device that can do the same thing doesn't appeal to consumers anyone. 

    AT&T isn’t the only company trying to push this model of renting their own device. Both Cox and Comcast have a wireless standalone smart box that runs on Comcast’s X1 platform allowing basic cable and apps over the internet. It just doesn’t make sense to rent a box anymore to watch tv. If you just buy an Apple TV 4K for example, it offers a way more premium experience to users than anything big cable can put out. In fact the AT&T box required for its new streaming service is just a custom made Android TV box with its own AT&T branded skin on it. Nothing too special about it at all. So AT&T’s decision to cut back on DirecTV’s service ends up making a-lot of sense from a marketing perspective.

    One big draw to DirecTV is its NFL Sunday ticket which gives you access to every live game across the country in one package deal. But in two years their contract with The NFL is set to expire and it doesn’t look like AT&T is planning on renewing it either. As AT&T looks to expand its presence in the now crowded streaming market with HBO Max and now AT&T TV, it needs to shift its resources away from aging DirecTV. There have been talks of selling off DirecTV after Sunday Ticket expires to satellite competitor Dish Network. Who ironically also owns Sling TV in the streaming TV space. According to Wall street analyst firm MoffettNathanson; about 6 million subscribers ditched satellite and cable in just 2019. If this were to happen Dish would be the only satellite TV provider in the US to cater to those who still need satellite tv with a combination of over 25 million subscribers. With the emergence of 5G and internet seemingly almost everywhere these days, steaming tv is bound to be the go to when available. Whether the streaming market is becoming too crowded is another story to cover.

    So, what happens to anyone wanting to sign up for DirecTV in urban areas? Looks like its tough muck for them. Just switch to streaming because it's the end to a long and pricy era in traditional pay tv. There are two main live tv streaming services that I see still remaining. YouTube TV ($49.99), which is owned by Google, and then there’s Hulu with Live TV ($55), which is owned by Disney. Both services have big backing and carry so much potential to survive if they can keep prices down. Or at least low enough when combined with the price of internet so that it's still a better deal than the traditional cable package of yesteryear.

   In my strongest opinion, cable tv is just about dead and DirecTV is just another nail in the coffin. It was a terrible purchase by AT&T and I’m pretty sure they see that now. Before AT&T bought them their service was decent, very competitive to cable (at least in the first year), and their technology was actually pretty good. But it all went down hill as they were bought, left to rust, and streaming tv apps on flashy new platforms looked a lot better. So here’s one last toast to DirecTV as its put out to the pasture and sold off for scraps.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

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If music streaming services want to survive, then original content may be the answer.

1/4/2020

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Written by Daniel Burns
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      Jimmy Iovine is an American record producer who founded Interscope Records in 1990.  In 2006 he and rapper Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics. Apple bought Beats and their just off the ground music streaming service in May 2014 for $3 billion dollars. Apple then turned that service into Apple Music and still continue to make and sell Beats products today, but with an Apple accent. I recently read an article from The New York Times written by Ben Sissaro interviewing Iovine on leaving Apple. And it was what he said about the music streaming industry that got me thinking. Music streaming services need something to set them apart from each other and, at the moment, they are all pretty much the same. Iovine outlined a central problem with streaming services today calling them utilities.

    “And the streaming music services are utilities — they’re all the same. Look at what’s working in video. Disney has nothing but original stuff. Netflix has tons of original stuff. But the music streaming services are all the same, and that’s a problem.”

    What he said is what I hope other streaming services pick up on loud and clear. Music streaming services need exclusivity and original content to survive. Much like Disney and Netflix have original content they produce for themselves. As we know with original content in video, it draws people in and creates a loyal fan base of viewers who come to watch exclusively on a platform for a certain show or movie. But with music, all the services pretty much have the same catalog of artists and albums to choose from. Aside from special exclusive releases, it all ends up on all the services eventually. You don’t see a Netflix made show on Amazon Prime Video and you will probably never will. So what’s stopping, let's say Apple or Spotify from doing the same thing? The only thing comes to mind is record labels and contracts with artists. If Apple would sign artists to do exclusive content just like they do with TV+, then I think they would succeed over Spotify by bringing in more loyal listeners. It wouldn’t be very hard for them either. Apple has had a way better track record of having good relationships with artists versus Spotify. If you remember the Taylor Swift pay rights debate, Apple responded. Spotify has been in deep water before by paying artists less on their service compared to Apple. This isn’t just happening with streaming tv video, the online streaming gaming community is seeing this happen with Amazon’s Twitch competing with Microsoft’s Mixer. Mixer picked up an exclusive deal with previous Twitch streamers Ninja and Shroud in hopes to attract more subscribers to its new service. To some degree it has succeeded. Iovine highlights the biggest problem with growing a music streaming service.

    “It doesn’t scale,” Iovine said. “At Netflix, the more subscribers you have, the less your costs are. In streaming music, the costs follow you.”

    Even with a healthy growing number of subscribers the same pay rate per play, due to contracts and equal opportunity deals with artists and record labels, doesn't go away unless the actual service, like Apple, were to sign with the artist, produce and record in house, and release their song or album exclusively as original content. Apple has some very smart people working for them and Spotify does too. So one day I suspect this will happen. In fact, this will need to happen to keep rates the same and to make music streaming more profitable. This also applies to Spotify's growing podcast service in competition to the gold standard, Apple's stand alone Podcast app. Whether or not this leads to tiered pay levels of service remains to be seen. But something has to be done and the name an Apple Music Original doesn’t so sound crazy.

Quoted WSJ Article

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial
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Five Mobile Device Security Best Practices

12/4/2019

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Written by Daniel Burns
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     Our phones and mobile devices are one of the most important pieces of technology in our every day lives. They are with us all the time and know practically everything about us. Probably even more so than our best of friends. All that information is personal data that is stored on that device just waiting to be taken. So we must take precautions to protect our personal privacy and our data from prying eyes. Here are five best practices to keep your personal data safe and your phone away from unwanted data lurkers.

     First and most importantly is physical security of your device. You want to make sure that your device is with you at all or most of the time. Especially in public places. Someone can easily take, clone, or steal, your device if it is open and vulnerable to these situations. To combat this, make sure you have a strong passcode or lock screen password of some kind on your device. The standard for years has been 4 digit passcodes but now 6 digit passcodes are becoming the norm just because it increases the amount of combinations needed to unlock the device. Also don’t use a simple code like 1234 or your birth year like 1998. Those can be too easily guessed and especially avoid using any other simple code such as address, significant dates, social security number… Something you will be able to remember but no one else could. Next you will want to enable biometrics on your device to add an extra layer of protection on top of just a simple passcode. Passcodes could easily be seen typed or tapped in public and prying eyes can easily remember a simple code. Using biometrics makes it easy, simple, convenient, and with today’s cool new technology, even fun. There are two main uses of biometrics to unlock your device that are popular on the market today. Fingerprint readers and facial recognition. These are conveniently offered during setup of the device and can be found in your perspective devices settings to enable them. It really feels like the future to just glance at your phone and it just unlocks for you. Avoid using public wifi such as “Starbucks Wifi” when you can, especially when using it for accessing banking or secure and or secret work information. Wifi networks can be spoofed to gather data and you will not even notice it happening. Disabling Bluetooth and NFC when not in use can also help your device security. This usually pertains more for Android users than iPhone users though.

    Second we have passwords in general. Password best practices have usually included using long and complex passwords consisting of many numbers, letters, and characters but they are usually hard to remember so people tend to write them down. To avoid this and the security nightmare of people putting sticky notes with passwords on them throughout their office, use long but simple and memorable complex passwords. They usually consist of a memorable sentence or phrase with some numbers and special characters rather than a mix of mealiness garble. If you still can’t remember and just want an even easier way to save your passwords, use password management apps to remember your passwords for you. Just make sure they and encrypted and secure with a master password like Apple’s Keychain, 1Password, and others like Dashlane. Most of them now, even third party password management apps, unlock and auto fill passwords for accounts by using biometrics such as FaceID and TouchID. An easy, convenient, and secure way to keep passwords safe. Thirdly, speaking of encryption, make sure you enable it on your device and use encryption whenever possible. Many modern devices have the option to enable encryption and secure your device if it were ever taken. In fact all iOS devices come standard with encryption and on Android you can enable it in settings. (Just make sure your Android device is not rooted and up to date.) Using encrypted services like messaging apps for example keep your messages hidden and unreadable by anyone else but the receiver. This is why iMessage and WhatsApp are preferable over traditional SMS or other direct messaging services and apps.

    Fourthly and in my opinion the most important on an entirety level is keeping your devices up to date. If you are running the most recent and up to date software then good on you! That means you are less vulnerable to attacks and less of a security risk for you and even your business. Software updates don’t always introduce new features and visual improvements, they are extremely vital to keeping hackers and viruses at bay. They often and always include security patches and bug fixes to shore up vulnerabilities in the operating system. So turn on automatic updates for both apps from the app store and your operating system to remain on the leading edge of security. Plus you get to enjoy those new features on the side. Fifth and last we must understand the difference between trusted and untrusted sources. This pertains to downloading and installing apps from sources from many different places and whether those said places are to be actually trusted and clean. A trusted source is your perspective app store for your operating system. On iOS it is the App Store with its blue app A icon and on Android it is the Google Play Store with its colorful play button icon. Downloading apps from these places are very safe and don’t include any harm to your phone such as viruses and worms. Untrusted sources on the other hand are places like random download sites and file sharing services that let you install unknown apps. This is mostly an Android and Windows problem due to the open nature and non walled garden structure of their operating systems. So install antivirus software to check for any strange attachments that may have come with a download and make sure unknown sources is disabled in settings.

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    So if one were to follow these five simple precautions with their mobile devices then they should have nothing to worry about when protecting their personal data. Our phones and devices know practically everything about us. So any rational and ethical human would want to protect that data from falling into the wrong hands. Keeping your devices on you, protected and secured, and up to date while using trusted sources can ensure that normalcy of privacy continues. Aside from the regular data mining from big brother Google that is.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, 
@DBurnsOfficial

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Geotracking; Privacy versus Convenience

11/13/2019

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Written by Daniel Burns
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     Geotracking is the act of services and platforms using location data gathered from a device either from GPS coordinates, IP addresses, and bluetooth connections, just to name a few. It has long been used as a convenient way for users to have a better experience while using mapping, friend finder, social media apps, and other services like Uber. But does all this location tracking and its gathering of data outweigh its good and convenience in our technology driven society?

    To answer that question we must understand why we love the abilities of location based services on our many devices. For social media users location services allow you to check in and tag a location to a post or photo to share your experience with friends and family. For families using people finding apps such as Find My (iOS) and MyCircle (Android), for example, make it easy and convenient to check up on your kids and family member locations aside from how intrusive of personal privacy it may be. Also for using simple apps such as Google Maps and Uber or Lyft which require your location to even function properly. These are just some of the hundreds of examples of how we use location tracking services throughout our daily lives. But Geotracking isn’t just location data based on just gps coordinates, it can be gathered from other entities such as IP addresses and bluetooth connections. For example, if you go to Google.com and you search for a local business or service it will ask you to use your location. Everyone will hit yes and in doing so you are allowing Google to use your computer’s IP address to locate you in your community and, nonetheless, your current region. Yes that’s right, by even visiting sites that don’t even ask to use your location, companies and sites can see where you are generally located (city for example) to tailor things such as advertisements and specific services just for you. And all that data is out there for anyone to use whether for good and in your favor or for bad and malicious intent.

    Two major concerns have come up with geotracking and its respective location tracking nature. One asking what does geotracking actually reveal and two being what are my rights and what can I do to protect myself. Firstly, geotracking can reveal many privacy concerns in our daily lives. For example if you are going on vacation to, lets say Hawaii, and you post pictures to Facebook with your location attached, if your post isn’t private (only to your friends) then anyone with malicious intent, like burglars, can see and they will now know that they can take their time cleaning out your house while you are gone. Another example of privacy concern, a major one in fact, is when a big exercise and activity tracking app called Strata decided to celebrate how useful their app was, they posted a map of the entire world and all the routes users have taken to exercise with their app. A really fun and cool interactive map that showed just how big their user base was. But unfortunately it even showed locations of activity in parts of the world, such as the middle east, where secret bases of operation were, and it essentially blew those users cover. All because of a simple app that logged your activity routes. Crazy huh? Second, all this can be avoided if you always know, in the back of your head, that nothing is truly private and your are essentially always being tracked. You can either disable location services all-together on iOS or Android, or you can specifically disable or give rule on a per app basis (new in iOS 13 and now Android 10). This can also be done in apps on macOS and Windows inside of their respective system settings.
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    Just the act of being aware of geotracking can be enough to change your habits as a user to be more proactive in what you do. But for most things it's something that is inevitable and we allow it for the convenience in our lives. With ever emerging technologies using any kind of location based information we must ask ourselves, how does this actually help us, and is the trade off ultimately worth it.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, 
@DBurnsOfficial

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The State of Wearable Devices

10/9/2019

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Written by Daniel Burns
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With the improvement of technology and miniaturization wearable tech is getting more and more advanced every year.  Wearable devices consist of three main categories; smartwatches, health and fitness devices, and AR/VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality). Just like smartphones and computers in general, these devices are getting smaller and smaller while gaining power and capability the world couldn’t of imagined 5 years ago.

    For smart watches, the dream started in the 1930’s on television with the imagined radio commutation watch warn by Dick Tracy himself. Today this is a laughable reality with the addition of popular smartwatches being constantly connected, used as communicators, every single day. Smart watches started out as being a companion device to the smartphone. Connected via bluetooth, the smart watch was a way to display notifications and alerts on your wrist, track steps, and later monitor heart rate. Most of all still do very well today as those are the bare minimum specs to become a “smart watch.” There are a ton of smart watches on the market today from Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, LG, and the now defunct Pebble. But let’s look at the Apple Watch as the gold standard of smartwatches. After all, the Apple Watch now towers over any completion thanks to its massive 80+% growing market share. It started out as a really stripped down companion to the iPhone with all the basic features, an OLED display, thick shell, and only single day battery life. Now the current Series 5 is bigger, thinner, more powerful than the first 4 iPhones, has an always on display, and connects via LTE and Wifi alone when the iPhone isn’t in range. The Apple Watch has become the next iPod so to speak with its small form factor, and ability to stream and store millions of songs directly form your wrist with the help of some bluetooth EarPods or AirPods. Since the introduction of the Series 4, Apple has added the ability to take an ECG anytime on your wrist in addition to regular heart rate monitoring. Which is crazy cool and the first of its kind to be FDA approved!

    Which perfectly leads us into the health and fitness category of wearable devices. There are a numerous players in this category from the makers of Polar, Garmn, Nike, Basis, Withings, and now including Apple. These devices don’t just monitor heart rate and activity, but some can track blood pressure, sleep patterns, and other types of physical activity. Some devices can be worn around your chest with a strap, belly, arm, and wrist. Most people now prefer the wrist because of its convince and less restrictiveness during workouts. In the past chest worn devices were more accurate than wrist warn but every year sensors, data, and now AI has filled that gap along with the previously mentioned user convenience towards wrist warn being the preferred. The Apple Watch and some other devices have been credited numerous time with saving peoples lives thanks to early detection using the devices. For example the Apple Watch will let you know if you have afib thanks to monitoring for irregular heart rates, high heart rates, and now low heart rates. May have been pre diagnosed before doctor confirmation of symptoms thanks to the incredible capabilities of the Apple Watch and wearable devices as a whole. You can even thank the device in emergency situations when your phone is out of reach thanks to fall detection, automatic 911 calling, and on star type emergency button convenience.

    Other types of wearable devices now include AR and VR goggles and glasses. With VR or virtual reality googles, you can put them on and step into a whole nother world dreamed up by game developers. VR goggles and handsets rest over your head and slide onto your face covering just your eyes and ears. Using two small but high pixel dense screens and lenses, the VR goggles let you see something unlike the real world and move about the virtual space to play and explore to your hearts content. Now AR or augmented reality you overlay information on top of the real world. This can be done with glasses and small transparent screens or projections onto your eyes. It can also be achieved on your smartphone using its camera and moving about the room. In both situations you can use your hands and controllers to play and position items. It really is a unique experience that is best just explained by actually doing it in person. VR and AR is powered either internally in the goggles or glasses like a smartphone or externally through a one cable solution connected to a gaming computer or a computer with a graphics card capable of powering the experience. The most successful VR devices on the market are from Oculus and HTC with the Rift and the Vive while AR glasses have been made by Google with the Google Glass or Microsoft with its Hololens.
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    Wearable technology has come a long way thanks to the evolution of technology and Moores law. Miniaturization of components and complete systems have enabled devices like smart watches and VR glasses to become more powerful and more capable. I can’t wait for the day we wear AI powered communicators and step into full room virtual worlds just like Star Trek and The Orville alike have imagined. Dream on and virtual reality might just become our reality.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, 
@DBurnsOfficial

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What should be considered when selecting a monitor?

9/17/2019

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Written by Daniel Burns
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When it comes time to buy a new monitor to go along with your new computer, in addition as a second display, or even replacing an outdated one for your current setup, the decision you have to make may seem like daunting task. Not to worry, let's break down the three main types of displays and their varying technologies to find the best use case for your next monitor. We will be going over specifically flatscreen monitors , after all it is 2019 and no one is buying a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube - Tube Type Large Monitor) brand new anymore.

    Let’s start with size, one of the most important aspects to when selecting a monitor. Get it? Aspects? Anyway, if your current monitor has a small screen size of lets say 17”- 22” inches, measured diagonally, and you think its on the small size then by all means upgrade to your hearts content. Of course there are limitations to size when it comes to how much room you have on your desk, what it’s being used for, how far away do you sit from the screen, and then of course budget. Monitors, when compared to TVs have a different guide or general rule to how close you should sit in front of them. You can do a quick Google search about monitor distance relevant to your size that you want to select. You will even find calculator to input custom distances and sizes aside from the basic charts. For example if you have a 24 to 29” inch monitor the general rule is to sit an arms length away from the screen or about 4 feet for a healthy dosage of screen time. You will hear results will vary depending on use case allot during this paper because it really does. 

    Once you get your monitor size down now you will need to establish a budget and main use case. Generally if you want to save money the smaller the size of screen, then the cheaper they get. Then the bigger, the more expensive it gets, not including additional features and creature comforts. If you do everyday light email browsing, web surfing, and word processing then a cheaper and smaller screen with a resolution of 1080p at about $80 to $200 is fit for you. If you do that plus some light gaming then a bigger screen with a resolution of 1080p or 1440p that costs $200 to $300 is your ticket. But let's say you do some intensive gaming and edit photos and videos on the side, then expect to have a budget of $400 to $1,000 with a 4K resolution. Then at the very top of the market and you want it all, you’re an extreme gamer, or edit large videos and photos, then you already know you will be spending $1000+ on a single monitor with at least a 4K (2160p) or even 5K or 6K resolution these days. So adjust your budget to screen size and use case for the most part and screen technology will follow suit.

    Now let's get technical and get into the different types of monitors you may come across. Mainly three types of flatscreen technologies. First you might find cheaper and often smaller TN Panels which stand for twisted nematic. This is a type of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) LED display that sacrifices color accuracy and viewing angles for perforce and budget. A TN panel has some of the fastest response times and high refresh rates for a display. For gaming, video editing, and just plain pleasure, having really fast response times and refresh rates is top priority. But a TN Panel also has some of the worst viewing angles on the market, meaning that when you view the screen at any other angel then straight on, colors, brightness, and clarity is greatly reduced. Next we have the middle child of display technology, the one that usually rides the line between price and performance. The VA panel or vertically aligned usually has the longest and slowest response times but really high refresh rates. You might not find a VA panel as often as a the other two because it's generally the most expensive. Best suited for viewing slo motion, high resolution playback during sporting events or slo mo shots on the shoot thanks to its high refresh rates. Colors and viewing angles on a VA panel are usually better than a TN panel thanks to its high contrast and image depth but when compared to the mack daddy of monitors, the IPS panel, it squashes them both. The IPS display, also called In-Plane Switching, is what you will generally find these days. Your TV is probably IPS, your phone’s screens are definitely IPS and most laptops are now IPS too. IPS panels give you the best color accuracy, contrast, brightness, and viewing angles out of any monitor. You can practically look at an IPS monitor at any angle, let's say 180 degrees to the side and not notice any degradation to quality and brightness. But they are currently the most expensive on the market for very good reason. Their refresh rates on the other hand are pretty lacking when compared to the others. But every year they are getting better and better and we are getting to the point where most IPS panels are good enough to be in a cheaper device or monitor.
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    So let’s wrap this up. It all really comes down to your use case. For the average user and every day Joe Shmo in 2019 a 1080p, full HD IPS monitor, with a screen size of 21 to 24” that costs around $160 would be great for the masses. If you’re a gamer or video editor then a high refresh rate, 4K, IPS monitor for $600 with a size of 27 to 32” is your best bet. You will always want to look at longevity and being “future proof” as a factor for spending more as well. Then if you have no budget, well, go crazy and treat yourself. Once again it comes down to use case and budget, then the rest usually falls into place.

​Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial


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Best Ethernet Wiring Options

8/22/2019

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Written By Daniel Burns
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Today there are so many different standards in data transmission and there’s one standard that has always been reliable and that is still in use today. Ethernet has been around since the 1980s and was standardized in 1983 as IEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.3. Ethernet is a standard way of data transmission of 1s and 0s. Typically measured in megabits per second and is used for all types of data transmission. 
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There are over 7 different types of categories of ethernet wiring today and as we require faster and faster speeds and data throughput, there will always be a need for faster standards. Let's start with the basics first. An ethernet cable is typically made up of thin twisted pairs of insulated copper. They are twisted together to reduce something called crosstalk. Crosstalk is when you have data transmitting wires close or next to each other causing interference and thus issues typically resulting in slower speeds or connection dropout. By twisting the wires together, you prevent them from interfering with another. To also help with interface, ethernet cables can have extra shielding around each pair of twisted wire, separation and rigidity, thanks to plastic, and an aluminum foil like wrap just beneath the cables outside jacket. The tighter the twist, the better the signal will travel. 
    Ethernet cables are rated in categories and they go as followed. Category 1 ethernet consists of two twisted wire pairs (four wires total) and is the oldest type of the bunch. It is no longer used today and was only rated for voice data. You would typically find this cable inside older building used only for phone lines. Each category name can be condensed to “Cat” followed by the version of the cable. Ie: Cat1, Cat2… Next we have Cat2 ethernet. It consists of four twisted wire pairs (eight wires) and handles up to 4Mbps with a frequency maximum of 10MHz. This is also no longer used today. Cat3 is made the same way but has an extra 3 twists per foot and can handle up to 10Mbps. It is only used for telecommunication (phone) equipment today. Cat4 is the same but has more twists and is rated for 20MHz and is obsolete. Are you seeing the pattern yet? Cat5 cable is the same except each pair is now twisted separately then twisted with the other pairs. It is rated for 100MHz and is also known as 100BaseTX. Next up we have the most commonly used cable today called Cat5e. The E stands for enhanced and it is exactly what it's called. An enhanced version of Cat5. The big difference in 5e is that its cable can handle transmitting on all four pairs of wire at the same time allowing it to handle gigabit speeds or over 1000Mbps! It is also referred to as 1000BaseT and you should note any category below 5e should not be used in today’s networking applications unless you absolutely have to. 
    My favorite ethernet version called Cat6 is the next best thing for price per performance or should I say price per foot. Cat6 (1000BaseTX) is rated for 250MHz and became a standard in 2002 as riser cables to connect floors together. Today it should be used in all new applications and retrofits instead of Cat5e. Cat6A (10GBaseT) is similar to the jump from 5 to 5e in that the perforce increase warranted its own category. 6A stands for Augmented and can handle up to 500MHz with major improvements to crosstalk elimination. It can be run up to 100 meters (328.08ft) and has a power transmission rating of 3db. Cat6A will be the next big cable to used for any application. There is a Cat7 and it allows and astonishing 10 gigabit per second over 100 meters of copper but as of 2017, it still isn’t recognized as a standard, yet. Although Cat6 is still capable of 10 gigabit data transfer connections locally, and often used with 10 gig network cards in video editing applications. There are Cat8 cables that are extremely fast but we don’t need to cover them, especially since it isn’t fully developed yet.
    So the best version or type of ethernet cable everyone should be using is Cat6 because of its cost effective performance and its best suited for 90% of applications. Of course if you need more speed and you have the cash, then Cat7 sounds pretty neat. And when you are shopping for cables, remember to not get too wired up about it.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, 
@DBurnsOfficial

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Compared: Hyper-V vs VMware

7/17/2019

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Written By Daniel Burns
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    Virtualization has been around since the 1960s as a method of logically dividing system resources provided by the mainframe computers between different applications (Virtualization - Wiki). Today we use it to run applications, operating systems, and even virtual hardware within another system. Hyper-V is virtualization software developed by Microsoft to run on Windows and Windows Server platforms. It can not only virtualize operating systems but also entire hardware components, such as hard drives and network switches. Unlike Fusion and VirtualBox, Hyper-V is not limited to the user’s device. You can use it for server virtualization, too. (Iva 2018).

    Hyper-V is a Windows Server add on that allows you to run multiple virtual servers on one dedicated server. It is also available for Windows 10 as a way to run almost any operating system on top of Windows as well. To enable Hyper-V on your Windows device, you’ll need to be running a 64-bit version of your operating system with a minimum of 4GB of ram (Iva 2018). Although Microsoft recommends a minimum of 4GB of ram, it is better to have 8GB or more because it's exactly that, a minimum. Any virtual environment will need resources such as CPU cores, ram, and storage space. The the more you can throw at it without hindering your base operating system, the better your virtual environment will run. So why might you use a virtual machine? Well you might have an application that simply can’t run on your current operating system because it is either too old or incompatible. Instead of partitioning your drive to install a second operating system and boot into it, Virtualization allows you to run that second OS inside of a window on your current OS. Pretty neat huh? For example, I have an older version of a CAD program that no longer exists but it can only run on Windows XP. I have specific files for that program that need manipulating or converting but I can’t run it on my Windows 10 computer. So using Hyper-V or any other program like VMware Fusion or Oracle’s VirtualBox, I can load up Windows XP and get my work done. All without leaving my desktop and messing with its boot configuration. You can run any operating system from Windows, Linux, and even macOS on a PC with some custom boot loader configurations.

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    Hyper-V comes preinstalled with Windows 10 so you don’t have to pay for or download anything extra. To use it you’ll have to go to Control Panel, click on “uninstall a program,” then select “turn Windows features on or off” on the left side. Next scroll down to Hyper-V and check the box to enable it and select OK. You can also enable Hyper-V from Command Line using this command: “DISM /Online /Enable Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V.” After its turned on you can now run it from search and setup your virtual environment in accordance to your needs. Number of CPU cores, ram allotment, storage size and where it's stored, and so much more advanced settings to configure such as sound, networking and specific use cases etc. Not only can you use it for running older software, you can do so many task specific things to fit your needs with virtualization and Hyper-V. Whether you experiment with other operating systems and or unreleased work in progress programs. Hyper-V makes it very easy to create and remove different operating systems to your hearts content (Microsoft). Test software on multiple operating systems using multiple virtual machines. With Hyper-V, you can run them all on a single desktop or laptop computer. These virtual machines can be exported and then imported into any other Hyper-V system, including Azure (Microsoft).

    Now Microsoft’s Hyper-V isn’t the only virtual machine software on the market today. They have major competition from VMware’s paid software, VMware Fusion and vSphere and some from Oracle’s free program, VirtualBox. Let's focus directly on VMware as they compete directly to each other. Virtualization remains one of the hottest trends in business IT (Collins 2019). VMware offers a few more advantages over Hyper-V other than its major disadvantage of being a paid program. VMware has been in the server virtualization market for far longer than Microsoft. The company has been in business since 1998 and shipped its first product (VMware® Workstation) the following year. VMware released its first true server product (ESX® Server) in 2002 (Posey 2017). Hyper-V was only made available in 2008 when Microsoft announced it alongside Windows Server 2008 and it only made its was to the consumer in 2012 with the release of Windows 8. So VMware has more maturity and experience when it comes to background. Both offer almost identical feature sets and their own learning curves so its up to you or your company to decide what is best suited for your needs (Posey 2017). VMware is a bit more consumer friendly with its user interface and some novice users may find it easier to work. Both should be around for a long time and support shouldn't be considered a top issue to contend to when considering one over the other. VMware’s core hypervisor is less expensive than Microsoft’s. However, Microsoft’s management server cost less than VMware's (Posey 2017).

    So when everything is considered for your own needs, it really comes down to what is best suited for you. As a consumer, you can’t go wrong with Hyper-V being included with Windows and readily available. Virtualization software has come a long way and the dream of having one physical computer run multiple under one roof is becoming easier, faster, and cheaper to do. Next up, cloud virtual computing on every connected device!… someday.

​Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

References:
Docter, Q. (2018). CompTIA Security+: study guide. Hoboken, NJ: Sybex.

Hyper-V. (2020, February 28). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyper-V

Scooley. (n.d.). Introduction to Hyper-V on Windows 10. Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/about/

Scooley. (n.d.). Enable Hyper-V on Windows 10. Retrieved from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v

Iva, Steve, Z. I. T. (2018, October 10). What Is Hyper-V & How Do You Use It? A Beginner's Guide. Retrieved from https://www.cloudwards.net/hyper-v/

Shinder, D. (2017, June 23). 10 things you should know about Hyper-V. Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-you-should-know-about-hyper-v/

Collins, Tom. Hyper-V vs. VMware: Which Is Best? (2019, December 19). Retrieved from https://www.atlantech.net/blog/hyper-v-vs.-vmware-which-is-best

Posey, B. (2019, October 7). Virtual Infrastructures: Hyper-V vs VMware. Retrieved from https://www.solarwindsmsp.com/blog/virtual-infrastructures-hyper-v-vs-vmware
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One week with the Apple Watch

5/24/2015

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“Watch Out Android Wear!”

One Week with the Apple Watch.

After having the Apple Watch for over a week now I have found it to be a very enjoyable experience. From being in the classroom, glancing at notifications, to being in PE or out for a run, logging my activity. Its actually been a very useful tool. This new product comes from the post Steve Jobs era with new CEO, Tim Cook at the helm, heading in the right direction for Apple’s future. The interface is of something new to iOS users. It could be a slight learning curve, at first, but to navigate the new interface Apple has made it easier by making things fluid and familiar to its bigger brother operation system, iOS. It just takes getting used to and after less than a day having it, I got the hang of it.

The heart rate tracking is quite fun actually. Its pretty cool to see your heart rate thought the week and with Apple’s new HealthKit, communication with your doctor is easier than ever. The new ability to submit and or show your weekly and daily blood pressure and heart rate to your doctor is amazing. No more high blood pressure spikes at the doctors office. Now you have a more accurate outlook on your health. Sleep tracking is kinda neat too. Its interesting to see your lowest heart rate while sleeping and an accurate time of your sleep.

The battery is as expected for a first generation device. It just depends on what you do with it in that day. If you do a lot including workouts, notifications, and checking time, you get the expected 18+ hours of use. I’ve got it to last about 2 days which is great compared to the 18 hours as told by Apple. Charging the watch is very cool. You just set it on its small puck sized charger and it wirelessly, inductively charges. It takes only 2 hours to get a full charge with the 5W adapter that comes with it and only 1 hour with Apple’s 12W adapter (sold separately).

The Watch case and materials itself a surprisingly very durable. It still feels like something Apple didn't make and thats not a bad thing. It feels very premium on the wrist which nails the whole point Jonny Ive made when designing this watch. I have the Apple Watch Sport, 42 mm space gray which has the aluminum body and iON-X glass. For example, in wood shop at school, I hit the center of the screen on a metal machine by accident and it didn't even scratch it. I was astonished at its durability. The higher end model;s have the Sapphire Crystal screen which is expected to be even better. So no worries here. 

Already there are tons of apps for the watch in the app store. Surpassing Android Wear in just one day of available apps. So no problems finding any app. Android needs to step up its game if they want to compete. All in all this is a great new product that has the potential to live on. The Apple Watch is a game changer to the industry that will set new standards for other companies to follow. Whether you get the current Apple Watch, which is till on backorder after 4 million+ orders, or wait for the second generation. I assure you that you won’t be sorry with your purchase. I highly recommend the Apple Watch.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

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    Meet the Writer

    Daniel Burns is the owner of Adium Tech and has been in the IT buisness since 2014. He occasionally shares his rant on technology and strives to help make use of tech easier for the everyday user. You can follow him on Twitter for his latest opinions.

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