Don't insult the feathers...
So I did it. I purchased the scaryist computer ever...
I went slate:
So I take it down to the little shop with the Indian guys (Not Japanese- these guys deal in computers with US Operating Systems) and give them the computer thinking that it'd take a couple of hours or so to fix the drive. The guy that I bought it from isn't there, but his buddy is. He looks at it and says "I'll give you an estimate in three days" I should have known there and then there was a problem... I hand over my good little computer...
A week passes and no phone call. So we call them. It turns out they have sent the computer off to Hitachi for repair. We confirm our phone number and then they tell us they'll call us back in a few days...
That was five weeks ago.
If I ever see that computer again, which I very much doubt, I'm afraid they are going to charge me hundreds of dollars in repairs on it. since I only paid $400 for it in the first place, I'm not into it... $100 worth of repairs was all I was really willing to do.
So, I'm replacing it.
I bought a slate.
These computers are what Bill Gates was swearing would change the computer industry forever... but he miscalculated.
(What he miscalculated was that typewriters were what replaced handwriting, not computers.... and most people type faster than they write).
Anyway, for me, I'm all about it. I'll type on my big computer, on the keyboard, and I'll draw on the slate, with no keyboard to get in the way. They are perfect for that.
As an aside; They are also used extensively in the medical industry (Ahem, Mal) because they are easy to carry around and easy to take notes on (I have no idea if the Handwriting analysis software can understand Doctor-eze, though :D).
It does have two microphones, so that it can triangulate your voice and then, using speech-to-text software, convert that to text... I have no idea how well that works, either, but you can pretty much expect that I will try it out! Maybe I'll try to make a blog post unedited so you can see how well it does it (As in I'll make a blog post and I won't erase the mistakes...)
Anyway, because the tablets use a special version of Windows XP and you can only get that bundled with the slate (And I now don't trust that guy in Akihabara which deals in English computers), I can't buy it here. But, sombody's sister we know (Read: mine :D) is coming to visit in a couple of weeks for New Years. So I had the slate, which I bought off of eBay in Canada of all places, shipped to her and then she'll bring it over when she comes...
I'm all kinds of slate happy :D
posted by Aabh @ 5:20 PM
7 Comments:
Eh.
We bought a tablet maybe 2-3 years ago. I actually tried it out during a medical conference and absolutely hated it. I found it heavy, to begin with. But the part that frustrated me the most was the lack of recognition of handwriting. Now, before you make some comment about doctors and handwritting, I actually happen to have some of the most easily readable handwritting, doctor or not.
When we opened the clinic, we actually talked with quite a few people as to whether we should make the clinic tablet-friendly. We ended up going with thin clients because every single doctor and medical IT guy that we talked to said that people who have gone with tablets have regretted it.
Maybe it is an evolving field? I remember my brother saying that he was surprised that we got thin clients in the clinic, seeing how they apparently weren't that popular when they first came out in the 1990's. I guess that they must have come a long way. We were the first clinic in our health region to get them, and have absolutely loved them. Most other places are now finally getting them too.
--Mal.
I should add that I'm happy and excited for you. I didn't mean to sound like a downer. It's just that, at least for medical applications, no one around here seems to like tablets.
But for whatever you are using it for and however you are going to use it, it will probably be great! :-)
Plus I know your (geeky) type. Just getting a new computer is a joyous occasion!
-- Mal.
Really? Hmmm....
I would have thought that a tablet would have been the perfect solution for a clinic... But I can see where thin clients would be useful too... just limiting, in a way...
For me, of course, I want to draw a lot (Really, what else? :D) so it's perfect... I'll get back to you on handwriting and voice recognition... We'll test it (I'll post the results). Maybe you got a bad tablet? Who knows? Anyway, Motion Computing (The guys who made the tablet I'm getting) makes "Doctor Tablets" which are all built for hospitals and stuff, which says to me that not EVERY doctor hates them ;)
And Mal... I thought "Bad Handwriting 101" was a required course at the University... You may have simply slept through it, though. ;p
<---loves the Mal :D
For the amount of sleeping that I did in university and medical school, you must be really proud of how far I've come, huh? :-)
And yeah, I know that some of the US hospitals are pushing for tablets/slates, but that's not the same as *doctors* choosing to use them. Usually it is an administrative decision that comes from the top down. But, then again, same as everything else, someone out there must like them.
I know that during my peds rotation during medical school (ages ago), the clinic where I did some of my shifts was using them. The docs were still trying to figure out if they liked them or not (it's a hard decision to make when there are thousands of your dollars at stake!). I didn't particularly like their system, but it was probably still pretty early on in the development of things.
I'll share a little secret with you, Guy, but make sure you don't tell anyone because we already have close to 300 people on the waiting list to become patients of mine. When I'm in a room with a patient, I actually sit and talk with them. I don't spend my time typing or writing. The only time I use my computer is if I'm showing them test results or graphs. And the beauty of the thin client is that I can open whatever it is that I want to show them in my office, take my card out of the computer, go into the exam room, put my card into the computer, and voila! There's the stuff that I wanted to show them.
I can see how a tablet/slate might be good if you are an ICU doc or even just an internist doing rounds in the hospital. But when it comes to the kind of stuff that I routinely do, which ends up being clinic and ER, I forgo all the technology in favour of actually sitting, listening, and hearing.
What a novel concept, huh? :-)
-- Mal.
See, if it were me, I would go tablet vs. slate. But I have just a regular laptop and I love it. I don't really like drawing with electronic stuff, though I admit my experience is limited pretty much to a stylus with a pad as opposed to drawing on the surface directly.
In any case, congrats! :)
Well, I like my tablet, but most of my artwork has been 3D or pixelled, so that other compy has been taking a breather as of late. She really is almost a slate, with an IR keyboard that is completely separate from the tablet and still works well. You may want to consider getting a USB keyboard and some velcro tabs, just so you can still use the photoshop shortcuts.
Hmmm... S, I don't know if it'll make a difference to be directly on the screen... but I have a feeling it will. :D And with ArtRage2 (See other post)... oh... oh my... :D
Jer: I'm going to go without a keyboard for a little bit and see what happens. there are a few programmable buttons on the tablet which you can assign (And I shall... can't live without Undo and Space bar)
Mal: Yes... I never considered a convinient computer would be a hamper to talking to a patient... I'd recommend keeping solitare off of it, too... ;D
(Yep, that's me running from Mal, again... This is my life story) :D
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