I will find my way from your lost wheel....

I know the weather has been way to good when I've been spending more time out doors then I have indoors. I'm move just as much when I'm outdoors (little to none) but the bright side is that I'm way more motivated to write.

And I can hear the clicks of like 3 maybe 4 mice right now as they all close their web browsers and go do something constructive rather then sit there and read this drivel.

Cool now that everyone has left lets turn the geek up to 11 here.

-- OSIRIX a DICOM VIEWER

OK chances are 99% of you have never dealt with this application before. It's a Open Source application for the Mac OS that is capable of advanced diagnostic image manipulation and reading. Translation, it's a program for looking at X-rays in digital format.

Nothing special in my world.

It's actually a pretty nifty program and I do have it loaded on my Mac and it works as advertised. Now normally something being either;

A. Open Source
B. DICOM Capable

Would not warrant mention on their own. Heck even together they barely merit mentioning. Then why talk about them? There are two versions of Osirix one being 32bit and the other being 64bit. The main difference other then the processing bits that the program utilizes is that you have to pay $149 for the 64bit extensions on a Open Source program.

I gotta say I'm having mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand they are doing nothing different from Redhat/Suse/Mandriva and the other big Open Source vendors if you want their "product" you can pay for it. Here's the rub though, every one of those products is available to freely download and use if you choose to. When you buy a license you are in effect buying support for the product. Which has been common practice for years and will continue to be. With Osirix this does not appear to be the case. You download the product and their is no support option if you would like the same product with 64bit extensions then you get the privelage of paying for it. Which when your spending $8k on a Mac Pro processing station $149 doesn't seem like much. To me though it seems dishonest from the Osirix group and flies in the face of everything that Open Source stands for.

Point is this, I don't care if a company/group/gang makes a product under Open Source and then tries to make a buck off of it. They have that right so long as the source code and all of it's pieces parts are available to whomever would like it. My biggest thing with this project is that Osirix is distributing under a GNU license yet I can't find anything on their site about the status of their 64bit offering.

Most frustrating.

Of course these are things that only I would worry about.

-- Blackberries

I'm talking about the cell phone email machines that run on celluar networks and not the fruit.

Though the fruit is most delicious.

A while back I traded my Treo 700P for a Blackberry Pearl on the Verizon network. It was a good trade. The Treo was/is a good phone, but the best way to describe smartphones is one of two ways. Those that are PDA's with phone functionality (Treo, Most Windows Mobile devices) and those that are phones with PDA functionality (Blackberry, iPhone, Sidekick, Symbian). For a while I figured I was after a PDA with phone functionality so I picked up a Treo. And while it was a good phone the speed and parts of the interface left alot to be desired in my book. Also the fact that it could be used as a defense weapon was not helping it's cause either.

The Pearl defiantly falls into the phone first category. The interface moves much more smoothly then the Treo did and sound quality is excellent (it was on the treo as well). For me the best part has been the size of the device which is very small and can be fit into most any pocket. Unlike the Treo which while it could go into a pocket it really felt much more comfortable on the outside in a holster like device. But why is this worth writing about? Simple the Blackberry works flawlessly with my 64bit Windows Vista. The Treo never as able to pull that trick off.

I flirt with the idea of letting the contract expire and then buying a iPhone, but I have a couple of qualms with this. First it's the AT&T network in Phoenix which has never inspired much faith in me (and reading reviews on the gadget blogs it seems like Phoenix isn't the only place where the AT&T wireless network would appear to be having issues). Second paying full price for a phone and still having to sign a two year contract? Bullshit I will do that!

So as I sit here waiting for a stable unlock of the iPhone from AT&T's network in the States so I can take it over to T-Mobile where their network may suck just as bad but at least they have great customer service!

OH and I won't have to sign one of those pesky contracts either. Of course a CDMA iPhone would be even sweeter, and I'm sure that will come with the flying pigs.