Tales of Hoffman

Medical BloggerCon Plans

OK,
Here's the deal. I'm arriving in Boston at 9:30. As soon as I get to the site, I'll be there. I'm not so vain as to think that the session can't go on without me (that's for sure!). If everyone decides to keep talking when the official session is over, that's fine. If we all want to go to other sessions, that's fine too. Anyone who wants to go to lunch together, put that time aside. Lisa says she knows a good place. That sounds great. I can't wait.

I am Really Happy When...

What is the deal with the phrase, "I am really happy when..." I first noticed people coming to my site from Google about a month ago after searching for this phrase and finding the post I made when Medscape first added RSS Feeds (and "I was really happy" about it). Recently, however, there has been a rash of people searching for that phrase on the Internet and landing on my blog.

Is this some sort of research project? Is it a bunch of people searching, or just one person looking for other people's happiness? Very intriguing. I'll be really happy when I figure this out.

Thank You, Jakob N.

Jakob Neilsen't latest "Alert Box" entry is a real hoot! In congratulating himself for making his 200th entry for his site (I do give him points for persistence), he also takes credit for everything from the demise of WAP to the return to normal valuations on the NASDAQ.

Really, anyone who's read this blog knows I'm sympathetic to his cause, but by the time I got to the end, I was surprised to learn he wasn't also responsible for the creation of CSI, the invention of Double Stuf Oreos and finding Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq (sorry, no link for that, yet ;-) ).

New Search at Medscape

Hey, we just launched a brand new search engine at the Medscape site. It's easier to use, presents the results in a more logical manner, and it's more accurate to boot (so you get the stuff you are looking for and not the stuff you're not). Take a look and let me know what you think.

Dave W's not interested...

...in accomodating me and I probably should have figured. He's got a lot of things to plan right now.

In any event, I'll come anyway because I'm looking forward to meeting folks, even if I get there for the last half hour of the Medical Session, maybe we'll be able to find another room (or someplace else) to continue. I'll also check in with Jacob early this week, since it sounded from his comment here that he was also having some scheduling issues.

Displaying RSS Feeds on Your Blog

Just came across this great resource for people like me who can't code. Just use this handy, dandy tool to create a javascript snippet that you can paste into any blog to render an RSS feed on your site. I've just added a nice little sidebar on the right (under my blogroll) that features breaking news articles from Medscape...my favorite site. ;-)

It updates every hour and opens links in a new window. Very, very, cool...Major kudos to Glen Slaven and the folks at the Wytheville Community College News Center. By the way, if you decide to use this tool and want a great resource for medical stories (broken out by specialty, I might add), get on over to this page on Medscape.

BloggerCon Medical Session MOVED?!?

Just went over to check out the BloggerCon site and noticed that someone moved the Medical session to an earlier time. This just will not work for me (or my non-refundable ticket). I can't get in any earlier than 9:30am on Sunday from NY (there are NO earlier flights), and I cannot stay overnight on Saturday. So, unless the BloggerCon folks either switch back the time or move it to later in the day, it's not worth me going AND I'm out a couple hundred bucks.

Here's the text of the message I just posted on the BloggerCon site:

Dave,
I see you've moved this session! That's not fair only seven days before the event day. I've already bought my non-refundable ticket to Boston for Sunday morning and I don't get in until 9:30 (of course, it didn't matter because this sesssion has always been scheduled to start at 10:30, until now).

This is VERY disappointing. Can we at least move it to the open spot at 3:30? I'm not sure if there are others planning to come in just for the day, but if there are, there's got to be some consistency in scheduling to accomodate us. Thanks for reading my rant.
Steve

I know this is somewhat of a volunteer effort, but let's at least try to run this thing like a real meeting and not switch around times at the last minute. Ugh.

Yet Another Medical Blog

Interesting takes on Healthcare from...The Healthcare Blog by Matthew Holt. What else? I've asked him to add an RSS feed. He's trying to work through the Blogger issues. Hopefully, it'll get done. (If you can help, get over there for Heaven's sake.) Duly added to the blogroll.

UPDATE: Thanks to the Medical Blogging community Matthew's RSS feed is already up and running. And it only took a couple of hours. I think this blogging thing may actually become useful. ;-) Thanks, everyone! Now I don't have to remember to visit his site in order to see his very cogent entries. As you know, "It's all about me."

I love my NewsGator, but...

Here's an interesting problem. I'm using NewsGator every day on my work laptop (yes, they make me use a PC. It's not a Mac, but I make do...) and I really like it. It works like a charm, and I can keep things pretty orgainzed using Outlook's different views. I've even used it to post to this blog on Typepad (which I like too!). This is the deal -- if you choose to post an entry in your blog with any "spicy" words, it never makes it to me via RSS. Because the entries are coming through Outlook, every entry is apparently subject to same rules that my corporate superiors apply to all email coming into the company.

So, in short, if you want to get linked to from this blog via your RSS feed...watch your mouth.

Finally, Medical BloggerCon Session "Official"

It's really nice to see Dave W. and the BloggerCon folks finally add the "official" link to the Medicine, Research and Science Session on Day 2.

I'm excited to meet all the docs and others that may be coming. And it'll be good to see Jacob again. (Is it really almost a year since we met at AAFP? Amazing.)