-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Rather a lot of us now run a personal area network (PAN), with bluetooth
devices and iPods and the like.
Once upon a time photography was very difficult. It is still not easy,
but things changed as time went on.
Initially settinthe correct exposure was hard, and only a few people
could correctly do it. As time went on the conditions became more
standardised, with plates and the mixtures for them not needing to be
made up individually and so on. This was before my time.
Lenses initially were described in different terms by different
manufacturers. Looking back it seems as though the various
manufacturers took on fairly quickly the idea that describing an
important characteristic in terms of the ratio of the maximum aperture
diameter to the focal length of the lens was useful, and the process of
reducing the number of different ways to screw a lens into a camera
although it has some way to go has at least not been reversed by each
incoming lens grinder.
Films, when they were in vogue, would fit many different camera types...
Early on, once hardware and chemistry was somewhat standardised, sets of
rules became available - in morning sunshine use an aperture and
exposure combination such that the exposure value is ... and so on.
Thus people who could understand a rule and apply it could often expect
a reasonable exposure in ordinary conditions.
Later - around the time plates were superseded by films - exposure
meters became available, and conditions which were not in the rules
could be handled by people able to read a complex instrument.
But still, more images were badly exposed than correctly.
After a while the exposure meter was added to the camera, and then
anyone able to tunr two dials in opposite directions until a needle hit
a spot could often get it right. This still seems to have been a minority.
SO engineering the human out of the loop proceeded. The next generation
of cameras (the one emerging into value for moneyness as I bought my
previous SLR) connected the exposure meter to the camera settings
directly. Soon they knew what film was in them becuase of the contacts
or symbols on the can.
Later, a rules engine and complicated metering, and recently the ability
to decide on what the importnat subject of the scene is and adjust for
that have been added and one may expect that with the addition of a set
of wheels it is only a while before the camera can go and take pictures
and report back.
Meanwhile, in Diabetes ...
The manufacturers continue to make sure the bits don't fit.
Each sugar meter has its own special "film".
And the damn things don't talk to each other.
Result - while some patients can get their insulin right, most don't.
So, who is working on networking the meters to the plunger pushers so
that the set dose is modified by the results, adding nags for those who
don't do measurements, and offering a developing service for the results?
Not, AFAICS, the NHS.
- --
A
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iEYEARECAAYFAkh8oecACgkQb80am9d/StfsawCeP7c9OLi0DuHGjem+P303fR2C
HWYAnj1nrqFBIVRsn7EYde63smWyb5Ja
=k05P
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|