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FAQ Questions (Click to open and close) How do I Use PACID? How to use it on an iPhone? What do I get for my money? So why, you ask, another guide to Infectious Diseases? Whats a podcast? So who the hell are you? Aren't you just another shill for the drug companies? Puh-leeze. Everyone can be bought. Right? Is PACID a finished work? How was PACID written? Which browsers have you tested and on what OS? Where do I get a browser since Palm® is too stupid to provide one? What about e book format? Can I use PACID without downloading it? Is there a non browser version? What do the numbers after mean? What does PACID stand for? Is PACID finished and flawless? What is a persiflager? Are any of the questions frequently asked?
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How go I use it on an iPhone or iTouch? You can transfer the entire guide to the iPhone or iTouch with FileMagnet (a 5 dollar program on the iTunes application store). Just download the zip file and transfer everything in a folder using FileMagnet. Top What do I get for my money? Bandwidth costs me 10 dollars a month for every 10 gigabytes. There is a limit of what I can afford to support, esp with the podcasts PACID $12.00 Top So why, you ask, another guide to Infectious Diseases? Mostly, the ones that were available did not fit my needs and I do not think they meet the needs of the doctors using them. Too often the guides are used without understanding key principles and the textbooks are too detailed for day to day use on the wards. And the print is too damn small. I hope this fills the gap. Top Whats a podcast? An mp3 file that can be played on any computer with an mp3 player. Welcome to the 21st century me bucko. You do not need an iPod. Persiflagers ID Podcast: A podcast (should be playable on any mp3 player, you do not need to have an iPod) that is a review of the ID literature of the last month with commentary, declamations and pontifications on those articles that are of interest to me, and, hopefully, to you. It is not a comprehensive review. Keeping up in medicine is like drinking from a fire hydrant (to quote Dr Richard Bryant). This is my sip and is aimed at the practicing physician and resident ie clinically relevant. Use iTunes (www.apple.com) available for Mac and Windows, transfer it to you iPod and listen as you drive. Or burn it to CD. Or listen on your computer. If this makes no sense to you, then let me know and if there is enough interest, I will add a version on vellum. Podcast reference: The references from the most recent podcast. Top So who the hell are you? A lowly Infectious Disease (Board Certified and certified bored) doctor working in the trenches (very nice trenches, I might add) in the Pacific Northwest. I have a Zaphod Beeblebrox like self esteem, so I feel more than qualified to write this compendium. I spend 50 weeks a year or so taking care of patients at four local hospitals, one of which is a teaching program with a good Internal Medicine program. (Want to be a good internist? Get trained at Legacy in Portland, Oregon. Try www.legacyhealth.org. They have nothing what-so-ever to do with the content of this text). I am filled with conceit, hubris and arrogance, so that qualifies me to write this manual. If you want to know more about me, send me an E-mail, (mcrislip@pusware.com) and if I have the time and inclination, I may reply. Top Aren't you just another shill for the drug companies? I wish. Itake nothing from drug reps. I do not talk to them. I have not whored myself as have so many of my colleagues. I don't take pen lights, books, meals, lecture fees (not that they would ask) so my opinions in this are my own, completely unbiased by lies, damn lies and statistics. Go to www.nofreelunch.org for a nice review of the topic. Top Puh-leeze. Everyone can be bought. Right? Of course I have a price. This is America. I would happily take money, and lots of it, if some company wants to put their logo at the top of each page as an advertisement. I do not have a problem working for money, its the freebies that compromise us as a profession that I object to. I would gladly compromise my honor and integrity, it is just that to date no one had offered a check with enough zeros. Top Is PACID a finished work? Nope. This will always be a work in progress; you can see some of the scaffolding of the features that I hope to add in the future. Want to support this? Then gimme money. This is the work of one person, spending four plus years working nights after my children have gone to bed and weekends after all my other work is complete. This is what I have accomplished in what little spare time I have had this century. Do not make a mockery of my pathetic and pointless existence, you can do that at my funeral. In the meantime, send me money. Top How do I Use PACID? You can use PACID four ways. First: as a series of web pages. Un zip (the file, stupid) and open the file toc.html (that is the table on contents) in any web browser. I think it works best as web pages. Second: as a pdf. Everyone has adobe reader, n'est pas? If not, go to www.adobe.com. Third: as a plucker file. Available at http://www.plkr.org/ As mentioned above, Plucker is a way cool reader for the palm that allows importation of html (i.e. web) files. As an alternative to plucker, I have a resident who informs me that the pdf can be imported through Documents to Go and read that way. I do no use a Palm, so this has not been personally tested. Fourth: on line. Top How was PACID written? This was written over 5 years on Mac OS X® (some early versions on 9.0) on a iBook and then a Powerbook® and Adobe GoLive® in various incarnations, now Dreamweaver, with a little help from BBEdit®. It was done at night and in the early morning hours while my children were asleep. It is a large number of hyperlinked HTML text files. Top Which browsers have you tested and on what OS? I am, and always have been, a Mac guy. I have not tested PACID on any version Windows® nor Microsoft Internet Explorer®; I do not (yet) own a Palm®. It looks good on Safari®, Mozilla® and Firefox®; it runs on Opera® just fine on my Zaurus®. What more do you want? Besides, you really should be using Mozilla® and Firefox® if you are using Windows®. I have kept the HTML simple and, along with PDF, are relatively universal formats, so they should run on any machine that has a web browser or a PDF viewer. Top Where do I get a browser since Palm® is too stupid to provide one? Try http://www.eudora.com/products/unsupported/internetsuite/download/ or http://openmobility.sf.net http://www.linuxlabs.com/vagabond.html for other Palm® browsers. I do not use a palm, so I cannot vouch for their usefulness. I still think Plucker looks the best for viewing a variety of files. It is available at http://www.plkr.org/. It a FREE system for converting files and transferring them to your Palm®. It takes some work, but gives the best results on the palm I have found to date. While I provide a plucker files prebuilt, the basic steps if you want to import files yourself: 1) Download the version for your platform. 2) Download the web files from my site and unzip them. 3) In the Configure Channel, set the Start file to "A local file" and browse it to "toc.html" in the PACID folder. 4) In Configure Channel set Limits to 2. 5) When you use UpDate Local channels it will convert all the files to Plucker format and when you sync the Palm®, it will upload the files to the Palm®, as well as install the viewer. 5) Every time you get a new version, repeat the steps. I know, I know, more involved than the others, but in the end probably worth it given the output. It is a sweet system and looks like it allows you to install many different types of files on your palm. Top What about e book format? For now, I can't get e books to work. I have too many hyperlinks. Hopefully in the future....... As an alternative to plucker, I have a resident who informs me that the pdf can be imported through Documents to Go and read that way. I do no use a Palm, so this has not been personally tested. Top Can I use PACID without downloading it? Yes, here. Top Is there a non browser version? Yes, once you buy it. It is also available as a PDF version for which you need a PDF viewer such as Adobe acrobat. Go to http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html for the reader. Top What do the numbers after mean? The numbers refer to the version. 1.0 was released on 8/13/5; as I update the compendium, I will increment after the decimal point. After a year it will become 2.0. Top What does PACID stand for? Truth, Justice and the American Way. No, wait. That's Superman. The heck. Top Is PACID finished and flawless? Never. There may be mistakes. See the Warning. Top What is a persiflager? What? No dictionary? Can't google? Top Are any of the questions frequently asked? Nope. Go figure. Top