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Abort Retry Ignore
October 23, 2009 6:07 AM by Scott Warner

MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) debuted 28 years ago, quickly finding its way into labs on PCs in offices or attached to instruments. Programs such as BASIC promised much. We just knew , deep down, that computers meant less paper, effortless Read More...

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Back to BASIC
October 19, 2009 6:17 AM by Scott Warner

I once read an article about a BASIC program used to temperature-correct arterial blood gas results. This was in the day when a program could be "keyed in" from a magazine. BASIC, which stands for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was Read More...

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Calculations
September 8, 2009 6:17 AM by Scott Warner

Most of us aren't mathematicians. Well, I'm not. I've known people who are just better at "seeing" math than myself. I've always struggled to add a column of figures in my head, forget solving Fermat's Last Theorem . Which has been solved already. Just Read More...

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Misfiling
August 28, 2009 6:06 AM by Scott Warner

If your lab uses a card file to track patient blood bank history, some cards are misfiled. Depending on where in the file they are placed, they may be good as gone. A blood banker won't be able to compare blood types or know that the patient has a positive Read More...

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Making Sense of Results
July 22, 2009 4:49 AM by Scott Warner

Whether reading a body fluid smear, a culture plate, or chemistry panel, we are paid to make sense of results. Decades of bench work teaches techs to know what is expected and to focus on the unexpected. Many of the techs working today make what is difficult Read More...

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New Thinking
March 11, 2009 10:27 AM by Scott Warner

When my son and I talked the other day about "green" technology, I suddenly realized the obvious: solar, wind and biofuel technologies are very old. (Think greenhouses, Don Quixote and wood heat). Is it possible to create new thinking with old technology? Read More...

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