What I thought about on my walk this morning... the future of TV and Healthcare

Imagine if technology could monitor grandma’s health status while she’s at home.  Changes to her health status triggered physicians in advance – perhaps you catch that stroke before it hits!  What’s more, she doesn’t need someone take her to the hospital for a checkup, because she can video chat with her physician from her living room.

Imagine if there were no more channels from the cable company.  What if your TV was a platform to host apps.  These apps could be virtual channels for ESPN, Fox News, etc.  What if we had healthcare apps that communicated to a medical device [like a smart watch] that took your vitals, which were monitored by your physician remotely.

What if physicians had virtual call centers and standard protocols were used to create, store, and modify healthcare records?!

Let’s take a closer look…

Home Environment

The television, computer, and tablet are merged into 1 media platform, the vTV!  The vTV doesn’t have channels, it has virtual channels (apps) that you can subscribe to.  For example, you don’t get a ton of useless channels from the cable company – you subscribe to the vChannels you want. i.e. ESPN, Fox News, etc.

Of course everyone would need high speed Internet access, but agents would provide this access for 

free, because they made their money on the backend from (vHCR vendors, vPs, and other apps vendors).

You can also subscribe to healthcare apps provided by virtual Healthcare Record (vHCR) vendors and apps provided by virtual Physicians (vP).  The vHCR vendor of your choice will host your vHCR, which uses several keys to unencrypt the record.  vPs of your choice provided you with medical devices [maybe the same form factor as a watch], which monitored your health status.

The vHCR Vendors

You could pick the vendor of your choice based on their value add and cost.  vHCR vendors use common protocols for the creation, storage, and modification of the vHCR.

The vP Vendors

The vP vendors would provide remote monitoring (via devices, systems, and triggers) and remote checkups via video conferencing. 

SMART Classroom Technology

Our office has just finished setting up SMART classroom technology at our new School of Nursing. The nursing students will start using it this fall - I can't wait! We moved from SMART boards to the SMART podiums, which seem better suited for higher-ed instruction.

Building a web presence

From time to time I’m asked about how someone can create a web presence. While you can hire a web developer to build you a highly customized website, you might not want to write the check for one or track down the developer to make simple changes here and there. So, I’ll attempt to provide you with a few tips to build an online presence quick, easy, and free!

First, it’s not a bad idea to secure your very own domain name, i.e. www.yourname.com. You can buy your own domain name at www.godaddy.com for about $10 per year. This step isn’t required.

Now, you should probably create a Gmail account at www.gmail.com from Google. Google has a whole suite of tools that you can use to build an online presence. Once you login to your Gmail account, the menu on the upper left side of the screen has links to Documents, Sites, Photos, etc. Your Gmail account will become your gateway into all your other apps.

Your Blog or Site

For starters, you should use your Gmail account to sign up for a blog at www.blogger.com. My blog, the one you’re reading now, was created with Google’s blogger. Simply put, a blog is like an online journal, and because it’s integrated with Google, you can use YouTube.com to add video, picasa.google.com to add pictures, and the Documents app to link to documents from your blog. By the way, you need to be using Google’s Documents app for online word documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. They also have a new document type called a Form, which is a online form that you can use to collect information from people. I currently use Google Forms for online surveys.

If you don’t want to go the blog route, you can use Google Sites by selecting Sites from your Gmail account to create your very own website. Google Sites is a content management system (CMS), which means you can create and update your own website without tacking down your web developer.

Marketing Your Site

The fast, easy, and cheap way to market your website is through social networking sites like facebook.com. For example, I have a Facebook Page for my website GunDogForum.com:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gun-Dog-Forum/162970454176

Once your friends on Facebook become fans, they will automatically see any updates you post on your Facebook Page. So, you’ll be using Facebook to drive traffic to your blog or Google Site and vice-versa. It’s a nifty trick. For more information on creating a Facebook Page, go here:

http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages

Another way to market your site is with Google’s AdWords:

http://adwords.google.com

When you Google something, you get results in white, organic results, and colored ads, which are sponsored results at the very top and right side of your screen. The organic results are the hard earned placements that are achieved through various search engine optimization (SEO) techniques. The sponsored results are the ones that you can pay for. For example, you can pay $0.25 per click when someone searches for a term you specify. But don’t worry, you can also place a monthly limit on the amount you spend.

Anyway, this is just a start, but hopefully it’s enough to get you started off on the right foot.

RHCE Exam

This is my study guide for the Red Hat Certified Engineer exam. I'll be taking the test on May 22, 2009 and its a bear!

Study Points for the RHCE Exam from Red Hat

• use standard command line tools (e.g., ls, cp, mv, rm, tail, cat, etc.) to create, remove, view, and investigate files and directories
• use grep, sed, and awk to process text streams and files
• use a terminal-based text editor, such as vim or nano, to modify text files
• use input/output redirection
• understand basic principles of TCP/IP networking, including IP addresses, netmasks, and gateways for IPv4 and IPv6
• use su to switch user accounts
• use passwd to set passwords
• use tar, gzip, and bzip2
• configure an email client on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• use text and/or graphical browser to access HTTP/HTTPS URLs
• use lftp to access FTP URLs

RHCT skills

Troubleshooting and System Maintenance

• boot systems into different run levels for troubleshooting and system maintenance
• diagnose and correct misconfigured networking
• diagnose and correct hostname resolution problems
• configure the X Window System and a desktop environment
• add new partitions, filesystems, and swap to existing systems
• use standard command-line tools to analyze problems and configure system

Installation and Configuration

• perform network OS installation
• implement a custom partitioning scheme
• configure printing
• configure the scheduling of tasks using cron and at
• attach system to a network directory service, such as NIS or LDAP
• configure autofs
• add and manage users, groups, quotas, and File Access Control Lists
• configure filesystem permissions for collaboration
• install and update packages using rpm
• properly update the kernel package
• configure the system to update/install packages from remote repositories using yum or pup
• modify the system bootloader
• implement software RAID at install-time and run-time
• use /proc/sys and sysctl to modify and set kernel run-time parameters
• use scripting to automate system maintenance tasks
• configure NTP for time synchronization with a higher-stratum server

RHCE skills

Troubleshooting and System Maintenance

• use the rescue environment provided by first installation CD
• diagnose and correct boot failures arising from bootloader, module, and filesystem errors
• diagnose and correct problems with network services (see Installation and Configuration below for a list of these services)
• add, remove, and resize logical volumes
• diagnose and correct networking services problems where SELinux contexts are interfering with proper operation.

Installation and Configuration

• HTTP/HTTPS
• SMB
• NFS
• FTP
• Web proxy
• SMTP
• IMAP, IMAPS, and POP3
• SSH
• DNS (caching name server, slave name server)
• NTP

For each of these services, RHCEs must be able to:

• install the packages needed to provide the service
• configure SELinux to support the service
• configure the service to start when the system is booted
• configure the service for basic operation
• Configure host-based and user-based security for the service

RHCEs must also be able to:

• configure hands-free installation using Kickstart
• implement logical volumes at install-time
• use iptables to implement packet filtering and/or NAT
• use PAM to implement user-level restrictions

Postfix, LDAP, Kerberos, Courier-Authlib, and Courier-IMAP Build
By Grant Carmichael

This build uses ldap aliases in postfix...

Openssl
shell> ./config shared
shell> make
shell> make test
shell> make install
shell> echo "/usr/local/ssl/lib" >> /etc/ld.so.conf
shell> ldconfig

OpenLDAP
shell> ./configure --without-kerberos --without-cyrus-sasl --without-tls --without-threads --disable-slapd --disable-slurpd --disable-debug --disable-shared
shell> make depend
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> echo "/usr/local/lib" >> /etc/ld.so.conf
shell> ldconfig

Postfix
make makefiles CCARGS="-I/usr/local/include -DHAS_LDAP" AUXLIBS="-L/usr/local/lib -lldap -L/usr/local/lib -llber"

Do:

shell> /etc/init.d/sendmail stop
shell> chkconfig sendmail off
shell> mv /usr/sbin/sendmail /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF
shell> mv /usr/bin/newaliases /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF
shell> mv /usr/bin/mailq /usr/bin/mailq.OFF
shell> chmod 755 /usr/sbin/sendmail.OFF /usr/bin/newaliases.OFF /usr/bin/mailq.OFF

Open: /etc/passwd

At the end add:
postfix:*:12345:12345:postfix:/no/where:/no/shell

Open: /etc/group

At the end add:
postfix:*:12345:
postdrop:*:54321:

Install postfix with:
shell> make install

The Postfix install will ask you some questions. I just accepted the default.

Open: /etc/postfix/main.cf

Change/Configure the following variables:
myhostname = example.example.com
mydomain = example.example.com
myorigin = $myhostname
inet_interfaces = all
mydestination = $myhostname, localhost.$mydomain, localhost, $mydomain
mynetworks_style = host
mynetworks = 127.0.0.1
home_mailbox = Maildir/

Start Postfix and send a test message to a user on your system
shell> postfix start

Create LDAP aliases:

Open: /etc/postfix/main.cf

Configure/Set:
alias_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-aliases.cf
local_recipient_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-users.cf
canonical_maps = ldap:/etc/postfix/ldap-canonical.cf

Create: /etc/postfix/ldap-aliases.cf
Add:

server_host = ldap-1.example.com
search_base = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
query_filter = (mailAlternateAddress=%s@example.example.com)
result_attribute = mail
bind_dn = cn=Manager,dc=shorter,dc=edu
bind_pw = somepass
version = 3
size_limit = 1
expansion_limit = 0

Create: /etc/postfix/ldap-users.cf
Add:

server_host = ldap-1.example.com
search_base = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
query_filter = (mailAlternateAddress=%s)
result_attribute = uid
bind_dn = cn=Manager,dc=shorter,dc=edu
bind_pw = somepass
version = 3
size_limit = 1
expansion_limit = 0

Create: /etc/postfix/ldap-canonical.cf
Add:

server_host = ldap-1.example.com
search_base = ou=People,dc=example,dc=com
query_filter = (uid=%s)
result_attribute = studentEmail
bind_dn = cn=Manager,dc=shorter,dc=edu
bind_pw = somepass
version = 3
size_limit = 1
expansion_limit = 0

In an LDAP entry, make sure the "mail" attribute is the actual deliverable address, and "mailAlternateAddress" is some.alias@example.example.com and uid@example.example.com

Courier Authlib

As regular user do:
./configure --with-redhat;make

As root do:
make install
make install-configure

Open:

/usr/local/etc/authlib/authdaemonrc

Add:

authmodulelist="authpam"

Start:

/usr/local/sbin/authdaemond start

Setup the system for Kerberos authentication:

shell> authconfig

Test:

/usr/local/sbin/authtest user password

Courier IMAP

As regular user do:
./configure --with-redhat;make;make check

As root do:
make install
make install-configure


Add the following folders to the system for the script that adds users:
/etc/skel/Maildir
/etc/skel/maildir/cur
/etc/skel/maildir/new
/etc/skel/maildir/tmp

Apache 2.2 PHP5 Build

OpenSSL
shell> ./config shared
shell> make
shell> make test
shell> make install

Apache2
shell> ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-so
shell> make
shell> make install

PHP5
shell> ./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs
shell> make
shell> make install
shell> cp php.ini-dist /usr/local/lib/php.ini

Open:

/usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf

After (or somewhere in httpd.conf):

AddType application/x-gzip .gz .tgz

Add:

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-source .phps

Change:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm

To:

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.htm

Start Apache with:

shell> /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl start