How to design medical equipment.

       First, I want to warn you that this one might ramble.  It might go long.  Bear with me.  Second, For the sake of full disclosure, I am not a designer.  I do not get paid to design smoothly arcing lines on a case.  If I did, there would not be any, but I'll cover that later.  What has been the source of my income, for the last decade and a half, has been fixing all the things that get broken, BECAUSE someone who does get paid to design them spent too much time making the case "sexy" and not enough studying how the damned thing would be used.  I am focusing on medical equipment, because that is my field, but I suspect there will be a host of technicians in every area nodding their collective heads to this.

       We will begin with a cute little anecdote I have.  A nurse, in the nursery, broke off a piece of the bassinet on an infant warmer.  She did this by pulling on it.  She was pulling on the bassinet because the designer apparently thought handles ruined the lines of their product.  The salesman came to see us and said: "Well, that isn't covered under warranty."  I said: "I know the nurse was negligent and should have just used the handle."  The idiot says: "Exactly".  The look on his face when I asked him to show the nurses, who were all gathered around, where the handles were, still makes me laugh.  (We got our parts covered, BTW).

       But that brings me to a point of explaining, how exactly, to design medical equipment.  First, if it isn't, literally, bolted to the floor, it is portable.  That is a fact of life.  Second, because it will be transported, it needs either a full internal frame, or a case equally as rigid as a full metal frame.  This is primarily because: Third, the highest, and outermost points of all equipment are handles.  

       What!? You didn't design handles there.  Well let me just go and change every single human being's habits.  Let me just put a sign on it that says "NOT A HANDLE", that will change thousands of years of habit.  Or, just maybe, you could watch how things are used before you start drawing.  And by the way, that handle better be part of the framing system.  I have seen this not be the case.  It went exactly like you'd expect.  

       Now I have to share a bit of the inner workings.  Hospitals are required to have all equipment inventoried, and periodic maintenance performed on nearly every piece.  Some items require stickers detailing the tested vs. expected outputs.  To that end, one would think these items would be designed with enough flat space to place these stickers.  Nope.  That would be a flat, boring, un-sexy case.  We can't have that.  

       So the case must be flat, or have sufficient flat space, to accommodate the required labeling.  The case should, while we are on the topic, be made of dyed plastic, or stainless steel.  This is because it also needs to resist the types of chemicals which are capable of killing today's super-bugs.  MRSA, C.diff, etc, are tough little buggers.  The things that can kill them, can also remove printing, paint, and most coloring from cases.  They will melt the bottoms of some shoes.  That is not a joke, I've seen it.  The accessories, and cables, also need to be made to resist these chemicals.  

       In the interest of not being destroyed by harsh cleaners, any open ports need to have a hinged, water resistant cover.  All bearings should also be weatherproof.  This is both to keep the chemicals out, and not give germs a place to hide.  

       Lastly, as a favor to the poor saps who get stuck working on your equipment, design it to be worked on.  It will break.  All things break.  Design it so we don't have to waste an hour taking it apart just to get to a fuse.  (Again, based on a real case).  

       Now there are a few companies that get it right, or at least mostly right.  But there are many more that don't.  And no, I'm not going to give an opinion, or name names.  Not here anyway.  

       So there you have it.  A comprehensive guide to correctly designing, and building, medical equipment.  I have given this out free of charge, in the hopes that some designer, somewhere, will think of what the thing is supposed to do, rather than how it looks.  This can be balanced, I've seen it done.  

10 Amazing facts you didn't know about the internet!!

       See how that misleading title made you click this link.  That is just the type of disingenuous nonsense that litters social media.  But since you have read this far, I will give you ten tips to not look like an idiot, online or elsewhere.

10.  If you see the terms "amazing", "incredible", "unbelievable", or anything like that, used in conjunction with: "Facts", "truths", etc. everything you are about to read is complete crap. (yes, including this)

9.  If the accompanying article appears to not be crap, in that they list sources; look at those sources, and see if they support the conclusion.

8.  It's the internet.  You are already online.  Search the items yourself.

7.  If the article seems legitimate, but has no source listed, it is inherently false.

6.  Use collegiate rules:  Wikipedia is not a source.

5.  When a genetically isolated group shows no signs of a particular disease, it IS NOT because of their diet.

4.  If a post says it was "verified by snopes"; click the link.  Either it won't work, or will take you to a site saying the story is false.

3.  If you are about to post something, and haven't checked that it is accurate, you are helping spread a lie.

2.  There is nothing, aside from eating less and exercising, that will make you thinner.  That doesn't always work, either.

1.  Listen to your mother.  Just because everyone else is posting illogical, non-factual BS, doesn't mean you have to.

Bonus: Coconut oil is tasty, and solid at room temperature.  It will not cure anything, make you lose weight, or save the planet.  It will make a very tasty filipino garlic rice, and excellent popcorn.

Free speech culture

       In order to shine a light on a certain brand of hypocrisy; I will be writing a paragraph from the perspective of an outraged liberal.  I have read several such articles explaining to all the "Sheeple" that "American Gun Culture" is the reason why we still have gun rights, which should, due to the actions of a few be taken away.  (By the way, if you ever want people to immediately tune you out, use the word "Sheeple")  Instead of using the term "Gun-Culture" however, I will be using the term "Free Speech Culture.  (the only differences will be a lack of spelling errors, and a lack of egregious grammatical errors).  I hope that this will show just how flimsy, and frankly how Anti-American, those arguments are.

       Well, here we go again.  Another day another incident of someone causing pain and suffering because the Free Speech Culture wont allow the government to protect us by taking away these idiot's right to disagree.  As long as people have the right to say whatever they want, whenever they want, this will keep happening.  Certain places are not even safe anymore because these sociopaths get to spread their idiocy wherever they choose.  How many lives have to be lost, just because someone wants their individual freedom preserved.  How many children need be injured or die, just because a selfish few, feel a need to speak freely.  Distracting billboards, political speech on the radio.  I can't even concentrate on driving!  People protesting gets in the way of emergency vehicles and causes economic disruption!  By disagreeing with necessary policy choices, children won't have access to free services.  By speaking out against these things, children die.  Think of the children.  And how dare they impose this disease of theirs on the rest of us.  I'm not saying that these people can't practice their free speech in appropriate places, like designated lounges, but they should not be allowed to shove their beliefs in our faces.  I should not have to feel threatened by their disagreement.  When can we just ignore this Free speech culture and do what is best for society?  We should really just round up all the transmitters and printing presses and take them away so no one would have them.  Free speech is not a guaranteed right when children get hurt.  

       Now I hope I don't need to point out that the above paragraph is farcical in nature.  But this is how the arguments against the second amendment go.  It cannot be said enough: My rights should never be curtailed due to someone else's actions.  That isn't gun culture.  That is one of the founding principals of our country.  To say that my firearms pose a threat to someone, because an illegally obtained pistol in Chicago was used in a crime, is erroneous thinking.  There is no gun culture in America.  We have a culture of being at liberty.  We have a culture that allows divergent viewpoints to peacefully coexist.  When my rights are eroded because someone else committed a crime, we have a fundamental violation of civil liberties.  

To put things another way, when someone is arrested the 15th time for drunk driving, or road rage, no one hesitates to blame the local DA for not keeping them in prison.  No one blames the car, or the road, or sues GM; no matter how many people this person killed.  They blame the person.  To do otherwise is ridiculous.  Why then, do we blame an inert piece of machinery when there is a shooting.

Bonus, in case you missed it: Bloomberg admits his racism, and that the problem is the shooter, not the gun.  Of course he is asking the press not to distribute the video of him saying it.  (Not that he controls a significant potion of the press)  Bloomberg's Hypocrisy