Tubular

Here's an interesting concept: it's called Tubes. It's basically a cross between synchronization and a VPN, as it allows you to create "tubes" between two or more computers (such as office and home). Anything you place in the "tube" will go to the other ends of the tubes, so it allows you to have up to date current files at both locations. They offer a higher-end Pro version for $5/month, but the free version will be fine for most people.

Be More Productive

Here's a list of the Top 20 Free Applications to Increase Your Productivity. I personally use 6 of them and there are a few that I didn't know about that I'm already downloading as they seems like real time savers.

Web Stats

I saw this website which had some interesting data:

1. Firefox has close to 25% of the market share for web browsers, a huge jump from the 5-10% that had about a year ago.

2. Windows Vista only has a 1.9% market share...just slightly above Windows 98! How embarrassing for Microsoft.

3. The majority of people still use 1024 X 768 as their screen resolution...meaning, most are still using 15" monitors.

Bigger Isn't Always Better

One of the complaints I hear from many offices is that their treatment rooms are too small to place a computer. Answering that complaint is Stealth Computers, whose new LPC-450 is a full featured PC that fits in the palm of your hand and has every feature you'd want in a PC: large hard drives, gigabit networking, 3D graphics,...the works. Pricing starts around $1400 although a decent model for a dental office will run closer to $1800.

Dentrix Image Part 2

OK, here's a follow-up to yesterday's post. It all sounds like a bit of cloak and dagger, but here's another email I got from a source I can't reveal:

Dr. Lavine,

Here's the lowdown on what's going on with Component Update 4...

Air Techniques had a copy of the beta version of CU4, and sent out an E-mail announcing that Image would work with the newer Acclaim cameras (which was also included in the new CU).

We here at Dentrix High Tech still haven't received the beta, but one of the salespeople received the same beta and leaked it to a few offices. We're almost done with it here... we're doing some final testing... and I can confirm that support has been added for the DexRay digital imaging sensors and the DexCam cameras. It also does improve the filtering on Gendex hardware.

We don't have it available for download just yet, but I would expect it to be on the Dentrix website within the next few days.

If you've got any other questions, feel free to ask me...

Dentrix Image Changes?

I got this from an anonymous source at Danaher and while I've yet to confirm it, it does seem promising:

"I thought I would inform you of two developments that took place this week regarding Dentrix Image, DEXIS and Gendex:

1. Dentrix Image has been updated to use the image filter's in Gendex's GxPicture driver rather than raw data. The result is out-of-the-box image quality with Dentrix Image as good as VixWin software.

2. Dentrix Image has been updated to allow for the direct integration of DEXIS's sensors - no DexRay software needed.

Both of these updates can be downloaded from Dentrix's website in Componenet Update 4 and will ship with new software immediately"

I don't see the update on the webiste yet, but will confirm any of this as soon as I can.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane

eWeek has published their list of The Most Famous (or Infamous) Viruses and Worms of All Time. I've had to deal with 7 of these at various times over the last 5 years...how many have you had? If you have modern antivirus software, hopefully none of them recently. A good read.

Free Thinkers

I've been playing around with a free Office suite called ThinkFree, and I'm pretty impressed so far. It has a lot of Office functionality, allows you to edit Office documents, store files online, and a host of other features. Definitely worth checking out.

Best of 2007

Pc Word has released their annual list of The 100 Best Products of 2007, including PCs, HDTV, components, sites, and services. I use or install 22 of them, but there were a few I hadn't heard of that look very promising.

Best Keyboard Ever

I've written about this before, and the Optimus Maximus Keyboard is now accepting pre-orders. This will be the coolest keyboard of all time, with every key a customizable LED screen. What I didn't know was the price: a mind-boggling $1564! Oh well, I can always dream...

Music Freedom

Many of the offices I visit are using iPods for playing music throughout the office. While I love my iPods, I'm not a huge fan of iTunes: DRM, expensive, buggy...I want to play my music where I want and when I want. Here's an interesting site that discusses a few free programs that give you full control over your music with your iPod, without needing iTunes

A Better Backup?

Got this one from my friend Dr. Jeffrey Brooks, another dentist-turned-IT professional. It's called Cobian Backup. There are a few things that are very appealing to me about this program:

1. It's blazingly fast. I backed up a 21 GB folder in under 13 minutes.

2. It allows you to encrypt the backup.

3. It allows you to email the results to yourself.

4. It has the ability to stop and start programs that you need to backup. I'm going to test it with Eaglesoft and Dentrix Image, as these are logical candidates for it.

5. Best of all, it's open source...free to download and use.

Check it out!

New Wireless

The newest flavor of wireless, 802.11n, isn't expected to be formally ratified for at least a year. The new standard will have real-world speed about three times faster than 802.11g and a longer range. While the standard won't be a "standard" for awhile, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced today that they will begin to certify "Draft-N" products next month, which means they will work with older Wi-Fi gear and will be compatible with new gear once the standard is ratified. Start looking for these certified products in June. Here's the news as reported in the Washington Post.

Schein Acquires Discus

I just heard from my sources at Schein that they will be announcing shortly that they have acquired the software side on Discus Dental, which includes the Dentalvision, Endovision, Periovision, and OMSVision products. I think this makes a lot of sense as Discus' products have primarily targeted the speciality markets, whereas Dentrix targets the general dentist market. They plan to keep the Discus product lines as is for the time being.

New Gendex X-ray

I just got news from Gendex that they are releasing a new DC head, the expert DC. I've heard a few reports from our clients that they were having some trouble with the Gendex 765DC head, so I imagine this new head will replace that older model. Here's the press release:

Gendex Dental Systems

expert® DC Intraoral X-ray System

The Gendex expert® DC utilizes the most advanced digital and electronic technology to provide reliable consistency in imaging while offering unique features and innovative solutions that create greater flexibility in workflow. Designed for digital imaging, yet compatible with PSP and film, expert® DC has a 0.4mm focal spot (the smallest in the market) for maximum image resolution. Fully programmable exposure settings are offered in both the main control panel and the Quickset™ controls on the tubehead. The expert® DC offers an integrated USB connection exclusively for Gendex VisualiX® eHD sensors.

Gendex Dental Systems
340 East Route 22
Lake Zurich, IL 60047
Phone: (800) 323-8029
Fax: (847) 550-6825
Website: www.gendex.com

New MacBooks

Apple today announced that they are releasing three new models of the MacBook laptops. With 1" thick designs, Intel processors that can run PC software, and built-in 802.11n (the new and fastest kind) wireless, I just may need to pick one up for myself. Check out the press release here.

A Better Mousetrap

I've always been impressed with my friend Tom Block's knowledge and it seems that he has developed a very nice backup system called the Data Security and Storage Suite. Similar in some ways to the Permastor system we have recommended in the past, it allows for automatic backup of your critical data, even open files, to an offsite location. I'll be testing this system in the near future and will likely be offering it as an option to our clients. Stay tuned for more.

Best of the Year

Engadget, one of my favorite sites for tech news, has posted their 2006 Awards (a bit late, no?). In any event, there were a few surprises and a few I expected. Check it out.

No Thanks

At least 1-2 times/week, I have a program crash and I get that little pop-up that asks me if I want to send the data to Microsoft. Well, I don't...they never read it. Not only that. since I never want to send that data to Microsoft, shouldn't I be able to turn that off? This site shows you how.

Sittin' Pretty

While this is designed more for your staff, it's still an important issue. Here's a great guide for choosing a computer chair. I myself used to have all kinds of back problems until I bought my Herman Miller Aeron chair. Not cheap at $750 but worth every penny to me as my back pain has completely subsided.

Softdent 12.0.3 Bug

There was a critical error in the latest patch of Softdent. Here's the email I got from them:

Dr. Lavine,

I want to make you aware of situation we had with v12.0.3 yesterday. This is a new build that we made available about 10 days ago with some minor changes. This was available via our web update system or upon request. One change had to do with a cosmetic issue in the system file that revolved around the number of transactions on the statement. We changed it to reference the number of pages due to additional costs associated with a 2nd page of an electronic statement.

When making that change in the system file upon entry to the system there are unique circumstances that would allow multiple stations to attempt to make the change. This resulted in duplicate key DMB errors.

It was a tough one to track down but we had “all hands on deck” yesterday and we were able to uncover the problem and we have a path to resolution. We will have a utility available today that will correct anyone experiencing the error on v12.0.3. Yesterday we took a few offices back v12.0.2 which also corrects the error. In addition, we will build v12.0.4 to replace the original v12.03. The v12.0.4 will be made available today to our QA team and we expect a hand off for release no later than Wednesday, May 16th.

I wanted to make sure you were aware of the situation and had first hand information since you work with our customers on a regular basis. I can assure you we will review our systems to understand how this mistake happened. In addition, please understand that the issue did NOT cause any loss of data or corrupt information. We sincerely regret any problems this caused any of our offices. As always, I am available any time to talk to you or any of our customers.

Let me know if you need the contact information for the person who sent me this. I have every confidence they will rectify this....but, it just emphasizes what I always say: make sure you backup before you apply any patches or updates to any of your software programs.

IntraOral Cameras

Got this email from my friend Steve Mortensen at Imagin Systems:

"Imagin is hot again and our images are on fire, we were advised that we had the best image in the show! Our camera's feature high quality designs with interface
choices of USB2, S-video and composite (will also plug directly into
AcuCam C-4s, ViperCam CMA-C4/C5s and the early AcuCam plus docking stations),
great ergonomics, and awesome resolution, has sent us ahead in the game and
would of enjoyed showing it off to you. We have a whole new family of High-end
and Mid ranged price cameras coming out and should have our new USB
MegaPixel w/our new "Flash Light" technology debuting at the ADA in San
Francisco this September. Would look forward in hooking up with you again
and to hear your comments. Attached are some images taken with our new
Hotrod II Camera and some pictures of the new HR IIs set up other brands."

The ability to interface with older docking stations is a nice feature for Imagin to have...here's a photo:

CDA Recap

Well, another California Dental Association meeting has finished and it's time for my twice-yearly recap. There's also the Fall Session in San Francisco which this year is held in conjunction with the ADA Meeting, so that should be a great meeting as well. This was easily the best meeting that I've been to. First off, I lectured on Thursday on Digital Radiography. I was expecting 20-30 people at the most (who comes to a lecture on a Thursday morning?) but was thrilled to see over 225 people there! Lots of good questions, lots of nice people…definitely one of my favorite lectures. The meeting itself from Friday to Sunday was very well attended and I was able to meet many new potential clients for Dental Technology Consultants that we are looking forward to working with in the upcoming

Product of the Show

I was surprised that there were so many new and exciting products at this show, as most are normally released at Chicago MidWinter or ADA. The product that easily wowed me the most when I was there is the DentiMag3D. There were a number of companies showing magnified dental solutions (more on those in a bit) but this was the first time I've seen this in 3-D. You need to use special glasses that fit over your regular glasses and a 3-D monitor but the effect was simply amazing; I felt like I actually could crawl into the canals on the tooth that they were using for their demo. Pricing was in the $28,000 range and I'm not sure who the distributor will be, but this is a very slick system.

Other Products and Services

XDR was jamming in their booth. I was happy to see one of my favorite companies doing well. They were selling an insert on sensor placement that I think will be beneficial to many offices.

I've become a big fan of lasers ever since I started to lecture on them last year. Syneron has a very nice looking system, the LiteTouch, where most of the laser components are actually housed inside the handpiece, making it very easy to work with.

RF Systems was showing their Doctor's Station, which I had first seen at Chicago. It's an update to the Copernicus system with a much nicer glass monitor, intraoral camera receiver, memory card, TV tuner, and film digitizer. Very nice looking system, but I couldn't get the pricing from them.

I saw a really cool video camera called the SupaCam. It can take movies, digital photos, and was also an MP3 player and webcam. A very good image.

Speaking of magnified dentistry, there were two companies showing similar products. The first to market was the MagnaVu and they have updated their system with integration with the VELscope, used to detect oral cancer. Price was around $32,000. Camsight, which had a higher-end system, the Digital Surgical Scope, now has a product to compete with the MagnaVu called the Explorer. The DSS runs about $50,000 and the Explorer is around $32,000.
Speaking of Camsight, they had a number of other nice products, including the Opti Intraoral Camera and their new CDMx-h digital x-ray system, which looks similar to the Hamamatsu sensors.

TrollByte was showing their universal holder for sensors. It's a one-piece design and seemed easy to use and learn.

Progeny was showing their new imaging software called VisionDX. Progeny is using the e2v sensors which I love and have just developed this software. I didn't get a chance to play with it too much but the software looks good from what I could see.

One of the intraoral cameras I've always liked is the DocPortMacro. Lightweight, good image, decent price. They have both analog and digital models.

I know that many offices are looking at different in-office communication systems. While I still think BlueNote Communicator is the top of the heap, if you prefer earpieces, then the ones I saw being sold by the EarPhone Connection were very sharp: lightweight, comfortable, and priced well.

Planmeca was showing their Compacti dental chair and operatory and this was really, really nice. Very ergonomic, nice colors, very clean look.

I saw a nice scanner for scanning in insurance cards and ID cards, called the DocketPort by Ambir Technology. It has good resolution and is TWAIN compliant. Priced under $200.
Panoramic Corporation, maker of one of the most popular film pans, the PC-1000, now has their own conversion system, the 1000-DR. It looks like they are using the Ajay sensor, a very high end digital sensor. Pricing was in the $20,000 range if I recall.

I was also really impressed with the many Cone Beam systems that are coming out. One of the newest to the dental field is TeraRecon and their Prexion 3D. The unit can only evaluate from nasal tip to chin so it's really designed more for implant placement. At around $160,000, it's one of the least expensive Cone Beam systems on the market.

Hoya Conbio was showing a very lightweight and portable soft tissue laser, the Micro 980. This system was really tiny and easy to move from room to room, and the 980nm wavelength makes it very powerful as well.

I got to see the Owandy sensors and i-Max Easy Digital Pan and both are priced really well with very good image quality. Both are also TWAIN compliant which means they can work with most image software programs.

Finally, I saw the new Schick USBCam2 in action. Image quality is a step above the old system, as is the price: $3995 for the camera. It's much more ergonomically friendly than the old system as well.

Well, that's it for this issue. If you were at CDA and I missed something, please let me know and I'll include it in the next issue.

Hotmail 2.0

I know that many of you are Hotmail users, so you'll be pleased to hear that their newest version was released today. It's called Windows Live Hotmail. Features include:

Previews of your messages you can read—without leaving your inbox
Drag-and-drop organization
Easy importing of your Microsoft Outlook contacts
One-click control over junk and scam e-mails
Right-click power—reply, delete, and forward
2 GB of storage

You can get it right here.

Air Techniques...Film?

Yup...I was surprised to see they are selling film at their booth at CDA. Film is still huge in the USA (about $150 million). Here's the press release:

Melville, New York. Air Techniques, Inc. presents SENSA X-Ray Film.

SENSA is a D-Speed film manufactured by Air Techniques with materials supplied byFujifilm Corporation. The combination of Air Techniques and Fujifilm is a natural enterprise. SENSA means quality, dependability, and superb radiographs. SENSA is for everyone who uses film and will work with every type of processor and every brand of chemistry. At first, Sensa will be offered in size 2, the most popular. Then all other sizes: 0, 1, 3, 4,panoramic, and cephalometric will be introduced.For more information, visit the Air Techniques website at www.airtechniques.com.

Keep It Yourself

If you're a fan of YouTube like I am, you know there are thousands of great videos that you can enjoy. However, with the many lawsuits swirling around this service, you may want to consider downloading your favorite videos onto your hard drive before they are gone. This website lists 23 download tools for getting YouTube videos.

USB Drive

I'm a huge fan of USB flash drives. Here's an interesting model with 2 GB of storage, 256-bit encryption, and most importantly, it's waterproof! Check it out.

CDA

I had the pleasure of speaking Thursday at the CDA in Anaheim and it was definitely one of the best lectures I've ever done. There were around 200 people there and I had a ton of people coming up during the breaks to ask questions. It's always fun to speak when the audience appears to be interested. I'll have a booth there this weekend, and as usual, will have a CDA Recap on my blog and newsletter next week.

You Can Take It With You

A bit off-topic, but...I know that many of you like to listen to music, either at the office or home. But, being able to access your music library from multiple locations can be a challenge at best. Here's a great site that goes through some different ways to set this up and some of the great online services that you can use.

CareStream=Kodak

In news that surprised nobody, Kodak's sale of their Health Imaging division closed yesterday, and the new company is called Carestream.

Here's the press release:

ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 1 — Carestream Health, Inc., today began officially operating as an independent company with more than 8,100 employees serving tens of thousands of customers in 150 countries around the world.

With nearly $2.5 billion in annual sales, Carestream Health is one of the world’s leading health imaging and IT solutions companies, offering a comprehensive suite of traditional and digital solutions to dental, medical, molecular imaging systems and non-destructive testing customers.
The company originated as a business unit within Eastman Kodak Company and brings from its former owner a proud history of innovation, more than 110 years’ experience in health imaging, and over 1,000 patents in digital and film imaging and information technology. As a result of its innovative product portfolio and broad global sales, service and distribution capabilities, products from Carestream Health, including its PracticeWorks and Trophy subsidiaries, can be found in approximately 90% of dental practices and hospitals around the world. In addition, more than 75% of the company’s revenue comes from products that enjoy a number No. 1 market position.

"We couldn't be more excited," said Kevin Hobert, Chief Executive Officer of Carestream Health. "We now have an incredible opportunity to build on our history of innovation and to invest in our future and grow our business."

Carestream Health and its subsidiaries will continue to use the Kodak brand with its products. It now owns all former Health Group sub-brands such as RVG, SoftDent, OrthoTrac and Cook-Waite to name a few.

Dental Segment

Carestream Health’s Dental Systems group is the world leader in advanced dental digital imaging and information technology. "Combined, we have the largest installed base of both
2 dental digital radiography systems and of dental practice management software (DPMS)" noted Richard S. Hirschland, General Manager of Carestream Health’s Dental Systems group.
Carestream Health’s PracticeWorks subsidiaries develop and market a broad portfolio of industry-leading practice management software and electronic services sold in the U.S., the United Kingdom and other countries. The company’s Trophy subsidiary develops and manufactures a full portfolio of intraoral and extraoral digital radiography systems, including the highest resolution intraoral digital radiography system available today — the Kodak RVG 6100 digital radiography system. Carestream Health also holds the No. 1 market position for dental intraoral and extraoral film products.

Carestream Health’s portfolio of Kodak-branded dental products include: direct-digital intraoral and extraoral dental radiography systems; computed radiography systems, practice management software and electronic services; dental digital camera systems; intraoral and extraoral dental imaging films, processing chemistry and x-ray equipment; and a variety of related products and services. Carestream Health also markets Cook-Waite local anesthetics.

MultiTasking

If you're like me, you are downloading files all day long. Although I prefer Internet Explorer over Firefox(call me crazy!), I've always been annoyed by the limitation that IE7 only allows you to download two files at a time. Here's a neat little trick to remove that limitation. It does involve tweaking the Registry, so be sure to back it up first.