Bridging the language divide

Tablets and smartphones have revolutionised the way in which we all work, and changed expectations of how everyone should be able to work. Modern workers need to communicate and share information, from any location, and from any mobile platform. Making potentially sensitive analytical and other scientific data available to the right personnel, in real time and in a suitable format, is no different, conceptually, at least. Yet in an R&D or life-science testing environment, data is likely to comprise multiple layers of information, coming out of multiple instruments from multiple vendors, which may all use different native software.

Interpreting data formats

BSSN Software recently launched its Seahorse Mobile Edition platform as a vendor-independent solution for delivering scientific data to mobile devices, supporting a wide range of analytical data types, from HPLC and mass spectrometry, to medical imaging, microplate readers and bioreactors. The platform effectively sits alongside the data source – for example, a scientific data management system (SDMS), which provides an interface with existing data repositories, and interprets the data format. ‘In today’s world of mobile working, it is really important for people to be able to access their analytical data wherever they are, perhaps to see what analytical results have been generated overnight, while they are on the train to work in the morning’, commented Burkhard Schaefer, BSSN president and lead architect of the AnIML data standard on which BSSN’s Seahorse family of software is built. ‘Users may want to flick through data from previous experiments to help decide on their next round of analyses, and they may not necessarily be in the laboratory or at a workstation when they need to be able to do this.’

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Rampant software errors undermine scientific results:

Errors in scientific results due to software bugs are not limited to a few high-profile cases that lead to retractions and are widely reported. Here I estimate that in fact most scientific results are probably wrong if data have passed through a computer, and that these errors may remain largely undetected. The opportunities for both subtle and profound errors in software and data management are boundless, yet they remain surprisingly under appreciated.

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Five uninstallers that really work

It never ceases to amaze me how many applications include built-in uninstallers, yet leave fragments behind when you remove them. Fortunately, you don’t have to be at the mercy of an application’s own uninstaller. A number of commercial uninstallers are available that do a good job cleaning up your computer. Here are five to consider.

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Five tools for getting rid of duplicate files

Duplicate files and folders can clutter up a user’s computer, and they can wreak havoc on collaborative work. Although manually tracking down dupes is hardly practical, a number of specialized tools can handle the task. This blogpost lists five such tools.

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