Maintaining Your Professional Life While Coping With Your Illness.

This is an introduction to a series of columns whose aim, as indicated by the
title, is to assist in finding technology that will, we hope, best enable you to
remain proactive professionally while undergoing in- and/or out-patient
treatment for a chronic illness.

First, a little of my background.  I am an electrical engineer and attorney by
training.  Because I was unable to use my writing hand while recovering from
thumb surgery, I became the first member of the law department of the principal
broadcast television and radio network to compose contracts, memos and briefs on
a personal computer, instead of having my secretary type them for me.  Since
that time, and for over twenty-five years, I have focused on how computer
technology can help an individual to maintain and enhance one's professional
standing.

In December 2003, because an overworked and harried doctor failed to treat an
ear infection, I came down with meningitis.  After lying in a coma for over nine
days, Israel's doctor of last resort, Professor David Linton, chief of intensive
care at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Keren, Jerusalem, was called to my bedside by
concerned friends and relatives.  But, "Dr. Linton", said my attending physician
and a former student of David's, why are you wasting your time with this man, he
is going to die before morning".  Professor Linton replied, he later told me
with a mischievous smile, "I'm here anyway, and I might as well examine him."
That next morning, thanks to a miracle and a caring physician, I was taken off
life support.

For the following month, I was totally paralyzed and, when awake, interested
only in my comfort.  Over the months that followed, the rehabilitation staff of
Hadassah helped me "slowly, slowly" regain control of my body.  Today, although
I must still go to physical and speech therapy, I am able to walk without
assistance, and only rarely lose my balance.  Only when I am at the limits of my
endurance do I look like a drunk weaving down the streets of New York.

During the initial four to five months of my recovery, my interests changed from
being intensely self centered - focusing first on becoming able to hold a spoon
so that I could eat, then on moving my body with the help of the most beautiful
woman I had ever met since first seeing my mother, moving my wheel chair for
what seemed an eternity to be able to buy a Coca Cola, to standing and using a
walker, then a cane and finally, just my legs - to having an interest in the
outside world.  Had I then been obligated to my clients and profession, I think
my interest in the outside world might have arisen somewhat sooner.

Given my remarkable recovery, I have come to appreciate the special
requirements that chronically ill patients have in maintaining their jobs,
businesses and careers.  Fortunately, technology allows each of us to do so,
even though forced to remain to obtain treatment away from our offices and
homes.

The tools you will use to Maintain Your Professional Life While Coping With Your
Illness are basically cellular telephones, PDAs, personal computers, software,
and the internet, which can come with us as we seek treatment from one doctor's
office to another, from one hospital to another, from  one city to another, even
from one country to another.  Today, we no longer have to remain fixed in one
place to remain in contact with our clients, customers, supervisors and
investors - and no one need know where we do our work, only that it gets done as
perfectly as it otherwise would if we were fully healthily and working in an
office building.

I plan to focus on and suggest those tools that can make us most productive and
interface best with the outside world, having the least possible impact on our
mobility. Where the opinions of others will further our goal, we will provide
WebGuides to trustworthy sources.

For the time being, because of the need for compatibility, the choice of your
computer's operating systems will be determined by the system(s) used by your
colleagues and clients.  Computers run on one of three available operating
systems or platforms - Windows, and two systems built on a UNIX platform --
Linux and Apple's.  Most people who deal in pictures, such as photographers and
graphic artists, use Apples; most people who deal in words or numbers in a
corporate environment use PCs.

Although Windows is improving, it is not yet as stable as either of the two
other platforms built on the UNIX operating system.  Because Microsoft was able
to leverage Windows selection by IBM as the operating system of choice for
personal computers, Windows has become universally deployed.  Recently, Apple
agreed to build computers using central processing units (CPUs or chips, as they
is commonly called) -- the brain of the computer - manufactured by Intel.
Mactels (Apple computers built with Intel chips) should allow software designed
either for Apples or Windows to run as efficiently, on the same computer, as
Window's software now runs on PCs.  However, until Mactels presence is felt in
the marketplace, most of us will continue to use computers running on Microsoft
Windows and Windows software.  A benefit of this choice will provide a greater
selection in hardware manufacturers and software developers, and, therefore, a
greater opportunity to buy less expensive products.

First, the Windows operating system -- Windows comes in several flavors.  My
first home computer ran on a version of Windows called 3.1.  It crashed (ceased
operating properly, if at all) on a daily basis - sometimes hourly.  Although
the computer I used at work was more stable, it too often crashed. The result --
total loss of a document that had taken hours to craft - often led to anger,
frustration and finally [].  Microsoft subsequently released improved flavors:
Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 98 Second Edition.  Each was better than the
previous version, but not quiet good enough.   Although there were worse
operating systems, Windows did not really provide stability for home users until
the release of the current operating system, Windows XP.  (One might wonder why
it took almost two decades for Microsoft to develop a stable system, when Apple
was able to do it the first time.  The answer to that question is beyond the
scope of this column.)

Windows XP is far superior to its predecessors in three key areas.  First, it
works -- although Windows XP still has serious issues, it is now generally able to
recover by itself without crashing - which means that you do not have to shut
off your computer, wait for a few minutes, and then reboot (turn it on again)
for weeks at a time.  Second, if your computer goes haywire (a technical term
which means fails to work properly) you can easily restore your computer to the
way it was when it was operating correctly.   Today most new computers come with
came with Windows XP already loaded.

Since you are going to use your computer in various places, you will have to get
one that is portable.  These come essentially in two flavors - notebooks and
Tablet PCs, both run on Windows XP.  A Tablet has the ability to do anything a
notebook can do.  Additionally, a Tablet PC allows you to write computer-stored
documents by hand and convert them to type written documents.  For reasons I
will discuss in future articles, I use a Tablet PCs as my principal computer,
and strongly recommend that you do likewise, although they are generally more
expensive than equivalent notebook computers.

The following is a list of issues I plan to discuss in future articles:

  Which computer will best suits your needs;
  What type of communications capability should the computer have;
  What types of software and external devices will make our computers most
  efficient and safe in the environment which we find ourselves; or, put another
  way, which of the following would most enhance our computers' performance and,
  accordingly, our productivity
    a wireless mouse;
    an external wireless keyboard;
    an external monitor;
    flash memory devices;
    external hard drives;
    a scanner;
    a printer;
    which operating system will provide the most stability;
    communications devices and software
    anti-malware
      antivirus software;
      a firewall;
      anti-spyware;
      pop-up blocker;
    desk-top indexing and search software;
    backup software;
    internet software, including RSS information aggregators;
    utility software; and/or
    a desktop computer?
  Which software must be compatible with your clients' and colleagues' software
  and which need not?
  How and where do you get information to select the best and most suitable
  hardware and software?
  How do you find the best deal and the best service?

The answer to many, if not most of these questions, will depend on your special
needs, and are not always the most obvious selections.