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Welcome to The Linux Weekend Mechanic!

Published in the April, 1998 Edition of the Linux Gazette

Copyright © 1997 John M. Fisk <fiskjm@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu>
The Linux Gazette (tm) is Copyright © 1997,1998 Specialized Systems Consultants Inc.

Yup, I'm afraid that it's time to permanently close up shop here at the 'ol Weekend Mechanic. Time constrains and just the day to day necessities are starting to catch up and I just simply need to spend more time taking care of family matters. I sat down and figured out the time the other day: I've been in some form of training -- undergraduate, graduate, or residency -- for the past 13 1/2 years! I'm about to take a sabbatical :-)

But before I go, I need to take a minute and say thanks to an awful lot of folks: to Tim, at Tennessee Commerce Net, who graciously offered to host the Linux Gazette way back in the summer of 1995; to Matt Welsh for his kind offer to bring the LG under the wing of the LDP; to Marc Ewing, Donnie Barnes, & Erik Troan, the "Boys at RedHat" who sent their encouragement (as well as CD's, a t-shirt, books, and the familiar Red Hat... thanks!) way back when; to Phil Hughes for his interest in and willingness to take over the LG when it simply became too much; to Marjorie Richardson, for actually taking over the day to day care and feeding of this thing (as well as shouldering the hassles and burdens that come with this job -- such as truant columnists such as your's truly...); to the myriad of authors and contributors who have much more faithfully than me contributed to the success of the LG by giving of their time and talents...

And mostly, to my lovely wife, without whose unflagging love, support, and encouragement (and willingness to be an all-too-frequent "computer widow") none of this could have happened. To all of you I want to humbly say,

Thanks folks, it's been great.

So what are we now up to?

Well, as most of you know, I finished up at Middle Tennessee State University this past December and immediately started working for Dr. Ed Shultz in the Information Management Department here at Vanderbilt. We've licensed a clinical database system from a Dr. Prakash Nadkarni at the Yale University Medical Center. Dr. Nadkarni's Advanced Clinical Trials Database System (ACT/DB) is a rather sophisticated clinical trials data management system currently hosted in the Oncology arena. My job has simply been to get the system working and integrated into the larger clinical information system here at Vandy, which has so far proven to be an interesting and often challenging endeavor. For those who might be interested in such things, Dr. Nadkarni has an article in this month's (March, 1998) Journal of the American Medical Informatics (JAMIA) describing the ACT/DB system. We've also submitted an abstract for a theater presentation of the system at the upcoming AMIA meeting (again, for you medical informatics type folks out there... :-)

I'm also working now on trying to set up a formal Medical Informatics Fellowship through the National Library of Medicine here at Vanderbilt. A good deal of my time is now spent trying to get ready for this, especially as the August 1 submission deadline approaches.

Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for hanging in there. I really do owe one last HUGE bit of thanks...

Dear Linus,

Thanks so much for one drop-dead kool kinda OS!

Your fan,
John

I'll see y'all around. Take care,

John

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