Windows 8 is Great for Online Medical Billing School

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windows-8.1 for online medical billing classesAs we reported a few weeks ago, Windows XP operating system is about to fade out of existence.  With so many computers still running Microsoft’s most popular OS ever, this means many of the folks who studying medical billing and coding online using Windows XP computers have recently upgraded to a new system (or will be soon).  That can be scary.  Especially since, since they’ve still been using Window XP, that means they missed the incremental changes spread over the releases Microsoft issued between XP and the present (which includes Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and most recently, 8.1). But fear not students of medical billing and coding school!  The new Windows 8.1 is actually pretty easy to use- some might even say ‘fun’ – even if you’re an XP diehard.  Microsoft built Windows 8 to act much more like a tablet, phablet or smartphone.  If you have an iPhone or an Android phone, you’ll intuitively understand the “Tiles” which are similar to the apps on your tablet.  What’s even more comforting is that the newest release, Windows 8.1 was issued specifically to restore some of the traditional Windows features that users complained were stripped out of Windows 8.  Things like a START button and right clicking of things have been restored in 8.1.  Overall, this blogger has found it to be the best of both worlds, tablet computing and classic Microsoft tools. Bottom line, like anything new and different, it will take a little adjustment time, but if you’re being forced to upgrade by XP’s final log off, you’ll have even more fun studying online medical billing classes with 8.1!

Surgical Hand Transplant Technology Takes a Step Forward

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Did you know that more than 40 people have successfully completed surgical re-attachment of their lost limbs with new human hands provided by deceased donors?  Its true.  The French first accomplished this miraculous medical feat in 1998 and since then more than 40 have been given back the use of a lost hand or hands.  10 in the US alone. Well, it seems that UCLA has announced plans to open a hand transplant facility in the US soon.  They are seeking volunteers – returning war veterans or others who have recently lost their hands – to participate in this still very experimental procedure.  Click here to read more about this amazing medical story.

The Speed of Progress

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I came across this fascinating article in WIRED magazine that made me feel like a dinosaur.  Sure, I am a “hip” blogger, using the latest technical application to produce my every-other-daily musings here at the Allen School Online Blog.  But I am old enough to remember life as it was before the personal computer and the grueling nature of writing without the incredible convenience of the word processor.  Before we could “process” words, we used to have to physically imprint them onto wood-pulp based sheets of something called “paper”.  To accomplish this task, we used a mechanized, manual, non-laser driven machine known as a typewriter.  There have been two generations now born into a world without knowledge of this ancient writing machine.  I suppose they would view the typewriter through the same purely historical lens as I might view the telegraph machine or the steam engine.  Yet there are still some people for whom the clacking, white out fumes and ink stains of the typewriter era holds a special place in their hearts.  This article in WIRED shines a light on the few remaining typewriter repairmen – the last of a nearly dead breed.  Have a read of this fascinating article and then count your lucky stars that you don’t have to run out and buy some more white out have the all the modern technology at your disposal when it’s time to write your essays.