Free Software
for Busy People

Mohammad Al-Ubaydli

First Edition

Idiopathic Publishing ∙ Cambridge, UK

Free Software for Busy People
by Mohammad Al-Ubaydli

Published by:
Idiopathic Publishing
Cambridge, UK
orders@idiopathic.com
http://www.idiopathic.com

Cover design by Buthaina Fakhro
Artwork for the six characters by Todd Groesbeck
Copyright (c) 2005 Mohammad Al-Ubaydli

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Whilst the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the author nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made.

Unattributed quotations are by Mohammad Al-Ubaydli

ISBN, print ed. 0-9544157-3-6

First printing 2005

Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Idiopathic Publishing is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

About the author

Mohammad Al-Ubaydli is a Bahraini doctor and programmer who uses IT to improve healthcare.

In 2000 He graduated as a doctor with a first-class degree from the University of Cambridge. His research project, ImmunoSim, won the Fulton Roberts Immunology Prize.

Since then, he has continued to combine his medical and computing knowledge. This included developing the software for Project Palm at Cambridge University, which allowed medical students to share their learning using handhelds (www.cbcu.cam.ac.uk/handhelds).

He co-founded Medical Futures Ltd, which launched the Medical Futures Innovation Awards in 2001 (www.medicalfutures.co.uk). The awards have raised awareness amongst doctors of the process of using their ideas and inventions to improve healthcare. The event also raises money for UK hospitals.

During his first year of clinical practice, he was able to lecture and consult on the use of handhelds in medicine. He wrote the book “Handheld Computers for Doctors” (www.handheldsfordoctors.com) in 2003. He is now a Visiting Research Fellow at the NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information^† – www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) in Bethesda, MD, USA.

To Laura

Acknowledgements

It took a global village to make this book and I am grateful for the help I received.

First, I would like to thank John Knight for teaching me about Free Software, and for showing the typical generosity of Free Software experts around the world.

I am grateful that Rebecca Jones waded through the early manuscripts. Jeff Loo, Amir Mehrkar and Sanjay Sharma all helped with editing the book. Thanks also to Patrick “Che Guevara” Goymer for his heroic last-minute editing.

Todd Groesbeck drew beautifully the six characters of this book and my mother designed the front cover.

Which brings me to my parents, Buthaina and Ahmad, and my brother, Omar, who supported me in their usual ways. On my recommendation, they downloaded beta software even when I was unsure how to use it. They improved my writing and cheered me on all the way.

Thank you all and I cannot wait to see you again soon.