Another contact lens solution recall

NY Times story:
Lens Solution Is Pulled Over Link to Infection

A contact lens solution manufacturer voluntarily withdrew one of its products yesterday after federal health officials said an investigation had linked it to a rare but potentially blinding eye infection.

Customers were advised to immediately stop using the solution, AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution. The solution, used to clean and store soft contact lenses, is made by Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, Calif.

Soft contact lens wearers who have the AMO solution were advised to discard all partially used or unopened bottles and switch to alternative products. They should also throw out their current contact lenses and the lens storage case because they may harbor an infection-causing amoeba, officials of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said. More at this NYT link. Or you can just search Google News for "amo contact".

The AMO Malaysia website has a product recall notice to that effect.

Shanghai at night

A couple of night shots from my recent Shanghai trip.

Adobe Reader mind games

One thing really annoying about Adobe's Acrobat Reader is that it cannot be obtained anywhere else except from Adobe's website. This note on Tucows summarises the problem:

The Adobe Acrobat Reader download is just an installer. This installer will lead to a much larger download that includes the Reader as well as the Yahoo! Toolbar and Adobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition. These items will download, however, upon installation you can opt-out of them.

The obvious solution is not to use Adobe's product, but unfortunately, Foxit Reader doesn't work properly for me. It has a problem with properly selecting multiple columns of text.

Illumi-Lite = LED Backlight

Just returned a few days ago from the HP Mobility Summit held Shanghai, China. Among the more interesting products is the HP Compaq 2710p notebook which comes with an Illumi-Lite display. I've confirmed with HP that the term is marketing-speak for LED backlighting.



Current notebook displays all use cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) technology for backlighting. Among the benefits LEDs have over CCFL are:
· Over 10% longer battery life (which can translate to as much as 90 minutes more run time with a nine-cell battery pack)
· 10% thinner; in addition, the backlight driver can be included on the panel controller board and
does not require additional space below the panel
· 25% lighter
· Excellent color saturation at all brightness levels

LED backlighting is also claimed to be greener, because Mercury is not required in the manufacturing process. Plus, LEDs are supposed to last longer than fluorescent lamps, though no estimates have been provided yet.

source: HP white paper