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So you want it wired to a laptop? If so, one thing I didn't see scanning the comments is Weeder Technologies' controllers. They do RS-232, which is a lot more friendly for a variety of control options than many of the parallel-port motor controllers.

I used their digital I/O and stepper motor controllers for my 3D scanner project - they're pretty good for low-res, low-budget projects.

You don't mention what they want that you don't think is aesthetically pleasing, but remember that in your position you have *two* distinct sets of customers - the elderly group you're building the web site for, and anyone purchasing from them. Your primary responsibility, provided that everything is ethically sound, is to those that 'hired' you.

Ask them why they want features that you think are aesthetically unpleasing - they're artists, right? Shouldn't that mean they have some aesthetic sense and might be worth listening to?

As far as high-contrast colors that have been recommended - one problem that increases in frequency with age is colorblindness. Not the red/green type deficiencies, but there's a diabetes-related condition that causes a blue deficiency (tritanopia).

For some examples, check out VisCheck. You might also be interested in an experimental proggie I wrote to simulate various color deficiencies and remap the colors - CodeBlind.

Check out EnhancedVision.com, they've got some pretty cutting-edge equipement.

I put together a magnifier and color compression utility for Windows that might be useful, but it's experimental rather than a production app - unless he has color deficiencies (e.g. the blue-colorblindness associated with diabetes) then you'll do better with the built-in magnifier in windows or other software available on the internet.

I've thought about making a simple application using a standard web camera and blowing up the image from it to full screen.. Right now there are a lot of proprietary systems out there for doing such though that might be useful.

My recommendation would be to first decide how you best learn. If you learn best in a classroom, go for it. Otherwise - you already have a graduate degree in your MD, so you don't really need a computer science degree as well to convince people you're educated. If MIT's OpenCourseWare works for you - by all means use it. There are also numerous excellent books on most aspects of computer science available - Knuth, Stevens, Richter, Petzold, Stroustrop and many other good authors made far better teachers for me than I ever found in a university.

The market is currently quite rough, especially to break into. After being laid off when a product tanked on the market, I've gone a few months without having a single resume responded to - and I have almost a decade of professional programming experience that was applicable to the jobs I've applied for (and my resume used to keep the phones ringing daily for months when I posted it - the market has changed a bit).

I've been spending the extra time continuing development on my personal code library and projects, writing open source code, and working on a few products that I expect there to be a market for when they're done. That's how I'd suggest breaking into the field as well.

You have a very special situation though - you know, or can find out if you think about it and ask your colleagues, exactly what one fairly wealthy niche market needs. What software would help you - as a doctor - work more efficiently? What software have you and your colleagues found lacking? There's your first project :)

It won't be easy, and you won't make money fast. My recommendation would be to start learning about computers and computer programming now while thinking about products. As soon as you feel like you can design a useful program and have one in mind - take a shot at it.

Use CVS ( or for Windows, WinCVS ) or some other revision control so you can keep track of all the code you write (I wish I had when I started!). Estimate for yourself how long tasks should take - track those estimates, and figure out why they were right or wrong. Document everything, especially the code.

Once you have a product you think is worthy for your target audience - use it yourself in your work. Then let some colleagues try it out. Fix anything you find wrong with it, and ask your colleagues for suggestions.

Then, set up a website, advertise it, and try to sell it - or set up a project on SourceForge and make it open source - whichever you feel more comfortable with. On SourceForge, you'll be able to enlist the help of other more experienced programmers and together tailor the product towards excellence. If you sell it and it's successful, you'll be able to afford to switch careers to full-time programmer/entreprenuer and just work on your business.

That brings me to another point - if you aren't currently running your own doctor's office, start learning business skills too. They're just as hard to pick up as programming skills - possibly harder for some. Figure out what you'll need to do to start running your own software company. Even if you decide to write your own software as open source and become an employee for someone else professionally, this will help you at the negotiating table.

What I would NOT recommend is dropping out of medicine, getting a BS in computer science, and expect doors to be immediately open when you g

My recommendation would be to first decide how you best learn. If you learn best in a classroom, go for it. Otherwise - you already have a graduate degree in your MD, so you don't really need a computer science degree as well to convince people you're educated. If MIT's OpenCourseWare works for you - by all means use it. There are also numerous excellent books on most aspects of computer science available - Knuth, Stevens, Richter, Petzold, Stroustrop and many other good authors made far better teachers for me than I ever found in a university.

The market is currently quite rough, especially to break into. After being laid off when a product tanked on the market, I've gone a few months without having a single resume responded to - and I have almost a decade of professional programming experience that was applicable to the jobs I've applied for (and my resume used to keep the phones ringing daily for months when I posted it - the market has changed a bit).

I've been spending the extra time continuing development on my personal code library and projects, writing open source code, and working on a few products that I expect there to be a market for when they're done. That's how I'd suggest breaking into the field as well.

You have a very special situation though - you know, or can find out if you think about it and ask your colleagues, exactly what one fairly wealthy niche market needs. What software would help you - as a doctor - work more efficiently? What software have you and your colleagues found lacking? There's your first project :)

It won't be easy, and you won't make money fast. My recommendation would be to start learning about computers and computer programming now while thinking about products. As soon as you feel like you can design a useful program and have one in mind - take a shot at it.

Use CVS ( or for Windows, WinCVS ) or some other revision control so you can keep track of all the code you write (I wish I had when I started!). Estimate for yourself how long tasks should take - track those estimates, and figure out why they were right or wrong. Document everything, especially the code.

Once you have a product you think is worthy for your target audience - use it yourself in your work. Then let some colleagues try it out. Fix anything you find wrong with it, and ask your colleagues for suggestions.

Then, set up a website, advertise it, and try to sell it - or set up a project on SourceForge and make it open source - whichever you feel more comfortable with. On SourceForge, you'll be able to enlist the help of other more experienced programmers and together tailor the product towards excellence. If you sell it and it's successful, you'll be able to afford to switch careers to full-time programmer/entreprenuer and just work on your business.

That brings me to another point - if you aren't currently running your own doctor's office, start learning business skills too. They're just as hard to pick up as programming skills - possibly harder for some. Figure out what you'll need to do to start running your own software company. Even if you decide to write your own software as open source and become an employee for someone else professionally, this will help you at the negotiating table.

What I would NOT recommend is dropping out of medicine, getting a BS in computer science, and expect doors to be immediately open when you g

Just in case you check your replies - I ended up writing a simulator / magnifier / color modifier that might be of some help. For deficient blues, my suggestion is to convert the blue hues to greyscale.

Anyway, it's just a prototype (meaning: i wrote it, i run it, it works on my machines, use at own risk), takes a lot of processing power, and is mainly for me to test my interfaces with, but it could be helpful - It's available here.

it's bizarre that I haven't found more programs that do this.... you'd think they'd be out there, although all I found aside from the websites suggested on this thread are a few zoom magnifiers that had a greyscale mode.

Still a prototype, requires lotsa processor, only runs on Windows, might have bugs, etc.

But, it works for me. Thanks to everyone for all their input! I've learned a lot about color blindness and how to better design my interfaces.

If you're colorblind, the simulator might also be useful to you. It's basically a fancy screen magnifier with color mods. Feel free to try it out, but it's at your own risk.

Here's the info page.

Thanks! BTW - from the people I've known with disabilities (er, including myself if you count repetitive-motion-injuries and the resulting nerve damage and a few minor mental issues), I know most people are more than smart enough to tackle their problems. I just don't want to write interfaces that suck where people have to deal with such problems at all!

If you actually get back to this thread, are still willing to test, and have a fairly heavy duty PC with 32-bit Windows on it, I went ahead and wrote a simulator to help me out with designing software - kinda surprised there wasn't anything out there already to run locally, but, well, now there's something for windows at least.

Since I was mucking with hues and stuff anyway, I played with doing hue compression and some other tricks, and it seems like it might be useful as a side utility when you have to deal with bad websites or interfaces that use otherwise ambiguous coloring schemes. It can also convert any color channel levels to grey to help out with any one *opia, magnify stuff, give a little gamma, etc.

It's a prototype, not a finished program, so treat it as such. With the refresh rate full out, it brings my 1GHz to its knees and pegs my 2Ghz at 100% processor usage (but runs SWEET). Higher magnifications and lower refresh rates make it less abusive to the processor.

BTW - in the simulation modes, I don't expect them to be exact to any one person's experience. What I do hope the sim modes do is show when colors would be ambiguous, so that I can avoid creating bad interfaces.

Here's the link - Information page here, Download here

Thanks! BTW - from the people I've known with disabilities (er, including myself if you count repetitive-motion-injuries and the resulting nerve damage and a few minor mental issues), I know most people are more than smart enough to tackle their problems. I just don't want to write interfaces that suck where people have to deal with such problems at all!

If you actually get back to this thread, are still willing to test, and have a fairly heavy duty PC with 32-bit Windows on it, I went ahead and wrote a simulator to help me out with designing software - kinda surprised there wasn't anything out there already to run locally, but, well, now there's something for windows at least.

Since I was mucking with hues and stuff anyway, I played with doing hue compression and some other tricks, and it seems like it might be useful as a side utility when you have to deal with bad websites or interfaces that use otherwise ambiguous coloring schemes. It can also convert any color channel levels to grey to help out with any one *opia, magnify stuff, give a little gamma, etc.

It's a prototype, not a finished program, so treat it as such. With the refresh rate full out, it brings my 1GHz to its knees and pegs my 2Ghz at 100% processor usage (but runs SWEET). Higher magnifications and lower refresh rates make it less abusive to the processor.

BTW - in the simulation modes, I don't expect them to be exact to any one person's experience. What I do hope the sim modes do is show when colors would be ambiguous, so that I can avoid creating bad interfaces.

Here's the link - Information page here, Download here