Peter A Clarke

The Guardian has run a two part article on the Ten Rules for Writing Fiction.  I am not usually a sucker for numbered lists, you know the ones, 7 habits of highly effective psycopaths, 6 ways of getting to the same point but sounding pretentious about it etc..  Basically the article is well known authors giving their rules.  Some take it seriously some less so, eg the first fourt rules Margaret Atwood comes up with are:

1 Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.

2 If both pencils break, you can do a rough sharpening job with a nail file of the metal or glass type.

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In yesterday’s Australian there is a report that software writers are yet to see full technical specifications for the planned healthcare identifier regime due to start on July 1 provided enabling legislation introduced by Health Minister Nicola Roxon last week .  According to the report the Medical Software Industry Association have yet to see the system developed by the National E -Health Transition Authority.  That is a worry.  The benefits of putting medical records on an electronic system are obvious.  The privacy concerns are equally obvious. Whether it achieves the former and deals with the latter depends on its practical implementation.  Just taking about it is not enough.  A classic example was a recent episode on the ABC radio program Australia Talks.  Lots of talking by the main proponents, includng Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, but it was all just that.