This new format is great. For those of you who want to know what I’m working on, I’m doing several projects. I tend to do projects in series as opposed to one at a time.

Things I’m doing include,

Prism Calculator – This will be a calculator that calculates the amount of induced prism. It would then let you know if the quantity of prism is acceptable to NJ and ANSI standards. I’m almost done with this one.

Sagitta Calculator – This calculator will get the edge thickness of the 90th and 180th merdians so that the second most important question can be answered “how thick will my glasses be?” (The first most important question is, of course, “what’s for dinner?”) I may include a meridian so that the ED will be accounted for in aviator style frames. This will require you to get a protractor though.

Lens and Lens Option Finder – This will be a set of pages that will help locate a lens and the options available. Many people often complain that they do not know if something is available. Hopefully my utility will be able to answer many of those questions. This will, for obvious reasons, be a perpetual project since there are always new products etc…

Faceform & Panto Combination Calculator – This will calculate the effects of induced panto and faceform as well as provide a compensation that would help with glasses that contain a lot of wrap for example. This will implement Prof. Keating’s work from Ferris State University, College of Optometry.

Optometry Database System – This is a project I have been working on for quite some time now. It’s a rather large project that will hopefully replace programs like officemate with an easier and more useful format. The interface could use some work, but it is even fuctional now as a utility that can store patient information. The beauty of this is its web-based format that allows for easy networkability. Just buy a router for $60 and configure the machine to make it have a static IP address and you are done with the networking. I want to eventually add an inventory module, scheduling module and and insurance module. The insurance will probably be the hardest since I can never find anyone who knows how their electronic submission works or is formatted. Ironically the IT guy is usually “on vacation.”

Research – I would like to provide all of you with the most up to date and relaible information. One of the things available to me at Lunarpages, my webhosting company, are professional polling and survey programs. These can provide a more accurate information and be infintely more useful to patients and opticians alike than anonymous polls.

So as you can see, their is quite a bit I would like to finish. Hopefully by years end the website will be complete and all of the calculators finished and ready for testing via you guys and gals. I could then work on the database system that will probably be a (General Public License) GPL release and many of you will have access to a reliable, networkable environment for your office. Of course, any of your help is appreciated. I will probably need more than anything are testers and a programmer/optician.