{nule.org}

The most astute of my dedicated readership (you are dedicated, aren’t you?) will notice that the times, they are a-changing, here at nule.org. I guess I’ve realized that I’ve been a whiny brat when it comes to my HL7 software and that honestly, you deserve better. I like to help those that are into open-source software and work within integration and health-care integration in particular. I don’t mean peter j. analyst, that guys an idiot (and no, I don’t mean all analysts in particular, many are great and essential for what they do); who I’m referring to is the coder in the trenches. The dude or chick that knows there’s a better way to do it, and knows that blowing a million a year on Sun’s integration software is wasteful and just bilking the industry from finding more productive ways of doing things.

Of course there’s always going to be the shops that must use Microsoft .NET and Oracle and all that over-priced and often unreliable stuff to do their work. We’ll just have to continue to feel bad for them and in the meantime chuckle while we go about doing our thing. Yes, people are being successful integrating that remote office with their datacenter using my HL7 Comm software, and I find that fact both immensely satisfying and slightly horrifying. But you can be sure that this knowledge is going to keep me improving what I have to offer her and adding the things that you want to the software you’re using.

So with that in mind I’m making some announcements. First off, the site in general is getting another overhaul. It’ll stay mostly in its current format, but will have some new additions and some particularly useful sections will be enhanced. Look for more detail, particularly with the HL7 Comm software and it’s ancillary projects. I’m overhauling the community section of the site and will be providing dedicated nule.org forums for the community. Who’s the community? It’s anybody that’s looking to solve their integration needs and sees the value of open source. I hope that it’ll no longer be you asking questions of just me, I’d like to see a number of you smart folks out there (and I know you’re there because you email me) hop on and we’ll all make each other do our work better.

Next we’re moving forward with the software that’s available here. Recent discussions with close colleagues have shown that there’s a lot of potential with what the Light HL7 Library can do. Expect a more full-featured library soon. Also, there’ll be an HL7 Comm version 0.8 out and I have a lot of exciting ideas about how I can make it both easier to use and more capable. Version 0.7 was a big improvement, but I realize that it’s most powerful functionality was also fairly inaccessible. We’ll keep it simple yet give those power users the chance they deserve to shine. (Also, I’m likely start supporting Java 1.4 again. Too many people just can’t upgrade to 1.5 (or 6!).)

Lastly, and this is a minor detail, but you may have noticed that I’ve started providing advertising on this site. I do pay quite a bit for hosting each year and the advertising looks so far like it’s sufficient to help offset this. With luck that’ll provide this site with more reliability in the future and keep me motivated to keep things updated. I certainly am not going to get rich with it, but it’s nice not to have to worry about paying the hundreds of dollars necessary to keep nule.org and it’s parent site thot.us running.

By the way, we only charge $25 a year for basic hosting and email – that includes wordpress blogs, and photo gallery software. Look here for more information and tell them that Nule sent you for a discount. Tossing your web page on thot.us hosting does help me cover the bills for nule.org, so it’s much appreciated.