Last Updated on January 26, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
We where evaluating Matlab for our private project on our personal web site without the goal to sell any hardware and software components. Then we asked about 30 questions in the Matlab forum.
Then we found Scott Hardens personal web site with his Sound Card ECG. We were interested in it. Then, we found that Scott was diagnosed with cancer in 2012 (peripheral T-cell lymphoma, PTCL-NOS) and began treatments in 2018 including chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and an autologous bone marrow transplant.
At the time of writing (early 2022) he is doing well, but the future of his disease remains somewhat uncertain. If this website hasn’t been updated for a while, you can verify that he is okay by seeing recent activity on my GitHub account. His plan is to remove messages about his medical updates after achieving 5 years cancer-free.
July, 2022: Scott is now classified as a patient with relapsed peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Although he is not in any immediate danger, 3 years after his autologous bone marrow transplant it now seems likely that he will require additional treatment at some point. Currently his disease remains indolent and things are moving slowly, so his next course of treatment is not yet decided. He will update this page and https://swharden.com/med as he learns more.
We wrote some post about Scott Hardens sound card ECG to the Matlab forum. Then, we were worried about Scott. We could not find any recent entries. We contacted Scott, and wanted to know if he is still alive. He answered, that we should look at his GITHUB page to see if he is still alive:
Happy that Scott is still alive, we wanted share with Matlab users what found out about Scott. We posted the question to the Matlab forum:
“Is Scott Harden, the developer of the Sound card ECG still alive?”
Then, we answered the question ourselves:
“You can see this if you look at Scotts GITHUB page”:
After that, Matlab supporter Adam Danz deleted all our questions in the Matlab forum, and commented “clearly a spammer”.
We are no spammers, we do not sell any soft- and hardware products. We wanted only promote the information how we can find out if Scott is still alive.
We re opened a new account in the Matlab forum, re posted all 30 questions, and wanted to know why these questions where deleted. This is the only option Matlab supporter Adam Danz offered us.
But not Matlab supporter Adam Danz answered this question. Other supporters deleted our 30 questions again, with arguments which were not convincing to us personally.
We were deeply hurt about this procedure. But we continued to evaluate Matlab for our private project. We did not use Matlab at this time. We where only evaluating it. Then, we found that, that a Matlab Home Edition is about 200 USD in Switzerland. Furthermore, we found out, that we basically only allowed to watch at the data in Matlab at Home, and are not allowed to publish these data.
To publish data, we require a Matlab Standard Edition for 1000 USD, with eventually additional toolboxes, which cost each another 1000 USD.
This is private project. But which physiologist wants a software with which he is not allowed to publish data? This is a lot of money for a private project.
Other experienced coders answered to the question:
“is it worth to buy Matlab”
There answer was no. They commented, we can do almost everything which can be done in Matlab with Python as well.
Therefore, we currently do not see a reason to buy Matlab, and we also see no reason to continue the struggle about deleted questions in the Matlab forum, where Matlab supporters as Adam Danz can easily delete each question he wants, and we have to start a fight with the Matlab forum to get these back. And this was not worth it for us personally to this date.