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+--- Thread: the history of Sleepyhead (/Thread-the-history-of-Sleepyhead)
the history of Sleepyhead - car54 - 01-09-2020
I found this article about the development of sleepyhead which was interesting. Maybe its been posted before but it is new to me.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwjd4w/im-possibly-alive-because-it-exists-why-sleep-apnea-patients-rely-on-a-cpap-machine-hacker
RE: the history of Sleepyhead - DeepBreathing - 01-10-2020
It's a good article but a bit of a stretch to refer to Mark Watkins as the sole developer of SleepyHead. Mark had lots of help from a big team of people. The story has been canvassed elsewhere so I won't go into details here except to say Mark alienated everybody who worked with him until he found himself without a team at all.
After Watkins closed down the SleepyHead project, a bunch of the former team (some Apnea Board regulars and some from other forums) got together to develop OSCAR. Although it superficially looks like SleepyHead there are a wealth of changes and bug fixes under the bonnet. I've had the privilege of watching the team at their work and am blown away by the professional and collaborative way they are developing Oscar.
RE: the history of Sleepyhead - car54 - 01-10-2020
deepbreathing,
I understand what you are saying. I have read that from other sources.
What was interesting was the legalities of it ,the defense the health industry to stop it and the mechanisms of breaking the codes. If sleepyhead, which evolved into OSCAR ,would not have been created the apnea board would be of little use. It is only because we have data that the medical industry didn't want us to have that through the apnea board thousands of people can be helped. That is something that our sleep apnea system is doing a failing job at.
Thanks for everyone involved in the program.
car54
RE: the history of Sleepyhead - Ctyankee - 01-10-2020
Well, the team of folks who developed OSCAR deserve a huge Thank you ! from all of us sleep apnea sufferers. It has long been absolutely indispensable to me and I’m sure many others.
RE: the history of Sleepyhead - ApneaQuestions - 01-10-2020
I come with a philosophical mindset of "Open Source' & "Open Data" & "Collaborative Knowledge Gathering".
Obvious big wins in recent decades have been Linux and Wikipedia......... and (in a much smaller niche) OSCAR.
With hindsight, I would imagine that most xPAP manufacturers now see the benefits compared to their initial knee-jerk negative responses.
In addition, doctors can now collaborate as a team with their well-informed patients to optimize clinical outcomes.
Some of the patients are now so well-informed it offers opportunities for the doctors themselves to stay on their toes and continue to improve their own knowledge and education.
The industry hopefully now realizes that the machines can offer better optimized therapy based on sound logical data-driven hypotheses.
All it takes is the time and attention to details to make it happen. Sometimes, it takes more than a single night sleep study to get best results.
Win-Win
$0.02
RE: the history of Sleepyhead - SuperSleeper - 01-10-2020
(01-10-2020, 06:12 AM)car54 Wrote: If sleepyhead, which evolved into OSCAR ,would not have been created the apnea board would be of little use.
Not quite true... (although I understand why someone who was not here then might not be informed as to the history).
Just to clarify, we had several other proprietary software packages prior to SH. So, Apnea Board was hardly "of little use" prior to SH. We were using Encore, ResScan and other software packages prior to that and using those software packages to help thousands of people on a regular basis before SH was even thought of.
When Watkins started SleepyHead around 2011, Apnea Board had already been distributing and using those other software packages for 7 years-- since 2004.
And yes, Watkins wants everyone to think that SH was "his project", but the truth is that numerous people from this forum and other places helped to develop SleepyHead. Apnea Board raised over $5,000 in one fund-raiser to help the SH project, not to mention the thousands that were donated to Mark Watkins over the years. But Watkins' huge ego, paranoia and false accusations destroyed SleepyHead, which is why all the developers left him and started OSCAR. And now, all the drama is gone and more has been accomplished to make OSCAR the premier software package in a few months than Watkins accomplished in years.
We've moved beyond all the Watkins-induced drama and the future is now all about OSCAR. I agree with DeepBreathing's assessment that the OSCAR team is one heck of an unselfish, professional team. Rather than dwelling on the past negativity, I'd like to keep us focused on a positive future. We've all put the SleepyHead/Watkins drama behind us.
Now that I've stated the facts, I'll close this thread since we don't want this thread to be left here so Watkins and his primary apologist (Bruce Osborne aka prodigyplace) can use it to attack us yet again.
