With the impeding arrival of both Mac OS 10.6 and Windows 7, we have decided to begin phasing out support for Mac OS X 10.4 and Windows 2000. So, as of version 1.3 of HemoSpat – to be released Q4 this year – Mac OS X 10.4 and Windows 2000 will not be supported. [Note: HemoSpat v1.3 may actually still run on Windows 2000, we just won’t be supporting it. It definitely will not run on Mac OS X 10.4.]

The reason for this is for each release of HemoSpat we have to test across all versions of the OSes we are supporting. Currently that includes Mac OS X 10.4 PPC, Mac OS 10.4 Intel, Mac OS 10.5 Intel, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista. When we eventually add Mac OS 10.6 and Windows 7, the testing time for each release goes through the roof! Phasing out the older versions will allow us to focus our work on the main product.

The 2 February 2009 print edition of the Ottawa Business Journal has an article on FORident Software in it called “Blood on the lab floor”.

It is now available on their website here.

FORident Software is pleased to announce the release of HemoSpat v1.2 for Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 and Windows 2000/XP/Vista. The biggest changes are the addition of MacOS X 10.5 and Windows Vista support, the ability to use relative stain locations, and increased efficiency using quick stain entry.

There are a few other changes and fixes as well. For a complete list of changes, please see the release notes.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Last week, Kevin and I attended the annual IABPA training conference in Boulder, Colorado. By all accounts it was a very successful conference – well organized, good talks, good workshops, and it was great to see old friends and make some new ones.

There were about 147 participants from all over the US, Canada, Europe, and Southeast Asia. There were even students from Japan and The Netherlands who paid their own way to the conference. The Rocky Mountain Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts [RMABPA] and Boulder Police Department conference organizers – Tom ‘Grif’ Griffin [Colorado Bureau of Investigation], Colleen Wilcox [Boulder Police Department], Rich Tewes [Pioneer Forensics], and their team – did a great job with the ‘new’ 4-day workshop format.

There were some very interesting talks – one that stands out for me was Michael Maloney’s [no relation!] talk on Combat Crime Scenes in Iraq and how the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service [NCIS] team had to modify their SOPs and equipment to work in a war zone. There were also some pretty choice quotes – Gary Gillespie [Environmental Science & Research, New Zealand] “Why couldn’t there have been five?” and LeeAnn Singley’s [Grayson Singley Associates] comment about her “clock”.

As with previous conferences I had a great opportunity to demonstrate HemoSpat and discuss it with attendees. I’d like to thank all those who took the time to let me give a quick demo for the very positive response. We also met with some licensees and had some great feedback. This may result in a research project with one of our European licensees which would be quite exciting for me.

Special thanks to Sheri Shimamoto [Lakewood, Colorado Police Department] who drove us around the Red Rocks area after the conference was over. Given that we were attending the conference the majority of the time we were in Boulder, it was great to see a tiny bit of the country.

I look forward to seeing everyone again in Portland, Oregon next year!

We’ve added a section on the website dedicated to bloodstain pattern analysis terminology.

There are several differing terminology and classification systems used in the field of bloodstain pattern analysis. We’ve chosen to present the IABPA‘s accepted terminology from their suggested terminology list and course outlines. The images we’ve included are meant to serve as general examples to exhibit the characteristics of each type of bloodstain pattern. We’ve also included the alternative terminology for each of our examples.

Whether you’re an analyst, a forensic science student, or just someone interested in the field of bloodstain pattern analysis, we hope you’ll find this resource useful.