WC 1M Post Challenge - You Ready?!

[libra89]

I noticed that the iPhone 8 is now the cheap model. Interesting...

I agree, it is.

 

[libra89]

It looks good, but I'm curious to see if I like their green better than Sony's and Samsung's previous efforts.

True points. I'm a sucker for a mint green. For how these will look in real life, I'll like to see.
The iPhone 11 is the exact same size as the Xr (I know it is the updated version of it, I'm just saying) and that's disappointing to me.

 

[N_LaRUE]

So I had an acute medical issue that really flared up at work yesterday afternoon. I called my primary care for an appointment and the next available was for another 3 weeks (!). No surprises as he's stupidly busy and i forgot to mention this to him during a recent visit.

I took the day off today - privilege of still having PTO days - to go to urgent care. Had an excellent conversation with the urgent care doctor who verbally confirmed some things I was seeing while on the clock.

So I'm fortunate enough to live in a place with access to urgent care services. But it feels like primary care is now its own specialty in this model, where if people prefer having that doctor manage acute issues, it's damn hard to get a timely appointment.

This is why on the clock we often curse when our patients miss primary care appointments. I'm glad urgent care exists - it is a great intermezzo for filtering out acute issues and stepping them down to primary care follow up or up to going to the emergency room. And having care in the same system where my primary care can see today's visit via EMR is good. I just question how well providers are having conversations with patients on issues like these and how the system still doesn't accommodate as flexibly people who rather get acute issues addressed directly by primary care.

Hope you're feeling better. Nothing worse than getting a flare up.

My neck has been pretty bad lately so I can sort of relate to the idea of flare ups. It's taken a few anti-inflammatories and some decent sleep to settle things down. I'm feeling generally better but I know sitting in front of computer simply isn't a good idea.

 

[N_LaRUE]

So I'm going to talk tech. I know shock horror!

I read the two posts on Android Central about the iPhone 11/Pro. I can appreciate why they wrote them and understand why they wrote them. What startled me were some of the comments. I was a bit surprised that there's still this high level of vitriol about iPhone from Android users.

I can appreciate that people hate the Apple way of doing presentations and make it look like they invented everything. I can also appreciate that there are annoying smug Apple users that seem to blindly agree with everything they do.

Saying that I also know from actually talking to some Apple users who aren't so smug why they like Apple. It works for them and you need to agree because it does. Regardless how uninspiring others may feel about it.

Now whether we like the idea or not iPhones are still the gold standard. Regardless of the reasons for being so they are the ones everything else is compared to. It only seems logical to have a look at the competition and see if they're doing things better. I don't read iMore and have zero desire to do so. Having Android Central point out a couple of things I thought was a great idea.

What's also come more into focus for me recently as I've been looking into some different things is how there is still, to this day, many apps not available for Android. The app gap still exists in 2019. On top of that some apps that are on both are still not on parity between the two platforms. The only conclusion as to why is the difference in demographics between the two platforms.

Apple users are more likely to buy or subscribe to apps where as Android users are more likely to want apps for free.

This hasn't changed for many years now. There is of course a reason for this as Android has a large audience in low income areas due to budget phones. It's the reason why the user base for Android outstrips Apple by a landslide. Even with this large audience Android is still treated as second place for many app developers. You can understand why.

That says more about the current state of the industry than anything else. I don't consider it snobby of developer to want to earn a living from their software. I think the lack of respect a lot of people show for developers is pretty sad. I don't think many people really appreciate the time it takes to develop a good app and keep on top of it.

I can also appreciate the difficulty of working in the Android sphere. Apple is pretty straightforward with development. I don't think Android is. I think this is the bigger difference between the two platforms and why developers tend to shy away from Android still. Of course there are snobby smug Apple developers too who would never think to stoop to Android (as they see it).

I find it a bit sad we're still here though. You would think by 2019 with all this great hardware, etc that this giant divide would be gone but here we are.

 

[raycpl]

New phones roll out so frequently nowadays, it's so easy to be blasé and unexcited cos all offers minor incremental improvement, slight variations etc. I don't see great innovations or big leap forwards.
"oh it comes in several colours - twilight red, rainbow green, morphing indigo etc" but our phone usually ends up in a black plastic casing!!

 

[Laura Knotek]

So I had an acute medical issue that really flared up at work yesterday afternoon. I called my primary care for an appointment and the next available was for another 3 weeks (!). No surprises as he's stupidly busy and i forgot to mention this to him during a recent visit.

I took the day off today - privilege of still having PTO days - to go to urgent care. Had an excellent conversation with the urgent care doctor who verbally confirmed some things I was seeing while on the clock.

So I'm fortunate enough to live in a place with access to urgent care services. But it feels like primary care is now its own specialty in this model, where if people prefer having that doctor manage acute issues, it's damn hard to get a timely appointment.

This is why on the clock we often curse when our patients miss primary care appointments. I'm glad urgent care exists - it is a great intermezzo for filtering out acute issues and stepping them down to primary care follow up or up to going to the emergency room. And having care in the same system where my primary care can see today's visit via EMR is good. I just question how well providers are having conversations with patients on issues like these and how the system still doesn't accommodate as flexibly people who rather get acute issues addressed directly by primary care.

I hope you'll be feeling better soon.

It's similar where I go for health care. I can see any available doctor in the urgent care which is located in the same place as my GP.

 

[Laura Knotek]

On the topic of saving money and using less plastic, I decided to make a big switch in my grooming products. Since disposable razors and cartridges are so expensive and involve so much plastic that ends up in landfill, I'm going to shave my legs the way my mother did years ago.

I ordered: a double-edged, long-handled safety razor; a badger brush, stand and bowl; shaving soap; extra razor blades; and an alum block. Hopefully I won't be needing to use the last item frequently.

 

[N_LaRUE]

On the topic of saving money and using less plastic, I decided to make a big switch in my grooming products. Since disposable razors and cartridges are so expensive and involve so much plastic that ends up in landfill, I'm going to shave my legs the way my mother did years ago.

I ordered: a double-edged, long-handled safety razor; a badger brush, stand and bowl; shaving soap; extra razor blades; and an alum block. Hopefully I won't be needing to use the last item frequently.

You could just go without shaving...

It is a personal choice the way I see it. We have some weird aversion to hair these days unless it's on top of someone's head.

We keep trying to reduce our plastic as well. It's not always easy but I think there's more and more a push to get companies to change.

Plastic and our inability to recycle it properly is a HUGE problem for the planet.

 

[Laura Knotek]

You could just go without shaving...

It is a personal choice the way I see it. We have some weird aversion to hair these days unless it's on top of someone's head.

We keep trying to reduce our plastic as well. It's not always easy but I think there's more and more a push to get companies to change.

Plastic and our inability to recycle it properly is a HUGE problem for the planet.

Yeah, that's true. However, I'm not fond of eschewing shaving. That's just my personal choice, and I don't care what anyone else does with any hair on any part of his or her body.

I don't think recycling plastic is the solution. Using less would be simpler and more effective.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I don't think recycling plastic is the solution. Using less would be simpler and more effective.

I agree totally. I was referring to the issues we currently have with all the plastic that's already out there. It needs to be recycled and dealt with.

Single use plastic needs to be banned. Period. We simply do not have the capability to recycle it properly and due to our throw away lifestyle have become blase about it. The drinks industry is one of the biggest producers after that is grocery stores and all the wrapping on things.

Producers need to be held to account. But unlikely to happen.

 

[libra89]

So I'm going to talk tech. I know shock horror!

I read the two posts on Android Central about the iPhone 11/Pro. I can appreciate why they wrote them and understand why they wrote them. What startled me were some of the comments. I was a bit surprised that there's still this high level of vitriol about iPhone from Android users.

I can appreciate that people hate the Apple way of doing presentations and make it look like they invented everything. I can also appreciate that there are annoying smug Apple users that seem to blindly agree with everything they do.

Saying that I also know from actually talking to some Apple users who aren't so smug why they like Apple. It works for them and you need to agree because it does. Regardless how uninspiring others may feel about it.

Now whether we like the idea or not iPhones are still the gold standard. Regardless of the reasons for being so they are the ones everything else is compared to. It only seems logical to have a look at the competition and see if they're doing things better. I don't read iMore and have zero desire to do so. Having Android Central point out a couple of things I thought was a great idea.

What's also come more into focus for me recently as I've been looking into some different things is how there is still, to this day, many apps not available for Android. The app gap still exists in 2019. On top of that some apps that are on both are still not on parity between the two platforms. The only conclusion as to why is the difference in demographics between the two platforms.

Apple users are more likely to buy or subscribe to apps where as Android users are more likely to want apps for free.

This hasn't changed for many years now. There is of course a reason for this as Android has a large audience in low income areas due to budget phones. It's the reason why the user base for Android outstrips Apple by a landslide. Even with this large audience Android is still treated as second place for many app developers. You can understand why.

That says more about the current state of the industry than anything else. I don't consider it snobby of developer to want to earn a living from their software. I think the lack of respect a lot of people show for developers is pretty sad. I don't think many people really appreciate the time it takes to develop a good app and keep on top of it.

I can also appreciate the difficulty of working in the Android sphere. Apple is pretty straightforward with development. I don't think Android is. I think this is the bigger difference between the two platforms and why developers tend to shy away from Android still. Of course there are snobby smug Apple developers too who would never think to stoop to Android (as they see it).

I find it a bit sad we're still here though. You would think by 2019 with all this great hardware, etc that this giant divide would be gone but here we are.

Well said. I agree.

Fortunately, all of the apps I use are equal to their counterparts on iOS. You're correct about development. My brother created a game for both and noticed different things with each.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Well said. I agree.

Fortunately, all of the apps I use are equal to their counterparts on iOS. You're correct about development. My brother created a game for both and noticed different things with each.

The popular social apps are typically on both and generally have the same functionality. Since these business models are based on giving up data it doesn't matter if the user base is cheap or not.

I was looking at some editing apps. Can't remember their names but one was on iOS and not on Android. The other was on both but development on Android had stopped in 2018 and they still expected people to pay for the pro version. So there's a tonne of 1 star reviews now.

It just seems that for whatever reason Android just can't keep pay for apps running in the app store. I have little doubt that they will have similar issues with other apps soon. Not games but regular apps that people feel they should have for free.

 

[libra89]

On the topic of saving money and using less plastic, I decided to make a big switch in my grooming products. Since disposable razors and cartridges are so expensive and involve so much plastic that ends up in landfill, I'm going to shave my legs the way my mother did years ago.

I ordered: a double-edged, long-handled safety razor; a badger brush, stand and bowl; shaving soap; extra razor blades; and an alum block. Hopefully I won't be needing to use the last item frequently.

I'm curious to how this goes for you! I wish you good luck.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Ugh.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

What a day.

Walked home and stood on the corner of my block and looked up. In one corner, a full moon; in another, the twin beams of light shining upwards from the WTC site. It is 9/11 after all.

Had to spend most of the work day working with my 9/11 client as well, providing supportive care through an unexpected ER visit post a routine PCP appointment. Lots to unpack privately.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Man...these work days...are the pits...

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Guess it got quiet here. That does happen from time to time.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

The popular social apps are typically on both and generally have the same functionality. Since these business models are based on giving up data it doesn't matter if the user base is cheap or not.

I was looking at some editing apps. Can't remember their names but one was on iOS and not on Android. The other was on both but development on Android had stopped in 2018 and they still expected people to pay for the pro version. So there's a tonne of 1 star reviews now.

It just seems that for whatever reason Android just can't keep pay for apps running in the app store. I have little doubt that they will have similar issues with other apps soon. Not games but regular apps that people feel they should have for free.

Well, you've said it earlier. Apple products at their core are expensive and have that exclusivity built into them. Apple tries to make the case of "you pay more for ease and convenience". Apple makes it harder to leave their walled garden, because in some cases no one wants to spend money twice on a paid app they used.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'm curious to how this goes for you! I wish you good luck.

The shaving products arrived today. I was a bit apprehensive, since I read that there is a learning curve. However, I had no trouble at all. I got no nicks or cuts, and no razor burn. The shave was the smoothest I've ever had. I'm glad I went this route, since it will look and feel better, save money and help reduce excess plastic usage.

 

[MSFTisMIA]

Hey Laura, let's annoy Rue for a few posts and talk some sports...

How do you feel about the Browns this year? I know there's a lot of hype surrounding them. I think they'll be good but not live up to the hype.