Technology

The MiniMed Flex Insulin Pump by Medtronic

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MiniMed Flex™ Insulin Pump/System by Medtronic (Image From & Copyright © Medtronic, 2026)

In the USA, Medtronic recently released a press release about their new insulin pump called the MiniMed Flex.

I currently use Medtronic’s MiniMed 780G insulin pump, which has been nothing short of transformational, reducing my HbA1c from 99 to 52.

You can learn more about my experiences using this pump on these blog posts:

So you’d think I would be excited by this announcement, but I’m not. Instead of being excited, I’m very concerned. I’m concerned about:

1. Smartphone Control

The new MiniMed Flex pump will be controlled by smartphone. This means if my battery dies on my smartphone and I’m out, I’ll have no way of knowing my current blood sugar, no way of delivering insulin, no way of adjusting settings for exercise and no telling my pump what I need it to do. Bluetooth could also fail on my smartphone or the pump itself.

Currently on the MiniMed 780G insulin pump, I can control the pump through use of the screen and buttons on the actual device.

2. The Update Cycle of Medtronic’s App

Historically Medtronic’s update cycle of the App has been painfully slow. Everytime I have an Android software update on my phone it can take Medtronic a month or longer to update their App.

This has meant on some occasions in the past, I have been unable to get my phone to pair with my pump, sometimes for a number of weeks. Imagine if this happened with the MiniMed Flex, it would literally be unusable until Medtronic updated their App.

3. Lack of a Screen

Lack of a screen = lack of information. Especially if the bluetooth connection or pairing to a smartphone failed for some reason. My blood sugars could be going high or low without my knowledge. This could lead to a failure or delay in me taking appropriate actions.

4. No Information about Sound / Vibration / Flashing Light Notifications

There is currently no information about the MiniMed Flex pump’s ability to deliver sound, vibration or flashing light notifications. The MiniMed 780G insulin pump does all these and to different volume, intensity and number of repeats (depending on settings). I find these are extremely useful, especially when I am asleep at night.

4. A New Algorithm

The press release mentions a new algorithm for SmartGuard. This could lead to better or worse blood sugar control for me. I know the algorithm on my current MiniMed 780G insulin pump works for me. It helps me to spend much more time in range and is proven to lower my HbA1c. I have a real fear that this new algorithm might not be as effective for me.

5. How it is Powered

There is no information currently available on how the new pump is powered. Some people have suggested a button battery, others that it could be rechargeable and others have suggested it could be powered by an AA battery, like my current pump. Rechargeable would be a nightmare and I would definitely prefer a battery that can be replaced.

But again, I would be reliant on it being connected to a smartphone (and the smartphone being operational) to know the charge of the battery.

6. Whether I’ll be Forced to Upgrade

I get my current insulin pump from my local Diabetes Centre, provided by the NHS. This is the only way to get any sort of insulin pump in the UK. Privately funded or funding through an insurance model isn’t even an option.

It is likely that my local NHS Trust has an agreement with Medtronic for the latest tech and for free upgrades. According to the press release, users of the MiniMed 780G insulin pump in the USA will get a free upgrade to the MiniMed Flex.

But what if I don’t want the free upgrade and would rather stay on the MiniMed 780G insulin pump, will that be an option?

Conclusion

I am not alone in having concerns. There is a reddit post about it here. With the information I’ve currently got available and what I’ve learned from past experiences, I would 100% choose not to upgrade at this time. I only hope that I am given that option.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Could substack Replace WordPress? I Don’t Think So And Here’s Why.

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I recently learned about the existence of substack. Substack is a platform that allows anyone to share creative content, including: written articles, images, audio (such as podcasts) and videos with the world. It allows people to subscribe to content creators accounts, in a model that allows both free and paid subscriptions.

Substack’s unique selling point (I hate that phrase!) seems to be that it is easy for creators to grow an audience and to make money from the content they create. Substack boasts that it only takes 10% of creators earnings from paid subscribers, giving the content creators 90% of their earnings. As substack is currently free for content creators to use, it means that substack only make money when content creators do.

As a Writer, I can see the advantages of substack, which include:

  • It is currently FREE, there is no monthly subscription cost, meaning that content creators won’t be left out of pocket. This means that content creators won’t have to pay for domain names, hosting, etc.
  • It appears quick and easy for content creators to set up, use and maintain.
  • No technical knowledge required by the content creators – no knowledge of website design and functionality.
  • It has features that are designed to grow a content creator’s audience, such as notification of new content to subscribers.
  • Substack claim tens of millions of content consumers every week, which in theory means a massive audience. However, they don’t state how many paid subscribers they have on the platform.
  • It allows a variety of different types of content in one post.
  • Substack allows quick reactions (love heart icon) to content, re-posting/sharing content on the platform and discussion via comments.

But substack also has a number of disadvantages, which include:

  • Substack isn’t the only company to have this idea. Patreon is its direct competitor, who have been around longer (Patreon launched in 2013, substack launched in 2017). In some cases Patreon takes less of a percentage of subscription earnings from content creators than substack.
  • The market for paid content through a subscription is uncertain. As is the amount of money that content creators could make. When I refer to content here, I refer to content that is not of an adult-only nature (by this I mean not pornographic). It is safe to say the market for adult-only content exists and that some content creators are currently making good money from this sort of content. However even with this sort of content, some content creators are saying that the market is saturated and that they are making less money than they used to.
  • Substack is a business with costs and a pressure to make a profit. This could mean that at some point it stops being free and content creators get a monthly subscription fee, even if content creators aren’t making any money from the platform.
  • Substack could may also decide to look for other ways to generate revenue, including but not limited to advertising.
  • Substack could go out of business and creators could loose the platform and possibly some or all of the content they created.
  • Substack allows any creator to post any content. This means that content posted on substack will have less credibility with the audience and may erode the content creators credibility and reputation.
  • Substack doesn’t have any quality controls. This means that content could be factually incorrect, biased, misleading or completely inappropriate.
  • Substack has a history (at least according to Wikipedia) of not taking enough steps to protect users data due to privacy breach in 2020 and then a security breach in late 2025.
  • Substack lacks the ability for content creators to customise much of how their content is viewed. This might not be that important for written words, but could be incredibly important for other types of content.
  • Substack appears to let AI generated content on its platform, which will significantly impact human content creators. AI content may also make a number of content consumers avoid the platform all together.

For both content creators and content consumers there are more disadvantages to using substack, than advantages. But in order for me to justify my opinion that substack won’t replace WordPress, I need to write about WordPress.

(Image From: WikiMedia, 2026)

WordPress

WordPress (WordPress.com & WordPress.org) was launched in 2003 as a blogging platform. It has grown and developed over the years. Today 40-60% of all websites use WordPress.

I have used WordPress for my personal blog and website since 2008, although I remember experimenting with it well before then. WordPress can do everything that substack can, although some functions/features would require plugins.

WordPress initially started as a community platform, but as it grew it became more commercialised as it pivoted towards business users. This brought paid themes and paid plugins. Later, it brought paid subscriptions for some themes and plugins, paid on either a monthly or annual basis.

The choice WordPress developers and other non-official developers made to pivot towards businesses meant that they could earn money from their work, which you could liken to a content creator. This is great, they should be paid for their work.

But it means that the core WordPress platform, without any of the paid themes or plugins is limited for content creators. Content creators, especially those trying to build an audience that are willing to pay for their content (like myself) just don’t have the money to spend to get the functionality/features currently being offered for free by platforms like substack.

I am a Writer. I write this blog, books, articles and short stories. I write this blog because I enjoy writing. Writing this blog is a hobbie and I am happy to give away the content for free.

But my more substantial content like my books, articles and short stories, take me a considerable amount of time, energy and work to create. I believe that they have monetary value and that it is fair to ask for a small amount of money in return for them.

I am truly appreciative of everyone who reads something that I write, whether that be on my blog, or through one of my books, articles or short stories.

But the WordPress platform, without the paid plugins makes it difficult or in some cases impossible for content creators to:

  • Help you to find your audience.
  • Help you to grow your audience.
  • Help you to keep in touch with your audience.
  • Help you to take payments for products (whether that be physical or digital).
  • Help you to offer subscription services.

WordPress has dominated the market when it comes to Writers, for a number of years. But one of my hopes, is that services like substack cause WordPress developers to add some functionality/features into the platform that address some of the difficulties faced by content creators who can’t afford to buy the paid plugins.

Conclusion

I use the WordPress platform through a self-hosting company and have a domain name to help people to find my website. This costs me £25 per month. But due to the lack of functionality/features in the WordPress platform (without paying more money for plugins), this website costs more to run than any money I’ve ever generated through it.

But despite WordPress’ limitations, I think it will be around long after substack is a distant memory. Substack appears very good at marketing to content creators. But to me its business model seems to have far too many flaws. Their business model is based on an idea that people are willing to pay for content. But there isn’t any good data on:

  1. Whether people are willing to pay for content.
  2. What sort of content people are willing to pay for.
  3. The number of people who are willing to pay for content.
  4. How much people are willing to pay (or can afford to pay given the global economy) for content.
  5. If substack can generate enough income to not only meet the costs of operating, but also make a profit.
  6. The impact AI will have on content creators and their audiences.

Blog soon,

Antony

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AI Going Awry

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According to a recent report, AI (Artificial Intelligence) chatbots are increasingly lying to users and AI agents are increasingly acting outside of their established parameters.

For those of you who don’t know, an AI chatbot is an AI service that answers human users’ questions. Whereas a AI agent is takes actions to achieve a goal set by human users.

These are worrying trends, given the rush many businesses seem to be in to implement more and more AI within their companies. It’s not just businesses implementing more AI, public sector organisations and charities are doing it too.

AI has benefits, risks and some disadvantages. Here are just some of them:

Benefits of AI

  • Repetitive tasks can be automated.
  • Can summarise a lot of information and condense it down in seconds.
  • It can provide answers to questions quickly, using information available online (this does have a risk of wrong or biased information being given).
  • It can create visual representations, based on text prompts pretty quickly.
  • Reduces human errors in some processes.
  • It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Risks of AI

  • AI doesn’t fully consider every possible solution to a problem.
  • AI can make errors that can have a massive impact on a human’s life. Think of this recent case where AI mistook a man for someone wanted by the Police.
  • AI currently struggles with understand context on some occassions.
  • AI can’t understand emotions or behaviour that it is emotionally driven.
  • AI can currently be easily manipulated.
  • AI can give wrong or biased information.
  • AI analysis often reaches wrong conclusions.
  • Use of AI could be unsafe for humans or even endanger life in some cases, see my blog post: The Dangers of Emotional Support from an AI (Artificial Intelligence) App.
  • AI often doesn’t protect intellectual property or copyright owners.
  • AI doesn’t have any ethics and very few restrictions to its use.
  • AI’s application of rules can make creative works feel like they are less enjoyable and lack the same quality as human works.
  • AI can lead to data breaches, loss of data or loss of access to data.
  • AI may lead to some job losses or jobs not being created in the first place.
  • AI use can limit the development of or diminish a human’s ability to think critically.
  • AI requires a lot of data centres and electricity to power them. This means a greater demand for electricity which will drive up the cost of it and could lead to scarcity.
  • AI requires a high number of processor chips and memory chips, as well as other computer parts. This has already reportedly led to a shortage, which has fuelled increases in prices for these chips.
  • People often don’t realise that the way companies that offer free use of AI make money is to sell your data or target you with very specific advertising through tracking what you do online.

Disadvantages of AI

  • Economically, AI may only end up benefiting the super wealthy. Making the incredibly wealthy, even more so. This will increase inequality and will worsen the living standards for most people.
  • AI appears to be the only future of computer-based technology being considered and developed.
  • AI can be so compelling that it is difficult to tell whether something is human made or AI generated and sometimes this really matters.
  • Overall human critical thinking is likely to decrease as more AI is used.
  • AI lacks the ability to be flexible to unpredictable changes to circumstances. Especially changes that it hasn’t encountered before or has no/very limited data on.
  • AI is too reliant on data for answers and solutions to problems. Not everything can be measured. There may be limited or even no data for things that are impossible to measure. Therefore AI can’t provide answers and solutions to problems with very limited or no data.
  • Some AI could lead to humans being excluded or even discriminated against.
  • No humans are responsible for the information provided by AI or the actions it takes. In my view, this is clear lack of accountability and all Governments should regulate the sector immediately to provide some accountability for AI services.
  • AI requires internet access. There are 8.3 billion people in the world today, but only approximately 6 billion people have access to the internet (74%), what about the other 2.3 billion people (26%)?
  • Some devices may become useless if the internet became unavailable for a time. Many apps on devices require constant access to the internet or access to the internet during use to be functional. Part or all of the internet could go down, it has happened before.
  • It is getting more and more difficult for people to choose not to use AI. More and more products are including AI, including household appliances, software, etc. Even Windows comes with Copilot AI pre-installed.
  • It will likely replace some low paid/start of career jobs. AI is likely to create some jobs, but not as many as will probably be lost. The new jobs will likely require specialist knowledge or skills, that current low paid/start of career workers won’t have.
  • We are working towards AI super intelligence, but we don’t really have a clear vision of what this will look like or what it will mean for humans.

At this time, the benefits of AI seem extremely limited and some of risks are massive. I understand that AI is a developing technology. I know that it is constantly being improved upon to improve its performance and enable it to do more.

The benefits of AI are constantly talked about – along with many promises being made about improved performance, future abilities and how these could benefit humanity as a whole. The risks are often being ignored or talked about in a way that lacks rational thinking and there are likely to be more risks in the future. The disadvantages of AI nobody seems to be thinking about.

If AI continues to develop as it already has, AI may end up resolving the debate around its future use. All it would really take is AI to make a major error that would effect a large number of people across the world. With the increasing rate of AI implementation in businesses and institutions around the world, I fear such an event could easily occur in the near future.

Blog soon,

Antony

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The Dangers of Emotional Support from an AI (Artificial Intelligence) App

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I’ve recently seen an advert on social media for an AI that provides emotional support on demand 24/7. It appeared to target vulnerable people, which I find highly unethical.

Here are some of the dangers of these sort of services:

No Empathy
Machines can’t empathise with you. They may read like they can, from how the structure their responses, but it is false.

Empathy is defined as:

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

This leads to a perceived connection, which eventually you will realise is a false connection. You will be left feeling hurt and deeply disappointed.

False Connection
In the early stages of this false connection, you will likely disconnect from real people. This is deeply emotionally and mentally unhealthy.

Emotional Dependence
Emotional dependence and the decreased emotional resilience that follows will not be good for you if you use one of these apps. Having an app that is available 24/7 that claims to be emotionally available to you, appears to be so, will lead to you becoming emotionally dependent on it. Being emotionally dependant on any person or thing isn’t healthy.

Bad Advice
AI has been known to give incorrect information and bad advice. At worst, this advice could be extremely harmful.

Can Reinforce negative thoughts, feelings or behaviours
AI apps will repeat back to you what you’ve just said. This is to check understanding, but in these emotional support apps is also to validate what you’ve typed. This repetition can reinforce negative thoughts, feelings or behaviours.

This is especially important as part of the role of a good therapist is to challenge negative thoughts, feelings or behaviours.

No Safeguarding
Should you go into crisis and become suicidal, the app won’t take actions to keep you safe.

A role of any therapist is to safeguard you and others from harm.

Lack of Emotional Growth
AI won’t be able to help you grow emotionally. But a therapist may make suggestions that help people to grow emotionally.

Data Privacy Breeches
Your data maybe hacked or not kept safe and secure.

Blog soon,

Antony

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