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Health Tech First Impressions: Medtronic MiniMed 780g Insulin Pump

By Health, TechnologyNo Comments

I got some amazing news last week, a date for setting me up on the Medtronic MiniMed 780g insulin pump. It was the following Monday.

I’ve had my insulin set up and operational for just over 48 hours and here are my first impressions:

  • The pump is small (see photos below) and lightweight, so much so that I sometimes forget that I have it on.
  • It is easy to use. I only got 2.5 hours training on it and was worried that it wouldn’t be enough. But it was. Thanks to the pumps’ intutive design of both the hardware and software.
  • The difference it has made to my blood sugars has been dramatic. They have already fallen, leading to me spending significantly more time in range.
  • It’s alarms and alerts are really useful and helpful. However I do wish that the alarms were louder.
  • It takes a little bit of getting used to in terms of using the toilet and sleeping with the pump attached.
  • The Senor just works when in place and lasts for 7 days.
  • The App including CareLink feature is fantastic.

Overall, I’m over the moon with the insulin pump and sensor and already seeing dramatic improvements in blood sugars with less thinking and work from me. Despite a device being attached to me 24/7, I feel a great sense of freedom.

Write soon,

Antony

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Friday 16 August 2024

Don’t Buy MSI

By Technology, ThinkingNo Comments

Don’t buy MSI laptops. You have been warned. I’ve had two in 18 months, the first a gaming laptop and the second a producitivty laptop that have both broken after really sort periods of use.

MSI laptops used to be known for their quality and come with a price tag that reflects this.

My first laptop was a secondhand MSI gaming laptop that keys on the keyboard stopped working after only around 3 months of use. Okay – I thought – I could vouch for anything the previous owner had done to it.

So I bought a brand new productivity laptop from MSI. First the camera broke, then a speaker, then the mircophone. I ended up having to replace this laptop after about 12 months of use.

I have now switched brands to acer and bought the Acer Nitro 5 with these specs.

Write soon,

Antony

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Monday 24 June 2024

I HATE How Commercial WordPress Is Becoming & Bye, Bye, Jetpack

By Technology, The Web, ThinkingNo Comments

I HATE how commercial WordPress is becoming! What went wrong? It started out as a community-based blogging platform. Now everything is about business and money and it stinks!

A good example of this is Jetpack. Jetpack is a plugin that recorded statical data about visitors and views. It used to be free and did these lovely annual reports.

Now the services provided by Jetpack, including their Stats has in the latest update become a paid model. Not just a paid model, but a subscription service – like money is no object. Sure it’s fine if you have a business and are making money.

But for a small author and blogger like me, let’s be clear: This website costs me more than it has ever earned me. But I keep it running, at a personal cost to me for my enjoyment. It’s a leisure activity.

So today, it was Bye, Bye Jetpack. I’ve removed and deleted the plugin. I encourage other bloggers to do the same. Let’s not give in to their financial demands and instead opt with our fingers and delete plugins and themes demanding money with their Dashboard banners.

It’s not just Jetpack. EVERY theme and plugin now expects you to pay, usually a subscription service, for regular updates.

Honestly if there were an alternative community-based platform, similar to WordPress’ past, that focused on development to improve user experience, rather than making developers rich, I’d switch. But there isn’t right now, meaning that at least for now I’m stuck with WordPress.

Blog – Yes blog, writing for pleasure, not to make money, soon,

Antony

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Thursday 11 April 2024

Tech Reviews: Upgrading My External Hard Drives to SSD

By Amazon, Reviews, Shopping, TechnologyNo Comments

I tend to keep my files (documents, photos, music & video) on WD external hard drives. I don’t use cloud storage, as I dislike subscription services and their ever increasing prices. Plus, I have a lot of files, so it gets expensive and relies too much on the internet. One of the pluses of external hard drives are that they are portable, so I can physically share larger files with family/friend easily.

But there are minuses with my current system. First transfers for larger files can be slow, second that there’s always a chance of hard drive failure – particularly with external hard drives that have moving parts, like the ones I’m currently using. So I decided that it was time to upgrade to SSD (solid state drives), which boast faster transfer speeds and no moving parts. Think of them as large capacity pen drives.

I opted for two different branded 4TB models, one a Samsung T7 Shield (4TB) and the other SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (4TB). The reason I opted for the Samsung drive is trust in the brand. The reason I opted for SanDisk was because of the colour.

It may sound odd, but different colours enable me to identify my drives more easily. I did try to get a Samsung T7 Shield in blue (in desperation I even considered beige) but both blue and beige 4TB models were out of stock everywhere.

Here’s my first impression of each model:

Samsung T7 Shield (4TB) first impressions:

  • It’s tiny. It literally fits in the palm of my hand, see image above.
  • It has this soft, ridged feel which makes it really nice to hold.
  • It feels like a quality product.
  • It comes with x2 USB cables. One is USB C to C and the other is USB C to B.
  • It gets warm, but nowhere near as hot as the Scan Disk.
  • It was easy to set up and use. It’s literally plug and play.
  • Its copy speed really varied. I can’t be sure if this is the new drive or due to my old one.
  • Had a cool blue blinking light to indicate that the drive is in use.
  • Good for multitasking.
  • I have complete confidence in the Samsung brand.
  • There are a range of cases you can purchase to keep it in.

SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD (4TB) first impressions:

  • It’s tiny. It literally fits in the palm of my hand, see image above.
  • Its firmware was up-to-date. This was a nightmare to check, SanDisk’s website is easy enough to find to check. But seeing the tiny serial number on the back of the device I found difficult.
  • It feels nice in the hand and has a hole for attaching to backpacks, not that I’ll ever use this feature.
  • It was easy to set up.
  • It gets very hot during use.
  • It is much faster than my previous hard drive.
  • I am concerned about failure or data loss as I found this video online when looking for reviews of the product, after I bought the product and was waiting delivery. I probably wouldn’t have bought this product had I have known this information prior to purchase:

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Open "Storaxa Kickstarter NAS August Update – Case Revealed, Testing, SD Card Issues Continue, Sample Unit" directly
  • I decided based on this video to use this drive up as a back up one, rather than a main drive as originally intended.
  • It is USB C but comes with a USB B adapter for those that might require it.
  • Practically silent operation.
  • Very good when multitasking.
  • There are a range of cases you purchase to keep the device in.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Saturday 6 April 2024
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