Tag: Technology

Back to the beginning; Khurt.com/blog will disappear in 2013

tumblr_m3kssnSnEg1qz6a5to1_1280

I started blogging back in 2001 as Island in the Net. The blog was named for one of my favorite cyberpunk novels1, and described how I felt about my writing at the time. My blog was/is like a small island in the vast ocean of the Internet where I shared my thoughts about anything and everything.

I started writing more technical articles around 2003/2004 and Island in the Net was morphing into more of a technical how-to focused blog and less of a personal blog. I was also occasionally posting about my photography and my opinions on tech news and I felt it was not a great match for what the blog was becoming. I started to segment my interests and my develop a bit of hubris about my efforts.

Around 2007, I started two new blogs, Khürt/photos and Khürt/blog. One blog would be focused on my photography while another would be more of a Daring Fireball style link blog. Each blog would be focused on a particular aspect of ... me. The Khürt/blog lived briefly on Tumblr as Inchoate, a reference to the fact that my thoughts on many things were a jumble of partially baked ideas2. My top blog post on Khürt/blog in 2012 was about how people hated Apple. It had over 10,000 page views.

I retrospect, I think this was a mistake. I am not three separate people, nor am I a celebrity blogger. I am but one person with many interests. I like photography, and my Apple tech, and software and … . I want to put that all in one place. I’ve decided that Island in the Net will be my one and only personal blog. It will be focused on what Island in the Net originally was.

I will keep the khurt.com domain but will repurpose it3. All the content from the photography and personal blog will be imported4 into Island in the Net. I’ll still post my weekly photos and my tech reviews and my opinions on … well everything but they’ll be under one “brand”.

  1. Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. ↩ 
  2. in·cho·ate /in?k?-it/

Adjective
Just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary: "a still inchoate democracy".
 
Synonyms
inchoative - rudimentary

    ↩

  3. Something new launch in 2013 but I’m keeping it under wraps until I’m ready. ↩
  4. I love how easy this can be with WordPress but I’m crossing my fingers. ↩

My wife fired my endo

Last year my endocrinologist, the one I had seen since I was diagnosed with Type 1 (LADA) diabetes, moved to Palm Beach, Florida1. He did not retire. He and his wife wanted a slower pace and better weather. His assistant Chris, did the same.

Dr. Feldman and I got along very well. On each visit he would take my glucose meter and download the data. He didn't care which meter I used. He would find the right cable and plug it in. We would spend the time reviewing the data — he would always graph it — looking for any patterns. He would ask about my overall health and quite often we would discuss the latest diabetes tech. He lent me a CGMS for two weeks so that we could collect data to help set our strategy. Notice I said, our strategy. Dr. Feldman and Chris made me feel like we working together.

Dr. Feldman was just one doctor of two other endocrinologist in the
Princeton Medical Group2. I decided to stay with the practice because I thought it would be easier than filling out the paper work to move my medical records. I started seeing Dr. Gabriel Smolarz .

Dr. Smolarz and I immediately got off to a bad start. My very first visit I handed him my meter and he said, "I don't download meter data. Let's keep a paper log". I stopped listening after that.

Paper!? Was this doctor a complete ass. I pushed back a little. Was it because the practice no longer used the software that Dr. Feldman used? No, everyone in the practice has access to that software. Then why …!!?? He just didn't want to. Was this a technology age related thing3? We came to an agreement. I could dump the data from the meter myself and bring print outs on my subsequent visits. There was definitely no "us" in his "Let's".

The challenge was that NONE of my meters — all of which are OneTouch meters from LifeScan — have software that works on a Mac. I contacted LifeScan but received a form letter telling me what I already knew. Their software is compatible with Microsoft Windows only.

I had a Wavesense4 meter so I contacted AgaMatrix. Almost a year ago I had an email exchange with someone at the company who indicated they were working on something special that would work with my Mac. Apparently they must have decided against it. The Wavesense devices don't have any Mac based management software. Same for the Freestyle.

I started looking for a solution and I thought I had found one. When the Glooko was announced I immediately bought one. The Glooko is a cable that attached to an iPhone and a specific brand of meter5. The user is able to download all the data of the device and import it into an iPhone app. I could also enter how much carbohydrate I had consumed and how much insulin I had injected. I started using it with my OneTouch devices. I was great at first but I was soon tired of using it. The Glooko was one more thing I had to take with me and attaching and detaching the cable became a chore. Sure, I could download my data at the end of the data but by then I might not remember how much I ate or how much insulin I had used.

As my wife watched me going through so much frustration trying to solve my problem, a problem caused by my endocrinologist's refusal to download data, she kept suggesting that I find a new endocrinologist. "The medical group has another doctor", she would say. "No", I said, "I'll find a solution".

After the iBGStar was released I bought that. I was very excited. A small, lightweight unit that plug directly into my iPhone and allowed me to track BG, carbs and insulin. I could even add little notes to each entry. I love the iBGStar. However, after a few months the cost started to add up quickly and I realized that the I could no longer use the iBGStar.

In frustration my wife called the medical group and had a lengthy conversation with the other endocrinologist's nurse. Dr. Cathleen Mullarkey, the only other endocrinologist in the practice, is very willing to download data from any meter I own. My wife was quick to rebook all my appointment and Dr. Cathleen Mullarkey will be my endocrinologist for the future. My wife fired, Dr. Smolarz. I love my wife.

  1. Dr. Feldman is at the South Florida Endocrine Center ↩
  2. The Princeton Medical Group is rather large with offices in many New Jersey locations. ↩
  3. Dr. Gabriel Smolarz is actually younger than Dr. Feldman. ↩
  4. I'm an engineer and a geek. I love trying out new diabetes tech. ↩
  5. While the Glooko is a product trying to meet an unmet need, having to buy a new $40 cable for each brand/model of meter I used limited its long term utility. ↩

iBGStar

What Sanofi has done today is bigger then a meter, what they’ve done is throw down the gauntlet. Much like when Apple first introduced the iPhone, the release of this product says, “no more clunky technology that looks like it’s from a 1976 sci-fi movie”.I think Scott nails it. The iBGStar could be the fire under the feet of the market players to give us more than the same warmed over crap every year. The last “innovation” in glucometer tech was when OneTouch started offering the Ultra mini in multiple colors.The iBGStar raises the bar