Month: May 2024

Categories
gadgets

My smart watch over the years

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Last Updated on April 24, 2025 by stlplace

On Oct 13, 2015, I bought this Martian Watches Notifier Smartwatch – White from Amazon ($50). Note this is just a notification watch, and it can send the text message from phone to my watch. The reason I wanted it is because at that time, I was worried I could miss the text message over night during sleep, when I was doing on-call duty (a part of the job). Btw, I just noticed I talked about the experience of on-call and notifications here. So I mainly wear this watch before I went to bed. You may wonder I can just make the iPhone louder and that way it will be harder for me to miss the text messages in the night: the reason I didn’t want to do that is I don’t want to wake up my young kids and my wife. A vibration type of notification, or a nudge on my wrist is much better.

Looking back, I think I probably should have bought the Apple Watch instead, to avoid all the troubles. But note Apple Watch was released on April 24, 2015, and in general I don’t like to be a guinea pig of “version 1” product, that includes the Apple iPhone too.

I used Fitbit for a while too (blog post 1, blog post 2), before eventually switching to Apple watch in Jan 2017. I vaguely recall I didn’t like the FitBit charger feel on my wrist. Apple Watch feels more natural. Interestingly enough, recently I sold a charging cable for FitBit on eBay. On the other hand, I recall FitBit has longer battery life and also can records sleep (Apple Watch could not do that in its early days, also the battery life was not ideal). Before Fitbit I used Jawbone UP band briefly (see my blog post here). My recollection is Jawbone UP band had some quality issue.

I am happy with Apple watch since then. Recently I bought the series 9, which is my 3rd Apple Watch. My 1st Apple Watch is Apple Watch Series 2 Nike version (42mm). That one had some issues and eventually I was able to go to the Apple store and receive a replacement (it was still under warranty, under a year). Note all the Apple Watch warranty is honored by Apple, even the Nike version (I bought it from Nike.com online store then).

My 2nd Apple Watch is series 5 and this time I got a smaller version which is 40 mm and it fits my wrist better.

For my new series 9 I intend to use its cellular feature so that I don’t need to carry the phone all the time. Recently I realized being parent is 24×7 on call duty too: especially when we talk about 14 year old. But it will take another 6 month or so for me to get a cellular plan for my watch because right now I am MintMobile, and they don’t support the Apple Watch Cellular yet. I plan to switch over to the Visible mobile after my current contract with MintMobile is up.

One thing I noticed is the series 9 got some new watch faces, including the UVI (UV indicator). This is probably useful metric. Also, I am using the grey color modular face for now, this may (or may not) save some battery. (Confirmed 06-03-24) from last week’s usage I would say that watch face, plus the new watch (battery) helped – the old series 5 needs to be charged every day, now series 9 can last at least 36 hours (likely more).

Btw, the price of the Apple Watch seems fluctuates, I just noticed this Midnight Aluminum Case with Midnight Sport Loop is cheaper than the product red I got (by about $70; product red was $399). But the product red version I got has more character 🙂

Also, I don’t recommend getting series 8 at this time, as we expect Apple releases series 10 later this year. Apple usually does annual release of new watch. Series 9 was released last Sept.

I just sold my series 5 on eBay for $85 (was $299 bought new at Walmart about 4 years ago), btw. Similar watch is selling at about $150 at Amazon Renewed Store (more on Amazon Renewed Store). This is a little like the Plato’s Closet used clothes store that my 14 year old recently got interested (or obsessed), in terms of concept and less guilty on consumerism (YT video 1, YT video 2).

I vaguely recall I sold my series 2 on eBay in year 2019 too.

FAQs

Why I switched to Apple Watch, or bought Apple Watch?

Besides it has a better watch band (a more natural fit on the wrist), I found out from my coworker at Mastercard, that using Apple Pay via watch is much easier than using the iPhone.

Do I take phone calls on Apple Watch?

Yes: I do. I recall I do that when I was holding my baby (Sophia), and when I was driving. Fun but relevant and I strongly recommend you don’t do it: on the days I worked for Mastercard, on some days and during the commute, I texted coworker on the Skype Business on the work iPhone.

How long does Apple Watch last?

Per CreativeBloq: There will always be exceptions, but on balance, based on the experience of our own reviewers and the comments we’ve seen from users online, I would say that an Apple Watch provide five to six years of good performance.

(Update 04-24-2025) CNET: Apple Watch 10 Years Later: The Feature That Changed Everything for Me

Categories
Life Life Tips

人到中年要注意的事

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on October 21, 2024 by stlplace

Things to pay attention when we are over 50

(I borrowed this paragraph from a high school classmate in mailand CHN) 我来说几句吧，不妥之处请大家指正：1. 一定要有医保，有能力的可以适当配点商业保险 2. 同学们都巳年过半百了，各种慢性病会慢慢出来，应该学习一点医学常识。个人建议关注以下几个（微信）公众号： 丁香医生/ 菠萝因子/ 营养师顾中一

Below is my own cooking

Exercise 锻炼身体：running, jogging, and walking 跑步，慢跑，走路 are all good. Many other good cardiovascular exercise 心血管运动 include cycling, swimming, and tennis. Take your pick. 饭后百步走，活到九十九。Aerobic exercise 柔韧性锻炼也不错，如瑜伽，普拉提等。跑步前后注意拉伸。

至少要有大病保险；buy health insurance, as a minimum one should have the catastrophe health insurance: meaning the insurance that covers conditions such as cancer. This is needed for most people; I mean the people who doesn’t have 100 million dollars or more – who, btw, may be able to self-insure. Even in that case, one should find an administrator (basically a company that acts as middleman between you and the providers).

Colon cancer screen

聆听自己身体的声音，每年体检，看情况做一个肠镜；see your doctor and get the colonoscopy every 5 or 10 years. Below is example of people who got colon cancer and found out late.

Indianapolis TV Anchor Tanya Spencer Dead at 53: Her Final Social Media Post Issued an Important Reminder

I’m a 34-Year-Old With Colorectal Cancer. Here Are the Early Signs I Wish I Hadn’t Ignored (btw, an alarming trend is colon cancer patient get younger, as you can see from this google search)

Guys:

prostate and bladder (urologist);

Ladies: mammogram, breast cancer ♋️

好汉不提当年勇，包括开车

2000年夏天我和朋友一起轮换开车从圣路易斯到黄石，总共大概24小时，没住旅馆，累了就在加油站打个盹。08年开同样的山路感觉就有点怕，19年类似的山路更是不大敢开。

We are no longer in our 20s or 30s, this includes everything from drink, driving to eating. Pay attention to what we drink or eat. I found out I can no longer drive the mountain roads as confident as before – which is okay. I just need to be careful and mindful. If I cannot do it, I don’t do it.

饮食

我们这个年纪自己还是有可能调节的：饮食，少喝酒，少糖，多蔬菜🥬水果，包括有纤维的蔬菜水果🍉，我个人感觉酸奶也不错。还有睡眠，运动等。

Also, refer to What’s For Dinner? 晚饭吃什么 – A Series On What We Eat And Its Impact On Our Bodies – I

睡眠

我一般心里有事，就会影响睡眠。我的办法一般是白天多锻炼；实在睡不着就听收音机，尽量避免手机，电脑等。

Shingles vaccine 带状疱疹疫苗 (CDC, CDC PDF; Mayo Clinic).

(05-26-2024) I went ahead and decided to get the vaccine at local Walgreens. Today 05-27-2024 I felt a bit drowsy, tired and a touch of fever (I googled the shingle vaccine side effect too). Note this is not as bad as the Moderna Covid-9 vaccine I took about 3 years ago. (05-27-2024 evening) I jumped to conclusion too quickly, it ooks like my fever is not trivial (about 101F). More on side effects on CDC website.

Also, note the vaccine is 2 shots, and I will likely get the 2nd shot 2 months from today.

More information on shingles (Mayo Clinic); 带状疱疹 (妙佑医疗)

(Update 10-21-2024) I did 2nd shot yesterday afternoon. Today I felt not well again. Some fever etc. Hope I can recover tomorrow. The nurse at Walgreens did mention the side effect after 2nd shot is usually worse than the 1st shot.

Will:

Make a will. If kids are old enough, involve them in the process (learned this from Warren Buffett).

不折腾或少折腾 包括工作不要太拼(don’t work long hours without break, and do it for a long duration)。

PS: many of the things mentioned above are important when one is young too. But better late than never.

Categories
gadgets Life Life Tips

Mowing the lawn and lawn mower 割草和割草机

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on June 8, 2024 by stlplace

在2019年之前，我大概有二十年没有割草了。从1998年一月到1999年七月，我住在罗拉的美国大学生的兄弟会(Wikipedia fraternity; interestingly I joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity (Epsilon Nu chapter) which is shown in the image when you do google search). 我在兄弟会的时候割过几次草。兄弟会有duty, 翻译成中文大概是值日值班的意思，我的任务里有不少是洗碗，偶尔也有割草。兄弟会是汽油的传统割草机：会有汽油的味道。印象最深的一次是大概是98年的夏天，兄弟会后面有较大的草地，我们一开始没有割草，后来发现有（不太友好的）邻居把我们举报了。马路对面的美国邻居是较友好的，我印像中他叫Bob May, 他告诉我们这个事。后来我们兄弟会有能力的美国小兄弟，去租了一个可以坐上去的割草机，把后面的草给割了。

Google search fraternity screenshot (partial)：这个正好是我的兄弟会 Delta Tau Delta Epsilon Nu

我2000年十月份来圣路易斯以后，一直住公寓和康斗(Condo, 相当于买下来的公寓), 就不用担心割草的事。一直到19年夏天，搬到现在的独门独户的房子。

我一开始在亚马逊上买了这个 Greenworks 40V 16″ Cordless (Push) Lawn Mower，用了几年，效果还可以。一直到去年（2023年）春夏天，第一次割草时感觉很卡，割两下就熄火Shutdown. 我想两百多块的钱，用了快四年，也值了本了。正好在Costco 看到这个马力大的 Greenworks 80V 21″ Gen 2 Self-Propelled Mower, 还打折，就跳了。事后想想，打折的东西要稍加小心，也许有坑。

后来发现确实有坑：这个割草机的好处是马力大，也有自推的功能。她的缺点是一个电池基本上是坏的，还有她在草较长的时候也同样熄火。最近我联系了厂家，换了个电池。但是总的来说，她家说充满电一次可以割 0.75 acre 是达不到的。我家的院子大概是 0.28 acre, 冲满电也不能一次割完。这也让我联想到买第一个电动割草机的时候，亚马逊上有一个美国老太太的留言，她说一次割不完也挺好，人也正好可以休息一下。

我现在两个割草机都用。电池都充好电，一个没电了，换另外一个。最近发现割草的一个好处，就是可以消耗我的体力，这样某种程度上有点像跑步，可以帮助我的睡眠。

PS: 在圣村，有时候太阳很厉害，如果自己在外面割草的话，记得要涂防嗮霜。

PS 2: 如果自己不想割草的话，其实有很多专业的 landscaping 或是割草的公司，大大小小的都有。我估计，一般用邻居用的割草公司，价格一般不会太贵（我住的区是一个平民的社区，如果是富豪区就另当别论）。

我自己估计我家一次可能四五十块钱。好算一点，一次五十块，夏天两星期割一次，圣村夏天大概可以算四个月，17个礼拜，我们就算割8次，$50×8=$400, 夏天就要四百块。春秋也得割草，算一个月割一次，一共算五次：$50×5=$250, 一共是二百五，总共一年割草是$650, 或是七百块钱。

我上面的两个割草机，一个是两百多（19年），一个是四五百（24年买的，请注意我上面提到的缺点，最好读一下用户的评价，我觉得有些评价说的很客观），两个估计都还可以用上一段时间。电费我没算，我自己的时间也没算。但是需要考虑自己锻炼身体的好处-这个是用金钱难以衡量的。

Categories
advice and tips Life Life Tips

人到中老年少折腾

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on June 7, 2024 by stlplace

好像有个说法，人生在于折腾。

Zhihu: 人生的意义在于折腾

晚读 | 人生在于折腾，而不是年纪轻轻趋于平静 (新黄河 via qq.com)

我想对年轻人来说，这个基本上是适用的。比如说前几年流行的创业，我们年轻时（大学毕业时，九十年代初）去南方，广东，深圳等。With some exceptions, of course. The main thing is we all need to listen to our body – doesn’t matter whether one is young or old.

We want to avoid things like below

Another death at BoA (X)?

A 25-year-old Bank of America credit trader died suddenly at an industry event on Thursday night

不单是万恶的资本主义才有这种现象。I heard about similar cases such as

拼多多员工猝死 (Baidu)

拼多多年轻员工“996”加班后猝死 官方账号“冷血”回复引发众怒: BBC

我妻之死 || 华裔丈夫悼念长文《我妻之死》引争议！把妻子当工具人，又一个林生斌？！

从国内搬运来妻子后，《我妻之死》的翻版

6月2日，浙江台州，在黄岩布袋山石人峡景区发生-起悲剧事件。一支来自宁波的户外探险小队，因涉水过横切面，结果发生悲剧，有两人不幸被冲走，至今下落不明。有后续成员拍下了事故发生的全过程，我来分析他们到底犯了哪些错，才导致付出了生命代价，以此供大家警醒。

Andrew McAuley (Wikipedia, Twitter/X): quote wikipedia – Andrew McAuley (born 7 August 1968; presumed dead 9–12 February 2007) was an Australian mountaineer and sea kayaker. He is presumed to have died following his disappearance at sea while attempting to kayak 1600 km (994 mi) across the Tasman Sea from Australia to New Zealand in February 2007.

身边的例子

我想到我的一个老乡，比我大几岁，大学毕业后，当时闯深圳可能比较流行，他也去了。后来没多久，他得了不轻的病，回到老家休养了。现在应该有三十多年了。也不知道现在他的情况-他是我大哥的同学，也是镇海中学高中毕业的。

其实更早些，我有表哥表姐上山下乡，有去黑龙江，新疆，云南，贵州。她们大我十几岁，二十岁。后来她/他们都回老家上海了。

我自己97年香港回归那一年夏天来的美国中西部，一晃就有快27年。前两天看油管，有一对华人夫妻，也是大陆过来的，油管上的网红北美天马行：频道名是英文 BestYears2BestPlaces. 大意是在走不动之前到处走走-这个想法本身没问题。下面是她们频道的介绍。

“北美求学, 毕业, 工作, 安家，养娃养房养花种草, 生活像陀螺 … 突然因为疫情蹲家工作，带你一起分享我们在北美的生活，旅行，旅居，和考察退休地。
*** 原创不易，谢谢您的关注和鼓励! ***
联系：一个 gmail 的邮箱“

折腾

我看了一下她们的频道，主要还是关于旅行，养老，房子等等。看她们经济上基本上是自由的。她们也讲到断舍离，和搬家等带来的emotional drain.

油管是个无底洞。后来我看到，有关于哥斯达黎加，和马拉西亚移民的视频。后者（马来西亚留学移民）的视频非常多，因为天气方面两个地方都不错（不冷，年纪大的人一般怕冷），马来西亚在地理位置，饮食，文化等方面更有优势。

说到折腾，让我想到我的一个表姐，就是我上面说的情况里的一个。她当年回城其实是跟当时在乡下的情人被迫分手的，因为男朋友不是上海人。这种情况当时应该不少。但是我的感觉也是留下一个后遗症。多年以后，她的老公已去世，小孩结婚后关系也不好。最近我听我爸爸说，她开始了网恋，其实就是应该是单恋抖音上一个类似秀才，闻神这样的人。我爸爸很不以为然。

最近我高中同学独自驾车去西藏旅游，结果高原反应，现在还没出院。后来大家才知道，他的身体其实不太好。我可以理解他想去驾车独行，但是不管怎样身体是革命的本钱。

我后来想，有可能我的同学看抖音或微信短视频多看了一些219国道怎么好玩。这类的视频一般容易一边倒，主要是抓眼球和流量，不会讲究质量，科学，严谨等等。

不折腾

其实很重要。我记得，大概二十年之前，因为我的个人工作生活不是太顺，我想过要不要去读一个 Master of Financial Engineering, 然后跟我在罗拉时的师弟那样，去华尔街做几年。我好像当时申请了纽约的哥伦比亚大学。她家没要我。某种程度上，我觉得是庆幸的。

(05-19-2024) Now I think about it, both (late) Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett stayed in their respective houses for many decades. Once Charlie joked, if people offered money to move across the street, he would not do it (the context is a question came up re: some rich people in California moved to Texas to avoid high tax).

Last but not least, I like to share something I heard – “We don’t know if we will die from overworking but why take chance” – probably said by Ronald Reagan (per Charlie Munger or Warren Buffett). Btw, I ran at Olivette this beautiful Sunday morning.

Categories
Software development

Another day, another healthcare related hacking

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Last Updated on April 29, 2025 by stlplace

Or ransomware as a service or RaaS, please refer to this Pensacola News Journal article, search for “Black Basta” for the detailed information. I felt this article was well written. Unfortunately, this one is the place I used to work – Ascension Health (company official note on this cyber security event). I also talked about Ascension from time to time, after I left the company in June 2021. Here are some tweets.

Impacts

My 1st worry is its impact on patients, such as this patient in Wisconsin (I tweet below too). The impact to the patients is real and in a way is similar to the recent Change Healthcare hack (WSJ; I have a blog post too).

It impacts the caregivers too – Ascension cyberattack: Patients, nurses frustrated as problems persist. And all over Ascension service area, such as this one in Middle Tennessee, ‘Chaos’: Nurses, visitors describe conditions inside Ascension hospitals after cyberattack. This is very unfortunate for the patients, caregivers and impacted families. I just don’t have words for them – I hope they all can pull through. I will touch upon the evil of the bad actors below.

All this also showed the computerization of the medicine (or healthcare), while has its advantage: electronic medical record in theory at least gave the provider a holistic view of patient health issues. At the same time it shows its fragility (easy to break). Paper based process is always needed, because no computer systems is 100% reliable. This is somewhat like the Disaster Recovery (business continuity process) many decent sized organizations run or try to run, in case something horrendous happens (natural disaster, fire and so on). But in real life, how many hospitals or providers have the paper process nailed down, and have regularly ran the DR exercises. For me personally, I only saw DR exercise in action at Mastercard (and I participated it once as a lead, and it was quite interesting). In fact to me “production” is also interesting 🙂

Last but not least, if there is no lawsuit, then it’s not America. Central Texas woman sues Ascension following cyberattack.: interesting part of this article is it talked about RaaS and “Black Basta” in more details.

Health Insurance

We know in the US, health care system is very complicated (I wrote a series on this, the 3rd post is here).

Also note Ascension’s insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan) is not that great to begin with, as I learned 1st hand from my COBRA usage, or attempt to use my COBRA coverage after I left. My new employer’s benefits didn’t kick in immediately and there was two months gap.

Why I left Ascesnion

Below is one reason, the event proceeded my leaving. But not the only reason. I guess we may say that’s last straw.

Incidentally I worked at another major catholic hospital chain in the St. Louis area, and while my experience is not as bad, nonetheless I was not happy on one project – at one time we were briefly asked by the management to come in on Saturdays to complete the project “on time”. I knew it was mostly for “a show” not for actual completion of the project. And we had quite a few people quit (jump ship) during that time.

At both places, I have seen or worked on ambitious projects that started because one executive has the budget, and later on had to abandon because of various reasons. I understand software development projects are notoriously for cancellation and budget overrun because its complexity, hard to estimate and changing (or sometimes random) requirements. But I have worked on other industries too, and they usually “fail early, fail faster” (the agile way).

Recent cyber security events that I wrote

Panera Bread System Down

UnitedHealth Group Change Health Hack

Odds and Ends

Before I join the company (Ascension.org), I encountered some issues (login or single sign on SSO related) at myAscension.org. I still encountered similar issues (I would say about 33% failure rate) when I was working there. Looking back, this is a red flag of an organization’s IT capability.

If you happen to work in the IT/software development field, think “security security and security” all the time. It won’t prevent all the hacks. But it’s a good starting point. Btw, once when I was working for the Mastercard, I had the fun task to investigate the bad guys logged into a bank’s rewards redemption website and redeemed air tickets and hotels. One thing I still remember is this “client attorney privilege… ” in the email thread; another thing I was emotionally drained was seeing how some people can be that kind of malicious (stealing is bad, stealing on internet is equally bad as physically stealing). I also recalled when I was at college, I was stolen twice, once at a bus, someone picked up my wallet (when I realized, it was a bit late); another time, someone broke the lock on my drawer and took the money that my dad sent me recently. Always have the “security in mind” in daily life and in IT. Learn as much as you can, such as this Security in Mind channel on YT.

Last but not least, I understand we are going towards “electronic medical record” world, but we probably still need to keep some papers around prescription, vaccination records and testing results etc., better yet, back them up in the iCloud or somewhere you believe is safe, just in case the MyChart etc. goes down.

More Coverage in the news

Retired FBI agent weighs in on Ascension cyberattack

Fallout from Ascension cyberattack continues: Michigan pharmacies can’t fill prescriptions

Healthcare leaders praise Ascension cyberattack response

Ascension nurse: Ransomware attack makes caring for hospital patients ‘so, so dangerous’

Delays in cancer treatment. Canceled appointments. Long wait times. Ascension patients still grapple with fallout from cyberattack

How the Ascension cyberattack is disrupting care at hospitals

Ascension Saint Thomas Health patient files class action lawsuit over data breach

Ascension patients still grappling with fallout from cyberattack

Nurses fed up with Ascension Healthcare security breach issues

‘They need to step up’: Retired FBI Special Agent speaks on current Ascension cybersecurity attack

(June 13, 2024 at 7:21 AM) Ascension cyber attack caused by worker who accidentally downloaded malware – Officials: Attackers accessed 7 of 25,000 servers

(06-19-2024) Patients at Ascension hospital network given dangerous doses of narcotics after disastrous cyberattack: “In another case, a female patient suffered a cardiac arrest and died after data mishaps delayed test results that would determine her life-saving treatment.”

(09-19-2024) Ascension posts $1.1B net loss for 2024 after May cyberattack

(12-20-2024) Ransomware attack on health giant Ascension hits 5.6 million patients

(Update 04-29-2025) Ascension data breach impacts patients in 5 states, including Michigan

Categories
math-and-edu

A math (algebra) visualization tool – mathway

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on May 3, 2024 by stlplace

A math (algebra) visualization tool – mathway

Bumped into it as this morning my 14 year old asked me a question related to this. Her question is about the “parabola shape and formula”, or how they become narrow or wide. For me I think I probably learned this about 40 years ago (at my 6th or 7th grade, 7th grade more likely). So “in Google I trust” and I found this.

This seems somewhat like AI (or ChatGPT) and also I was a bit surprised to find this is owned by the public company Chegg and the market cap of $CHGG is quite small – (assume they are leading edu tech company, this sector is probably very much segmented).

PS: Now I think the graph calculator probably has this function too. I didn’t have the graph calculator 39 years ago in China – saw it at graduate school at Rolla about 27 years ago