mcarrano

My very first hearing aid was a "behind the ear" model and it was very uncomfortable when I also wore glasses. The technology then was not great as it simply just amplified sound. Further, it was very visible which made me conscious about my disability.

Later in high school, I moved to an "in the canal" model. This was less visible to others and the technology was a bit better. The hearing aid would be abel to help filter out background noise which made hearing people in loud settings easier.

My current pair of hearing aids are also "in the canal" but it does a much better job filtering background noises, can be environment aware to automatically adjust volume. There are models that even have bluetooth support.

I wrote an article several years ago on what I would like to see a future hearing aid be like: https://michaelcarrano.com/blog/google-should-develop-a-hear...

One thing that isn't talked about much, to my knowledge, is that no insurance will cover the cost of hearing aids. Good hearing aids are not cheap, the model I currently have cost somewhere around $8,000 for my pair.

Comment · 9 years ago

I currently try to volunteer as much as possible for Coalition for Queens (http://c4q.nyc).

It is so awesome seeing people will little to no tech background learn to program and see the things they develop.

Comment · 9 years ago

Seems like the correct link is actually - https://theintercept.com/2016/11/12/surveillance-self-defens...

Comment · 10 years ago

I have not had dropbox installed on any of my devices for a few years now. I still have files in dropbox but that is mostly files from when I was in college.

Comment · 10 years ago

I'm not surprised this happened.

In the past, whenever I put my address into Google Maps, it went to the correct location.

Probably sometime around October 2015, I noticed that if I put my address in Google Maps, it is now saying my house is located a block away and down a side street than where it actually is located.

Comment · 10 years ago

Late last year a friend of mine was involved in a car accident.

The other driver was following the Google Maps directions on their phone which told them to go down a one way street, it just happened to be the wrong direction. Luckily no one was hurt.

People really need to pay attention when they drive and read the road signs. Just because the GPS says to go down a street, doesn't mean you are allowed to go down it the wrong way.

Comment · 11 years ago

I am starting to question whether my Prime subscription is worth it or not. I only have it for the 2 day shipping as I don't watch Prime Videos, listen to Prime Music, etc.

Recently, I attempted to purchase a TV from Amazon. They used a third party courier, XPO, to do a scheduled delivery.

The day before delivery, I get an email from Amazon saying things are on track. Delivery day comes and I wait, wait, wait... Lo and behold the scheduled time comes and goes. I give Amazon a call and they tell me that XPO has had issues all week and that the earliest they can get the TV to me in next week.

No thanks, cancelled the order and went to BestBuy to get the same TV. I ended up spending more time on the phone with Amazon CS than it took to buy the TV from BestBuy.

I dislike when Amazon uses USPS to deliver my packages. Usually the package will arrive in the 2 days like expected but it goes to my local USPS office which will deliver the package the next day.

Comment · 11 years ago

Haven't used it myself but you may want to check out - https://github.com/ghostwords/chameleon

Comment · 11 years ago

Do you not have a copy of the contract you signed when joining the company?

I would guess you can talk to HR as they should have a copy of your paperwork.