A Farewell to Arms

The other day I needed to write a script that would download images I captured during photo walks and copy them from my camera’s SD card to a folder on my Mac laptop partitioned by year, then date.

I got the ChatGPT write the entire program in NodeJS in four iterations, as well as constructing an Automator script that turned the utility into a desktop shortcut. All took 20 minutes top that went into engineering ChatGPT prompts and pushing the code to Github for source control.

During turbulent years of late 70’s, our university studies were often disrupted by political unrest, demonstrations and violence.

I was an Electrical Engineering student then. In the first year we were taught Fortran IV programming language. We used to write our assignments on punch cards. There were no computer monitors back then. Every line of code needs to be punched on a card using a punch machine. Then we used to assemble decks of cards like bricks and submitted them to an office in the Computer Science building to be processed by a computer. We used to wait for many hours for a printed output. If you dropped a card or mixed the order, your program would not run. Even if it ran ok and produced output, our solution could be wrong. It was a time consuming, torturous ordeal.

In 1978 or 1979 I received a present. It was a HP-25, Hewlett Packard Scientific Programmable hand-held calculator.

image courtesy of HP Museum

The owner's handbook ended with:

"If you have worked completely through this handbook, you should have a very good knowledge of all the basic functions of the HP-25. But in fact you've only begun to see the power of the calculator. You'll come to understand it better and appreciate it more as you use the HP-25 daily to solve even the most complex mathematical expressions. At your fingertips you have a tool that was unavailable to Archimedes, Galileo, or Einstein. The only limits to the flexibility of the HP-25 are the limits of your own mind."

HP-25 was programmable with 49 lines of memory. I even wrote a matrix multiplication program so that I could finish my Power Systems Analysis homework early and escape to a pub to meet my friends for drinks.

I fell in love with programming using HP-25’s very limited programming language rather than a much more advanced Fortran IV. Holding a computer in my hands felt like being Superman, whereas Fortran’s punch cards and punch machines felt like the Stone Age.

I spent most of my career as a software engineer. I learned other programming languages: Assemblers, C, Pascal, Basic, Cobol, C++, C#, Pascal, Perl, Python, Javascript, Node JS and so on. I wrote programs, often beautiful programs.

Forty-five years fast forward, the art of programming as I learned, took pride in, fell in love and earned my living with can now be offloaded to Artificial Intelligence. I am no longer Superman. My powers are stolen like a piece of Krypton rock is held next to me.

How to deal with hearing loss

 If you are suffering from hearing loss, using hearing aids may help. Fixing hearing loss will improve your communication and mental health.

I am a long time sufferer of hearing loss on both ears due to a genetic condition. I have been using hearing aids for the past ten years. They allowed me to survive the final decade of my career as an engineer. 

In this article I will share what I learned about managing hearing loss, how to maximise health benefits of using hearing aids and minimise cost of ownership.

Hearing aids

Hearings aids market size was valued at around USD 9.68 billion in 2022. It is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 5.7% from 2023 to 2030. This growth is driven by factors such as an ageing population, increased prevalence of hearing loss, advancements in hearing aid technology, and greater awareness and adoption of hearing aids. - ChatGPT -

At the time of this writing there are 5 types of hearing aids:

• In the ear
• Behind the ear
• Rechargeable 
• Bluetooth

Hearing market

In Australia (probably applies to most countries) the market is made of the following tiers:

Patient

The person who suffers from hearing loss that has an adverse impact on their wellbeing.

Otolaryngologist (ENT)

A physician who provides diagnosis, medical and surgical care, and treatment of the ear, nose, throat, and neck. In most cases you might want to take advice from an ENT specialist to diagnose the root cause of your problem and in case an operation, such as stapedectomy can improve your hearing.

Audiologists

Audiologists are health care professionals who diagnose, manage, and treat hearing, balance, or ear problems. They work in the field of audiology, which is the science of hearing and balance. With hearing tests they determine the severity and type of hearing loss a patient has and develop a plan for treatment.

💡Always ask a copy of a Clinical Audiology Report that should include an audiogram. It is crucial to keep them among your personal health records that will show progress of hearing loss for a professional analysis. The audiogram is a chart that shows the results of a hearing test. It shows how well you hear sounds in terms of frequency (high-pitched sounds versus low-pitched sounds) and intensity, or loudness.

Hearing Clinic

A clinic where the audiologist will take a medical history and ask you about your hearing in different situations. The audiologist will check your ears for wax, infections or any other abnormalities. Almost certainly they will run a hearing test and generate a Clinical Audiology Report. Based on the report they will advise how you can effectively manage your hearing problem. 

The nature and severity of your hearing loss based on the Clinical Audiology Report allows the audiologist to advise the best hearing aid type that suits your case. For example “in the air” invisible hearing aids can only be suitable for slight or mild hearing loss. 

A hearing clinic is a commercial entity. It is in their interest to sell you hearing aids and accessories through them. That said, there are advantages to work with them especially when they provide competitive prices. 

💡 Purchasing hearing aids is half of the story. You need to maintain them well, via periodic clean-ups, fitting adjustments, fixing wire breakages and so on. Make sure the clinic is responsive and good at in those areas.

If you purchase the aids from the hearing clinic that runs the hearing test make sure they honour manufacturer’s warranty including free return policy following a trial period, they can fix breakages, and they can do custom fitting suitable for your ears’ anatomy. 

💡 It is always good to shop around. In my experience most hearing clinics put enormous price markup. Check the wholesale operator HearingSavers website for the prices of exact hearing aids, this should be your reference price. HearingSavers will most certainly beat prices in majority of clinics' quotations. 

The health clinic I have visited recently quoted $10,875/pair for top of the range Phonak hearing aids. I shopped around and found the same hearing aids on HearingSavers website for $5490/pair, half the price. You may ask a price match, but it is unlikely clinics can compete if the gap is in the order of thousands. 

According to the information on their website HearingSavers work with many clinics throughout Australia that do periodic assessments, tests, fitting, follow up and maintenance. 

Audiometrists

Audiometrists are Hearing Care professionals who specialise in the non-medical assessment and management of communication difficulties caused by hearing loss. 

The Audiometrist will clinically assess the hearing thresholds of the client to determine if a hearing aid fitting is indicated.  At the fitting appointment the Audiometrist will give instruction to the client and any family or friends who may be involved, in the management of the hearing device/s, how to care for the instrument/s and how to gradually become accustomed to hearing and listening again.  

The Audiometrist will develop a rehabilitation program to ensure the optimal benefit is gained from the hearing instruments that are prescribed.  Hearing instruments are available in different makes, models and styles.  The device/s prescribed will be determined with regard to the individual requirements of each client taking into consideration their needs.

💡Ask your hearing clinic whether they work with qualified Audiometrists. They are the technical experts that knows ins and outs of  hearing aid instruments and how to best configure and fit them to your satisfaction. Be wary of clinics where audiologists are masquerading as audiometrists. In my experience not all audiologists are good fitters as well as audiometrists. 

Manufacturers

Google tells me:

A quick look at the best hearing aids of 2024

Audien: Most Affordable.

Phonak: Best for Severe Hearing Loss.

hear.com: Most Personalized Solution.

MDHearing: Most Feature Options.

Lexie: Most User-Friendly.

Signia: Most Natural Sound.

ReSound: Best Rechargeable.

Starkey: Best with Fall Detection.

I use Phonak, and as a brand I have been very happy with it. They are expensive, but in my opinion best value in the long haul in terms of cost of ownership and experience.

Lastly I have no affiliation with HearingSavers or Phonak brands.

References

Degree of Hearing Loss