Random thing you loathe right now.

Since this the thread for it, I'll just add that I loathe how iOS has normalized people having a computer that they're not allowed to install programs on (like e.g. a different browser).

fenomas wrote:

Since this the thread for it, I'll just add that I loathe how iOS has normalized people having a computer that they're not allowed to install programs on (like e.g. a different browser).

I hate how that practice reduces marketplace competition. If a competitor makes a better product, Apple will sometimes block that product, or block the features that make that product superior.

PaladinTom wrote:
WizKid wrote:

Is there a good way to block ads on iOS?

In Safari? Yes.

In the whole OS? Not that I’m aware of.

If you're on a wi-fi network you control, I recommend a Pi-hole to kill ads at the network level.

RawkGWJ wrote:

I hate how that practice reduces marketplace competition. If a competitor makes a better product, Apple will sometimes block that product, or block the features that make that product superior.

Yeah - or occasionally make a 1st-party app doing the same thing and then ban the 3rd-party alternative. (Or so it is alleged.)

Anecdote: a friend of mine who was a die-hard Apple fan wound up working there for year or two in a reasonably senior position, but he said not to ask anything about it so I didn't. Then a while after he left we were having a drink and I said "just tell me this much - did you like it there?", and he thought about it a while, and finally said: "no comment".

WizKid wrote:

Is there a good way to block ads on iOS?

If you can enter manual DNS addresses, there are public ad-blocking resolvers you can use. I don't know which ones are good.

For local network blocking (which would also work with your phone in WiFi mode), PiHole is considered to be a great utility. It's intended to run on a Raspberry Pi, but you can install it on almost any Linux box, which can potentially include routers running an open firmware.

DNS blocking is not as good as something like uBlock Origin, which can narrowly block just an individual part of a site without blocking the whole thing. But it works for your whole network at once, sometimes even for devices that you don't control. This is particularly likely if you block those devices from using port 53 (both TCP and UDP) outbound. Unless the manufacturer goes to substantial effort, this forces the device to use your local server, which means that PiHole's blocks apply to, say, your TV or your console. This can make the experience with those devices much nicer.

I have avoided Apple products precisely because of the walled-garden approach and their habit of buying cool stuff and then turning it off for everyone else. I also like the fact that Android and PC stuff all use the same charger architecture, recently allowing me to charge my phone using my laptop charger since they're both USB-C. Apple's insistence on using their own proprietary charger architecture rubs me the wrong way since it's hard to see it as anything other than a cash grab.

Despite that, I acknowledge that Apple's strong control over their domain does make everything fairly seamless and the UI on various apps seems to be superior on Apple versions rather than Android versions. Not sure why Android apps have a jank factor, but there it is. What I've run into recently is that there are some really good aviation apps that are available only on Apple (Foreflight and iFlightPlanner, for example) and I find myself considering picking up an iPad purely for those purposes.

To stick my oar into the ads discussion, I guess I'm okay with reasonable ads if I'm getting stuff for free. It costs money to host and transmit data, as well as to buy rights to certain shows. Recently I've been watching Ice Pilots on Amazon Prime (a service I certainly pay for!) and it has some intrusive ads that just randomly occur throughout the episode. Super annoying, but if it means I can watch a series I would otherwise have missed, then I'm okay with it. Websites still get run through Ghostery though; I'm not a sucker for punishment!

Mantid wrote:

It’s gotten to the point that I can’t stand to watch YouTube unless I’m on a web browser that is set up to block all of YouTube’s ads. Any more, if I decide to watch through a YouTube app on a TV and an unskippable ad pops up, I decide I to go do something else and turn the TV off, even if the ad is only a few seconds long.

In Greece, for many months at some point in the last year, there was only one Greek advertiser. The e-food delivery website for Greece. And they only made one commercial. I can hear it in my sleep. I saw it before every single youtube video I watched on my phone.

Then, they added a second commercial you had to watch. So it was always e-food, plus 6 seconds of something else.

Now, there are more advertisers, and e-food found out how to make more commercials.

I think this affected my viewing, in that I only watched longer videos.

I loathe our terrible healthcare system.

I'm currently in a fight with my HSA over psychologist visits. Basically my insurance only pays 1/3rd of my psychologist visits and even then it's a painstaking process and they frequently ask for round after round of documentation before finally paying that 1/3rd. Meanwhile I pay for the rest through my HSA who frequently denies me access to my own money so they can try to hold on to as much as possible.

Today after calling them and demanding to hear why I was denied again they told me I had to provide a "letter of medical necessity" proving why I needed a specific treatment.

Please explain to me why this system is better than universal healthcare? Cash would literally be easier for certain services. Why bother even having health insurance if this is the best we can do?

I learned from experience that using some codes for conditions can be easily questioned and limited, while others are accepted much more easily. Maybe have your doc reconsider which diagnostic codes they are using. If you are feeling lucky, call the insurance company and ask to speak to a patient advocate, and let them tell you which codes are more easily processed.

Worked for us... That was with United Healthcare.

Robear wrote:

I learned from experience that using some codes for conditions can be easily questioned and limited, while others are accepted much more easily. Maybe have your doc reconsider which diagnostic codes they are using. If you are feeling lucky, call the insurance company and ask to speak to a patient advocate, and let them tell you which codes are more easily processed.

Worked for us... That was with United Healthcare.

This isn't my insurance, though. This is my HSA asking for documentation.

Why TF do they care? If you want to spend your HSA on the wrong thing, that's between you and the IRS.

Agathos wrote:

Why TF do they care? If you want to spend your HSA on the wrong thing, that's between you and the IRS.

They claim THEY need it for IRS documentation.

They don't. They're just trying to keep your money.

Malor wrote:

They don't. They're just trying to keep your money.

Agathos wrote:

Why TF do they care? If you want to spend your HSA on the wrong thing, that's between you and the IRS.

How confident are you guys on this point? Got a source?

Because as someone who works in a different federally regulated environment, I would be entirely unsurprised to find the federal government heavily regulating how an HSA is run, including leveraging onerous requirements on ensuring that funds expensed to an HSA are eligible.

Also because there is no further inspection by the IRS of how I've spent my HSA - I don't have to declare on my federal taxes which bills were paid through the HSA. It seems to me that they've chosen to do the enforcement on the front end, precisely by offloading the enforcement onto the companies that run the HSAs.

Jonman wrote:

How confident are you guys on this point? Got a source?

All I know is that my HSA debit card works like a debit/credit card. I've used it at the pharmacy, and I use it for dental copays. I've never been asked to provide anything else.

Agathos wrote:
Jonman wrote:

How confident are you guys on this point? Got a source?

All I know is that my HSA debit card works like a debit/credit card. I've used it at the pharmacy, and I use it for dental copays. I've never been asked to provide anything else.

Some HSA stuff requires no tax stuff, some require the letter you mention, and worse some require that and your prescription from doc too. It's silly it's opaque. And as someone who currently works for a major healthcare company I totally would like universal healthcare. Even if it put me out of a job. *

So I share your loathe on healthcare nonsense.

*Disclaimer: Not a doctor, not an healthcare/insurance expert, etc

*Snipped FSA links that i thought we more HSA appropriate bleh*
Better Link

Agathos wrote:
Jonman wrote:

How confident are you guys on this point? Got a source?

All I know is that my HSA debit card works like a debit/credit card. I've used it at the pharmacy, and I use it for dental copays. I've never been asked to provide anything else.

For the most part this is me too. But that's also forgetting that you and I have no idea how many hoops are being jumped through by the pharmacy and dentist in order to allow payment from HSAs.

The FSA, on the other hand, what a giant pain in the ass that thing's been - the debit card they sent me ALWAYS got declined when I tried to use it, and it usually took at least two attempts at submitting a claim before it would get paid. I ain't going down that road again.

I may have misspoke, to be clear. Maybe I have an FSA and not an HSA.

They both suck. I've had both at my job, and both harassed us for receipts at least every month or two, maybe 25-50% of our legitimate uses they questioned, wanting to see a receipt to prove it. I'm not sure they ever declined anything, but they were always threatening to. It just sucks.

HSA is basically a bank of money you can only use for approved expenses, theoretically the same that an fsa can be used for. HSA money never goes away and it's yours to use as you see fit after 59 1/2 I think? And you can invest it tax free if you're not using it.

FSA is the one you lose if you don't use it by usually something like March of the following year and forces you to guess how much you think you'll need to spend.

master0 wrote:

*Disclaimer: Not a doctor, not an healthcare/insurance expert, etc

I am a doctor and I'd be over the moon if the USA went to a Universal Healthcare system!

Every single damn time I use my FSA card at the eye dr or the dentist, since both due offer non medically essential procedures/items for sale I have to upload the invoice. In the 10+ years of having FSA my wife and I have never done the nonessential stuff yet we still have to upload documentation.

Oh, and having to get a crown replaced. Dentrist was pretty rough it felt like today removing the old broken crown/putting in the temporary one. Tried eating 3 chicken tenders for lunch afterwards. 2 hours later my jaw is still sore even with ibuprofen, sigh. Guess I won't be eating dinner tonight.

All this dentistry talk just reminds me that I need to get some veneers. le sigh

I received at least 7 scam calls today. I eventually switched my phone to do-not-disturb mode, it was getting ridiculous.

bobbywatson wrote:

I received at least 7 scam calls today. I eventually switched my phone to do-not-disturb mode, it was getting ridiculous.

I only got one. Nobody loves me.

Check to see what your provider offers in the way of spam-blocking. Better than nothing...

Waiting on job offers/interview requests.

SallyNasty wrote:

Waiting on job offers/interview requests.

Yeeeep, I'm right there with you here. I also loathe that apparently my skillset and knowledge (IT Service Management) doesn't really fit with a lot of job openings around here

SallyNasty wrote:

Waiting on job offers/interview requests.

Same with the odd fear/thought of just settling for what I have.

Edit: And just did a technical test which I flubbed probable cause I was too honest...