My Life in the Apple Ecosystem

6FPS V3#6 - Photography and More
A Newsletter by Chuq Von Rospach
June 14, 2021

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

If this issue seems late, believe it or not, it's not. But given the vagaries of our calendar, this is the latest possible day that can be the 2nd Monday of a month, and I must admit, I have to keep reminding myself I'm actually on schedule. But it honestly feels weird.

We own a house in Washington

As this issue goes out, I've just finished a trip Washington where I started the processes to allow us to move into the beast. We have electricity, we have internet (gigabyte!), and I've started bringing in the stuff to allow Laurie to come north and set up shop and for us to migrate the cats and bird up before I focus on emptying the old house and get it onto the path to being sold.

It's been an incredibly busy month with a lot going on, although the purchase process itself had very few hiccups and went quite smoothly. That means the next fun part, which is actually getting moved, has started. Or more correctly, becomes first priority. I've already got some things packed, and we have that entire PODs full of stuff in cold storage, but there's a bunch more to do, and we haven't yet hired a mover or decided the best way to do that.

It's a 13ish hour drive if we drive from Santa Clara to Silverdale in one day, and we've decided for both the cats and the birds that's what we'll do. the thought of them and motel rooms just doesn't work for many reasons. I've did that drive coming back from my home inspection, and it's long but do-able. So at some point, Laurie will head up with the cats and stay, and then I'll head up and bring Tatiana and head back and finish the work of closing up the house and getting the furniture moved.

Or some of the furniture. We're deciding now is a good time to leave various bits behind and buy new for the new place. Laurie's entire office -- except for her standing desk over 20 years old -- is one set being retired, as is a bunch of furniture in the living room with tatiana and the master bedroom. So there's this dance of things we're orchestrating. I don't expect us to be fully settled in until fall, but it's a perfect time to rethink and reinvent various spaces.

Downstairs is a fully equipped granny flat with its own kitchen. Laurie will get a large part of that for her office. I'll get one of the two bedrooms down there for my office, and the other bedroom downstairs will become, most likely, some kind of guest room. there's also a nice space down there to build a conversation area for lounging we cna use when we want to get away from our desks and sit in (probably) recliners or something comfortable.

Upstairs is a nice master bedroom, and a second bedroom that becomes Tatiana's. Currently, we have both a living room and a family room, with Tatiana in the living room, and when her bed time hits, we closed it off and made it dark for her and moved to the family room for the evening. In the new space, we have a nice big great room, and Tatiana will live in there with us during the day, and be rolled into her bedroom where it'll be quieter with fewer noises and distractions and we can control the light for her better. (for those wondering why, cockatoo fertile cycles are photoperiod driven, and in captivity, female cockatoos can spend all of their time in heat, so we have strict wake-up and bed-time times to work to limit that. Not that Tatiana appreciates it...)

I'm estimating it'll take us until mid-July to get the furniture moved, in part because of the complications of getting the animals north and settled with Laurie. Maybe things will move faster, but... not too fast. Fortunately, we don't have a deadline on getting the silicon valley house on the market, so we don't have to rush things faster than we want to. Still, I'm ready to be moved.

Boat or RV?

Some of you have probably seen me wondering in public about the idea of buying a boat or an RV once we get settled in. The boat has been of more interest to me as a way to get out on the water and explore and putter, and as probably the world's most expensive camera accessory. Being able to, for instance, head out and see the Orca pods is one thing I'd love to be able to do.

I find I have made a decision on this. Which one will I pursue? Turns out: neither. The new house has a shop area the former owners used as a woodshop, and as soon as I saw that and we decided to buy this place, I knew that was going to be where I put my energy (and money) for the first few years. Soon it'll house a table saw and a lathe, and while I haven't done wood turning since my high school years, I find I'm really hooked on the idea of diving back into this. And besides, it's Washington; I really should have a hobby that is both inside for rainy days and away from the computers...

I'm sure we'll hear more about this later, but I've spent a few weeks madly binge watching stuff on YouTube in the evenings when my brain is fried, and I'm looking forward to getting started building out a new, decently sized shop.

What's New from Chuq?

My Life in the Apple Ecosystem

I've been pondering whether to write this for a while and I'm still not sure whether anyone will or should care. There was a time and a place for me to play the punditry game with Apple, but I feel like that was years ago in a much different time and place. I spent 17 years at Apple, and boy, do I have opinions about the place, both how it was and how it is, but I also sometimes remind myself it was almost that long ago that I left, and things change. I changed.

Does the world need one more Apple pundit? God, no, there are so many people with so many opinions I mostly sit on the sidelines and don't think it's worth the time to try to get heard above the noisy of the mob that circles around Apple with their endless hot takes. (To answer a question I get every so often: the way I stay up to date on Apple these days is I pay attention to what Jason and Dan write at Sixcolors.com, and what Jason and Myke talk about on the Upgrade podcast. They connect me to basically everything I feel I should know about with Apple, and give me good, thoughtful opinions about the things they discuss and point to.

I am still very much embedded in that ecosystem, and I have never seriously considered doing anything else, and I at this point never expect to. I depended on my iPhone even when I was working and evangelizing a phone that wanted to pretend it was competing with Apple (but honestly, we never really did). That doesn't mean I love, or even like, everything Apple does. But mostly I think Apple is doing good things, most of the time.

The Apple Silicon Transition

One thing I think Apple is doing very well: the transition to Apple Silicon (aka the ARM chips). I replaced my fairly recent Apple 16" Macbook Pro with the M1 Macbook Air, and it works wonderfully well. As someone who lived through the 68K -> PowerPC transition, was leaving Apple in the early days of the PowerPC -> Intel transition, and for good measure had to survive the Classic MacOS -> MacOSX transition, I've seen this floorshow before. Apple is knocking this one out of the park.

In day to day use, the M1 laptop blows away the 16" pro -- which I loved and which Laurie now has and uses. There are a few places where it's consumer designs appear, and the one way I can systematically drag it down to a crawl is by telling Lightroom to do multiple compute intensive things at once: for instance, a common operation for me is to import a bunch of photos, then set up Lightroom to convert them all to DNG, and build 1:1 and Smart profiles for each. The 16" handles this load fine; the M1 slogs and struggles, because Adobe makes no attempt to recognize overload conditions and self-throttle. If I do them serially, all is fine, but multiple, independent compute intensive threads can kick the computer in the kneepcap.

This doesn't bother me, because I expected it and it's avoidable with some thought (one might wish Adobe would make their background processing smarter, but, well, it's Adobe). And it's a great example of the difference between the higher end Intel chips in the Macbook pro, and the M1 Macbook air: the M1 is way better at 99% of what I use it for, but it has its limitations -- limitations which were obvious and expected, and limitations which will be removed when Apple brings out newer, more powerful chips.

This is a place where I think many of the so-called pundits fell down in their discussions about Apple; they look at the M1 and complain about its limits, not seeming to understand this isn't the best Apple can do, it's the first that Apple did. The M1 is a great entry level chip for good entry level systems, and a strong indication of what's possible in this new Apple Silicon era as Apple improves and matures its chips. If you follow a pundit that couldn't or wouldn't see this basic idea, you really need to upgrade your pundits.

So far, the software translation that allows Intel software to work has, well, just worked. It's been flawless. Way better than the first generation of Rosetta tools we lived with in previous transitions.

My plan, in fact, is when the rumored 30" iMacs come out, with hopefully a more pro-sumer capable CPU (M1x or M2?) I'll be adding one to the clan and make that my primary computer, with my laptop going back to pure mobile use. We'll probably replace Laurie's iMac, also, and then at some point I'll likely upgrade back to a Macbook Pro and she'll get this M1 Air.

Other Products

I love my iPhone, although once again, my "plan" to get serious about using it for photography has fallen victim to this "I have no time to spare to invest in learning this" thing. I like my iPad, but it is very much a consumption device for me, so I'm not demanding more of it than it's able to offer me, and I fully agree with and support the people who complain about how much more limited the OS is than the hardware could potentially offer. I wonder why they put an M1 in an iPad, when to me, all it does is highlight how much less an iPad can do than my M1 Macbook can -- although there are various aspects of how I use an iPad where I much prefer it to my Mac. But the iPad is still trying to figure out how to be a mature platform, and in many ways, falling short. I also note I haven't touched my Apple Pencil since about a month after I bought it with my latest iPad model -- it just doesn't sync into how I work with the device.

Yet. (see: "this year, I'm going to get serious about using iPhones in my photography")

I love my Apple Watch. First thing I do -- before getting out of bed in the morning -- is put it on. Last thing I do, as I sit on the edge of the bed, is take it off so it can charge. I struggle to find a watch face I love, but I have some I like, and that's more than good enough for someone like me. Rene Ritchie once said that the Apple Sports Band was the yoga pants of watchbands, and well, yes, I wear my watch with one of those bands 100% of the time, because it's nice and comfortable and that's what I want. Fashionista I am not, nor do I ever want to be...

Other Apple Hardware is less successful for me. I own a Homepod, and mostly, I forget it's there and I forget to tell my devices to send audio to it. If it were to fail, I wouldn't replace it. I was for a long time a big supporter of the Apple TV, but when the one in my office failed, I replaced it with a Roku. the only reason we still have an Apple TV in the house is because it hasn't failed yet, and we frankly never use it any more. Apple took this product down the wrong paths, and it's become irrelevant as far as I'm concerned. And Earpods -- I just bought a new pair when my older pair finally became somewhere beyond unreliable and trending into broken. For the last couple of months, I've been kind of down on them, but with a new pair that is working properly, I'm a lot happier with them now. I did, in fact, buy a replacement pair, but I don't make them my only/default hearing device; I still prefer my Bose QC35's when I'm in my office, and I use the earpods for phone calls and when I'm mobile. I don't love wearing the earpods for multiple hours at a time, but that's probably my biggest complaint about them.

If I were to assign letter grades, how about these: Apple Silicon Macs A, Intel Macs B, iPads: B-, the iPhone a B+, Homepod gets a boring C, Apple TV gets a D, and Earpods get a B-. Overall, not bad results for Apple.

Software

When it comes to Apple's software, though, I have some bigger gripes. One of the big draws of App'e's infrastructure is how apps can integrate and move data around between sets of related apps. Given that idea, though, why is it I feel like I'm always looking for a better third party app than the standard Apple one? I'm talking about apps like Mail, like Calendar and the Contacts app specifically.

I currently use Spark as my mail client. It's been -- fine -- but I'm about to shift back to the app I used before I was tired of it's glitches and moved to Spark, which is Airmail. I'm shifting away from Spark because I'm tired of its glitches and want to see if Airmail is less glitchy now. I'm betting -- not. But still, I keep hoping.

Apple Mail? I really want to like it. I don't dislike it, actually, and every so often I use it for a while, but it's missing some key features (like snooze) I'd like to have, and it feels -- fine. It's a fine app that is also more or less forgettable.

How to define how I feel about the Mail app? Remember back in high school or college that cute person you worked up the the nerve to ask out on a date, and they spent the entire evening looking disinterested and killing any attempt at conversation with one or two word answers and silences? That's Apple Mail to me; they're a nice person and all, but... there's nothing I feel like building a relationship around. I've tried it enough times to know I don't want to try again unless Apple does something that really convinces me they've spent time understanding what a modern mail app should be. I'm not holding my breath. For a calendar I use Fantastical, and love it and pay for it willingly. For contacts? Allow me to exhale a deep, loud sigh. I've been using Busycontacts for a while, and it's -- it's fine, just like Apple Mail is fine. And the Fantastical people just bundled Cardhop with Fantastical, so I've been working with it for the last week, and it's actually a pretty good app, but it works in ways I don't like, where I can honestly say "it's not you it's me", so I've uninstalled it again (for the third time). And since I can be equally uninspired by both Apple's Contacts app and Busycontacts, I've decided it's time to go back to Apple's Contacts app again. (edit later: or more correctly, I tried for about an hour, and I'm back with Busycontacts because there were just too many issues with the contacts app) For a while. Until I meet some new contacts app and take it out for a spin, hoping it'll actually do what I'd like a Contacts app will do.

These apps are a good example of an ongoing problem I think Apple hasn't taken seriously enough: they commit resources to build something and they promote that thing with marketing and keynotes and all of the hype -- and then many of those things get stuffed in a closet and mostly ignored year after year as the market moves forward and innovates. Apple Mail is a great example of a really good email app if it was ten years ago, and remember Apple's Airport wifi devices? Apple's long neglect of them is why I'm a pretty happy user of Eero these days.

But in the case of something like a mail app, Apple giving a basic app away for free inhibits other developers from tackling that idea, and limits their ability to make enough money to warrant doing the hard investment in doing a real killer version of an app of that type. I do wish Apple would choose to either commit hard to an app and make it best of show, or kill the app and open the market to other companies. Instead, they do a middle policy of doing minimal work on an adequate app, making it harder for non-Apple apps to thrive, but not really serving the needs of the users very well, either.

Itunes -- oh, sorry, Apple Music -- is another app like this. A number of years ago I wrote a piece that described it as a dumpster fire. Now? It feels like a dumpster fire where Apple closed one half of the dumpster lids, declared victory and went off to design even more interesting iPhones instead.

Apple, I think, has too many things they've built and committed to market and not enough resources committed to properly maintain and push them forward. Whether it's the Apple Airports or the Apple TV, which I think Tim Cook should just retire and embrace the Apple TV software on other devices -- or software like Mail that goes years without any significant innovation -- there are parts of Apple's ecosystem that seem to go on idle for years at a time, and where Apple simply doesn't care enough or have enough resources to commit to doing those bits and pieces justice. And because of it, its users are not as well served as Apple users deserve to be.

A side aspect of this "benign neglect?" thing I see is that software quality at Apple, which for years was rock solid, has become more hit and miss. I do believe Apple has figured this out and I do believe they're working on it -- but I also believe the results have been spotty. I'm one of those people who still install updates when tehy're released -- for the most part, and maybe a few hours after the real early adopters have had a chance to bleed their edges first -- but I've become more and more hesitant about that in the last few years. I should trust Apple's software quality, and for a long time I did, but now? I hesitate more, because I've hit too many rough edges.

The Podcast App and Paid Podcasts

Recently, Apple made a lot of noise about Podcasts and the Podcasts app. And you know what? If you look up "adequate app" in the dictionary, the Podcast app logo will be there, because that's exactly what that app is. So since Apple seems to be getting serious about podcasts (finally), did they invest in making the podcast app great?

No. They created a system of paid podcasts, which can be listened to only in their podcast app. They didn't innovate to an app you want to use, they built a service that tries to force you to use it. I don't think that's good for those podcasters who choose to sign up for that service, and I don't expect that service to thrive or ever be a major player in podcasts -- and I don't think Apple has done its users any favors by playing this exclusive content game.

It's an example of a bad trend I see out of Apple, a refusal to embrace and compete in existing market areas, but instead trying to use their existing ecosystem to force people into exclusive relationships with Apple. Almost as if they don't feel they can compete and win, so instead they attempt use their 800 pound gorilla status in some area to force us into doing it their way in others. And often, this blows up in their face, and it may be blowing up in their face big time right now, but we'll get to that shortly.

It's an indication of an attitudinal shift in Apple I don't like: it's one thing to believe it can and should be the dominate player in a market, and when you turn out dominant products like the iPhone, you deserve to be. But increasingly, it seems Apple is shifting from "we can be the biggest player in this market" to "we don't believe we should have any competitors in this market". And that trend really worries me and makes me less supportive of Apple in general.

The App Store and Apple's developers

A bit of background seems to be in order. I went to work at Apple to help found a team known as the Direct Response Center. It's purpose was to act as paid tech support for the "complex" Apple products where "call your dealer" was Apple's support policy. That included initially Apple's A/UX Unix product, and later various other things as well. You've likely never heard of A/UX, because this was the 68K era of Apple products and possibly before you were born, but that organization grew up, ultimately moved to Austin (without me) and you probably have heard the name of the organization it became, which is Applecare. Over the years, especially after I shifted over to IS&T and became fully involved in building and running email things for Apple, I was involved in many parts of Apple in one way or another.

After leaving Apple, I shifted into roles that were various parts of Community Management for outside developers and acting as the Developer Advocate within the company for those outside developers. Two of the companies I did this for were Palm (for the WebOS reboot attempt) and Cisco (when Susie Wee founded their Devnet team, which unlike Palm, has grown and succeeded wildly).

At Palm I was involved in the launch of the app store and the developer programs, and I really came to learn and love the challenges of that role. I also really came to believe -- and argue for -- strong support for the independent developers, not just for the big development houses, because I believe that's where the new developers mature out of that go on to big things, and that's where the true innovation on a platform happens.

Palm was a disaster on many levels and deserved to fail, but the core intentions were good and the plans we tried to implement were worth fighting for. I had always had a belief that the indie developers were vital to any platform, but Palm and working with them on a daily basis and arguing their cases inside the company helped me crystalize that belief -- the indie developer is the lifeblood of an active and innovative development ecosystem, and deserves to be encouraged and nurtured. It may not be an investment that pays off today, but those developers will go on to lead and push forward those bigger teams, and do so as external evangelists for your products and platforms.

As part of my work at Palm, I was part of the team that launched that App store, and actually ran the store during beta before we hired the real App Store team, which, of course, included people we hired from Apple.

Apple doesn't value its developers

So when I talk about App Stores and developer programs and how developers should be treated, I point all this out to show that it's not exactly theoretical for me, it's personal. I've lived that life, fought those wars (and at Palm, more or less lost at every opportunity, but that's a sad story for another time). And to a degree, it's why I've always hesitated talking about Apple and their developer programs and App Store.

Because to me, Apple does an absolute crap job of taking care of their developers. The defining word that comes to mind to me is -- arrogance. An expectation that the developers need Apple, so Apple doesn't have to reciprocate.

And... With the IOS App store, Apple is absolutely correct. Developers need to be on IOS. It's far less true on MacOS, and if you've ever taken a look at the Apple TV App Store, you can easily see how ludicrously poorly that platform is considered by developers.

Apple has never been that interested or great at relationships with developers, and I say that with great respect for many members of Apple's DTS/Devrel teams, some of whom are friends and who have spent years fighting the good fight internally as well.

It's gotten worse over the years, and while I will cut Apple some slack -- I don't think people remotely understand the complexity and difficulty of doing things at the scale Apple has to do them -- but where Apple has over the years had opportunities to improve things for developers and make these platforms more appealing, they have consistently chosen to not take those opportunities. There's zero reason the App Store cut is still 30%, other than Apple believing it can get away with it.

I won't complain about Apple cutting deals with big companies others can't get -- I'm thinking Amazon's 15% cut, for one -- because, well, that's how business operates and honestly, should. But Apple could have shown some love to the smaller devs as well, and didn't.

Apple has always had a bad track record with indie/smaller developers -- the term "Sherlocked" comes to mind, and that was purely a case of Apple stepping on the throat of a small developer that they knew couldn't fight back. It hasn't gotten any better, and in fact, it got bad enough a number of small developers -- BBedit for one -- jumped ship and exited the Mac App store.

To Apple's credit, they reacted to that, and some of those apps have returned to the App Store. Good for Apple. But I don't give Apple too much credit here -- it really looked to me more like "how little do we need to do to stop the bleeding", not "what should we do to fix this?".

Apple's App Store review setup is part of this problem with developers. while I fully believe what Apple is doing is absolutely necessary -- I don't believe the way Apple does it is good for the developers, or for Apple. App Review is far too often inconsistent, arbitrary and leaning into hostile and abusive. I've heard stories that sound a lot like retribution for complaining too much. I've seen way too many stories about App Store rejections only overturned after a public complaint and outcry: people at lower levels doing things the bosses overturn once the noise gets loud enough. Apple's repeatedly tried to tell us complaining in public doesn't help, but the data clearly indicates otherwise.

And again, it's hard to understand the complexity of app review at Apple's scale. As part of the testimony at the Epic trial, he noted Apple spends $50m just on WWDC every year..

But... he also talks about how 90% of the developers qualify for the Small Business program, but despite them promoting it heavily as a way to help developers -- which it is -- it's not a permanent program. Why not? they can cancel it any time they want at this point. Why wasn't it done years ago? Why does it require applying for it, when Apple has the numbers in the database and can apply it automatically?

Apple, honestly, didn't do that Small Business program to help developers, but to create something they could point to and try to deflect and defuse the valid criticisms being aimed at them in hope of avoiding outside bodies stepping in and forcing Apple to change it's policies. And Apple is failing at avoiding this looming problem, because again, it seems hardwired to play the "how little must we do to stop the bleeding" game, and won't consider digging into "how do we fix the problems?"

And ultimately, these hostile developer policies and a lack of any real connection or relationship with its developer community has inevitably led to stage one of these outside groups stepping in. That's the Apple vs Epic lawsuit.

Apple vs Epic

So, Apple vs Epic. this lawsuit was inevitable. The good news for Apple is that Epic is, well, a terrible company to drive this suit because it's so hard to listen to anything they say and develop any sympathy for them whatsoever. Epic is the 500 pound gorilla expecting the rest of the gorillas to gang up on the 800 pound gorilla to get back the bananas so the 500 pound gorilla can eat them.

I have tried to not to follow the lawsuit too closely, because I knew if I did and studied what Apple said, it would just piss me off. What pieces I have taken a closer look at -- have pissed me off. Apple is going to win this lawsuit, and deserves to because Epic's case is ludicrous and the legal work done in court was sloppy at best.

But.. that doesn't mean how Apple does things is correct, it's not. I'll note that Ben Thompson at Stratechery and Dithering has some good takes on this that I mostly agree with, and recommend you follow what he says about it.

This lawsuit is merely a first battle, and where the war is going to be fought is in Congress and in the EU anti-trust committees. What epic did with this lawsuit was bring a lot of things out into the open -- it's a full theatrical release of the video from inside the sausage factory -- and this will really hurt Apple's attempt to convince people it doesn't need outside supervision. that supervision is coming, whether it's new laws through Congress or new regulations through the EU or other governmental bodies, and Apple is well beyond the time it needed to improve it's policies to stop these legislative processes from starting.

I used the word "arrogance" above to describe Apple's attitude towards developers. In looking at the material released in the Epic trial from inside Apple, another word also seems to define Apple's attitude: Entitlement

Somewhere along the way, Apple convinced itself it's entitled to take all of this revenue from all of the places it's taking it.

This disappoints me greatly, but worse, there seems no self-awareness of the negative reputation side effects the combination of arrogance and entitlement will engender.

When I was doing developer relations things, I was always arguing that we needed to do what was needed to make developers WANT to work with us; Apple's attitude is they have to, so why bother?

The reason to bother is to generate goodwill. You invest in the good times to generate goodwill, because at some point -- you're going to want that around to help you in not so good times. You want people who are your allies willing to watch your back and defend you.

If you look at the developer response around the Apple/epic case, and when you look at the reactions to the various times Congress has held hearings, there aren't a lot of developers coming in to defend and support Apple. It's pretty quiet out there.

Apple has spent a couple of decades basically seeing it's developer community as a hassle, not as allies. It has never worked to convince those developers to want to be allies. And now... we're seeing a move towards groups like Congress deciding to get involved and perhaps legislate changes to how Apple does business. And Apple will find surprisingly few allies to go in and help fight against that.

Apple will find it hard to convince these bodies it doesn't deserve to be regulated, and it'll find it hard to find people to argue it's cause when those discussions get serious. Because Apple drove it's developer relationship for decades based on attitudes of entitlement and arrogance, and never invested in creating a developer community that wanted to work with Apple, and instead just expected them to always have to work with it.

We are now at the start of a time where I think Apple will come to regret doing that, but it's far too late to fix or to stop what I see as the inevitable shift towards regulations aimed at Apple's App store policies. And because Apple has spent so long believing it can bully and bluster those around it -- and mostly succeeding because of its size and scale, I think the next few years as the regulators gear up adn get going it's going to be interesting, and ultimately, Apple will learn some hard lessons. Lessons that it could have taught itself at any time, but it was too busy being successful to ever consider maybe it should.

Which is sad, but Apple chose this path, and it's now going to have to traverse it.

Coming out the other side -- I don't know, maybe 3 years from now? -- Apple will be different. Still wildly successful, let's not start the "Apple is doomed" game, kids. But changes now feel inevitable. What isn't sure to me now is what Apple will learn and do proactively, and what will be beaten into it by an organization with an even larger stick -- like Congress.

But if Apple were to ask my opinion, which it won't, I'd suggest starting with asking itself why it decided words like "arrogance" and "entitlement" were the defining points of their policies, and figure out how to replace "how little can we do to stop the bleeding" with "what should we do to fix this?"

But I'm not hopeful they'll consider any of that any time soon.

But change is coming, whether or not Apple wants it. And boy, Apple deserves having those changes forced onto it, given how badly they've treated their developer community for so many years.

For Your Consideration

Birds and Birding

Photography

Health and Fitness

Science and Technology

 

Interesting Stuff

Recomendations

  • Voltaren: As I have grumped about in the past, I have bad knees. They are a combination of damage over time (torn meniscus, stretched ligaments) and arthritis, and they are not operable short of full replacement. I'm actually on year 13 since the orthopedic surgeon told me I had maybe 5 years before I'd need to do the replacements. For many years, we dealt with them with high doses of Relafin, and then with cortisone shots about every 15 weeks or so (not fun!). About two years ago, I was switched over to a newer NSAID called Meloxicam which did wonders for me and let me stop the cortisone. Recently, my doctor suggested we stop the Meloxicam as a daily pill, because over time it (like many NSAIDs) can do things to the kidneys and suggested a topic NSAID called Voltaren. so now I'm wiping goop on my knees twice a day. And it's working pretty well; I think I get about 90-95% of the pain and inflammation reduction in the knees without the risk of having my kidneys get really unhappy. If you're someone who has arthritis in specific areas, it's well worth talking to your doctor about this one...

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See you Soon!

And with that, I'll see you in 2021 with the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun.

Chuq (chuqui@mac.com)

About 6FPS and Chuq

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqui@mac.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

Some links in this newsletter may point to products at Amazon; these are affiliate links and if you use them to buy a product, I get a small cut of the sale. This doesn't make me rich, but it does help pay my web site bills. If you use the link to buy something, thank you. If you prefer not to, that's perfectly okay, also.

Contacting Chuq

Want to drop me a note or send my something to consider for the list? Here’s how:

  • You can always send me email at chuqui@mac.com.

  • Or you can tweet at me at @chuq, or use the hashtag #6fps to point something at me.

Copyright © 2021 Chuq Von Rospach, All rights reserved.