Great roundup, just as my Instapaper queue was starting to thin out!

You might also like an essay I wrote on the subject last year “How Responsive Web Design becomes Responsive Web Publishing”

http://www.aqworks.com/en/blog/2011/09/05/how-responsive-web-design-becomes-responsive-web-publishing/

I do wish we had tools that made it easy for the writer to answer questions like “what does this chunk look like, everywhere it’s being displayed?” Simply telling a writer that’s the wrong question doesn’t help

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I’ve just got to the point where I need some help with my hearing. So, trotted off to the audiologist I saw about 5 years ago when my hearing first took a dive. Before going it alone, he was the head audiologist at our local hospital (UK). He was recommended to me by a consultant at the hospital as someone very capable and not a shark, ‘He’ll loan items to you and he won’t push you into buying anything.’ True. The audio saw me, measured my hearing, talked to me in terms I could understand but which acknowledged I had a brain, saw me maybe three times once very six months at £25 a go, and then said it was up to me if I wanted to continue seeing him, but I could save my money and leave it until I felt the hearing was much worse and I needed more help. I’m at that point now. Saw him yesterday and he measured the hearing again, did the behind the ear and in front of the ear tests, looked in my ears for blockages. I’d emailed him a bullet-pointed list, so as to save him time, with what my particular problems were – tinnitus, sound distortion, low sounds difficult, driving getting worse because of not hearing when to change gear (most uk cars are not automatics) etc. He said that yes, my hearing had degenerated considerably and I was now at the point where it could do with some help. I teach 16-19-year-olds, so anything which will improve my hearing is welcome. His recommendation was the Widex Clear BTE. I’ve read up on them, so I can see why he knocked back my initial preference – for a CIC model. Your point about not being coy about hearing aids is fair enough. For years, I’ve hated the idea, and when I told my colleagues at work, I got so cheesed off with the reply I invariably got, ‘They do some quite nice ones now’, that I fired back: ‘Oh yeah? So how come you don’t want ‘em? You mean like you can get some really groovy glass eyes, and cute prosthetic limbs?’ People with perfect eyesight say they’d like to wear glasses, and many do, because it’s a fashion thing. Not come across, ‘Hey, you know what? I’d l think I’m going to pretend I’m deaf. Then I can get a HA to change my image from time to time. To look more studious, yeah? More uber-cool?’ But you’re right. There are a great many worse things that could be happening. It’s just a shock in the first instance, and for a woman ………let’s face it, there’s a reason that all those ‘mature’ female newsreaders look like babes and the older guys can go right ahead with their chubby chins and saggy-baggy eyes, cosying up next to them like they’re their grandad. That said, I’ve decided if I’m having a HA, it’s going to be a coloured one, and I don’t mean those yucky so-called skin-tone browns. The more people who go for not trying to hide it, like it’s something to be ashamed of, the better. Loud (ahem!) and proud.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Best wishes, Veronica

Any comment or direction on the matter of eczema and hearing aids would be wonderful. Thank you.

Good

Great back ground program for noisey areas. For once I could finally hear in a noisey restaurant, party, congested area with lots of back ground noise.

The Dex or control hand unit was small and a pleasure to use. You can pop the small control unit in your pocket and use it without anyone noticing.

Bad

Feedback that I couldn’t hear but other people with normal hearing could hear. This happend when I was moving my jaw, eating, yawning.

Rite might not work well, especailly if you require the larger receiver in the ear mold. From what I have read Widex (and possibly) other HA manufacturers have serioius fedback issues with Rite. I was using a custom ear mold which was supposed to take care of the feedback problem. It did not.

Ear mold color. You would think Widex would make all kinds of ear molds and colors in a custom setting. They do not for the Fusion and only offer a beige or ugly off white color (was told this was clear).. Both very noticeable. No clear molds, which I assume is due to the receiver in the mould. Odd how HA manufacturers always pump the color of the HA unit that no one sees due to hair covering it up. But the HA mould wich is quite noticeable (and is not offered in clear mold) or reset further back into outer ear has limits options. Moulds are are quite obvious..

Widex just came out with a Supper440 that is for those with severe to profund hearing loss, but I wonder if this new HA is just a Fusion in sheep’s clothing with also feedback problems. Look forward to reading comments on Super440 aid (pro and con).