A key feature of the Apple Watch is that it provides passive monitoring of your heart, and it can alert you to a certain cardiac rhythm issues. But it’s a “one lead” ECG, which is a fraction (1/12th, to be exact) of a professional device. This limits how many conditions the Apple Watch can detect.

As a supplement to the Apple Watch, I decided to buy a KardiaMobile 6L ECG device. With its additional sensors, it promised to give more detailed readings. The Kardia devices, including their less expensive models, only monitor your heart when you’re seated and using them, which is why I’m calling them supplemental.

After coughing up $140 to Amazon for the Kardia Mobile 6L, I returned it for a refund after just a couple of days. I’m a tech professional, and I carefully research my purchases, and I found The KardiaMobile 6L had too many unpleasant surprises and limitations.

Here are the ones that bothered me the most:

• To see the more advanced analysis, you have to subscribe at the cost of $100 a year. Without a subscription, it doesn’t do anything more than the Apple Watch. (Technically, it actually does less.)
• The Kardia app constantly nags you to subscribe by implying that the app has identified serious conditions, but won’t tell you about them until you pay up. As I declined to subscribe, I don’t know if it really had detected something or not, but if it does and won’t tell you without payment, that’s extortion.
• Your ECG data is locked inside the Kardia app. You can only share a rendered PDF of the tracing, and the data is not written to HealthKit so other useful apps and services, such as Qaly, can’t read it.
• The Kardia app requires you to log in every time you use it, and it does not support Password Manager. This is a serious usability problem. If this is supposed to be a ‘privacy’ feature, other apps have solved this problem in a more user-friendly way.

None of these issues were apparent before I purchased the KardiaMobile 6L device. In fact, the reviews posted by others are overwhelmingly positive. But those customers probably lack a comparative experience and don’t realize how unfriendly, limited, and imperious the product is.

Subtitled “A Brief History of the Aphorism,” this 2005 book by James Geary caught my eye because its cover art says “Guessing is more fun than knowing.” This speaks to my belief about magic, puzzles, and Google, so I bought a copy thinking it might be a nice collection of small insights.

And it sort of was, but it turns out the word “history” in the title is significant. The book begins with the author describing his lifelong obsession with aphorisms, which I completely appreciate and admire. I smiled in recognition when he described how the “Quotable Quotes” section of his parent’s Reader’s Digest fed his appetite.

Geary observes that the best aphorisms are slightly oracular, which is an insight I hadn’t considered before. He also writes that they are not the warm and fuzzy phrases found in greeting cards. “They are much more brusque, confrontational, and acerbic.” In my favorite section of the book, he lays out the Five Laws of Aphorisms, which further refined my appreciation of the form.

He also describes visiting the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in San Francisco. That’s one of my favorite shops in the city, but I didn’t know that one could have cookies made with your very own fortunes! An option I must explore further. (If you’ve ever dined with me at a Chinese restaurant, you have no doubt endured my rant about lame fortunes in the cookies.)

Once I finished the first section of the book, my enjoyment of it took on a downward trend. Geary organizes it by the authors of aphorisms, and for my taste, includes too much history of each individual. The first one is Jesus, followed by others such as Baltasar Gracian, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Twain, and many more.

On the plus side, he provides many great examples. Some of my favorite include:

• There are certain mistakes we enjoy so much we are always willing to repeat them.
• Short prayers penetrate heaven.
• One can only become a philosopher, not be one. As soon as one thinks one is a philosopher, one stops becoming one.
• God builds the temple in the heart on the ruins of churches and religions.
• It is difficult to begin without borrowing.

So, while I enjoyed spending time with this book, if you’re the type who wants to know about the person behind the insights, you’ll like it even more than I did. I bought my copy from the Amazon.

As a homeowner, I have a handful of monthly bills from service providers (for example, landscapers). Most of these companies have begun tacking on a 3.5% surcharge if I charge their bill to my credit card.

I understand why they want to shift the credit card processing to me — profit — but they should just consider those charges an overhead cost of doing business.

Because what happens is that instead of paying their bill right away, I wait until I have two or three other bills that are due. Then I log onto my bank’s website and have a paper check sent via the mail.

This introduces a two or three week delay before they get their money. When a company sends me a bill that does not add a surcharge, I typically pay it the same day I receive it. (Often as soon as I read it, if their payment system supports Apple Pay, which is virtually effortless to use.)

Having my bank send a paper check costs me nothing, but the recipient must now receive, open and process that check. Which probably costs them more than the 3.5% card processing fee they are imposing. (Which, on a $50 transaction, would be about $1.75) And, given the poor mail service here in Trumpistan, the check might be severely delayed or lost, increasing their opportunity cost even more.

Plus, the practice pisses me off and reduces my satisfaction with their service. Which is, of course, priceless.

I have been publishing my own work since 1980, so this book caught my eye. I’ve read countless books written from the author’s perspective, and many more written by publishers, but there aren’t a lot from booksellers. For a mere ten dollars, getting to learn from people who are in the trenches every day is definitely worthwhile.

That said, there is also plenty here to gleam regarding all areas of the business.

Some contributors offer a fascinating history of zines and self-publishing, while others discuss the practicality of distribution and what works at retail.

One of the best chapters is by Liz Mason, manager at the venerable Quimby’s in Chicago. (Where, ahem, you can find many of my current publications.) She describes how the store manages its massive consignment operation, which is not only interesting, but will also likely leave you sympathetic to their operations.

In today’s world, sadly, “commercial” and “bigger is better” tends to cast aspersions towards those whose passion leads them to take on the role of both writer and publisher. But historically, this is precisely how it was done. Even if you’re not so inclined yourself, this book will provide entertaining insight into this world.

I got my copy at Quimby’s (duh) but you can also obtain it from HalfLettter Press

I recently ran out of cloud space for the backup of my Synology NAS. I have been using their C2 Service for years, but its costs have increased beyond my budget, so I used this opportunity to re-jigger my back up strategy.

Part of this reconfiguration included adding a larger USB drive for local storage. However, I found that adding an additional external drive to the Synology NAS presented a few challenges.

The first of which was that the Synology NAS only has two USB ports, both of which were already in use. To solve this, I added a powered USB Hub.

Solving this problem, however, introduced a new one. Much to my surprise, the Synology OS (DSM, as it’s called) dynamically renumbers the address of USB devices. Connecting my previous drives (which had years-long backups) and the new drive caused each to “move” to new addresses. Which meant that not only did I have to reconfigure all my backup sets, I also had to start all over and wipe out the previous back ups. (This is just one of the many deficiencies of Synology’s Hyper Backup app.)

If there’s a solution, I don’t know what it is. But if you’re planning on adding more USB drives to your Synology NAS, be advised that it’s a major headache. Once you have a drive plugged into a port, don’t you dare touch it, unless you want to all start over.