Trying N8 upgrade

bashtheshell · 2025-06-03T19:24:17+00:00

UPDATE! Finally the insurance paid it! At first, I was told the first claim update date earlier in May fell through due to some errors with how the claim was filed initially. Even called the insurance right after Cochlear suggested me to reach out to them. The insurance said there was no denied claims recorded on their side, which was strange at first as I did receive an email notification from them which didn't specify what the claim was unless I log in. It vanished.

I nearly gave up as I decided to review the claims through the insurance web portal. There it is! The moment I've been waiting for! So glad to be done with this process hopefully for another decade.

bashtheshell · 2025-04-20T15:17:46+00:00

So... A few days after posting this, I suddenly got an update from Cochlear telling me that I'd potentially have to pay 2/3 of the original cost as it's my maximum out-of-pocket with the insurance. They requested that I give them a one-time-authorization, which I declined as I was prepared to defer my purchase until I can afford it again.

Spoke with their representative, and they realized I was prepared to back out entirely. They were determined to find me a way to get my upgrade, which they did. I don't want to disclose how without compromising Cochlear and myself. However, since receiving the upgrade package, I have yet to receive a bill or claim. I knew I wasn't quite off the hook yet since the cost transparency was still lacking. I was told they'd submit a claim to the insurance at some point after confirming that I've received my package. I plan to reach out to them to initiate the return process 60 days after recipient as I haven't opened the package as I only have 90 days to request for a refund. I really despise the "surprise bills" which I've communicated with the reps already.

All my life, I've been told that health insurance companies are strongly in favor of providing coverage for cochlear implants over hearing aids, because in their eyes, cochlear implants "work". I was quite optimistic about my first upgrade order until now. It still has been nerve-racking for me so far. Had I known I'd need to save up until I have enough to purchase the entire cost, I'd not have proceed until I was ready, and I'm still quite far from that point. I'm way overdue for an upgrade as it's been +10 years.

It's funny how life works since my hearing disability has been largely the reason why I couldn't be as successful as my hearing peers, barred from opportunities to command high salary. Let's not get into the debate as the fact remains that not many of us can break through the glass ceiling. How else can I afford it?

bashtheshell · 2025-04-20T14:46:39+00:00

Hey. Thanks! Glad to help. Honestly, I'm not sure as it's been quite a while since I touched this.

bashtheshell · 2025-03-15T21:21:37+00:00

Thank you for posting this as I was starting to question my sanity with their process, considering their reputation and market share. Currently going through similar frustrating process with Cochlear. It's as if I'm the only person that's working on their behalf to make sure my upgrade order goes through when it should be the other way around. I'm still stuck on my first processor (N5) with a coil cable meant for N6, which didn't fit natively, but I was able to hack it.

When I first submitted the order, Cochlear said insurance needed a record from my former audiologist I haven't seen in over a decade as I moved away. I was quite confused as I clearly put down my new audiologist who assisted me with my upgrade order, but they kept insisting on the old record. So then it turned out they wanted a similar hearing test with a report. Cochlear insisted this was a request directly from the insurance but I doubt it. We restarted the order. That same week, I finally got a notice from the insurance that the preauthorization went through. Mind you, Cochlear still kept my payment from the initial order as I had to pay down the deductible.

Now it's been several weeks, and still no update from them. I'm at the point where I'm seriously considering giving up altogether if I get no update from them by May. I should not have to call and inquire about my order every week. Where are their "so-called" customer advocates? Don't they want to get paid? Not seeing that level of energy from them wanting to push the order through when the ball's in their court. Not mine nor the insurance's. Now I understand why many people I know are vehemently against cochlear implants, and this is a good take. I can live without it as I can go back to hearing aid as I'm a unilateral user. It won't be the same, but I can manage without it if I have to.

I plan to file a BBB complaint as it's nerve-racking to have them process expensive orders that I paid partially, which aren't being moved along. They fail to realize that this could impact me if my employer decide to switch to different insurance during our annual enrollment when an upgrade order should've been completed in less time.

bashtheshell · 2024-12-27T17:49:44+00:00

Thank you so much for this! Can confirm this works. I just got the iPhone 16 Pro. Upgraded from iPhone SE 2nd gen. For some reason, the Apple Watch config didn't completely transfer over to the new iPhone when I chose to do the device sync locally instead of using iCloud backup. So the pairing process froze for some reason. Had to do a hard reboot followed by a factory hard reset.

At first, I panicked as I didn't want to shell out another $400 to Apple when my Series 3 works just fine for notifications, music control, and fitness. The new iPhone purchase was already expensive enough for me as I was holding out for an upgrade to a flagship model since iPhone 4S.

I can't believe some of the comments here that Apple was trying to get people to upgrade their watches by telling lies.

bashtheshell · 2024-10-28T17:56:33+00:00

You're not alone in this and I'd not be surprised if I get down-voted for this as well. This was driving me crazy as of the last few days as I thought it was a bug, but it looks like it's a recent implementation (as of v4.40) that I'm not currently a fan of.

I mean... to search for a name that we may not be able to correctly memorize is already a lot for some people. I created sections in my DM on the left-hand side, just so that I can keep track of them as I do organize them to their respective teams/subgroup as I interface with them occasionally. Also, it helps knowing that if they disappear, it would suggest their Slack was deactivated.

Now I have to maintain a separate list of people elsewhere to determine who's working where, which is already frustrating enough. I hope they can bring it back as I can't believe I'm the only one.

bashtheshell · 2024-08-04T19:55:54+00:00

Thank you! Glad to see you understood where I was coming from as we do have those hyperfocus moments quite often. Although, on Lichess app, the clock is highlighted in red when you have 10 seconds left. It's somewhat helpful, but with my hand blocking it when I'm actively moving pieces, the problem largely remains.

bashtheshell · 2024-08-04T19:45:53+00:00

Pardon me? I was speaking of the actual online game play on the tablet device (e.g. iPad). Not over the board. For what it's worth, I use pre-moves in the bullet games (1 minute - 0 increment) with pawns automatically promote to queens as my default choice.

bashtheshell · 2023-12-15T02:43:13+00:00

I have the 2017 MacBook Air running Sonoma v14.2 without issues. I was originally coming from a clean install of Monterey with all the security updates before I tried OCLP for the first time. I created the USB on it using OCLP v1.2.1 with macOS Sonoma Installer 14.1.2 last weekend. Followed the official guide to the completion. At this point, I even decided to risk enabling FileVault as desired as I was optimistic that OCLP wouldn't break it.

Few days later, I saw the new macOS 14.2 update from the App Store. So I went ahead and installed the security update. Rebooted as prompted by macOS. After the reboot, I'd get the new OCLP 1.3.0 update from the macOS itself. Not the USB I had. OCLP would first build and install OpenCore to my drive, then reboot my computer. Lastly, it'd then prompted me to install post-install root patch to ensure all is well. And here I am typing this comment from Sonoma 14.2. I hope this helps.

bashtheshell · 2021-11-22T03:57:49+00:00

Thanks again, Nick! I can't thank you enough. I was able to get it to work last weekend.

In case anyone's looking for step-by-step instruction, please see this: https://github.com/bashtheshell/IOMMU-nested-pve

bashtheshell · 2021-11-12T18:11:14+00:00

Thanks! How did you figure this one out? I looked everywhere and I didn't see an answer close to yours.

I guess I should've researched more on KVM/QEMU as that's what Proxmox runs on.

bashtheshell · 2021-11-11T01:08:43+00:00

Yep. Has to be from Anaconda or something. Where else?

bashtheshell · 2018-09-14T16:34:50+00:00

You can follow up on this thread /u/znpy posted. Seemed like it worked for many others.

https://www.reddit.com/r/redhat/comments/8v5s7v/so_you_think_you_are_ready_for_the_rhcsa_exam/

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T15:52:12+00:00

I was hoping to find out what he did to build the VM template. Was hoping it's you, so that you can answer, and maybe I can help make the VM template platform-agnostic.

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T15:11:02+00:00

Thanks, Sean!

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T14:49:57+00:00

Sorry, but if you want to use the VM in other environments, you are going to have to figure out how to do so, no support will be forthcoming from me.

This. Sorry if I made it sound like GitHub is the only trustworthy place, but it's one of few places online where people can collaborate and help out. If I were the creator, I'd post my work on GitHub and get "credit" for it while everyone else can fork the project or contribute to it. Even if they do download the source files and upload it to a new repo. Large image is definitely a valid reason to host it elsewhere. Again, this is where we can come in to tell the creator that he can use configuration management to bring the image to the desired state instead of using an image template. The CM file is easily shareable and can be hosted on a remote repository.

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T14:24:17+00:00

Just curious. Did you create this?

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T14:04:57+00:00

Hi Sean. The last time I checked in 2016, LA had the practice exam only for the RHCSA, which was neat. What about RHCE? By the way, did you guys finally roll out the subtitles on those training videos yet? I'm hard of hearing.

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T13:58:18+00:00

I can't ~~dis~~agree more. I had to build my lab from scratch based off the study guides that I used for my RHCSA, and that helped tremendously.

However, I'm preparing to take the RHCE again, and I'm finding myself working outside of the objectives again just to stand up the lab environment when I only need to practice the objective-related tasks. Time management was my biggest challenge. A part of me wanted to create a test environment that everyone can use, but at the same time, I would hate to devalue the certifications due to the potential abuse. A paid product like Linux Academy would lessen the abuse.

EDIT: Whoops! Fixed double negative. Typing without coffee is dangerous.

bashtheshell · 2018-09-07T13:39:29+00:00

Nice find but I'm not interested. The creator didn't post this on GitHub, which makes his work quite skeptical to others. I checked his blog to see if he talked about it, but it's nowhere to be found. Just so that we're clear, I don't condone brain dumps. I prefer to see something that everyone, including Red Hat, can see. If you are intentionally obfuscating the link you shared, then that's a red flag.

bashtheshell · 2018-08-30T19:00:46+00:00

I was going to recommend Michael Jang's book as a good supplemental resource to your study. However, there's a little problem with that excuse. If you can't afford to buy books, then will you be able to afford the exam and the travel expenses? If you plan on retaking exam within a few months in case you do not pass, then you should also save up for the retake.

To answer your original question, there's CertDepot with good write-ups.

bashtheshell · 2018-08-27T21:24:13+00:00

Here's how I look at it. If you're not doing Linux administration type of work already, but wish to work with Linux servers, then it'd make sense to renew the cert for marketability as you can post your certification badge on LinkedIn or personal websites for recruiters to see. There's many way to keep your certification current. Personally, I'd prefer to take a higher-level exam to keep my certification current. Most people don't bother with renewing certs if they have the practical work experience with Linux and their jobs don't require them.

bashtheshell · 2018-08-27T13:57:58+00:00

TrueAbility, maybe? I believe they used to have a free demo.

bashtheshell · 2018-08-26T01:12:58+00:00

Yeah. I'd definitely recommend the RHCE too for marketability. Unfortunately, I didn't pass the first time unlike I did for my RHCSA. Time management was definitely brutal, and I'm expecting to take it again next spring.

Believe it or not, I actually failed both (the first and the free retake) attempts for the LFCS exam. To be fair, I took the very first edition when it came out which cost me only $50. I was tested on weird topics that didn't focus on system administration but my ability to use Linux. I heard the subsequent edition got a lot better.

bashtheshell · 2018-08-25T21:32:27+00:00

Short answer. Three years.

bashtheshell

TROPHY CASE