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I think dang is right and his moderation is what keeps this place worth visiting. YMMV.


I used to work for this agency and your description is the most apt way to characterize the dichotomy between SID (SIGINT) and IAD (information assurance) I can think of.


Any thoughts on how the situation compares in Western Europe? Too many disparate systems, or…?


No idea, my experience is strictly NA. I wouldn't want to speculate


The thread indicates the OP tried this and was not prompted. Therefore this does not resolve the issue.


Only if they live in a detached house. In my experience it’s rapidly become incredibly prevalent indoors in apartments in both North America and Western Europe, even with solid construction. It’s very good at traveling through buildings, vents, etc.


Curious why it seems restricted to veterans, considering nightmares (and night terrors) affect many with PTSD across causal groups. Maybe it’s a regulatory thing right now.


I see it's being prescribed, and to a small-ish number of people (400), so perhaps it's in a trial phase? FDA has 5 phases for medical device development (googled below):

    Step 1: Device Discovery and Concept.
    Step 2: Preclinical Research-Prototype.
    Step 3: Pathway to Approval.
    Step 4: FDA Device Review.
    Step 5: FDA Post-Market Device Safety Monitoring.
They could be on step 3, where they do clinical trials. Maybe working with the VA, or perhaps they advertised at VA hospitals or veteran's groups. I would imagine that's the easiest group to find and recruit into your trial.


I don't think it's restricted to veterans, the website says it's approved for adults 22 or older with a nightmare disorder or nightmares caused by PTSD. You need a prescription, but you don't need to be a veteran.


Veterans have lots of social credit, and this is a marketing piece from Apple.

Much of their target market will feel goodwill toward the Apple brand as a result of Apple developing products that provide help for a group the person so targeted holds in high esteem.

Of course it helps everyone with PTSD, but I assume thay the demographic Apple is targeting with this bit of marketing is more moved by the mention of military veterans than a mention of mental illness in general.

The subheading of the article does say that it is for PTSD without further qualification.


Yea - could someone shed some light on this? What would the FDA have to do with an app like this? What risk to the public could an app like this pose?

    “We had to get an independent security audit and submit it for FDA clearance”
Security audit is probably a good thing. Maybe they need FDA clearance for doctors to prescribe the usage of an app? That just seems ridiculous to me, but also right up the FDA's alley.


What if it would have worsened it? Or had unwanted side effects? That you call it an "app" doesn't mean it cannot affect your health, to state the obvious. And that's regulated territory, and with good reason.


Why is it ridiculous for a medical device to be reviewed by the governmental agency whose remit includes reviewing medical devices?


Because it's not a medical device, it's a vibrating watch.


This comment is whatever middlebrow dismissal would be, but for basic facts of U.S. law. As per the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics act of 1938, we have 21 U.S. Code §321[1]:

(1) The term “device” (except when used in paragraph (n) of this section and in sections 331(i), 343(f), 352(c), and 362(c) of this title) means an instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related article, including any component, part, or accessory, which is

> (A) recognized in the official National Formulary, or the United States Pharmacopeia, or any supplement to them,

> (B) intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals, or

> (C) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of its primary intended purposes. The term “device” does not include software functions excluded pursuant to section 360j(o) of this title.

The developer of the device themselves clearly understands that this "vibrating watch" qualifies as a medical device.

[1] - https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/21/321


I think OP meant “it figures,” as in “that’s not surprising.” But regarding figures as in statistics and usage, I have only anecdata but it seems Twitter recently is respecting the user selection for a longer period.


I've also noticed the longer period, but I assumed that was based on me having manually selected it so many times rather than being a global setting.


Government typically has a whole ton of contractors, sometimes twice the number of FTEs, but a cursory Google indicates NASA has only about 1000 contractors. Interesting, but the contract money probably goes to acquisition and commercial partnerships (https://www.osbp.nasa.gov/docs/top20_2020_contractors-TAGGED...).

That said, their FY22 budget is “only” $30B, which is less than Elon just paid for all of Twitter. This number usually surprises people but a lot of other space-related work is within the USAF and NRO budgets.


About a decade ago I was working on websites for NASA and just the contractor I worked for had over a thousand contractors. They were far from the largest, too.


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