So this actually has nothing to do with Neil Patrick Harris, the kid doctor we all saw growing up (at least most of us, I guess), but rather what he always wore around his neck. Its the symbol we all know to mean, he/she is a doctor: the stethoscope. Every time I went to my doctor for my regular check ups, I would beg to play with his equipment. Usually, all I'd get was a quick look at his stethoscope and that thing used to take a peak into your ear. But I got to take a look at one of these stethoscopes again not too long ago because my girlfriend and her friends were talking about them because they are all first year med-school students.As they started to talk about them, they said how it was so hard to determine which side you are using. I had no idea what they were talking about. To me, it only has one side. However, I was informed and proven wrong. The bigger diameter side is used to listen to adults, while the smaller, more acute side is for young infants (since their heartbeats are not as strong and harder to hear). Doctor's (or normal people playing with them, like me) cannot tell which side the stethoscope is currently set to. Instead, you tap a side and determine which is active. This is such a pain, literally. I hurt my ears by tapping too hard on the smaller side. It feels like a rush of extremely high pressured air comes and attacks your ear drums. Not pleasant.
It is strange to me why the designers of this thing cannot add a simple notification symbol of some sort that indicates which side of the stethoscope is currently active. It would be as simple as a red sticker. No need for anything fancy. All in all, this thing is a really cool device and fun to use...at least until you send a gust of high pressured are into your ear.
