Fitness: Geek Style
About 2 months ago I decided that I needed to do something to improve my fitness. I was about 40 lbs above what I consider my ideal weight, and about 20 lbs above my acceptable weight range. I needed a solution that would be easy to stick to, and something that would keep me entertained at the same time. I needed something that would appeal to my geek sensibilities.
Below I will go into a little detail about what I found, and how it works, and how these things interact.
Tracking Weight (Withings.com - $159.99 for scale)
One of the best tips I have had to improve weight loss, is to weigh yourself regularly and record the progress. Enter the ultimate geek scale, The Withings Scale.
The scale is not cheap at $159.99 but it certainly is a great product. It is wifi connected, and it automatically records your weight and provides tools to graph it and produce reports. Setup was incredibly easy, simply connect it via USB to a computer with an internet connection and it took care of the rest. It can track up to 8 people, and has been entirely problem free for the 2 months I have had it. There are mobile apps for Android, iPhone/iPad as well as a web version. These apps all some to have some quirks that I wish they would work out, but they seem to be 4/5. Beyond standard weight, the scale also tracks Body Fat% and BMI. For athletes who have a tough time getting accurate body fat readings, there are various different models that can be used for tracking body composition.
Withings Scale
Tracking Fitness (Endomondo.com - Free)
I have spent this summer doing a lot of biking. Again it is nice to chart and track this information; to do this I have been using an iPhone (and just about any mobile you have) app called Endomondo. This is a free GPS app, that tracks your routes (and calories), in real time while you work out. The usage is simple, you start the app, enter type of workout you are doing, wait for a strong GPS signal and press start. After that you can throw your phone in your pocket or backpack and you are good to go. For the most part it has been very accurate in terms of tracking my location.
In order for it to track your calories it needs to know your weight. Thankfully Endomondo recently announced integration with Withings so your weight is automatically updated in your profile.
Endomondo also offers a variety of social features that allow you track friends, send live pep talks (you can send a message to someone who is working out and it will be read out to them through text-to-speech), and there are various messages.
A sample workout:
Putting It All Together (DailyBurn.com - Free)
To put it all together, I needed something that would track my calorie input, calories burned, and my dietary goals. For this I have been using DailyBurn. It is a general health and wellness site, that does a decent, but not fabulous job at making it easy to track calories. It has mobile apps, and a good webpage that allow you to enter the foods that you eat to track your calories consumed. It has a very extensive database of woods with nutritional information, which makes it pretty easy to track all the calories you consume. For any foods that are lacking, you do have the ability to add your own foods.
As well as tracking your calories, you also enter in your weight, and desired weight and activity level and it will give you caloric consumption goals and a time frame to reach your goal weight. This allows you to know how you are doing in regards to eating the right amount of calories. Thankfully DailyBurn is linked to Withings so your weight is automatically updated.
DailyBurn - Calories Consumed
Beyond daily activity you can also enter exercises that you have done and calories burned. If you don't know how many calories you have burned it will estimate. Unfortunately there is currently no integration between DailyBurn and Endomondo, which is my biggest current functionality gap.
Like Endomondo there are various social features including challenges. One of the nice features of the challenges are that a good number are Everyone Wins challenges. Such as the goal is to lose 10lbs, and everyone who loses 10lbs wins, not just the first person.
Putting these 3 apps together has made it very easy to stay motivated in my fitness endeavors, not to mention tracking my progress towards my fitness goals. For anyone eager to chart and track their workouts and fitness I highly recommend this trifecta of tools.
Where Did My Google Chrome Bookmarks Go?
One of the best features of Google Chrome is that it can sync your bookmarks between instances.
It is super convenient that when I would add a bookmark to my browser at work, it was instantly on my computer at home. One of the other features that I absolutely loved was that all of my bookmarks also appeared in a read-only folder in my Google Docs. This was super convenient if I was on a computer that was not synced to my google account.
Well when Google updated the docs app with Collections as opposed to Folders we somehow lost access to all of the bookmarks. For something that is synced in the cloud, I absolutely need browser based access to it. So where to get it now? If someone has a good way to get browser based access to my bookmarks please let me know.
Missing! Google Reader Safety Settings
Google Reader is my favourite web app, well second favourite after GMail. But it is missing a very very key feature. Safety settings!
Google search is smart enough to provide such settings.
These settings are browser instance specific, not account specific. This means I can have different settings at work and at home. What I need is to have this kind of filtering on Google Reader; either to have it intelligently filter items, or to have the ability to mark certain blogs as inappropriate.
Currently I have a NSFW folder in reader, and I put blogs that always or occasionally have questionable content in that folder. I then avoid those items while on public computers or at work. It would be much less painful if that folder just wasn't present on that browser. And they would only show up on my home machine. It would prevent accidental clicks, or curiosity from opening those items.
The Best Way To Tweet Google Reader Items
It is only natural that when you find something interesting in Google Reader (we talked about the benefits of Reader earlier). I have gone through a few different methods of sending these items to twitter. I have finally settled on a method. First I will tell you the shortfalls of different the different methods.
Google Reader - Sent To...
Google Reader added a little send to link that gives you the option to send the article to various different services, including twitter. This method sucks! I am not a fan of the fact that it opens a new window. It took about a day to eliminate this option.
Use An Auto Delivery Mechanism On Your Shared Items Feed
I used this for a little while. It worked pretty well, things that I shared made their way to twitter. It was clean simple and very convenient. What I found was that I didn't want to tweet everything that I shared in Google Reader. I would end up with tweets that looked like:
photo... <some linke>
Ugly tweets, with things that weren't always of interest to my twitter followers. As well I have 3 separate twitter accounts to keep things of interest separate from the individual followers, this really didn't allow for posting to separate twitter accounts.
Final Solution
This final solution is a modification of the of the previous option.
Step 1: Create a tag for each twitter account. Tweet is the tag I use for my main twitter account.
Step 2: Share the feed for that tag. This is done in Reader Settings > Folders and Tags. Just click on the little RSS icon next to the feed to make it public.
Step 3: Get the feed from the tag public site. Just click View public page in the settings and get the feed url from there.
Step 4: Use one of the many feed propagators to auto tweet items from your tag feed. I have gone through quite a few: TwitterFeed.com, FeedBurner.com (there is a socialize feature buried in the settings) before settling on dlvr.it. dlvr.it is by far the most reliable of the three that I have tried.
If you repeat these steps for each of your twitter accounts you can easily tweet items to a specific twitter account.
Tagging items is very quick. When an item is open just hit 't' to open the tag box, then type in the tag corresponding to the twitter account you want to tweet it to.
My iPad Killer App – Video Player
It doesn't exist. *sigh*
The thing that would make me buy an iPad immediately, no questions asked is a video player.
Here is the scenario:
I coach ski racing and one of the most valuable tools (if not THE) most valuable tool is video. I shoot tons of video, and frequently I want to be able to show athletes video pretty much on the spot. Hooking the camcorder up to a TV/monitor is not always an option, but carrying around an iPad could be. Right now, we watch too much video on the 2.7" camcorder screen.
What I would love is an app which would read off the SD card from the camcorder and be able to play/pause (maybe slowmo) the video.
The challenge is that the high-def AVCHD footage from the camcorder is a challenge for even laptops to handle. I assume that the camcorder can handle it due to on-board processing, I doubt that the iPad has the horse power to watch un-edited AVCHD.
Another option would be if I could find a way to use the iPad or other tablet as a monitor for HDMI input, but that isn't an option on the current version.
There seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel in the iPad VLC player. But alas it will not play AVCHD.
Maybe I should look at switching camcorders to one that records to MPEG-4 or something of the like, even though it seems they are rare.
SSD For Laptop
I would love to have a SSD for my laptop, but unfortunately that just isn't in the realm of my pocket book. 512gb drives are still in excess of $1000 at the low end! Ugggh.
Here is something that I may try to get me a speed boost for a few hundred dollars:
Monitor Confusion
A little while ago I wrote a bit about my search for a new monitor. I basically conceded that waiting for the Dell u2711 to drop in price to the $700-800 (it is still shockingly high at $1249).
Now I find out from a semi reliable source, that the Dell u2410 will be dropping in price this Wednesday to a very low $419 as part of Dell's March Madness promotion. That is a helluva lot less than the $800 that I am waiting for the 2711 to drop to.
An interesting comparison based on the 16x9 aspect ratio of the 2711 and the 16x10 aspect ratio of the 2410.
The screen height is actually very similar between the two:
27" (16x9) vs 24" (16x10)
So the question is more about the 1920x1200 vs 2560x1440 and whether that is worth waiting for the better aspect ratio to drop to double the price. I think I am going to jump on the u2410 on Wednesday.
I know that it does have some documented issues, but not many of those seem to be reported by North American users. If its an issue I will simply return it.
ToDo: TeuxDeux
TeuxDeux
Alright, so it has a stupid name. TeuxDeux.com should not (and for me will not) be pronounced ToDo. Anyone who has spent anytime around the French language knows that deux (which is the number 2) is not pronounced do. It is pronounced something more along the lines of d-ugh, which I am guessing that it is not what the creator of the site was going for. Anyway, misname aside I will give a brief review of the site.
The site does exactly what you would think it would do, it creates a list and lets you cross stuff off. Having said that, it is missing many things that a fully functional ToDo app needs.
What it does
- Lists item per day or 'someday'
- If an item has not been completed by a given day, it moves it to the next day
- Provides you with a simple and attractive layout that makes it easy to manage items
- Easily lets you drag items from one day to the next
What it lacks
- Scrolling through days of days is tedious adding a '>>' (jump week) to the '>' jump day would be wonderful
- Adding notes to items would be most convenient
- Multiple lists would also be great
- A mobile solution (the FAQ says one is coming)
- Setting a specified time to an item is a must in my book
- As well it needs notifications (email/pop-up)
Verdict
I love the minimalistic feel, and there is supposed to be many more features coming, but for the time being it doesn't fulfill all the required needs of a good ToDo app.
Answering The Age Old Question: Dell u2711 or Apple iMac27
Dell u2711
It is time for me to get a new monitor. My 22" at home is pretty beat up. The amount of backlight bleed is terrible, there are several stuck pixels, including a green one right smack in the middle of the panel that drives me nuts! As well there is real image consistency issues. All this to say I need a new panel.
There are a few that I am considering but I would really like a >=27" IPS panel, with resolution greater > 1920x1200.
When you get into this space, there is really only a two.
There is the new Dell u2711, which has great reviews, but is very pricey for what you get ($1250 regular price).
The other option is actually to buy the new 27" iMac from Apple. For the first time they added a display input to it, so it can be used as both a computer and an external display. I just noticed one on the refurb site (and based on the issues so far, there are going to be lots of refurbs coming) for $1550.
Now I figure that I will see the Dell go on sale (at some point) for about $899, yet that is just a guess. Right now between the two I get an almost identical panel and for $300 extra with the Apple I get a decent computer slapped on the back of one.
Still dropping this kind of cash on a monitor is tough.
One final option is the Dell u2410 which is very similar to the u2711. It is regular $750, but semi frequently goes on sale for $499, which is quite reasonable. Still the 1920x1200 resolution leaves me wanting in comparison to the 2560x1440 of the 27" panels.
Now one of the reasons that I am looking for such a large screen is because I miss having a true dual monitor setup when using my MBP. I could go for 2 24" panels and go with this hacked together version of dual monitors for the MBP: MacBook Pro with Dual Monitors.
At the moment I am leaning towards the iMac, since being able to cluster video rendering would be pretty awesome, but the price tag is kinda tough to swallow.
Now if the u2711 drops to say $799 I am all over it, but I fear that I will probably just purchase the u2410 the next time it falls to $499 and consider a second one at some point. Please feel free to tell me why I am stupid, and what I should do to be smarter about all this.
iPad Version 1.0 = Nope!
I have been digesting the release of the iPad for a few days now, and let me say my first impression is not magical.
After all the hype leading into a the tablet release I figured it would either be a big win or a big loss. Somehow it has come out as neither. Let me go through some initial impressions (keeping in mind I haven't touched the thing, and that seems to be the real factor in Apple product design).
- The name sucks. Someone should be fired for iPad. iTablet, iSlate, iBigiPodTouch! Ok maybe the last one is worse
- It looks like it should be awesome for web surfing, mobile device that has room for real websites
- IT CAN'T USE REAL WEBSITES BECAUSE IT DOESN'T HAVE FLASH SUPPORT!
- It attempts to be a game changer for eBooks, but I can't see myself reading a full book on a backlighted device. I still like the idea of e-ink
- Battery life = 10 hours of video watching! WOW
- Video output = VGA?!?!?! Seriously?
- Support for bluetooth keyboard is awesome, very smart move by Apple
- No multitasking? I actually think that this one will be dealt with with the release of iPhone OS 4.0, but until then... nope.
- Looks awesome for watching video.
- It is seriously crippled for watching web video (cept for Vimeo, and YouTube)... NO FLASH!
- I am impressed that they can sell it for $499
- IPS capacitive display, they can't be making much money on this thing
- The hands on videos make it look very responsive as opposed to my iPhone 3G (no S)
- The UI is a bag of crap. It looks like they are running the iPhone OS on a device it wasn't designed for... Oh wait that is what they are doing.
- The apps they have redesigned for the iPad (contacts, maps, mail) look quite good!
All in all I'm not buying this version of the iPad. Our household has 2 iPhones, and 1 MacBook Pro. To be honest there is a perfect position in the household for a device of this sort. When I am gone with the laptop it would be good if the house had something better than an iPhone for checking email/web. Unfortunately with some of the very blatant limitations the iPad is not a significant enough improvement over the iPhone to justify the purchase.
Perhaps the next version of it that will no doubt deal with a lot of these issues, but not version 1.0. This reminds me of the original iPhone launch. $599 for the 4GB version. 3 months later the 4GB version was gone and the 8GB was selling for $399. Maybe then... If it gets (limited) multitasking and flash and a better UI.
All these things should be solvable with the release of OS 4.0
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- Video: Whistler Trail Riding
- Ladd Mitchell and Miles Parkhill (ex-Park) announce Tiger Tank
- Colour zap
- Lower priced Airborne Bicycles for 2012? Hells Yeah!
- Momi, I want one too!!!
- Reeder for Chrome Transforms Google Reader into a Clean Feed Reading Experience [Chrome Extensions]
- Keep Microwave-Reheated Pizza Crispy with a Sheet of Parchment Paper [Food Hacks]
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Comments
- Steve on My iPad Killer App – Video Player
- Don W on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
- The Langer Group on The Shoetiful Disaster
- matt on The Student Loan Interest Swindle: CRA Style
- Bree on Answering The Age Old Question: Dell u2711 or Apple iMac27
- fady on Where Did My Google Chrome Bookmarks Go?
- Leo Derm on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
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- Vancouver Wedding Photographer on FUCK YOU KIJIJI!
- Chris on Peaksaver: Big Brother Genius or Big Brother Lazyness?