When winters were long and cold Minergie seemed like a fantastic idea. They would turn a home into a thermos, blocking all heat loss to save on energy costs and more. Minergie does work extremely well in capturing and holding on to heat, from the sun, washing machine, dish washer and more. You might think “But those aren’t heaters” and you’d be right.

During a heatwave the Minergie thermos has a serious flaw and that is that it requires open windows. Open windows in theory, and practice are easy. Wake up, open the windows, and once outside is warmer than inside close them. Then you keep the ambient temperature low and comfortable.

This morning when I was opening windows to try to cool a Minergie building that was designed for cold winters that no longer exist I had a thought. That thought was that AI is nothing but a glorified photocopier.

What I mean by this is that at the moment AI companies are buying tens of thousands, if not millions of books, removing the spine, scanning the books and then pulping the remains. In so doing Ai companies are hoovering enormous amounts of data and destroying books that could be donated to libraries, schools, universities and more.

There is a cycle lane that has been available for years at this point. I rarely, if ever see cyclists use it. There are three reasons for this. The first is that there is an empty bus lane that cyclists can use to get away from cars. The second reason is that the entrance to the cycle lane is hidden when you’re cycling from Geneva, by the Porte de Nyon roundabout. The consequence is that by the time you realise that there is a cycle lane you can’t mount it, so you’re stuck with the buses.

Yesterday I woke up and went from a social run from 08:30, for 7km before returning home, and dressing for cycling. I then cycled 77.48km according to Strava via Garmin. What surprised me is that I wasn’t knackered at the end of the ride.

The run wasn’t slow. The pace was sustained for 7km with some gradients and trail running through a forest. It’s when we stopped at Colovray, and stood in the sun that I felt like I was overheating and in need of shade. That’s why I left the group early to change into cycling clothes. I had already checked tire pressure and more.

The first reaction I had when wearing the Google Fitbit Air is “I’m looking at my wrist but I can’t see the time.” I see the value of minimalism but knowing the time is quite important to me. I have another watch, but if I have something on my watch I want it to show the time.

The concept of the Google Fitbit Air is simple. You wear it, forget about it, and it does everything for you, in the background. If you run, it tracks the run. If you cycle it tracks the bike ride. If you walk it tracks that. It also tracks your sleep, but it doesn’t seem to detect naps, and that’s a shame.

Having a watch with an Heart rate (HR) monitor is fantastic until you realise it’s counting 20 BPM too high, and then it’s far less interesting because it’s reporting a moderate workout as heart.

Plenty of heart rate monitors come as chest straps and that’s great if your workout starts and ends somewhere where it’s okay to strap on a heart rate monitor. In winter it’s also about convenience. It is complicated to remove five layers, to put the HR monitor on, and then start an activity.

Rationally it makes sense to go for a run when the sun is setting because the heat from the sun is lower. In theory this means that the body is dealing with a cooler environment.

In practice, when I go for evening rides and runs my body remains warm for hours, and that heat, during a heat wave, in a minergie building makes it unbearable.

For a few days it was cooling, and I had stopped using fans. I questioned why. I suspect that it is because when the building is exposed to heat wave temperatures for several days the air heats, but eventually the buildings’ structure begins to radiate its own stored heat energy. This means that you’re dealing with hot air, which isn’t bad. It’s when the building becomes a radiator that it becomes unpleasant.

When you ride solo, or with a group it is easy to ride along routes that are familiar but it is more fun to add a little variety. I believe that seeing a path, and following it often leads to developing “The Knowledge” for local bike rides.

I use “The Knowledge” to link to the familiarity that London Black cab taxi drivers have with London. As you cycle, and as you explore all the different roads, so you develop a mental map linking everywhere to everywhere else. You know which routes are flatter, which roads have fast cars, and which ones are more convivial to ride along. You also find the roads that encourage you to ride sustainably.

Around two months ago I decided to see if a Garmin mid range device would cure my desire to upgrade and try new devices so I went for the Garmin Forerunner 570. In many ways it didn’t deliver drastically more than the Garmin Instinct 2. I noticed that it was just as bad at sleep tracking. The key issue though, is that after a swim, and a ride one day I noticed that a plastic o-ring seemed to have made it’s way between the glass and the watch body.

Years ago I noticed something. All of the games on iOS and Android that are promoted are crap. By this I mean that they have a very simple design. Complete a challenge, fail, watch an add, compete, win, watch an ad. Every single game makes you see an ad every few seconds.

These games aren’t especially good. They’re designed for infinite obsessive, absurd game play. Absurd because once you reach a level you fail again, and again, and again. The failure is intentional. It wants you to fail so that you pay to win. The pay to win model is flawed because in the end you fall into an absurd loop and you have to either pay to play, after watching dozens of ads, or pay money for boosts.