Posts

Apple Watches and the Art of Standing for a Minute an Hour

A few minutes ago I looked at my Apple Watch and it said that I had not stood for the last two hours so I got up and walked around until it said that I had stood this hour. The irony is not lost on me that a watch would tell me that I am not active enough. The Apple Watch wants you to stand for a minute an hour for six to 18 hours per day.

A Morning Run and the Ghost Platform

Normally I like to go for a run in the afternoon, after I have had a productive morning. This morning I went for a run first. This afternoon I have to go to an indoor meeting, which doesn’t fill me with euphoria. I feel an e-mail would achieve the same thing within a few minutes. Having said this I have skipped that meeting for three or four years so I feel obligated to go this afternoon.

Whatsapp With the Signal

For a while Whatsapp was a fantastic cross platform messaging tool for friends, families, groups and more. It was cross platform, fast and convenient. Eventually rather than rely on Facebook Messenger and Facebook, Facebook bought Whatsapp to consolidate its monopolistic grasp on the social web. As a result of this I tried to dump Whatsapp but it is hard to do so. The reason for this is simple. Most people have not read Mindf*ck by Chris Whiley so for them it doesn’t matter that Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp, Oculus Quest and more.

The Ideal of Switching from Audible to Kobo

I have often had the temptation to dump Audible.com since it was bought by Amazon but I haven’t. It used to be that I had so many books that I didn’t want to lose them. Now that I have my own self-hosting solution, Audiobookshelf, for my own listening of my own books I can toy the idea of sliding to another provider. The first option is Kobo. Kobo offers a plan for about 12 CHF per month for access to unlimited books to be read at once on its own catalgue but the catalogue is a quarter as big as that of Amazon/Audible so it would seriously limit what I can read and listen to.

Playing with Computers or Machines

How many computers do you have at hand. Years ago I used to have two computers. A Mac Book Air and a Mac Book Pro. Eventually I sold the Mac Book Air and just used the Pro. I went to an event with the Pro and it was stolen so for a few days I was without any computer. I then bought a much cheaper Mac Book Pro and since then my collection of computers has grown.

The Instant Message Déluge

In the golden age of chatrooms and instant messaging there was a rule. Do not post more than two or three messages before waiting for an answer. I regularly broke this rule until at least two or three times I was told off for the deluge. From then on I posted two or three messages and waited for an answer before writing another post. Alongside the habit of waiting for an answer after a post or two I also got into the habit of writing longer posts rather than short ones- If I have a more detailed thing to write I write a paragraph, maybe more.

The Apple TV Vietnam War Documentary Series

Last night I watched the first episode of a documentary series on the Vietnam war, made by Apple TV. It’s eighteen hours of documentaries covering different aspects of the conflict. In the first episode they speak about boots on the ground and tunnel rats. Through the exploration of this topic we see some footage of traps being prepared and some footage from within the underground tunnels. In the footage we see an operating theatre in an undergorund room.

Historic Photos and Facebook

One of the reasons for which I keep using Facebook has to do with peoples’ sharing of old photos, paintings, sketches and more. I love to see photos of Nyon, Morges, Neuchatel Lausanne and other places through time. Recently I saw a photo of La Dole with a group of children skiing before the Doppler radar “boule” was installed as well as old photos of the Little Red Train as locals call it.

The Bad Habit of Daily Streaks

The US has a culture of streaking. I don’t mean running around naked at events. I mean of trying to do something daily for weeks, months or even years. As great as it can be, to develop consistent habits I believe that it can have a negative impact. For months I wanted to get my daily streak of Duolingo, and eventually I got mentally tired and gave up, after 270 or more days in a row.

Snowshoeing in Shallow Swiss Snow

When I went snowshoeing as a child I was photographed and it was used by the St Cergue Tourism board. I still have that poster in a room. Since then I went snowshoeing a few years ago and didn’t really enjoy it. The snowshoes didn’t feel comfortable. A few weeks ago I saw that people were planning a snowshoeing trip so I checked that they were set to my snowshoe size but skipped.