Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Fitbit tracks my physical activities
September 07, 2011

The Fitbit, as far as I can tell, is a perfect device. What is a Fitbit? Fitbit is a device and a website that you can use to track your physical activity. Yes, at first glance, the Fitbit is essentially an electronic pedometer, but it is actually a lot more.

Fitbit in boxFirstly, let me say that the Fitbit packaging design rivals anything Apple produces – it’s pretty. The box is small and contains a lot. You get the Fitbit device itself, the charging/syncing stand, a belt clip, and a wrist strap. To start, you install some software on your PC and plug the stand into a USB port. Registering the Fitbit device to your computer is simple. You set the device on the stand, press the button, and type the code that appears into the software on the PC. This simplistic setup is very much appreciated in the age of complicated devices. The Fitbit just works.

What I Want in a Tablet
September 02, 2011

There’s no shortage of tablet devices available today, and demand for them seems pretty high. Scanning through Engadget, it seems like we’ve got a good stock coming in the future, too. The problem, as I see it, is that the future tablets that everyone is so excited about are exciting (at least to media outlets like Engadget) for the wrong reasons.

Tablet onlookers seem enticed by the latest versions of operating systems, faster processors, and additional cell network capabilities. The latest versions of iOS and Android certainly are improvements over prior versions, but they don’t add anything groundbreaking or genre-defining to the fundamental features of a tablet. Faster processors are nice of course, but they also tempt battery drain, which is an essential, oft-overlooked feature of a tablet. The latest LTE connections are certainly alluring as our dependence on the cloud and correlating bandwidth needs increase, though the dependence on cell networks and their high-cost plans are strange things to look forward to. I think there are other things that we should concentrate on for producing the “fundamental tablet”.

My Earthquake Experience
August 23, 2011

I write this after the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that hit central Virginia about an hour ago. I’m recalling the exact personal circumstances of the event, since all I’m hearing in the news is a bunch of people saying simply “I felt shaking”.

I’ve been working at home all day, as usual, sitting at my desk. I was reading through some code for a project I’m working on, when I started to ask myself why I couldn’t seem to focus on the text on the screen. I sat back a bit and looked at my monitors as a whole. They were shaking. The top one, which is wall-mounted, was swinging back and forth slightly on its arm. I looked over to the planter for the hops, where I have four long bamboo poles for the vines to climb on. All four of them were swaying like they were in a heavy wind.

Class Administration
August 12, 2011

The kids’ school called the house last night to inform us of the new “activity fee” they’re imposing on sports and arts programs. This whole situation has me riled. Perhaps it’s caused by something that I just don’t understand, but it merits complaint regardless.

After an interesting discussion with the Habari folks about what could improve education in the US, I’ve basically solidified my opinion that paying the teachers more - what I hear most as the solution for improving education - won’t improve things. I’m not saying teachers shouldn’t be paid more, but rather that doing so won’t improve education in our country. And to further clarify, neither will all of this testing, but what is primarily at issue for me is the money, especially as it relates to extracurricular programs.

I’m still wondering what happened to resolve the strike back in 2008. I assume we’re simply paying the teachers more, as they demanded, but without disclosing that to the taxpayers immediately. And instead of taxing us more directly, they’re cutting funding of extracurricular programs, to replace that funding with a mandatory “activity fee” for students that participate in those activities. Yeah ok, nevermind that it’s often the extracurricular activities that keep poor, at-risk students interested in school at all – Something else much more mundane has me riled.

Why can’t the school district send out class assignments before August?

Kid RPG
August 11, 2011

I’ve been playing Heroica and Talisman with the kids lately, and combining that fun experience with prior desires to create a simple paper-based game, I’ve come up with a new idea that I think both I and the kids will like.

The game I’m thinking of consists of a single book that provides all of the background materials necessary to play in short sessions while waiting for dinner to come at a restaurant, using only a pencil and a blank placemat.