The Dangling Pointer

Sh*t my brain says and forgets about

Walking While Working – Another Step For Focus

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On February 24, 2015

In Uncategorized

Walking While You Work

I’m not going to link to any articles or research about the benefits of walking while you work. I’ve been standing at my desk since I started working at home and to me this is the next progression. I have ADHD and I’m always trying to find ways to hack my brain. I decided to get in on the treadmill desk game.

The First Steps

A couple months back I ended up buying a cheapie treadmill on Amazon to experiment with walking while working. I used it a couple of times with some success but I ultimately felt it didn’t provide much help for my focus. I kept doing research to determine what the issue was and spent time observing myself during a walking session with it. I was surprised it wasn’t obvious why I didn’t like this experiment.

Primarily the treadmill is too narrow for my clown-sized feet. Okay they’re not Krusty-sized but size 11 shoes are not terribly compatible with an 18″ belt. I frequently found myself walking off the belt and then getting jarred out of my concentration. The sides are also not raised up very much so there is no subtle guide for your feet to bump into if you’re not accurate.

I’m just under 230lb and while this is nearly 60lb less than when I started this journey for fitness, it’s apparently the edge for the treadmill at low speed. The motor needs to be a high torque type as slow walking is complete hell on a standard treadmill. I expected the thing to blow up and take my ankles with it in the process.

I didn’t want to spend a boatload of cash investing in a treadmill that I may or may not end up using. This was $200 with delivery and it served its purpose. The problem is I wanted to continue walking which meant I needed to find another larger treadmill or else I’d stop.

The Second Step

I’m sure you’ve noticed the step pun by now.

After some discussions with my coworkers and a bit of online research, I opted to get the LifeSpan TR1200-D3 unit. It’s the middle of the line and doesn’t come with the desk since I already have an UpDesk. My reasons behind picking this treadmill were:

LifeSpan Stats

  • The console unit has bluetooth and connects to my Mac to show the current steps. It also syncs with their online service which does suck but provides a record that’s usable enough.
  • It’s rated to be used for an average of six hours a day and is limited to 4mph or lower.
  • The unit comes with a shock absorbing frame to make my moobs the only thing that jiggle and bounce.

The one downside is that while it has wheels to move it around, it doesn’t have a safe way to lean it up against a wall. I’ve come up with a temporary solution using an old yoga mat but I want to make something a bit more secure.

Observances & Suggestions

After walking for a week I’ve already made a number of observations that I didn’t expect.

  • My original UpDesk tends to wobble when it’s fully raised up. I ended up buying 3″ casters for the feet a while back and those are barely high enough with the treadmill under it. Instead now I raised the keyboard up temporarily with a cardboard box. I find my wrists are now at the right angle for typing although with no wrist support my accuracy has taken a hit. Not leaning on the desk while I type does however have the benefit of not wiggling the screen. My monitor is on an arm and I have it tilted up while I’m on the treadmill.
  • I’m using Things to keep track of ideas/tasks I think of that I can’t do when walking. There are just some tasks that aren’t conducive while you’re walking (like testing apps on devices) and you need a reliable place to put those task reminders. I also like to stick with one task as a time while walking to prevent my brain from getting derailed. So far I’m happy with Things.
  • Don’t overwalk. When you get into something (like me typing up this post) it’s so easy to lose track of your steps. You will be sore the next day.
  • Get good shoes and don’t wear those anywhere except in your house or on the treadmill. Snow, dirt and dust will make your treadmill look ugly and harder to maintain.
  • Buy a good treadmill mat to go underneath if you’re on hardwood floors.
  • Even though LifeSpan tracks activity I’m still logging my walking activity with RunKeeper. I like the social component of RunKeeper and since it has all my exercise activity in it why not keep using it.

Next Steps

I’m just going to keep at this. I need to find the balance of walking time during the day vs productivity levels. Once I come up with a good solution to store the treadmill upright I believe finding this balance will be easier. I do not want to stop doing my normal exercise routine (step aerobics at home in the winter and also going to the gym) so I’ll have to be careful to not burn myself out. In the end I want this to be a good way to maintain focus and to help train my brain to be better at tasking.

I’ll keep posting about my experiences here!

Treadmill Walking

Things With Wheels Flash Talk

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On February 2, 2015

In Uncategorized

Every year at Automattic we get together at what we call the Grand Meetup. Everyone is expected to give a four minute flash talk on any subject – literally any subject. Last year I described a funny story about a boss stealing my iPhone. This year I combined another funny story with some personal philosophies.

Last summer I posted about how Things With Wheels Are Meant To Move and that paired well with my tweets about my philosophy on systems. This flash talk is an amalgamation of those two posts.

[wpvideo poH8v32Z]

 

Don’t turn off target !!

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On December 22, 2014

In Uncategorized

This has to be the most useless and scary software update screens to date that I’ve seen.

target !!

 

Don’t get me wrong, I like Android and I’m getting back into developing software for it and iOS isn’t blameless in the shit-UX department. I couldn’t pass up this example of a super important interaction that is done so poorly.

Even though I’m familiar enough to what a “target” is in this context, I’m still confused by the screen. I’m uploading TO the device, not downloading FROM the device.  According to this warning, I’m safe to turn off my computer and unplug the USB.  The block of text in the upper left, while useful to a developer, is super scary for a user.  If they’re lucky to be blessed with 20/20 vision it’s still pretty useless information.

The space between target and the exclamation points also makes me believe a careless developer wrote the UI. This results in me trusting this software update even less.  If a semi-QA-type person couldn’t pick this out right away then I’m really concerned about my phone getting bricked.

The moral of the story is – convey exactly what should and shouldn’t happen when you’re performing any critical operations.  You’re making your users feel very vulnerable and even if everything goes okay they may choose to not do the same action next time.  Aim for happy fuzzies.

Core Data by Tutorials

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On December 18, 2014

In Uncategorized

It is very surreal to see your name on a printed book.

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Surviving with Apple Pay

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On December 15, 2014

In Uncategorized

We’ve all done it – left your wallet at home and you’re in a dire need for money, groceries, gas, etc.  How do you get by if you can’t get your wallet with your ID in short order?

I was thinking about this problem and thought of a simple solution.  Go to a merchant that accepts Apple Pay and sells general gift cards.  A place like Walgreens sells gift cards for restaurants, gas stations and other merchants.  They even sell Visa and MasterCard gift cards (with an activation fee).  Walgreens also typically sells transit passes for buses and trains.

This may not help you immediately when you’re in line at the grocery store with a cart full of groceries.  But, if you’re stranded away from home and have an immediate need, this is a possible solution.

I’d also suggest putting a high-resolution scanned image of your ID and Passport into a safe application like 1Password.

I Connected My Standing Desk to Evernote

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On December 3, 2014

In Uncategorized

I’ve been using an UpDesk since I started working from home in July 2013.  I typically try to stand over half of the day being careful to not hurt my lower back with multiple days of standing fatigue.  I do plenty of stretches and general movement while standing as well – but I do like to sit in my fancy Herman Miller Aeron chair once in a while.  Having the motorized desk is awesome for this because I can change the configuration of my workspace based upon my mood, attention momentum and other variables.  I noticed after some time, however, that I didn’t have a really good understanding of how often I switched configurations and generally how long I could stand.

So, I connected my standing desk to the Internet.

IMG_4173I’m using a SmartThings multi-sensor which has a magnetic switch, temperature and vibration sensor inside of it.  I attached the sensor to the bottom of the desk lift and the magnet to the bottom of the desk tabletop.  When the desk raises up, it sends a signal to the SmartThings hub over a Zigbee mesh network.

IFTTT RulesIFTTT is connected to my SmartThings account and I set up an action there for both the open and close events of the switch.  When either event occurs, an entry is added to an existing Evernote note with the action and time stamp.  It’s fairly simple and I wanted to send the events to a graph or spreadsheet but in the end I found the note and its history are sufficient for my needs.

Next steps?  Since I work remote I’m not tied to my desk.  I have the ability to work anywhere and on occasion I’ll work from a coffee shop or even my back porch.  I want to incorporate some sort of occupancy sensor to my office but I haven’t come up with the right solution.  Ultimately I want to know when I’m using the desk, not necessarily when there is movement in my office.  A weight sensor or maybe a limited proximity beacon of some sort would work.  I could pair the occupancy with desk position to determine the actual amount of time I’m sitting or standing and not just the change between states.

DeskSensor

Oh My Zsh Error About Battery

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On November 17, 2014

In Uncategorized

I recently got a new work computer and instead of using Time Machine to restore, I decided to install everything fresh.  I installed Oh My Zsh (which is fantastic by the way) which I used on my previous machine.  My favorite theme is Candy Kingdom.  After switching and relaunching Terminal I noticed the following error after every command prompt display:

zsh: command not found: battery_time_remaining

Turns out it was a simple problem – I had to enable the battery plugin in my ~/.zshrc config file:

plugins=(git battery)

Finding the solution wasn’t straightforward and its been forever since I installed Oh My Zsh.  Now I know and you do too.

 

 

Providing Emergency Contacts with iOS 8

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On November 3, 2014

In Uncategorized

The Problem

Something that has been missing on iOS for a long time is a reliable way to provide emergency contact information.  Imagine you’re out and about and you end up having an accident or have an acute attack from a known medical condition you have.  We all tend to carry our mobile phones with us.  Most emergency personnel are trained to review personal data in your wallet/purse and now mobile phones.  The issue is most of us have a lock code on our devices, preventing access to potential life-saving communication with a loved one about your medical condition.

Setting up Medical ID

iOS 8 now has a feature that lets you provide that critical medical information to emergency responders.  It’s called Medical ID.  Here’s how to set it up in a few steps:

First, select the “Health” app.

IMG_0004

 

Then, select “Medical ID” on the far right.  And then tap “Create Medical ID”.

IMG_0005

 

Enter in your personal information you’d like to provide to emergency workers.  At a minimum you should select a contact from your phone to allow someone to call on your behalf.  I’d also suggest entering in your blood type.

IMG_0007 IMG_0008

Tap Done when you’re finished.

IMG_0009

 

Now when someone swipes to “Emergency Call” on your device, Medical ID is listed with the details you provided.

IMG_0010

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Share This Information

Make sure to share this information with your loved ones that have iOS devices.  A few minutes of setting this up could mean a huge help down the road!

 

Stabby

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On October 30, 2014

In Uncategorized

I love the word “stabby”.  It typically means, if you’re feeling stabby, that you would like to stab someone or something because of your current emotional state.  Stabby can also describe the state of a thing – like “pairing bluetooth headsets is stabby” because it’s a pain in the ass.

I’ve tried to pass around the Theory of Stabby to my coworkers at previous jobs and at Automattic.  It’s definitely been a successful campaign because we managed to get a stabby emoticon added to our chat system, Slack.

2014-10-30_07-06-57

I’ve started a website you can easily share with coworkers, family and friends when you’re feeling particularly stabby.  It’s also mobile-friendly so you can text someone the URL and be done.

http://stabby.today

I expect Stabby Today to evolve over time.  I will accept feature requests.

My Reaction to Tim Cook’s Coming Out

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On October 30, 2014

In Uncategorized

It’s definitely not any surprise to me that Tim Cook is gay.  When he became CEO of Apple and after Steve Jobs’ death it was talked about.  I was surprised for a brief moment upon that initial discovery but was happy to see Apple embracing diversity at all levels.

Today Tim Cook came out publicly as gay in hopes to inspire others to be themselves and accept others too.

What I’m really surprised and delighted to see are the reactions from other developers in the Apple/Mac/iOS community:

https://twitter.com/justin/status/527797670211878912

I’m again reminded that I’ve chosen a career path in a community that accepts me and others for who they are.  From the days of attending my first iOS/Mac Developer conference, SecondConf, I realized that people were different in this community.  I’m proud to say I’m gay as well and happy to know that my peeps have my back.

Thanks, Tim!

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