Fit at 40: Achievement unlocked

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I’ve written previously on this blog about my Fit at 40 challenge and, for those who haven’t already seen my excited tweet from earlier today, I weighed in and found that I have hit my “realistic yet challenging” goal of getting to 14 and a half stone (92kg) by my 40th birthday (I’d already completed the three races at 10K distance or above which was the other part of the challenge).

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/markwilsonit/statuses/182798646729904128″]

I have to say that I’m totally stoked. Whilst some people might say something like “yeah, whatever, so you lost some weight, it’s just willpower isn’t it?”, I can tell you there’s a lot more to it than that – it’s taken a year (so far) or hard work and dedication, together with the occasional bought of self-degradation after falling off the wagon. This wasn’t a diet, it was a change in lifestyle; reprogramming my brain if you like (and this week’s BBC Horizon documentary which examined how two hormones impact our appetite and “fullness” was very interesting).

JustGiving - Sponsor me please!I’ve still got 2 weeks to go until my 40th, so there’s room for a stretch target yet (actually, I’ve set myself a goal of losing another 13kg before my 41st birthday – to bring my BMI into the “healthy” range – how achievable that is I don’t know as that’s going back to around my teenage weight but it’s worth a try). Most importantly though, I’ve achieved what I set out to do by my 40th (a fitter, happier, healthier me) and raised a chunk of money for The Prostate Cancer Charity in the process. If you’d like to donate to The Prostate Cancer Charity, my JustGiving page is still up and running!

So, here are the stats:

Start (Fat) Today (Fit) Difference
Weight 113kg 92kg 21kg
Chest 120.5cm 112cm 8.5cm
Waist 122cm 107cm 15cm
Upper Arm Not recorded 33cm Not recorded
Thigh Not recorded 60cm Not recorded
Hip 109cm 100cm 9cm
Body Fat 28.5% 22.5% 6.5%
BMI 35.7 (Obese) 29.0 (Overweight) 6.7

Incidentally, on a recent overseas trip, I noticed that our (heavy) suitcase weighed 21kg. That’s how much less weight my body is carrying around. Scary really.

Getting started with Arduino

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Arduino UnoA couple of days ago, my new Arduino board arrived and, last night, I finally got around to having a play.

For those who don’t know what an Arduino is:

“Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It’s intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.”

[Arduino website]

The first thing I noticed was how small the board is (smaller than a credit card) and how large the USB connector makes it… but, when I was working out what I needed to buy (I’ve always been interested in electronics, but never really got into it), I learned a few things about Arduino that might be useful to other newbies:

  • You can buy various Arduino boards, with a variety of processors. I picked up an Arduino Uno, which seems to be a good starting point. My Uno shipped with a USB cable that can also provide power (i.e. powering from a battery or other DC source is optional, as Dave Jacoby and Gareth Halfacree confirmed for me on Twitter – thanks guys). Note that some Uno boards have surface-mounted (SMB) chips – you might prefer to go for a DIP version instead (as I did) as this can be swapped out if necessary.
  • Shields are boards that sit on top of the Arduino and add additional functionality.
  • Whilst my Arduino has an LED on the board that I can interact with to get my head around the concept, you’ll need some more bits and bobs to do anything more complex. There are various starter kits on the interwebs (many or which include the board and a USB cable). I’ve just ordered an ARDX kit from .: oomlout :. (as recommended by Gareth) but one of the reasons for going for this one is that it’s also available without the board if you already have one…  when it arrives, I’ll have a breadboard, and a whole bunch of components to try out different ideas and get my head around controlling electronics programmatically.
  • I bought my board from Amazon (RS Components’ shipping charges were too high and Maplin’s stock levels are appalling) but, I’ve since been recommended a number of suppliers including the aforementioned .: oomlout :., Cool Components and SK Pang (thanks to Andy Piper).

The intention is that I’ll use one or more of these devices to control a model railway (yes, it’s geeky, but it could be a fun project) but, for now, I’ll start off by getting to grips with turning on lights and other similarly simple tasks, and I’ll probably try and get my sons interested too (they’ve already asked what it is… and seen some videos of other people’s projects).

The Arduino integrated developer environment (IDE) runs on Windows, OS X or Linux but, as this is a geek project and my netbook is basically redundant (and very portable), I decided to use that and install it on Ubuntu (11.10). Installation was very simple (I just followed the instructions on the Arduino Playground – a wiki for the Arduino community – and found v22 of the Arduino IDE in the Ubuntu software centre).

With the IDE installed, I set about writing code. Or, perhaps more accurately, I set about modifying other people’s code. There are a load of examples on the Arduino playground and a good getting started guide for Arduino at Bit-Tech but I found the Arduino Tutorials at Lady Ada really accessible for a newbie like me. Pretty soon I used lesson 1 and lesson 2 to change the 1 second blinking LED on my board to a variety of settings, and finally to just off (ready for when I have a go at this with my son).  Once my starter kit arrives with a bunch more components, I’ll try a do something a little more complicated! Maybe one day I’ll even get past the IDE and onto some real C programming (it’s been a while since I wrote any code, let alone in C).

Right… now it’s time to go off and find some cool projects for my new toy…

Image credit: Arduino Uno by Snootlab, on Flickr, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.

Installing iLife applications from a Mac OS X restore DVD

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Last night’s blog post should have had a video with it, except I didn’t get it ready in time… so it doesn’t (yet).  I want to cut together a few scenes and iMovie will probably do the job for me without too much codec hassle but when I last rebuilt my MacBook I didn’t bother with any of the iLife apps (except iPhoto – and I only use that for photo books/calendars).

As it turns out it’s easy enough to install iLife apps without resorting to a complete restore – Apple Support Article HT2604 has the details and, after grovelling around in the loft for a few minutes, I found the OS X install discs that came with my MacBook, inserted disc 1, double-clicked the Install Bundled Software icon and, one customised installation later, iMovie is ready for me to use…

The future of personal transportation?

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I’ve just got back from a long weekend in Barcelona and have to admit that one of the highlights (apart from sunshine, tapas and stunning Gaudi architecture) was riding the Heathrow Pod.

Really, I hear you say? You flew half way across Europe and the best part was the vehicle that took you to the airport terminal? Well yes, sort of. Even non-geek Mrs W. was impressed as we sped from business parking towards Terminal 5 in our own personal vehicle, with almost no waiting time but still in complete privacy (like a car, not like a bus or a train). Meanwhile I was acting pretty much as one of my young sons would be when faced with a new and exciting means of transport (I may be 40 in a couple of weeks’ time, but there’s still a part of me that’s more like a 7 year-old boy…).

For those who haven’t seen the pod (officially known as ULTra), it’s basically a personal transportation system, running on a dedicated “road” system where computer-controlled vehicles run on one of a number of pre-set routes.  I saw something similar last year on a Channel 4 programme called Brave New World, looking at a sub-surface system in Abu Dhabi’s smart city, Masdar and I think systems like this have a lot of potential.

Our roads are clogged with cars – and yet we still like to use them because they are convenient; they take us from where we like, to where we like, when we like (i.e.not on a schedule). That’s not the whole picture though: some of us like to express individuality through our choice of cars; some of us just like driving; and sometimes there really is no alternative (if I want to get from home, to the station and into London before 9am, there is no public transport option – and I’m only about 60 miles from London – imagine what it’s like for people in really rural areas). But why couldn’t personal transportation devices on special lanes replace buses, taxis, and private cars in metropolitan areas?

Yesterday’s news is all about how private companies will be allowed to build new road infrastructure in the UK (nothing new – we’ve had the M6 Toll for years now) but how about if a company were to invest in a system that would remove  cars and buses from the road within a metropolitan area – a pod-style system on a town-level, for example?  It can’t scale outside urban areas, but we already have decent motorways (or we would have if more long-distance freight went by rail) and a personal rapid transit system could be used from certain transport hubs (integrating with major transport routes, regional and long distance coach and rail travel) to take us the “last mile” (or 3 or 4). That way we don’t have to give up our flexibility, people can still choose to drive for longer distances (or when they are outside major urban conurbations) but we can do something about our congested city centre streets…

…or maybe it’s the Gaudi influence and I’m just thinking a little too far outside the box?

[Updated 21 March 2012: Added video]

Some useful stuff to install on a Linux machine

Posted on By Mark Wilson

Last year, I decided to take my netbook out of hibernation and install Ubuntu Linux (11.04) on it. It still doesn’t get used much (the iPad is just so much easier than a netbook – except perhaps for typing) but before I blow it away and install something else… like Windows 8, or Android perhaps… I wanted to capture a few notes from the bits and pieces I installed.

Apologies if these notes are not much use to anyone else but, then again, they might be handy for someone…

Command Line Twitter client (Twidge)

I’ve previously highlighted the existence of Twidge and it’s a useful tool to install on a Linux box. Ubuntu Manual has outlined the steps for installing Twidge on Linux (specifically Ubuntu) but the basic steps are:

Update the sources list:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and add the following lines:

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main

then install the package:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install twidge

From this point on, twidge --help and twidge lscommands should tell you all you need to know.

Password manager (LastPass)

LastPass works with a variety of Linux browsers so just head on over to the download page and follow the instructions.

File sync (Dropbox)

Dropbox has Linux packages for a variety of Linux distros (download and then double-click on the installer) and of course there’s the option to compile from source too.  The download page also includes command line instructions and a script for controlling Dropbox from the command line but I haven’t tried that yet…

Music (Spotify)

There isn’t a fully-supported Spotify client for Linux but, because so many of their devs use it, there is a “preview version” available. More details are available on Spotify’s previews page but the basic steps are:

Update the sources list:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

and add the following lines:

deb http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free
deb-src http://repository.spotify.com stable non-free

Optionally, verify the package with

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4E9CFF4E

Either way, install the package with:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install spotify-client-qt

I’ve not had any problems, but I did spot Ross Warren’s post about Spotify on Linux crashing at startup.  If this happens, then you might need to clear the cache:

rm -r ~/.cache/spotify

Mobile communications

The last items is probably not that useful to other people but I managed to get an O2 3G dongle working (Sierra Wireless Compass 889). Unfortunately, Sierra Wireless have updated their website and the Linux support has gone AWOL… but I found some information on a third party website suggesting that Sierra Wireless submits driver updates and patches to the public Linux distribution found at www.kernel.org. Using Network Connections, I was able to create a mobile broadband connection with the following settings:

  • Number: *99#
  • Username: o2web
  • Password: password
  • APN: mobile.o2.co.uk

Obviously, these settings will vary according to the carrier but many providers are included in the New Mobile Broadband Connection “wizard” (is it called a wizard on Linux?), so it may just be a case of picking the appropriate carrier, billing plan and APN.

Greyed out button for adding bookmarks in Microsoft Word

Posted on By Mark Wilson

This week, I finally put the finishing touches on a white paper I’ve been writing for my employer (once it’s published, I’m sure I’ll be linking to it). Usually, the stuff I write is fairly straightforward – nothing more complex than a Word document with associated styles, a table of contents, the odd field here and there, a few cross references. This time though, I found myself using some functionality that I’ve not used previously – like the citation/biblography functionality and also some bookmarks (to refer to sections of the document that weren’t labelled as headings or captions).

I couldn’t work out why adding bookmarks was not available (the Add button was greyed out) but the trick is to ensure that the bookmark name has no punctuation in it (except an underscore).

Personal cloud: call it what you want, ignore it at your peril!

Posted on By Mark Wilson

For about 18 months, one of the items on my “to do” list has been to write a paper about something called the “personal cloud”. It’s been slipping due to a number of other priorities but now, partly due to corporate marketing departments abusing the term to make it mean something entirely different, I’ve started to witness some revolt against what some see as yet another attempt at cloudwashing.

On the face of it, critics may have a point – after all, isn’t this just another example of someone making something up and making sure the name includes “cloud”? Well, when you look at what some vendors are doing, dressing up remote access solutions and adding a “cloud” moniker, then yes, personal cloud is nonsensical – but the whole point about a personal cloud is that it is not a one vendor solution – indeed a personal cloud is not even something that you can go out and buy.

I was chatting about this with a colleague, David Gentle (@davegentle), earlier and I think he explains the personal cloud concept really simply. Fundamentally, there are two principles:

  1. The personal cloud is the equivalent of what we might once have called personal productivity – the consumption of office applications, file storage and collaboration tools in a cloud-like manner. It’s more of a B2C concept than B2B but it is, perhaps, the B2C equivalent of an organisation consuming SaaS or IaaS services.
  2. Personal clouds become really important when you work with multiple devices. We’re all fine when we work on one device (e.g. a corporate laptop) but, once we add a smartphone, a tablet, etc. the experience of interacting and sharing between devices has real value. To give an example, Dropbox is a good method for sharing large files but it has a lot more value once it is used across several devices and the value is the user experience, rather than any one device-specific solution.

Personal cloudI expect to see personal cloud rising above the (BYO) mobile device story as a major element of IT consumerisation (see my post from this time last year, based on Joe Baguley’s talk about the consumerisation of IT being nothing to do with iPads) because point solutions (like Dropbox, Microsoft OneNote and SkyDrive, Apple iCloud) are just the tip of the iceberg – the personal cloud has huge implications for IT service delivery. At some point, we will ask why do we need some of the enterprise IT services – what do they actually do for us that a personal cloud providing access to all of our data and services doesn’t? (I seem to recall Joe exclaiming something similar to that corporate IT provides systems for timesheeting, expenses and free printing in the office!)

As for the “personal cloud” name – another colleague, Vin Hughes, did some research for the first reference to the term and he found something remarkable similar (although not called the personal cloud) dating back to 1945 – Vannevar Bush’s “Memex”. If that’s stretching the point a little, how about when the BBC reported in 2002 on Microsoft’s plans for a personal online life archive? So, when was the “personal cloud” term coined? It would seem to be around 2008 – an MIT Technology Review post from December 2007 talks about  how cloud computing services have the potential to alter the digital world (in a consumer context) but it doesn’t use the personal cloud term. One month later, however, a comment on a blog post about SaaS refers to “personal cloud computing”, albeit talking about provisioning personal servers, rather than consuming application and platform services as we do today (all that this represents is a move up the cloud stack as we think less about hardware and operating systems and more about accessing data).  So it seems that the “personal cloud” is not something that was dreamed up particularly recently…

So, why haven’t IT vendors been talking about this? Well, could it be that this is potentially a massive threat (maybe the largest) to many IT vendors’ businesses – the personal cloud is a very big disruptive trend in the enterprise space and, as Dave put it:

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/davegentle/statuses/180265493163290624″]

 

Running Android on a netbook

Posted on By Mark Wilson

I’ve been thinking for a while it might be an interesting experiment to get Android running on my netbook. Amazingly, it was incredibly simple, thanks to a bit of ‘net research and the Android x86 project.

Sam Cater’s Android on your netbook post covers all the basics of downloading the software and preparing a USB stick to boot it (using UNetbootin). Depending on your hardware, you may find that you need a different version – I couldn’t get the Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) RC to work on my Lenovo S10e, for instance, but a deprecated generic version of Froyo (Android 2.2) seemed to boot with no issues.

It doesn’t even seem to matter that there is no touch support in my chosen hardware – the mouse and keyboard seemed to do the job for me. It will need some more work for me to get Wi-Fi into action (this thread might help) but, for now, I’m happy that 10 minutes on the ‘net (and that’s all it was – 15 at the most) found a use for an old USB stick and gave me a chance to have a play.

 

How sending email to SMS led me to a world of event-driven programming

Posted on By Mark Wilson

A couple of nights ago, I was messing around with SMS alerting after checking out some websites to let me know the best times to see the Northern Lights in southern Britain. Lancaster University’s AuroraWatch UK site, has an alerting system including advice on sending emails to a phone via SMS.  The exact steps are carrier-specific, however O2, who operate the network I use (Giffgaff), works with MMail (send a text consisting of the word on to 212 and a confirmation from 21203 will tell you your email address, which should be +447xxxxxxxxx@mmail.co.uk – turn it off again with an off text to 212).  Even so, it is a risky service to leave active as each text message sent or received costs the recipient (it’s supposed to be 10p, but for me it seemed to be £0.20), so it’s possible for a spammer to run up a hefty phone bill for you… on that basis, MMail doesn’t sound so attractive.

There are a variety of SMS services available from SMS2Email but a little bit more digging around (on the Giffgaff forums), turned up reference to If This Then That (Ifttt) – a website that someone had mentioned to me recently but which I hadn’t looked at yet.

My verdict? Wow! Event-driven programming is cool.

Register at the site and build tasks that match the “if this, then that” construct, based on:

  • Triggers – the this part.
  • Actions – the that part.
  • Channels – the “things” that triggers and actions take input from or output to .

Tasks poll for input every 15 minutes but they can be turned on/off and you can also create recipes for sharing tasks, so for example, I’ve created a task/recipe that polls the AuroraWatch UK Twitter RSS and sends an SMS message when there is a red alert (i.e. a chance of spotting the Northern Lights anywhere in the UK). I’m sure there are loads more things that can be done with Ifttt as there stacks of channels to build from – in fact, wading through the recipes that people have shared brings up some pretty cool ideas.

Ifttt is definitely worthy of further investigation…

Giffgaff gotcha

Posted on By Mark Wilson

A few months ago, I wrote about Giffgaff – and I’m still very happy with paying less for a mobile service on the O2 network than I would from O2 (and earning credit for referrals, answering questions, etc. in the process).  Unfortunately I fell foul of a little complexity in the service this week and I think it’s worth mentioning.

Giffgaff account detailsAfter getting cut off a call mid flow, I logged into the Giffgaff website, under My giffgaff, looked for the My account panel, and saw that my credit had reduced from around £5 to just 16p.  The reason was that my “Goodybag” (a bundle of calls, text and data) had expired and that the “Auto Top-up” only applies to my “credit” balance (a separate pay as you go balance for chargable services that are not included in the Goodybag, like 0845 numbers).

It is possible to buy your next Goodybag to pick up where an expired one has left off (as you can see, I’ve done this now) – but that’s not the same as Auto Top-up.  (Quite why my Auto Top-up didn’t trigger is anyone’s guess but I’m kind of happy it didn’t as I would have carried on chatting and surfing, thinking I was using my included minutes/megabytes, but actually spending money…)

Get a free giffgaff SimAs I recommended Giffgaff to readers of this blog (indeed, I still do recommend them), I thought I should highlight this potential source of confusion, in case anyone else trips up like I did!

[Update 18 June 2012: Giffgaff have announced that they will launch recurring Goodybag topups on 20 June 2012)