Here’s a fun discovery.

Michael just recently started using our desktop computer for gaming, after his gaming laptop aged out of some of the games he likes.

For more than a decade, I have been the primary / only user of the desktop, since there where I do bills, and major photo projects.

With me so far?

Good. Now here’s where my OCD comes in.

On every computer I use, I set up my windows in a specific way. Firefox a specific size and placed here, Excel a specific size and placed here, explorer windows always a specific size and a specific location and cascading. If I need two windows side-by-side to move files, they are temporarily moved and then have to go back to “where they belong.”

It’s both an ease-of-use thing (I always know where to find things when I have multiple screens) and a comfort thing (it soothes my brain to have things where I expect them to be, and if they are somewhere else, it gives me a little jolt of anxiety).

Today I figured out that when Michael logs into his profile and resizes and moves explorer windows, it actually changes the size of those windows on my profile.

This is distressing.

I know it’s not his fault; neither of us knew this was a windows thing. After all, Windows often inexplicably changes and moves things around. But I just figured out this morning that what he did affected the windows on my profile.

I told him, and we laughed about it, but still; it’s not fair that things he does in a supposedly benign environment can actually trigger anxiety for me. Why are computers like this, and more aggravatingly, why is my BRAIN like this?

No answers, just one of those things.

I’ve been teaching tech security to older adults for the past year, so I’ve been reading lots of interesting (and terrifying) articles, and also attempting to answer even more interesting questions.

One question had to do with the high number of security cameras in the wild, and what computers could do with all that data.

As of right now, the answer is–think everything is a cow or a sheep or perhaps a bicycle.

There are security cameras everywhere–in 2018 it was estimated that the average Londoner was caught on camera 300 times per day. But what does that coverage mean right now? It means that a human needs to sit down and go through that coverage, sometimes frame by frame, before they can get any information out of that overwhelming amount of data.

Citations:
The Elephant in the Image (Improbable Research)
Identifying the Elephant in Object Detection (VAST lab (Vision And Security Technology) at the Department of Computer Science, at University of Colorado, at Colorado Springs)
This Neural Net Hallucinates Sheep (Nautilus)
Gazing Back at the Surveillance Cameras That Watch Us

The Internet is “the greatest free-market success story in history”
–Ajit Pai

Unless, of course, you live in a rural area or an area suffering from poverty and urban blight.

Consider these numbers for WV, for percent of the population with access to mobile broadband service +25mbps. (Broadband Now)

Jefferson = 95.4%
Hancock = 94.9%
Berkeley = 93.5%
Wyoming = 93.8%
Wood = 90.9%
Kanawha = 90.4%
Monongalia =89.2%

Mon county (where I live) has the flagship state university, WVU, and yet only 89.2% of the county has access to broadband. Two of those in the top three are the easternmost panhandle counties–essentially bedroom counties for the DC area. The third is the northernmost county, which is just west of Pittsburgh.

But still, that’s not too bad, right? What about the rural counties?

Pocahontas = 0%
Calhoun = 0%
Ritchie = 14.0%
Clay – 16.7%
Monroe = 17.9%
Barbour 21.4%

Two counties with zero access to broadband. None. And one of those counties (Pocohontas) is in the Radio Quiet Zone where there is also ZERO cell signal.

And even without the Radio Quiet Zone, there are a LOT of areas in WV without any cell services. (1)

And here are the 2015 poverty rates for those bottom counties.

Pocahontas County = 16.5%
Calhoun County = 17.7%
Ritchie County = 20.7%
Clay County = 28.2%
Monroe County = 16.8%
Barbour County = 21.5%

The only positive here is that those don’t happen to also be the counties with the greatest percent of the population in poverty. (3)

Remember last spring when I was talking about food deserts?

Monroe and Barbour counties are also a food deserts.(4)

Transportation is harder to quantify. For the sake of simplicity (and lack of data) I’m going to look at areas without access to a major divided highway as having transportation issues. A lot of this is subjective unfortunately, since Rt 50 west of I79 is a well-maintained divided highway, but east of I79 it’s almost all single lane with a lot of switchbacks and 7-9% grades.

So what kind of roads do these counties that lack broadband have?

Pocahontas – Route 219
Calhoun – Rt 119/33
Ritchie – Rt 50 west
Clay – I70 across northern corner
Monroe – 219
Barbour – 119/250

You can look these up yourself, but if you’re willing to take my word for it, out of that list only Ritchie county has anything approaching a decent road running through it.

So what is my point in all this?

My point is that A good deal of WV lacks broadband coverage, and there is zero financial incentive for companies to bring it in. And once they come in, they’re going to want ways to boost their revenue, and the only way to do that would be to charge the big sites for premium access.

So no, I think repealing net neutrality is NOT a good idea.

Here is all the above data in a single table, if that makes it easier to parse.

—

(1) This is one of the reasons we bought a GPS for the car years ago, because google maps doesn’t work if you don’t have cell service. (2)

(2) It’s also why I’m pretty proficient in reading paper maps. Because our GPS hates us and often recommends roads that are not recommended for cars without 4-wheel drive.

(3) The bottom five would be:
Webster County = 26.1%
Gilmer County 27%
Lincoln County 27.3%
Clay County 28.2%
McDowell County 35.5%

(4) I am designating food deserts here as areas where you have to drive 20 or more to purchase food (ie groceries). This doesn’t mean a grocery story necessarily, just a store (like a Quicky Mart, Drug Store, or Dollar Store that also sells food.)

Another quick reminder of what I’ve been testing:

Accupedo
Garmin Vivofit
FitBit One
Omron HJ-323U

The Devices
The Software

Now for my FAVORITE PART! DATA!

I tracked the output of the various devices for three weeks, noting steps, kcal, and miles at various points of the day, including immediately before and after exercise or hiking.

Here’s what I found.

Steps

As I’d found previously, the FitBit overcounts steps. Accupedo and the Omron are generally pretty close to each other, and typically had lower step counts than the VivoFit and the One.

HOWEVER.

On days when I was doing things like cleaning house or baking, the VivoFit had a much higher count than any other device. (I also threw out the Accupedo data on several of these days, because I didn’t have the phone in my pocket for several hours.)

I’m not terribly distressed that the VivoFit had a higher step count on days when I was baking or cleaning, because I’m active during those times, just not moving from one place to another.

Calories Burned

Not only does the FitBit overcount steps, but it also generally overcounted how many calories I burned during the day.

Here you can see that during periods of exercise, the FitBit gave me a far higher calorie burn than any other device–including the Garmin Fit, which should also have been taking elevation and pace into account. (Note that for walks, the Omron and Garmin Fit had very close calorie burns, but for hikes (where we were in steeper terrain) the Garmin Fit gave a much higher calorie burn than the Omron. I believe the Garmin Fit data should which should be fairly correct, although I know that using the heart rate monitor would make it more accurate. But I find it uncomfortable, so you don’t get that data because I am unwilling to suffer that much for data.)

Putting that together, we can see how calorie burn and steps tracked for my lunchtime walks.

The step counts are all relatively close during these time periods, but the FitBit in general gave me a much greater calorie burn (I’m not sure what happened on that final Thursday–I’m guessing operator error in noting the counts.)

Yes, I do walk up and down stairs during my lunch walks, but I don’t think that’s enough to account for the FitBit calorie burn being that much higher.

Mileage

And finally, because I can’t help myself, I compared the mileage calculated by the pedometers as opposed to the distance given by the GPS for outdoor walks and hikes.

GPS readings were from the Garmin Fit, which tracks mileage using my phone, and my Garmin Oregon GPS. I’ll note that the Oregon GPS does tend to give me a slightly shorter reading than is probably true, simply because I meander. So fractally, the distance I walk is probably longer than the distance calculated by the GPS, but not by a large amount.

Also interesting, the Vivofit seems to underestimate distance when I’m hiking and walking, as compared to other devices, but not consistently so, which could be due both to the terrain, and to how frequently I stop to take pictures when I hike.

And to be fair, hiking is quite different from walking, since one’s stride is generally not consistent.

So there you have it: The FitBit continues to overcount steps and overestimate calories burned, but the interface and community are so much nicer than any other device, it’s still my current favorite.

If you do outdoors activity, the Garmin Fit app is very nice, and I can definitely recommend it.

And if you don’t want to carry around an additional device, the Accupedo app is a very good alternative to a separate pedometer (assuming you can correctly calculate the sensitivity).

Previous Pedometer Geekiness:
2014
2013

Because everything is connected now, the screen interface between you and your data is important, so it gets an entire post.

Again, here are this year’s contenders:

Accupedo
Garmin Vivofit
FitBit One
Omron HJ-323U

The Devices

Also tested:

Sense Me
Garmin Fit

Here are the various interfaces.

Accupedo

This is a phone app, so no website.

I like the Accupedo interface. It puts what I want to see right there, cleanly and clearly.

And I also like the widget, which comes in three different sizes.

Note that Accupedo is the only widget on my phone. That’s because the FitBit widget comes in one size–too large–and none of the others have widgets.

FitBit

Here is the FitBit website Dashboard. It’s fine. It displays everything I want to see at a glance.

This is the FitBit app. Everything is there in a single glance, and the colors change the closer you get to your goal. I also like this app.

Garmin Connect

Here is the Garmin Connect website, with the Vivofit panels.

I find this website frustrating. The panels never seem to stay where I want them–probably because I have different computers with different monitor sizes, and the panels shift around. The steps panel itself is fine–if only it would stay where I put it.

The Garmin Connect app I like better. It displays the same information as the website, and in the same manner, but it shows me what I want to see as soon as I launch it. No hunting to find the right panel.

The Garmin Connect website is ALSO where you view the Garmin Fit app data, (as well as where I view the data from my Garmin watch. (Which I do NOT love, because the buttons are non-responsive, so it’s nearly impossible to start activities and connect the foot-pod and heart monitor. But that’s something else entirely.))

Garmin Fit uses the GPS to calculate the distance, pace, elevation, and calories burned. It does NOT work inside, so this is no good for a pedometer, but it is VERY nice for hiking.

Same panels (and the same issue with the panels) but I do love the little map of my latest activity.

Here’s the app:

I like the display here as well, although it seems like I have to jump through one too many hoops to start an activity.

Omron Wellness Site

The Omron Wellness site is the new site where your data is uploaded.

I’ll be blunt. I am having major issues with the Omron Wellness site. It says it’s uploaded my data, but as you can see, my recent data is not there. I’m emailing with tech support, but I must say I really miss the old Omron software where everything lived on my computer.

I’ll update you as to how things go. Since they just rolled out the new site, I’m willing to cut them a little slack–but not much, and not for long. This is the only way I can view all my data (besides on the pedometer itself), and it’s not working.

SenseMe Pedometer App

There is no screen where I can get an overview of all my data at once. There is no widget. Plus, it’s inaccurate. Goodbye.

Yup, it’s that time again, where I get ahold of multiple pedometers AND TEST THEM TO WITHIN AN INCH OF THEIR TRI-AXES.

Or something like that.

Here are this round’s contenders.

Accupedo
FitBit One
Garmin Vivofit
Omron HJ-323U

Accupedo

Accupedo is solely a phone app, so its size is your cell phone.

Accupedo tracks steps, kcal burned, miles walked, and active minutes. The feature that makes Accupedo so good is that it has a sensitivity setting. At the base setting, I found it was over-counting steps (dramatically so), but decreasing the sensitivity made is very accurate (when compared to the other devices).

The calorie tracking is only for activities. If you do nothing all day (or leave your phone sitting on a table) your kcal count will be zero. This makes it difficult to compare it directly to the FitBit and the VivoFit, since both of those calculate your calorie use on top of your resting rate.

FitBit One

The FitBit one tracks steps, elevation, kcal burned, miles walked, and active minutes. The elevation is one of my favorite things it tracks, because I live in the land of hills, and I always take the stairs.

It’s small, and even if the silicone case fits easily in that little tiny pocket of your jeans, which is where I keep mine (which reduces the amount of incidental abuse it takes.)

It syncs over bluetooth with your phone, or over a dongle you plug into the USB port of your computer. I quite like that you have two different options for syncing, since I don’t generally leave my phone’s bluetooth on.

The One is a rechargeable device that you slip into an odd little USB dongle you plug into the USB slot of your computer. This dongle does not sync–it just charges, which seems like a waste to me, but what do I know?

The One is supposedly water resistant. I haven’t gotten this one particularly wet, however, this is my second One. The first One was accidentally put through the washer by Michael when I was sick (he was being helpful, so I can’t really blame him for not checking my pockets). It didn’t recover from the experience.

The silicone clip is quite sturdy, and I’ve clipped it onto the waistbands of skirts with no ill effect.

Garmin Vivofit

The Vivofit is a wristband fitness tracker that I got when Michael decided he really didn’t care for it. (He now has a FitBit One.)

The VivoFit tracks steps, kcal and miles and activity.

Although there is a website, the device syncs only through your phone’s bluetooth, and only when you tell it to sync. The later is nice, because it saves the battery. Instead of being rechargable it uses a watch battery. I bought the VivoFit for Michael at the end of October, and we haven’t had to change the battery yet, so it’s got a pretty decent life for what it does.

It is water resistant, and I’ve repeatedly splashed water on it, and no ill signs yet.

It displays the time, just like a watch, although to reserve the battery you can’t read it in low light. I consider that a feature, not a bug.

I find myself strangely pleased with the VivoFit, probably because I always wear a watch, so this does double duty. (I’ll note that I am VERY hard on watches, and regularly destroy them. So we’ll see how much abuse this can take.)

Omron HJ-323U

The Omron Activa is the third Omron pedometer I’ve had, and it is unfortunately my least favorite.

On the plus side, it’s smaller than previous Omron pedometers, and is built upon a USB stick, so to upload your data, you just remove the cap and plug it into a USB port on your computer. It’s also extremely accurate (assuming it’s in my pocket and not just dropped down the front of my bra, where it does not, in fact, count very accurately).

On the negative side, I don’t trust the clip, so I don’t wear it if I’m not wearing something with pockets, and I utterly despise the current software that comes with it. As in–the software doesn’t work for me and this makes me very unhappy.

It runs off a watch battery, and the battery lasts quite awhile, so no complaints there.

But as I said, the software is currently abysmal and non-functional for me. And although the design is smaller than previous versions, I don’t particularly trust the clip, so unless I have pockets, I don’t wear it. (If you are female, you understand that this happens quite frequently since women’s clothes are STUPID.)

So design-wise, I like the VivoFit and the FitBit One, as I find both unobtrusive.

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Green bank is the center of the National Radio Quiet Zone, to reduce the amount of radio interference the telescopes pick up. The most obvious thing this means is that there is no cell phone reception. But it’s a lot more than that. Once you go past the gate, you cell phones must be turned off as must all digital cameras, so I was unable to take any pictures up close to the telescope. (You can buy disposable cameras at the gift shop, as they don’t cause interference.)

But it’s more than that.

On site, all electronic equipment–including microwave ovens–must be kept in Faraday cages. And locals occasionally receive visits from Green Bank personnel, who then fix their faulty electronic equipment (such as microwave ovens).

The telescopes operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and anyone can write a proposal for project.

The telescope sits on four wheeled stands that are a bit like train cars, which allow the telescope to rotate a full 360 degrees to point in any direction.

The angle of the dish can also be changed. The thick white arc with the black stripe running down the center contains teeth that allow the position of the dish to be raised and lowered.

The dish of the main telescope is larger than a football field, so it can been seen from quite far away.

There are multiple telescopes on site, to take advantage of the radio quiet zone.

And in the science center, there is a scale model. I took several pictures of it, if you’d like a better look the structure.

We went to Green Bank Saturday, which is home of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

We amused ourselves at the Science Center.

Here’s Michael:

Some self-portraits:

Michael’s picture of me:

I think that I’ve generated enough data now.

Couple things: where the pedometer is placed affects the step count. I wore the pedometers in several configurations: on my waistband, in my pocket and a combination of both. When they were on my waistband together (Friday), the Omron and the Pulse gave the closest results. When in my pocket together (Monday), the Pulse had a slightly higher count than the Omron.

The Fitbit always had a higher count, averaging 800 steps more than the Omron. (The Pulse averaged 15 steps more than the Omron.)

The Pulse and the Omron were relatively close in counting active minutes, with the Pulse being higher, due to the fact that you have to be active for ten minutes before the Omron starts that time.

A couple things I didn’t mention previously:

The Pulse has the ability to measure pulse rate. You hold the device between your fingers, cycle through the menu until you find the heart (pulse rate) icon, touch that icon and it measures your pulse through your finger. If you have the Pulse in the wrist band for sleeping, make sure the device is resting over the pulse point in your wrist and start the measurement.

It looks like the measurements are relatively accurate on average, but not very precise for any single measurement. The chart is hard to read, but I would take several measurements, one right after the other. The results are clustered around what should be the correct value, but can fluctuate wildly.

I’ll probably play with the pulse measurement more in the coming days, but for now, I’m not that impressed with it. Which is fine, because I wasn’t that interested in that option.

The battery life on the Pulse is nowhere close to as long as the battery life of the FitBit, however, on a positive note, the way it charges, through a short mini USB cable, means I’m less likely to forget to put it back on. (I had to resort to charging the FitBit at work, and taking off my shoes and putting the charging station on my shoe, to remind me to put the thing back on.) I also like the charging monitor better, and think I won’t have the same charging issues I did with the FitBit (sometimes I would put it on the charging station, and it wouldn’t charge, or the display wouldn’t update to show me that it was charging, so I generally had to fuss with it).

Another point in the favor of the Pulse is that it’s a brand new device and so the phone and web applications are still being developed, and one of the things that will be added is the ability to download your data as a CSV file. I have NEVER been happy with the fact that FitBit wanted to charge you a subscription to download YOUR OWN DATA, and that the data is “allowed” you to have was in no way the full data set you created.

I am hoping that the data set the Pulse generates will be closer to that created by the Omron. I’ll let you know how that one goes as well.

One additional thing I haven’t tested is wearing the Pulse while hiking and biking. I’ll be curious to see how accurate that data is compared to the data generated by my new Oregon.

I’m going to update this through the course of the day.

I’m wearing the Withings and my beat-up FitBit next to each other, clipped to my belt. The Omron and the old FitBit that don’t hold a charge are inside a cargo pocket.

Yes, I AM putting this into Excel, calculating the differences, and I’ll probably make a chart of it. Like I do.

I WILL DO SCIENCE TO IT

FitBit = clipped to belt
Pulse = clipped to belt
Omron = in pocket
FitBit 2 = in pocket

8:15 AM
FitBit: 1099
Pulse: 912
Omron: 1013
FitBit 2: 1147
(more…)

Because I am a HUGE DORK I wore three pedometers today: The Omron HJ-720ITC Pocket Pedometer, the Fitbit Ultra, and a brand new Withings Pulse.
(more…)

As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, I write technical documentation and instructions–I teach people how to use computer programs.

Which means that BAD documentation and instructions make me want to hurt someone.

I’m trying to become familiar with the new online course management system we’ll be moving to, and after a several hours of this, I’d like to take their entire support staff and beat them senselessly.

My goal: to import questions from a text file of some sort into the program.

What I found first:

A very long list of instructional videos. I would rather eat lint WHILE being stabbed with a fork than watch instructional videos.

Because they are almost always a WASTE OF MY TIME.

I finally find a help document.

Completely worthless.

What I found next (within the program):

OK. Fine. I made a text file.

It failed. Repeatedly.

What I finally find after several hours of wasting my time.

Really. Why does the help that pops up WITHIN THE PRODUCT not mention those parentheses? This is a system used across the country–in fact, I believe it’s one of the most used systems. So why are their help files so abysmally NOT HELPFUL.

WHY CAN’T THEY JUST GIVE ME A CLEAR, HELPFUL EXAMPLE?!

Now if you’ll pardon me, I’m going to go try really hard not to put my fist through my monitor.

ADDENDUM the FIRST:
OK, trying to fix my text file, and I’m now even MORE confused. I really hate technology.

ADDENDUM the Second:
Co-worker looked over everything with me, and we can find no reason why most of the file is failing.

Have I mentioned how much I hate computers?

This article from Wired gets to the heart of the problem I tend to have with Macs (as well as with tablet PCs in general)–they’re not easily repairable.

The New MacBook Pro: Unfixable, Unhackable, Untenable.

I’ll admit, that I went through personal laptops at a pretty fast rate for the past couple years, primarily because I couldn’t find one that I liked. But when I upgraded, I gave my old laptops to people who could use them, so I wasn’t trashing them.

And I tend to run my desktops forever–I had one desktop that eventually had every single part replaced (some parts more than once), one part at a time; I had that computer forever. My current desktop is two years old, and still works fabulously. I’ve added more memory and another hard drive (because photo processing eats memory and hard drive space), and added Michael’s monitor after he gave up his desktop. And aside from trying to set up local networking with Windows 7 Home edition (gag) I haven’t had any issues at all.

Now I know that most people are not capable of upgrading their computers on their own. But there are tons and tons of place that will help you. And even if you have a laptop, you don’t need to be any kind of expert to replace your battery. And adding memory is doable project for all but the most timid. But you can’t do those things yourself on a Mac.

But I think I’m more disturbed by the throw-away nature of Macs. These paragraphs from the article really got to me:

When we choose a short-lived laptop over a more robust model that’s a quarter of an inch thicker, what does that say about our values?

Every time we buy a locked down product containing a non-replaceable battery with a finite cycle count, we’re voicing our opinion on how long our things should last.

Why is this important? Because throwing away electronics leeches poisons into the soil and water, but in many cases, recycling is no less evil. (If you do nothing else, click on those links and just look at the pictures.)

This is a question I’ve been asked several times in recent months. As with the PC or Mac question, the answer is, again: it depends.

But getting to this answer is, I think, a little easier, and boils down to: what do you want to do with it?

Emails?
Watch movies?
Read books?
Surf the internet?

If you do a fair amount to typing, you will hate not having a keyboard.

If you want to watch movies, you’ll probably prefer a tablet, since it’s a whole lot lighter than any laptop.

If you want to read a lot of books, you might want to consider getting an eInk reader, which is much easier on the eyes, is lighter, and has a significantly longer battery life.

If you want to be able to pull the thing out of your pocket and play games or surf the internet while you’re waiting or bored, you’ll want a tablet.

If this is going to be your primary tech device while you travel, you might be better off with a laptop, since in addition to having a keyboard, a should also have USB ports, SD card reader, etc.

Essentially, think carefully about what you want to do with it and how you want to do it. Do you want to lie on the sofa and watch movies? Do you want to curl up in a chair and read books? Do you want to sit down in comfort and type emails etc? Imagine doing these tasks with each of these devices and decide which device will provide the least amount of frustration when doing most of your tasks.