Kitchen Garden Forum

A child of '62 and working with IT since '80 todays technical devices are the stuff 8f the science fiction I devoured as a teenager.

Spring just gone I won a draw at a trade show, the prize was a Fitbit Flex, my wife having lost over six dtone by the simple expedient of eating less and doing more had got into cycling in a biģ way was given the device.

Whats a Fitbit you say. It is a sliver of plastic no bigger that a large ruuner bean seed, which fits in a rubber bracelet. It measures your physical activity and radios it via your computer or smartphone to your account on a website.

This Christmas her closest friend bought my wife the latest model, so after a bit of "computer work" on my "new" technical hand me down, I'm about to embark on my first fully measured long distance dog walk!

I've heen using a smartphone application called Endomondo for several years now, which uses the phones GPS features to track my route and speed, so am interested to see what else the Fitbit gives me.

All this from a phone the size of a packet of cheroots and a sliver of plastic in a bracelet. My first work computer lived in a room the size of my house and was the size of all my furniture stacked into rows of several heights.

Let us know how far you get...very interesting.

I used to have a long distance dog

I'm just a bit older than you Peter and my science fiction included things like Fireball XL5 and 'IT' was something you couldn't wait to try with a 'fitbit' in the 60's.

Smartphones are far too technical for me, my mobile only does what phones were made to do.... make and receive phone calls and that's the way I like it.

Furthermore I remember when STD only stood for Subscriber Trunk Dialling, nowadays you can pick up all sorts of things via a mobile

I would have thought your gardening efforts would have stood you in good stead for fitness.

Enjoy the dog walks.

Not bad.

But we have a technological disagreement. Endomondo says that by GPS I've done 14.47 miles and Fitbit reckons I've done 13.95 by stride length (I think,) looks like I need to calculate my average stride.

Typical of modern technology...even walking has become complicated.

Ever heard the tale of the Australian aborigines and the Australian army who had two teams to see who could cross a piece of barren land on foot the fastest? The army won because the aborigines stopped to have a get-together with some tribesmen they met on the way...

MW

We were surprised to see satellite dishes and solar panels on the huts on the floating reed islands in lake Titicaca in Bolivia when we went there about 12 years ago and internet cafes in remote villages in the mountains.

Every time we speak with my stepson and his family in the USA via the magical SKYPE, I feel we are stepping into the realms of Star Trek.
It's marvellous to be able to see them as well as speak to them, with no time lag.