Author Archives: Filemon

Apr 21 2013
Uncategorized

Body Hacking

I’ve been playing a lot of Ingress lately. One Sunday, I walked 15 miles. A little more than half a marathon, and I felt fine. Which was great.

What was not so great, (or really great) was a realization I had upon checking my pedometer.  If I kept up my current pace of walking, I would flip it.

That is, there would not be enough digital number spaces on the pedometer before the reset date of 99 days had passed.

So, being me, I decided that the solution to a non existent problem was more technology. So I purchased a FitBit with some amazon credits that I had laying around. With all of the credits, it ended up being around $50 so I felt like it was an acceptable risk. I had done some reading, but what ended up selling it was the achievement system.

FitBit actually sends me updates when I reach certain milestones, such as 20,000 steps in a day or beating my previous record of climbing stairs. So the achievement system was a big selling point for me. It was just enough gamification that I could feel like I’m competing against myself. If work had achievements, I would probably get way more productive. I can’t imagine the achievement titles, though.

That and consistently higher ratings and reviews on various sites, even when compared to the Nike Fuel Band and the Jawbone Up.

My current peeve with it is the lack of support for the Nexus 4. I’ve been reading that it has to do with the lack of Bluetooth Low Power support. I don’t care as long as they manage to fix it in the near future. Right now, I’m just impatient to see how well or how badly I’m doing during the day. I’m trying to alleviate that by walking home for lunch, and syncing there, but I may have to end up seeing if it’s possible to get another wireless sync dongle and then keep one at work. I did bring in the dongle and it worked, although I’d really prefer it if they managed to get the wireless sync working via low energy bluetooth.

Right now the issue is that the Nexus 4 has a chip capable of synching up with the fitbit, but the bluetooth stack in the current version of Android does not. Which is frustrating, but I suppose it will be an issue that is hopefully resolved sooner rather than later. There is a lot of technology coming down the pike that looks like it would be fun to integrate, like the Pebble smart watch and such.

But back to the fitbit.

A lot of you know that I have a CPAP, and for years I’ve been suffering from Sleep Apnea, although I’ve only been treating it over the past year. The fitbit also has a really comfortable wristband that can hold the fitbit against my wrist. From there, it tracks my movements and then makes an analysis based on my movement how well I slept that night. It’s another tool in my arsenal that I can use to track my sleep.

I love metrics, but I hate the work involved to track them, so any opportunity to automate the process is welcome.

So, with the wireless dongle, the fitbit transmits the daily information over to my computer. From there, it heads up to the fitbit.com site, where it creates the dashboard. The dashboard is where my data is presented to me in an executive summary format. Graphs, percentages, and an “on track” meter for caloric intake.

It’s also telling that I bought the fitbit instead of you know, resetting the pedometer every couple of days or so.

Apr 20 2013
Blog, Games, Technology

Choice (BioShock Infinite Discussion)

This post contains mild spoilers about BioShock Infinite. If you are concerned about such things, then would you kindly look away?

The original BioShock is one of the first games that had both great mechanics, and a story line that made me think about some heady subjects. I have described BioShock to my friends as the best anti Objectivist essay I have ever played. And that statement is true.

The call backs to the original BioShock start right at the beginning of the game. BioShock starts with a man on a plane. BioShock Infinite starts with a man on a boat being brought to some unknown destination. Both men, neither of which are in complete control of their destiny. Both of them end up at a lighthouse. Both of them enter a world entirely unlike anything they have ever known. One, a city at the bottom of the sea, the other a city far above the clouds.

Throughout the game there are choices. Some are trivial, like deciding on the outcome of a coin flip. One is not so trivial, like throwing the first “stone” at an interracial couple that have been bound and placed on a stage. Part of me wonders if Irrational games is secretly keeping track of the choices we make. I realize that it’s Booker Dewitt making the choice, and not me, but I still could not bring myself to do it. Not even just to find out what happens. Now, at the end of the game I realize that the choices don’t matter, but still, this is a very personal issue for me, and one that maybe I’ll need to look up on youtube.

While they could record the results and publish them, I’m fairly convinced that they are meaningless. Because Bioshock Infinite is about the nature of choice in an infinite multiverse, and the supposition that free will is an illusion. I’m still digesting the game, about a week after I finished it. And now I’m writing a post about it because I’m still thinking about it. I refreshed myself with the topics of Free Will and determinism.

Something similar happened to me after I finished the first Bioshock. I didn’t go out and read the Fountainhead, but I certainly refreshed myself about Objectivism and Laissez-Faire Capitalism.

Philosophy in a video game? I am shocked. Other topics discussed are the nature and brutality of armed rebellions, and the flaws inherent in a jingoist, racist, and theist government. The latter two aren’t discussed so much as beaten into the player as being bad, but nonetheless they are both chilling when experienced within the game. I imagine Columbia is the result of what would happen if the Tea Party got traction, managed to win overwhelmingly in every major election, and then installed their Prophet Candidate in the White House.

And even with the heavy issues, ultimately the game is about the relationship between a man and a man’s daughter, and the lengths he is willing to go to reconcile choices that he made in his life.

Like Blade Runner, or the short story, The Lady or the Tiger, Bioshock Infinite ends with ambiguity. You don’t know what happens at the end.

Rather, more accurately, you’re not sure of the physics behind such an event. Do you believe in a universe that resolves paradoxes? Or can people become disentangled with the when of events to the point where the traditional non fourth dimensional grammar fails to describe their state of having currently existed right now and simultaneously then.

I’m looking forward to when more of my friends finish the game and I can have these discussions with them.

I recommend the title, even if I think it could probably do with having fewer combat events and more walking around with Elizabeth and experiencing what it’s like to be around her. Maybe the director’s cut. Who knows?

Mar 05 2013
Blog, Games

Why I Love to Lose at Boardgames

I am not a competitive person. So, why, one would ask, would I enjoy playing board games so much? Isn’t the point to win?

Sure. If one were to just look at something like Monopoly, (let’s not focus on it being a poor board game) and examine it strictly on the “acquire the most money and win” aspect of it.

Now. Do you recall the number of times you have won Monopoly? Or do you mainly remember the moment when you just barely escaped getting bankrupted by landing just in between your rivals? Presumably, you were having a good time up until the moment that monopoly inevitably turns into a grind and you stop having fun.

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Tagged
Mar 04 2013
1 Comment
Games, Technology Aside 
JPL: God dammit Fil.
me: WAT
JPL : I was just going to check on my portal. Like really quick
me: 30 minutes later...
JPL : Now it is half an hour later and I have another portal.
JPL : I NEED TO GO HOME FIL
me: NO JPL, THE ENLIGHTENED NEED YOU.
JPL : I HAVE A WIFE. 
FURRY KIDS.
me: THIS IS THE FATE OF THE WORLD, JPL.
WHAT WORLD WILL THEY HAVE IF YOU DON'T FIGHT FOR THEM?
JPL : I DIDN'T ASK FOR THIS WAR.
me: NOBODY DID! BUT NOW WE'RE IN IT.
ALL OF US.
JPL : breaks down sobbing

Ingress Happens

Tagged
Mar 02 2013
Uncategorized

Habits

I’m trying to develop some new habits. Good ones, for those of you playing the home game.

This past month, I was committed to non consumption. Basically, no new clothes, no new gadgets, no video games, no board games, no frivolous purchases.

Surprisingly, I did not pass away as I had initially feared. Instead, I was left with a surprisingly small credit card bill to pay off at the end of the month. I was even able to use the previous month’s paycheck to pay it off. Which meant that I had the full value of the current month’s paycheck.

It was a good feeling.

Whenever I had the urge to purchase something, I would put it off, or put it on a wishlist, or write it down. Now that the month is over, I’m finding that I only still want to buy two things, instead of all of the things that I wrote down. Strangely, one of those things is another black jacket, which may seem to indicate some sort of black jacket problem that I may have. The other thing is a blender.

And not even a crazy $500 blender either. Like a respectable glass jar Oster that I can make smoothies in.
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