Fifth Decade

Microsoft is working to adapt a basic version of XP so that it is compatible with the nonprofit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Foundation’s small green-and-white XO laptop.

The OLPC machine uses low-powered technology with limited processing power, no Hard Drive, and little memory but has a target price of $100 per laptop to enable users in the third world to partake in the digital age. Currently the price is $188 as further savings have been difficult to make without larger volumes of sales to drive component prices down.

How replacing the free, lean Linux based Operating System with a Microsoft controlled stodgy and resource hungry OS that has to be paid for can be seen as a boon for anyone other than Microsoft is beyond the ken of anyone who understands the principles of charitable giving.

Microsoft’s knee jerk reaction as a “Johnny come lately” to every market they didn’t think of first is probably what they imagine to be “innovation”. This lack of strategic vision is why their share price has underperformed the market for years.

If I was a shareholder I’d vote to hand the reins over to someone who knows there is more to business and technology than playing “follow my leader” and leveraging a monopoly position to try to force out competition from every niche, niches created by people with more imagination and often better business ethics to boot.

MS have admitted they have spent a “non-trivial amount” of cash on this project already, and it is unlikely to be profitable for them, but just like in other markets the wealth they have amassed through their monopoly behaviour is used to prevent these markets developing freely.

The still unprofitable XBox was launched to limit the PlayStation/Nintendo machines’ ultimate market size, the Zune to compete with the iPod, Internet Explorer was launched to kill off Netscape, Office Online was launched to damage Google’s online aspirations, MS Office was given exclusive links into MS Exchange Server to kill off Apache and Linux, need I go on? There are examples upon examples.

Undermining opportunities for advancement for the poor and underprivileged though is a new low for Microsoft in my book. It’s tantamount to competing with your local church’s weekly collection by saying “pay into our bowl, not the charitable one!” in order to further corporate objectives.

I need exercise. Well, OK, we all need exercise, but not everyone needs it like I do. I’m medically obese (but only 1 Kg away from not being!) and a Type 2 diabetic. So exercise is more important to me as it helps me to control my blood sugar levels, reduce my weight, and fight diabetes.

My medical advisors suggested I need do half an hour of exercise three times per week. Anything that got my heart rate up would do, they said - even walking. Well, to begin with, walking was all I could manage! But I wanted to know how far I was going, and if it was possible to measure the calories I was burning too.

So I bought an iPod Nano and the Nike+ shoe attached pedometer. The idea of course is that I buy a special pair of Nike trainers that have a slot for the tiny Nike+ device to fit into. So I paid out about £80 for a pair of Nikes, the style of which I hated, and they didn’t fit very well either. But the shop only had two different styles of trainers, and this was the pair that suited me the most.

Now I like Nike - when I was an athlete all those years ago they were my shoe of choice. My favourites were a pair of Nike Elite racing flats which were light and very comfortable. Since then they seem to have become led by image rather than ergonomics though, because these new trainers were awful to wear. Not only that, but they were really shoddily made as well, with tatty stitching, roughly cut lace holes, and no sign at all that my £80 had really been needed to buy a shoe of such poor quality. I’ve seen £20 trainers that were better finished. I should have kept my money in my pocket.

I persevered with the shoes for a week, but then I found a really neat device called the iRun which is basically a pod for the Nike+ pedometer. It attaches nicely to the laces of my far more comfortable Reeboks, and performs exactly the same function as if it were in the Nike shoes. Except that I can walk further and faster with the Reeboks on because the Nikes are just too uncomfortable.

The shoes end of things wasn’t my only problem though. How do I attach the iPod to myself when I am out exercising? First of all I bought the Nike+ armband iPod holder. Well, that was a waste of money for starters: it wouldn’t even go around my arm! Even if I had managed it it is a huge piece of elasticated textile that is bound to make you sweat, and that brings me out in a rash so I prefer not to do that. Luckily the shop took it back, no questions asked.

Next I bought the Apple armband. Slightly better this time, thinner and at least it fitted - just - but now there was nowhere to plug in the radio pick-up for the signals from the Nike+ pedometer! The bottom of the holder totally blocked the port. Well, Apple, that was good design, wasn’t it? Another waste of money.

Then I found my solution. The XtremeMac TuffWrap Accent. It’s a silicone cover with a clip at the back which allows me to attach the iPod anywhere. It’s really useful - and I can plug in the pedometer receiver.

So how does the collection work in action? Faultlessly. I select Nike+iPod from my iPod’s menu, select the type of workout - Basic (pure measurement of what you do, nothing more); Time (which tells you when your exercise period is complete); Distance (so you can preset how far you go and stop when you have completed it); and Calories (where I believe you can set the amount of calories you want to burn and the iPod tells you when to stop exercising when you have reached that target).

So far I’ve only used Basic, because I don’t exercise in a gym and have landmarks, places and people to give me feedback which I prefer. I’ve had some great walks through the countryside, getting close to nature in its own backyard. That can be so motivating.

I can choose whether to listen to music or not, and if so, which playlist, random or ordered. At the end of each session I get a spoken overview of how far I went, my average speed, and can see on the screen how many calories I have burned. If I have done a record long or record fast session I get a voice over from either Paula Radcliffe or Lance Armstrong giving me a motivatory congratulation. That’s a nice touch.

Overall then I would say getting the iPod and Nike+ was a good decision, but buying the Nike products was not what I had expected them to be. Once upon a time Nike were the Apple of the training shoe industry, now they’re just trading on their name alone and aren’t really producing the goods anymore, from my experiences.

If you are thinking of buying the Nike+, just don’t think you need Nike trainers to use it. There are plenty of ways you can attach it to your favourite and most comfortable trainers. Wearing uncomfortable shoes is not good for diabetics so I am off Nike now.

There is a website which you can connect to and upload all your information to, but personally I would prefer to upload it to my Mac computer, but this seems impossible from what I have found so far. I am not going to add my personal data to any website though! No way!

Marks out of Ten for individual items:

Apple iPod Nano: 9/10
Nike+ pedometer: 9/10
Nike+ armband: 1/10
Nike trainers: 1/10
iRun pod fix: 9/10
Apple armband: 3/10
XtremeMac TuffWrap Accent: 8/10
Nike+ website idea: not for me!

Overall Mark for the system as a whole: 8/10

A little while ago I wrote my piece on the dietary regime I’ve been following to combat Diabetes. I was diagnosed with the condition on 15th April 2007 and spent a week in hospital. Since then I’ve been trying to live as healthily as possible, and it’s had a marked effect on my life. For the better. My goal was to combat the disease through a combination of healthy eating and exercise. I wanted to lose 10Kg of weight each year for three years.

Well, the changes to my lifestyle and my attitude are really paying off big time. In seven weeks I’ve lost 8Kg - that’s about 18 lbs, or 1 stone 4 lbs in old money. Without feeling hungry. And while enjoying my food even more than before. Different food, sure, but it certainly isn’t boring. Maybe one meal a week is forgettable, but that’s just down to bad planning, or experimenting to find a new dish.

The weighing scales I bought that can calculate the proportion of body fat, water and muscle also show big improvements in the kind of weight I carry. Fat down from 35% to under 30%, with muscle mass up from 34% to 37%. When I lose my next Kilo I will officially no longer be considered obese! Man, that feels good.

Before my change to a healthy lifestyle I had got to the stage where just getting up off the floor from playing with my one year old was a struggle that needed all four limbs to lift me up - tragic I know, but so many people have similar problems. Now, I almost float up stairs, and relish the next staircase to walk up. Getting up off the floor is easy again - no hands needed! Because I’m not on a fad diet I’m not just losing weight, I’m also getting stronger. My neck is thinner and more muscley, my paunchy stomach is much, much smaller, and my muscles glow even when I’m sitting still, so I am burning more sugar just because there are more of them.

I’m also doing well on the medication front. Within a very short period of time after leaving the hospital I managed to give up insulin, although I am still taking Metformin to help my body deal with the sugars better. Just last week I gave up the blood pressure drugs that had been necessary when my blood pressure was 140 over 90. Now it is pretty stable around 105 over 70 - without any medication at all to reduce it.

My seven day average blood sugar level is 5.7 mmol/L which compares nicely with a non-diabetic value of 3.9 to 5.5 mmol/L. I’ll stay on the Metformin a bit longer though, it seems to be helping, and I have to lose quite a bit more weight yet. But I’ll get there.

Of course, I’m lucky with the weather at the moment. Spring and summer are here, with mostly dry, sunny days in which it is really easy to cycle or walk just that little bit further. But winter lies ahead and I have to prepare for it. I need an exercise machine.

I looked in a couple of gyms at the equipment they have, and compared it with the normal consumer stuff you see in sports shops. Mostly the consumer stuff is a pale comparison of the serious equipment a gym can provide. But I haven’t signed up for a gym yet. Most gym memberships fail after two months. In fact, for some people just signing the application form gives them more of a workout than they ever get in the gym itself.

I asked around at a couple of manufacturers at the prices of new kit - too much for me - but they sometimes get in reconditioned stuff after gyms have had the kit for three years on a contract before they renew with brand new equipment. I found I could save 75% off the cost of new gym level equipment, fully refurbished and with all the latest software just by waiting a little. Delivery should be just around the time the weather changes and outdoor exercise becomes less easy, and I’ll be paying about the same as I would for a top level consumer item that would actually give me less back.

I’m going to get a bike, rather than a rowing machine or treadmill for no other reason than that of space saving. For exercising the rest of me I’ll continue doing those circuit training exercises I learned all those years ago when as an athlete I tagged onto the weekly rugby training sessions, together with some isometrics.

Isometrics are easy to do, build muscle mass quickly, and take very little time. They also have the benefit of being possible anywhere. The basic principle is that you push against an immovable object so that your muscles try and try to move it, but instead just stimulate their own growth.

One example of an isometric exercise is to stand in a doorway, place the palm of each hand on either side of the wall so that if the wall were not there your hands would meet palm to palm with elbows bent so you push them together, trying to squash the wall. Another good one is to stand with bent legs for as long as you can manage, rest for a minute or so, and then repeat two more times. It’s amazingly effective.

Just don’t do isometrics without something to get your cardio-vascular system going as well though - that means one of cycling/swimming/walking/jogging so that your heart rate reaches a level sufficient to burn off fats, about 120-130 for me from what I can gather (see previous post about this).

Equipment that has helped me
I get paid nothing for saying this, and have no connection with any of the companies concerned other than my positive experience as a customer.

• Kitchen Scales: Tefal Copper 5 digital scales - very small, fit anywhere
• Bathroom scales: Soehnle Body Balance Rio (measures weight, fat, water, muscle masses)
• Pedometer: Silver Apple iPod Nano with Nike+ (calculates calories burned)
• Cyclometer: Marks and Spencer (calculates calories and fat burned)
• Glucometer: AccuChek Aviva (for measuring blood sugar)
• Blood Pressure meter: Omron R6 Wrist Blood Pressure monitor (simple, light, quick way to get a reading of blood pressure one handed)

I’ll write some more another time and let you know how my regime goes. I’m quite enjoying life at the moment though, and I am so pleased something like Diabetes came along and shocked me out of my apathy. I’m enjoying life a whole lot better now, and feel a lot more positive about myself too.

As the song goes “Always look on, the bright, si-de of life! Da-dum, da-dum die dum die dum…“

A lot has been written about Microsoft and it’s stranglehold over desktop and office systems, and rightly so as that company has shown they do not use their monopoly power ethically. They claim to be innovators, but their latest Operating System, Microsoft Vista, is no more than a copy of Apple’s OS X - it even looks the same. But enough of that. We all know about that monopoly. But are there any others?

Many people complain about the growing prevalence of the iPod/iTunes mix, but that is far less pervasive IMO with far more media providers, and no hardware or software lockins. When someone brings out a competing product that is more stylish and easier to use, Apple will not be able to force consumers not to buy it as Microsoft can with Windows and Office.

The other monopoly in computing though is one not often written about, but one that is nonetheless becoming problematic for consumers, particularly European ones.

I am talking here about Adobe/Macromedia.

Their stranglehold over the graphics market (particularly web design) is awesome. When the two companies merged recently I was amazed the US competition authorities didn’t complain about the reduction in competition this would cause. The result has predictably been to create a monster that is abusing its monopoly power with hugely exorbitant prices for its software.

One good example of this is their newly launched CS3 product. The price in Europe is nearly twice that of the identical US product when measured in USD terms. It’s also about twice the price of the Macromedia Dreamweaver/Fireworks bundle I bought a few years ago.

In former times, pre-merger, the top applications for web design were Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe’s GoLive! which wasn’t quite as good, but at least the competition between them kept prices down.

Since the merger in Dec 2005, Adobe has had a free rein to raise prices because there is nobody to undercut them anymore. There may be other editors out there, but none with the market penetration of Adobe’s package. It is widely expected that eventually Dreamweaver will have totally replaced GoLive! to the detriment of consumer choice as well. And that means prices will go up. Again.

One sure sign of being a near-monopoly is when you try to hide the fact by deflecting attention from your own business to that of others - hopefully onto others who are monopolists. Adobe’s boss, Bruce Chizen: “Microsoft is a $50 billion monopolist who’s in the software business. I take them very seriously.” Maybe he’s trying to emulate them?

I just love this.

Apple has brought out a new iPod patent that encourages people to touch their back-side touch-surface with a finger!!!

Schoolboy humour it may be, but it highlights a wonderful disconnect between American English and British English, as well as identifying just how humourous cross-cultural relations can be.

First it was Microsoft calling the Zune a name the Canadians and others reserve for male private parts. We all laughed at that one. Now Apple are doing the same. Do Americans not realise that 60 million Brits fall about laughing every time they or some other foreigner (American or German speakers particularly make this mistake) quite innocently says “it’s on the back-side” or “you can’t see it on the photograph but on his back-side you can see everything clearly”? I’ll bet you can!

You see when you, dear Foreigner, say “back-side” we Brits immediately think you are referring to our bottom - our “ass” as Americans put it. When you talk about our “ass” we first of all think of a four legged creature found in the Middle East that is a close relative of the horse, an example of which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

When we are talking to a native German speaker, we may try to remain po-faced (straight-faced) about it, but this again (if we ourselves speak German) causes much mirth (the German for “bum” is “po” you see; no, dear American reader, I am not talking about some homeless tramp, but again, an “ass”).

But back to the iPod story. The idea of the new patent is that you will sensitively run your finger around the back-side touch-surface, which will move a cursor that tells you where your finger is. Excuse me! If I had my finger on my back-side touch-surface I’d know exactly where it was, thank you…!

Leaving apart the humour, I can’t see a dual-faced product being so successful; most people like to wrap such expensive purchases up in leather cases or bind them in some other way so they cannot become easily damaged. With the new system, you’d have to leave your back-side in full view so it could be touched more easily… I’m sure there are some people reading this who might think that was a good idea. I mean, back-side touching used to be a popular pursuit in the workplace until it became sexist. Bit before my time though - but maybe Steve Jobs still remembers?