Someone's been snooping in politics

I didn't say I couldn't read. Just not post. I can't waste a whole day just reading a few threads. Although I'm trying really hard so far today.

Wookie got me sucked into the damn SE politics thread though which I didn't know existed.

I'll probably accidentally post in Politics at some point.

The issue is really this tho:

Yup. Until it bites them in the ass.

There was a story around here recently of someone 'hacking' into a ladies video monitor and saying creepy things to her while she was in the room with her kid. Stories like that help increase awareness but even then consumers aren't smart enough to determine what products actually are secure.

How can you? What device has on the box: secured with an old algorithm that can be broken in ten minutes?

Thanks! I'll be working on mobile apps that will control quadcopters.

Can't post the URL since it has a curse word in it: search "internetofsh*t twitter" and have a few laughs.

and lots more. I think the biggest issue will be that nothing will actually talk to each other, with every single product being its own wall-garden and half-assed API. It will be like the 90s all over again, when we had those programmable remotes, but far worse. "There's an app for that!" will take on a whole new meaning.

Apple Watch peeps, how have you liked it so far?

I'm considering getting one, mostly for the fitness tracking and golf apps.

I was really in love with mine to use as an authentication token for my work computers until my computer asked one of my managers if they'd like to unlock my computer... I like it for notifications the voice recognition is better than what's on the phone somehow but I probably use the timer on it the most. YMMV obviously, just as obviously wait and see what's up with the 2.

Well, I was as shocked as anyone. But here's what happened.

I'm trying to get back in shape (or at least what I consider to be in shape) and I love tracking data so I started looking at Fitbits. But the Fitbit doesn't have a few features that I'd really like. So I started looking at other options and made my way to the Microsoft Band. And I found some pretty awesome reviews for how to use the band when golfing. Around the same time a friend who I golf with occasionally told me he got the Apple Watch because it's great for golf.

I went and tried the Apple Watch on and it actually feels really comfortable. The Microsoft band I couldn't try on (Best Buy told me to buy it and I could return it within 14 days - but I don't really trust store employees for things like this) but looking at their crappy little model it seems really bulky and uncomfortable.

So my wish list of features is:
- track HR
- track score, distance, club selection, etc. for golf.
- be durable enough to take canoeing / curling (where I might fall...).

I can't find an option that actually has all of this though.

I think my current plan is to buy a Fitbit Charge HR and wait until Spring to see if there's a new Apple Watch release and decide then if it's worth it to buy.

And one final disclaimer! I sit on a monthly committee that pays a small honorarium which I long ago decided would go towards golf. And it's just enough to cover both a Fitbit and Apple Watch... So I think that's a sign.

And now I've probably stretched the meaning of LC as far as it can go before hitting NC.

This doesn't really seem like a glowing review.

Honestly the notifications / phone integration isn't really compelling to me except for maybe while doing something like golfing/driving where I'll have my phone with me but probably not physically on me or in my line of sight.

But that doesn't happen all that often.

Any other cool apps?

I never felt it was a "must have" device but it is so personal that it would be easy for your use of it to be different than mine. I like the fitness tracking and reminder to get up and move every hour, but I still use the strava app on my phone when I go hiking or biking. I'm still glad I have it and I look at my phone a lot less during the day but if I had to do it again I might not get the stainless steal one.

Fair enough. Thanks for the feedback. That reinforces my decision to just wait until the Spring and see what happens.

Watches suck dirty butthole for tracking heart rate.

There's addons you can get to do it better, but that doesn't require the watch, just a smart phone.

I had a coding test on HackerRank. It was a total mess. The questions were poorly written, the sample expected i/o was contradictory, and the outputs in the grader part were confusing to say the least.

An example was something like:

given this array:
[1, 4, 2, 5, 6, 19]
answer: 7

justification:
the given array is [4, 2, 5, 6, 19] ...

???

I couldn't understand a single bit of it. The SQL stuff was hard to decipher. They didn't even say what SQL system I should be targeting for!

In any case, I wrote back and told them I bombed since I didn't understand any of it. I did submit a few answers, or rather, my interpretation of the questions, but basically gave it up half way through. I honestly didn't know how to tell them the exam needed considerable work.

Wow that's awful.

Personally I wouldn't hesitate to explain very frankly what the problems with the test are. After seeing something like that I don't think I'd be interested in working there anyway.

array.sum % 30


ldo

I have a Fitbit Charge HR. It does seem to track my heart rate accurately. I have moniored my heart rate with other devices while doing cardio exercise and it correlates well with readingd I've gotten with them. The one feature I would like to have is being water proof for swimming laps. I like the UX that it provides but ymmv.

That's good to hear.

The water proof thing is a bit worrying to me. I won't swim with it, but I want to be able to wear it when doing things like canoeing where its going to get splashed and submerged a little bit for brief periods of time. It sounds like it should withstand that...

I have read accounts on the net that indicate it really is quite water resistent.

That's not what the class action lawsuit against fitbit says

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/6/107...-rate-tracking

I jumped in a hot tub with my surge last night and it's doing just fine. Also re: heart rate accuracy, it's fairly competent to give you an idea of where you are i.e. When I'm running it'll be around 150 so I don't really care if it's in actuality 158 or something, as long as I know my heart rate is elevated correctly.

Where it struggles is quick changes in heart rate, like when I'm lifting weights and then resting or you climb a bunch of stairs to get to your apartment. It seems to lag behind before it finally goes up so you're sitting there breathing hard and it says 65 bpm. Only time I've had a complaint with it.

I'm not really that worried about accuracy. I read a good review that summed up my feelings. It was talking about how it's not particularly accurate but seems generally consistent - which is actually way more important.

When I was tracking calories I approached it the same way. It doesn't really matter if I under or over count calories for food. As long as I'm consistent it will correlate with gaining/losing weight and I can adjust accordingly. As long as the data tells you what you need to do more/less of - it's ok.