Daily notes

Interesting NASCAR overtaking technique: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v3hBPzmre2s

Today I've been looking at Mastodon and Stable Diffusion an AI picture creator similar to Dream.AI

https://stability.ai/ has a bunch of community ai builders in various media

Robot With Humans

On Twit's Tech News there was discussion about sharing work with robots, how working together the whole job is better done. Examples such as DeepBlue and the human player combining would always beat DeepBlue on its own.

Also chances to combine Roomba and a human to complete the hoovering job much quicker, each taking the parts of the work best suited to each.

It reminds me of when I worked with companies first introducing CNC machines and robot arms, there was no question of the machines working on their own, but working to extend the abilities of the worker.

So the ultimate goal of automation should be to work along with us, not replace us.

Gmail Browser Display Images Settings

I inadvertently double-clicked in GMail and selected "always display images from sender@domain.tld" This wasn't what I wanted but Googling  "gmail browser list of senders you've allowed to display images" returned info on how to display images or not globally in the Settings menu, but not how to turn it off where the link within an email has been clicked.

I have found the way. Select the 'details' down-arrow to the right of the 'receiver email address' shown in the header. This will have an entry at the bottom of the dropdown to allow images to not be displayed.

I am noting this here in case it is helpful to others.

Raspberry Pi Hints and Tips

A collection of links to useful places for RaspberryPi enthusiasts:

• http://frederickvandenbosch.be/?p=2385 Thanks to FrederickVandenbosch‏ @f_vdbosch who says: I made a dedicated post on setting up the @Raspberry_Pi headlessly, to avoid repetition in every project post. (added 18Mar20017)

It has been a few months since my last posting. I have lots of projects of interest and organising time to do them should be aided by tech, but just isn't. ToDo, task lists, calendars, etc. should be so much better than they are.

GMail recent added the auto post link to GCal which is okay, but still limited.

Still looking for a better way.

To sit or not to?

With the launch of the ConnectTVT Open Devices Lab there's a new opportunity and new facility within GROW. During launch week several people have commented upon the height of the display stand's, and this got me thinking about a discussion that has been a work meme in recent years - standing desks.

What are the pros and cons now that people have had some experience of using them?

I found a number of interesting articles on the Web discussing blogger’s experiences of using both standing and standing/sitting desks.

If you want to build one for yourself, then just ask at your local MakerSpace (e.g. rlab.org.uk), they will have the facilities to help you build one from existing materials such as those found at IKEA as shown in this guide (http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Ikea-Standing-desk-for-22-dollars.html)

But, what type of desk to build?

Constant standing seems to be as bigger a problem as constant sitting.

In his article (http://blog.pickcrew.com/why-i-killed-my-standing-desk/) Mikael Cho decides not to continue with his desk, but introduces new ideas about exercises that will tackle such things as “tight hip” which is often the underlying culprit leading to lower back problems, and then raises the issue of our mobility as we get older and what exercises can be useful to develop muscles in the body.Studies by Kelly Starrettt found a lot of people are uncomfortable with exercises such as squatting in a keep-fit gym. As linked in the article Kelly recommends three stretches to help.

Part of a series on Networked Fitness and the Quantified Self, The ReadWrite Web  post (http://readwrite.com/2013/09/26/standing-desks-productivity) by Julia Gifford starts off saying there's lot’s of companies supporting Standing Desks, Google, FaceBook and others. She looks at the history with Thomas Jefferson and Winston Churchill noted users.

She notes positive and negative aspects that vary depending on the type of activity, standing added urgency that can destroy creativity, but it can help “get things done”, give relief from headaches and help quit smoking.

On Quartz (http://qz.com/272350/theres-a-huge-hidden-downside-to-standing-desks-that-no-one-told-me-about-2/) Gywnn Guilford discovered a huge hidden downside to a standing desk but concludes that even when the crankles made it hard to put shoes on, she never considered going back. She lists 5 points that she learned from working with a standing desk.

• Switching is more complicated that just standing
• Choosing a standing or a more complicated stand/sit version
• Differences for men and women
• Understanding the research results
• To sit or stand, changing your work protocol

So I am wondering about others experience and views on Standing vs Sit. Should the Lab offer a choice? And if so what tasks to be facilitated on which style?

Planning a new blog for my use of the OpenTRV

I went to meetup with the OpenTRV team on Saturday. We had a great discussion about the current place and future plans for the project. Although I have been following the project and I have printed some of the first cases as part of TVRRUG and I received my tinkering kit board a while back, I was unclear what I could do with it.

I now have a Conrad FTS TRV that is the same model as the Rev2 boards have been designed to work with. Mine is a German version, but I believe it is the same as the UK FS20 as mentioned in this thread from the opentrv archives.

So I am going to create a new blog to follow the work I do on this project.