As a geek I’m guilty of perhaps not getting as much exercise as I need. Part of the problem is finding the time but that comes down to motivation. With the wonders of this socially networked age it’s easier to use technology to help with that motivation.

The geek in me likes stats. If I know I’m doing good, and overall improving against myself or friends then I have the incentive to keep going and doing better. You can do something simple like maintaining an excel spreadsheet or twittering your workout but as someone who’s recently rediscovered cycling after 20 years in cars I’m really blown away by SportsDo. All you need is a Windows Mobile device with GPS capabilities, a data connection and … to get off the computer and get some exercise!

Your first step is to register on the SportsDo.Net website and create a profile. From there you can download and install the Windows Mobile client (other devices are supported) or you can visit their over-the-air provisioning site directly from your phone (you can try out the application before buying – you’re just limited to the distance you can cover).

You’re not limited by specific sports (and you don’t have to pre-select or choose anything up front) – when you start a new activity on your device you can choose from a predefined list (cycling, walking, canoeing, running, snowboarding, skiing, rowing, adventuring, motor-sports, horse riding and many others) or create your own profile.

Once you hit “new” on your device it starts recording GPS data so it knows where you are and how fast you are going (and from that it can calculate calories etc).

When you are exercising – be is a brisk walk or a full out cycle race – you can stop and take photos to record the even. They are, of course, geo-tagged and will be uploaded along with the rest of the data to your online diary.

Even if you don’t stop you can check the display at any time to see how far you’ve gone or how long you’ve been out. You can also choose to have any of the statistics (location, speed, distance traveled, gradient and calories burned and others) announced via your phones speakers or headphones.

You can choose to share your stats live (if you have a phone with a data plan and coverage) and there is also an option to automatically text buddies with updates.

Once you complete an activity you can edit the description and upload it (with any photos) to the web where you can then share with friends – including a Virtual Earth animation of the trail you took (shows relative speeds), synchronized to graphs showing gradients and speed. An example of the sort details and an animation of one of my recent cycle rides.

If you are going on an activity in an area you might not know that well SportsDo also have Location Packs available. These contain details of trails, restaurants and other amenities, ski lifts etc. The packs are continually updated as information about an area improves, and the packs cover many popular resorts.

As well as documenting your sporting prowess you can use SportsDo to tell friends and family where you are (similar to the option for Navizon users). You can even embed the information in your blog if you want to share that much ;)

Not long ago I realized I was getting a little heavier and slower (and yes, older) so to help motivate myself (there’s nothing like walking past an expensive piece of equipment every day) I got an elliptical.

It was great. I started to lose weight (and thanks to the pushups and situps I felt able to do get into slightly better shape). Of course motivation remains an issue (it’s always easy to find excuses).

Pounding away for half hours at a time (especially just before Christmas when the girls were away) gave me some thinking time… how to combine the aspects of motivation with the social networking tools that we have today – Facebook and Twitter for instance.

Twitter seemed like an obvious choice. Nice short messages that force clarity, and a really approachable API so that even I – now coming up to 18 months since I actually wrote code for a living – could get to grips with.

You may have noticed the occasional Twitter message from me (and a few other folks now) that reads like “@gtFtr Elliptical Lvl 7.5 30 mins 2.2 miles cal 318 77 watts 4.4 mph HR 152” – well those are sharing the stats from my latest workout with my pet project.

The trackers (different exercises) are all outlined on the blog, and it’s fairly easy to add new ones if you don’t see something you need. It is very much a part time project and there’s quite a to do list… assuming I ever get the time to do any of it (open to suggestions from folks with more skill, more time, or a good plan).

Feel free to check it out, suggest some new trackers or just laugh at my progress…

After a year here in the US I've noticed some changes. My accent is once again shifting in some inexorable drift to a new median sound (I don't sound English, Australian or American. Most often I'm asked if I'm South African. Or Danish. That must say something about my linguistic skills), I can order a double tall eggnog latte with whipped cream and only shudder a little bit, I can actually work out from a handful of change and greenbacks how much money I have in my pocket... and (possibly a result of the lattes) I now need bigger trousers.

So, in an attempt to stop me becoming elliptical we've installed a hulking brute of a machine downstairs (Nautilus EV718).

Even if I feel the will power slipping I suspect the sheer mass of the machine will be enough to drag me out of bed an extra half hour early in the morning lest it make it's way up the stairs and do something Terminator-style to me while I sleep!

The problem with pounding away on this thing and having time to think (between yelling at the dog to get out of the way of the moving bits and trying to catch the iPod as it flies off on it's own little adventure) and imagine a future where this beast is part of SkyNet (or at least a less inimical version) and using my LiveID and Spaces I could automatically share my workouts, track my progress, get friends to nag me if they don't get a daily twit to say I've done my time. We could have leagues and do lots of trend analysis to see if it's working. Network machines together and I could race a friend the other side of the world (perhaps with the Xbox or Media Center delivering cool graphics and a pumping sound track to complement the exercise) and if I'm staying in a hotel I could hit they gym, type in my LiveID and have the exercise profile and tracking work from there as well.

I don't know what it would cost to add a network enabled, token reading Windows Embedded device to these things (and even if it could be retro-fitted to older models) or how much work it would take to push this "platform" out across multiple vendors... but I'd love to have my Facebook profile say "Jeremy burnt 150 calories this morning, and traveled 1 mile. Average level 5.6, average heart rate 158"

If will power doesn't work... peer pressure sure would ;)

In what must be a very bizarre commentary on the times we live in early seasons of Sesame Street have been released on DVD - cleared labeled that they are not suitable for young children!

Is the world becoming such a sanitized, nannied place that Sesame Street isn't bland enough to feed our kids? No wonder Grimm's Fairy Tales have been sanitized to the point of Disneyesque mindless pap.

Yet in the same world we expose kids to violent video games and cartoons that leave them inured and unable to judge right from wrong.

After Rhiannons little accident with some oatmeal we've been watching the healing progress on her leg.

I'm very happy to report that things are looking good - mobility and strength are pretty much normal and the biggest worries now are keeping sunscreen on it and patching up her knee when she falls off her bike!

It's still going to be quite a while before it's settled right down to normal but it's so much better than it was back in February. Not too itchy, doesn't hurt and while she does get a bit tired in the leg she's dancing and competing (did well in Portland and Seattle in the last couple of months and looking forward to Vancouver this month)

Huge thanks to everyone who's sent Rhiannon support over the last few months... it's very much appreciated.

Hopefully in another 5 months both legs will be looking the same again....

If some members of the U.S. Chocolate Industry have their way, we will soon see a detrimental change in the quality of chocolate you love. Their proposal is to change the basic formula of chocolate in order to use vegetable fat substitutes in place of cocoa butter, and to use milk substitutes in the place of nutritionally superior milk.  These changes will have adverse effects on the eating, physical and nutritional quality of chocolate, and beg the question: What consumer benefit is associated with implementing these changes? The answer is none.

I like chocolate just the way it is. Made with 100% cocoa butter and real milk, not than some concocted blend of fats and other substitutes.

Without proper labeling, consumers will find it difficult and confusing to differentiate the current gold standard of real chocolate vs. this new concoction, which has substitute ingredients. This will amount to economic fraud to the consumer as the product will become cheaper with inferior ingredients.

The proposed formula contains large quantities of bad Trans fats, which are not good for your health.

Cocoa butter is unique; vegetable fats can only masquerade as cocoa butter.

The eating properties, flavor and mouth feel will all be different - they're messing with the user experience and pleasure.

All manufacturers, even those who do not want to support this, will be forced to convert to the new concoction due to the economic advantages associated with the new formula and their wanting to remain effectively competitive within the category. The net effect will be a total downgrade in the eating enjoyment and quality for chocolate.

When does it end? Sawdust and brown food color?

Come on, for the last several hundred years (if not longer) chocolate has been taken to have a particular minimum list of ingredients.

To allow something that's a bland artificial substitute simply to allow a few corportations to make an extra buck is just plain wrong.

Let them call it chocolike. or candy. or processed slurry - there are plenty of names for it, but leave chocolate alone. I know what it's doing to my body and accept the risks but this - it's playing Russian roulette with a nations sweet tooth

What next?

If this passes I shudder to think.

Act now before it's too late. Read more here, and sign the petition here. Do it now while you still know what's in that peanut butter cup....

There's nothing worse for a parent than waking up to the sound of their child in pain. It happened to me this morning. Rhiannon has been making herself oatmeal (something she's done may times before both in Australia and here) and managed to slip on some of the dogs mucus (the poor thing is recovering from pneumonia still) and poured hot water on herself.

Straight into a bath of cool water (which stung no end) while we rang 911.

They arrived in amazingly good time, wrapped her up and rushed her off to Harborview Medical Center (where she still is, with Storm, at the moment)

The doctors are all quite confident she'll do well with little or no scaring - and of course as with her other hospital trips she's being a real trooper (I'm so proud of her!). In her usual fashion (proving that she does have the stomach for her chosen profession of vet) she quite happily watched as they pulled and cut away the dead skin from around the burn, laughed as the blisters bust and refused fall asleep (despite the medical staff giving her enough narcotic and mood leveler to stun a mule) until after the job was finished.

Typically for a child of this generation, she had the presence of mind to remind me to take photos...

So after Bryns trip to Aerowood, my little visit to Overlake and now this... let's hope our medical emergency quote is over for a while.

Update Sunday: Just got back from spending a day with the girls in hospital. Rhiannon is feeling the effects a bit more now as it all sets in. She was great with her first bandage change and although it hurts has been doing well on her physio. They're not letting her out today as it was quite a big burn on her leg and over her knee so they want to make sure it's healing nicely, no infection and she's got full movement before they let her out. Hopefully Monday or Tuesday at this point. Storm is staying over again and I've come home to tend to the dog.

Update Tuesday: Well, not looking so good. As the dead skin sloughs (or is pulled off) off it's getting a bit more painful. The physio is hurting a bit (but as usual she's doing her best) though there's a medication free technique being trialed in the ward (partly funded by Microsoft founder and philanthropist Paul Allen) that has some amazing results. Because the knee still isn't showing any sign of healthy skins they're starting to wonder how deep the burn is. Looks like she'll be in over the weekend at the least. The graft word has been mentioned but not as a certainty yet. Apart from the VR therapy Rhiannon’s highlight today was Sarah and Ruby paying a visit and art class. She says "Hi" and "Thanks" to everyone who's wished her well - and got me to tke some smily photos as well!

Update (Monday): I spent Saturday night in hospital with Rhiannon to give Storm a break. It was good to spend time with Rhiannon but I think she looked after me more than I helped her! Sadly she's not healed enough be released but she's on the mend and looking much better. It's horrid for her at the moment because around day 7 to 10 are the most painful as the skin and nerves are reforming and very tender. I hate seeing her in pain after her bandage changes and even harder is the regular exercise she has to take to get the leg straight and bending properly again. Hopefully she'll be able to work through the pain and stretches and get to a point where the doctors are happy to let her go home (but not until she's fit and well). It's tough (emotionally) on us grown-ups but I wish sometimes I could take the physical ouch and discomfort for her.

Update (Tuesday): Well, we discovered today that Ativan is not something Rhiannon should have. There's something ironic (but not amusing when it's your child) in having medication that's supposed to reduce anxiety having her raging and emotionally out of control. The good news is that the healing is progressing nicely and the amount of cream and bandages is slowly diminishing. Before the drugs caused their reaction she had her best wondcare and physio yesterday - Storm says she had a nice straight leg and heel... just hope it keeps up once she's back on an even keel.

Update (Thursday): The girl is home :) Much to the delight of the dog we're all back at home, sleeping in our own beds again. Actually, the dogs not too happy with that as he's back in his basket not sharing the bed with me! We've got another few weeks of pain meds, stretching and taking it very easy (interspersed wth clinic visits and maybe still a skin graft) but... things are heading in the right direction.

Update (Day 15): Two weeks after the accident her arm is looking really good and the leg is starting to come together nicely. We still won't know for a couple of weeks if the healing will be sufficient and the doctors won't recommend a graft but for now here it is in all its g(l)ory

And probably more importantly will we ever know.

Random surfing today I came across an article with the very provocative title "Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice". Basically the story is that DCA (dichloroacetate) has some pretty amazing results in non-human testing, but because it's not patentable big business isn't going to help fund the $300+ million human trials.

The article, in fairness, also links to some rebuttals such as this ScienceBlogs post that, while not dismissing the idea does pour a little cold water in its direction.

Like many people I've lost family to cancer and would love to see it eradicated, ideally very soon. I'm not happy that the big pharmaceutical companies don't do the philanthropic thing and maybe gang up to fund tests into a number of these alternatives - but that's not what they're in business to do (though I wonder how their shareholders would feel given a choice between very expensive drugs with limited efficacy vs a virtually free cure when if they or a loved one are confronted with the issue).

Which leaves the World Health Organization, national Governments, the United Nations and charities having to fund this... and no-one seems to be clamoring to throw money and resources at the problem right now.

Part of the problem of course is chicken and egg. There are many potentially worthwhile schemes in desperate need of funding to prove that their solution to world-impacting problem X is viable and thus worth investing in....

I wonder if this is a project that can be helped with BOINC to at least get it closer to finding out the truth?

Well, it's been an exciting few days. Not the sort of fun and excitement I'd have liked though.

After the power trials and tribulations were over and Bryn starting to look like he's on the mend, late Sunday evening I started feeling a little under the weather. After spending most of the night running to the bathroom I was stuck in bed, shivering and in pain.

I wasn't making much sense so Storm rang the medical center who suggested our best course of action was to call 9-1-1 as Storm doesn't drive and I wasn't in any fit state to get behind the wheel.

The emergency services were very prompt - luckily I've not much experience of calling for ambulances and the like - and the care first class... not long after admission I had a drip in my arm replenishing fluids and soon after that they added some pain and anti-nausea meds. According to Storm I was less than coherent for the several hours following!

Nick picked us up and dropped us home (it's so good to have a friendly face in a foreign land) and I've been slowly trying to get back on my feet (some really foul tasting antibiotics and some very drowsy inducing pain meds).

Sadly just as I seem to be on the mend Rhiannon has come down with a (hopefully less serious) case of the same.

Storm has been doing her usual sterling job of making us feel human (anyone who can work out how to make an organic chicken soup in a town she's only been living in for a few weeks has to be some sort of miracle worker!)