Posts Tagged ‘sleep’

Apparently there is a new iPhone application out there that lets me monitor my sleep cycle by simply sleeping with the iPhone at the corner of the bed. The application is called Sleep Cycle by Lexware Labs. It is currently a $0.99 app in the iTunes store as an introductory offer.

This is my sleep cycle for Feb 15

The application is simple: Set the alarm for your wake time. For me, I don’t usually set an alarm – When I want to get up, I wake up. Nonetheless, I did setup the alarm for testing sake.

I set the iPhone on the corner of the bed. They say you need to plug in the device to maintain power, but I am not ready to sleep with 115 Volts sitting by my head just yet. I had the phone charged up, so I left the cable on the computer. It did go through about 50-60% of battery life during the evening. They say you could drain your battery and the alarm won’t go off, but they do suggest that if you don’t want to keep it plugged in, you might want to set another alarm so you don’t miss your wake up time.

Where to put the iPhone while sleeping

I suppose if you also have one of those foam beds that don’t transfer motion, you will not be able to use the application – It would be cool to try, though. I should ask a friend who does have one of those beds to try out.

The program uses the accelerometer to judge when you move on your bed. The phone will then determine what part of sleep you are in. I know when I wake up in the middle of night, the first thing I will do is flip sides.

This also means you have to sleep alone – or in a King Bed with 2 spring mattresses for this to work properly.

There are some other limitations – You cannot play any other music while this program is running. If you only have an iPod, you won’t be able to use this app. It’s a limitation of iPod – when the device turns off, the accelerometer does, too. I don’t know if it will work with iPad, but I would guess the same thing goes with the accelerometer.

So I used no cable, I did get about 8 hours, although it got tougher around 8 A.M. to sleep. I just don’t sleep that much. I also left my case on, which could change the numbers. You have to put the phone face-down, in which I placed it right on the spring of the bed for best use.

It was the first night of sleep, so I will try this for the next few nights. Will see what my sleep cycle says.

I remember when the headband was popular in the 80’s. Olivia Newton John wanted to get Physical, Jim McMahon was doing the Superbowl Shuffle and let’s not forget Flashdance – What a Feeling! But nowadays the headband pretty much is in the past. That is unless you are trying to get a decent nights’ sleep. Then the MyZEO is what you need to help you get one.

You put the MyZEO on at night and let the computer monitor your sleep habits. Then after a while, you can see paterns develop and try to find ways to change the patterns so you can sleep better. The bed side appliance will let you know how you are doing for sleep. All by visualizing your sleep.

In this video, Kara talks to the folks at MyZEO about sleep habits. One thing to note – this is not EEP or will this be a substitute for any medical sleep study. But if you just want a better sleep, then you might want to check this out.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (67.1MB)

The last day of the Consumer Electronics show is upon us and we were completely ready for it. Because the 9 person team was so efficient, we were able to cover most of the show in the 3 days. Today it was walking through the International side, catching a couple more interviews throughout the other halls, and of course stream the Day 2 Live Show from the NBC Universal booth.

Kara Karsten joined us on camera since not only did she review the one of two videos we created, but this item became the pick of the day. The Zeo Personal Sleep coach.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (91.6MB)

Well, whereas most people were getting on planes and shuffling home to their families, some of us stayed the extra days to enjoy the sites, sounds and warm weather. That, and it was a special deal if I left on Tuesday instead of Sunday.

The day started at 10 am as I woke up from a very hard sleep. I shuffled downstairs for a little while because the local fox affiliate had the Giants game on. Of course, I wanted to watch a bit of the Packer game.

By halftime, I knew this game was done, so I went back up to my room to nap and work. It’s an interesting multitasking function for you need mad skills to do it. Nonetheless, I finished uploading pictures and blog posts from the previous day.

The afternoon was mostly sight seeing. I walked down the main strip and back. It’s amazing how heat with little humidity can not make you sweat as much.

I got back to the room after dinner and started to get some more work done. That is when I found out, via Twitter,  a group of people were still around and wanted to get together for dinner. I already ate, but could use some desert. Therefore, I headed over to the Hilton for a little networking.

We deemed it the “unofficial Post blogworld tweetup”. It consisted of Zane from Zaneology, Wayne Sutton, Edward Morita, Kate Buck jr, Jen Wojcik and Nichole Simon. We talked about Blogging, Tweeting, Bumping (the iPhone Application, that is), Tattoos and SXSW.

The reason why on Tattoos is because Ed has a Wordpress Tattoo on his arm. He had a few, but this one was the coolest, in my opinion. And unlike the Zune guy, he’s not going to get rid of his tattoo.

We finished our drinks, the staff kicked us out of the Buffet, and that brought me back to the Hotel. I found out that the A/C – which I haven’t used all week – actually doesn’t work too well. It’s kinda loud. It wasn’t really hot in the room, but slightly uncomfortable. I ran it for about an hour, then everything was fine.

What a great day it turned out to be. I met some great people, learned a few more tricks and got work done. One more day, then I close the books on #BWE09.

Were gonna be short on Ramblings since it’s another fun filled weekend.

Happy Independence Day

I am writing this on July 4th, so I shall say it. If you are not in the US, shoot off some fireworks anyway. It’s fun – unless you are in a country that doesn’t make it fun, then just read on.

We spent the majority of last night blowing stuff up. I can say that I enjoyed the night a lot. Being with friends and just relaxing to the warm sound of BANG! POP! BOOM!

Tonight, we play in the Dells, and although that’s fun too, it’s a different group.

Summer of Podcasts Contest is Underway

Wednesday marked the start of the Summer of Podcasts contest. PC Mac Smackdown, Simon Sez IT and Bageltech News are the first show to listen to. Collect the codeword, then go to Podcastmadness.com and enter it in.

New Studio

I worked in the initial videos from the new studio this week. Still have a little work to do. Nonetheless, the new studio will have a lot of great advantages to it. I am looking forward to this new opportunity.

Starting Back up the LIVE SHOW?

It’s been a few months since the last episode of the Geekazine LIVE show was aired. I think it’s time to bring it back.

Problems in Banking

If you use Paypal, it can be great for money transfers. However, it can also become a nightmare. Especially if something goes wrong. I am not going to talk too much more about it right now, simply because there are still things pending out there. Nonetheless, I did have some issues this week.

Blogworld – New Media Expo

Started getting prepared for this show in October. A lot to plan – flight, hotel, show, which shorts I am going to pack, etc.  I will definitely be there. Even if I have to sleep in the alley by the convention center.

That’s all for now. It was a slow week. Next week will be chuck full of goodness, so stay tuned.

Day Off - Sort of
A late Ramblings this week as I decided to stay offline last week. It was a long week and I was playing all weekend. It has been a while since I last took more than 24 hours off a computer, so that is a big feat for me.

HP Tech Forum

I had a fun time talking and working with Andy McCaskey and Kara Karsten with SDRNews. We had such a blast. We also put forward the mobile interview booth rig. We call it the “MacGyver” rig. Nonetheless, it was connected to uStream and we were able to conduct a few interviews for the event. Check out all the info on the Twitter log at #HPTF.

Great to meet some new bloggers: Shane Pitman of Neowin, John Obeto of AbsoluteWindows. We had a great week along with Halley, Tom, Calvin and Rebecca from HP and Buzzcorps.

Fryes at Vegas

Also got to go to Vegas again. While we didn’t run around town as much as with CES (everything was contained in Mandalay Bay), we did venture out to go to Fryes. It’s actually my first time at Fryes and I was pretty impressed. Of course, it was Vegas, so the store has a big slot machine up in it’s store front and stacks of coins as barrier posts. The inside was very big and complete. Andy had to get a new scratch drive since the one he brought died. We got what we needed and headed back to the safe Mandalay Bay

Mandalay Bay

Wow. This is a city contained in a building. That is, if you have the money for it. My room – which I call the “Bob Newhart” room – was decked with all the amenities. TV in the bedroom and the bathroom. You can connect an external device easily and be watching a movie while soaking in the tub.

The casino area was always hoppin. There were bands both on the “Sushi Pop” and “House of Blues” stages. Restaurants all over the building. A small walk and you are at “theHotel”. They even have their own beach – where we watched the Beach Boys play a set. Well, it was a short set for me, since I had a flight to catch.

Podcast on the show floor

I had the unique opportunity to record the show from the HPTF Expo floor. It was great because I didn’t have to set up a rig, do a show, rip it down and go to another area to post. I would also like to thank Simon Calder for helping out with the show notes so I could focus on other things.

What I got out of the show

Of course, there were a lot of things I have learned from this event. I have run server rooms before, but I was a little out of touch with the current technologies. FCoE was the big one I learned about. Also building a server is a lot different than before. Greener, more powerful and reliability were the best parts.

The Keynotes were just amazing. Learning about how these big companies are working on green technologies is amazing. Dr. Michio Kaku and his views for the future were amazing. A “Smart toilet” is definitely something to get excited about.

The Weekend

I got back to Madison at 8 AM on Friday. It was a long trip (5 hours, turned into 7 due to timezone changes). What was worse was on the trip back, I was not really impressed with the airline I flew. The one thing I noticed is they were not really friendly.

An example: We flew through a couple storm fronts during the trip. Most airlines would say “This is the Captain. We are seeing some turbulance, so please remain in your seats and buckle your belts. Thank you.”

The airline I was on? Well: “Please buckle your seatbelts”.

The airline also had screens drop from above. While I would normally invite this, I was in a evening flight. I had difficulties sleeping when something like a video monitor is playing. Of course, I didn’t pack my sleeping mask. Therefore, I was stuck watching “Confessions of a Shopoholic”. While other people loved this movie, I didn’t find it as interesting.

I got home around 9 AM, in which I proceeded to collapse on the bed for a couple hours. Woke up, caught up on some work I missed during the week, then headed off to play a show. Since it was out of town, I had to pack for another night away from home.

Band Gigs

Saturday was a day of playing. We played a friends graduation, then it was up to the Dells for our regular show at the Baja bar. There were 4 different Bachelorette parties that night and they were not in the Baja at the same time. As one party left, the next one showed up. Crazy.

New Guitar

While we were in transit to the Graduation party, we stopped at a local music store. There, I found a used Acoustic / Electric guitar. I picked it up as a spare for future shows. It needs some work to it, but not much to make it ready to play out.

Lazy Sunday? Not.

Of course, the day started out with this post. A quick breakfast, then it’s getting things ready for the week. Have to work on “Week in Tech History”, then I have to figure out how to put together the new video studio. Lots of soundproofing to do.

I suppose I should get to it. Thanks again to everyone for a great week. How do you top that?

This week I thought I’d start poking fun at the Mac – PC ads. Yeah, they’ve been overdone like next weeks Thanksgiving turkey over at your uncle Sams. Hopefully this one won’t be filled with tryptophan and put your to sleep.

OK. It’s 4:51 AM and I am still up in front of the computer. I spent a lot of time on the site today doing major fixes and finishing the move of all the media. At 4 AM this morning, I completed the task. All 153 Podcasts are now on a new server. You should be able to get to any of the content over the last year.

Since I was up, I decided to commemerate with a Bitstrip. I call it an esoteric look at re-coding. Now I am going to sleep. Good night. ZZZZZ……….

Soundcard Woes – More Snow – Techpodcasts Roundtable

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Time Warner Usage Pricing – AP
College Filtering of ISP – Ars Technica
Open Minded Mac Buyers – Toms Hardware
Buyback option – CNN
MySpace fixes Voyeur bug – Wired
HBO to Go – Cnet

On The Geek:

Navigate a Jailbroken iPhone with voice
Bug Labs Opens Doors
Defeat Yahoo’s CAPTCHA

Mobile Phones cause Sleep Problems? – BBC
Yahoo Layoffs Comming – Cnet
Crunchies – Dan Farber
Javascript Worm – ArsTechnica
Outsource the Inbox – fourhourworkweek

Saas to improve Government – ZDNet
Rock Star Coder – Computerworld
Vishing – ArsTechnica
Microsoft to Give Money – Yahoo
Pownce on it – TechCrunch

Of Note:
The Wootable Awards
Mac 10.5.2 Screenshots
Mac vs…. Commodore?
Lightsaber Lamps
90 Computers from the Past
Batcave Home Theatre
LED Cellphone
Hard Drive Dominoes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (22.9MB)