My new Amazon Spot was delivered yesterday. It is a round Alexa device with a small screen that lives in the bedroom and acts like an alarm clock that you can shout at. We have a number of other Alexa devices, although this is the only one with a screen. It is great to be able to ask Alexa for the news in the morning and get a video feed from the BBC. First impressions are very positive, although it was quite expensive given that an Echo Dot is about £30.
Stuart Lee
Last night we saw Stuart Lee at the Leicester Square Theatre. We were in the second row from the front. It was a really funny show! Stuart Lee was in great form. The only thing that was annoying was that I was sitting next to a woman who had been brought along by her partner, and who was obviously not into his brand of comedy.
iPad to iPhone Tethering Issues
The past few days I've been bringing in my new WIFI-only iPad and trying to use it tethered to my iPhone 5. It's been a frustrating experience so far. I've found that it works OK when the iPad is first tethered to the iPhone, but shortly thereafter the internet connection seems to drop out on the iPad, even though the iPhone is still reporting it to be connected OK.
Surviving Post-Scarcity
I've been reading the "Beyond Scarcity" series on FTAlphaville recently, and it's made some very interesting points. The posts argue that the current economic environment is deflationary with regard to goods. I think that is true, and one of the reasons is because of technology. Firstly technology is constantly making everything more efficient and because of global competition this is both reducing the production costs and making goods cheaper. Secondly technology is causing structural unemployment, which means less people have money to spend and there is less money flowing around the economy. Other factors causing deflation are the tight monetary conditions, the aging population, and potentially the effects of quantitative easing.
Zero-Six Weeks
A couple of years ago, when I was thinking a bit about frugality (as in; "Hey, that's a characteristic I should have more of), I came up with the idea of a "Zero-Six Week". This is a week where I am only allowed to spend money on one of the days (typically a Sunday). The aim is to buy enough necessities on the Sunday to see me through the week, and not spend any money at all the rest of the week. That means walking everywhere, making all the meals for the week, etc.
A Whole Body Workout in 7 Minutes
Lifehacker has a infographic giving research-based workout exercises that will work your whole body. The best bit is that you apparently can do the whole thing is 7 minutes (30 seconds per exercise, with 10 seconds rest between them).
Top TV Series on IMDB as of 2011
Here is a list of the top 100 TV series on IMDB as of today. I have ordered them based on year produced, and then sorted them within each year based on 60% IMDB score and 40% the number of people who voted for each title. I am personally more interested in the newer stuff that is being produced that people are liking, so this was my query to data-mine the results.
Immersion Blending Wine
Tim Ferris (of the The 4-Hour Work Week
Negotiation
I've been listening to Slate's Negotiation Podcasts, which I think are excellent. There are currently 7 episodes (although more are on their way), each about 10-15 minutes in length. Below are my notes summarising what I've learned:
Bio-Monitoring and the Jawbone UP
I just picked up my Jawbone UP from the Post Office last night, so thought I'd post my first impressions.