Category: Uncategorized

I’m a Misfit

It seems like wearable technology will soon be able to make your toast for breakfast or teleport me to and from work. Fitness trackers these days track your heart rate, oxygen level, steps taken, stairs climbed, the quantity and quality of your sleep and yes it can also tell you what time it is. Not only that a lot of the fitness trackers have some smart watch capabilities like letting you know that you have received a text message, or you have an incoming call. On the other hand smart watches may eventually replace fitness trackers since they can do all the things that fitness trackers can do and a whole lot.

Most fitness tracker manufacturers are upping their game and adding more features and capability to their fitness trackers, however one company which is somewhat of a misfit in this case is actually going the other way, or so it seems. That company is Misfit Wearables.

Last year I bought the Fitbit Flex – it did the job well, was comfortable in the hand, the software was not great but not too bad either, it had vibrator alarm, it told me that I had reached my goal by vibrating, but one thing it didn’t have was automatic sleep tracking, but overall it just didn’t feel quite right.

A little less than a month ago I decided that I was going to get active again, or at least start moving a bit. I needed something that counted my steps, automatically tracked my sleep without me having to tell it to start and stop tracking my sleep, and something that was reasonably priced. I was thinking of getting the Fitbit Charge but then I noticed the Misfit Flash and I was blown away!

The Misfit Flash

Here are the reasons why I bought and kept the Misfit Flash and why I actually love it!

Price

The Flash costs around $50 to $60, but when I bought mine at Bestbuy it was on sale for only $30(plus tax). Compared to what it actually does, I think it is more than amazing!

Comfort

The wrist band is very light and extremely comfortable. I usually sleep with my head on my hand and sometimes the band presses against my temple or my ear and it does not feel uncomfortable at all. If you are looking for something that looks premium, then the Flash is definitely not for you as it looks rather simple, but if you can get past the fact that it is just a fitness tracker(but a fitness tracker that does more than you might know) I think you’ll actually love this product.

It’s also a time Tracker

I never wear a watch, but sometimes it’s nice to know what the time is without having to pull your mobile out of your pocket. The Flash can tell you the time, but the way it does it is just very cool. Every time I look at the time on the Flash it is as if it is saying “Did you see what I did there?”. Just watch this video to see what I’m talking about:

So flexible

I don’t think there is any fitness tracker that is as flexible as this. You can wear it on your wrist, on your chest, keep it in your pocket, clip it on your shoe or T-Shirt. That’s awesome!

Automatic Sleep Tracking

Unlike the Fitbit Flex, you don’t have to tell the Misfit Flash that you’re going to sleep, it figures it out on it’s own. I should not have to track my fitness tracker. I just wear it and forget about it, then it keeps on doing it’s thing.

Waterproof

Take it in the shower, in the rain, go for a swim – no biggie.

No Charging

The Flash and it’s cousin Shine both use a coin battery which can last up to 6 months. This again ties in well with just wearing it and forgetting about it.

Software

To be very honest, when I first saw the Android version of the Misfit App, I was disappointed – very disappointment. The software also did not upload my step counts to MyFitnessPal and still doesn’t , but there’s a possibility that the fault could be on MtFitnessPal’s side. I saw the IOS version and it was completely different (read Better) than the Android version, I still decided to keep my Misfit because of their customer services (See Below). A few days after I complained on Twitter I got a please surprise today morning. The new software update makes the software much better now – it’s actually quite beautiful.

Customer Service

I Tweeted the complaint I had about the Android version of the Misfit Software and someone from Misfit actually responded fairly quickly. I even opened a support ticket for something else and they were quite quick to reply there too.

Some shortcomings

The calorie counter seems a bit off, but I don’t rely on calorie counting anyway. The Flash does not have heart rater monitoring, but considering the price point for this device, one should not expect a heart rate monitor, has very little to none motivation factor. It doesn’t nag you to get up and get moving, it has no vibrator alarms and does not actively tell you that you’ve met your goal.

Overall, I think the Misfit Flash is an amazing product and it just simply the best value for your money.

Tags fitbit, fitness, fitness tracker, misfit, wearable technology

Psychology Uncategorized

What’s in a Name?

“What’s in a name? that which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet”

Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare

I recently was put in a situation where the name might have played a role in the final outcome of that situation and then I reminded myself of this famous quote from Shakespeare. What’s in a name? Ideally, characteristics of a person is what really should matter right? Shakespeare puts it so deftly, so elegantly and as such would inspire people to put the name aside and look at who the person really is, what their abilities are, what sets them apart from others, how they think, how they work,..etc..

What’s in a name? It’s just a name,…right? But is it really?

Is Jose, the same as Joe? Watch this video!

For humour, here are some unfortunate names of people, and some very interesting names of products, and some even more bizarre product names.

And of course, Apple Watch!… I guess ‘iWatch’ would have been a bit creepy.

source: http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2014/09/10/first-look-at-the-new-apple-watch/

Tags Psychology

Uncategorized

Earth Hour 2014!

In support of Earth Hour, we dimmed the lights on Okinara’s Facebook Page.

Join us! Turn off your lights, light up some candles! 🙂

Tags Earth Hour

Software Technology Uncategorized Web Web Development

Sublime Text

The meaning of sublime according to the dictionary on my Macbook Pro is:

of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe

And Sublime Text 2 is just that. I kept hearing about its legendary speed, and flexibility but I never quite bothered to check it out until my love for NetBeans started to fade. Netbeans had been my programming companion for a long time now. I had been using it since 2009 when I made the switch from Eclipse. That is a long time! More and more Netbeans was starting to prove that it was bloated, slow – especially during loading, the updates didn’t always retain the features that I liked and it kept hogging my CPU and memory. I decided to give Aptana – a flavour of Eclipse another chance after almost a 5 year gap. It has been a long time since I abandoned working with Eclipse. I liked what I saw. It brought back some old memories, and overall it felt as if Apatana was a ted faster than Netbeans. But things were about to change when stumbled upon Sublime Text 2. At first I thought it is just a Text Editor, but it’s not, it’s way more than a text editor. This thing is so flexible you can turn it into an IDE. Here are the reasons why every programmer should at least give Sublime Text a chance:

Its beauty is sublime:

This piece of software is simply beautifully designed. There are many themes to choose from but the default theme with black background and highlighted special words is just stunningly gorgeous and is a pleasure to work with. Another very interesting feature is the small preview bar on the right which gives you a zoomed-out view of the file that you are currently editing – I never thought I wanted it until I saw it!

Super Fast

Aptana Studio 2	Netbeans 7.3.1	Sublime Text 2

Took around 30 seconds to load and background project scan lasted for 1 minute 15 seconds and the program ran slow until the scan was complete.	Took around 33 seconds to load and the background scans went on for 2 and half minutes before I decided to close the program. By the way, you cannot stop the background scans in Net Beans, which really is a bummer.	Just took 5 to 7 seconds to load and closed as quickly as it could load too. This thing is clearly fast… VERY FAST!

Powerful Search AKA “Go To Anything” (⌘ + P)

Command + P is the shortcut key for search (the feature is known is “Go To Anything” and rightly so) on Mac and I’m pretty sure the P stands for POWER! Which really means the search just commands power. The search is super fast and it start displaying the possible results the moment you start typing AND it displays the contents for the file that most likely is the one you are looking and changes it if it does not fall under the correct results.

It Knows!!

It knows what you are searching for even if you are telling it to search for the wrong thing. For e.g. if you make a typo, it still gives you the correct results; also knows as fuzzy search.

fuzzy search — The user types in “hutil” instead of “util” but Sublime, still displays what the user most likely meant. – It’s smart

With Netbeans and Aptana (A flavour of Eclipse), almost always I would open up the terminal or Finder on Mac to search for text within a file or to search for a filename. Now, I don’t need to do that!

Multiple Selection

This just blew my mind away. You can select multiple lines of your code and modify them simultaneously! That is super amazing! You can even select a word which could be a variable or some command throughout your file and change its name. Another scenario where this can come in handy is when you have a list of things which you need to put into an array. I used search and replace the “new line” characters. Now I do multiple selection and edit away. Multiple Selection is awesome!

Tonnes of Cool and Useful Plugins

I must warn you! If you are coming from a feature rich IDE like Netbeans or Eclipse you might be surprised at the bare minimum approach of Sublime Text, but don’t be fooled by what you see the first time you use Sublime Text. There are tonnes of plugins available out there there that can transform this magical text editor into a full IDE and that’s the beauty, you only install the features that you actually want and no more thereby keeping this editor as ‘slim’ as possible. I will write up another article on my favourite and must have plugins for Sublime Text 2. If you like this article, share it! Got a comment? Post it! 🙂

Tags Aptana, eclipse, netbeans, programming, sublime text, Web Development

Uncategorized

Happy 2014

As I reflect on the year 2013 I realize that it was an amazing year! Good Bye 2013 and Hello 2014! Happy New Year!

Every year people who want to make ‘improvements’ in their lives set New Year’s resolutions. Most people fail, few succeed. Those who fail, try again the following year or become non-believers. I wrote an article in 2010 about Why not to Set a new Year’s resolution! (Don’t judge the article by it’s title. It’s not what you would expect)

This year I have really not set a New Year’s resolution, in fact I don’t even have expectations on what I would like to accomplish in 2014. I have no goals, no plans. I’m just going to live 2014 as each day comes – let’s experiment.

I came across a link posted by a friend on Facebook which I think is the best advice I’ve gotten on the topic of “New Year’s Resolution”. All the lessons in this article are pure gold! I had to learn it the hard way by experience and by learning from mistakes, but is that not he best way to learn.

I hope you get something out of it. I must say, not all of you will ‘get it’. In fact I would not have gotten all of it if I had come across this article last year.

6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person

Uncategorized

Loving Winter 2013

I can see that a lot of people are having a hard time keeping a smiling face when they talk about winter, the snow and the wind because they're thinking about the cold, the slush, and layers of clothes and shoveling. I'm one of those people who really seem to be enjoying this year's winter. I understand that I might be getting a few frowns as people read this because I work indoors most of the time and yes I do not need to commute because I work from home. But hear me out, will you?

I couldn't get much work done yesterday, so at night I went to the nearby 24 hour Tim Hortons, a Canadian favorite coffee shop to have a warm cup of Cafe Mocha and to get some work done. Ask any Canadian and they'll know the name 'Tim Hortons' it because it's a common name mentioned almost daily in Canadian households. I came home at around 1:30am. It's at most 20 feet from my driveway to the door of my house and within that short distance I began to feel the cold reaching into my legs beneath the multiple layers of clothing. I could feel my cheeks freezing. The coffee had not awaken me up as much as the cold hitting my face did. It was a good feeling.

There was no one on the street, there was silence – my conjecture was that it was so cold that it was difficult for much of the sound to travel. The snow had settled on the ground like icing on a birthday cake and the whole street was lit up with the light from the street lamp that it reflected. I stood there for a few minutes in awe.

Why should I not love winter?

Tags Canada, Winter

Philosophy Self Development Uncategorized

I’m Never Retiring!

Today after dinner and watching a movie, I sat there on my sofa thinking what I should do. I was thinking what I should be doing. There are a couple of things I needed to get done, but didn't quite want to do it. I had this very uncomfortable feeling and I could not make out what it was until it suddenly hit me. I was BORED!

For the first time in a very long time, I was actually feeling bored, and I hated the feeling. Not being in a state where I was not doing something for a very long time had made me completely forget about what it was to be not doing something. Today I have decided that I will never be retiring. I never want to retire. Why should anyone want to retire?

I'll tell you why. Because there is so much in life that one can do. If anything, I think there isn't enough time to do everything that one really is capable of doing. Recently, everyday I see new possibilities of living life. There is simply so much to do. I think people grow into adults and they learn to limit their imagination. Kids are amazing; they are always doing something – playing with their toys, running around, well crying too, and eating, and maybe just sitting there, but even while sitting most of the time their playing imaginary and creative games.

I for one always want to be a kid and imagine the possibilities that life can bring. There is simply so much to do and words like boring, bored or boredom should just simply be removed from the dictionary.

Tags human, Inspiration, Philosophy, positive, Self Development, Tips

Uncategorized

Which Super Hero Are You?

Post author By Kapil Bulsara
Post date February 9, 2012
No Comments on Which Super Hero Are You?

I thought, I'd do something fun, so I took this super hero quiz, and this was the result… Aparently, I'm Green Lantern

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern		85%
Iron Man		80%
Superman		75%
Hulk		65%
The Flash		65%
Supergirl		63%
Wonder Woman		63%
Spider-Man		60%
Robin		60%
Batman		25%
Catwoman		10%

Hot-headed. You have strong
will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…

Uncategorized

Just a little Kindness…that’s all :-)

Post author By Kapil Bulsara
Post date December 21, 2011
1 Comment on Just a little Kindness…that’s all :-)

There are some things that you don't have words. Check this video out. It's one of those things that you don't even need any words for. This video put a smile on my face. Be Kind :-).

Tags human, kind, positive

Uncategorized

Accident – my script removed all comments

Post author By Kapil Bulsara
Post date February 13, 2011
No Comments on Accident – my script removed all comments

I just want to say sorry to all my readers and subscribers. Comments that were posted on my blog by you folks were accidentally removed. I keep getting spam comments from people and in order to get rid of those I wrote a script and without realizing I deleted all the legitimate comments on my site. I’m pretty sure that happened months ago and I just recently noticed it – as you can tell from my last blog post which was indeed months ago.