Something seems to be missing

Why doesn't my fitness tracker have an activity preset for "flatpack"?

The Rip-off from Cleveland Depths.

Title in reference to Fritz Leiber's 1962 novella "The Creature from Cleveland Depths".¹

The complex of product options that go by "activity tracker", "health monitor", or "wellness monitor" (and smart watches that include that suite of functionality) aren't exactly the "tickler"s in the story, but they share a lot of DNA with them. They are, after all, automated systems we wear explicitly so they can nudge us toward better versions of ourselves. You can get other parts of the tickler package as apps. Either for your phone or, if you choose the right smart watch for the wrist mounted device itself.²

One of the psychologically interesting things is that the prime statistics these things recorded when they first took off was ... steps. They were glorified, electronic pedomenters.³ Pedometers have been around for ages and never made such a big splash before. I suppose gamification is the key to that. Anyway, today's rantlet is about the way a wrist mounted pedometer fails us: you don't get credit for pushing a shopping cart. I can trek up and down every aisle of the local, big-box, warehouse club and the fool machine registers a few hundred steps because pushing the fool cart more or less immobilizes my wrist. I only get credit for putting things in the cart. The old waist-mounted mechanical jobs managed that kind of use better.

Okay, so it's seriously a first-world problem. You're right. And it's of no actual consequence. You're right about that, too. It still annoys me.

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¹ Available from Project Gutenberg or in audio form from Librivox.

² I wear a Withing ScanWatch so I can't get a bunch of apps on my wrist, but I do get reasonably comprehensive health tracking, weeks of battery life (I only every charge it while I shower), and the aesthetic appeals to me.

³ Indeed, the cheapest ones still are, but many do a lot more these days.

Having it both ways

My better half and I decided we needed to buy a cardio machine. The only issue was what kind to get. We've both used treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and rowers of various kinds in the past (and I've used climbers), but the selection of a single best kind of machine is no easy task. To make matter worse we have slightly different needs and goals. It comes down to my wanting a rower and her wanting a bike.

The good news is that hybrid machines exist. They have always been rare and in the past they've been pretty expensive, but when I started looking around I found that prices are way down. There are two models you can actually get for less than US\$800, when the last time I look for these things they mostly ran \$1500-2000.

On the other hand the market for bike/rower hybrids isn't a big one and these seem to have driven the higher priced options right out of the market. Unfortunately they are (to judge by specs and reviews) not as nice; adequate but in no way luxurious. I would have spent more to get a nicer machine if the option was open, but given what was actually shipping we got a Avari A150-335 Conversion II.

Assembly was not hugely difficult, but the instructions don't quite match the product actually delivered.¹ I haven't had time to really put it through it's paces, but it does all thie things it says on the tin.

The belt drive is a little noisier and not quite as smooth as some higher-end rowers I've used in the past, but it's tolerable. The magnetic reistance means it is very quiet once you get all the bits in the right place. The range of resistance seems OK (though the fact that there are only eight settings is one of the things lost from earlier, more expensive options). The rail folds up fairly easily, though you need to make sure the seat is locked in place at least a little way from the console or it gets in the way.

The one oddball complaint I have at this point is the range of rowing motion in the front is somewhat limited: I have short legs and long arms and my reach on the recovery stroke is coming right to the cradle that holds the handle when you're not rowing. I don't think this is a show-stopper, but it came as a surprise.

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¹ This has been happening to me more and more frequently in the last few years. I get the feeling that the products are under continous development and accumulate a steady stream of small changes to reduce costs and or improve function, but the documentation doesn't always keep pace. Some manufacturers admit the changes up front with models name/numbers like Widget-Xtra-Special-5000/a15 where that last bit changes every few months. Others keep selling the "same" model so that you can only tell what you really have from the serial number. Sigh.