Curiosity killed the cat?
One of the best blogs in the business is that of Seth Godin. His latest video post on curiosity is superb and really gets you asking questions of yourself and your purpose. Curiosity may have killed the cat, it also lead to some of the greatest advancements in human evolution.
Give it a watch, it’s only 5 minutes long, better than watching TV right? Link
Posted to Life
How to read more books
One of the things I have become much better at in the past few years is reading more books. Some of them for fun, some for work and some for personal development. The hardest part of self development is discipline and you here phrases often like “I wish I had time to exercise/read more”.
Well why not combine the two with the use of audiobooks? I was lucky enough to have been given the new iPod Nano for christmas and thought I would give audiobooks a try. Let me tell you they are great and I love them. Simply hop on the treadmill or bike and away you go, half an hour later you have read/listened to a good chunk of a book and managed to get your heart rate going at the same time.
I think they’re great, there are tonnes of them available too. Audible is probably the biggest supplier of them and you can find a huge range of books on most topics.
Posted to Life, Productivity
January Challenge Update
Since beginning my January challenge I have been recording my weight on a daily basis. My eating habits are still the same, fairly clean eating with the odd bit of indulgence. The results so far are pretty amazing really since I have only dropped alcohol.
01 Jan - 173lbs
02 Jan - 173lbs
03 Jan - 172.5lbs
04 Jan - 172lbs
05 Jan - 172lbs
06 Jan - 169.5lbs
07 Jan - 169lbs
08 Jan - 168lbs
09 Jan - 167lbs
10 Jan - 167lbs
11 Jan - 166.5lbs
12 Jan - 165.5lbs
WOW that’s 7.5 lbs in body weight gone it 12 days. Most of that will be water but a few lbs will be body fat.
I get weighed every morning at the same time right after a visit to the toilet. This keeps things consistent which is important otherwise you have no real idea of the progress your making. To demonstrate this fact I got re-weighed today after breakfast and I had gained 2lbs.
I will continue to keep track of my progress and will post another update on my January challenge at the end of the month. One thing I can say is I feel more energetic for it and more motivated. There really is nothing like progress for giving you more motivation you should really try it, it doesn’t need to be the first day of the month to start either.
Go on, give it a try, write down your goal and todays date with your current stats in a .txt file. Stop drinking, start running or whatever it is you want to do and take your measurements at the same time everyday. Only then will you really know how your body responds to things.
Posted to Life, Nutrition, Productivity
January Challenge
I am not a massive drinker, however I do like a beer now and then and the odd bottle of wine. As a new years resolution I have decided to set myself a January challenge and try and go the whole month without a single drop of alcohol of any kind.
For a (almost) 30 year old this is harder than it seems, however I do know people who have stopped drinking all together and they assure me it makes you feel like a different person. Combined with regular exercise it can transform your life.
So lets give it a go and see what happens. Not a drop for January, I am already 6 days in.
Posted to Life, Nutrition
2007 a year of lessons
Looking back on 2007 I can see it wasn’t such a great year for me. Yes my career is going great but as for the rest, well :-
- I managed to destroy my relationship
- Almost lost my home
- Nearly lost important friends
- Lost a fair amount of money
- Neglected this blog and my web application
- Gained about 10lbs
So 2007 was a year of not moving forward at all, in fact I have probably gone backwards. However as I said at the top, my career is going great so I have that to be thankful for. Or do I?
You see when I look at the list above I now realise that none of this happened to me, I actually did this to myself.
- I destroyed my relationship by not giving it enough of the right kind of attention
- Almost lost my home due to the split
- Almost lost good friends by making bad choices under the influence of alcohol
- Had to pay a lot of money out to separate
- Neglected this blog and web application because I never made the time to work on it nearly enough
- Haven’t exercised nearly as much as I used to and I have eaten rubbish for the past few months. Plus I have been consuming alcohol a little too much at weekends
My career on the other hand is going great and that because I gave it the effort, time and dedication to succeed. Had I applied myself to the other things in the same way, I am sure all of the above would have never happened.
Discipline is one of the most essential qualities a person can have. In order to develop and progress in life you have to apply the right amount of effort. Cause and effect, reap what you sow. They have all been said before and I couldn’t agree more.
Like many people I have read the books to try and figure out my own being and how to make more of my personal life. Hopefully by sharing the journey I can help a few other lost souls out there.
2008 is going to be a very different year for me. Hope you enjoy reading about how one can transform their own life, after all no one else is going to do it for you.
Posted to Life
Database Design
I have been working on my database design this week for storing all the data for my application. I have based my design around my own current needs so it’s still draft 1. For a while now I have been using a spreadsheet to manage my macronutrition which is in the first image below. This spreadsheet works remarkably well and it has to be asked why I need anything else? The main reason is that it’s another chore to use, even though I have become really good at it, it does take time and sometimes I forget to fill it in.
Based on the above I drafted a first design of a database to record what I need it to and to support some of the functionality that I will want from my application. I have taken a photo of it here so you get the general idea.
The next stage was to create the database. I used the free Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition (Used to be called MSDE). I already had the grown up SQL Server 2005 Management Studio installed on my work tablet so I used that to create everything. I recreated my initial paper design into SQL choosing what I thought were the best data types (for now). I then created my relationships and foreign keys using the diagram tool which will feel familiar to Access DB people. The finished draft can be seen in the screen shot below.
I know that what I have here will probably be only around 50% of the design work, however it’s a start, and something to build on which is important. Trying to capture everything at this time and create the perfect schema would result in nothing being completed. This is based on what I already do using the spreadsheet but doesn’t cover everything I want it to do. Mockup’s will help me to decide on how to structure extra features.
Posted to WebApp
Choosing a Development Platform
I have pondered over this for some time now. After narrowing my choices down to three I have decided on the Microsoft .NET platform.
Up until now I had considered Linux/PHP and Linux/Python with a MySQL backend, however I will now go the .NET and MSSQL route. Some of you maybe thinking I am mental and don’t know what I am going on about so I will mention some of the reasons for my choice.
While I am proficient and love working with Linux I have never coded in PHP or Python for a deployed solution, this would be a steep learning curve although a very enjoyable one but would starve me of precious time.
I have designed, developed, tested and deployed a Anticoagulant blood management system to manage dosing of warfarin to patients. This serves thousands of patients in a hospital environment and is considered mission critical as it can cause multiple deaths if errors occur. I used C# .NET 1.1 at the time with a Intersystems Cache (MUMPS) backend.
As part of my day job I also manage over 20+ MSSQL Servers, I feel really confident around the database engine, it’s very scalable, fast and manageable.
I do feel that the above points alone quantify why I am using the .NET platform. It’s also fun and I enjoy developing with it. It’s far superior (in my opinion) than anything else on the market when it comes to a complete development and debugging environment for web applications.
My application will however be developed with change in mind, I will be creating logical layers of separation to my application. This will enable me to change the data store without having to change my entire application should I wish to do so at later date.
One final note - www.plentyoffish.com runs .NET with 1 server and is in the top 10 sites with the most traffic. I think that speaks volumes for the platform. Joel Spolsky and the guys at Fog Creek also use it and they rock.
Posted to WebApp
Macronutrition - Part 1
Macronutrition - What is it? Why should you care?
To understand what my application is about and why I am creating it I thought I would share with my readers the problem I will be solving - Managing the reduction of my body fat percentage through diet and exercise.
My application will be for the people who realise what it takes to get that washboard stomach, and are willing to do it to get there.
With all the lose fat quick schemes that are around today it surprises me that people are willing to try them and pin all there hopes on them due to clever marketing without actually taking the time to learn how their body actually uses food for energy, and why it stores some of the intake as fat.
The primary source of energy for our bodies is via food in the form of calories. Calories are made up of macronutrients, carbohydrates, protein and fat.
Losing body fat is not just about what you eat and what exercise you do; its about math.
Take note of the following information :-
1g of Fat contains 9 calories
1g of Protein contains 4 calories
1g of Carbohydrates contains 4 calories
1lb of Fat equals 3500 calories
As you can see eating the same weight in Protein or Carbohydrates results in less calories consumed than if you ate the same amount of Fat. We can also see that to burn away 1lb of fat we need to have a deficit of 3500 calories which should be spread over the week.
So how many calories should you be getting?
This is where we use the Harris Benedict Equation to calculate. Its has slightly different constants for men and women but the formula is still the same.
BMR for Men = 66 + (13.7 x Weight in kg) + (5 x Height in cm) - (6.8 x Age in Years)
BMR for Women = 655 + (9.6 x Weight in kg) + (1.8 x Height in cm) - (4.7 x Age in Years)
Once you have your Base Metabolic Rate you need to perform one more calculation to figure what your daily calorie intake should be.
Little or no exercise = x 1.2
1 - 3 times per week = x 1.375
3 - 5 times per week = x 1.55
6 - 7 times per week = x 1.725
Very hard twice daily = x 1.9
Take your BMR and multiply it by your selection from the above table and that is the amount of calories per day your body needs to consume to maintain. I cannot stress how important it is to be honest here, it’s about what you actually do not what intend to do, you can always change this figure as you progress and you will need to as you lose body fat anyway.
Summary
So now you know how to work out how many calories per day your body needs to maintain it’s current position. You also know that to loose a lb you need have a calorie deficit of 3500 calories. This deficit needs to be over a week so 3500 / 7 = a daily deficit of 500 calories from your daily allowance.
In part 2 I will be educating you on the best ways to create that deficit and where Protein, Carbohydrates and Fats come into to play.
Posted to Nutrition
Running a blog to support your MicroISV
Blogging is an essential marketing tool when creating something from scratch and Yaro Starak has some excellent tips on the matter. Linking to other successful blogs is a sure way to get notice, Ian Landsman kindly mentioned me on his blog to this effect :-
”Here’s another that looks promising, we’ll see.
PS. Both Tony and Starr (the last one I posted about) hit the secret to getting noticed. Link to me or HelpSpot. I (as most bloggers) watch my referrers, so link and you’ll get linked back. And if you have no readers yet make sure to click the link yourself!”
When I first started this blog I didn’t know if it would be worth it but after only a week I have seen a traffic spike. I have been busy planning how to structure it best and my intentions are to try to post every two to three days. I could post a whole lot more however I need the time to actually build my product.
I think it’s essential to treat your blog as your own personal media outlet and 37signals are the masters of this. They have created a following one can only dream of and there take on web apps and how they should be designed is something I hope to emulate to some degree of success.
I will structure my blog into 5 main categories – building a web app, business, blogging, productivity, and nutrition. The categories should now be visible to the right.
To show how effective this can be I have included a picture from google analytics. It shows how I went from a flat line of no visitors to a small spike when linking to Ians blogg, and then a hugh spike when people clicked through to me from his posting about this site. Simple huh?
Posted to Blogging
If you build it they will come
I thought it best to let my readers know what I am going to create and why I have made this particular choice.
As I mentioned before I would like it to combine my areas of interest in some way to keep it enjoyable, that list included :-
• Computers
• Self Improvement
• Mountain Biking
• Camping/Bushcraft
• Nutrition/Fitness
• Business
My choice will include a little something from all of them, I will be building an online application that will allow me to manage my health and fitness, something I have a keen interest in.
Diet tracking software is in no way new and it’s very saturated so why bother?
Well to answer that I have to look at my biggest competitor namely www.fitday.com, they provide an excellent service, have over 2.2 million registered users and it’s not going to be easy to knock them off the top spot.
A fitness app is in a verticle market, it maybe saturated , however there are over 5.5 billion people connected to the Internet and how many of them are happy with their appearance? Exactly
What I have found with other applications though is that it is so difficult to keep track of what exercise you do, and what food your eating. It like all the others promises to be the holy grail of fat loss and will give you a beach body by using it.
No, my web app will be different, it will be for the people who are serious about their health, know that a tool can’t do it for them and hard work is needed for them to obtain their goals. Both in terms of diet and exercise.
With my application will be easy to track information but it won’t try to do everything everyone else’s does with every feature and every gizmo. It will do exactly what it says on the tin and it will do it very very well.
Unfortunatly I can’t talk about all the things I intend to include in my app at this stage. Not because I don’t want you my readers to know, I just realise that it’s going to take me about 6 months to get release 1.0 out of the door; way too much time for my competitors to take my ideas.
My current mood: optimistic 
Posted to Nutrition, WebApp
