Events

I wore both my old Fitbit Ionic and new Garmin Venu for about 42 hours straight. Yesterday they overlapped for the entire day. And they came in with similar, but not quite the same, numbers. I thought that my Fitbit would record fewer steps overall, because it recorded about 450 (about 7%) fewer on my walk yesterday. For the whole day, though, the Fitbit counted 14,190 to the Garmin's 13,250—7% more. But I wore the Fitbit on my right (dominant) wrist, so it may have just had more activity in general. In...

Philip Bump puts in black-and-white terms why the president should perhaps shut up about his cognitive test results: “And they were very surprised,” Trump said of the doctors. “They said that’s an unbelievable thing. Rarely does anybody do what you just did.” No. That did not happen. Or, at least, it didn’t happen without a qualifier like, “rarely does anybody your age not demonstrate any of the impairments this test is meant to measure,” which is possible. But the doctors did not call this “an...

I'll get to the final head-to-head comparison between my Garmin Venu and Fitbit Ionic later today. Meanwhile: The Dept of Homeland Security plans to deploy 150 agents to Chicago, and no one will say why. Could Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan finally face consequences for his career-spanning corruption? Charles Blow asks: where's the outrage? Bruce Schneier explains and hypothesizes about the Twitter class break last week. And finally, because our Covid-19 numbers have started creeping up, indoor bar...

Before I get to the technical bits comparing the Garmin Venu (now on my left wrist) to the Fitbit Ionic, let me just list some "learnings" today: Both trackers are waterproof as advertised, as is my phone. I am glad that I keep a towel by my back door. I am glad that my washing machine—and, let's face it, my dryer—is by my back door. There comes a point where one's clothes have absorbed so much water that it really doesn't matter how much more water they will encounter. I have no one to blame but...

From time to time I post historical documents and essays because I refer to them often: Mark Twain, "As Regards Patriotism" Mark Twain, "Corn Pone Opinions" I'll update this list as I add documents.

Despite the Garmin Venu handing the Fitbit Ionic its ass in my first test of exercise tracing, the Fitbit didn't fail completely in sleep tracking. Based on my self-perception of how well I slept, including my (and Parker's) acute awareness of the squall line that pushed through around 6:30, I think the Fitbit might have recorded my awake time more accurately. The Garmin, however, also recorded pulse oxygen, respiration, and can display movement on the UI. Here's the Fitbit results: And Garmin: Also...

Yeah, the Garmin wins, hands down. After realizing that my first head-to-head test pitted an Ionic whose GPS was failing against a treadmill exercise, I went out for a quick loop around the block with both trackers correctly set to "Walk." The Garmin found a GPS signal in about 20 seconds. The Fitbit never did. After the walk, the Garmin produced this delightful map, complete with weather report and options for different maps: Right on the activity view, I've got a gear icon with these options: Fitbit...

I have argued with Fitbit customer service for about as long as I've had a GPS-enabled device, to no avail. Their GPS chips die slowly until they die abruptly. And every time I've complained, they've instructed me on how to get a clean GPS reading. I've noted at those times that my phone, camera, car, and drone all connect to GPS within a few seconds (even from cold start), while my Fitbit Ionic can't connect no matter how long I let it try to find satellites. Or it does this: I've even tried to...

The civil rights activist and long-time Member of Congress died yesterday of complications from pancreatic cancer: On the front lines of the bloody campaign to end Jim Crow laws, with blows to his body and a fractured skull to prove it, Mr. Lewis was a valiant stalwart of the civil rights movement and the last surviving speaker at the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. More than a half-century later, after the killing in May of George Floyd, a Black man in police custody in...

It's 31°C but feels like 32°C right now, which will seem almost comfortable this time tomorrow: It could feel as hot as 41°C degrees this weekend in Chicago. The city will get hit with high temperatures and humidity Saturday and Sunday, which could prove dangerous for some residents. [T]emperatures will rise to 34°C Saturday and 33°C Sunday. Both days will be sunny with high humidity and a chance of rain. The heat and humidity could make it feel like it’s 38-41°C during the day, according to the...