I just thought I would share a recent interview I had with the guys from the online video show From the Couch while I was down in Cape Town the other day. David Perel rushed down to the Cape Town airport to ask me a couple of questions. I told him what I’ve been up to and finally broke the news about TinyImpact otherwise known as Project Wolf. Enjoy.
Personal
7
Mar 08
Dr. Randy Pausch – Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Dr. Randy Pausch did his famous last lecture on Oprah the other night and it really inspired me. I was able to find the clip on YouTube. You can find the full one hour lecture there as well. It’s something you have to watch, more than once.
If you cannot see the video click here.
1
Feb 08
I’m Finally 2.0
Just like the web became web 2.0, I have become Tyler 2.0. Yup, I have just turned 20. This time last year I launched this blog which will make this blog 1 year old tomorrow. I would like to thank everyone who made my year of being 19 one of the best ever and I hope this year turns out even better.
28
Jan 08
My First Nike+ Run
I came across Nike+ some time ago, but I never thought much of it until I read how Paul started using his pair of Nike’s. I then saw the Nike+ kit at a Nike factory store in Durban, but I still wasn’t completely sold. I (am) was a sprint athlete in high school and hated long and middle distance events, I thrived on the adrenaline rushes of 100m and 400m.
My sprint training programs had me spending a fair amount of time in the gym lift and pushing weights for strength. However, after high school I lost my knack for sprinting and my dream of making it to the 2008 Olympics due to injury and then later a new set of commitments. At the beginning of December I stopped going to gym and decided that in 2008 I will focus on the health and fitness of my body, rather than becoming muscle bound.
This shift lead me to buying a pair of Nike+ running shoes so that I could join the other bloggers who run as well. I spent most of my Saturday this past weekend shopping for the perfect Nike+ shoes. I found a black pair that was going for R1400, but I wasn’t prepared to pay that much. After almost giving into buying the black pair, my girlfriend spotted a pair at another store and I knew they were the pair I wanted. They cost me R900 and the iPod receiver was another R400. I ended up spending R200 less than what I budgeted for, bargain.
I was able to free some time this afternoon to take a quick run, of which 800m was just calibrating the sensor. I am a very competitive person and refuse to believe I am unfit, until proven. Well my Nike+ setup proved that I am well unfit. Unfortunately the low level map views for my suburb aren’t too great on Nike+ so I can’t plot accurate routes. Instead, I guessed a route and calculated it at 2km, it came to 1.9km exactly.
As you can see I started off fast, in my super athlete pace and slowly but surely ended up walking a long way back. The first major dip represents my chest starting to tell me that I am old and unfit, while the second major dip is my legs telling me that I am not a super athlete.
It’s going to take me some time to get the the level of fitness that I consider good enough. I am enjoying the Nike+ system thoroughly and I recommend that anyone who is serious about running or simply a beginner and wanting to start out, use this product. It’s like a portable treadmill, thank you Nike, and because I have to, thank you Apple.
22
Nov 07
No Wifi, Makeshift LAN & 3G
Today, myself and Devon went for lunch at Primi Piatti in Rivonia. Like true geeks we whipped out our laptops, because we need to be constantly connected. We had a few urgent emails to respond to and of course had to catch up on Facebook.
We went to Primi because it offers free Wifi, which is really cool and because we like the venue itself. Unfortunately they were having problems with their Wifi. No problem, we did the geek thing. Devon had a LAN cable in his laptop bag and I had my phone cable in mine. Since we both use SonyEricsson, he quickly plugged in his phone and connected. He shared his 3G connection and we were connected. Mine was slow and barely usable, but it was decent enough to check my email.
I decided to record the little moment and you can view the video below. I also snapped a few pictures which you can view over here. Excuse the video and audio quality, I was using a cellphone.
If you can’t see the video, click here.