A few days ago I saw someone say that they will never use self-checkout because they don’t want to do someone else’s job, and they want to be paid for the act, if they were to self-checkout. In New York, recently, there was talk of a ten percent discount for people who checkout by themselves, rather than use a cash register.

For me, the beauty of self-checkout is that the time you spend in food shops is finding the food and other things, and then within thirty seconds paying for everything without queuing. At Décathlon as well self-checkout works extremely well. You pick up some stuff, dump it in the “bin” and it recognises the RFID codes, and shows how much you owe. Within a few more seconds you’ve paid, and you can leave. The more you do it the more fluid the action becomes.

Yesterday was an ordinary Monday. When I got to Colovray I was struck by how warm it felt. I thought that summer broke. It didn’t. The heat is still here. It was interesting to run with the social run group because I felt slow and less energetic. Eventually I checked and saw that we were running faster than usual for a social run. We were running at 05:50 rather than the usual 06:30 minute per kilometre rate.

More often than not I need to decide between different runs, and different rides. I rarely get an opportunity for both. At first I thought that the run, and the ride would be simultaneous so I was ready to make a decision eventually.

Within a day or two of the event I noticed that they were offset. The run was at 07_50 for an 8am run, and the ride was planned for 09:30. Distance wasn’t an issue. 5km for the run and 19km for the ride, so nice, short, and relaxed.

For many years I would go for a hike, a via ferrata, scuba diving and more and I would take photos. I would then share them on Instagram to friends, colleagues and family. Facebook then bought Instagram and within a few months it went from being a social network built around our friends, colleagues and family to a network of influencers sharing irrelevant trash. Between that trash we would get ads. Within half a year I dumped Facebook controlled Instagram because the community that I used Instagram had been deliberately destroyed.

When winters were long and cold Minergie seemed like a fantastic idea. They would turn a home into a thermos, blocking all heat loss to save on energy costs and more. Minergie does work extremely well in capturing and holding on to heat, from the sun, washing machine, dish washer and more. You might think “But those aren’t heaters” and you’d be right.

During a heatwave the Minergie thermos has a serious flaw and that is that it requires open windows. Open windows in theory, and practice are easy. Wake up, open the windows, and once outside is warmer than inside close them. Then you keep the ambient temperature low and comfortable.

This morning when I was opening windows to try to cool a Minergie building that was designed for cold winters that no longer exist I had a thought. That thought was that AI is nothing but a glorified photocopier.

What I mean by this is that at the moment AI companies are buying tens of thousands, if not millions of books, removing the spine, scanning the books and then pulping the remains. In so doing Ai companies are hoovering enormous amounts of data and destroying books that could be donated to libraries, schools, universities and more.

There is a cycle lane that has been available for years at this point. I rarely, if ever see cyclists use it. There are three reasons for this. The first is that there is an empty bus lane that cyclists can use to get away from cars. The second reason is that the entrance to the cycle lane is hidden when you’re cycling from Geneva, by the Porte de Nyon roundabout. The consequence is that by the time you realise that there is a cycle lane you can’t mount it, so you’re stuck with the buses.

Yesterday I woke up and went from a social run from 08:30, for 7km before returning home, and dressing for cycling. I then cycled 77.48km according to Strava via Garmin. What surprised me is that I wasn’t knackered at the end of the ride.

The run wasn’t slow. The pace was sustained for 7km with some gradients and trail running through a forest. It’s when we stopped at Colovray, and stood in the sun that I felt like I was overheating and in need of shade. That’s why I left the group early to change into cycling clothes. I had already checked tire pressure and more.

The first reaction I had when wearing the Google Fitbit Air is “I’m looking at my wrist but I can’t see the time.” I see the value of minimalism but knowing the time is quite important to me. I have another watch, but if I have something on my watch I want it to show the time.

The concept of the Google Fitbit Air is simple. You wear it, forget about it, and it does everything for you, in the background. If you run, it tracks the run. If you cycle it tracks the bike ride. If you walk it tracks that. It also tracks your sleep, but it doesn’t seem to detect naps, and that’s a shame.

Having a watch with an Heart rate (HR) monitor is fantastic until you realise it’s counting 20 BPM too high, and then it’s far less interesting because it’s reporting a moderate workout as heart.

Plenty of heart rate monitors come as chest straps and that’s great if your workout starts and ends somewhere where it’s okay to strap on a heart rate monitor. In winter it’s also about convenience. It is complicated to remove five layers, to put the HR monitor on, and then start an activity.