Yesterday I went to the MIT Forum’s Future of Wireless Event.
The audience was mostly suits from the telecommunications industry and the usual Atlanta networking crowd.
The forum itself was very TV like since it was being transmitted live to 26 other locations around the US.
Here are some of my notes. Nothing really groundbreaking or new was said though.
According to De La Vega, AT&T Invested an additional $500M in the 3G network just to compensate for the increased expectation of demand due to the release of the iPhone 3G.
RDLV: “We’re the one subsidizing the iPhone to really get it to the masses”. On why AT&T deserves part of the credit for the iPhone’s success.
On wireless bandwidth: Todays technology can go up to 14.4 MPBS. Already purchased the spectum for 4G. Will use LTE which can go to up to 100 MBPS.
Average per user bandwidth usage is decreasing as mass market adoption of the iPhone increases. First adopters had higher per user bandwidth usage.
World is drifting to LTE although some are stickin to Wimax.
Verizon is also going to LTE.
At AT&T 3G is being lunched also on 850mhz spectrum to improve the reach.
RDLV on Wifi: believe that Wifi is the unifiying force. Just purchased Wayport. Idea is to allow users to switch seamlessly from cellphone data to WiFi.
RDLV: Close to 290 million phones in the US
A whole world of machine to machine communications is comming. Sensor that allow them to know where they are and when to interact with each other. RDLV
RDLV: Would start a company to help devices network with each other and become temporary peripherals.
Many opportunities in emerging markets.
Retail channels are becoming “experience stores”, what they can’t get online.
Loopt is the killer app according to RDLV but Loopt+Twitter would be even better.
I’ve managed to be at a fit level I never could have hoped to achieve. I’m feeling better than ever and I’ve stopped “dieting” to loose weight. I now eat many more calories but I still do count them daily and also I continue to exercise strongly.
The hardest part, according to many, is keeping the weight off. Some studies show that the great majority of people who loose a lot of weight, gain it all back and even end up worse than when they started. Well, I’m determined to prevent that from happening to me. That’s why I keep setting goals to myself. The only difference is that now my goals are not really related to weight but to athletic fitness.
Setting goals makes it more interesting and challenging. That’s pretty much the way I said to myself in January that I would loose weight, now I’ve made the decision to start competing in running and biking events. Thus I will start training for the Atlanta Marathon in March. Let’s see how I do.
So, where am I now?
My weight oscillates between 152 and 155 and that’s where I want to stay. Nevertheless, my body is still changing. I guess I’m loosing fat and gaining muscle weight because my waist keeps getting smaller. When I started this effort I was wearing pants size 36 and now I’m wearing 30 loosely, I even have some pants size 29 that fit perfectly. Even my shoes have changed half a size.
I’m now exercising every day, even if only doing pushups, I do something. My routine is to do a couple of days of strength training and the rest aerobic, either mountain biking or running. Last time I ran I did 7.8 miles in 50 minutes, which is not bad at all but for the marathon I would have to be able to sustain that much longer, maybe around 4 hours for the full marathon.
I went to Caracas for a few days of intense work with El Universal. Mostly I was at the Upfront sale for 2009 advertising space, where they exhibited a video starring me. Also got to work on other aspects of my project and see part of the family.
El Universal in Caracas produced a video with me about their future challenges and how media consumption is changing with the advent of media fragmentation. Here it is.
I have to translate it into english but most will already see the point. It was hard to convey so many details in 3 minutes. The first script I wrote took around 8 minutes, thus we had to chop it a lot.
Yesterday I received my new MacBook. It’s meant to replace the MacBook Pro I’ve had for more than 2 years now. It’s not that that MacBook Pro really needed replacing as it works great. I’m most surprised at how long I was able to keep my old MacBook Pro and how well it still performs. That NEVER happened to me while I used Windows based PCs. I think my record for keeping a laptop might have been a year and a half at MOST.
I’m still impressed at how quickly one can be operational on a new Mac. It would normally take me days to have a Windows machine fully operational with all my software and settings properly adjusted.
Yesterday was the release of Google’s first Android based phone, better known as the G1. The hardware is from HTC and it is tied to T-Mobile in the US. True availability will be by the end of October.
I was excited about this but now I must admit I’m a bit disappointed. The G1 is no iPhone killer, at least not as it is now. I get the feeling Google and T-Mobile rushed into releasing something but it’s flaws could really hurt it’s long term prospects.
To me the main flaws are:
- No standard headphone jack! If people complained about the original iPhone’s recessed headphone jack, imagine how absurd it is to not even have a true headphone jack. I guess this phone decided not to be an iPod. But then why build an Amazon MP3 store into it?
- No video playback whatsoever. The argument is that third party developers will create this soon but come on!
- No built-in storage. You HAVE to have a MicroSD card to store anything on the phone. So, don’t forget to buy one at the time of purchase or you won’t be able to do much with the G1.
- No desktop synching options. Again, supposed to be developed by third parties. To make things worse, there is no Exchange support either. So, you are forced to live with Google Apps, which is not that bad but having no alternatives is not good enough.
- As restricted as the iPhone in terms of modem tethering.
There are many other smaller details and certainly there are good things about it. Most of all, it’s Open Source which promises a lot for the future. Nevertheless, I’m sure the adoption rates won’t be even near those of the iPhone, after all, I haven’t even talked about the cool factor.
The question is, how difficult is it to port apps from the iPhone to Android and vice versa. Right now it’s clear that if you are a mobile developer, developing for the iPhone should be the wisest business decision.
I’ve always been kind of chubby, except when I was a young kid around 7 when I was thin. But since I moved to the US, my weight started to increase. By last december I was as fat as I’ve ever been and I started really feeling bad about it. I had Vanessa and Patrick was on the oven. I began to worry about my overall health and how long I would last for my children. I never really worried about that but now more than ever I remembered Meme who always said she never wanted to be a burden to her children.
I knew that the beginning of the year would be light in work, mostly because I wouldn’t be able to travel on the month’s around Patrick’s birth and INNOVATION probably wouldn’t assign me a bid project until he was born. It was the perfect time to do something about my health. No more excuses, I had the time and the motivation to change.
Thus, when I returned to Atlanta in January I weighted myself to a hefty 216 pounds and vowed I would never be fat again. And thus my journey began.
I decided to take a simple strategy. Take it easy at the beginning and increase the effort as I progressed. My initial diet was very simple and easy to follow. Just reduce portions. Eat everything I wanted but in smaller quantities. The other goal was to exercise daily, even if it was a little. The pounds started to drop.
As motivation I decided that every 5 pounds lost I would take a reward. The reward wasn’t triggered when I reached the weight marker but when I spent more than a week below the marker. Thus I would go out, eat whatever I wanted that day and resume my regimen.
I used Gyminee.com to track my exercise. Bought a Polar and rode mountain bicycle as much as possible. At the beginning I would also do elliptical machine at home while watching a movie or playing XBox. I was a fun way to get used to the habit of exercising, which is key to the whole process.
Everyone knows the first few pounds are the easiest. True. It got harder as I progressed, thus I had to increase the regimen. At one of the plateaus, I decided to start counting calories. Gyminee.com allows you to track what you eat and also gives you calorie intake goals depending on your current condition and your objectives. This has required the highest discipline since it’s really difficult to track what you eat, specially when you have to go to a restaurant and can’t measure portions. Ironically, its easier to control calories when you eat at fast food places because you know exactly how many calories you are eating and if you pick smart, there are good alternatives.
The most important part about counting calories is that if you are disciplined and don’t fool yourself (a lot of people do), you learn to eat less and make the right choices. Every calorie counts so those you make fun of people who eat the Big Mac but drink Diet Coke should think again. That Diet Coke could be saving you as many calories as eating half the fries…
My exercise goal for the whole period (January up until now) has been to burn 1000 calories per day. That is a lot, specially as one progresses. At the beginning it was very easy, one loop on the bike at Big Creek would take me near an hour and I would burn nearly 1000 calories. Now, since I’m lighter and in a better shape, I have to make 2.2 loops in order to burn 1000 calories. I had to adjust my Polar every 5 pounds lost so that the calorie consumption calculations were precise.
My goals also progressed. My first goal (set in January) was to get down to 180 pounds. When I got there I decided to get down to 170 and when I got there my doctor told me that I would be better off around 155-170. Thus my final goal was set at 160 pounds.
Using the Tanita from the beginning I would weigh myself and calculate BMI a few times a day but I only recorded in Gyminee the weight I took as soon as I woke up. Thus all the points in the chart are taken at the same time. Measuring myself often helped signal changes in patterns and make adjustments as I progressed.
When I reached 170 pounds I also added a goal of Body Fat Index, which is the measure that really matters. When I started, which I regret I didn’t track from the beginning, I was at about 40%. Healthy would be below 25% and athletic would be below 19% for men. My final goal is 17%, which I’ve reached recently.
When I left to Caracas I had passed the 160 pound marker but didn’t know what would happen during the trip. So, on my return I was expecting that I’ve recovered some weight. Its a good thing that I controlled myself and even though it was hard to estimate caloric content for most things I ate, it seems that I did a good job and despite not beign able to exercise more, I managed to sustain the weight I left with.
Turns out today I weighted 159 pounds, which means I’ve triggered my final reward. Thus I’m getting my BMW. NOT!
I guess it will be Fogo de Chao again.
What happens now?
I don’t want to loose more weight, in fact I may gain some in muscle. Now my goal is to keep the 17% Body Fat Index and improve my upper body muscles. Since I did mostly Mountain Biking, I’m a bit unbalanced muscle wise.
I will replace aerobic exercise with strength training and follow a combined workout with a lower calorie burn goal per aerobic session.
In terms of diet, I will keep tracking my consumption. This is the only way for the pounds not to return. I may be less strict about precision. At least while I don’t gain weight. I’m also switching to a maintenance diet which means I can eat more calories per day.
Worst case scenario, I can resume my intensity get rid of whatever I loose. It should be easy as long as I keep track of everything. The mistake is to let pounds come back and do nothing about it.
I gave a seminar on Monday at the American Press Institute (API) about the newsroom of the future. It was a quick trip except for a cancelled flight on Sunday that almost made me loose the conference entirely. Fortunately they rerouted me to a different airport and after a long taxi ride I made it to the hotel.
The conference went very well, the audience was engaged and I got many congratulations and requests for contact information.
Here are some pictures of the trip. Click on them to see them larger:
Working “multimedia” on the plane during Sunday’s Ground Stops.
The Hyatts are very good for me because they come iPod ready with a bedside radio and inputs on the TV
I’m honored to have been invited to Full Sail University’s Advisory Board. I’ve heard of Full Sail for many years but I never had the chance to visit before. Now I must say I’m incredibly impressed. This University is a model to follow and the most cutting edge, multi-disciplined production oriented university out there. There may be equivalent facilities somewhere else but none with the variety of disciplines covered at Full Sail.
No wonder they can’t keep up with growth. There are so many opportunities for companies like Full Sail yet their main challenge is managing their growth. They currently have more than 6,000 students and the facilities are used 24/7.
What I found to be most amazing was the incredible mood everyone seems to be in. You can tell people are learning and working while having a lot of fun.
