I have some great ideas in the shower. Possibly!
One problem with pro-blogging is that can be unhealthy, especially when you do it from home. I rarely get enough sleep. My breakfast is sometimes lunch. I don’t move around as much as I should and I’m surprised that I don’t have back and eyesight problems! I’ve tried a bit of Live Photo-blogging before and that’s been fun. My Wife is doing a good job of getting me out of the house too but I need to do more. My latest mad idea is to combine work, sport and UMPCs in a new activity called Jog and Blog. I’m sure this will be an Olympic sport in London 2012!
It’s fairly self explanatory. You jog with and think about work. When you want to write something, you stop and blog. You can add fun things like photography and tracking too which will earn you extra points from the judges. Today I’m going to give it a try.
To start, you need a light, small, rugged computer with a keyboard. A notebook style PC might be to big for this but maybe an ASUS SSD-based Eee would be OK. Alternatively you can use a UMPC with a thumbboard. The other option is a mobile phone with a good keyboard and the right software to connect to your blog.
For my experiment today I’ve got three SDD-based PC choices. The Raon digital Everun, a low-end, light, Windows-XP UMPC with a tiny and difficult chicklet thumboard or a Samsung Q1 U with SSS and HSDPA, also with a tiny and difficult chicklet thumboard or, and this is the device i’ll be using today, a Gigabyte M528 MID that has been loaned to me by Expansys. Although the software is incomplete on this sample device, all I need is a browser window and fortunately that works on thia M528. At 350gm its light and with built-in HSDPA I’m going to be able to access the net anywhere. It’s a shame that the built-in GPS doesn’t have any software to drive it yet but I’ll use my Nokia N82 for that. SportsTracker will give you a live update of my position as well as being able to geo-tag any images I take with it. You will also be able to see my completed track on my SportsTracker applet in the right hand column on the blog. (I don’t think it updates in real-time unfortunately.)
In addition to tracking, i’ll use the N82 for instant messaging (send cheers and abuse to chippy@ovi.com via Gtalk or an Ovi Talk account) and music while I work. Of course i’ll be switching off 3G and taking an additional battery because if I did all that with 3G enabled I probably would get past 90 minutes without getting a low battery alarm!
So al I need to do now is to wait for my devices to charge and then i’m off! I’ll run the experiment here at Chippys UMPC Moblog so stay tuned. I’ll post the URL for the live tracking as I start the experiment.
You heard it hear first people. Jog and Blog will change the world. This is the end of the blogosphere and the start of the blogosvelte!
How about using voice recognition to draft your comments while jogging, and just do a quick edit when you stop? :) Hope it went well!