What Tech I Want, I Think (Early 2019)

It has been a while since I've written about a list of current tech items that have caught my eye.  I thought that it might make sense to given that CES 2019 just ended.

What I Want:

1. Humon Hex: it tracks oxygen availability in your muscles (specifically your thigh).  It provides more direct feedback on how hard you are working (which I'd always wanted to know).  Maybe I'm being lazy or just feel tired when my body is capable of doing more - this gives you a much better sense of how true that is.  Cost: ~$300.  Availability: Immediate.
2. Garmin Vector 3 Power Meter: I have gotten used to having legit power meter information from the Stages spin bikes at the Equinox at which I am a member.  Going for outdoor rides now are not as information rich.  I much prefer the outdoor ride (in the right weather), and already have speed and cadence sensors, so this is the next step.  It's a lot of money, though.  Cost: ~ $900.  Availability: Immediate.
3. K'Watch Glucose: A continuous glucose monitoring watch.  It requires a consumable which needs to be replaced every 7 days, but it looks super cool.  I'd love to wear for a couple of months to see how my activities, eating, drinking, working out and all affect my blood sugar levels.  I feel like I'd learn a lot over the first month or two of wearing it.  Maybe not too much after that.  Cost: ~ $150 for the watch, $100/month for the consumable. Availability: Unknown, but hopefully in 2019.
4. LIDAR Lite v3HP: A small 40m range LIDAR from Garmin.  I would love to work this into a Raspberry Pi 3 project to build a small device that would measure speeds on the road in front of me and then post the fastest on a website along with vehicle pictures (with ALPR, ideally) and a graph of the distribution of the speed of cars on the road.  Maybe someday I'll get to this project.  Cost: $150.  Availability: Immediate.
5. Naked Labs Body Scanner: I know I drink too much beer to keep my gut in check, but I think it would be super cool to get a long term view of where fat is being added and removed as you move through time.  So you should have a much better view of the aggregate body fat, and also the view of where it's coming and going from.  Also, you get your weight.  Cost: $1495.  Availability: Q219, I believe.
6. Air Quality Monitor: I'm not sure that Awair is the one, but I would like something that tracked indoor air quality that was inexpensive enough that I could have several of them in my house.
7. A compact point and shoot camera: a successor to my Canon S100.  Not sure what's best out there now, nor what the right amount of money is.  Sometimes, the camera on my phone just doesn't capture the magic.

What I Don't Want

1. MagicLeap AR Eyeglasses: Not until somebody shows me software that matters.  Cost: $2295.
2. 8K TV: Not until most content is 8k.  I bought my current 65" Sharp LCD 1080p TV in 2008.  It's still pretty great.  When it fails, I will buy a 4k TV of similar size (we'll see about OLED).  In fact, I'm rather hopeful that the Samsung modular micro-LED approach gathers some steam and we get some cool options there.
3. Bike head's-up glasses: Way too much money.  Way too early in the product maturation cycle.  Same for a motorcycle helmet head's up display.
4. USB turn-table: Maybe a cool mix of old and new, but I'm not a vinyl guy.  Spotify for me, right now.
5. Glowing alarm clock: My Garmin Forerunner 935 vibrating works just fine.  I wake up at a different time than my wife, so I think that lighting the whole room up would be disruptive.
6. Any voice-activated appliance: I have an Echo Show and I like it.  I just don't feel the need for a microwave that has this built in.
7. Any robot: call me when they are actually useful for more than vacuuming.
8. HTC Vive Pro Eye: but only because I don't have the space to devote to it right now.  Also, having bought the original Vive, I feel like there isn't enough software for it.

If I think of anything more, I'll add to the list.

Another Dead LED: Time for a Disection!

One of my first generation (for me) Feit "PAR" 30 LEDs just stopped working in my kitchen.  Which isn't a very good way of describing the problem.  It turned on, at super low brightness.  Not like L80 failure.  It all of the sudden went from a very bright bulb, to flickering occasionally, to flickering almost every time it was turned on, to not glowing brightly.  The bulb in question is about seven years old, but still disappointing that it is going.  Many other of these bulbs in my house are still going strong.

I'm not knowledgable enough to know what likely failed, but I thought that I would take advantage of the failure to see what was on the inside.  I did a destructive disassembly of everything but the circuit board.  I can say definitely that I did not expect the circuit board to be so complicated.  I'm half inclined to open one of my newer, much lighter LED bulbs to see how they've been simplified over time.

In any event, here are the pictures of the disassembly, step by step, with my amateur descriptions of what is there.  Further conclusions (if any) will be at the end.

This bulb is dominated by the aluminum heat sink that surrounds it.

Looking at the business end of the bulb - 7 actual LEDs

After removing the three screws you saw in the first picture, I was able to wiggle the top of the bulb, but couldn't remove it further.  Time to try the other end of the bulb.

The plastic lens popped off without too much effort.  It revealed four screws - three of which were required to remove the plastic insert plate.

Plastic plate removed, exposing the metal plate that has the actual LEDs sitting on it.  Some identification markings from Feit: ALPCB0589 Rev1 which doesn't mean anything to me, or the internet.  The positive and negative wires bringing the (presumably) DC power required to make the LED's go bright are exposed.  I had to cut them to keep going.

Now I was able to remove the aluminum heat sink from the bulb.  Here was my first surprise: the aluminum heat sink is only about half the weight of the bulb.  I had assumed it was the heavy part.  The core turns out to be pretty heavy too. 

To keep going, I had to start breaking the center core.  It was a hard, but reasonably brittle plastic that allowed me to dig down a ways.  I'd eventually get stuck just using my Nest screwdriver and had to bring in more destructive tools.

Just some perspective of the working part of the bulb - it is tiny, a super thin plate.

Maybe the plate is not metal: it looks like there is a super simple (in series) circuit on the surface?  Why would they choose to do it that way instead of in parallel?  Seems odd.

I've broken all of the inner core that I could with the screwdriver.  Inside there is silicon or some such substance around everything.  The circuit board is already way more complicated than I had expected it to be.

The other side.

Using some vice grips, I pulled off the E26 connector.

The vice grips were also useful to crack off the remaining plastic.  After that it was just clearing out the silicon.

Given the simplicity of the back of the circuit board, it came off in one easy piece.

Here is the top of the circuit board as much as I cleaned it off -- took way too much time even though you can see a ton of silicon still on it.  The right is the 120VAC input, the right is the DC (IDK what voltage) output.  I would guess that the exposed copper coils are a transformer bringing the AC voltage down.  I recognize some resistors and some capacitors elsewhere, but not sure what may of the other pieces are (like the three big brown things on the top and top right of the board).  I'm also not sure what the yellow covered device is (though presumably, it is an inductor).  In the end, this is almost certainly a constant current power supply shoved into the bulb.  It's just so complicated.

Why a constant current power supply needs multiple chips on the back is a mystery to me.

Here are my conclusions:

1. First-gen LED's were heavy due to both excessively large heat sinks and the silicon goop on the interior.
2. It's easy to remove the aluminum heat sink from Feit bulbs - do it and recycle.
3. New bulbs are not readily accessed like this one.  Likely they avoid both the big heat sink and the silicon goop.  When they start breaking, I'll dig in and see how they are different.
4. LEDs are pretty awesome.  Based on the marking here, I likely bought this bulb in the early part of 2009.  It's the early part of 2019.  I'll take a 10 year replacement cycle.  That being said, I'd gladly take longer.

LEDs for Life?

I have spent some time thinking about lightbulbs.  Probably at least partially due to the fact that I'm pretty cheap and loved the idea of the cost savings from LEDs.  A few years after moving into my house, I decided to make all of the outdoor bulbs LEDs (recorded in this post).   Part of my motivation was that I didn't want to change light bulbs anymore and I saw LEDs as a lifetime solution.   I would joke to folks that I didn't get paid to change light bulbs.

Well, some of my outdoor LEDs have started to fail and I'll have to admit that I'm kinda bummed.  Not because they weren't the right answer for my lighting needs, they definitely were.  If my math was even remotely correct, I saved a boatload of money (on the order of $860) despite buying the bulbs for $36 each (and that was a good price - Costco - in 2013).  The reason that I'm bummed is that I have to replace the lightbulbs at all.

When I installed the bulbs, I noted that I expected them to last for 7 years.  That sounds like a very long time in the future, potentially approaching the perspective of "forever from now".  And bulb lifetime, as estimated at that point in time, was going to be based on the light output degrading to only half of what it had originally been.  Some of the bulbs, however, have not lasted 7 years.  I just replaced two: one was flickering (spending more time off than on) and the other was just out all of the way.  That wasn't the way it was supposed to be.  They were supposed to last forever!

I've replaced the bulbs with new Feit bulbs that cost 1/12th the cost of the original LEDs, but I'm just a little bit sad that the LEDs are not lifetime bulbs.

Receiver Received!

Yay!  New Yamaha receiver was just received.  Let's hope it's awesome.

3D Mapping

There are a few pretty cool upcoming devices coming that are going to help bridge the physical world with the world of 3D printing and a new generation of "makers".

The first, one most intreaguing to me is the Structure IO

The second is the Spike project, from the folks at ike gps.  This looks to draw from their heritage of

Not So Smart Meters

Undoubtedly Dominion Virginia Power spent a lot of money to install smart meters across it's system.  Mine was installed a couple of years ago, well after the 2010 installations in more dense parts of Northern Virginia.  I'm questioning how valuable that investment was based on my interactions with the data to date.

The smart meter at my house is shown below.  If you look at the meter for a while, you will see it show two different numbers.  I'm guessing it provides: maximum power consumption over the last 24 hours and cumulative kWh consumed.

Max kWh?

Cumulative kWh burned since the meter has been installed?

I only became aware of the availability of daily and 30 minute data last year when I was poking around the Dominion website.  I was intrigued that the smart meter that I already had could potentially give me most of the insights that my (now broken) TED would have been doing.  So far, though, I have failed to find anything super helpful from my smart meter data.

More Love for my Garmin ForeRunner 935

I've had my 935 for about a month now and have put it through it's paces in a number of areas and wanted to post some more feedback on it.  Here it goes.

First, with the good:

1. The battery life continues to be fantastic.  I've been working out consistently over the last couple of weeks and I'm getting about a full week between charge cycles.  And that was charging it back up when it was at ~30%.  Getting back to 100% takes some time, but I'm loving the long battery life.
2. I continue to enjoy the aesthetics of the Garmin much more than the Fitbit Surge.  I haven't yet bought a black leather band with quick disconnect fittings, but the day will come.
3. I'm not bothered by wearing a chest HRM while working out and I love that it works so well with the watch.  I have the HRM Tri and it's great!
4. I've started swimming with the watch at HRM.  It's not perfect, but it's very useful.  It tends to over count lengths in the pool, but I assume that it will get better as I get to be a better swimmer (pretty much suck right now) and more consistent with my turns.  The heart rate record is quite good (and complete).
5. Garmin Connect (GC) has so much more usefulness than the fitbit website.  Being able to compare like workouts is awesome, even if still somewhat rudimentary.  Seeing my average heartrate go up each of my five swim workouts is great - showing some improvement where otherwise I'm not feeling great about where I've gotten to.
6. I can integrate information from my gym's Schwinn spin bikes with the spin workout I record on my watch to get a better overall view of my workout.  See my GitHub project for more details.  The only downside is the loss of temperature data - which for spinning isn't too exciting.
7. The alerts are useful and the alarm still wakes me up in the morning like my Surge.
8. I like the "move" alerts that my Surge was oddly lacking.

Now, with the "could be improved" items:

1. Watch configuration is not easy.  I inadvertently set the default pool length to 25 meters when my gym has a 25 yard pool.  Its fine, I can quickly google how to change it, but that isn't going to work when I'm out on a bike ride and need to make a configuration change.  Put all of it in the GC app!  That said, I'm getting more used to the standard operations of the buttons.
2. GC should allow you to make edits to your workout after the fact that go beyond just notes about it.  When it says I did 1125 yards and I only really did 1000, I should be able to change it without downloading TCX and editing or using some other highly technical method.
3. Strength workout rep tracking is quite poor.  Probably a hard problem overall, but give me the ability to add accelerometers to other places to do a good job tracking.  I think if we could add hand (not watch hand) and foot or ankle we'd be pretty good.  Better GC editing would help here too.  I'd really like to see this get better.  I had some thoughts on this in 2008 and I don't see much progress since then.
4. Add a UV exposure meter to the watch.  L'Oreal showed a little device at CES 2018.  Garmin should just put it in their watch and track the data.  This isn't a deficiency of the current watch, just something that would be awesome to add.
5. I've only done the HRV test two days so far (yesterday and today), but I can say it wasn't super obvious how to get it done.  Oddly, when you choose HRV Stress on the watch, it will not tell you when it's detected the HRM.  Other activities give you an audible indicator that you're all set.  Also, the first time I did it, it wasn't obvious how to get it to start.  There are several screens to scroll through that I found unintuitive.  I did get it done and plan on doing this every morning at the same time.  Too early to tell if the HRV is at all useful, but we'll see.
6. Coaching or prompting could be improved.  I ran on the treadmill yesterday.  It was not my best day; I struggled to get a 5k in.  I did it, but was seriously exhausted at the end.  When reviewing my activity after the fact, I was able to see that I favored my left foot for much of the activity.  My left hip hurt a bit after the run.  I'm thinking that the two are related.  I would have liked the watch to give me an audible prompt after a minute or two of being outside of "close to centered".  I could add a cadence prompt, but not this one.  Maybe they will add?
7. I don't like that the charging port on the back of the watch is open.  I've bought a dust cover to put on it (super cheap on Amazon), but it doesn't seal enough to keep all water out of it and I'm concerned about corrosion if I leave it in after swimming.  Also concerned that the port will get messed up if I don't keep it covered.
8. I have a scratch on the watch face.  It's small, but still.  Not super happy about it.  Hopefully, scratches don't build up over the next three or four years.
9. GC should keep you logged in.  It sorta does, but a day after interacting with it, you have to do a page refresh to get anything to show up.  Otherwise, you just get a "You don't have permission to view that" message.

Overall, I'm super pleased with this watch after a month in.  Yes, it was expensive.  But it is very good.

In the future (when it isn't so crazy cold here in DC), I will be testing a couple of Christmas presents from my in-laws: Garmin speed sensor and the Garmin cadence sensor for my road bike.  I can't wait to put them on my road bike and get some more useful data on long rides.  Another thing that I would not be able to do with my Surge.

Also, I have not been able to get outside for a run since I've owned the watch.  As a result, I don't have any sense of VO2 max.  I'm looking forward to this.

So Long Fitbit

I have finally decided that I will no longer be a Fitbit customer.  It has taken a long time to convince myself that this was a good idea, but I finally made the leap.  It was on from a good (but not perfect) fitness tracking watch to something better.  I was a very religious Fitbit user from 2013-01-18 to 2017-12-15.  I started with the Fitbit One (which I still occasionally used when I wanted to wear a nice watch) and transitioned to the Fitbit Surge in early 2015.  Almost made it a full five years in the Fitbit ecosystem.  I had made it 13,086,461 steps, 29,855 floors, 6,314.46 miles and burned 4,494,072 calories before I called it quits.  Sad to be leaving a place where all my data resides, but their new tools just don't seem as good as the competition.  (Note: I plan to still use my Aria scale, but replace it with a Garmin smartscale when the Aria dies.  So, I guess I'm not totally leaving.)

I really enjoyed certain aspects of my Surge:

1. Continuous heartrate tracking
2. Reasonable battery life (days), though this was declining to only slightly more than one day if I worked out that day.
3. Vibration alerts from my phone
4. Silent alarms.  My Surge reliably woke me up for a couple of years.
5. Easy to kick off activities
6. Automatic tracking of long walks

Things that I didn't like about my Surge:

1. Rubbery band: stuck on clothing (especially my shirts with French cuffs).
2. Rubbery band: bubbled and eventually had to be replaced without Fitbit providing a name-brand replacement.
3. Black and white screen.
4. No option to pair with a chest heart rate monitor.
5. No replaceable bands.  If something happened to the band, it would have to be replaced.  No option for a nice band or a work-out band.
6. Charging port had gotten less reliable over time.  In fact, this was the proximate cause of me deciding that I needed to do something (i.e., get a new fitness tracker).

I looked at replacement options and decided six months ago that it was likely going to be the Garmin Forerunner 935.  But I also decided that I should hold off and see what else comes down the pike to determine if I would prefer somthing else.  I believe that the legitimate options were:

1. Forerunner 935
2. Apple Watch Series 3
3. Fitbit Ionic
4. Other Garmin watch (Fenix, etc.)

I ruled out the Apple Watch because I didn't really care about the smart watch functionality and didn't like losing sleep tracking.  The Fitbit Ionic has gotten some good reviews, but I feel like it would be more of the same as my current Surge.  I had an old Forerunner GPS watch for running and never once had a problem with it, so my brand view of Garmin was quite strong.

I decided that the "something better" was going to be a Garmin Forerunner 935 along with the Garmin HRM-Tri Heart Rate Monitor (and maybe some more gear down the road).  Some of the most interesting parts that I'm hoping to take advantage of are the following:

1. Other fitness measurements (e.g., VO2 Max)
2. Variable Heartrate (VHR) monitoring for recovery time estimation
3. Easy pairing with a chest heartrate strap
4. Running dynamics feedback with the HRM-Tri HRM.  As I get older, I'm most interested in staying healthy so I can continue to maintain my modest fitness level.  I'm hoping that this can help me correct or keep my running form reasonably solid.
5. Waterproof!  I can take it to the pool or swim and have no concerns.
6. Pairing with some biking measurement gear for long trips on my road bike.
7. Easily replaceable watch bands (quick disconnect).  Eventually, I see myself getting a black leather band and deciding on an "elegant" watch face for special events.

I'm still getting used to the Garmin, but I already have thoughts on the transition:

1. I'm liking the battery life.  On five days of continuous use (with a couple of one hour hikes and some spinning) now after getting to 100% charge.
2. The iOS app is solid
3. The Garmin Connect website is better than Fitbit's
4. I really like the audio prompts when I'm running telling me how my heart rate is doing.
5. I would like to see the heart rate on the screens for the various activities.  I think that this is possible, but I haven't figured it out yet.
6. Too much of the setup of the watch is done by manipulating the watch.  All of it should be accessible on the app.  Creating a new information summary page for running would be so much easier there than on the watch.
7. I do miss the touch screen cababilities on the Surge, but overall, I think it's a win.
8. Garmin should add a feature to turn on the screen's backlight when the user flicks their wrist in a manner consistent with them wanting to see the time.
9. Why does this watch not automatically connect to the Schwinn bike at Equinox to record my spinning workout details (or every treadmill)?
10. Fitbit's assertion that "Your data belongs to you!" is a joke.  Just try to export your information.  One month at a time (or one activity at a time).  No heartrate information for monthly information.  They have the data - they just won't give it to you in a reasonable format.  Even the date selector boxes are insanely designed (can't just type in dates).  Total garbage.

I'm sure I will have more to say, but this is where I am so far.  I'd obviously prefer a more aggressive price point, but this is a fantastic watch.

A Great Idea Only to Find It's Been Done . . . Sorta

I was just sitting at my desk doing work today when I remembered that I have to add chemicals to my hottub this weekend.  Yes, I have a reminder set on my Google calendar and I'll get an alert when the time comes.  That said, I'm not necessarily in a convenient place when that reminder comes.  Wouldn't it be nice to put an unobtrusive device on my bathroom counter that will blink a red LED when something is past due and then let me push it to indicate that it has been compete?  An app or website would serve as the primary interface, but the ability to have the reminder device in the place that you do the activity would be great.

The first thing that I do when I have "brilliant" ideas is to see if they've been done by somebody else.  This one largely has via Droplet.  They were quarter-sized little buttons that you could stick to things and you'd get a phone reminder that you needed to do something.  Once you were done doing that something, you push the Droplet and it records that you have finished the task.  Not quite exactly my idea, but quite close.  The Droplet required a hub to be plugged into an outlet somewhere in your house.  They claimed 100ft or so coverage.  My guess is that it was using bluetooth LE to get the battery life up to anything useful.

Unfortunately, Droplet was a Kickstarter project that was raising money in the beginning of 2015.  It's not clear that they got the product out the door.  Their website (as of the writing of this post) was still up and looking reasonably modern.  The shop link was dead, though.  And I can't find an app that looks to be them.  Sadly, I can't even find anybody on the internet talking about why or how they died.  And only limited angry Kickstarter posts, given that the updates to the project are only for backers of the project.  Social media updates stopped in November of 2015; the last updates on the Kickstarter website were in spring 2016.  It seems reasonable to assume that it is dead.

If this review is the last word on the subject, the world is without a good system now.  Potentially time to hack something together.

Closer to "All LED, All the Time"

I have been writing, albeit sporadically, about LEDs since 2008.  I've been super nerdy and calculated the payback on LEDs for daily outdoor lighting at my house.  Based on that post (and the fact that it is more than four years later), LEDs have been good to me.

I've wanted to get to the point where I only had LEDs in my house, but I've been limited by four problems (1) the under-cabinet bulbs in my kitchen and (2) the landscape lights in my backyard (3) I had found fluorescent replacement lights to be very common or inexpensive and (4) I had halogen-based light fixtures.  Slowly, I'm getting past all of these barriers and making progress toward only LED lighting in my house.

Here's how my solutions to the four issues has gone.  By the numbers, see below.

(1) I recently found some good candelabra base corn-cob LEDs on Amazon.  They are bright and I've ordered another 5 after the first 10 have worked out.  Now, I just need to figure out get the bread box lit in the corner.

Under-cabinet lighting!  (see the dim area in the corner that used to be the bread box).

Hard to tell they are corn cob from this view, but quite easy to see in the reflection with your naked eye.

(2) I found a good T10 replacement that was svelte enough to fit into Cast Wall lighting fixtures that abound in my backyard.  Unfortunately, it was super expensive ($20).  Just recently, I found a package of 20 LED bulbs on Amazon for $50.  Given that I needed 19, this was perfect.  And $380 wasn't a particularly attractive purchase price.  My wall lights had been installed when the backyard was redone in 2012, but most of the bulbs have burnt out by now.  (I had originally thought that the wiring was bad, but it turned out to be the simpler problem of just burnt out bulbs).  LEDs should basically last forever and limit my need to do awkward replacements.  And they are 2.6 watts instead of 40 watts.  So now I'm contemplating adding some more lights with all of those spare watts that I have on my transformer.

Bright indirect landscape lighting.  Only beware that many of the LEDs of the T10 size are really designed to work via DC.  If you run them in an AC circuit (as is my landscaping lights) there will be a 60 hz flicker.  This isn't too annoying for indirect lighting

(3) Fluorescent replacements are readily available and quite good.  I bought four two foot units and six four foot units.  Both are well-rated on Amazon.  Most of the bad feedback is stupidity on the part of the customers.  Just be sure that you are ready to do some (very simple) rewiring of the units.  I pulled out and threw away the ballast on all of the units that I replaced.  See pictures and descriptions below.

Very well-lit upstairs hallway

I removed the diffusers on the 4' units - they are being used in an indirect application already, so I figured it would just dim the light.  I also stapled Aluminum foil on the sides of the trench they are sitting in to help reflect light.

The 2' LED bulbs lighting up the (very messy) loft

By removing two screws, you can easily remove the diffuser on the 4' bulbs that I installed.

I don't know where the external diffuser is for this light in my laundry room, so I left the integrated diffusers on these 4' LED bulbs.

(4) I had some Ikea wall sconces and a bathroom light that used halogen bulbs (for which there is no ready LED replacement).  I ended up replacing the Ikea sconces because a past renter had broken the glass piece on it.  I replaced it with a $40 LED only fixture that I expect to last the lift of the house.  The one remaining bathroom fixture will be replaced over the next week with a light fixture that can take LED bulbs.

Old, Ikea halogen-based wall sconce

The new unit on - hard to get a sense of the relative color temperature between this picture and the last, but the LED is closer to daylight (preferred by me).

Further notes on LEDs:

• I've had bad experiences with LEDs five years ago from low light output (lumens) or flakey electronics that die reasonably early (days).  
• Light output has gotten uniformly better.  Just keep an eye on color temperature and make sure you are getting what you want.  On Amazon, color temperature and lumens are always available.  If you are skeptical of light output, check out how many watts it's using.  Compare to other bulbs who claim the same lumens.  Nobody has super fancy proprietary LED technology right now, if it seems to good to be true, it is.
• With respect to the early end-of-life on cheap LEDs, I now always do a 24 hour test of the bulbs.  This is nothing complicated, just keep the LEDs on for 24 hours.  All of my recent bulbs have passed the test with flying colors.
• I still have six 4' and two 2' fluorescents in closets around the house.  And two 8' units in the garage.  Most will be harder to rewire due to the restricted working area, but not too much of a problem.  They don't get used much, so there isn't a hurry, but I would like to see them go at some point.
• I still have CFLs in my garage and furnace room sitting in porcelain light fixtures.  I think that there are about 8 total.  I'd like to replace them with high output corn cob LEDs at some point, but I'm not finding any compelling options at the moment.  At that point, I will reach full LED saturation (excluding inaccessible bulbs, such as in my oven).

The (Second) Vive Report

So since my initial post, several things have changed:

1. My son built me a new windows PC with a 980Ti
2. My sons and I have spent many more hours in virtual reality

Thus, I wanted to provide an update on all things Vive.

Titles

I'm not terribly impressed with the titles available for the Vive so far.  There appear to be many on the horizon, but I'm not sure that the situation will be ideal until it is standard practice that all new first-person oriented games are released with VR support from the start.

I am in the camp that believes that VR will help usher in a new wave of puzzle-based games (a la Myst).  They will be fun to play (and likely quite challenging, too).

Gaming in VR

I love it.  Plain and simple, it is so much more engrossing to play a game like this than staring at a screen.  Vanishing Realms is probably a very mediocre game if on a screen, but it totally sucked me in.  I put my headset on in the morning to play and am suddenly transported to night.  The world is less interactive than I assume that they will be eventually, but it is still fun poking around and finding new bits lying around.  And swinging a sword through an ogre is great fun (and will elevate your heart rate).  I can't say that I've been reduced to a sweaty mess that others have, but it is still feels like good, active fun.  I have experienced a sense of vertigo standing on the ledge.

I'm looking forward to many more hours of gameplay.  Though, my youngest has so solidly run up the Space Pirate Trainer high score list that I'm not sure I'll be placing there any time soon.  Not to say that I won't be trying.

One Step Beyond

I still have a few things that I haven't tried yet and problems for the VR developer community to solve.

1. 360º videos:  Not expecting too much here, have watched a few on a flat screen and didn't think that they were that interesting.
2. Building something in VR:  I think the tools lag here.  Perhaps virtual graffiti will be my thing?  More interesting would be building 3D models with tools that are well-suited for the task.  I need to research this area further.
3. VR Tourism:  Looking forward to it, but need to find the right experiences.  Any recommendations?
4. Movement:  sticking a controller in my pants doesn't seem ideal.  But, then again, neither does instantly teleporting around a game area.  It's easy to dodge fire and the blows of ogres when using the teleportation method.  Also, Vive needs to figure out how to allow the playing area to be larger, or use tricks to make my brain think that it is bigger.  This is likely going to be a big challenge for all of the VR manufacturers.
5. Additional sensors:  HTC and Steam should let others build specific purpose sensors or gaming implements to be used.  An obvious first option - a gun (rifle not a pistol, the normal controller works well enough to fool me there).  Such things exist, but I'm looking forward to widespread usage and support in games.
6. Social VR: maybe this comes much, much later when households have 3 or 4 headsets, but it would be fantastic to play cooperative games in VR with friends and family.
7. 3D Sound: I'd love to be playing in VR with one of the Ossic headphones, but they are best case shipping them next February.  And I'm not sure that I'll be willing to pay $300.  But, I can imagine that they will matter in providing an even fuller experience.  You will be sucked into the other (VR) realm 100%.  At least I'm guessing here (I've not demo'd their headset). 

The Vive has Arrived!

Finally, despite ordering within 30 minutes of the window opening.  And HTC charged my credit card several days before they shipped.  Not awesome, but the Vive did arrive.  And it's pretty cool.  I will be upfront that my view of the Vive is very much in line with Cnet's review.  I'm a fan.

First, let me describe my rationale in buying this device.  My initial thought was that VR is very likely to come into its own in the next couple of years.  I want to be understand early the implications and the limitations of the technology.  And, I would be pretty excited if my boys were to be inspired by the technology and then do something fantastic.  They both have a lot of potential; but at the moment latent potential.  If I decide that I don't really think the technology is that cool, I reasoned that I could just sell my Vive quickly while it is still difficult to come by, for basically full price.  So I'm giving myself only a month to evaluate it.

Second, let's talk about the games available right now.  The Vive comes with three games included.  Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraption and Tilt Brush (less game and more 3D paint/sculpture application.  Reviews indicate that Fantastic Contraption is the best of the bunch and I'll admit that I haven't had time to play it yet.  Job Simulator was fun, though I only played for 15 minutes and it'll need to pick up the pace to keep me interested.  I have a real job, so I know how it tends to go and don't need a simulator.  Tilt Brush was fun to use as a platform for Pictionary.  My two boys and I played for about 45 minutes last night.  Painting in 3D is pretty sweet and the controls are reasonably intuitive.  The most fun I had, though, was with an early release game.

Space Pirate Trainer is a fantastic game.  Almost just worth it for the guns themselves and how completely your brain maps the VR gun to the controllers that you are holding in your hands.  It is amazing if simple game that kept me interested for an hour and I plan on spending much more time with it.  I'm very much looking forward to additional FPS-type games that have been successfully mapped to VR space.

Third, let's look to the future.  I'm a proponent that VR could be a very useful tool for expanding people's perspective about the world.  Want to go to Machu Picchu but not cause any damage to the historic site?  VR will be by far the best way to make that happen.  I think that there are a number of business opportunities here: games (obviously), virtual tourism, emersive learning (3D "hands on" lectures), and emersive entertainment like NextVR.  I'm always thinking about what is next for me - maybe there is something here.  If not, perhaps I can enjoy playing some very cool games and seeing my boys do the same.

Finally, I'm tightening my timeline for making a decision as to keep the Vive or not.  At the end of this weekend, I'll be pulling out my credit card, or I'll be listing one very lightly used Vive on Craigslist.  I'll keep you updated.

My Goals

[This post was a mistake]

Sweat Tracking

I would really more information about my fitness levels and performance.  One aspect that I'd like to deal with is going into a workout properly hydrated and being able to track hydration throughout the exercise.  There doesn't appear to be much out there in terms of commercially available equipment.  But this article discusses much of current state of the art and the ongoing research in the field.

My preferred usage of the device would be:

1. Slip moisture tracking device on around 11am.
2. Around 11:15 or so, get email or text advising me to drink a certain amount of water before I workout at noon.  The amount and timing is sufficient to ensure that when I start my workout, I will be adequately hydrated.
3. I begin my workout shortly after noon.
4. Throughout my workout, either at specified time intervals or hydration intervals, I'm updated to my body's hydration status.
5. After my workout, I'm advised on the idea amount of water to consume to ensure a speedy recovery from the workout I've just done.
6. Information is tracked and easily integrated into fitbit and other data.

I think that while this could eventually be integrated in an all-in-one tracking device (like the Surge), I don't think that it needs to be to be a successful device.  Here's why:

• I don't need to track hydration all of the time.  Certainly not while sitting in my office chair.
• Accurate hydration likely requires a fairly large area patch of skin to get useful measurements.  Not ideal for continuous wear.
• Athletes will be willing to pay a fair bit in both money and inconvenience to get this information.

Those are my thoughts for now, more may be added as it comes to me.  Let me know what you think!

Simple Ideas

This is a blog post to just talk about some simple use of technology and the potential for that technology to make the world a better place.  These are not profound ideas and many have been done already, but generally just examples of what I've been thinking about recently.  Here we go:

• Wildlife webcams: See here for an example collection.  This seems like one of the simplest ways of conveying the beauty and changing aspect of the nature that is really not that close to many of us city (or suburb) dwellers.  One Step Beyond: make a Roku channel and add sound.  The Roku channel should default to a rotating "best of" collection and change every day.  Somebody should provide this to doctors offices / waiting rooms in general and just have a strip of silent advertising on the bottom or the side.
• Feedback & Tracking: Ask Me Every is a great example of this topic.  Their system sends and email or a text every day at a certain time asking a question that you set up and then you provide feedback.  It tracks your information (whatever you want).  It keeps you accountable and helps you track your progress.  Want to drink less alcohol?  Have it send you a message each day when you'd be done drinking and honestly   One Step Beyond: make it into an app.  Put the data into a broader data ecosystem for the user so that it could be integrated with custom scripts or display of the information.
• Easy Maintenance: Every new product that you buy should get registered into your maintenance database.  If a smart product, it can add entries in the db when maintenance needs to be done.  If not smart, calendar entries can be added.  Ideally, this would be facilitated through the manufacturer, but could be done totally outside of that scope.  It would have to be super easy for people to follow through, though.  One Step Beyond: rate all products for how much time and money they will take in maintenance.  Want to buy that motorcycle, well, be ready to spend 8 hours realigning the valves every 5k miles, or that other motorcycle only needs it every 20k miles.  Should be part of everybody's purchase decision but it's not (directly) now, people rely instead of rough brand confidence measures.
• [More to come!]

The Future of Flops

My son occasionally gets really excited about how the technology of the future is going to be so "dank".  I agree, it will.  Today, he was focusing on video cards, which then led him to look at supercomputing stats and expectations.  He kept repeating, "A billion billion calculations per second.  That's insane!"  And it is.  Insane.

As of now, many people involved in high performance computing believe that we will reach the exaflop level in 2020 (or there about).  We have some ways to go, given the current peak speed of only ~ 33 petaflops.  That said, there is a planned computer at Oak Ridge that could reach 300 petaflops.  From there, it's only a factor of three.  And desktop computers have been running only about 10 to 15 years behind the super computers (though that pace may not continue).  It all goes well, in my lifetime, we could end up with an exaflop's worth of power on our desktop.

There is a great Wikipedia article on Exascale Computing, which I won't attempt to improve on.  But noteworthy, is that it is believed that the current human brain is roughly a 1 exaflop computer.  So, it might not be crazy that a device that is sitting on your desk, could be as "smart" as you.  Scary, maybe, but exciting, too.  What will be better?  Here are my thoughts on how the future changes, from the obvious to the super speculative.

One Step Beyond

• Better video games:  Micro-textures?  Water physics modeling?  Good NPCs?
• Emersive Virtual Reality: like really emersive.  Imagine virtual worlds that have been built over years with powerful engineering and artistic tools.
• Even less human-provided customer service: Overseas call centers could be a thing of the past.  Voice recognition will be virtually perfect (instead of really good like it is now).  Small call-centers here to deal with the only most complex customer issues.
• Suggestive Prompts: Personal assistant software will go from mildly annoying to super helpful.  We'll get prompts to remind of us of meaningful things.  Amazon Echo on 'roids.  Stupid example: every time I head into my kitchen in the morning, I have my news briefing played.  But I have to ask for it.  Why shouldn't Alexa just start playing it a few days after I ask for it.  Or at least ask.  Fair enough that we don't need a exa-scale computer to do this, but I'm thinking that this kind of learning and intelligence will be ubiquitous.
• MORE TO COME!!

The Key to Keeping Cool?

It's hot today where I live.  I decided that it'd be a perfect day to test out some Qore Performance sleeves and shorts to see if I could still have a reasonably comfortable motorcycle ride in my ATGATT getup.  The TL;DR is yes, for a while.  Read on if you want to know more.  And in full disclosure, I'm friends with one of the guys who started the company, so I'm probably a little bit biased here.  Also note that the Qore system was not designed specifically for motorcyclists, I just thought that it could be useful.

First, let me describe what I did.  I suited up, road through Great Falls and Sterling Virginia and back in the afternoon of one of the hottest days this summer.  All in all, I was out about 90 minutes, excluding my stop at the grocery store on the way home.

Gear:

- Jacket: Mesh Joe Rocket.  Very free flowing when the liner is taken out, which it obviously was for a ride on a day like today.
- Pants: Inexpensive pair of Bilt riding pants with no venting (nor insulated).
- Gloves: Inexpensive mesh Bilt gloves
- Boots: Inexpensive Bilt boots (there is a pattern here - someday I will upgrade all of this Bilt gear).
- Helmet: Yes.
- Qore sleeves and shorts.  Here is what I looked like before putting on a t-shirt and my jacket and pants:

Pros of Qore:

• Absolutely cools you while you ride.  Noticeable coolness except on your head. 
• Well-made gear.

Cons of Qore:

• As I noted, the system was not designed for motorcycling in terms of the placement of the gel packs.  I think that this impacts the shorts mostly.  The cooling gel pockets should be moved to accommodate a seated position if it is to be sold to riders.
• Effectiveness Time: As noted above, I rode about 90 minutes.  After about 45, I could feel no measurable cooling.  The gel packs on my arms were still in place, but almost at body temp.  The gel packs on the shorts were still somewhat cool, but just barely.  My guess is that the mesh nature of my jacket causes a lot of heat transfer on the side of the gel packs not to my body, removing much of the coolness benefit that I could be receiving.

Conclusion:

Get something like the Entrosys A/C system if you want long term cooling on your motorcycle, but for shorter trips like commuting, the Qore system might be a good option for you.  I'm not going to let hot weather be an excuse for me to get out and ride, especially if its a crazy sunny day.  You can buy an additional set of gel packs and store in an insulated bag they provide to recharge partway through a longer ride.  Or, at a restaurant, ask for an extra glass of almost full ice water and recharge your gel packs that way.

One Step Beyond:

Here are some thoughts on improving the product:

• Directional gel pads: insulate one side and leave the other uninsulated.  The side facing the user would be uninsulated.  This maximizes heat transfer between the intended side while minimizing it to the other.  By varying the amount of insulation on the side facing the user, you could tune how long the gel packs would likely be effective for.  Do you want a lot of cooling or just a little?
• One time endothermic reaction gel pads: opposite of heating pads.  Ideally, these would last 4 hours or so.
• Electrify the system: introduce solid-state thermoelectric plates/pads that pug in to the bikes 12V system.  In the summer, put the cool side toward the user.  In the winter, do the opposite (though resistive heating would probably be more efficient).  Imagine an ADV ride up a high mountain - cooling in the morning, heating in the afternoon!

Trusted Shopper Network

When reading about the impending doom for employment due to automation in the retail sector, it got me thinking about how jobs could really be reduced in the retail sector.  The automation efforts that I have seen so far look like glorified vending machines.  And perhaps we will see more and more specialized vending machines for certain retail goods.  (That said, I have never seen somebody purchasing something at a Best Buy machine in an airport.  Not once.)  But I think that there is a large segment of retail that relies on touch and fit before the individual is willing to make the purchase.  Think clothes and shoes.  To a lesser extent, this would include home goods.  I'm thinking mostly of a clothing or shoe store in my below description of the world.

Employees in a retail establishment perform the following functions:

• Chiefly, performing the mechanics of the purchase transaction.
• Stocking shelves / racks / etc.
• Cleaning / straightening / arranging of goods (sometimes after customers have messed them up)
• Theft prevention, even if only by their presence, they are discouraging otherwise mostly honest people from taking things that they haven't purchased.
• Providing fashion advice: "does this look good on me?"
• Performing inventory (infrequently)
• Handling exchanges / returns.

Could we ever get to a clothing store with no employees?  Here's how.

Retail One Step Beyond

Set up a "Trusted Shopper Network".  Only people in the network would have permission to enter stores with no employees and shop.  The terms and conditions would be strict and monitored.  Any instance of cheating (attempting to remove merchandise from the store without paying - perhaps by removing an RFID tag) results in a seven year ban.  A credit card remains on file with the network and handles payment security for the merchants.  Similar to a 24-Hour Fitness, membership in the network would give you the right to enter the otherwise unoccupied store.  It could be made available 24 hours a day.

I think a network here would be much more compelling than just an individual store setting up it's own system.  First, it makes the downside of customer cheating to be larger.  This wouldn't be a big deal when the network was tiny, but if it encompassed half of your shopping opportunities, you'd think twice about attempting to cheat.  Second, it allows various store owners to share in the development of standards and intellectual property to make this work.  Third, from an awareness/education standpoint, it will take some time for people to understand what this is all about, so sharing in the advertising costs would be beneficial for all vendors in the trusted network.

Then, the store would be optimized to handle all of the activities now done by a person:

• Purchase Transaction: Completed automatically as you exit the store, via a reading of the unique RFID tags on the clothes.  A receipt is emailed to you as soon as you exit.
• Stocking: Robots.  Likely result in a simplified layout at the present moment.
• Clean-up: Roombas and robots.  Post-changing room clothes would be required to be rehung and put in a standardized rack that a robot could restock.
• Theft Prevention: Substantial automated video monitoring for sketchy behavior.  Any removal of RFIDs prior to exit gets you banned from the store.  Perhaps any clothing that you remove from a rack needs to be scanned by you (tapped to your phone) to tie you to that ID right away.
• Fashion Advice: Replaced by facebook or other social media to get input from your friends.  "Expert System" advise could also be made available by the store for body shape / BMI / age.
• Inventory: Constantly monitored via RFID tags.
• Exchanges/Returns: Returns box accessible from outside the store.  All items to be returned are required to still have the RFID tag still attached.  Perhaps humans have to be involved, at least now, at rehanging the returned clothes and ensuring they are in new condition (not worn and returned).

What might be some other advantages to this approach?

• Retail flexibility: Part-time stores.  The same retail space could be repurposed as a Christmas-themed outlet or alternatively costumes near Halloween and then bathing suits in spring.  This could be as much a platform for experimentation and seasonal content as anything else.  Clearing out the old and adding the new should be quick and simple.  Currently, it feels like we have a very inflexible model.  Fashion experimentation could be much cheaper if a brand doesn't have to set up its own retail network, but could rent 20% of like-positioned floor space around the country.
• Improved Shopping Experience: No more hassling by employees.

Why It Won't Happen

• Expense: retail employees are cheap and very flexible at handling the required functions laid out above.
• Limitations in presentation: Clothes and fashion items sell because they look good.  At present, layouts and presentation could be negatively affected to allow for automation.
• System Integration: Lots of specialized and customized software needs to come together to make this happen.
• "Personal Service": a segment of the population still think that they want a human involved in the interaction.  Some clothing purchases are admittedly "high touch".

[Updated 2016-12-05] See Amazon's efforts in this regard.  Perhaps this will happen!

Thoughts on "A World Without Work"

I found A World Without Work, recently published in the Atlantic, to be a fascinating read.  I think the author does a good job discussing a meaningful trend (lower labor force participation rates for "prime age" people) and discusses how one of the major drivers for that change (technology) might continue to affect us as a society.

I, for one, welcome the idea that people could be freed from the shackles of being forced to work.  (That said, I suspect that some portion of us are already freed from those shackles without taking advantage of it.  Instead, we spend our extra money instead of saving it for down-times.)  I think that technology has great promise in freeing us from even more of where we spend our time today.  That said, I cannot foresee a world where there is truly no work.  More likely, we end up in a bi-modal world where many people do not work (or work only sporadically) and high earners keep working hard and enjoy the benefits of their labor.  At the very least, we need people to design and repair our machines that do the work for us.

In some ways, the world could be bimodal, as well.  Just like advancements in average levels of education haven't helped most of the developing world (nearly as much as history suggested that it would), could there be an outcome where developed country standards of living shoot way ahead of less developed, despite there being little work involved?  If so, how does immigration work in that environment? (i.e., there should be a crush of people wanting in to the work-free countries).

Here are some random thoughts on where we could benefit from machines:

• Clothes folder: I'm ok with managing loads going into and out of my washer and dryer, but where is the folder?  Dump in a pile of clothes, the machine recognizes what each article is and sorts and folds automatically.  I don't even care if it puts it away; I can manage that.  If this comes to past, why not a closer linkage between machines where you put dirty clothes in one end and out on the other end pops clean, dry, folded clothes.  Maybe these never get built for houses, but on an industrial scale with a laundry service, this would have to work, no?  Coupled with drone delivery, it'd be genius.
• Stove-based Auto-Cooker: These are coming!  Looking forward to a practical version.  I'd expect to see a commercial application of this first.  [Aside: I think it'd be a great restaurant concept to have these guys in the center making your meal (think 8 in an octagon in the center facing outward with customer tables arranged surrounding it).  When the robot was making your meal, your table's color would flash for a bit, alerting you to pay attention.  Gimmicky for sure, but could be a lot of fun (at least until the novelty wore off).  This might even work better with no servers - you get alerted when your meal has started and when it's done and you go pick it up.  MTO and fine dining quality with self-service and no tips.  A winning concept?]  And if we live in a world where robots cook our food, I'd imagine they can clean our dishes, too.
• House builder: This would actually need to be a series of specialized machines, so I'm guessing we'll tackle this issue from a number of different dimensions, spelled out below.  I don't see major systems (like the furnace, air conditioner and hot water heater) being automatically installed.  Perhaps 3-D house printing is the future, but for stick-built homes like dominate in the US, here's what we'd need.
• Bricklayer: Driveway.  Walls / other.
• Stick-built factory assembly: Robotic assembly of pre-built sections.  This may already be a thing.
• Stick-built assembler: I haven't seen one yet, but imagine a machine that can put all of the pre-fab sections together with no instructions.  It was all designed on a computer in the first place (at least this is probably the overwhelming majority of normal houses).  It would also need to be large enough to put on the roof.  Likely a "placer" and an "affixer" to nail or otherwise fasten it in place.
• Shingler: lays felt and asphalt shingles autonomously.
• Utility holer: drills all holes for plumbing and electrical wiring.  Not only does it drill varied sized holes depending on the function, it sprays the hole with a code (i.e., blue for electrical, green for plumbing, yellow for ethernet, red for audio).  Much of this could/should actually be done in the factory.
• Utility runner: actually runs wires & pipes through all of the holes that the driller made.  Probably much harder than the Utility holer to pull off.
• Tile/Wood Flooring module: Lays down, cuts, etc. a tile or wood floor.
• Insulation: Installs perfect amount of expanding insulation in walls.  Also applies vapor barriers.
• Drywall Installer: Lift position and screws in drywall.  Both walls and ceilings.  Precut all necessary holes.
• Drywall Mudder: Seals drywall seems.  Some crude devices already exist here.
• Window/Door setter: Specialized gear to perfectly install windows and doors
• Painter: runs around the house 
• Siding installers: moves around the house to perfectly set up vinyl siding.
• Small Landscaper: Autonomous mini-bulldozer that will push dirt around to the desired final outcome with no human intervention.  Built-in avoidance of people and other robots.
• Autonomous cars & trucks: Well covered elsewhere.  They can't come soon enough.
• Autonomous ships: They are on their way, too.
• Autonomous/remote mining: Get the miners out of the shafts.  Can't come soon enough, as well.
• Autonomous Landscaping & Farming: We have mainstream mowers, how about bush management?  Believe me, I would only have plants on my property that could be managed by these devices.  Also, a great opportunity to mix in other technologies.  Bushes need trimming at most a couple of times a season.  Just rent the services of this complex machine: have an autonomous vehicle deliver it to the property and have it manage the bushes and return home.  Also, autonomous fertilization and weeders.  Really, roomba needs to make a "gardenba" to weed my small herb garden.  Weather-proof and solar charged would be a nice touch (just leave it in the garden and it does the work).  Likely, weeds will have no way of adapting to physical disruption.  On a larger scale, can we be too far away from some crops being planted, weeded, fertilized and harvested by autonomous equipment?
• Auto-Grocery: Order on-line and either have it delivered (via autonomous vehicle, obviously).  But if not, show up at the grocery store and just pick up your bins of food.  You don't have to walk through the store yourself, it has been picked and sorted for you.  I think this is where Amazon Fresh is heading and I love the concept.  This will, I think to be successful, require some standardization in the handling of sensitive fresh produce.  Imagine purpose-built (and reusable) plastic cages for individual tomatoes or cucumbers.  Inefficiencies in packing will be more than made up for by efficiency (and product quality) gains at the point of sale/delivery to the customer.
• Fabric cutting and assembling: I don't see automated sewing of clothes to be too far down on the horizon.  Fabric physics is being modeled better than ever.  Will anybody bemoan the end of sweatshops?

Where are some places that machines will not likely change much?

• Fixing broken stuff: This feels like something that will be very hard to automate.  We still rely on very very simple technology for much of our life.  Valves and toilets, for instance.  When they break, it's not likely to be a robot assessing what is broken or fixing it.  For all of the computer assist in diagnosing cars, it still takes a person using tools that have advanced little from the 1960's to swap out a bad part.  Some maintenance areas could still benefit substantially from a robot assist.  Imagine Costco investing in automated wheel removal / tire removal / tire installation robot.
• Clothes/shoe shopping: Lots of people like to browse and touch.  Technology will have a hard time changing this too much.  Though note that we spend less of our disposable income on clothing than in the recent past.  More on this in a future post.
• Live Entertainment: I have no interest in seeing a live robot band.  Sort of a mis-statement anyway.
• Fashion / Aesthetics /  Interface design: A machine can't design something that looks beautiful and makes sense to us.  Machines will continue to assist and potentially in more meaningful ways.  But it seems obvious to me that there always need to be a guiding hand of a person.
• Storytelling: In all its various forms: books, movies/TV, songs, theater.  The human experience can only be described by humans.

Floating Hotels

Popular Mechanics had this brief, picture-filled article about a floating hotel concept.  Could result in a spectacular way to enjoy a particularly scenic lake.

One Step Beyond

Make them autonomous pods that will take you on a leisurely cruise around the lake that you are visiting.  You will dine with a beautiful sunset, and wake to a beautiful sunrise.  Perfectly programmed to optimize the experience for you and the pods around you.  Get a double room by linking two of them together.

Will It Happen

Not likely.  But it would be super cool if it did.  If it does, it will be a luxury experience, at least for the next 20 years or so.  Everything marine-related costs way more than simple land-based construction/maintenance.