Recently, while sitting out on my back deck with the kids, I wondered if it was possible to identify the planes flying over my house. (We live near the Raleigh-Durham international airport, which means there are always planes visible). I asked Brave if this was possible, and found out that it was!

The Flightradar24 website allows you to view flight paths of planes in real time, which is so neat. They have an associated app, which I downloaded to my phone. I can now see a plane, pull up the app, and identify the flight (where it's coming from, where it's going to, etc.). The app shows big commercial flights, as well as smaller private flights. Helicopters are also displayed. What a neat world!

Over the past few weeks, I've switched my primary mobile browser (in Android) from Firefox to Brave (thanks for the suggestion, Kip!). So far, I'm very impressed with the app. The built-in ad blocker is impressively accurate, and the browser is incredibly fast. In fact, it feels faster to me than Chrome does (and it's night and day compared to Firefox). There are a few minor UI annoyances here and there, but nothing that ever gets in the way. I've also been impressed with the updates the development team pushes out (the browser only seems to get better with time). I recommend it.

The Merlin bird identification app that I wrote about a while back has an incredible new feature: sound ID. Simply bring up the Merlin app, select "Sound ID", and capture the bird song you want to identify. As you record, possibilities for the target bird appear. A few nights ago, while on a walk, I recorded a sound I didn't know, and it suggested a gray catbird, which was spot on.

There's a nice article that provides some details on this new feature and how it works. This app is getting better and better with time, and I highly recommend it.

Back in June of 2010, I began tracking my weight using the Libra app for Android. For those who don't recall, this app uses some of the tracking ideas presented in The Hacker’s Diet, a fantastic (and free!) weight loss book.

Over the weekend, I finally got the trend line to dip below my target weight for the first time! Here's a snapshot of the latest chart:

This new goal line is slightly modified from my original goal, which can be seen in the old chart:

As you can see, I used to be up in the "overweight" section for someone my height; now I'm down into the "normal" range! I cannot recommend this app highly enough. Simply tracking my weight has been a useful tool in helping me to get a little healthier. Hopefully it can help others out there as well!

I've been slightly overweight for quite a long time. Two months ago, I decided I would start tracking my weight daily, in an effort to try and motivate myself to shed a few pounds. Desiring a tool to make this easy, I immediately searched the Android marketplace and found Libra. This incredibly handy tool uses a weight trend line as described in the excellent book The Hacker's Diet.

Allow me to quickly talk about The Hacker's Diet. Written by John Walker, founder of AutoDesk, this book tackles weight loss as an engineering problem. The author is funny, to the point, and provides a careful analysis of how weight loss works. The briefest summary: you will only lose weight by eating fewer calories than you need. Exercise won't do it (though it helps), and weird diets (Atkins, South Beach, et al.) won't do it either. Read the book for further discussion and analysis of this viewpoint. The author presents a pretty solid case that's hard to argue against. Best of all, the book is available for free as a PDF!

The trend line in a weight chart tells you where you're headed: am I gaining weight (line going up), maintaining it (horizontal), or losing it (line going down)? With this simple tool, I was able to see in no time at all that my weight was going upwards at an alarming rate. After waking up to my weight gain, I set a modest goal of losing 9 pounds (I was 9 pounds above the "overweight" line for someone my height).

After reading The Hacker's Diet, I made one simple change to my lifestyle: I altered how much I eat at each meal. I didn't change what I eat; only how much. And wow what a difference that has made! Today, I weighed in at my goal weight for the very first time! Here's the proof:

As you can see from the chart, I started heading up, turned the corner, and have been headed down ever since. My trend line hasn't yet hit my target weight (as of today's measurement, it's scheduled to hit the target on August 21), but at least it's heading in the right direction. It was a great feeling to hit my target this morning. I'm looking forward to shedding a few more pounds and maintaining a healthier weight.