About last week: 14th July 2019

Following last week's website updates, I added a blog section and published my first post, About last week: 7th July 2019 - the first of my weekly updates. This is the second.

I also continued working on the updated Oppo Studio website, focusing on the content now that much of the structure is complete. In particular, I've been writing a reflection on the events surrounding the founding of Oppo Studio, and the emergent principles which impacted almost every other aspect of the company. Writing this has been an interesting experience, with moments of deep sadness but also immense pride. I'm hoping to release the update in the coming week.

After a few false starts, I found time this week to get my SmartThings Wifi Hub up and running. It doesn't look as though it's possible to change certain network configurations (in this case, changing the network mode from standalone - connecting directly to the ISP - to bridge) without a factory reset, so much of this time was spent repairing devices, and setting up basic automations. No doubt I'll be making adjustments - this week I'm hoping to integrate both Google Home, as well as Apple's Homekit (using Homebridge and the Homebridge for SmartThings plugin). Ideally these adjustments become less frequent over time.

I came across Glide this week, which allows you to (according to their website) "create an app from a Google Sheet in 5 minutes, for free." I've always found the spreadsheet to be a great prototyping tool and am looking forward out Glide, possibly building a quick MVP of a health tracker that I've been thinking about. There are other options available, but a lot try to incorporate things like meal tracking, activity tracking, and mood tracking which I'm either already tracking elsewhere (e.g. Strava) or just not interested in.

Finally, the results of an MRI on my left knee, which has left me out of action for the last month, came back disappointingly vague. I managed to get myself booked in with a sports doctor on Monday morning. I started swimming again as a low impact form of exercise, and have been weighing up the pros and cons of underwater headphones. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the low quality (bluetooth doesn't work well underwater), user experience (I haven't had to "sync" music for a long time), and expense always outweighed the benefits.