Off Topic The Goodhand Arms

I don’t know what you mean. It’s natural....well about 20% of it [emoji16]

 

Thinking of getting a smart watch for my birthday, run about 5km a week and cycle/swim once a week, you recommend an Apple Watch (I have an iPhone) or should I go with Garmin. I think Apple Watch is better day to day but Garmin is better for sports although Apple has made significant improvements since I looked a few years ago @thereisonlyoneno7

 

People who have to surrender their passports to work and end up throwing themselves off factory roofs [Apple] versus any other smart watch manufacturer. No brainer.

 

This one’s for @Saint Helen and @Number 1 Jasper and all you other cat lovers:
I believe I mentioned we were getting some rescue kittens a while back, well they arrived yesterday, a bit early at 6 and a half weeks but Mum had mastitis so couldn’t feed them. Anyway, here they are, Moses the tabby, Ella the smoky black, and ginger George:

 

Would end up boycotting most major companies as they almost all have ‘questionable’ (at best) rights for workers

 

Shareholders are asking BMW about electric models that would blow Tesla out of the water. That's a quote from an article about upcoming vehicles like this one. The iNext:



How hideous do vehicles have to get when they are electric to stop people buying them? I think this one is probably sales proof.

 

Indeed. I would change 'most' for 'some', and why don't we boycott them? Seems a good idea to me. However, it is undoubtedly true that at, say Samsung for instance, they don't have to put nets up to catch people when they jump off the factory roof to commit suicide because the work arrangements are more appalling than they bargained for, because they are not. In fact, they're quite benign. Where as it is absolutely true of Apple in China. There is real evidence of this happening, and I'm not sure that it has stopped.

 

I've had a Garmin 235 for a couple of years and it's been well worth it, it has an App store so it's quite flexible to use for different stuff. I use a vivosport(?) normally then the 235 for actual running/cycling. It all syncs nicely with Strava which is mainly how I use it. It has a heart rate sensor that sticks out into your wrist that can be a bit uncomfortable until you get used to it. I haven't used Apple so I can't compare though.

 

Can also recommend the Garmin forerunner 235. I don’t use it for anything other than running really so no idea how good it is for other sports. I think other models of Garmin are more targeted at multisports users but I’ve never tried with mine tbf. As qwerty says, syncs effortlessly with Strava. Simple to use, battery lasts between 5-7 days for me before it needs charging. Syncs well with iPhone too and can see texts and notifications on it, though I don’t really use it for that side of things. Assuming the Garmin is significantly cheaper, got mind for £120ish if memory serves.

 

I am completely in the Apple ecosystem, so for me it is a no brainer. I use HomeKit around the house for automations and like being able to control my devices from my watch. When I walk or jog, as I have the cellular version of the Watch I can leave my phone behind and still stream music as well as take important calls etc.

I workout (walk/jog/powerplate/light weights etc) most days for about an hour (only now of them though!) and find the watch does track my progress and make me try and be more active on non active days. The GPS on the watch is accurate and the heart rate monitor is great too. I get about 30 hours between charges, though normally charge at night anyway.

However, there is an 'Apple Tax' and you could probably do all of the above for less ££, though the end user experience may not be so seamless.

 

I have the Garmin Forerunner 35. Does the job for me and my bike! Everything comes over to the App on my phone nicely.

 

I work for a German Supermarket chain, and the following is a question and answer from a periodic Q&A session.

Q. Can there be limited heights of intake pallets, to reduce injuries?
A. No. The higher the pallet the more cost effective we can be, as we get more stock on one vehicle.

I took a photo of it, just in case I ever have an accident, as a result of an over stacked pallet, so that I can prove that the company puts profits before people.

 

"The most notorious example was when, in 2010, 10 workers at a Foxconn electronics factory in China killed themselves – a shocking fact that tarnished Foxconn’s most famous customer, Apple, and caused millions of iPhone owners to feel faintly guilty. But the factory employed an astonishing 400,000 people; so the reported suicide rate, rather than being shockingly high, was implausibly low, a sixth of the Chinese average."

From http://timharford.com/articles/sya/page/3/

Vin

 

I loved Spike Milligan.

 

Those damned statistics again. I guess we ought to celebrate Foxconn [Apple] saving everybody's lives then. Or perhaps not. Just buy a product from another company that doesn't have a slightly dodgy reputation. I'm sure there are one or two out there.

 

I’m tempted to buy a Xiaomi for my next phone, but I can’t find anything about the rights of their employees online, other that they are pretty much all Chinese. Any ideas?

 

I really don't know mate. What do we know about Chinese manufacturing, period? We do know that they seem to have a national work ethic like no other, but is that subjugation or is it simply that they make things easy enough for Chinese people to work quickly? I'm the first to admit I am incredibly ignorant on what goes on in China, as far as the ethical pros and cons of their products, and I don't think I'm anywhere near alone. That ignorance has to change because undoubtedly we all will be buying more major Chinese product in the future.

I can't seem to get to the bottom of this Huawei 5G stuff either. Part of me thinks that much of the criticism Huawei are getting stems from FUD, brought about by USA businesses losing market share.

 

I don't know about their employees, but a lot of my home automation is based on Xiaomi sensors - door sensors, motion, water, humidity, temperature etc. Nice and cheap (about £8 delivered) and I pair with a local hub on a Raspberry Pi, so all my door openings and motion isn't sent to China to be analysed first

EDIT: This is something that a lot of normal users forget with all these smart devices - try to get something you control, not goes off to google or amazon. Though I am guilty as hell with my Amazon Echos and Google Nest Thermostat.....

 

They should make them all look like 50s American cars

 

They could. Actually, I do like this Peugeot E-Legend. This is an all-electric car I would love to see put into production:

please log in to view this image

They're calling it a futuristic throwback. I can see what they mean.