#might have to get that hulu bundle and lock i

[pmsocialmedia]

Jam lets you safely share streaming app passwords

Can’t afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney+…? Now there’s an app specially built for giving pals your passwords while claiming to keep your credentials safe. It’s called Jam, and the questionably legal service launched in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus tells TechCrunch in his first interview about Jam that it will let users save login details with local encryption, add friends you can then authorize to access your password for a chosen service, and broadcast to friends which of your subscriptions have room for people to piggyback on.

Jam is just starting to add users off its rapidly growing waitlist that you can join here, but when users get access, it’s designed to stay free to use. In the future, Jam could build a business by helping friends split the costs of subscriptions. There’s clearly demand. Over 80% of 13-24 year olds have given out or used someone else’s online TV password, according a study by Hub of over 2000 US consumers.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don’t want to find out my ex-girlfriend’s roommate has been using my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but for consumers there isn’t a secure way to do that. Why?” Backus asks. “In the enterprise world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people need to access the same account, regularly. Consumers don’t have the same kind of system, and that’s bad for security and coordination.”

Thankfully, Backus isn’t some amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford computer science dropout and Thiel Fellow founded identity verification startup Cognito and decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. “Working in crypto at Bloom and with sensitive data at Cognito, I have a lot of experience building secure products with cryptography at the core.

He also tells me since everything saved in Jam is locally encrypted, even he can’t see it and nothing would be exposed if the company was hacked. It uses similar protocols to 1Password, “Plaintext login information is never sent to our server, nor is your master password” and “we use pretty straightforward public key cryptography.” Remember, your friend could always try to hijack and lock you out, though. And while those protocols may be hardened, TechCrunch can’t verify they’re perfectly implemented and fully secure within Jam.

Whether facilitating password sharing is legal, and whether Netflix and its peers will send an army of lawyers to destroy Jam, remain open questions. We’ve reached out to several streaming companies for comment. When asked on Twitter about Jam helping users run afoul of their terms of service, Backus claims that “plenty of websites give you permission to share your account with others (with vary degrees of constraints) but users often don’t know these rules.” 

However, sharing is typically supposed to be amongst a customer’s own devices or within their household, or they’re supposed to pay for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney, and Spotify for comment, and did not receive any on the record comments. However, Spotify’s terms of service specifically prohibit providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password”. Netflix’s terms insist that “the Account Owner should maintain control over the Netflix ready devices that are used to access the service and not reveal the password or details of the Payment Method associated to the account to anyone.”

Some might see Jam as ripping off the original content creators, though Backus claims that “Jam isn’t trying to take money out of anyone’s pocket. Spotify offers [family plan sharing for people under the same roof]. Many other companies offer similar bundled plans. I think people just underutilize things like this and it’s totally fair game.”

Netflix’s Chief Product Officer said in October that the company is monitoring password sharing and it’s looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.” Meanwhile, The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment that includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios announced that its members will collaborate to address “piracy” including “what facilitates unauthorized access, including improper password sharing and inadequate encryption.”

That could lead to expensive legal trouble for Jam. “My past startups have done well, so I’ve had the pleasure of self-funding Jam so far” Backus says. But if lawsuits emerge or the app gets popular, he might need to find outside investors. “I only launched about 5 hours ago, but I’ll just say that I’m already in the process of upgrading my database tier due to signup growth.”

Eventually, the goal is not to monetize not through a monthly subscription like Backus expects competitors including password-sharing browser extensions might charge. Instead “Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy fo users to track what they’re sharing and with whom so that they can settle up the difference at the end of each month” Backus explains. It could charge “either a small fee in exchange for automatically settling debts between users and/or charging a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups.” Later, he sees a chance to provide recommendations for optimizing account management across networks of people while building native mobile apps.

“I think Jam is timed perfectly to line up with multiple different booming trends in how people are using the internet”, particularly younger people says Backus. Hub says 42% of all US consumers have used someone else’s online TV service password, while amongst 13 to 24 year olds, 69% have watched Netflix on someone else’s password. “When popularity and exclusivity are combined with often ambiguous, even sometimes nonexistent, rules about legitimate use, it’s almost an invitation to subscribers to share the enjoyment with friends and family” says Peter Fondulas, the principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made its displeasure clear, but in spite of that, password sharing is still very much alive and well.”

From that perspective, you could liken Jam to sex education. Password sharing abstinence has clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Feeling lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click "Sign out of all devices," and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now, you'll find you have several new texts from friends you haven't spoken to in years.

— John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2HaSE8V

[localbizlift]

Jam lets you safely share streaming app passwords

Can’t afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney+…? Now there’s an app specially built for giving pals your passwords while claiming to keep your credentials safe. It’s called Jam, and the questionably legal service launched in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus tells TechCrunch in his first interview about Jam that it will let users save login details with local encryption, add friends you can then authorize to access your password for a chosen service, and broadcast to friends which of your subscriptions have room for people to piggyback on.

Jam is just starting to add users off its rapidly growing waitlist that you can join here, but when users get access, it’s designed to stay free to use. In the future, Jam could build a business by helping friends split the costs of subscriptions. There’s clearly demand. Over 80% of 13-24 year olds have given out or used someone else’s online TV password, according a study by Hub of over 2000 US consumers.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don’t want to find out my ex-girlfriend’s roommate has been using my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but for consumers there isn’t a secure way to do that. Why?” Backus asks. “In the enterprise world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people need to access the same account, regularly. Consumers don’t have the same kind of system, and that’s bad for security and coordination.”

Thankfully, Backus isn’t some amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford computer science dropout and Thiel Fellow founded identity verification startup Cognito and decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. “Working in crypto at Bloom and with sensitive data at Cognito, I have a lot of experience building secure products with cryptography at the core.

He also tells me since everything saved in Jam is locally encrypted, even he can’t see it and nothing would be exposed if the company was hacked. It uses similar protocols to 1Password, “Plaintext login information is never sent to our server, nor is your master password” and “we use pretty straightforward public key cryptography.” Remember, your friend could always try to hijack and lock you out, though. And while those protocols may be hardened, TechCrunch can’t verify they’re perfectly implemented and fully secure within Jam.

Whether facilitating password sharing is legal, and whether Netflix and its peers will send an army of lawyers to destroy Jam, remain open questions. We’ve reached out to several streaming companies for comment. When asked on Twitter about Jam helping users run afoul of their terms of service, Backus claims that “plenty of websites give you permission to share your account with others (with vary degrees of constraints) but users often don’t know these rules.” 

However, sharing is typically supposed to be amongst a customer’s own devices or within their household, or they’re supposed to pay for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney, and Spotify for comment, and did not receive any on the record comments. However, Spotify’s terms of service specifically prohibit providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password”. Netflix’s terms insist that “the Account Owner should maintain control over the Netflix ready devices that are used to access the service and not reveal the password or details of the Payment Method associated to the account to anyone.”

Some might see Jam as ripping off the original content creators, though Backus claims that “Jam isn’t trying to take money out of anyone’s pocket. Spotify offers [family plan sharing for people under the same roof]. Many other companies offer similar bundled plans. I think people just underutilize things like this and it’s totally fair game.”

Netflix’s Chief Product Officer said in October that the company is monitoring password sharing and it’s looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.” Meanwhile, The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment that includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios announced that its members will collaborate to address “piracy” including “what facilitates unauthorized access, including improper password sharing and inadequate encryption.”

That could lead to expensive legal trouble for Jam. “My past startups have done well, so I’ve had the pleasure of self-funding Jam so far” Backus says. But if lawsuits emerge or the app gets popular, he might need to find outside investors. “I only launched about 5 hours ago, but I’ll just say that I’m already in the process of upgrading my database tier due to signup growth.”

Eventually, the goal is not to monetize not through a monthly subscription like Backus expects competitors including password-sharing browser extensions might charge. Instead “Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy fo users to track what they’re sharing and with whom so that they can settle up the difference at the end of each month” Backus explains. It could charge “either a small fee in exchange for automatically settling debts between users and/or charging a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups.” Later, he sees a chance to provide recommendations for optimizing account management across networks of people while building native mobile apps.

“I think Jam is timed perfectly to line up with multiple different booming trends in how people are using the internet”, particularly younger people says Backus. Hub says 42% of all US consumers have used someone else’s online TV service password, while amongst 13 to 24 year olds, 69% have watched Netflix on someone else’s password. “When popularity and exclusivity are combined with often ambiguous, even sometimes nonexistent, rules about legitimate use, it’s almost an invitation to subscribers to share the enjoyment with friends and family” says Peter Fondulas, the principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made its displeasure clear, but in spite of that, password sharing is still very much alive and well.”

From that perspective, you could liken Jam to sex education. Password sharing abstinence has clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Feeling lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click "Sign out of all devices," and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now, you'll find you have several new texts from friends you haven't spoken to in years.

— John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020

[un-enfant-immature]

Jam lets you safely share streaming app passwords

Can’t afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney+…? Now there’s an app specially built for giving pals your passwords while claiming to keep your credentials safe. It’s called Jam, and the questionably legal service launched in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus tells TechCrunch in his first interview about Jam that it will let users save login details with local encryption, add friends you can then authorize to access your password for a chosen service, and broadcast to friends which of your subscriptions have room for people to piggyback on.

Jam is just starting to add users off its rapidly growing waitlist that you can join here, but when users get access, it’s designed to stay free to use. In the future, Jam could build a business by helping friends split the costs of subscriptions. There’s clearly demand. Over 80% of 13-24 year olds have given out or used someone else’s online TV password, according a study by Hub of over 2000 US consumers.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don’t want to find out my ex-girlfriend’s roommate has been using my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but for consumers there isn’t a secure way to do that. Why?” Backus asks. “In the enterprise world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people need to access the same account, regularly. Consumers don’t have the same kind of system, and that’s bad for security and coordination.”

Thankfully, Backus isn’t some amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford computer science dropout and Thiel Fellow founded identity verification startup Cognito and decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. “Working in crypto at Bloom and with sensitive data at Cognito, I have a lot of experience building secure products with cryptography at the core.

He also tells me since everything saved in Jam is locally encrypted, even he can’t see it and nothing would be exposed if the company was hacked. It uses similar protocols to 1Password, “Plaintext login information is never sent to our server, nor is your master password” and “we use pretty straightforward public key cryptography.” Remember, your friend could always try to hijack and lock you out, though. And while those protocols may be hardened, TechCrunch can’t verify they’re perfectly implemented and fully secure within Jam.

Whether facilitating password sharing is legal, and whether Netflix and its peers will send an army of lawyers to destroy Jam, remain open questions. We’ve reached out to several streaming companies for comment. When asked on Twitter about Jam helping users run afoul of their terms of service, Backus claims that “plenty of websites give you permission to share your account with others (with vary degrees of constraints) but users often don’t know these rules.” 

However, sharing is typically supposed to be amongst a customer’s own devices or within their household, or they’re supposed to pay for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney, and Spotify for comment, and did not receive any on the record comments. However, Spotify’s terms of service specifically prohibit providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password”. Netflix’s terms insist that “the Account Owner should maintain control over the Netflix ready devices that are used to access the service and not reveal the password or details of the Payment Method associated to the account to anyone.”

Some might see Jam as ripping off the original content creators, though Backus claims that “Jam isn’t trying to take money out of anyone’s pocket. Spotify offers [family plan sharing for people under the same roof]. Many other companies offer similar bundled plans. I think people just underutilize things like this and it’s totally fair game.”

Netflix’s Chief Product Officer said in October that the company is monitoring password sharing and it’s looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.” Meanwhile, The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment that includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios announced that its members will collaborate to address “piracy” including “what facilitates unauthorized access, including improper password sharing and inadequate encryption.”

That could lead to expensive legal trouble for Jam. “My past startups have done well, so I’ve had the pleasure of self-funding Jam so far” Backus says. But if lawsuits emerge or the app gets popular, he might need to find outside investors. “I only launched about 5 hours ago, but I’ll just say that I’m already in the process of upgrading my database tier due to signup growth.”

Eventually, the goal is not to monetize not through a monthly subscription like Backus expects competitors including password-sharing browser extensions might charge. Instead “Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy fo users to track what they’re sharing and with whom so that they can settle up the difference at the end of each month” Backus explains. It could charge “either a small fee in exchange for automatically settling debts between users and/or charging a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups.” Later, he sees a chance to provide recommendations for optimizing account management across networks of people while building native mobile apps.

“I think Jam is timed perfectly to line up with multiple different booming trends in how people are using the internet”, particularly younger people says Backus. Hub says 42% of all US consumers have used someone else’s online TV service password, while amongst 13 to 24 year olds, 69% have watched Netflix on someone else’s password. “When popularity and exclusivity are combined with often ambiguous, even sometimes nonexistent, rules about legitimate use, it’s almost an invitation to subscribers to share the enjoyment with friends and family” says Peter Fondulas, the principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made its displeasure clear, but in spite of that, password sharing is still very much alive and well.”

From that perspective, you could liken Jam to sex education. Password sharing abstinence has clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Feeling lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click "Sign out of all devices," and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now, you'll find you have several new texts from friends you haven't spoken to in years.

— John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/jam-lets-you-safely-share-streaming-app-passwords/

Jam lets you safely share streaming app passwords

Can’t afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney+…? Now there’s an app specially built for giving pals your passwords while claiming to keep your credentials safe. It’s called Jam, and the questionably legal service launched in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus tells TechCrunch in his first interview about Jam that it will let users save login details with local encryption, add friends you can then authorize to access your password for a chosen service, and broadcast to friends which of your subscriptions have room for people to piggyback on.

Jam is just starting to add users off its rapidly growing waitlist that you can join here, but when users get access, it’s designed to stay free to use. In the future, Jam could build a business by helping friends split the costs of subscriptions. There’s clearly demand. Over 80% of 13-24 year olds have given out or used someone else’s online TV password, according a study by Hub of over 2000 US consumers.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don’t want to find out my ex-girlfriend’s roommate has been using my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but for consumers there isn’t a secure way to do that. Why?” Backus asks. “In the enterprise world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people need to access the same account, regularly. Consumers don’t have the same kind of system, and that’s bad for security and coordination.”

Thankfully, Backus isn’t some amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford computer science dropout and Thiel Fellow founded identity verification startup Cognito and decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. “Working in crypto at Bloom and with sensitive data at Cognito, I have a lot of experience building secure products with cryptography at the core.

He also tells me since everything saved in Jam is locally encrypted, even he can’t see it and nothing would be exposed if the company was hacked. It uses similar protocols to 1Password, “Plaintext login information is never sent to our server, nor is your master password” and “we use pretty straightforward public key cryptography.” Remember, your friend could always try to hijack and lock you out, though. And while those protocols may be hardened, TechCrunch can’t verify they’re perfectly implemented and fully secure within Jam.

Whether facilitating password sharing is legal, and whether Netflix and its peers will send an army of lawyers to destroy Jam, remain open questions. We’ve reached out to several streaming companies for comment. When asked on Twitter about Jam helping users run afoul of their terms of service, Backus claims that “plenty of websites give you permission to share your account with others (with vary degrees of constraints) but users often don’t know these rules.” 

However, sharing is typically supposed to be amongst a customer’s own devices or within their household, or they’re supposed to pay for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney, and Spotify for comment, and did not receive any on the record comments. However, Spotify’s terms of service specifically prohibit providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password”. Netflix’s terms insist that “the Account Owner should maintain control over the Netflix ready devices that are used to access the service and not reveal the password or details of the Payment Method associated to the account to anyone.”

Some might see Jam as ripping off the original content creators, though Backus claims that “Jam isn’t trying to take money out of anyone’s pocket. Spotify offers [family plan sharing for people under the same roof]. Many other companies offer similar bundled plans. I think people just underutilize things like this and it’s totally fair game.”

Netflix’s Chief Product Officer said in October that the company is monitoring password sharing and it’s looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.” Meanwhile, The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment that includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios announced that its members will collaborate to address “piracy” including “what facilitates unauthorized access, including improper password sharing and inadequate encryption.”

That could lead to expensive legal trouble for Jam. “My past startups have done well, so I’ve had the pleasure of self-funding Jam so far” Backus says. But if lawsuits emerge or the app gets popular, he might need to find outside investors. “I only launched about 5 hours ago, but I’ll just say that I’m already in the process of upgrading my database tier due to signup growth.”

Eventually, the goal is not to monetize not through a monthly subscription like Backus expects competitors including password-sharing browser extensions might charge. Instead “Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy fo users to track what they’re sharing and with whom so that they can settle up the difference at the end of each month” Backus explains. It could charge “either a small fee in exchange for automatically settling debts between users and/or charging a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups.” Later, he sees a chance to provide recommendations for optimizing account management across networks of people while building native mobile apps.

“I think Jam is timed perfectly to line up with multiple different booming trends in how people are using the internet”, particularly younger people says Backus. Hub says 42% of all US consumers have used someone else’s online TV service password, while amongst 13 to 24 year olds, 69% have watched Netflix on someone else’s password. “When popularity and exclusivity are combined with often ambiguous, even sometimes nonexistent, rules about legitimate use, it’s almost an invitation to subscribers to share the enjoyment with friends and family” says Peter Fondulas, the principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made its displeasure clear, but in spite of that, password sharing is still very much alive and well.”

From that perspective, you could liken Jam to sex education. Password sharing abstinence has clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Feeling lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click “Sign out of all devices,” and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now, you’ll find you have several new texts from friends you haven’t spoken to in years.

— John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020

[bigyack-com]

How to Navigate a Flood of Streaming TV Subscriptions

Of course, there are shows on other services I want to watch, too. When “Game of Thrones” was on, I signed up for HBO Now so I could watch it live. I briefly signed up for CBS All Access to watch the new “Twilight Zone,” though that didn’t last as long. Most services are $10 to $15, so adding one won’t blow out my budget too much.The key, however, is to rotate your extra subscriptions. Leave one or two slots in your budget for an extra streaming service that you don’t intend to stay subscribed to. Then, while you have it, watch as many of the shows you want to watch on that service as you can, before moving on to the next one. This especially works if you schedule your rotating subscriptions around the big shows or events that you’re excited to see.For example, say you want to bring Netflix into your rotation to watch the new “Stranger Things.” Well, “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” came to the service that same week, and the show “Love, Death & Robots” had been out a few months earlier. It won’t take too long to get through a big tent pole like “Stranger Things,” but once you’re subscribed, you have at least a month to catch up on the other things you might have wanted to see. When you’re done, just cancel your subscription and move on to the next one. Just make sure you remember to cancel.

Option 2: Maximize your add-ons and bundles

Another option to save money is to look for add-ons and bundles to your existing services, rather than signing up for each individually. In order to consolidate billing and keep customers locked into a certain service, some streaming subscriptions let you sign up for other sites as an add-on to your account.For example, Hulu offers the opportunity to sign up for a Showtime subscription add-on for the regular $11 per month (on top of your normal Hulu plan), and Starz for an extra $9 per month. So far, this is the same price you would pay if you bought them separately. However, Hulu also offers the option of getting both Showtime and Starz for a discounted $15 per month. If you want both services, you save by getting them together.You can also look beyond video subscriptions for sweet bundle deals. Spotify previously offered a deal that allowed you to get the ad-supported version of Hulu (normally $6 per month) for the same $10 per month that Spotify on its own cost, essentially getting Hulu for free. The company has ended that offer, but there’s still an even better deal if you’re a student. If you can prove you’re a student (and pay for the year upfront), you get access to Spotify, ad-supported Hulu and Showtime for $5 per month. There’s a lot of money to be saved by hunting down these bundles.

Option 3: Roll your own live TV bundle

Live TV subscriptions work a bit differently than sites like Netflix or Hulu. These function like cable, allowing you to watch whatever is being broadcast at the time and “record” shows as you would on a DVR. They also tend to cost more than traditional streaming. However, if you’re up for putting a little more legwork into your TV habit, you can get a lot of content for a smaller price. Read the full article

[lost-n-stereo]

a/n: I suck, I suck, I suck. That’s all.

prompt: Bellarke + 15 - The new handyman is hot so I’m gonna keep breaking stuff

fix this broken heart of mine - part 2 [part 1]

A coffee cup rests on the table in front of her and she’s acutely aware of Bellamy’s boot pressed up against the side of her cute gold gladiator sandal.

“So, did you like the Dubstep?”

Bellamy’s eyes are twinkling over his coffee cup and she rolls her own. “Yeah, it was fine.”

“Just fine?” he scoffs. “I was going to admit that I actually quite liked Britney but now…”

Clarke giggles, a stupidly girlish sound that she immediately wishes she could take back. She’s twenty one years old, not thirteen nervous to talk to her first crush.

“Britney’s awesome,” she says, picking at her orange cranberry muffin. “And the Dubstep wasn’t so bad.”

Bellamy doesn’t respond, just winks and takes another sip from his latte.

“Tell me about yourself,” he says and she blanches. She’s not used to a forward man like Bellamy, someone that asks her for coffee or about her life with no prompting. It’s refreshing albeit a little scary.

“Well,” she blows out a breath. “I’m twenty one, recently single. I work at McMillan’s on Fourth as a waitress and sometimes bartender. No siblings, parents are still married. I think that’s about it.”

“That’s about it?”

She shrugs. “Yeah, why?”

Bellamy laughs and nudges her foot with his boot. “Because I asked about you, not your stats. All I know about you is that you listen to Britney Spears while you jog and have a knack for shit breaking down in your house.”

Clarke blushes, tries not to think of the few times she’s seen Bellamy over the past few weeks. First her ice maker, then the call about her dryer. But after that she accidentally snapped off her shower head (which he made fun of her for profusely), dropped a knife down her garbage disposal and somehow managed to lock Raven and Jaspers’ cat in her bathroom when she was pet sitting.

Yeah, needless to say she's looked like a fucking idiot about 90% of the time she’s been around Bellamy Blake.

“You know,” he says with a smirk. “I was starting to think maybe you were breaking things just to get me to come over.”

She’s blushing, god damn it. She can feel the heat hitting her cheeks. “That’s insane,” she says. “What would make you think that?”

Bellamy shrugs. “Maybe the fact that I heard your friend tell you to do it.”

Clarke chokes on her Americano. “Oh my god. You heard that? That is so fucking embarrassing.”

She doesn’t miss the delighted little flare in his eyes at her swearing. “It’s not, actually. It’s cute. Not that it’s what you’re doing…”

“It’s not,” she promises and she’s being totally honest. “I’ve just never lived on my own before, it’s a little daunting.”

Bellamy nods, looks down at his cup when he asks his next question. “Does that have to do with the recently single stat?”

“It does,” she confirms sadly. “My ex Finn…he cheated on me. Found out after five years of dating. We were almost engaged.”

“Jesus.”

When she looks up at him he almost appears to be mad, his dark brows furrowed. “I know, what an idiot I am, right? Five years and living together and I couldn’t even see the signs.”

“That’s not what I was thinking at all,” he says quietly. “I’m just wondering what kind of fucking moron would cheat on you.”

Now she’s definitely blushing. “That’s sweet of you to say,” she says “But this is far too serious of a conversation for eight in the morning. Tell me something about you.”

Bellamy grins at her obvious change of topic and leans back in his chair. “Well,” he says, blowing out an exaggerated breath, to make fun of her no less. “I’m twenty six, single but for awhile. It’s not recent or anything.”

She snorts. “You don’t have to tease me.”

He holds his hands up in mock defense. “I’m not! I’m just giving you the rundown. Now where was I? Oh yeah, single. I work at the apartment complex, obviously, but I also volunteer at a library downtown a few nights a week. I have one sister, Octavia, she’s a little younger than you and a fucking brat, and a single mom that I adore.”

God, that’s sweet. “Is that all?” she teases and he shakes his head with a laugh.

“Not even close,” he cracks his knuckles dramatically across the table and she rolls her eyes. “I like to work out, but not in that gym rat way. I prefer jogging or MMA classes with my best friend Miller. Who’s gay and awesome, so I don’t know if having a gay best friend gets me any cool points but I thought I’d throw that out there. I like to knit, don’t laugh my Grandma taught me, and I have a serious obsession with WW2 documentaries on Netflix.”

Clarke is just staring at him, her face threatening to break apart with a smile. He’s unlike anyone she’s ever met, not just because of the things that he likes but because he’s so open and honest. Needless to say she’s not used to people being open and honest with her lately.

“So what you’re telling me is that you and your best friend, who happens to be gay, like to beat people up for fun and then you go home to knit a scarf while watching World War II in Color?”

Bellamy beams. “You’ve heard of that one?”

“My friend Jasper forced me to watch it one night,” she laments. “Hella depressing.”

Bellamy laughs so hard she thinks he might fall out of his chair. “Yeah, well it wasn’t a bundle of laughs, I’ll admit. But it was interesting as hell. I’m kind of a history buff.”

“Sure you don’t mean nerd, not buff?” Her eyes drag down his body then, land on his arms and she smirks. “I guess buff isn’t that far off.”

The comment surprises them both but she shrugs when he raises an eyebrow. Her heart speeds up when he pulls his bottom lip between his teeth and leans across the table.

“I like you, Clarke Griffin.”

She smiles and leans forward too.

“I like you too, Bellamy Blake.”

***

It becomes a routine, jogging together at seven every morning and then coffee afterwards.

One morning she mentions how stupid it is that they eat and drink the calories that they just worked but Bellamy just shrugs, winks at her and tells her he likes the atmosphere.

They talk about everything, from her coming out as bisexual to her friends and family in high school to him wanting to be an archeologist before he realized they made shit for money. Conversation is light and breezy, never overly sexual or flirting, and she likes that they are getting to know each other as friends before anything else.

One night in late June that changes.

She’s cleaning up her house after a little get together, one that Bellamy was invited to but because of reasons unknown didn’t show up at. He called at least, said he had some ‘shit to take care of’ and that he’d make it up to her.

Whatever, she thinks in annoyance as she scrubs at a dish. She’s had a beer or four and she’s just this side of drunk. I’m not his girlfriend. He can do what he wants.

But sometimes she feels like they are more than just friends. Like when he brings over a bag of popcorn and a six pack of Stella and they watch reruns of The Walking Dead on Hulu cuddled up on her couch. Her feet are usually in his lap while he nurses a beer because he isn’t a big fan of drinking in excess, his thumb sometimes brushing against her ankle when he holds the bottle between two fingers and lets it dangle over her legs.

They have met each other’s friends and spend a lot of time hanging out, either at her place or his. She’s ridden in his truck, bare feet up on the dash as they drove through town with the windows down, old school country music playing softly in the background. He’s met her parents, she’s met his mom and sister. They have everything that a relationship does except the title and the physical stuff.

And damn, she wants the physical stuff more than she wants to take her next breath.

It’s nearing ten when she hears the familiar rumbling of Bellamy’s truck passing her apartment. He lives three buildings down and she knows that what she’s about to do it childish and stupid but she doesn’t care. He wasn’t here tonight and she wanted him to be.

Forgive her if she has to force his hand a little.

She pulls open her silverware drawer a little harder than she needs too and she grabs a fork, twirling it around in her finger like a baton before dropping it into the sink.

“Oops,” she says a little deviously as she flips on the garbage disposal. The wretched sound of metal grinding hits her ears and she grins. “Whatever will I do?”

She pulls her phone out of her back pocket and thumbs in a text.

I need a handyman.

A beat. Of course you do. On my way.

It’s way past office hours. Bellamy doesn’t have to come but she knew that he would. She flips the garbage disposal back off, knows damn well she could just reach her hand in there to pull it out but where’s the fun in that?

A knock at her door and then its opening, Bellamy’s boots hitting the small linoleum landing as he lets himself in.

“Clarke?”

“Kitchen!”

He’s dressed up, well as dressed up as he gets, and her heart clenches when she thinks that maybe he was out on a date. He’s wearing dark jeans, a new pair of black boots and a navy button up over a black t shirt. His hair is combed and his reading glasses are still resting on his nose.

“What’s up?” He asks as he slides by her and she can smell the expensive cologne he only wears when he goes out.

“You look nice,” she says and he gives her a sideways look.

“Thanks. Now, what did you break this time?”

She sighs and points to the sink. “Garbage disposal again,” she says, as if she wasn’t the one who broke it.

Bellamy rolls up his sleeves and looks down into the drain. “There’s a fork in here,” he says, his voice laced with amusement. “Clarke…did you do this on purpose?”

She nods her head yes. “No.”

He grins and pushes away from the sink, moves so he’s boxing her in with both hands resting on the counter behind her. It’s the closest they have ever been face to face, except for the few rare hugs they are shared over the last few months.

“Why would you do that,” he murmurs, his lips so close to hers that she can taste his breath.

“You didn’t come tonight.” It comes out sadder than she meant it to and he frowns down at her.

“I’m sorry. I told you I had shit to do. I would have much rather had been here.”

She tugs at her bottom lip with her teeth, not wanting to ask the question on her mind but it leaves her lips anyway.

“Did you have a date?”

The look on his face is almost comical. “A date? What? No, I was with my mom and sister. You and I are…”

Her breath catches. “You and I are what, Bellamy?”

Fire races up her arm when he slides his hand from her wrist to her shoulder before settling on the side of her neck.

“We’re…getting to know each other. I figured that you wanted to take things slow, after everything that you went through with your ex.”

“Honestly,” she says, leaning up so she’s closer to his face. “I’m done with slow.”

That’s all it takes, one little go ahead and he’s crushing his lips to hers, sending shock waves through her as he lifts her up and sets her on the counter.

“You have no fucking idea how long I’ve wanted to do that,” he says when he pulls away, his lips never leaving her skin. He kisses across her cheeks, down over her collarbone and back up until he’s tugging her bottom lip between his teeth.

“You should have,” she says breathlessly.

“I was trying to be a gentleman.”

She wraps her legs around his waist and he picks her up effortlessly. “Well stop trying,” she tells him as he walks them backwards towards her bedroom.

Bellamy’s grin is wolfish when he tosses her down unceremoniously on her bed.

“At least for tonight,” he rasps out, reaching behind him to pull his shirt off.

***

Her doorbell rings at eleven the night before Christmas Eve and she rolls her eyes.

“Bell, just come inside!”

A shuffle, then a beat and then another knock. “I can’t open the door. My hands are full!”

Clarke narrows her eyes, wondering not only what he’s doing here in the middle of the night but what he could possibly have in his arms that makes him unable to open the door.

“Better be my Christmas presents,” she mumbles as she pulls open the front door and before she can react there is a black and white puppy squirming around in Bellamy’s arms trying to get to her. “What the fu…”

Bellamy covers the dog’s ears. “Not in front of the baby,” he says seriously before flashing her a grin and stepping inside.

“Bellamy, what’s going on? Who’s this?”

“This,” he says, holding the tiny Dalmatian out to her, “is your Christmas present. It’s a girl, pick out a cool name.”

“A puppy?” The squirming little thing is now desperately trying to get on the ground so she sets it, no her down, and turns towards her smiling boyfriend. “You got me a puppy?”

“I got you a Dalmatian puppy,” he says in a proud voice, like this is something she should have expected.

“Is that supposed to mean something?” She asks and he frowns a little, cocks his head at the exact same time the dog does and she can’t help but laugh. “I’m sorry, am I being an asshole? She’s really cute, Bell. Thank you.”

“Don’t you remember a few weeks ago? We were watching that movie, with that stupid guy you like…?”

“Ryan Gosling.”

He rolls his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. And him and his girlfriend had that Dalmatian and you were like ‘Oh Bellamy, one day that’ll be us. A happy little family.’”

Now it’s her turn to roll her eyes. “I have definitely never sounded like that but sure, I remember that now. Bellamy,” her eyes turn soft now and she reaches for him. “That’s so sweet. Thank you. But you know you’re going to have to help me take care of her right?”

Bellamy smiles shyly, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a little box. “That actually leads me to another part of my present.” He rests the little box in her hand and she gasps.

“Is this…?”

He laughs. “No, it’s not an engagement ring. Jesus, Clarke. I haven’t even known you a year. No, silly girl. Open it.”

She bites her lip as she takes off the tiny red ribbon, opens the white box to see a key nestled inside. “Is this your house key?”

Bellamy nods. “Move in with me. It makes more sense, you’re at my place all the time anyways and hey, free rent for both of us, right? Plus you’re always breaking shit and now I won’t have to walk a hundred feet to fix it...”

Clarke grins, tears prickling her eyes. “You don’t have to use free rent and handyman services to get me to move in with you. I’d love to.”

His eyes are twinkling when he looks at her. “Yeah?” She nods and he pulls her to him, wraps his long arms around her waist and kisses her head. “Good, because little Drusilla needs her mommy and daddy.”

Clarke snorts. “We’re not naming that dog Drusilla.”

“Spike?”

“Bellamy…”

“Fine, Buffy?”

Clarke laughs, pulls him down by the collar to brush a kiss across his lips. “We never should have binge watched all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

He kisses her nose. “Agree to disagree,” he says and then he chases after the puppy, who’s currently running in circles around the living room floor. “Come here, Willow. That’s a good girl.”

Clarke shakes her head and laughs and drops down on the floor with them.

“Willow isn’t so bad,” she tells him with a smile and at the name the dog runs to her and licks her right across the face.

Bellamy laughs, pulls her so she’s lying in front of him, and they kiss lazily while Willow tugs at the bottom of her sweatshirt.

All and all, it’s a pretty good life.

[mastcomm]

How to Navigate a Flood of Streaming TV Subscriptions

Of course, there are shows on other services I want to watch, too. When “Game of Thrones” was on, I signed up for HBO Now so I could watch it live. I briefly signed up for CBS All Access to watch the new “Twilight Zone,” though that didn’t last as long. Most services are $10 to $15, so adding one won’t blow out my budget too much.

The key, however, is to rotate your extra subscriptions. Leave one or two slots in your budget for an extra streaming service that you don’t intend to stay subscribed to. Then, while you have it, watch as many of the shows you want to watch on that service as you can, before moving on to the next one. This especially works if you schedule your rotating subscriptions around the big shows or events that you’re excited to see.

For example, say you want to bring Netflix into your rotation to watch the new “Stranger Things.” Well, “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” came to the service that same week, and the show “Love, Death & Robots” had been out a few months earlier. It won’t take too long to get through a big tent pole like “Stranger Things,” but once you’re subscribed, you have at least a month to catch up on the other things you might have wanted to see. When you’re done, just cancel your subscription and move on to the next one. Just make sure you remember to cancel.

Option 2: Maximize your add-ons and bundles

Another option to save money is to look for add-ons and bundles to your existing services, rather than signing up for each individually. In order to consolidate billing and keep customers locked into a certain service, some streaming subscriptions let you sign up for other sites as an add-on to your account.

For example, Hulu offers the opportunity to sign up for a Showtime subscription add-on for the regular $11 per month (on top of your normal Hulu plan), and Starz for an extra $9 per month. So far, this is the same price you would pay if you bought them separately. However, Hulu also offers the option of getting both Showtime and Starz for a discounted $15 per month. If you want both services, you save by getting them together.

You can also look beyond video subscriptions for sweet bundle deals. Spotify previously offered a deal that allowed you to get the ad-supported version of Hulu (normally $6 per month) for the same $10 per month that Spotify on its own cost, essentially getting Hulu for free. The company has ended that offer, but there’s still an even better deal if you’re a student. If you can prove you’re a student (and pay for the year upfront), you get access to Spotify, ad-supported Hulu and Showtime for $5 per month. There’s a lot of money to be saved by hunting down these bundles.

Option 3: Roll your own live TV bundle

Live TV subscriptions work a bit differently than sites like Netflix or Hulu. These function like cable, allowing you to watch whatever is being broadcast at the time and “record” shows as you would on a DVR. They also tend to cost more than traditional streaming. However, if you’re up for putting a little more legwork into your TV habit, you can get a lot of content for a smaller price.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/tech/how-to-navigate-a-flood-of-streaming-tv-subscriptions-2/

[sheminecrafts]

Jam lets you safely share streaming app passwords

Can’t afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney+…? Now there’s an app specially built for giving pals your passwords while claiming to keep your credentials safe. It’s called Jam, and the questionably legal service launched in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus tells TechCrunch in his first interview about Jam that it will let users save login details with local encryption, add friends you can then authorize to access your password for a chosen service, and broadcast to friends which of your subscriptions have room for people to piggyback on.

Jam is just starting to add users off its rapidly growing waitlist that you can join here, but when users get access, it’s designed to stay free to use. In the future, Jam could build a business by helping friends split the costs of subscriptions. There’s clearly demand. Over 80% of 13-24 year olds have given out or used someone else’s online TV password, according a study by Hub of over 2000 US consumers.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don’t want to find out my ex-girlfriend’s roommate has been using my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but for consumers there isn’t a secure way to do that. Why?” Backus asks. “In the enterprise world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people need to access the same account, regularly. Consumers don’t have the same kind of system, and that’s bad for security and coordination.”

Thankfully, Backus isn’t some amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford computer science dropout and Thiel Fellow founded identity verification startup Cognito and decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. “Working in crypto at Bloom and with sensitive data at Cognito, I have a lot of experience building secure products with cryptography at the core.

He also tells me since everything saved in Jam is locally encrypted, even he can’t see it and nothing would be exposed if the company was hacked. It uses similar protocols to 1Password, “Plaintext login information is never sent to our server, nor is your master password” and “we use pretty straightforward public key cryptography.” Remember, your friend could always try to hijack and lock you out, though. And while those protocols may be hardened, TechCrunch can’t verify they’re perfectly implemented and fully secure within Jam.

Whether facilitating password sharing is legal, and whether Netflix and its peers will send an army of lawyers to destroy Jam, remain open questions. We’ve reached out to several streaming companies for comment. When asked on Twitter about Jam helping users run afoul of their terms of service, Backus claims that “plenty of websites give you permission to share your account with others (with vary degrees of constraints) but users often don’t know these rules.” 

However, sharing is typically supposed to be amongst a customer’s own devices or within their household, or they’re supposed to pay for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney, and Spotify for comment, and did not receive any on the record comments. However, Spotify’s terms of service specifically prohibit providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password”. Netflix’s terms insist that “the Account Owner should maintain control over the Netflix ready devices that are used to access the service and not reveal the password or details of the Payment Method associated to the account to anyone.”

Some might see Jam as ripping off the original content creators, though Backus claims that “Jam isn’t trying to take money out of anyone’s pocket. Spotify offers [family plan sharing for people under the same roof]. Many other companies offer similar bundled plans. I think people just underutilize things like this and it’s totally fair game.”

Netflix’s Chief Product Officer said in October that the company is monitoring password sharing and it’s looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.” Meanwhile, The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment that includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios announced that its members will collaborate to address “piracy” including “what facilitates unauthorized access, including improper password sharing and inadequate encryption.”

That could lead to expensive legal trouble for Jam. “My past startups have done well, so I’ve had the pleasure of self-funding Jam so far” Backus says. But if lawsuits emerge or the app gets popular, he might need to find outside investors. “I only launched about 5 hours ago, but I’ll just say that I’m already in the process of upgrading my database tier due to signup growth.”

Eventually, the goal is not to monetize not through a monthly subscription like Backus expects competitors including password-sharing browser extensions might charge. Instead “Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy fo users to track what they’re sharing and with whom so that they can settle up the difference at the end of each month” Backus explains. It could charge “either a small fee in exchange for automatically settling debts between users and/or charging a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups.” Later, he sees a chance to provide recommendations for optimizing account management across networks of people while building native mobile apps.

“I think Jam is timed perfectly to line up with multiple different booming trends in how people are using the internet”, particularly younger people says Backus. Hub says 42% of all US consumers have used someone else’s online TV service password, while amongst 13 to 24 year olds, 69% have watched Netflix on someone else’s password. “When popularity and exclusivity are combined with often ambiguous, even sometimes nonexistent, rules about legitimate use, it’s almost an invitation to subscribers to share the enjoyment with friends and family” says Peter Fondulas, the principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made its displeasure clear, but in spite of that, password sharing is still very much alive and well.”

From that perspective, you could liken Jam to sex education. Password sharing abstinence has clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Feeling lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click "Sign out of all devices," and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now, you'll find you have several new texts from friends you haven't spoken to in years.

— John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/2HaSE8V via IFTTT

[technicalsolutions88]

Can’t afford Netflix and HBO and Spotify and Disney+…? Now there’s an app specially built for giving pals your passwords while claiming to keep your credentials safe. It’s called Jam, and the questionably legal service launched in private beta this morning. Founder John Backus tells TechCrunch in his first interview about Jam that it will let users save login details with local encryption, add friends you can then authorize to access your password for a chosen service, and broadcast to friends which of your subscriptions have room for people to piggyback on.

Jam is just starting to add users off its rapidly growing waitlist that you can join here, but when users get access, it’s designed to stay free to use. In the future, Jam could build a business by helping friends split the costs of subscriptions. There’s clearly demand. Over 80% of 13-24 year olds have given out or used someone else’s online TV password, according a study by Hub of over 2000 US consumers.

“The need for Jam was obvious. I don’t want to find out my ex-girlfriend’s roommate has been using my account again. Everyone shares passwords, but for consumers there isn’t a secure way to do that. Why?” Backus asks. “In the enterprise world, team password managers reflect the reality that multiple people need to access the same account, regularly. Consumers don’t have the same kind of system, and that’s bad for security and coordination.”

Thankfully, Backus isn’t some amateur when it comes to security. The Stanford computer science dropout and Thiel Fellow founded identity verification startup Cognito and decentralized credit scoring app Bloom. “Working in crypto at Bloom and with sensitive data at Cognito, I have a lot of experience building secure products with cryptography at the core.

He also tells me since everything saved in Jam is locally encrypted, even he can’t see it and nothing would be exposed if the company was hacked. It uses similar protocols to 1Password, “Plaintext login information is never sent to our server, nor is your master password” and “we use pretty straightforward public key cryptography.” Remember, your friend could always try to hijack and lock you out, though. And while those protocols may be hardened, TechCrunch can’t verify they’re perfectly implemented and fully secure within Jam.

Whether facilitating password sharing is legal, and whether Netflix and its peers will send an army of lawyers to destroy Jam, remain open questions. We’ve reached out to several streaming companies for comment. When asked on Twitter about Jam helping users run afoul of their terms of service, Backus claims that “plenty of websites give you permission to share your account with others (with vary degrees of constraints) but users often don’t know these rules.” 

However, sharing is typically supposed to be amongst a customer’s own devices or within their household, or they’re supposed to pay for a family plan. We asked Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Disney, and Spotify for comment, and did not receive any on the record comments. However, Spotify’s terms of service specifically prohibit providing your password to any other person or using any other person’s username and password”. Netflix’s terms insist that “the Account Owner should maintain control over the Netflix ready devices that are used to access the service and not reveal the password or details of the Payment Method associated to the account to anyone.”

Some might see Jam as ripping off the original content creators, though Backus claims that “Jam isn’t trying to take money out of anyone’s pocket. Spotify offers [family plan sharing for people under the same roof]. Many other companies offer similar bundled plans. I think people just underutilize things like this and it’s totally fair game.”

Netflix’s Chief Product Officer said in October that the company is monitoring password sharing and it’s looking at “consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that.” Meanwhile, The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment that includes Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Comcast, and major film studios announced that its members will collaborate to address “piracy” including “what facilitates unauthorized access, including improper password sharing and inadequate encryption.”

That could lead to expensive legal trouble for Jam. “My past startups have done well, so I’ve had the pleasure of self-funding Jam so far” Backus says. But if lawsuits emerge or the app gets popular, he might need to find outside investors. “I only launched about 5 hours ago, but I’ll just say that I’m already in the process of upgrading my database tier due to signup growth.”

Eventually, the goal is not to monetize not through a monthly subscription like Backus expects competitors including password-sharing browser extensions might charge. Instead “Jam will make money by helping users save money. We want to make it easy fo users to track what they’re sharing and with whom so that they can settle up the difference at the end of each month” Backus explains. It could charge “either a small fee in exchange for automatically settling debts between users and/or charging a percentage of the money we save users by recommending more efficient sharing setups.” Later, he sees a chance to provide recommendations for optimizing account management across networks of people while building native mobile apps.

“I think Jam is timed perfectly to line up with multiple different booming trends in how people are using the internet”, particularly younger people says Backus. Hub says 42% of all US consumers have used someone else’s online TV service password, while amongst 13 to 24 year olds, 69% have watched Netflix on someone else’s password. “When popularity and exclusivity are combined with often ambiguous, even sometimes nonexistent, rules about legitimate use, it’s almost an invitation to subscribers to share the enjoyment with friends and family” says Peter Fondulas, the principal at Hub and co-author of the study. “Wall Street has already made its displeasure clear, but in spite of that, password sharing is still very much alive and well.”

From that perspective, you could liken Jam to sex education. Password sharing abstinence has clearly failed. At least people should learn how to do it safely.

PROTIP: Feeling lonely? Go to your Netflix settings, click "Sign out of all devices," and wait a few hours.

Voilà! If you check your phone now, you'll find you have several new texts from friends you haven't spoken to in years.

— John Backus (@backus) January 15, 2020

from Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2HaSE8V Original Content From: https://techcrunch.com

[jobsearchtips02]

12 Low cost Cell Cellphone Plans to Think about When Switching Carriers

In case you’re pissed off over the price of your mobile phone plan, you’re not alone.

I’ve usually considered switching to a less expensive service, however I fear about getting service in my space, if I can deliver my very own cellphone, and different hidden prices.

However what if an affordable mobile phone plan can tick all of the bins with out you noticing a drop in protection?

The totally different low cost plans out there have elevated competitors and pushed prices down. A research by the Tax Basis discovered that wi-fi payments dropped 17% from 2008 to 2017. Even the “big four” wi-fi firms of AT&T, Dash, T-Cell, and Verizon have dropped their costs.

However worth confusion can add to the concern of adjusting suppliers. Corporations can cost totally different charges that make it laborious to match plans. A $50 monthly plan may find yourself $60 or extra after taxes and different fees.

Whereas the most cost effective plan may not be the most effective decide for you, there are many choices that will help you lower prices.

12 Low cost Cell Cellphone Plans for the Funds-Minded Client

There are many cheaper mobile phone plans on the market. The sum of money you may save would possibly shock you, particularly in case you’re paying for providers you don’t want, like limitless knowledge.

1. Mint Cell

At $15 a month, Mint Cell has plans that include all of the options of a big-name firm.

They launched in 2016 as a spin-off of Extremely Cell and provide pay as you go service at a reduction worth. Go right here to see if Mint Cell is out there in your space.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Free SIM card7-day money-back guaranteeBring your individual phoneRequires Three-month commitmentMobile hotspot includedWiFi calling and text4G LTE networkGSM technologyUses T-Cell’s community$15 monthly for 3GB$20 for 8GB$25 for 12GB

2 out of 5 stars

2. Republic Wi-fi

Republic Wi-fi is a widely known low cost supplier with a few of the finest mobile phone plans out there. The corporate began in 2011 utilizing Dash’s community however expanded to incorporate T-Cell’s service space in 2016.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

No contractsNo hidden charges or overages14-day risk-free trialBring your individual cellphone$5 cost for SIM cardDoesn’t assist Apple iPhonesMobile hotspot availableWiFi calling and text4G LTE communityMassive protection spaceGSM and CDMA technologyUses Dash and T-Cell networks$15 monthly for limitless speak and textual content$20 monthly for 1GB$25 for 2GBAdditional knowledge is $5 per 1GB

Four.5 out of 5 stars

Three. Whole Wi-fi

Owned by TracFone, Whole Wi-fi makes use of Verizon’s community to ship low-cost plans with out a contract. Cellphone and plan choices can be found to buy on their web site and inside most Walmart, Goal, and Greenback Common shops.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Save 5% with Auto-RefillBring your individual phoneMobile hotspot not availableWiFi calling restricted to pick devicesUnlimited household plansLimited WiFi calling and text4G LTE communityNationwide protectionCDMA technologyRelies on Verizon’s community$25 for limitless speak and textual content monthly$35 plan contains 5GB$50 for limitless month-to-month knowledge$60 for a 2-line household plan$100 for Four-line household plan

Three out of 5 stars

Four. Dash

You’ll acknowledge Dash as some of the common wi-fi suppliers. It’s a part of the “big four” mobile phone firms and options competitively priced plans.

They provide a few of the least expensive cellphone plans with limitless speak, textual content, and knowledge.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Hulu bundled with most plans30-day satisfaction guaranteeBring your individual phoneLimited 5G serviceWiFi calling not out there on all telephones$60 for limitless speak, textual content, and knowledge$70 to improve to HD videoFamily plans begin at $100 monthly

1 out of 5 stars

5. Ting

Wi-fi firm Ting began in 2012 and has rapidly gained recognition. Ting doesn’t have typical month-to-month plans. As a substitute, you solely pay for what you employ which makes them one of many least expensive cellphone plans for one particular person.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Solely pay for precise usageNo contractsBring your individual phoneSIM card is simply $1Costs extra for heavy usersMobile hotspotWiFi calling on choose devices4G LTE communityProtection based mostly on communityGSM and CDMA availableUses Dash and T-Cell networks$6 per line for accessTalk minutes fluctuate from $Three to $35Pay $Three to $11 for textual content packagesData begins at $Three for 100MB

Three.5 out of 5 stars

6. Gen Cell

Gen Cell is a lesser-known low cost mobile phone service that’s nice for individuals who don’t use lots of knowledge. You aren’t locked right into a contract and might get pleasure from nationwide protection on Dash’s community.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

No annual contractLow-cost plans7-day money-back guaranteeBring your individual phonePlans don’t go above 3GBOnly sells pre-owned phonesMust contact buyer care to examine coverageUnlimited texting for $5 a month$10 for limitless speak and textual content$15 to get 1GB$25 for 3GB

Three.7 out of 5 stars

7. U.S. Mobile

America’s fifth-largest wi-fi service is U.S. Mobile. They provide low cost mobile phone service that features limitless every little thing at a low worth.

Ensure that to examine for protection availability as a result of the corporate doesn’t provide plans in each space.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Limitless plans can save moneyBring your individual phone4G LTE protection is limitedService is spotty in some areas$30 per line for household plansAdditional plans begin at $65

2.5 out of 5 stars

eight. TracFone

TracFone is a well-liked model of wi-fi service suppliers. The pay as you go plans have been a serious draw for the reason that firm started in 1999. In 2013, TracFone began its “Bring Your Own Device” program.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Low cost knowledge plansLow-cost talk-only plansBring your individual phoneCoverage space can varyData solely goes to 3GBOption for cellular hotspotWiFi calling for smartphones4G LTE communityMassive service spaceCDMA technologyUses Verizon, AT&T, T-Cell, and Dash networks1GB for $202GB for $253GB for $30Speak and text-only plans begin at $9.99 monthly

2 out of 5 stars

9. T-Cell

You’ll acknowledge T-Cell from its purple-themed plans. The award-winning firm was based in 1999 and has a few of the finest offers on household mobile phone plans.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Army discountsSenior discountsNetflix included with household plansNo roaming feesRequires auto pay for $5 discountCoverage is proscribed in some areasOption for 4G LTE cellular hotspotNetflix included in some plansSelect plans provide in-flight WiFiWiFi calling4G LTE and restricted 5G communityService space protectionGSM expertise$30 per line for limitless knowledge household shared plan$35 per line contains 4G LTE cellular hotspot$43 per line upgrades video to HD streaming

2.5 out of 5 stars

10. AT&T

As one of many “big four” wi-fi firms, AT&T has larger costs than a lot of the others on this record. They started in 1877 because the Bell Phone Firm and are actually the most important firm within the telecom trade.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

30-days return policyGet credit score to your previous phoneUnlimited plans have DirecTV discountsHigher-cost plansLimited 5G availabilityUp to 15GB cellular hotspotAutomatic WiFi calling4G LTE community with some 5GHigher protection areasGSM technology3GB for $30 per month9GB for $35Limitless knowledge is $40Improve to HD streaming for $48

1 out of 5 stars

11. Good2Go Cell

You may not have heard about Good2Go Cell, however they’ve been offering low cost mobile phone plans since 2004. The pay as you go possibility retains your price range in examine so that you gained’t see any surprises in your month-to-month invoice.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Free SIM card activation kitCan deliver your individual phoneOffers low-priced plansNo overage charges$5 low cost with autopayNo limitless plansNo cellular hotspotsWiFi calling coming in 20194G LTE communityBroad service spaceGSM technologyRelies on the AT&T network3GB for $20Improve to 5GB for $30Get 10GB for $40

Three.5 out of 5 stars

12. Cricket Wi-fi

Cricket Wi-fi is a revered alternative for low cost mobile phone plans. The corporate is a wholly-owned subsidiary of AT&T.

One factor that units Cricket Wi-fi aside is that you could lease-to-own a cellphone with out a credit score examine.

ExecsConsOptionsPlansTrustPilot Ranking

Plan worth contains taxes and feesWide protection areaAffordable plansMobile hotspot includedSelect telephones permit WiFi calling4G LTE networkCheck out the protection mapGSM technologyPowered by AT&T’s network2GB plus limitless speak and textual content for $25$40 for 5GB$55 for limitless knowledge, speak, and textual content

2.5 out of 5 stars

Plan Comparability Chart

When contemplating totally different carriers, you don’t have to surrender your cellphone quantity. Most firms will let you port your quantity to a brand new plan. See how the highest 5 low cost mobile phone plans may also help you get monetary savings.

ProviderBase Plan Worth (month-to-month)Information Restrict for Base PlanKnow-howCommunityWi-Fi CallingTrustPilot RankingMint Cell$15 (1st Three mo.)

$25 common

3GBGSM4G LTEYes2/5Republic Wi-fi$201GBGSM/CDMA4G LTEYes4.5/5Ting$30100MBGSM/CDMA4G LTELimited3.5/5TracFone$201GBCDMA4G LTEYes2/5Cricket Wi-fi$252GBGSM4G LTELimited2.5/5

5 Issues to Think about Earlier than Making The Change

Think about what you’ll be utilizing the mobile phone for earlier than you soar to a brand new plan. Heavy knowledge customers ought to go together with a wi-fi firm with cheaper costs on knowledge.

1. Protection: GSM vs. CDMA

GSM and CDMA are two totally different applied sciences that energy communication between cell telephones. Each mobile phone firm, regardless of how large or small, has to choose no less than one to make use of, although some firms depend on each to energy their community.

In case you’re bringing your individual cellphone to a brand new plan, you could know which expertise your cellphone makes use of. As an illustration, you possibly can’t deliver a cellphone that makes use of CDMA to Mint Cell as a result of that firm makes use of GSM. With no GSM cellphone, you’d should buy a brand new cellphone to modify to Mint Cell.

2. Pay as you go vs. Contract

Pay as you go cellphone plans will be inexpensive than contract plans, although utilization and knowledge will be restricted. You aren’t capable of change to a brand new firm in case you’re locked right into a contract, which is why pay as you go plans are good for some folks.

Three. Shared Household Plans vs. Particular person Plans

Sharing a plan with different members of the family is a straightforward solution to lower down in your invoice. Nevertheless, you possibly can run into hassle with knowledge utilization if one member is a heavy cellphone person. Particular person plans restrict mobile phone use and knowledge package deal to a single person.

Four. Convey Your Personal Cellphone (and Quantity)

It’s simple to port your present quantity over to a wi-fi supplier. To deliver your individual cellphone to a brand new plan, discover out in case you personal the cellphone or are leasing it. Some suppliers cost you to hire the cellphone so be sure you can take your cellphone with you earlier than you cancel your service.

5. WiFi Succesful Plans

WiFi calling provides you extra entry to a wider vary of locations. With free web entry, you’re capable of make cellphone calls and ship textual content messages with out mobile phone service. This characteristic will be useful in case you dwell in a rural space or in a metropolis the place buildings can block mobile phone alerts.

Switching to an Reasonably priced Cell Cellphone Plan Doesn’t Imply Sacrificing Service

In case your mobile phone invoice is inflicting you stress, think about switching to a less expensive plan. You possibly can in all probability discover a cheaper service that also provides all of what you want from a mobile phone service.

You don’t should sacrifice protection high quality when switching carriers, low cost carriers don’t should imply decrease high quality service. A few of the least expensive mobile phone plans use the identical expertise and towers because the big-name firms which suggests you get the identical service for much less cash.

Associated: The place Can I Promote My Previous Cellphone? The Finest Locations to Earn the Most

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/12-low-cost-cell-cellphone-plans-to-think-about-when-switching-carriers/

[firetvstickxyz-blog]

Amazon Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote - Review 2017

Amazon launched the Fire TV Stick three years ago, offering a microphone-equipped remote as an optional accessory or as part of a premium $60 bundle. Its latest media streamer—and its only one available in "stick" form—comes with a remote out of the box that gives you access to voice search and Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. It also features an upgraded quad-core processor, and perhaps most impressive of all is available for just $39.99. Despite a few omissions in streaming apps, the Fire TV Stick With Alexa Voice Remote easily offers enough in the way of features and value to make it our Editors' Choice for budget media streamers.

Design

The Fire TV Stick is just a hair wider than the previous model, at 3.4 by 1.1 by 0.5 inches (HWD), but otherwise looks identical. It's a plain black plastic rectangle with an HDMI plug on one end and a micro USB port on one side. As a stick intended to plug into the back of your television, it doesn't need to look impressive or have any real controls or display.

The included voice remote appears to be the exact same remote that was available for the previous stick. It's a 5.9-inch flat black plastic wand with a glossy circle near the top that serves as a navigation pad, with a clickable Confirm button in the center. A Microphone button sits above the pad, with a pinhole microphone above that for talking into. Menu and playback controls sit below the navigation pad.

App and Accessories

You can use the Amazon Fire TV Remote app for Android and iOS if you prefer to control the Fire TV Stick with your smartphone or tablet. It's much simpler than the remote app used with Roku devices, mostly providing a touchpad for menu navigation, a handful of playback controls, a voice search function with your device's microphone, and (most useful if you need to enter login information) an onscreen keyboard. It doesn't offer private listening like the Roku app does, which streams audio through your smartphone or tablet so you can listen to what you're watching with a set of headphones plugged into it. Since the Fire TV Stick supports Bluetooth, however, you can simply pair a set of Bluetooth headphones directly with the stick for a similar function.

Besides the voice remote, the Fire TV Stick comes with a short HDMI extender cable (handy if the HDMI ports on your television are recessed), a micro USB cable, a USB power adapter, and a pair of AAA batteries for the remote. It's everything you need to start streaming media, short of the TV itself.

Fire TV OS

Amazon uses a heavily modified version of Android in the Fire TV Stick, the same as you'll find in all other Fire TV devices. It's similar to Android TV's interface, with large rows of icons showing apps and content, arranged in different categories like your most recent picks and suggested shows. It's visually friendly and easy to navigate.

Like other Fire TV devices, the Fire TV Stick uses a limited version of Amazon's app store rather than Google Play for all of its apps and services. Most major streaming services are available, including (of course) Amazon, HBO NOW, Hulu, Netflix, Sling, and YouTube. It's missing a few prominent services, though, like Google Play and Vudu, both of which are available on Roku. The selection is better than it was last year, though, and Crunchyroll, Spotify, and PlayStation Vue have since been added.

As an Amazon product, Amazon Prime users get a lot of benefits baked into the Fire TV Stick, even before installing any apps. Videos on Amazon can be accessed directly from the stick's interface, so you can just jump into anything you want to watch (if it's on Prime). You can access Amazon Music Unlimited (which is $9.99 for a monthly subscription, or $7.99 with Prime) to stream plenty of music through your television and any connected speakers. You can also access a limited amount of free music through Prime.

Since it's still basically an Android device there are a few esoteric techniques for sideloading your own .apk files and installing any app you want (to varying success based on integration with the remote control and other factors). I installed Crunchyroll (before a Fire TV app was added to the store) without a problem, but when I launched the app it appeared as a portrait-format smartphone app and didn't display an onscreen cursor, making it unusable. It's also a clunky solution we wouldn't recommend for anyone who isn't confident in their technical abilities and knows their way around a command line, but it does offer some freedom not available with a Roku or the Apple TV.

Alexa and Voice Search

Any shortcomings in the Fire TV app store are made up for by the powerful voice assistant and search functions. By holding the Microphone button down on the remote, you can search for movies, shows, and apps simply by speaking into it (you can't use it hands-free my saying "Alexa," like you can with Amazon Echo products). Because it's connected to your TV and isn't simply a speaker like the Amazon Echo, the Fire TV Stick can give you visual information in response to your Alexa requests, like the Amazon Echo Show (but without the touch screen controls).

Alexa can search based on show and movie titles, actor and director names, and broad genres and themes (though the more vague your requests are, the less reliable the results will be). The voice search feature spans across 90 different apps and services including Netflix and Hulu, and the Fire TV Stick keeps track of any subscriptions you might have and front-loads search results to highlight content available on those services. Search results still lean toward Amazon's own on-demand and instant video libraries when they're available, but it's a handy and comprehensive way to look for anything you might want to watch.

Besides voice search, you can get useful information and even have the Fire TV Stick perform certain tasks with your voice thanks to Amazon Alexa integration (the same voice assistant used in the Amazon Echo, which really adds a lot of convenience that the voice search functionality on Roku devices doesn't offer. You can check the weather, find out sports scores, bring up Wikipedia information, and even add items to your shopping list. You can also add skills to Alexa for additional features, like ordering a pizza through Domino's. Third-party skills vary wildly in functionality and usefulness, but they really add to what you can do with the Fire TV Stick. See Amazon's highest-rated Alexa skills in every category for some ideas.

Alexa also lets you control smart home devices with your voice. A wide variety of connected lights, locks, themostats, and other home automation equipment works with Alexa. Holding a button down and speaking into a remote isn't quite as convenient as the hands-free voice activation of the Echo devices, but it's still a useful way to bring down the lights when watching a movie, or adjusting the temperature of the house without getting up.

Voice recognition is excellent. Even with my voice sounding hoarse from a cold, the Fire TV Stick understood all of my requests. It brought up search results for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Gundam, and Voltron with no issue, gave me a weather forecast for the coming week, and told me when the upcoming presidential debate would be. It's impressively accurate and responsive for a $40 streaming device.

Performance is aided in part by a quad-core processor that significantly speeds things up over the previous model. Navigating menus isn't quite as fast as it is with the 4K-capable Fire TV box, and the stick can only output up to 1080p video, but it's an appreciable upgrade (with a much more reasonable price than the Fire TV). I had no issue flipping between different apps and quickly loading movies and shows.

Like all media streamers, especially ones that only use Wi-Fi, video quality depends on the speed and signal strength of your network.

Comparisons and Conclusions

If you want 4K support and a slightly better selection of streaming media services, the Roku Premiere+ is our Editors' Choice for 4K media streamers—but it's more than twice the price of the Fire TV Stick.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick With Alexa Voice Remote is the single best value in a media streamer we've seen yet. At $40 it comes close in price to the Google Chromecast and Roku Express, with the advantage of a microphone-equipped remote with access to Amazon's powerful Alexa service. It's missing a few notable streaming services and apps (which you may be able to add yourself, with some work), but its low price, rich feature set, and improved performance help it push past the Roku Streaming Stick to earn our Editors' Choice for budget media streamers.

[joshuabradleyn]

Ready Player One: 10 Tech Hacks to Lose Weight and Level Up Your Life

“Taaaaaaaaake onnnnnnnn me,

Taaaaaaaake meeeeee on!

I’ll beeeeeeee goonnnnnnne,

In a day or TWOOOOOOO!”

What the hell does that mean? Who cares!

All I know is that I can’t get a-ha’s “Take on Me” out of my head. It’s been there ever since the trailer dropped for the nerdy nostalgia-bomb that is Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” a blockbuster movie out now, based on the best-selling book of the same name:

As a child of the Oregon Trail generation[1], I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop culture and nerd references throughout the novel and could certainly relate to the main character Wade Watts, an overweight awkward teenager who loves 80’s pop culture and escapes a crappy existence by spending most of his time in virtual worlds.

It had me thinking deeply about how technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives, in both good ways and bad.

We can’t not check our email every 3 seconds. We can’t stop watching Netflix. We can’t stop scrolling through photos on Instagram. We can’t sit through a conversation with a person in front of us without habitually checking our phone every time it buzzes.

And then we all wonder why we are too busy, distracted, unhealthy, unhappy, and can’t get our shit together.

These days, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to use technology for convenience and quick bouts of entertainment and happiness to shield us from the reality that there are parts of our lives or our health we’re unhappy with.

In Ready Player One, we get a very plausible look into a dystopian future where those societal trends have continued: technology gets better and more convenient, and people spend more and more time escaping into more exciting virtual lives online.

And society has nearly collapsed as a result.

Although this book is partly a cautionary tale about where we’re heading if we don’t change our behavior, it’s also a charming Hero’s Journey, deep fried in neon-tinted nostalgia, that I couldn’t put down.

As a gamer who thinks about life like a game (and even wrote a book about this very idea), every page of this book had me grinning from ear to ear.

Today I want to quickly discuss the pitfalls of technology and then share my 10 favorite ways to use technology to get ourselves to actually do the stuff that matters every day.

This is Nerd Fitness, after all.

So…ready, player one?

Why Ready Player ONe Matters

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology.

Technology has allowed me to create Nerd Fitness and deliver this article to you. It’s changed my life decidedly for the better and made literally everything easier.

The problem comes when technology gets TOO damn good. Video games are getting TOO well designed and addicting. TV shows and the delivery of those shows is so well done that you can lose an entire Saturday to 10 episodes in a row of Stranger Things before you realize it. Social media can be TOO pervasive, causing us to cast aside real life friendships and deep conversation in instead spend our time virtually – and superficially – connecting with people.

We trade likes and thumbs up in this unwritten but very real economy of fluffing each other’s egos.

If you’ve read any of the recent studies on this stuff, you know that social media is actually making us unhappier and more anxious[2], and yet we can’t get ourselves to stop seeking “just another hit.”

It’s getting easier and easier to say “one more level” or “I’ll just check Instagram quickly” and 10-15 minutes of your life is lost in a black hole of junk-food style entertainment.

And this causes us to forgo what is ACTUALLY important in our lives: Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. Practicing self-care. Getting enough sleep. Connecting with people in real life. [3]

Which brings me back to Ready Player One.

If you haven’t read the book or don’t plan on seeing the movie, how did you end up on Nerd Fitness allow me to quickly explain the premise:

The year is 2045, and technology has advanced dramatically while the rest of society has devolved. Our main character Wade Watts is an overweight, awkward high school senior with little money to his name.

Every day, Wade puts on a virtual reality headset to plug into The OASIS, a MMOSG (massively multiplayer online simulation game) – think Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids. OASIS has become so successful that its something pretty much everybody on the planet now uses.

In the OASIS, Wade attends school, hangs out with friends, and gets to create this alternate life for himself. Depending on how much in-game currency you have, you can visit various worlds, level up your character by completing quests, and make a life for yourself.

For most people, life in the OASIS kicks the crap out of their miserable real life, which means they use this second life as an escape from the harsh reality. And the more time they spend in game, the more they neglect their real-life health happiness, which further perpetuates a negative downward spiral.

So how does one stop letting the Matrix run their lives and instead take control back?

Let’s see what Wade did.

Wade Gets in Shape to Level Up His Life

Wade’s in a not-so-great place.

He lives in isolation, is very unhappy with his physical appearance, struggles socially, and chooses to withdraw more and more into an anonymous character online that’s much more exciting than his real world counterpart.

This is already happening today, with people losing their jobs, relationships, families, and even their lives due to online gaming or technology addictions.

Fortunately, Wade did something that was so freaking smart and clever that gets the 100% Nerd FItness Stamp of Approval.

[Note to self: buy stamp of approval.]

At a turning point in the story, Wade makes a decision that probably seemed small at the time but forever altered his life’s path. He turned on the voluntary Fitness Lockout protocol of the OASIS. This meant that every day, Wade had his biometrics tracked, and rigged his system so that he was locked out of using the OASIS until he got enough physical activity every day.

What this means: Wade used technology to make his life decidedly better instead of making it worse. He was so addicted to using the OASIS that he needed to be in there. Which meant if he wanted to play, he had only ONE path to connection:

Doing the damn exercise!

Unsurprisingly, this changed Wade’s negative downward spiral into a positive virtuous cycle. Getting all that exercise started to make him feel better about himself and gave him more energy. He got hooked on how he felt after exercise and how much more pride he felt looking in the mirror. In other words, it felt like he had regained control, and this caused him to want to continue to chase that feeling.

Wade was smart enough to build a system that forced himself to do what was best for him, and stuck with it long enough until that activity because his new default behavior.

Depending on where you’re at in your fitness journey, this might sound like a pipe dream. However, I can tell you that there’s one common thread in every one of our success stories – whether it’s single moms or opera-singing IT professionals, they all say the same thing:

“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow…I now actually look forward to exercising.”

Here’s how you can be like Wade.

10 Ways to Make Technology Work For You

I don’t believe technology is inherently good or bad.

It’s a tool that can be used to improve or harm our lives. Oftentimes, a little bit is good, a lot is detrimental.

Inspired by Ready Player One, I wanted to go through some ways I’ve implemented technological hurdles in my life to actually make my life LESS convenient. I’m using it to keep me from devolving too far down rabbit holes of gaming, Netflix, and instead just do the damn things I need to do every day to make my life better.

Here are my favorite examples:

1) I WANT TO EXERCISE MORE AND WATCH LESS NETFLIX:

Although we can’t do EXACTLY what Wade did in Ready Player One, we can emulate it pretty closely. For example, give your spouse/friend/roommate/coworker your login credentials to Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Have them change the password and not tell you.

Only after you do the thing you’ve agreed to do that day (send them a photo of you at the gym) will they give you the password.

2) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO GO TO THE GYM ENOUGH:

Do temptation bundling. Download your favorite audiobook or your favorite shows on Netflix. ONLY allow yourself to watch/listen to these while you’re walking on a treadmill at the gym or exercising.

How to do this? Download the shows to your iPad. Next time you to go to gym, ask the general manager to set the password on your iPad so that he’s the only one that can unlock it. If you want to watch the show, they’ll have to let you in!

3) I WANT TO SPEND LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

I know there’s a big movement to #deleteFacebook right now, but we use Facebook to connect with members of the community and our products and services. But I know everytime I go to Facebook for work reasons, I end up scrolling through my newsfeed for 10-15 min and I get VERY little out of it.

So I use tech to my advantage. In addition to deleting social media off my phone, I turned off my newsfeed. If you use Google Chrome, install newsfeed eradicator. Now my time spent on Facebook is minimal, the distraction is gone, and I can still connect with people when it fits my life. This is what I see when I sign into Facebook:

BORING. I might as well get back to work!

My friend Sol has given his facebook password to his girlfriend and makes sure he isn’t logged in on any of his computers. So he only uses it when it fits into his schedule. There’s no compulsive checking during the day.

4) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO PLAY FEWER VIDEO GAMES:

Be your own parent! I have installed parental controls on my Nintendo Switch and PS4. It locks the system during certain hours, or I can limit myself to playing only during a certain number of hours. When you’re in the right mindset, install these controls and have somebody else set your passwords so you can’t just turn it off.

Stop relying on willpower – these games are too damn good. I’m currently hooked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the struggle is real. I imagine if I even took one hit of Fortnite I’d be mainlining battle royales all the way to rehab by next Tuesday.

5) I WANT TO WAKE UP EARLIER:

Hat tip to my friend Thomas Frank on this one. Schedule a really embarrassing tweet/photo to publish 5 min after you need to wake up, and put your phone across the room. You have to wake up, walk across the room, and stop the scheduled tweet from sending. WAYYYY more effective than an alarm clock you can just snooze!

6) I WANT TO STOP EATING FAST FOOD:

Leave your ATM debit card at home, and only bring a credit card with you to work, preferably one that you share with your spouse. Have them receive an email notification for every time the card is used. And if it is used at a fast food restaurant, they’ll donate $50 you gave them to a cause you hate.

7) I CAN’T GET MY KIDS TO DO THEIR CHORES: 

Be like this awesome mom:

8) I WANT TO MOVE MORE EVERY DAY:

Get yourself a cheap fitbit (I have a Flex 2 and LOVE it for sleep tracking purposes, but also interesting to see my step count). Take somebody you trust, and friend them on Fitbit’s platform. Then, agree to an amount of steps you need to take every day before you can watch TV, play video games, etc. If you don’t reach said steps before you slack off for the day, they will post a super embarrassing photo that you’ve sent them on social media.

9) I WANT TO COOK HEALTHIER MEALS:

Throw all of the junk food out of your house. Instead of using Amazon Prime to just deliver you useless crap you don’t need, have it set to auto-deliver you fresh groceries or meal kits regularly. Use technology and convenience to your advantage and make the most convenient option the healthiest one. Once you eliminate fast food, junk food, and crap you don’t need to buy, you can increase your food budget to compensate for the increased of convenience here.

You can also set up a mission with friends where you have to batch cook your meals on Sunday (how to batch cook here). If you don’t cook your meals on Sunday, no Netflix that week (your friend would have the password), and vice versa. Diabolical. Effective.

10) I LOOK AT MY DAMN PHONE TOO MUCH:

Change your phone to greyscale. Suddenly everything is way less vibrant and fun and the phone starts to lose its appeal. Turn on parental controls on your phone, have somebody else set your parental lock password, and delete all unnecessary apps from your phone – email, social media, YouTube, etc. Tough to get distracted by a device that doesn’t have anything fun to do on it, right?

Instead, have a real life conversation, even with a stranger! Read a damn book!

Maybe Ready Player One! Maybe THIS one 🙂

Or if you’re looking for some free literature to help change your life, you can join The NF Rebellion and download a plethora (I don’t get to use that word enough) of free ebooks as our way of welcoming you to our community!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.

Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.

Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

Use Technology to Change Your Default Behavior

We’re creatures of habit, and products of our environment. If we’re not intentional with our time, our default behavior becomes:

Netflix and ice cream after work instead of hitting the gym.

Gaming late into the night instead of getting quality sleep.

Fast food instead of taking the time to batch-cook our meals for the week.

When we don’t take control, we give that control subconsciously to what’s most convenient. And technology will gladly take that control from you, because every company’s stock price and profit margin depend on it.

These are companies with tens of thousands of employees, scientists, psychologists, and billions of dollars of research at their disposal and their only goal is to get more of your attention/time/focus/money.

Sure, you can lament the fact that you don’t have enough willpower or motivation or whatever to avoid all of these temptations to do the boring, challenging activity that will dramatically improve your life in the long term.

You can EITHER:

Beat yourself up for what you THINK you should be doing but can’t.

Accept that this is reality, and that you need to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying on systems.

I mean this in a good way, but I gave up on myself a long time ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. Because games and social media and TV are too enjoyable! So I don’t even give myself the option to get tempted by this stuff by using technology to my benefit.

So be more like Wade Watts and build systems in your life and use the Matrix to your advantage.

YOUR TURN:

Which tech hack is your favorite for getting you to make healthier decisions daily?

Do you have a strategy that you’ve put in place to level up your own life?

Share them in the comments below and help your fellow nerds out!

And then go read/see Ready Player One 🙂

-Steve

###

photo credit: Profound Whatever 8-bit Basement, jjackowski, Safety Protocols Disabled, JD Hancock Wocka Wocka Wocka!,

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

People who grew up without social media, who had their first interaction with computers be in computer labs at school playing Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail Generation

Social Media is making us more anxious: study

I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s thoughts in this space in his fantastic book, Deep Work.

https://ift.tt/2GJeAJA

[almajonesnjna]

Ready Player One: 10 Tech Hacks to Lose Weight and Level Up Your Life

“Taaaaaaaaake onnnnnnnn me,

Taaaaaaaake meeeeee on!

I’ll beeeeeeee goonnnnnnne,

In a day or TWOOOOOOO!”

What the hell does that mean? Who cares!

All I know is that I can’t get a-ha’s “Take on Me” out of my head. It’s been there ever since the trailer dropped for the nerdy nostalgia-bomb that is Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” a blockbuster movie out now, based on the best-selling book of the same name:

As a child of the Oregon Trail generation[1], I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop culture and nerd references throughout the novel and could certainly relate to the main character Wade Watts, an overweight awkward teenager who loves 80’s pop culture and escapes a crappy existence by spending most of his time in virtual worlds.

It had me thinking deeply about how technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives, in both good ways and bad.

We can’t not check our email every 3 seconds. We can’t stop watching Netflix. We can’t stop scrolling through photos on Instagram. We can’t sit through a conversation with a person in front of us without habitually checking our phone every time it buzzes.

And then we all wonder why we are too busy, distracted, unhealthy, unhappy, and can’t get our shit together.

These days, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to use technology for convenience and quick bouts of entertainment and happiness to shield us from the reality that there are parts of our lives or our health we’re unhappy with.

In Ready Player One, we get a very plausible look into a dystopian future where those societal trends have continued: technology gets better and more convenient, and people spend more and more time escaping into more exciting virtual lives online.

And society has nearly collapsed as a result.

Although this book is partly a cautionary tale about where we’re heading if we don’t change our behavior, it’s also a charming Hero’s Journey, deep fried in neon-tinted nostalgia, that I couldn’t put down.

As a gamer who thinks about life like a game (and even wrote a book about this very idea), every page of this book had me grinning from ear to ear.

Today I want to quickly discuss the pitfalls of technology and then share my 10 favorite ways to use technology to get ourselves to actually do the stuff that matters every day.

This is Nerd Fitness, after all.

So…ready, player one?

Why Ready Player ONe Matters

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology.

Technology has allowed me to create Nerd Fitness and deliver this article to you. It’s changed my life decidedly for the better and made literally everything easier.

The problem comes when technology gets TOO damn good. Video games are getting TOO well designed and addicting. TV shows and the delivery of those shows is so well done that you can lose an entire Saturday to 10 episodes in a row of Stranger Things before you realize it. Social media can be TOO pervasive, causing us to cast aside real life friendships and deep conversation in instead spend our time virtually – and superficially – connecting with people.

We trade likes and thumbs up in this unwritten but very real economy of fluffing each other’s egos.

If you’ve read any of the recent studies on this stuff, you know that social media is actually making us unhappier and more anxious[2], and yet we can’t get ourselves to stop seeking “just another hit.”

It’s getting easier and easier to say “one more level” or “I’ll just check Instagram quickly” and 10-15 minutes of your life is lost in a black hole of junk-food style entertainment.

And this causes us to forgo what is ACTUALLY important in our lives: Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. Practicing self-care. Getting enough sleep. Connecting with people in real life. [3]

Which brings me back to Ready Player One.

If you haven’t read the book or don’t plan on seeing the movie, how did you end up on Nerd Fitness allow me to quickly explain the premise:

The year is 2045, and technology has advanced dramatically while the rest of society has devolved. Our main character Wade Watts is an overweight, awkward high school senior with little money to his name.

Every day, Wade puts on a virtual reality headset to plug into The OASIS, a MMOSG (massively multiplayer online simulation game) – think Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids. OASIS has become so successful that its something pretty much everybody on the planet now uses.

In the OASIS, Wade attends school, hangs out with friends, and gets to create this alternate life for himself. Depending on how much in-game currency you have, you can visit various worlds, level up your character by completing quests, and make a life for yourself.

For most people, life in the OASIS kicks the crap out of their miserable real life, which means they use this second life as an escape from the harsh reality. And the more time they spend in game, the more they neglect their real-life health happiness, which further perpetuates a negative downward spiral.

So how does one stop letting the Matrix run their lives and instead take control back?

Let’s see what Wade did.

Wade Gets in Shape to Level Up His Life

Wade’s in a not-so-great place.

He lives in isolation, is very unhappy with his physical appearance, struggles socially, and chooses to withdraw more and more into an anonymous character online that’s much more exciting than his real world counterpart.

This is already happening today, with people losing their jobs, relationships, families, and even their lives due to online gaming or technology addictions.

Fortunately, Wade did something that was so freaking smart and clever that gets the 100% Nerd FItness Stamp of Approval.

[Note to self: buy stamp of approval.]

At a turning point in the story, Wade makes a decision that probably seemed small at the time but forever altered his life’s path. He turned on the voluntary Fitness Lockout protocol of the OASIS. This meant that every day, Wade had his biometrics tracked, and rigged his system so that he was locked out of using the OASIS until he got enough physical activity every day.

What this means: Wade used technology to make his life decidedly better instead of making it worse. He was so addicted to using the OASIS that he needed to be in there. Which meant if he wanted to play, he had only ONE path to connection:

Doing the damn exercise!

Unsurprisingly, this changed Wade’s negative downward spiral into a positive virtuous cycle. Getting all that exercise started to make him feel better about himself and gave him more energy. He got hooked on how he felt after exercise and how much more pride he felt looking in the mirror. In other words, it felt like he had regained control, and this caused him to want to continue to chase that feeling.

Wade was smart enough to build a system that forced himself to do what was best for him, and stuck with it long enough until that activity because his new default behavior.

Depending on where you’re at in your fitness journey, this might sound like a pipe dream. However, I can tell you that there’s one common thread in every one of our success stories – whether it’s single moms or opera-singing IT professionals, they all say the same thing:

“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow…I now actually look forward to exercising.”

Here’s how you can be like Wade.

10 Ways to Make Technology Work For You

I don’t believe technology is inherently good or bad.

It’s a tool that can be used to improve or harm our lives. Oftentimes, a little bit is good, a lot is detrimental.

Inspired by Ready Player One, I wanted to go through some ways I’ve implemented technological hurdles in my life to actually make my life LESS convenient. I’m using it to keep me from devolving too far down rabbit holes of gaming, Netflix, and instead just do the damn things I need to do every day to make my life better.

Here are my favorite examples:

1) I WANT TO EXERCISE MORE AND WATCH LESS NETFLIX:

Although we can’t do EXACTLY what Wade did in Ready Player One, we can emulate it pretty closely. For example, give your spouse/friend/roommate/coworker your login credentials to Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Have them change the password and not tell you.

Only after you do the thing you’ve agreed to do that day (send them a photo of you at the gym) will they give you the password.

2) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO GO TO THE GYM ENOUGH:

Do temptation bundling. Download your favorite audiobook or your favorite shows on Netflix. ONLY allow yourself to watch/listen to these while you’re walking on a treadmill at the gym or exercising.

How to do this? Download the shows to your iPad. Next time you to go to gym, ask the general manager to set the password on your iPad so that he’s the only one that can unlock it. If you want to watch the show, they’ll have to let you in!

3) I WANT TO SPEND LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

I know there’s a big movement to #deleteFacebook right now, but we use Facebook to connect with members of the community and our products and services. But I know everytime I go to Facebook for work reasons, I end up scrolling through my newsfeed for 10-15 min and I get VERY little out of it.

So I use tech to my advantage. In addition to deleting social media off my phone, I turned off my newsfeed. If you use Google Chrome, install newsfeed eradicator. Now my time spent on Facebook is minimal, the distraction is gone, and I can still connect with people when it fits my life. This is what I see when I sign into Facebook:

BORING. I might as well get back to work!

My friend Sol has given his facebook password to his girlfriend and makes sure he isn’t logged in on any of his computers. So he only uses it when it fits into his schedule. There’s no compulsive checking during the day.

4) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO PLAY FEWER VIDEO GAMES:

Be your own parent! I have installed parental controls on my Nintendo Switch and PS4. It locks the system during certain hours, or I can limit myself to playing only during a certain number of hours. When you’re in the right mindset, install these controls and have somebody else set your passwords so you can’t just turn it off.

Stop relying on willpower – these games are too damn good. I’m currently hooked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the struggle is real. I imagine if I even took one hit of Fortnite I’d be mainlining battle royales all the way to rehab by next Tuesday.

5) I WANT TO WAKE UP EARLIER:

Hat tip to my friend Thomas Frank on this one. Schedule a really embarrassing tweet/photo to publish 5 min after you need to wake up, and put your phone across the room. You have to wake up, walk across the room, and stop the scheduled tweet from sending. WAYYYY more effective than an alarm clock you can just snooze!

6) I WANT TO STOP EATING FAST FOOD:

Leave your ATM debit card at home, and only bring a credit card with you to work, preferably one that you share with your spouse. Have them receive an email notification for every time the card is used. And if it is used at a fast food restaurant, they’ll donate $50 you gave them to a cause you hate.

7) I CAN’T GET MY KIDS TO DO THEIR CHORES: 

Be like this awesome mom:

8) I WANT TO MOVE MORE EVERY DAY:

Get yourself a cheap fitbit (I have a Flex 2 and LOVE it for sleep tracking purposes, but also interesting to see my step count). Take somebody you trust, and friend them on Fitbit’s platform. Then, agree to an amount of steps you need to take every day before you can watch TV, play video games, etc. If you don’t reach said steps before you slack off for the day, they will post a super embarrassing photo that you’ve sent them on social media.

9) I WANT TO COOK HEALTHIER MEALS:

Throw all of the junk food out of your house. Instead of using Amazon Prime to just deliver you useless crap you don’t need, have it set to auto-deliver you fresh groceries or meal kits regularly. Use technology and convenience to your advantage and make the most convenient option the healthiest one. Once you eliminate fast food, junk food, and crap you don’t need to buy, you can increase your food budget to compensate for the increased of convenience here.

You can also set up a mission with friends where you have to batch cook your meals on Sunday (how to batch cook here). If you don’t cook your meals on Sunday, no Netflix that week (your friend would have the password), and vice versa. Diabolical. Effective.

10) I LOOK AT MY DAMN PHONE TOO MUCH:

Change your phone to greyscale. Suddenly everything is way less vibrant and fun and the phone starts to lose its appeal. Turn on parental controls on your phone, have somebody else set your parental lock password, and delete all unnecessary apps from your phone – email, social media, YouTube, etc. Tough to get distracted by a device that doesn’t have anything fun to do on it, right?

Instead, have a real life conversation, even with a stranger! Read a damn book!

Maybe Ready Player One! Maybe THIS one 🙂

Or if you’re looking for some free literature to help change your life, you can join The NF Rebellion and download a plethora (I don’t get to use that word enough) of free ebooks as our way of welcoming you to our community!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.

Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.

Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

Use Technology to Change Your Default Behavior

We’re creatures of habit, and products of our environment. If we’re not intentional with our time, our default behavior becomes:

Netflix and ice cream after work instead of hitting the gym.

Gaming late into the night instead of getting quality sleep.

Fast food instead of taking the time to batch-cook our meals for the week.

When we don’t take control, we give that control subconsciously to what’s most convenient. And technology will gladly take that control from you, because every company’s stock price and profit margin depend on it.

These are companies with tens of thousands of employees, scientists, psychologists, and billions of dollars of research at their disposal and their only goal is to get more of your attention/time/focus/money.

Sure, you can lament the fact that you don’t have enough willpower or motivation or whatever to avoid all of these temptations to do the boring, challenging activity that will dramatically improve your life in the long term.

You can EITHER:

Beat yourself up for what you THINK you should be doing but can’t.

Accept that this is reality, and that you need to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying on systems.

I mean this in a good way, but I gave up on myself a long time ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. Because games and social media and TV are too enjoyable! So I don’t even give myself the option to get tempted by this stuff by using technology to my benefit.

So be more like Wade Watts and build systems in your life and use the Matrix to your advantage.

YOUR TURN:

Which tech hack is your favorite for getting you to make healthier decisions daily?

Do you have a strategy that you’ve put in place to level up your own life?

Share them in the comments below and help your fellow nerds out!

And then go read/see Ready Player One 🙂

-Steve

###

photo credit: Profound Whatever 8-bit Basement, jjackowski, Safety Protocols Disabled, JD Hancock Wocka Wocka Wocka!,

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

People who grew up without social media, who had their first interaction with computers be in computer labs at school playing Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail Generation

Social Media is making us more anxious: study

I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s thoughts in this space in his fantastic book, Deep Work.

https://ift.tt/2GJeAJA

[albertcaldwellne]

Ready Player One: 10 Tech Hacks to Lose Weight and Level Up Your Life

“Taaaaaaaaake onnnnnnnn me,

Taaaaaaaake meeeeee on!

I’ll beeeeeeee goonnnnnnne,

In a day or TWOOOOOOO!”

What the hell does that mean? Who cares!

All I know is that I can’t get a-ha’s “Take on Me” out of my head. It’s been there ever since the trailer dropped for the nerdy nostalgia-bomb that is Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” a blockbuster movie out now, based on the best-selling book of the same name:

As a child of the Oregon Trail generation[1], I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop culture and nerd references throughout the novel and could certainly relate to the main character Wade Watts, an overweight awkward teenager who loves 80’s pop culture and escapes a crappy existence by spending most of his time in virtual worlds.

It had me thinking deeply about how technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives, in both good ways and bad.

We can’t not check our email every 3 seconds. We can’t stop watching Netflix. We can’t stop scrolling through photos on Instagram. We can’t sit through a conversation with a person in front of us without habitually checking our phone every time it buzzes.

And then we all wonder why we are too busy, distracted, unhealthy, unhappy, and can’t get our shit together.

These days, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to use technology for convenience and quick bouts of entertainment and happiness to shield us from the reality that there are parts of our lives or our health we’re unhappy with.

In Ready Player One, we get a very plausible look into a dystopian future where those societal trends have continued: technology gets better and more convenient, and people spend more and more time escaping into more exciting virtual lives online.

And society has nearly collapsed as a result.

Although this book is partly a cautionary tale about where we’re heading if we don’t change our behavior, it’s also a charming Hero’s Journey, deep fried in neon-tinted nostalgia, that I couldn’t put down.

As a gamer who thinks about life like a game (and even wrote a book about this very idea), every page of this book had me grinning from ear to ear.

Today I want to quickly discuss the pitfalls of technology and then share my 10 favorite ways to use technology to get ourselves to actually do the stuff that matters every day.

This is Nerd Fitness, after all.

So…ready, player one?

Why Ready Player ONe Matters

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology.

Technology has allowed me to create Nerd Fitness and deliver this article to you. It’s changed my life decidedly for the better and made literally everything easier.

The problem comes when technology gets TOO damn good. Video games are getting TOO well designed and addicting. TV shows and the delivery of those shows is so well done that you can lose an entire Saturday to 10 episodes in a row of Stranger Things before you realize it. Social media can be TOO pervasive, causing us to cast aside real life friendships and deep conversation in instead spend our time virtually – and superficially – connecting with people.

We trade likes and thumbs up in this unwritten but very real economy of fluffing each other’s egos.

If you’ve read any of the recent studies on this stuff, you know that social media is actually making us unhappier and more anxious[2], and yet we can’t get ourselves to stop seeking “just another hit.”

It’s getting easier and easier to say “one more level” or “I’ll just check Instagram quickly” and 10-15 minutes of your life is lost in a black hole of junk-food style entertainment.

And this causes us to forgo what is ACTUALLY important in our lives: Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. Practicing self-care. Getting enough sleep. Connecting with people in real life. [3]

Which brings me back to Ready Player One.

If you haven’t read the book or don’t plan on seeing the movie, how did you end up on Nerd Fitness allow me to quickly explain the premise:

The year is 2045, and technology has advanced dramatically while the rest of society has devolved. Our main character Wade Watts is an overweight, awkward high school senior with little money to his name.

Every day, Wade puts on a virtual reality headset to plug into The OASIS, a MMOSG (massively multiplayer online simulation game) – think Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids. OASIS has become so successful that its something pretty much everybody on the planet now uses.

In the OASIS, Wade attends school, hangs out with friends, and gets to create this alternate life for himself. Depending on how much in-game currency you have, you can visit various worlds, level up your character by completing quests, and make a life for yourself.

For most people, life in the OASIS kicks the crap out of their miserable real life, which means they use this second life as an escape from the harsh reality. And the more time they spend in game, the more they neglect their real-life health happiness, which further perpetuates a negative downward spiral.

So how does one stop letting the Matrix run their lives and instead take control back?

Let’s see what Wade did.

Wade Gets in Shape to Level Up His Life

Wade’s in a not-so-great place.

He lives in isolation, is very unhappy with his physical appearance, struggles socially, and chooses to withdraw more and more into an anonymous character online that’s much more exciting than his real world counterpart.

This is already happening today, with people losing their jobs, relationships, families, and even their lives due to online gaming or technology addictions.

Fortunately, Wade did something that was so freaking smart and clever that gets the 100% Nerd FItness Stamp of Approval.

[Note to self: buy stamp of approval.]

At a turning point in the story, Wade makes a decision that probably seemed small at the time but forever altered his life’s path. He turned on the voluntary Fitness Lockout protocol of the OASIS. This meant that every day, Wade had his biometrics tracked, and rigged his system so that he was locked out of using the OASIS until he got enough physical activity every day.

What this means: Wade used technology to make his life decidedly better instead of making it worse. He was so addicted to using the OASIS that he needed to be in there. Which meant if he wanted to play, he had only ONE path to connection:

Doing the damn exercise!

Unsurprisingly, this changed Wade’s negative downward spiral into a positive virtuous cycle. Getting all that exercise started to make him feel better about himself and gave him more energy. He got hooked on how he felt after exercise and how much more pride he felt looking in the mirror. In other words, it felt like he had regained control, and this caused him to want to continue to chase that feeling.

Wade was smart enough to build a system that forced himself to do what was best for him, and stuck with it long enough until that activity because his new default behavior.

Depending on where you’re at in your fitness journey, this might sound like a pipe dream. However, I can tell you that there’s one common thread in every one of our success stories – whether it’s single moms or opera-singing IT professionals, they all say the same thing:

“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow…I now actually look forward to exercising.”

Here’s how you can be like Wade.

10 Ways to Make Technology Work For You

I don’t believe technology is inherently good or bad.

It’s a tool that can be used to improve or harm our lives. Oftentimes, a little bit is good, a lot is detrimental.

Inspired by Ready Player One, I wanted to go through some ways I’ve implemented technological hurdles in my life to actually make my life LESS convenient. I’m using it to keep me from devolving too far down rabbit holes of gaming, Netflix, and instead just do the damn things I need to do every day to make my life better.

Here are my favorite examples:

1) I WANT TO EXERCISE MORE AND WATCH LESS NETFLIX:

Although we can’t do EXACTLY what Wade did in Ready Player One, we can emulate it pretty closely. For example, give your spouse/friend/roommate/coworker your login credentials to Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Have them change the password and not tell you.

Only after you do the thing you’ve agreed to do that day (send them a photo of you at the gym) will they give you the password.

2) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO GO TO THE GYM ENOUGH:

Do temptation bundling. Download your favorite audiobook or your favorite shows on Netflix. ONLY allow yourself to watch/listen to these while you’re walking on a treadmill at the gym or exercising.

How to do this? Download the shows to your iPad. Next time you to go to gym, ask the general manager to set the password on your iPad so that he’s the only one that can unlock it. If you want to watch the show, they’ll have to let you in!

3) I WANT TO SPEND LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

I know there’s a big movement to #deleteFacebook right now, but we use Facebook to connect with members of the community and our products and services. But I know everytime I go to Facebook for work reasons, I end up scrolling through my newsfeed for 10-15 min and I get VERY little out of it.

So I use tech to my advantage. In addition to deleting social media off my phone, I turned off my newsfeed. If you use Google Chrome, install newsfeed eradicator. Now my time spent on Facebook is minimal, the distraction is gone, and I can still connect with people when it fits my life. This is what I see when I sign into Facebook:

BORING. I might as well get back to work!

My friend Sol has given his facebook password to his girlfriend and makes sure he isn’t logged in on any of his computers. So he only uses it when it fits into his schedule. There’s no compulsive checking during the day.

4) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO PLAY FEWER VIDEO GAMES:

Be your own parent! I have installed parental controls on my Nintendo Switch and PS4. It locks the system during certain hours, or I can limit myself to playing only during a certain number of hours. When you’re in the right mindset, install these controls and have somebody else set your passwords so you can’t just turn it off.

Stop relying on willpower – these games are too damn good. I’m currently hooked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the struggle is real. I imagine if I even took one hit of Fortnite I’d be mainlining battle royales all the way to rehab by next Tuesday.

5) I WANT TO WAKE UP EARLIER:

Hat tip to my friend Thomas Frank on this one. Schedule a really embarrassing tweet/photo to publish 5 min after you need to wake up, and put your phone across the room. You have to wake up, walk across the room, and stop the scheduled tweet from sending. WAYYYY more effective than an alarm clock you can just snooze!

6) I WANT TO STOP EATING FAST FOOD:

Leave your ATM debit card at home, and only bring a credit card with you to work, preferably one that you share with your spouse. Have them receive an email notification for every time the card is used. And if it is used at a fast food restaurant, they’ll donate $50 you gave them to a cause you hate.

7) I CAN’T GET MY KIDS TO DO THEIR CHORES: 

Be like this awesome mom:

8) I WANT TO MOVE MORE EVERY DAY:

Get yourself a cheap fitbit (I have a Flex 2 and LOVE it for sleep tracking purposes, but also interesting to see my step count). Take somebody you trust, and friend them on Fitbit’s platform. Then, agree to an amount of steps you need to take every day before you can watch TV, play video games, etc. If you don’t reach said steps before you slack off for the day, they will post a super embarrassing photo that you’ve sent them on social media.

9) I WANT TO COOK HEALTHIER MEALS:

Throw all of the junk food out of your house. Instead of using Amazon Prime to just deliver you useless crap you don’t need, have it set to auto-deliver you fresh groceries or meal kits regularly. Use technology and convenience to your advantage and make the most convenient option the healthiest one. Once you eliminate fast food, junk food, and crap you don’t need to buy, you can increase your food budget to compensate for the increased of convenience here.

You can also set up a mission with friends where you have to batch cook your meals on Sunday (how to batch cook here). If you don’t cook your meals on Sunday, no Netflix that week (your friend would have the password), and vice versa. Diabolical. Effective.

10) I LOOK AT MY DAMN PHONE TOO MUCH:

Change your phone to greyscale. Suddenly everything is way less vibrant and fun and the phone starts to lose its appeal. Turn on parental controls on your phone, have somebody else set your parental lock password, and delete all unnecessary apps from your phone – email, social media, YouTube, etc. Tough to get distracted by a device that doesn’t have anything fun to do on it, right?

Instead, have a real life conversation, even with a stranger! Read a damn book!

Maybe Ready Player One! Maybe THIS one 🙂

Or if you’re looking for some free literature to help change your life, you can join The NF Rebellion and download a plethora (I don’t get to use that word enough) of free ebooks as our way of welcoming you to our community!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.

Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.

Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

Use Technology to Change Your Default Behavior

We’re creatures of habit, and products of our environment. If we’re not intentional with our time, our default behavior becomes:

Netflix and ice cream after work instead of hitting the gym.

Gaming late into the night instead of getting quality sleep.

Fast food instead of taking the time to batch-cook our meals for the week.

When we don’t take control, we give that control subconsciously to what’s most convenient. And technology will gladly take that control from you, because every company’s stock price and profit margin depend on it.

These are companies with tens of thousands of employees, scientists, psychologists, and billions of dollars of research at their disposal and their only goal is to get more of your attention/time/focus/money.

Sure, you can lament the fact that you don’t have enough willpower or motivation or whatever to avoid all of these temptations to do the boring, challenging activity that will dramatically improve your life in the long term.

You can EITHER:

Beat yourself up for what you THINK you should be doing but can’t.

Accept that this is reality, and that you need to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying on systems.

I mean this in a good way, but I gave up on myself a long time ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. Because games and social media and TV are too enjoyable! So I don’t even give myself the option to get tempted by this stuff by using technology to my benefit.

So be more like Wade Watts and build systems in your life and use the Matrix to your advantage.

YOUR TURN:

Which tech hack is your favorite for getting you to make healthier decisions daily?

Do you have a strategy that you’ve put in place to level up your own life?

Share them in the comments below and help your fellow nerds out!

And then go read/see Ready Player One 🙂

-Steve

###

photo credit: Profound Whatever 8-bit Basement, jjackowski, Safety Protocols Disabled, JD Hancock Wocka Wocka Wocka!,

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

People who grew up without social media, who had their first interaction with computers be in computer labs at school playing Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail Generation

Social Media is making us more anxious: study

I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s thoughts in this space in his fantastic book, Deep Work.

https://ift.tt/2GJeAJA

[neilmillerne]

Ready Player One: 10 Tech Hacks to Lose Weight and Level Up Your Life

“Taaaaaaaaake onnnnnnnn me,

Taaaaaaaake meeeeee on!

I’ll beeeeeeee goonnnnnnne,

In a day or TWOOOOOOO!”

What the hell does that mean? Who cares!

All I know is that I can’t get a-ha’s “Take on Me” out of my head. It’s been there ever since the trailer dropped for the nerdy nostalgia-bomb that is Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” a blockbuster movie out now, based on the best-selling book of the same name:

As a child of the Oregon Trail generation[1], I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop culture and nerd references throughout the novel and could certainly relate to the main character Wade Watts, an overweight awkward teenager who loves 80’s pop culture and escapes a crappy existence by spending most of his time in virtual worlds.

It had me thinking deeply about how technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives, in both good ways and bad.

We can’t not check our email every 3 seconds. We can’t stop watching Netflix. We can’t stop scrolling through photos on Instagram. We can’t sit through a conversation with a person in front of us without habitually checking our phone every time it buzzes.

And then we all wonder why we are too busy, distracted, unhealthy, unhappy, and can’t get our shit together.

These days, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to use technology for convenience and quick bouts of entertainment and happiness to shield us from the reality that there are parts of our lives or our health we’re unhappy with.

In Ready Player One, we get a very plausible look into a dystopian future where those societal trends have continued: technology gets better and more convenient, and people spend more and more time escaping into more exciting virtual lives online.

And society has nearly collapsed as a result.

Although this book is partly a cautionary tale about where we’re heading if we don’t change our behavior, it’s also a charming Hero’s Journey, deep fried in neon-tinted nostalgia, that I couldn’t put down.

As a gamer who thinks about life like a game (and even wrote a book about this very idea), every page of this book had me grinning from ear to ear.

Today I want to quickly discuss the pitfalls of technology and then share my 10 favorite ways to use technology to get ourselves to actually do the stuff that matters every day.

This is Nerd Fitness, after all.

So…ready, player one?

Why Ready Player ONe Matters

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology.

Technology has allowed me to create Nerd Fitness and deliver this article to you. It’s changed my life decidedly for the better and made literally everything easier.

The problem comes when technology gets TOO damn good. Video games are getting TOO well designed and addicting. TV shows and the delivery of those shows is so well done that you can lose an entire Saturday to 10 episodes in a row of Stranger Things before you realize it. Social media can be TOO pervasive, causing us to cast aside real life friendships and deep conversation in instead spend our time virtually – and superficially – connecting with people.

We trade likes and thumbs up in this unwritten but very real economy of fluffing each other’s egos.

If you’ve read any of the recent studies on this stuff, you know that social media is actually making us unhappier and more anxious[2], and yet we can’t get ourselves to stop seeking “just another hit.”

It’s getting easier and easier to say “one more level” or “I’ll just check Instagram quickly” and 10-15 minutes of your life is lost in a black hole of junk-food style entertainment.

And this causes us to forgo what is ACTUALLY important in our lives: Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. Practicing self-care. Getting enough sleep. Connecting with people in real life. [3]

Which brings me back to Ready Player One.

If you haven’t read the book or don’t plan on seeing the movie, how did you end up on Nerd Fitness allow me to quickly explain the premise:

The year is 2045, and technology has advanced dramatically while the rest of society has devolved. Our main character Wade Watts is an overweight, awkward high school senior with little money to his name.

Every day, Wade puts on a virtual reality headset to plug into The OASIS, a MMOSG (massively multiplayer online simulation game) – think Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids. OASIS has become so successful that its something pretty much everybody on the planet now uses.

In the OASIS, Wade attends school, hangs out with friends, and gets to create this alternate life for himself. Depending on how much in-game currency you have, you can visit various worlds, level up your character by completing quests, and make a life for yourself.

For most people, life in the OASIS kicks the crap out of their miserable real life, which means they use this second life as an escape from the harsh reality. And the more time they spend in game, the more they neglect their real-life health happiness, which further perpetuates a negative downward spiral.

So how does one stop letting the Matrix run their lives and instead take control back?

Let’s see what Wade did.

Wade Gets in Shape to Level Up His Life

Wade’s in a not-so-great place.

He lives in isolation, is very unhappy with his physical appearance, struggles socially, and chooses to withdraw more and more into an anonymous character online that’s much more exciting than his real world counterpart.

This is already happening today, with people losing their jobs, relationships, families, and even their lives due to online gaming or technology addictions.

Fortunately, Wade did something that was so freaking smart and clever that gets the 100% Nerd FItness Stamp of Approval.

[Note to self: buy stamp of approval.]

At a turning point in the story, Wade makes a decision that probably seemed small at the time but forever altered his life’s path. He turned on the voluntary Fitness Lockout protocol of the OASIS. This meant that every day, Wade had his biometrics tracked, and rigged his system so that he was locked out of using the OASIS until he got enough physical activity every day.

What this means: Wade used technology to make his life decidedly better instead of making it worse. He was so addicted to using the OASIS that he needed to be in there. Which meant if he wanted to play, he had only ONE path to connection:

Doing the damn exercise!

Unsurprisingly, this changed Wade’s negative downward spiral into a positive virtuous cycle. Getting all that exercise started to make him feel better about himself and gave him more energy. He got hooked on how he felt after exercise and how much more pride he felt looking in the mirror. In other words, it felt like he had regained control, and this caused him to want to continue to chase that feeling.

Wade was smart enough to build a system that forced himself to do what was best for him, and stuck with it long enough until that activity because his new default behavior.

Depending on where you’re at in your fitness journey, this might sound like a pipe dream. However, I can tell you that there’s one common thread in every one of our success stories – whether it’s single moms or opera-singing IT professionals, they all say the same thing:

“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow…I now actually look forward to exercising.”

Here’s how you can be like Wade.

10 Ways to Make Technology Work For You

I don’t believe technology is inherently good or bad.

It’s a tool that can be used to improve or harm our lives. Oftentimes, a little bit is good, a lot is detrimental.

Inspired by Ready Player One, I wanted to go through some ways I’ve implemented technological hurdles in my life to actually make my life LESS convenient. I’m using it to keep me from devolving too far down rabbit holes of gaming, Netflix, and instead just do the damn things I need to do every day to make my life better.

Here are my favorite examples:

1) I WANT TO EXERCISE MORE AND WATCH LESS NETFLIX:

Although we can’t do EXACTLY what Wade did in Ready Player One, we can emulate it pretty closely. For example, give your spouse/friend/roommate/coworker your login credentials to Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Have them change the password and not tell you.

Only after you do the thing you’ve agreed to do that day (send them a photo of you at the gym) will they give you the password.

2) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO GO TO THE GYM ENOUGH:

Do temptation bundling. Download your favorite audiobook or your favorite shows on Netflix. ONLY allow yourself to watch/listen to these while you’re walking on a treadmill at the gym or exercising.

How to do this? Download the shows to your iPad. Next time you to go to gym, ask the general manager to set the password on your iPad so that he’s the only one that can unlock it. If you want to watch the show, they’ll have to let you in!

3) I WANT TO SPEND LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

I know there’s a big movement to #deleteFacebook right now, but we use Facebook to connect with members of the community and our products and services. But I know everytime I go to Facebook for work reasons, I end up scrolling through my newsfeed for 10-15 min and I get VERY little out of it.

So I use tech to my advantage. In addition to deleting social media off my phone, I turned off my newsfeed. If you use Google Chrome, install newsfeed eradicator. Now my time spent on Facebook is minimal, the distraction is gone, and I can still connect with people when it fits my life. This is what I see when I sign into Facebook:

BORING. I might as well get back to work!

My friend Sol has given his facebook password to his girlfriend and makes sure he isn’t logged in on any of his computers. So he only uses it when it fits into his schedule. There’s no compulsive checking during the day.

4) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO PLAY FEWER VIDEO GAMES:

Be your own parent! I have installed parental controls on my Nintendo Switch and PS4. It locks the system during certain hours, or I can limit myself to playing only during a certain number of hours. When you’re in the right mindset, install these controls and have somebody else set your passwords so you can’t just turn it off.

Stop relying on willpower – these games are too damn good. I’m currently hooked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the struggle is real. I imagine if I even took one hit of Fortnite I’d be mainlining battle royales all the way to rehab by next Tuesday.

5) I WANT TO WAKE UP EARLIER:

Hat tip to my friend Thomas Frank on this one. Schedule a really embarrassing tweet/photo to publish 5 min after you need to wake up, and put your phone across the room. You have to wake up, walk across the room, and stop the scheduled tweet from sending. WAYYYY more effective than an alarm clock you can just snooze!

6) I WANT TO STOP EATING FAST FOOD:

Leave your ATM debit card at home, and only bring a credit card with you to work, preferably one that you share with your spouse. Have them receive an email notification for every time the card is used. And if it is used at a fast food restaurant, they’ll donate $50 you gave them to a cause you hate.

7) I CAN’T GET MY KIDS TO DO THEIR CHORES: 

Be like this awesome mom:

8) I WANT TO MOVE MORE EVERY DAY:

Get yourself a cheap fitbit (I have a Flex 2 and LOVE it for sleep tracking purposes, but also interesting to see my step count). Take somebody you trust, and friend them on Fitbit’s platform. Then, agree to an amount of steps you need to take every day before you can watch TV, play video games, etc. If you don’t reach said steps before you slack off for the day, they will post a super embarrassing photo that you’ve sent them on social media.

9) I WANT TO COOK HEALTHIER MEALS:

Throw all of the junk food out of your house. Instead of using Amazon Prime to just deliver you useless crap you don’t need, have it set to auto-deliver you fresh groceries or meal kits regularly. Use technology and convenience to your advantage and make the most convenient option the healthiest one. Once you eliminate fast food, junk food, and crap you don’t need to buy, you can increase your food budget to compensate for the increased of convenience here.

You can also set up a mission with friends where you have to batch cook your meals on Sunday (how to batch cook here). If you don’t cook your meals on Sunday, no Netflix that week (your friend would have the password), and vice versa. Diabolical. Effective.

10) I LOOK AT MY DAMN PHONE TOO MUCH:

Change your phone to greyscale. Suddenly everything is way less vibrant and fun and the phone starts to lose its appeal. Turn on parental controls on your phone, have somebody else set your parental lock password, and delete all unnecessary apps from your phone – email, social media, YouTube, etc. Tough to get distracted by a device that doesn’t have anything fun to do on it, right?

Instead, have a real life conversation, even with a stranger! Read a damn book!

Maybe Ready Player One! Maybe THIS one 🙂

Or if you’re looking for some free literature to help change your life, you can join The NF Rebellion and download a plethora (I don’t get to use that word enough) of free ebooks as our way of welcoming you to our community!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.

Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.

Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

Use Technology to Change Your Default Behavior

We’re creatures of habit, and products of our environment. If we’re not intentional with our time, our default behavior becomes:

Netflix and ice cream after work instead of hitting the gym.

Gaming late into the night instead of getting quality sleep.

Fast food instead of taking the time to batch-cook our meals for the week.

When we don’t take control, we give that control subconsciously to what’s most convenient. And technology will gladly take that control from you, because every company’s stock price and profit margin depend on it.

These are companies with tens of thousands of employees, scientists, psychologists, and billions of dollars of research at their disposal and their only goal is to get more of your attention/time/focus/money.

Sure, you can lament the fact that you don’t have enough willpower or motivation or whatever to avoid all of these temptations to do the boring, challenging activity that will dramatically improve your life in the long term.

You can EITHER:

Beat yourself up for what you THINK you should be doing but can’t.

Accept that this is reality, and that you need to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying on systems.

I mean this in a good way, but I gave up on myself a long time ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. Because games and social media and TV are too enjoyable! So I don’t even give myself the option to get tempted by this stuff by using technology to my benefit.

So be more like Wade Watts and build systems in your life and use the Matrix to your advantage.

YOUR TURN:

Which tech hack is your favorite for getting you to make healthier decisions daily?

Do you have a strategy that you’ve put in place to level up your own life?

Share them in the comments below and help your fellow nerds out!

And then go read/see Ready Player One 🙂

-Steve

###

photo credit: Profound Whatever 8-bit Basement, jjackowski, Safety Protocols Disabled, JD Hancock Wocka Wocka Wocka!,

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

People who grew up without social media, who had their first interaction with computers be in computer labs at school playing Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail Generation

Social Media is making us more anxious: study

I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s thoughts in this space in his fantastic book, Deep Work.

https://ift.tt/2GJeAJA

[lindafrancois]

Ready Player One: 10 Tech Hacks to Lose Weight and Level Up Your Life

“Taaaaaaaaake onnnnnnnn me,

Taaaaaaaake meeeeee on!

I’ll beeeeeeee goonnnnnnne,

In a day or TWOOOOOOO!”

What the hell does that mean? Who cares!

All I know is that I can’t get a-ha’s “Take on Me” out of my head. It’s been there ever since the trailer dropped for the nerdy nostalgia-bomb that is Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” a blockbuster movie out now, based on the best-selling book of the same name:

As a child of the Oregon Trail generation[1], I thoroughly enjoyed all of the pop culture and nerd references throughout the novel and could certainly relate to the main character Wade Watts, an overweight awkward teenager who loves 80’s pop culture and escapes a crappy existence by spending most of his time in virtual worlds.

It had me thinking deeply about how technology is creeping into every aspect of our lives, in both good ways and bad.

We can’t not check our email every 3 seconds. We can’t stop watching Netflix. We can’t stop scrolling through photos on Instagram. We can’t sit through a conversation with a person in front of us without habitually checking our phone every time it buzzes.

And then we all wonder why we are too busy, distracted, unhealthy, unhappy, and can’t get our shit together.

These days, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to use technology for convenience and quick bouts of entertainment and happiness to shield us from the reality that there are parts of our lives or our health we’re unhappy with.

In Ready Player One, we get a very plausible look into a dystopian future where those societal trends have continued: technology gets better and more convenient, and people spend more and more time escaping into more exciting virtual lives online.

And society has nearly collapsed as a result.

Although this book is partly a cautionary tale about where we’re heading if we don’t change our behavior, it’s also a charming Hero’s Journey, deep fried in neon-tinted nostalgia, that I couldn’t put down.

As a gamer who thinks about life like a game (and even wrote a book about this very idea), every page of this book had me grinning from ear to ear.

Today I want to quickly discuss the pitfalls of technology and then share my 10 favorite ways to use technology to get ourselves to actually do the stuff that matters every day.

This is Nerd Fitness, after all.

So…ready, player one?

Why Ready Player ONe Matters

Don’t get me wrong, I love technology.

Technology has allowed me to create Nerd Fitness and deliver this article to you. It’s changed my life decidedly for the better and made literally everything easier.

The problem comes when technology gets TOO damn good. Video games are getting TOO well designed and addicting. TV shows and the delivery of those shows is so well done that you can lose an entire Saturday to 10 episodes in a row of Stranger Things before you realize it. Social media can be TOO pervasive, causing us to cast aside real life friendships and deep conversation in instead spend our time virtually – and superficially – connecting with people.

We trade likes and thumbs up in this unwritten but very real economy of fluffing each other’s egos.

If you’ve read any of the recent studies on this stuff, you know that social media is actually making us unhappier and more anxious[2], and yet we can’t get ourselves to stop seeking “just another hit.”

It’s getting easier and easier to say “one more level” or “I’ll just check Instagram quickly” and 10-15 minutes of your life is lost in a black hole of junk-food style entertainment.

And this causes us to forgo what is ACTUALLY important in our lives: Eating healthy. Exercising regularly. Practicing self-care. Getting enough sleep. Connecting with people in real life. [3]

Which brings me back to Ready Player One.

If you haven’t read the book or don’t plan on seeing the movie, how did you end up on Nerd Fitness allow me to quickly explain the premise:

The year is 2045, and technology has advanced dramatically while the rest of society has devolved. Our main character Wade Watts is an overweight, awkward high school senior with little money to his name.

Every day, Wade puts on a virtual reality headset to plug into The OASIS, a MMOSG (massively multiplayer online simulation game) – think Second Life or World of Warcraft on steroids. OASIS has become so successful that its something pretty much everybody on the planet now uses.

In the OASIS, Wade attends school, hangs out with friends, and gets to create this alternate life for himself. Depending on how much in-game currency you have, you can visit various worlds, level up your character by completing quests, and make a life for yourself.

For most people, life in the OASIS kicks the crap out of their miserable real life, which means they use this second life as an escape from the harsh reality. And the more time they spend in game, the more they neglect their real-life health happiness, which further perpetuates a negative downward spiral.

So how does one stop letting the Matrix run their lives and instead take control back?

Let’s see what Wade did.

Wade Gets in Shape to Level Up His Life

Wade’s in a not-so-great place.

He lives in isolation, is very unhappy with his physical appearance, struggles socially, and chooses to withdraw more and more into an anonymous character online that’s much more exciting than his real world counterpart.

This is already happening today, with people losing their jobs, relationships, families, and even their lives due to online gaming or technology addictions.

Fortunately, Wade did something that was so freaking smart and clever that gets the 100% Nerd FItness Stamp of Approval.

[Note to self: buy stamp of approval.]

At a turning point in the story, Wade makes a decision that probably seemed small at the time but forever altered his life’s path. He turned on the voluntary Fitness Lockout protocol of the OASIS. This meant that every day, Wade had his biometrics tracked, and rigged his system so that he was locked out of using the OASIS until he got enough physical activity every day.

What this means: Wade used technology to make his life decidedly better instead of making it worse. He was so addicted to using the OASIS that he needed to be in there. Which meant if he wanted to play, he had only ONE path to connection:

Doing the damn exercise!

Unsurprisingly, this changed Wade’s negative downward spiral into a positive virtuous cycle. Getting all that exercise started to make him feel better about himself and gave him more energy. He got hooked on how he felt after exercise and how much more pride he felt looking in the mirror. In other words, it felt like he had regained control, and this caused him to want to continue to chase that feeling.

Wade was smart enough to build a system that forced himself to do what was best for him, and stuck with it long enough until that activity because his new default behavior.

Depending on where you’re at in your fitness journey, this might sound like a pipe dream. However, I can tell you that there’s one common thread in every one of our success stories – whether it’s single moms or opera-singing IT professionals, they all say the same thing:

“I don’t know how it happened, but somehow…I now actually look forward to exercising.”

Here’s how you can be like Wade.

10 Ways to Make Technology Work For You

I don’t believe technology is inherently good or bad.

It’s a tool that can be used to improve or harm our lives. Oftentimes, a little bit is good, a lot is detrimental.

Inspired by Ready Player One, I wanted to go through some ways I’ve implemented technological hurdles in my life to actually make my life LESS convenient. I’m using it to keep me from devolving too far down rabbit holes of gaming, Netflix, and instead just do the damn things I need to do every day to make my life better.

Here are my favorite examples:

1) I WANT TO EXERCISE MORE AND WATCH LESS NETFLIX:

Although we can’t do EXACTLY what Wade did in Ready Player One, we can emulate it pretty closely. For example, give your spouse/friend/roommate/coworker your login credentials to Netflix/Hulu/whatever. Have them change the password and not tell you.

Only after you do the thing you’ve agreed to do that day (send them a photo of you at the gym) will they give you the password.

2) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO GO TO THE GYM ENOUGH:

Do temptation bundling. Download your favorite audiobook or your favorite shows on Netflix. ONLY allow yourself to watch/listen to these while you’re walking on a treadmill at the gym or exercising.

How to do this? Download the shows to your iPad. Next time you to go to gym, ask the general manager to set the password on your iPad so that he’s the only one that can unlock it. If you want to watch the show, they’ll have to let you in!

3) I WANT TO SPEND LESS TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

I know there’s a big movement to #deleteFacebook right now, but we use Facebook to connect with members of the community and our products and services. But I know everytime I go to Facebook for work reasons, I end up scrolling through my newsfeed for 10-15 min and I get VERY little out of it.

So I use tech to my advantage. In addition to deleting social media off my phone, I turned off my newsfeed. If you use Google Chrome, install newsfeed eradicator. Now my time spent on Facebook is minimal, the distraction is gone, and I can still connect with people when it fits my life. This is what I see when I sign into Facebook:

BORING. I might as well get back to work!

My friend Sol has given his facebook password to his girlfriend and makes sure he isn’t logged in on any of his computers. So he only uses it when it fits into his schedule. There’s no compulsive checking during the day.

4) I CAN’T GET MYSELF TO PLAY FEWER VIDEO GAMES:

Be your own parent! I have installed parental controls on my Nintendo Switch and PS4. It locks the system during certain hours, or I can limit myself to playing only during a certain number of hours. When you’re in the right mindset, install these controls and have somebody else set your passwords so you can’t just turn it off.

Stop relying on willpower – these games are too damn good. I’m currently hooked on Assassin’s Creed: Origins and the struggle is real. I imagine if I even took one hit of Fortnite I’d be mainlining battle royales all the way to rehab by next Tuesday.

5) I WANT TO WAKE UP EARLIER:

Hat tip to my friend Thomas Frank on this one. Schedule a really embarrassing tweet/photo to publish 5 min after you need to wake up, and put your phone across the room. You have to wake up, walk across the room, and stop the scheduled tweet from sending. WAYYYY more effective than an alarm clock you can just snooze!

6) I WANT TO STOP EATING FAST FOOD:

Leave your ATM debit card at home, and only bring a credit card with you to work, preferably one that you share with your spouse. Have them receive an email notification for every time the card is used. And if it is used at a fast food restaurant, they’ll donate $50 you gave them to a cause you hate.

7) I CAN’T GET MY KIDS TO DO THEIR CHORES: 

Be like this awesome mom:

8) I WANT TO MOVE MORE EVERY DAY:

Get yourself a cheap fitbit (I have a Flex 2 and LOVE it for sleep tracking purposes, but also interesting to see my step count). Take somebody you trust, and friend them on Fitbit’s platform. Then, agree to an amount of steps you need to take every day before you can watch TV, play video games, etc. If you don’t reach said steps before you slack off for the day, they will post a super embarrassing photo that you’ve sent them on social media.

9) I WANT TO COOK HEALTHIER MEALS:

Throw all of the junk food out of your house. Instead of using Amazon Prime to just deliver you useless crap you don’t need, have it set to auto-deliver you fresh groceries or meal kits regularly. Use technology and convenience to your advantage and make the most convenient option the healthiest one. Once you eliminate fast food, junk food, and crap you don’t need to buy, you can increase your food budget to compensate for the increased of convenience here.

You can also set up a mission with friends where you have to batch cook your meals on Sunday (how to batch cook here). If you don’t cook your meals on Sunday, no Netflix that week (your friend would have the password), and vice versa. Diabolical. Effective.

10) I LOOK AT MY DAMN PHONE TOO MUCH:

Change your phone to greyscale. Suddenly everything is way less vibrant and fun and the phone starts to lose its appeal. Turn on parental controls on your phone, have somebody else set your parental lock password, and delete all unnecessary apps from your phone – email, social media, YouTube, etc. Tough to get distracted by a device that doesn’t have anything fun to do on it, right?

Instead, have a real life conversation, even with a stranger! Read a damn book!

Maybe Ready Player One! Maybe THIS one 🙂

Or if you’re looking for some free literature to help change your life, you can join The NF Rebellion and download a plethora (I don’t get to use that word enough) of free ebooks as our way of welcoming you to our community!

Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit

The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.

Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.

Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.

I identify as a:

Woman

Man

Use Technology to Change Your Default Behavior

We’re creatures of habit, and products of our environment. If we’re not intentional with our time, our default behavior becomes:

Netflix and ice cream after work instead of hitting the gym.

Gaming late into the night instead of getting quality sleep.

Fast food instead of taking the time to batch-cook our meals for the week.

When we don’t take control, we give that control subconsciously to what’s most convenient. And technology will gladly take that control from you, because every company’s stock price and profit margin depend on it.

These are companies with tens of thousands of employees, scientists, psychologists, and billions of dollars of research at their disposal and their only goal is to get more of your attention/time/focus/money.

Sure, you can lament the fact that you don’t have enough willpower or motivation or whatever to avoid all of these temptations to do the boring, challenging activity that will dramatically improve your life in the long term.

You can EITHER:

Beat yourself up for what you THINK you should be doing but can’t.

Accept that this is reality, and that you need to stop relying on yourself and instead start relying on systems.

I mean this in a good way, but I gave up on myself a long time ago, and it was the best decision I ever made. Because games and social media and TV are too enjoyable! So I don’t even give myself the option to get tempted by this stuff by using technology to my benefit.

So be more like Wade Watts and build systems in your life and use the Matrix to your advantage.

YOUR TURN:

Which tech hack is your favorite for getting you to make healthier decisions daily?

Do you have a strategy that you’ve put in place to level up your own life?

Share them in the comments below and help your fellow nerds out!

And then go read/see Ready Player One 🙂

-Steve

###

photo credit: Profound Whatever 8-bit Basement, jjackowski, Safety Protocols Disabled, JD Hancock Wocka Wocka Wocka!,

Footnotes    ( returns to text)

People who grew up without social media, who had their first interaction with computers be in computer labs at school playing Oregon Trail: The Oregon Trail Generation

Social Media is making us more anxious: study

I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s thoughts in this space in his fantastic book, Deep Work.

Ready Player One: 10 Tech Hacks to Lose Weight and Level Up Your Life published first on https://dietariouspage.tumblr.com/