Tag: nottingham

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Digital Fitness

As you may have seen from my Insta posts. After a few weeks of traveling, I’m back into a regular routine with the local gym.

Now, whilst I’m used to the hard weights, machines, benches, etc… I came across an innovative machine where you can train.

Take Tonal..

Now, I used to train at cyril’s Gym in Cinderhill, Nottingham when I was growing up…

It was a lovely gym! – The main guy, Cyril, was a man of few words but had everything you needed in the gym for a good workout!

Now… times have moved on – from the gyms with concrete floors, a load of barbels and dumbbells, with lots of free weights.

There’s carpets, nice music, TV on each running machine, etc… and that’s fine. But sometimes, I prefer the old skool gyms…

Anyhow… it looks like all this could be potentially replaced!

As mentioned – Tonal, is a screen, a gym, a personal trainer…. all in one.

Here you go. Digital Fitness – Digital Weights.

Basically, it’s using magnetic force instead of the traditional gravitational force.

You know gravity, right? – Newton… apple…head….. well, we’ve moved on. And it’s all about magnetic forces!!

Is it as good as the traditional? – I can’t comment, but the word on the street is, in a blindfolded test… most couldn’t tell the difference.

Bal… I like my bench and various handles, will this TV screen do that?

Well… it’s not just a TV screen (though that is the main feature… because you’re personal trainer will pop up on it)… but yes.

You can have all the other ‘bits’ to make it a ‘real’ gym.

Now you’re probably thinking… this is great, but how much is it going to cost me.

Yes… as it’s new. As it’s a big screen. As it’s digital. It’s not going to be cheap. In fact, it’s $2,995! – or you could subscription for $200/mo.

Living outside the San Fran area… you might struggle, as the installation is only happining in that area – for the moment.

Matter of time before you see it in your local gym? – I guess so.

In fact… will you need to go to the gym? Is this the 1980’s all over again?…. (obviously not… because it’s Digital!)

 

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Bal and Friends at NTU…

Last week was a crazy week! – Firstly, I was in Barcelona for meetings on Monday morning… (thanks to the lovely taxi driver who got me to the office on time!)

Oh… if you’d like to follow my personal journies including lots of travel & food photos, pop over to my instagram account – @mrbalbansal

So that was Monday. Then I came back, and was at the NTU… with a few friends.

That’s right – my friend Shane Matthews (inventor of the Nerf Gun) was over from Atlanta, GA. He was here to give a talk at the Nottingham Trent University… but first, we went to meet the Sheriff of Nottingham.

In the photo above, we have the Sheriff of Nottingham in the middle, Shane and myself, and the Sheriff’s security. We went to Nottingham Castle, had a little look around, posed for some photo’s, gave an interview to Notts TV and Shane signed a few nerf guns.

The main event was Shane talking at the NTU (Nottingham Trent University)… at their Ignite Innovation conference…

They also, kindly let me say a few words…

We also had my friend Leigh, who worked for CIMAGINE, a startup that was sold to SnapChat for $40m…. he shared his views and thoughts on AR…

And then Shane was up… he was brilliant. The audience in the lecture theatre absolutely loved it!

One thing I loved about his talk was the ‘happiness line’. I’ll have to share it with you in another blog post…

So all in all, great event at the NTU. This university is definitely doing the right things for the local community.

And thank you to the love that was shown by folks in the audience..

Then the remainder of the week I was in London, meetings… and a quick attendance for the London Tech Week.

Well, what a busy week… why am I sharing this, because if you have the opportunity to attend local meetings, conferences where they have some interesting people… do so! You can learn so much.

So many folk at the end, were coming up to Shane, asking all sorts of questions… it was great to see that they were motivated and more importantly, had learnt something that they could use in their business or organisation.

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Sharing my thoughts at NTU…

I used to talk at many conferences… but I’ll be totally honest, I don’t have much time now. Hence why I tend to share a lot of my thoughts on this blog.

However, I’ve been tempted to come and talk with some friends at the Nottingham Trent University on Wednesday 13th June.

That’s right – I did say friends… A good friend of mine, Shane Matthews will be flying in from the States.

For those wondering who Shane Matthews is… well, a) he’s a good friend of mine who resides in Atlanta, GA… b) invented the Nerf Gun and c) has a lab at Georgia Tech where he’s always working on something quite unreal!

Yep… point b), he co-founded/invented the nerf gun!! – It was many many moons ago… he had a few ideas… went through a few iterations… and if I carry on telling the story, I’ll spoil it for those coming to hear him.

Along with Shane, is another friend of mine, Leigh. Leigh Davidson didn’t invent anything… however, he’s one of the most knowledgeable guys around who knows everything there is about Augmented Reality.

So much so… he used to work for an AR startup, which got sold for $40m!!!

He’s a busy chap, but taking time out of this diary to come and talk to folk about AR and his experience.

There’ll also be Andrea, who works for Fujitsu… sharing her thoughts on Account based marketing – as she knows a thing or two about marketing!

So… looks like to be a fabulous event! – I believe there’s a few tickets & spaces remaining… interested in coming? – then register yourself and either  drive up the M1… fly into East Midlands… catch the train to Nottingham… and immerse yourself into what will truly be… a wonderful afternoon.

Oh, here’s a link to the event – https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/events/events/2018/06/ignite-your-innovation go on… ignite, your innovation!

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Heated Seats… what a luxury!

This morning, I had the opportunity to review some of the latest news stories from over the past few days on BBC Radio Nottingham.

One of the news stories were about ‘autonomous vehicles’, and how they’ll be introduced in a few years benefiting disabled and the elderly.

Firstly, this time-line is tooooo soon. Yes – we have much of the technology available in the Tesla cars, and some other manufacturers are testing, but I feel, it won’t be that easy with the small, winding, countryside roads we have here in the UK. On long motorways, yes – great idea.

Then there was a story about the iPhone X… and how I referred to my recent blog post, if you should buy one of not… (I’m still leaning to the BMW 328 with beige interior). And reading a recent article, there was a great argument over why you should stick with your iPhone 6S… i’ll have to find it and share it with you. Yes the latest phones are quicker, and have better cameras, and a lot more tech packed into them, but are you really going to use Augmented Reality on a daily basis? – no, didn’t think so.

But then… if you’re taking alot of photo’s for your Instagram account, then good idea to upgrade, but saying that, photo’s on the iPhone 6S aren’t too bad… (@mrbalbansal on Instagram).

There were a few other stories, but we touched on the one (not so tech related), about some of the recent inappropriate behavior that’s been taking place in Westminster… people touching people which is unacceptable. I’m in total agreement, that there’s boundaries and lines you do not cross. I also believe you should state it very clearly if you a) do not agree with certain behaviors and actions and b) if someone has acted in-appropriately, you let them know immediately and if it carries on, inform someone who can ensure the corrective action is taken.

But with all these stories coming out, we spoke about… when do you know it’s okay to hug… or do you just give a handshake? –

Do men think twice now, before hugging or putting their arm around someone? – what if a lady acts inappropriately to a young male… and why haven’t we heard of those stories?

Well… I could’ve shared more detail and the other stories, but I think it’s only fair that you go visit BBC Radio Nottingham, and find Mark’s morning show for the 6th October and have a listen… hope you enjoy it!

Oh… but what about the heated seats Bal? – ah yes.. the heated seats…. well, you’ll just have to listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05k34w7