The first contact you havewith any product is the packaging so this is always a decisive moment. Unlike those USB sticks you need a tomahawk warhead to open, the Fitbit is a breeze to get to.

The charger is elegant, the Fitbit pops right on and it will sync your data to the cloud whenever you’re in earshot of it. The armband you get for wearing it in the bed (it measures your sleep patterns) is super-comfortable, I had no trouble getting used to sleeping with it.

The thing that changes Fitbit from a fun gizmo to an actual useful tool is the amazing web app they’ve built. It records your device’s data but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. It is made in an extremely modular way so you can track anything you’d like. It already has tabs for tracking your weight, body fat, heart rate, glucose and so on, but you can add any other custom item into it, graphs and stats will be created for you. I get headaches quite often and I’m convinced it correlates with air pressure zones. With Fitbit I can log my headaches on a scale and see if I’m correct. If I’m not I can take a look if it has anything to do with my activity level, diet (I track my calorie intake) or any other activity.

Calorie tracking is also done in a very thought out way. Start typing in your food and select the closest match. Didn’t find what you were looking for? Just add it to your list. You can also add brands which makes it very easy to manage you stuff. You can also assemble meals out of specific foods so if you make lemon pie every week just create it once from the elements you need and then input “Lemon Pie” to track your intake.

Activities are also done with the same modularity in mind. Normally all your activities are tracked but in some cases this won’t be accurate. If you’re rowing or doing yoga or something you don’t move around all that much necessarily but you do burn calories. Simply choose a pre-made activity or enter the thing manually. I do EA Sports Active 2 exercises a lot where I get an exact measurement of my calorie burn which I can easily input into the system.

For me this modularity is what really makes Fitbit useful. I always stop using methods and gizmos because they aren’t all encompassing and I feel that if things are left out then I’m not getting a full picture. With Fitbit 99% of this is alleviated, giving me all the data I want to shift through and a great way to loose weight.

However I do not understand the attitude toward these people. There is a couple in our local park who set up a tent between some bushes. I’ve heard about them before. The guy is apparently a nice person, clean and polite. As I was walking the dog today I met him, he started chatting to me and was indeed all those things.

He told me that someone called the police on them so they were fined $50 (which is about 10% of the minimum wage) and have to go away. I find this disgusting on so many levels.

First of all, had I pitched the tent no one would ever have called the police. Even if they had, I’d just say: “Hey, I live in that building, I’m just having some fun” and we’d have a laugh and they’d leave me alone. If the police were especially strict they would shoo me away, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be fined. Where’s the logic there?

Secondly, why do people feel the need to chase them away? They weren’t bothering anyone apart from the visual clash of the tent and the trees (which is a capital offense of course). The guy wasn’t a rambling drunkard who may or may not vomit on you at 10pm. They were just trying to lay low, get away from the cold.

Where does anyone who has a roof over their head gather the courage to do something like that? I was raised in various countries living a luxurious life and I can understand homeless people better and feel more empathy than those who are close to becoming homeless themselves.

I think the attitude of the person who called the police sums up all that is wrong with humanity. The sad thing is that this person is following rules and laws (although so were SS soldiers). There should be a court which deals with immoral and unethical – but lawful – behavior. It should be possible to put people on trial for behaving the way they do.

And of course this wonderful person will sleep better tomorrow night. Well done.

Budapest is a nice place to visit, it has a wonderful riverside view and many mountaintop lookouts. We live extremely close to Gellert Mountain and the Castle so we frequently take walks with Bodza and sometimes end up taking some pics. Here are just some, take a look at the full album on Google Plus.