My work time is almost all at the computer.  I've noticed that if I spend all day sitting and working at a computer, I wind up feeling lethargic with strange aches and pains.  Not only am I not making any fitness progress, but I actually feel like sitting is causing damage.

After hearing many experts say that sitting for a long time is bad, I decided I should look at a stand-up desk.  As I researched the stand-up desk, I came across information about treadmill desks, and decided that was even more interesting.  If I wound up not liking walking while computing, I could always just stand at the treadmill desk.

Well, it turns out that walking is way better than standing.  When I stand and compute for long I find that I slouch, lean on things, and generally think about the fact that I am standing.  When I walk and compute I forget I am walking.  My body is busy and walking keeps it in a good posture without thinking about it.

I generally walk at 2.0 mph.  I have no problem with typing, programming, and other computer stuff.  Even the fairly intensive mouse operations of LabVIEW programming are no problem.  It is difficult to write on a piece of paper on the desk while walking, but I don't do much of that.

Things slow down a bit at LabJack around Christmas, so I took the time then to research and build my treadmill desk.  I looked at $1500 motorized desks that move up and down, a $550 TrekDesk treadmill desk from Amazon, and various homemade options at instructables.com.  The motorized desk was too expensive and still needed something to get a monitor up at the proper height.  The TrekDesk had some reviews saying it wiggled and still needed something to get a monitor up at the proper height.  Once I saw some of the things people had done at instructables.com, I realized the key was separating the base from the rest of the treadmill, and building a setup with that in mind.  I wound up using cheap and simple track shelving from Home Depot.  It is very sturdy and lets me put everything at the perfect height.

I bought a 1 year old ...

Single-speed mountain bikes are a fun and challenging change from normal geared bikes, but the lack of gears is really frustrating on flats. Going uphill is hard as expected, and going downhill you can coast fast, but on the flats you spin your pedals and go nowhere.

I decided to add an internally geared 3-speed hub to my single-speed. I thought I might be able to keep the clean, quiet, and solid feel of the single-speed, but get a bigger gear for the flats.

I started with a 2007 Redline Monocog Flight 29er single-speed. This cost around $800 and was purchased in early 2008.  It came with a 32 tooth chainring and 20 tooth rear cog for a 1.60 gear ratio.  That 32x20 gearing with the 29" wheels is probably similar to 32x22 on a 26" bike.  The photo on the right below shows the original rear wheel.

The hub I chose for this bike is the Shimano Nexus Inter-3 for $125.  This has an overall gear range of 186% and a stated weight of 945 grams (2.1 pounds).  A normal good rear mountain bike hub weighs 300-350 grams, so the Inter-3 adds at least 600 grams (1.3 pounds).  This hub works with disk brakes.

The hub does not include ...

We are pleased to announce that the LabJack U3 is now supported in FlowStone.

FlowStone is a graphical programming language similar to LabView, but quite simple to use. Developed by DSP Robotics, it has a ready-made module for the U3, and many other devices such as Phidgets, credit card scanners, cameras, and video game console controllers.

The full list of compatible hardware for Flowstone can be found here: http://www.dsprobotics.com/hardware.html