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Slingbox + exercise = no more couch potato

A few months back, I got an elliptical trainer in order to get some exercise indoors during the cold winters. I found myself barely using it (it's quite boring) until a friend mentioned that he could balance a laptop on the top of his and surf the web. Once I heard that, I knew what I should try on my own elliptical trainer. I could kill two birds with one stone, getting 30-40 minute workouts while also catching up on the previous night's programs on my TiVo.

It's pretty easy to do. As you can see by the picture, I've got an elliptical trainer, a laptop perched on the vertical grips, and I'm running a full-screen slingplayer that's talking to my TiVo downstairs. It helps to enable the 30 second skip, so jumping through commercials only requires 5 or 6 clicks to jump back to the program.

I never seem to have time for late night comedy programs and I don't like taking time out of my workday to sit on the couch watching them, but with this setup, I can get through the previous night's Daily Show and Colbert Report shows in about 35-40 minutes together. It's the best of both worlds: I get my exercise out of the way (sweating) and I get to watch TV (laughing) doing it. When I'm finished, I'm amused and slightly exhausted, but it feels great for the rest of the day.

by Matt Haughey April 11, 2007 in Hacks

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