Modern Metrix

Gmail Meter Helps You Analyze Your Gmail Usage

Just as I started looking for better ways to measure my Gmail usage, Gmail labs rolled out the Gmail Meter script! Among the statistics, provided on a monthly basis and summarized via nice charts, are volume, traffic patterns and time analysis, length of messages and conversations, and even how long does it take for you to respond to e-mails. Check it out!

Supermarkets Introduce Scoring Systems for Food Products

It looks like more supermarkets and grocery stores chains start using the nutritional content scoring systems for food products, aparently, following the lead of Whole Foods (WH has been using their own ANDI scores for awhile now):

"A growing number of grocers are signing up to have the foods they sell evaluated and ranked for nutritional content at a time when government officials are studying whether more regulations are needed on packaging.

Two of the largest companies, NuVal and Guiding Stars, license their scoring systems to more than 3,000 grocery stores nationwide, according to officials at the companies.

The scoring systems have some differences. Guiding Stars uses a system of three stars to signify which foods are healthiest. Three stars is the best ranking. NuVal uses a 100-point system: The higher the score, the better the nutritional content."

While I agree that a single-scale scoring approach has obivous advantage compared to looking at calories/ carbs/protein/fat content separately, I am somewhat cautios about how these scales are normalized and validated. If the scale is normalized using a regular 2,000-calories daily requirements, and I am a fan of a low-fat low-carb high-protein diet (that is, my protein intake is higher and fat/carbs intake is lower than recommended by 2,000-calories diet), then this metric won't work well for me. The same would be true for follower of other kinds of specialized diets (e.g., Atkins).

The Rise of Self-Tracking Reports

It looks like life-logging is becoming more popular . I myself have been looking lately into various tools for collecting lifestyle, biometric, psychographic, and sociometric data points on a daily basis, and soon will start posting reviews of some of these tools on my blog. Not sure if I will ever be ready to release the summary reports, though...