Walking around and painting the town

[pmbug]

There is a DePIN app ("Silencio") you can install on your phone that rewards you with NOISE tokens for recording ambient noise levels (decibels) as you walk/travel around.

This project is still fairly new and the NOISE token is not yet on crypto exchanges. The roadmap says an airdrop will be forthcoming for early adopters.

A few points I've gleaned from some cursory investigation:

• You have to initiate recording sessions manually and each session can be a max of 30 minutes.
• It doesn't work if you are moving faster than 12km/hr or so (while moving in a vehicle).
• It doesn't work if you enable developer mode on your phone.
• You need an active internet connection for it to work (better have unlimited minutes phone plan to use outside of WiFi zones)

This is my referral info if you want to check it out:

Hi there! Join the world's biggest noise mapping network.

Take the first step to fighting Noise Pollution while earning Noise Coins!

Download the app:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/silencionework/id6444363412
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quickkonnect.silencio

Use my username "pmbug" as your invitation code when signing up.

 

[pmbug]

A short video about Silencio:

 

[pmbug]

There is a DePIN app ("Silencio") you can install on your phone that rewards you with NOISE tokens for recording ambient noise levels (decibels) as you walk/travel around.
...

I have been using this app a bit since I last posted about it. I don't know if the developers are going to be successful in monetizing their data (and thus providing value to the NOISE tokens), but irrespective of whether or not the NOISE tokens ever achieve any material value, the app itself is kind of fun and motivating to get me off my duff and walk around a lot more.

The app includes a section that shows a map of your area (like google maps) overlaid with a grid of hexagons. Any hexagons that have had sound levels measured in will show as colored in (representing the sound levels measured). You earn more NOISE tokens for measuring sound in new hexagons, so the system encourages you to walk around new paths/areas. In a sense, you get to "paint the town" by walking while recording sound levels.

One thing I did notice is that the app can have trouble when transitioning from 4G to WiFi hotspot and back. It's best when walking around to stop the measurement every 10 minutes or so and then start a new one rather than try and record a full 30 minutes at a time. I've had the app mysteriously close while the phone screen was off and I had walked for 20 minutes or so. That was aggravating. Now that I stop every 10 minutes or so, I haven't had any problem.

If you have an unlimited cell phone data plan and either walk a lot or want to start walking more, I'd encourage you to give this app a go. It's kind of fun and motivating and there is a potential for it to return some value for your time. If you do decide to install the app and try it out, please do use my "pmbug" invitation code:

Download the app:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/silencionework/id6444363412
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quickkonnect.silencio

Use my username "pmbug" as your invitation code when signing up.

 

[pmbug]

I have been using this app a bit since I last posted about it. I don't know if the developers are going to be successful in monetizing their data (and thus providing value to the NOISE tokens), but irrespective of whether or not the NOISE tokens ever achieve any material value, the app itself is kind of fun and motivating to get me off my duff and walk around a lot more.
...

 

[searcher]

I would have signed up, but I only use a flip phone.

 

[pmbug]

There is a DePIN app ("Silencio") you can install on your phone that rewards you with NOISE tokens for recording ambient noise levels (decibels) as you walk/travel around. ...

We know you’ve been asking “Wen TGE?” “Wen airdrop?” “Wen updates?” and we hear you loud and clear. It’s time for an update on where we’ve been, where we’re heading, and how you can get the most out of being part of the Silencio community. Today, we’re here to spill the alpha and outline the exciting path ahead.

In this article, we’ll break down our journey so far, give you the inside scoop on the 5% beta airdrop (which is just starting!), introduce the new features in our latest app update, unveil our brand-new website, our upgraded referral program and last but most certainly not least, the plans for the TGE!. So grab your coffee, sit tight, and let’s dive in!
...

TGE = token generation event

 

[Someone_else]

What is the business or social value to recording noise levels? How will that data be useful?

 

[pmbug]

What is the business or social value to recording noise levels? How will that data be useful?

A1:

Noise and Health

Noise pollution is more than a nuisance. It's a health risk.

magazine.hms.harvard.edu

A2:

Unlock Global Noise Data for Your Business with Silencio

Access comprehensive noise data with Silencio. Enhance your decision-making with global and hyper-local insights. See how Silencio can benefit your business today!

www.silencio.network

 

[Casey Jones]

I would expect, correlating ambient noise to various health aspects - mental health, physical issues, loss of hearing.

One railroad job I worked for 18 months, had me in a switch locomotive made in 1959, that generated INCREDIBLE noise. I used two layers of ear protection, plugs and then shooters' muffs, and still it bothered me. My days were 12 hours long in that noise.

I'd say the background noise information is useful.

 

[searcher]

Noise pollution is a big deal. Around me you can hear traffic noise a lot. In the city there's all kind of noise. Does get on your nerves and isn't too good for your mental & physical health.

Looking for a new place to live? A place for a nice quiet meal? Somewhere to get away for a week? Forewarned is forearmed.

Getting rewarded for simply providing noise levels around you seems like a winner to me.

 

[pmbug]

Walked another old road I've never traveled before this morning. Like most old roads in my town, This road has no curb, no shoulder and no street lights. The edge of the pavement immediately slopes into a culvert. On one side of this particular street there are typical subdivision neighborhoods. On the other side were huge custom homes set way back off the street on 10-15 acre lots. Some of these lots have some wild woods hiding the homes from the street.

This morning I was reminded of when I was young. There was no internet, cell phones, or video games. As kids, we wandered around outside and found things to entertain ourselves. There were a lot more undeveloped tracts of wild forest back then too and I used to wander around in them. I had the more or less typical young boy fascination with small critters like lizards, frogs and snakes - happy to catch any I found in my wanderings. Part of that fascination was learning about the four types of venomous snakes in Texas. Around the coast where I grew up, there were really only two that were common to see - the cotton mouth/water moccasin and the copperhead. And I saw my fair share of cotton mouth snakes and to a much lesser degree copperheads. While I was a dumb kid, I was smart enough to avoid dancing with them. Supposedly, there are also coral snakes around these parts, but they are reclusive and reportedly very rare to see (I never saw any as a kid). Even so, I still learned the handy rhyme that helps folks distinguish between the coral snake and the king snake:

"Red on Yellow kills a fellow.

Red on Black [venom lacks | friend of Jack]"

So as I was walking back on the wild woods side of the street this morning, I found this roadkill:

 

[pmbug]

Some neighbors decorating their properties and getting into the Halloween spirit (pics taken while walking around this morning):

 

[CiscoKid]

I live an hour from DC on 45 secluded acres. No traffic noise to speak of but sitting out on my deck at night can be distracting because of all the crickets, peepers, and bull frogs. There have been times when the cacophony was so bad I went inside to get away from it. Noise pollution is noise pollution.

 

[pmbug]

 

[pmbug]

Silencio rolled out v2 of their app yesterday. This morning I used it quite a bit on my morning walk. They totally revamped the UI for the app and as someone used to the old app, it took a bit of experimenting to figure out how to navigate the new system. I've compiled a few thoughts about the new app:

The Good

• The live map display while recording works great and is very helpful for capturing hexes that I missed in previous sessions. This is the best enhancement in the new app IMO.
• The display of the timer is now presented in high contrast black letters with a larger font and its much easier for me to read without a pair of reading glasses. This might not matter to you younger folks whose near/reading vision is still sharp, but in my case, this is a huge quality of life issue.
• They expanded the number of "quests" (now called achievements) that you can earn. It's a small thing, but it's nice to be rewarded for achieving occasional milestones.
• They got rid of that sometimes frustrating "pick one of three multiplier rewards" system when finishing/claiming a recording session. They now have a "Vegas one armed bandit slot machine style scrolling wheel". I see that the wheel includes a 100x multiplier in it (which I missed by one tick once).

The Bad

• On my phone, the display of the overlay with the decibel levels clips into the "your current position" marker on the map so I can't see hexes behind me at all or to the sides (partially clipped). They need to allow us to minimize that overlay to make the live map easier to use when you are going for unclaimed hexes in an area you've previously traversed.
• If you want to apply a bonus multiplier to your earned coins from a recording session now, you have to watch an ad first. I suppose this could be a good thing in the long run for the health of the Silencio project, but it is annoying for someone that is trying to maximize their recording time and phone battery life. I chose to watch ads several times and so far have seen a couple very short (~5s) ads for Kraken and a few longer ads (~15s) for "CTsomethingorother".

The Ugly

• I don't know if it's the app or my phone, but I'm unable to record a venue check-in presently. When I select that option and then select the nearby venue, the app shows a screen with recording info (decibels, record time) and then freezes. It doesn't record anything. If I click to abort the session, I get a confirmation pop-up that has two options to cancel the abort, but no option to confirm the abort. I have to close the app completely and restart to reset to the main screen.
• I thought this app was running more stable than the previous app. I successfully recorded several sessions >20min each. But on my way home, I had a recording that was running on 17min. When I checked it again a minute or so later, the app had crashed and I lost the recording. I had to restart the app several times as it would not start a new recording session - just gave me "something went wrong" error messages over and over - until it finally started working again.

 

[pmbug]

I've shared a few stories from my walking experiences but I don't think that I shared that for the last couple of months, I've been dealing with some herniated discs in my lower neck/upper back area with a large pain center in my upper back between my left side shoulder blade and spine. I get transient issues with nerve tingling and numbness all up and down my left arm from my shoulder to my finger tips. When the issue first flared up, it was pretty excruciating to the point that I could not lay flat on my bed and get a good night's sleep. I was sleeping on my recliner/sofa with a pillow under my lower back. It was not comfortable and I was only getting sleep in 2-3 hour pops. This is part of the reason that I started going for walks at dark thirty in the morning. Something about walking helped my posture and the swinging arm motion from my stride was like a gentle stretch on the muscles in the back that were so inflamed. It would take a few minutes after I started a walk, but while I was in constant motion was about the only time that I was pain free (without taking any pain killer drugs which I eschew - I'm one of those people that do not like taking any drugs).

When the issue first flared up, I knew right away that it was a herniated disc. I've had one in my lower back 10 years ago and I will never forget what it was like. I first saw my chiro who gave me a couple of adjustments that loosed up the muscles in the neck dramatically, but did not resolve the pain. Next I saw my GP who took X-Rays which didn't show anything. I had to follow up with her to insist on an MRI. Laying still for 20 minutes without moving for MRI was a hellish experience, but I managed to do it. Of course, the MRI showed herniated discs. Duh! GP wanted to refer me for surgery, but I told her I wanted to try corticosteroid shot first as that cured the issue with my lower back 10 years ago. So she referred me to pain management center, but earliest appointment was 1 month out. At this time, I had already been dealing with shitty sleep and constant, unrelenting pain every waking moment (that I wasn't walking) for a little over a month. Apparently the pain mgmt people are hella busy because there was no way to expedite my appointment.

I finally get to see the pain mgmt doc in September and his intern sees me first and does all the work in getting my history and running through their diagnostic procedures. He tells me that most likely they won't be able to schedule me for the corticosteroid steroid shot until after I've done physical therapy (insurance generally doesn't pay for the shot otherwise). I could rage a bit on the whole insanity of the insurance company dictating medical care in this case, but I won't. The doc walks in and I'm a bit shocked. Young guy (maybe early 30s) looks like he just arrived at the hospital from a photo shoot at GQ. He's impeccably manicured and wearing some expensive boots and bling (wristwatch, rings, etc). He literally spends less than 5 minutes in the room with me. He just says, we'll schedule the shot and physical therapy together. Then he walks out the door. Intern asks me if I want to schedule the shot with sedation or not. I ask him what's the difference? He says the last patient he had just seen that scheduled a shot with sedation got the earliest slot in January next year. He said if you schedule without sedation, there are more slots available (don't have to coordinate with sedation peeps) and I would likely get an earlier appointment (maybe in December he guessed). We head out to see the ladies at the desk that schedule appointments and I see the pain doc down the hall with his briefcase in hand leaving the building as he's apparently done for the day. I guess this explains why they are so hella backed up on the scheduling - doc only works 2-3 hours a day it seems. Anyway, they were able to schedule me, without sedation, for Nov 1. Intern was genuinely shocked that got the appointment "that early".

I went 3 times so far for physical therapy and we've been working on some stretches and gentle motions for my neck, shoulders and back and it's been very helpful. Shortly after my first visit, I felt good enough to start sleeping in my bed again and I started getting sleep in 6-7 hour blocks again. The nerve issues in the left arm became much less frequent and the constant pain in my back actually dwindled to unnoticeable unless I moved my left arm too far in the wrong direction (and wrong direction was never consistent - I'd know when I got shooting pain). I thought maybe I didn't need the shot any more and gave consideration to cancelling the appointment.

But then it started raining. Literally, after over a month of no rain and drought conditions, it started raining 3 days ago. I didn't go on my walks. The constant pain in my back started ticking back up. The nerve issues in the left arm started occurring more frequently. The physical therapy I've been doing has helped, but I think the walking that I've been doing with Silencio has made an even bigger difference.

Anyway, I did go for the shot yesterday and managed to get a walk in this morning. My left shoulder/back feels super stiff and tender right now. I feel like I just need to follow that quintessential coaches' advice and just "walk it off".

 

[pmbug]

The Silencio Network community has been growing at an unprecedented pace, and in recognition of our incredible user engagement, the BlockSound Foundation, which is in charge of the $SLC supply, is increasing the airdrop allocation from 5% to 7.5% of the total $SLC supply. ... While the core structure of leagues and bonuses remains the same, this boost expands the Diamond Hands Bonus pool, allowing even more of our top contributors to benefit.
...
One of the biggest changes is the adjustment in the Diamond Hand Bonus. Previously, this bonus was allocated only to the top 5,000 Silencians. Now, with the increased airdrop, we’re expanding the Diamond Hand Bonus to include a broader range of participants, giving more users the chance to benefit from this substantial reward.

The updated Diamond Hand Bonus will now be distributed as follows:

...

Silencio pushed out an update for the app and it's showing updated estimates for the $SLC beta airdrop. My estimate increased substantially.