My Homepage Has a Pulse

6 hours ago

The author added a beating heart widget to their homepage that displays their actual heart rate (e.g., 48 bpm) from their Garmin Descent Mk3i dive watch, with the heart pulsing at that frequency.
The widget replays yesterday's heart rate data (not live) due to limitations: the watch syncs data in batches, and the static site cannot host a real-time feed. Data is fetched daily via a Python script using the unofficial python-garminconnect library.
Key technical details: OAuth tokens are used for authentication (refreshed yearly), timezone handling ensures accurate 'yesterday' data, and client-side JavaScript interpolates between 2-minute samples to create a smooth, real-time-like display.
Interpolation includes safeguards: gaps longer than 20 minutes (e.g., when the watch is off) hide the widget to avoid showing fabricated data, and midnight wraparound prevents data loss.
The heartbeat animation uses CSS keyframes to mimic a systolic/diastolic cycle, scaling based on the BPM, and respects user motion preferences. The system has no ongoing costs or battery impact on the watch.

Hasty Briefsbeta