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So, Android, on a tablet. Mrr.

Perhaps a bit of background first. My mum after 20 years of begging, pleading and coaxing finally found ‘a use’ for the computer. She’s not into the internet, gaming is not her thing, she doesn’t do her stuff on twitter, she’s not posting to flickr. No, she’s learning French.

Ironically, for one so opposed to the skill of ‘using a computer’ my mum has an insatiable desire to learn, and in her retirement, she’s decided to unleash her brain on French. All cool. Her course pointed her at some online resources and the computer she got me to sort for her a few years ago* started to actually get used.

She’s got to the stage where she can reasonably get along with OS X. YAY! Only no. Because she has arthritis, and it turns out, using the mouse is double-plus painful. So I thought ‘ahhh, iPad’. Only 300 quidlings is a lot of money for my mum.

After some consideration I thought, well, why don’t I get a cheap Android tablet and see if she gets on okay with that. It might work for her, and if not, I’ll cope with having more tech around the house :)

My first impressions of the SuperPad II were pretty good, it’s not exactly fast, but it’s acceptable. It’s got a fair-but-definately-not-great screen. The build quality’s about what you’d expect, but from a distance it looks respectableish. Indeed if you put it in a line with the Apple stuff in dim light it kinda looks like a slightly stretched iPad.

It’s based around an ARM 6x series processor, so it’s not exactly storming along, but for a bit of webbrowsing, the odd bit of Flash (the main plus point afaic is the presence of Flash, alledgedly) it should be okay, I reckoned. And Android. It’s not based around some back-street-China operating system (like my old niPod, which was frankly, unusable). It’s a real, supported OS….err, yeah. More on that in a sec.

So, out of the box, plugged in and fired it up. Makes an Android plunk (having briefly displayed the cute Linux penguin) and, up came a fairly nice looking screen. Yeah, the quality as I said isn’t vaguely near that of the iPad/iPad II or probably any of the posher Android tablets, but it’s okay. The resistive touch screen took some getting used to, and then I remembered my old iPaq. Tilting my finger so as my nail became the pointer made things much better.

I’ve not used Android before so it took a while before I got used to the navigation on it, and yeah, I’m used to the Apple way, so I’m not going to say I’m converted, but it’s fine. What I totally didn’t expect was encountering ‘unsupported device’. I suppose this comes from me being a naive, but I assumed that if you had an Android app, and it required say a mic, a camera, and a screen that, well, any Android based machine would run it.

It seems this is not the case; hell, some apps even have it down on a per-specific-item basis.

Surely that’s insanity.

I suppose I’ve been spoilt, pretty much everything in OS X will run on a G3 up to an IntelMac. Just more slowly. I get the ‘you don’t have a new enough OS’. That I’d be more inclined to happily deal with. So my tablet’s running Android 2.2 and you need 2.3. Fine. Okay.

But I don’t get the device incompatibility. I could get ‘Your processor isn’t fast enough to run this’, as an error. But just ‘no you can’t, because yours is off-brand’.

Apart from that, Flash is poor and tends to crash it. Opera on it, however, is quite nice (no Flash though). And for some reason, the Youtube app won’t install either – despite it being advertised with it :-/

Ah well. We’ll see if my mum can use it, if not, then never mind it’s a handy little tablet for the odd bit of light browsing. Certainly don’t begrudge it it’s cost.

* It’s a Hackintosh with no sound, because I couldn’t make the sound keep working.

My mum’s arthritis is making the whole clicky mouse job on the computer a bit of a pain. Literally. In fact, having finally managed to find a use for the computer (she’s learning French), she now can’t actually use it because it hurts too much.

I was thinking iPad, but 300 spondoolics is quite a lot of spondoolics for her. However, I’ve seen cheaper Android based tablet computers (specifically the SuperPad 2 AKA Flytouch 3) and that would probably be ‘good enough’ for her needs.

Also, they handle flash, alledgedly.

Anyone got any experience with the beasties?

So, near to us is Bristols Wood Recycling Project from where we endeavour to obtain lots of wood. It’s not really a hardship as it is, for the most part, incredibly cheap. And we like using reclaimed timber. They have some lovely cupboard doors in at the moment, from a science lab. Sadly not enough to make a kitchen.

They also will cut and plane wood for you, although they don’t make any furniture…yet. Although that’s apparently something they’re working on. Anyhow, we wanted a bench for the kitchen, as I might have mentioned. I incorrectly referred to it as glulam, it’s actually laminated strand board. Now, we have, sort-of got the facilities to cut this. Namely, we have a saw. However a big chunk of timber like this, well, it’s going to take a while to cut and cutting it straight would tax my feeble timber skills. Especially given the absence of a workbench, or anything like that.

Anyhow, they cut it down for us. We, however, get the joy of sanding it so I suspect what we’ve saved in buying it as reclaimed timber may well get used as sand-paper purchase funds.

But, having lugged it out of the minor, I couldn’t wait to get a feel for how it’ll look. It’ll be going in the alcove where the kitchen currently is… but the fridge is there at the moment, and also, we’ll be having lots of work done in there. So instead, I stuck it against one of the few completely finished walls (apart from the bonding/filling) in the lounge:

While I like the finish you get on the top:

It’s the edges I really get quite excited about:

Also, the end grain. But we’ve not got any bits that are end-grain-y yet. We’d like to make it U shaped, and may well go and buy a bit extra to do so. But we were a bit…well..a bit too nervous to go ahead and buy that much in one go.

I’m given to understand that it will suck up whatever we use to finish it (I’m guessing varnish, so as to quietly fill in the gaps a bit). But ooooh. I’m quite excited to see it now :)

Also, I got my hair cropped. For the first time I tried the clippers – in a unisex barber. It’s weird going to a barber. I’m so used to being gently mollycoddled and my little Indian head massages. Today I got my hair cut, and for the first time in my life someone used a straight razor on me. I’ve never been so still in all my life. A little bit of my brain was screaming: “It’s a knife. On my skin!”. The advantage of this was it only cost a tenner, and my hair looks largely the same as it did after the (half price at) 20 quid hair cut I got last time. And it makes me think, hey, I could use the clippers that we bought, when we uncover them from the storage unit. I mean, I thought we could, but we actually *could*.

Also, I found an espresso machine in Bedminster’s BHF Charity shop… for a fiver. Discounted from ten quid. My mum’s been wanting one for a while, and I’ve wanted one too. I’m going to ‘test’ it until we can take it down to my mums. Yes, it’s probably 2 bar or somesuch. It’s a Russell Hobbs 3335′ thing from the late…80s? It’s got that white plastic and colours thing going…and I remember my parents having one very similar in the early 90s.

While it’s got a couple of bits of dirt on it from age, it actually looks essentially unused. The filter basket looks brand new and peering into the water tank it looks nice and clean. Optimistically, then, I paid a fiver and hopefully will be running it down to my mum’s in a while.

I’m looking forward to buying a nice tamping gidget and a stainless steel pitcher (and thermometer, since I’ve not done this before) when I get my coffee tomorrow.

So, we have a pseudo-date for the builders, after a false start we’re off again with ‘next week’. It’s been next week for three weeks, but the builders realised that in discussions we’d not really considered the fact that the windowsill in the kitchen was, well, just below the level of the worksurface. Level with I could have handled, but just below is not really great. Fortunately, they thought of this before ordering the window.

So they came back, re-measured, and have now ordered a window. The day before it comes they’re intending to come in and whip the wall up, and the other wall down, ready to put it in. Then the beam comes…and the scary bit of the other wall coming down is go.

I have to say I have awesome respect for wibble who appears to cope much better with the much, much larger building project she’s involved in. I suppose it’s a bit different when you’re only going to be in the place for a few years at most. Anyway, the frustration’s not been good – and it’s not aided at the moment at my general frustration. Specsavers have been spectacularly crap, their ‘urgent’ order is supposedly going to arrive on Sunday, a mere 3 weeks after it was placed.

I’m dubious as to the likelyhood of it arriving on Sunday, and yet again get the delight of wearing my contacts for nearly 24 hours on Saturday when I switch to nights, because they’ve failed to actually deliver any of their promises. Thankfully I ordered a month’s worth of contacts, otherwise I’d’ve had to be off sick or go and spend over 200 on glasses again. Although, actually? The cost difference between specsavers and anyone else rapidly goes down if you have ‘thinned’ lenses (because you’re blind like me).

Still, hopefully they’ll come and I can stop struggling with the lenses. I actually like the lenses for distance vision and comfort they’re fine. But for reading they’re a bloody nightmare, and either one or other seems to wander in and out of focus a bit, depending on how tired I am. Indeed, the astigmatic eye is a complete disaster a lot of the time. I think it’s really that one that screws the lenses for me. If I wasn’t such an avid reader / didn’t have to do close work at work they’d be fine :-/

Anyhow, the chaos in the house continues. Neither Kathryn nor I really has the energy to face ‘tidying’ when in 2 weeks we’ll be moving back downstairs again. Make that 3 weeks. The window delivery has slipped again. Although, apparently our builder has, somewhat peeved at the delay turned around and got it moved nearer because the window suppliers screwed up and wanted 15 instead of 10 days to produce the windows.

So, Thursday next week he’ll turn up.

Whilst the delay is frustrating, I am on nights, so it’s actually good that I might get some sleep, because having them destroy the walls will probably not be ‘quiet’.

What is good, though, is that we’ve finally got a plasterer. And a plasterer who we like and have a recommendation for. Who looked at the job and didn’t try and cut all the corners before he’d even started. Hopefully his work’s as good as his recommendation.

And the floor refinishers are lined up for after the plasterer. I have this faint, but undenyable hope that it’s going to come together and we’ll have a nice house soon. After 5 years of renovation in 2 houses I might actually relax and enjoy it for a bit :)

Work, on the other hand continues to play on my mind as something I’m not sure what I should do about it. I don’t feel I’ve settled in there the way I did in my last trust; although it is improving. But then, just when I think I’m making friends, a bunch of people leave. People I like working with. Mainly, in fact, a lot of the people who joined around the same time as me. Which has left me feeling quite down, really. I’m not very good at making friends, it’s not something I have great aptitude for, at least, I make friends but it takes me a long time and they tend to be *good* friends. But the whole ‘social’ thing kinda evades me. People have to put up with my poor social abilities long enough and I kinda end up making friends in some shared experience way. Anyhow.

Yeah, so losing people from work who I’ve started to make little tenuous connections with is frustrating and depressing. Meh. Still, ‘ve made one new friend since moving back to Bristol. Which is good :)

In other news, I’ve been playing with instagram, which is cute and makes me do things like this:

And we grew dinner (well, mostly Kathryn grew dinner. My MSc is interfering with Gardening, and we all know which is more important):

Well, okay, we grew the salad we’re having with dinner… It was *yummy* and so very fresh. Which isn’t surprising really, given that Kathryn picked it about 20 minutes before we ate it.

Anyhow, I need to do a bit of ‘group work’ for my MSc and I also need a bath after my run this morning (2.42 miles, not too shabby for my second run in 2 years)… So.

So, I’ve been reading papers for the last 2 hours, having munched down on yet another bought lunch (the Coop’s been getting rather a lot of business from us lately). It’s 3858 miles to Chicago, we got a 1936 cycling magazine, no cigarettes, it’s sunny (outside) and I’m wearing sunglasses (inside) – so I think it’s time for a little post.

Startling us, somewhat, the electricians turned up this morning (I’m under the impression it’s a bank holiday weekend, and it’s Saturday). They’re currently rootling around under the house where they found a remarkably well preserved few pages from a 1936 cycling magazine. What’s impressive about that is the house was finished in 1938, so that’s been under there since before the house was even nearly finished. It’s pleasing though, more progress. They have, I think, finished channeling in the kitchen (more or less) and are currently running the wires for the ring main. They’ve put in the cooker circuit. I cannot tell you how much joy the idea of a cooker circuit gives me. I could dance at the idea of a working cooker.

It’s still a little way away, but a working cooker. Imagine it. I am entirely and totally sick of take aways, eating out, and cheap bought dinners.

So, as you may know I’ve just come off nights, unfortunately this means my eyes, having worn contacts all night are somewhat less than impressed with me. Unfortunately, Specsavers rang me yesterday and informed me that my posh reactolight/thinned/ultralite lenses failed quality control. Which is a bollocks because I was expecting to pick them up today, which would save me putting in contact lenses today. I forgot, last night, because it was quite busy, to put the eye drops in (and frankly they were pretty comfortable most of the night). This meant that when I got home, I had to prise one lens out of my L eye – in a manner which was somewhat uncomfortable.

I’ve therefore been stuck wearing sunglasses so far today. This is fine at the moment, but it’s slowly getting less sunny inside – I was sat outside anyhow, but the shade has now evaporated up at the house end of the garden and we’ve not got the nice comfy deck chairs, so I don’t feel like lounging at the other end of the garden – and eventually I’m going to have to put lenses back in. Thankfully the new contact lenses arrived today because I’d reached the point where I was starting to horde lenses knowing that if they didn’t arrive I’d be stuck on Tuesday. I’m deeply glad I ordered them, I contemplated leaving it, but thought it was a good idea to have some kind of back-up plan if my glasses didn’t arrive.

Anyhow, sorry, that’s the post nights ramble kicking in.

With the electricians having a few more days of work left, we’re looking forward to the return of the builders – after which it’s just the plasters, the floor refinishers, and then we’re into the ‘we have to do it’ phase. Which is quite exciting. And then we can move in. And then we’re done.

We’re starting to contemplate the kitchen a bit more. We’re still wondering about the idea of custom doors on cheap carcasses*, or really having any fixed idea how it’ll look beyond the layout. We were intrigued by concrete worktops… but the company we asked no longer does them, another we asked about recycled glass and resin – that was 400 quid a metre. Which, sadly, is definately out of our price range.

I also had a custom wood idea for our bathroom. We really could do with being shedloads wealthier, either in time or money.

Anyhow, I should get back to work, which – at this point – means putting putting my contact lenses back in. That’s something I can safely say I’m not looking forward to, but my half hour’s now over. :(

* Given that we’ve got a mitre saw lurking in the garage, I’m actually wondering if we could dare to attempt to make them ourselves. We’re not making a huge number of doors. We could try and if it doesn’t work, just buy whatever-doors.

So, we have moved upstairs – an enormous amount of cleaning and work for a transitional period. The poor aged Goblin ‘workshop’ hoover ruptured it’s little bag (again) in protest at the amount of crud that it had to suck up. The black dust from the mortar and blockwork (which is, I think, bulked up with slag from copper mining*) appears to have successfully ‘got everywhere’ and cleaning it took hours and hours.

We them moved upstairs and for a few days it felt like we were living in a 1950’s 1 bedroom apartment (granted with no kitchen). Now everything, pretty much is upstairs, and much of the channeling’s been done downstairs. Progress is definately forthcoming.

The flooring people came around and are going to quote us for turning the pine floors into something pleasant. The builders should be starting again late next week or early the following week… we just need to find a plasterer, again a challenge that’s proving more complex than initially assumed, and the buildingy stuff inside will be done. The builders are also quoting for the garage (third quote) with a reclaimed tile roof.

We considered various options to try and get the strength high enough, and still have a green roof, but it just wasn’t happening. If it wasn’t to be the garage, and I wasn’t quite concerned about that amount of weight above the cars, then I’d go for it. If I had time to do it myself, I’d consider it. But we need the garage soon, and we won’t have any more money available after this for a loooong time. So, tile roof it is. Well, possibly.

Again, we may have to shave it down to a lower spec building, but we’ll see where we’re at when the final quote arrives.

Anyhow, final night of nights for this block. I’m assuming the royal revellers will be out in force, and hoping that I’ll have more patience with the drunk people than I did last night. Granted I got far less sleep yesterday…

* Apparently, that was the cunning plan of Bristolians, to use the slag as a building materia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Castle_Public_House

So, I thought you’d all like to know what’s going on with the house? You wouldn’t? You’re bored witless of house stuff? You want more biting political commentary and discussion of the planned healthcare reforms? You want my environmental opinions? Tough.
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So, another house update for you all; garden update tomorrow, maybe. Lots to update, but no photos yet…

And as a special extra bonus, I’ve been out taking pictures. Of rusty things. Yes.
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