Tag Archives: Android

All hail Germolene

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So up at the crack of dawn and took the dog to day care. Actually worked out the short route was about twice as long as the long route. Anyway, she was very excited, I was very tired so went back to bed.

Working on Android atomics again. This time I did a bit of research and found that since Arm6K there were indeed 64 bit atomic operations. The problem being that they are not really exposed in GCC and definitely not in the NDK. So out with the ARM manual then out with the GCC manual, as I’d forgotten how to do the inline format. Surprisingly easy to get to grips with. Anyway we now have 64 bit atomics for Android. Move on.

Need to decide what I want to do next after I’ve now finished the main mobile game. I’ve been offered something that may not initially sound interesting, but looking at the tech involved there’s some very interesting stuff there. Anyway, as normal, certainly can’t discuss any specifics.

Put some screws in the bloody mini trunking as I got pissed off with the weight of the cable pulling it off the wall.

This lunchtime I ran, actually enjoyed it, haven’t done cross country in a long time. It was cold, but it was fun.

This morning I was invaded by no less than three cleaners, they came they saw, they almost forgot to empty the bins. No other complaints though.

No response from Paul, so I’ll probably just do the overrun cable myself over the weekend. It’s not creating a new circuit anyway. I texted the boiler man, he’s nowhere to be found either.

So today was another fasting day. Very little modifications to standard diet, except no wine, or sausage roll.

Talking of wine, my decent expensive stuff turned up today. My wine fridge now contains more value than the contents of Jamie’s pants.

So tomorrow is more finishing off stuff and a bit of game design. Back to the gym (Didn’t feel the need to go tonight, due to running), back to dog walking. She really is tired when she comes back, she even fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Oh yes, Germolene. The nose problem I had, been blasting up some of it over the last couple of days, now I’m pleased to say I think it’s fully healed.

Android atomics

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So today I was looking at the atomic problem again which I spotted yesterday. I traced it in the end on the PC version, it was due to a unsigned int32 being shifted right 32 times, which I would have thought would have made it 0, on PC it doesn’t it seems to shift by the modulo of 32, so 33 would shift 1 etc. After 25 years I still get the odd annoying surprise. Then it was back on to Android, which has no 64 bit atomics. Found a nice big bug in my emulation for them which wasn’t locking the atomic properly. That’s now all working on Android but I want to play around with spinlocks a bit more as it’s a little bit thread happy.

Good news on the mobile game front, it’s been set as ‘ready to publish’, which means it’s been approved by Apple, the only thing stopping it from appearing on the app store is pressing a button and a large room full of lawyers. Wait until Friday then I’ll finally announce what it is.

Walked the dog, went to the gym. She’s off to doggy day care tomorrow. Cleaners coming tomorrow.

Then spent a bit of time pissing around with my favourite subject, pfSense. Jamie was trying to connect 360 to XBox live, of course it’s set to strict NAT. I did try and set it upo for UPNP, it managed to open one port and passed the tests but failed to work correctly. In the end I just set it up with it’s own IP address which worked, but I do really need to revisit it again at some point.

Live fast and die hungry

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Started the day with fixing an annoying issue with WAV files. It’s a RIFF file format so the data chunk can be anywhere. The normal thing with WAV files is that you can load the first 128 bytes or so and find everything useful in that. Al of course managed to find a WAV file that contains a nice load of meta data right at the beginning which buggers all that up. So fixed that.

Then started tracing into an issue on Android, I spent many hours convinced it was a problem with string processing but after much digging it’s actually the command queue running out of reservation slots. This is a bit of an odd one as it can only really be added to in two places so it would have to have some seriously odd thread behavior to cause this problem. I’m suspecting some seriously odd thread behavior.

Walked the dog, weather was actually fairly pleasant considering. Went to gym and did combat.

Now this is week two of this fasting test thing. Friday of course got cocked up due to stupid traffic levels so I missed pump. But by this morning my weight had returned to what it was last weekend plus a pound. So basically gained weight. I’ll give it another go this week and monitor it. Today is one of the fasting days, missed bread out of lunchtime sandwich and I’ll miss the sausage roll out of my salad. I have worked out though that I can squeeze in a banana (no sniggering). The only thing I’ve achieved so far though is to become hungry. You may well live longer, but whats the point when you’re starving. So tomorrow I’ll eat the same as today, except for the bread and the sausage roll. I think I’ve got some fruit cake as well. Then Wednesday will be fast day again and Thursday will be a repeat of Tuesday, except that it’s torture porn night, so cheese & biscuits and wine. Exercise wise I will try and keep a fairly constant 600 calories, so on fast days it will exactly cancel out the food intake.

Ever since I bleached the bathroom tiles weeks ago, my nose has been sore and won’t heal, I’ve now resorted to jamming Germaline up it, so now have pink splodge dripping out of it.

Holly Hedge

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Here’s a really sweet video for Holly Hedge animal sanctuary.

Holly Hedge Animal Sanctuary

Most of today was taken up with finishing off the Android unity files and iOS/Windows PCH for the audiolib. Fixed a couple of other bits along the way.

Walked the dog, she was quite well behaved. Did the washing. Attempted to go to the gym for pump, but failed just at the end of the road as the traffic was backed up everywhere. It appears the M5 was shut due to an overturned lorry and they were diverting all traffic through Bradley Stoke to head to the M32. Cheers. So gave up and came home and finished off my work. The advantage now being that I’ve actually finished by 10 and not 11 ish. Oh well, time for a bath and Friday night wine. Jamie’s buying me pizza tonight. I’m having a ‘Sizzler’, yes I am feeling okay. Tomorrow I’m going washing machine shopping with mother, that will be thrilling.

Rain, Rain, ah just fuck off

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Started the day with the news that the mobile game has finally been submitted to Apple. Hopefully be released December 2nd. Fixed an oversight in the audiolib, oversight being that I completely forgot to write a big chunk of code. Then I was working on the Android build tool chain, I think I’ve gone about as far with that as I can, so just need to sort it in all the configs now.

Al asked me to put pre-compiled headers into the audiolib, which is fine, except it’s not a five minute task, 3 hours later and I’m still at it, never mind, gives me a bit of a purpose for tomorrow.

Caught up with my radio consumption for the week, just some serious bangy Dance to get through now. Electrical stuff has turned up for the heating, so now have a queue of jobs for the weekend. Heating electrics, drain unblocking and radiator balancing. Oh, I get all the fucking fun jobs. I’m sure Jamie has some important fapping to do.

Walked the dog, wet route as it was blowing a gale and spitting with rain, which was about as good as it got all day. Went to the gym, ran. Did a home check for a kitten. Ate, caught up with a bit of telly. Now I think I’m going to have a glass of wine and watch some torture porn.

Doggy day care via Venice

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The dog actually woke up at about 6:15, so beat the alarm by 15 minutes. She went out and had a poo and got very excited that I poured her breakfast out. Then she annoyed me continuously while I was trying to get dressed. We got in the car be 6:45 and were there by 7. The back road was bloody awful but no sign of massive flooding. Back in bed by 7:15.

Spent the day working on Android debugging with GDB. I now have a batch file which is created during the build stage, which when I run starts up the debugger with full source debugging. So pretty good in the end. Tried a few graphical front ends for GDB, but can’t really get any of them to work reliably.

Lunchtime I went out and ran, which was a first for a hell of along time. All of the nature reserve was flooded up to about 4 feet high. Before I knew it (and after having lunch, it’s a no bread day again today), it was time to pick the dog up. I left at 16:15, by 16:30 I already turned back at the end of the main road due to traffic. By 16:45 I’d turned back again as the back road was now completely flooded. Then sat and queued on the roundabout for what seemed like hours. Finally got there and picked the dog up. Thought I’d avoid the motorway junction by going via Iron Acton, that bit was fine, then joined another queue and then another one. Then got back into Bradley Stoke, had to go from one end to the other in more stop start. Finally got home at 17:50. That’s a journey I won’t forget in a hurry and certainly don’t wish to repeat.

Went to the gym after doing a re-check, quite an odd one that. Then had to spend the evening catching up with work. It’s now midnight and I haven’t even eaten yet. So time for salad with no sausage roll….

Not a boiler man in sight

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So today it was straight on with a couple of issues with the mobile game. Got those all sorted. Then it was back on to GDB and Android.

My iPhone5 arrived. It’s an iPhone, I won’t reach orgasm over it. It looks a bit big. I need to get a nano sim for it as it won’t activate without one.

Took the dog out, Jamie’s day off so he came as well, which didn’t work out well as there was a delivery while we were out.

Got a new quote from boiler man no.3, this was for the same boiler as boiler man no.6 but was £1600 cheaper. Okay, so I have to do my own electrics and get Paul to check it, but that’s not going to cost £1600. Haven’t had a quote from no.5 and no.1 has vanished since I basically mentioned he didn’t really seem to know what he was on about and wasn’t gas safe registered. Anyway, boiler man no.3 has been given the job, it will hopefully be done the beginning of December. I’m still waiting for a bathroom quote from the same man.

Made some good progress on the whole GDB thing. I can now compile in VC2010 and it produces all the correct files in all the correct places by using a vast amount of scripts. Only a couple of bits to solve now.

Went to gym, ran for seventy seven minutes. That’s around 45 miles this week.

Looked into balancing radiators, they could do with doing again before new boiler is fitted as they haven’t been done since all the insulation was added.

Anyway, Midsomer Murders now, followed by torture porn night.

And tomorrow I promise no more boiler talk.

Boiler man No.6

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Started this morning far too early as Sasha had her induction at Pawstretchers doggy daycare. They had 59 dogs there, she failed to eat any of them, so she’s going back for a full day next Wednesday. That’ll get her out the way of the new cleaners anyway, so hopefully they will last more than a day. On the way back in the car I didn’t put her anti-reverse colour restraint-escape-device on, half way down the A38 she’s sat in the passenger seat staring at me.

Came back, did a couple of updates on the mobile game. Then gas man No.6 arrived. I was slightly disappointed as he wasn’t a tosser. He measured the place (not intimately, just worked out the volume) asked about loft and cavity wall insulation, looked at the tank. Then sat on his laptop for ten minutes making pointless small talk. To my surprise he was only a grand over priced. Mind you did quote for a smaller boiler than any one else. Then he made a couple of fatal mistakes….first was to say he’d give me the same discount that was available last month ‘if I signed up today’, hmmm. Second was to say that if a normal plumber did the electrics they wouldn’t be 17th addition approved and therefore wouldn’t get a part-p certificate but I could get it checked for about 300 quid. That bits horse-shit, and I bet half the British Gas engineers are only gas safe safe registered and not NICEIC approved, it’s questionable if pump overrun cables require part-p certification anyway.

So enough of bloody boiler men. I may just say fuck-it, spend 1500 quid on another holiday and just use some of Jamie’s blubber as a giant candle.

Then continued with getting GDB to work. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that for it to work it really has to be under Cygwin. I looked at a few other shells but they just didn’t work. So in the end I’m just working to get vs-android output everything in the correct place so I can launch a bash shell and call ndk-gdb. It ain’t pretty but it will certainly do for the time being and is better than what we have currently.

Went to gym. Ran for seventy seven minutes. That’s over a marathon distance already this week. It isn’t very interesting and the tread-mill keeps electrocuting me every time I touch it.

Finally got to the end of the Abu Dhabi GP. Not a bad one. Suppose it’s bed time now. May be have a banana first.

Oh, apparently my iPhone5 has been dispatched. That can sit in a box until I can be arsed to sort out a micro sim card for it.

Boiler man No.4 & No.5

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So two more boiler men today. First one was nice enough but did want to remove half the pipes in the airing cupboard, including the main heating feed and expansion pipe, to me that seems somewhat pointless when you could just connect a hose to it and blast it.

Next one was this evening and arrived an hour late. He was a little bit ‘in your face’ and you felt like he was invading your personal space but I grew to like him. He knew what he was on about and did mention that the gas pipe was probably 22mm up to the cooker, that opens some interesting possibilities. I’ll need to yank the cooker out and take a gander or try and look through one of the air bricks under the house.

Had a quote back from No.3 and just now No.4. No.4 as I guessed would be a bit pricey if he wants to change half the pipework and do the dreaded power flush. No.3 however (which is Rob Sarah’s friend) came in with two very competitive quotes, which may be cheaper if the gas pipe checks out. I need to do the wiring for this one, but it saves a few hundred quid and I can get Paul to check it.

Anyway, enough about boilers….Spent the working day doing a few things on the mobile game and then trying to get GDB to work. After lots of buggering about I finally got it to do source debugging. I certainly need to do a lot more work on it though before it becomes useful.

Talking of bugger about, very good sex first thing this morning, even if it was with Jamie. It woke him up anyway, he even participated at times.

Walked the dog, another unexciting road tour today, it was very cold. She is going for her doggy day care induction tomorrow, so will see how many dogs and people she can attack.

Moved the server into the cabinet, connected up the printers two it and it’s all still currently working. Ordered a new case for it with integrated PSU, that should sort out the power up problem. Haven’t ordered the replacement pfSense stuff yet, will see how the week goes.

Went to gym. Ran for seventy six minutes. Now watching the Abu Dhabi GP, I may get through all of it by the end of the week.

Mr British Gas tomorrow, I’ll be very disappointed if he’s not a tosser.

Boilers, Bypasses and overruns

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Today I was rudely awaken by my mobile. It wasn’t my mother so I answered it. It was a boiler man who I emailed last night. So I actually started work at about 8:45 which is mostly unheard of. He turned up just after 9. Now this one is gas safe registered, asked all the right questions and actually looked in the airing cupboard. He gets a gold start for telling me it will need a pump overrun cable (which he said he’ll need to get an electrician to do, yawn, it’s about 8 feet, so if it’s any more than £20 quid he can piss off) and a pump bypass. And the dear old gas pipe upgrading to 22mm. All things that boiler man number one failed to grasp. Incidentally, boiler man number one has go back to me and said that he does all the work, then gets the gas safe man to connect the gas and check it all. I’m not sure I’m over keen on the work being done by someone who is not qualified, I wonder what the gas safe people have to say about that…..Anyway to appease him I sent a mail back saying that the boiler he is recommending is fine, but as I actually bothered to read the installation manual it will require a 22mm pipe, pump over run and bypass. The bypass you could possibly get away with as the mid-position valve will always free flow through at least one radiator as it’s possible the TRV’s will close down the others, but really for that to work 100% you would have to fit two lock shield valves to a small radiator, say a towel rail. I know sound like I know far too much about plumbing, well the same with anything in life, you can learn a hell of a lot from a book, after all that’s was education is mainly anyway, reading books. I’m not saying that you can learn anything in five minutes and become an expert, that takes years and then theirs experience to take into account. But I always think it’s wise on any type of job like this, just to do a bit of research. Don’t appear cocky or they’ll bump the price up, but don’t appear to be clueless or you will be royally fucked. Books these days of course have been replaced by Google, I don’t think I’ve come across a book titled ‘Now I’ve got a boiler’. Any way boiler man number three coming Tuesday evening and number four sometime next week. And then we have number five, my special one, British Gas. They phoned today from a nice call centre (the guy sounded about 12), just to make sure I was going to be in for the appointment so I can be bored to death by a salesman. I’m really quite looking forward to that one. I think in the end I just won’t bother and will wait for the bloody thing to go bang.

Work wise, spent the bulk of the day adding Android projects to our existing current apps. It’s quite a long process but got quite a bit of it done. Then fixed up a couple of issues on the mobile game.

Went to the gym, did Body Pump, followed by running for forty minutes. That then allows me to eat pizza, and drink beer.

Just trying to sort out an external USB drive for the server for backing up to when I change to the new unit. I found one which contains backups from 2006. I’m just consolidating them down and will archive them off, you never know when you want to look at a project you did six years ago….I’ve got backup CD’s here going back over twenty years…and no I’ve never bloody looked at them.

Need to do a home check tomorrow, it’s actually for one of the dogs that I did a check for before and now been returned…It’s an animal it has feelings, you didn’t buy it from QVC. Talking of which ours has finally settled down, she really doesn’t like fireworks.

Right, now it’s bath and wine time. Also time to phone my mother. There are advantages to doing this now, I can listen to the radio, read a magazine and get slowly pissed. She’s much easier to listen to after a few glasses of white. I’m not even going to mention the butt cheek incident (I mean on here, not to my mother, that’s just weird, we’ve never discussed bum sex either, I always thought of my Dad as a pure meat and two veg man, I’m sure kinky sex for him was taking his socks off).