All these things that I have done

Amazon Instant Video

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 16:25:52 GMT

Well, I feel that I have finally triumphed over the idiocy of Amazon over the last couple of days, which is nice. I am hesitant to post this here because of the ridiculous behaviour of Amazon in trying to push Kindle Fire/Fire TV, but I can't really see how they can stop this, so I'm going to post it anyway.

How to watch Amazon Instant Video/Amazon Prime Video on your tablet.
Install Flashfox. I used the Pro version because I was so pleased this worked but you don't need to, the free one works fine. Tick the "request desktop site" box then visit the Amazon website and browse to your videos - voila, you can play your videos on your tablet.

How to watch Amazon Instant Video/Amazon Prime Video on your Chromecast from your phone or tablet.
Somewhat to my surprise, there is a very simple way to do this - I've been googling it frequently but somehow this has never come up so I figure I'll put it out there. If you go in to the Chromecast app on your device, there is an option to cast screen. On my phone it warns you it's not designed for this screensize but just ignore this. On my phone I can then watch via the Instant Video app or Flashfox and the picture and sound are chromecast to my TV with very good quality. I noticed a couple of stutters which I think was from the Amazon app rather than the chromecasting.

So, having finally managed to get to watch my programmes the way I want again, the next season of Lewis is apparently not available on Prime or elsewhere. I don't really want to buy the DVDs so I guess I'll just bittorrent it and wait for an electronic version to become available. Sigh. It really shouldn't be this hard to pay for what I want to watch. Still, definite progress

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Sat, 24 May 2014 16:26:28 GMT

Was re watching Iron Man this afternoon (oh, hush) and noticed that when Stane takes Tony's reactor, he talks about putting power back in "the right hands: our hands", which I'd never noticed before. They can't possibly have planned TWS then, right? Given that he had no visible cabal in the film, I assume that it originally referred to the war hungry right wing white men who run the country but I love that I can now tie it back into serious conspiracy(tm) in my head.

Also, it adds an extra dimension to Tony's decision to tell the truth at the end rather than SHIELD's story - with a secret, they would have had a hold on him, but instead he shows that he can't be easily controlled straight off.

I do love plot twists that make you think about old canon in a new light.

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Sat, 12 Jan 2013 19:00:45 GMT

Despite the fact that I wrote in here barely more than a week ago, I have actually done quite a lot of journal-worthy stuff since then, which is kind of unusual, so, in keeping with my resolution to write more stuff, here I am.

So, first week with my new colleague actually went really well. She was nice, and really pleased by all the support that I gave her and seemed to get on well with her new class. We had planning on Thursday and that went pretty well and all in all it was pretty positive. School are talking about getting me to be Gifted and Talented co-ordinator next year, given that I'm the one who's actually organising G&T activities for Maths of my own bat. It would be more work but they're also talking about paying me extra and I won't be doing so much study next year so it should be actually pretty good.

On Sunday, Alex and I decided to go for a brunch (in the actual morning). We biked there and I had to stop part way and walk because my bike is really hard work. It is partly that I'm unfit but also, I've become increasingly disinclined to cycle anywhere because it's an actively unpleasant experience. So, because we were walking, we passed a couple of the bike shops on Cowley Road and I saw that they had old fashioned sit up bikes with curved handlebars in the sale for actual reasonable prices! After brunch, I took one out for a trial and the difference was enormous - the cycling position was so much better and more comfortable for me. I wavered briefly, but then decided what the hell and went for it. I thought that if I try to make sure I bike once a week, that would be a big improvement in my fitness.

So far, then, that's going pretty well, because I biked out to Jerico (a trip which I just wouldn't have considered on my old bike - I would have driven) to go and try singing in a choir for the first time in about 15 years. It was quite a learning curve to go back up, especially as they put me in the tenor section, but I actually did really enjoy it. I need a copy of the music so that I can learn my part a bit on my own, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to go back. Not only that, but I biked to games night on Thursday and to the city centre today with Alex to choose a replacement ring for the one that I squashed irretrievably out of shape. We managed to find a really pretty one which is being delivered so there will be pics when it turns up. I also spent ages ogling new phones. I like the look of the Galaxy SIII but given that my upgrade date is not for a few months, I'm probably better waiting and getting an SIV on contract when they come out - I hadn't realised it that Samsung phones now come with free upgrade to 50gb Dropbox, which pushes it over the HTC line for me for the moment.

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Thu, 10 May 2012 07:10:12 GMT

So, I've actually managed to fill up my Dropbox, which is annoying. I've got a couple of zip files of archived material which could easily be moved out but I'm trying to figure out where to put them! USB sticks tend to get lost and are a pain to use from multiple locations anyway so I'd prefer cloud storage. Does anyone have any recommendations for large long term file storage?

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Sat, 21 Apr 2012 14:04:54 GMT

Well, if I had any doubts about whether it was worthwhile buying my tablet, I can be reassured by the fact that I left it at school accidentally (at least I really hope I did - I was using it to read an ebook to my class so that we'd have enough copies that they could read along with regular books) and am really really missing it today. Normally I would lie around and read a book in bed and then get up and futz around on the internet while sitting in my comfy chair with it. I am actually missing it enough that I popped over to school because I thought they were open for ballet classes and stuff (they weren't actually, which was annoying) to see if I could find it.

In other only semi-in-my-brain related news, this is the first week in which Alex has gone to Oxfam and will be buying books which will end up at school which will actually be paid for by school money! I talked to Rach (our head) and she's agreed to fund us improving our bookshelves by, you know, having some books on them through giving Alex a list of writers and just buying the bloody things. I asked my class for suggestions and got a list of about 20 authors so that should keep us busy for a while!

Also, I am spending far too much time thinking about the experience machine. I wish I could do the last assignment on it but the question about it bears no relation to my thoughts on it so I might have to do something else! I have now started the registration process for my next OU course (Themes in the history of Wales), which is a small one so that I can also do a Masters level course next year without buggering up my transitional funding arrangements for my OU study. My school are offering/asking to fund me to train as a Mathematics Specialist Teacher. It looks interesting and comes to 60 points of Masters study (out of 180) over two years. I emailed Oxfordshire to ask about applying and got an email back saying "Yes, you can totally have a place!" which was a bit unnerving, but I think Rachel had already talked to the person there about me so hopefully it's just that and not that anyone can have a place for the asking! As a result, I'm also being made Maths co-ordinator, as our current one is about to go off and have a baby, so I'm also going to be applying for a salary bump, which I really hope I get as it comes with extra non-contact time attached so I'll be able to cover the extra work! It's a really good opportunity, but I feel very early in my teaching career to be taking on this much responsibility! There seem to be a lot of exclamation marks in there, which feels not quite right. There should be an uncertainty mark or something that I could use.

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Wed, 23 Feb 2011 18:05:36 GMT

I have been doing a bit of database work for the first time for ages, working on parsing the text file that holds the current Strange Horizons data into a sensible database format. It's fiddlier than one might hope, but I'm getting there. I also am finally starting to get the hang of doing things in mySql, even if I do constantly run up against useful things that just aren't there, plus the expected number of things which have different names than they do in SQL server. I still might be going to write a new website for the magazine, which would be pretty interesting if it comes off - I hope it does, I like coding projects :)

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