Programming : My Thoughts on Kivy

About a year ago, I had to work on Python, suddenly and without warning.  And though I had tinkered with python I neither listed it in my arsenal of programming languages nor thought myself conversant enough in it to deliver a product.  But the powers that be said "he's the linux guy, this is python, we don't want it on Windows, give it him".

So there I was, Python on the Linux server and Python on the Android phone... Two parts of the same project, and they needed a nice UI.

Now I don't know Qt at all, I've used it, never been terribly impressed (though that opinion is for another post and is highly subject to change) with the look of it.  So I set about looking for alternatives.

The alternative I found, which worked best for me, was Kivy.

I found the syntax a little awkward, and the actual creation of the recipe for the WI was very awkward at times, finding what inherited where being the main problem, it was a little.  Well it was a little counter intuitive to say the least, but it worked.

And the product went out there looking black and sleek and cool, and it was on everyone's Samsung smart phone at the launch meeting, and I was quite proud I'd managed it, and Kivy was the key in that delivery.

It has been a year since I created that application, a year of waiting for any feedback, it was a demanding time to get stuff floated and out to users.  I hope they liked it, I certainly did.

Android - Python - Kivy... Pretty much my go-to platform for Android development.

Office Life : Air Con

Someone remind me why this company dropped £35,000 on new air-conditioning earlier this year?... When on one of the few days of the year we need the damn thing, it's hotter in here than it was outside yesterday!

Yes, that's 25 Celsius in here... 77 Fahrenheit for those of you still in the 1970's.

This is warmer than Tahiti today, the same as in Cannes and hotter than it is outside (24 by the weather, 22 by my thermometer)...

It utterly sucks in here right now...

What to do....

So, what do you do when your wife has had surgery for breast cancer, your mother-in-law has had a heart attack, the game you like to play is full of douche bags and you've got burned to a crisp by the sun?

Well, you play snake of course...

Nokia have a lot to answer for.

Horsing About

I thought I'd come to these pages to explain what all these videos I have posted of horses were actually about.

Well, at the stables we're at, we all much in (or muck out should that be) together, it's not a livery yard, it's not a business, it's a friend of ours whom had a horse and wanted to get him some company.

He's a 25 year old race horse, called Cluff, and he's a total idiot when he's alone, he thrashes about, gets distressed, he really properly will not be on his own.

So, when we wanted to look for a new livery location, our friend said "bring him up, the girl here with her horse at the moment is a pain in the arse and never picks up her poo"... So up we went, and away she went.

So our pony Gerty, became best buds with Cluff.... This was interesting as Cluff went from looking 24 and very stiff, to now being 25 and looking very muscular and moving brilliantly, she's made him young.

As you can see, he loves to roll, especially in the mud.  Well, last Friday, Jo was up putting a new rug on our Pony, when she heard what sounded like a pistol crack, what it actually was was the electricity tripping as Cluff had managed to roll and roll over into the electrified fence.

He ended up on his bum, with the wire trapped around his legs, and it tore into his leg.

Jo went into full rescue mode, cutting the wire to release him, and getting her Dad to help him into his stable, and I got the vet on the way to sort him out.

The end result is he has a cut about the size of a large mans index finger along his leg where I indicate in the videos.

Needless to say, he's on the mend now, and the challenge later in the week might be how to keep that leg dry if the heavens open up after this hot patch.

Gaming : SuperSnake.io - New Personal Best

Just shy of 20 minutes growth... Not bad... Died to a super snake, he clipped the last of his fifth gold tokens as my venom spit struck, and... boom I popped, but I was quite happy with this performance.

WebSense Low-jinx

I've discovered today that WebSense is automatically killing off many links to many articles in my blog...

I covered this happening as a joke back in 2010... Six years ago!...

But today it seems the moronic thing has listed a whole plethora of my pages as "Sex"!

This blog is anything but!

And they're owned by Raytheon now, you know the US defence contractor, the ones who make missiles!... How can you trust any of their code when it does this amount of false positives, and is doing six whole years after I first pointed this out?!?!?!

Amazing Developments #2

In the second of my postings, for this series, I've come across "ThorsHand11"... Not only do I like his approach, but I do enjoy his interaction with the community, he's willing to give and receive feedback live and makes it part of his work flow... Plus his work looks like games I used to play years ago, and I've a real soft spot for that.

ThorsHand11

He's creating a procedurally generated RPG, and you can check out his live stream here.