Wednesday 4 December 2013

I had a break... I had a kitkat

or why have I downgraded from android kitkat to jellybean?

for a week my nexus10 tablet has been requested to upgrade android 4.3.x (jellybean) to android 4.4 (Kitkat)

in my search for bad reviews or glitches on the operating system I only came across to "An only slightly better Android" headline, so ...yesterday finally i accepted,  yes I did it!!! "I taste of the future" I've read.. all seemed so perfectly smooth... 

24 hours later here is why I am back in jellybean...

my mayor issue is the language option for multiple users. Bravo for the latest android operating systems that allows several users in a devise, but,  what's the point if with the update you cannot customize accounts?... with Jellybean I have two users accounts set in different languages (spanish & english), with kitkat I can have multiple users ALL IN THE SAME LANGUAGE)







my second mayor issue, i liked the pc layout keyboard. once i learned about it never used the standar default android keyword. ok, so what's with the update... no no no. i set the english pc keyboard again and again and again... everytime you turn off the device the preferences for the keyboard are lost... and i have to search and update the keyboard individually in each account... sorry but this is a terryble foult, at least to me... I notified android about this glitches, but in the meantime I wait for an update, I Know I won't have a break, eat a kitkat ... jelly anyone? 



Thursday 14 November 2013

google you are pissing me off

░░███████ ]▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ Bob is building an army. 
▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ ☻/ This tank & Bob are against Google+ 
Il███████████████████]. /▌ Copy and Paste this all over 
◥⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙◤.. / \ Youtube if you are with us

Friday 1 November 2013

a cold chill

For some time now, I have been thinking about writing on my experience as an expat. "el pais"  is running a special section about the new wave of emigration escaping the job crisis, that settled in Spain during this last economic recession. After 20 years leaving abroad and 4 European countries I definitely have something (or a lot) to say about this.

But today, a headline let me alone in the dark, a fear, a cold chill invaded me;

Twelve days without trace of the missing Basque engineer, Egiluz Hodei in Antwerp

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/2013/10/31/actualidad/1383240441_855468.html
http://www.gva.be/regio-antwerpen-stad/antwerpen/verdachte-opgepakt-in-vermissingszaak-hodei.aspx

it could be anyone of us; Alex, David, Pedro, Marta, Maria, Luis, Santi, Oscar, Amos, Mireia, Delia...




Wednesday 25 September 2013

Saturday 24 August 2013

Colours

http://www.webpagefx.com/blog/web-design/psychology-of-color-infographic/

Friday 29 March 2013

way tooooooooo many adddddddsss

tired, tired and tired... i don't even know how to express my frustration... i am becoming an old cranky internet user who loved the way things were before, i am conservative and nostalgic at how surfing the web was 10 years ago .. it was slow, but it was faster in the way when you wanted something it was there in front of you ... no roundabouts 

try to watch videos lately in youtube... forget about using the playlist (i made one for my kids, with toddlers cartoons and all they see are adds (not even kids related) what does a 3 year old needs to see a car ad or the new paramount movie or a finance advice for?)

try to read news in the bbc online and all you watch is a pre-advertisement - sometimes the new's clip doesn't even play... 

i am frustrated... i lone for my internet... the way it was ... i was searching for youtube alternatives, but all alternatives had commercials ... and i don't mean the banners or the flash adds or the click-in.. .i am talking about the pre-commercials running before the clip - sometimes the add will be longer than the content in the video... sometimes you only need to scan if this is the video you want to see, (but first you have to swallow the commercial to jump to an other video/commercial in the search for content). videos on the internet have now more commercials than TV ... ENOUGH ... i worked in marketing, i did online advertisement, i created banners, adds and pre-commercials campaigns ... and i also say ENOUGH! THIS IS JUST UNBEARABLE ... companies are killing the joy of surfing, searching,  learning... surfing is becoming a horrible slow cluttered  experience 

I also searched for some plug-ins to download... but those also seem to fail after a while and companies learn a way to delete them or block them... so here is probably the best solution... is writing code in your own computer - my search got me to a post that had this link  
http://www.lolloland.com/2012/12/12/technote-how-to-remove-video-ads-youtube/#sthash.hCaboEwX.mOuRA3aj.dpbs

just in case this link also gets deleted in a near future, I copied the instructions from  LollOLand original post 



How to do it (I assume you have a Windows machine, if not, find the HOSTS file on your system):
Start Menu -> Accessories -> right click on “Command prompt” -> click on “Run as administrator“. A black window will open. If you have a Windows XP pc, simply open a commad prompt window;
cut and paste in the command window this string “notepad c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts” (then press “enter” key);
notepad will open, then put those lines at the end of file
127.0.0.1 s0.2mdn.net
127.0.0.1 s1.2mdn.net
127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
You should see something like the picture;
close notepad saving the file;
in the command window run this command ipconfig /flushdns (“enter“!) to flush DNS cache of your PC;
close the command window.
Try to navigate Youtube, now you shouldn’t see any Video ADS before your preferred videos.
NOTE: Thank you to Lorenz for troubleshooting and comments.





if you want to make comments, please visti LollOLand's original post


i am dreaming of a clean internet just like the way I used to know... 

Wednesday 9 January 2013

FLAT WALL BOOKSHELVES

And an other DIY project for the kids bedroom... 



this one inspired (plans included from Ana-White) - if you still don't know who Ana White is... check out her site; IT IS BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING and above all INSPIRING - I first came across  Ana's site, 2 years ago when I was searching about DIY bunk-beds - she didn't had a design that would fit the kid's room (so I am making my own one)... but she has so many other ideas and plans, that I keep going back to her site ... next one on my list (also from Ana's plans) is a Mood-room or entrance storage cabinet  (but that's for next time...) 


A while back I realized that with the new layout for the room we'll end up with a "death corner", in the other hand we also need it more kid's friendly shelves (where the children could reach for the books by themselves). This is when I started to think that a flat wall shelving unit would be the perfect solution. My husband and I waited to the last week of the year to build it. It took over 2 days to complete; as before, (we recently find out our local DIY store pre-cuts the wood free of charge :-) so here is an other plus to easily customize our home furniture) in this case we used MDF 12mm, but first we adjusted Ana's original plans to better fit our needs. 






Even when most of the board was pre-cutted, my husband still had to do some work, like hand-saw the round indents and other bits and pieces. 
Our flat wall shelving unit comes to 170cm long, 80cm wide and 20cm thick (the distance between shelve is 40cm, I need more space than the original designed plan as some of the books we own are already 32cm long) 


Then, it was a matter of sanding, nailed together with the stapler's gun, and painted the following day (as it was getting dark by now)- I painted in a light cream green colour as the opposite wall





Tuesday 8 January 2013

Stairs Renovation

You might remember I mentioned a while back (ok, almost a year ago) I would do a renovation on our home staircase... I promised I will post images before and after renovation; well it's been almost 4 month since my husband finished the MEGA-HARD-WORK.. I keep telling him this is the best renovation job he has done in the house ever (yes, this is what happens If I leave my husband alone for one month in the house meanwhile I was in Spain with the kids during the summer holidays... he went nuts and started scrapping, polishing and painting ... this is the before, during and after (& now present);

before renovation
before renovation
before renovation



during renovation
during renovation
during renovation



now
now
now


I am so happy to have an accomplished man that can tackle any tough job. I am so proud of you, thanks hubby!