Little things that bring a smile to your face 2. (The sequel)

[noobish hat]

Got my copy of Picross 3D and found that it's missing the instructions, so that's great news. NOT!

(With the irk thread closed, I'm going to have to make all my gripes into sarcastic 'smile' comments).

[Kieran76]

Girl at school brought me in some homemade daal for my dinner today. It was super tasty. Think she was bribing me to pick her for the football team.

[nakamura]

At work today and got into a discussion about the coffee generation and how a good cup of english tea is a forgotten thing. This guy was really passionate about a proper cuppa with a correct brewing time and the right biscuits to be dunked into it.
I totally agreed with him, I love tea myself but the best part was that this bloke was indian!

I've never heard so much passion for tea from an Englishman let alone one from another culture altogether. It was ace!

[noobish hat]

What are you talking about? India is probably the biggest place on the planet for tea. It isn't surprising in the slightest.

[speedlolita]

Yeah, silly Martin.

Tea is so much better than coffee though. People are mad.

[nakamura]

Indeed it wasn't but this gentleman was focusing on the British approach to tea. Tea cosy, dunking the right biscuit, picture of the queen in his lounge etc.

[booth83]

Love a good cuppa, but only at home, I drink coffee at work, can't have tea at work because it's a drink to sit and have while relaxing.

Also, posting every irk in here with sarcasm to fit the threads remit is a great idea, I really really can't wait to find out tomorrow just how much my car is going to cost me to fix, it sounds like the bottom end has gone, which is awesome

[charlesr]

Well that certainly brought a smile to my face I'm also looking forward to laughing my nuts off at the price to replace the gearbox, clutch, cam belts and tyres on my car pretty much all at the same time I actually think it will cost more than the price of a replacement car (not kidding), but my car has had a few tweaks, so it would be a pain trying to find one that I like. And I prefer keeping a car on the road.

[Decider-VT]

Re: Little things that bring a smile to your face 2. (The sequel)

Ah, the fact that Facebook now tells me when someone has seen a message is great. No more excuses for people to not reply to messages.

[BaronSqwelch]

or they just have to tell you straight they hate you rather than stay silent to spare your feelings?

[QualityChimp]

I won't bore you with the details, but my Dad has CIPD, which, basically, is a condition that affects the nerve endings.
He's gone from being a competitive cyclist to being stuck in a wheelchair.

One of the side-effects of this is his hands really shake (ataxia). Any action with his hands is incredibly infuriating, from using a mobile phone to operating a remote control.

Obviously, all that bit's an irk, but the smile bit is that I've been working on being able to control the telly with his voice.

I've tried lots of things including large remotes (they don't control all the telly functions) and I can't get hold of some specialist voice-activated remotes either. The council gave him a box that goes through every option on the remote. Every option! So if you wanted to go up three times, you'd have to site through the list of commands three times!
TV on
TV off
Volume up
Volume down
Channel up "YES!"
*repeat three times*

Pointless!

So, I've done something myself!

Using a laptop with Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice-recognition software, I can give keyboard commands to control this Virgin Tivo software.

It's been a real faff - downloading the software, updating the Windows SP, buying and installing headphones, putting the Tivo box on the network using powerline adaptors, making the Tivo box contollable online and so on.

However, I was testing it at lunch and it was working pretty good. There's a few kinks to iron out, but even on my initial go, I was changing channels, recording shows, series linking, browsing the guide, fast forward and rewinding and playing pre-recorded shows.

I'd do anything to take away his condition, but I'll settle with making his day a little more bearable.

I hope he likes it! I'm showing my Mom tonight and she might order Virgin telly (they have broadband already), then he can watch telly a bit easier.

[randombs]

I woke up 30 years old today.

[vanpeebles]

How old were you when you went to bed?

[ItsThere]

Happy birthday mate.

Have a good one.

[noobish hat]