Category Archives: Misc Waffle

Misc stuff to waffle about.

How to Add BP and ECG to Non Samsung Phones

September last year was a happy time, a time when I bought a new smart watch which was going to bring great benefits. Able to monitor my Blood Pressure easily and keep an accurate record, the ECG function – that you didn’t know you needed until it was there! Throw into the mix all of the other fun things with the new Galaxy Watch 3.

Then the woe started – the features I really wanted, and key reasons to buy the watch. . . weren’t available in the UK. They had to go through certification. Disappointed . . yes, end of the world. . no . . it will come in time.

The months roll on until January 2021! Formally announced – Blood Pressure and ECG will be coming to the UK! We cheered and held parties on the street (ok perhaps not).

The update came through Feb 22nd, it was applied. . . and immediately in I went. However – what Samsung DIDN’T tell you . . is that this won’t be available on all phones (as per the initial adverts) – but ONLY on Samsung phones!

Overall – NOT impressed, lots of noise on the forums/twitter, but clear that Samsung do NOT care. However – some clever people (and I take NO credit in the links below but keen to save people the hassle of the searches to get to this point) have provided a way to get both BP and ECG on your phone and watch.

It’s not hard, but is a bit of faff – but this youtube vid clearly explains all you need to do, with all the links to go with it. Separately – there are the XDA Forums where it’s also described there. Kudos to those that provided these “fixes”

You Tube Link

https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/enable-ecg-bp-featur-on-non-samsung-phones-for-galaxy-watch-3-active-2-step-by-step.4168567/

For me – the youtube vid was easiest, the ECG app installed easily – but I had to do the advanced method for the Blood Pressure app. All easily explained with easy to follow instructions. I’m now a semi happy Samsung customer thanks to some other clever people out there doing what Samsung should provide regardless! Hope this helps others!

Bashley Park – Holbourne Review

Short Review

We stayed at Bashley ParkΒ for a week in April on a Touring Pitch. Two adults and one 4 year old. Overall the site is great, I hadn’t been before the refurb, but as of now it looks excellent inside and out. The shower blocks were clean and functional, entertainment teams great, beer fresh and cold, food fine, pool excellent and the pitches great. Highly recommended for families.

Longer Review

On arrival at Bashley Park, we’d called in advance and asked if we go straight to the touring pitches. We’re told yes – but on arrival had no code to get through the barrier. Thankfully someone gave us the code to get in while my wife ran to reception to get our pitch details. The wardens came by about the same time and provided our pitch details. Bit frustrating for a start, but not really the sites fault.

Caravan space was great, fully serviced pitch. We were in and set up very quickly.

Continue reading

Rockin In The Free World!

Well our band Chamberlaye is back together with gigs coming up in the next couple of weeks! Thankfully wifey has agreed I can buy a little more gear πŸ™‚ So couple of Mackie 450v2’s and one of the new Yamaha Mixers (I’ll do a review once I’ve got it!) are now mine. Well once the mixer is released and available that is!

If you’ve not checked out my band – www.chamberlayneband.com and if you’re local come watch us! You’ll not be disappointed!

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B2Evo to WordPress

Well the site used to be based on B2Evo, but after using WordPress for another site, it was time to make a change. WordPress completely blows away B2Evo – no more to say.

Migrating – that isn’t so much fun though. I only had 100 or so posts, but way to much to just recreate from scratch! So here’s my story of how to migrate a simple B2Evo blog to WordPress. Searching – I couldn’t find an easy way for a simple blog to migrate!

  • Firstly setup wordpress in a sub directory on your server and configure it up.
  • Go onto your B2Evo Server (you’ll need to get to the database settings ie phpadmin or webmin etc.
  • Export to CSV the whole database (you can filter if you know what you’re doing). Make sure you include the headers for the rows so you know what field is what!
  • Open up the CSV in Excel or equiv and search on some text for a blog post you’ve made to jump to the blog content section.
  • Here I just scrolled up until I reached the start of the blog section where the posts are stored and deleted everything above and then everything below the last blog post. At this stage you’re left with a load of headers + content for all your blog posts (ie date, content, category etc).
  • Personally I deleted all columns apart from the date/content/post title. Then save your new .csv file.
  • In WordPress install the WP Ultimate CSV Importer plugin (just search for it).
  • Next step is straightforward using the plugin above. Just map the csv fields to the wordpress fields and click through until you start to import.
  • Check your site and make sure you’re happy with it. Then just delete your old blog/database & just copy your wordpress directory back to the root of your URL (and remember to update the settings when changing directory!!!)

It’s that simple – you’ll then have all your posts imported into wordpress. Obviously you can expand this with comments, users, categories etc.

 

One Gallon Down!

Well my first gallon of white wine is finished, bottled and one bottle less already!

It is quite light, and lacks vinosity (wine body flavour) – which will be easily resolved in the next batch I intend to start tonight. Going to do some minor changes on this one – intend to use white wine concentrate (200ml) in one and raisens in the other. This should help add some “grunt” to it πŸ™‚

I need more DJ’s tho . . .currenly I’m running 4 on the go each time. The two gallons of cider have all been drunk! I need more of that on the go as well!!!

The Cider turned out great to be honest. The cheapy plain one tasted loads better than the previous scrumpy wanna be. The one with honey in just had that little addition that was nice to be honest.

Anyway – 2nd gallon of wine is now ready be bottled. I’m hoping to leave them for as long as I can to let them mature.

I’ve also started a Rose – that is nearly ready to be racked into another DJ. Very fruity flavour. . not 100% sure if it is for me or not. . .will wait till it has matured a bit.

So – if anyone is interested. . here is what the whites DID look like – and the gallon that is ready for bottling today πŸ™‚

. . .and after clearing. . .

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“I am a cider drinker . . . .”

Well my plum wine is still bubbling away – I measured the gravity of it at the beginning of the week (1050) and that basically means 2 things. It must have been VERY sweet when I started. . . and has a long long way to go! By the instructions – another week and I should start to add the other bits. Thankfully, after reading up I know that I need to let it ferment down a LOT lower than it is (somewhere just below 1.000 if possible).

So – after scouring forums and learning – I’ve found you can make “Turbo Cider” using apple juice from supermarkets.

Simply – put in 3 litres of apple juice into a demi john, add yeast, leave for 36 hours, add in another 1.5ltrs and let it “ferment out” then bottle. Put in half a tsp of sugar per half pint or something to make it fizzy.

Well – I wasn’t sure what sort of apple juice – so we got the pure non concentrate stuff. Which is a shame because it is cloudy and – well it isn’t going to be that turbo . . it kinda goes a little slow πŸ™‚ Lessons learned there. Next batch will be done with cheapy tesco value “made from concentrate” stuff.

Will keep you updated!

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Kef Kube Not Powering On

Well – bit of a weird thing to post on my blog, but wanted to share this as I’ve had this happen twice. I’ve the 2005.3 KEF Speaker set, overall it is excellent and I’m more than happy with it. However – just when it was coming upto 12 months old, the sub stopped working. No power light, nothing. Thankfully Richer Sounds did a great swap out for me and I had a nice new shiney amp πŸ™‚

But again a couple of days ago, I noticed the sub had stopped working again. But this time I’m out of the 12 month instant swap out and that would mean sending it off. So I did some digging. There is a small fuse next to the power connection on the sub, taking it out and testing showed the fuse was blown.

Shouldn’t be a problem. . just replace it! However the fuse has a ref number of F4H. . . when searching on google, nothing (or very little). I couldn’t find anywhere to buy it. The good news is one of the links did have someone with the same problem who found a suitable replacement which is available in packs of 10 from Maplins. They cost £1.99 so it’s 19p to get your sub back up and running πŸ™‚

The code at Maplin is GJ95D, so F4H = GJ95D. The fuse with the sub is a ceramic 4A quick blowing fuse. The replacement is a 4A glass quick blowing fuse.

So – something useful to share rather than the normal waffle πŸ™‚

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Camping! (again)

Well – finally time for another break camping! This time we’re going for a good 10 days. . .and I may even do some windsurfing! I’m heading up to Exmouth and one of the big lakes up there with my brother and his family. Best thing being – I’m sure the dogs are going to LOVE this πŸ™‚ I’m hoping we can get them swimming properly, time will tell.

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So I love my dogs. . . BUT!

Well on one hand camping was a complete success. We had a really good time in the end and good company with my brothers family. The weather was very mixed, but personally, I love sitting in a tent nice n dry while it is raining outside with a can of beer and a book πŸ™‚ The intention was to do alot of sailing with my brother, but from the moment we arrived I just wanted to relax and unwind. . . which is exactly what I did πŸ™‚

However – the dogs don’t necessarily allow this πŸ™ While the campsite was quiet it wasn’t too bad. But as it got busier the dogs got worse (running up and barking at people). They even barked at my brother nearly every day even though 30 seconds later they were happy being fussed! It is something we need to sort though – at the end of 8 days we’d both had enough and decided to head back while we had a nice dry day to pack up.

It was really the first time I’ve found the dogs to be a problem. We did a few trips out – and again. . with the dogs each trip was a nightmare.

I wouldn’t mind but even after a 9-10 mile walk. . .they were STILL jumping up and barking πŸ™‚

But – all in all we had a nice time and some lessons learned.

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A Long Long Time Ago . . . .

. . .I was going to post more! But didn’t πŸ™‚

Oh well eh!

Anyway – whats new? Wine making is going well – actually got 15 gallons on the go as we speak (about 80 bottles worth). Got all the bits I need to start “mass” producing it so intend to get a nice stock up. Using proper kits for this – so the wine is generally a better quality. Basically it is the equiv to the £5-7 bottles you’ll buy in the shops.

I’ve tried the Red wine kits – but not happy with those yet. I’ve got a couple of bottles I’ve left to mature for a few months and I’ll see if it is just the case it needs maturing.

Diet . . . .yup DIET! I’m losing weight. I actually weighed myself today and I’m the lightest I’ve been for a while – so quite happy with myself :).

Other than that – not much going on. Work is HELL – I swear even the devil wouldn’t want my job (but think he takes over some of my bosses from time to time!). Would love to change jobs – but in this climate. . . .probably not worth the risk.

Well I’ll think about more updates. Perhaps even finishing those stories I keep looking at . . . maybe – have to delve into Visual Basic a bit more as well. . .oh the joy!

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