Niall Scott

It took far longer than I hoped, but this morning Google finally approved the update to My Bus Edinburgh which fixes the issue loading bus times.

This is now starting to roll out to users. If you don't immediately see the update, please check the Play Store throughout the day.

A change was made to Bus Tracker without my prior knowledge which means bus times are not currently working.

Fortunately the fix is simple and I am currently publishing a new app update this morning to fix it. I will update here when the update is out.

Me, Niall Scott, standing in-front of my speaker card for the talk "Dual booting for testing and curiosity with Dynamic System Updates" at Droidcon London 2025.

Thanks to everyone who came along to my Droidcon London talk. Now it's over, I can relax for the rest of the conference.

Here's a link to the slides: docs.google.com/presentation...

On my way to London to attend Droidcon this week. Looking forward to meeting with my fellow Android developers and friends.

LLM voice: "you're absolutely right there Thomas!"

The biggest threat to the way of life of those who spout "go back to your own country" is that enough people actually do. However, the bigots are usually too stupid to realise this.

Study after study shows that on the whole, migrants contribute way more than they take. Show them respect.

A brand new update for My Bus Edinburgh is rolling out.

It's been over 2 years since the last update, so this was long overdue.

This is the first release with some features written in Compose.

This project started in 2009 while I was at uni, and it's still rolling along. 25.5k active installs!

So what might appear like a common pattern to you might not appear like a common pattern to others. In my case, this has been because my typical developer workflow has not demanded it.

I started using them at least 2 years agoon a personal project but not extensively as I did this week due to previous flakiness.

I've mostly been doing Android Automotive for the past 2.5 years, so I tend to target a single device, thus not leveraging the full capability of Gradle Managed Devices.

Scale your tests with Gradle-managed devices  |  Android Studio  |  Android Developers How to run automated instrumented tests at scale with Gradle-managed devices.

And by Gradle Managed Devices, I mean this: developer.android.com/studio/test/...

I just want to say, I'm using Gradle Managed Devices to run instrumentation tests across groups of virtual devices and it's amazing. Prior to a release, I'm getting very valuable feedback that the tests do indeed pass across many versions of Android.

A speaker card for Niall Scott's talk "Dual booting for testing and curiosity with Dynamic System Updates" at Droidcon London 2025. Niall is a contractor senior Android engineer. This is an intermediate level talk. Droidcon London takes place between October 30th and 31st 2025.

Only 2 weeks to go until @droidcon.bsky.social London!

I will be presenting the 20 minute lightening session "Dual booting for testing and curiosity with Dynamic System Updates" on the Dalvik Domain stage at 15:30 on October 30th (1st day).

People go on about how long it takes to get through passport control in the EU for British citizens post-Brexit. But somehow it takes even longer to get back into the UK at Edinburgh Airport as a British citizen.

I remember when prices for food and drink in airports were merely ridiculous. Now they're kick-you-in-the-balls insulting.

Next week I will be in Berlin for Droidcon.

I can't wait. I'm looking forward to meeting up with my fellow Android developers.

This time around, I am particularly interested in automotive and Android Open Source (AOSP) development. So if these things interest you too - let's chat at the conference

I don't think I'll ever tire of that little flutter of excitement when I perform an AOSP firmware build and then watch it booting on a device.

On which note, if you want to play around with AOSP, get a VIM3 board. It's an accessible entry in to playing around with AOSP on a device.

A screenshot showing that my session "Dual booting for testing and curiosity with Dynamic System Updates" has been accepted at Droidcon London 2025.

I'll be speaking at Droidcon London this year: "Dual booting for testing and curiosity with Dynamic System Updates"

This will be my first conference talk. As such, I'm easing myself in by doing a lightening session.

I'm both looking forward to it and very nervous.

Case in point: I had a failed AOSP build. The error output told me what I needed to do to fix it. But I didn't just take it at face-value that this is what I needed to do. I read the docs to understand what enabling this flag does.

And I learnt something new by doing this.

Software engineers: when you're trying to find a solution to a problem you don't understand, it's tempting to put in the quick fix from SO or elsewhere, to make the problem go away.

It's always worth digging down further to *understand* the problem, so you're aware of the consequences of your fix.

Oh boy. If enacted, that would decimate some areas of Spain. I'm thinking of the Costa del Sol, but there are plenty of other areas too.

And perhaps that's what some people want. But there'd be an enormous financial hit.

I'm a big Pink Floyd fan and this release really excited me. I've loved the Live in Pompeii concert for years. A band on the cusp of their meteoric success.

Trump administration orders US embassies to stop student visa interviews Directive could severely delay visa processing and hurt universities that rely on foreign students for revenue

Once the free-speech lobby learn of this, they will be up in arms!*

*They won't, because they're inconsistent with their arguments, and Trump is their man.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I didn't spend too long in Eindhoven as we used it as a base to go to Tilburg to visit the La Trappe brewery. But we did go to a bar and had food in the market. While walking around I noticed how peaceful it is compared to other cities.

At the weekend I was in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It was a far more pleasant place to wander than most cities. The cycling infrastructure, meaning less cars, means the background noise is quieter. And the greenery of trees and plants on residential streets dampens the worst of the hard landscaping.

Hmm, this money was taken via a Mastercard debit card.

I dislike the dark practice by subscription services, particularly those which renew annually, of not notifying you a few days before the renewal before they help themselves to your bank account. It's a deliberate attempt to keep up retention.

Reform UK: Stephen Hartley suspended after pro-Jimmy Savile tweets Stephen Hartley was announced as a Reform UK candidate in the Banbury Hardwick ward, but has since been suspended.

At some point, British society is going to need to have a conversation about why the Reform party keeps attracting people with spicy, unsavoury views on a whole range of topics. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

We have two excellent talks lined up for you at the March AOSP and AAOS Meetup

1. Using Vendor APEX in AOSP, from Renjith Rajagopal

2. What to expect in Android 16, from @MishaalRahman

Links: full details of the meetup at https://www.meetup.com/the-aosp-and-aaos-meetup/
Information about the […]

It's insane that this is even being said, but here goes...

If the US wanted Russia to prevail in Ukraine, what would they be doing differently from now?

(Answer: almost nothing)

If the EU really wanted to send strong signals about what its priorities are, now would be a good time to kick out Hungary and admit Ukraine as a full member.

However, unfortunately, the pragmatic position is to keep Hungary in the tent to use whatever remaining leverage it has over them.