41 Years + 1 day

Okay, I am trying this again. I have tried this before... twice. I almost got there, like two thirds of the year in but I began missing days.. and covering up for them and I was loosing track... how many days had gone really? Had I missed a day by mistake? It is a huge commitment writing something each and EVERY day!

But I am a great believer in try and try again. I am going to attempt to generally write something in every day for a whole year. The last input being that before my birthday on the 3rd September 2018. We'll see how that goes I guess.

So yesterday was my birthday. I was gifted, apart from my friends and family and their best wishes of course, a knife set, a lovely new digital Casio wrist watch and a new phone! A One Plus Five. The phone seems blisteringly quick. The knifes seem dangerously sharp! The watch seem frighteningly accurate at telling me, well, the time I guess.

Anyway that is all. I am looking forward to it. A blog a day for a year can I do it this time!

Space Opera Vs!

Here is a cool little thing I like to do... Get a genre. Find the main TV series and Films in that genre and add up all their scores and compare....

Where do I get the scores? IMDB.com of course. So all of the numbers below that have a year beside them are from IMDB. The first box is my total averages... enjoy!

Today is SPACE OPERA!

(Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, as well as chivalric romance, and often risk-taking.)

Star Trek	7.267
Star Wars	7.825
Star Gate	7.771
Firefly	8.500
Battlestar Galactica	7.660
Farscape	8.250
Babylon 5	6.988
Andromeda	6.600

Firefly Wins Of course....

The OBVIOUS winner here is Firefly with  8.5/10. I was wondering if I should have added in Starship Troopers? What do you think? I have added Andromeda as an "also ran". But when I was looking into Andromeda I was surprised how many of its cast would turn up in other Space Opera.

But there is a breakdown below: 

Star Trek
Star Trek (1966–1969)	8.4
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)	6.4
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)	7.7
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)	6.6
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)	7.3
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994)	8.6
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)	5.4
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country(1991)	7.2
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine(1993–1999)	7.9
Star Trek: Generations(1994)	6.6
Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001)	7.7
Star Trek: First Contact(1996)	7.6
Star Trek: Insurrection(1998)	6.4
Star Trek: Enterprise(2001–2005)	7.7
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)	6.4
Star Trek (2009)	8
Star Trek Into Darkness(2013)	7.8
Star Trek Beyond (2016)	7.1
	7.266666667
Star Wars
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)	8.7
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back(1980)	8.8
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)	8.4
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)	6.5
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)	6.6
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005)	7.6
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)	8.1
Rogue One (2016)	7.9
	7.825
Star Gate
Stargate (1994)	7.1
Stargate SG-1 (1997–2007)	8.4
Stargate: Atlantis (2004–2009)	8.1
Stargate: Continuum (2008)	7.6
Stargate: The Ark of Truth(2008)	7.4
Stargate SG-1: Children Of Gods - Final Cut (2009)	8.1
SGU Stargate Universe(2009–2011)	7.7
	7.771428571
Firefly
Firefly (2002–2003)	9.1
Serenity (2005)	7.9
	8.5
Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica (1978 - 1979)	7.1
Battlestar Galactica (2003)	8.6
Battlestar Galactica (2004 - 2009)	8.7
Battlestar Galactica : The Resistance (2006)	7.9
Battlestar Galactica : Razor (2007)	7.7
Battlestar Galactica : Razor Flashbacks (2007)	7.7
Battlestar Galactica : The Face Of The Enemy (2008)	7.7
Caprica (2009 - 2010)	7.1
Battlestar Galactica : The Plan (2009)	7.1
Battlestar Galactica : Blood And Chrome (2012)	7
	7.66
Farscape
Farscape (1999 - 2003)	8.3
Farscape : The Peacekeeper Wars (2004)	8.2
	8.25
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 : The Gathering (1993)	6.6
Babylon 5 (1994 - 1998)	8.3
Babylon 5 : In The Beginning (1998)	7.7
Babylon 5 : Thirdspace (1998)	6.9
Babylon 5 : The River Of Souls (1998)	6.6
Babylon 5 : A Call To Arms (1999)	7.2
Babylon 5 : The Legend Of The Rangers (2002)	6.1
Babylon 5 : The Lost Tales (2007)	6.5
	6.9875
Andromeda
Andromeda (2000 - 2005)	6.6

Star Wars should have scored higher... Thanks Lucas!

Have I left any out? Please tell me what you think at donalod@gmail.com

A Handmaid's Tale

Going to cut to the chase here. This could have been called "A 'Vision Of Donald Trump's World In The Future' Tale".

Bloody horrible existance. Welcome to Saudi Arabia.  

Have you been watching "A Handmaid's Tale"? It is very good. Well acted. You know all the usual stuff, the sets are well lit. The sound is good. These are things you take for granted but they need alot of work in television and film production. What else is important? Hmmm... Well the continuity is good. You know what continuity is? That is when someone is for example holding a cup in, lets say, their right hand in a scene, the camera cuts away from them and then back to them and all of a sudden they are holding the cut in their left hand. You know? What else is important?

Hmmm.

Well set costumes are important. All the clothes look well, Gives a certain look and feel to the program. A feeling of doom and utter hopelessness. A feeling that everything is shit in this world and that there is no hope for anyone. Wait a second, this is reminding me of one more thing that I have left out of my "what makes a good TV or Movie" list.

Yes, that's it. The story. You know like a quality story. Not like Eastenders or Home and Away story. I mean a real story that actually has something to say. Like real meaning kind of stuff. So I don't want to give too many spoilers away so if you do not want any spoilers look away now... go to another webpage. Close this tab on your browser and go elsewhere. Go on....

If your still reading. Ask yourself this. What countries support female genital mutilation? What countries is it illegal to be gay in? Would you visit these countries? Would you support their governments? Support their economies? Well I did some research.


Here is a link to the Wiki page on the trendy FGM...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_mutilation

Percentage of the 15–49 group who have undergone FGM in 29 countries for which figures were available in 2016

How about countries that are illegal to be gay in? Lets look into that....

(going away doing some research...)

1. Yemen
2. Iran
3. Mauritania
4. Nigeria
5. Qatar
6. Saudi Arabia
7. Afghanistan
8. Somalia
9. Sudan
10. United Arab Emirates

Boy oh boy... scary isn't it. Saudi Arabia... UAE. These are countries that we trade with! These are countries that America have done massive arms deals with lately. USA have signed an arms deal worth $110 billion with SA that will increase to around $350 billion in the coming years (click here for link). You telling me that a man as crazy as Trump might not make the Handmaid's tale come true?

I love the series A Handmaid's Tale so much because I hate the point of the story of the Handmaid's tale so much.

Existence is horrible for 100's of millions of women because of religion.

If you are not watching A Handmaid's Tale already, watch it now I would advise. Link to the IMDB page is below.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834204/

Keyboard shortcuts for Google Sheets

Whats All This Then? Well what this is, is an extremely helpful list of keyboard shortcuts in Google Sheets. Google Sheets is the equalivant to Microsoft Excel. So these commands are for Windows and boy to I love them.  Want to insert a row in Sheets? Insert rows above Ctrl + Alt + Shift + = Ctrl + Alt + = (with rows selected) Want to delete a row? Delete rows Ctrl + Alt + - (with rows selected) Full Page is here with links to Windows, Chrome OS and Mac Common actions
Select column	Ctrl + Space
Select row	Shift + Space
Select all	Ctrl + a Ctrl + Shift + Space
Undo	Ctrl + z
Redo	Ctrl + y Ctrl + Shift + z F4
Find	Ctrl + f
Find and replace	Ctrl + h
Fill range	Ctrl + Enter
Fill down	Ctrl + d
Fill right	Ctrl + r
Save (every change is saved automatically in Drive)	Ctrl + s
Open	Ctrl + o
Print	Ctrl + p
Copy	Ctrl + c
Cut	Ctrl + x
Paste	Ctrl + v
Paste values only	Ctrl + Shift + v
Show common keyboard shortcuts	Ctrl + /
Insert new sheet	Shift + F11
Compact controls	Ctrl + Shift + f
Input tools on/off (available in spreadsheets in non-Latin languages)	Ctrl + Shift + k
Select input tools	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + k
Format cells
Bold	Ctrl + b
Underline	Ctrl + u
Italic	Ctrl + i
Strikethrough	Alt + Shift + 5
Center align	Ctrl + Shift + e
Left align	Ctrl + Shift + l
Right align	Ctrl + Shift + r
Apply top border	Alt + Shift + 1
Apply right border	Alt + Shift + 2
Apply bottom border	Alt + Shift + 3
Apply left border	Alt + Shift + 4
Remove borders	Alt + Shift + 6
Apply outer border	Alt + Shift + 7 Ctrl + Shift + 7
Insert link	Ctrl + k
Insert time	Ctrl + Shift + ;
Insert date	Ctrl + ;
Insert date and time	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + ;
Format as decimal	Ctrl + Shift + 1
Format as time	Ctrl + Shift + 2
Format as date	Ctrl + Shift + 3
Format as currency	Ctrl + Shift + 4
Format as percentage	Ctrl + Shift + 5
Format as exponent	Ctrl + Shift + 6
Clear formatting	Ctrl + \
Navigate spreadsheet
Move to beginning of row	Home
Move to beginning of sheet	Ctrl + Home
Move to end of row	End
Move to end of sheet	Ctrl + End
Scroll to active cell	Ctrl + Backspace
Move to next sheet	Ctrl + Shift + Page Down
Move to previous sheet	Ctrl + Shift + Page Up
Display list of sheets	Alt + Shift + k
Open hyperlink	Alt + Enter
Open Explore	Alt + Shift + x
Move focus out of spreadsheet	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + m
Move to quicksum (when a range of cells is selected)	Alt + Shift + q
Move focus to popup (for links, bookmarks, and images)	holding Ctrl + Alt, press e then p
Open drop-down menu on filtered cell	Ctrl + Alt + r
Open revision history	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + h
Open chat inside the spreadsheet	Shift + Esc
Close drawing editor	Shift + Esc
Edit notes and comments
Insert/edit note	Shift + F2
Insert/edit comment	Ctrl + Alt + m
Open comment discussion thread	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + a
Enter current comment	holding Ctrl + Alt, press e then c
Move to next comment	holding Ctrl + Alt, press n then c
Move to previous comment	holding Ctrl + Alt, press p then c
Open a menu
File menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + f other browsers: Alt + Shift + f
Edit menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + e other browsers: Alt + Shift + e
View menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + v other browsers: Alt + Shift + v
Insert menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + i other browsers: Alt + Shift + i
Format menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + o other browsers: Alt + Shift + o
Data menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + d other browsers: Alt + Shift + d
Tools menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + t other browsers: Alt + Shift + t
Open insert menu	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + = Ctrl + Alt + =  (with cells selected)
Open delete menu	Ctrl + Alt + - (with cells selected)
Form menu (present when the spreadsheet is connected to a form)	in Google Chrome: Alt + m other browsers: Alt + Shift + m
Add-ons menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + n other browsers: Alt + Shift + n
Help menu	in Google Chrome: Alt + h other browsers: Alt + Shift + h
Accessibility menu (present when screen reader support is enabled)	in Google Chrome: Alt + a other browsers: Alt + Shift + a
Sheet menu (copy, delete, and other sheet actions)	Alt + Shift + s
Context menu	Ctrl + Shift + \
Insert, delete, hide, or unhide rows or columns
Insert rows above	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + = Ctrl + Alt + = (with rows selected) in Google Chrome: Alt + i, then r other browsers: Alt + Shift + i, then r
Insert rows below	in Google Chrome: Alt + i, then w other browsers: Alt + Shift + i, then w
Insert columns to the left	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + = Ctrl + Alt + =  (with columns selected) in Google Chrome: Alt + i, then c other browsers: Alt + Shift + i, then c
Insert columns to the right	in Google Chrome: Alt + i, then o other browsers: Alt + Shift + i, then o
Delete rows	Ctrl + Alt + - (with rows selected) in Google Chrome: Alt + e, then d other browsers: Alt + Shift + e, then d
Delete columns	Ctrl + Alt + - (with columns selected) in Google Chrome: Alt + e, then e other browsers: Alt + Shift + e, then e
Hide row	Ctrl + Alt + 9
Hide column	Ctrl + Alt + 0
Unhide row	Ctrl + Shift + 9
Unhide column	Ctrl + Shift + 0
Use formulas
Show all formulas	Ctrl + ~
Insert array formula	Ctrl + Shift + Enter
Collapse an expanded array formula	Ctrl + e
Show/hide formula help (when entering a formula)	Shift + F1
Full/compact formula help (when entering a formula)	F1
Absolute/relative references (when entering a formula)	F4
Toggle formula result previews (when entering a formula)	F9
Resize formula bar (move up or down)	Ctrl + Up / Ctrl + Down
Help for screen readers
Turn on screen reader support Learn more about using Google Sheets with a screen reader	Ctrl + Alt + z
Read column	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + c
Read row	Ctrl + Alt + Shift + r

Search Concepts We All Should Know - From Google

This is actually pretty reading. I am signing websites up to Googles Search Console and this was one of the pages that was on it. Considering it is Google that supplied this document I consider it very worth reading.

And here goes...

The reports in Search Console are organized according to the general outline of the Google Search pipeline: Content is first crawled (discovered), then it is indexed (parsed and analyzed for content), after which you, the website owner, analyze the search traffic to your site and also consider how search results are displayed to the user or linked to by other sites.

Crawl

Google’s web crawlers follow links and sitemaps to generate a list of publicly available URLs to visit and index for content. This is the first step in the process of being added to Google’s search results.

• Property
  A generic term for a website or an app that you have added to your Search Console account. You can see a list of your properties on your account homepage.
• Verify
  To prove that you own the website or app referred to in your Search Console account. A property must be verified before you can start seeing any data for it. You’ll be asked to verify a site after you add it to your Search Console account.
• Googlebot
  Google’s web crawler. Google has a few different Googlebots that request your pages as different device types (a smartphone, a feature phone, or a desktop computer) to calculate different search results for users searching on these devices.
• Canonical
  If you host the same page at different URLs, your search results can be diluted across these duplicate pages. For example, you might have the same page at http://example.com/dogs and http://www.example.com/dogs; a search might then show separate, lower ranked results for each page than if you had only a single page. In this case, you should indicate to Google that these pages are the same, and choose one to be canonical (the official page) to show in search results. Indicate canonical pages or sites using a Sitemap, HTML tags, or Search Console settings.
• robots.txt
  The name of a file on your site that tells Google which pages not to index or show in search results.
• Sitemap
  A list of URLs in your site that Google uses as starting locations to begin crawling a website. A sitemap is contained in one or more files stored on your website.

Index

The process of visiting URLs and analyzing the content and meaning of each page. This helps Google determine the best search results for a user’s query.

• Resource
  A web page typically loads many additional resources such as CSS, JavaScripts, and images. Be sure that Googlebot isn’t blocked from accessing any resources that affect the meaning of the page during the indexing process.
• Render
  Google tries to display all pages that it indexes in order to view the page as a user would. Rendering is the process of displaying the page with the images and layout to help Google analyze the meaning of the page.

Search traffic

• Manual action
  If your page violates one of Google’s quality guidelines, such as spammy content, it can be subject to a manual action, which will demote it in Google search results.
• International targeting
  Explicitly targeting your search results at users by language or country. This can be done using hreflang link tags or the country targeting setting in Search Console.

Search appearance

How your page or app appears in search.

• Structured data
  A public XML standard way of describing information about your pages in a format that the Google crawling engine understands. For instance, you can add ratings, event information, or video information. Some types of structured data are used to create rich snippets.
• Snippets
  The small descriptive lines of text that appear under each result in Google search results. These are generated programmatically by Google during indexing, and can have visual characteristics known as rich snippets.
• Rich snippet
  A visually enhanced Google search result, such as star ratings or event times. Rich snippets are often generated from structured data added by the page author.
• Sitelink
  If your website has a logical hierarchy or structure, Google might display a set of sub-links below the main search result. For example, for an airline site, the main result will be the airline home page, and the smaller links below would be direct links to the booking page, the flight status page, the baggage policies page, and so on. You cannot specify sitelinks for your site.

Blow Up Blocks - Level 4 completed.

I have begun a new game. I am well into it actually at this stage. Lots of nice colors and good level design. That thing I just said, that would be my dream review if someone were to ever review the game. I hope that they would say "The colors look amazing. The world is well realised. The game play is gripping and the level design is awesome!". Yes I would go to sleep that night with the thought in my head that I have made a great game. 

You see, for all my blabbing up top there, that is really what I am trying to do. I am actually trying to make a game that will be brilliant. I want you to play the game and go, "that game was worth every cent that I paid for it! I must tell one of my friends to buy it."

Whether or not you will do that is really not too much of an issue right now, right now I just want to design 30 levels of a game that you will have played in a few hours. I have completed level 4 just last night. I got my Sophie to test the game this evening and she said that she liked Level 4 alright but I do not think that she liked it as much as the other levels. The initial 3 levels are more fun, fun, fun based. Level 5 will be fun for the player as a reward for completing level 4. Anyway... I would say remember the name of the game but that might be counter intuitive as I am still coming up with the name that suits the game the best at this point.

Lets say that for now, the code name is BlowUpBlocks. The final name of the game might of course be BlowUpBlocks, we will see. I'm off to begin work on some particle explosions :)

The sound of singing in the rain music

Saw these two films over the weekend. They were quite good. Great to be honest and a fine example of classic cinema. For some reason I hated musicals when I was growing up. I do not know why. I don't know if I have some strange associations with musicals and my childhood. I asked my mother if she had seen them when we were young and she said SHE had seen them a few times. So what was I doing?

Hmmm?

In case it is not obvious what two films I am talking about, they are Singing in the Rain and The Sound of Music. The are linked just there to IMDB. Check them out on IMDB.

So I find it interesting, how come I never liked musicals growing up. I think it might be because I did not like the dancing. I did not appreciate songs too. Maybe when I was young I did not like films now that I think about it. I can't really remember seeing many films at home.

Look, my point is, if you have not seen these films give them a shot. Did you see them once and can't remember them? Give them a second chance. Set aside a few hours and watch it with someone. Your partner, your kids or your parent and siblings. Create something I wish I had more of from my youth. Some happy memories.

Social Blade - Stats on youtubers and more....

My favorite YouTuber is probably Philip DeFranco. Let me think about that for a moment... hmmm. Yep I guess he is, there are other people that based on how I am feeling, what I want to know about etc I will go to, but the best all rounder has to be Philip DeFranco, for me that it.

So who is yours? Take a moment. Of course you might not have one, but I am going on the assumption that if you are smart and handsome enough, and pretty enough, and brave and witty enough to be reading this article that you have subscribed to someone on YouTube or that there is some YouTube that, while you may not have subscribed to, that you are at least a fan of, Think of that person, who are they.

Will for me it is Philip DeFranco. However, his username is sxephil. Note: you are not addressing the Queen in a formal letter - this is modern speak. So his username is not Sxephil. It is sxephil. Small s at the beginning. It annoys me when people throw in capital letter because they "feel" like it. Note again: they "feel" it as opposed to they are correct about it! I have been on YouTube for a few years. I have posted a few videos, and my username is donalodomhnaill. Now, you wanna know how much money I make on YouTube?

hmm C-. Social blade is a good reflection of alot of my schoolin. 

This is finally what this article is about. There is a brilliant website called socialblade.com. Go there now in a new tab so you can come back here. So socialblade.com is for getting stats on people who are on social media. So you can find out about users on twitter, YouTube, Twitch and Instagram. Try it out, you have two usernames for YouTube already. Mine: donalodomhnaill and Philip DeFranco: sxephil.

I am going to assume that you have of course gone to socialblade and put in our usernames. See who makes more money? Me or Philip. Well, yeah. DeFranco in that I am not monetized even. And I do not have 5 million subscribers. And I go not get a million views on my videos. Indeed my figures look pretty grim.

But it is a pretty cool channel is it not?

Modern Films Rant

Before you jump into this piece I have written I would like you to note that I love virtually all film. If it is inturrupted as "Donal does not like Oscars films or Action films" - then I am sorry. I did not mean for the article to come across as this. I LOVE action films, romance, Oscar films etc. I love films. This is why I have written this below.

3 THINGS ON THIS Ryan Walker. First, I have this theory. Lets say I am a movie critic. Now, I want to be known. I want to have a name for myself! A film comes out and I review it. The film is cool but touchy feely maybe with emotions and romance in it but there is also sci-fi or adventure... BOOM. I don't like it (the "I" that is the critic doesn't like it). The critic usually does not have the language to describe and critique a film that is both "this" and "this". The critic is afraid that if they describe too many different themes in a film that their audience will be lost. "What is all the political undertone you mention and the fact that the lady represents old America and that her being beaten by the business man is representative of modern capitalism destroying civilians freedoms! I only saw a woman getting smacked around the place!" New audiences are trained to only look at the facade of a film... is someone killing someone. Check. Is some lead female semi-naked. Check. Is some handsome man semi-naked, and build like a demi-god. Check. Is stuff blowing up. Check. Is there a political undertone that is attempting to reach the masses. Nope (could put it in but it would be lost on the audience and ultimately take up screen time where stuff could be blowing up). Do we treat women with respect and with equality? Nope - kids do not know what this is really so we are just risking alienating our key demographic by including equality of girls. Are ethnic minorities being respected? No of course not - us respecting ethnic minorities alienates the plot that the key demographic is comfortable with. It is what our key demographic looks for in an action film. Now, lets say that a film comes out that is pretty different to this... almost... ALMOST I SAID! Almost as if it were engineered to win Oscars, like La La Land. No explosions! And there are political undertones! And there are throwback references to classical cinema of a bygone age! What say you now of modern cinema? Ha! I say (and this Donal now not a critic speaking), I say that "La La Land" and the likes, "12 years a slave" etc etc, basically "Oscar films" will always exist because this is Hollywood karma restoring itself. Hollywood makes a few billion a year on action... Hey why not throw classical romance a bone, okay lets make a classical romance film. What about political undertone, I like it, lets make a film with political undertone! What about respecting women and treating them equally? Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmm. What do you think men? Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm. You know what... it'll probably get us an Oscar! Throw in some respect of women too. So back to the critics... they have what? 200 words to describe the film? 100 words? It is clear what the Avengers is. That can be described in 100 or 200 words. "La la Land", yep 170 words will review that film no problem. But what a second, don't try to get me to review an Action/Romance/Political Undertone film! Who am I, Jay Sherman?Also, there is the thing that if 9 critics say that a film is good, and if a critic wants to be heard, are they going to be voice number 10 saying it is good? No, they want to stand out as "listen to me! My voice is different! 

This is where POINT NUMBER TWO comes in! Rotten Tomatoes is full of these kind of critics. That is why I never trusted Rotten Tomatoes. 

POINT NUMBER 3! IMDB.com simply rocks. Go there. I will leave you with my favorite piece of poetry that is relevant to this point from W .B. Yeats from his poem "September 1913" - "What need you, being come to sense, 
But fumble in a greasy till 
And add the halfpence to the pence 
And prayer to shivering prayer, until 
You have dried the marrow from the bone; 
For men were born to pray and save: "

Get Google Play Store working on your Amazon Fire

What is an Amazon Fire? Well first of all what is Google Android?

Android, as most of you realistically know, is the operating system that is distributed by Google. Android enables the user to interact with the physical hardware of the machine that you are using. Have a Samsung Galaxy? Odds are that it is running Android. However without Android you would have alot of expensive computer equipment just sitting like a brick. Android tell the computer what to do, and lets the user browse, take pics with the camera, Skype etc etc.

So what is the Amazon Fire? Like the previously mentioned Samsung Galaxy, the Fire is a piece of hardware that would sit uselessly like a brick unless it had some software to run it. It needs an operating system of course, and the operating system that it uses is Google Android. But it is not a "vanilla" install of Android, it is a pretty modified version of Android that Amazon call - "Fire".

So, my cousin came over with an Amazon Fire that they had just gotten that day as a present and they were wondering why they could not install Google Android apps on it, When I heard the problem I told them about the who Android / Fire thing and I got to work.

First I went over to http://rootjunkysdl.com/files/ where I selected Amazon Fire 5th Gen from the list of links. Here I downloaded the zip file named "Amazon-Fire-5th-Gen-Install-Play-Store.zip".

Next, while that was downloading I went into setting on the ADB Fire and I sound the Serial Number and I clicked on it more that seven times in a row, this simply enables the Developer menu. I went into the developer menu and I enable ADB (Android Debugging Bridge - lets you in this case connect the Amazon Fire to the computer).

Then I unzipped the file I had just downloaded, I ran the one and only .bat file that was in the zipped folder and when I was presented with a menu I selected "2" to install Google Play store.

Along the way you might have to agree with various thing both on and off the device, but you are doing something here that essentially Amazon does not want you to be doing, so you have going to have to agree with some thing outside of your expectation, however nothing bad was forced upon me anyway when I was doing this.

I rebooted the device, and scrolled down the page, and boom, Google Play Store. Thanks to howtogeek for help for this.

Easy as pie.