thread blocks application!?

[xenonite]

hi there!

i'm developing an android 1.5-app featuring some remote service and i need to run a thread, that updates some things in my UI with data provided by the remote service every x seconds.

so i did this in my main activity:

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Using java Syntax Highlighting

1. Handler handler = new Handler();
2. Thread thread = new Thread()
3. {
4.         TextView tv;
5.        
6.         @Override
7.         public void run()
8.         {
9.                 try
10.                 {
11.                         while(true)
12.                         {
13.                                 sleep(8000);
14.                                
15.                                 tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.myTextView);
16.                                 tv.setText(String.valueOf(myRemoteService.getSomeStringValue()));
17.                         }
18.                 }
19.                 catch (Exception e)
20.                 {
21.                        
22.                 }
23.         }
24. };
25. thread.start();
26.  

Parsed in 0.033 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

when i run this, the thread does exactly as i intended it to do but when i do something else that needs to update the UI (e.g. in a onClickListener()), it is partly blocked. it "feels" like the whole application sleeps with the thread for the given interval...

additionally, if i do sth like this:

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1. public OnClickListener OnClickListener_REFRESH = new OnClickListener()
2. {
3.         @Override
4.         public void onClick(View view)
5.         {
6.                 try
7.                 {
8.                         TextView tv = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.funnyTextView);
9.                         tv.setText("" + Integer.valueOf(wlService.getSomeCrazyValue()));
10.                 }
11.                 catch (RemoteException e)
12.                 {
13.                 }
14.         }
15. );
16.  

Parsed in 0.051 seconds, using GeSHi 1.0.8.4

the values i try to set via the onclicklistener get cut off at the third character. ("abcdefgh" will be displayed as "abc"...).

how do i get this thread right? it should so some calculation stuff without blocking the UI at all...