Nerd - Level 2

Define 'nerd'...

If it's a person who enjoys an overly complex technical solution for a problem that doesn't need to be solved... then... Yes! Guilty, your honor!

My own kids, fairly used to their father being a bit... euh... eccentric 😁 shake their heads in disbelief (and perhaps a little disappointment). Which means... Mission accomplished!

3D printing a LED driver enclosure - 3 - Click & Fit

I still have some issues printing large objects on my (unheated) printer bed, but the final product is taking shape. We're slowly getting there...

RPG Review - Ptolus - City by the Spire

Review.

Ptolus is a setting for D&D 3e, developed by Monte Cook of Malhavoc Press. There was a limited edition hardcover printing in 2006. At the time I considered buying it (probably should have) but didn't.

Life got in the way, and this thing was expensive... Even getting it printed today, with one of the online printing services, it still ain't cheap.

Mi-Light - Futlight Device Table

I've got a bunch of MiLight / Futlight LED lamps of different types and versions. Unfortunately the original design of the MiLight lamps and controllers might have been a little lacking in foresight. And documentation is piss-poor.

So I created a little table to see what I have collected over time, the lamps that I have and know about, and what works with what.

Reading (old) Star Wars - 2

In 2011 I was working on my 'classics' I guess... 😅

Let's see, Star Wars books... what did I think of them then? And now?

Seis Manos

Review.

Seis Manos is nothing but glorious grindhouse anime. Let's go back to the 70's, and throw every exploitation / revenge movie cliche in the mix. Add unique character designs, some great animation and lots of blood and gore to the mix and enjoy the show.

Yep. I like it! But keep in mind: this is anime but not for (small) kids...

3D Printer / Slicer Accuracy / Wall Thickness

This isn't about the actual accuracy of the printer itself (which depends on build quality, design, components etcetera) but about the minimal detail level that the printer can handle, and when to use what wall thickness.

Again, I'm not an expert, but got lost on my way to redemption... 😅

D&D DYI Spell Cards (Dutch)

Dutch.

Ik herinner me deze kaartjes nog van vroeger uit de AD&D tijd (ik wordt oud 😅)... en ze zijn er nog steeds. Ideaal voor hen die nog niet helemaal digitaal zijn gegaan.

Reading (old) Star Wars - 1

I've been listening to some Star Wars audio books over the years... Some good. Most bad.

The first two were so bad, it was almost funny. Almost...

Wonder Woman

So, if you're not superhero tired, you may have seen something outside the Marvel Universe. Such as Wonder Woman.

In general, I'm not a big fan of the DC Universe. I blame it all on Superman.

The Star Wars movies (so far)

Review.

As every fan knows: the episode numbers don’t match the sequence in which these were made… we made it to episode VIII thus far. And now...

Are you ready for the final movie?

Cable size - AWG to mm2 / Crimping Tools / Cable Selection

In civilized Europe 😇 we (tend to) have more reasonable presidents / prime ministers / monarchs, and we use the metric system. Which makes us happy.

(Two reasons why the United Kingdom is neither civilized nor part of Europe 😅)

3D printing a LED driver enclosure - 2 - Work in progress

Long ago 😅 I said I was planning to design my own enclosure for a led driver and led controller. Of course, reality interfered and lots of other things got in the way.

Still, I made some progress. And hit a couple of snags on the way...

Cloak & Dagger - Season 1

Review.

I've read some Cloak & Dagger comics in the past. With the current superhero craze there was no way Cloak & Dagger wouldn't be turned into some small screen series.

Steven Brust - Taltos / Yendi / Jhereg / Teckla / ...

Review.

Time to check out Vlad Taltos... I'm reading the books in chronological order, not the sequence Brust wrote them. At least they were published in a different sequence... There are some inconsistencies in the series, but they don't hurt the overall plot all too much.

I've not yet read all the novels in this series. I need to do some re-reading and then try the newer ones.

L.J. Cohen - Derelict / Ithaka Rising / ...

Review.

The Halcyone Space series now contains 4, no wait, 5 books. I noticed them earlier, but didn't pay much attention to them.

What actually triggered me was the cover and the title of book 3: Dreadnought and Shuttle. I can't say why, it just... spoke to me.

Dremel 3d20 - Fan mount

The Dremel 3d20 (and the FlashForge Dreamer) both have a small, very noisy fan at the bottom of the assembly. Very noisy...

I saw a few solutions on the Internet where they use a newly printed bracket with silicone dampers as used in a PC. Most solutions put too much pressure / force on the dampers though.

Sirius the Jaeger

Review.

Netflix added a number of Anime series last year, and one of those is the 12 episode Sirius the Jaeger. Vampires and werewolves seem to be as popular as ever, so you guess what this show is about...

Automated bathroom ventilation - Proof of concept

My house is using a centralized ventilation system (a WHR950) with three operating modes. You're supposed (!) to switch to mode 1, 2 or 3, using a switch in the leaving room, whenever needed... which no-one ever does.

I was wondering... could I automate this?

Homematic - Missing messages mess up metering

Well, actually they mess up diagrams, but this title sounds better 😅

My Homematic CCU2 collects data and displays them in a diagram. I had added an additional Temperature / Humidity sensor in the bathroom (for a future ventilation project) but sometimes an error was displayed, about some 'data missing'.

Alastair Reynolds - Revenger 2 - Shadow Captain

Review.

Shadow Captain is book two in the Revenger series.

The sequel to Revenger. If the monniker YA (Young Adult)  applies to Revenger then this sequel would have to be considered YA as well, but Reynolds is doing his best to blur the line.

D&D 5e - Wapens en Weapon Bonuses (Dutch)

Dutch.

In D&D 5e zijn er twee soorten wapens: melee wapens (hand-to-hand combat, zwaarden, hamers en dergelijke) en ranged weapons (kruisboog, darts, enzovoorts).

Maar wanneer pas je nou welke bonus toe?

Brandon Sanderson - Skyward 1 - Skyward

Review.

Another book in another series. YA, which is fine, but it suffers from an overdose of naivety. Unfortunately.

D&D 5e - Death en Healing (Dutch)

Dutch.

Er kunnen meerdere redenen zijn waarom het aantal (actuele) hitpoints daalt. Combat is daar de meest waarschijnlijke van. Elke keer wannner je karakter schade ondervind gaan je (actuele) hitpoints naar beneden...

D&D Forgotten Realms Maps Comparison

Comparing different versions of a map of a fantasy world?!?

Pretty useless, this, but hey! I always wanted to do this, so when I had a little moment of nothing better to do (actually, lots of other important things to do, but I just wanted to do something useless, for once 😅)...

Cinda Williams Chima - Seven Realms 1 - The Demon King

Review.

The first entry in what appears to be a very long series of romance / fantasy novels. Not sure yet how good or bad they are as a series.

D&D 5e - Hitpoints en Hit Dice (Dutch)

Dutch.

Hitpoints geven aan hoe gezond je karakter is (en hoeveel schade je karakter nog kan hebben).

Vrije koeling? Zet het raam open! (Dutch)

Dutch.

De afgelopen weken was het heel warm in Nederland. Maar... wanneer is het nou handig om een raam open te zetten? Wanneer het 1. binnen te warm is, en 2. buiten koeler is dan binnen.

Even naar buiten lopen om in te schatten is een goede methode. Maar wat als we nou toch al een Domotica systeem hebben? 😎

Astrid Scholte - Four Dead Queens

Review.

Thief steals a memory and tries to stop a murderer from killing all four queens.

Okay but not exceptional.

D&D 5e - Saving Throws (Dutch)

Dutch.

We zijn er bijna (nou ja, niet echt 😊)... Na Ability Scores en Skill Checks is het nu tijd voor... Saving Throws.

D&D 5e - Skill Checks en Proficiency Bonus (Dutch)

Dutch.

Hoe succesvol is een D&D 5e karakter in zijn / haar taken?
Kan hij / zij jongleren? Timmeren? Overleven in de wildernis?

In D&D worden hiervoor Skill Checks gedaan.

Linux Mint on Asus EeePc Netbook 1005HA

I am not a Linux expert and never will be.

But this old Netbook that's gathering dust might just get a second chance at life, so I dusted it off and gave it a spin. It once ran Windows XP well but that's no longer an option...

D&D 5e - Ability, Ability Modifier, Advantage (Dutch)

Dutch.

Wat zijn de basis regels voor D&D 5e? Ik heb geen idee 😅

Maar... omdat ik zelf ook een beginner ben, zal ik mijn ervaring met je delen. Eerst maar eens wat basis zaken...

Brian Staveley - The Unhewn Throne - The Emperor's Blades / The Providence of Fire / ...

Review.

I’ve picked up all three on a Dapperite’s suggestion (I think it was Jan, but not entirely sure).  Let’s start with the verdict: a good fantasy trilogy, some new ideas, and an interesting world. Yes, worth reading.

D&D 5e NL - De dobbelstenen (Dutch)

Dutch.

Je hebt zes verschillende dobbelstenen. Het is handig om van sommige dobbelstenen een paar extra exemplaren te hebben, dat maakt het allemaal wat sneller, maar echt nodig is het niet.

D&D 5e - Wat heb je nodig (Dutch)

Dutch.

Dungeons & Dragons is leuk en helemaal niet zo moeilijk.

Ik zal een paar posts plaatsen over (de regels van) 5e. Makkelijk voor de wannabe spelers voor wie de Engelse taal wel eens problemen oplevert. En aangezien ik het zelf ook nog moet leren 😅...

D&D 5e - Onderwerpen en Links (Dutch)

Dutch.

Omdat ik het overzicht een beetje kwijtraakte heb ik alle links (tenzij relevant voor het onderwerp) op deze pagina verzameld en gegroepeerd.

The Secret

Dapper #166 has arrived (yeah, that thing)...

And I personally raised the artist who provided the front cover! Which wasn't easy 😇 (Click on the image to enlarge.)

... But... if you want to commission some artwork, drop me a line. I'll forward it to her and she'll be happy to get in touch with you to work something out.

Dungeons & Dragons - 20 years later... (Dutch)

Dutch.

Na een jaar of 20 (!) nauwelijks gespeeld te hebben was het afgelopen week zo ver: ik heb (eindelijk) weer een keertje Dungeons & Dragons gespeeld.

Dat was wel even wennen, maar eerlijk gezegd: voor herhaling vatbaar! Volgende week weer!

Battle Angel Alita

Review.

Great popcorn movie, and surprisingly true to its anime / manga roots. It didn’t do very well at the box office, so I fear we’ll never get the sequel it deserves, unfortunately… Still worth watching!

SR7011 - small / large / LFE / Smart Select / Pure Audio (Dutch)

Dutch.

De Marantz SR6011 / SR7011 (en waarschijnlijk ook de andere modellen als de SR5011, SR7010, SR7012, SR7013 enzovoorts) hebben een 'Pure' en 'Pure Direct' stand. Maar die werkt net even anders als de soortgelijke functie op de Sony ES serie.

Hier wat algemene informatie over LFE en specifieke informatie over de Marantz apparaten, waaronder Smart Select.

The Umbrella Academy

Review.

I’m getting a little superhero- tired. The Umbrella Academy is, fortunately, quirky enough to stay enjoyable. All superheroes involved are adopted (?) gifted kids and part of a grand dysfunctional family.

Alex Hughes - Mindspace Investigations - Clean / Sharp / Marked

Review.

He's Harry, Jim, but not as you'd know it.

Sharp and Marked are the sequels to Clean. A future PI, former drug addict, working for the police with unreliable psionic powers tries to escape his past.

MeetUp (Dutch)

Dutch.

MeetUp is an-sich niet echt bijzonder: een website waar mensen met dezelfde interesse elkaar treffen, en afspraken maken om elkaar in persoon te ontmoeten, maar dan voor hobbies...

M'n dochter noemde het 'Tinder voor nerds'... zucht.

Google Drive aka Backup & Sync (Dutch)

Dutch.

Dag dag DropBox. Ik vond je leuk, maar nu je me beperkt tot 3 apparaten is het einde oefening. En daarboven kost je te veel.

Dus, tijd voor iets anders, ditmaal: Google Drive.

Andrew Seiple - Dire 1 - Dire Born

Review.

What to make of this one... a fresh take on the superhero / super-villain trope, with a villain who might just be a hero. Or not.

Alan Parsons - The Secret

Review.

After 15 years of of live concerts, rehashes and other activities Parsons finally went back into the studio and recorded The Secret.

And it’s much better than the previous A Valid Path which was, frankly, a disappointment. This one's much, much better!

Dennis E. Taylor - Bobiverse - We Are Legion / For We Are Many / All These Worlds

Review.

Enjoyable, somewhat nerdy space opera with lots of popular culture references and some hard SF. Include some politics, some aliens, and a twenty first century personality transplanted into a computer brain and you're there.

Cats

Review.

Though story-wise it pretty much amounts to nothing Cats is still a spectacle to behold. So when the London West-End cast visited the Netherlands for a kind of farewell tour I was considering going there. Didn’t go at first, balking at the price of a decent seat.

Rachel Aaron - Heartstriker - Nice dragons finish last / One good dragon deserves another / ...

Review.

So yes, another romance / fantasy title. But in this case the fantasy part is more important than the romance part, so that's fine. And it's a good and fun read, so I'll take it in stride.