2019

Wrapping up 2019, and Welcome to 2020!

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3D Printing and Ptolus? That's all?

C J Cherry - Foreigner - Visitor / Convergence / Emergence

Audiobook Review.

We're at books 17, 18 and 19 of the Foreigner series. It looks like Cherryh isn't giving up. And, to be honest, these are quite readable, though perhaps a little slow.

Netflix - Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - The battle of Unato

Anime Review.

Netflix does bring a lot of Anime lately. Some of it awful, some of it not that bad. Some of it... euh... incomplete.

To quote Trump: sad.

Reading (old) Star Wars - 3

Book Review / Audiobook Review.

Even before The Force Awakens heralded the return of Star Wars I decided to dip in and refresh and improve my knowledge of the 'written' Star Wars universe. Would I have done so knowing most of it would become irrelevant with the changes introduced with The Force Awakens? Perhaps not...

Nerd - Level 2.1

3D Printing.

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

3D Printing + DIY

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...

Reading (old) Star Wars - 2

Book Review / Audiobook Review.

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?

Netflix - Seis Manos (2019)

Anime 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 / Wall Thickness, Detail Level and Accuracy

3D Printing / Slicer and Printer Test.

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... 😅

Reading (old) Star Wars - 1

Audiobook Review.

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

The first two I read (listened to) were so bad it was almost funny. Almost...

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

DIY

In civilized (Western) 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

3D Printing + DIY

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

Series 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.

Homematic - Missing messages may mess (up) my metering

DIY + Domotics

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'.

Homematic - Automated bathroom ventilation - Proof of concept

DIY + Domotics

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?

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.

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 Forgotten Realms Maps Comparison

RPG

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.

Homematic - Vrije koeling? Zet het raam open! (Dutch)

Domotica + 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 in NL - Advantage en Disadvantage, Natural 1 en 20 (Dutch)

RPG / 5e in NL / Dutch.

In 5e heb je attack rolls en skill / ability checks.

Hiervoor gooi je een 1d20, en tel je eventueel een bepaalde waarde bij je score, afhankelijk van de situatie en het doel van de rol. 

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...

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.

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)

RPG + 5e in NL + 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.

Netflix - 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 1 / 2 / 3 - 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, who's trying to escape his past.

MeetUp (Dutch)

RPG + 5e in NL + 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.

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

Music

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 (The Musical)

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.

Obert Skye - Wizard for Hire

Book Review

Since Harry Potter there have been many books inspired by the tale of a young boy becoming something special in a magical setting. Some could be considered 'inspired' by, others are a complete 'rip-off'.

Fortunately, Skye's world and characters might be inspired by (and actually even refer to) the Potterverse, but this is done in a way that actually supports the story, instead of claiming some understanding of pop culture.

Jake Bible - Mech Corps

Review.

I'm not sure what to make of this book. The author Jake Bible wrote a number of series, and this is the first book by his hand that I've read.

I'm just not sure what he tried to write, because it has some promising subplots which are never fleshed out.

Noir

Review.

I've talked about this before I think (and if I did not I should have).

Noir turns out to be a superb series, contemporary setting (well, back in 2000 😄) and somewhat different from other anime. What makes this series stand out is music and style... It oozes style...

Adrian Tchaikovsky - Children of Time

Review.

A human generation ship returns to a terraformed world where spiders have become the dominating intelligent species. It's a good book though sometimes a little predictable, especially the last two or three chapters.

Still a good read / listen. Not for people who are scared of spiders though 😂

Music was my first love

Music

Today it's all about music... Manage your collection, rip music, play music online, find new stuff, etcetera.

So... Spotify, Jango, Youtube, Gnosic, Music Map, MP3Tag, SQB, and Discog... What else?

Heroes

Review.

With Heroes and Heroes Reborn finished it is time to look back.

What did I think of Heroes when it surfaced, back in 2007?

(Comments taken from older installments of Dapper...)

Jake Bible - Flipside

Review.

In Flipside a group of people travel back in time through a kind of 'time bubble'. The actual flipping mechanism is interesting, and is (of course) abused by (of course) the Russians, who go on to (almost) destroy the world.

Alex Hughes - Mindspace Investigations 1 - Clean

Review.

Now here's a pleasant surprise. I've always been partial to detective stories, and SF or Fantasy 'noir', and this is one of those. On top of that the main character has some special powers (he's a telepath) and is seriously flawed (a former drug addict).

Glynn Stewart - Interstellar Mage

Review.

There are actually two series of books staged in the same universe. Thus far I've only read book one of the second (spin-off) series.

An interstellar mage gets picked up by a freighter captain with history, and the two of them become unwillingly involved in interplanetary conspiracy and piracy.

Craig Alanson - Aces

Review.

The cover blurb says it all: kids are not supposed to rescue their parents. Well, in this case they do.

This is a YA but it's also perfectly suitable for younger kids as well as adults. Entertaining.

Glynn Stewart - Space Carrier Avalon / Stellar Fox / ...

Review.

It’s military space opera, small federation fighting big evil commonwealth, hotshot pilot becomes captain after an accident.

It isn’t bad, but we’ve seen all of this before. (David Weber, anyone?) Fortunately Stewart’s writing and plots are better than, for example, Nuttall’s.

John Scalzi - Old Man's War / The Ghost Brigades

Review.

Turn retirees into cannon-fodder. It's some kind of pension, I guess...