Extra TV op Ziggo aansluiten / de Ziggo Go app installeren op de Nvidia Shield (Pro)

Als je meerdere TV's in huis hebt wil je ook graag op allemaal TV kunnen kijken. Dat gaat echter niet altijd even gemakkelijk... En dan is er natuurlijk die (on)handige Ziggo App...

Lees verder...

Wallpaper - A Better Tomorrow

Thus dual-screen wallpaper works better on two similar-sized screens (I'm currently running a dual monitor setup with two differently sized screens) but it works best on curved ultra-wide screens.

Unfortunately, I don't have one of those... 

Daryl Gregory - Spoonbenders

Review.

With masturbation being a (minor) theme, some drug (ab)use, a dysfunctional family and paranormal gifted people this book won't score well in the bible belt. Nevertheless, it's quite an interesting read, and a very different take on the subject.

Daniel Wilson - The Clockwork Dynasty

Review.

A SciFi novel whose main mechanism borders on Fantasy. It's a fair read, in which a historian hunts for automata / automatons / clockwork, and discovers some of those clockworks are a lot like human beings. I'm not entirely sure if I should classify this as SF or Fantasy, but I'll settle for SF as there is some (semi) scientific explanation for all of it.

Launching troublesome applications from within TouchPortal

Sometimes you want to launch another application from within TouchPortal, and it simply won't work, or behave oddly. I had a lot of troubles launching good old PhotoImpact X3 from TouchPortal, but thank heavens someone in the TouchPortal Discord suggested to use compatibility mode... Pfew!

Here are some things to try...

Backup / Migrate OBS and TouchPortal

Lots of overly long explanations on YouTube. Here's my approach to backup / migrate OBS and TouchPortal settings.

This is an alternative to my previous post.

Read more...

Christopher Nuttall - Schooled in Magic - Little Witches / The Right Side of History

Review.

Two typical Schooled in Magic novels, both relative short, and the plot meanders a bit without going anywhere. I fear Nuttall's a bit done with this universe. Power creep has made the heroine too big to fall.

As for these two books: they should have been one. Perhaps that would have redeemed it a bit.

Andrew Seiple - Dire Saga 0 - Fate

Review.

A short story featuring Dire, in line with Dire Born. That one's better though...

Zero Day Protocol Handlers Exploit - MSDT (Follina) and Search

Batch file to remove some protocol handlers that might be used for zero day exploits (uncomment as required).

Boomers and Zoomers, the Alphabet Mafia and the Cancel Culture

Column.

I'm not a boomer. It's a close call, but a boomer I am not. However I strongly dislike the term. It's not used as a group-name, it's used as an insult. As in, 'Look at that boomer, he's too old to understand.'

Am I? Or is there a somewhat bigger problem? Before you start taking aim and fire away, please understand that this post is not about enforcing my view on the rest of the world, it's actually the opposite. I ask those who ARE enforcing THEIR view to please consider that opinions may differ. So... ready to be insulted? Here we go...

Wallpaper - Believe!

I guess I saw too many episodes of the X-Files when I was young 😌

(Click to enlarge.) 

All Wallpapers thus far...

 

Kameron Hurley - The Stars are Legion

Review.

Scifi with a dash of body horror, and yet another story that is hard to describe. In some far away future humanity is female only, spread over a number of ships (?) where everything is alive and build using the same basic components (variations on human genetics?).

Ed McDonald - The Raven's Mark 1 - Blackwing

Review.

Although this is the first book in a series, it's also a perfect standalone. It's a dark fantasy, medieval when it comes to technology, where the main character is a down-on-his-luck, bad-mouthing 'black captain'. Which means he's doing the dirty jobs that nobody else wants to do, like hunting deserters in the no-men's land called 'The Misery'.

Dredd (2012)

Review.

The 2012 movie Dredd has no right to be entertaining, and yet it is. Also, it may be one of the few movies that's actually good in 3D. For the record, I pretty much hate anything 3D (can't stand the glasses) and this is one of the few exceptions. I normally pick the regular versions when visiting the cinema, but back then I accidentally picked the 3D version.

To my surprise, it's even entertaining when re-watching it, years later, in 2D. Just don't expect anything to exercise the brain 😅

To Smart Quote or Not to Smart Quote (also known as 'Curly' quotes)

Writing.

On a computer, you typically use 'straight quotes', whilst in (real) books you mostly find 'curly quotes'.

In both Google Docs and Word you can let the word processor (is anyone still old enough to recognize that word?) handle it.

3D Book Mockup

Writing.

There are many sites that can do this. Here's just another one...

DIY Book Design 

Gerald Brandt - San Angeles 1 - The Courier

Review.

16 y.o. girl orphan has dragged herself out of the gutter, and now works as a courier. When she is asked to deliver a package late at night she witnesses a murder, and runs away with the package, chased by one of the mega corporations controlling the world.

Django Wexler - Wells of Sorcery 1 / 2 - Ship of Smoke and Steel / City of Stone and Silence

Review.

Street orphan fights her way up to local ward boss, and has managed to hide her magical talents from the rest of the world... until they catch her, and send her to take control over the largest ship in the world, a 500 year old ghost ship that shouldn't exist.

Wallpaper - Underground Angel

We had some angels last month, so let's add another one...

(Click image to enlarge.)

All Wallpapers thus far...

Moving a key element after analyzing Action / Tension ratio

Writing.

I have absolutely no idea if this post is going to be useful in any way 😊 but I was revising the novel I'm working on, and trying to decide if I should do a change or not... just before completion.

I shouldn't, because it took me long enough to get this far, but I'm in doubt...

Manifest - Season 1 / 2

Review.

Discontinued on NBC, continued on Netflix. A bit similar to Lost, but Lost never did it for me. Thus far, the first two seasons of this show are available on NetFlix NL, and those are good. Season 3 isn’t available in NL because some Belgian station is still broadcasting season 3. So I’ll have to wait a bit longer even for season 4. Oh well.

Ernest Cline - Armada

Review.

Another take on Ready Player One, another love song to the eighties. Well written, but frankly I find this new take on the same trip down memory lane a little shallow. It's well written, but it's well-written fan fiction. Yet... where some fan fiction dazzles with new ideas and fresh characters I found Armada to be somewhat meh.

Felix R Savage - Earth's Last Gambit 1 - Freefall

Review.

Definitely (?) an indie writer, and one who isn't afraid to use real people, like Obama and Musk, as characters in his book. I'm not so sure that is a smart thing to do, because it will date the book rather quickly. Otherwise the book is more a technotriller than plain SF, with plausible technology.

Adam Wright - Harbinger PI 2 - Buried Memory

Review.

Mister Harbinger (a blend of Philip Marlowe and Harry Dresden) finds out what actually happened in Paris, discovers his dad blocked certain memories, works together with a vampire to fight a horde of zombies / skeletons, and ends up asleep on his own lawn.

Wallpaper - Angels

Angels are mostly girly stuff, but hey! I have a few in my wallpaper collection as well.

Read more...

A.G. Riddle - Departure

Review.

I recently watched the first two seasons of Manifest, and this book starts in a similar vein: an airplane that departs, only to arrive years later.

And that's where the similarity ends 😎

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne - The Salvage Crew

Review.

A displaced mind (transplanted from a human body into a spaceship’s central computer) is part of a salvage team, and tries hard to keep its human compagnons / workers / assets alive. 

Read by Nathan Fillion, who does a fairly good job, and the story ain’t half bad either. The ending is a little rapid, but otherwise a fine book, and a tad different from all the other stuff out there.

Wen Spencer - A Brother's Price

Review.

A ‘reverse world’ novel, where the men are rare, and thus valuable. It isn’t bad, but there’s little new in there except for the reversing of roles. It’s very well written, but halfway I gave up: there’s simply not enough happening.

(From Dapper / TellTales #110.)

Joel Shepherd – Renegade / Drysine Legacy / Kantovan Vault

Review.

Space Opera / Military SF, but with one twist: no artificial gravity thus far, which has a lot of impact on the scenes in space. Thus far it follows a predictable pattern (rogue starship flees because it’s captain was betrayed by the space navy’s top brass) but the alien races are interesting, the setting is interesting, and it’s completely without teen angst. (After sampling as many first person present tense works as I could I can only conclude that those are mainly targeted at YA / NA, and include lots of whining.) 

Wallpaper - Dragon Mural

A mural my youngest daughter and I painted. For more information see here.

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

Maria V. Snyder - Navigating the Stars / Chasing the Shadows / Defending the Galaxy (YA)

Review.

I’ve been searching for more first person present tense material to understand what I’m doing right and wrong myself. This is another YA which isn’t too bad, except for one specific scene, where the (hurt) protagonist (a 17 year old girl) climbs onto the landing gear of a space shuttle, and then literally travels half the world, 16000 kilometres, at 600 kmph.

Alex Hughes - Mindspace 4 - Vacant

Review.

The fourth book in the Mindspace series, and again a very good one.

I’ve read two short stories by his (her?) hand that bridge the gaps between the larger titles, and now have started this one. I liked the short stories, but prefer the full sized novels.

As I said when reviewing the earlier installments, the narration is very good, and the somewhat seedy mix of a drug addicted ex-guild telepath, working in a post-tech-war world for the local police office just kind of works, surprisingly.

Brilliant. I want more.

Tarah Benner – Lawless / Ruthless / Dauntless

Review.

Semi post-apocalyptic setting with a strong romantic vibe. Falls a little flat because it’s not as post-apocalyptic as suggested at the start.

Why I read it? Well, it's part of my endless quest for first person present tense references... It was mentioned on a list of present tense books, but it was wrongly listed.

Update: finished all four. They're okay, but not exceptional. I think the world would have been a much bigger hell had the famish as described taken place.

(From TellTales 109)

Along with the Gods (2018)

Review.

Subtitled The Last 49 Days, it’s the modern day equivalent of A Matter of Life and Death).

This isn't a bad movie either. Nothing earth shattering, but still interesting to see a Korean take on the ‘defend the good / bad guy against gods and their lawyers’.

Wallpaper - Grass and Comets

Decent 3-screen wallpapers are a little harder to come by.

Someone assembled this one by copy / pasting to their heart's content. When you watch it closely you'll notice the repeating clouds. Still, if you don't pay too much attention it works well.

(Click on the image to enlarge.)
 

Wallpaper - Air

I must have been in my 'anime' phase at the time (all geeks suffer from such an epoch during their life). This wallpaper is a remnant of mine. I think I found it on DeviantArt (when it wasn't as confusing as it is now).

(Click to enlarge.)