Corona - T minus 20 - Twenty percent

Today it’s April 4, 4 days after the latest issue of Dapper, and I have no idea in what state we all will be the end of April, when we reach T Minus Zero. I’m a little scared.

Fortuitous Space Battles

As you may have noticed I do like (some) military SF, and it’s fine if that borders on not all too realistic Space Opera. However, regardless of the believably of the generic concept I still like to see some consistency. Or at least stick to certain mechanics and principles.

Corona - T minus 24 - Our new Best Friend

How a distant disease became our closest friend…

Two months ago Wuhan was a remote place, and nobody was paying all too much attention to Corona / Covid-19. Now, the world is in a near lock-down, and we’re all waiting to see what happens next. Scary.

Jay Allan - Gehenna Dawn / The Ten Thousand / ...

Review.

Well... I dunno. Typical conscripted lonesome soldier fights on some remote world, then becomes hero against all odds, then leader of the rebels, then fights the oppressive United Nations. Predictable fare.

Some like it, some won't. I wasn't impressed.

Corona - T minus 27 - Flattening the curve

Let's face it. Social distancing has nothing to do with protecting YOU.

We're all going to be sick. Some of us are going to die.

And yet... isolation and social distancing will save lifes. How? Read on...

Corona - T minus 34 - IT and homeworkers

The Dutch government has given the advice to limit social interaction to a minimum, keep 1.5 meters of distance, and only go to work if absolutely essential.

Of course, it is an advice. So many people simply don't listen. Or are forced to ignore the rules, by circumstances, or by their employers...

Corona - T minus 42 - What's next?

Corona is here.

I made a quick estimate when the impact of the Corona virus would be largest, and that would have to be in 42 days.

The world is changing. Yet again. And though I am worried I'm an optimist: we've survived MERS, SARS, Justin Bieber, and even Trump (so far). We should be able to handle this one, though it might get hard

Windows 10 1909 on Dell Precision M2800

Thanks, Microsoft. For... for... for everything!

But especially for cheating me out of all the hours I could have spend more productive. Instead, you released the glorious Windows 10, followed by the even more glorious Windows 10 version 1909. And trying to get that thing to run on my Dell M2800 has been lots and lots of fun.

Though I did get it to work in the end...

Charles Stross - Accelerando

Review.

My first Stross novel deals with the Singularity, a 'hypothetical moment in time when any physically conceivable level of technological advancement is attained instantaneously'. (Yeah, that explanation isn't mine, it's too intelligent.)

RMB protection on web pages

Several webpages have a copy protection, ie. you cannot copy texts and / or objects by marking a section, then copy it by pressing the Right Mouse Button. Which can be very inconvenient, for example if you try to comment on something somebody else posted.

In FireFox that's pretty easy to fix. (Though it doesn't solve everything.)

The Witcher

Review.

Netflix doesn't get it right all the time. In fact, there's lots of rubbish, and Netflix added their fair share to it.

Still, sometimes there's just something that's worth binging. Take, for example, The Witcher.

Juuni Kokki

Review.

Not well known, and certainly harder to get over here (that is: Europe) it tells the tale of a young girl ended up in another more magical realm.

Well, nothing spectacular thus far, we've seen that before. Yet...

Ian Douglas – Semper Mars

Review.

Marines in space. 'Nuff said. Will appeal to some, but I found it a little flat. His work under the alias 'William H Keith' (or the other way around), for example the Warstrider series, seems to be a bit better.

Blade - TV series

Review.

Most of the times I remember a book, movie or series. Perhaps not in details, but at least in some way.

Browsing through my old Dapper installments I found a reference to a television series called Blade. 13 years ago, 2007. And I cannot remember a single thing of it...

But... Here is what I wrote at the time...

(Very) Dead Or Alive

Review.

One.
Very.
Bad.
Movie.

Randolph Lalonde - Warpath

Review.

Lalonde continues, but I think the last two or three books in the Spinward Fringe series haven't been as good as the earlier ones. In fact, the best books of the series might have been the free First Light Chronicles omnibus, as well as The Expendable Few. He's losing a bit of steam, perhaps things got too big?

Let's hope he gets the story back on track for book number 10.

Sticker (lijm) verwijderen? WD40!

DIY. Dutch.

WD40 is raar spul. Het helpt om tandwielen en schroefdraad te smeren, werkt als kruipolie, en je kunt er zelfs lijmresten mee verwijderen...

Kung Fu Panda

Review.

Kung Fu Panda. I've seen this movie now... what? Four? Five? Six times? Once in the cinema, couple of times on DVD and NetFlix.

And I keep laughing every time.

Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon / Snowcrash

Review.

I should change the title of this blog to 'reviews of old novels everyone already read'...

I was never a big fan of Neal Stephenson (but neither is he a big fan of mine, or so I assume 😄) and I never was much into 'present tense'... I tried some of his other works, and couldn't 'get into' them.

C J Cherry - Foreigner - Visitor / Convergence / Emergence

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.

D&D Player's Traveling Kit

Hobbies are great. Combining hobbies is even better. After fixing up my 'rollsnijder' (papercutter) I found a new use for the 3D printer... a 'D&D Player's Traveling Kit'.

Not very useful, but still fun 😇

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - The battle of Unato

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.

Mi-Light - FUT014 versus FUT014W versus FUT014CW

Although many products from China are great, their documentation is often... lacking.

Here's the MiLight (FutLight) FUT014W. It's not listed on the Futlight website, probably because it is an older product. It has been replaced with the (almost identical) FUT014.

Almost.

RPG Review - 4e versus 4e Essentials

Review.

I have a reasonable 😅 collection of RPG stuff, much of it never used, and lots of it completely useless. I wonder why I even bought some of that stuff...

For example... D&D 4e Essentials... Why?

Staples Rolsnijder (Dutch)

DIY. Dutch.

Staples verkoopt een betaalbare rolsnijder. Niet de beste ter wereld, maar zoveel hoefde ik er nou ook weer niet mee te doen. (Er waren goedkopere, maar niets op voorraad, en ik had haast...)

Klusje gedaan. Rolsnijder in de kast. Tot het volgende klusje...

MiLight - W WW RGB RGBW RGBWW

In hindsight the behavior of the different FUT LED strip controllers was to be expected... but I just wanted to be sure, so tried the FUT35, FUT036, FUT037, FUT038 and FUT039 in combination with a FUT092 remote control, just to be sure.

Reading (old) Star Wars - 3

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

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.

MiLight - Futlight Device Table

I've got a bunch of MiLight / Futlight / MiBoxer 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 / Wall Thickness, Detail Level and Accuracy

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 may mess (up) my 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.