Why doesn't Windows have a, per application, setting to allow that specific application to be brought to the front by other apps and itself? It would save a lot of headaches.
Writing / Datatalk / TTS.
I've added a TTS example for those that want to hear the difference between SAPI5, Windows 11 'Immersive Reader' and Amazon Polly.
It's on YouTube and you can find it here: https://youtu.be/xL8vxo3a2zo. It's also wrong 😇 I'm pretty sure it actually uses Azure Cloud neural... I've added a post with more samples of different sites and engines.
Datatalk / Magix.
Magix repacks and resells other products. Some of those are great (Xara comes to mind) but Magix often manages to screw up their installation and support procedures. And don't get me started on license issues...
And in several ways they did it again... sigh.
Writing / Datatalk / TTS.
Windows has a build-in TTS engine which is better than the older SAPI5 engine, but... it's a little hard to get at. And silly enough, any regular program (for example Balabolka) that calls the SAPI5 API routines isn't using the new code in Windows.
But it's actually very easy to use with a little workaround! And the quality is definitely better than, for example, Word's built-in TTS tool.
Datatalk.
Here's a nice and troublesome one. When you use an external keyboard with a tablet, such as the Logitech K380 together with the Samsung Tab S6 Lite, you may suffer from spontaneous 'language switches', which seem to eat up spaces when typing.
Don't throw away your external keyboard yet. There might be a solution. (I also found some other issues with the Samsung keyboard driver when trying to figure this out. Read on.)
Datatalk / TTS.
This is a step-by-step instruction of how to set up Amazon Polly.
Unfortunately, it doesn't solve my real problem: I am looking for a way to use Polly voices with a TTS reader, such as Balabolka. There are some problems...
Well, at least I managed to get Amazon running, in spite of their poor online instructions.
DIY.
LED lamps use less energy and last much longer. Though, perhaps, not as long as often suggested.
Ikea suggests their LED lamps can last up to 20 years. Well... probably... if you leave them off.
Violence. Explosions. Dave Bautista. And a movie without a point. Not even much of a plot.
I am completely unsure what to make of this one. It's just a movie, with lots of violence, supposedly about Texas separating itself from the rest of the US. It's not entertaining, and the only message it sends is that war kills. And even then it sends that message poorly.
In one fell swoop Scott Adams pretty much killed his primary source of income: Dilbert.
That's... sad. Not because I like Scott Adams. In fact, I never liked him much with his borderline Trump adoration, and the smug way he presents himself as the all-knowing. This time he went one step further and basically dug his own grave by publishing a near racist rant that's simply over the edge. As a result, a 100+ newspapers kicked him and his cartoon out.
I understand the worry and need for 'sensitivity readers' but I'd also worry about 'giving in' too much. You see, you can't care about each and every opinion, and you're bound to step on some toes, no matter what. So, the question is: are you looking to 'remove' sensitive matters from your work entirely (for example because you're afraid to insult someone), or are you looking for expertise on specific subjects?
In my opinion, there's a lot of difference between the two.
Wintermoon by Dean Koontz would make a good movie. As a book, it's just 'so...so...'. I can't recall the title (Splinter perhaps?) but it resembles another book I read quite some time ago. Something about 'something alien invading earth modifying (dead) animals and stuff alike'. Anyway, this book was good enough to keep my attention for three or four hours during the flight back to the Netherlands... I wouldn't read it again though.
Sandman Slim is everything Bobby Dollar tries to be... hardboiled, noir-styled, supernatural detective. It's moody, dark, first-person present tense, and the hero is just as much a jerk as you and me... if not even more so.
Wallpaper.
I have to believe Serenity is still flying...
No matter what you think of Jos Whedon, he did leave some very good television in his legacy. Buffy, Dollhouse, and Firefly are simply standouts in the (cult) television series landscape.
I'm not entirely sure what attracts people in these books. Like the previous B.V. Larson books, there is something off about them, almost something stupid. It isn't that the man can't write. He can, perhaps with a little false pathos, but the writing itself isn't that bad. By itself...
But there's so much wrong with this, I'm not even sure where to start...
Farscape returned! Okay, that's a lie... but I'd love for it to happen.
Say what? Farscape? You didn't even know? What?!? You did not even watch?!?!? You don't even know what Farscape is?!?
You must be one of those people comforting their Nielsen boxes 😔
Back in 1995 I was staying in China, looking for something to watch on late-night Guangzhou television. Well, Hong Kong television, but they had that on the hotel's channels. Just by accident I 'rolled' into The Tommyknockers based on Stephen King's story. I heard some negative stories about the book and had never read it. I still haven't, so I can't compare book and movie adaption.
Nearly thirty years of progress... Did we make any? I compared the layout of the same app on old style Windows NT / 98 (XP with a theme), Windows XP, Windows 10, and Windows 11.
Just from a stupid user's point of view... did we make any progress? If you just look at the user interface then it's still the same beast. So why is Microsoft so desperate to change the looks, when in the end we'll buy the new version anyway?
When you think about it... things haven't changed much for the last 30 years...
I like F1. I like the drama surrounding it, the games, the challenges, the emotions. Racing is more than just fastest man + fastest machine = certain win. As in any sport, drama plays a major role. Well, at least I believe it should be.
It certainly shouldn't be all about 'hate', and now that's exactly what's happening since 2019, which culminated in outright death treats in 2021 after the final race of the 2021 season
Some self proclaimed 'fans' are so narrow minded they keep repeating their view on reality in endless posts on every forum, unable to understand that others disagree with their point of view. One of those is 'Republican' who thinks he is funny. But... he isn't.
Joss Whedon delivered another classic, even though it was canceled before its time. It's cowboys and rebels in space, but not exactly...
It only took some out-of-order broadcasting to kill this show. Fortunately it received some well-deserved wrap-up in the form of a movie.
Watch it. Even if you don't like Whedon as a person, his TV shows were (and still are!) great.
Some of these wallpapers are just pretty images, others may have a story behind them. Some of those stories are intense, emotional, have a personal meaning (and I might simply not share the associated wallpapers) but others only go skin-deep.
This is one of the latter 😇 Ever heard of the game Tabula Rasa?
Okay. Those who've read my reviews might have figured out I don't like LitRPG much, and Cultivation even less. Now, LitRPG and Cultivation primarily take place in the fantasy domain, so what's this?
My key issue with LitRPG is its obsession with stats, and being better / worse than someone else. I have a similar problem with Cultivation, which often boils down to 'follow the rules and you will become god' -- which amounts to pretty much the same thing. Unfortunately, that's what Star Force is: yet another cultivation novel but this time set in space.
After not being entirely sure where to take the story (or that's my impression, at least) the author returns to the main thread and plot of the series: the fight against the Lankies.
These three books (6,7,8) wrap up the series, and in the final book he gives his protagonist love couple a fair and well-deserved send-off. The final book does hint at the nature of the Lankies but doesn't go into detail. This clearly leaves space for another series of books using new characters.
Well, cheesy as it may be, sometimes Andromeda gets things right. If not in the episode itself, then at least in the 'pseudo historical quotes' preceding every episode. Take this one:
Humans say the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.Why? Do they think there's a shortage of bad ones?
I think he wrote it back in the day when Fido was still a thing and many of us hang around on SF.028. Oh, who still remembers those days...
(Hey, I think I've found some remaining presence... http://www3.sympatico.ca/jpolowin/filkstuf/OfficerP.htm though it seems a little outdated. Still, the last update suggests a new recipe in 2020...)
Apocalyptic setting. Check. Female teen protagonist. Check. First Person Present Tense. Check.
What could go wrong? Well, a lot. A regular dose of disbelief won't work on this one. Slave / miner / teen girl gets injected with some kind of genetic mod and becomes Miss Perfect. Ah... that should have been a red flag.
Sorry, the story just doesn't seem to work.
Maybe it's formally not part of the MCU (as in being more of a Sony than a Marvel property) but hey, it fits nicely, and Doctor Strange does a good job making things worse.
The movie is enjoyable if a little forgettable. Tom Holland is great, as usual. I'm still not convinced by Zendaya (a little overhyped) but the best participants in this movie are the faces of old...
Very good. Very, very good. Ah, the first review of 2023 should be a positive one, shouldn't it?
I thought they couldn't pull it off. Ending the first book with an overpowered enemy is one of the two 'beginning writers' problems. (The other one is an overpowered protagonist.)
But they managed to do it. They managed to pull it off.
Megalomania isn't a problem... Well, it is (Musk, Putin, Trump, and you can come up with a few names of your own) but at least it isn't a problem in cartoons... Meet Pinky & The Brain!
The most popular page on this blog is the Rock Solid page. I've updated the information on other related models, as I think I've finally figured out all variants.
As for 2023... I hope to enjoy my Home Theater setup for a long, long time to come. I feel no need to visit the cinema, and am considering even larger screen options... Though I'd probably have to win the lottery first. And get some stuff repaired...
For a year I've been mostly at a kind of stand-still when it came to writing. It's not that I don't want to write, but it just never happened. My health wasn't cooperating, I've been busy at work, and there have been so many other things to do. So, besides some editing, there was little work done on my novel(s).
Anime can be great. I love anime, though I'm not a hardcore fan. I did notice there's a lot of variation in anime, and though some of the topics have become more mature over time, anime as a whole genre seems to be moving back to its roots, ie. lately anime seems to be targeting a younger audience again.
I'm still alive. I had my shots. Got pretty sick of the first batch, less so from the second inoculation. Then, a couple of months ago, I caught Corona / Covid myself, in spite of the inoculations...
Countdown + Datatalk + Windows
My old Asrock mainboard has a RealTek audio chip onboard. I have an old Labtec 4 channel amp with its own little sub that's still going strong after 22 (!) years.
Under Windows 10, my setup would by default mirror stereo playback to the rear speakers. Not so under Windows 11. Even better: you can't tell Windows 11 that you have a quadrophonic setup. Well, you can, but it's a little hidden...
I'll be damned. They did it again. (Or before. Time is relative.) The Aurora Cycle was great (still have to add the reviews for books 2 and 3) and this book, by the same authors, does it again. Although, in this case, it's... different.
You can launch Chrome with a specific user profile, but, unfortunately, there's no easy way AFAIK to discern which profile number matches a specific profile name. Here's a. how to figure out the profile number, and b. how to share batch files and scripts over different machines with different profile names.
Why? Because you might use the same website with different profiles, ie. settings, and you don't want to manually log out and in again.
I wrote this ages ago... but never posted it. And now the PS5 era has arrived 😁 and still I post something about the PS4... Whatever. Sometimes the PS4 misbehaves with controllers and (longer / weird) USB cables. Here are my personal notes and observations. This also applies to a Logitech G29 Wheel and PCs.
Countdown + Datatalk + VirtualBox
The countdown to 2023 has started. And I haven't reached my one hundred posts this year yet! Well, counting down is fine, but I prefer the majority of my posts to have some kind of usefulness... Some kind. Sort of 😏
So, 11 days... Let's start with VirtualBox 6.1.40 and spontaneous freezes on Windows 11...
In 1972 (that's a long time ago) Alan Dean Foster wrote the first of the Pip and Flinx novels.
It's an easy read, which would probably classify as a YA, with left and right a bit of exposition (and somewhat old fashioned) but it is still imminently readable.
Look what I found on a Japanese (?) website... someone is selling his home-build transmission line / horn version of the B&W 'Rock Solid Sound' Monitor.
Hard to tell how it sounds, but the lack of dampening material, and the fact the seller wants to sell it... Oh well.
Okay, I'm a Sony PlayStation guy (in spite of also owning an Xbox One S) but this is a great wallpaper. (Click image to enlarge.)
I couldn't find a high-resolution version, but that doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I deliberately use dots and blur effects in WallX to make the background fuzzier so the wallpapers won't distract me from the job at hand. WallX parameters: dots blur round distort 15 expand 150 keep resident
Third Person Present Tense, Young Adult SF.
Most books in the YA category tend to be Fantasy, but this is a SF trilogy with some interesting aspects, and it's well written.
There are some not-entirely-believable scenes, but it ain't bad, and the character interaction is fun.
Anyway, in case you would decide to buy a mesh Wifi network, TP-Link has a cheap(er) product called the Deco M4.
Op je werkdag mag je niet thuiswerken, maar op je vrije dag wel?
Heeft dan niemand iets geleerd van de Corona golf? Nadat we een tijdje thuis mochten werken... nee, thuis moesten werken, is het eindelijk weer tijd om op kantoor te verschijnen. En dus staan we lekker collectief weer in de file.
Daisy's part of a limited crew, on their way to earth. But the closer she gets, the more she starts distrusting her fellow shipmates. What doesn't help is her distrust of artificial limbs and cyborg implants, something which all her shipmates have...
