Let's start with Grammarly, as that's the one I am most familiar with. It does highlight some issues (even in the free version) and I've used it to get my brains to work on commas. Note that Grammarly doesn't always get it right...
And again, I've looked at free versions, using these tools in my writing process...
I'm a writer. Though not a good one. And I'm not a native English speaker. And I just don't seem to get a handle on commas. Gawd, I hate those things. And I make all sorts of other mistakes, no matter how I try.
So... are any of the modern tools any good? Now, near the end of 2026? Note that I'm actually looking at the editing aspects mostly...
(Lots of interesting reading on ageing of SDHC cards you'll find here and here. And here.)
Trump made the news... again. (He does so every day.)
This time he decided to spend billions of dollars to lower the oil prices. Maga rejoice!
But wait... Who is going to pay the bill? Not him, that's for sure!
Penny Arcade doesn't always get it right - and you have to be partial to their kind of humor - but when they get it right, they really get it right...
(Click on image to enlarge)
The cheeky bastards at NCSoft have hidden (well, kinda) the 'autolaunching' of their launcer by creating a task in the task scheduler...
Duh. That was the only place I didn't look.
Dit jaar ben ik opnieuw met de MX-5 de bergen ingegaan, ditmaal in het na-seizoen (september). Het was een paar dagen redelijk warm, maar er zaten ook een paar koude en heel erg natte dagen tussen.
En toen viel me opnieuw op hoeveel grip die Pirelli Cinturato SF3 dingen hebben...
It's like VNC on steroids 😁
Series Review + HBO Max + Lanterns
Does HBO still exist? And do they actually still make decent series? And besides that... is anything coming out of the DC catacombs any good?
HBO once was one of the greatest producers of top class scifi / fantasy series, but... well, these days it's a bit more rare. Still it appears they hit the ball out of the park when it comes to Lanterns. Thus far... (Remember: I'm only at episode 1.)
Niet alles kost geld! Je kunt nog steeds gratis een vriend of bekende of familie lid helpen met zijn / haar computer op afstand. Veel apps zijn betaald geworden, en sommige apps erg onveilig, maar deze optie werkt nog altijd.
Een kleine post omdat ik steeds vergeet hoe het werkt...
The older version of the Contour Jog Shuttle Pro (the v1) was also sold under the brand name Hercules back in 2002... I got one of those.
Fortunately, the old drivers still work on Windows 11 (with one caveat) so I can still use it to edit videos. Yeah!
This is how to set it up with KDEnlive.
I'm using Immprep and Microsoft Edge's Read Aloud function for some text to speech verification of my written work (using Immprep).
I noticed that an overenthusiastic fooling around with the different voices in Edge can make Edge 'lose its voice'.
Symptoms: the 'read aloud' options are greyed out, or when started you hear nothing, and you can no longer change the voice in the 'read aloud' mode of Edge.
I used my printed drying cover to heat two spools over a longer period of time, and the results weren't impressive, so I decided to try to improve it...
1. By printing it with thicker walls, and
2. by adding some heat reflecting material.
Those two steps did the job!
Heerlijk toch, vakantie in het buitenland... lekkere snelwegen, een vignetje, beetje tol betalen... Duh.
Even voor mezelf wat zaken op een rijtje zetten...
An accidental find, but I like it. This is hard SF, involving a world past the brink of ecological disaster (with many people unaware or actively ignoring it), the US and China in a kind of military impasse, and Canada hiring itself out as the mercenary pool for the whole world.
Let's get rid of OneDrive and CoPilot and streamline some other stuff... Who needs that crap...
Unfortunately, Microsoft may at random decide to reinstall this crapware, or re-enable some of these settings... sigh.
Een nieuw jaar, een nieuwe kans 😁
Nog een poging voor de Alpen? Verleden jaar heb ik al een stukje Timmelsjoch en Stelvio gedaan... Hoe zou het zijn om alle (nou ja, alle belangrijke) passen in 1x te rijden? Kan dat eigenlijk wel?
Audiobook Review + Alexandra Bracken
This is the sequel to Passenger. It's an interesting read, and the main character appears a bit stronger than before, willing to fight. Her counterpart and love interest ends up with the most important power in these two books, purely by (bad) luck.
Based upon my own experiences, and stuff I gathered on the internet.
Click on the image to open the table.
Note: a wrong Aruco code may affect bed adhesion!
I own an AMS-HT, but not all rolls / spools fit. You can, however, also dry your filament inside your printer, using the heated printer bed. It may be slower and less efficient, it looks less sexy and it blocks you from actually using your printer for printing, but hey! It works.
Lately I’m encountering a lot of detective / film noir inspired stuff. There’s Sugar on Apple TV, Spider-Noir on… euh… Prime Video? (More about Spider Noir later.) And here’s Dan Willis, who wrote a 10+ series of books, set in an alternative 30’s in the US, where (some) magic works, and dames are still dames.
A cat so dangerous, even a Flerken would keep its distance...
Jonesy (aka Jones) is of course the red tabby from Aliens - and one of the real survivors - but what if Jonesy would have encountered an immature, young alien, at the start of the story? In real cat style, that would have been an awfully short movie 🤔😁
Audiobook Review + Zoe Hana Mikuta
YA NA / FF / Post-apocalyptic / Mechas / First Person Present Tense.
Love betrayal combat mechas.
Can it get any better?
"I love it when a plan comes together."
Yeah, so do I. But sometimes... It doesn't.
So, here's the challenge I set myself: design and build my own filament dryer.
Now what does that have to do with a 123-3D Spool Holder?!?
Audiobook Review + Xiran Jay Zhao
Iron Widow is the first part of a duology / trilogy / series (?) with the same name. It describes Wu Zetian's rise through the ranks, in a Chinese inspired scifi / fantasy setting featuring a mystical 'spirit power' (a kind of paranormal energy source) and very large mecha-like creatures called 'Chrysalis'.
In modern day 3D printers you have a lot of choice in build plates, filaments, temperatures, speeds, making it almost impossible to compare the actual adhesion of the different combinations.
When fooling around with buildplates (see PlateLab) I tried to come up with a way to properly (and objectively) test material / plate adhesion.
Sometimes Windows 11 is sooooooo annoying.
Place a link to a webpage on your desktop... works. Drag it to the taskbar... can't pin it.
Why oh why? Well, here's the work-around...
Jellyfin is a free alternative for Plex (and as you may have noticed Plex has gotten a little top heavy lately).
Unfortunately, the people behind Jellyfin dropped the ball with the latest version - at least for Windows - as it simply doesn't 'auto' install. But fixing it isn't too hard.
(Click on image to enlarge.)
Audiobook Review + Adrian Tchaikovsky
The third installment in the series, and (at first) very confusing, but in the end it all makes sense.
Again, Tchaikovsky takes a 'what if' and spins it all the way to its logical conclusion, in this case it's the Ship of Theseus concept.
Series Review + Apple TV + Sugar
Season one episode one. Very weird, but I love it. I've just finished episode one, and... this is weird.
Who is John Sugar? What is John Sugar?
Audiobook Review + Adrian Tchaikovsky
Book 1 featured intelligent spiders, and book 2 added intelligent octopi (?) and bacteria to the mix. (Not much of a spoiler as that's pretty clear from the start).
It's time to settle on a specific module size, and decide how a default 'baseplate' should look like.
Audiobook Review + Amie Kaufman
First person, present tense, YA. romance / science-fiction. Classic recipe, and typical Amie Kaufman.
But... Published in 2026, this book is a bit of a let-down compared with her earlier co-op work with Jay Kristoff, especially the Aurora series, or The Illuminae Files.
We settled on Lego (or the Lego dimensions and stud concept) as the basis for our own STEM system, and I've named the pieces 'Frankenblocks'. A sensible name, as we're building a kind of Frankenstein solution.
So, I decided to create my own STEM system. Step number one was the decision to adapt and adopt Lego bricks. Step number two was figuring out the concept and sizing.
I got some input from an Internet contact who is a teacher, and I used quite a bit of his experience and insight. (He didn't want to be mentioned, but you still deserve the credit, mister X! We'll call you 'Fred' from now on.)
After an update, I was suddenly left with a 500 GB hidden folder on drive O: (this is my Drivepool storage machine), and I couldn't figure out the owner.
It turns out, the owner might be anyone, and the folder could have gone 'plus-sized' due to a (partially) failed update.
Love. Life. And zombies.
This is a YA first person present tense audiobook exploring the 'I died and came back as a zombie' trope. Fortunately, it's better than the average wannabe-writer 'Isekai' project.
Today I saw a commercial for a tool that would auto-generate complete books. Including all chapters, text, graphics, layout, everything.
It was tailored to non-fiction, but it's rather scary - at least to writers. What will be the next step? Will there be 100% written - and readable - novels in our future?
Will there be any writers left? Probably. But - to level the playing field - I think we should be honest about WHO is creating the work...
My 'to do' list for publishing something on Amazon KDP, including links to sources or sub-posts, whereever relevant.
Read on... or visit the KDP Essentials page...
But nope. It's a trilogy. (And there's nothing wrong with that.) Perhaps I'm over-conditioned by those endless multi-volume series. I think Hackwith could have gotten away with it, but she chose not to.
Within Temptation's Sharon den Adel has quite the voice, and the band has quite the reputation, but at first I didn't even know this wallpaper was actually an album cover... yet I like it.
Also, I'm a sucker for concept albums, so now I wonder if I can find the associated comics anywhere...
(Click on image to enlarge)
Take some dark, gothic fantasy elements, combine it with a family drama and a self-apreciating voice, and tell a tale that moves towards and touches upon horror territory.
A very simple small flat plate 2x4x1, marked with the 'Frankenblocks' logo. Nothing special, but it had to be done.
You can find the model on Makerworld.
Especially not pinouts!
I have multiple modular PSUs in use, and a box full of cables matching these PSUs. You'd expect some form of standardization, but there isn't. Suppliers do deviate, and especially the six pin 12V plug knows lots of variations.
Book 1 of the Passenger series, in which the heroine is kidnapped from her own time (our time) and - obviously - travels through time.
