TouchPortal 3.1 now supports OBS 28.

Datatalk + Touch Portal + OBS

Touch Portal 3.1 now supports OBS 28. You no longer need to download and install the websocket, but you need to enable it inside OBS 28, and make sure the port is set properly in both Touch Portal and OBS 28 (default 4455)

Windows Security Alert - Without a Reason

Windows 11

Well, it has a reason... It just won't show what the reason is 😒

After a fresh install, you may end up with a warning sign on the Windows Security tray, for no apparent reason. So, you double click the warning, and go through all your security options... and nothing shows. And the warning doesn't tell you what's going on.

Adam Wright - Harbinger PI 3 - Dark Magic (2016)

Audiobook Review

After restoring most of his memory Alec Harbinger triggers a wave of zombies, then brings his team (friends? co-conspirators? vague acquaintances?)  to fight  and stop some human -- and some not-so-human -- monsters from taking over the world.

Migrating the Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas

RPG + Datatalk

Remember this thing? 20-odd years ago, when CD-roms were still a thing, TSR released all the 2nd edition Forgotten Realms maps as a disc plus viewer. The viewer sucked (even then) but having those maps is a dream for RPG players.

Of course, getting it to install these days is a bit of a hassle, but (fortunately) you DON'T have to install it... maybe.

Upgrading Asrock AB350 Pro4 - 1600X to 3600 - BIOS & CPU

Datatalk + Windows 11

A friend donated a Ryzen 5 3600 CPU from his dead PC. Should I upgrade my own machine? Perhaps not.

But I'm still going to do it 😁

D&D - 5e in NL - Surprise, Rounds & Actions (Dutch)

RPG + 5e in NL + Dutch

Een deel van het spel draait om combat rounds, waarin de spelers en hun tegenstanders met elkaar vechten en schade aan elkaar uitdelen.

1. Bepaal wie er verrast is

2. Bepaal wie waar staat

3. Bepaal initiative

4. Speel de eerste ronde (waarbij karakters surprised kunnen zijn)

5. Speel de rest van het gevecht ronde na ronde

Wallpaper - La Sagrada Familia

Wallpaper / Travel.

La Sagrada Familia... If you've never been there then just go! The place is amazing. And so is Barcelona as a whole. I've visited the Sagrada Familia back in 2000, when they were still building slowly and expected it to never be ready. I returned 20 years later, with my twenty-ish daughters, and found out the local government had a change of plans and mostly finished it.

Bella Forrest - Harley Merlin - Series (2018....)

Audiobook Review

The problem with Bella Forrest is that she is, now and again, ‘over-inspired’ by other series. The ‘point-system’ seems to be lifted straight from Harry Potter, and there are other elements that seem… too unoriginal. There’s also a a hint of Mary Sue, and the third book is so driven by love affairs that the story suffers from it.

Site & Blog Updates

English

Made some updates to the layout of the site. Minor stuff but I think it looks just a tad slicker. Also removed some stuff from the topics list and modified the landing pages.

Dutch

De layout van de site is een klein beetje aangepast, en de Nederlandstalige D&D pagina's hebben een update gehad. Ook heb ik de labels wat opgeschoond en de landing pages aangepast.

6e... Dungeons & Dragons Coming Full Circle

Column / RPG.

6E is upon us. Or One D&D, although there's still little to be found on the WOTC page. Nevertheless... we go full cycle again.

1st edition players didn't need their 2nd edition... 2nd edition didn't need 3e. Nobody needed 4e 😁 though everyone (except 4e players) liked 5e. And now, we get 6e... 5.5e... 5.1e... I mean, One D&D. No, wait, 5e24. 5.5e. Whatever. (It's official now. 5e and 5.5e.)

I think the guys of Penny Arcade said it so well twelve years ago...

Anna Stephens - Godblind 1 - Godblind (2017)

Audiobook Review

The gods will walk the earth. Quite literal. A more realistic fantasy (is there such a thing) about a kingdom that struggles to fight ‘The Dark Lady’. A former slave escapes the baddies and teams up with the goodies, but not all goodies are good.

No, this isn’t Raymond Feist, but come to think of it… there are some similarities. It’s well written, but I lost interest near the end. Not sure if I’m going to look for book two or not…

HBO Max - DMZ (2022)

Series Review.

Rosario Dawson is becoming one of my favourite actresses. She played ‘the nurse’ in the Netflix' Marvel series, an older Ahsoka in The Mandalorian (and she’s great!) and Zee in the DMZ miniseries.

Zee's a mother who lost her son years earlier, in an alternate reality where the US has been torn in two. Good stuff, more emotionally driven than simplistic action, though at first glance you wouldn't say so.

Django Wexler - Wells of Sorcery 3 - Siege of Rage and Ruin (2021)

Audiobook Review.

Ah, good stuff. The final book of the trilogy. Isoka and her princess / lover return to Isoka’s home city Kanzhoka to rescue Isoka’s sister Tori.

What they find is a city set on fire, with the rebels led by nobody but Tori. More first person present tense YA action fantasy with a slice of romance, but not excessively so.

Balabolka settings

Writing / Datatalk / TTS.

Balabolka is a simple TTS (Text To Speech) tool that can help authors with proofreading and editing their work. Word has such a feature build in, but if you use Google Docs or another editor / word processor you might want to use something like Balabolka.

I have set up Balabolka in such a way that it monitors my clipboard. When I do a larger copy / paste it will start reading my text.

Alex Sheppard - Dark Universe - The Last Stryker / First Covenant / Final Resistance (2017....)

Audiobook Review.

Alex Sheppard (https://www.facebook.com/authoralexsheppard/) hasn't been very active since 2018, or so it seems after visiting his / her facebook page. Then again, neither am I 😉

However, this post isn't about productivity, but about this book / series. Let's start with the verdict: nah.

Wallpaper - Lost in Translation

Wallpaper

This is one of those wallpapers that only means something to me (and a few former employees of a data center company in Amsterdam). We had a couple of LAN parties at the time (this is around the end of the last century 😉 ) and played a lot of Red Alert 2 online. Our clan name was Lost In Translation, or LiT. We never got anywhere 😅 but I still have the logo as a wallpaper. (Click image to enlarge.)

Django Wexler - The Forbidden Library - The Forbidden Library / The Mad Apprentice / ... (2015....)

Audiobook Review.

Django Wexler is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. After the Wells of Sorcery series (I still have to add the review of book 3) this was yet another interesting series.

The concept is simple and will appeal to all fantasy readers: magic is real, and can be retrieved from books. Wizards are very adapt readers with lots of experience (we call them 'the old readers'). They all have shape shifting libraries, and get their powers from reading books.

Are you hooked yet?

SqueezeBox - Adding radio stations to SqueezeBox LMS

Music / Datatalk

I haven't been able to find a good explanation (and there might be a better way to do it) so here's what I do...

It seems the current radio function is connected to TuneIn, so that's what I'll use. It should be possible to use other services but I'm still struggling there. In the SqueezeBox client you can enter URLs directly.

Connect and configure a Steam Controller

Gaming.

It's not a popular controller, but hey, if you have one, why not (try to) use it?

These steps are based upon the text on the Valve homepage yet slightly adjusted for clarification.

Kodi v19.3 on Android / Windows - Path to media

Datatalk / Kodi.

Want to use your Nvidia Shield or Google Chromecast with Google TV (what a horrible name) to play back files from a home (Windows) server using Kodi?

On Android you cannot browse SMB shared drives, and you have to specify them by hand using their IP address.

Brandon Sanderson - Mistborn 1 - The Final Empire (2006)

Audiobook Review.

Brandon Sanderson has become a well-known and popular author, and yet I've read little by his hand. In fact, only Skyward, I believe, and that one was a little underwhelming.

He's better known for the Mistborn series, and yes. The first book The Final Empire is definitely better than Skyward.

Update on Ziggo and Bufferbloat

Datatalk + Bufferbloat + Ziggo

Ziggo increased their bandwidth again (and their pricing, let's not go there) so I checked my QoS based anti-bufferbloat recipe again. Results: it still works 😊 

Internet en Ziggo - meer betalen voor meer snelheid... welke je niet nodig hebt (Dutch)

Datatalk + Ziggo + Dutch

Ziggo kondigde een (kleine) snelheidsverhoging aan. En bij Ziggo betekent dat simpelweg dat de prijzen ook verhoogd gaan worden. En uiteraard, daar hoefden we niet lang op te wachten...

Anne Ursu - The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy (2021)

Audiobook Review.

Each book that starts with a 'school' or 'academy' threatens to become yet another Harry Potter clone. That indeed was my first worry when I started reading this one.

The second fear I had was the contra-'misogynistic' bend of the story. Don't get me wrong, misogyny has no place in this world, and unfortunately there are still many examples of such behavior in today's society.

Lisa Shearin - Raine Benaris 1 - Magic Lost, Trouble Found (2007)

Audiobook Review.

The cover suggests a fantasy novel, and yeah, it is. Raine Benaris is a seeker (a combination of sleuth / retriever / artifact blood hound) who finds herself involved in the search for a millennia old artifact that might lead the goblins to victory. Make that victories.

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

Datatalk + Ziggo + Dutch

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 - Dual Monitor - A Better Tomorrow

Wallpaper.

This 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 identical, curved, ultra-wide screens. Unfortunately, I don't have any of those. (Click image to enlarge...)

Daryl Gregory - Spoonbenders (2017)

Audiobook 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 (2017)

Audiobook 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.

TouchPortal - Launching troublesome applications

Datatalk + Touch Portal

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

Datatalk + Touch Portal + OBS

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 (2020....)

Audiobook 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 both a bit.

Andrew Seiple - Dire Saga 0 - Fate

Book 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

Windows 10.

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

Audiobook 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

Audiobook 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)

Movie 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), and reflow Ellipses and Em-dashes

Writing + Reference

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 expression?) handle it.

3D Book Mockup

Writing.

There are many sites that can do this. Here's just another one producing 3D cover mockups... When reading through the small print it seems this one hasn't any strings attached, and some of the others did.

DIY Book Design 

Gerald Brandt - San Angeles 1 - The Courier

Audiobook 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

Audiobook 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.)

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...

Netflix - Manifest - Season 1 / 2 (2018..2019)

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

Audiobook 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

Audiobook 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

Audiobook 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

Wallpaper

2 for 1... Angels are mostly girly stuff, but hey! I have a few in my wallpaper collection as well. Read on...