Antenneversterker icm. Ziggo en oude bekabeling (Dutch)

DIY + Dutch

Wanneer gebruik je een antenneversterker? Alleen wanneer het nodig is 🙂

Deze tekst is gebaseerd op Ziggo als ISP, maar geldt natuurlijk ook grotendeels voor andere kabelaars.

Star Trek Generations

Review.

In February 1995 I went to China, which was an amazing experience. I did come back, and ended up with two children and an ex-wife, so in hindsight, twenty years later, that was quite the adventure 😇

Just before leaving the country I also watched Star Trek Generations.

John DeChancie - Castle Perilous / Castle for Rent / Castle Kidnapped / ...

Review.

If you don't mind how DeChancie treats bunnies, then, well, this is great light reading. Fluffy, too!

There is this castle, somewhere in the multiverse, where visitors and the regular guests from different realities mingle. At their own risk, of course. Especially when the host is away...

Roger Zelazny - The Dream Master / Dreamscape

Review.

In this novel a successful therapists accepts the challenge of his life: teach a blind wannabe therapist to deal with the visions of her (seeing) (future) clients.

Which leads to weird stuff.

Roger MacBride Allen - Farside Cannon

Review.

Scientist wants to save the world, gets caught in a web of intrigue and finally uses his exile to the far side of the moon as an advantage to stop an incoming meteorite.

Yes. MacBride Allen actually did write other stuff besides churning out Star Wars novels...

Homematic - Wasmachine voor nerds (Dutch)

Dutch + Domotics

Als je toch al een domotica systeem hebt met een led display, dan kun je dat net zo goed gebruiken om te melden wanneer de wasmachine klaar is...

Echt nuttig? Nee, maar wel leuk voor de uber-geek 😎

Witchblade 41

Review.

Are comics books? I don't know. They might be. They are printed, have letters and words, and you can read them. At least they are some kind of books.

I scored a 100+ Witchblade books...

PS4 NAT Type 3 problemen met een Ziggo TC7210 (Dutch)

Gaming. Dutch.

De combinatie van een Ziggo TC7210 en PS4 gaf problemen (NAT3 ipv. NAT2).

Ik heb dit opgelost door de TC7210 in 'bridge' mode te laten zetten.

The 4400

Review.

Cult craving guilt... Season 3 of any show is the most important season. Or so I think.

Let's have a look at the final two seasons of 4400 and see if my theory holds up... to anything 😁

Musk versus the shorts

Column.

After Musk his little tweet about 'taking the company private' the pitchforks came out. On Ars Technica someone stated that 'short sellers' are also 'shareholders', thus they have the right (?) to sue Musk for any communication that would affect their position.

A big mistake? A deliberate action? Not even my goldfish knows...

Netflix - One bad movie - League of Gods

Review.

Of course NetFlix can't get it right all the time.

I remember my first encounter with Netflix, way back when I visited the USA, a long, long time ago... The friends we stayed with had Netflix. Wow. I was impressed.

Naomi Novik - His Majesty's Dragon / Throne of Jade / ...

Review.

An alternative timeline where dragons actually exist, but not because they are magic. In fact, thus far there hasn't been any magic at all and probably never will. Napoleon wouldn't want it any other way....

Power shortcuts and rebuilding the icon cache

Windows 10

I think every version of Windows since XP (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10) suffers from an 'icon cache' glitch, leaving some icons missing or 'broken'.

I've tried different solutions, but this one seems to do the job every time.

In addition I've added some icons and batch files to quickly add power related shortcuts on your desktop.

Alison Sinclair - Darkborn

Review.

Darkborn was an interesting read. I was expecting an ‘interleaved’ book, where half the adventure would take place on the light side,  the other half on the dark side, but no.

Ah, more would be spoiling 😁

Getting Windows 10 settings right (what a mess)

Windows 10.

Take Windows 8, remove Privacy and add enforced updates... that's Windows 10. I'm especially worried about Windows 10 screwing up older systems by involuntary driver replacements. Microsoft should at least allow us to block driver updates, please!

Anyway, if you want to run Windows it's the only game left in town.. And things can get very, very interesting if you're trying to run Windows 10 as the OS on a home server...

Sleepy raid controllers and drilling holes

One of my hard drives started to misbehave seriously (and Harddisk Sentinel pretty much confirmed it is about to die).

I immediately picked up a new one, and was about to copy data from the old to the new drive when I realized I was running out of SATA ports. When I build my homeserver I picked a cheap case (actually: the cheapest I could find 😅) and somewhere in the back of my mind I convinced myself I could always add some drives later on.

Well, that turned out to be possible, but there were some unforeseen limitations...

Steven Brust - The Phoenix Guards

Review.

In the afterword Brust admits he likes the style of Alexandre Dumas and company

Brust himself called it "a blatant ripoff of The Three Musketeers" but I think he deserves a little more credit than that.

Van 1200ES naar 2400ES naar 2800ES naar SR6011 naar SR7011 (Dutch)

Dutch. Review.

Wat doe je wanneer je versterker kuren begint te vertonen? Je koopt een nieuwe. Nou ben ik niet echt een 'audiofiel' maar ik hou wel van een lekker stukje geluid...

De vraag is natuurlijk: wat en waarom?
 

Alan Dean Foster - Catalyst

Review.

Catalyst, or Cat-a-lyst, stayed on the shelf for two years before I read it. I was reading quite a bit at the time. (You wouldn't be able to tell, now would you?)

Eager for adventure, movie star Jason Carter tags along on a treasure hunt in Peru where he and his friend discover a lost civilization intent on conquering the world

Mel Gilden - Surfing Samurai Robots / Hawaian Ufo Aliens

Review.

In Surfing Samurai Robots and Hawaiian Ufo Aliens there's a five feet two sleuth with a big nose and a mission... to become the next Philip Marlowe.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. He calls himself Zoot and he's actually an alien beneath that long trenchcoat.

Ziggo's prijsverhoging (Dutch)

Dutch. Column.

Ziggo heeft zojuist (opnieuw) haar prijzen verhoogd. Om 'meer en betere' diensten te kunnen aanbieden.

Op zich niet onredelijk.Alleen is het niet helemaal waar.

Lawrence Watt Evans - The Lure of the Basilisk / The Seven Altars of Dusarra / ...

Review.

Just plain heroic fantasy, the hero Garth fits right between Elric and Conan. Well, you have to be in the mood for these, and then it's okay though not exceptional.

One note: Garth is a hero whose stomach aches and whose feet hurt. Quite an uncommon feature in this category.

Dudeism

There is nothing wrong with me that a little reincarnation cannot fix...

If you're a dude (M/F) then visit this website:

www.dudeism.com

I am so tempted to buy that book...

Top 5 'never give up' inspriational books, movies, songs

Movies + Books + Fantasy

Monika’s Dapper contribution triggered some soul searching, and I discovered I cannot help myself: I’m motivated to a fault... And not always towards the proper goals as my employers can attest 😌

For those moments I'm not motivated I always have some ‘uppers’ at hand… Obviously, they had to be SF / SciFi / Music related… so here is my top 5 (and a bit)... 

Pamela Dean - The Secret Country / The Hidden Land / Whim of the Dragon

Review.

A group of kids strands (more or less) in a parallel world where they turn out to be the characters they liked to play on 'our'. But once in, there's not much of a way out...

Interesting fantasy read. Not yet another six volumes four-thousand pages Tolkien rip-off. These days it would probably be released as a single large paperback, and it would still be worth your while.

Geluid over HDMI (Dutch)

Dutch.

Alle nieuwere TV's gebruiken HDMI. Dat werkt erg gemakkelijk, een enkele kabel, maar soms stelt het je voor verrassingen.

Hier een korte uitleg over kwaliteit, soorten verbindingen, beperkingen, en geluid via HDMI, en een reden om NIET iets nieuws te kopen...

Elizabeth Moon – Remnant Population

Book Review

A relaxed read, a good book. You know it's going to be all right in the end, and yet you won't mind.

And I needed something relaxed after all the hard (military) SF I've been reading the last year(s)...

Amber DRPG

Column + RPG + Mindmap

I must have been talking about role-playing games, and especially the Amber Diceless RPG, in the past.

For years I planned to go and play again, but I just never got to it. But I'm old and if I don't start playing again, I probably never will…

Why this sudden realization?

Lindsay Buroker - The Emperor's Edge / Dark Currents / Deadly Games / ...

Review.

I like my eBooks good, and my audiobooks cheap. Finding a decent title cheap is sometimes a challenge though, so The Emperor’s Edge was a nice discovery. I’ve listened to the first 5 books thus far, and they are quite enjoyable.

Airflow (a new PC build in an old case)

Let me start by saying I do NOT like to build my own PC. Once upon a time, long, long ago, I considered it fun. These days I just may build one myself for cost reasons.

Regardless if you use a new or an old case (as I did) it still is a good idea to pay attention to the airflow in your case...

Alastair Reynolds - Revenger 1 - Revenger

Review.

Ye' ol' pirate, matey! This one isn't marked as a 'young adult' novel, but perhaps it should be. Two young girls travel into space, get into a fight with a pirate, and then (obviously) one of them gets taken. Away. Scifi style.

I liked this one, even if I (in general) dislike pirate stories.

Homematic controlled (floor)heating

DIY + Domotics

This post describes my Homematic heating control system.

I live in a place with four floors (it's not as big as you'd suspect with the house just 5 metres wide, and the top floor is only partially usable due to the sloped roof) with the two lowest levels having floorheating. I am using a Homematic domotics system to save energy by only running the pumps when needed.

Mounting a Tab3 7" tablet in a kitchen

DIY

With all the recent security scares you may want to carefully consider what you want to do with it.

But... if you decide you still want to put a tablet in your kitchen, then here's an example with a Samsung Tab 3 7".

Dominion Tank Police

Review.

First time I saw this was in 1995, but this anime series was actually released in 1989. That's almost 30 years ago...

Concept: in the future criminals have become too powerful, so the Police Force has opted for the deployment of tanks.

Akasa USB3 card reader

Review.

There could be a reason you want an (USB3) card reader in your PC. In general, you'd better opt for an external unit, regardless if it is USB2 or 3, and simply plug it in an available USB port.

But let's assume you want an internal unit...

Raymond E Feist - Riftwars

Review.

Dark Fantasy, sometimes a bit predictable with a so so ending, but overall enjoyable and worth a re-visit.

The majority of Feist's works are part of The Riftwar Cycle, and feature the worlds of Midkemia and Kelewan. Human magicians and other creatures on the two planets are able to create rifts between these worlds and end up fighting each other. Yeah. That happens

Diana Wynne Jones - Archer's Goon / Fire and Hemlock

Book Review

Today, that's Archer's Goon by Diana Wynn Jones.

Somebody once told me it's a parody on Zelazny's Amber series, but I do not entirely agree. Well, there were some similarities, like all those ultra-powerful brothers and sisters quarreling and plotting all the time. There's also the main character who lost his memory, but that is where the similarity ends. And there are enough other things in the book make you smile. Not bad... not bad at all.

Urotsukidoji - Legend of the Overfiend

Review.

I watched this one ages ago when I first discovered anime. And it's sub-genres... Bishounen... Ecchi... Mecha... Shounen... Shoujo... Don't worry, I don't know the exact meaning either ☺ Most of it is cute, action oriented, romantic. Most if it...

Urotsukidoji, also known as Legend of the overfiend, is different. A rather sick mongrel of porn and horror. At least not my cup of tea.

Adult supervision strongly advised!

Tweaking Windows 10

Windows 10 might be the best Windows ever (at least according to Microsoft) but there are some issues...

Let's ignore horrible Windows 8 Metro leftovers, doubtful respect for the user's privacy, lack of control over updates and (driver) replacements, and focus on one of the biggest annoyances (IMHO that is): the coloring of drag bars in the GUI... (and then some)

Ann Aguirre - Blue diablo / Hell fire / Shady lady / Devil's puch...

Book Review.

I tried this after her Sirantha Jax books, which were fine.

Not SF this time, but demons, demigods, and love affairs. Perhaps a little too 'shippy' for my taste, just like Sirantha Jax but if you can stand that these provide some light reading that isn't all too bad.

Netflix - Travelers - Season 2 - Ave Machina / Protocol 4 / Jacob / 11:27 / ...

Review.

Ah, Travelers is back.

The long gap between season 1 and 2 (at least here on Netflix) made me somewhat forget about this series. I needed a quick recap of season 1 before diving in.

And I wonder if there ever will be a season 3...

Disc rot

Do you still have CD's or DVD's laying around containing backups? Images, documents, music, or other stuff that you like to (re)use some day?

How reliable are those discs?

Fringe

Series Review

Fringe seemed at first to be another X-files clone. and though there's quite a bit 'episodic' stuff, there's also the kind of... perception shift. We'll move from Mulder / Scully reality-checks, into nutty professor territory.

Great stuff! A definite must watch!

BeeClear en de slimme meter op sluipjacht (Dutch)

Review + Domotics + Dutch

De meeste huishoudens hebben tegenwoordig een 'slimme' meter. Die 'slimheid' zit hem voornamelijk in het voordeel voor de energie bedrijven die veel gemakkelijker je meter kunnen uitlezen, maar gelukkig kun je er zelf ook wat mee.

Bijvoorbeeld sluipverbruik aanpakken i.c.m. de BeeClear.

Netflix - Bright - A bright spot on NetFlix?

Movie Review

What to make of this...

Will Smith returns to the silver... no, scratch that. Will Smith returns to the small screen, in a fantasy / buddy cop cross over movie. And lots of people hate it. But in these modern times where the internet allows every idiot to spout his vitriol nothing appears to be appreciated anymore.

 So... I, for one, actually like Bright. So there.

Evan Curry - Odyssee One

Audiobook Review

Many 'space operas' have a similar theme: Earth develops instant space travel, encounters other humans in space, and uses some kind of instant traveling to battle evil space lords.

I'd suggest to skip these, unless you really like Ryk Brown, Christopher Nuttall, and the like.

Food - Erwtensoep / Snert (Dutch)

Food + Dutch

Erwtensoep hoort ook bij geeks :-)

Er zijn een heleboel verschillende recepten op het Internet te vinden. Dit is mijn variant...

Christopher Fowler - Roofworld / Rune

Book Review

Fowler's Roofworld is like a 'light' version of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Still it is an enjoyable read. Imagine a world with its own rules, just above our heads, where drop-outs have created their own society with their own rules. It's an entertaining romp.

Good reading if you like light fantasy, though perhaps it's not exactly fantasy... some genres are hard to specify 😏

Android GPS sharing

Datatalk

For some reason ☺ I wanted to use a location aware app on my Android tablet, which didn't have a GPS receiver.

There are several apps on Google Play, some work, some do not. I found two apps that would work together properly: Bluetooth GPS Output and Bluetooth GPS.

Tim Powers - The Anubis Gate / Last Call / Expiration Date / Earthquake Weather

Book Review

In 1995, book clubs still existed.

If, at the time, you were a member of one of those 'bookclubs' (mail order subscriptions like 'Boek & Plaat' or 'ECI')  you would have to choose something from their (too thin) quarterly catalogue. So in July 1995 I ordered The Last Card. Which takes me back to The Anubis Gates...