Car + MX-5 + Atoto Head Unit
Here are some notes for those trying to do the same thing... I will add some images that identify some of the things that weren't entirely clear in the videos. Let's start with getting the right parts.
Overpriced hotels and tourists everywhere. Vacations can be so stressful, especially during the summer months.
You may simply have no choice with kids and such, but what if you have the option to reschedule your summer holiday?
So... When? That would depend on...
a. Where you want to go
b. What you want to do there
c. All the other idiots having going to the same place at the same time
I bought the original set of Farscape DVDs, only to find out they have no Dutch subtitles. Bummer.
Online I found several Dutch subtitles as .srt files, but the timing was wrong. Here's how to fix subtitle synchronization issues...
I've tried both the MyRoute-app and Tom Tom Go, and they both had their own idiosyncrasies. Time for Kurviger.
This is an app which is intended to - on-the-fly - creation of 'curvy' roads for motorbikes. I'm (trying to) use it as a navigation tool for leisure scenic routes in a convertible. And it works surprisingly well when trying to do exactly that.
Wanneer je routes deelt met anderen, of routes van anderen gebruikt, is het belangrijk om de route te controleren, en de juiste kaart te gebruiken!
In my initial turn by turn Android app search I found MRA Navigator to be the best. Tom Tom Go almost made it, but failed in sight of the finish. I was wondering what was happening, and decided to dive a little deeper. And maybe it would pass this time?
(On the fly I found a way to edit Garmin / MRA Routeplanner generated files in the Tom Tom Planner web app. Yes, this is going to get a little nerdy.)
The MRA Navigator app (MRA Next? oh whatever) is thus far one of the few apps that passed my 'smart waypoint skipping' test.
It's not perfect, but it works!
Obviously, there won't be something like 'the best' app, as everyone has a different goal and wish list. But after looking at so many websites and apps I still found it impossible to pick out the right app.
One thing I knew though: it needed some sort of smart waypoint skipping.
So I decided to simply test a few different apps.
Did you know Google Maps can use coordinates instead of addresses? And navigate between them? That's handy to share a location without an address, like a parking area, or just a tree in the middle of a meadow, next to nowhere.
GPX + Travel + Navigation Apps + Dutch
Gisteren heb ik gekeken naar een aantal PC en online gebaseerde tools, en daar hoort natuurlijk Google Maps ook bij. Google Maps is gratis en navigeert erg goed, maar wil je data uitwisselen met iets anders, dan heeft dat wat aandacht nodig... en werkt het uiteindelijk amper, helaas.
GPX (GPS eXport) files zijn log-bestanden / route-bestanden (in XML formaat) en worden vaak voor wandeltochten, fietstochten en auto tour-tochten gebruikt.
Deze post gaat over mijn voorlopige ervaringen met software en hardware, en dan met name onder Windows. (Al zijn de helft van de tools web based 😏)
Your typical, macho, space marine novel, but it's readable.
The obligatory bootcamp scenes aren't overly extended, and the techno babble is within limits and believable. Meeting up with an older woman is something you rarely see in these kind of stories, and the enemies - though still faceless - aren't outright evil, just... culturally and biologically different.
Why make things easy... You can only create links to .exe files now on Windows 11, but there's a way around that as well. It just takes a little effort.
Here's how to create a taskbar shortcut to a batch file in Windows 11:
Found on LinkedIn.
Click on image to enlarge.
More cheat sheets... (Maybe I should add some 😏)
It's 2024 now, and there's a new Shogun in town (excuse me the pun). Shogun.
I review a lot of older stuff, so it's time to do something more up to date 😇 It's not completely fair to call watching two episodes of Shogun a 'series review', but, well, let's say a review of two episodes is still a review 😏
The 1950 Typewriter by Leroy Anderson is by itself unique and crazy.
In 1963 Jerry Lewis used it in the movie Who's Minding the Store.
Over the years there have been multiple performances by real orchestras and other... enthusiasts.
And some of those are great. Try this one.
Nou ja, misschien niet de meest gevaarlijke auto ooit... Die 'eer' gaat waarschijnlijk naar de Ford Pinto, de Mitsubishi Spacestar (da's een raar verhaal, maar wel de auto met de meeste doden in de US), en de Reliant Robin.
Maar nu dus de Volkswagen Golf MK8. Man, wat is dat een gevaarlijk ding.
With four movies and a thirteen episode television series many of us must have caught at least a glimpse of Appleseed. Or at leats of one of it's main characters: Briareos. Aka bunny-ears... Just kidding 😇
How about diving into other people's minds... Could be fun, right? Here's the 'slip into someone's mind' 2014's Stitchers which I would rapidly exchange for a remake of VR5.
In Stitchers the main character gets 'stitched' into the memories of dead people, helping to solve crimes (typically, ttrying to find out the reasons why those people died). It's a procedural, after all...
Deze is getekend door mijn dochter, en werkt geweldig als wallpaper op een telefoon, maar ook op een normaal scherm.
Wil je deze afbeelding ergens anders voor gebruiken, neem dan even contact op.
Klik op de afbeelding om te vergroten / Meer wallpapers
Another space opera, and unfortunately it fails in the typical areas of science and logic. The story might have been a lot better with a little more work on the technical aspects.
Here are more of my usual gripes with much of the SF Space Opera and Military SF out there:
Last year I was (trying to) do a review per week, and haven't kept to my schedule when 2024 started... So, let's use a week or two to catch up. First target: Casey White.
Casey White is an independent self publishing author, with a number of novels to her name. I can't figure out how many, as there are multiple authors with the same name / alias 😎
In the past you could install Windows 11 with a local account. These days? Not so. You MUST create a Microsoft Account to install Windows 11. That's... ridiculous. Can't even install a PC anymore without an internet connection.
And today, my local accounts suddenly disappeared.
In Nederland is dat iets beter geregeld, maar niet veel... En werkgevers maken er dankbaar misbruik van, omdat het een gemakkelijke manier is om ongewenste werknemers weg te werken.
Soms is een simpele wallpaper alles wat je nodig hebt, zoals deze waterdruppels voor een dual-monitor setup.
Klik op de afbeelding om te vergroten (meer Wallpapers)
My old Secomber maps were scanned 20 years ago, using a handscanner. It was about time I rescanned them, especially after finding other Secomber maps.
Click on any of these images for a larger version.
20+ years ago I created some maps for Secomber, a small town in the Forgotten Realms. I didn't pick the place at random. I selected it because it is known but not well documented thus allowing the DM lots of freedom. It's also close to a lot of interesting places.
I'm planning to revisit the old document and expand on it, so in preparation I googled a bit...
I like to differentiate my Chrome profiles by different tab colors, but the 'Chrome 2023 Refresh' enforced pastel colors on us poor users. I had not spotted that yet, but when I made a profile change, I suddenly couldn't select my original color again. Instead, we now have 'themes' that don't do what I want...
But it's fixable... for now...
Outdated. Old fashioned. Geeky, nerdy, cult.
And yet, in some ways, this old one season series is lots of fun. Sidney Bloom is a telecoms technician with a talent that allows her to creep into someone else's mind, entering a kind of 'virtual reality'.
It’s based on a computer game, but it has (fortunately) little to do with the game (besides borrowing characters and background).
Synopsis: two sisters survive in a world with lots of contrast between the rich and the poor. When a heist fails, the oldest sister goes to jail, and the youngest one goes… crazy.
I wrote about A Scientific Railgun some time ago, and here's the matching wallpaper. (If you understand the concept, this image of many a clone gets a lot darker!)
Click on the image to enlarge, or check out any of the other featured wallpapers...
I haven’t read the Hugh Howey novels this series is based upon, but this first season was highly enjoyable to watch. People locked in a silo-like vertical arcology need to survive on limited resources. However, there is a secretive group active in the background, controlling (and using) more advanced technology, and things might not be quite as they seem.
Now and again a little predictable - but worth a watch.
After a while building sentences becomes something automatic. You'll reach the stage where you'll effortlessly find the right words to describe the scene in your mind. This just takes practice. So write a lot, read a lot, then write even more.
Note: using a decent keyboard and some blind typing helps a lot here!
Shock yourself and your reader.
What's the most exotic, outrageous thing your character would do? Would he / she really do it? Does the story lend itself to that? If so, create a situation where your character would do exactly that... the impossible, the unthinkable, the illogical (not from the character's point of view, mind you).
In general I don't see much use for extensive character sheets. I even tend to skip as much of world building as I can get away with. I did find it useful to make a small char sheet for my main cast. Not to flesh them out and delve into their deepest secrets and hidden background.
My reasons are much more ordinary: I don't want to get caught out.
Don't overthink. Or from a broader point of view: don't brood. Don't whine. Don't worry.
Advice is what it is: an opinion of another person. Listen to them, learn from them, but don't depend on them.
It's an odd dilemma: you must learn from others, to avoid their mistakes, and to improve your own work. On the other hand you must develop a spine. (Yeah, that's a little harsh, but read on...)
We're past Christmas, and a couple of days away from New Year's Eve. And so I think it is time to combine mathematics with the art of writing:
It's easier to add than to subtract.
Removing a plot line, a character, a chapter or a scene, all of that is way harder than adding something. Anything. (Especially adding spelling errors is easier, but that's not the point.)
Write short. Concise. Focused. You can always expand later.
Goodie. There are so many (good) video codecs these days that it is hard to pick one... Or not?
There are some very decent explanations of the different formats on the Internet... but, as usual, I just had to figure it out and see for myself 😇
Use a (real) keyboard.
Don't write on your phone. Instead, use a real keyboard (and a real screen). A tablet (with an external BT keyboard) will work, but nothing beats that big piece of screen real estate in front of you.
If you can afford it, go big. 27", or even 2x 27" or some ultrawide thingy. And don't forget you'll be editing as well! If you use an editor (as in: a person, not the software 😏) it can be nice to show the editor's and your own version side by side.
In the countdown to 2024 I'm sharing a bunch of the most obvious tips with the poor victims that landed on this blog. Hey! You're one of them! So, what should you do when you want to write but you're stuck?
Close your eyes...
This book uses the ‘beat sheet’ approach used by Blake Snyder to create and improve tv- and movie-scripts. Following a specific script or method might be your thing, or it might not, so I approached this book with a bit more caution.
Actually, it's nine hints before the end of the year, but this sounds better 🤔😁
Matt asked me for nine tips... Hmmm... So, here's number 9:
Write Readable
... but that is not a tip. That's the same thing I tell everyone.
