So I ended up with three computers on my desk: my old desktop, the new Raspberry Pi 4 machine, and my work laptop. I had a little KVM switch that allowed me to switch a VGA and two USB devices (keyboard and mouse, obviously) with two machines. Which meant that if I wanted to use the third machine, I had to re-configure the whole cable mess on my ( Read more... )

My desktop machine, which I (used to) run 24/7, is powered by an Intel i5 CPU and has several harddisks. The power supply is rated for 300W - obviously the machine is mostly idle, but there is a constant power draw, even when idling. I was wondering if I could do something about that, and perhaps downsize. After all, all I’m doing on that machine ( Read more... )

Apparently we’ve reached the age at which going for a ride on our bicycles seems like a great idea to spend a weekend afternoon. And with the excellent bicycle infrastructure in the Netherlands, it’s actually an enjoyable experience. One of the ways that the infrastructure supports cycling for pleasure is the network of cycling ‘junctions’,which ( Read more... )

Four and a half years ago, I managed to get one of the free STACK 1GB cloud storage, and I’ve been using it since - mostly for storing my collection of RPG PDFs. Through the various clients I can access them on any device, which certainly is convenient!
There is also a paid version, and the difference is that the paid versions of STACK are backed up ( Read more... )

Most of the stuff I do on a computer can be done in Firefox: mail, twitter, discord, etc. But my machine is in our office (it’s a proper dual-screen desktop setup), so I spend a lot of time there. I do have a laptop that I could use on the couch, but it’s a second-hand one, and the touchpad doesn’t work, and sometimes the power button doesn’t work ( Read more... )

I hardly left the house today, and decided to do some chores to prepare for our vacation. One of those is to brush up on the mailing list: I tend to write long(ish) reports each day which I send to a special e-mail list. Every time, I mail everyone on the list to see if they are interested in the reports of the coming trip - don’t want to spam ( Read more... )

I’m still playing Fire Emblem Heroes, in a low-key way. It’s a fun diversion, and it’s fun to see your heroes grow and thereby open up new possibilities. But there is an element of chance in there: when you summon a new hero, there is a randomiser that determines who you get, and at what star rating (from 3 to 5 - 1 and 2 star heroes can be earned ( Read more... )

I’ve written about streaming games here before. Watching and interacting with streamers and their community on Twitch.tv has given me a lot of good moments. One streamer and his community even became good friends, and we did meet up and had a good time. Some of the people in his community have (re-)started streaming themselves, and watching them is ( Read more... )

Saturday I went to my parents’, to help my father with his printer - or at least, to try again to get it to work with his laptop after a Windows 10 install.

( Windows 10 driver fiddling )

When LiveJournal switches to https, I had to follow suit with my self-hosted blog too, right? I mean, how can I keep maintaining that my own solution is better when it’s still served over an unencrypted connection like a pleb? So I rectified that. You’ll automatically get redirected to a https connection too.
Crossposted from my blog. Comment here ( Read more... )