August 23, 2021
Looks like I'm gonna have some time on my hands
Came home from work Friday feeling very tired, went to bed at 6, and woke up just in time for bedtime, and slept in Saturday. Felt like utter crap, with body aches, a fever, sore throat. I figured it was an ordinary cold because by Saturday evening, my fever had gone down, and I was starting to feel better. Sunday still had an edge of illness to it, and I decided to take Monday off from work, and also drooped off at the local clinic, figuring I could get a test, prove it wasn't the couf, and be back to work tomorrow.
Yeah, not so fast. It was just the quick test, but it was positive, so counting back to Friday, I won't be back to work until Tuesday next week.
No treatment of any kind offered. Drink fluids and wait it out. Jeez, not even clean socks and Motrin.
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August 15, 2021
There are no Shotcuts
So I was made aware of several free video editors out there. Alas, Blender now insists on Windows 8.1 to install (not even 8.0 is good enough!), but I had ShotCut recommended to me.
Seems alright, except that it keeps crashing if I scrub the timeline too much (This is not my all-too-frequent bluescreening). Still, it seems to have some reasonably robust auto-saving going on.
Thus I'm taking a stab at setting SuperCub to The Hondell's "Little Honda". Although the scrubbing issue makes it a bit hard to find the cuts I want, and the song is too short to include them all.
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August 10, 2021
Going 4K
So the 42" 1080p TV I've been using as a monitor for the past 13 years went from working last night to dead this morning. I conducted surgery this afternoon and found a burnt fuse in it, but replacing it didn't bring it back to life. I found an online service manual which might aid in future fruitless efforts to debug it, but in the meantime I needed replacement.
So, I hied off to the mart of walls, and selected a successor. And for $424 including tax got a 4K, 50" replacement from some brand I've never heard of before. It's much lighter, virtually borderless, has no component video inputs.... but does have One and only One composite input that I may try to use with an old game system or two sometime. It does have a digital audio out connector, but fiber only, unlike the old Toshiba which also allowed an RCA data cable. I need a longer one. VGA connectors have gone the way of the Dodo.
The computer was already feeding it a 4K signal by the time I got through the setup menus. But that's just a little TOO high rez to read, so I backed it off a little. The TV is capable of handling off ratios a lot better than the Toshiba did.
I did not connect the ethernet or wireless networking. I don't need my TV to get to YouTube when I've got the computer there to do it. (Even if YouTube is causing a lot of my crashes lately.)
The other remarkable this is how LIGHT the new TV is in comparison. The Toshiba was listed as being 40-50 lbs. The new one can't even be half that. (Edit: Box says 20 lbs.)
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1
When I got my 4K TV, I permitted it to access the non-secure home network for firmware updates, and then unplugged the ethernet cable the moment it started trying to be "smart" and overlay app and ad suggestions on the screen. I had to completely disable the built-in wireless, though, because it would attempt to connect to any nearby unsecured access point (a common problem with "smart" appliances...).
-j
Posted by: J Greely at August 11, 2021 10:05 PM (ZlYZd)
2
The controls for connecting to the internet are pretty minimalistic, but so far it looks like if you never tell it to connect, it doesn't. It also has a way to get updates over USB.
There are some funny bits in the help text for the various options, and I found out how to make it default to my computer instead of the home screen.
One down side though is even turning off dynamic backlighting, it still seems to dim things down on dark screens.
Posted by: Mauser at August 14, 2021 04:27 PM (Ix1l6)
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August 01, 2021
Kanojo mo kanojo is funnier than it has any right to be
When the busty girl falls into his face, and you go to whap him with yours, but they're too small to reach....
I died.
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July 19, 2021
Getting the itch to AMV
But I have no software. What can I use that will a) import mp3 for the soundtrack and b) read .mkv video files, and c) is free or cheap (Because this is likely to be a 1-time thing).
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July 13, 2021
July 07, 2021
Kanojo mo Kanojo
I wasn't particularly planning on watching this, I mean, high school harem, with no giant robots or espers or anything... but there it was, sitting on my drive (I don't know HOW it got there, surely!) and frankly, I was amused.
The set-up is in all the descriptions, the guy who has been pestering his childhood friend to go out with him since elementary school has finally gotten her to consent to go steady with him, and he is embarrassingly devoted to her, and she's, well, I'm wondering if she actually likes him at all, but she agreed, and now she's stuck with him. One day while she's off doing her club activities, and he's hanging out on the roof waiting for her to finish, a really cute girl shows up and confesses to him. Why? What does she see in him? I have no idea. But she also brings him an unbelievably good Bento. So now he's torn, he doesn't want to turn down this new girl, but he's got a girlfriend he's been after all his life. The solution is obvious, Date both. But sneaking around would be dishonest, so his plan is to introduce the new girl to his girlfriend and get her to agree to the arrangement.
Now while the new girl does charm the hell out of the girlfriend, when he introduces his idea, he very nearly gets the beatdown he deserves, but somehow, he manages to not only sweet talk her into accepting the idea, but since he lives alone (how convenient) he gets BOTH girls to agree to live with him.
Not bad for the first episode, but they're not done. Because both girls end up sharing the bath and a little heart to heart, and the Girlfriend is a little uneasy about the feelings the new girl is stirring in her.
And at this point, I realized that the guy probably isn't really the main character, but the girlfriend. Slightly Tsundere, rather excitable redhead, yet probably the most rational one in the cast. Might be an interesting twist.
Oh, and it wasn't just the two girls in the bath. I had to save these for Wonderduck for when he finally comes home.
(click to Embiggen)
Get well soon WD! We're all thinking about you.
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June 22, 2021
Just letting you know...
"Operation Desert Pasta" a new Saga of Tanya the Evil one shot is a thing now.
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I only gave it a quick link when it came out back in June, but it was a fun watch.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at December 29, 2021 08:23 AM (ZlYZd)
2
Hmmm, must have been an indexing glitch at House Pixy, since this briefly showed up as a new post, and I didn't check the date on it...
-j
Posted by: J Greely at December 29, 2021 08:05 PM (ZlYZd)
3
I dunno. I had to patch a couple of other entries because I discovered that it worked correctly with images that lacked extensions, except when you linked to the full size copies.... Dunno how I ended up uploading files without extensions.
Posted by: Mauser at January 05, 2022 09:14 PM (Ix1l6)
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June 17, 2021
In the Wings - Barn Find
So it's official! I have a story in this year's 4HU anthology! Picture is now a link!
Ships July 9th. Available Now!
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June 05, 2021
Resin de' etre
Been toying with the idea of adding a resin printer to my arsenal. I don't know why, since I've only really been interested in practical prints with my FDM printer. The one time I tried printing the Liru figure I found on Thingiverse, the results were disappointing.
A brief search last night turned up an article about the 11 best low cost resin printers. And nearest the cheap end were two I was slightly familiar with, the ELEGOO Mars, and Creality LD-002H. At the time the list was made, the Mars was slightly cheaper, and on Amazon it was $239 with a $35 coupon. But then I went to Creality, and the LD-002H was on sale for $189. Moving it up on the list, but then I checked the ELEGOO site, and my choice was made, because the base Mars model was on sale for $149.99! Also, although most of it was sold out, the Resin was cheaper there than on Amazon as well, ($19.99 for 500 g vs $21.99) (They don't include a sample with the machine). So the total was $169.98 for the printer and resin, and the shipping was free (they also didn't charge me tax, which Creality did on my Ender 3. Very naughty. :-)
Getting back to Thingiverse, I put up my first thing back on Monday. However, for some reason, even though I did hit Publish, it is not showing up in my profile. I was able to add it to one of my collections. And my Analytics shows that scrapers, I assume, immediately downloaded it 464 times in the first hour, and nothing since. I'd heard the site is kinda broken and running on autopilot, but I had no idea it was that bad. Support has been unresponsive.
It's
a sleeve to protect a notepad in my pocket, if you're curious. You can't find it in the Search engine either.
(update: corrected URL)
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I had a similar experience with my first upload. It looks like there's a human review step before it gets indexed, which probably stops a lot of random porn, scam, and malware uploads. My subsequent uploads have been indexed faster.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at June 05, 2021 08:21 PM (ZlYZd)
2
I added a like to it, in case it helps kick the automation.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at June 05, 2021 08:50 PM (ZlYZd)
3
Thanks! Alas, no change.
Analytics says 4 more downloads today. (And now up to two likes.).
I wonder, if I add a second thing that might so up, some kind of counting from 0 error they have....
Posted by: Mauser at June 05, 2021 11:04 PM (Ix1l6)
4
I see you have a similar problem. It says 4 designs, but only shows me 2.
Posted by: Mauser at June 05, 2021 11:06 PM (Ix1l6)
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at June 09, 2021 03:37 PM (LZ7Bg)
6
I tried adding a second thing, a lid for the tool tray - first thing I ever designed to print, which showed up as the first. (Designs: 2, displayed: 1).
So I just uploaded the first thing, the notepad sleeve, again. (Designs: 3, Displayed: 2).
Haven't decided yet if I'm going to delete the first and see if the lid disappears, or if it's only your first upload that never shows up. Since after all, it's the invisible one that I've posted as a link all over.
Posted by: Mauser at June 11, 2021 07:03 PM (Ix1l6)
7
Deleting the first item seems to have fixed my designs count. Sorry to anyone who collected it.
I printed Liru on the Mars, and while the detail and smoothness is fantastic, the supports really mess her up. Cutting them off either leaves a blob or a divot. And I broke three pieces of her boot fringe.
Posted by: Mauser at June 13, 2021 08:55 PM (Ix1l6)
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