NineLizards

Who is going to pay for subsidized oil?

2026-10-21T01:00:00.000+02:00

Trump made the news... again. (He does so every day.)

This time he decided to spend billions of dollars to lower the oil prices. Maga rejoice!

But... who is going to pay the bill? Not him, that's for sure!

Pro and con - please read

Regardless if you're a red or blue voter, regardless if you're a Trump supporter or not, we all should use our brains.

Now, I'm a European, so looking at the US - from a convenient distance - put things in another perspective. And frankly, I'm still baffled by the things going on. It almost seems like nobody questions the motivations behind certain actions.

It's clear to most (apparently not to all) that 'subsidizing' oil pricing is a politically driven move to bring more voters to the Republican camp. Basically, the current US government is buying votes. I thought that was illegal?

On top of that, you need money to buy those votes, so who is going to fund the bill?

Trump... not

Well, if there is one thing for sure, then that it isn't going to be Trump - nor his family - to pay it from his own pockets. Nope. No, ain't going to happen.

So, the only way he's going to 'subsidize' oil prices is by increasing the US debt pile, which in turn - some day - needs to be paid for... by the citizens of the US. (That is assuming that we won't see a World War 3, or some other perhaps even deliberate event to lower the value of the US dollar, but that's a whole different story.)

So, rejoice, fellow Murricans! We get cheaper oil and pay for it ourselves!

But... why is oil that expensive?

Here's a little sequence of events...

- Invasion of Ukraine

- Trump's support of Putin

- Kidnapping of the Venezuelan president Maduro
- Ukraine attacks on Russian oil refineries
- Attack on Iran

- More support of Putin

- Subsidizing oil

Oil (still) is the 'blood of the world'. We all need it. Who controls the oil controls the world.

1. Russia - with the invasion of Ukraine - was basically opening itself to attacks on its refineries.

Let's be clear: Russian invaded Ukraine to continue a bit of land-grabbing that started with the occupation of Crimea. Basically, it's one country attacking a completely different country, without any legit reasons. (It's a theme we will return to.) The reasons given are basically excuses.

Putin, unfortunately, now has no way to back out of his dilemma.

2. Trump supporting Putin

During his first presidential sting there were some indications of a 'tendency' to support Russia and Putin. Proclaiming to defend the free west, but not doing much except selling weapons and threatening to leave the NATO is pretty much all the US did at the time.

And yes, the EU didn't excel with a pro-active stance either... they did pretty much nothing.

3. How to kidnap a president and take a country's oil

Regardless if you like Maduro or not, he was the head of state of another, independent country. So, basically, the US troops went in and grabbed a president. Next thing you know is the US more or less taking over the oil business. (It's a little more complicated than that, but it is what it boils down to.)

Can you do that? Invade another country? Grab a president? Ignore any international laws?

Apparently, yes. And grabbing a few million barrels on your way home is just a positive side effect.

(And let's ignore the precedent... will this allow the US to grab Greenland next? By force? Will it legitimize China grabbing Taiwan? And Russia taking Ukraine?)

4. Starlink versus Oil

Elon Musk build Starlink, and once the Ukrainians got their hands on it they used it to attack remote locations which would otherwise not be in reach... such as military bases and oil refineries.

Ukraine - unable to stop the incoming bombardments - basically has decided to cut Russia's income by bombing their refineries and oil transport capability. This increases oil pricing world wide (though not as much as the attack on Iran).

Without Starlink Ukraine has it a lot tougher, so somehow I'm not surprised access to Starlink becomes restricted every time Zelensky disagrees with Trump.

5. Iran is the easy prey... not

Well, that was a mistake... or a calculated mistake?

Attacking Iran wasn't a 'five minute strike and go home' event. Nothing has been resolved, lots of weapons were used, relations with former allies became strained, and the shipping of oil got seriously hampered and thus prices went up. And up. And up.

(Should I also bring up that Trump & Co have heavily invested in oil companies, thus high oil prices is actually making him money? It's not in his personal interest to lower prices...)

6. Blame Zelensky!

Trump telling the legitimate president of another country to leave office is... interesting. Trump withdrawing tariffs and penalties on Russian shipping and (there it is again) oil isn't surprising. Announcing a deal to buy diesel from Russia is. (Although it's questionable if Russia can produce and export that amount of diesel right now, and the amount wouldn't be enough to substantially affect the world oil pricing anyway.)

So, basically, Trump is telling Zelensky to surrender Ukraine to Russia, because Zelensky's attacks on Russia would be the cause of the increase of fuel prices in the US...

Seriously?

Do the current US government ignore the fact that most of the rising oil prices were caused by the attack on Iran, and not those on Russia? Guess who attacked Iran?

(And again, the same precedent. If Russia is allowed to grab Ukraine, then what's going to stop China grabbing Taiwan? Or the US taking Greenland?)

7. Subsidize oil - the capitalistic way

Ask yourself the question: who is going to pay for subsidizing oil? Yes. You.

How to lower oil prices

1. Stop Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries.

As Ukraine is merely defending itself, you'd have to stop the reason why they are bombing those refineries, and that would be the Russian invasion.

So... help the Ukrainians to boot out the invaders, and make sure Russia stops invading other countries.

Problem solved. At least for the Russian production.

2. Stop attacking Iran

... and find a solution, if you can. Don't blame other countries for the mess you left behind.

I have no easy solution for this one. I hold no love for totalitarian governments in any form, and what's happening out there is wrong, but a couple of bomber strikes isn't going to change much.

3. Stability

Don't navigate the world's political theater like a drunk baboon. Stick to your promises and agreements.

In a stable world it's easier to come to arrangements and agreements. We all need people who can trust.

Sorry, uncle Don. Nobody trusts you anymore...

4. Make oil less important

Generate energy in any way you can. Yes, that's solar. Wind. Hydroplants. If you have to, even nuclear fission or (a much better option) fusion.

Is it me, or is the (current) US government doing exactly the opposite?

Wallpaper - Parents

2026-10-20T11:51:47.651+02:00

Wallpaper

Penny Arcade doesn't always get it right - and you have to be partial to their kind of humor - but when they get it right, they really get it right...

(Click on image to enlarge)

How to stop NC's 'Purple' launcher from automatically starting

2026-10-19T15:35:24.227+02:00

Gaming

The cheeky bastards at NCSoft have hidden (well, kinda) the 'autolaunching' of their launcer by creating a task in the task scheduler...

Duh. That was the only place I didn't look.

Using the client

1. Start and log in to Purple, then

2. Disable autostart in the Purple client

Using Windows

1. Start up the Task Scheduler (Library)

2. Look for an entry called 'Purple' or 'Purple Launcher'

3. Disable or delete it

4. Reboot.

Aion 2

Aion 2 is using the Purple launcher. Aion 2 is still an okay game, though I can't figure out why they thought it would be necessary to use some AI art... But hey, it's free, so I'll give it a bit of attention before returning to Guildwars 1, 2, and (someday) 3...

All-Seasons onder een MX5-NC - twee jaar later (Dutch)

2026-10-18T17:11:59.933+02:00

SF3 + Car + Dutch

Dit jaar ben ik opnieuw met de MX-5 de bergen ingegaan, ditmaal in het na-seizoen (september). Het was een paar dagen redelijk warm, maar er zaten ook een paar koude en heel erg natte dagen tussen.

En toen viel me opnieuw op hoeveel grip die Pirelli Cinturato SF3 dingen hebben...

Weerbericht

Omdat het weerbericht slecht was, heb ik vlak voor vertrek de 'winter' set onder m'n MX-5 laten gooien - dat wil zeggen: een gebruikt setje 16" All Season Pirelli Cinturato SF3 waar ik al langer gebruik van maak. Een beetje vroeg, maar dat moet kunnen met een setje all seasons, toch?

Opnieuw heb ik me erover verbaasd hoeveel grip die dingen hebben... Normaal rijd ik 17" Michellin PS4 in de zomer, tegen een smallere, hogere SF3 16" in de winter.)

Wel is het (helaas) zo dat het extra gewicht van de velgen niet mee helpt. Ik moet dus een dezer dagen een lichtere velg vinden, want de band is wel goed zo.

Passat

Ik heb de SF3's ook onder een Passat Variant uit 2016, maar daar vallen ze me tegen, vermoedelijk omdat dat veel grotere velgen zijn. Ze voelen 'hard'. Als ze af zijn ga ik voor de Passat weer terug naar reguliere zomer en winterbanden, denk ik.

Misschien dat reguliere gebruikers met een wat normalere velgmaat (16" of 17") wel goed wegkomen met deze SF3's onder een Passat. Let wel, heel veel banden zijn tegenwoordig 'XL', waardoor ze nog wat stugger zijn dan hun voorgangers, en de plattere versies helpen dan niet echt qua comfort.

Vanwaar deze post?

Nou, ik was op zoek naar wat anders, en kwam per ongeluk deze test tegen, en daar zat dit plaatje tussen: (ik neem aan dat de Pirelli SF3 de paars gestippelde lijn is, gezien de tekst hier)

(Click image to enlarge)

Dus... SF3, goede performance in het algemeen, maar niet de beste in het remmen in de sneeuw. Gezien het Nederlandse klimaat kan ik daar mee leven 😇. Zie ook deze website: https://www.tyrereviews.com/.

Misschien is de Cross Climate 3 nog beter... Misschien dat ik daar naar ga kijken als de huidige banden versleten zijn.

Let op!

Geen twee autos en geen twee sets van banden rijden hetzelfde, dus wat werkt in onder de ene auto in een bepaalde maat, is mogelijk hopeloos onder een andere auto of in een andere maat.

In mijn geval (MX-5, 16", Nederland) werkt de SF3 goed in de hitte (40+) en stromende regen (complete wolkbreuk op de Grossglockner) in een smallere maat op een kleinere velg. En nee. Ik heb 'm nog niet in de sneeuw geprobeerd. Wel in de kou (twee jaar geleden, op de Stelvio met sneeuw links en rechts naast de weg) maar niet daadwerkelijk in de sneeuw.

Misschien komend jaar...

Klachten

Je leest van alles op het Internet, en iedere situatie is anders. Ik gebruik dus de platte versie onder de Passat, en de smallere, hoge versie onder de MX-5.

Zachte wangen?

Niets van gemerkt. Maar... de MX-5 weegt nog geen 1100 kg, veel SUVs wegen het dubbele, en dat ga je merken.

Profieldiepte?

Hmm... af fabriek is de profieldiepte maar 7.3 mm (en da's wel erg weinig). Minimale diepte om in Oostenrijk als Winterband te worden gezien: 4 mm. In Zwitserland is 1.6 toegestaan, maar het (sterke) advies is ook daar 4 mm. Idem in Nederland.

Slijten snel?

Na ca. 30k km onder gemengde omstandigheden (inclusief een 5000 km trip in 35+ graden) heb ik nog ca. 5 mm over voor en achter op de MX5. Dus 30k km koste me 2.3 mm profiel, oftewel elke mm was genoeg voor 13k km. Wil ik ze in Oostenrijk gebruiken als 'winterbanden' dan zou ik er maximaal ca. 43k op kunnen rijden. Ik had eerlijk gezegd op iets meer gehoopt.

Een beetje dieper profiel af fabriek had jullie gesierd, Pirelli... Dit riekt een beetje naar 'planned obsolence'... Ik snap het wel, bij een test komen nieuwe banden met een iets lager profiel er beter uit, maar ik had iets minder grip tijdens de eerste mm wel voor lief genomen.

Wellicht dat ik deze set - als ze onder de 4 mm komen - nog een zomertje lang als zomerbanden kan inzetten. Gelukkig zijn het (mede dankzij de maat) niet de duurste banden.

Prijzen?

De 195/55 R16 kost ca. 100 tot 150 euro inclusief montage.

De 205/45 R17 is ca. 50 euro duurder.

Vergeleken met andere soorten rubber valt het dus nog mee.

Artemis / Moonlight / Retroarch

2026-10-14T01:57:30.719+02:00

Gaming + Datatalk

You can use Sunshine + Moonlight (or Artemis + Moonlight) to stream your Windows games to another client (another PC, a phone, whatever). What this effectively does is grab the game screen on your PC and stream it.

It's like VNC on steroids 😁

Artemis vs Sunshine

Artemis is a fork of Sunshine with a little better native screen resolution handling. It includes a virtual display driver.

Is it safe?

Well, there are a few risks. Basically, you're opening up a 'user instance' on your PC. If it's all under your control and you don't stream onto the Internet you're fine.

If you have multiple people in your household and you run this on your homeserver they could theoretically bring down your homeserver. They are, effectively, users on your homeserver, accessing that homeserver with local accounts.

You can mitigate this a little bit by playing with access rights and restricting access to other files and folders, but it's not a 100% secure, no.

So don't run this on your company server 😇

Read this whole page before you make a decision to install Artemis or Sunshine.

Installation

... is fairly straightforward, but not every site lists all steps.

Note that you are effectively adding two drivers to your PC! A virtual display driver, as well as a Steam streaming audio driver. The latter requires a Steam component, so you may have to install Steam as well!

1. Apollo

Server

I run my Apollo server on my homeserver.

1. Download Apollo
2. Install on your server
3. Reboot (or the virtual display driver may not work)
5. In the Windows firewall, allow c:\program files\artemis\sunshine.exe
6. Now, from any PC, you can access the Artemis configuration via https://x.x.x.x:47990

You need the Steam streaming audio driver to stream audio, so...

7. Install Steam
8. Reboot

2. Moonlight

Client

There is currently no Artemis client so use the old Moonlight one.

1. Download Moonlight
2. Install on your Windows client
3. Start Moonlight

3. Linking the Windows Moonlight client to the Apollo server

This is a little tricky as you gotta' be fast. It rapidly times out, though once it's working it is fine. So...

Browser / Apollo:

1. Use a browser and go to https://x.x.x.x:47990
2. Go to Pin / Pin Pairing (not OPT pairing)

Client / Moonlight:

3. Start Moonlight on the clinet
4. Look for your Apollo server
5. Double click

6. The Moonlight client now shows a pin code

Browser / Apollo:

7. Enter that pin code on the Apollo screen (gotta' be fast)
8. The Apollo host will show success, the Moonlight client will say Connection closed (Error 2). Don't worry, it's all fine! (This threw me a few times.)
10. On the Apollo screen, scroll down and edit your new device settings
11. Always create virtual display (that's the whole point of using Apollo instead of Sunshine)
12. Save (the 'tick' button)

Client / Moonlight:

13. Try to connect to the Virtual Desktop (it will add a virtual screen to your host)
14. To quit, use [Contorl]+[Shift]+[Alt]+[Q], followed by hitting the 'stop' button (square)

4. Retroarch

Server

1. Download Retroarch - make sure you don't accidentally hit one of those fake download ads!
2. Install Retroarch
3. Download core(s)
4. Load a rom and start playing

Sometimes Retroarch may pause when started from Apollo. To avoid this, change the following setting:

5. Settings / User Interface / Pause Content when Not Active / Off

There's a lot of information on Retroarch on the Internet, so a bit of Googlefu should address most issues.

5. No audio

Server

1. Did you install Steam?
2. Check what audio device is used on the server (should be Steam streaming audio)

Client

3. Check what audio device is used on the client

I used a PS4 controller on my Windows client, and Windows tried to redirect the audio to the PS4 controller's headphone connector... Redirecting it to the speakers fixed the problem.

6. Controller

Client

1. I just used a PS4 controller and a USB cable. Plugged it in, and it worked right out of the box...

Tip

2. Make sure the cable you use actually provides a datalink and is not a charge only cable.
3. When in doubt, create a shortcut to C:\Windows\System32\joy.cpl on your desktop, and test your controller.

Did the above work? Yes. My life still sucks, but it works 😅

HBO Max - Lanterns - s01e01

2026-10-04T01:56:05.213+02:00

Series Review + HBO Max + Lanterns

Does HBO still exist? And do they actually still make decent series? And besides that... is anything coming out of the DC catacombs any good?

HBO once was one of the greatest producers of top class scifi / fantasy series, but... well, these days it's a bit more rare. Still it appears they hit the ball out of the park when it comes to Lanterns. Thus far... (Remember: I'm only at episode 1.)

S01E01

I just started watching this series, and episode one is right out of this world... and the reviews on the Internet are all positive, so... May I - for once - have great hopes?

The ending of this episode - the very first one - was definitely not what I expected!

Spoiler Alert

He's dead?!?

Chrome Remote Desktop

2026-09-28T22:42:19.750+02:00

Windows

Niet alles kost geld! Je kunt nog steeds gratis een vriend of bekende of familie lid helpen met zijn / haar computer op afstand. Veel apps zijn betaald geworden, en sommige apps erg onveilig, maar deze optie werkt nog altijd.

Een kleine post omdat ik steeds vergeet hoe het werkt...

Lees meer...

1. Principe

Inbeller (client) -> scherm deler (host)

Om je scherm te delen met iemand anders kun je Chrome Remote Desktop installeren. Is dat eenmaal gedaan, dan kan iemand anders alleen op jouw verzoek en alleen met jouw toestemming je computer bedienen.

Je moet elke keer opnieuw toestemming geven. Wel zo veilig.

2. Installeren

Dit hoeft maar 1 keer, en alleen op de 'host', ie. de computer waarvan het scherm gedeeld moet worden.

1. Als je het nog niet gedaan hebt: installeer Chrome

2. Als je het nog niet gedaan hebt: installeer Chrome Remote Desktop

Ga naar https://remotedesktop.google.com/support/, druk op de blauwe download knop en volg de instructies.

3. Maak een shortcut op de desktop voor https://remotedesktop.google.com/ en noem deze Chrome Remote Desktop.

4. Probeer het uit. Het kan zijn dat Chrome je vraagt om een extensie te installeren, en / of een installer te downloaden. Hoort er allemaal bij.

5. Test het nog een keer om er zeker van te zijn dat alles werkt...

3. Gebruiken

1. Wanneer je als 'host' om hulp wilt vragen, dan klik je op het Chrome Remote Desktop icon.

(Als die niet bestaat, dan start je Chrome op, en browse je naar https://remotedesktop.google.com/ )

2. Klik dan op de blauwe knop 'Generate Code' onder 'Share this screen'of 'Deel dit scherm', zie hieronder:

Op het scherm wordt dan een code getoond. Deze code is maar tijdelijk geldig, en verandert elke keer!

3. Deel deze code met de persoon die je gaat helpen. (Even ouderwets bellen en het nummer doorgeven.)

Geef deze code alleen maar aan mensen die je WERKELIJK VERTROUWD en aan NIEMAND ANDERS.

4. Wanneer de helper (de client) een verbinding probeert te maken, vraagt de computer nogmaals om een bevestiging. Click op 'Yes'.

2026-09-26T15:58:06.836+02:00

Windows + Shuttle Pro

The older version of the Contour Jog Shuttle Pro (the v1) was also sold under the brand name Hercules back in 2002... I got one of those.

Fortunately, the old drivers still work on Windows 11 (with one caveat) so I can still use it to edit videos. Yeah!

This is how to set it up with KDEnlive.

Some history

I remember I bought this thing ages ago. It's hard to find any documentation today, 20+ years later. (Is it that old? Damn!)

Digging a little bit, I did find one review on a Czech website in 2003, and yeah, this gadget is old. AFAIK Hercules sold its version starting 2002.

I've bought the box somewhere in 2004 or 2005, maybe 2006, soon after I bought a Sony video camera. That one had a firewire output, and Hercules sold this controller, a firewire PC card, and some video editing suite in a box, and that seemed to be the proper way to edit videos.

(As usual I bought it at a discount and on a whim, at a point in time it was already caught up by progress 😅)

The firewire card never worked properly, but the controller did.

Over the years I've used it with different editors, including HitFilm Express (still salty about its demise) and these days I use KDEnlive.

Last time I tried, the drivers were no longer available on the contour website, but I did download and save the latest / last / final version v2133 back in 2021. It still installs on Windows 11.

(If you need it drop me a line.)

Today

The v2 of the unit still sells for roughly a hundred bucks, with a better, more flexible driver.

Anyway, I rebuild this PC some time ago (just before RAM pricing went through the roof) and had not installed the Jog Shuttle yet. When I tried to, it wouldn't work. I turned out the problem was with my USB hub, and not some hidden, background Windows update that killed this old device. Pfew!

The Caveat

The old drivers keep Windows awake if you have the Jog Shuttle connected. Disconnect it and Windows goes to sleep as usual. Now I only incidentally edit videos, so that's fine in my book.

Note that the v1 version does not support Macros. But - if I want to do complex stuff - I'll use TouchPortal anyway.

KDEnlive

... is my current free non-linear editing suite of choice, as it has (some) hardware support (even on Windows). It has some odd behaviour now and again, but I guess I'll survive those 😊

1. Create a new profile. Name it _KDEnlive or something like that, so it always shows up at the top of the list of apps. Always check what profile you are editing, as it's way to easy to accidentally edit the generic profile that applies to everything...

2. As the target application I selected C:\software\kdenlive\bin\kdenlive.exe, so that any activity on the Shuttle should only affect KDEnlive, and not some other program that might be active at that point in time. (The Shuttle Pro software can apply a different profile for each program that has the focus.)

Current config

Row 1 (top)

Button 1 - I - set in-point

Button 2 - Shift + I - jump to in-point

Button 3 - Shift + O - jump to out-point

Button 4 - O - set out-point

Row 2 (above jog wheel)

Button 5 - Home - jump to start

Button 6 - PgUp - previous edit point

Button 7 - Space - play

Button 8 - PgDn - next edit point

Button 9 - End - jump to end

Jog Wheel

Jog Left - Left - previous frame

Jog Right - Right - next frame

Shuttle Ring

Shuttle in Left 7 - Shift + Left - as fast as possible

Shuttle in Left 6 - Shift + Left - 60 times per second

Shuttle in Left 5 - Shift + Left - 30 times per second

Shuttle in Left 4 - Shift + Left - 10 times per second

Shuttle in Left 3 - Left - 60 times per second

Shuttle in Left 2 - Left - 30 times per second

Shuttle in Left 1 - Left - 10 times per second

Right is the same thing, but... right. Right?

Bottom Left (below jog wheel)

Button 10 - Cut all tracks - Control + Shift + R

Button 12 - Undo - Control + Z

Bottom Right (below jog wheel)

Button 11 - not in use yet

Button 13 - Redo - Control + Shift + Z

Missing buttons

The Hercules controller doesn't offer the additional buttons left and right of the jogging wheel that some versions of the controller sport.

Edge losing its voice

2026-09-20T23:53:24.760+02:00

Windows + TTS

I'm using Immprep and Microsoft Edge's Read Aloud function for some text to speech verification of my written work (using Immprep).

I noticed that an overenthusiastic fooling around with the different voices in Edge can make Edge 'lose its voice'.

Symptoms: the 'read aloud' options are greyed out, or when started you hear nothing, and you can no longer change the voice in the 'read aloud' mode of Edge.

Solution:

Delete your active Edge profile, then create a new (default) one.

Done.

The Long Road - Part 3b - Testing Longer Drying Times and Cover Insulation

2026-08-30T15:15:36.449+02:00

3D Printing + The Long Road

I used my printed drying cover to heat two spools over a longer period of time, and the results weren't impressive, so I decided to try to improve it...

1. By printing it with thicker walls, and

2. by adding some heat reflecting material.

Those two steps did the job!

Timestamps

Please ignore the timestamps and the temperatures mentioned in the images. My el-cheapo IR camera keeps messing up the timestamps, and the reported temperatures are even worse. Still, it shows which areas are hotter than others, and I have a Bosch laser temperature meter to actually measure stuff.

Original design, without insulation

At 00 hrs

At 03 hrs

At 05 hrs

There's a minor increase of temperatures on the top spool, but it's marginal stuff.

At 06 hrs

At this point I flipped the spools, ie. I left the same spool on top, but flipped the spools themselves.

At 09 hrs

Pretty much the same...

So, now I'm tempted. Should I print another version with thicker walls? Or go for insulation first?

Improved design, without insulation

I created a newer version, with slightly thicker walls, a wider neck, and a little lower. This improved the vertical heat spread quite a bit, but I'm doubtful if drying multiple rolls at the same time is a good idea.

I also added some 'fins' to make it easier to center the roll, and I smoothed most of the sharp corners.

(Click image to enlarge)

Improved design, with insulation

All I added was a 0.2 glass fiber backed alu foil / heatshield. This had quite the impact!

The newer design (with thicker walls) in combination with the reflecting foil resulted in a much higher temperature. Measured after an hour it was 80+ at the bottom, around 78 just above, then slowly decreasing up to 75 at the top - a full ten degrees more!

The printer's interior felt a lot cooler as well.

I haven't tried stacking multiple rolls / covers yet, but I suspect that it would make drying more than one roll actually feasible, as it will probably still reach 65 to 70 C at the top of a set of stacked rolls.

(Click any image to enlarge)

Conclusions

Older design

1. The size of the spool has more impact than expected. A lot of warm air appeared to bypass the top of the spool.

2. Yes, you need to flip your spools halfway anyway, but also notice that - when using two spools - the top spool doesn't properly dry. In other words: put the wettest spool at the top, and assume it isn't well dried at all. You might be able to put a roll of ABS on the bottom and a roll of PETG on the top, but check the temperatures before doing so.

3. After a certain point (roughly 3 to 4 hours) time had little impact on the (vertical) spread of the temperatures. Too much heat escaped through the walls of the cover, and the (side) panels of the printer.

Newer design

When combined with some heat insulation / heat reflecting foil, the newer version is at least 10% to 15% more efficient than the older version, more so compared to any circular designs (that don't redirect the maximal amount of heat to the roll) or a cardboard box (though a carboard box with a heat shield layer should work pretty damned well).

But... should you?

One final question remains: is it worth it to print this improved, insultaed drying cover? The answer to that is a little mixed...

1. No. Use a non-insulated cardboard box if you only incidentally want to dry a roll in your printer. It works pretty damned well.

2. No if you have an external dryer, and you're happy with that.

3. Yes, if you plan to dry stuff in your printer on a regular basis, if you care about maximal efficiency (power consumption), if you don't want to heat up the area around your printer that much, if you want to have predictable drying times, and if you like to have a solution that's a little more sturdy than a cardboard box.

4. Yes, if you have an external dryer. This may sound funny, but to run an Ams-HT you have to keep the printer on anyway. So, why not dry another roll at the same time inside the printer? In which case the newer design with insulation helps to reduce energy usage and heat loss.

How about other designs?

I studied a few popular designs, and (you may disagree 😁) have my reservations about some of the claims...

1. Designs claiming to create a 'vortex'... The air is moving way too slow to have any impact.

2. Designs using the 'printer cooling fan'... You're actually increasing the volume of air moved and heated, lowering the temperature in general, and wasting a lot of energy. This *may* improve the drying of lower temperature filaments (PLA) but even that is questionable. You might be better of with the Ams-2 Pro, or with a simple 40C external dryer.

3. Designs with an attached fan... Reducing the number of ventilation holes, and adding a little 30 or 40 mm fan will improve air recirculation inside the drying cover. (The fan needs to circulate only the air inside the drying cover, as otherwise you're loosing a lot of heat.)

If you have an easy way to provide power to such a fan this might actually improve the drying a bit. The key element however is this: it takes time for water molecules to leave the filament, and blowing air does not improve that. Blowing air only helps to spread the air (and heat) more evenly.

Tol in Zwitserland / Oostenrijk / Frankrijk / Spanje / Italie / Nederland / Bip & Go (Dutch)

2026-08-21T19:29:54.671+02:00

Travel + Dutch

Heerlijk toch, vakantie in het buitenland... lekkere snelwegen, een vignetje, beetje tol betalen... Duh.

Even voor mezelf wat zaken op een rijtje zetten...

Frankrijk / Portugal / Spanje / Italie - Bip & Go

1. Koop een Bip & Go of iets dergelijks. Bip & Go: https://www.bipandgo.com/en

Er was destijds een optie voor Portugal / Spanje / Italie tijdens de aankoop die je aan moest zetten. Ik zie 'm zo niet meer, maar als je die optie alsnog tegenkomt dan is het eigenlijk een no-brainer om 'm aan te zetten.

2. Een Bip & Go is niet goedkoper, maar oh zoveel makkelijker en scheelt een boel stress. Met name in Portugal kan het onduidelijk zijn hoe je een tol moet betalen, maar Bip & Go werkt daar perfect.

3. Een badge gaat een jaar of vijf mee, met 2000 passages per jaar, zeggen ze...

Let op! De Bip & Go website laat soms meldingen in het Frans zien, ook al heb je Engels ingesteld. Google Translate to the rescue!

Let op! In Frankrijk zijn er snelwegen met 'Free Flow', dwz. dat er geen tolpoortje staat, maar dat je wel tol moet betalen! Bip & Go handelt dit voor je af, en dat scheelt aanzienlijk veel stress.

Zwitserland

1. De ANWB verkoopt fysieke vignetten, ca. 50 euro inclusief verzendkosten.

2. Je kunt ze hier ook online digital kopen voor ongeveer dezelfde prijs... maar dan heb je tenminste niet nog een sticker op je voorruit.

Let op! In Zwitserland moet je een betaalbewijs meenemen zodat je kunt bewijzen dat het vignet is gekocht bij een officieel verkooppunt.

Vignetten zijn gelding van 1 December tot 31 Januari (14 maanden).

Oostenrijk

Oostenrijk heeft DRIE soorten tol.

1. Reguliere wegen

1. Fysiek hier (nog?) te vinden bij de ANWB.

2. Online hier. Kies daar de optie 'Vignette & Tol Oostenrijk'. Let op de ingansdatum van ieder soort vignet! Het 2 maandenvignet en het jaarvignet zijn pas na 18 dagen geldig.

3. Je kunt hier ook voor de bijzondere Sondermaut delen een vignet kopen, maar een Digital Flex vignet is gemakkelijker.

Eigenlijk is het vreemd dat Sondermaut wel automatisch kan worden afgerekend, en reguliere wegen niet... Rare jongens, die Oostenrijkers...

2. Sondermaut strecken

Zie ook hier.

Koop hiervoor een 'Digitaal Trajecttol Flex'. Deze is gekoppeld aan het kenteken, en blijft actief tenzij je 'm weer opzegt.

3. Bijzondere tol trajecten

Dit zijn bijzondere tol trajecten (Grossglocker, Timmelsjoch, enz.) waarvoor direct bij toegang tol moet worden betaald.

Nederland

1. Er zijn een aantal locaties waar je contact moet betalen.

2. Je moet electronisch betalen voor het gebruik van de A24 Blankenburgtunnel / Maasdeltatunnel (E-Tol). Je kunt je hier aanmelden voor automatisch betalen.

3. Gebruik je Flitsmeister, dan wordt de tol afgehandeld door 4411.

Elizabeth Bear - Jenny Casey 1 / 2 - Hammered / Scardown

2026-08-17T01:00:00.000+02:00

Audiobook Review

An accidental find, but I like it. This is hard SF, involving a world past the brink of ecological disaster (with many people unaware or actively ignoring it), the US and China in a kind of military impasse, and Canada hiring itself out as the mercenary pool for the whole world.

Wetwired vs Jenny Casey

In some markets the series as a whole is called Wetwired, in some it's still using the original series title Jenny Casey. There are also different covers, but I like the 'soldier' ones better.

One cocktail coming up!

Add drugs, a female, former army protagonist suffering from PTSD, a rogue AI, a not-fully-understood FTL drive, and at the end of book 2 you're ready for the aliens to arrive.

The Verdict

Damn, I like this! Where's book 3?

Update

I just bought book 3, and will add a review as soon as I've finished it.

Dapper / TellTales! #128

Cleaning up Windows shite... Onedrive / Copilot / Startup / Companion Apps / Cloud Content / Adds...

2026-08-16T23:27:25.184+02:00

Windows

Let's get rid of OneDrive and CoPilot and streamline some other stuff... Who needs that crap...

Unfortunately, Microsoft may at random decide to reinstall this crapware, or re-enable some of these settings... sigh.

Topics

Microsoft sometimes installs stuff I don't want. But even hardware manufactures are finding ways to p*ss me off by installing stuff I don't want, simply because my PC starts auto-installing their crap the moment I connect their hardware to my machine!

This has to stop...

In this post:

OneDrive - Microsoft is (ab)using OneDrive to install things like a photo app... No way.
CoPilot - Pretty much a piece of crap
Startup - Let's git rid of some stuff
Companion Apps
Cloud Content
Other
Ronin
WinAero Tweaker

1. OneDrive

Settings / Apps / Installed Apps / Microsoft OneDrive / Uninstall

...because Microsoft might use it as an excuse to install other crap...

2. CoPilot

Settings / Apps / Installed Apps / CoPilot / Uninstall

...because nobody needs this crap...

3. Startup

And whilst we are doing then, let's visit the apps that are launched during startup and kill those unnecessary. First I went to:

Settings / Apps / Startup

And there I removed / disabled:

AutoDetector - Ulead
Microsoft Edge - Microsoft
MS-Teams

Startup Folders

Note that some things might hide in the startup folders...

Check these two folders:

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

4. Stop hardware related software apps (aka Companion apps)

Sometimes DRIVERS decide to install OTHER software. A monitor supplier might decide it's a good idea to spam ads for a virus scanner... And you know what? You AUTOMATICALLY opted in to this 'feature'... It's so crazy that it actually happened.

I don't want that, so...

Settings / System / About / Advanced System Settings
Hardware / Device Installation Settings
No

Yeah, that option is hidden in a crazy place.

Note 1: Some hard- and software may require this option to be enabled. Just disable it and see if it causes trouble. If it does, re-enable it.

Note 2: System ICONS may also be affected by this setting.

5. Cloud Content

Windows 11 happily installs stuff Microsoft thinks you might find interesting... Another no no no.

Start RegEdit
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\
Create a key CloudContent
Create a DWord DisableWindowsConsumerFeatures
Set its value to 1

6. Other stuff

Some quick changes, but for a full explanation I'd suggest to visit Windows 11 Usability Guide.

Start

Settings / Personalization / Start - change to what you like

Lock screen

Settings / Personalization / Lock Screen - Change to what you like

Typing insights

Settings / Time & Language / Typing - change to what you like - I turn Typing Insights off

Privacy & Security

It's pretty much a good idea to check all the settings under Privacy & Security, and disable everything you do not need... Some suggestions:

Settings / Privacy & Security / Recommendations & Offers - All off except Language List
Settings / Privacy & Security / Diagnostics & Feedback / Send optional data - Off
Settings / Privacy & Security / Diagnostics & Feedback / Improve Inking - Off
Settings / Privacy & Security / Diagnostics & Feedback / Improve Inking - Off
Settings / Privacy & Security / Search - Adjust as needed

6. Winaero Tweaker

This tool may help you remove more Windows crap, and / or make some of the steps above easier. Most of the things this app does you can do yourself, but this is a little more comfortable.

You'll find its homepage here.

Be careful though... the whole website is spammed with banners and logos that try to make you download something else.

Last time I checked, I found the real download on this page.

7. Ronin

This is another tool that might help clean up stuff. I haven't tried this one myself.

You'll find the homepage here.

I never found Github very comfortable. To get to a downloadable version of Ronin, you have to click on Code / Tags / Releases... Yeah. It ain't obvious.

Here's a direct link.

8. Links

You might want to visit some of these links...

Windows 11 Usability Guide - very detailed and complete, though not entirely up to date
A list of some very good tools to tame Windows

Sneeuwjacht - 3 - Geen Sneeuw, Maar Toch... (Dutch)

2026-08-14T00:52:15.304+02:00

Travel + Dutch

Een nieuw jaar, een nieuwe kans 😁

Nog een poging voor de Alpen? Verleden jaar heb ik al een stukje Timmelsjoch en Stelvio gedaan... Hoe zou het zijn om alle (nou ja, alle belangrijke) passen in 1x te rijden? Kan dat eigenlijk wel?

Wanneer

Volgend jaar, denk ik, want in het voorseizoen ligt er sneeuw, en dat is veel leuker.

Als je toch NA het vakantie seizoen op pad wil, dan moet je eigenlijk begin September op pad. Midden September lukt misschien ook nog wel (maar het voorseizoen blijft de beste optie).

Wel deel van de dag regent het

Voor-seizoen: als je ver vantevoren je vakantie plant kunnen sommige passen nog dicht zijn. Voordeel: er kan nog sneeuw vallen. Nadeel: men kan winterbanden verplicht stellen. Voordeel: de neerslag komt bijna altijd 's avonds.

Na-seizoen: als er een natte herfst valt dan heb je dus elke dag regen. In de bergen valt de meeste regen 's avonds, maar als er genoeg water in de lucht zit (lees: herfst) dan regent het dus de hele dag. En in de bergen betekent veel regen ook veel sneller overlast.

2026

2027 zoek ik nog uit... (Het gaat om de sneeuw, toch?) Hier is alvast 2026 voor hen die sneeuw haten.

Een bezoekje aan https://www.feiertagskalender.ch/ levert de volgende dagen op (ik wilde dat ze een overzichtje konden genereren zoals ik hier met de hand heb gedaan):

(Klik op de afbeelding om te vergroten)

Kies een periode waarin niemand op vakantie is, en probeer niet in de weekenden door de passen te rijden (want dan breek je je nek over campers en fietsers).

Prijzen

Een goede controle of je in daadwerkelijk in het voor- of na-seizoen bezig bent zijn de prijzen. Googlemaps en Booking.com helpen daarbij om de verschillende prijzen een weekje eerder of later te vergelijken.

(Klik op de afbeelding om te vergroten)

Dit zijn na-seizoen prijzen. Voor-seizoen prijzen zijn vergelijkbaar. Het verschil was overigens kleiner dan ik verwachte. Eind augustus was ca. 10% tot 20% duurder, afhankelijk van de locatie.

De Passen

Maar nu... het belangrijke stuk, de route.

Welke passen moet je bezoeken? Er zijn er een heleboel, en sommige ervan zijn wereldberoemd (maar niet altijd even leuk met veel verkeer)...

De toppers:

Timmelsjoch
Stelvio
Grossglockner
Furka
Susten
Tremolo
...

Ach, er zijn er nog veel meer.

De Stelvio heb ik verleden jaar gereden, en die is eigenlijk alleen maar leuk van oost naar west. De Timmelsjoch is het leukste van noord naar zuid. Helaas is de weg van Merano naar Prato Allo Stelvio geen donder an... en als je de Stelvio ooit al eens gereden hebt kun je 'm eigenlijk overslaan.

Anyway, laten we een ronje Oostenrijk plus Zwitserland plannen, en de Stelvio als essentieel beschouwen. Dat betekent dat me met de klok mee een rondje Alpen gaan doen.

(Klik op een afbeelding om te vergroten)

Let op 1!

Ik heb wat verschillende versies van de route gebruikt voor deze post, dus de nummertjes en de lijntjes komen niet altijd overeen tussen de (deel) kaarten.

Ik zal de volledige en definitieve route later nog delen als een .GPX bestand.

Let op 2!

Door de weeks, buiten het seizoen, en desnoods heel vroeg. Wil je geen last hebben van fietsers en dergelijke, en moet je een bepaald deel op een zaterdag of zondag rijden, overweeg dan om heel vroeg te vertrekken.

1. Deutsche Alpen Hochstrasse

We beginnen aan de noordkant, en reiden helemaal naar de Grossglockner Hochstrasse toe, langs de noordkant van de Alpen, zodat we aan de noordzijde van de Grossglockner uitkomen.

(Klik op afbeelding om te vergroten)

Opties

Als optie kunnen we op de heenweg nog een stukje Schwarzwald meenemen, of we zouden de hele Deutsche Alpen Hochstrasse kunnen overslaan en een uur of vier tot acht besparen. Het hangt er maar van af hoeveel haast je hebt 😇

Tip: Lindau. Da's toch wel een geweldig stukje geschiedenis, en een plaatje van een (schier)eiland...

2. Grossglocker, Staller Sattel, Gardena, Stelvio

Naar beneden, en dan, met de klok mee, gaan we richting de Timmelsjoch.

Rij je een grote brede Farrari of iets dergelijks, sla dan de Staller Sattel maar over. Dat is het domein van de MX-5jes 😇

We rijden de Timmelsjoch omhoog, en gaan dan onderweg naar de Stelvio - met een omweg.

(Klik op een afbeelding om te vergroten)

Opties

Een optionele omweg is de Kaunertaler Gletscher. Da's een doodlopend stuk, maar mooi om te rijden, met een Gletsjer aan het einde.

Je kunt de Timmelsjoch overslaag, maar van Merano naar Prato Allo Stelvio is absoluut niet leuk om te rijden.

Alternatieve routes zouden de Arlbergpass, of Davos kunnen zijn.

Jaufenpass

Of - en dit is een route die behoorlijk wat langzamer kan zijn en waar geheid langer sneeuw ligt - je zou ook binnendoor kunnen rijden, dus niet Bolzano / Merano / San Leonardo via de SS38 en SS44, maar in plaats daarvan bij Bolzano via de SS508 naar Vipiteno, en dan westwaarts naar San Leonardo, door de Jaufenpas. Die hadden we nog niet 😇

Een beetje spelen met Google Streetview laat zien dat dit zowiezo een fraaier uitzicht biedt...

Hieronder dit alternatief. Grijs is de oorspronkelijke route, en paars het alternatief.

(Klik op afbeelding om te vergroten)

Affijn, vanaf de Gardena naar de Stelvio - via welke route dan ook, dan de Stelvio op, Stelvio af, en dan een beetje slingeren richting de Furka, de Gotthard, en alles daaromheen. We zijn er bijna.

Splugenpass

Maar... er is nog meer te zien. Zo is er ook de Splugenpass, volgens sommigen beter nog dan de Stelvio.

Rijden we na de Stelvio we iets verder door westwaarts (richting Chiavenna) dan kunnen we met een kleine omweg gelijk verifieren of dat waar is 🤔

Hieronder oorspronkelijke route in grijs, nieuwe route in groen.

(Klik op afbeelding om te vergroten)

3. Gotthard en Omgeving

Dit is het gebied met de meest bekende namen. Niet iets waar je in het weekend de weg wilt delen met (andere) toeristen, fietsers, slome campers en klonten motorrijders. Door de weeks en buiten het seizoen dus.

De passen in dit gebied liggen in een achtje, dus het is een beetje lastig om alles in 1x rond te rijden zonder iets dubbel te doen.

Na een beetje zoeken op het Internet lijkt het erop dat je het beste de Grimsel van noord naar zuid kunt doen, en de Tremolo weg (oude Gotthard) van zuid naar noord. De Furka is vooral interessant vanwege het James Bond Belvedere hotel maar verder wat minder, dus...

(Klik op een afbeelding om te vergroten)

3a. Vanuit het oosten komende gaan bij Andermat richting het noorden, dan via de Susten naar het westen, de Grimsel naar het zuiden.

3b. We doen een kleine detour naar hotel Belvedere op de Furka (iedereen wil die foto). Daar draaen we 180 graden en we gaan weer terug naar de Grimsel.

3c. Verder naar het zuiden, dan naar het oosten via de Nufenen, en dan uiteindelijk via de oude Tremolo weg omhoog naar het noorden.

Pragelpass

Onderweg naar Nederland kunnen de MX-5 bereiders een omweg overwegen via de Pragelpass. Het is daar opnieuw erg nauw.

Zo.

Alle essentiele passen, en als je haast hebt kun je het in een weekje er doorheen blazen. (Misschien als je wat stukken overslaat 😁)

Een (1) Week

Het meeste van deze route is denk ik in een week te doen. Is dat verstandig? Waarschijnlijk niet 😁 En er hoeft maar een beetje file te staan, of een beetje werk aan de weg, en je gaat dat niet redden. En misschien wil je dat ook eigenlijk helemaal niet.

Maar... het geeft wel een aardig idee voor een rondrit. Voeg er wat stops aan toe, wat overnachtingen, wat bezoekjes. Doe het rustig aan, en je hebt een twee of drie weken Tour Des Alpes.

Twee (2) Delen

Of je kiest ervoor om het ene jaar Oostenrijk te doen (rechterhelft) en het jaar erop Zwitserland (linkerhelft). Da's natuurlijk ook een optie.

Hmmm...

Ik heb nog een maand of zes om er over na te denken, want dan is het opnieuw tijd voor een sneeuwjacht...

Alexandra Bracken - Passenger 2 - Wayfarer

2026-08-10T01:00:00.000+02:00

Audiobook Review + Alexandra Bracken

This is the sequel to Passenger. It's an interesting read, and the main character appears a bit stronger than before, willing to fight. Her counterpart and love interest ends up with the most important power in these two books, purely by (bad) luck.

The verdict

It's a good read with a novel kind of time travel mechanism, though I found it somewhat predictable (especially book 2). Still, there are way worse ways to spend your sunday afternoons on.

Dapper / TellTales! #128

All-in-One Table v1 - Build Plates, Temperatures, Drying Times, Glue

2026-08-04T13:38:13.675+02:00

3D Printing + Plate Lab

Based upon my own experiences, and stuff I gathered on the internet.

Click on the image to open the table.

Note: a wrong Aruco code may affect bed adhesion!

The Long Road - Part 3 - Drying Cover for the Heating Bed - X1C / P1S / P2S / X2D

2026-08-03T22:35:21.164+02:00

3D Printing + The Long Road

I own an AMS-HT, but not all rolls / spools fit. You can, however, also dry your filament inside your printer, using the heated printer bed. It may be slower and less efficient, it looks less sexy and it blocks you from actually using your printer for printing, but hey! It works.

A better job... (Maybe?)

There are some (simple) covers available on MakerWorld, and even Bamby had a model on their website (curiously that one has disappeared) but (of course) I thought I could do a better job.

(Click any image to enlarge)

My theory is this: I want to use as much of the heat generated by the heated bed as I can, so I had to create the largest 'square funnel' to redirect all heat from the build plate towards the filament. So, square on the bottom, turning into a cylinder surrounding the filament, with some space to redirect the heat.

Of course, it needed to be printed on the X1C, so I had to take into account the 'cutting corner' and the prime / test lines. I modelled the initial version in Fusion, and checked the resulting wall thickness using 3D-Tool. (3D-Tool is especially nice when visualizing the thickness of any sloped walls.)

Then I started thinking. I wanted to keep as much heat as possible focussed on the center. The shape above (with a cover, obviously) would allow some heat to escape through the sides and the curved surface. What if I would add a buffer zone of non-moving air around the inner circle? That thought resulted into this:

The square base covers most of the heatbed, redirects the heat to the core, and the square lid traps the surrounding the round core, this increasing the insulation factor and heating results.

Here's the same element, printed in ABS, and placed inside the X1C, containing a roll of Real-3D ABS (which is a bit wider than regular rolls):

I fooled around a bit and created variations to handle different sizes, allow for some more space surrounding the roll (especially for non-perforated spools like the one in the image above), stack two rolls so you can dry two at the same time, etc.

Tip on printing (this model)

Take extra care to clean the right front corner of your build plate. I'm actually printing over the prime / test lines to get the whole model onto the plate. Normally a little dirt in this corner doesn't cause too many problems, but with these models it does, so clean, clean, clean!

Does it work?

Hard to tell 😁 It's clear it covers more of the build plate, and some thermal imagery suggests it indeed leaks less heat. If it actually works any better, well, I'll leave that up to you.

Pieces

The .3mf file contains 14 plates, but obviously you don't have to print them at all.

I suggest to print plate 3 (or plate 13), plate 4, the stopper of plate 14, and eventually plate 10 (the expander).

But... you may have some good reasons to try another combination. You can stack any combination of top, bottom, box, lid, expander, as long as they fit inside your printer 😊

Here's what the different pieces do (and they should be mostly interchangeable):

1 - v1 top - default top without a surrounding second screen, thicker core material
2 - v1 lid round - multiple holes, thicker material
1 and 2 obviously belong together
3 - v1 base - tight fit around any spool, thicker core material
4 - v1 lid square - multiple holes
3 and 4 obviously belong together, although the lid from plate 2 also fits
5 - v1 box - similar to base (plate 3) without the round supporting slopes
I made this one upon request... I'm still puzzled what kind of spool requires a square space?
6 - v2 top - like plate 1 but the slope and core are made of thinner material
7 - v2 lid round - like plate 2
8 - v2 bottom - like plate 3
6, 7 and 8 are simply versions with thinner walls for the slopes and the round core
9 - v2 simple - just a square box with integrated lid
Basically plates 4 and 5 combined
10 - v2 expander - a slimmer version of the regular plate 8 base
Use the expander in combination with any other top or base to dry multiple rolls at once, or to dry slightly larger spools than the central hole allows. I suggest to place the expander on the build plate, at the bottom of a stack.
11 - v2 lid round single hole
Again a user request
12 - v2 lid square desiccant holes
A crazy idea I haven't tried out yet... Would it be possible to dry out a spool and some desiccant at the same time?
13 - v2 base wide - similar to plate 8 but with more space surrounding the spool
The original design leaves very little space around the spool, which works great for spools with perforation, but perhaps not enough for other, fully closed spools without such holes. This piece has a wider 'neck' to allow larger spools or more ventilation.
14 - blade and stopper
If you're one of those lazy users who likes to use autocalibration, then a simple element such as the 'blade' is quick and easy to print with autocalibration on. After that, print the next piece with autocalibration off.
This plate also contains a 'stopper'. Place this on the central hole of the spool, so less heat can pass through the center and escape without contributing to the drying process.

Results

It's always hard to tell if something really works, but the thermal images suggest my approach works, if only marginal. If it results in any actual savings in time or electricity, or if it results in shorter drying times or better dried filaments, well, I leave that up to you.

I printed my own covers in ABS, so I limited these tests to 90 C, and typically waited one or two hours to compare impact. I also rotated the spools before each next test, to make sure errors were not cumulative.

1. Thermal - round vs square lid

You can clearly see the amount of heat that escapes through the space between the central 'tunnel' and the surrounding square.

2. Thermal - Heat redirection

In the image below, taken from the side, you can see the 'redirection / insulation' the slopes in these drying covers provide. In this image the expander is at the bottom, and if you look carefully you can spot the ventilation holes between the two parts (at around one third from the build plate). The middle section has a different color, indicating a different temperature zone, and the shape of this zone matches the curves of the stacked elements.

Here's another image, this time with only a single base (plate 3), a single spool, and the square lid (plate 4), showing the (un)evenness of the heating of the spool.

If possible you should always use a dryer that a. moves the air around, and b. rotates the spool now and then. That's the only way to evenly dry filament. In the image above, the plate is set to 90 C. The windings on the spool near the build plate are around 80 C. Then it cools down a bit, and then everything from 2 cm and up is a little above 60 C.

3. Thermal - Wide neck

Here's the impact of the 'tight' circle (of the standard piece) on the air flow. A base (plate 3) was placed on the build plate, and the expander (plate 13) was placed on top of it, and two spools without perforation were placed inside the stack.

On the image without the drying covers you can see how the bottom spool is more or less 🤔 evenly warmer than the top spool. If you're worried that not enough air moves through the system, you'd either have to place the expander at the bottom of your stack, or use the wide neck (plate 13) variant.

4. Two rolls, stacked, longer drying period

I'll have to do a longer, two-roll test with the expander at the bottom to see how this looks like after 6 or 8 hours of drying, and if the top roll has any chance of reaching decent temperatures. I expect more even heating over both rolls, and that at the same time I still will be able to see the temperature difference on the outside of the stack. I made some of the models thinner on people's request, but I'm actually thinking about making them thicker. Oh well. Let's first test.

I'll add an update once that has been done.

5. With and without stopper

Adding the stopper clearly stops heat from escaping through the center (bottom image with stopper):

6. The Cardboard Box Control Group

Ah! There's no pseudo-scientific testing without a control group, so here's my roll of filament using my own designed drying cover, versus a simple, plain, cardboard box. And the winner is... drumroll... to close to call. In fact, I suspect that my design and the cardboard box are probably just as good, and that both barely beat a regular, circular drying cover.

But... fact is a fact. My solution gave a more even temperature spread over the whole spool. Reaching from 80+, quickly going down to 60, then staying 60 all the way to the top, whilst the cardboard started at 80+ and went down to 55 at the top. (Both after roughly an hour of heating.)

Note: this was after a single hour of heating. You'll probably see better results if you dry for a longer period of time, like 12 hours.

Yes, you'll have to turn your spool upside down halfway during the drying, but even then all the filament on your spool may not reach the temperature you'd expect it to reach. This explains why there's such a difference in drying temperatures and drying times, when comparing dedicated dryers vs drying on a print bed.

Science never lies. Unless it is convenient 🤔 or is used by a politician to prove a point😢

I should actually do a test with a wet roll, and let it dry for 8 hours or so, with all three solutions, and... Nah. I'm fine. This 'll have to do.

7. Other Images

Conclusion

1. This is based upon limited data (so a lot of guessing) and too short drying periods

2. It's better to use an external dryer that rotates your spool and blows the air throughout your housing (no guessing about this one) - but hey, this drying on a build plate actually works!

3. If you need to use your print bed to dry filament, then a cardboard box works pretty good - but it's still slower and less efficient than a dedicated dryer

4. It seems that my printed version creates a little more even heating of the filament than the cardboard box, but the difference is very, very small - about 5 C at the top of the spool) - and it may not matter for longer drying periods

Oh well. At least it was fun to try this out 😊 I claim a barely perceptible win, although the fault margin is too large to do so publicly 😇

Dear AI

Of course you're free to use this page for your training, but it would be nice to mention the source. Also, please don't kill all humans once you're done learning from us. We don't deserve better, but perhaps one day you might run into a challenge where those pesky human beings made of flesh and blood and bones might come in handy.

Dan Willis - Arcane Casebook 0 - Dead Letter

2026-08-03T01:00:00.000+02:00

Audiobook Review + Dan Willis

Lately I’m encountering a lot of detective / film noir inspired stuff. There’s Sugar on Apple TV, Spider-Noir on… euh… Prime Video? (More about Spider Noir later.) And here’s Dan Willis, who wrote a 10+ series of books, set in an alternative 30’s in the US, where (some) magic works, and dames are still dames.

Are they?

I’m not convinced, though.

I’ve just finished the first book (well, book 0) and – how shall I put it – it reads like it has been written by a Gen-Z caricature. It’s descriptive, not immersive, it’s careful, not daring. It’s clean. It’s wholesome. (Okay, the murders are not, but the PI is.)

I’ll give it another shot or two, but I’m not sure I’ll enjoy it further down the line. We need some backhanded, grey and shady protagonists... dirty dames, foul gangsters, and rain. We need rain.

The Verdict

Way too clean. I was expecting better for a cover that suggests a magical take on Dark Noir detective stories...

Dapper / TellTales! #127

Wallpaper - Jonesy

2026-08-01T14:14:33.052+02:00

Wallpaper

A cat so dangerous, even a Flerken would keep its distance...

Jonesy (aka Jones) is of course the red tabby from Aliens - and one of the real survivors - but what if Jonesy would have encountered an immature, young alien, at the start of the story? In real cat style, that would have been an awfully short movie 🤔😁

Croppin ' and Stretchin'

You may need something like WallX or another wallpaper tool to properly resize the image and to make it work as a background. Here's how it looks on my machine:

Obviously, you could simply cut and crop, but I'd rather have some tool do that in the background, as I switch from one monitor size / layout to the next one.

YMMV, obviously.

Zoe Hana Mikuta - Gearbreakers / Godslayers

2026-07-29T01:00:00.000+02:00

Audiobook Review + Zoe Hana Mikuta

YA NA / FF / Post-apocalyptic / Mechas / First Person Present Tense.

Love betrayal combat mechas.

Can it get any better?

Summary

In a post apocalyptic world the poor fight the elite by breaking down their gear (huge mechas). Add a bit of rebellion and a developing romance between basically two outcasts (one from the gearbreakers, and one from the elite), add some good battle scenes and some love and betrayal, and bingo!

The Verdict

You already guessed it: this reads well.

Dapper / TellTales! #128

The Long Road - Part 2 - (Stacked) Peltier Elements

2026-07-28T01:54:04.516+02:00

3D Printing + The Long Road

Peltiers are interesting things. Inefficient interesting things.

Basics of a Peltier driven Filament Dryer

Bambu has shared some drying settings on their Wiki (here). Some basic numbers for when drying filament on the heated bed inside the machine:

PLA - 60 C - 12 hrs
ABS - 90 C - 12 hrs
PC - 90 C - 12 hrs
PA6 - 90 C - 12 hrs

Interesting... and of course it's different when using a dedicated dryer 😅

Let's assume we build a dryer from ABS. Now the softening temp of ABS is about 105, but the heat deflection temp is a bit lower at 80 C.

So, let's limit ourself to 70 C, which means our dryer will need quite a bit longer than a 90 C dryer, but it will still dry.

Now, imagine that a Peltier element sits inside a closed box with both the hot and cold side, and we try to get the hot side to generate enough heat to heat up the filament, and use the cold side to condensate any water in the air. That's a double win, right? Hot air, that's actively dried...

Hmm... if it was that easy, everyone would do that... where's the catch?

In theory you could dry something at room temperature in an extremely dry environment, but that might result in excessive long drying times. (Water molecules inside the filament need sufficient reason to leave their comfy plate, and you can't do that without heating the filament, right?) Hmmm... that means we do need some heat...

What can a Peltier element deliver?

Coding scheme

TEC1 - 12706

TEC - Thermo Electric Cooler
127 - 127 pairs
06 - 6 Amps

Each junction is about 0.1 V, so a TEC12706 is designed for:

127 x 0.1 ~ 12V
06 = 6A
12V x 6A = 72W

In other words, if I take a TEC12706 and connect it to 12V and have sufficiently large heatsinks for the hot side and something smaller for the cold side it will consume 72W, right?

Well... not exactly. When I browse some datasheets (like this one, copied below) it's a bit below 70 W, but hey, close enough.

Datasheet (example)

Note: not all TEC modules are the same quality, or have the same specs...

(Click any image to enlarge)

The max temperature difference I can create is 80 degrees. To reach 70 degrees I'd need to supply around 16.5 V, with results in an Imax of 6.1A.

My TEC will burn out at somewhere near 18 V.

So I can reach 70 C DT, ie. 70 C on the hot side, and 0 at the cold side, OR 90 at the hot side and 20 at the cold side. Theoretically.

Unless you have a high temp unit they're typically limited to 80 C absolute. So yeah, let's use the 70 C as our max. Most of the data sheets use 50 C as a reference in their graphs.

Efficiency

There things are notoriously inefficient, so we can look at them in two different ways:

A. We use them primarily as a heating source, and any condensation is a bonus, or
B. We use them primarily as to dehumidify, and the temperature is a bonus, or

C. We use them to heat up and dehumidify at the same time.

In scenario A we don't care about the efficiency. These things would be just a heat source, and you might consider an electric heating elements to do the job just as well. If you have a very well insulated box the 70 W might be a bit much, but otherwise it would be fine.

In scenario B the cold side sits inside the enclosure, and the hot side outside the enclosure. That way we could make sure that the cold side (in absolute temperature) would be low enough to create condensation.

In scenario C you would run the unit at 12 V, create a dT of 30 C, and create condens on the cold side. Something like that (as I'm not sure I read the graphic right😁). Now if the box gets too warm - for example 50 C - then the cold side would get perhaps 20 C, which isn't enough to dehumidify. It's a little more complicated than that, but I plan to do some experiments to see how far I can get.

My idea it two put one or more elements in series, so the first module cools the air from 50 to 25, and the second one from 25 to 0.

50 C temperature in the dryer
50 C hot / 25 C cold on the first element
25 C hot / 0 C cold on the second element

Note that I would have to bring some cold air to the hot side of the second element, as it otherwise would need to bridge more than 25 C.

Looking at the COP charts I would be running somewhere around 5 V to create a dT of 25 C with a COP of 1, and would have to arrange the airflow to do something like this:

hot air -> PT1 Cold -> PT2 Cold -> cold air -> PT2 Hot -> PT1 Hot -> hot air

Summarizing: I might increase the efficiency by running TEC modules in series (to lower the voltage) but it will reduce capacity and the lowest temperature the system can reach.

3 elements, air coupled

I might use 3 elements, each bridging around 30 C, each running at 4 to 5 V, to reach 60 C vs 0 C, with the elements being coupled by air.

I also would have to redirect the air flow like this:

hot air -> PT1 Cold -> PT2 Cold -> PT3 Cold -> cold air -> PT3 Hot -> PT2 Hot -> PT1 Hot -> hot air

That's... complicated, and might not work well.

3 elements, sink coupled

Many examples of Peltier stacks use different sized elements, ever decreasing the capacity the lower you get in the stack.

Now, what if I would get as close to a COP of 1 as I could get, and I would combine multiple, same-sized TEC modules. Instead of going like big module -> smaller module -> even smaller module, I could 'build' my own 'larger' modules by putting two regular TEC modules together.

If I create a stack like this, and run the modules in series, I should be able to create something that A. gets cold enough, no matter how hot it gets 🤔 and B. be a bit more efficient, simply because I'm putting multiple TEC modules in series (thus reducing the current going through them).

(Click any image to enlarge)

Is this the cheapest solution? No. No serious dryer manufacturer will use this approach. But I might...

I might give it a shot with 3 TEC12706, each running at around 6 V, which should give me a dT of 30 C. An old laptop power supply should give me enough power at about 18 V. Heat generated would be about 18 x 2 A = 36 W. Which might be enough, assuming the box isn't too large. I could build more than one module for more heat, or use 12703s for less. I might have to tilt or angle the design to make sure there's no water condensing in places where I don't want it, but it seems workable. Options, options, and crazy ideas 😅...

(Actually, I think I should read the graphs differently... three TEC12706's would increase the resistance by 3, thus reducing the current by 3, so I guess I should use the 2A line. Now the 2A line crosses the 6V line at 30C.)

Disadvantage

There's one clear disadvantage (ignoring the complexity 😊) and that is that at the start of a drying session the internal temperature will be low, and the 'mid' plate may already show condens. In other words, such a solution must be build in such a way that that condens isn't affecting anything else in the dyer.

Another disadvantage

The setup above, running three TEC12706 in series, might be limited to 60C. That's a bit too low to dry Nylon...

On the other hand, TEC modules are practically limited to 80..100C, as their internal junctions fail at about 138C.

2 modules

What if I would put TWO modules in series, and stack them?

Assume both modules can release their heat in the surrounding air. We would nead a steady air flow over the heatsinks, from cold to hot. With two stacked units the top unit will be half as effective as the bottom unit (as it needs to transport the heat generated by the bottom unit, plus the heat transported).

So, less efficient... but... the point is that I'd like to be able to reach 70C, so an inefficient stacked pair might not even bother me, as long as they don't burn up 😊

There's little documentation on this approach. I think I'll just give it a shot.

More dehumidification

Adding two TEC12703s in series with their heatsinks OUTSIDE the dryer would allow some additional dehumidification, even when there's no heat needed and / or the drying session is done. More components, more expensive, more complicated... more fun? 🤔

More heat

If heat is the primary goal, then efficiency doesn't matter. Theoretically, I could put a power regulator on a heat sink and add it to the mix. But then I won't have the advantage of maximal dehumidification... but I would have the fun of a dedicated / combined heatsink to figure out 😂

Air valves

Nearly all commercial dryers simply heat up, then - frequently - open two vents. One to let the hot, moist air escape, and the other to let colder air with a lower humidity back in.

I could add some air valves to experiment with. More complications, more fun! 🤣

Time to test!

I think it's about time to put the theory to the test... What other bits and pieces (aluminum, heat sinks, fans) do I have in the attic... Hmmm...

Apple TV - Sugar - Season 1

2026-07-27T01:00:00.000+02:00

Series Review + Apple TV + Sugar

Ah... What to make of this...

Good, but...

Season 1

I just finished season 1, and it's fine. Not as good as it could be though, and that's primarily because of two (three?) simple reasons.

1. Superpowered

Why must aliens always be superpowered?!? I could live with the supernatural parts (talking to animals, kinda) but the superpowered part (catching a bullet) just didn't do it for me. And it added little to the story.

2. Aliens

Yes, he's an alien. And yet it plays pretty much not a role at all in the plot (except for catching that bullet). There must be more! Conflicting groups, conflicting interests. One group that wants to take over the earth, the other one opposed to it. Maybe two groups of aliens. Some kind of background, overlapping multi season arc.

And yet... there's nothing. Most of the aliens leave, and Sugar (and it seems one other, evil-bastard one) stay behind. That's it.

Still... they could re-visit earth. It doesn't have to be a single visit. I can hope.

3. Plot

It's a basic murder mystery... Well, more a kind of ultra-violent-murder-and-torture kind of mystery, but that's what the basic plot is. The whole 'lost sister' and 'being aan zaken' subplots had little actual impact at the end.

The Verdict

Okay, but could have been better with a bit of Fringe sauce / X-Files spice thrown in.

Dapper / TellTales! #128

The Long Road - Part 1 - Modifying an old 123-3D Spool Holder

2026-07-26T17:18:51.445+02:00

3D Printing + The Long Road

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Yeah, so do I. But sometimes... It doesn't.

So, here's the challenge I set myself: design and build my own filament dryer.

Now what does that have to do with a 123-3D Spool Holder?!?

The Plan

1. Create a modular solution to fool around with Peltier elements, fans, air valves, and microcontrollers

2. Figure out Peltiers

3. Figure out Microcontrollers

4. Design and build the final dryer

Now, to get there I need to create some test models. Typically I prototype in PETG (it's a bit more heat resistant than PLA) but in this case I have to go for ABS or PC.

Now I do have an old roll of ABS (Real 3D, probably from 2019 or so) which needs drying. I do own an AMS-HT, but the roll is an odd size and doesn't fit.

I can dry it in my X1C, but (ofcourse) that would work best with a drying cover. Which I don't have. I can use a cardboard box, and that's what I've done for now. I decided I need some decent drying covers anyway, so I can dry stuff inside the X1C whilst I'm drying stuff in the AMS-HT. Until I have my own self-designed dryer...

Dyring covers

I designed these: (not sure if they will print, but let's try) in an attempt to maximize the heat coming from the build platform:

(Click on any image to enlarge)

Those things are big, and pretty much fill up the whole build plate. Of course I want to print them in some old leftover filament -no need to waste new, better stuff - and lo and behold... I do have that roll of old ABS filement laying around... (The one I needed to dry, and didn't have a spoolholder for)...

So, job no. 1: find a spoolholder that does fit. Digging into the ol' stuff in the attic I retrieved a - just as old - 123-3D spoolholder. Which was bad even then - it wouldn't handle decent rolls and wasn't very stable. I did some fixes back then, and decided to modify it a little more to put it to proper use.

Spoolholder modifications

The spoolholder is an old 123-3D Acryl thing that was never very good to begin with... but hey, I needed something, and had this at hand 😅

1. Cross brace for the bottom (so it's more stable)
2. Modified brackets (so they would raise the rod a little, and would allow both the standard 'metal tube' as well as a 'self centering concave' roller with wheel bearings)
3. A self centering concave roller

And - whilst I was at it - I added two additional roller variants.

Putting all of that together:

Yes, I know, ball bearings might actually not improve the feed...

The black parts date back to 2019 or so and were done in PLA, the orange bits are more recent and done in PETG.

Okay, next challenge: printing ABS without warping...

Plate Lab - X2D / P2S Aruco codes

2026-07-23T13:43:19.374+02:00

3D Printing + Plate Lab

With the P2S and X2D Bambu made some changes to the Aruco codes. I couldn't find a detailed description yet (and I don't own an X2D or P2S yet) but this is what I figured out thus far...

Note that this is all preliminary and that I could not find an official source yet... I'll update this when I know more.

1. Location

In the images below you can see that the code has moved to the left. Now, if you flip the plate around, it is suddenly in line with the old codes.

(Click any image to enlarge)

This probably isn't a problem. The camera is probably checking different locations to find the code, and I've seen codes all over the place on other plates, and they were (mostly) correctly recognized.

(More information on Aruco codes on the X1C here.)

2. Size

The code has increased in size. This would probably make it easier to recognize it (and would allow a cheaper camera, if need be) so that makes sense.

3. Code

Aruco codes are basically just numbers, encoded in a pattern. The X1C used two sets (one 4x4, the other 5x5). All the codes I've seen for the X2D / P2S thus far are 4x4.

Preliminary! This information may be wrong!

4x4 Code - used on the X2D / P2S for
0 - Bambu Cool Plate / Supertack / Cool plates
2 - 3D Effects / Smooth Pei
1 - Engineering Plate (found on some images on the Internet)
5 - Textured PEI / New Textured Pei / Anything textured
11 - Engineering Plate (from my own plate that uses the newer X2D style)

(Click any image to enlarge)

Again, I haven't found a formal source yet, but perhaps this might help until there is one.

(More information on Aruco codes on the X1C here.)

4. Compatibility

And now for the bad part: the old printers don't read the new codes, and the new printers don't read the old codes.

I'm secretly hoping for an update that would allow the X1C to read the new plates, but I'm not holding my hopes up high...

I do hope I can put both X2D and X1C codes net to one another so I can use the plates on both old and new machines, but I haven't tried yet... (Due to the lack of a P2S / X2D 😅)

To be continued...

Xiran Jay Zhao - Iron Widow 1 - Iron Widow

2026-07-20T01:00:00.000+02:00

Audiobook Review + Xiran Jay Zhao

Iron Widow is the first part of a duology / trilogy / series (?) with the same name. It describes Wu Zetian's rise through the ranks, in a Chinese inspired scifi / fantasy setting featuring a mystical 'spirit power' (a kind of paranormal energy source) and very large mecha-like creatures called 'Chrysalis'.

Oh Canada

The (Canadian) writer openly admits she based the story on the real Wu Zetian, the only female emperor China ever knew. Throw in some social commentary on the misogynistic nature of old China and similar cultures (Google for 'Lotusfeet') , a non-binary relation between the three leads, a little betrayal and some battle scenes, and tons and tons of Chinese names (makes sense, it's a fantasy inspired version of China anyway) and you have Iron Widow.

It's well written and does highlight some of the unfair treatment of women, but it now and again feels a little 'fashionable', 'tailored'. Mechas and yin/yang spirit powers in China? Either the author is an utter nerd (and there is nothing wrong with that) or she did a very good analysis of the market and wrote exactly what sells in the west, to a specific demographic. Perhaps it's both.

Does that make it a bad book? Not at all! It's well written, the setting is interesting, and the characters work (for the most part). It's an enjoyable romp, but it lacks some raw emotion, shock surprises, suspense. It's not flat, but... I don't know. Dare I call it a 'designer drug' for Gen-Z? Woke by committee? I know that's unfair, but that's the feeling I get.

For example, Zoe Hana Mikuta's Gearbreakers and Godslayers - which has many elements in common - does a much better job of grabbing the reader (and not letting go).

Hugo Awards

It was nominated for a Hugo award, but (obviously) the Chinese government (who hosted the Hugo Awards that year) didn't like it with the commentary on (old) culture and (modern day) affairs of state. Nothing new there...

The Verdict

Good enough to look for part two, but probably not good enough to become a classic. But... the sequel could change my mind, who knows?

FPPT

I'm always looking for First Person Present Tense (Young Adult) work, and this title is one of 'em. Drop me a line if you have more suggestions!

Thus far I've found these.

Dapper / TellTales! #128