The last couple of days, two personal technical breakthroughs made me very very happy:

tl;dr: I figured out how to share PC desktop to TV with Chromecast wirelessly, and found working Linux drivers for my faster USB wifi adapter.

Longer version:

1. I bought a Chromecaster a couple of months ago, and after been using it and googling for its features, I was under the impression that it is not possible to stream your PC desktop to the TV, as I was hoping (not having to use e.g. a HDMI cable to connect your laptop to the PC etc.). It seemed that it is "merely" to be used with any mobile apps or PC programs that have built-in support for it (among the the Chrome web browser of course). So, yeah ok, it is nice you can "stream" videos and movies from Youtube or your Netflix app to your TV wirelessly,

VLC media player just got built-in Chromecast support too which is nice, so I tested it. Works otherwise great, but subtitles don't work. While I googled for it (the VLC authors said they are planning to add subtitle support, but it is technically a bit tricky to do with Chromecast), one of them also said "The workaround is to cast your whole desktop to Chromecast and watch the videos with subtitles like that".

Wait, what? Share the whole PC desktop to the TV with Chromecast? Turns out, yeah that was possible all along, with the Chrome web browser. In the Chrome browser, go to Menu => Cast and select "Desktop" as your source, and there you are! It works fine even from Linux desktop, when using the Chromium web browser.

And the graphics quality seemed very good too, it seemed quite as good as connecting the PC to the TV with the HDMI cable! Crisp and clear picture.

The only downside: there is quite a bit lag with the picture, so it is useless for e.g. realtime gaming. Even when you merely move the mouse on the desktop, there is like a half a second lag when you move the mouse and when it moves on the screen. So not quite a full replacement for a HDMI cable, but for some uses like watching videos or ripped movies) maybe work and generic desktop use too.

2. A couple of weeks ago I got the speed upgrade to my internet, 400 Mbit/s. The bad news was that my older gaming laptop's (which is my main PC at home) wifi doesn't support the faster 5GHz frequency to get to the top speeds, but only the lower 2.4GHz. With that lower frequency, I only get something like 45 Mbit/s max as the 2.4GHz frequency is apparently so congested already in this apartment house, everyone using it. My work laptop supports the 5GHz and can achieve like 380Mbit/s wirelessly.

So, I bought an USB wifi adapter (ASUS AC1300 USB-AC54) for my older laptop that supports the 5GHz speeds. Works fine... on Windows 7 (with the drivers that came on a CD with the adapter), but I increasingly use Linux Mint on that PC as I am going to switch Windows 7 permanently offline on it next January when MS stops supporting Windows 7, and use the Windows 7 partition only for semi-old Windows games that may have problems on Windows 10 (like my CD games with copy protection).

So, yeah, on Linux I only got those lower speeds like 45Mbit/s and so. I tried to find Linux drivers for the wifi adapter online, but it was all so confusing because apparently this same wifi adapter has different names/model numbers abroad.

So I checked what hardware ID this adapter has on Linux (with the "lsusb" command) and googled for that HW ID. Hmmm, some discussions were talking about "ASUS USB-AC57", so is that another name for the same adapter, or having simply the very same chipset etc., hence having the same hardware ID on Linux?

Either way, ASUS did indeed have 64bit Linux drivers for AC-57,,, but they were meant for older Linux cores than what I am using, so I didn't dare to try them. However, some guy was offering source drivers of his own, so I needed to compile and install them (make, sudo make install etc...)... and to my utter surprise, those drivers do indeed work.

So now I am enjoying the higher 5GHz frequency wifi speeds also on my home Linux, yay!

The dev of Tavern Tycoon actually implemented a suggestion I made.

It's minor, but it's nice to know the gamers aren't being ignored.

I found a freak. Will need some work in order to earn trust, but i have a plan. This time, i will roleplay the "theirs person". ANYTHING, to reach my sweetie again!

I made an impulse purchase yesterday after work: I went to buy a Raspberry Pi 4B (4GB RAM). :) Well, impulse and impulse... I've been thinking of buying R Pi for many years already, but finally I actually did it!

I knew it is supposed to be small... but still I was surprised HOW small it actually is! Fits on my palm.

I wasn't sure what to get with it, so besides the computer unit itself, I bought the USB-C power adapter, an empty 32GB microSD card, a micro-HDMI cable (the store only had 2m long cables... but I guess that is ok, I will at first use the TV as its display anyway)... and that's it.

I still want a case for it but the store had none for Pi 4 on the shelf, and anyway I want to buy a right one for my needs. I know of these options for now:
1. https://vadelmapii.com/tuote/virallinen-raspberry-pi-4-b-kotelo
2. https://vadelmapii.com/tuote/akryylikotelo-raspberry-pi-4lle
3. https://vadelmapii.com/tuote/jaahdytetty-alumiinikotelo-raspberry-pi-4lle

Then I think I saw some fourth one, fan-less heatsink case made of aluminum, but I couldn't track it now. I think I will rule out #1 (the closed plastic case) as I understood Pi 4 might run a bit hot in it, and it doesn't give access to all the pins etc.
I would prefer a fanless case in order to save power and keep it totally silent, but if a fan is needed to keep it cool at all times, then I'd have to think about #2 or maybe even #3.

Now I just need to get the official Pi OS to the memory card, I guess I'll use my home laptop for that as it has a SD card reader. Not fully sure what I am going to do with the device, but if it can recognize my big USB hard drives where I keep stuff, then I will at least use it for e.g. running gogrepo (to update and download my GOG game installers) and other timeconsuming but relatively simple stuff like that. Big file operations, downloading big stuff from online etc. Maybe even use it as a personal file server that I can keep powered on and online all the time.

I wanted a low power device which doesn't make me feel bad for keeping powered on at nights doing some simple stuff, downloading something that trickles down slowly, or doing a full rhash integrity check for my 8TB archive disk (this can take like 1-2 days!) etc. It would feel stupid to keep a high-power desktop PC or a gaming laptop powered on for something like that.

The Failbetter Store stocks white Dawn Machine T-shirts again (well, minus the one I just ordered). Had my eyes on one way back, but missed my opportunity because of a fairly awful personal economy in those days.

Got a Sega Genesis Mini. Now to decide which game to dig in to first.

By the way, did the original Sega Genesis controller have a slight bump on the B button?

i thought that didn't come out until december.

BOY, it's getting great reviews.

And speaking of reviews, evidently the new Rambo movie is a flaming piece of shit. XD

THANK YOU GOD!

Is it really that bad?

7,2 on IMDB, I bet I'll enjoy it for what it is. I have a soft spot for Rambo and Rocky, even the bad ones are kind of good.

It should actually be easy to find; the GameStop I got it from had twice the number needed to fill the pre-orders, and there's supposedly more on the way. It's also nice that the collection includes some lesser known one and even a few rares (the Mega Man 1-3 remake being one of them).

I'm enjoying it. Playing Wonder Boy in Monster World right now.

By the way, the version of Tetris appears to not be the same version that would have been released decades ago for the Sega Genesis but was cancelled due to legal issues; it's actually a port of the (Sega) arcade version. You are, however, going to want to go into the options to change the controls, as there is no button set to rotate right or hard drip by default.

they didn't do the "limited number' bullshit that nintendo did, so I can wait until I have a little more spending money.

Arrgh I missed both that and also my fave football team stream cause I have to attend an invitation to an associate wedding reception.

Happy for Ricky Rubio, he is one the best floor general in the world and screw you Thibs for trading him.

The Youth Climate Strike(s)










Yes yes yes, I know, it's all "crisis actors". :P

Well, my health still sucks. My back is worse than ever, still permanently disabled (just need to convince a judge to look at the evidence & approve me). But what made me happy today?

I JUST SELF-PUBLISHED MY 2ND CARD-N-DICE GAME!!!

<-------Link to my online store is under my avatar.

Travis McElroy reminded me of why I love flights.

"I think my favorite part of every flight is during take off when the pilot screams "Bend to my will metal sky bird and take us to the big blueness!" and all the passengers chant "Sky bird! Sky bird!" To convince the plane to take off."