I've given it a try to give the PagesFromSages.com domain a new function and move this blog to DemiGoth.eu. The latter part did work with most of my readers having found the new DemiGoth.eu domain, for which I'm glad and thankful to my readers. Sadly, the first part didn't really work out. The PagesFromSages.com domain just didn't get the attention I wanted as a Computer Role-Playing forum. After a month, there were still no registered users (aside from me and the bogus account I made to test the stuff) and the amount of users actually browsing the forums and news items I posted there was close to zero as well Therefore I've decided to move my blog back to the PagesFromSages.com domain and I have added a full automated forward from the DemiGoth.eu domain. This forward will stay there for the coming 6 months or so (if not longer), until I have a new purpose for the DemiGoth.eu domain (which also might imply that the forward will be there indefinitely )

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Remember my first ever posted movie on YouTube? I guess not, since I posted this one before I even started this blog  It was a PvP movie in Lineage II of some douche gladiator who thought he'd be able to kick a lil' dwarf's cute ass because his class was better in PvP - THINK AGAIN! I have proven more than once in Lineage II that the dwarven class is a very good one in PvP, as long as you know how to play one ;( This movie (uploaded on December 29, 2006, one day after my registration) was the start of many more over the years. But through time things changed and YouTube became part of the Google-family They started to enforce the copyrights Act (which is not a bad thing, but the way it's done is bad) and allowed monetization. They also removed all human employees and replaced them with automated (badly written) scripts to enforce everything they think is right and wrong... Because of the last 2 points I decided to turn away from YouTube. Well, actually, I've been thinking about it for over half a year already, but today I've made the step because yet an other movie was automatically flagged as 3rd party copyrights. Yes, indeed, that movie indeed has a 3rd party copyright music track in it, but that's only because it's part of gameplay. And in every gameplay there's a 3rd party track hidden. Even when the publisher of the game allows you to share movies through videosites like YouTube, and thus grants you a license to publish that track, YouTube flags it as a 3rd party copyright infliction anyway Then there's the bugged monetization as well, which is also automated. Remember that I've posted my son's piano performance last weekend? Same as last year, the Beethoven play he did was flagged for violating someone else's copyrights - WTF??? And like last year I've had trouble removing that 3rd party claim and get my own monetization with the movie. The Handel play he did is still 'under review' of monetization, which will most likely mean that after a while it'll be automatically declined since "YouTube was not able to verify that you have the appropriate commercial use rights for all visual and/or audio elements.". So I've decided to finally move away from YouTube, letting 449 movies collect dust and those that are monetized collect money from advertisements. I have made an account at DailyMotion now, who'll allow me to upload 1080p movies of up to 1 hour (which is more than enough for me). And like YouTube, DailyMotion also allows embedding of movies into websites (such as my blog), and that's all I really want. Also worth to note is that DailyMotion has a stand alone uploader tool. This will allow me to upload movies without using the website's upload function and I can pause/resume these uploads at any time and (more importantly) a tool like this should also not push every other data I'm using away, where YouTube's upload would always take up all data speed and push away everything else I'm doing on the net...

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It almost looked like there wouldn't be an end to the winter. With the last couple of years already having high temperatures at the end of March, this year things were totally different (and worse). At the end of March, where we were already used to 15-20C, this year there still was frost during the day Then April... The Easter-weekend was even colder than x-mas was last year. WTF is going on with the weather around here??? But luckily, to all things comes an end, and winter is finally over. The last week the temperature has been climbing steadily and yesterday it was already warm enough to put off my coat. And today I even did my postal round in my shorts Okay, I'm someone who has already a bit higher body temperature (or feeling of the surrounding temperature, take your pick), so I don't really notice the cold... And in the nature I've started to notice the coming of spring as well. Just take a look at the picture below: LAMBS! They're very late this year, but finally, the lambs are here. Same for the flowers that are starting to grow. It wouldn't surprise me if next month my hay-fever will be going haywire *pun intended * But for now, lets cherish the sun and pick every ray we can get. It's time to load our battery a bit

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It's half April again, and the annual Young Talents concerts in Slot Schagen have been held again today. Like last year, our son was there as well this year. This year Max played two pieces, one from Handel (Passacaglia) and one from Beethoven (Fur Elise). I have to say that I'm proud of how much he has progressed in his piano play! Though as good as his performance is for having had only lessons for about 3 years now, he's seeing it only as hobby. There's still no chance he'll make it his future profession

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Last weekend I ordered the new parts for my son's new PC. Well, new... I've promised him my old AMD Athlon II X3 435 processor, and all I had to buy for him was a new motherboard and memory, but basically for him it's a new PC Removing the old parts from his computer was very easy. The whole old motherboard with CPU and memory (Compaq system, so pretty useless ) was pulled quickly, and the new motherboard has the same size, so no there were screw holes to be replaced. Pop the new motherboard in place, screw it to the holders, drop the CPU in, struggle a bit with the cooler (thoe stock coolers really suck ), plop the memory in place, insert the GTX460 and WiFi card. Then attach the harddrive and the DVD-RW drive. Oh wait... That DVD-RW drive is IDE and the new board doesn't support it anymore *runs to computerstore to get a new DVD-RW drive* Installs the new DVD-RW and we're ready to install Windows... Ah yeah, Windows, always fun to install... For his system I had a copy of Windows 8 to install, and it went pretty quick. Actually, all components installed were recognized immediately, even the WiFi card Then the interface came up and - WTF..? Am I running a table here First think I clicked was the DESKTOP icon - Ah, something that looks familiar... Now I can install the rest of the software he needs (quite a lot for a 14-year old, including video-editing ) and done. Then Max came home and was eager to start with his new PC. First I had to run Memtest 86++ to check the memory, and well, dinner was up as well... After dinner the last few small things and done... I placed the PC on his room, attached it all and he started the PC. And like me, he was NOT PLEASED by that tablet look that Windows 8 gave him And much like me the first thing he clicked was the DESKTOP icon. He's now busy installing the last parts of his games (starting with Minecraft of course ) which I had no access to. Enjoy your new PC Max!

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In loving memory The house is empty now without you Kira was the last of 4 cats we had when my wife and I met over 15 years ago. The house is very empty this morning... No cats to jump on my lap when I'm behind my computer with my cup of coffee. No cats to feed anymore. No nothing...

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8 months ago I started with Postcrossing. The idea behind it is that you send postcards all across the world, and in return you get postcards from all around the world in your mailbox. It sounds very appealing and by now I have sent 55 postcards (of which 4 have been lost in the mail ) and received 53 postcards. You can also  tell something about your self in your profile and tell what kind of postcards you'd like to receive. But... Of those 53 received postcards, only a couple are what I asked for. Most cards are very generic 'Greetings from...' cards, in which I have absolutely no interest Then there's the 'social part' of Postcrossing... It's considered polite to tell something about yourself or just chit-chat in general on the card. Well, being 'socially handicapped' I'm not so good in that. Not to mention, my handwriting (being a former governmental worker) is bad at times as well - even that bad that my wife is not even able to read what I just wrote Last but not least, the cost aspect comes around the corner... The Dutch postal services are not cheap (and I work for them...). A stamp for Europe costs 85 cents and for the world it's around 1 euro. Adding the cards (90 cents each at a special address), makes it a pretty expensive hobby when you send around 15 cards a month. For these reasons I have decided to use my last international stamps and wait for the incoming postcards to dry down. I think it'll be somewhere at the end of April that I'd have received my last postcard, and then I'll cancel my account (or at least make it inactive).

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It's time to build a new PC again. Not for me though, but for my son. He's still using that old HP (Compaq) machine of mine and is reaching it's limits for what he's using it for. Though he plays mostly Minecraft on the machine (for which the machine is fast enough), his movie processing takes like forever. For a 30-minute movie on 720p He has to let his PC on overnight... The problem with that motherboard used in the old HP is that it's very limited and can't be upgraded. The only thing I can upgrade is the CPU, but that'll give only a 10% increase in speed, which is close to nothing compared with newer CPUs on the market these days... At this very moment I'm keeping a close eye on the auctions of our local computer shop. There I can get some good stuff for less. Mostly the stuff placed there is either old/out dated or returned by customers because they wanted something else. Personally I don't care about that, since the lower warranty given (3 months) is only the shop's warranty, while the factory warranty still is in place I have promised my son that I'd give him €200 for a new PC that I'd build for him and told him that anything extra he'd have to pay for himself. Right now, about €120 of that has been used already for a new case (the old HP case and PSU were old and obsolete already for a year or two ) and the ASUS GTX460 that I placed in his system two months ago. This leaves €80 to spend on a motherboard, CPU and memory (4Gb should be enough for him). I do have a legal copy of Windows 8 for him already and will not charge him for that one For the CPU I thought to drop my old X3 on it, but looking at the way AMD has kinda lost the CPU wars and has now brought us some slower AM3+ CPU's, I figured I might as well look for an Intel system for him. Also, the old X3 might be indeed faster (by a factor of close to 3x) than his old system is, I replaced it with the X6 Phenom 1090T because I thought it was no longer fast enough for me (also because of the movie processing ). The cheapest Intel CPU (s1155) he could use is only €58, but it's only a little bit faster than the old X3. I have advised him for the 2nd cheapest one, which is almost double the speed of the old X3 and he agreed on that. Next up the motherboard... I'm keeping a close look on the auctions and right now I'm bidding on one that can hold all s1155 socket CPUs. This means the board will prove his value through time when he wants to upgrade his CPU. And memory..? I think I'll drop the fastest the CPU can support on it (1600Mhz), so that he can upgrade his CPU with little to no problems later on...

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As you might know, I have an EVGA GTC460 (768Mb) SC card in my computer. This card is a powerhouse that I overclocked badly from the original 763Mhz (core clock) and 1900Mhz (shader clock) to 850Mhz and 2025Mhz. Because my old 2nd (slave) SLI card was a lot slower (700Mhz / 1600Mhz), I didn't dare to overclock that one as badly as the EVGA card and I removed it in the end, since the single (OC'd) EVGA card was almost as fast as the old SLI configuration I had... Last week I was lucky to find an identical card as the one I already have the local Dutch marktplaats.nl and that one was asked €70 for. I didn't want to pay that (only including the postage), so I offered €60. The seller quickly responded that for €65 the card would be mine (adding postage that would make the €70 I wanted to pay). Today was the big day and the card arrived. I removed my old one and inserted the new one as only GPU in my system to test it on my rather heavily overclocked settings. I played TERA (DX9) for half an hour, The Secret World (DX11) for half an hour and the card seemed to accept the overclocked settings without a problem. Then I started to use EVGA's stress test tool, both the 'fluffy' and 'tessy' tests and I let them run for an hour. Again no problems. But I did notice that this card didn't run as hot as my old one did. That perhaps is because the new card is actually newer as well, since the S/N is a lot (100.000's) higher than my old one (I think that my old card is one of the first GTX460s produced and the new one is one of the last produced). So I decided to drop my old card as 'slave' to the new one, since PhysX doesn't use as much power as tesselation does. Next up was some benchmarking with 3DMark... I started with the old nVidia 3.06 drivers and the results for DX11 didn't make me happy. Basically, the system kinda sucked. I knew the old drivers were slower than the newer ones, but the 3.10 versions (beta and release) gave me problems keeping the OC values in place. Today I downloaded and installed the latest (3.14) drivers and I was pleased that these do keep the OC values in place. I reran the 3DMark, and those results were a lot better already. I only forgot that installing new drivers would kill the SLI So I re-enabled SLI again and ran the benchmark again. This time it crashed on the last part (much like it did with the old 3DMark 11), and I'm unable to determine the cause of it. Also because the old card is 100% okay, and the new card is 100% as well. Somehow, my system in SLI causes 3DMark problems to run. Weirdest thing is that the nVidia 3.06 benchmark did complete in SLI. From what I can see, the card is okay. I registered it at EVGA and to my surprise it wasn't yet registered. Now I have 10 years of warranty on it as well [EDIT] I just crashed from The Secret World on 850Mhz. I've set it back an other time to 825, but 3DMark is not able to complete the benchmark on that speed either. I'm not sure if the core speed or shader speed is messing things up. Think I'll lower the shader speed this time and give it an other try... [EDIT 2] I've changed the settings to 850Mhz (core clock) and 2000Mhz (shader clock) and this time I was able to complete the 3DMark test. Oddly enough, the results are as bad as the 1st test on the DX11 part. It makes me wonder if 3DMark is optimized for the 768Mb DX11 cards in SLI...

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The first step of moving my blog has been done. The domain demigoth.eu is up running. Now I need to wait for official confirmation that the domain will be officially mine. In the mean time I've already added demigoth.eu as a new advertising site for Project Wonderful (which will take about 4 days as well). Coming weekend I'll move all stuff I need from pagesfromsages.com (mostly sub domains) to demigoth.eu and make some changes to certain (very old) blog entries to match the new domain. I will also make a nice forwarding pages that I'll drop on pagesfromsages.com as well. When the domain demigoth.eu is officially mine (probably somewhere next week), I will start forwarding visitors from pagesfromsages.com to demigoth.eu.

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