A.C. Flory's Blog, page 89
June 11, 2018
Tech woes…
[image error]You know how sometimes a great idea turns out to be bloody awful? Welcome to my day.
I now, officially, only have a $hitty Outlook365 webmail client to work with. What’s worse, I’ve lost all the emails that used to live on my Opera Mail client. So if any of you emailed me in the last 12 hours, sorry, it’s all gone. Every. Last. One.
The one good thing out of today’s disaster is that I managed to export my Contact list before everything fell apart. The bad thing is that the Contact list only works with Opera Mail so unless I can get Opera Mail back up and running, I’ll have to re-enter the contact list manually. I don’t like my chances because apparently, few email clients like playing with Outlook365 email. The reason is something called ‘Exchange’. Exchange plays nice with the crap that is Outlook. It does not play nice with much else.
So, I have three options:
Reinstall Outlook from Office 16
Continue to use the shitty webmail client for Outlook365 email
Keep searching for a non-Microsoft email client that works with Exchange
I’ve read about some workarounds including, Davmail & Thunderbird, Thunderbird & Exquilla, and eM mail [$49]. The first two will probably send my hair white, not grey. The last I refuse to even consider because saving money was what got me into this mess in the first place. And not even that much money…
Less that $100 AUD. That’s what I saved today by deleting my hosting account with GoDaddy.
“What with what?” you say.
In order to have your own website, you need a) a domain and b) a web host for that domain. There are lots of webhosts but I was using GoDaddy. Domains are peanuts – about $20 per year – but the web hosting can really mount up, especially when you have to pay a lump sum for the whole year.
That’s what I was facing this morning, so I rang Godaddy and asked if I could ditch the webhosting but keep my email addresses. The answer was yes, but the implementation did not turn out to be as easy, or cheap, as expected. For starters, the email addresses were linked to the hosting, but wait! For just $50 per year, I could get a plan that would allow me to keep both emails going.
“Great!” said I. “Let’s do it.”
That is the point at which I should have asked for ‘more information’, hung up and done some research. Clearly I didn’t, but that decision was at least partly due to phone fatigue. I’d waited 15 minutes to speak to a person in the first place, so by the time this plan was offered, I just wanted to get it done…
I think you can probably guess the rest, not the nitty gritty details, but the general gist. I was committed, the process began, it was too late to turn back, things went wrong. And then things went even more wrong. 
June 5, 2018
Barcodes for Indie Authors – updated June 6, 2018
I’m assuming that any Indies reading this post will have gone through the same frustrations that I did, so I’ll jump straight into the how-to part of the post. Once that’s done, I’ll talk about barcodes in general and discuss why you might want one. Let’s do it!
There are only TWO things you need to create your own, free barcode:
an ISBN for your book
a free online barcode generator
In Canada you can get an ISBN for free. In the US and Australia, you can buy an ISBN from a company called Bowker. The web address for the Australian company is:
https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/
If you want to know where to buy an ISBN for your own country, go to the website of the International ISBN Agency:
https://www.isbn-international.org/agencies
You should be looking at a screen like this:
[image error]
Click the small down arrow [circled in red] to display a drop down list of countries. Scroll down to your country and click it. You should now see a detailed contact screen for the ISBN agency in your country. In the example shown below, I clicked on ‘United Kingdom and Ireland’:
[image error]
Once you have your ISBN, you can go to the following website to use the free, barcode generator [you do not have to register first]:
https://www.bookow.com/index.php
On the Home page, select ‘Free ISBN-13 Bookland Barcode Generator’ as shown below:
[image error]
You should now be looking at a page like this:
[image error]
From the top of the page, type in your 13 digit ISBN, including the hyphens [or cut and paste it in].
Next, type 90000 in the Price textbox. This ensures that the scanner checks the bookshop’s own database for pricing.
Type your email address, twice.
Click inside the ‘Consent to email’ checkbox.
Leave the DPI at the default [300].
Now you have a choice of getting the barcode as a PDF file or as a PNG file. I find the PNG file easier to work with but the choice is yours. Either way you’ll end up with a picture of the barcode that’s been generated from your ISBN.
Save the barcode to your computer.
Insert the barcode into the back page of your book cover graphic.
Done. 
June 4, 2018
This man could save your life.
I know some of my friends have Type II diabetes already, and some of us, possibly myself included, are heading towards insulin resistance, so ALL of us should a) read this article and b) watch the video from start to finish. -hugs- Meeks
Einstein began as an outsider. If today’s gatekeepers had run the journals in 1905, Einstein’s “miracle year” papers would have been rejected because he wasn’t employed and controlled by a university.
After he pulled the ripcord on space and time, Einstein faced rejection by his peers. That’s said to be the single most depressing thing that can happen to a person.
Physicists called him a mathematician. Mathematicians called him a physicist.
When the Nobel Committee finally realized his new-fangled universe wasn’t going away, they awarded Einstein the Nobel Prize for a fairly concrete paper he wrote on the photoelectric effect. With narrow minds, they passed over his impossibly radical discoveries — the flexibility of time and space, the equivalence of mass and energy, and the gravity of General Relativity.
To be fair, all of us have sacred-cow beliefs that we “know” are accurate beyond question. The Nobel Committee of the early 20th…
View original post 793 more words
May 29, 2018
Updated – now 41 self-publishing tips for absolute beginners
Print-On-Demand means authors don’t have to buy 100’s of their own print books.
3 biggest Print-On-Demand printers are CreateSpace [Amazon], Lulu and IngramSpark. Amazon KDP is now offering print as well.
Lulu & IngramSpark have print facilities in Australia. Both are more expensive than CreateSpace or KDP but you save a lot in postage [and time].
Aussie authors wanting to print with IngramSpark must have an ABN and pay a $53 setup fee for each book.
Aussie authors wanting to get an ABN should read this how to first: https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/how-to-apply-for-an-abn-the-basics/
Print-On-Demand works with standard trim sizes only. For table of trim sizes see : https://www.createspace.com/Special/Pop/book_trimsizes-pagecount.html
Trim size = physical size of book after pages glued inside cover & trimmed.
Page size templates for all trim sizes can be found on CreateSpace forums: https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1323
Convert Word A4 pages to trim size pages via the Word Page Setup dialog box.
ISBN = 13 digit no. that identifies your book worldwide. Buy your own ISBN or accept the free one offered by CreateSpace and KDP.
The downside of a free ISBN is that it can only be used with the company that issued it.
Aussie authors can buy ISBNs from Thorpe-Bowker: https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/
As a rule of thumb, print, ebook & audiobooks all need their own ISBN.
Books printed via CreateSpace and KDP are listed on Amazon automatically.
To publish Kindle ebooks go to: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/
Amazon supplies ebooks with ASIN identifiers so ISBN not strictly necessary.
If you want to ‘go wide’ & sell with other retailers as well as Amazon, your own ISBN is a must.
Most POD printers prefer PDF files but will accept Word files.
Before converting from Word to PDF, ensure all Word fonts are embedded in the document. See: https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/05/19/how-to-make-word-16-embed-all-your-fonts/
File/Export completed Word doc. to PDF. Then upload that PDF to the POD printer of your choice.
With KDP and CreateSpace, royalty = List Price – Print costs.
With CreateSpace, Print costs= Sales Channel % Fixed Charges Per Page Charge.
With CreateSpace, Standard sales channel % = 40% of List Price, Expanded sales channel % = 60%.
Spine of cover = trim size & no. of pages. See: https://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/Artwork.do
KDP cover template from: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/cover-templates Select trim size from drop down list, enter page count & paper colour, then download template.
CreateSpace cover template from: https://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/Artwork.do Select Interior Type, Trim size and paper colour. Type in page count. Download template.
Lulu cover template from: http://www.lulu.com/create/books Select trim size, type in page count, click Spine Width. Note down spine dimensions. Download template.
Lulu cover template is for front and back covers individually. If creating your own, all in one cover, ADD the width of the spine to the width of the 2 covers to get exact measurements.
CreateSpace & KDP cover templates both include the spine and are easier to use than Lulu’s templates.
Barcodes for CreateSpace and KDP – included at no cost.
Barcodes for Lulu – not included. Bar codes must be provided in black and white and should be 1.75″ wide x 1″ high (4.445 x 2.54 cm)
When converting covers to PDF for CreateSpace choose “PDF/X-1a,” “High-Quality Print” or “Press Quality” from the list of presets.
When converting covers to PDF for KDP paperback, “Press Quality” and “PDF/X-1a” both work.
When converting covers to PDF for Lulu, you are advised to set compatibility mode to PDF 1.3, but the newer PDF/X-1a works too.
Total page no. of book = pages AFTER conversion to chosen trim size [not A4 Word pages].
Amazon deducts 30% withholding tax from each sale. Aussies can claim exemption to reduce tax to 5%.
Withholding tax exemption: US TIN = Australian Tax File No.
Aussie authors must deposit 1 copy of each published book with the National Library of Australia: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit
Aussie authors must also deposit 1 copy of each published book with their state library: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/australia-wide
Aussie authors – for Legal Deposit FAQ see:https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit-faq
31 self-publishing tips for absolute beginners
Print-On-Demand means authors don’t have to buy 100’s of their own print books.
3 biggest Print-On-Demand printers are CreateSpace [Amazon], Lulu and IngramSpark. Amazon KDP is now offering print as well.
Lulu & IngramSpark have print facilities in Australia. Both are more expensive than CreateSpace or KDP but you save a lot in postage [and time].
Aussie authors wanting to print with IngramSpark must have an ABN and pay a $53 setup fee for each book.
Aussie authors wanting to get an ABN should read this how to first: https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/how-to-apply-for-an-abn-the-basics/
Print-On-Demand works with standard trim sizes only. For table of trim sizes see : https://www.createspace.com/Special/Pop/book_trimsizes-pagecount.html
Trim size = physical size of book after pages glued inside cover & trimmed.
Page size templates for all trim sizes can be found on CreateSpace forums: https://forums.createspace.com/en/community/docs/DOC-1323
Convert Word A4 pages to trim size pages via the Word Page Setup dialog box.
ISBN = 13 digit no. that identifies your book worldwide.
Buy your own ISBN or accept the free one offered by CreateSpace and KDP.
Aussie authors can buy ISBNs from Thorpe-Bowker: https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/
As a rule of thumb, print, ebook & audiobooks all need their own ISBN.
Books printed via CreateSpace are listed on Amazon automatically.
To publish Kindle ebooks go to: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/
Amazon supplies ebooks with ASIN identifiers so ISBN not strictly necessary.
If you want to ‘go wide’ & sell with other retailers as well as Amazon, your own ISBN is a must.
Most POD printers prefer PDF files but will accept Word files.
Before converting from Word to PDF, ensure all Word fonts are embedded in the document. See: https://acflory.wordpress.com/2018/05/19/how-to-make-word-16-embed-all-your-fonts/
File/Export completed Word doc. to PDF. Then upload that PDF to the POD printer of your choice.
With CreateSpace, royalty = List Price – Print costs.
With CreateSpace, Print costs= Sales Channel % Fixed Charges Per Page Charge.
With CreateSpace, Standard sales channel % = 40% of List Price, Expanded sales channel % = 60%.
Spine of cover = trim size & no. of pages. See: https://www.createspace.com/Help/Book/Artwork.do
Total page no. of book = pages AFTER conversion to chosen trim size [not A4 Word pages].
Amazon deducts 30% withholding tax from each sale. Aussies can claim exemption to reduce tax to 5%.
Withholding tax exemption: US TIN = Australian Tax File No.
Aussie authors must deposit 1 copy of each published book with the National Library of Australia: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit
Aussie authors must also deposit 1 copy of each published book with their state library: https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit/australia-wide
Aussie authors – for Legal Deposit FAQ see:https://www.nla.gov.au/legal-deposit-faq
May 28, 2018
Indie Writing – about outlining in reverse
Most Indie writers will be aware of the two extremes of writing technique: pantsting and outlining. Well, I’m kind of a hybrid. Most of the time I write as a ‘pantster’, meaning that I allow my sub-conscious to direct the flow of the story rather than planning it out ahead of time. The trouble is, after a certain point, my stories become rather complex and convoluted, so I do have to think ahead, at least a little.
Nevertheless, my ‘thinking ahead’ still doesn’t constitute an outline. For me, outlining is something that happens after the story is told, not before. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past three days. I’ve been going through Vokhtah, line by line, noting down all the bits and pieces that make up the story. These include the plot, of course, but also things like timelines, motivation/backstory and the introduction of Vokhtan vocabulary.
All in all, my reverse outlining takes up 19 pages of notations. This is just one of them:
[image error]
As you can see, its data in the raw, and tomorrow I’ll have to massage it into some sort of order that goes beyond the simple chronology of the story. But that’s for tomorrow. For now, I need a coffee and a walk around the garden with the ‘kids’.
cheers
Meeks
May 24, 2018
Kookaburras – update
Some of you had trouble with the laughing kookaburra video so I’ve found one that should work better. Sorry about that!
One of the many things I love about Warrandyte are the kookaburras. Have a look at the little guy who came to visit the other day. As always, apologies for the poor quality of the pics:
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
Tell me he wasn’t posing!
And for those, like me, who didn’t know that kookaburras are part of the kingfisher family, here’s some info. from wiki:
‘Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus Dacelo native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between 28–42 cm in length. The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri guuguubarra, onomatopoeic of its call. The loud distinctive call of the laughing kookaburra is widely used as a stock sound effect in situations that involve an Australian bush setting.‘
And finally, that laugh:
I’ve included one last video to show kookaburras in their natural setting, more or less. One, in particular, exhibits some of their instinctive behaviours. It bashes its ‘prey’ against a ‘branch’ to kill it before swallowing. Don’t worry, the bits of meat aren’t alive!
If you’ve ever read the original ‘Dot and the Kangaroo’, you may remember that in one scene, a kookaburra saves Dot by diving down, grabbing the snake that’s threatening her and bashing it against a branch to kill it. I’m not sure if a real kookaburra would be strong enough to handle a full sized snake like that, but the image has stuck with me since I first read the book. If you haven’t read about Dot, you really are missing something special.
Kookaburras
One of the many things I love about Warrandyte are the kookaburras. Have a look at the little guy who came to visit the other day. As always, apologies for the poor quality of the pics:
[image error]
[image error]
[image error]
Tell me he wasn’t posing!
And for those, like me, who didn’t know that kookaburras are part of the kingfisher family, here’s some info. from wiki:
‘Kookaburras are terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus Dacelo native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between 28–42 cm in length. The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri guuguubarra, onomatopoeic of its call. The loud distinctive call of the laughing kookaburra is widely used as a stock sound effect in situations that involve an Australian bush setting.‘
And finally, that laugh:
I’ve included one last video to show kookaburras in their natural setting, more or less. One, in particular, exhibits some of their instinctive behaviours. It bashes its ‘prey’ against a ‘branch’ to kill it before swallowing. Don’t worry, the bits of meat aren’t alive!
If you’ve ever read the original ‘Dot and the Kangaroo’, you may remember that in one scene, a kookaburra saves Dot by diving down, grabbing the snake that’s threatening her and bashing it against a branch to kill it. I’m not sure if a real kookaburra would be strong enough to handle a full sized snake like that, but the image has stuck with me since I first read the book. If you haven’t read about Dot, you really are missing something special.
May 22, 2018
Is this a bot or a scammer or what??
These ‘comments’ appeared in my WordPress notifications from yesterday. I have no idea what they mean. Is this a bot, many bots, one person with many bogus accounts, or a weird scammer [for what though]?
[image error]
Has anyone else been visited by this weirdness? More importantly how do I stop this ‘thing’ from visiting again? Any ideas?
Baffled,
Meeks
May 21, 2018
Elder Scrolls Online [ESO] — first impressions
This post first appeared on my Medium publication, Tikh Tokh.
Disclaimer: I’m an older gamer whose main interests are crafting, exploration, lore, game design and aesthetics. If you want to know if ESO has the best dungeons or the most exciting PVP, you’ve come to the wrong place.
So…first impressions:
“God, the characters are ugly.”
“Help! The camera is awful!”
“Bloody hell, how do you move around in this game?”
But then there came a moment when I saw my first ‘mansion’…
[image error]
…and the graphics whore in me kicked in. Jaw agape, I wandered through this empty mansion and was transported back to my favourite game of all time – Vagrant Story. Created by Square Enix, Vagrant Story was probably the most beautiful game ever developed for the first PlayStation console, and the graphics had the same effect on me.
But this article isn’t about Vagrant Story, it’s about ESO, and the reason I bring the comparison up so early in the piece is because this was the moment when all my other first impressions faded into insignificance. I still hated the appearance of my character [and all the npcs]. I still found moving around difficult, and battling excruciatingly hit or miss, but…the beauty of the ‘world’ had me hooked.
The following is a watery vista just to the north of Balmora:
[image error]
The next is a close-up view of the texture of a wall in Balmora. The dark shapes are shadows from a tree:
[image error]
Before playing ESO, I honestly thought Final Fantasy XIV [FFXIV] was the most beautiful MMORPG currently available. I still think FFXIV is beautiful in that distinctly Asian, manga-esque way, but I no longer think it’s the best out there. ESO is.
The grass and bushes in ESO are thicker, richer, more real looking. The textures are a million times better, and the abundance of fauna, both large and small, make the environment feel alive. Plus the whole landscape is full of things to find, but more on that later. Time now for some negatives.
I began this article by saying that ESO characters are ugly. I stand by that. Nevertheless, I do acknowledge that my aesthetic may not appeal to everyone. I have played Western MMOs [WoW, GW2 and a couple of forgettables], but the bulk of my playing time has been on Japanese or Korean MMOs. Bear that in mind as you look at the following screenshots. The first is of a Dark Elf male and a Nord female:
[image error]
I love character customisation, but I found it next to impossible to create attractive characters in ESO. The faces shown above are two of the most attractive ones, but I don’t think either is that attractive.
[image error]
The two characters above are from Asian MMOs. The character on the left is from my brief foray into Blade and Soul. Loved the aesthetic of the characters, hated the game. The character on the right is from FFXIV. Both are gorgeous, and as a female player I make no apology for prefering them to the ESO offering.
I’m not impressed with the ESO body aesthetic either:
[image error]
To me, the legs in ESO look too short for the bodies, but that could just be me. The monotony of the faces, however, is not my imagination. It is possible to create some differences between races, but within races, all the faces come out looking almost identical. As for the Cat and Lizard races…rolls eyes. Really? Stick an unmodified cat head on a human body and that’s it? Instant Cat race? The less said about those two races the better.
And now to the camera and movement settings in ESO. Having the camera locked to the head of the character may work in first person shooters, but for those of us who prefer a 3rd person perspective — i.e. seeing our characters from behind as they move about — the camera is nauseating, literally. You can’t just point to some ‘object’ with the mouse and look at it. You have to move the character until the cross hairs at head level pan over the object you want to check out.
The camera setting also means that the character has to be pointed at and looking at any enemy it needs to fight. Getting that ‘head camera angle’ just right in 3rd person view is tricky, very tricky. Again, I imagine that the camera setting would make fighting in PVP easier as you wouldn’t have to worry about lining up the crosshair, it would just be ‘there’. Pity I don’t do PVP.
You can change the key bindings for actions and weapon skills, but after much effort I finally gave up and learned to use the default setup, more or less. These settings include:
left mouse button for ‘Attack’ [with your weapon]
right mouse button for block, and
left & right mouse buttons together to interrupt
Actual weapon skills are handled by the number keys, 1–5. This means you can only ever have five of the total available weapon skills active at the one time. [I haven’t reached the level at which I get weapon swap which will effectively give me another 5 weapon skills to work with and I’m ignoring Ultimates for now].
Do I enjoy the battling? Not particularly, but I’m now able to hold my own. In time I may actually become reasonably proficient at fighting. -sigh-
Still on the subject of fighting, I have to say that the solo ‘dungeons’ [delves?] are fast becoming my favourite parts of the game. Most of these instanced, solo events are part of a quest chain and occur underground, or in some dungeon-like area.
This is the map of the Vassir-Didanat Mine dungeon:
[image error]
These instanced dungeons can be completed on your own or by casually joining other players who are in the same place at the same time. No need to join a party, just tag along helping each other as needed. Great fun.
Returning to the camera settings, another problem is that you can’t just sweep the mouse over the environment when you’re looking for something. This can make gathering tricky as collectables aren’t marked in any way. You have to get up close and personal, and touch the object with the crosshair before you can see its label.
In the following screenshot, the object circled in red is a maple log:
[image error]
If you love gathering and crafting, you will eventually learn to recognize the appearance of collectables from a distance, but as you can see from the above screenshot, collectables don’t exactly leap out of the environment at you. Yet despite this, or perhaps because of it, each rune, flower, or lump of wood I discover feels like an achievement.
This sense of accomplishment is in stark contrast to FFXIV where gathering is ‘easy’ but horribly boring. Sadly, crafting in ESO is the exact reverse. You rock up to a crafting station, choose the item you want to craft and hit a button. If you have the required materials, the item is crafted without any further input from the crafter. Boring….
[image error]
By contrast, crafting in FFXIV is a mini-game and actually requires both strategy and skill.
In an attempt to make crafting in ESO a little more substantial, higher levels require ‘traits’ that must be researched. Researching a trait involves the destruction of an ‘item’ [weapon, gear, whatever] in order to learn the trait it contains. Researching a trait takes 6 hours and again, requires no further input from the crafter.
There are other bits and pieces involved in crafting, but at this point I haven’t discovered anything in ESO that makes my heart go pitter pat. I’m still at a very low level though so I’ll reserve my final judgement until I learn more.
Before I finish this preliminary overview of ESO, there are two further positives I really have to point out. Despite the fact that my character is only level 12, the quest lines have already given me a mount and a room at the inn which I can furnish as I wish.
None of the MMOs I’ve played have ever been this generous to a newbie player. It’s almost as if ESO believes players should be enjoying themselves right from the beginning instead of having to level up for weeks before being rewarded with something ‘nice’. I’m not saying ESO is perfect, far from it, but I will say that I’ve never enjoyed these low levels in an MMO before. That has to mean something. Oh, and it’s free to play. That means something too.
cheers
Meeks
