Recent Posts

226

N.A.N.Y. 2021 / Re: NANY 2021: yaydl

« Last post by Shades on November 15, 2020, 08:37 AM »

yaydl.exe "https://www.youtube..../watch?v=Z-b13Df2QT0"

That results in an error: "Relative URL without a base"
Did not find any info about that error at the provided links.

227

General Software Discussion / Re: I'm thinking of going primitive, with discursion into zettelkasten

« Last post by Shades on November 14, 2020, 09:34 PM »

I want to stay local, I like wikilinks in the text, plus the bits of markup and formatting that I use while writing and editing.

I'm happy for formatting for publication to be separate, but markdown doesn't do that anyway.

-Dormouse (November 14, 2020, 04:14 AM)

Sorry to remain harping on about AsciiDoc. But I know that for AsciiDoc there are applications that you can host locally. Whatever documentation you create, it will be automatically translated to (static) webpages and served locally or on a hosted solution. In case that is your thing. The tool I talk about is called: Hugo   I see that it also supports MarkDown nowadays.

For those that really wish to introduce versioning into their documentation (technical documentation writers come to mind), for those that have collected a lot of documentation all over the place, this software is capable of searching local or hosted projects for any document and create a complete manual from it, all automatically. I have seen examples of this system working with a hosted GitLab instance with many different repositories. This software is called: Antora (more descriptions here).

Looks to be an AsciiDoc only solution. But I'm sure there is similar software for MarkDown.

228

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on November 08, 2020, 04:51 PM »

Off-topic and sorry for the hi-jack:
From the comments I saw on multiple forums, the X570 chipset is more problematic to get working with Windows 7. Chipsets X370 and X470 are more compatible. That leads to me to think that some of the hardware features in the X570 chipset make Windows 7 trip up in a very bad way. Getting around that might prove to be more effort than it is worth.

Windows does make use of hardware features built into the CPU and chipset that it included on the motherboard. And what whatever hardware feature Windows doesn't recognize immediately, generic drivers will be tried first, before such a feature is being ignored. You could compare it to a blanket made out of little patches of fabric.

Miss too many of those fabric patches and you won't get much use out of the blanket. It is no different for Windows. The last workaround would be to make the jump to Linux, if Windows 10 is not your thing. There are now good ways to run Windows games on Linux, almost without a hitch. Linux Mint appears to be an easy to use Linux distribution. Myself, a year or so ago, I bought a second hand laptop. Was a Windows 8 laptop when purchased and Microsoft bothered the owner long enough that she upgraded to Windows 10. After that, she asked me to take a look at it, because it was very slow. There were also battery issues, which made the screen flicker (because it was continuously confused about being connected to a wall and using battery power.

Fixed the battery issue (and the flickering), but the slowness was caused by a shitty hard disk. The rest was more than OK, 14 inch touchscreen, 1920x1080 resolution, 2-in-1 model, excellent audio (with headphone). So jokingly I offered to buy the laptop from her, without the hard disk and to my surprise she agreed on the sale. Put in a SSD I had laying around and re-installed Windows 10 from scratch. A difference of night and day. That is, for 30 minutes or so. After that, it became slow. Guessed Windows 10 was updating itself again, so waited it out. Alas, the first 30 minutes after a reboot, it all worked fine, but after that, dog slow. ANd suddenly I got a lot of issues with getting the laptop into and out of sleep modes too.

After a while I got so fed up with this, I tried a live edition from 'Pop!_OS' on the laptop. A Linux distribution that was praised on a Youtube channel I subscribed to. Not only worked all the hardware in that laptop right out of the box, the default software that came with Linux worked very well for my purposes too. Could open much more software at once than when it was still running Windows. Getting it to sleep and wake up worked without a glitch and the tricks I had to pull to make the battery behave better in Windows 10, the battery had no issue at all when using Linux. The contrast between operating systems could not have been bigger.

To my surprise as well, the transition between Windows 10 and Pop!_OS is not nearly as big as you might think. Ran Linux from a pendrive for a day like that without any issue or feeling too hampered by the differences in workflow of the operating systems. The next day, I installed Linux for real on that laptop and I can tell you that it will never run Windows 10 again (for as long as I own it). Caveat, I am used to work with Linux servers, but all my servers have no GUI in any shape or form. Pop!_OS is a 'GUI first (Gnome), terminal later'-kind of Linux.
 

229

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on November 08, 2020, 12:01 AM »

And, come to think of it, USB ports on the back plate of your computer are usually USB 3.0 or better. Which is an issue for Windows 7 (which to my knowledge doesn't know (by default) how this type of port can be used.

But usually there are one or two USB 2.0 connector headers on a motherboard. Practically always on the bottom of the board, often marked as such. You can connect female USB 2.0 connectors to each of those headers.
Something like this or this.

USB 2.0 is usually fast enough for "polling" a gaming mouse, so that should work.

230

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2020, 11:49 PM »

Found a link with a description of how a guy made Windows 7 work with his Ryzen 3900 CPU (X470). These steps should also apply to you. The link.

231

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2020, 11:41 PM »

Microsoft has patched Windows 7 in such a way that it will not (or perhaps barely) work with Ryzen CPUs anymore.

There might be a chance if you can get your hands on a old Ryzen 1400 CPU, put that on the x570 board, install Windows 7, then swap out the CPU for the Ryzen 3600 and let Windows 7 update itself as much as it can to use as much of the new features/functionalities from the new CPU and x570 chipset.

Was it not a year or 1.5 year ago that Microsoft made the announcement that they would leave Windows 7 in such a state that it would not run anymore with any of the new CPUs from that moment on?

It might even be an idea to use a VM hypervisor to load up a Windows 7 Virtual Machine. If you have to use a hypervisor that runs in an operating system, a Linux distro with only VirtualBox or something should take away very little from the available hardware resources in your system. A VM can be tricked to tell the Windows 7 installer that the Virtual CPU is something else than a Ryzen 3600, so the installer won't act up as it is programmed to do.

Microsoft used to offer their Hyper-V software (to run a virtual machine as close as can be against the actual hardware in your PC) for free. It was when Windows Server 2012 came out, at least. You'll need to create a Windows 7 VM using that software. Not sure if you can trick that kind of hypervisor into thinking there is a different virtual CPU than the actual CPU.

If all of the above sounds like way too much work or too out there...there are many websites that describe ways to make Windows 10 look and feel as Windows 7. Mostly, that is. Here is a link to one such a page (howtogeek.com). Much easier and quicker to do. Use 'O&O ShutUp' to silence most, if not all, Windows telemetry to Microsoft. If that is a concern for you, of course.

232

Coding Snacks / Re: A script for a black screen

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2020, 05:03 PM »

Mouse "drift" can indeed also be an issue. The brand 'Trust' for computer gear had a very bad reputation in the Netherlands. If it wasn't the hardware itself that failed, the supporting software would. It came fast and went away fast between the late 90's and 2000's. Good riddance.

Preventing mouse "drift" can be simple. Replace the mouse with a model from a reputable brand.
Also, how level is the surface where you use your mouse on? A slight slope can be enough to cause "drift".
Is the surface where you use your mouse reflective? Like glossy or is it white? Generally speaking, optical mouses do not handle glossy surfaces or white surfaces well. Use a dark surface that doesn't reflect.
Better yet, get a mouse mat. Spend a bit and get a decent and large enough mouse pad that also fits your keyboard or laptop. Saves time not having to spend on maintenance (cleaning gunk from the top and bottom surfaces of your mouse, I consider that maintenance).

233

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on November 07, 2020, 12:40 PM »

Newer motherboards have options in UEFI/BIOS that allows you to enable or disable power to USB ports during the boot of the computer.

There might be a chance that all (or some) USB ports are without power the moment the BIOS/UEFI system on your motherboard checks for (wireless) keyboards/mouse connected by USB. Which is one of the reasons why motherboards are still having one PS/2 port. That port is under power, always.

Some motherboard manufacturers indicate a specific USB port that is always under power as well. My Asus board does, my Gigabyte board doesn't, so ymmv. Anyway, that is the port where you need to connect your (wireless) keyboard and/or mouse to be sure it is initialized during the boot process.

This option of enabling/disabling USB ports is there because of security reasons. But has also caused many problems, so motherboard manufacturers now by default enable all USB ports to have power during boot.  Those that need these ports disabled, can do so themselves.   

234

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Shades on November 04, 2020, 04:11 PM »

If the guy would be next to the truck and actually help push the truck...would his hands not be more on the left side of the truck? To me it looks like his hands are in the middle and and the right side of the truck. Hence, he's in the truck bed, as he doesn't strike me as a particular tall person.

How to be a blunt tool in a shed....eh, truck bed. 

235

General Software Discussion / Re: How to manually set clock in Windows 10 Pro?

« Last post by Shades on October 30, 2020, 11:28 PM »

• Right-click the clock in the tray.
• Select "Adjust Date/Time"
• Deselect "Set Time Automatically"
• Click "Change" below "Set the date and time manually"
• Set the time and date to your preference.
• Click "Change" to confirm your changes.

[ Invalid Attachment ]
[ Invalid Attachment ]

-Deozaan (October 30, 2020, 01:40 PM)

A change that may be altered back to what the time server at windows.com thinks your clock must be set to. To my knowledge that happens once a day.

Alteration to computer clocks were made by that time server on workstations and servers alike. As you may or may not know, I live in an area where 'el presidente' chooses the moment DST is applied. More often than not that was a different day than what the US or the EU are using for their DST changes.

You think you are irritated by predictable differences between the 2 most common DST systems? Hah! Try mixing a random DST change in, before or after those DST changes. Because sometimes government hated the US, sometimes government was unfriendly with the EU when DST needed to be applied. Politics petty? Damn right it is. Everywhere. And every 6 months a surprise.

How many meetings between employees of us and companies in the EU had to be rescheduled, because of those DST mishaps....

Anyway, Asuncion, the city where I live has its own time zone. To make matters even more fun. You know what truly solved almost all DST problems? Using practically any time server other than the one hiding behind the URL 'time.windows.com'. Yes, the default time server in Windows is the worst NTP time servers around. Seriously, 95% of all my semi-annual DST issues/conflicts went out of the door, by simply adjusting to a time server for the South-Americas. These are maintained by people who take time much more seriously than whoever is in control of the 'time.windows.com' time server.

Changing the clock like the instructions show you here in this thread...that gets old quick if you have to do that daily on every computer under your care for around 2 months a year.

You might think the time server at 'time.windows.com' isn't so bad, but that is only because you live in a time-zone with predictable DST changes. seriously, find out what NTP server is handling time for the continent you live on and use that server instead. After you have done so, I will be the first person you send your Christmas cards to from that moment on...yes, it is that much of a difference.

Look here for your (national/continental) NTP server:
https://www.ntppool.org/en/

As most computers in the world run on Windows, you would think that MS would put competent people to manage 'time.windows.com'. Instead, there are over 4000 different time servers active globally as of this moment. If that is not an indicator the default time server in Windows makes a mess of keeping time...

DST and time zones, from a programmer's perspective:  https://www.youtube..../watch?v=-5wpm-gesOY
Hell....

236

General Software Discussion / Re: The Great Suspender - Chrome extension to use less CPU/RAM

« Last post by Shades on October 30, 2020, 08:02 PM »

More often than not, I have boatloads of tabs open in FireFox. Doesn't take me long to get to 200+ open tabs... 

For FireFox there are extensions that can help:
Tabs Aside
Tab Manager Plus

Both can store sets of open tabs, for future reference.

Pretty certain these are available for Chrome too. But Chrome or Chrome-derived browsers will not be installed or used on any of my personal rigs. It's already bad enough I have to tolerate it on my phone.

On my lazy days I close the browser in my computers using Windows Task Manager or the infinitely better Process Explorer. This leaves the tabs intact and as browsers do a thing called 'lazy loading' of content in tabs, closing and re-opening browsers is hardly an issue. 'Lazy loading' means loading content when the tab is actually selected and not before.

My most extreme session (according to Tabs Aside): 343 tabs   

237

General Software Discussion / Re: How to manually set clock in Windows 10 Pro?

« Last post by Shades on October 30, 2020, 09:02 AM »

As far as I know the US (all Windows installations use time server 'time.windows.com') implement DST when winter solstice/summer solstice occur. Most of the rest of the world use the change of seasons to implement DST. There is usually a 2 to 3 weeks difference between these events.

If you think this is already bad, try living in a country where the president decides the DST implementation. Solstices and season changes are more or less set in stone. Randomness introduced by 'el Presidente' is much more frustrating. Believe me.

Anyway, if you have dealings with other continents, better use the NTP servers available for that continent. Since I have set my router to use the time server '0.south-america.pool.ntp.org' and all computers behind it to use the router as their main clock, there is a lot less headache on my end. The 0 in the name of that server indicates stratum 0, the closest you can get to having the same time as the atomic clocks that are spread over the world. A higher stratum number mean that there can be inaccuracies between the time of that server. Also, when you take the time from a stratum 0 server, the inaccuracies of the clock hardware inside your computer/laptop/tablet/phone automatically turns this in a stratum 1 time registration.

For some types of business it is vital to have a stratum as low as possible. Most people don't need to be on the stratum 0 level of accuracy. Which is good, as capacity is limited.

238

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on October 29, 2020, 09:20 AM »

One of the children of my boss has one of those Wacom Intuos devices. Not that nice to use with a finger. With the provided pen the user experience improves leaps and bounds. Still, using a pen is different enough too. If you are used to working with a mouse.

Wacom used to have drawing tablets that came with a pen and a mouse (around 2000). The mouse had no optics in it, could be considered a pen, but in the shape of a mouse. Close to a square meter in size, it was a big unit too. Back in those days that was very workable, the graphic designer who needed it back then, she was over the moon with it. Terribly expensive tablet though. 

239

General Software Discussion / Re: Syncovery - Pro or Premium Version?

« Last post by Shades on October 28, 2020, 05:11 PM »

Block level copying - isn't that only useful when synchronizing between drives that are connected to one and the same computer? To my understanding, a block is the size unit the hardware on a drive uses to determine how much data can actually be stored by the file system your Operating System of choice uses.

Block level copying usually means that the content from one drive is copied block by block. No matter if the file system has any data stored in a block or not, all blocks are copied to the destination drive. This way you get an exact copy of the source drive. A useful way of copying things in case there is a need to audit a drive, so you can do all your poking and prodding on the copy and leave the original drive (and its content) completely intact.

Also handy for when you need to salvage as much data as you can from a broken drive. Or retrieve data from a drive from which accidentally files are removed. Not messing up the content from the original drive, allows you to retry if you make a mistake on the copied data.

Buy the Pro version if you don't envision yourself doing any of the stuff I mention above now or in the future. Getting Premium might still be interesting, if there are more features unlocked, which you like. But for Block level copy alone, I wouldn't.

240

Living Room / Re: Do good mice still exist? Looking for recommendations.

« Last post by Shades on October 28, 2020, 04:00 PM »

Bought myself about 6 months ago a brand new Microsoft Wireless keyboard/mouse combo. It uses Bluetooth (v4.1) for communication. While the Bluetooth specs say that a distance of 10 meter is possible, I'm happy if I get 20 to 30 centimeter of reach.

Any more distance and both the mouse and keyboard do very weird things. So I was already painfully aware that it is essential to purchase an USB extension cable for the Bluetooth dongle, solely for the purpose of moving the dongle into a more optimal location.

Same crap for my Bluetooth speaker (which cannot connect through the Microsoft Bluetooth dongle, I needed to purchase a separate dongle for that. And then learn that it didn't come with any drivers for Windows Server editions. Drivers that are available for purchase, only a few 100 USD (nope, not kidding or exaggerating) for the Toshiba drivers. Consumer versions of Windows have at least a generic Bluetooth driver built-in, so I was unpleasantly surprised about the lack of such a driver in Windows Server editions.

My experiences with Bluetooth sure have been quirky, to say the least. Definitely doesn't work as advertised.

241

Living Room / Re: When rubber (computer mouse) gets old and sticky, what can you do

« Last post by Shades on October 28, 2020, 09:32 AM »

My boss has a 3D printer. And he can get his hands on a rubbery filament, which allows him to make gaskets and such. Perhaps the same material could be used to print replacement rubbery sections for your favorite mouse?

If the fading rubber is the only problem the mouse has, of course.

242

DC Website Help and Extras / Re: Can we embed short MP4 animation inline in post?

« Last post by Shades on October 26, 2020, 12:19 PM »

It's a mystery I'll never understand, but for some reason the internet seems to always converge on using the least efficient means possible of transmitting information.

-Deozaan (October 26, 2020, 09:49 AM)

Is that not the result of people, who never have been subjected to limitations in their media, not having a clue about efficiency? Or just won't do that "word learning"-thing most people have been subjected to...

Those video gif's...should be considered barely better than animated hieroglyphics. Just as useful too.

243

Living Room / Re: Downloading Blender Open Movie "Sintel (2010)" in 4K

« Last post by Shades on October 25, 2020, 04:20 PM »

For some reason the file does not seem to want to attach to the post, so I'm not going to bother anymore with that than I already have done.

Instead, copy-paste the following text into your favorite torrent client:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:d4avepgtgfdhrlkz7g5r23fqxvotx45t&dn=Sintel.2010.4k.FLAC.mkv&xl=4581131080&fc=2


All torrent clients I know of, support .magnet links. With a little bit of patience, the torrent file you need is generated and automatically being downloaded by your torrent client.

244

Living Room / Re: Downloading Blender Open Movie "Sintel (2010)" in 4K

« Last post by Shades on October 25, 2020, 04:04 PM »

Torrents, as far as I know, uses peers to transfer data. Data that has been cut up into chunks. It is very likely that the first set of data chunks are very available on lots and lots of peers. But other sets may not. With a small set peers (or sometimes even peer) the torrent protocol cannot retrieve whatever data you miss, the quality of the connection between you and the peer(s) also becomes an issue.

Sintel isn't that great as a story, so after people have seen it once, more often than not they do not keep the downloaded file. As a result they are not sharing and only a small set of peers remain. Sintel is also pretty old by now, that will have reduced the amount of peers even further. The bunny animation on the Blender website was more entertaining than Sintel.

Anyway: Sintel 4k with FLAC audio torrent

This does not seem to slow down after downloading 250 MB of data. But speed varies a lot. At least here in South America between 100 kbit/sec to 1,5 Mbit/sec. on my 20Mbit fiber connection.

As my torrent client I used Tixati. Don't know which client was used by the OP. My understanding is that Tixati is a very decent torrent client for its user. But it seems less than popular with people offering up their data. Just to say that torrent clients are not created equally, which can have a big impact on download speed too.

Then there is also the possibility that with torrents you get as much speed as you are willing to sacrifice from your own network connection. Or that bandwidth with which are downloading is only maintained if you are sharing one or more torrents simultaneously. Something that might surprise you as well. Torrents work better/faster when you specify a maximum download and/or upload speed in your client.

For example: say you have a 50 Mbit/sec download connection in your house. By default, torrent clients are configured to use as much bandwidth as is available at any given moment. This setting may sound logical, but most, if not all, torrent clients manage this automatic adjusting bandwidth setting poorly to very poorly.

As a rule off thumb, set in your client for max download speed about 80% of your maximum download speed, in case of a 50Mbit/sec, use 40 Mbit/sec. And around 10% of the 80% download value as upload max bandwidth, in case of max 40 Mbit/sec download, set 4 Mbit/sec as max upload.

By doing so, you'll notice that your torrent client suddenly is able to continuously pull in data at the max download speed you just configured. 

245

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Shades on October 25, 2020, 11:41 AM »

https://toggl.com/bl...d-created-programmer

-panzer (October 25, 2020, 08:11 AM)

That is a brilliant comic. Thanks for that one! 

246

General Software Discussion / Re: YouTube-dl has received a DMCA takedown from RIAA

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2020, 09:59 PM »

I have less problems with the artist claiming copyright than corporations that are copyright holders claiming their rights. Also, copyright should never last more than 25 years. After that period, public domain forever. Anyone should have an opportunity to make money of their creation, if they wish to do so. But 25 years is ample time to do so, for anything and everything. To my knowledge that is the actual principle behind copyright.

[rant]
What the lawyers of copyright holders (with the allowance of government) have turned the whole copyright system into....that isn't fair to anyone, except the recipients. The purpose of an artist is to create, not indefinitely getting payed for a thing they managed to pull of all those many years ago. Only results in only a few getting richer and a creative laziness. In no other profession this type of behavior is allowed.

It should actually be the rule that after the artist passed onto whatever realm they believed in, their work becomes automatically public domain. No exceptions allowed. Collected taxes are spent on enabling artists to do their thing. Or, at least, a platform is provided for. So, you pay through taxes, if you like the work of the artist, you purchase it in one or more forms and now you also need to pay the copyright holding corporation for every time you want to play it/use it or whatever.

At some point enough money (for one product/song/painting/art) is transferred to the copyright holder. And if community funds, like taxes have been involved in any way or form during the creation of the piece? Public domain, after 25 years or passing of the artist(s). Whatever comes first. You (the general public) are already getting fleeced at least twice. And with tax support, public domain in a reasonable period is implied. Else, just stop diverting community funds to enable artists.

Culture has become as expensive as it is, because of the greed that copyright holders (usually corporations) think they are entitled to.

Greed and entitlement, what could go wrong.....
[/rant]

247

General Software Discussion / Re: Manage the display in the laptop

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2020, 08:55 PM »

Application Frame Host, WMI Provider host, COM surrogate....all functionality that Windows relies upon to run in the background to give you the Windows experience you expect. And all have little to nothing to do with your screen not turning off.

WMI stands for Windows Management Instrumentation. A big name for functionality that keeps track of how and when the available resources from your computer are being used. Pretty handy also when you need to keep track of resource usage from many computers in 1 central location. Application Frame host is used for standardizing how and when available resources are spent on applications running on your computer. COM is used to enable information exchange between applications and services that may or may not have information exchange functionality built into them. All without user interaction. MS Office automation used COM a lot. Now less and less, because of REST/JSON.

Yes, perhaps you could make the point that indirectly these functionalities can have an impact on your screen not turning off, but it is highly unlikely that any of these functionalities are the cause of your problem.

4wd is right (as per usual), sounds more and more like there is a problem within your Windows installation.

248

General Software Discussion / Re: Virtual desktop tools?

« Last post by Shades on October 24, 2020, 08:12 PM »

Hasn't this become a standard function in Windows 10? Thought I read about that. But if you have the room and the funds for it, a dual monitor setup will be much more useful than a virtual desktop can ever be. For most people/use-cases a dual monitor setup gives you a huge performance boost. With a triple monitor setup, results diminish rather quickly. Still, it can be useful. Having 4 or even more monitors is definitely possible, but then it is more of niche inside another niche.

The standard functionality does not fulfill your needs? The only one I know about (and barely worked with) was: Dexpot. Then my boss decided to splurge on making each workstation a dual monitor setup. Haven't looked back at Virtual Desktops ever since. That was more than 10 years ago. So, unless you absolutely must have only one monitor on your desk, spend money on a new or second hand monitor. You'll get for the price of software license a second hand monitor. Doesn't have to be the same size or resolution either.

Although having 2 same size/same resolution/same height (stand) monitors is preferable, it is not a necessity. Any second monitor is better than a virtual desktop. Always.

There is an alternative way of seeing/testing if a second monitor is for you or not. This does require a separate computer or laptop on the same LAN network next to each other. Or at least in eye-shot.
Software like: Barrier  an open source alternative for the nowadays way too expensive Synergy  can be used to share keyboard/mouse/clipboard controls between computers that use these software.

Your main computer acts as the server, the others as clients. When the software is enabled, you can use one and the same keyboard/mouse to control all the connected computers. And yes, you can hook up Windows, Macs and Linux computers all together like this.

If you have the hardware laying around, it is an easy download/configuration and test to see if a dual monitor setup is for you, without spending any extra money. And if you are impressed by what such a setup helps you forward, fitting a second monitor to one computer is even better.

249

Living Room / Re: Interesting "stuff"

« Last post by Shades on October 22, 2020, 10:10 AM »

Crows are nasty birds. The first house I lived in was located in a small village (just below 10.000 people). Yet it had 4 churches. Well, 3 churches and an abbey. and a lot of rural estate outside the village's border limits. So crows were not an uncommon phenomenon. All crows I encountered were nasty, mean and really smart. Ravens (or known in Dutch as: kauw). Much less nasty, less mean and just as smart. These could actually be trained with a lot of effort.

Still, you would encounter at times a nasty raven as well. Cycling is popular in the Netherlands and in some areas you could expect them. My brother was attacked once by a crow and once by a raven. I was actually around when a raven landed on his head while cycling and the raven started to poke him hard on the top of his head with its beak. We kept cycling and the raven draw blood before we could scare it away.

Valuables and other shiny stuff are a real target for those birds. And they were really smart at stealing such items from your house. Not to be underestimated, those feathered bastards.   

250

Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window

« Last post by Shades on October 20, 2020, 03:35 PM »

I've taken hundreds of pictures of this massive willow tree across the road from me.

[ Invalid Attachment ]

[ Invalid Attachment ]

it got cut down a couple of weeks ago

[ Invalid Attachment ]

I'll miss it...

-tomos (October 20, 2020, 12:52 PM)

A fully grown willow tree is always a beautiful sight to behold. At least to my eye. 

Unfortunately, these trees need much more (ground-)water compared with almost any other "brand/model" of trees. So much so that other plants/flowers/grass has barely enough to grow in proximity of a willow tree. So, if you have ideas about gardening and your garden is not next to a stream or river, a willow tree is about the worst choice to include in your garden.

Perhaps that is why the tree was cut down. The excessive water consumption is also a reason why these trees get sick quickly. In the house where I spent most of my youth, I pestered my father into getting me such a tree. But it is a high maintenance tree, when not near a stream/river/otherwise damp environment. Found that out the hard way. And when it pulled away (ground-)water from the vegetable garden of my father, it got cut down.

Still, the vista of a willow tree and the sound of wind through its branches remains very enjoyable and something I miss. Unfortunately no willow tree can survive the blistering sun here in the South-Americas.