asgaard

Epic Games Store - Unable to download any more free games

Sun, 24 May 20 11:12:39 +0000

When trying to redeem an offer on the Epic Games store, I came across this surprising error message:

Your account is unable to download any more free games at this time, please wait 24 hours before trying to redeem a free game again.

In my case, the message was triggered by my VPN. When I switched off my VPN, I was able to redeem the free game immediately (without waiting 24 hours). So it seems to be linked to IP as well as (or instead of?) user account, as the message suggests.[...]

Strava

Tue, 19 May 20 18:12:02 +0000

I was disappointed by Strava's recent announcement that it is moving previously free features to the paid subscription service.

The announcement can be found here.

I pay for Strava because I quite like it. I guess that by most standards I'm a pretty serious runner. I usually run daily, about 60k per week. So I use Strava a lot. But do I find Strava useful? No, not really - from a training and performance perspective, Garmin Connect has better metrics. But Strava has a community and a social aspect, and that's what I like.

That's what Strava is - a social app based around fitness rather than a fitness app first, in the same way that Instagram isn't really a photography app.

So I'm disappointed Strava is putting social features behind a paywall and deterring free users, because by reducing the value of the app for free users it's also reducing the value of the network for paying users like myself.

I also think that it's important to note that it is an obvious step in the wrong direction for Strava to focus on reducing the value of their free service rather than increasing the value of their paid service.

I'll be blunt and say that, even though I'm a subscriber, I do not think their paid features are worth the money. They are missing opportunities to provide useful functionality for serious athletes. There are so many things I'd like Strava to tell me:

Estimates for realistic best performance over common distances (5k, 10k, half + full marathon, etc) based on my current shape.
Training plans, probably automated, based on my current shape and goals
Summaries aggregated by week/month showing how much time I'm spending in each heart rate and pace zone.
'Weather adjusted' pace; in the same way that Grade Adjusted Pace adjusts my pace for changes in elevation, I'd like to try to compare my performance when the weather suddenly heats up.
Automatic elevation correction - there is already a button to do this per activity, but only on the website! (well, OK, this one shouldn't be a premium feature). Without this, for me at least, the Grade Adjusted Pace feature is pretty useless.
Better understanding of my exertion levels and over-training risks, e.g. my interval sessions always end up being treated as an easy workout because they don't last long and my heart rate drops back to normal very fast between reps (and, including warm up and cool down, my average heart rate for an interval session can be quite low, so Strava's relative exertion metric scores quite low). But, even over the short periods, my speed, cadence and stride length is unusually high, which is obviously putting serious strain on my muscles and should be treated as a hard workout.
Better querying in general - e.g. show me my 10 fastest kilometres, my longest run, my highest heart rates recorded, etc. Strava stores so much data, but provides scant methods to explore it.

Overall I think Strava is focusing on entirely the wrong approach. They should be keeping the social features to appeal to a wide base of athletes and make the overall platform free for everyone, but enticing the more serious athletes to pay.

TV

Mon, 04 May 20 18:20:22 +0000

Some TV programs I've enjoyed lately:

Picard

I enjoyed Picard a lot. It's definitely not The Next Generation, but it definitely is Star Trek. I enjoyed seeing them bring back some characters. I especially enjoyed seeing Troi do some actual counselling in the few minutes of screen time she had - I think her guest appearances in non-TNG episodes did far more for her character than TNG ever did. It'd be nice to see more of her and Riker. I would like to see more of what happened to Seven between Voyager and Picard, because she's obviously undergone a whole lot of character development off-screen.

I felt it was better than Discovery.

The Expanse

I'm not exaggerating when I say I think The Expanse might be the best piece of television I've ever watched. The Expanse is based on a series of books, so it has the advantage of having a well defined story in advance of being filmed. It does differ slightly from the books, in some ways for the better. The attention to detail is fantastic and unlike anything I've ever seen in a science fiction TV show. The first season is a bit bewildering because there are a lot of things happening in parallel which take time to pay off, but I would definitely advise anyone to stick with it even if they don't feel they're fully understanding it.

If you've watched Babylon 5 and ever since you've felt mildly irritated that TV programs just don't live up to the story telling of B5, then look no further than The Expanse!

Good Omens

The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.

I read the book years ago and I have no real memories of it other than I thought it was amazing. I've read and love most of Terry Pratchett's output, and I've read a small amount of Neil Gaiman's (for whom I have a great deal of admiration, but his work doesn't grab me like Terry Pratchett's did).

The TV program is amazing too. I think it's quite a lot better than the Discworld TV adaptations. Neil Gaiman was heavily involved in its production and he achieved something quite notable in that he managed to translate the charm of the book into the charm of the television screen.

The casting of Crowley and Aziraphale (David Tennant and Michael Sheen respectively) is perfect. The whole program is exceptionally well done and I am elated to see one of Terry Pratchett's creations be translated so wonderfully to TV. If ever they make more TV adaptations of Discworld, I hope Neil Gaiman is involved (which is quite a strange thing to say...).

Belgravia

I'm only on episode 2, so it may improve yet, but so far Belgravia feels like what would happen if you tried to remake Downton Abbey in a way that it wasn't Downton Abbey and also if you took all the charm out of it. It's watchable, but it's not nearly as good as Downton Abbey. Downton somehow made what was often a fairly banal story about people's uneventful lives seem engaging (well, if you ignore the car crash and the rape and the murder conviction and the regicide attempt...), whereas Belgravia jumps straight into the dramatic end without making you interested in the characters.

Also, I have to note that the music is incredibly similar to Downton. And the dialogue could have been written by George Lucas.

I'm not really impressed so far.

Pond life

Sat, 02 May 20 17:36:23 +0000

Phase 1 of Project Pond is complete:

I won't say this was the 'easy' bit, for obvious reasons, but the next stage will be harder. We are going to dig down to a maximum depth of about 50cm, though it'll be staggered and quite shallow around the top.

[...]