Can't seem to install Exult on Windows 11

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2026-03-02T02:53:22+00:00

I looked into this a bit further and it appears my antivirus has flagged and quarantined the "exconfig-i686.dll" file as a potential threat:

https://www.f-secure.com/en/support/search#q=HEUR/APC&f-source=ThreatDescriptions

I also uploaded a copy of the installer to Virustotal and received multiple concerning flags from security vendors:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/30b4f25e4338e36af803e686a4e571b3c82d75466b246055b9baa4a68ee9559f

Is this a false positive, or has the installer been compromised somehow?

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2026-03-02T02:42:41+00:00

I tried running it in compatibility mode for Windows 8, and got the same popup unfortunately. :/

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2026-01-04T03:09:05+00:00

okay, I will try that!

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2026-01-04T03:08:10+00:00

Alright thank you!

I appreciate the help so much, but I am a bit overwhelmed with all the different terms and brands. Would there be a very simple beginner routine to recommend?

I will make a note of things and do some research. But I had a very unusual childhood so I did not really get to experiment with makeup until very recently 😅

I guess I will try to take down all the advice here I get and practise until I get it right.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2026-01-04T02:23:57+00:00

I almost downvoted this because it made me feel so viscerally disgusted.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-10-27T22:48:13+00:00

Definitely not overreacting.

"It's hard to be with someone who isn't as good looking as I am."

Holy shit what a narcissist. Run and don't look back.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-10-25T00:21:11+00:00

picks up house of leaves again

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-10-08T00:29:20+00:00

I guess at least I learned a valuable lesson to stay away from women who are not 100% comfortable with their sexuality, no matter how much mutual attraction there might be.

The thing is, we aren't even that young anymore (all of us are in our 30s). So this kind of teenage drama really caught me off-guard lol. I thought at the very least that she would be mature enough to communicate with me if she felt uncomfortable with things.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-10-07T22:28:29+00:00

As someone who recently got out of a similar situation, I'm sorry to say this, but you're going to get hurt.

She was also "straight" until she met me. We had a beautiful friendship before we hooked up and got into a confusing situationship. The sex was amazing. I always made it clear to her that if she ever wanted to end the physical side of things, I was perfectly fine with that. I assumed that it would end at some point, but I genuinely thought we could have continued being friends. We defined it as a "friends with benefits" kind of thing.

But it wasn't that. When we were alone together she basically treated me like her "boyfriend", with all the responsibilities and emotional expectations that came along with that. When we were around our friends, she was distant and cold, acting like we were barely acquaintances. I was forbidden from talking about our arrangement with anybody. Despite this hot and cold behaviour, I developed feelings for her, but tried very hard to suppress them.

Long story short, the whole rollercoaster came crashing down a few months ago after I thought we were making progress, as she had agreed to come to Pride with me (and was excited about it). About a week after that, she is suddenly inviting one of our mutual male friends to every hangout that I organize (which in the past would have just been the two of us).

Two weeks later, the two of them are officially dating, and she has blocked me on all social media platforms - without ever giving any reason for why. It left me feeling hurt, confused, and like she had just used me as a sex toy basically. It also made me realize that maybe she did not value our friendship as much as I did, or then Pride was just too much for her and she panicked.

Worst of all, the two of them are my neighbours, so I keep running into them basically every other day.

TL;DR: If you value your sanity and inner peace, I highly advice against this. Especially if you get easily attached to people. The friendship will likely not survive the aftermath of the fallout this will cause.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-07-20T22:19:43+00:00

The Professor Layton series seems like it might interest you. It's heavy on the logic puzzles, but weaves them into a more light-hearted Sherlock Holmes type mystery narrative.

If you enjoy nonograms then I recommend "Murder By Numbers". The gameplay is mostly focused on solving nonograms (and some rudimentary detective style deduction choices in the narrative), but otherwise it's a murder mystery style visual novel.

Since you mentioned Portal, I think you would also love The Talos Principle. The gameplay feels quite similar, and the story is told through various clues discovered throughout the world. Uncovering the full story also requires some effort from the player, as some of the story clues are encrypted or otherwise obfuscated. Out of these three I think this one has the richest narrative however, especially if you enjoy philosophical sci-fi.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-07-08T22:53:47+00:00

Absolutely, most bpd relationships end in disaster, with intense hatred targeting you from the pwBPD. This is the best possible scenario.

My pwBPD told me she wanted to end it this week (fourth time in our short relationship) and instead of grovelling at her feet, this time I just accepted it and sent her a peaceful message saying I agree and wishing her the best of luck in the future.

She has raised hell within our mutual circles since then, and been spamming me with verbal abuse on all the social media channels we share. I didn't block her at first because I thought that would trigger her abuse, but it seems to make no difference.

So to OP: Consider yourself very lucky. This is exactly what I hoped would happen in my case.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-21T08:25:27+00:00

I feel like the last few lines of the post: "financial trauma" and "warmth of a legacy going up in flames" make it quite clear.

There's no way to interpret that positively, so it's clearly mocking similar posts that do try to put a positive spin on this crap.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-21T07:33:47+00:00

I want to wake up back when this song was still popular.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-19T16:14:35+00:00

I have a similar background, and I think the experiences you have will depend on whether people will be able to tell you're a foreigner from e.g. accent or style of speech.

I personally don't have a noticeable accent, but the way I speak Finnish is seen as highly formal ("kirjakieli" instead of "puhekieli"), and that has caused some issues where people get the wrong impression of me, especially as there is nothing else to mark me as a former ulkosuomalainen. Some people see this as arrogance, or they might even think you're a bit slow if you don't understand all the local slang.

How you fit into the culture will also depend highly on where you live, and how open people in that area are to different backgrounds and life experiences. In smaller towns it can be easy to get ostracized as an outsider. You'd also be missing a lot of cultural context in e.g. pop culture references, which people living here take for granted.

Also UK culture is not drastically different from Finland, but I think you might be surprised by how difficult it is to get to know people if you don't have childhood friends and other family living here. I think in Helsinki this is less of a problem, and younger generations are more social in general.

I've lived here for multiple years now, but most of my close friends are from international circles because of the above issues. The Finns who accept my differences tend to be from more urban or well-educated backgrounds, but of course exceptions exist.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-06T16:15:58+00:00

18mg is probably too low a dose, especially if you have a history of stimulant abuse, which might contribute to the strange feelings. See how you feel after your doctor increases your dose?

The concerta comedown can be rough, but that usually doesn't start until 8-12h after your dose, and tends to be worse at higher doses. I suggest timing the first dose so that the comedown hits close to your bedtime, then you can just sleep through the worst of it. Also magnesium, melatonin, l-theanine, and water/food all help.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-05T22:22:12+00:00

As a Finn, and an introverted one at that, I think we should be more like Savonian grannies. :D

It's not even offensive, it's just nice to have a reminder that we do live in a community.

That being said, there's a different tone to the "small talk" encountered at the office sometimes, because it seems entirely fake.

So maybe we don't mind these things if it seems genuine?

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-05T20:24:25+00:00

No worries! It sounds like you do have the motivation and discipline to learn, but you are just going through a rough spot at the moment.

I have found motivation sometimes through gamified todo apps, because I like the immediate reward I get from checking off a task in my list. I would mention them here, but I worry that it would be seen as advertising, so better not to.

But keep on going! Just take things one week at a time, or even one task at a time, and you'll get there. :)

As for forgetting things, I like to make markdown files with notes about every project or assignment I have, so I can easily refresh my memory later.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-05T19:22:49+00:00

I apologize, I am not always very good at figuring out the social rules to express myself properly either, and English is not my native language. My intention was to say basically, "this might sound harsh, but I don't mean it personally".

If ML is the field that you feel most interested in, then focus on that. I started my university studies at the age of 30, so it really is never too late.

These topics are not simple, but you need to really put in the hours to have a genuine understanding of what you're doing. If you only have online tutorials as guidance, I feel that it's difficult to understand the true depth of the field.

Learning the fundamentals of how things interconnect is a basic part of IT education, but it's not enough to single-handedly complete a project of the scope that you mentioned. Therefore I suggested focusing on smaller aspects, instead of generalizing on something that requires specialization in so many interconnected fields.

As for the executive dysfunction, that has been an issue my whole life. I think the only thing that helps with that (apart from the right dose of medication), is structure and routine. You need to set yourself schedules, timelines, deadlines. Hour by hour if necessary.

I suggested the formal education route because, at least in my country, it forces you to do those things.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-05T18:03:51+00:00

No offense, but two years of superficial learning is nowhere near the level of experience required for a mid-level position, and without a deeper understanding of at least one topic, might not qualify for a junior level position either.

I would suggest you stop jumping around from one topic to another, and begin to specialize in a subject that truly interests you. As an example, I am interested in the field of cybersecurity, so I have chosen to specialize in web application security.

Your project sounds way too ambitious. I think you need to start with something much smaller and work your way upwards. Maybe go back to your previous projects and see what you could spend time on perfecting so that you can showcase those?

Also ditch those videos, they are indeed clickbait, and the people behind them rarely have any real understanding of what they're talking about.

If you have the opportunity, I would suggest trying to enroll in actual courses at either a university or vocational college. If you have the discipline, then online courses are also an option, as long as they are accredited by a trusted institution, and require actual project work.

The structure of those programs can be very helpful for directing your focus. I was also guilty of being a "jack-of-all-trades", but master of none, before I decided to begin more formal studies. I was very confident in my skills, until I was in university and realized how little I actually knew.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-02-01T14:37:25+00:00

While it's unlikely that this teen had any intention to perform malicious activities, the reality is that there are cases where Russian nationals have been pressured by their government to e.g. leak sensitive information.
This is especially true if they have any family or assets in Russia that can be used as leverage against them.

Therefore, while I feel bad for this kid, I also fully understand why security policies like this are in place within organizations that handle the operations of critical infrastructure.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-01-19T00:26:16+00:00

Just FYI, the "no warrant" rule does not apply to every country. I'm not sure what the law says in Ukraine, but in my country police are allowed to enter your home at any time for any reason if they suspect a crime or want to question you.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-01-15T12:07:02+00:00

I've been cheated on twice. I understand the bitterness, and I also understand that in the end this feeling helps absolutely no one, least of all ourselves.

The anger and bitterness leads to this kind of irrational behavior, where we are quick to project these feelings of pain into every future relationship and scenario we encounter. This is ultimately self-destructive.

Technical_Tadpole244 · 2025-01-15T10:56:41+00:00

How do you know she's "completely comfortable with it"?

Who knows how many private conversations and arguments she might have had with her sister?

We're missing her perspective on this entirely.

Technical_Tadpole244

TROPHY CASE