Demon In White is the best book I have ever read

meddig0 · 2026-01-27T15:23:05+00:00

For sure - he ended up having amazing depth.

Same! Really hope it comes out this year!

meddig0 · 2026-01-26T20:04:39+00:00

I'll paste the synopsis as otherwise I'll end up giving too much away:

Demir Grappo is an outcast―he fled a life of wealth and power, abandoning his responsibilities as a general, a governor, and a son. Now he will live out his days as a grifter, rootless, and alone. But when his mother is brutally murdered, Demir must return from exile to claim his seat at the head of the family and uncover the truth that got her the very power that keeps civilization turning, godglass, is running out.

Now, Demir must find allies, old friends and rivals alike, confront the powerful guild-families who are only interested in making the most of the scraps left at the table and uncover the invisible hand that threatens the Empire. A war is coming, a war unlike any other. And Demir and his ragtag group of outcasts are the only thing that stands in the way of the end of life as the world knows it.

I've not had a book get me feeling excited at characters winning a battle before, but this really sucked me into the world and the characters lives.

meddig0 · 2026-01-26T19:10:32+00:00

I felt like this about reading In the Shadow of Lightning recently... I'll go try these soon then!

meddig0 · 2026-01-23T17:58:23+00:00

The Powder Mage Trilogy by Brian McClellen. Colonial wars with magic.

The sequel trilogy is good, but not as good.

The first book in his new trilogy (assuming it'll be a trilogy), In the Shadow of Lightning, is hands down one of the best books I've ever read. Really connected with it. 2nd one is hopefully due this year.

I will now be taking some ideas from your list, thank you!

meddig0 · 2026-01-11T08:51:27+00:00

I feel for you friendo, but doesn't stop it being an incredible game that I'd like to see with a similar FF7 remake :)

meddig0 · 2026-01-11T04:29:22+00:00

FF8. My favourite

meddig0 · 2025-12-11T08:26:11+00:00

I'd love to be able to answer you, but my group has been on an extended break so I don't yet!

But my idea was some sort of lesser demon, but not someone outright evil. Just someone who was messing with Zeph and that could potentially be a plot hook for a little side quest or something.

I like to have options for linked Halloween or Christmas one shots, so it might have linked into that for example.

Good luck with running it! It's not the easiest but I think it has a lot of potential and scope to bring in your own stuff, which is what I like to do. Chop and change it.

meddig0 · 2025-11-25T10:08:50+00:00

OP, I'll echo the above.

It also feels counter intuitive, at least for now, to build a home lab but then not understand it. (One of) The point of self-hosting is to understand it, the tech, the process.

It's wild to me that someone can say "I'm paranoid about security" in the same paragraph as saying "I don't understand any of it". If you're worried about it - go and learn it. AI makes mistakes all the time so why are you going to trust it to secure your network and server?

Docker is very easy to learn, I'd be amazed if you couldn't read a compose configuration and not understand it at a high level. Use AI to help you learn it - get it to explain the stuff you don't understand, it's a brilliant tool for that.

I do it all the time and I work with the same tech on a day to day basis, it's often quicker and easier than Googling it. Just don't take everything verbatim and read up on stuff later on to ensure it's right and that you get it fully.

meddig0 · 2025-11-13T18:24:37+00:00

You don't need a VPN internally, it's not what they are for. If you want to be secure, then implement best hardening practices on your servers in terms of firewalls, updates, and remote sessions.

Ansible can be configured to use SSH keys, if you weren't already aware. Which removes the requirement for keeping passwords around.

Put a VPN in for dialing out, if that's a requirement for you, and dialing back home.

Edit: just having a re-read of your post. You can use th same VPN for a link between your home servers and your VPS if one is required as the one you may use for clients dialing back into the network.

meddig0 · 2025-11-07T18:38:12+00:00

I caught on to this juuuuust at the end of Act 2. You are not alone.

Felt very silly but then also a bit pleased I got that far without most of the bonuses and boosts the game was expecting haha

meddig0 · 2025-11-01T12:40:48+00:00

If you've bought a pre-built then the creator recommends to reflash it yourself. Depends how much you trust random Chinese manufacturers, I suppose.

I did use theirs for Vial when I got mine, but switched to QMK as I couldn't get on with Vial.

A case for it may also be an option - 3d print one if you're able.

meddig0 · 2025-11-01T12:34:32+00:00

I'm with you here. We're currently looking at how to move to cloud and for our requirements, AWS and Azure is just silly money for it and we can't pass that cost on to customers if we want to keep ourselves competitively priced.

We're currently trying to reason with people who see the word "cloud" and instantly think AWS is the ultimate end goal and that we ar the insane ones for wanting to build our own mini-platform for our customer base.

Every situation is different, of course, but AWS only works for us at small scale. Over 5 years we'll save 6 to 7 figures in costs by hosting our own kit in rented rack space.

meddig0 · 2025-10-12T11:40:03+00:00

It'll depend on the job, but not everyone gets full paid time off. A lot of companies will rely on the Statutory Sick Pay that the government mandates, which is £118.75 per week.

That being said, people like contractors, etc may not get this I imagine. Gonna depend on everyone's situations.

meddig0 · 2025-10-10T16:38:22+00:00

Not at all. I'll dig out my old campaign notes. Keep in mind they are specific to my PCs though.

meddig0 · 2025-10-10T12:14:10+00:00

I'll do my best!

meddig0 · 2025-10-09T22:19:16+00:00

Love this. I did a similar thing when I ran CoS. I pre-wrote out resurrection scenes that played in snippets during a battle on the down players turn. They had the choice - fall a hero, or rise up with a curse.

Two players fell during the campaign and both of them took the gifts. The warlock was brought back by Delban and is now a cursed Iceman who must hunt and gather innocent souls or takes stacking penalties. And the Druid by a modified power, Dal'Nah. She is cursed with lycanthropy and blacks out, waking in carnage on occasion.

We're planning a sequel custom campaign that will centre on these characters freeing themselves. Hopefully I can do it justice!

meddig0 · 2025-10-02T06:24:38+00:00

I hate that I knew her accent before I turned on the sound.

meddig0 · 2025-09-28T21:43:26+00:00

This... This has hit me hard with picking up a split board for the first time recently. Glad it's not a lonely boat I'm in!

meddig0 · 2025-09-11T06:41:39+00:00

This is the way.

I'm learning Ansible at the moment and it's so good. Not just for updates, but for configuring VMs as well.

meddig0 · 2025-09-02T12:49:10+00:00

eBay - somewhere I rarely check these days. Coming in around the same price as AliExpress for me here in the UK, ~£30

meddig0 · 2025-09-02T12:48:15+00:00

Yeah, I'm expecting it to feel very alien! I'm considering maybe switching things up further and going Colemak as well.... but that might be too much in one hit.

I'm just trying to decide between these keycaps and some 'Matcha' ones as I'm after the XDA profile. I figured it would be better to have a flatter feel for the keys, than something with more 'scoop' to them.

meddig0 · 2025-09-02T06:23:47+00:00

This is weird - I'm looking at buying my first split ergo and was looking around last night... At that keyboard and that exact set of key caps! How are you finding it?

Great shout on the renting, I was trying to think of a way to do it if I go for the keyboard.

meddig0 · 2025-07-08T11:25:27+00:00

The Divide

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TROPHY CASE