Boardgames and Fantasy RPG in Lancaster

"Interstellar Master Traders" is a shop run by a really unique character (wise, long beard, a bit like a wizard) and offers a very comprehensive collection of boardgames, fantasy literature as well as role-playing systems and equipment. On top of that, (and most amazingly) he has played / read nearly any single game/book that he stocks and (on demand) gives very detailed and competent shopping advise. None of his recommendation failed me once (ideal if you don't exactly know what book / game to go for, if you give him an entry point, he will give you several options).

Personally, I can recommend his large selection of international board-games. He even stocks English versions of some very popular German boardgames, such as "Settlers of Catan" and "Carcassonne" (which I can really recommend, both for friends & family). The selection ranges from very simple but entertaining card games up to very complicated strategy board games. Prices are really fair and as mentioned, the owner's support is outstanding.

Links: Shop's Website | Google Maps



Please also note: that the shop has a temporary shop-front and that you enter at your own risk (should be repaired by the 10th of December):



Update: Everything is back to normal now!

Video "Shake Well before Use!"

European Qosmio HD Component Out

I can now confirm that my European Qosmio G30 (which normally ships with the "D-Terminal to Scart" adapter) can output HD via a component. However, the "D-Terminal to Component" adaptor is not available in Europe but has to be ordered from the US. To get it, I called Toshiba and they referred me to their supplier for spare parts (who ships to Europe). The actual product I had to order is:

• "D TO 3-RCA CABLE: Quosmio G15-AV501" (the "u" in Quosmio is also in the invoice ;)

Toshiba assigns different codes for their Quosmio models in the US, however, the G15 would not directly be the equivalent of my European G30, I believe. However, I think the cable would work with all Toshiba products, which have a D-Terminal (I *think* so, but don't quote me on it!) and which graphics card can do HD in its driver settings.
Consequently, contrary to several forum posts, Toshiba has not "butchered" the D-Terminal, and no hardware modification is necessary on the European Qosmios to output HD. You just need the magic cable, which is admittedly hard to get in Europe.

SSL 3.0 "Seite kann nicht angezeigt werden"

Ich hatte das Problem, dass ein bestimmter Rechner innerhalb meines Rechners keine SSL 3.0 Seiten anzeigen konnte. IE zeigt "Seite kann nicht angezeigt werden" an, Firefox "Ungueltiger Nachrichten-Authentifizierungsheader empfangen". Nach langen rumprobieren habe ich das Problem gefunden: Der besagte Rechner war in meinem Router als DMZ eingetragen. Irgendwie hat das dann dazu gefuehrt dass SSL 3.0 nicht mehr geht. Wenn irgendjemand eine technische Erklaerung dafuer hat, bitte bei mir melden!

SSL 3.0 "Page cannot be displayed"

Yesterday I solved a weird problem where one of the machines in my network couldn't display any SSL 3.0 encrypted pages. IE would tell me "Page cannot be displayed", Firefox would pop up a window saying something like "Received invalid message header". I found the reason for this very surprising: in my router the DMZ was stet to the machines IP address and that somehow kept SSL 3.0 from working properly on that machine. If anyone can give me a technical explanation for this I would be very happy.

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Hi, thanks everyone for stopping by. I use this blog as my sketch-pad so typos will be frequent and posts will be random. Some structured information will be available through the navigation.