991. "Dark Falls" by Gregg Olsen -- 4 Stars

 

Dark Falls by Gregg Olsen  -- 4 Stars

Publisher: Bookouture

ISBN: 9781800193116 

 

The story starts with a grisly murder scene that leads to a history of Detective Megan Carpenter’s past and how it shaped the events in the present. I like a character with rough edges and Megan has plenty of those. The facts of her past are revisited throughout the book and piecing them together is like assembling a puzzle to understand her and the reasons for present events.

We get to know other characters though Megan’s observations and thoughts that are insightful and often humorous.

The story never slows and is enjoyable throughout. This is the first book I have read in the Detective Megan Carpenter series. It works fine as a standalone. I can always count on a novel by Gregg Olsen to be exciting and entertaining with some terror and surprise.

 

Reviewer: Nancy

990. Dish Hopper3 with OTA and Prime Video App Conflicts and failures

 The following was posted on https://www.dbstalk.com/community/index.php?threads/ota-adapter-and-prime-video-conflict.230121/ . I don't expect any reasonable answer to the problems. It is here because it clearly documents the problem and probable solution to fix it. However, I don't see DishNetwork caring about an OTA error or a Prime Video disruption when it can be remedied by a HOPPER 3 RESTART periodically. It does explain why so many users of the Hopper 3 and OTA are having either temporary lockouts to OTA channels, or occasional pixilation issues, or Internet Connectivity errors when trying to start Prime Video on the Hopper 3 box.

I constantly have OTA service issues, e.g., presents error message offering GUIDE or TROUBLESHOOTING buttons. After dozens of occurrences I have debugged the issues to the following and wonder if others are having same issue:

First, I have a new HOPPER 3 with the OTA Adapter attached
Second I also use the Prime Video APP with my Dish Hopper to view the Prime Video programming.

The Issue: OTA and Prime Video do not "play" together nicely on the Hopper 3. After using the Prime Video APP successively, like daily, eventually within 4-5 days the OTA starts to fail getting to an Over-the Air channel and displays the error message which give you a choice the go to GUIDE or to TROUBLESHOOTING.

Debugging and solutions:
1. TROUBLESHOOTING was useless and discovered nothing
2. Going to GUIDE can be done and selecting the same channel usually fails the same way.
3. Going to GUIDE and selecting a different OTA channel sometimes works and sometimes fails the same way
4. Going to GUIDE and selecting a channel other than an OTA one works and then returning to guide and selecting the failed OTA sometimes works and sometimes doesn't
5. The issue increases in frequency the more you use Prime Video
6. A solution that works, with the exception discussed below, is to hit HOME key on the remote appropriately to get to DIAGNOSTICS. From there go to TOOLS, then select RESTART HOPPER 3. This always clears the issue and things are again good until PRIME VIDEO is used again. Then the issue is repeated as described over 4-5 days before another RESET needs to be done. Now the EXCEPTION which is key: When you do the process to get to the RESTART, if you begin with the error message, i.e., the one giving you the choice to GUIDE or TROUBLESHOOTING, the RESTART will be done successfully, BUT, the Hopper 3 REMEMBERS the current state you are in. That is, after the RESTART, if you try to get to OTA channel you won't! The error will persist! So, ALWAYS get off the error message screen BEFORE you do the RESTART!
7. My conclusion is that memory area are being shared between Prime Video and OTA Adapter code. Two coding problem that are suspect is (1) one of the buggers writes over the others memory. OTA has always been the victim that fails; or (2) memory that is commonly used is NOT being released by one or the other and OTA seems to be one that trips into the rabbit hole every time. That does not mean the Prime Video never fails. One symptom of failing could have been one I had this morning where instead of presenting Prime Video an error came up that indicated that Internet Connectivity failed. Well, wrong, no problem was there and next try at Prome Video worked.
8. I forgot to mention that, yes, instead of the error message, GUIDE/TROUBLESHOOTING, the OTA channel does come up but has the other problems noted on this boar where it randomly pixelates a second or two even up to several times before it is steady OR never. Again, RESTART cleans everything up.

So, Having dealt with operating and other software systems for a quarter century, it was very common for a programmer to either fail to clean up used memory [(2 )above] cluttering the shared memory available to other APPs, or the programmer fails to isolate the memory used for an APP [(1) above] and it gets overwritten by the other APP.

Since there is not one sequence that causes the problem, i.e., nothing repeatable, DISH cannot discover the memory conflicts WITHOUT a DUMP of memory. I invite DISH to contact me here to set up a procedure where I can get a memory dump at the time it is in failure state. Without it, the problem will continue and we users will be forced to work around the issue by doing RESTARTS.

May I add that many OTA issues that cause pixilation or channel lockout as described may happen WITHOUT Prime Video. Prime Video definitely increases to problem frequency. My VIP722 NEVER had an OTA issue, and switching to TV mode instead of Dish Satellite mode also caused NO issues

Can anyone with Prime Video please confirm or not confirm what I discussed above. Thank you.

989. XBOX Game Bar can't open keeps popping up

I do NOT use XBOX and do NOT want XBOX, yet despite what I do an error message occasionally, meaning constantly every so often, saying the Game Bar can't open. Well, I want to end it PERMANENTLY. Don't know if there is a way, but I did find this article that provided UNINSTALL instructions (not a normally installed APP) using POWERSHELL. From   https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/game/remove-xbox-app-windows-10-3682948/#:~:text=How%20to%20uninstall%20the%20Xbox%20app%20in%20Windows,press%20the%20Enter%20key%20to%20exit%20PowerShell.%20 , simply do the following:

1. Open the Windows 10 Search Bar, and type in PowerShell.
2. Right-click the PowerShell app and click “Run as administrator”.
3. Type the following command and press the Enter key:
4. Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.XboxApp | Remove-AppxPackage
5. Wait until the process is finished. It should only take a few seconds to run.
6. Type exit and press the Enter key to exit PowerShell.

I thank Lewis Painter, Senior Staff Writer whose article the above is on the Tech Advisor site. Worth the read.

988. MSFT EDGE just got Scrapped - Can't open PDF files

 Just when you are happy with the EDGE browser, MSFT updates it and screws up your access to already saved PDF files! Couldn't open a single one of them and I have hundreds! EDGE was my default for .PDF files. So, instead, I CAN click-right and OPEN WITH Chrome or anything else. That proves a catastrophic blunder in the EDGE update they slapped on my system the other day! Can't live with that sloppiness.

I then needed to figure out how to copy my favorites from EDGE to CHROME. Well, that isn't straight forward and I had to hunt for where I could EXPORT them in html format. Instead of detailing all the trouble, here is how:

In EDGE, on top right look for ..., click on it and then Manage Favorites. You will now see another ... in that window. Click it and select EXPORT FAVORITES. I save to my desktop bookmarks to later IMPORT to Chrome.

Now, what do you do in CHROME? If you just IMPORT you get a separate folder called "IMPORTED" with the new favorites from Edge. If you are like me who used Chrome before and then exported to EDGE, you already have most of them present under Bookmarks and Other Bookmarks. What I am telling you is to avoid duplicates of what you already have and to get a CLEAN set of bookmarks from EDGE, you have to delete all the existing bookmarks. Of course, If you are starting with a NEW chrome install (not reinstall) I believe it will ask you if you want to get bookmarks from another browser. This is MUCH cleaner. In this case, UNINSTALL the current Chrome and download a new one and install, following the instructions.

Anyway, I had one with all my customizations (extensions, Auto Fills, etc.), so I did the hard way and ended up with the IMPORTED folder with EDGE (the most current bookmarks that I wanted) AND the then current Chrome bookmarks from the last time I used it. So, I had to delete them by opening the Bookmark Manager in Chrome, and in the right panel select (left-click) the first to delete and scroll to end and do a Ctrl-Left-Click on the last to delete. This will highlight all entries to be deleted. To now delete them, press the Delete Key. You are now left with the Imported Folder. But you want the bookmarks in the Bookmark Bar. So you do a similar process where you select Imported Folder and its Favorites Bar and in right panel once again do the Select (Left-click) of the first to copy to the Chrome Bookmarks Bar, scroll down to the last and do a Ctrl-Click-left. Now Right-click within the highlighted area and do a COPY from the context pop up menu. They are no in your clipboard. Go to the Bookmark Bar on left panel and PASTE them there.

Once you verified you have everything, delete the Imported Folder and you are in business.

987. "The Haunted Wind" by Ross Griffin -- 4 Stars

 

The Haunted Wind by Ross Griffin  4 Stars

Publisher: BooksGoSocial

ISBN: 9781913545505

The Haunted Wind begins with an attention-grabbing prologue, moves on to strange events in the Brazilian rainforest, and then, finally, to the Burren in Ireland. At the start, switching in action between events in Brazil and in Ed’s life were somewhat disconnected. However, when Ed, an archeology graduate, Neha, an indigenous tribesman, and Maria, a Brazilian anthropologist all end up in the Burren, the previous events are explained. It is a spooky and entertaining story with interesting characters and plenty of action. There are elements I have encountered in other horror stories, but many that are uniquely original.

I searched the Burren online. The pictures are amazing. It’s a place filled with history, legend and rare landscape, the perfect setting for supernatural events.

This was an eerie and entertaining tale. I thank NetGalley for alerting me to this book and author. I am looking forward to other novels as Ross Griffin’s career progresses.

 Reviewer: Nancy