Communications – Page 2 – Fooyah

March 2 2025

Hosting and Website

For the last couple of years I have hosted this website on my own device in my house. I reached a point where I was trying to install a security certificate and facing a web of settings that I just didn’t understand. I decided to look for a new host for this site. It’s not easy moving a website and I had to build up to the process. I’ve done it a few times and there are always things that go wrong.

I founda company with which I could host and created an account. Then I backed up my current site. I used a plugin to save the backup data or at least the database and plugin settings. Following this I reinstated the website using that plugin. I will admit that the whole process went smoothly. The only thing that took most time was uploading the images that I don’t save as a backup but regularly download and copy using FTP.

This site is now much faster than when hosted within my actual home. The interface with the hosting company is pretty good and I have no complaints so far. Welcome.

February 26 2025

Recent Racing

I am currently trying to complete a few games, or at least play them more. I got Astrobot recently and it is exactly my kind of game. It’s a 3D platformer with some easy and some difficult levels. I really enjoy it, it’s like Ratchet and Clank but without the guns. I’ve also been messing around in Gran Turismo a little more recently. They have added weekly challenges to the game and so it’s a good sense of achievement to log in and complete those. I am also working my way through the licence tests and challenges bit by bit. I want to complete the Cafe Menus and that means getting credits to buy some serious cars.

I have found a useful method for gaining credits to be the time challenges they now have in the game that change every few weeks. I spend about twenty minutes driving and I can normally get a Silver time but definitely a Bronze time within the game. I recently completed some laps of the Nurburgring GP circuit in some electric car and got a pretty good result for a worldwide competition.

Another method for gaining credits which is remarkably innefficient is to complete the daily driving distance – one marathon – and then hope fo rthe best in the lucky dip reward. As much as this feels like a loot box it isn’t a loot box because you aren’t paying real money for the rewards. It’s cheeky but it’s not as immoral as some loot boxes in other games. Every now and then you do get 1,000,000 credits in the circle of doom.

This amount of credits might seem useful but when some cars are valued at 20,000,000 you know there’s a long way to go.

February 21 2025February 20 2025

Gran Turismo HUD

As much as I really enjoy Gran Turismo and play the game quite a lot there hasn’t been much on here about it from me. I’m still heading through the game and aiming to complete it, if that is possible. I’m currently stuck on one of the license tests where I have completed the course within 0.05 seconds of the gold target time but haven’t quite made it through that barrier.

I have upgraded to the G390 wheel which supposedly has “true feel” or something like that. All I know is that there is more feedback through the wheel and you can “feel” the limits of the grip a little more and also notice when you might be burning through the tires with late braking and excessive cornering.

Somehow I stumbled across a telemetry display that fits to all types of steering wheel. I thought about it and then ordered one along with a new spring for the brake on the G390 pedals and the current spring is waaaay too tough. The new spring has a progressive feel to it and “feels” better.

The telemetry unit was easy to set up and instantly did a firmware update. You use the browser on your phone to enter your wifi settings and the little box does all the rest. It connects to the PS5 output over wifi via UDP. It would be nice if the PS5 output more details that can be read by the little box, but I’m very happy with the results. The rev LEDs are really useful and give good feedback to my peripharal vision.

In this image you can see the current gear (3), tyre temperatures, revs (8552), fastest lap time (2:10:496), lap counter and speed. The digits on the right don’t currently change with the game.

February 20 2025February 20 2025

My First Mesh

My house is too small to require a mesh wifi system. The router works pretty well when there are four rooms and they are two up, two down. There are a couple of areas of weak signal, especially when using 5G because there are brick walls in the way. A quick swap to 2.4G and it’s sorted though. The 5G signal has a higher bandwidth but the higher frequency doesn’t penentrate solid substances as well as the 2.4G signal.

I have installed a mesh at another house. It was a mostly harmless process. The TP-Link Deco system connects to the internet modem with an ethernet cable and then it all works! I did have to log in to the modem/router and tell it to turn off the wifi that it produces. Then everything is connected via the Deco unit. There are two mesh wifi transmitters and also a LAN going to a simple switch that connects the entertainment stuff up to the internet.

There is a gaming console connected to part of the extension of the mesh and even thgough there is a double wifi lan connection to the internet there haven’t been any complaints about latency. I am impressed.

February 19 2025

AstroBot

OK. This is an excellent game and I really enjoying. I’m hoping to complete it sometime during the Easter break as once this week is over my time for gaming returns to practically zero.

There’s a photomode in the game which I keep forgetting about unless there is a photo point like the one above. The whoe game is pretty amazing and excellent fun. It’s pretty much my level of stuff. The feedback on the controller is really impressive and the game uses the device to its fullest.

Oh, and everything looks gorgeous.

January 5 2025January 4 2025

Views Of Flight

I’ve been trying to fly in X-Plane a bit recently. I need to do more I guess. There’s a plugin called Volanta by Orbx which I’m using to track my flights and it has some challenges it can add to the simulator so that gives me things I can aim for. I recently took a dawn flight from Biggin Hill to Le Touquet and I flew under the QE2 bridge and alongside my village. In the second picture here you can see the village where I live, if you know what you are looking for.

January 4 2025

It’s A Hard Knock Brick Life

Fortnite – the game [although I’m not sure what else you might think it is] – has now become a platform for loads of games. They have teamed up with Lego and now have a few official Lego based games in the Fortnite family. One of these is Brick Life and the other I enjoy is called Odyssey.

Lego Brick Life is game where you run around a little seaside town doing jobs, making money, and build your dream house and decorate it. IT’s an escape from real life where everything looks lovely. It reminds me of Playstation Home from about ten years ago. Brick World is a good place to spend some time enjoying yourself.

Fortnite Lego Brick Life - Chess Board — Fortnite Lego Brick Life – Chess Board

Just look at the view in this picture, the sea, the stars, the sand, the city.

Fortnite Lego Brick Life - Beach Views — Fortnite Lego Brick Life – Beach Views

Now, the following picture is not from Brick Life but I think it captures the thought and playfulness that has gone into creating the Lego games. Isn’t it pretty:

Fortnite Lego Odyssey - Aurora — Fortnite Lego Odyssey – Aurora

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