Blogs on saoe: The Nifty Oddity

Mini-Reviews #57

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-10-27.

C++ Diagnostics and Debugging Utilities

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 09:50:05 +0100

Some tools and techniques for detecting, reporting and investigating errors and unexpected behavior in C++ code.

How to set up GCC on Windows

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 21:58:58 +0100

Here’s a short tutorial on how to set up the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) on Microsoft Windows via MSYS2 (Minimal SYStem 2).

Mini-Reviews #56

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-08-05.

Journal #18

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Konnichiwa!

Notes on Pico-8

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After reading and hearing quite a bit about Pico-8 in the last weeks¹, I dipped my toes into these waters one weekend (2025-10-18/19) and made a few notes about it…

Powershell: Working with XML

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 19:33:58 +0100

A few tips and tricks for handling XML data with Powershell.

Powershell: Console Colors

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 17:46:34 +0200

A brief reminder for the topic of Console Colors and Powershell.

Mini-Reviews #55

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-05-20.

I realized that, due to life circumstances, I don’t (want to) watch a lot of stuff at the moment…

Mini-Reviews #54

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2025-02-16.

How to set up a SSH key pair with PuTTY on Windows

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When these steps are done, you’ll only need to enter the passphrase of the SSH key(s) once when Windows boots, instead of each time Git wants to communicate with the remote repository.

On Software: API Design

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 16:33:23 +0200

I recently had the inspiration of writing a new post about my current thoughts on how to design/make a good Application Programming Interface (API), for functions/methods, classes, programs/scripts, and other things that offer such an interface.

On Software: Open Source Licenses

Sun, 22 Jun 2025 12:42:46 +0200

I mostly prefer permissive open source licenses that allow a lot but don’t restrict (or demand) much.
But this may also change, depending on specific projects and/or use cases…

Building SDL 3

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 20:18:07 +0200

The Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) recently released its version 3 (not as 3.0, and not as 3.1, but as 3.2, for some reason).

Building wxWidgets

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 20:18:07 +0200

A short guide on how to build wxWidgets (the cross-platform GUI toolkit) from source (the recommended way), on Windows, by using CMake and Visual Studio.

Mini-Reviews #53

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 17:33:55 +0200

Short opinion pieces about films and TV shows that I’ve watched since 2024-12-08.

How to use CMake

Fri, 30 May 2025 17:45:28 +0200

This is just a reminder for some syntax/parameter details on how to invoke CMake (i.e. the actual cmake program), mainly from the CLI, to configure/generate/build a project – it’s not a tutorial on how to write a CMakeLists.txt file!

Doxygen Cheatsheet

Tue, 13 May 2025 14:55:12 +0200

This is my personal Doxygen cheatsheet: Its initial (and primary) purpose is to be a compact help on this topic for myself.

It’s not meant as a general introduction or comprehensive reference for this tool, but it is meant to be a small knowledge base or collection of basics & “gotchas”, often-used commands, snippets, tips, and instructions on how to do certain tasks.

Mozilla Firefox: Tips on usage

Mon, 12 May 2025 17:45:13 +0200

These tips for using Mozilla Firefox were originally spread over multiple blog posts, but they are rather short and also pretty old (so maybe not valid anymore), that’s why I now collected them all on this single page…

Calling a Lua/C++ function from C++/Lua code

Sat, 03 May 2025 19:40:00 +0200

(Part 3 of my little series on “Lua”)

Another post in my series on how to use C++ with Lua; this time it’s about calling a function of one language from code of the other language.

Mini-Reviews #52

Thu, 01 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-reviews of films and TV shows that I’ve watched (since 2024-10-11).

A C++ program that calls a Lua script

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:27:18 +0200

(Part 2 of my little series on “Lua”)

Alright, so after preparing Lua, here are a few small first step on how to make use of this language within a C++ context.

Building Lua (on Windows, with Visual Studio)

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 21:01:40 +0200

(Part 1 of my little series on “Lua”)

Although one can get pre-built binaries of the Lua (programming language) interpreter, to me that seems to be just a semi-offical or lackluster way.
But luckily, building it yourself from source is very easy (especially with the help of this post from Dennis D. Spreen).

Mini-Reviews #51

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-reviews of films and TV shows that I’ve watched during the past months (I began with this list on 2024-07-13).

Mini-Reviews #50

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Another posting with mini-reviews during the past months (for orientation: I began this list on 2024-04-28).

On Software: Documentation

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 14:38:10 +0100

Some background: I am indeed interested in writing documentation, for myself and for others.

The initial trigger is usually to note it down for my future self, and/or for helping me to understand a topic better; if it’s also useful for others: great.

Powershell: Dynamic Parameters

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is an extension to my notes on parameters for scripts or (advanced) functions in Powershell:
Dynamic (or conditional) parameters are an interesting and cool feature, but also a bit tricky and cumbersome to set up.

Mini-Reviews #49

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Lots of rewatches, mostly of quite old films; and even a few first-views, also of older films…
Seems like the current movies don’t really appeal to me much. I mean, even the recently and newly made films are often very generic, bland and too long…

Journal #17

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Konnichiwa!

I began writing this issue on 2024-03-10; so I guess now, around three months later, it’s as good of a time as any other to finally release it.

Powershell: Working with JSON

Thu, 09 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A few tips and tricks for handling JSON data with Powershell.

Mini-Reviews #48

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’m (re)watching many more older films than in the months before, it seems.

Mini-Reviews #47

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Time for another overview of what I’ve watched over the last couple of months…

Journal #16

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Konnichiwa!

Powershell: Working with the Windows Registry

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Here are some tips and trick on how to work on the Windows Registry with Powershell.

Mini-Reviews #46

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Lots of re-watches this time of films that I’ve seen before.
One reason might be that I need to remind myself of better times.
On the other hand: Many also get an [below] average grading, so not everything was better in the past 😉

Mini-Reviews #45

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

And here is, after a long while and with quite a delay, a new overview.
(The drafts for #46 and #47 are already in the works, so hopefully it won’t take forever…)

Journal #15

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Konnichiwa,

so, what have I been up to, development-wise, in the last couple of months, since the last DevLog?
Not nothing, but also not nearly as much as I wished and hoped for.

Mini-Reviews #44

Sun, 03 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Looking at my star rating alone, it seems to be a mostly average/sub-average selection this time; therefore I was all the more happy about the few highlights which I still could find in the heap.

On Software: Logging

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Quite a while ago, I was thinking about settling on a steady logging convention, after always having slightly varying versions in my different projects.

Mini-Reviews #43

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Quite a few 1-star reviews this time; seems to be a dead season…

Mini-Reviews #42

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Catching-up on the notable things that I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks.

Powershell: Using Write-Information

Sun, 16 Jul 2023 15:07:36 +0200

This started out as a short entry for my Powershell Snippets page, but it quickly turned out that this cmdlet needs a longer text for explaining proper handling…

Powershell: Select Choice

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The need to prompt a user for a choice in a text menu (i.e. in the console), and a slight dissatisfaction with the commonly recommended $Host.ui.PromptForChoice() after experimenting a bit with it, triggered me to ultimately write my own function.

Powershell: Name of the current Citrix desktop

Sun, 02 Jul 2023 17:28:09 +0200

For my day job, I wanted know the name of the ‘Citrix’ desktop on which I was currently logged in, because some features are only available on certain desktops in our environment.

Journal #14

Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

So, this post was started in May of 2022, and now, a year later, I finally come around to publish it.

Mini-Reviews #41

Mon, 29 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

My observation: One of the themes that’s running throughout this and previous entries is that a lot of so-called “classics” from long time ago, often fail to still impress/wow me, now that I watch them again (or for the first time).

Mini-Reviews #40

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

<Insert-witty/insightful-introduction-text-here> … *sigh*

Mini-Reviews #39

Sat, 31 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve seen those items here mostly in September/October, but it took me so long to write some words about them (life, *sigh*).
Anyways, here it is, finally, just before New Year’s Day of 2023 (UTC+1).

Mini-Reviews #38

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Uh, once more… you know the drill…

Mini-Reviews #37

Sun, 21 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

So, this edition had quite a long gap between when I started writing it (2022-05-14), and when I finally finished and posted it (2022-08-21).

Windows: The fc command

Fri, 13 May 2022 21:04:53 +0200

I recently stumbled upon the fc.exe (“file compare”) utility on Windows, when I needed to quickly compare two text files.

Journal #13

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Another round of tidbits of stuff that I was working on during the last weeks.

Mini-Reviews #36

Fri, 29 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-verdicts of the noteworthy material that I’ve watched over the last months.

C++ Snippets for the MS Windows platform

Wed, 30 Mar 2022 21:09:25 +0200

A collection of code snippets, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge, that may come handy at times.

C++ Snippets

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 16:13:57 +0100

A collection of code snippets, general notes, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge, that may come handy at times.

Journal #12

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Since the last DevLog, I was not totally unproductive – here’s a digest of the most noteworthy changes…

Mini-Reviews #35

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-reviews from the past months.

Python Snippets

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 19:28:43 +0100

A collection of code snippets, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge, that may come handy at times.

Clear Cached Credentials from the Windows profile

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 19:49:55 +0100

I had the curious case that on my domain-joined laptop from work, two applications kept asking for usernames and credentials after a recent change of my Windows password.

C++: On #include guards

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In C and C++ there exists the concept of include guards (header guards) to prevent that a header file (or rather the content of such file) is included more than once, because that could cause errors and strange behavior due to redeclarations or name collisions¹.

C++: Namespace

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 14:22:20 +0100

I moved the (growing) section on namespaces from the C++ Snippets page to this separate page, where I had already written some notes about using anonymous and inline namespaces in the same translation unit/file (see below).

The page therefore now also got a more generic and encompassing title.

Powershell: PSCustomObject

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 14:06:32 +0100

Powershell’s PSCustomObject type has been a great tool, but since I don’t use it every day, I jotted down some sample code and links for my future self (or any other interested reader 😄 ), as a reminder.

Journal #11

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Well, looks like I somehow caught a severe case of “summer blues” last year, that’s why I didn’t code much in my spare time in the last couple of months. But now I’m slowly getting back in the saddle.

Mini-Reviews #34

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Short opinion pieces about the noteworthy items that I’ve watched over the last weeks…

Mini-Reviews #33

Sun, 07 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s see what I’ve watched in the recent weeks…

Mini-Reviews #32

Wed, 06 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Once more, a few sentences aboout the noteworthy movies and shows that I’ve watched over the last couple of week/months.

Mini-Reviews #31

Sun, 22 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Time again for some mini-reviews of mine…

Mini-Reviews #30

Sat, 17 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Another batch of mini-reviews for films and shows/seasons that I’ve watched over the last couple of months…

Journal #10

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Already a new post in this category? Must be a new record!

Mini-Reviews #29

Tue, 25 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

More mini-reviews of stuff that I’ve seen over the last couple of months…

Building Qt 6 on Windows with Visual Studio

Sun, 09 May 2021 19:24:52 +0200

Time for another short guidance on how to build your own copy of the Qt framework from source.

Fucked Up Text in Code Snippet

Sun, 02 May 2021 21:35:46 +0200

The story of how I lost an hour of my life because of a weird unicode copy-&-paste character in a code snippet.

Prepare a CMake project for find_package()

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Although I’ve already published an article on how to bring an external CMake project into your own CMake project, I recently realized that I haven’t written about how one can prepare a CMake project for the use with find_package() — despite the fact that I’ve used it already for quite a while in RandFill for my own WPDLib(rary); so let me make up leeway for that oversight with this post.

Powershell: Using Regular Expressions

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 21:04:54 +0100

This is not a introduction or tutorial on what Regular Expressions (RegEx) are or can do, but on how to use them with Powershell!

Journal #9

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The second half of 2020 was regrettably pretty unproductive for me in terms of (C++) code – that wasn’t really planned, but life is strange sometimes (… he says, sitting at home, during the COVID-19 lockdown).

Mini-Reviews #28

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 20:08:30 +0100

Edition number 28 is here; the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 (“Corona virus”) pandemic over the last months has lead to less new content (at least major mainstream content: several blockbusters have been postponed; while some others went straight to streaming services…), which gave me the oppurtinity to [re]watch some older stuff and to catch up with some material that wasn’t too high on my list (and now I know, why… *sigh*).

How to use CMake to setup Visual Studio for using the Clang compiler

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 17:23:07 +0100

This is a brief post on how to use CMake to setup a Visual Studio 2019 solution on Windows that will use the LLVM Clang compiler instead of the orginal Visual C++ one.

Powershell Snippets

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 20:09:04 +0100

A collection of code snippets, small pearls of wisdom and bits of knowledge that may come handy at times.

Powershell: Remote Session

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 19:04:38 +0100

Notes on using a remote session with Powershell

Powershell: Cmdlet Aliases, Automatic Variables and other Shortcuts

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 19:36:31 +0100

Some notes on the items listed in the title 😉

Powershell: Splatting

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 19:20:29 +0100

Some notes on the method of “splatting” in Powershell code.

Powershell: Help

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 18:53:38 +0100

Some notes on where and how to get help-information for Powershell commands.

Powershell: Parameters for Scripts and (Advanced) Functions

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Some notes on parameters for scripts or (advanced) functions in Powershell.

Powershell: Transcript (Log)

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 21:09:37 +0100

A transcript logs all action of a Powershell session to a text file; good for documenting and archiving.

Powershell: Profile

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 21:05:18 +0100

A Powershell profile is a script file that is run each time a new Powershell is opened.

You can define session-specific items in it (variables, aliases, functions, etc.) or call other scripts and commands at the start of a new Powershell session.

Powershell: Handle input from the pipeline

Mon, 18 Jan 2021 20:36:13 +0100

A short description on how to make a Powershell function that can accept and process input data that it gets from the pipeline.

Get the RSS feed for a YouTube channel

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 17:34:40 +0100

I’m fan of RSS feeds: They provide me with easy and quick overviews for a lot of website updates (and after Google Reader was shut down, I set up my own Tiny Tiny RSS instance). Unfortunately, YouTube made it a bit more complicated to get the required feeds some time ago, but it’s still possible.

Notepad++: Run command

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 16:05:05 +0100

How to add custom commands to the Run menu.

Mini-Reviews #27

Wed, 16 Dec 2020 20:28:54 +0100

Another round of mini-reviews for films and series that I found noteworthy enough to mention here…

Mini-Reviews #26

Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:13:45 +0200

Quite a long time since the last Mini-Review post, and thus a lot of stuff has accumulated, including a lot of rewatches; so let’s get started…

Journal #8: Updates on WPDLib and RandFill

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:32:48 +0200

So, it’s been quite a while since the last post of this sort, and I did slow down on the projects mentioned there for some time, but…

Tabs to Spaces

Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:13:57 +0200

I was always a proponent of the tabs side on the eternal tabs or spaces war; but recently I decided to swap sides.

Hotkey 1.0

Thu, 28 May 2020 22:41:10 +0200

A small utility to scratch my own itch: Having global shortcut keys for often needed actions.

Mini-Reviews #25

Sun, 17 May 2020 16:28:53 +0200

A few remarks on several movies and shows that I’ve viewed during the last couple of months.
And this time, I’ll try something new and add also a star rating to it…

Visual Studio stuck in 'Restart Required' after update

Thu, 14 May 2020 20:07:25 +0200

A while ago, my Visual Studio installation was caught in a “please-reboot-loop” after an update.

QuickADUserInfo 1.0

Tue, 05 May 2020 21:27:56 +0200

The first version of my new little helper script QuickADUserInfo has been released.

Powershell: Starting a Script the Easy Way

Sat, 25 Apr 2020 13:32:33 +0200

Powershell scripts can be very practical tools, but they lack an easy Just Do It mode:
Even as a developer/administrator/power-user, one has to remove several obstacles before you can use it; and if you plan to deploy a script to (normal) users, you should take care of some issues before.

Mini-Reviews #24

Sun, 12 Jan 2020 14:31:03 +0100

Time for another quick run through the films and series that I’ve watched over the course of the last couple of months.

Mini-Reviews #23

Sat, 19 Oct 2019 20:32:00 +0200

Again, some short opinion pieces about movies and TV shows that I watched over the last couple of months.

Using CMake with External Projects

Sat, 03 Aug 2019 12:40:23 +0200

The reason for this post is that I spent a considerable amount of time¹ the last two days to convince CMake’s External Project feature to do what I wanted. And without the help of the usual suspects (Stackoverflow, old mails, blog articles, code snippets, etc.), I might still not be done. So I thought I could pay back the general public by posting some notes on this topic 😉