✍️ Written by: George Orwell
🏷 Genre: Sci-fi
🗓 Published: 08 June 1949
📄 Pages: 368
🧐 My rating: ★★★☆☆ (3 stars)

London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

1984 has been on my "to read" list for years, but I've never actually taken the time to read it, until now.

Overall it was pretty good. I didn't think it read like a book that's 75 years old, which is a credit to how forward thinking Orwell was. I would have given it more stars, but I felt the story focussed on Winston and Julia's love affair too much.

I get it, that's what the book was about - how they were "sticking it to the man" by having the relationship, but I personally would have preferred the story to focus more on the strict dystopian society that they found themselves in, and more of the nuance it contained.

Either way, a good read and I'm glad I finally read it.

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I've been cross-posting using a self-hosted EchoFeed instance for a while, but now Robb has built a managed version, I flipped to that and it's brilliant.

Alllllll the way back in February 2021, I shared my thoughts on Micro.blog, and in that post I said...

The only real value I would get from MB, would be the cross-posting service, which I don't think is worth $5/month.

That still holds true today. The best part of Micro.blog, in my opinion, is the cross-posting feature. Socially I only really use Mastodon, but still, cross-posting links to every post I write is a pain in the arse. So a way to automate that would be cool, but not cool enough to warrant $5/month.

Then, around 6 months ago I discovered Robb's Echo tool (now called Echo Classic). I set this up (albeit with a little help from Robb) on my Synology and hey presto! Posts were automagically cross-posted to Mastodon.

Enter EchoFeed

But Robb recently started working on EchoFeed, a managed version of his Echo tool.

Robb asked me if I would beta test it; and I happily obliged! So I jumped in, set it up and forgot about it. Because that's how good this tool is. You plug it in, let it do its thing, and forget about it.

I have a custom RSS feed that only contains a link to the post and the post's description, so EchoFeed just chugs away in the background, doing it's thing, posting my links with a little summary.

Supported services

EchoFeed doesn't just support Mastodon, either. You can set it up to work with the following services:

• Mastodon
• Micro.blog
• Bluesky
• GitHub
• Discord
• Webmentions
• Webhooks

It takes literally 2 minutes to configure a cross-posting feed, and you're done.

Amplify

Once of the little extra tidbits that Robb has baked into EchoFeed, is the Amplify option.

If you switch the option on, anything posted to Mastodon using Echo will be re-posted by the EchoFeed Amplify account, which is a cool way of giving people more visibility.

Pricing

Micro.blog's $5/month was too much for me as I'd only use their cross-posting service. EchoFeed on the other hand is free for a single echo, or $25/year if you need more.

Better yet, if you have an omg.lol account, Robb offers a $5/year discount. I do have an omg.lol account, so EchoFeed only cost me the equivalent of $1.60/month.

Pretty bloody good.

I only need a single Echo setup, for Mastodon, so I could have gone for a free account, but I prefer to support indie developers where I can, so I had to sign up. And since I had the ability to add more echos, I decided to set one up for my Bluesky account too (which I never use, but whatever).

Anyway, if you're looking for a no hassle cross-posting service that's cheap, but works extremely well, check out EchoFeed.

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✍️ Written by: Larry Correia
🏷 Genre: Sci-fi / Fantasy
🗓 Published: 01 September 2020
📄 Pages: 380
🧐 My rating: ★★★★★ (5 stars)

The Great Extermination has begun.

In the Capitol, Grand Inquisitor Omand Vokkan hatches a plot to kill every member of the untouchable caste in all of Lok, down to the last man, woman, and child. As a member of the Order of Inquisition, Vokkan has no official say in the creation of Law, but he has powerful allies willing to do his bidding. Through them, he has convinced the Judges that the genocide will be swift, complete, and without complication. Nothing is farther from the truth.

Lord Protector Devedas has sworn to uphold the Law. Once, he and the traitor Ashok Vadal had been like brothers. Now, he hunts Vadal and the Sons of the Black Sword, heretics and rebels who seek to live outside the rule of the Law. All Devedas must do is find and kill his best friend and order will be restored to Lok.

The rebels seek the secret kingdom spoken of by the Prophet Thera, a paradise where water is pure and food plentiful, where there are no castes, where the people rule themselves, and are not slaves to the Capitol. Ashok Vadal is not sure he believes in such a Paradise, but he—along with his allies—does seek refuge in the rebellion’s hideout in Akershan. But Vadal, a former High Protector who has turned his back on the corrupt Law, will not merely wait meekly, hoping that fleeing to Akershan will spare the rebellion from the clutches of the Great Extermination. No, if it’s a war the Capitol wants, Vadal, who has faced down gods and demons, will be all too willing to give it to them.

I don't really know what to say after reading this book, except for the fact that this series just continues to get better and better.

In this 3rd book, we get to know Ashok on a personal level a but more, and it's really interesting how his character develops throughout this book.

Aside from the Ashok side of things, this book seems to have everything - love, epic battles, monsters, the lot.

Can't wait for book four...

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