We started producing shows as Today with a Techie on 2005-09-19, 17 years, 4 months, 19 days ago. Our shows are produced by listeners like you and can be on any topic that "are of interest to Hackers". If you listen to HPR then please consider contributing one show a year. If you record your show now it could be released in 14 days.
Some time in the last year there has been some discussion on the HPR mailing list about some of the problems I was having, particularly with the tags page, on the HPR site.
Here is a show in which you can hear both me and my screen reader, as I navigate the HPR home page, and then the HPR tags page.
Dave Morriss has made a nice job of fixing the issues I had, and made the tags page a lot more friendly for blind and visually impaired users.
It's quite a long podcast, and it took a lot of editing. So most of the polish wore off by the time I 'finished' it and decided enough was enough.
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Hosted by Archer72 on 2023-01-31 is flagged as Clean and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Tags: media, formats, encoding.
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Hosted by Andrew Conway on 2023-01-30 is flagged as Clean and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Tags: electronics.
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The Joule Thief is a delightfully simple circuit that can light an LED that requires 2V or more from a battery that is depleted to 1V or less. There are three components in addition to the battery and LED: an NPN transistor, a resistor and a double wound inductor. The key thing about the inductor is that the same core shares two windings but in opposite directions.
The explanation of how it works is simple enough, as long as you already understand how inductors and transistors work. In other words, it isn't simple at all! In short, the double wound inductor and transistor conspire to generate a transient high voltage spike and so turn LED on and off so rapidly that the human eye cannot perceive it.
The idea of such a circuit is approaching its centenary but the name itself is only around 20 years old. I recommend you check out Big Clive's web site as it was he who came up with the name "Joule Thief". I also recommend this video in which he constructs a circuit using some ninja-level soldering skills.
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Hosted by Ahuka on 2023-01-27 is flagged as Clean and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Tags: social media, alternative, Fediverse, ActivityPub, Mastodon, Screen readers, WordPress.
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One of the things I love about the Fediverse is that there is constant activity and development. As I mentioned in the previous report on Bookwyrm, it is not unusual to return to an app a few months later and see new features have been added that make it better. In this report I want to highlight three news stories that I think may be of interest.
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whisper --model tiny --language en hpr3780.wavHello Hacker Public Radio fans. This is Trey, and I am throwing this recording together for several reasons:
The queue of shows is abysmally sparse. There are far more openings for shows in the next few weeks than there are shows posted.
This show is a pitiful excuse for why I haven't posted any shows recently
If you like what you hear on Hacker Public Radio, please express your gratitude by recording your own show. It doesn't need to be long, or sound professional, or anything. Introduce yourself and share something you find interesting.
If you do not like any or all of what you hear on Hacker Public Radio, then it is the perfect opportunity for you to take a few minutes and record a short (or long) podcast of your own which "fills the gap" of what you might feel is needed on HPR.
Alright. Enough preliminaries.
A long time ago, at an undisclosed university far, far away, I took my first class about Ethics. One of the things I remember most was the question of "Just because you can do a thing, does that mean you should do the thing?"
This was applied to many different scenarios - from nation states building weapons of mass destruction, to authoring computer viruses, and even to saying what you are thinking at any given moment.
It should quickly become obvious that you should not always do a thing simply because you can do it. And today, I would like to relate that to DIY home improvement projects, especially as we work our way up in years.
For regular listeners, you may recall my series "Everything You Always Wanted to Knox about PEX" recorded and shared in May through July of 2022 (hpr3604, hpr3614, hpr3624 & hpr3634). In this series, I recounted the process of replumbing my home using PEX with helpful advice for anyone else who wants to try it. What I did not realize at the time I was doing the project was the toll that doing so much work overhead, by myself, was taking on my old shoulder joints. It was only one straw, but a rather significant one, which eventually broke the camel's back. Or, in my case, resulted in several severe tears in my rotator cuff and bicep tendon.
Therapy was marginally effective, and surgery was eventually required to put things back together the way they belonged. My effort to save money and do the project myself "Because I could" helped lead to significantly more expenses and more than a year of recovery.
I am not sharing this for sympathy, but rather because I learned something important. Now that I am getting older, as I decide which projects I should do myself and which to pay professionals to do, it is important to factor in the potential impact on my body, my mind and those around me, even if all goes well.
Just because you can do a thing does not necessarily mean you should do a thing.
Unless that "Thing" is recording a podcast for HPR. THAT is something you can and should do.
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Hosted by Zen_Floater2 on 2023-01-25 is flagged as Explicit and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Tags: Android, chromebooks, easytether, cellphones, bandwidth,beeing,sucks, QRcodes, healio.
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I have a discussion about my Android "WIPING" and how it affected my 2 factor authorization with Google. Further I "beein" some more about Android not being able to authenticate against a known chromebook using GOOGLE SECURITY, what a "beeing" , "beeing"!!!!
And I also cover Google's lousy support for chromebooks through Android, not sharing bandwidth via the cell communication channels. I cover easytether and ask why Google hasn't given chromebooks the same bandwidth access any Android phone would have??? WHY???
Google is so piggish and stupid that Android and chromebooks are almost as if they were separate companies who are in competition with each other instead of two products from the same company.
I also cover the overbearing Android growth via QR codes and programs like healio.
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Hosted by Claudio Miranda on 2023-01-24 is flagged as Clean and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Tags: freebsd,haiku,beos,bhyve,vmbhyve,bsd,virtualization,hypervisor.
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Bhyve - The BSD Hypervisor
https://bhyve.org/
vm-bhyve - Management system for FreeBSD bhyve virtual
machines
https://github.com/churchers/vm-bhyve
Haiku - Open-source OS inspired by BeOS
https://www.haiku-os.org/
UEFI Booting Haiku
https://www.haiku-os.org/guides/uefi_booting/
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whisper --model tiny --language en hpr3777.wavI installed XeroLinux on an older I mac I had, mostly due to 2 factors,
As a Plasma user, how could I resist.
I had previously installed Fedora 36 on the MAC and was receiving random hardware issues at boot time, I wanted to see if the issue persisted on and Arch base, and since I had never used Arch, this was a perfect test case.
The install:
I am at home...lol
After selecting language, time zone and Keyboard layouts, The disk partitioning options are presented (and in much less confusing verbage than Fedora) and you are given choice of what swap partition type to use, No Swap, Swap no hibernate swap with hibernate and swap to file also a choice of file system, xfs, btrfs of ext4. I chose xfs the default, and since this is just a toy, not a high availability/high capacity server, there is no need for BTRFS, and if I am happy with the state of the system, I may well use it as a media server or Plex server and in that case I’ll need the larger file capacity of XFS Also available are the file system encryption check box and a manual partition options
Under the user account setup, it detected and offered to set the machine name as MAcPro51, which is fine, it’ll help me id the device on my network, VS a unique name I would then have to come up with but would inevitably also contain “MAC” The page also included check boxes to validate password strength (forcing strong passwords, an auto-login option and an option to “reuse user password as root password. Obviously for SUDO purposes, this would not be recommended, but in my situation, I did chose it and the strong passwords validation
The next screen verifies all the selections and when next is clicked, A pop-up wants you to confirm again that you want to make the changes selected.
(insert jeopardy music while the install happens)
During the install, there is a button to observe what is actually
going on in the background, partitioning, file copies, compiles,
etc
First boot and login
Well poop,I see a message in the boot screens referring to a hardware
issue in CPU0 bank 8, there might be a hardware issue, it IS and older
Intel MAC after all…
Step one is, as always, update the system
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Yes, that is a silhouette of the MST3K guys, I’m using a 720 P TV as my monitor and watch movies when I’m in my home office. 121 packages are ready fro update including Kernel 5.19.12
(more jeopardy Music)
next stop: install proprietary driver , open source drivers and non-preinstalled apps All this went very smoothly, as though the distro maintainers had put lots of work and thought into it. To say I’m impressed is an understatement so far.
Also there’s a handy dandy “Post install system config button, let’s see what that does…
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Man, all kinds of goodies to play with!!
With such goodies as Yakuake, Avanti browser and KDE connect preinstaled, the only thing I really needed was a decent office suite, Libre office, of course…
The XeroLinux “Hello” app is quite a setup, offering all the tools you need to get up and running. With an app browser very similar to Discover, used by Fedora, finding LibreOffice was easy, tick a check box, a few dependencies needed confirmation, click install and poof, done.
I was able to seamlessly browse the internet and watched a full length Jackie Chan movie on Netflix with no issues or buffering, Libre-office Calc opened in about 5 seconds, only marginally slower than my regular I7 desktop PC running Fedora 35.
The hardware
2010 MACPRO5.1 with dual Intel Xeon 12 core processors running at 2.5Ghz and 32 GB ram and an ATI Radeon HD 5770 I bought the MAC at a local college surplus auction with no hard drive, and installed a 500GB “spinning rust” hard drive I happened to have laying around.
As older hardware, it’s still fairly quiet and crash free, so far. With a modest up time of 5 days.
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whisper --model tiny --language en hpr3776.wavIn this show we are going to make a punch-card computer out of stuff from your kitchen.
Most of the materials are things you would otherwise have thrown away.
Prepare the case of the computer.
Cut off the box flaps at the top where the cereal was poured out.
The computer will eventually be used standing up in the usual position with the open end at the top.
Making a chute at the bottom.
You need to make a sort of chute at the bottom so that stuff that falls down into the box will slide out the front.
Do this by cutting a horizontal line across the width of the box about four or five inches, about eight centimetres from the bottom edge of the box.
Now cut down the front edges of the box from the horizontal slit to the bottom.
This will make a flap that you can fold down by putting your hand inside and pushing it out.
Hinge it down and make a fold in this flap about half an inch (one centimetre) from the front edge of the flap.
Coat the inside of the flap, above the fold, with glue. Now push the flap back up and press the folded (gluey) portion of the flap against the inside of the back of the box. You could use some sticky tape to hold it down while it dries.
When the glue has dried you will be able to see how this now forms a chute at the bottom of the box.
Now draw a horizontal line across the front side of the box about an inch, or 2.5 centimetres from the open end.
Now is the trickiest part because you will need to do some arithmetic. Pity you don't have a computer, right?
You need to measure out a number of points across this line which correspond to the bit-ness of your computer. So if you are making an eight bit computer, you need eight marks spaced equally across this line, that's nine gaps across.
When you have done this you are going to pierce holes in the box with either one of the BBQ skewers or something sharper. You need for the skewers to pass right through the box and out the back side, in the same position as accurately as possible. This might be easier if you draw and measure out the same points on the back panel and push holes through from both sides.
Either way what you are aiming for is to make the path through the box as accurately level and equi-distant as possible. The skewers should pass through the box and remain parallel.
We are now going to make the punched cards.
Create the same number of cards as the bit-ness of your computer. So an eight bit computer will require eight cards.
The cards will be almost as wide as the inside of the box, and tall enough to write stuff on but not high enough to show their bottom edges through the chute hole at the bottom of the computer. And not so tall that when they fall to the bottom they get wedged between the chute and the back wall of the computer.
Laying each card flat on the table, draw a horizontal line across the card about the same distance from its top edge as you drew the line into which you punched holes in the body of the computer.
You will need to measure out the same number of holes across this as the holes across your computer. Again accuracy is important if the computer is to work smoothly.
Make each hole in the punched cards large enough that the skewers you used pass through the hole with no resistance. A hand-held single hole punch is good for this.
The holes need to line up when the stack of cards is held flat in a pack.
Programming your punched cards.
Take each card in turn and change all but one of the holes into a slot from the holes to the top of the card.
For example, for card one, in an eight bit computer, leave hole zero (left-most for little-endian) as it is and for holes 1 to 7 cut from each side of the hole to the top edge, removing the little bit of card.
So when a card is done it will look a bit like a comb with one hole somewhere along the row, corresponding to which bit the card represents.
For the next card cut all the holes except the one to the right of the last one.
When you have done this and placed the cards in a stack, you will see that what you have is a stack of cards, each of which has 1 intact hole and bit-ness minus 1 slots.
Loading the program into your computer.
Holding the cards together in a stack, feed them into the top of the computer, with the punches at the top closest to the open top end of the box.
Holding the cards in place so that their holes line up with the holes in the box, push skewers through from the front of the box, through the corresponding holes and slots in the stack of cards.
Now when you stand the computer up, what you have is a box containing a stack of punched cards, each of which is only held in place by one skewer.
And if you cut the cards to be very close to the width of the box, the cards will sit straight without drooping down at one end.
Getting some data out of your computer.
Before you loaded the cards into the computer, you wrote some data on them, right?
If you have an eight bit computer and you have eight kids, you will never forget their birthday again. Write the name and birthday of each child on a card and write their name above the skewer hole on the box, using the hole which corresponds to their card, the one with the intact (not a slot) in it.
When you pull that skewer out, the corresponding card is no longer held in the box, and it drops down and slides out of the chute. Pity it's not quite as much fun as getting nice crisp bank notes out of a cash-machine.
Finally, take a magic-marker and write 'Windows Vista' on the front of the box. And it might be a good idea to snip off the sharp ends of the bamboo skewers before you put your eye out or damage a small child.
Problem: When I pull out a skewer, no card drops out.
Possible causes: There is too much friction between the cards or between the outer edges of the card and the sides of the box. When you load the cards, try to spread them apart a bit. And make the cards a few millimetres narrower than the box. Or the holes and slots in the cards are too small and there is too much friction between the edges of a slot and a skewer.
This is a totally pointless activity and you need to get out more.
I remember seeing this somewhere when I was a very small child. Either in a book or on TV. I think it may have been my slightly older brother who made it. I have the vaguest recollection of a cereal box with some of my mum's knitting needles sticking out.
If you used eight bamboo skewers, you are now the proud owner of an eight bit computer with eight bits of random access memory.
A slight drawback is that each time you ask for output (pull out a skewer) the data bit you asked for is no longer inside the computer's memory. So you will have to 'reboot' every five minutes (sound familiar?).
And because of the way it works, eight bits does not mean 256 different cards.
But it's fun and a young kid will delight in pulling out a skewer to make a card drop out. There is glue involved as well.
Mike
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Hosted by David Whitman on 2023-01-19 is flagged as Explicit and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Tags: Racing, Chump Car World Series, MonsterB, Portland Oregon, sounds, boring.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Optima Batteries ChumpCar World Series is a series of automotive endurance races held on paved road race courses across North America. The races range in length from 6 to 36 hours. The name is a parody of Champ Car, a defunct open wheel professional racing series. Races are sanctioned throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and Mexico. Teams are encouraged, but not required, to decorate their cars with themes.
I am using dimensional analysis.
(1.97 miles X 60 seconds X 60 minutes) / (110 seconds lap time X 1 minute X 1 hour) = 64.47 MPH for one lap.
now it's your turn! A slower lap took 120 seconds - how fast was Jonny going?
Editor's Note 2023-01-23: All of the above chumpcar.com links seem to be dead. They have been replaced with links from the WayBack Machine (archive.org).
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whisper --model tiny --language en hpr3774.wavGet a full list of all our shows.