We started producing shows as Today with a Techie on 2005-09-19, 14 years, 0 months, 2 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 28 days.

Meet the team

Please help out tagging older shows !

What is persistent memory?

In brief, PMEM is next generation memory technology whose data transfer speed is as good as DRAM (50-300 ns, 100 times faster than SSDs) and unlike DRAM, it can even retain the data after reboots.

In detail persistent memory (PMEM) is a solid-state high-performance byte-addressable memory device that resides on the memory bus. Being on the memory bus allows PMEM to have DRAM-like access to data, which means that it has nearly the same speed and latency of DRAM and the nonvolatility of NAND flash. NVDIMM (nonvolatile dual in-line memory module) and Intel 3D XPoint DIMMs (also known as Optane DC persistent memory modules) are two examples of persistent memory technologies.

Persistent memory, such as Intel® Optane™ DC Persistent Memory, provides a future-proofed solution. Installed alongside traditional RAM, PMEM has many of the advantages of DRAM, including low latency access. But it comes in greater capacities. Intel® Optane™ DC, for example, will be available in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB sizes.

Persistent Memory Benefits

Persistent memory in the data center allows applications to run without incurring the latency penalty of going out to storage.

The main advantages of persistent memory include:

• Provides access latencies less than those of flash SSDs.
• Increases throughput more than flash storage.
• Cheaper than DRAM.
• PMEM is cacheable. This is a huge advantage over PCIe interconnect, which cannot be cached in the CPU.
• Real-time access to data; allows ultrafast access to large datasets.

• Data persists in memory after power interruption, like flash.

• Persistent Memory Use Cases
  • Fraud detection
  • Cyberthreat analysis
  • Web-scale personalization
  • Financial trading
  • Internet of Things (IoT)

    Non       \
    Volatile  /- Non-volatile: you plug it off and on again, and the Information is still there

    Double    \
    In-line   | DIMM: This the HW format
    Memory    |
    Module    /

Persistent Memory Vs. NVRAM

Nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM) is random-access memory that retains its information even if there is no power. If power is lost before the data is written to disk, you don’t lose the data because it can be recovered from NVRAM. NVRAM uses battery backup to keep data persistent. During this time it can flash the data out to a flash device that is attached directly. In most cases, NVRAM resides on the PCIe bus.

PMEM or NVDIMM-N can also be backed up by battery. It resides only on the memory bus.

Where PMEM is going

It’s no wonder that this sort of ‘in-memory’ computing has exploded in recent years. According to Gartner, 75 percent of cloud-native application development will use in-memory/PMEM computing by 2019, and by 2021, at least 25 percent of large and global organisations will adopt platforms using in-memory technologies.

Drawbacks of PMEM

• PMEM is a local store.
• Host failures can result in loss of availability.
• In the case of catastrophic errors you may lose all data and must take manual steps to reformat the PMEM.

Reference Notes

• https://www.netapp.com/us/info/what-is-persistent-memory.aspx
• https://www.intel.co.uk/content/www/uk/en/it-management/cloud-analytic-hub/pmem-next-generation-storage.html
• http://vthinkbeyondvm.com/vsphere-6-7-what-is-pmem-and-how-vsphere-drs-works-with-pmem-configured-vms/
• https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.7/com.vmware.vsphere.resmgmt.doc/GUID-EB72D358-9C2C-4FBD-81A9-A145E155CE31.html
• https://vmsplice.net/~stefan/nvdimm_slides_public.pdf
• https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/07/persistent_memory_whirlwind_is_spinning_up/

This episode is Part 4 of the Stardrifter role-playing game playtest. The series is composed of two playtest sessions, held earlier this year. They were recorded and chopped into manageable bites, then edited down into separate episodes.

This series is meant to give listeners some insight into the RPG construction process. Playtesting is not the final step, but rather, just another stage. The construction of an RPG can be convoluted, and feedback from players is absolutely vital.

In this part, the characters have a job prospect...but is it legitimate, or are they being conned?

Special thanks to my playtesters: Klaatu, Thaj, Mark (who was playing Brinn), and Brian!

In this series I cover how I listen to podcasts and how the process has changed over the years. In this episode I cover the 1st add-on board I purchased for one of my raspberry pi’s I then go on to explain what I do with it.

• Raspberry pi
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

• Piface Digital IO, pictures and links
  http://www.piface.org.uk/products/piface_digital/
  http://www.piface.org.uk/products/piface_digital_2/
  Software Documentation https://piface.github.io/pifacedigitalio/

• Command used to install the software & libraries to use the Piface Digital IO board, command from companies website:

    sudo apt-get install python{,3}-pifacedigitalio

Picture 1, shows the Piface Digital IO board installed on top of my raspberry pi

Picture 2, shows the extension board I built. The extension board increases the number of available LED’s and switches. The board is attached via a ribbon cable with the ends of the wire inserted into the green and orange screw down chocolate blocks attached to the Piface Digital IO board.

• Command to toggle between play and pause in moc is
  mocp -G or mocp –toggle-pause
  moc man page https://www.mankier.com/1/mocp
  moc homepage http://moc.daper.net/

• Uptime man page https://linux.die.net/man/1/uptime

Explanation of how to read a binary display

The board I built which attaches to the Piface Digital board has a total of 8 LED’s. I use the 8 LED’s to display a number in binary format. In binary each LED has only two values either on or off, with 1 LED you can count to 1 with two LED’s you can count to 3. This may seem confusing if you’ve never dealt with binary before. Starting from the right each subsequent LED represents double the value of the previous one so the 1st LED has a value of 1 the 2nd LED has a value of 2, the third LED has a value of 4 and so on. See below

LED Number   8   7   6   5  4  3  2  1
LED VALUES 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1

LED on represents 1, LED off represents 0

[Example 1] 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 [Represented value 1]
1st LED on value = 1

[Example 2] 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 [Represented value 3]
1st and 2nd LED on, LED VALUE 1 + 2 = 3

[Examples 3] 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 [Represented value 10]
2nd and 4th LED on, LED VALUE 2 + 8 = 10

With practice it gets easy to convert from binary to decimal, at my work we still have a very old computer which contains a front panel with LED’s and binary switches. To load the computer instructions must be loaded in binary using flip switches and LED’s with practice it becomes second nature.

Links

• Further information on binary numbers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_number

• df man page (Disk Free) https://linux.die.net/man/1/df

• aplay man page https://linux.die.net/man/1/aplay

While many people like to use social media, platforms like Twitter and Facebook are very unsatisfying, not to mention inimical to your security and privacy. Fortunately there are alternatives we can try, and in this series I want to explore a few of them. https://www.zwilnik.com/?page_id=1025

Links:

• https://elplatt.com/
• https://litmus.com/blog/email-client-market-share-trends-first-half-of-2018
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H7G7CMN/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
• https://mewe.com/
• https://ello.co/
• https://diasporafoundation.org/
• https://pluspora.com/
• https://www.bitchute.com/
• https://joinmastodon.org/
• https://textile.photos/
• https://pixelfed.org/
• https://www.wire.com/
• https://www.signal.org/
• https://gnu.io/social/
• https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/
• https://mediagoblin.org/
• https://freenetproject.org/author/freenet-project-inc.html
• https://www.zwilnik.com/?page_id=1025

Hi to all you out there in HPR land, this is a quick show to help out with the current summer shortage of shows.

So over the last few months I’ve been busy with my new Podcasting career, well it fills in the time now I’m retired. Anyway the Distro-hoppers show has been getting a regular audience and recently we decided to branch out a little and open up the review format to the audience, you can find details of how to do that on the Blog.

The most recent show was a review of the new Endeavour OS which has risen from the ashes of Antergos Linux an Arch based OS. Well I decided to use this opportunity to delve into the world of Arch for the first time with Endeavour OS and I can report I was pleasantly surprised with this slick iteration of Arch. OK when you first install Endeavour all you will have is a new XFCE 4.14 DE and some basic software to get you started, you are then expected to do a little research to find out how to install other software you need to get your PC setup the way you like but all the basic information on package management is on the Endeavour OS Wiki and also on the Arch Linux Wiki.

If you have thought of trying Arch Linux but would prefer to start with a running Desktop from install then Endeavour OS is definitely the place to start. I have been running it as my daily Driver for over a month and have fallen in love with it.
My full review is on the Distrohoppers Blog as is a link to the Audio of the show.

That’s it for this time, this is Tony Hughes saying goodbye until next time.

https://distrohoppersdigest.blogspot.com/

https://endeavouros.com/

https://www.archlinux.org/

People are what makes dynasty simulators interesting and this episode will be about them. There isn’t much code this time, mainly just how data is organized. Topic is long and split over several episodes.

Some people in game are controlled by computer, while some are controlled by player. There’s no difference on what each can do in game, computer is basically just filling in for players when there aren’t enough players.

There’s plenty of data about people, spread over several entities and database tables. Main one is Person, which stores name, gender, sex, date of birth and some stats (and then some more).

There are lots of various ways of naming people and I chose to model three for the starters:

data PersonName =
    RegularName FirstName FamilyName (Maybe Cognomen)
    | SimpleName FirstName (Maybe Cognomen)
    | RegalName FirstName FamilyName RegnalNumber (Maybe Cognomen)
    deriving (Show, Read, Eq)

The higher the rank, more complicated names you tend to have (for some reason). Later on I’ll try and see if I can add more varied names, like matronyms and patronyms.

Sex and gender I’m modeling with simple system of two enumerations, sex can be Female, Male or Intersex, while gender has values Man, Woman, Agender and Nonbinary. System is coarse, but should be enough to get started with the game. Later on, this can be expanded to more nuanced system.

Traits are defining features of people. These include things like brave, coward, ambitious, content, honest and such. Values are binary, character either is brave or not. And character can’t be brave and coward at the same time.

Relations are modeled as PersonRelation and thus stored in person_relation table:

Relation json
    originatorId PersonId
    targetId PersonId
    type RelationType
    visibility RelationVisibility
    deriving Show Read Eq

I find this corner of the puzzle particular interesting. This models who is parent or child, who is friend or rival. Interconnected web created by relations isn’t completely visible to players (or any other person in game). Relations have visibility, modeled as RelationVisibility, which tells how visible it is. Public ones are known by everyone, family relations are limited to small group of people and secret relations are only known by those who are in the fold. One aspect of the game is acquiring this information.

Intel is modeled as HumanIntelligence and stored in human_intelligence table:

HumanIntelligence json
    personId PersonId
    ownerId PersonId
    level PersonIntel
    deriving Show Read Eq

Essentially it just lists which character has what information about certain other character. So when displaying information to players, this table has to be referenced in order to know how much to reveal to them.

Different types of intels are listed as PersonIntel:

data PersonIntel =
    Stats
    | Demesne
    | FamilyRelations
    | SecretRelations
    | Opinions OpinionIntel
    | Traits
    deriving (Show, Read, Eq)

Person related data is sent back to client in PersonReport record (I’m not copying it here as it’s relatively large). We can have a look on how one field is processed.

For example, in case of traits. PersonReport has field personReportTraits :: !(Maybe [TraitReport]). Exclamation mark in the beginning of type instructs Haskell that this value should be computed immediately when record is created and not left for later. I’m doing this as I know for sure that it’ll always be used and there’s no advantage on delaying computation for the time when it might be needed.

Report creating (high level):

personReportTraits = if Traits `elem` targetIntel
                        then Just $ traitReport <$> targetTraits
                        else Nothing

That first checks that Traits level of intel is available and then creates list of trait reports (one for each trait person has). These have things like trait name, description, trait type and how long the trait is valid. Having separate name and description fields makes it easier to work on client side as I don’t have to come up with descriptions there anymore. I can just use what the server sends to me and be happy.

Comments, questions and feedback are welcome. Best way to catch me nowadays is email or fediverse where I’m tuturto@mastodon.social.

This episode is Part 3 of the Stardrifter role-playing game playtest. The series is composed of two playtest sessions, held earlier this year. They were recorded and chopped into manageable bites, then edited down into separate episodes.

This series is meant to give listeners some insight into the RPG construction process. Playtesting is not the final step, but rather, just another stage. The construction of an RPG can be convoluted, and feedback from players is absolutely vital.

In this part, we continue to go over the rules of the game, and then start into the adventure!

Special thanks to my playtesters: Klaatu, Thaj, Mark (who was playing Brinn), and Brian!

• A general overview of the Orange PI Zero LTS version
  http://www.orangepi.org/orangepizerolts/
  https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/raspberry-pi-alternative-12-08-2019/

• This is the one I really liked
  https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/07/31/buy-orange-pi-zero-lts-sbc/

• This is were the software is
  https://www.armbian.org

Continued general basic knowledge of fire fighting.
Also an extended invitation to ask questions in the comments.
ps: I started making podcasts one year ago! o/

In this episode I talk about repairing the case for a Vietnamese Đàn tranh, a zither-like instrument which was donated to the School of Music by a member of the community. I also demonstrate the instrument as best I can so that you can hear what it sounds like.

See the Flickr photo album that accompanies this show by clicking the image below.

Links

• Đàn tranh
• Contact cement
• Pentatonic scale

Credits

• Music bumpers are from Kimiko Ishizaka's The Open Goldberg Variations: http://www.opengoldbergvariations.org/, used by permission of their CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication license.

hpr2893 :: Whats in the box! Part 2 hosted by NYbill

Released: 2019-09-04. Duration: 00:12:07. Flag: Clean. Series: Hobby Electronics.
Tags: guitar, pedal, tremlo, kit, DIY, soldering.
NYbill finishes a guitar pedal kit Timttmy sent him.

hpr2892 :: Stardrifter RPG Playtest Part 02 hosted by lostnbronx

Released: 2019-09-03. Duration: 00:37:27. Flag: Explicit. Series: Tabletop Gaming.
Tags: rpg, gaming, stardrifter, game construction, playtest.
Lostnbronx and friends playtest a new, original RPG system.

hpr2891 :: HPR Community News for August 2019 hosted by HPR Volunteers

Released: 2019-09-02. Duration: 00:37:04. Flag: Explicit. Series: HPR Community News.
Tags: Community News.
HPR Volunteers talk about shows released and comments posted in August 2019

hpr2890 :: Penguicon 2019 Report hosted by Ahuka

Released: 2019-08-30. Duration: 00:14:03. Flag: Clean. Series: Penguicon.
Tags: Penguicon, Open Source, Convention.
Penguicon 2019 took place on May 3-5, 2018 in Southfield, Michigan

hpr2889 :: Describing how I listen to podcasts PART 2 hosted by MrX

Released: 2019-08-29. Duration: 00:17:32. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: Audio, Podcasts, Linux, Command Line, PDA, hardware.
In this episode I cover the hardware I've used over the years to listen to podcasts.

hpr2888 :: Pattern matching in Haskell hosted by tuturto

Released: 2019-08-28. Duration: 00:20:36. Flag: Clean. Series: Haskell.
Tags: pattern matching.
tuturto talks about one of their favourite features in Haskell

hpr2887 :: Stardrifter RPG Playtest Part 01 hosted by lostnbronx

Released: 2019-08-27. Duration: 00:36:42. Flag: Explicit. Series: Tabletop Gaming.
Tags: rpg, gaming, stardrifter, game construction, playtest.
Lostnbronx and friends playtest a new, original RPG system.

hpr2886 :: INFOSECOND hosted by operat0r

Released: 2019-08-26. Duration: 00:18:56. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: information security,careers.
Thoughts around IT and Information Security

hpr2885 :: ONICS Part 2: Filtering and Extraction hosted by Gabriel Evenfire

Released: 2019-08-23. Duration: 00:16:34. Flag: Clean. Series: Networking.
Tags: networking, command-line, tools.
In this episode I discuss commands to filter and/or extract packets from a packet trace file.

hpr2884 :: TASCAM Porta 02 MiniStudio 4-Track Cassette Recorder Demonstration hosted by Jon Kulp

Released: 2019-08-22. Duration: 01:17:16. Flag: Clean.
Tags: Multi-Track Recording, Recording Devices, Home Recording Studios, Cassette Tapes, Vintage Recording .
I demonstrate the use of a vintage home studio device

hpr2883 :: Pass the pigs hosted by tuturto

Released: 2019-08-21. Duration: 00:05:18. Flag: Clean. Series: Tabletop Gaming.
Tags: dice game.
tuturto talks about their childhood game pass the pigs

hpr2882 :: ONICS Part 1: Basic Commands hosted by Gabriel Evenfire

Released: 2019-08-20. Duration: 00:22:44. Flag: Clean. Series: Networking.
Tags: networking, command-line, tools.
In this episode I review some basic commands for manipulating packet captures

hpr2881 :: Automatically split album into tracks in Audacity hosted by Ken Fallon

Released: 2019-08-19. Duration: 00:04:10. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: Audacity, hpr1771, Detect Silence, Split Track, Label.
Inspired by a Jon Kulp show, Ken splits a large recording based on silence between tracks

hpr2880 :: Evaluating a Study hosted by Ahuka

Released: 2019-08-16. Duration: 00:14:21. Flag: Clean. Series: Health and Healthcare.
Tags: Health, Medicine, Evidence, Science, Studies.
We've developed the standards to judge, so now let's do an example!

hpr2879 :: Describing how I listen to podcasts PART 1 hosted by MrX

Released: 2019-08-15. Duration: 00:31:17. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: Audio, Podcasts, Linux, Ncurses.
This episode badly covers the console audio player moc.

hpr2878 :: Type classes in Haskell hosted by tuturto

Released: 2019-08-14. Duration: 00:19:28. Flag: Clean. Series: Haskell.
Tags: type class.
tuturto explains what type classes are and how to use them

hpr2877 :: Using Zenity with Pdmenu hosted by Dave Morriss

Released: 2019-08-13. Duration: 00:22:38. Flag: Explicit. Series: Bash Scripting.
Tags: zenity,Bash scripting,pdmenu,GTK+.
Zenity is a rather cool program that will display GTK+ dialogs from a script

hpr2876 :: Sausage Orzotto hosted by Windigo

Released: 2019-08-12. Duration: 00:42:23. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: food,cooking.
A favorite recipe, dictated while it is cooked.

hpr2875 :: cutting up the frames hosted by Brian in Ohio

Released: 2019-08-09. Duration: 00:07:36. Flag: Clean.
Tags: bicycle, recumbent, recycle.
you've got to crack some eggs to make an omelette

hpr2874 :: Repair of G.E. Variable Speed Cassette Recorder hosted by Jon Kulp

Released: 2019-08-08. Duration: 00:20:28. Flag: Clean.
Tags: Recording, Audio, Tape, Cassette, Recording Devices, Tape Speeds, Electronics, Repair.
I talk about repairing a 1997 handheld cassette recorder and demonstrate its use.

hpr2873 :: Death Angel - Card game hosted by tuturto

Released: 2019-08-07. Duration: 00:17:25. Flag: Clean. Series: Tabletop Gaming.
Tags: cardgame.
Short description of Death Angel card game

hpr2872 :: Shoe Lace Tips hosted by MrX

Released: 2019-08-06. Duration: 00:07:52. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: hacks, tips.
In this episode I give some shoe lace tips

hpr2871 :: HPR Community News for July 2019 hosted by HPR Volunteers

Released: 2019-08-05. Duration: 01:03:14. Flag: Explicit. Series: HPR Community News.
Tags: Community News.
HPR Volunteers talk about shows released and comments posted in July 2019

hpr2870 :: Hierarchy of Evidence hosted by Ahuka

Released: 2019-08-02. Duration: 00:14:25. Flag: Clean. Series: Health and Healthcare.
Tags: Health, Medicine, Evidence, Science, Studies.
All studies are not the same. Some are better than others.

hpr2869 :: building a bike, following in John Kulp's footsteps hosted by Brian in Ohio

Released: 2019-08-01. Duration: 00:11:34. Flag: Clean.
Tags: bicycle, recumbent, recycle.
turning a couple of old bikes into a long wheel base recumbent

hpr2868 :: Custom data with Persistent hosted by tuturto

Released: 2019-07-31. Duration: 00:20:02. Flag: Clean. Series: Haskell.
Tags: haskell, persistent, database.
tuturto explains how to serialize custom data with Persistent

hpr2867 :: The Kenwood TS940S Automatic Tuning Unit hosted by MrX

Released: 2019-07-30. Duration: 00:13:04. Flag: Explicit. Series: HAM radio, QSK.
Tags: Amateur, Radio, Ham.
I cover the Automatic Tuning unit on my Kenwood TS940S, re comment from HPR2668

hpr2866 :: Intro to Bitcoin for techies hosted by mightbemike

Released: 2019-07-29. Duration: 00:31:55. Flag: Clean.
Tags: bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency.
Survey of Bitcoin: blockchains, blocks, transactions, miners, PoW, hashing, addresses, wallets

hpr2865 :: The YouTube channels I really like hosted by Jeroen Baten

Released: 2019-07-26. Duration: 00:14:17. Flag: Clean.
Tags: apollo,agc,youtube.
Just some random thoughts on some random youtube channels

hpr2864 :: One weird trick to add a --help option to your awk scripts hosted by klaatu

Released: 2019-07-25. Duration: 00:20:13. Flag: Clean. Series: Learning Awk.
Tags: awk,option,help,arg.
Klaatu demonstrates two ways to add a --help message to your awk scripts

hpr2863 :: Simplified application architectures for improved security hosted by Beeza

Released: 2019-07-24. Duration: 00:15:55. Flag: Clean.
Tags: Application development, Application architecture, Security.
A thought experiment in whether reducing runtime dependencies can improve security and how to do it.

hpr2862 :: Art vs. Commerce In Storytelling hosted by lostnbronx

Released: 2019-07-23. Duration: 00:13:50. Flag: Clean. Series: Random Elements of Storytelling.
Tags: stories, storytelling, art, commerce, lostnbronx.
Lostnbronx examines stories as both art and products.

hpr2861 :: Safety Razors hosted by operat0r

Released: 2019-07-22. Duration: 00:14:30. Flag: Clean.
Tags: shaving,safety,razor,health,grooming.
I go over some of my thoughts on Safety Razors Etc

hpr2860 :: Encryption and Quantum Computing hosted by Ahuka

Released: 2019-07-19. Duration: 00:12:37. Flag: Clean. Series: Privacy and Security.
Tags: Encryption, Quantum Computing.
How will quantum computing affect the security of encryption?

hpr2859 :: HPR NYE Show 2018-2019 part 7 hosted by Honkeymagoo

Released: 2019-07-18. Duration: 02:58:34. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: HPR new years show, new years, community.
The HPR community comes together to say happy new year and chat

hpr2858 :: Vehicle designer for a space game hosted by tuturto

Released: 2019-07-17. Duration: 00:23:24. Flag: Clean. Series: Haskell.
Tags: haskell.
tuturto talks about modeling vehicle designer for their space game

hpr2857 :: Creating CounterParty Collectible Tokens for the Bitcorn Game hosted by mightbemike

Released: 2019-07-16. Duration: 00:16:35. Flag: Clean.
Tags: bitcorn, bitcoin, collectibles.
How to create Bitcorn collectibles: tokens issued on Bitcoin blockchain, used in Bitcorn Farms game

hpr2856 :: Mint Mobile Security Rant hosted by operat0r

Released: 2019-07-15. Duration: 00:19:45. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: Mint Mobile,ANdroid,Phones,4G,VoIP,google voice.
Settle in for a Mint Mobile Security Rant

hpr2855 :: HPR NYE Show 2018-2019 part 6 hosted by Honkeymagoo

Released: 2019-07-12. Duration: 02:21:26. Flag: Explicit.
Tags: HPR new years show, new years, community.
The HPR community comes together to say happy new year and chat

hpr2854 :: Telling myself something In The Morning hosted by Jezra

Released: 2019-07-11. Duration: 00:06:14. Flag: Clean. Series: Programming 101.
Tags: python, programming.
There was a need for some software, so I wrote some