## hpr1001 :: HPR Community News May 2012

 New hosts

Welcome to our new host: 
bgryderclock.

If you would like to become a HPR host then please head over to https://hackerpublicradio.org/contribute.php



id
title
host



976
HPR Community News (March 2012)
HPR Admins

977
Setting Up a WordPress Blog 2
Frank Bell

978
Dead_Hunt
Various Hosts

979
Sunday Morning Linux Review Episode 029
Various Creative Commons Works

980
Broadband for Rural North
Ken Fallon

981
Review Indiana LinuxFest 2012
Ahuka

982
LITS: Episode 005 - pmount
Dann

983
Freedom is not Free 5 - Get Involved
Ahuka

984
Going Linux: Introduction to Podcasting with Linux
HPR Admins

985
LFNW: A Short Talk with Thomas Stover
David Whitman

986
LFNW: Interview with Scott Newlon of MintCast
David Whitman

987
LFNW: Larry Cafiero - the Crunchbang guy
David Whitman

988
LFNW: Dawn McKenna of McKenna Interpreting Services
David Whitman

989
Juiced Penguin 079 â€“ Early Spring
Various Creative Commons Works

990
Portable Apps
JWP

991
Making a Music Sampler with Midi and Pygame
bgryderclock

992
Linux In The Shell 007 - Chmod and Unix Permissions.
Dann

993
Setting up a Wordpress blog - tweaking appearance
Frank Bell

994
NELF: John Maddog Hall Talking About Talking About Free Software
Various Creative Commons Works

995
Do the four freedoms extend beyond software ?
Ken Fallon

996
Command line cheat sheet
JWP

997
Poorly Recorded Thoughts On Rural Computing
lostnbronx

998
Viva la Federation!
NYbill and Windigo

999
Simon Phipps on Open Software: OGG Camp Part One
Robin Catling

1000
Episode 1000
FiftyOneFifty



Apologies

Apologies to Dave Morriss for missing his show and code contribution

New US Phone Number

The US number has changed to 206-203-5729 while the UK number remains the same +44-203-432-5879

A short report from the HPR Table at LinuxFest Northwest

From: David Whitman 

A friend from work got intersted in going to the LinuxFest and helped at the table - Much thanks to Brad Coffey. We got set up on time and were well received. We had a great run on our swag and ran out of the HPR pin buttons by closing on the first day and handed out quite a few informational cards.The little business cards were really a hit also. Lots of good conversation and exposure for HPR. There was a constant stream of people coming by. I have four interviews on my various recording devices and should be able to get about four to six more from the sign up sheet that was available on the table. With a bit of planning and a more formal interview 'track' (using an appointment schedule and a designated room or area) I am sure a well staffed HPR table could easily get 20 interviews at this fest. Of course I will be interested in 
seeing if any of the many we talked to produces and post their own show. There was interest. I sensed that many of the speakers would have loved the extra exposure. HPR is probably becoming the embedded reporters of Linux Fests. The unofficial count of attendees that I heard was at "over 800". The table kit is ready to be shipped to the next venue. My intent is to put together a vertical layout canvas that can easily be shipped and set up as a backdrop and utilize a series of those 20 by 30 photo posters available at Costco Photo. This however will have to wait until after my annual spring fling of shutdown work that begins on May 5 and takes up to 3 weeks to complete. I'll post a G+pic of the backdrop we used at this fest. Best swag for me - a Tux 2012 bumper sticker from Pogo Linux. Look for a scan of this on G+ in the near future.

Thanks to the HPR community for the opportunity to represent the show. It was much fun.

davidWHITMAN

New Banner

There was a very kind offer by David Whitman to sponsor a tall free standing banner and the call was put out for a design. Here is the final outcome of the discussions.


One Community supporting another

Back in episode https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps.php?id=0980 Broadband for Rural North, I suggested that people could sponsor a meter of cable for their project to show your support. Well they have gone ahead and done it
https://b4rn.org.uk/sponsor-a-metre. It's £5 for a meter or Special offer, 5 names for £20.

I will also extend the donation deal from the holiday period, so that anyone who donates to this gets some HPR swag when it's available.

Explicit Tag

There was a discussion on whither we should have a ban on swearing. We already have a iTunes explicit tag so assume that all shows may contain controversial material. Hosts are free to add a "safe for work" warning or any other warning they wish to the shows.
We may add an option in the upload forms to support this on a show by show basis.

Episode 1000 and 1024

A note from Fifty OneFifty
This is a list of all the TWaTech correspondents that I either I had no contact information for or the best e-mail I could find bounced back:

Adam, Coder365, DarkShadow, Draven, kotrin, Lunarsphere, MrE, spaceout, ThoughtPhreaker, killersmurf, Dominic Uilano, livinded, J-Hood, skyre, kitche, plexi, Scedha, Will Jasen, phizone, operat0r, blackratchet, merk, and Dr^ZigMan  


I'd like you to mention the handles and maybe the community can help us make contact with them.  I sent the invitations to the first year HPR correspondents today.  One message bounced back, but I can contact that person by other means.  I'd also like you to read the message below and consider posting it on the site.


Hacker Public Radio is inviting the participants in podcasts and organizations that proceeded HPR and led to it's creation to join a recorded panel discussion  on HPR's origins and history.  We are reaching out to TWATech, BinRev Radio, Radio Freak America, Podfert, the Infonomicon Computer Club, and contributors to the first twelve months of HPR.  Our discussion will be recorded via the LinuxBasix.com Mumble server (mumble.openspeak.cc , Port: 64747) and be released as HPR episode 1024 (Stankdawg's idea).  Episode 1024 should fall on 5 July, but we would like to shoot for recording the panel about two weeks before hand.  In case of technical or other unforeseen problems on the primary recording date, a two week lead would give us time to regroup and make a second attempt.  The date and time will be set  to make it convenient for the greatest number of people who are willing to participate to join in.  Connections over Skype and SIP phone via Asterisk are possible, but it would be simplest for everyone to try to use the open source Mumble client.

If you decide to join in (and we hope you will), please include the time zone of where you will be in mid June, especially if you are outside the continental United States.  If there are dates, days of the week and/or times you would like me to avoid scheduling the panel (i.e., "I will be gone June 19-21", "I could only do it on a weekend", "only after 8PM", "only before 10PM") I would like to know that as well.  You may contact the organizers at ep1k@HackerPublicRadio.org

Dedicated News Day

For some reason that escapes us the mail archiver stopped working after the server move. So I'll paste in here the mail list discussions on the dedicated news show. I wanted to make sure that everyone sees this discussion so I'll paste it in here.


From: Ken Fallon 
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:00:31 +0200

Hi All,

We mention it on today's show that /dev/random was in the queue for a
long time and some of the news may have been out of date. Would it be
an idea to switch one of the days to a "News" show so that we can
carry shows that review news. Any shows in there would follow the
regular scheduling rules
https://hackerpublicradio.org/calendar.php#scheduling_rules.

It's a discussion - let your voice be heard

Ken.

From: kevin granade 
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:27:25 -0500

I think this is a good idea, in fact, perhaps people could request a
priority level?  Most show ideas I have could sit in the queue for a while,
and I'd be happy to let more timely shows move ahead.

From: lostnbronx 
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:02:15 -0700

I Think a certain day could easily be put aside as a day for topical
or timely episodes.  It might be best, though, not to announce it as
being such to the general listenership, so that if there's a dearth of
news-type shows one week, another type of ep can be dropped in without
any need for a special announcement.


From: Kevin O'Brien 
Date: Tue, 01 May 2012 16:03:11 -0400

I'm going to try this again since I hit the wrong button last time and 
sent it Ken personally instead of to the list.

Just for the sake of discussion it occurs to me that while DeepGeek is 
on a hiatus for the moment, he had a weekly news spot every Friday. I 
don't know if there is any understanding that he will come back and 
resume his spot, but if so, would this mean 2 days a week reserved for 
newscasts? That might be a bit much.

Regards,

-- 
Kevin B. O'Brien
zwilnik@zwilnik.com
"A damsel with a dulcimer in a vision once I saw."

From: lostnbronx 
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:02:15 -0700

I Think a certain day could easily be put aside as a day for topical
or timely episodes.  It might be best, though, not to announce it as
being such to the general listenership, so that if there's a dearth of
news-type shows one week, another type of ep can be dropped in without
any need for a special announcement.


From: Cobra2 
Date: Tue, 01 May 2012 17:30:34 -0300

I honestly don't think news should be broadcast over HPR as it dilutes 
the technology how to with mindless dribble that can be found almost 
anywhere else. 
-- cobra2 

From: Todd 
Date: Tue, 1 May 2012 20:30:10 -0500

I think HPR is a real treasure.  Where else can so many people share
their ideas.  The strength of HPR is anything and everything is
acceptable content as long as it is of interest to hackers.  But as I
look back over the history of HPR, most attempts to add structure or a
rigorous schedule just haven't worked.  The one exception is the
current policy of syndicated Thursdays.

I have to agree with cobra2. If people want to do news shows, that's
great.  But IMHO, unless it is really important (event announcements)
it should take it's place in the queue with everybody else.  Shows
like /dev/random are awesome, but it's not because of the news they
cover.  There awesome because the guests are hilarious.  The stories
just give them something to talk about.  Even when their news is
weeks old, they are still fun to listen to.

So, there's my two cents.  For what it's worth from a long time
listener who has never contributed a show.

Todd

From: Jason Dodd 
Date: Fri, 04 May 2012 03:56:46 -0400

Why reserve any day?  One of the things I like about hpr is I don't know 
what to expect.  The more I know what to expect I think the less I'll 
like it.

From: Kevin O'Brien 
Date: Fri, 04 May 2012 12:02:29 -0400

I'm a great believer in moderation in most things. I look forward to 
many of the scheduled shows, and the ones that may not appeal to me 
probably appeal to lots of other folks. But I would favor not adding to 
them because part of the charm of HPR is not knowing what to expect. 
About one time out of every 30-40 shows I will hit the "Next" button on 
my MP3 player, which is not bad, really. But I would rather the 
occasional show that does not appeal to me than missing out on the gems.

Regards,

-- 
Kevin B. O'Brien
zwilnik@zwilnik.com
"A damsel with a dulcimer in a vision once I saw."

From: Cobra2 
Date: Fri, 04 May 2012 13:20:18 -0300

I'm not in favor of dropping rule #2. Unless it is going to be used to 
syndicate some sort of news show. News is not content it's just a 
filler if there is nothing else left to talk about. 

I know the rules state of interest to hackers. But the history of HPR 
and TWAT has been mostly shows that dig deep into a piece of software 
or hardware or are a detailed how to. Shows that have a fairly long 
shelf life not something that can be outdated if a week or two passes 
by.
-- cobra2 

From: Frank Bell 
Date: Fri, 4 May 2012 18:53:41 -0400

I tend to agree with this.

Also, as someone who is very new here, I am concerned that, if many 
slots are filled up with scheduled shows, aspiring contributers miight 
be dismayed to find that a show uploaded, say today, might not be 
posted until late June or July.   This can be a demotivator.

As an aside, I can count on both sets of fingers the number of shows 
I've hit "Next" on.  The variety of HPR is one of its main attractions 
for me.  Usually, when I do hit "Next," it's because the topic is so 
technical (say, a programming language) that I can't follow it.  

Once or twice--no more than that--it has been because the premise of the 
show was nonsensical--nevertheless, thanks to HPR, I got to hear and 
evaluate the premise, which, without the HPR's variety, I would not have 
had the opportunity to do.

From: Ken Fallon 
Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 09:14:08 +0200

OK All,

What I'm hearing is that the following shows will be dropped into the
regular First come First Served Queue:
Talk Geek To Me News.
Dev Random

The following show will be dropped from Syndicated Thursday.
Sunday Morning Linux Review.

Is this correct ?

Ken.

From: dg 
Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 07:09:38 -0400

Hi, Guys,

Just wanted to say that whatever you decide is fine by me. The news
shows I submit to HPR are actually "one half" of my regular show. That
is to say, I do a special tech-only version of my full world+tech news
show for HPR.

Therefore, in theory, a news-lover would be able to go to my website
and subscribe via RSS and get my shows rather quickly, if they so
desired. 

However, I also need to point out two more things.  First, I agree with
another poster that a distinction needs to be made between a show that
is about the guests, with current events thrown in as something for
them to comment upon; as opposed to my show which is purely about the
stories (I do rarely make editorial comments, but I try to keep my
personal opinions to a minimum.)

Second, I disagree with yet another poster that what I offer should be
"filler" and qualifies as something "that can be found almost
anywhere." The whole point of all the stories I cover is that a) they
are not covered by the mainstream media and b) they are, nevertheless,
timely and important news. In regards to this opinion, I ask you to
consider whether or not it is widely held amongst the general
listnership, which to I understand is not entirely present on this list.

Thanks for considering,
---
DeepGeek


From: Fifty OneFifty 
Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 12:51:29 -0500

I our discussion of whether we want to keep syndicated shows, we should not
lose sight of the fact that last year Ken was really scrambling to find
content to keep HPR broadcasting on a daily basis.  While I think most of
the shows in syndication would understand, I hate to put Ken in the
position of saying, "Thanks, but we don't need you any more".  As for
variety, maybe we consider offering syndicated shows a limited run, 2 or 3
shows, not in consecutive weeks, as an introduction to our listener base.
Afterwards it would be incumbent on our listeners to add those shows to
their queue if they like what they hear.  It will also be up to
contributors and listeners to look for new shows that we can invite for
temporary syndication, like pokey has with https://distributedpodcast.com.

FiftyOneFifty

From: David Whitman 
Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 11:14:31 -0700

I posted this on Henry Patrick Riley (Goggle+)

What about making a MEGA syndicated day and combining 2 or more shows
together with intro music between and posting the run time when one show
ends and another begins? Rotate the order which show airs first.﻿

The following is more comments not on G+:

I want produce some 'casual' shows  that could go into an 'emergency' queue
in case there are times when the regular queue get close to empty. Things I
want to share, but they are not time critical and I am willing to have HPR
bank (such as How I found Linux, How to run a car in the Auto-X, A vacation
to Moab, Utah, Troubleshooting an MR2 using a volt/ohm meter etc. My idea
is that as soon as the emergency queue gets a month's worth of shows they
could be put out periodically into the regular queue. They could be tagged
with a 1-5 tech rating and the more techie ones used first.

How about having 2 parallel  tracks? or 3? HPR News, HPR Command Line, HPR
Projects, a weekly show track just for news....

All good and fine - I have 3 shows that need editing to help contribute to
the problem.

Thanks to all the HPR community members and admins. I love the show.

davidWHITMAN

From: Frank Bell 
Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 15:28:05 -0400

On Sat, 5 May 2012 12:51:29 -0500
Fifty OneFifty wrote:

> I our discussion of whether we want to keep syndicated shows, we should not
> lose sight of the fact that last year Ken was really scrambling to find
> content to keep HPR broadcasting on a daily basis.    

(snip)

>  As for
> variety, maybe we consider offering syndicated shows a limited run, 2 or 3
> shows, not in consecutive weeks, as an introduction to our listener base.  

I think these thoughts have a lot of merit.  I rather enjoy learning about 
new shows through Syndicated Thursdays (I had not heard of the Sunday Morning 
Linux show until HPR introduced it to me).  Also, I must say I have heard 
some syndicated shows that I do enjoy, but not enough to actually subscribe 
to, so I find the idea of maintaining variety appealing..

My concern is that, if there are too many dedicated days, the dedicated days 
could turn into a regular line-up.  

Just my two cents.

From: Patrick Dailey 
Date: Mon, 7 May 2012 23:17:11 -0400

This may be the "healthiest" discussion that I've ever seen on the HPR
mailing list, and I love it. I want to thank each and every person
subscribed for keeping the conversation respectful, and on topic. Most
mailing lists that I've seen could not have accomplished that.

As to the scheduling multi-lemma, I have a few thoughts that I would thank
you all in advance for considering:

We have the kind of crisis that we've always wanted, namely: we have too
many shows. This is an opportunity that I don't think we should squander.
At the same time we're trying to establish a scheduling policy that an
unmanned system can obey. The goal, as I see it, is to create rules that
can deal with an abundance of shows without wasting them. Right now what we
have is a scheduling policy that worked very well with a lack of shows, and
in fact it helped to replenish them. So I believe that we need either: one
set of rules that can cope with either situation, or two sets of rules and
a way for a deterministic system to identify and transition between them.
Please chime in on this if you are good with policy.

As I see it, at least part of what we're dealing with is a resource
management problem. People create content for us, and sometimes they assume
that it has an expiration timeframe. Some content simply must be used
before it's creator feels that it has expired, or we can expect that that
creator will seek other venues in which to publish their content. We need a
way of distinguishing "perishable" content from "non-perishable" content.
We also need a way of putting a date on the perishable content. If you have
experience with user feedback systems, we could really use your help
(especially) with this part.

Since identifying potential problems without offering solutions is just
bitching, I have a couple of suggestions.

Syndicated Thursdays and "timely content"
I for one, am grateful to the shows who have allowed us to fill holes in
our que with their content. While the syndicated Thursday slot was
originally implemented out of necessity, I feel that it is an overall plus
to continue the practice. We have developed friendly and mutually
beneficial relationships with other podcasts that I would be hesitant (to
put it mildly) to sever, and there are other great podcasts that we don't
even know about yet. I agree with Frank Bell in that I think the syndicated
Thursday feed is a great discovery tool, and I'd hate to loose it as such,
but I also see these shows as friends, and I want to make sure that we
treat them like it. I don't think it's in anyone's best interest for us to
abandon that kind of relationship, or the content that has so generously
been offered to us. If (and only if) there is a "Timely news show", I would
like to see it get the Thursday slot, but in order for the syndicated show
to not be wasted, I would like to see that show bumped to Saturday.

Scheduled HPR exclusive shows and normal que shows
I think if people commit to producing scheduled content before they record
it, and live up to that commitment, that we should honor that commitment.
Perhaps there needs to be some limit to the number of pre-schedulable slots
per week and/or month that we make available, so that there is still room
to play shows from our normal que, but we-as a group decided to ask people
to produce content for us, and several people have stepped up and
delivered. Perhaps this is a situation where more than one show should be
posted per day. I don't know.

While it's easy for me to sit here and suggest these things, I don't think
that it's fair for any of us to vote for posting more than five shows per
week unless we are committing to posting more than the requested "one show
per year" if the que ever gets low again.

Lastly, I believe that new hosts should continue to get the first
unscheduled slot. This is critical to getting new people to contribute, and
to return as hosts.

If I'm wrong, or out of line, or TLDR, or whatever... feel free to say so.
I can take it.

pokey

From: "Frank Bell"
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 13:21:53 -0400

On Mon, 07 May 2012 23:17:11 -0400, Patrick Dailey 
wrote an extremely thoughtful and useful post from the "be careful what  
you wish for" department:


> Syndicated Thursdays and "timely content"  

> loose it as such, but I also see these shows as friends, and I want to  
> make sure that we treat them like it. I don't think it's in anyone's  
> best interest for us to abandon that kind of relationship, or the  
> content that has so generously been offered to us. If (and only if)  
> there is a "Timely news show", I would like to see it get the Thursday  
> slot, but in order for the syndicated show to not be wasted, I would  
> like to see that show bumped to Saturday.  

I think this is a wise suggestion.  I wasn't here when the goal of five  
days a week was set, but I'm inclined to think that it was intended to be  
a goal, not a limit.

I would suggest, as an aside, that the scheduling rules could be displayed  
more prominently.  Currently, they are at the bottom of the calendar.  I  
think prospective or new (like me) hosts should have their attention drawn  
to them more forcefully, perhaps by giving them their own page linked from  
the front page and linking to them from the calendar and from the  
"Contribute" page.  I also suggest changing the terminology from "rules"  
to "guidelines";  that's not just PR softening of a phrase, for they are  
guidelines as exceptions can be made.

It may also be useful to suggest that new hosts glance as the calendar to  
see when their available slots.  I would also like to see a friendlier  
calendar, meaning one that looks more like a wall calendar.  If you all  
wish, I would be happy to explore the WordPress plugins to see what I can  
find.

I support continuing the practice of bumping new hosts up in the queue.   
It's a recognition of effort and a motivator.  Frankly, I found it a blast  
(if an intimidating one) to look at my podplayer and see my own name  
looking back at me.

> Perhaps there needs to be some limit to the number of pre-schedulable  
> slots per week and/or month that we make available, so  

This might also be a good idea and it speaks to my concern of HPR's  
turning in to a line-up of  a few scheduled shows, rather than a platform  
that's open to newbies like me.

On the other hand, many persons have responded to the need for shows that  
Ken sounded last fall, not only with shows, but by airing promos on their  
own podcasts and websites, which leads to exposre which leads to shows (by  
the way, I think this flowering of support is a tribute to HPR and to the  
place it has amongst the community).

The flowering may yet wither and need to be watered anew.  In other words,  
once the enthusiasm wears off, Ken might be having to appeal for shows  
again.

In other words, I agree with some sort of limit and I lean towards a  
monthly one, but have no idea what would be a reasonable one.  If I were  
to try to word that as a guideline, it might come out like "the number of  
scheduled shows and the intervals between them that HPR can commit to is  
affected by the number of submissions" and leave it at that--that allows  
wiggle-room for adjusting to the realities of now.

> that there is still room to play shows from our normal que, but we-as a  
> group decided to ask people to produce content for us, and several  
> people have stepped up and delivered. Perhaps this is a situation where  
> more than one show should be posted per day. I don't know.  

"The following is an HPR special presentation . . . ."

I like it.

Just my two cents.

Once again, thanks for the nice welcome.  This is a good place to be.  (I  
have just cashed in some rewards points for a decent headset.)

From: Ken Fallon 
Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 07:10:43 +0200

I've removed the extended calendar so that we have a better view of
what shows are in the queue. There are under four weeks of shows left,
acceptable but hardly anything to celebrate about. Without TGTMNews
and the syndicated shows I would have been back begging for shows by
now.

Just something to keep in mind.

Ken.

From: Cobra 2 
Date: Wed, 9 May 2012 13:18:51 -0300

Deepgeek. I just wanted to apologize for using words which caused you to
feel like I don't appreciate the work that you do every week. (I pull down
the whole tgtm feed) I'm not going to defend or back down from what I said.
But I just want you to know that what YOU do is appreciated. You've been a
part of this community for as long as I can remember. You also put most of
us to shame on contributing content. So i'm going to go back to my corner
and attempt to not crush people next time I crawl out of my hole.

Sorry again dude.

--cobra2

From: Frank Bell 
Date: Sat, 12 May 2012 17:39:48 -0400

On Wed, 9 May 2012 07:10:43 +0200
Ken Fallon <ken.fallon@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've removed the extended calendar so that we have a better view of
> what shows are in the queue.  

That is much easier to read.  Thank you.

I'm planning to do a simple tutorial on prepping pictures for posting to 
website with the GIMP.  I started my outline today and hope to have it done 
within two weeks.

