We started producing shows as Today with a Techie 11 years, 9 months, 21 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 15 days.
Please help out tagging older shows !
My garage door failed spectacularly for a second time. I make an attempt to repair it but find that my extension cables are a bit too short. I hope I can explain a little about how garage doors work along the way.
Hi Tony Hughes here with the third show of some short interviews I did during the Liverpool Makefest held on the 24th June 2017 at Liverpool Central Library.
The first interview is with David from Studio@Deyes in Wavertree
The second interview was with Laura from Tactile electronics
https://tactile-electronics.tumblr.com/
The final interview for this show was with Amelia, Beth and Chelsea from Liverpool Girl Geeks.
In this episode I explain how I use python to track the number of shows in the HPR queue and then turn on a blinkstick to indicate the size of the queue.
Stack exchange
http://stackoverflow.com/
urllib (Python 3), urllib2 (Python 2)
https://docs.python.org/2/library/urllib.html
re - regular expressions in python
https://docs.python.org/2/library/re.html
Blinkstick
https://www.blinkstick.com/
Python code included below
#!/usr/bin/env python3
### This is a scratchpad file I've created to try out snippets of code in python
# The script below is for use with Python 3
# This script should work out of the box on most systems running a version of Python 3
# If you happen to have a blinkstick lying about then your can uncomment the blinkstick module
# and uncomment the references at the bottom of the program that call the blinkstick functions
# Regards, Mr X
# Imported modules
from time import sleep # used to pause program
#from blinkstick import blinkstick # used to control blinkstick nano attached to usb port of raspberry pi
import urllib.request # used to capture hpr webpage content to get the number of HPR shows in the que
import re # regular expressions, used to find sting in HPR webpage (get_hpr_que)
# These functions control a blink stick nano attached to my raspberry pi USB port #################
# They can be ignored or deleted if you don't have one
def bstick_off():
# Search for all attached blinksticks and turn them all off
for bstick in blinkstick.find_all():
bstick.turn_off() # Turn front blinkstick LED off
bstick.set_color(channel=0, index=1, name="black") # Turn rear blinkstick led off
print("Blinkstick: " + bstick.get_serial() + " turned off")
def bstick_on(colour):
# Turn blinkstick on and set led colour to string value stored in var colour
# valid colours are, black, silver, gray, white, maroon, red, purple, fuchsia, green, lime, olive, yellow, navy, blue, teal, aqua
for bstick in blinkstick.find_all():
bstick.set_max_rgb_value(30) # Sets max blinkstick RGB value to 15, makes LED dimm
bstick.set_color(name=colour) # Turn blinkstick on, var colour determines colour
print ("Blinkstick: " + bstick.get_serial() + " | Colour: " + bstick.get_color(color_format="hex") + " [" + colour + "]")
#hex
def bstick_on_random():
# Turn blinkstick on colour random
for bstick in blinkstick.find_all():
bstick.set_random_color()
print ("Blinkstick: " + bstick.get_serial() + " | Colour: " + bstick.get_color(color_format="hex"))
def bstick_blink_red():
# Flash blinkstick colour red
for bstick in blinkstick.find_all():
bstick.blink(name="red")
print ("Blinkstick: " + bstick.get_serial() + " | Colour: " + bstick.get_color(color_format="hex"))
################################################################################
def get_hpr_que():
# Goto hacker public radio calendar page and extract the number of shows in the queue
# then return the number of shows as an integer
# also turns on blinkstick LED and sends number of HPR shows in the que to the display
url = 'http://hackerpublicradio.org/calendar.php' # HPR url for calendar page
try:
html_content = urllib.request.urlopen(url).read() # Try to read hpr calendar page
except:
print("ERROR: Problem acessing url " + url) # if error accessing url then return -1
hpr_shows = -1
return hpr_shows
html_page = str(html_content) # convert to string
line_begin = html_page.find('There are only <strong>') # find position of string in html page
line_end = line_begin + 70 # Store line end position (start position + 70)
line = html_page[line_begin:line_end] # Capture string line
#print(line) # DEBUG Print line string
digit = re.findall(r'\d+',line) # Find digits in line
#print(digit[0]) # print the 1st digit
try:
hpr_shows = int(digit[0]) # convert digit list to integer days
except: # If show numbers not found then return -1
print("ERROR: Problem getting number of HPR shows in que.")
hpr_shows = -1
return hpr_shows
#print(hpr_shows) # DEBUG
#return hpr_shows
if hpr_shows > 9: # If hpr show que > 9 turn on green LED
print("Turn on green blinkstick LED")
#bstick_on("green")
elif hpr_shows > 5: # Else if hpr show que > 5 turn on blue LED
print("Turn on blue blinkstick LED")
#bstick_on("blue")
elif hpr_shows > -1: # Else if hpr show que > -1 turn on ref LED
print("Turn on red blinkstick LED")
#bstick_on("red")
else:
print("Flash red blinkstick LED")
#bstick_blink_red() # Else blink LED to show error
print("The are " + str(hpr_shows) + " shows in the HPR que...")
sleep(4)
print("Turn off all blinkstick LED's")
#bstick_off() # Turn blinkstick off
# Main program
get_hpr_que()
Hosted by Dave Morriss on 2017-07-20 is flagged as Explicit and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Listen in ogg, spx, or mp3 format.
Series: Podcast recommendations | Comments (0)
I did two HPR shows 1516 and 1518 in 2014 about the podcast feeds I'm subscribed to. I have made a few additions since then (and a few subtractions) and I thought I'd share a few of the additions.
The list below shows the feed titles. Clicking on them will take you to the full notes where you can examine the details of the feed.
Hosted by Quvmoh on 2017-07-19 is flagged as Explicit and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Listen in ogg, spx, or mp3 format.
Comments (2)
This is a follow up to show 0785 where I explained how and why I was recording 3d sound using my home made Binaural head phones, this episode is a standard morning commute waiting for Phantom Hawk to pick me up in his big yellow bus, enjoy.
Hosted by Jon Kulp on 2017-07-18 is flagged as Clean and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Listen in ogg, spx, or mp3 format.
Comments (0)
I recently acquired a refurbished Kobo Aura e-book reader. This episode is a brief review.
Hi Tony Hughes here with the second of some short interviews I did during the Liverpool Makefest held on the 24th June 2017 at Liverpool Central Library.
The first interview is with Jimmy England from Warington Fab Lab
http://fablab.warrington.ac.uk/
The second interview was with Patrick from DoES Liverpool
In this episode I cover the menus 25 to 40 of the Baofeng UV5R VHF / UHF Hand Held Transceiver
Menu 25, SFT-D - Frequency Shift Direction [ - / + / 0 ] (Duplex shift)
Menu 26, OFFSET - Frequency shift amount - Values (MHz) [ 00.000 - 69.990 ]
Menu 27, MEM-CH - Store a Memory Channel [ 000 -- 127 ]
Menu 28, DEL-CH - Delete a memory channel [ 000 -- 127 ]
Menu 29, WT-LED - Display back-light colour (Standby) [ BLUE, ORANGE, PURPLE, OFF ]
Menu 30, RX-LED - Display back-light colour (Receive) [ BLUE, ORANGE, PURPLE, OFF ]
Menu 31, TX-LED - Display back-light colour (Transmitt) [ BLUE, ORANGE, PURPLE, OFF ]
Menu 32, AL-MOD - Alarm Mode, Activated when Orange button Held [ SITE, TONE, CODE ]
Menu 33, BAND - Band Selection [VHF/UHF]
Menu 34, TDR-AB - Transmit selection in Dual Watch mode [ A / B / OFF ]
Menu 35, STE (Squelch Tail Elimination) [ ON / OFF ]
https://ham.stackexchange.com/questions/3771/how-does-the-baofeng-radio-eliminate-squelch-tail
Menu 36, RP-STE - Squelch Tail Elimination through a repeater [ 1-10 OFF]
Menu 37, RPT-RL - Delay the squelch tail of re-peater [ 1 - 10 OFF ]
Menu 38, 38 PONMGS - Power On Message [ Full / MSG ]
Menu 39, Roger Beep, Wikipedia [ ON / OFF ]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roger_beep
Menu 40 RESET - Restore defaults [ VFO / ALL ]
In this HPR episode, I discuss the open-sourcing of Colossal Cave Adventure (a text adventure computer game), my childhood exposure to text adventure games, and passing along the text adventure torch to my middle son thanks to the "bsdgames" package.
Opening sound clip taken from "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey." Closing song is "The Free Software Song" performed by Mark Forry, Yvette Osborne, Ron Fox, Steve Finney, Bill Cope, Kip McAtee, Ernie Provencher, Dan Auvil (http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.en.html).
E-mail: claudio@linuxbasement.com
IRC: ClaudioM on irc.freenode.net, #oggcastplanet
Wikipedia: Colossal Cave Adventure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_Cave_Adventure
The Advent of ADVENT
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7536
The Adventure Begins Again
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7540
Github: Open Adventure
https://gitlab.com/esr/open-adventure
ClaudioM's Blog: The Adventure Begins Again, and it Begins for Us!
https://claudiomiranda.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/the-adventure-begins-again-and-it-begins-for-us/
LinuxQuestions Wiki: BSD Games
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/BSD_games
Youtube: "Aventure 2: Pirate Cove" for the Commodore VIC-20 / Commodore VC-20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04ghPx8WjLM
Wikipedia: Infocom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infocom
Wikipedia: Mattel Aquarius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Aquarius
Wikipedia: Zork
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork
Wikipedia: Hunt the Wumpus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_the_Wumpus
SourceForge: Frotz, A Portable Z-Machine Interpreter
http://frotz.sourceforge.net/
Hosted by b-yeezi on 2017-07-12 is flagged as Explicit and released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Listen in ogg, spx, or mp3 format.
Comments (1)
In this episode, talk about how I created my own virtualenvwrapper-like interface using Fish Shell.
Fish Shell is "a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, and the rest of the family. It excels in tab completion and ease of use, but virtualenvwrapper does not support it.
Virtualenvwrapper, like the name suggests, is a wrapper around python's virtualenv functionality, which allows you to use different versions of python packages in separate environments. To learn more, listen to BJB's show called A bit of background on virtualenvwrapper.
Functions and aliases in my fish config file:
# Set virtual directory root
export set WORKON_HOME=$HOME/Envs
# List virtual environments
alias lsenvs="ls -m $WORKON_HOME | sed 's/\///g'"
# Create python2 virtual environment
function -d "Like virtualenvwrapper for python2" mkvirtualenv2
virtualenv -p python2 $WORKON_HOME/$argv;
and source $WORKON_HOME/$argv/bin/activate.fish;
and echo "Virtual environment created."
end
# Create python3 virtual environment
function -d "Like virtualenvwrapper" mkvirtualenv
virtualenv -p python3 $WORKON_HOME/$argv;
and source $WORKON_HOME/$argv/bin/activate.fish;
and echo "Virtual environment created."
end
# Source a virtual environment
function workon
source $WORKON_HOME/$argv/bin/activate.fish; and echo "Switch to virtual environment."
end
# Delete a virtual environment
function -d "Like virtualenvwrapper" rmvirtualenv
if test -n "$VIRTUAL_ENV"
deactivate
end
rm -rf $WORKON_HOME/$argv; and echo "Virtual environment deleted."
endGet a full list of all our shows.