Comments

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Jim DeVore says: Useful episode!

RE: hpr4697::2026-08-04 Correcting the Dates of Files by Vance
00:11:57 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Thanks for including the code in the show notes. This feels like a common problem. I have some directories full of scanned images where I'd like to preserve the scan order in terms of time but insert an entirely different date. Probably punch the resulting value into the metadata as well. This script will be a great starting place.

I also am frustrated with the ability to pry files out of Google's walled garden on my phone. I'm using an open source app to synchronize several directories on my phone including my photo directory, so I can work off of synchronized copy and never have to explicitly move or remove anything from my phone.

This sounds like a show in itself, and is on my to-do list.

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candycanearter07 says: re: mic issues

RE: hpr4696::2026-08-03 HPR Community News for July 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.
00:50:52 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
hi, sorry again about the mic issues!! im stuck using the builtin mic for my laptop and also it was like 4 in the morning and i just woke up :P

also he/him

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Archer72 says: Brilliant!

RE: hpr4705::2026-08-14 Free Software Is Wasted On You Teens by Trollercoasterfrom the series Freedom is not Free .
00:24:14 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Trollercoaster,

Brilliant show.

I hear it took 5 beers to quench your thirst.

Meant in the best way,
Cheers!!

Archer72

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Archer72 says: hpr4673 First contact

RE: hpr4696::2026-08-03 HPR Community News for July 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.
00:50:52 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Ken and Kevie,

Thanks for the shout out. Glad ya'll enjoyed this. :)

Archer72

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Archer72 says: Reply to Whiskeyjack and candycanearter07

RE: hpr4678::2026-07-08 High Resolution Elapsed Time in Shell Scripts by Whiskeyjack
00:28:49 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi,

I second an episode on DEBUG, that would make a great show!

Cheers,
Archer72

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Archer72 says: hpr4657 :: UNIX Curio #8

RE: hpr4676::2026-07-06 HPR Community News for June 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.
00:34:53 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Ken,

I would be interested to hear more about your use of Comm on your NAS as mentioned in comments about UNIX Curio #8

Cheers!
Archer72

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Archer72 says: Amateur Radio Field Days

RE: hpr4696::2026-08-03 HPR Community News for July 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.
00:50:52 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Ken,

The guilt trip was on myself, for not getting out more often.
The radio gives me a reason to reach out to real people.

Cheers,
Archer72

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Whiskeyjack says: Checksums and HPR4677

RE: hpr4677::2026-07-07 UNIX Curio #10 - Checksums and Hashes by Vance
00:18:21 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Checksums of various sorts were used in serial communications protocols to detect errors. There are a variety of different algorithms for these and they were intended to detect transmission errors. They were an additional step beyond simple parity bits.

It probably didn't take much imagination to extend this concept to files which may be transmitted over communications links which may not have error detection or correction built in.

In my upcoming series on industrial controls, I mention one industrial serial protocol which originated around the late 1970s. There were two variants of that one protocol, one optimized for serial links, and the other for radio links, and they used different checksum algorithms!

I get the impression that this just wasn't really seen as a problem in those days, so it's perhaps not too surprising to see Unix file checksum utilities using different checksum methods. The reasons may have been as simple as the two were optimized for different use cases, although we may never know at this point in time.

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Jim DeVore says: Great episode!

RE: hpr4684::2026-07-16 Sim Racing on the cheap! by operat0r
00:21:11 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
While I'm not a sim racer myself, I love the intersection of computers and hardware and I love glimpses into other people's hobbies. This provided both. Thank you!

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Whiskeyjack says: Response to candycanearter07 in HPR4688

RE: hpr4688::2026-07-22 Downloading Podcasts with a Shell Script by Whiskeyjack
00:30:19 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
That sounds like a fascinating idea. I hadn't thought of that. I have my RSS reader follow the various podcasts that I listen to, but I hadn't thought of using that data for anything.

Perhaps you should do a podcast episode on that topic.

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candycanearter07 says: cool solution

RE: hpr4688::2026-07-22 Downloading Podcasts with a Shell Script by Whiskeyjack
00:30:19 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
It's always cool seeing other peoples solutions to similar problems! I use a python script to parse my rss reader's sqlite database to download podcasts :P

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Archer72 says: Reading

RE: hpr4681::2026-07-13 My Disabilities by Antoine
00:04:06 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Antoine,

Thank you for sharing your story.

For those interested, these are the 2 book descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuareg_(novel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Exile


- Archer72

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The_Dud3 says: Favorite Malt Liquores/Super Strong Lagers

RE: hpr4669::2026-06-25 HPR Beer Garden 14 - Super Strong Lager by Keviefrom the series Beverages.
00:32:39 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Dunno how they are sold in Europe, but in the USA we drink that stuff in 40oz bottles, like men LMAO. Although sadly they switched to making the bottles out of plastic which ruins the taste. In college my go tos were Hurricanes which were $1.99 per 40oz and Mickey's which were in 40z ore smaller wide mouth bottles shaped like hand grenades, which yes I played baseball with. anyway I love the series guys and can't wait till you cover Cream Ale (recommend Genesee Cream Ale since it's the essential brand for the style)

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Lucinda says: Thank you

RE: hpr4685::2026-07-17 Listening to SSB stations in the early 1980s by Lennart Benschopfrom the series HAM radio.
00:15:12 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Lennart, I enjoyed your broadcast. Thank you for sharing.

Cheers,
-Lucinda
56F, UK/US, Field Scientist, and Analog builder, tinkerer

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Vance says: Sorry, xmanmonk

RE: hpr4677::2026-07-07 UNIX Curio #10 - Checksums and Hashes by Vance
00:18:21 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Oops, I was switching between tabs when editing my comment and forgot who I was replying to. My apologies for misidentifying you!

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Whiskeyjack says: Reply to candycanearter07 on HPR4678

RE: hpr4678::2026-07-08 High Resolution Elapsed Time in Shell Scripts by Whiskeyjack
00:28:49 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I'm glad that you found this episode interesting.

I wasn't aware that you could use DEBUG to measure the time that an episode took to run.

Perhaps you could do an episode on this to tell us how to do it? I am sure that a lot of people would find that very interesting.

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candycanearter07 says: cool ep

RE: hpr4678::2026-07-08 High Resolution Elapsed Time in Shell Scripts by Whiskeyjack
00:28:49 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I didn't know there were so many ways to measure the exact time, I just usually use $EPOCHREALTIME for stuff.

Did you know you can also catch DEBUG on bash to implement a "time last command took" field to your prompt? It's a bit of a hacky solution but it works pretty well.

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Vance says: Thanks, and systemd as a future topic

RE: hpr4677::2026-07-07 UNIX Curio #10 - Checksums and Hashes by Vance
00:18:21 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Whiskeyjack, I appreciate your support on this and past episodes. There's another UNIX Curio coming, life got in the way of me recording it but things have settled down now. Another episode is mostly written, and I have two more solid ideas. However, these will require more research than usual so it will likely take me longer to get them out.

Agreed that systemd is a great topic, but I am not the person to explain it. I have not adapted to it well and need to look up man pages most times I want to do some basic thing. However, this makes me think that the subject of UNIX init systems over the years might be up my alley (though would also require significant research). Will give that idea some consideration, thanks!

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candycanearter07 says: cool show :D

RE: hpr4677::2026-07-07 UNIX Curio #10 - Checksums and Hashes by Vance
00:18:21 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
cksum seems pretty useful! seems like a useful cross-platform way to make hashes, and its age does sort of work for its advantage there!

also, you can use comm to pretty easily check a list of chksums :)

im still most likely going to still just use md5sum, but its nice to know that theres a UNIX alternative ^^

also, for topics you could cover busybox or apropos maybe?

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Archer72 says: Another great show!

RE: hpr4672::2026-06-30 Hey Mum, I'm on Spotify ! by Ken Fallon
00:37:29 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Ken,

Great show, and also laughed at 'Look at this great thing I did'

I get the same response in my household :-)

Cheers,
Archer72

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xmanmonk says: Another great show

RE: hpr4677::2026-07-07 UNIX Curio #10 - Checksums and Hashes by Vance
00:18:21 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Really happy with this series. At the end, you asked about ideas for further episodes. Perhaps a brief introduction to systemctl and journalctl commands (in the systemd world) would be a good topic. As a greybeard, I was reluctant to embrace systemd, but eventually came around as it seemed nearly inevitable. Both are very useful for tracking down system problems, especially journalctl.

Thanks again for a great episode!

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Ken Fallon says: hpr3962 :: It's your data

RE: hpr4644::2026-05-21 Response to comments on HPR4424: Newsboat... by Archer72
00:07:08 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Ken shows a safer way to get episodes from HPR

https://www.hackerpublicradio.com/eps/hpr3962/index.html

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Archer72 says: Ken on Community Show HPR4676

RE: hpr4644::2026-05-21 Response to comments on HPR4424: Newsboat... by Archer72
00:07:08 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Ken,

I believe that you did sign up for a show about using XML Starlet for feeds.

;-)

Cheers,
Archer72

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The Librarian says: Ook ?

RE: hpr4674::2026-07-02 Audiobooks by Ahuka
00:10:16 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Ook !

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Jan says: subtitles

RE: hpr4181::2024-08-12 Downloading out of copyright movies by Bob
00:01:47 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
If you want the subtitle as well

yt-dlp --write-subs --sub-format srt --proxy socks5://localhost:9150

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candycanearter07 says: hello!

RE: hpr4666::2026-06-22 How I got into tech by Lennart Benschopfrom the series How I got into tech.
00:19:00 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I liked this episode, its nice seeing other peoples introduction to the hobby. I agree with Windigo that its amusing you got into computing "late", since I also got into it very much later :P

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Operat0r says: Glasses

RE: hpr4655::2026-06-05 Tips for Glasses by norrist
00:09:50 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I want to say thank you. I am glad the queue was empty because I recently bought new glasses at Costco. I feel like I overpaid for them (which makes sense since I have not worn glasses or contacts in 15 years). My vision is changing as I age (I am now 46). Even with a large 49 ultrawide monitor, I must increase the font size to read comfortably. I ordered 2 monitors today. Wish me luck.

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Windigo says: Nice to meet you

RE: hpr4666::2026-06-22 How I got into tech by Lennart Benschopfrom the series How I got into tech.
00:19:00 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Thank you for the introduction episode, Lennart! I really enjoyed hearing about your path through computing.

I thought it was very amusing that you thought you arrived to computing "late", as you predated my own introduction to computing by a decade.

Looking forward to hearing your next episode!

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xmanmonk says: Another great show!

RE: hpr4667::2026-06-23 UNIX Curio #9 - printf by Vance
00:20:39 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Thanks again for all your work on these episodes. Lots of good info about printf. I usually futz around with echo to get it to work on my machine, but may not work on others. There are good reasons here to use printf instead.

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Whiskeyjack says: HPR4667 - printf

RE: hpr4667::2026-06-23 UNIX Curio #9 - printf by Vance
00:20:39 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
This is a very interesting series, and I hope that you continue with it.

Here's a few other very useful things that you can do with printf that have made use of.

In a previous episode I mentioned that if you wish to concatenate several audio files into one using ffmpeg you need to create a file containing the names of the files plus some additional text.

You could write a loop writing out each line of the file one at a time.

Or you could do this with a single printf command as follows:

printf "file '%s'\n" *.flac > podseglist.txt

This will create a file consisting of multiple lines of text, each in the form of the word "file" followed by the name of the file and then a line feed. No loop is necessary.

Another example came up with something that I was working on yesterday. I needed to print a floating point time value by combining separate seconds and microsecond numbers.

However the microsecond number is not zero padded on the left and so would give an incorrect value if used it as is. This was readily solved however by using printf to zero pad the number.

padusec=$( printf '%06d' $timeusec )

I was then able to take this result and append it to a string containing the time in seconds followed by a decimal separator and then the zero padded time in microseconds.


It is things like these that make shell scripting fun to use.