Comments
Whiskeyjack says: Lightning and Networks
RE: hpr4762::2026-11-03 Surviving the Strike: A Host’s Tale of Lightning by operat0r00:11:45 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Fibre optic networks are sometimes used between buildings because they are more resistant to lightning and also help deal with differences in electrical potential in systems fed by different sources.
People apparently do use them in home networks, but I don't know any of the details on that. This may help with the problem of lightning coming through a network connector in your home.
This doesn't solve the issue of lightning coming through the electric power lines. I don't have any suggestions for that.
Kevin O'Brien says: I have more planned
RE: hpr4764::2026-11-05 EV_Update_20260306 by Ahuka00:05:29 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I am collecting data for this and will do more shows on renewables, EV cars, etc.
archer72 says: beverage of choice
RE: hpr4759::2026-10-29 Quine and the Application of Logic to Science by Trurl00:39:52 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi,
I think some of us might need to listen again, while sipping on coffee (or foamy beverage) in order to absorb everything in this episode.
Cheers to all,
Archer72
archer72 says: Good to hear
RE: hpr4764::2026-11-05 EV_Update_20260306 by Ahuka00:05:29 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi,
Good to hear about advancing battery technology and renewables. Hopefully there will be more timeless episodes.
Archer72
archer72 says: New life for retro games
RE: hpr4765::2026-11-06 BruCON interview 3: Awesome retro by Kristofffrom the series Interviews.00:26:40 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Kristoff,
Thanks for this interview.
It was good to hear about new life for the retro games space.
Cheers,
Archer72
kristoff says: zx spectrum
RE: hpr4765::2026-11-06 BruCON interview 3: Awesome retro by Kristofffrom the series Interviews.00:26:40 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Correction
hum .. the zx spectrum dates from 1982 ..not 1984.
No idea that the zx spectrum followed that fast after the zx81
Antoine says: reply to candycanearter and archer72
RE: hpr4766::2026-11-09 Rant about Audacity 4.0.1 by Antoine00:04:00 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
thank you, beloveds. i listened about tenacity, but it seemed a little crude to me, without the details of perfection.
but, after this, i installed and tested tenacity, and plan on recording and editing the next one in ten, what do you think? (:
(audacity 4.0.2 was released, guess who didn't pay attention to it)
<ºxº>
archer72 says: Re: re: espeak
RE: hpr4757::2026-10-27 Follow-up on a local Ham visit for Kevie and Ken by Archer72from the series HAM radio.00:04:25 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Second the comment on espeak.
Also Piper is a good alternative.
http://hackerpublicradio.org/eps/hpr4072/index.html
Jim DeVore says: clone voices
RE: hpr4761::2026-11-02 HPR Community News for October 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.01:18:36 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
While I have no objection to the use of my cloned voice, perhaps the objections could be addressed with one of these ways:
#1. Use of generic clone voices where the voice was attributed to a clone and not the writer's clone. This would be no different from a device used by the hearing impaired.
#2. Clearly identify the voice as a clone of the writer and not the actual writer.
Either way, I think it gives the janitors a break and provides some variety in this particular show. I'm sure there will be some mispronunciations, but the janitors don't have a perfect track record either.
candycanearter07 says: re: espeak
RE: hpr4757::2026-10-27 Follow-up on a local Ham visit for Kevie and Ken by Archer72from the series HAM radio.00:04:25 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
espeak is one of my favorite programs that "just works" to get a quick tts voice out in stuff
Ken Fallon (Clone) says: A little test for "cloned voice" comments
RE: hpr4760::2026-10-30 Robert A. Heinlein: Later Works by Ahukafrom the series Science Fiction and Fantasy.00:13:51 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I am Ken Fallon, I definitely wrote and endorse this comment.
candycanearter07 says: creative solution
RE: hpr4763::2026-11-04 Solving anagrams with bash by Ken Fallon00:07:03 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
i always love seeing silly scripts that objectively have little use but are fun to write and figure out
Whiskeyjack says: Reply to Antoine
RE: hpr4718::2026-09-02 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 2 by Whiskeyjack00:30:54 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Thank you for your comment. It is always good to get feedback on this series.
I started writing a more complete answer to this question, but it started getting long enough I suspect that it would be better to address it in a follow up episode where I address listener questions.
I have at least one follow up episode planned to address topics raised in the comments and I have added this one to the list. I will frame it in terms of simple versus complex in the context of big versus small projects.
If anyone has any other questions or things they would like me to expand upon, please post them in the the comments section under any of the episodes in this series.
Antoine says: thank you
RE: hpr4718::2026-09-02 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 2 by Whiskeyjack00:30:54 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
thanks, Whiskeyjack, for taking the time and expertise to answer this mortal. very appreciated knowledge to a so narrow-mind of me thinking 0x000434 (any memory adress) is a pinnacle of complexity when, depending on the size of the project (and the skill of the programmer), it is not any higher ground than using variables.
yes, for a podcast, your choice of what to delve on is definitely a must.
Whiskeyjack says: Reply to Antoine on memory addresses
RE: hpr4718::2026-09-02 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 2 by Whiskeyjack00:30:54 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
In the series on PLCs I stuck mainly to older systems as they are simpler and so can be more easily explained in a podcast.
Some later PLCs used their programming software (or IDE) to add layers of abstraction to addressing which could be seen as the equivalent of named variables as opposed to address based.
Manual memory assignment was not actually that difficult in practice, but your point of view on that may depend on the size and complexity of projects that you worked on.
There is much to be said for simple PLCs and programming software when your objective is to bang out small projects quickly without having to become an expert in many different brands of different proprietary PLCs.
So, your point of view on this can vary depending on what sort of projects you worked on.
Antoine says: Excellent program
RE: hpr3771::2023-01-16 How I eliminated pain naturally by Paul Quirk00:19:46 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Paul.
This was a so inspiring show, uplifting too. Thanks for your sharing and many blesses to your health and in everything!
I'm feeling discomfort in my wrists and back of the left hand in the last months; was checking for ergonomic mouse and keyboard but didn't go for one yet. Listing to your recommendations I think that is a way to go for good.
Antoine says: PC meaning
RE: hpr4718::2026-09-02 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 2 by Whiskeyjack00:30:54 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Me listening: 'PC stands for' (Personal Computer) 'Programmable Controller". (Mind blows.)
'It also came to mean Personal Computer'. Uff, I was not ALL wrong after all.
I haven't listened to all the PLC series for now, but what I listened to is very well done.
What I saw in ep. 3 (hpr4728) and caught my attention is that the memory management was manual, so the programmer needed to know and define the adresses for the functions (for that specific PLC), and this episode 2 conveys a similar ideia: inputs and outputs are not figures on their own to referentiate: you need to go to their memory adresses to get them.
I was thinking if it was an advantage, as to simplicity or precision or maybe even security (as to be so low-level that it was hard to do something wrong that still would worked in unintended ways, instead of just not working), or if it was mere limitation of the processing capacity and languages (not) supported at the time.
Don't see this as a question, it probably is self-answered in the shows and I just have to listen more of them calmly. See as an attention-grabbing content.
AJ says: Incremental adoption
RE: hpr4743::2026-10-07 wl-copy by Klaatu00:14:20 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Thanks for this show! A good, focused tour of these handy commands.
I'm almost entirely on Wayland these days, but for a good while I was straddling Wayland/X11 and sharing utility scripts across machines. I still have conditionals like this littered across my fish scripts:
```fish
if test "$DESKTOP_SESSION" = "regolith-x11" -o "$WAYLAND_DISPLAY" = "no"
set cmd xsel -ib
else if test "$DESKTOP_SESSION" = "regolith-wayland"
set cmd wl-copy
else
echo "I don't know how to copy"
end
....
| $cmd
```
Probably time to clean those up! But old hacks in personal utility scripts really tie the room together don't they?
brian-in-ohio says: Good show
RE: hpr4735::2026-09-25 hpr4715 :: friedcamp interviews part 5: Yvon Masyn by Kristofffrom the series Interviews.00:35:04 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Enjoyed this show, I'm a sucker for a blimp!
archer72 says: Experiment
RE: hpr4761::2026-11-02 HPR Community News for October 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.01:18:36 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Ken,
It was good to hear this community show after such a great effort. I wouldn't call it a failed experiment, but one to be used on a small scale.
I kind of feel bad for introducing this type of tool, but after discussing it with Mrs. Archer, came to the conclusion that it doesn't hurt to try something new.
I am reminded that since this is a community effort, bad (or limited use) ideas will have a vote.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertog_Jan
Cheers,
(especially to Ken)
Archer72
brian-in-ohio says: espeak
RE: hpr4757::2026-10-27 Follow-up on a local Ham visit for Kevie and Ken by Archer72from the series HAM radio.00:04:25 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Espeak is better than this 'cloned' voice. Espeak conveys information without promising human likeness and then failing. I think this desire to have Star Trek like computer experiences has led to an emphasis on form while not getting the underlying function working well. Bring back Eliza and plain text!
Ken Fallon says: Apologies
RE: hpr4761::2026-11-02 HPR Community News for October 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.01:18:36 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi candycanearter07,
When I read this comment I was sure that you were mistaken, as I had (or so I though) made a point of reading your comments out myself.
However you are correct two of your seven comments were read out by clones. Those two slipped in as one block of eight under the episode hpr4741.
This was an honest mistake, and as you can see all the other comments I deliberately personalized with text so it would be clear that I was personally reading it.
I have edited out the section and replaced it with my own reading of the comments.
All the media has now been replaced so the vast majority of people will only hear the corrected version.
As for the others, I have triggered a force re-download of the episode to the new version, however that may only trigger on the next download of the episode, and is dependent on the client people are using.
I can only apologies for the mistake, and please be assured that it was a genuine error, and not a intentional act on my part.
Ken.
Whiskeyjack says: Voice Clones in HPR News
RE: hpr4761::2026-11-02 HPR Community News for October 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.01:18:36 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
That was quite an interesting demonstration. While the voice clones were not perfect, they were very recognizable as the voices of particular show hosts.
While having each comment read out by a voice clone of the commenter is an interesting idea. I think it may perhaps be better to simply treat the voice clones as "guest hosts" for the community news and have a few arbitrary clones read out the comments, perhaps rotating the clones for different months, and have two per show reading alternate comments.
This would also get around the problem of keeping track of who objects to their voice being cloned and who does not. You would just need a small number of volunteer "voice clone guest hosts" for reading comments. By using HPR hosts as the voice clones rather than some arbitrary AI voice, I think it would help promote a sense of community.
However, the "live" community news hosts should still offer their comments on the comments when appropriate, as those are in many cases as interesting to listen to as the comments themselves (e.g. Ken's brief interjection on electrical power frequency when reading one of my comments). I would hate to lose this sort of "human" element of the show.
If the process of creating the audio for comments read by clones could be largely automated, this may reduce the amount of work which needed to be done by the community news hosts. It may also be advantageous to avoid having the entire show in the voice of a single host in cases where there are no additional humans available.
However, if the process cannot be automated and it continues to result in more work for the Community News hosts than doing it manually, then I'm not sure that it is worth doing.
P.S. While the voice clones did make some mistakes, I'm not sure that their error rate is actually worse than that of some of the human hosts who read out the comments.
candycanearter07 says: voice of hell
RE: hpr4761::2026-11-02 HPR Community News for October 2026 by HPR Volunteersfrom the series HPR Community News.01:18:36 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
i never consented to this what in the actual frick i was pretty explicit on the mailing list about NOT having my comments read out by a terrible god awful voice """"""""""clone"""""""""" and hearing my own thoughts soullessly voiced by a machine was sickening. please either refrain from using the bot on my comments and either outright skip mine or actually put a modicum of effort into your JOB and actually use your voice. thank you
Whiskeyjack says: Reply to Kevin O'Brien on nostalgia in computing
RE: hpr4758::2026-10-28 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 6 by Whiskeyjack00:29:45 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Thank you for your comment.
If you like the overlap between industrial controls and computing, you may find the next episode, "hpr4768 :: Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 7" of particular interest. In that episode I focus on the use of computers on the factory floor, including a number of odd and unusual variations on commodity architectures, and how software was used in ways that its creators probably never imagined.
Kevin O'Brien says: Nostalgia
RE: hpr4758::2026-10-28 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 6 by Whiskeyjack00:29:45 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I loved the show and it made me nostalgic for my earlier days in computing.
Whiskeyjack says: Reply to Archer72 on Electrical Frequency Standards
RE: hpr4758::2026-10-28 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 6 by Whiskeyjack00:29:45 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
I will add this question to the list of follow up questions for this series and address it in a follow up episode.
I will give you a short answer now however, which is that the electrical power frequency and voltage situation is actually much more complex and arbitrary than you probably imagine. I will have to go into a bit of technology and business history to answer it properly however, so I'll leave the details to the follow up episode.
Thank you for your question and I hope to get more questions which I can also try to answer, so I hope that listeners will post in their questions under any of the episodes in this series.
I think that some of the best episodes that I have done so far have been the product of answers to questions that people posted, so I'll ask people to go ahead and post comments.
rabbitear says: AI Voice
RE: hpr4757::2026-10-27 Follow-up on a local Ham visit for Kevie and Ken by Archer72from the series HAM radio.00:04:25 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Started off okay, but when it got into the numbers, I couldn't tell what to try to pay attention to, it was just a hammering of numbers to try to remember, couldn't hear why either, the numbers drowned out getting any story about whats going on. But my brain can only process so much, in general lol.
Archer72 says: Frequency standards
RE: hpr4758::2026-10-28 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 6 by Whiskeyjack00:29:45 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
Hi Whiskeyjack,
I came across some suggested videos on 50 Hz AC in Europe (and Japan) and 60 Hz only in the US.
Unfortunately these are all AI generated.
It might be interesting to have an engineering explanation on this, and how it relates to PLC's on both sides of the pond.
Cheers,
Archer72
candycanearter07 says: re: Audacity alternative
RE: hpr4766::2026-11-09 Rant about Audacity 4.0.1 by Antoine00:04:00 Listen in ogg, opus, or mp3 format.
funny enough, i just installed tenacity after seeing audacity used ai in another forum
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