Author: Kevie Macphail

In the centenary episode of TuxJam, Andrew, Dave and Kevie take a look at some (poorly linked) festive themed items, including a review of build-it-yourself distro Alpine Linux and Simple Contacts (because we all need to dig out these addresses to send the Christmas cards to). We thank all of our listeners for putting up with us for 100 shows, as we go into the new year we raise a glass to the next 100.

We also talk about the new dedicated TuxJam Mastodon account, the upcoming Podcrawl and also a show that Kevie was on recently talking about beer (Wee Heavies in particular) with Rob Talks About Beer. You can check this out here. This along with the usual mix of ccmusic round off this festive and milestone episode:

• Ronny Matthes – O Little Town Of Bethlehem
• Singleton – Shine
• Teresa – I Wish You Were Here
• Stefano Giardiniere – White Christmas Night

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Stocking Filler (under £10)

• Lights for inside a bottle (also promotes recycling)
• Find out what their childhood likes, get a print, buy a frame from a charity shop.
• ESP32 WROOM 32E
• USB to 12V Adapter – Use Any PD USBC Power Bank to Power Any 12V Device – Turn Your Power Bank into a 12 Volt Battery
• Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Guy
• World’s Smallest Planetarium
• Key Bottle Opener

Low (£10-25)

• Make something yourself from recycled wood, make it personal with a pyrography iron. Develops skills and also promotes recycling.
• Minitotem desk Tidy
• Motion Sensor Lights for Indoors, 2022 New Rechargeable LED Wardrobe Light Stick-on Anywhere Cupboard Light Under Kitchen Cabinet Stair Shed LED PIR Night Lighting, 3 Light Modes and 3 Color Temperature
• Feather S3 by the Unexpected Maker
• RFID Signal Blocker Box
• Pac-Man Keyring Game
• Mini Whisky Barrel by Sharper Image

Mid(£25-100)

• Sandisk Clip Sports Plus
• OBDLink
• Microphone Arm with Clamp, Wall Mount, Mic Holder for Blue Yeti / HyperX QuadCast ＆ Other Mics
• Portable Charger 30W PD USB-C Power Bank with 12V Cigarette Lighter Outlet, External Battery Pack
• Giant Earbud Bluetooth Speaker by GadgetMonster
• Stellarscope – Constellation Finder
• Four Bottle Optic Drinks Dispenser

High(£100+)

• SteamDeck
• PerfectDraft
• Bird Buddy Pro
• Solar charge controller/inverter eBay or direct from Mppsolar in Taiwan
• 100Ah 12v lithium iron phosphate battery with bluetooth BMS
• Fizzics Draftpour
• Fizzics Draftpour Beer Dispenser – Carbon
• Fizzics DraftPour Home Beer Tap
• Fizzics DraftPour Pub Special
• Gingko Smart Moon Lamp – Ash

Wow, you really love them (silly money)!!!

• Samsung AirDresser Clothing System
• Observatory dome
• Royal Selangor Star Wars Classic Chess Set

CCMusic

• James Bell – Beyond All Their Wishes
• pinegroove – Christmas Time Is Here
• Ronny Matthes – Silent Night
• Greg Baumont – This Winter (feat. Snowflake)
• Dmitry Taras – Happy Orchestral Christmas

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As we approach our centenary episode Andrew, Dave and Kevie take a look at Arch based distro CachyOS and continue looking at the Simple Tools Suite with a review of Simple SMS Messenger.

Along with the usual mix of CC Music:

• Carrying Goodness – Repentance
• Color Out – Presage
• Sam Brown – Felony
• DHDMusic – Happy Time

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Creeping ever closer to our centenary, in this 97th episode Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) look at RISC OS Open on the Raspberry Pi. This OS and the Pi share a common history. RISC OS grew out of Acorn’s need to replace the 8-bit 6502 processor in their BBC microcomputer and led them to create a new RISC processor called ARM. ARM processors now power most of our mobile phones, tablets and also some computers, such as the Raspberry Pi.

We continue our look at the Simple Tool Suite with Simple File Manager Pro and also consider the merits of the recently announced Simple Phone.

Along with the usual mix of ccmusic:

• Kevin Milner and Piero Peluche – Medicine
• Arrow & Olive – Whiskey Woman
• Jon Worthy – Better Days
• Crossing Styx – Mystic Crock

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Andrew (aka mcnalu), Dave (aka thelovebug) and Kevie return after summers that were cold, hot and just right, respectively. They start off with the usual roundup of new releases on distrowatch and then look at the linux distro Xebian, and even try to pronounce it properly. Those who like complex data wrangling may be interested in our look at the GUI database management software DBeaver (community edition), but if you prefer to browse through your snaps then perhaps Simple Gallery might be of more interest.

Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons music:

• FiniteMusicForge – Groovy Surf Rock
• Craig McMorrow – These Times
• BeardMusicStock – Ready To Go
• Roy Smiles – Angel Of The North (Ballad Version)
• Bayramli_Sounds – Morning Sunrise

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The guys return from a long break in the Mediterranean, all sun bronzed and ready for a new episode (not really). In this episode we take a look at the recently released PeppermintOS 11, this being an emotional release as it is the first since the death of the project’s leader Mark Greaves. We also start taking a look at the first of our apps from the Simple Mobile Tools suite: the Simple Keyboard on Android. We take a look back at the Podcrawl in February and also look ahead to the next one, which is due to take place on the 18^th June.

This combined with the usual mix of creative commons music tracks:

• The Spin Wires – Time Bomb
• Kristian Vuljar – Like Never Before
• Roy Smiles – Make It On Through
• Tuttkile – When We Were Young

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In this festive themed show Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) start with their usual distrowatch roundup and then take a look at the ICE Site Specific Browser (SSB), developed by the PeppermintOS team, which turns many web applications into desktop friendly apps. We go back to our childhood Christmases with a look at some emulation software to play classic games including Dune, Dune II and Duke Nukem on DosBox and Crazee Rider on BeebEm for linux which Andrew managed to compile from the BBC micro source code after some some slashing around.

We also chat briefly about the upcoming episode of Podcrawl Jitsi, which will take place on Saturday 18th December at 6pm (UK time). Check out the Podcrawl page for more details.

The Creative Commons, festive tracks on this show include:

• The Willows – This Is Christmas
• The Kelly & Mason Duo – All I Want for Christmas is You
• Bobnoxious – Police Nabbed My Dad
• Jerry Paladino – What Will You Give Me for Christmas
• No Tent – Auld Lang Syne

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Stocking Filler (under £10):

• The Foundation Licence Manual for Radio Amateurs
• Minecraft Chicken Egg Cup and Toast Cutter
• Moon lamp
• Multi Tool Pens
• USB Flash Drive Ballpoint Pen
• Proper Raspberry Pi power supply
• Chocolate Gaming Controller

Low (£10-25):

• Amateur Radio-themed signs/stickers/mugs/clothing
• Screwdriver set in a box
• UV-Zone Phone Sanitizer
• Thumbs Up RETARCCTL Retro Pocket Games
• Raspberry Pi Pirate audio 3W stereo amp
• Wild West Boot Beer Glass
• Laser Distance Meter 50M/165ft, IP54 Laser Measure with 2 Bubble Levels

Mid (£25-100):

• Fill it yourself advent calendar
• Huawei Freebuds 4i
• RSGB Foundation Licence Exam
• Axe throwing kit (mini)
• Zephyr PRO RGB Sweat-proof Gaming Mouse
• Baofeng UV-5RE+ Plus UHF VHF Long Range Dual Band Ham Amateur Two Way Radio

High (£100+)

• HOLY STONE HS110G GPS FPV Drone
• Logitech Ultimate Ears BOOM 3
• Dual Fuel Inverter Generator
• Xiegu G90 20 Watt AM/CW/SSB SDR HF Amateur Transceiver
• Roberts Revival iStream 3

Wow! You really love them!!!

• DJI Air 2S Combo
• OptiBeam OB3-80+ Multi Switch Plus Balun
• Virtual Reality Treadmill
• Build a gaming PC (as my neighbour made me do!!!!)

Festive Tracks:

• Proto Evangelion – O Come All Ye Faithful
• Pepper Coyote – Jingle Bell Rock
• The Honeybirds – Sing The Bells
• Jonny Scab – So This Is Christmas (War is Over)
• Tom Smith – A Pirate Christmas

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Andrew, Dave and Kevie are enjoying cake, jelly and ice cream as TuxJam turns 10 years old. With a look back to the first episode we look at the distro that has replaced SimplyMepis: MX Linux. To our amazement, the lightweight music player Pogo is still being maintained and we do another review ten years down the line. We look ahead to the upcoming Podcrawl which will take place on Saturday 26th July at 6pm (UK time), keep an eye on the Podcrawl page for the video conference link (available nearer the time).

The creative commons tracks are all from bands that were played during the first five episodes and should give the seasoned listener a feeling of Jamendo nostalgia.

• Crazy Evolution – Sweet Breeze
• Dan Bryk – Normal
• Tequila Mockingbird – Distance
• Retrosonic – Until The End

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Our freedom loving trio of Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) begin 2021’s run of TuxJam with what they thought would be a shorter than usual episode. As usual, they proved themselves wrong.

First up is a roundup of new releases reported on distrowatch.com which prompted discussions which will be followed up in future episodes or perhaps on Hacker Public Radio.

We do not review a distro in this episode but take a look at the cute pixel art game Android game Xeonjia which Kevie discovered when trying to entertain himself on a long ferry crossing. We then take a look at radio streaming android app Transistor.

We finish with a few words on the latest podcrawl jitsi or jitcrawl podsi or jitpod crawlsi that took place in December. We air the idea of having it quarterly close to the solstices and equinoxes with a mooted next date of 20th March 2021. Do let us know what you think about that in comments, by email or via social media.

All this along with the usual mix of CCmusic:

Jon Worthy – Happy to See You
Flashinmusic – My Happy Walk
Whacko Sacco – How Can I Win
DeepDaikon & Yubatake – Town from Xeonjia

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