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TuxJam 83.5 – Podcrawl Preview

Podcrawl Glasgow 2020 was due to take place on Saturday 1st August. However, the recent pandemic due to COVID-19, limitation on travel and the requirement for social distancing meant that it was not practical. However all is not lost as the TuxJam crew got together and decided to try out a virtual podcrawl using the Jitsi platform. In this short episode we preview, as best we can, the podcrawl including giving people details on how to join in.

For more information, check out the Podcrawl Jitsi webpage.

The tracks included in this episode are:

TuxJam 83 – Standard, Simple Show

With normal service resumed the usual crew of Andrew, Dave and Kevie take a look at Gentoo-based distro Redcore Linux. We also take a look at two useful applications: SimpleTask (F-Droid) and Standard Notes (F-Droid) on Android.

Redcore Linux

The CCmusic included in this episode is:

TuxJam 82 – Surviving Lockdown Special

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With the majority of the world affected by the Coronavirus/COVID19 and many of us in lock-down, the TuxJam crew decided to talk about the geeky things that they are doing to pass the time. So in a break from the traditional format, the usual suspects were joined by Wayne, Yannick and (briefly) Caroline from the OSPN’s other shows, and the reviews were left on the shelf for a month to make room for a more discursive episode.

But TuxJam wouldn’t be the same without the music (we need some form of consistency), the tracks included on this show:

Please note that this show was recorded after COVID19 guidelines were issued. It is a virtual round table, none of the hosts were even within a two mile radius of each other and therefore more than the recommended distance of two meters apart. The beer consumed was from different mug, tankards, glasses, cans or bottles. No communal cups were used in the making of this podcast.

TuxJam 81 – Hip to be squared

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Dave (aka TheLoveBug) rejoins Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) for our ninth square-numbered episode of TuxJam, and our third that is a square of a square. We begin with our usual round-up of recent releases of lesser known linuxes on distrowatch.

We then take a look at a distro that’s back from a four year hiatus, Simplicity Linux, which is unusual in several ways such as in not using systemd.

Next up is Librera which is a versatile e-reader app for Android available from both Google Play and F-Droid, and in PRO and non-PRO flavours.

If gaming on Linux is of interest then you might like to hear our thoughts on Lutris, which aims to make it easy to play all FOSS games on linux, and windows ones too if you are so inclined.

We finish up with feedback and if you have any to give us do get in touch or leave us a comment on this post.

Creative Commons licensed tracks play in this episode:

TuxJam 80 – Uncivil but free

In this episode Kevie and Andrew are delighted to be joined by Ken Fallon. Dave was MIA but will return. After the usual round-up of lesser-known releases on distrowatch, Ken and Andrew discuss their experience at FOSDEM 2020 and the stand they ran for the nascent Free Culture Podcasts project along with other Hacker Public Radio stalwarts Beni and JWP. Andrew’s sort-of-live-off-the-cuff thoughts on his first FOSDEM can be heard in HPR show 3010. Andrew and Kevie press gang Ken into looking at the FOSS Civ-V-like game Unciv and rather unique application Track & Graph.

Tunes played in this episode, all licensed under a Creative Commons license:

NOTE: It seems that some ISPs flag archive.org as having adult content and this can cause problems accessing our audio. As a temporary workaround for our listeners who are affected by this, you can download the audio from this alternative location.

TuxJam 79 – Lost & broke

For the last time this decade, your troublesome trio aim to inform, entertain and annoy you, and each other, with a cavalcade of Creative Commons tunes and Free and Open Source Software. Dave (aka thelovebug), Andrew (aka mcnalu) and Kevie begin with their usual roundup of lesser known distro releases from distrowatch and then continue to blather on in festive mood ending.

Christmas comes to the TuxJam towers recording studio.

It’s no fun being broke or lost at any time of the year but it’s especially irksome at Christmas. So we take a look at two apps for android that will keep you right. Budget Watch will help you keep your spending within its budget, and OpenMultiMaps will guide you if you lose your way. Thanks are due to Thomas for recommending OpenMultiMaps to us.

We are delighted to have quite a bit of feedback to respond to including some tweets from the dev of FerenOS which we reviewed in TuxJam 77.

Creative commons tunes played are:

TuxJam 78 – Gifts for Geeks 2019

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Is there a geek in your family? The answer must be yes, at the very least there’s you! Why else would you be reading this? If your family or friends need ideas, then point them here or plunder our list if they too are geeks.

Your hosts Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) offer up a spectrum of gifts from the cheap and safe, to the weird and downright bizarre along with a few that cost mega-bucks.

Being based in the UK we looked at prices in GBP (£) but it is only a rough guide so you can view the ranges below in Euros or USD ($).

Stocking filler (under 10):

Brown paper bag insulated lunch bag

Clothes peg clip light

PCB coaster

Tux Penguin Cookie Cutter

Penguin USB Stick

Low (10-25):

Buy merchandise from the official stores eg:

Air quality, pressure, temp, humidity sensor for RPi

Inky pHat

SoloKeys (or from 13-37.org or 1bitsquared.de)

Mid range(25-100):

Mayflash F300 Arcade Fight Joystick

Wonderboom 2

Tree New Bee

PCBWay.com

Ubercorn – 16×16 LED array for RPi

8BitDo SF30 PRO Bluetooth Gamepad (full collection at Pimoroni)

Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB

High priced (100+):

Nike Self Tying Laces

Lego Wind Turbine

Hybrid Smartwatch HR Collider

Smart Belt

Creality Ender 3 3D Printer (significantly cheaper on Banggood app)

GPD Micro PC

Wow you really love them:

HP Spectre X350 15

Dell XPS 13 Laptop 7390

Custom guitar

Festive Creative Commons music tracks:

Ralph G – When the Snow Falls

Thicker Than Water – Joy To The World

The Willows – Winter Wonderland

Virtual Choir – Silent Night

TuxJam 77 – Fiddling with Feren & Fedilab

The clocks have changed and the leaves are falling from the trees and the cold, waning days mean that your TuxJam hosts are like three squirrels searching for some Free and Open Source Software to see them through winter. Well, perhaps that’s not quite what squirrels do, and we need more than FOSS to survive, but your hosts Kevie, Dave and Andrew are a bit nuts.

We begin with a quick look of distrowatch and then move on to looking at the Feren OS GNU/linux distro and then the Fedilab Android app. We finish up with feedback including some which came from Andrew and Dave’s attendance at OggCamp 2019.

Music we played in this show; each licensed under one of the Creative Commons licenses:

TuxJam 76 – Pondering Podcrawl

The summer is over, the nights are getting longer, the wind and rain are increasing, but that simply means that TuxJam is back after a summer break. Grab your beverage of choice and sit in your favourite chair beside the fire and listen to the gang as Andrew, Dave and Kevie team up for another show.

In this episode we take a look back at Podcrawl Glasgow and give our thoughts on the sixth incarnation of the event, where we visited some of the usual haunts and also tried out a brand new (and very geeky themed) bar. We take a look at Android app Bierverkostung, which we all personally tested on Podcrawl. Outside of beer talk, we also take a look at OSMTracker for Android. We actually have some feedback for this show, it’s a Christmas miracle (in September).

As if this was not enough we also throw in the usual mix of CCmusic for good measure:

TuxJam 75 – Beer goggles

The usual geekoloid trio are back – Kevie, Dave (ask thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) – riding a raft of free and open source goodness on the white waters of Creative Commons licensed tunes.

As usual we scour distrowatch.com for recent and less well-known distro releases and then go on to recount our experiences with AVLinux which specialises in audio and video production. We had intended to review a distro named after a beer but the only one we found was Stella and we had zero luck with it. (TBH, us real ale quaffing snobs find it hard to get on with Stella Artois the drink.)

And if you can make it to Glasgow on the last Saturday of July, we would be delighted to welcome you to this year’s Podcrawl Glasgow. If you cannot make it in person, why not drink along with us and join in our live review of a beer app called Bierverkostung (it’s German for Beer Tasting – might it literally mean beer works tongue?). More details in due course.

Creative Commons and other tracks played in this episode: