TuxJam

TuxJam 28

Episode 28 of TuxJam takes the theme of ‘gifts for geeks’ just in time for Christmas. These have been split into 3 price ranges.

High price (£100+)
3D printer http://makezine.com/2013/08/01/3d-printing-an-aston-martin/
Ouya https://www.ouya.tv/
Jambox https://jawbone.com/speakers/jambox
Geeksphone Peak http://shop.geeksphone.com/en/phones/5-peak.html
Beer club subscription http://beerclubofbritain.co.uk/
Linux Voice subscription http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/linux-voice/
Arcade style joystick http://www.xgaming.com/store/arcade-joysticks-and-game-controllers/product/x-arcade-dual-joystick/
JBL Pulse http://uk.jbl.com/jbl_product_detail_uk/pulse.html

Mid Range (£15-99.99)
Bluetooth Jukebox Speaker http://www.firebox.com/product/5227/Jukebox-Dock-Bluetooth
Minecraft tee-shirt/merchandise http://www.jinx.com/shop/coll/minecraft/
Open source energy monitor hardware http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/
Raspberry Pi http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Magic wand TV remote http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/gift-gadgets/the-magic-wand-tv-remote-control/30000744.html
Sony Android watch http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Generation-SmartWatch-Smartphone-Accessory/dp/B006RJR62I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386016631&sr=8-1&keywords=sony+android+watch

Stocking fillers (free-£14.99)
Piglow http://shop.pimoroni.com/products/piglow
Grumpy old git mints http://www.menkind.co.uk/grumpy-old-git-mints
Self stirring mug http://www.firebox.com/product/4789/Self-Stirring-Mug
Joypad soap http://www.firebox.com/product/5413/Gamer-Soaps
Space Invader Multitool http://www.firebox.com/product/4395/Alien-Invader-Multi-tool
Contact bands directly and get them to write the Christmas message inside a CD
A Kickstarter http://www.kickstarter.com/ or IndieGoGo http://www.indiegogo.com/ donation to a startup project
A Kiva loan http://www.kiva.org/

Put a creative commons released show onto a CD

Andrew takes a more in depth look at a robotic arm which was controlled using a Raspberry Pi. A great modern day parent-child project. Along with the usual mix of Christmas Creative Commons music:

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In episode 27 of TuxJam, the usual suspects are joined by Andrew Gregory, formerly of Linux Format magazine and Tuxradar podcast. In our continued attempt to break free of Google, Mcnalu takes a look at switching his personal blog from Blogger to Pelican. Kevie shares his thoughts on the Rii i10 USB mini keyboard and trackpad. We also pause for a moment to talk about the success of the RaspberryPi taking into account that the device has now shipped over 2 million. Andrew Gregory talks about the new project he is working on: Linux Voice. They currently have a crowd funding program running on IndieGoGo to get the Linux Voice magazine up and running, you can check out the progress and contribute here. This along with the usual mix of CCmusic:

Jezra’s email to the show:

Ah, the Zee Tee Eee Open.

What I like most about the ZTE Open, is that with internet sharing
turned on, the device acts as a wifi hotspot and I can use my laptop or
Nokia N900 to access the internet… and the phone makes phone calls.

While this device is a great replacement for the digital camera I had 3
years ago, and the music player I had 3 years ago, and the phone that I
had … um… 3 weeks ago, I happen to be the owner of a Nokia N900 ( a
similarly spec’d device from 4 years ago running a GNU Linux
distribution and with a gecko based default browser), and unfortunately
I tend to judge Firefox OS by the features of Maemo on the N900; what a
bummer for Firefox OS.

For the most part, the biggest problems I’ve had with the ZTE Open tend
to be with the lousy web browser that comes bundled with the device.
Currently, I’m running Firefox OS version 1.3.0.0-prelease and the
browser seems to be slower than the browser on version 1.0, and the
browser still doesn’t handle file uploading properly. It is nice and
dandy that the browser has support for most of HTML5, but when I take a
picture, I’d like to be able to post the picture to a website (Maemo
can do this just fine).

When I am entering data into a web form, pressing the enter key on my
keyboard submits the data. Since Firefox OS is supposed to be web
based, I would expect that when filling in a text field in a
native app that pressing ‘enter’ on the onscreen keyboard would submit
the data.

The open has been declared a “developer” device. More than likely, this
means that owners of the device are expected to compile and flash new
images to their device, and Zee Tee Eee will not be providing Over The
Air updates. Mozilla really dropped the ball by partnering with a
company that seems to have no regard whatsoever for their customers.

Enjoy 1.0, it is doubtful that you will get a timely update to anything
more recent unless you compile it yourself. However, Geeksphone seems
to be providing hella sweet support for owners of the Keon or Peak, and
has a page dedicated to providing the latest images for their devices.
Check out http://downloads.geeksphone.com/ to see what I mean.

Jezra

Web: http://www.jezra.net
Status: http://status.jezra.net
Coffee: http://coffee.jezra.net

P.S. Some things you can expect in 1.3 :
1. The Marketplace is an app as is no longer “swipe left to right”
2. you can finally put app launchers on the “home screen”
3. the homescreen has a “i’m thinking of..” search bar, and there
doesn’t seem to be a way to get rid of it
(image attached )

P.S.S. using the browser to add a bookmarked website to the homescreen
still doesn’t use the website’s favicon as the launcher icon (image
attached)

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TuxJam 26

<img class=”alignright” alt=”” src=”http://unseenstudio.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/TuxJam.png” width=”150″ height=”150″ />As TuxJam continues to look at alternatives to the large corporations, Kevie and Andrew review the <a href=”http://www.ztedevices.com/product/smart_phone/2bcf2d56-0c9a-4129-a25c-acce58c8e502.html” rel=”nofollow”>ZTE Open</a> smartphone which comes with <a href=”https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/os/” rel=”nofollow”>FireFoxOS</a> installed rather than the usual Android. There is an update on the <a href=”https://github.com/anthonycr/Lightning-Browser” rel=”nofollow”>Lightning Browser</a> and <a href=”https://github.com/m1ga/pusteblume” rel=”nofollow”>Pusteblume</a> Diaspora client following their reviews in episode 25. We actually received some feedback this episode (Yipee!!!) so that fills in another section that is usually rather empty. Along with the usual selection of creative commons tracks:
<ul>
<li><a href=”http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1051175/the-vision” rel=”nofollow”>The Vision by Burns reimagined</a></li>
<li><a href=”http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1071857/we-ve-modded-you” rel=”nofollow”>We’ve Modded You by Funny Death</a></li>
<li><a href=”http://www.jamendo.com/en/track/1054396/kids-in-toy-land” rel=”nofollow”>Kids in Toy Land by Fresh Body Shop</a></li>
<li><a href=”http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/chadlawson-autumn/” rel=”nofollow”>Autumn Suite vol 1 by Chad Lawson</a></li>
</ul>
Jezra’s ‘unicorning’ feedback can be downloaded <a href=”http://archive.org/download/TuxJam26/unicorning.ogg”>here</a>

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TuxJam 25

In the 25th episode of TuxJam Kevie and Andrew take a look at Tails, a Debian-based live distro with an emphasis on security. As well as a look at the game Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, the Lightning Browser and Pusteblume Diaspora client for Android. Along with the usual selection of creative commons tracks:

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TuxJam 24

In Tuxjam episode 24, Andrew returns to join Kevie in discussing security-related FOSS software, including Tor & Torchat, Enigmail and EncFS. Andrew talks about his new toy – the ZTE Open Firefox OS phone – and Kevie does a commendable job of avoiding the green-eyed monster since his Geeksphone will be further delayed. Thanks to @theru for alerting us to this mention of TuxJam on linuxlinks.com.

Creative commons tracks played in this episode:

Clarice by onsind
Airplane Mode by Josh Woodward
Birmingham Jail by Chatham County Line
Got My Modem Working by Fit and the Conniptions
I do not think so by Elin Pelin
Story 3 by Jay Kishor

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TuxJam 23

Dave Hughes joins Kevie for the 23rd Episode of TuxJam. Dave speaks about the progress of his band Dave Hughes and The Renegade Folk Punk Band along with his love for Linux and open source software. Along with following great creative commons tracks:

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TuxJam 22

In Episode 22 of TuxJam Kevie and Andrew take a look at some alternative software to use for creating podcasts. Whilst Kevie sticks to the safety of the desktop, Andrew branches out into the mobile world on the Android platform. The applications reviewed are: micdroid, Urecord, OpenWatch, Ecasound, Audio Recorder and a mention to Merge MP3(windows only software)
Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons music:

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TuxJam 21

In episode 21 of TuxJam, Kevie and Andrew take a look at a variety of podcatchers including: podget, podbeuter, AntennaPod and Amarok. Along with the usual mix of creative commons tracks:

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TuxJam 20

As TuxJam leaves the terrible teens and aims for more maturity, Kevie
and Andrew promise that things won’t get too serious on the podcast.
After a recommendation on identi.ca, the team look at a range of CLI
applications including Links web browser, Finch instant messenger, Weechat IRC (basic help), Identicurse status net client and Mutt
email client. We also have some feedback on the show from Dave Morriss
who wrote in to say how much he has been enjoying the show and also
from Edward R Baisley Jr who altered the TuxJam logo.

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TuxJam 19

The nineteenth episode of TuxJam sees Kevie and Andrew putting in a
bit of hard work and undertaking the challenging task of looking at a
variety of open source, Linux games X-Moto, FreeOrion, Dope Wars and Minetest. Along with the usual mix of creative commons tracks including:

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