TuxJam

Kevie and mcnalu are settling TuxJam into its new home on this site. First up is the roundup of lesser known but interesting linuxes on distrowatch. Both hosts have, as promised, taken NixOS for a spin. It’s an interesting distro which offers a new take on Linux package management. We then review two apps which help stream radio and other audio content to your phone or tablet: ServeStream and RadioDroid. We end with a roundup of feedback, including an apology for only belatedly noticing @inscius‘s recommendation of us trying a wee dram – not of a whisky, but of Swedish folk music that sounds somewhat Scottish.

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Kevie and mcnalu arrive at their half century — show 50! We begin with our usual roundup of recent and lesser known linuxes on distrowatch. We then review the small but fleet-footed Tiny Core Linux distro. Kevie then discusses his experience with Amazon’s Fire phone. Next, Andrew discusses how the nifty entr command can be used to get various GUI applications to work together. We’re delighted to have substantial feedback to review from the Jolla phone review in TuxJam 49 and news of this year’s Glasgow podcrawl.

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Kevie and mcnalu edge ever closer to their half century. We kick-off as ever with our roundup of recent and lesser known linuxes on distrowatch. We then welcome our guest Beni who reviews his Jolla Phone. Kevie then discusses his experience with Cutegram and Andrew explains why he didn’t get to experience it. Next, Andrew and Kevie discuss their experiences with YouTube apps SkyTube and NewPipe which are only available from F-droid and not Google Play. We finish up with our roundup of feedback and our attempts to further the reach of TuxJam.

Creative commons tracks played on this show:

• Boot Full of Blues by Conway Hambone (recommended by Chalkahlom)
• The Kite by Deep Down Inside (played by Dave Lee on the Bugcast)
• Bird in a Cage by Regiment Blue
• If Ever by Leo Bowers
• Endsequence by Obsidian Shell

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Kevie and mcnalu burst into the new year in a blaze of obscurity. We start with our brief survey of recent and lesser known linuxes on distrowatch. We then welcome our guest Dave Morriss who reviews his Entroware Kratos laptop which was a prize at Oggcamp 2015. Kevie then reviews desktop RSS client Liferea. Andrew takes a second look at the multi-protocol microblogging android app andstatus and revises his previous opinion of it. Finally Kevie reports back on his experiences with NixNote2. We finish up, as ever, with a roundup of feedback.

Creative commons tracks played on this show:

• Adventure by Madelyniris
• The Only Son by Grey Heron
• Empty Bed by Lyonn
• I’m Still Breathing by Kelly Allyn
• 2419 by Between Horizons
• Fiery the Angels Fell by prettyhowtown:

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Kevie and mcnalu take time out of their port-supping and mince pie gobbling to bring another TuxJam festive special, this time in three Dickensian parts:

• A round-up of lesser-known FOSS stuff of the year past: BQ Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu phone (link to data signal bug), Polly, FireFoxOS, Radio Tray, SimpleDo, cmus, Sparky Linux Gameover edition
• Geeky gifts we received for Christmas – including Bacon flavoured toothpaste and Dermestes Peruvianus
• A look-ahead to what we are excited about in the new year: code clubs, phone OS competition, AAA gaming titles and more!

Creative commons tracks played in this show:

• Love knows the way by Asha Lightbearer
• Winter by Olga Sapho
• If you’re lost for somewhere else to be by The Heavens
• Auld Lang Syne by Dougie Mathieson and Mags Macfarlane

Happy New Year!

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Andrew (aka mcnalu) and Kevie continue the TuxJam tradition of abandoning our usual format to bring you a special festive episode that brings you suggestions of gifts for geeks, or indeed gifts that might help bring out the inner-geek in a friend or family-member.

Gifts  for Geeks

Stocking fillers (£0 to £20)

• Motherboard Chopping Board £9
• R2-D2 Eggcup £10
• Single copy of Linux Voice/Linux Format/Retrogamer
• Pacman Ghost Light £20
• Pi Zero WITH adapters £8 or just the Pi Zero £4 or just the adapters £4
• Bresser 6×21 junior binocs £19
• Help spread the word on Linux: burn Linux podcasts onto CD/media players and hand them out
• Donate to your favourite FOSS project, then use it!

Mid-range (£20 to £150)

• USB Rubber Ducky $42
• Jam Rewind Pocket Bluetooth Speaker £25-45
• Death Star Waffle Maker
• Steam Controller £40
• Samsung Z1 £40-80
• Raspberry Pi Geek Subscription £37.50
• Picade £135
• Merkur Safety Razor Gift Set
• Beer Club Membership
• Hubsan x4 quadcopter with camera £30
• Recreated Sinclair ZX Spectrum £90
• Tardis projection clock £45
• Aeropress coffee maker £30

Top-end (£150 or more)

• http://www.pi-top.com £195 / $300
• Note: pi-top not available for christmas, also consider Kano special deal kit £90, or with screen £190
• Very wide field binoculars – Vixen SG 2.1×42 Binoculars – £229
• Smoke Alarm Spy Camera £250
• Entroware Laptop/Desktop
• BQ Ubuntu Phone €200
• Predator Motorcycle Helmet $890
• Steam Machine £500-2000
• FUZE powered by RPi2 with Robotic Arm £270 – see also Andrew’s blog post on the Robot Arm

Festive Creative Commons tracks played

• Epic Christmas by Akashi Records
• We give, we get by CCMixter
• Hung over Boxing Day by the Gasoline Brothers
• Peace around the world by Snowflakes and CCMixter
• Stille Nacht by Aufkralung
• Jingle Bells by Anup

Wishing you a Merry Christrmas and a Happy New Year from Kevie and Andrew!

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Andrew (aka mcnalu) and Kevie continue their neverending* tour of little-known Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) whilst dancing to the tune of Creative Commons music. We survey recent GNU/Linux (and other) distros on distrowatch.com and then Andrew recounts his first experiences as an attendee of Oggcamp. Kevie and Andrew then review 4MLinux which is a quadrapedal distro standing on legs of Maintenance, Media, Mini-server and Mystery. Kevie then discusses his experience of playing 4 color taxi which was his first ever bitcoin purchase. Finally, after thinking we had no feedback, we in fact had loads, including some in-person kind words from Alister Christman at Oggcamp. Please do get in touch and remember you can comment on this post.

*This show is not of infinite length.

Creative commons tracks played in this show:

• Make it right by The Quincey – crowdfunding a Vinyl release
• Waste my time by Now Endeavour
• Anything but everything by Color Out
• Baby runaway by Brene Wilson
• Scotch fisherman’s song for attracting seals by Aryeh Frankfurter

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Andrew (aka mcnalu) and Kevie throw off their slippers and discard their (bubble) pipes in their ongoing quest for little-known Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Creative Commons music. After the usual round-up of recent GNU/Linux (and other) distros on distrowatch.com Kevie describes his thoughts on his day-to-day experience of using the BQ Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu phone for the last few months. Andrew and Kevie then review the no-frills web browser surf – recommended by chalkahlom – which turns out not to be quite as lightweight as you might expect, especially if you run it using tabbed. Andrew then discusses his experience of using the Android SimpleDo app on his phone since it was first reviewed on TuxJam some moons ago. Finally, there’s a brief round-up of feedback on past shows, including a few kind words. Feedback is much appreciated, even if critical. There are several ways to get in touch including commenting on this post – so don’t hold back!

Creative commons tracks played in this show:

• Where Were You by Silence is Sexy
• 2419 by Between Horizons
• D.i.p by Rattlesnake Train
• Bagpipe Tune From North Rada by Aryeh Frankfurter

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Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) are back from our summer holiday (or vacation if you prefer) and keen to get stuck into the world of not-so-well-known free and open source (FOSS) software and Creative Commons music. We start off with our usual distrowatch round-up of new lesser-know GNU/linux distro releases, then move on to discuss experiences with NuTyX – a distro built from the ground up using Linux from Scratch (LFS). We then take a look at the ultra-lightweight web browser Dillo and consider whether its speed and no-frills approach is still useful in a web dominated by javascript (hint: for text content, yes). Kevie then goes on to discuss his experiences with python-based linux twitter client Polly. Finally we recall the early, heady days of summer when we met up with Dave Morris and Andrew Gregory for Podcrawl Glasgow.

Creative commons tracks played in this episode:

• Future Sun by Dumbo Gets Mad
• Burning Thunder by Lazer Lloyd
• The Following by Khelgar
• Possibilities by Jasmine Jordan
• Sunbeam Dream by Mokhov

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The scene could not have been better: TuxJam episode 42 recorded on Towel Day. In order to mark this huge event Kevie and Andrew take a look at TWO distros: Gnewsense and RiscOS, we were busy over the last month. We also take a look at SimpleDo and TripleCamel on the Android platform. Not forgetting the power users, Kevie takes a look at the CLI BitTorrent application rtorrent. As well as taking a look ahead to the upcoming Podcrawl Glasgow 2015 (check out the HPR Podcrawl Special), which is taking place in Andrew’s home city (yet oddly enough Kevie seems to be choosing the pubs?!?!?) All this combined with the usual array of creative commons music. The tracks included in this episode are:

• There is a Line by Tamara Laurel
• This is how we Stand by Mirva
• Adventure by Madelyniris
• Whisky In The Jar by Brigan
• Murmurations 1 by The Dimples

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