TuxJam

After a wee Easter break, Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) return to talk you through some lesser known Free and Open Source (FOSS) goodies interspersed with specially selected Creative Commons tracks. Distrowatch.com is dominated by Ubuntu-based distro releases at present, but we find a few obscure and interesting ones nonetheless. Kevie then reviews a newly invigorated Twidere which he finds much to his liking. Andrew then talks about one of the oldest examples of FOSS – older than even Linux – the venerable gnuplot, which, surprisingly, is not affiliated with the GNU project. Kevie then reviews Soundwaves which you may find useful for managing podcasts, even TuxJam perhaps.

If you’re interested in podcasts and a pubs (or even just pubs and hanging out with podcasters), please do put 10th July 2015 in your diary and join us for the Glasgow Podcrawl.

Creative commons tracks played:

• Adventure by madelyniris
• The Only Son by Grey Heron
• Empty Bed by Lyonn
• I’m Still Breathing by Kelly Allyn
• 2419 by Between Horizons
• Endsequence by Obsidian Shell

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Don’t let the title spook you, it’s not Game Over for TuxJam – it’s a reference to our main review. Andrew (aka mcnalu) returns from his sabbatical (i.e. he had man-flu) to join co-conspirator Kevie for another bout of less well-known FOSS software reviews laced with creative commons music. We start with our usual wander through distrowatch.com  and move on to discuss Sparky Linux – Game Over Edition. Next, Kevie reviews his experience with FireFox OS v2.1 on the ZTE Open phone, and then Andrew reviews the simple, non-GUI music player CMUS, as suggested by the esteemed chalkahlom. We were delighted to have a lot to talk about in our feedback section. Please keep it coming! We really value your thoughts.

Creative commons tracks played:

• Magnolia by Mark Preston
• This ain’t Hollywood by Silence is Sexy
• Prime Teen TV by Prime
• 14.24 by Antonio Lanza
• Savage Mixture by Shavolin Anton

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In a return to the original TuxJam format, Kevie takes a look at Ikey Doherty’s work on EvolveOS and the Budgie desktop. The Radio Tray applet goes down well with the radio loving host. Being involved with Linux and podcasting means that you become a frequent visitor to IRC, Kevie looks at two Android IRC: AiCiA and YAAIC. Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons music. The tracks included in this episode are:

• Out On The Road by Persson
• Detroit by Great White Buffalo
• Madly Deeply by Melanie Ungar
• Reclaim the Streets by Skankshot
• Don’t Spend Your Money In The Game by Lele Rambelli
• Before We Said Goodbye by Steve Raphael

Kevie’s HPR episodes:

• CD Rippers
• Success with Students

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Kevie and Andrew (aka McNalu) begin by reviewing a bumper crop of interesting distro releases listed on distrowatch.com. Kevie then gives us a revised opinion of some software he reviewed in previous episodes based on longer-term use, and blames Andrew for making him try the vector graphics application Karbon. The rest of the show is taken over with a review of the Debian-based Tanglu GNU/Linux distro, which has been around now for about a year. Kevie tries out both its Gnome and KDE variants, and Andrew, being a day-to-day KDE user, moves out of his comfort-zone to try Tanglu with Gnome 3. Andrew mentions a game he’s been playing – the splendidly titled Sir, You Are Being Hunted – and then explains why he has decided to take out a life membership of the magnatune.com music service, which he often uses as a source of creative commons-licensed music for TuxJam. We end with an appeal for more feedback as unusually we didn’t receive any for TuxJam 37 🙁 Your comments and suggestions for reviews and of music to play are very welcome!

Creative commons tracks played:

• Eye of the storm by Modern pitch
• Tumble mat by Sinkhole
• Alone (it’s not so bad) by I’m not left handed
• Just leave him by Jim Gaven
• The difference (calming down) by Mystic crock

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Andrew (aka mcnalu) and Kevie continue the TuxJam tradition of 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. Before we get to those, Kevie talks on his positive experience of self-proclaimed “lovely” linux distribution LXLE.

Gifts for Geeks

Stocking fillers (£0 to £20)

• Linux PC case badges
• 4 in 1 pen
• Titanium Spork
• Pacman bottle opener
• Adafruit GEMMA – wearable tech £5
• Learn to Solder book £4
• Raspberry Pi camera board

Mid-range (£20 to £150)

• Chromecast
• Matchstick (official site)
• R2D2 USB hub
• Turntable or Tape deck – Beware of cheapo USB ones – try your local charity/goodwill store instead!
• Flux Capacitor USB car charger
• Flux Capacitor Watch
• Linux Voice subscription
• Ogg compatible media player – Listen to Dave Morriss talk about his Audio player collection on HPR
• magnatune.com subscription 3 months = $45 STOP PRESS: free Christmas Magnatune album download just released.
• Raspberry Pi B+ starter kit

Top-end (£150 or more)

• Fuze – retro 8 bit computer kit powered by a Rasperberry Pi
• Chromebook or better yet, buy a laptop, remove its proprietary OS and install Linux and add a Linux Inside sticker
• Vega Smartwatch, a completely independent android smartwatch.
• Kindle Voyage
• Bose headphones/mobile speakers

Festive Creative Commons tracks played

• Silent night by Sleeping Sky
• Brrr, It’s frickin’s freezing outside by Mr & Mrs Smith
• A very Star Wars Christmas by Nerds with Guitars
• Winter Time by Chiefmonks
• Jingle Bells by Anup*

*If you liked this track, you can download it along with the Magnatune Christmas album for free.

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

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Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) start off with a round up of recent releases of lesser-known distros on distrowatch.com. They review Neptune OS 4.2 which was released just after 4.1 was reviewed in TuxJam 35, and find only slight improvements on what was already a well-crafted linux distro. They’re then joined by Gordon aka ThistleWeb from our sibling podcast Crivins to talk about Trelby, a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) package for writing scripts and screenplays. If you’d like to know a bit more, give Gordon’s Hacker Public Radio (HPR) show on this topic a listen. Andrew (the complete graphics amateur) then reviews the vector graphics software Karbon and is quizzed by Kevie, who makes a living from teaching young folk to use graphics software. How Karbon compares to Inkspace, it’s main FOSS rival, is left for a future episode. Kevie then reviews streamripper, which, as the name suggests, is a tool for recording audio streams. We then review our feedback and pass on the invite to the HPR new year special show.

Creative commons tunes played in this episode were:

Rise by Rob Warren – suggested by Pete Daniels https://loadaverage.org/pete
David & Golliath by Wooden Legs – suggested by Tim Dobson https://twitter.com/tdobson
I’m Down, Down, Down by Yuvalain
Don’t Stop by Tradmark
Answer My Call by The Way I Am
All I Wanna Be Is Happy by A Beautiful Tomorrow

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We start, as always, with a review of recent but less well-known releases on distrowatch.com. We then review Neptune OS 4.1 – a KDE GNU/Linux distribution with Debian underpinnings and a pleasing array of multimedia applications, particularly for audio. (By sheer bad lack, it turns out that Neptune OS 4.2 was released just after we recorded the podcast on 24 Oct 2014.) We then discuss a lighter-weight alternative to Audacity called MHWaveEdit that both Kevie and Andrew (aka McNalu) have used to edit other podcasts they’ve recorded. We finish up by discussing feedback we’ve received since the last show.

We are delighted that all the music used on this show came from listeners’ suggestions, and bemused that one suggestion has come from a bot. We’ve still got more to use, so be patient if your suggestion hasn’t been included yet.

Creative commons tunes played in this episode were:

Sweet Machine by Eyedrop – Question http://oracle.skilledtests.com/question
Lemmings in Love by Pornophonic – Eric Duhamel https://loadaverage.org/ericxdu23
Ophelia’s Song by Musetta – Laurel Russwurm http://s.russwurm.org/laurelrusswurm
Discount Store by Dan Bryk – Alister Christman https://twitter.com/mralc

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After a summer break, TuxJam is back with its mix of creative commons music and reviews of lesser known free and open source (FOSS) projects brought to you by Kevie and Andrew (aka McNalu). We do our round of recent releases documented on distrowatch.com. Then we review Slackware-based live distro Austrumi, which Kevie has used for a while, but which is new to long-time Slackware afficiando Andrew. Next, Kevie reviews a *gasp* non-FOSS game called FarSky in which you have to recover from a submarine disaster whilst stopping to gaze up in wonder at the fauna of the oceans.Then Andrew talks about Voxelands which is a fork of Minetest, the FOSS game inspired by Minecraft. Voxelands drops Minetest’s modding capabilities but aims to deliver a more playable game. We then go through our usual feedback section, noting some positive comments made about our Hacker Public Radio special TuxJam 33 1/3. And, have you ever wondered what two hungover Scotsmen sound like the morning after a podcrawl around the pubs of Glasgow? Wonder no more!

Creative commons tunes played in this episode were:

In the Rain – Joseph Connelly
The White Lady – Dead White Man
I Breathe – SAKTO
Hand Me the Crown – Julia Haltigan
For Life – Trundicho
These Nights – Modern Pitch

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TuxJam 33 starts off with its usual round-up of less well known Linux distro releases on distrowatch. You can hear Andrew eating humble pie because he’s completely forgotten to do a previously agreed review of the distribution SolydXK. Kevie on the other hand has bravely moved outside is comfort zone to try out the KDE version, SolydK, and Andrew slightly redeems himself by offering a commentary on KDE. Andrew reviews a lightweight alternative to the audio application Audacity called mhWaveEdit– which he discovered thanks to Beeza in HPR1514, Kevie recounts his experience with FireFox OS on the Geeksphone Revolution and we move on to discuss prior experiences on the ZTE Open and can’t help but discuss other unsettling news from Mozilla, in particular its recent, reluctant stance on DRM support. The feedback section is larger than normal due to the favourable comments arising from our HPR special TuxJam 31, and the raging controversy over the spelling of whisky arises again.

Creative commons tunes played in this episode were:

• Don’t Forget To Turn the Lights Out by Kelly Allyn
• Perfect Combination by NODREAMS
• Keep Your Smile by The Homeless Bones
• Manhattan Project by Dennis Logan
• Television Song by Bryan Dunn

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In TuxJam episode 32 Kevie is joined by Stuart Langridge from the podcast Bad Voltage, Stuart talks about his journey in podcasting from being a founder member of LugRadio, Shot of Jaq to the present day. Following this Kevie and Stuart lose track of any structure and go into a discussion about various things including: Stuart’s bluetooth shower speaker, XBMC, the Raspberry Pi and computer tinkering. In keeping with true TuxJam form Stuart talks about the latest open source project he has been testing out: Syncthing. Following the demise of Ubuntu One, Stuart is actively seeking for a replacement, could this be the answer? Plus the usual mix of creative commons music:

• We’re Outta Control by MoOt
• Every Single Tear by Final Minute
• In Cold Water by Absent Feet

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