HPR

Posted at 2026-02-12 01:47:30 relating to the show hpr4574 which was released on 2026-02-12 by Vance entitled UNIX Curio #0 - Introduction

I enjoyed episode 0, thanks for producing the show. I'm looking FORTH to future episodes!

Posted at 2026-02-11 03:32:12 relating to the show hpr4572 which was released on 2026-02-10 by Deltaray entitled Uncommon Commands, Episode 3 - strace

Thank you for this knowledge; now I have UNLIMITED POWER! Time to `strace` everything. Spoiler alert, do not `strace` `top`. Happy hacking.:wq

Posted at 2026-02-10 15:44:41 relating to the show hpr4572 which was released on 2026-02-10 by Deltaray entitled Uncommon Commands, Episode 3 - strace

This is such a cool tool I wish I knew about earlier. The ability to see what syscalls and opened files are used by a program, without even needing the source code, is amazing!!

Posted at 2026-02-10 08:57:35 relating to the show hpr4571 which was released on 2026-02-09 by Lee entitled Data processing retrospective

I liked your conversation.

Posted at 2026-02-07 12:31:24 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

Before a show is posted, it's ID is more or less the key you get when you upload, once it's posted the unique id is the hpr episode number.

Moving the primary key leads to a mess with the synchronization of files between the HPR site, the Internet Archive, and the HPR CCDN.

We've had to do it in the past, so I'm again speaking from experience. We moved a show from a host which happened to be part 2 and it would have gotten aired before the part 1. This meant we had 4 shows to move. So we will never move a show without getting permission from the Host, and if they do not get back to us, or we feel that it's important enough, the mail list.

Moving shows breaks some RSS readers that *only* look at the enclosure/@url element. If that remains the same, then they have no reason to download it again. So anyone who has already downloaded *any* of the moved shows will not download them again. Which basically breaks the future feed entirely.

Moving a show can easily spiral into a lot of work. We will and have done it on occasion, but if it's urgent enough, you should reserve a slot.

The janitors really - and I mean really - do not like to move shows around once they are posted.

Posted at 2026-02-07 02:48:34 relating to the show hpr4554 which was released on 2026-01-15 by Jim DeVore entitled How I do todo

Hey, great episode.

One trick I learned is that I symlink my `todo.txt` file to my `~/.plan`

$ ln -s path/to/todo.txt ~/.plan

and because I also run `fingerd(8)` on my VPS, that lets me

$ finger gumnos@myvps.example.invalid

from any machine that supports `finger(1)` to get my todo list.

That said, within the last year, the incredible CLI calendaring tool `remind(1)` added todo functionality, so I've migrated most of my todo tasks to the `remind` format. That gives me a *lot* better control over scheduling repeating events/todos. The only downside: it's just not quite as `finger`-able :-)

Posted at 2026-02-06 20:52:38 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

I think the existing episode scheduling system is really good. It could possibly be improved with a few minor tweaks, but I think the existing system is the product of long experience and shouldn't be overthrown without good reason.

Once such tweak may be to let the maintainers reschedule shows which don't need to be on a specific date forwards or backwards to some degree to open up slots for newcomers or to fill empty slots. They may do this already for all I know. This perhaps could be automated with a script.

The root of the problem is not enough *new* contributors. It would only take a handful of new regular contributors to keep HPR going with plenty of new episodes.

Posted at 2026-02-06 16:23:36 relating to the show hpr4569 which was released on 2026-02-05 by Klaatu entitled Kiosk with guest mode on Linux

For mounting network drives, I would recommend using rclone. Also, many display managers scan for a .xprofile file on login.

Posted at 2026-02-06 02:19:21 relating to the show hpr4569 which was released on 2026-02-05 by Klaatu entitled Kiosk with guest mode on Linux

Agreed -- a guest account is great for visitors to my home for all the reasons cited. I have wondered how you added hooks for login and logout -- in my case, for mapping SMB shares. Would the GDM hooks work for that?

Posted at 2026-02-06 01:56:48 relating to the show hpr4567 which was released on 2026-02-03 by Deltaray entitled Movie Recommendations for Hackers

I collect movie recommendations and try to watch them when they appear on one of my streaming services. What a great list - I have only seen about half of this list.

Posted at 2026-02-05 23:36:17 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

I think a good middle ground could be to have a "short term queue" that a show could go into if the creator doesn't care when exactly it appears? That way the explicit date reservations can have more priority.

Posted at 2026-02-05 13:55:25 relating to the show hpr4567 which was released on 2026-02-03 by Deltaray entitled Movie Recommendations for Hackers

Thanks for this awesome rundown of these hacker-influenced movies. It sure was fun to listen to the ones you discussed. I was especially curious about The Lives of Others, and yes, the following HPR episode did have a good connection with this. Looking forward to watching The Lives of Others in German as I'm trying to improve my learning of the language.

Another movie that is hacker-based is called Whoami, also in German. It's very actiony from what I saw of the trailer, but sure caught my interest due to the topic and the language. Might want to check that one out as well.

Posted at 2026-02-05 11:54:36 relating to the show hpr4596 which was released on 2026-03-16 by Ken Fallon entitled Adding voice-over audio track created using text to speech on the movie subtitles

Thank you for your interesting show. Great how you solved all the issues. But I won't use it.
I remember seeing those films on TV-sets in Poland while buying something. I always thought "How can they stand out with this annoying voice destroying the film." Luckily it often were dumb soap operas, so I didn't even try to understand the original voices. And you're right, it's worst when the original is in a language you understand. Which is the case in the example you used. Especially, because the male voice in swedish is mumbling a bit.

Posted at 2026-02-05 05:11:00 relating to the show hpr4564 which was released on 2026-01-29 by Archer72 entitled MakeMKV error

I'm surprised there wasn't any regression testing to prevent a forced downgrade. Did you try submitting a bug report to the devs?

Posted at 2026-02-05 03:44:49 relating to the show hpr4569 which was released on 2026-02-05 by Klaatu entitled Kiosk with guest mode on Linux

i most likely won't need to use this any time soon, but its always good to have things like this in your toolbelt! its also great practice

Posted at 2026-02-04 16:30:35 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

I've always considered them to be in order as in if not rule 1, then if not rule 2, etc.
Perhaps that's why people have struggled with them for so long.

I'm genuinely open to suggestions to improve it, but would appreciate moving the conversation to the gittea ticket

https://repo.anhonesthost.net/HPR/hpr_documentation/issues/17

Posted at 2026-02-04 16:20:12 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

Rule 3 says to always try to fill slots in the upcoming 2 weeks.
Rule 4 says when the "queue is filling up" to leave slots free for new contributors.
Rule 5 says to post non-urgent shows into the first empty week.

3 and 5 seem to contradict one another, as most shows will be non-urgent. 4 is unclear as to what "filling up" means in practical terms.

Long time contributors will have a good feel for what they should be doing and first time contributors should use the first free slot, but someone on his second or third episode can find navigating the rules a bit confusing.

Things like this should always be looked at from the perspective of someone who is relatively new to contributing podcasts when judging how clear the guidelines are.

Posted at 2026-02-04 14:15:57 relating to the show hpr4567 which was released on 2026-02-03 by Deltaray entitled Movie Recommendations for Hackers

Several in your list that I get inspired to watch and some to watch again.

I first watched the movie The Lives of Others first time when I took the course Integrity, technology and surveillance as part of the Human Rights program. It is really good and very relevant today although the methods are different.

By coincidence this HPR episode has a nice connection to the episode next day.

Posted at 2026-02-04 12:20:56 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

re 1) I think the guide lines are clear on the point, but if you can suggest an improvement then please do so.

3. Always try and fill any free slots that are available in the upcoming two weeks.
4. When the queue is filling up then leave some slots free for new contributors.

re 2) Yip we'll tone it down depending on how urgent it is.

re 3) The limit is removed but we need to redo the how to page

Posted at 2026-02-04 03:15:18 relating to the show hpr4567 which was released on 2026-02-03 by Deltaray entitled Movie Recommendations for Hackers

I felt urged to watch some movies on this list. I may have watched 2 or 3 only. The show was very good, an attractive invitation to see the ones you comment.

Thanks!

Posted at 2026-02-03 19:08:14 relating to the show hpr4566 which was released on 2026-02-02 by HPR Volunteers entitled HPR Community News for January 2026

I am a relatively new contributor, having sent in my first episode in November. Before that I was a long time listener. I have submitted 10 episodes so far, with some which are yet to be aired.

I think the current system is pretty good and should be kept with only a few minor changes. I like being able to pick slots. I feel additional motivation to contribute by being able to pick a slot and know that my episode would air on a predictable schedule rather than go in a long queue and turn up at some distant date in the future. I contribute episodes to have them aired, not to fill a queue.

I will make three short points:

1) Your own scheduling guidelines encourage existing contributors to leave some near term slots open for new contributors. Inevitably this will result in shows from the reserve queue being required to be used if a new contributor does not show up. If that is not what you intend, then you need to clarify those guidelines.

2) The messages calling for new shows may sometimes sound a bit alarming. If people interpret these as signs that HPR is dying, that may act to discourage them from contributing. I think the contribution requests need to be careful to spur people to action without sounding overly alarming.

3) Make it easier to post show notes. Currently the text box to paste the show notes into seems to be limited to about 4,000 characters. It would be easier for contributors if they could simply copy-paste their entire script into this box instead of jumping through additional hoops.

I'm currently working on new episodes and hope to post them in a few weeks. Thanks to the volunteers for all their efforts.

Posted at 2026-02-03 19:06:36 relating to the show hpr4567 which was released on 2026-02-03 by Deltaray entitled Movie Recommendations for Hackers

I thought the ending had accidentally slowed down to 1/2 speed, until I realized it was a Lumbergh impression. Well done.

Posted at 2026-02-02 23:52:36 relating to the show hpr4562 which was released on 2026-01-27 by Klaatu entitled Software development doesn't end until it's packaged

Great general proposition that software isn't "finished" until it's easy to install.

Posted at 2026-01-31 21:13:41 relating to the show hpr4554 which was released on 2026-01-15 by Jim DeVore entitled How I do todo

This system has been chugging along for years. A few days ago the Simpletask app on my phone stopped syncing to Dropbox. Simpletask is no longer in development. Simpletask still worked with the local file, so I stopped using Dropbox and I'm now using Synchthing to sync while I'm at home. No access while off the home network, so this may be another episode once I figure that out.

Posted at 2026-01-31 11:55:19 relating to the show hpr4556 which was released on 2026-01-19 by operat0r entitled Nitro man! RC Cars

Hi Operat0r,

This is an interesting and potentially expensive hobby.
Sound fun!

Cheers,

Archer72

Posted at 2026-01-31 11:51:45 relating to the show hpr4550 which was released on 2026-01-09 by Ahuka entitled Playing Civilization V, Part 7

Hi Ahuka,

I would like to appreciate this continuing series.
This deep dive into the game mechanics has been interesting.

Cheers,

Archer72

Posted at 2026-01-31 11:26:18 relating to the show hpr4548 which was released on 2026-01-07 by Ahuka entitled YouTube Subscriptions 2025 #13

Hi Ahuka,

This is an interesting mix of channels, and I'm sure is appreciated by all. I am enjoying this series, and especially like the science and space channels.

Cheers,

Archer72

Posted at 2026-01-31 09:11:44 relating to the show hpr4511 which was released on 2025-11-17 by Lee entitled Audio-books

I the episode I confused The Cuckoo's Egg about the the black hat hacker Markus Hess with Breaking and Entering about the white hat hacker Sherri Davidoff

Posted at 2026-01-31 03:08:58 relating to the show hpr4552 which was released on 2026-01-13 by MrX entitled Printer Conspiracy

Uhum, Epson releases (or released) their printers drivers interested in making money even if it means artificially hindering the work you need it to and which it could do.

I had an Epson Stylus CX4500. The official driver would not print, simply couldn't force to try, if it detected the ink cartridge was empty.

That means, not only you could not force it to try: it would not print a 100% yellow document if it though, and pointed, the only black cartridge was empty.

There was a little device you could buy online, used to reset a cartridge. It had 3 pins that you used to touched the 3 little metal areas of an "empty" Epson cartridge (of that model) to reset its identification to the printer — a "resetter" of cartridge. I bought, and after this procedure, I would put again the same cartridge (without even shaking, no mechanical idea to help, only deceiving the printer with the resetter); and the CX4500, with its official driver, read the cartridge as if it was full. And did the work with the previously "empty" cartridge. For at least 40 or 50 pages.

I searched now, the CX4500 is from 2004; I used it for years, at least until 2020, but, using only a little, even with cheap and good quality third-party cartridges, I faced the clogging you mentioned, not worth using weekly only to avoid the problem; so I abandoned it (I think it is by here somewhere, maybe would work after a little maintenance).

To the end: official driver support ended when I eventually updated Windows, would not work under it. But I had dual-boot, and it worked flawlessly in Linux. Without need of the reseter, because the open source driver was only interested in serving the best it could, no deceiving.

Nice content, and audio and voice. Thanks for the show, MrX!

Posted at 2026-01-29 20:26:39 relating to the show hpr4563 which was released on 2026-01-28 by Whiskeyjack entitled Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 5 Fast Reactors

@mnw - Spent fuel from civil nuclear power plants is not suitable for making nuclear weapons as it has the wrong proportions of plutonium isotopes. Plutonium comes in multiple isotopes just like virtually all other heavy elements, and weapons require a high percentage of one specific isotope, which you don't get from spent civil fuel. Weapons grade plutonium is made in military reactors which are designed for that purpose and the fuel is rapidly cycled through to minimize the build up of undesired (for weapons purposes) isotopes.

As such, there is no direct connection between recycling commercial spent fuel (I covered a number of different recycling technologies in one episode) and nuclear weapons. I don't live in the US, but if there is a public perception there that there is such a connection, then it is likely this is the result of a misconception about the nature of the different isotopes of plutonium.

The main reason that most countries don't bother with recycling spent fuel is that a once through fuel cycle is cheaper. Those countries that do recycle fuel do so mainly for reasons of national security of energy supply. They simply wish to minimize their uranium imports by reusing fuel they already have.

A secondary reason is to reduce the amount of high level waste that must be stored by "burning up" the fissile isotopes of plutonium in a reactor. Much of the long lived part of nuclear waste is simply fissile isotopes of plutonium which can be re-used in a reactor as fuel.

If enough people have questions on this series, including topics that I have not covered, and post them as comments on HPR I would be willing to do a follow up episode covering those after the end of the series.