LHS Show Notes #036

Contributors:

  • Lord Drachenblut, one-time ham radio operator, IRC denizen and podcaster of Ten Buck Review. Lord D has appeared on several other podcasts, including:

    and has been a Linux user for seven or eight years. He uses Linux for everything except for one application that he runs in a virtual Windows machine (Grapevine, the LARP admin utility).

  • Jonathan, KB1KIX. Jonathan holds a General class license and has been a ham for a bit over 6 years. He got started with shortwave listening. He's been using Linux for 10 years and uses it for about 80% of what he does.

Announcements:

  • Southeast Linux Fest is June 12-13, 2010, at the Marriott at Renaissance Park hotel in Spartanburg, SC.
  • Texas Linux Fest is Saturday, April 10, 2010 at the Marchesa Event Center in Austin, Texas.
  • OggCamp will take place will take place at The Black-E in Liverpool, England, on May 1-2, 2010.
  • Format change: We're trying a new format. We'll still have three segments, but rearranged into housekeeping, feature, then feedback. Let us know what you think.
  • Russ is trying to organize a Mid-America Linux Fest in Missouri.
  • We received a donation from Craig toward a noise gate for Richard. Thanks, Craig.
  • LHS will be at the 2010 Dayton Hamvention in booth 265 in the North Hall (NH0265). See hamvention.org for more information.
  • The other podcast, Resonant Frequency, is on hiatus for a while.

Contact info:

  • Russ: k5tux@blacksparrowmedia.com
  • Richard: kb5jbv@blacksparrowmedia.com
  • Phone: 888-455-0305 (toll free) or +1-417-429-4069.

Contests:

  • Logo contest: Send your logo for Linux in the Ham Shack as a product and as a podcast, preferably in scalable vector graphic or tiff format, or a large-sized image in a lossy format such as jpeg. We'd like to use it for T-shirts, banners, etc., and have it available before the Dayton Hamvention. The winner will receive $100! Send your submission to one or both of the email addresses above.
  • Intro contest: Record your introduction to the show. We'll use them all. You can record it yourself and email the file, or call us on the phone and record the introduction there. Entries received via the telephone will have two chances to win. We will choose one of them at random to receive $25.

Links and Notes:

  • OpenSolaris
  • Debian
  • openSUSE
  • Harve's Hamshack Hack
  • Linux Mint
  • Ubuntu
  • Lord D prefers Debian and Kubuntu, but has recently begun exploring Fedora 12, and found it to support the Broadcom wifi chips without having to install a proprietary driver. Russ says Linux Mint also supports the Broadcom network chips.
  • Russ has a thumbprint scanner from Thomson Microelectronics that he has not been able to get working under any operating system. Lord D suggests a goat sacrifice may be necessary.
  • Richard opines that Linux has progressed to the point where it's better for a new computer user than the other OSs. The panel discusses.
  • Our panel talks about feature bloat in browsers and performance issues. Everyone seems to like the xmarks add-on to Firefox.
  • Modular vs monolithic kernels. AX.25 kernel support is available as a module under recent versions of Linux Mint, and appears to be available under Fedora, too.
  • Jonathan would like to see a Linux application similar to the Windows program Outpost for packet messaging.
  • Jim, E2ENN, sent an email in response to Episode 31 and raised several issues about Linux drivers. Our panel discusses this message at length.
  • Nouveau: Accelerated Open Source driver for nVidia cards
  • The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric S. Raymond.
  • Open FirmWare for WiFi networks
  • XFree86 vs. Xorg
  • Knoppix

Music:

LHS Episode #036: Are We There Yet?

We've managed to cobble together another round table discussion for Episode #034 of Linux in the HAM Shack. Thanks to Lord Drachenblut of Ten Buck Review and our party crasher, Jonathan, KB1KIX, for helping us out with this episode.

The format is a little bit different this time based on some feedback from listeners. If you like what you hear or would rather have us go back to the way things were, let us know. We're interested in what you think. Our topic tonight is a thought provoking e-mail that we received before last episode from Jim, N2ENN. Hopefully we've given it an honest appraisal.

Please send us your feedback, your questions and your donations to obtain a noise gate for Richard. Also, enter our two contests for a chance to win real money! And stay tuned for our next recording. We have a very special guest interview coming up. You won't want to miss it.

73 from the LHS Guys