LHS Episode #152: Man Smart (Woman Smarter)

smart_womanHello, ladies and gentlemen! It's time for another action filled episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. Topics for this episode include, women in technology, the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015, photo editors (of all things), databases for Linux hardware compatibility, ham radio-specific Linux distributions and much more. Thanks for spending an hour of your day with us. We appreciate all of our listeners. Also, don't forget to send us feedback. We'd love to hear from you.

73 de The LHS Guys

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

LHS Show Notes #014

Contributors:

  • Tim KI6BGE tells us he is finally up and running with Ubuntu on his laptop
  • Jerry KD0BIK thanks us for mentioning Practical Amateur Radio Podcast
  • Blog post from Tim VK5FNET at the Homebrew Blog Talking about Linux in the Ham Shack and Solder Smoke
  • XE1GXG  in Jalisco Mexico tells us by way of 73's.org that he enjoys the show and there is no swine flu in Jalisco
  • Thanks to the Japanese Blog Atworld.jp/radioshack for the mention
  • A New five star review at Itunes for the show
  • KI6FEN Would like to know why Linux is better than the alternatives because everybody tells him to use something different
  • Myron KC5OHG Downloaded Ubuntu and wants to know how to install it.
  • Alex OZ9AEC with corrections to Episode 12 concerning Grig. An icon for Grig can be found at "/usr/share/pixmaps/grig/ic910.png" ( I am Russ, I am! )
  • Jeff KB5WCK tells us he put a link on his website for us at kb5wck.com and ask what software we use to record the podcast
  • KI4YMD uses xlog for logging and a signallink usb with FLdigi but needs help with SSTV

Announcements:

  • Resonant Frequency is now running on Drupal check it out www.rfpodcast.info Russ even likes it and does a mini review
  • We did not mention South East Linux Fest

Links and Notes:

  • You can get Linux for free
  • Most of the more common software is open source and there is a Linux version
  • You don't have to go to best buy to get Linux. You can download it from Home
  • Windows and Apple application are closed source. In Linux you get the source code and are free to modify it to fit your needs
  • Richard runs a couple of windows machines and has to reboot them very often. He also runs Linux machines he doesn't have to reboot for months
  • The myth of support is that Windows online support is helpful and you can't get support for Linux. The truth is Windows support people are inept and Linux support can be found in community forums, online tutorials, Howto's, and some distro's allow you to sign up for online tech support at a cost that is much lower than the cost of a copy of Windows or OSX. Yes if it is pre-installed you are still paying for the operating system.
  • Issues with QSSTV
  • Problems finding usb0
  • lspci and lsusb commands
  • An alternative to QSSTV for Slow Scan TV
  • The current version of QSSTV seems to be a little deaf
  • Use a piece of software written for Windows
  • Enter WINE
  • Add WINE from the Repo's or from Winehq.org
  • At WINEHQ you can find an application database of programs that are known to run under WINE. If it is not in the database that doesn't mean it doesn't run under WINE.
  • When WINE is installed then download MMSSTV from
  • at the command prompt in a terminal type "wine program-name" Probably mmsstv.exe
  • Don't be afraid of the wine configuration area
  • Change your station information in MMSSTV
  • Set your audio levels
  • You will need a copy of MS paint to install in wine to edit pictures for MMSSTV but we would never tell you to do so 🙂
  • If you choose to use Windows. Please use a legal copy.

Music:

LHS Show Notes #001.5

I was getting set up to record the second episode of LHS tonight and thought it might be interesting for folks to see what my recording setup is like. Plus it seemed like an interesting picture to take for posterity.

To the left is a Dell Latitude D620 laptop running Windows XP. I'm using it because multiple recording sources in the Linux kernel is a bit problematic right now. We're using Skype to make the voice connection between Richard and myself. Connected externally to the laptop is a Polaroid 21" LCD HDTV which I'm using as a second monitor. Audacity is the software being used for the recording. The TV allows me to keep it visible but out of the way so I can focus on the other two screens.

In the middle is the mixing console, an Alesis Multimix 8 USB. In the foreground is my microphone, a Marshall MXL V63M condenser. It will probably be replaced at some point because the high end and midrange are a little weak and the response is not very good. But for an inexpensive condenser it's not bad.

On the right is the screen for my Dell Poweredge 400SC. It's a server computer that I'm using as a client machine. It's running Debian Sid. For the recording of Episode #002, I was using the free VMware server to have a copy of Puppy Linux (Digipup) and Knoppix (Harv's Hamshack Hack) running simultaneously. Thanks for taking a peek behind the scenes with me. On to recording the podcast.

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