TuxJam OGG: Recent Episodes
TuxJam
TuxJam is a family friendly show that blends Creative Commons music and Open Source goodness. This is an OGG feed.
The FOSSy foursome of Al, Andrew, Dave and Kevie return for another bout of linuxy software spiced with creative common tunes.
We begin as always with a round-up of recent releases from distrowatch. Next we review Waydroid which allows you to efficiently run an Android environment if you happen to be running Wayland. Then we take a look at Pachli which is an Android client for Mastodon forked from the Tusky/Husky codebase.
We finish up with a round-up of feedback and offer up a couple of dates that you might want to pop into your diary:
- Podcrawl Late Summer 2024 on Saturday 31 August from 18:00 UK time (BST).
- OggCamp 2024 on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October 2024, Manchester UK.
Perhaps you would like some TuxJam merch? Thanks to the talents of our very own Kevie we now have designs in our Redbubble shop.
Songs1. Leeona – Taste 2. Arrow & Olive – Whisky Woman 3. CJ Redan – Cabin Fever 4. Infraction – Retro Games
Al, Dave, Andrew and Kevie brave heat and cold and everything in between to bring you free bits and bytes and CC tunes. We start off with our usual roundup of recent releases on distrowatch.
We only have one item for review in this show: the Ultramarine distro based on Fedora. Dave and Al look at the version that runs on regular PCs whereas Kevie and Andrew try out the images provided for 64 bit Raspberry Pis.
We finish up with a brief round-up of feedback and how to contact us.
Music licensed under some kind of Creative Commons license played in this show are:
- Eversame – warmth of your snow
- Richard Shekari – Amazing
- Mahidevran – Empty Ocean
- Mystic Crock – Crossing Styx
Don’t dial 112 but deign to digest our dalliance with Dillo and entertain our engagement with Entroware. Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug), Andrew and Al are back with another helping of free and open source software peppered with Creative Commons musical goodness.
As ever, we begin with a nose around recent releases on distrowatch.com with a few having a distinctly ARMy aroma.
Dave and Andrew then discuss there experiences with Proteus laptops from the UK company Entroware. Andrew’s laptop was purchased earlier this year and Daves’ a couple of years ago and so the chipset revisions and specs do differ:
Andrew’s Proteus in action with his old Asus Zenbook displaced to the right.Andrew’s 15″ Proteus £1648.96 including shipping and VAT
- Processor: Core i7-1360P, 13th Gen 12 cores
- Memory: 64GB DDR5 4800MT/s
- Storage: 4TB PCIe NVMe SSD
Daves’s 15″ Proteus
- Processor: Core i7-1165G7, 11th Gen 4 cores
- Memory: 32GB
- Storage: 1TB SSD
Al and Kevie then take a look at venerable no-frills, and somewhat retro Dillo web browser which has had a release after almost a decade of inactivity. Note that the official Dillo website is not dillo.org at present but dillo-browser.github.io for reasons explained here.
We finish with a review of the recent Podcrawl and a round-up of feedback since the last episode.
Creative commons tracks played in this episode include:#
- Swiss Portrait – Always
- Western Jaguar – Repossess
- Dr Groove Gang – Sweet Soul Musik
- Like a Song – YONDER BREAKS
Our quadriga of Al, Andrew, Dave and Kevie begin with their usual round-up of recent releases from distrowatch but then go off-piste from our usual format. There’s no distro review in this episode but we split into two teams to look at the Mealie self-hosted service and the unofficial Android client for it called Mealient. We finish up with a round-up of feedback received since the last episode.
Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons music:
- Crazy Evolution – Final Exams
- Fruhstick – Angel
- Caleb Lemond – A Road In The Country
- Arom – Si
TuxJam’s quartet of Al, Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) return to bring you picks from the world of free and open source software peppered with creative commons tunes. And, no, we have not become slaves to AI – Artifical Intelligence – but are grateful to Al, our newest co-host, for suggesting both reviews in this show. As usual, we begin with our usual round-up from recent releases mentioned on distrowatch.com.
We then take a look at the resurrection of the venerable Damn Small Linux which first appeared back in 2005. Originally this packed a lean but functional linux distro into a mere 50MB which could be put on credit card sized CDs or USB thumb drives back then. These days such a small distro wouldn’t be as useful so the limit has been increased to 700MB. We take a look at DSL 2024RC1.
Have you ever dreamt of simulating electrical circuits using free and open source software that you don’t need to compile or even install? If you have you might want to seek professional help, but dream no more, such a thing exists in the form of circuitjs: a menu-driven, point, click and drag app that runs in your browser.
A boost convertor in circuitjs boosting from 5V to 14V.We finish up with feedback we have received. Please do leave feedback either by commenting here or using the various methods list here.
Creative commons licensed tunes played in this episode are:
- Forget The Whale – Without You
- Mahidevran – Drifter
- Weathered Pages – Don’t Give Up
- Koresma – Drift Away
New host Al has the previous co-hosts – Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) on probation.
We start with our usual round-up of distrowatch.com which ranges from so easy to chaos (well, Kaos).
In this episode, prompted by a suggestion from Els Mussols, the guys look at a variety of Android based RSS reader apps,including ttRSS, Nextcloud News, and from F-Droid: Feeder, Read You, and Nunti.
Dave and Kevie review their new toys, the 8BitDo Pro Controller.
Are those Dave’s or Kevie’s hands in the picture? 🤔
We love feedback and suggestions of what to look at next so do get in touch with us or just leave a comment on this post.
And of course all this chat is spiced with a mix of Creative Commons music:
- Davide Bozzaro – Let’s Surf – Surf Rock
- The Devil Music Co – Second Star To The Right
- Drybone Allstars – It Could Have Been Me
- LessXmore – Sky
The usual trio of Kevie, Andrew (when tore himself away from his telescope) and Dave are joined by Al, from the Admin Admin podcast, and have a show dedicated to retro gaming.
The Data Frog Gane (sic) ConsoleWe start with our useful roundup from distrowatch.
Al and Dave review the Data frog handheld game console. Here’s a link to a GitHub repo with a whole raft of information relating to the console.
Andrew talks about his recent fun in playing around with Defender, built from the original assembly source code.
Kevie created a Pi powered retro gaming console, that was heavily inspired by the SNES.
The links for the parts and total costs involved in this project was:
- SuperPi Case: £22.50
- Retroflag Controller (x2): £27
- Pi 4 Model B: £75
- Heatsinks: £3.50
- 30mm Fan: £3
- Power Supply: £9
- HDMI Adapter: £4
- 64GB MicroSD Card: £7.50
- Total price: £151.50
Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons Music:
- Suzy E – Never look back
- Morrisframe – Larger Than Life
- Matthew Mike Cole – The Wheels on the Bus
- KERRY – Get me a doctor
- Prettyhowtown – Hydrogen Beta (original version)
Fellows feeling festive festoon followers with freedom! In this Christmas themed episode and the last one of the year, Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) have lovingly hand-picked a couple of FOSS goodies for their tenuous yuletide connections.
We look at Retropie (because everybody loves getting games at Christmas) which causes an outbreak of nostalgia amongst your hosts. Also, to make Santa’s life easier whilst he checks his list, we look at the hierarchical note taking app Cherrytree (Kevie also tested out the Android app SourCherry).
The steps that were spoken of in the show for setting up Retropie were as follows:
if you want to use external storage such as a USB thumb drive, then you need to create a folder called retropie-mount on the root of the drive using the PC. On Retropie go to the configuration page and select retropie setup. Then select configuration / tools and this will bring up another menu, scroll all the way down to the bottom and select usbromservice (this will be off the screen when you first look at this menu), select enable and hit OK. Go back to the home screen, press the start button on your controller and reboot the system from the quit option. When Retropie has loaded up to the home screen, plug in the USB drive and wait about 1 minute and then remove the drive again. This will have setup the USB drive with the appropriate folders. If you simply fire a load of ROMs onto a USB then it will not work; they need to go into the specific directory.
By default the sound is sent through the HDMI output, this is no use for me as my monitor does not have speakers. Press menu and select sound setting, you only get headphones or HDMI. Audio via bluetooth is not enabled by default on Retropie. The steps that worked for me on a Raspeberry Pi 400 were:
First I needed to drop out of this graphical UI to a terminal, you can’t use the pad for this, you will need a keyboard.
- Press F4 to take you to a terminal
- Install the pulseaudio-module-bluetooth with the command sudo apt install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
- Add the user to the bluetooth group with the command sudo adduser pi bluetooth
- Now we need to tell the Pi to use the connected bluetoooth audio speaker and for this we need to use a text editor, I used Nano as it was already installed: sudo nano /etc/pulse/default.pa
- Add the line load-module module-switch-on-connect
- Save and exit the file
- Now we need to tell bluetooth to enable the audio service. Again we need to edit a file: sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/main.conf
- Find the [General] section and add the line: Enable=Source,Sink,Media,Socket
- Save and exit the file
- Reboot the system with sudo reboot
- On reboot select configuration on the home screen and select Bluetooth
- Select Pair and Connect to Bluetooth Device (make sure that your device is in pairing mode)
- Select Configure Bluetooth Connect Mode and then select background
I noticed after starting playing is that I had a black border around my screen. To remove this go to configuration, select raspi-config and then select Display Options, then scroll to Underscan and select No. This won’t affect you if you have this connected to a TV, but it will if connected to a monitor. Once you exit the settings it will ask if you want to reboot, you will need to reboot for this to take effect. Upon reboot the black border is removed.
The artwork is not loaded by default and it isn’t clear how to get this, however it is not difficult. When you have your ROMs listed in front of you, press start on your controller and select the Scraper option, then select Scrape Now and all of your ROMs will have their artwork. This is purely optional and only an aesthetic addition. A word of warning is that it will go through each ROM and ask which art you would like or which version of the game it is. If you are like me and have 1000s of ROMs then this is something that you may wish to skip unless you really wish to spend a lot of time configuring your system.
This episode is festively spiced with the following mix of festive tracks:
- Zha Ton – Jingle Bells (orchestral version)
- Mark Marshall – Santa Clause is Back In Town Thanks to Mark Marshall for giving us permission to play this track.
- Aryeh Frankfurter – God Rest Ye Merry, (sic) Gentlemen
- Highland Saga – Auld Lang Syne Thanks to Highland Saga for giving us the permission to play the track
It is time for our annual list of ~~things we really want for Christmas~~ things we want geeks throughout the world to receive for Christmas. Partners, friends and relatives of geeks take note! TuxJam will return to its usual format for a December Christmas show.
Stocking Fillers (below £10)
- Beer Blanket
- Keyboard Earings
- Seeed Studio Xiao ESP32S3
- Astronomy images on stickers, posters and phone case
- 982GB USB drive SCAM – DO NOT BUY for lolz only 🙂
- Wallet multi tool
- Data frog handheld game console
Low price (£10-£25)
- Heated Feet Warmer
- Henry Desk Vacuum
- 10×50 binoculars from Lidl
- Typhoon by Mike Sutton
- The Big Pipe Sipper Glass (listen carefully and you can hear mcnalu supping from one later in the show)
- Whiskey Rotating Glasses with Coasters – Set of 2 by Ingenius
- Plasma Stick 2040 W (Pico W Aboard)
- Neon-like RGB LED Strip with Diffuser
Mid range (£25-£100)
- Atari Flashback
- USB-C UltraDock PLUS
- SanDisk Ultra Flair 512GB USB stick
- Folding workbench from Lidl
- Floating globe
- Raspberry Pi 5 or Starter Kit
- Oasis Mini
High End (over £100)
- Retro Arcade Rug
- Steampunk Wireless Mouse
- See star S50 smart telescope
- Star Trek: The Original Series Bluetooth Communicator – 55th Anniversary Limited Edition
- Arcade1Up Street Fighter II Turbo Capcom Legacy Arcade Machine
WOW, you REALLY love them (£silly money)
- Gluxkind Smart Stroller
- Super high end ZWO astro camera bundle
- FORCES OF VALOR 1/16 USA M4A3 SHERMAN D-DAY SERIES METAL DIECAST TANK UK
Festive Creative Commons tracks played on this episode:
- From the Moment Music – Its Time for Christmas Again
- Ryan Sheeler – In The Bleak Midwinter
- Pinegroove – Christmas Time Is Here
- Emily Richards – Silent Night, Holy Night
- James Bell – Beyond All Their Wishes
This month your trynamic trio of Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) begin with their usual perusal of recent releases on distrowatch. They then disagree on who decided on what to review in this episode and then agree it was all of them, demonstrating that while there is indeed no ‘I’ in team, nor is there a ‘we’.
On emerging from this paradox they take a look at Manjaro (Arm) with the Wayland compositor Sway and the venerable Arity Calculator for Android available from F-droid.
Creative commons tracks played in this episode are:
- Mahidevran – Every day and hour
- Jon Worthy – I Love You
- Roy Smiles – Kurt Cobain
- piccadillyCircus – Fun Gaming
The boys are back after a summer break. They begin with their usual roundup of recent releases from distrowatch. Next up they set sail for Brazil, virtually, and take a look at gaming distro RegataOS. Following that we take a look at YouTube Android player LibreTube which you can get from F-Droid and close with a brief review of the last Podcrawl Jitsi. Remember we do like feedback so please do get in touch.
Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons tracks:
- jims-the-man-bands – Margaritaville
- Bobby Ramone – Jamming Affairs
- Oasis of the Seas Orchestra – Old Devil Moon
- P.O.Box – From Alamo To Tobago
- When the Saints Go Marching In – Lance Gerard Loiselle
We don't start with our usual round up from distrowatch, nor do we review anything nor conclude with feedback. We do however have tunes and a yarn with Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu). This is just a short show we recorded to inform listeners of the upcoming Podcrawl Jitsi at 18:00BST (17:00 UTC) on Saturday 19 August. Hope to see you there!
The creative common tune played during this show is:
Drink up me mateys by Black Bones
The terrible triumvirate of Kevie, Dave (aka the Bug of Love) and Andrew (the Son of Nalu) reunite for another jamming of the Tux. Into the preserve we toss a random sample of FOSS goodness reduced with sweet creative commons tuneage. Following the usual perusing of the Watch of the Distros, we take a look at the venerable linux distribution, the Operating System of the Linux PC (PCLinuxOS). We then review the android app Podverse which is a catcher of the pods. As usual we end with a review of feedback.
All this along with the usual mix of Creative Commons tracks:
Rising Bones - The Edge
Picadillycircus - Help Me I'm a Geek
The Woods - Bad Rain
VVSMusic - Little Town in the Old County Down
WARNING: This episode, its show notes, and title contain puns which may be injurious to health.
In this episode Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu), surf distrowatch then plunge into the void to test out Void Linux, an independent distro not built on any other.
Being fellows of the fediverse, they take a look at the desktop client, and Tootle fork, Tuba. Listeners equipped with a keen eye or two might notice that Tuba offers a package specifically for Void Linux which made its review unavoidable in this show.
And, as always, the techie talk is interspersed with the usual mix of CCMusic:
- The Pomps – Climb Aboard
- The Spinwires – Goodbar Good Night
- Friday Pilots Club – Life Support
- Aanian – Alchemy
TuxJam 101? Are we going back to basics? Yes! The basics being the usual creative commons tunes, free and open source software and good beer. In this show, Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) start with their usual roundup from distrowatch.com.
We take a look at Vanilla OS and, although we liked what we saw, we didn’t get to see as much as we’d like due to various technical issues which we will feed back to the developers.
Spider Graph with custom valuesNext up, we look at the beverage taste tracking app Flavordex and – purely as a service to you, dear listener – force ourselves to consume beer and whisky (with no e!) so we can enter something into the app.
We end with a roundup of feedback and note that Andrew will be attending (or have attended) FOSDEM on 4-5 Feb 2023 and co-manning the Free Culture Podcasts stand there. The next podcrawl is set for 25 March, just after the vernal equinox, in which we will raise a glass to the arrival of spring.
Creative commons licensed tunes played in this episode:
- Rude – Cold Inside
- Forget the Whale – The Little Robot
- Fallen To Flux – From The Outside Looking In
- Steep – Let Me Go
In the centenary episode of TuxJam, Andrew, Dave and Kevie take a look at some (poorly linked) festive themed items, including a review of build-it-yourself distro Alpine Linux and Simple Contacts (because we all need to dig out these addresses to send the Christmas cards to). We thank all of our listeners for putting up with us for 100 shows, as we go into the new year we raise a glass to the next 100.
We also talk about the new dedicated TuxJam Mastodon account, the upcoming Podcrawl and also a show that Kevie was on recently talking about beer (Wee Heavies in particular) with Rob Talks About Beer. You can check this out here. This along with the usual mix of ccmusic round off this festive and milestone episode:
- Ronny Matthes – O Little Town Of Bethlehem
- Singleton – Shine
- Teresa – I Wish You Were Here
- Stefano Giardiniere – White Christmas Night
Stocking Filler (under £10)
- Lights for inside a bottle (also promotes recycling)
- Find out what their childhood likes, get a print, buy a frame from a charity shop.
- ESP32 WROOM 32E
- USB to 12V Adapter – Use Any PD USBC Power Bank to Power Any 12V Device – Turn Your Power Bank into a 12 Volt Battery
- Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Guy
- World’s Smallest Planetarium
- Key Bottle Opener
Low (£10-25)
- Make something yourself from recycled wood, make it personal with a pyrography iron. Develops skills and also promotes recycling.
- Minitotem desk Tidy
- Motion Sensor Lights for Indoors, 2022 New Rechargeable LED Wardrobe Light Stick-on Anywhere Cupboard Light Under Kitchen Cabinet Stair Shed LED PIR Night Lighting, 3 Light Modes and 3 Color Temperature
- Feather S3 by the Unexpected Maker
- RFID Signal Blocker Box
- Pac-Man Keyring Game
- Mini Whisky Barrel by Sharper Image
Mid(£25-100)
- Sandisk Clip Sports Plus
- OBDLink
- Microphone Arm with Clamp, Wall Mount, Mic Holder for Blue Yeti / HyperX QuadCast ＆ Other Mics
- Portable Charger 30W PD USB-C Power Bank with 12V Cigarette Lighter Outlet, External Battery Pack
- Giant Earbud Bluetooth Speaker by GadgetMonster
- Stellarscope – Constellation Finder
- Four Bottle Optic Drinks Dispenser
High(£100+)
- SteamDeck
- PerfectDraft
- Bird Buddy Pro
- Solar charge controller/inverter eBay or direct from Mppsolar in Taiwan
- 100Ah 12v lithium iron phosphate battery with bluetooth BMS
- Fizzics Draftpour
- Fizzics Draftpour Beer Dispenser – Carbon
- Fizzics DraftPour Home Beer Tap
- Fizzics DraftPour Pub Special
- Gingko Smart Moon Lamp – Ash
Wow, you really love them (silly money)!!!
- Samsung AirDresser Clothing System
- Observatory dome
- Royal Selangor Star Wars Classic Chess Set
CCMusic
- James Bell – Beyond All Their Wishes
- pinegroove – Christmas Time Is Here
- Ronny Matthes – Silent Night
- Greg Baumont – This Winter (feat. Snowflake)
- Dmitry Taras – Happy Orchestral Christmas
As we approach our centenary episode Andrew, Dave and Kevie take a look at Arch based distro CachyOS and continue looking at the Simple Tools Suite with a review of Simple SMS Messenger.
Along with the usual mix of CC Music:
Carrying Goodness - RepentanceColor Out - PresageSam Brown - FelonyDHDMusic - Happy Time
Creeping ever closer to our centenary, in this 97th episode Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) look at RISC OS Open on the Raspberry Pi. This OS and the Pi share a common history. RISC OS grew out of Acorn's need to replace the 8-bit 6502 processor in their BBC microcomputer and led them to create a new RISC processor called ARM. ARM processors now power most of our mobile phones, tablets and also some computers, such as the Raspberry Pi.
We continue our look at the Simple Tool Suite with Simple File Manager Pro and also consider the merits of the recently announced Simple Phone.
Along with the usual mix of ccmusic:
Kevin Milner and Piero Peluche - MedicineArrow & Olive - Whiskey WomanJon Worthy - Better DaysCrossing Styx - Mystic Crock
Andrew (aka mcnalu), Dave (aka thelovebug) and Kevie return after summers that were cold, hot and just right, respectively. They start off with the usual roundup of new releases on distrowatch and then look at the linux distro Xebian, and even try to pronounce it properly. Those who like complex data wrangling may be interested in our look at the GUI database management software DBeaver (community edition), but if you prefer to browse through your snaps then perhaps Simple Gallery might be of more interest.
DBeaver in action
Along with the usual mix of Creative Commons music:
FiniteMusicForge - Groovy Surf RockCraig McMorrow - These TimesBeardMusicStock - Ready To GoRoy Smiles - Angel Of The North (Ballad Version)Bayramli_Sounds - Morning Sunrise
The guys return from a long break in the Mediterranean, all sun bronzed and ready for a new episode (not really). In this episode we take a look at the recently released PeppermintOS 11, this being an emotional release as it is the first since the death of the project's leader Mark Greaves. We also start taking a look at the first of our apps from the Simple Mobile Tools suite: the Simple Keyboard on Android. We take a look back at the Podcrawl in February and also look ahead to the next one, which is due to take place on the 18th June.
PeppermintOS 11
This combined with the usual mix of creative commons music tracks:
The Spin Wires - Time BombKristian Vuljar - Like Never BeforeRoy Smiles - Make It On ThroughTuttkile - When We Were Young
In our first show of the new year Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) start with their usual distrowatch roundup, which includes a special recommendation from friend of the show Peter "MintSpider".
Next we take a look at Quickemu, developed by Martin "Wimpy" Wimpress, and its handy graphical front-end Quickgui, co-developed by another friend of the show, Yannick Mauray along with Mark Johnson. With our serious look at emulation out of the way we play around with Super Retro Mega Wars, an app available via F-Droid and Google Play for Android that helps us relive our misspent arcade game playing youth. Warning: Games were played during the recording.
We finish up with our roundup of feedback, a review of our best-attended podcrawl to date and announcement of the next podcrawl on Saturday 26 February - details will appear here. Please do let us have any feedback and feel to bring it along with a beer or two to the podcrawl. Kevie briefly discusses a Christmas present he received: a retro style bluetooth speaker and FM radio.
Creative Commons tunes played in this episode include:
Aspirin - TryAlways the Alibi - Killing Me InsideMicaroni and Vulcano - PolarizedWhiteCat - Start Over Together
In this festive themed show Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) start with their usual distrowatch roundup and then take a look at the ICE Site Specific Browser (SSB), developed by the PeppermintOS team, which turns many web applications into desktop friendly apps. We go back to our childhood Christmases with a look at some emulation software to play classic games including Dune, Dune II and Duke Nukem on DosBox and Crazee Rider on BeebEm for linux which Andrew managed to compile from the BBC micro source code after some some slashing around.
"Presents under the tree" by HarlanH is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
We also chat briefly about the upcoming episode of Podcrawl Jitsi, which will take place on Saturday 18th December at 6pm (UK time). Check out the Podcrawl page for more details.
The Creative Commons, festive tracks on this show include:
The Willows - This Is ChristmasThe Kelly & Mason Duo - All I Want for Christmas is YouBobnoxious - Police Nabbed My DadJerry Paladino - What Will You Give Me for ChristmasNo Tent - Auld Lang Syne
Stocking Filler (under £10):
The Foundation Licence Manual for Radio AmateursMinecraft Chicken Egg Cup and Toast CutterMoon lampMulti Tool PensUSB Flash Drive Ballpoint PenProper Raspberry Pi power supplyChocolate Gaming Controller
Low (£10-25):
Amateur Radio-themed signs/stickers/mugs/clothingScrewdriver set in a boxUV-Zone Phone SanitizerThumbs Up RETARCCTL Retro Pocket GamesRaspberry Pi Pirate audio 3W stereo ampWild West Boot Beer GlassLaser Distance Meter 50M/165ft, IP54 Laser Measure with 2 Bubble Levels
Mid (£25-100):
Fill it yourself advent calendarHuawei Freebuds 4iRSGB Foundation Licence ExamAxe throwing kit (mini)Zephyr PRO RGB Sweat-proof Gaming MouseBaofeng UV-5RE+ Plus UHF VHF Long Range Dual Band Ham Amateur Two Way Radio
High (£100+)
HOLY STONE HS110G GPS FPV DroneLogitech Ultimate Ears BOOM 3Dual Fuel Inverter GeneratorXiegu G90 20 Watt AM/CW/SSB SDR HF Amateur TransceiverRoberts Revival iStream 3
Wow! You really love them!!!
DJI Air 2S ComboOptiBeam OB3-80+ Multi Switch Plus BalunVirtual Reality TreadmillBuild a gaming PC (as my neighbour made me do!!!!)
Festive Tracks:
Proto Evangelion - O Come All Ye FaithfulPepper Coyote - Jingle Bell RockThe Honeybirds - Sing The BellsJonny Scab - So This Is Christmas (War is Over)Tom Smith - A Pirate Christmas
Following our usual summer hiatus we are back at our microphones to bring you some ear chutney lovingly made from recent falls of free and open source software, spiced with creative commons musical goodness.
After we have scanned distrowatch for recently releases we turn our attention to non-linux non-distro called Serenity OS. It is built from the ground up as a love letter to the UNIXy operating systems of the late 90s and early naughties. An era which your hosts remember with varying degrees of fondness. Next up is a review of a simple android app called Planisphere. If you are looking for a no-frills FOSS app to help you find your way around the night sky then this may be for you. We end, as always, with a round-up of comments from you, dear listeners.
Creative Commons tunes played in this episode are:
Bumy Goldson - BluebirdBessonn&Sa - Your Love ExplodesRed Crickets - Flowers (From Her Gun)Eventual Groove - Melda One
Andrew, Dave and Kevie are enjoying cake, jelly and ice cream as TuxJam turns 10 years old. With a look back to the first episode we look at the distro that has replaced SimplyMepis: MX Linux. To our amazement, the lightweight music player Pogo is still being maintained and we do another review ten years down the line. We look ahead to the upcoming Podcrawl which will take place on Saturday 26th July at 6pm (UK time), keep an eye on the Podcrawl page for the video conference link (available nearer the time).
MX Linux 19.4.1 (XFCE)
The creative commons tracks are all from bands that were played during the first five episodes and should give the seasoned listener a feeling of Jamendo nostalgia.
Crazy Evolution - Sweet BreezeDan Bryk - NormalTequila Mockingbird - DistanceRetrosonic - Until The End
Kevie, Dave (aka thelovebug) and Andrew (aka mcnalu) are joined by Marshall (aka timttmy), who, while not crushing rocks, has set up and run a Snikket server for instant messaging.
We discuss how we use Snikket via its app in preparing each episode of TuxJam (yes, unbelievable perhaps, but we do try!) and Marshall's experience of installing and maintaining the server.
We also take a look at recent releases listed on distrowatch and have a look at the Solus linux distro with the Budgie desktop. As usual, we bring things to a close with a round up of feedback.
Creative Commons tunes played in this episode are:
Glass Violet - HourglassBack On Earth - I Don't Wanna Let You KnowDavid Krystal - Say You Love MeSmoking With Poets - Pain(t) On Me
In this episode of TuxJam, the usual crew of Andrew, Dave and Kevie take a look at some of the Distrowatch offers of the month, along with some more in-depth reviews of the KaOS distro and Android screen recorder ScreenCam. We also take a look back to the socially distant and COVID-19 restrictions compliant Podcrawl Jitsi which took place in mid-March.
CCmusic tracks included in this episode are:
Robert Avellanet - The One and OnlyFreeky Cleen & Dickey F - Walking On CloudsFUZZIT - Vaccine 3Marc Corominas Pujadó - Life is Beautiful
Our freedom loving trio of Dave (aka thelovebug), Kevie and Andrew (aka mcnalu) begin 2021's run of TuxJam with what they thought would be a shorter than usual episode. As usual, they proved themselves wrong.
First up is a roundup of new releases reported on distrowatch.com which prompted discussions which will be followed up in future episodes or perhaps on Hacker Public Radio.
We do not review a distro in this episode but take a look at the cute pixel art game Android game Xeonjia which Kevie discovered when trying to entertain himself on a long ferry crossing. We then take a look at radio streaming android app Transistor.
We finish with a few words on the latest podcrawl jitsi or jitcrawl podsi or jitpod crawlsi that took place in December. We air the idea of having it quarterly close to the solstices and equinoxes with a mooted next date of 20th March 2021. Do let us know what you think about that in comments, by email or via social media.
All this along with the usual mix of CCmusic:
Jon Worthy - Happy to See You Flashinmusic - My Happy Walk Whacko Sacco - How Can I Win DeepDaikon & Yubatake - Town from Xeonjia
After a long and strange year people are looking forward to Christmas 2020 and none more so than your TuxJam hosts, Kevie, Dave and Andrew.
In this episode we begin with our usual round up of distrowatch and then we review a distro and an app with a vaguely festive theme. The GNU/linux distro is Pop!_OS which is based on Ubuntu. The app is for android and is Tux Rider which will be familiar to anyone who has played Tux Racer on the linux desktop. We then review a good amount of feedback and announce the results of Andrew's "guess my shopping list" from last week's show. (And no, Chalkahlom, 50% of his list is not alcoholic drinks!)
Creative Commons tracks:
Jingle Bells - Anup
Linda Heins - O Little Town of Bethlehem
Vitne - Winter Love Song
Wood Hitch - Auld Lang Syne (Don't Waste My Time)
The Earth completes another orbit and Christmas is approaching once again. There are many shopping days remaining, each filled with 86,400 seconds in which you can click on the perfect gift for your geek. Guided by TuxJam's special seasonal show you literally have no excuse!
Items marked with * involve extra costs outside the US.
Stocking Filler (under £10):
Micro SD card filled with podcasts (find out what your geek is into) Spaceballs The Face Mask Pibow Coupe 4 (£9) Bearables Bear Kit (£9) Sandisk 64GB Cruzer Blade USB Drive - £7.79 (Amazon) Raspberry Pi Zero W - from £9.30 (Pimoroni) Raspberry Pi Zero W Starter Kit - £37.50 (Pimoroni)
Low (£10-25):
Mario Pipe Can Holder (£17) SanDisk Clip Jam (£21) Computer Clock module kit ($34.99*) Willful T1 Headphones (£19.99) Linux-themed t-shirts - £15-£20 (Amazon) Cordwood PuzzlesPuzzle One - £15.90 (Pimoroni)Puzzle Too - £15.90 (Pimoroni)Puzzle Three - £15.90 (Pimoroni)
Mid (£25-100):
Make up a collage of things that your geek is into and put it in a custom frame which displays their username (difficult to price) Swiss Army knife Workchamp (£90) 6502 computer kit ($84.95*) CAMRA Membership - £26.50-£31.50 (CAMRA) 3D Printing Pen - £35.99 (Amazon) Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit – UK - £93.90 (Pimoroni)
High (100+)
Ledger Nano X (£110) GTRacing Gaming Chair (£180) FairPhone 3+ (£425) Complete 8-bit breadboard computer kit bundle ($279.96*)
Picade - desktop retro arcade machine10" display - £225 (Pimoroni)8" display - £165 (Pimoroni)Console - £75 (Pimoroni)
Wow! You really love them!!! (or wish to blast them into space)
AT-AT BBQ Thermal IR camera (£37,605.50+free delivery!)
Commercial space flights with netflights.spaceAround the ISS - £250k/ppTo the moon and back - £85m/ppTo Mars - £500m/pp
Along with a mix of Creative Commons Christmas tracks:
Radical Boy - Merry Christmas Everyone Pet Rock - Walking in the Air Lee Rosevere - I'm Giving You My Cold for Christmas Sean T Wright - Silent Night Evan NG - O Come All Ye Faithful (featuring Benjamin Ding)
We’re back after our summer break, although that’s possibly a poor choice of words with Kevie currently out of action after a motorcycle accident.
However, Andrew and Dave keep the engine running with a look at SparkyLinux, and reviewing the Android application Fast Shopping (F-Droid).
Sparky Linux The CCmusic included in this episode is:
- Bessonn&Sa – I Try
- Vito Paternoster – Vivaldi’s Sonata no 1 in B-flat major RV 47 – Allegro 2
- The Madpix Project – Loaded Gun
- Mokhov – Afterglow Reverie