Hacker Public Radio Hacker Public Radio

This continues our look at the details of playing Civilization III.
Here we move into a discussion of the Expansion Phase, how to improve
your cities, whether or not to build Wonders, the role of Technologies,
and finally the different Victory types.
Links:

https://www.civfanatics.com/content/civ3/strategy/cracker/civ3_starts/index.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZDmlnJSVdE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnfWobW2zyc
https://www.palain.com/gaming/civilization-iii/playing-civilization-iii-part-3/

The reason I found HPR can be traced back to the 1990's when I first
heard about Linux and I got interested in Linux. But it was not until
ten years ago that I actually started to try Linux for real. A friend
was enthusiastic about Linux. Although he did not have a computer
himself, he made CD copies of multiple Linux distributions and gave to
me. And it happened more than once.
At this time I was on macOS on a macMini. But I also had a cheap
laptop with Windows 10 for a few programs. That laptop was too cheap
with too little memory and soon, despite it was not old, it could not
manage to keep Windows updated, it had too little memory even without
additional software: 32 GB hard drive and 2 GB RAM. So, this was the
driver to install Linux for real. I installed Linux Mint. And the laptop
was now usable again, with an updated operating system.
My interest in Linux Mint led me to start listen to the pod Mintcast
some years ago.
One of the hosts of Mintcast was also an HPR correspondent, and in
his presentation of himself at every pod episode he told he gave shows
at HPR and shared his ID number.
Every Mintcast pod episode also had acknowledgements where Mintcast
thanked HPR for letting them use the HPR Mumble server.
At the end of each year, Mintcast also sends the jingle for the HPR
New year show where everyone is welcome to live chat or just listen.
I know I have tuned in and listened to the New year show. Eventually
I also listened to one or another show in earlier years.
When Mintcast this year, 2024, has talked about Hacker Public Radio
they have mentioned it was low on episodes and encouraged Mintcast
listeners to contribute.
It was after this I finally started to become a regular listener to
Hacker Public Radio and at the same time recorded my first show.
I like HPR for its community based host approach.
I like that shows mostly have the Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license.
I like the concept of knowledge and experience sharing.
I like that the content is what matters most, the equipment and
presentation skills are of less importance.
I like the monthly community shows with feedback and review of shows and
comments.
I like the occasional comments to my shows and my possibility to comment
other shows on the website.
That is how my journey with Hacker Public Radio started.

A show with stories on how I found the Internet and the connections
brought me with other people I've changed my life.

In this episode Kevie, co-host of TuxJam, takes a look at the GPi 2 and the GPi 2W cases from Retroflag.
To complete this project you will need:

GPi 2/2W Case
CM4/Raspberry Pi Zero
Micro SD-Card

These can be purchased from the Retroflag website or The Pi Hut in the UK. On top of this you will also need a selection of ROMs and a Retropie image

My name is Moss Bliss. I'm a podcaster. This is technically my 2nd
HPR podcast, but as the first one was unintentional AND back in 2019, I
can start fresh.
I don't know much of anything. I'm a Linux user, about the same way
most people are Windows users. I have gotten more technical over the
past few years largely due to being a regular on various Linux podcasts.
I don't have sufficient education to be hired in computers (although
I've tried several times), and I did spend a few years in radio back in
my youth.
So what do you have to know to become a podcaster? Almost nothing.
Just so long as you have a computer, an Internet connection, and a
microphone. (For some shows, you may need a webcam.)
I got into podcasting by asking questions. I tried for almost 2 years
to get Chris Fisher at Jupiter Broadcasting to co-feature me, with zero
experience, on a podcast about using Linux desktops. It never happened.
So when in 2018 Rob Hawkins asked for new hosts to take over mintCast, I
was one of the first 10 or so people to apply, and one of 6 who
eventually stuck with it. All I had was a computer, an Internet
connection, and a Blue Yeti microphone my little sister gave me. Within
a few months, I started another podcast, Distrohoppers' Digest with Tony
Hughes. And a couple years later, I was asked to take over Full Circle
Weekly News. Apparently some people like my voice. Since starting my
little mini-career in podcasting, I have probably more than doubled what
I know about Linux. I'm not all that scared of the Terminal
anymore...
Some microphones are pretty bad, and my Blue Yeti was the worst one
on the show when I joined mintCast. In about a year, I found a very
inexpensive CAD Audio U29 USB mic, currently $20 at Amazon, and that
worked pretty well. Some time after taking on Full Circle Weekly News,
the magazine bought me a Samson Q2U ($60), which I'm still using. I love
this mic, as it can be used either as a USB mic or plugged into a sound
box for even better audio.
When I started, I had a T430 laptop and the Blue Yeti microphone. My
listeners and co-hosts have made my life better with new and used
equipment I could never have afforded on my own, including laptops,
Raspberry Pis, modems, routers, headphones, and even a sound box. My
current setup includes a 2016 Lenovo ThinkCentre M600 Tiny, which cost
me under $200 on eBay, a Focusrite Solo sound box (a gift from a
friend), a WavLink ST336A external goodies box (also a gift), and an old
Dynex 26" TV I use as a monitor I paid $15 for locally. I have a boom
arm for my microphone, which is made by Neewer and costs $15 on Amazon.
My keyboard is a Fellowes Microban Natural, which I need as a trained
touch typist. And I put all this stuff on a little rolling computer
desk, which I bought used locally for $25.
The only software I use is Audacity, and I didn't need to know any
more than the basics. If you're part of a team, such as mintCast, you
aren't even required to do any audio editing, although if you know your
way around Audacity you will find your skills very welcome.
If you want to start podcasting, have the equipment, contact Ken
(Note: I misspoke in the audio and said Ronnie where I
meant Ken) and do something here at HPR, which is a fairly low
entry bar, or you might contact long-running shows such as mintCast.
Participation and commitment are usually all that is required.
OK, so maybe you want to do more than produce an HPR show or join
mintCast. You have your own idea and you want to get it out there, your
own personal podcast. This is where it gets a little more detailed. If
you already have the information you need, you can stop the podcast
here, but...
First, you'll need a website or blog (if you're really broke, there
are free WordPress sites available at wordpress.com, or you could use
the dreaded Google blogs (blogger and blogspot). Other than that, you'd
have to register a domain

Introduction
This is a follow up episode on Home Assistant (HA), see
hpr4099
:: An introduction to Home Assistant (HA) for an explanation of what
Home Assistant (HA) is, and why you might want to install it.
The Home
Assistant Installation page offers several different install
methods, listed along with the level of difficulty.

Easiest: Plug and play with Home Assistant Green
Easy: DIY with Raspberry Pi
Intermediate: Extend with Home Assistant Yellow
Hard: Install on other hardware
Expert: Advanced installation methods

Today we will be installing Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS),
on a x86-64 machine.

Home Assistant can be repurposed and installed on various hardware,
such as an Odroid or a generic x86-64 machine. The Home Assistant
Operating System allows you to install Home Assistant on these devices
even if you have little to no Linux experience.

We are going to my HP t610 Flexible Thin Client, which has a 16GB
SATA Flash Drive, and I upgraded it to 16G of Ram.
Note that this will install Home Assistant Operating
System (HAOS) as a computer appliance. That means that it will run a
bare OS with the various components in a customised docker setup. It
will take over the entire computer, and requires secure boot to be
disabled.
On the HP t610 Flexible Thin Client, that involves pressing "Esc" at
boot to get to the bootup menu. If that doesn't work try pressing "F10"
just after turning on the power.
Two methods to install
HAOS has no integrated installer like you would expect with
distro
hopping, but it requires that the image be burned directly onto the
disk of the computer itself.
It has two methods to do this and "Method 2: Installing HAOS directly
from a boot medium", is basically take the disk out of the target system
and attach it to your own computer. The use a burning tool like Balena
Etcher, or dd to write the image to disk. Much as you would
burn a sdcard for a raspberry pi. I don't have a way to do this so let's
go with method 1.
Method
1: Installing HAOS via Ubuntu booting from a USB flash drive
Here you download and burn live operating system as you would if you
were
distro
hopping, the document suggests to use Ubuntu. I tried it but my HP
t610 Flexible Thin Client didn't like it. It also didn't like Fedora
despite having worked earlier, so I just used
Debian
LXQT.

https://www.debian.org/download
https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-12.5.0-amd64-lxqt.iso

Now you have Debian running off a usb stick on your target
machine.
Steps
to burn Home Assistant Operating System (HAOS) to disk on target
Anything after the '#' character is a comment and doesn't need to be
typed.
Note The following steps are optional, and you
should only do them if you wish to ssh to the target machine from your
pc.
# Anything after the '#' charachter is a comment and doesn't need to be typed.
apt install openssh-server # Install the ssh s