August 2020 - luv-talk

Seeking advice on a GPS vehicle tracker
by Rohan McLeod 31 Aug '20

31 Aug '20

Assembled cognoscenti; I am thinking of installing a GPS vehicle tracker; mostly with the hope that I can know if someone is, breaking into my vehicle; I can notify the police..... rather than track it after has been stolen. ! Just to give clearer idea of the problem and to forestall already discarded ideas: -the vehicle is a 1994 Mitsubishi Starwagon 4WD with no remote locking -it now has an after market engine immobiliser fitted -recently someone made a fairly determined attempt to steal the vehicle; (as contrasted with previous breakins where they just took stuff) -unfortunately it is parked in undercover parking which is extremely insecure, and too far away to set up a wifi camera; perhaps 50m away downstairs and around a corner ! To get an idea of the devices I am considering here is one from Jaycar costing $229: https://www.jaycar.com.au/4g-gps-vehicle-tracker/p/LA9038?utm_campaign=redi… here is another $250- $300 depending on source https://www.eva4x4.com.au/products/idrive-livetrack-gps-tracker This later one uses an Android app "iCar Advanced GPS tracker_v3.0.2_apkpure.com.apk" ; (which I have installed in an old Samsung Galaxy SII) but it seems to want to use Google for some kind of authentication. I really don't like Google and would prefer a solution which doesn't involve them; any suggestions eg should I be looking for a device which allows an open-source apk ? or will they all use proprietary apps ? thanks Rohan McLeod

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Retrocomputing: Ken Shirriff's blog: Currently looking at 8086 implementation details.
by Rodney Brown 17 Aug '20

17 Aug '20

Ken Shirriff's blog http://www.righto.com/ Latest: How the 8086 processor handles power and clock internally <http://www.righto.com/2020/08/how-8086-processor-handles-power-and.html> I'd need more electronics/digital design knowledge to properly appreciate this.

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Re: [luv-talk] BBC radio program, saving the audio
by Rohan McLeod 16 Aug '20

16 Aug '20

Mark Trickett via luv-main wrote: > Hello All, > > I heard a BBC documentary on ABC Radio National, in the World Docos > segment. I want the audio to pass on to others, and I would strongly > recommend it to all here. I can get it to play, but not to save, yet. > > https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000jtmv > > There are five episodes, and the last is the kicker. Mark; I had a quick look "Week 5 Watching Us Episode 5 of 5 When Donald Trump announced his candidacy to become leader of the Republican Party he was already known by millions of Americans as a shrewd and astute businessman who , for 10 years, had cut through the crap on national TV. A ruthless bad-ass who hired and fired and got things done. Just what Americans needed as real politicians seemed slow and boring and disingenuous..............." Rather than the xenophobic, reactionary, philosophically and scientifically ignorant billionaire peasant; so beloved of the now not-so-silent cultural working class; who were always the true conservatives. ! I am wondering if the difficulty in passing on to others is just some form of copyright protection by the BBC ? I have re-posted to luv-talk because this seems mostly about politics rather than Linux regards Rohan McLeod > > I do have youtube-dl installed,and command runner firefox extension, > but not yet sure how to go about. I would also appreciate examples to > be able to use them to download from ABC iView, I want "saving Planet > A". > > Regards, > > Mark Trickett > _______________________________________________ > luv-main mailing list > luv-main(a)luv.asn.au > https://lists.luv.asn.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/luv-main >

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Interesting times, where is the beareu of meterology gone
by Mark Trickett 13 Aug '20

13 Aug '20

Hello All, I had tabs open yesterday afternoon, watching the rain radar, then problem connecting. Since then have tried to ping bom.gov.au and nothing back. Has anyone heard anything. In similar vein, some other sites are a lot slower than they were, I have a number of webcomics I follow, and some are perennially slow, but some which were not slow have slowed, along with some business sites. This includes https//www.partsmart-corp.com/ who have been very slow to load. They have been very good, that is where I was able to get the pickup rollers, separation pads, all the output rollers and a fuser for a HP LJ 4Plus and keep a very good printer up and running. Regards, Mark Trickett

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LUV status (& online meeting possibilities)
by Rick Moen 12 Aug '20

12 Aug '20

Robin Stephens asked: > Is luv-main still the primary place for discussion of all things Linux > in Victoria? It kind of is (to my knowledge). As you perhaps observed, it's reasonably active, with over a dozen postings over the course of July. I'm going to return to your point via a seeming digression, so please bear with me: Point 1. My friend Michael Paoli has been doing fine work collecting a list on Bay Area Linux User Group's (San Francisco) wiki of all known recurring virtual LUG meetings, during the pandemic era. It's here: https://www.wiki.balug.org/wiki/doku.php?id=balug:covid-19 You will note there's nothing (yet) from Oz: not Vic, not NSW, nothing. This is perhaps accurate, perhaps not. Truth to tell, I was just now double-checking all of LUV's public mailing lists and Web site to see if there were mention of a LUV online meeting. (There is not - yet.) As I find time, I intend to check other Australian Linux sites to see if any ought to be added to the page. Please, if you (plural) have a chance, kindly do likewise. That was the _initial_ point I wanted to make. Point 2: Hmm, one silver lining of the slow trend of rolling out online meetings (on Zoom, Jitsi Meet, or others) is that suddenly physicality is less important. I have lately been attending a number of organisations' Zoom or Jitsi meetings that are thousands of kilometres away from me. (Yr. humble servant is 60 km south of San Francisco, and his time zone during this season is UTC-7: Locals call it PDT = Pacific Daylight Time.) Recently, for five days at the end of July, I helped run the annual World Science Fiction Convention ('Worldcon'), a volunteer-owned/run literary and fandom event, held this year in Wellington, Enn-Zed. But, of course, 2020 being the dumpster fire that it is, few of the ~2000 attendees could be in Wellington, so this was the first-ever virtual Worldcon, held using a mix of Zoom, Discord, WordPress, Jitsi Meet, and some other technologies. (I did the buildout & administration of Jitsi Meet for the Worldcon.) Starting during staff planning and running through the event, I kept a browser tab open to https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/ , to keep an eye on the two timezones: I came to think of NZ, being on NZST = UTC+12, as five hours behind me plus a day ahead. (It seemed humourously fitting for the Worldcon to be held in the future. ;-> ) LUV / Melbourne / Vic, being on AEST = UTC+10 during these winter months, I would naturally think of as seven hours behind me plus a day ahead. As a mnemonic, you see. (I also switched to 24hr clock notation, as it makes the maths easier.) To sum: The jiggering of time differences is irksome but one quickly finds heuristics & tools to cut the annoyance value, and reduce error. The conclusion: How about other LUV people joining me in showing up at select virtual LUG events with little regard to distance or national borders? (I _am_ a longtime LUV person, even if I am Yet Another Bloody Yank.) Point 3: Also, please consider looking into occasional and perhaps regular LUV meetings on Jitsi Meet (like: meet.jit.si/luv) or on Zoom. Then, you (or I) can add them to Michael Paoli's list, and (for better or worse) gain international attendees with peculiar accents. I would be glad to give a virtual lecture on the construction, care, and feeding of Jitsi Meet for LUV. (I could be LUV's first monthly speaker to ever give a presentation to LUV's audience from 12,600 km away.) (If Russell or another LUV officer considers this posting appropriate for luv-main, great. I didn't want to presume.)

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LUV status
by Robin Stephens 09 Aug '20

09 Aug '20

Hi all, Been busy with life last few years so have not had time to engage with many of the communities I used to be involved with. Hope you are all safe and well. Just curious about the status of LUV lately. Mailing list seems semi active but the web site is severely broken. Is luv-main still the primary place for discussion of all things Linux in Victoria? Robin

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Microchip PolarFire SoC Icicle Kit (RISCV Linux) US$520
by Rodney Brown 02 Aug '20

02 Aug '20

A board for self-hosted Linux development on RISCV (RV64GC), still at corporate pricing ... (USD520). The FPGA specs are there for people who understand them. https://www.crowdsupply.com/microchip/polarfire-soc-icicle-kit PolarFire SoC (MPFS250T-FCVG484EES) 600 MHz clock 1 x RV64IMAC core by SiFive 4 x RV64GC core by SiFive 254K logic elements non-volatile fabric 784 x math block (18 x 18) 4 x 12.7 Gbps SERDES Secure boot Memory 2 GB LPDDR4 x 32 Storage 1 Gb SPI flash 8 GB eMMC flash or SD card slot (multiplexed) Networking 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Expansion Interfaces Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin header mikroBUS socket PCIe gen2 Micro USB 2.0 Hi-Speed OTG 4 x UART (via single micro USB) 2 x CAN SPI I²C

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Humble ebook bundles: O'Reilly: 16 days: Programming Languages. Raspberry Pi Press: 9 days
by Rodney Brown 01 Aug '20

01 Aug '20

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/programming-languages-oreilly-books Humble Book Bundle: Programming Languages by O'Reilly 16 days $1.42 or greater 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know Think Julia Programming Scala 2nd ed. Introducing Go Learning Perl 7th ed. $11.50 or greater Learning SQL 3rd ed. Programming PHP 4th ed. R Cookbook 2nd ed. Head First Kotlin Using Asyncio in Python $21.50 or greater Programming Rust C# 8.0 in a Nutshell Fluent Python Learning Java 5th ed. Programming TypeScript --- https://www.humblebundle.com/books/raspberry-pi-raspberry-pi-press-books Humble Book Bundle: Raspberry Pi by Raspberry Pi Press 9 days $1.43 or greater 20% off anything in the Raspberry Pi Press store Free Raspberry Pi Zero W with any MagPi subscription Free Raspberry Pi Zero only comes with 12-month subscription purchase 15% off a 12 month subscription of The MagPi, HackSpace, Wireframe, Digital SLR and Custom PC The MagPi Essentials: Simple Electronics with GPIO Zero The MagPi Essentials: Learn to Code with C The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book - Volume 1 Raspberry Pi 4 starter guide: The MagPi #84 Raspberry Pi 4 - your next desktop PC: The MagPi #85 Powerful Raspberry Pi projects: The MagPi #86 Build a 4K digital media hub: The MagPi #87 Raspberry Pi Projects - HackSpace #21 Robot Music - HackSpace #22 Halloween Builds - HackSpace #23 $11.50 or greater The Official Raspberry Pi Beginner's Guide - 3rd Edition The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book - Volume 2 The MagPi Essentials: Camera Module Guide Book of Making - Volume 1 The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book - Volume 3 Get Started with Arduino Rediscover classic computing: The MagPi #88 Top 50 Raspberry Pi tips & tools: The MagPi #89 Build the ultimate magic mirror: The MagPi #90 Hack Your Drinks - HackSpace #24 Christmas for Makers - HackSpace #25 Pick the Right Printer for You - HackSpace #26 Raspberry Pi Builds: The World's Favourite Computer - HackSpace #27 $21.50 or greater The Official Raspberry Pi Camera Guide Book of Making - Volume 2 Wearable Tech Projects The MagPi Essentials: AIY Projects The MagPi Essentials: Conquer the Command Line The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book - Volume 4 The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book - Volume 5 An Introduction to C & GUI Programming #MonthOfMaking - Let's build together: The MagPi #91 Solve your Raspberry Pi problems: The MagPi #92 Work from home with Raspberry Pi: The MagPi #93 Explore 8GB Raspberry Pi 4: The MagPi #94 Build a retro games console: The MagPi #95 Learn the Foundations of Electronics - HackSpace #28 Work With Wood: Get Into This Ancient Craft - HackSpace #29 Arduino: The Ultimate Maker Platform - HackSpace #30 DIY Smart Home: We Live in the Internet of Things - HackSpace #31 Extreme Builds: Go Big or Go Home - HackSpace #32

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US Vintage Computer Festival West 2020 (VCF West) online soon
by Rodney Brown 01 Aug '20

01 Aug '20

http://vcfed.org/wp/vcf-west-event-schedule/ Registered exhibits and Schedule for Saturday 8/1/2020: Streaming on our YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/7YoolSAHR5w

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