Episode: 303
Title: HPR0303: lottanzb, my computers, and a quick movie review
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0303/hpr0303.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 15:56:00

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**D届歌音**
Hello, this is Dave and this is Hacker Puppet Radio Episode 303.
This is being recorded on the way home from work.
The day before this episode is due, as usual, sadly, I've not done a lot of preparation.
In fact, I've been really busy in sort of wreck my brains is what to talk about.
So, what you're going to hear is, I don't know, an application that I've recently stumbled
upon that I like a little bit, not tried it a lot, and then I'm going to talk about my
computer hardware, my computer's at home, and then I may mention a movie that I like.
So, forgive me while I yield the traffic before turning left.
So I will proceed.
I recently came up on a program called LataNZB, this LOTTANZB.
And NZB, I'm not even exactly sure the exact definition, but it is a file type.
I first heard of this, listening to Hacker Puppet Radio, last year, early in season one.
And I think it was DeepGeek, but I could be mistaken, could have been someone else.
I still not looked that up to see who it was, but I keep crediting DeepGeek for an episode
on NZB files.
But having been around the internet for a long time, I was familiar with news groups,
using that, and even had a couple of favorite news readers in the past.
And I don't use using that a lot, but occasionally I still will.
And using that is a place to find all kinds of stuff, I'll just leave it at that.
You can find all kinds of stuff on using that.
And one of the limitations of news groups is the packet size, or the packet size of the
files.
So if you want to download binary files that are relatively large, they will be divided
up into packages, or the binary itself will be divided up into numerous files.
And NZB files are evidently a file type that sort of collects or represents a whole
collection of these broken up files.
So you don't have to scroll up and down on your newsreader looking for all the pieces
and right-clicking on and saving ads or whatever.
You don't have to do all that.
You just use the NZB search engine, and you find what you're looking for.
And you download it.
Well, I remember hearing about this on HackerPotter radio, and I wrote down on my to-do list
of things to try today, almost a year ago, to try out some NZB stuff.
And I never got around to it.
And I found a program called LottaNZB.
And I will put a link in the show notes.
It escapes me right now.
It was probably like, LottaNZB.com or something.
But it is a, I'm not mistaken, a GTK app, and it allows you to download NZB files.
Now this program, what it wasn't, the one thing that this program didn't do that I thought
it would do was allow you to search for NZB files.
It does not.
You still need to either be a subscriber to an NZB search engine or just use the internet
to find them.
But once you found the NZB file, you download it.
Sort of like downloading a torrent file.
It's a small file, and you just open it with LottaNZB, and it does the rest.
So it sort of removes the newsreader out of the equation.
You find the NZB file, and you use LottaNZB to download it.
Now there are some dependencies, RAR, is one of them.
I think this pronounced hella NZB is another one.
But if you use a devian basis, you can download the dev file, and just do a DPKG-I, and
then the name of the dev file, and it will, it will barfone you, it will tell you there
are some dependencies missing, and then if you just do a aptitude, I think, f install,
it will pull in those dependencies, and it finishes installing the LottaNZB dev file,
easiest pie.
So it's a good problem.
I like it.
It didn't do everything I thought it would, but it was, it did get me off of my romp,
and one of my two do this for just a little while, and maybe it's worth your while as
well.
Next, I was going to talk about my computers, and I think I may still do that.
This will be, I don't know if anybody's done this yet or not.
I know several people have talked about what they have in their computer bag, or toolkit,
or backpack, or whatever.
This is filler, but if somebody may be interested in this, I have numerous computers.
I have, I think the one that I like the best, the one I'm the proudest of is my server.
I have a Spark Ultra 2 server, it's 11 years old, I think, and it runs in Debian.
I can't remember what I put on there, what version Debian I put on there first, if it
was, whatever was before Woody, it's a potato, I can't, I cannot remember, though, I do
escapes them, but I installed Debian on it once a long time ago, and have done nothing
but upgraded since then, it's running linear now.
I've always run the stable version of Debian on this machine, because it's my web server.
I host my own website from my house, and I have really, really enjoyed this Sparkbox
a lot.
It's part of my favorite computer, not a lot of power.
I think it's got dual 450 megahertz processors, and because there's a Spark that doesn't,
there's not a direct one-to-one megahertz translation between that and a 386 type of
computer.
Anyway, that's my web server, which I like a lot.
I have a PowerPC G4, also running DebianWinny.
Some kind of story I've had it a long time, and I've run multiple versions of Debian
on it, installed once and upgraded many times after that.
Always run the stable version on it as well, it's an Oscass server.
Best as I remember, I think I installed Oscass from Source, mainly because the Debian version
Oscass didn't stream MP3s.
I use it mainly to stream in AUG, my weather radio, as well as serving as a mirror to another
Oscass server I administer for my church.
Next I have two boxes upstairs that are AMD 64 boxes, old ones.
I don't need to remember what model they are, what speed processing, they both have about
two giga-ram and they're both running and tripping it on them.
They used to get a lot of use before I got my laptop, but those computers had moved upstairs
and now my two daughters used those mostly.
The PowerPC, and I spoke about how to go in addition to it being used for Oscass, it's
also used as a backup server and my wife uses it to play X-Major on every night.
I have an NSLU2 that's running Debian Mini and I use it as a backup server.
I run our sync jobs off of it and the PowerPC upstairs to backup my web server and the
home directories and a couple of user local directories on all my other computers where
not all my other computers, but a lot of the others.
Let's see, I have an HPDB 5000 US laptop that is running and tripped that my 11 year old
daughter is slowly beginning to take over.
She uses it more than I do, but most of the time it sits behind the couch with the lid
closed in the living room and it's sort of a file server, I just keep stuff there.
I have a OLPC XO laptop running, I guess it's for door 10 in the sugar interface.
It doesn't get used much at all, my 6 year old occasionally uses it, it's behind the
couch as well and I have played with it some, not a lot, and I have one of my leading out.
I've got a couple of Buffalo routers and a Lexus G-S or G-L, the delinux variant of the
delinux is running DDW RT, I know they aren't computers, but you can't SSH into them which
is technically their sort of computers.
I don't even want to out, I got my think pad as a T61 and I'm still running hard on it,
that's the one I use all the time, well my time is split between that one and the AAA PC
9.01 that I have that is running Lenny.
I use to run those side by side and when I need to get up from the day I skydust reattach
the screen session on the AAA and take it with me.
And I also have a Nokia N18 which is in my pocket at all times and it's running Nemo
Linux and I do similar things with that, it's not that easy to type on but I can reattach
the screen session there and continue the conversation and heresy.
So good stuff all around and I think I'm leaving another one out.
I've got one that Ken Fallon gave me in the Netherlands that's another backup server
and it is a, I want to say it's an AMD offline or something, 800 megahertz machine, I think
this running devian Lenny and Apache web server as well so it's a mirror to my Spark Ultra 2.
As is the power PC, I have Apache, the Apache instance and the website backed up on there
as well.
In addition all that I have two and a half other Spark Ultra 2's and I guess if you put
them all together, I've got one running but I've not got it, you know, I'm not using
it yet and the other two are just like parts and I don't think I've left anything out.
I've got a work laptop that I don't want to talk about because it's XP.
But I think that's my computer, I don't think I'm leaving any out.
I administer a couple of other boxes, one for church and one for another group but that's
it I guess.
Okay, and next I was going to mention a movie that I liked and I don't think I've ever
mentioned this on HPR, I know I may have mentioned it in my own podcast but the movie is from 1973
I think it's called a boy in his dog and I think it was rated X at the time now.
I may be getting confused with two other movies that released in 1973, the X or System
of Cockroach Orange and they both had X ratings.
I'm not sure if a boy in his dog did or not but an X rating in 1973 meant something completely
different than an X rating in 2009 so it's not an Apple's comparison so the movie rating
is a little irrelevant in that case but a boy in his dog was based off of a Hugo award-winning
short story if I recall correctly.
I cannot remember the author but the movie had Jason Robarbs and a very young Don Nichols
Don Nichols, that's not his name, hockey book, Don Johnson I think he was about 19 and Don
Johnson plays a boy, he's 19 but he's the boy character in the movie of boy in his dog
and he has a dog and it's post World War 3, the world is in chaos and Don Johnson in his
dog who is telepathic, they communicate with each other, are traveling across this wasteland
and they're being pursued by, I forgot in his echo there, they're sort of like mutated
reapers or zombie kind of characters, you don't want to mess with them.
So they're running from those guys and the sole purpose of their existence is to get to
this place, I think it's called New Topico maybe, I can't remember, there's this mythical
place that's supposedly untouched by the war and they're traveling there and of course
their second sole purpose, that's a misnomer but there are other purposes that stay alive
and in the process eat and have sex so the boy and his dogs would have worked together
to accomplish those things and survive of course and find this place called New Topico.
I think that's the place they're going to eat.
That may not be the place they're searching for, I can't remember but they end up going
to this underground city that may have been called New Topico and is run by Jason Robarbs
and he's like the mayor and it's like a utopia underground but it's real strict, almost pseudo-religious,
they're popping Bible verses over PA systems and they're preoccupied with repopulating the world
and it involves me and marrying 100 women in a ceremony and then more or less hooked
up to a machine so the women can be impregnated and they end up down there and they end up
Don Johnson ends up marrying four or five women, multiple women in this weird sort of mechanical
ceremony but he escapes and I won't blow the ending but it is a good movie, it's a very
interesting movie if you've never seen a boy and his dog check it out.
Okay I think that's going to wrap it up for this ill-planned episode of HackerPotat Radio.
If you don't like hearing this kind of HackerPotat Radio then why don't you do something
about it and record your own?
HackerPotat Radio is always in need of contributors and I'm sure the community would appreciate
your efforts.
Okay, tune in again tomorrow for another HackerPotat Radio.
