Episode: 3859
Title: HPR3859: My Live in Devices
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3859/hpr3859.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 06:47:49

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3859 for Thursday the 18th of May 2023.
Today's show is entitled, My Living in Devices.
It is hosted by JWP and is about 22 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is, just to run down on My Devices.
Okay, my name is JWP and I saw from the email fee that Ken was needing some shows and
so I thought I would do a few shows.
I don't really have a agenda, so to speak, but let's just talk about what's going on in my house in the moment.
So I'm still running the 8GB nook with the solar arm processor that's on its third generation of a Ubuntu LTS.
So I would guess I would put it about 9 years old or so.
I think every two years or something, I do version of LTS comes, of course.
I don't take it with LTS all the way to the end and I do the distro upgrade when the Ubuntu says.
It's still okay with the CPU is starting to show and the SSD is starting to get some errors,
but overall it's still doing okay and we're hesitant to change it because it's got all of the cookies
and codes and all of the other stuff there.
Underneath it, I have two PCs that I don't use very much.
One, it was a micro-media computer that I had built.
The other is a Linux computer that I got at the end of a trade show at one time.
The micro-media thing is just basically just to item server to try to grab things that I'm
off my Apple and I turn it on infrequently and it's just for that purpose to connect Apple and
download nine purchases for Apple so that I have a local copy and the other one is also a generic
gold CPU Intel box. I believe it's from Fujitsu and it does quite okay.
It's a traditional mini desktop so those are the three desktop machines that are still in
use. There's still an old AMD box downstairs as well and the Fuji terminal, one gigabyte terminal
that's running a version of Ubuntu down there but the AMD thing has turned off because it eats a lot
of power and the Fuji is still on but I'm not really sure what it's doing. The only other
full-timer is the one and only the open media server and the one of the raspberries, the zeroes
as somewhere in the house and he's turned on and doesn't have no idea where he is really
and he's been on for several years and I still don't know where he is but the
for those of those of the physicals there's two laptops that I have. I have an old HP
stream with two gigabytes of memory and a 32 gigabyte NC that runs Ubuntu, an older version of
Ubuntu and I can't really surf with it anymore it doesn't really surf very well but if you're
messing with the raspberries and you don't want to have the work computer turned on or you don't
want to so it does okay for those kind of things and the other one is more or less the same thing
it's a pine book, the original pine book that it has and I think I still have all the stuff for it
and so I think what's going to happen is is that in next time we have a hacker public radio come
together I think I'm going to donate it and we'll raffle it or something, we'll raffle it or
something it's in it's in pretty good shape. For the work we see it's still our work laptop it's
still the i7 running Windows 10 professional and it's a real real workhorse a real workhorse thing
and really the only thing that I'm touching and tablet life let's let's talk tablet life so
last year at the end of COVID or sort of toward the end of COVID I'm at the Apple Store in
Stuttgart and I got a 250 6GB normal iPad so they come in 64 256 and I found that the
that the space that 64 was just too small in the Apple world now and so 256 was better. I really
enjoyed my last basic one that only had 16 and it no longer gets update so it's up on top of my
stereo that stereo also that doesn't get used very much and of course there's an iPad
touch a 256 iPad touch that I have and so that's more or less my Apple world today is and I have
Apple TV also but I don't have an Apple phone anymore I don't have an Apple phone anymore
and so I have three and four Android phones only two of them have two of them have SIM cards and I'm
and one is an old two-wide one and it's married to my work so if the work phone ever goes off
then I just just change the Sims of course it's old so it won't be nearly the same
same experience but it has the same software and I do keep all of the credentials updated in it
so if anything happens to the primary work phone then go and with work phone I use a red
10-ounce from Zoome and I can't tell you how much easier life is with the 128
gigabytes storage I think it has three gigabytes of memory and it's at fast charges and so it's
the best phone that I've ever owned by hands down it does two Sims and it has a SD card and so it's
it's quite a quite a beast and I keep an extra data card in there so that if I'm working and the
whatever reason my work some photo phone doesn't have data then I just switch to D1 in Germany and
it works quite fine and my tablet collection so I was in the States a few years ago and I
I it seems like every time I go to the States I didn't do it this time uh instead I had
an analog experience this time when I went to the States but the the last time I was in the States
in 2020 um or maybe even 2018 I went to Walmart I got a 10.1 inch Walmart on
a tablet and it came with a keyboard and it was a hundred bucks and I have to say that that was
a worthy purchase the same thing with my Amazon 10.1 inch did I got in 2019 worthy workhorse
performance and see with the Amazon thing I have to balance the American Amazon with the German
Amazon and so it's it's you have to have more than one uh more than one to really get it to work
and and so I think that they're they're both really good so the three 10 inch ones are the
that Walmart one the Amazon one and the the uh um
the the apple the apple one and then go and then the iPad uh uh the uh the touch is also there
and I use the touch really comes in handy more and more when I travel it has all of the reward
things all the media the whole the whole thing it's it's just incredible useful device when traveling
uh when traveling and I don't take the 10 inch any of the 10 inches with me when I travel and now
the covid it's over work is back and I'm traveling a lot with we're talking about SAP things and
and uh for a credit phone now uh I'm using the the uh high scents or unihards I'm sorry unis for
unihards so I actually saw uh one of the one two guys are or the um uh one of the uh one two
months he was in the chili and I saw this at a show he went with him and uh he big guy and he
had this little phone and uh and I thought okay so this is how you keep from playing on your phone
you get this little bit of phone that does everything plug and add does android audio all the
stuff again dual sim uh dual sim uh dual sim comes from 128 now the knock on the Unihards thing for
me is this is was the the battery right so it is something that you have to charge every day
and it's no fast charge so it's not like the zone works with me that I use it it really but
it again has a d2 and a d1 and it's only four rules a month to keep the the d2 and the the uh d1 on it
it's not a data it's only uh call and SNS and so that's really cheap the less than what's an
oral month uh for my for my private and and it trips in your your watch pocket of your jeans and
so it's quite a useful thing and and you're like oh it's not a big thing but if you pair it
with one of the 10 inch tablets or you pair it with one of the seven or eight inch tablets I
haven't go into the eight inch tablets here uh just a second uh just a second and of course uh
there's a I have another android phone and it's a it's a uh uh one rollout and I have to say that
I was really impressed with the bill quality on it and what happened is uh I'm a real sucker for cheap
cheap tablets uh of all makes tablets from until all make and size so I was living my mom and it was
uh last year and I took my my who I the one that's the work replacement build and uh with me and
I said oh I'll just go buy a tnt and get a sim card well of course they did a check and it didn't
have the idea that it needed to have uh to go to the states and of course somebody said well
somebody oh you just need to get somebody that has an android phone in the states to put a sim card
in and then use that sim card and I don't know it just seems so so awkward so instead uh of course
I got off the airport and I tried to fix the situation at a wall mart around the airport in
Houston don't do that uh don't do that the key thing is you see police cameras on the wall mart
parking lot where you're going into just just continue to drop uh and so the I drove a little
for so so I wasted a lot of time uh in the wall mart and I didn't get any satisfaction uh
and so I ended up just using the uh google maps feature if you're out on such a house in
Houston and the next day I went with my mom and we went to Target and she lives in the suburb
of Richmond and within 15 minutes I had a uh at $58 uh motorola G uh G play uh that only used
AT&T and uh and then uh it's it's it's if you reactivated it's the same it's the same $58
every time so I had to reactivated it so it with with the data and reactivating it it was $60
so so every time you could go do it it's a $60 in the states but it's a nice phone half of the
states is that much towards 32 it does do everything that my work phone does uh but it doesn't have
all of any of the work notifications so then one vacation it's also fantastic with the
google home stuff here at the house and media streaming and all of that great stuff so um
retirement is coming for my 2017 amazon uh seven inch tablet and it's been a real workhorse for me
and I've really liked it and all of the amazon stuff is uh is really uh really and truly
a a uh you know they're really cheap and they don't perform really well but they do last forever
right I've never had one break on me they play all kinds of media uh they play all kinds of media
they come to the nice folio that you can use use whatever and so um uh that seven inch one is
is biting the dust pretty soon and then I have a seven inch Walmart uh one with amazon go and it
and that this one is not not uh I got it I think last two two like two years ago when I was in
states that also and it it was about a hundred bucks on the SD card and it's okay you know
what what's it really really good for really really good for is you're on a train and states are
training the training the Europe uh playing and you want to listen with some noise through
diffusion headphones and it just plays media uh and so in the end course that it fits in your cargo
pocket you know outstandingly outstandingly uh outstanding but what I do it again probably not
because it's the build quality is just not there you can't get any of the accessories the glass
protector any of that stuff for the amazon uh than I found and uh then I have a Lenovo and I won't
do the Lenovo again either uh and the reason is is that it's just so strange uh that the stuff
that Lenovo does with it uh yeah it still gets updates and everything now from the full Lenovo
even years after but it has like a battery 50 percent you know only wants to charge a battery to
50 or 60 percent to save the battery it did have a um have the data cards a lot so if it was
under a hundred bucks and it had a data cards a lot it was I guess okay and but I don't think
I would do it again I don't think I drop another hundred bucks knowing what I know and again I won't
do a Lenovo tablet again because of the way that the software worked on it wasn't it wasn't a
pure not it wasn't a pure enough android experience for me or in it in no way shape or form
worked like an apple device right until I just didn't work and uh the latest amazon thing it's a new
seven inch and I can't think people are highly of it it's uh um I got it as soon as it came out and it was
uh and and again they last forever amazon has a five year life cycle on these things and so it's
incredible value uh and it come came with a folio ready to work ready to travel 100 percent at a time
and uh then the the last device was the device I got the amazon had one of these sales and it was a
Thanksgiving sale and uh they had who's come out with a plus devices and it was so low
than the plus devices so three three goodbye tablet uh with uh with with 32 or
32 or 64 always get the the most possible storage and things because you you just won't regret it
you won't regret it and uh and I didn't even get the the folio for it I've got a couple of stands
and I did get a uh a flimsy protector installed on an extreme protector installed on it but uh
that it's again it's a fantastic media device and because it's a plus device it also can do
you can do a little gaming with it uh it's no problem no problem and uh I guess the last
devices that I want to talk about are headphones and because I of Corona I did uh I've done a lot of
working uh working with uh with headphones and uh the the only thing that I could say is that
the platronics the random the platronics really does work extremely extremely well and uh they last
forever and uh the only thing they bad that I can say is that the earbuds or the like the
cones the gel goes out on and it's really tough to find a replacement gel uh replacement gel
and usually the way that the platronics worked out for me is that the
muffus that it's over the ear thing will over time just just to celebrate and so then it's time to
get a new one um I had a lot of failures with these ear blood things uh my wife has a apple
apple pro uh your ear things uh that she puts in and then they're $200 and I have a series of
uh pods from various things and the only thing that I can say there is go ahead and spend the money
now because anything else is going to frustrate you to a point where where you won't want to
what where where where where you're wondering what it is that you're you're doing so go ahead and spend
the you know the on at least on the basic model my wife has a pro and it's it's pretty incredible
from the apple uh from apple now I have a a hearing loss and so I've started the going uh um
uh two earphones that don't have plugs or go over the ear that you can use while running or
or walking and do meetings that way and um the uh let's see so now I have them on my hand and it's uh
the company's name is uh is CHOKZ and like I said you don't put them in your ears and they don't
cover your ears so they're sort of sports ear ear earbuds uh and they sound incredible
I paid uh I paid a little bit for them uh and they do meetings really really really well uh really
really well and uh and so I would say with the headphones in particularly that the that's
spending more money is is the way to go for sure for sure for sure and then um
bags of I'm addicted to different bags and stuff but mostly uh uh now after the the states um
I use a sousa con bag to travel with and uh and if it's a long trip I'll take a roly one of the
roles of various sizes depending on how long the trip is but for getting on the plan uh I'm using
that sousa bag all the time now and uh I had done a pack safe but the pack safe is two two small
two small really uh the the thing is if you go to the states and either work or play in the
states you always buy stuff or shop or something and and the 42 pound limit is is uh as always a
factor there so I need a bag that expands a little bit but yeah that's a different podcast
all right hey guys uh take care of me safe uh I had a big uh week this week my son got married
and we did the whole thing uh you know married and the reception and the whole nine yards uh so
it was quite the quite the week for me uh you'll be safe and take care if you need to reach me at
jwpfo.com and enjoy yourself you have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public
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