Episode: 3462
Title: HPR3462: Metal marbles.
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3462/hpr3462.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-24 23:56:20

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3460242, the 9th of November 2021.
Today's show is entitled, Metal Marbles.
It is the first show by Newhost One of Spoons and is about 10 minutes long
and carries an explicit flag.
The summary is introduction of Newhost with reference to semantic playgrounds.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
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That's HPR15.
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I will address myself as One of Spoons.
I'd like to thank previous hosts for brightening up my menial tasks.
Those times my brain cried out for stimulation and company.
Unfortunately, I was equipped with functional audio channels.
I do talk too much often with excessive detail, but I owe a show.
I recall a famous cartoon depicting a student asking a zen master
to explain the meaning of scripture.
The picture shows the teacher pointing at a moon in the sky.
The legend describes how the dog looks at the finger
while their student sees the light.
Send to me was the ship's computer from Blake Seven television program
from the last century.
Send to others was apparently the idea that scripture was not entirely
necessary, although it might be useful to indicate meaning
by somehow referencing properties of objects
and by relating those properties in ways which exposed
some previously non-recognized relation.
The picture in that case condensed for me the meaning.
I didn't need to build such an abstract data structure in my mind.
Whatever my mental process or my memorial capacity to both translate the language
and create whatever cognitive device I needed to derive acceptable conclusions
the cartoon set a recognisable context.
The idea formed, scuff-olding was discarded and new functions became available.
So while the light reflected from that orbiting mass of who knows what
becomes something of another pointer, indicating the presence of some other
object or set of relations, while that I occasionally become aware of my
attention and some mental functions.
I've noticed how complex things get when I attempt
to acquire tools, maintain those tools, store those tools,
when I attempt to maintain access to those tools.
It's a very nice to have a suite of software tools to play with,
but I wonder if that's because there's so much neater than clutter space,
the solid objects of clutter space.
Are you ever searching for something which you were sure you had?
It may be it's been a few years, you put it away, you need it, you can't find it,
and you haven't really got time to look for it anymore,
so you're either going to buy another one or you have to make something,
you have to make an alternative.
I sometimes wonder if I ever had the things that I was searching for
or whether they were just some idea of objects which I knew were possible,
and I really truly did think that I had them in my possession,
but it turns out otherwise.
I haven't read many books in my adult life,
but I remember reading in a magazine about a book,
which apparently had set its character, one of its characters,
in some desertified area where there was no access to proper garage equipment,
and they spent a long time there because they wanted the very specific part for their motorcycle,
instead of just using a beer can to shim some shaft or other.
I imagine there was a lot more to that book,
but that pricey snippet impressed me, gave me a useful idea.
Functional adequacy was my very dull motto for a while.
I do consider myself a technician when interrogated as to my profession,
I will settle on technician if I think it will be conducive.
If anyone is still listening one day, it is likely that I will provide recipes,
maybe outline procedures, but until I find those metal marbles,
I'm going to be trying hard to put my finger on this attention thing.
I want to recognise that my attention is in play and I need to direct my engagement
to choose my activity.
That juncture does appear to be of particular interest to me recently,
but why should this audience care about my dementia?
I do have an interest in languages I have played with,
electronic components.
I read about those.
I played with some.
I did qualify as a system administrator for Solaris 10,
just before Oracle and Larry Ellison,
Watson Microsystems.
I lost interest in Solaris after Open Solaris was crushed.
I did notice the Illumas project and smart-ass,
but suppose I didn't really see a career using Solaris in any field that I had
an interest in at that point.
Any power I have in stopping industrial capitalism falling off a cliff
at this point is vanishingly small.
So back to interests which might coincide with some of your interests.
I tend to take things to pieces probably more often than I put things together.
I do then examine the pieces and I suppose I am sometimes trying to fix
the dismantled objects.
I'll be taking a look at the rust programming language.
I might get around to some audio notes relating to that.
I have been delayed in the pursuit of that language by the oxide of iron,
which has made its presence known, or I should say the process of which has resulted in me mixing
tannic acid with phosphoric acid and a little bit of alcohol and water
as per Canadian government guidelines.
In order to delay further rusting of said iron or steel in inaccessible places,
you know, for long enough for the place to not fall down could be useful.
I'll try to put a link in the show notes for that.
These are gorgeous black finish.
Something of a dark rainbow actually.
Remember when you're messing with chemicals, you're likely to poison yourself.
Burn your eyes, dissolve your skin, set fire to the place, you know, be careful.
But don't get crushed by collapsing steel structures either.
Swings and roundabouts.
I think I need to insert some sounds for boundaries of subject.
My verbal punctuation is going to be destroyed by all of the editing,
which will be necessary.
I am bound to talk about grammar.
Had I not taken the advice to just press record,
then I would still be writing an essay about deciding which thing to do.
I'm also bound to return to that subject later.
Probably the reason I haven't launched into some technical description
of a processor other is that I'm trying to regard humans as the technology
and language as the communication device itself.
I think I was struggling to find the words.
I need to define for myself some excursion limits
before this nearly introduction turns into even more of a ramble.
Well, this is one of Spoons tugging at the ropes
of the Hacker Public Radio episode submission process.
You might contact me at the email address hpratspoons.1.
Also, thanks to you anarchist types.
I have a handle in the Mastodon region of the Fediverse.
It being one of Spoons at his bagatos.space.
I don't really go to Mastodon space, but it was
worth the effort to get connected there.
Handle-spelling best derived from the show notes.
Thanks again to all those providers of Hacker Public Radio.
Good luck with the theme tune folks.
I am not a musician.
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