Episode: 4301
Title: HPR4301: Wide screen, synth, e-bike, led matrix clock and jewellery making
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4301/hpr4301.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 22:39:22

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This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4301 from Monday 27 January 2025.
Today's show is entitled, Wide Screen, Synth, Ebike, Lead Matrix Clock and Jewel Remaking.
It is hosted by Lee and is about 22 minutes long.
It carries an explicit flag.
The summary is, Lee talks about what got his attention last year and over the new year.
Hello, I'm Lee.
In this episode of HPR recorded in January 2025, I'll be looking backwards over the last
year and some of the things that have got my attention over the new year period.
I'll start by talking about getting a wider monitor.
So I got a Christmas bonus and replaced my two 4K 27 inch LG monitors with a single
panel ultra wide screen monitor.
This is now equivalent to having two 2.5K monitors side by side, but without the vertical
line in the middle.
The resolution is less than before, but I find it's good enough.
And actually I suffer less scaling problems with apps that struggle with high DPI.
I find now I can have my display centered rather than off to one side.
I'm getting less strain in my neck.
At work I've complained sometimes about code that goes off the right edge of the screen.
With code nested inside the indented XML templates that we use.
And even though with a wider display or set of displays, you can have really long lines
of text.
I still think it's a good practice to limit it to 80 odd columns or whatever.
So just splitting the arguments of function calls or definitions across several lines,
for example.
The old monitors I had I shipped to a friend in Madrid who has vision problems, but apparently
at the same time has unusually detailed eyesight.
So I figured he could use the extra resolution.
I'd had these monitors on a georonic stand with visa mounts and unfortunately had thrown
away the bases.
He did not get on well with their georonic stand I sent, so I said he was going to try
and get two individual stands with visa mounts.
By the way, the LG was my second choice.
The first ultra wide monitor I ordered from Scan Computers was faulty.
This was manufactured by Kula Master, who I think have a good reputation for PC cases
and components, but they've only been making monitors for a couple of years.
This was beefier than the monitor that I ended up with eventually.
It has a very high refresh rate, high resolution and really good specs, but when it arrived
it had backlight bleed, so there were no pixels, only those segmented backlight, which they
now use to be able to have such a good contrast ratio of black to light.
So what I got was a blurry image consisting of the actual image it should have been showing
but without any actual detail.
I think that's the first time I've ever bought a monitor that was faulty out of the box.
I then read up that dead pixels were common for this model and decided to go for something
a bit more modest from a manufacturer that had shown me good form in the past.
Scan computers were really helpful with returning this monitor and it only took a week or so
to get a refund.
So now display drivers.
So for one of my jobs I run a virtual machine with Windows 11.
I use the Virtio graphics driver which read how handily publishes along with a load of
other Virtio drivers on an ISO you can download and then you can install these drivers on
a guest virtual machine and I use Virtio to interact with the VM.
The problem I found was the graphics driver was not supporting any resolution for the aspect
ratio of my new monitor which was 32.9.
So in the code of the driver these resolutions were hard coded.
There was an array of 128 resolutions.
I swapped out the resolution I wanted for one of the ones already there that happened
to be duplicated in the table so hopefully I wasn't going to lose any of the existing
resolution options.
So then recompiling and installing the modified driver was pretty difficult.
First I had to download the Enterprise Windows driver development kit and when it compiled
it had to sign it with a self-signed driver.
So then Windows wouldn't use the driver until I turned off Secure Boot which meant I then
had to reactivate Windows because it thought it was running on a different hardware.
Then the Windows desktop had a watermark on it because it was in test signing mode.
So I ran a program that removed this called Universal Watermark Disable.
But now I get the full width of my display in Windows so it was worth it.
I'm a bit ambivalent about making a pull request of my change to the driver
maintainer since I think it was a bit of a hack and I have a bad feeling that they've
maxed out the number of resolution definitions that they can support at 128.
So some other changes might be needed in the code before they can add more.
So now games. So No Man's Sky was recommended to me by someone I met
at Ogcamp 2004 who works at Edinburgh University on their supercomputers.
So I've been playing it since a few months ago. This is a space exploration resource
gathering and trading game that was released in 2016. This worked okay with the widescreen
monitor. Elder Scrolls Skyrim I've been playing on an offer over a decade and still barely got
a fraction through what there is to explore and accomplish in the game. This one did not seem
to be able to use the full width of the new monster so I showed out on the special edition
which did support it. The visual effect is that what is in front of you looks normal
but wasn't the site as increasingly stretched horizontally the closer it is to the vertical edges
of the screen. That's not a bad way to do it though my monitor is only slightly curved and I think
this effect would work better on a more curved screen. Also the on screen display for HUD elements
are simply squash double width which is a bit poor so I ended up turning them off or turning
down the opacity and just getting by without the HUD. So now a synth. A couple of months ago my
Dutch friend Beno his quadriplegic client Sam and my support worker Edmond and myself met
at my place for sandwiches coffee and a bit of a goal setting session. It was quite difficult
getting a hefty motorised wheelchair into my flat. Apparently when you've been operating
these wheelchairs for a while you learn his best to come up steps and things like that backwards.
I had to improvise a mini ramp from a bundle of lengths of wood, the electric rage edge and my
haul had to come off temporarily and there was some minor damage to the doorways but this was easily
repaired later. One of the exciting goals that came out of this would be setting up some sort of
tracking device and software for Sam. Beno recently told me his iPad now had this
as an accessibility feature though he couldn't find any good online reviews of people actually
using this but would be a bit of a game changer since at the moment voice has to be the main
means of interaction which has its limits. Since I was hosting this little get together I thought I
should contribute a goal of my own and this was for me to start playing in musical keyboard again
which I've neglected for over a decade. While I'm not skilled at this and have never had
formal lessons it was something I used to enjoy and in the old days of Atari's I'd done stuff
with MIDI. So I found a USB musical keyboard round at my parents probably dating back around
two decades which I dusted off and brought to my flat. This hooked up nicely to a MacBook
with the help of a USB A to C converter. I don't know did an app called Mellor which has all kinds
of synthesised instruments that I could play. Why ended up producing did not have much of a tune
and was somewhat ambient in nature. On the day of this recording my mother came round here
and she is around grade six and has been practicing pieces for the next grade up for over a decade
now but seems to have maxed out in terms of what grades she can get to especially with the
scales that are part of the exam that she finds difficult to master. Now she enjoys learning duets
and practices these with her teacher in a small piano group that meets every couple of weeks
though she relies on having music script in front of her for most pieces. She's accomplished a
playing Twinkle Twinkle and Chopsticks so recorded her playing the latter. To get recording I did not
use the built-in mic of the MacBook although this is a superb mic it also recorded the clattering of
keys so instead I installed a B.S. jujo which could directly record the max output coming from
the simfap. As I was recording this is a video rather than just orjo I also installed a plugin
that displayed a spectrum analyzer with vertical bars that jump up and down as the music plays
even though it was a video this imports directly into audacity as orjo. The primo part of Chopsticks
we recorded then I saved it as an mp3 and played this on the ipad so my mother could then accompany
this with the secondo part. While a MacBook is fine for recording I'd rather edit on my main PC
so I opened the project in audacity. They'd synced across to my PC with Resilio Sync.
Trouble was the version of Audacity installed with APT was slightly older so I had to wipe this
and install the flat pack version which opened the project file from the Mac fine.
So though I've been using Audacity quite a few years I was still discovering new features.
I think I've mastered now working with multiple tracks so these were even stereo tracks
each consisting of a left and right sub track so I know no that when you paste something into a track
it's called a clip. You have to merge all the clips in a track together before you can apply
some operations to the tracks a whole. The most important thing about editing multiple tracks
is knowing when to have the sync lock on and off so operations will either apply to just one track
or equally to all the tracks. The simp front the first track especially was originally
coming across quite harshly so I softened it a bit by drawing an equalisation curve.
Bits of the piece were slightly out of time for each other so I adjusted the tempo
weren't so it silences or cut out small portions or added fades to one or the other of the tracks
as and when they seem necessary. The results are finally rendered to an MP3.
So now an e-bike. A year ago I got an e-bike this is a specialised V804 and is a pedal assist bike
as is a legal necessity meaning the power comes from both pedaling and the electric motor
not solely the motor as then it would be classes electric vehicle rather than the bicycle
and there would be some quite different rules about riding one. The bike is lime green and while
that is quite conspicuous I think for a less than totally confident rider like me being visible
on busy roads especially in poor light is pretty important. Though I own a bike I'm not an overly
frequent bike rider. By have also used the human foresty bikes that can be found scattered around
the town and hide using a mobile app. The bike I had fitted a softer saddle when I bought it
so riding is literally less of a pain in the ass. I've had two accidents on this bike over
the last year both times I was not even riding on the road but just coming home and setting off
from my state respectively. When a tire suddenly went flat and I skidded and fell over at virtually
no speed. The first time my ribs were hurt the second time my elbow was gashed and the second time
was my fault anyway since I'd replaced the inner tube after the first occurrence with one that
was slightly the wrong fit. Other than that it's been great having this bike especially when it
comes to going up heels or inclines. On level road I tried to keep the electric assist on its
low setting except when I wanted to keep up with slightly faster traffic. Thankfully for me though
to the displeasure of some residents here the authorities have reduced the speed limits in this
part of suburban London from 30 miles an hour to 20 on many roads. The battery on these bikes
is pretty good. I've only had to charge it a few times. A small issue is I've been told the
charger socket would break if it was tried to be forced in upside down putting a dot of pain
to indicate the right orientation is a good idea. In case I lose the bike and by that I mean if
someone rides off with it I think conspicuously sue grew to an apple air tag under the saddle.
The insurance on the bike necessitates a hefty angle grind a proof lock if it's left out in public
and of course given time any lock can be bypassed but this does provide some assurance.
Even so I prefer to store the bike indoors wherever I'm visiting if that's an option rather than
lock it outside and this saves carrying the lock which is pretty damn heavy. For inflating the ties
I've found there's a whole array of different adapters that can come into play. I've been given
obsession of a battery powered pump by my friend Bella but also have a foot pump which works just
as well. In terms of pressure I've given up trying to make out the reading of whatever pump I'm
using as there seems to be umpteen different scales for measuring pressure. So just go by the
rule of thumb that the tire should feel pretty rock hard when inflated and that's good enough.
Thanks to the scars and memories of the two minor accidents caused by deflated ties I'm pretty
sure to always check the pressure before venturing out at least by squeezing the tire with my thumb.
My only other concern with maintaining the bike would be to hold the chain which is something I
should get around to doing. It is cool though sometimes having a bike the other night after playing
skyrim I suddenly thought when it'd be nice to walk around some real wilderness so I cycled a
couple of miles in the freezing cold to local downs and was the only person there at that time
and got to see fallen snow that had rested there whereas it had melted for out the rest of the
town as well as the moon overhead a bright orange or red planet it was probably Mars a Jupiter
in a clear sky with stars and the Ryan's constellation prominent.
It's now an Arduino clock. Yesterday uncovered an electric calendar or clock I built about a year
ago. It's powered by an Arduino and has a three by three array of nine by nine arrays of LEDs.
These LEDs are RGB but can only really display limited number of use at different brightnesses.
So in the code I define letters for days of the week SMTWTFS then numbers naught to nine
any more than that and I run out of memory since the LED driver codes and libraries use up most
of the available memory on the Arduino Uno I'm using. My characters are five by five and I can
remember looking at characters sets online. I can't remember if I ended up defining the characters
entirely myself in the end. Together time a real time clock with a CER232 batteries linked to the
Arduino with a few wires. In the top left I have the one letter for day of the week in red then
in orange the day of the month then below in yellow green the two digit month in green the two
year then below in interque was the 24 hour in deep blue the minute and below in magenta the second
unfortunately I can't locate the code I wrote since I think I saved it not in my iCloud drive
it's a normally do but with a non-synced folder and not somewhere I'd wipe the Mac book I use for
Arduino work then lent it to benay. I think there is a program called AVRDUDE which might at least
let me take a snapshot of the flash in the Arduino so I can bring the clock and calendar back to
life if it ever gets wiped. So now jewellery. Making jewellery is something that's come onto my radar
this year. I've mentioned before my friend and neighbour Beno invented a time system which splits
the day to seven. Each of those sevens he calls wines and each has their own color. So early last
year after seeing the stole at a local frost fair I had a jewellery maker bespoke copper broach
pendant for him with seven non-precious gems with the correct placement and colors for his system.
In a summer I was attending a creative space run at a local church and had to go at making a bracelet
with beads again using the theme of the time system for the colors. Then in the autumn I had an
online text chat with a woman from Washington state on a neurodiversity friendly dating app
who works from home making jewellery and she showed me facions of many different design she had made
mainly built up from large arrays of tiny cylinders so on my pixel like which I found pretty
interesting. I'm still single so maybe I haven't got the hang yet of what you're supposed to talk
about in a dating context. HPR 3094 how to make friends by color two and the subsequent responses
has much more to say on this topic than I can do justice. Moving swiftly on yesterday I had to go
at earring making after I took my mother who has been a bit poorly before Christmas but has
gradually been regaining her strength to the creative space of the church again.
It seems you can use either wire or silvery nylon like thread and there are tiny metal cylinders
that can be threaded on and then squashed. The idea of this is to either hold the wire in place
to get her in a loop or otherwise to act as a stop so the beads don't slide off.
Not having pierced ears I had to improvise a piece in one sight in the men's bathroom
or order to try out one of the pieces my mother made. I'm finding that though when I was younger
having a pierced ear was a constant irritation at the moment it doesn't feel too bad so I might
stick with it. Those are all the topics I can think of right now that came about over this new year
period that I think might resonate with those who like to experiment make stuff and understand
technical things. In a way I hope something among this my launch has caught your interest and I hope
you can contribute a show of your own if you haven't already. Take care and thanks for listening.
I'll include at the end of this recording the ambient track that I compose and chop sticks that
my mother played and I mixed.
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