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hpr_transcripts/hpr2879.txt

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+Episode: 2879
+Title: HPR2879: Describing how I listen to podcasts PART 1
+Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2879/hpr2879.mp3
+Transcribed: 2025-10-24 12:40:59
+
+---
+
+This is HPR Episode 2,879 entitled, describing how I listen to Podcast Part 1, it is hosted
+by MrX, and in about 31 minutes long, and carrying an exquisite flag.
+The summary is, this episode hardly covers the console or the OPLAYER mod.
+This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org.
+Support universal access to all knowledge, by heading over to archive.org, forward slash
+Donate.
+Hello and welcome Hacker Public Radio News. My name is MrX, and welcome to this podcast.
+I'd like to start by thanking the people at HPR for making this service available to us all.
+It's really an invaluable service. They go to a great deal of effort to streamline the service
+and make it as easy as possible to use. Just pick up a microphone, record something, and send it in.
+You must have something interesting to say, I'm sure. It's really quite easy. If I can do it,
+anyone can. So this is going to be a series about how I consume podcasts, basically.
+I recorded a whole pile of stuff before this, and I realised that I'd previously covered a lot of it
+in my old home server episode. That's HPR 2112, so you can always look at that back to
+because it always basically started using, I started with podcasts using a Windows XP machine,
+and then transferred to my home server and running mock music on the command line player.
+I covered that briefly. Also, at that time, tended to use an MP3 player to listen to shows.
+This was a jelly bean type MP3 player with a rubbery outer casing, and it was a bit awkward to
+navigate, and the screen was very small. I've still got it, I think, but I think the rubber coating
+started to come off and got a bit sticky, so I've stopped using that, and I used the wonderful
+Sansa Clip, which I'm sure you'll know all about. It's a very popular player, but getting
+hard to come by these days. They're charging silly money for them. If you can still get a new one,
+I'm not even sure if you can. Second hand, there'd be a quick spence of two, but that's by the buy.
+My home server now has really been replaced by a Raspberry Pi, but the server still used to
+download the podcast, but that's all it's used for. My Raspberry Pi runs all the time and is used
+to play the podcast back, and the audio player I chose was the one that I use on the server,
+and I basically put it on every machine. It's mock-p music on the command line player.
+So I recorded a wee bit about that, to give a bit more detailed overview of mock-p, so I'll
+I'll join this onto the end of this wee introduction, and hopefully it all makes sense and
+doesn't all bore you too much. So without any further ado, here's me earlier on.
+Okay, so I've recorded this wee bit out of sync, so I don't know how this will fit into the whole show,
+but I'll start to talk about the the music player that I use. It's called mock,
+and it's one of these commands, one of these sort of programs that that's installed
+about first on every machine I've got in the house. mock, it stands for music on the command line,
+I think. If you got the man page up here in the description, says mock is a console audio player
+with a single encursus interface, so with a simple encursus interface. It supports og, wolf, wolf,
+it supports og, wave, MP3, and other formats. Just run mock-p, go to some directory using the menu,
+and press enter to start playing the file. The program will automatically play the rest of the file,
+rest of the files in the directory. Go to the terrible job of reading that, didn't I? Yeah,
+it's a bit confusing, it's called, you know, the command is mock-p, but to actually install it,
+the package name is mock, and we'll see. So, you know, it's a debing type distribution,
+to do that, dash, get, install, mock, you know, and that installs the audio player.
+As far as I can say, with no options and no file arguments, the program begins in the current
+directory or in music directory. If the start in music, their option is set in the configuration file,
+I guess there's the configuration file, obviously, you can see all sorts of plethora of things,
+and it's quite, it's, last of our memory, it's, it's, it's, well commented in, easy to understand,
+if you give a directory on the command line, mock will try to go there. If a playlist is given,
+then it is loaded. With multiple files, playlists or directories, everything will be added to the
+playlist recursively, including the current, including the contents of any playlist given.
+Note that relative paths and playlists are resolved with respect to the directory of the
+playlist or of the simlink being used to reference it. And you can, you can actually have multiple
+playlists set up. The way a mock works is that I want to understand it to work, is there's a server
+back end and a front end. And so when you run a few type mock and hit a turn, and you start,
+you select a file, start playing it. If you do, if you type Q to quit, the front end
+disappears, you get back to the command line, but the, you know, the file can then
+use to play because there's a mock server running in the background. And there's a command, I think
+it might be dash P. I'll just let me just check if it is dash P. Yeah, so here we go. So there's
+you can have multiple playlists set up using the dash M command. So for example,
+there's a default one that just works when you type mock P. But if you run it, the command line
+you say mock P dash M and give a different directory. There's different default directory.
+It's almost like you have two instances of mock running and you can have a playlist set up each.
+So for example, I have the default directory. It was how I first started using mock and I use that
+to play podcasts and I've got to mock P dash M and then I've got a folder for audio books and I've
+got a playlist set up for that. And they're both sitting sitting loaded at the same time and I can
+access either one either by using the dash M command and a directory or not and I can do a toggle
+between them and control them completely independently. So that's that's a really nice feature.
+There's so much to mock P. I really don't know where to begin. I'm
+just going to run mock P just now. It loads up and you, by default, if you're not doing it in
+clever, you just run it for the first time. You end up with a split panel. It's a bit like
+midnight commander, same kind of colours as well. It encurses screen and on the left hand side you've
+got the directory listing and currently mine is my home directory and I can pick a directory and
+find a file, hit the tournament starts playing. On the right hand side there's a window for a
+title called playlist and there's nothing in it because there's no playlist loaded as such.
+And if you start playing something, I don't think the playlist actually looks like a ticker.
+Something here.
+There you go, nothing comes up on the playlist. So that's fine. But if you want to add things to
+the playlist, you just either highlight whether up and down at cursor keys, the directory or the file
+you want and you just hit the A key and that then adds items to the playlist like where you can
+delete things by hitting the D key. You tap between the two panels and I think I tweaked the
+configuration for a slightly so that I can have multiple layouts. So the default layout has the
+file directory on one side and the playlist on the other. If I type the L key, it's all driven
+by the keyboard, great. Never need to touch a mouse, it's fantastic. Anyway, you type the L key
+and it's now jumping to a full sized in your terminal, a full sized window that just shows you
+files and directories, which was originally in the left hand side. I type L again, it jumps back
+to the split panel. Now actually I think I've tweaked mine so that it goes, this is just a default
+installation I don't think about it. But in most of my machines I have it set up so that I type L
+and first of all it goes to the file directory, I type L a second time and it jumps to a full screen
+playlist and that's how it normally sits on the playlist window and when I open up against members
+where I was. So for example, if I hit the Q command to quit that, it just quits and the
+the terminal window comes back with a flashing cursor and whatnot. But the mock server is still running
+and if I was playing something it would continue to play and so if I type mock be again, the window
+loads and remembers the layout, I think, is it? No, it doesn't, always forgets the layout, that's right.
+But I tend to access it via a screen session so if you read attached to the screen session
+to it remembers it's this poop sort of thing. So yeah, it sounds very, very, very low resources,
+it uses very little resources, really powerful. And of course you've got extensive command
+or thing, I mean some of the commands I use, I've got I use dash, g and capital G toggle so that
+can toggle between play and pause, you can script all this obviously. Dash R for previous,
+a small dash R, small dash F for next, a dash, a small dash I for info.
+Let me see what sort of some of the interesting things you've got. You've got a
+a dash S command that runs only the server and exits so you could just come up bring up the server
+without actually showing the front end. I've never used that but you could do it.
+Well here we go. That thing I was talking about about the dash M to have multiple playlists,
+I'm going to read the comment it says is capital dash M uses a specified mock directory instead of
+the default. This also causes the configuration file from that directory to be used.
+This can also be specified in the configuration file using the mock directory option.
+If you've never, I think if you run it for the first time, it generates all these things.
+So if you create a directory like I've got a directory from my audio books,
+if I use a dash M option and then to the path where that audio books are, then it creates a folder
+in the dot mock I think from what I remember. I've got a folder in there called
+audio books and if I go into that, yeah, mock generates a number of files. I've got a cache,
+I've got a config, I've got EQ sets for equalization so you can set up files for,
+as I can graphically close up which you can run with presets and that file I've added that.
+Last directory in my key maps, I've got a key map that tweaked some of the keyboard bindings
+and whatnot. A playlist dot M3U. So if you add files to your playlist, that file gets generated
+and files get added to it, you don't need to create it, it does it itself. Obviously you can
+use a playlist from something else because these dot M3Us are standard and it's recognized
+obviously so you could use a playlist from another bit of software I guess.
+So yeah, that's inside audio books, but if I come out of that inside mock, then the same
+some more sort of files are in the actual base mock directory. So it allows you to have multiple
+multiple playlists so it's quite handy. This has been all over the place I haven't
+thought this should have a, let's say, on the cuff. So apparently the A command is a dash
+of pain further. Well actually you can give a command dash A and then a directory and that will
+append recursively all the files in that directory to a playlist. I've got a handy to add
+the whole pile of files and it doesn't start the interface. That's the thing you can have
+like multiple interfaces running so you could have a screen session running on one computer
+or it doesn't need to be a screen session you could just be a normal terminal and you can type
+mock p and then you could open another terminal, type mock p again and that will it will appear and
+you can determine whether the two are synchronized or not. I think maybe by default they are.
+So if you move the cursor in one window it moves in the other and likewise if you're running mock
+p on multiple, you know, I get a multiple machines logged into a server for example, you know,
+you have your laptop and a whole host of different things, all linked into a central server and you
+know if you move from room to room and you move the cursor then all the windows update with that
+to information. So it's a very convenient way of controlling the music player sort of thing here.
+From multiple screens you can access that same player and multiple front ends sort of thing.
+So it's very flexible. Dash see, include the playlist, dash p or dash dash play,
+dash f or dash dash next, dash r or dash dash previous, dash s or dash dash stop, dash x or dash
+dash exit. That brings down to the server that the backend sort of thing, dash capital p I think
+and dash dash pose, if it poses it obviously, dash u, capital dash u I should say, dash dash
+unpause, dash g, capital g or dash dash toggle pose that allows you to toggle between playing pose.
+I have a funny feeling this, you know, I haven't really said this but I think what could be
+is possibly an active development, I think. I seem to remember when I first stumbled across
+a mock b, you know, it was a bit quiet there wasn't much going on but I think other people have
+gotten involved now and I think it's a bit more active development on it. I think I'm on version 2.5
+I think there's a latest one I've got here. I think I was going to say there's an option here
+to use a call if a dash k seek forward position or backward negative by n seconds in the file
+currently being played. So I've a funny feeling that wasn't originally, that option wasn't originally
+there but it is now so yeah there's there's active development going on, dash t, you can theme it
+give a theme file and I mean it's just like changing the, it's named curses window so there's
+only a lot of things you can do color wise but yeah you could make it jet black and white if you
+if you like it or green and black if you like that, that's that kind of color, you like the
+that sort of thing, dash c or dash dash config that you can specify where the configuration file is
+if you want to put it somewhere else apart as opposed to the default location. The default location
+I didn't know I made it very clear but mock stores its files by default in the dot mock directory
+and the dot mock directory is stored in your home directory so yeah um what else
+well yes I dash y or dash dash sync this copy this this copy of the interface will synchronise
+its playlist with other clients. This option is called sync playlist in the configuration file
+I'm sure I didn't use that option and yet they do all synchronise so maybe that's the default
+them up that's what happens in default because there's another one option here is dash n or
+dash dash no sync this copy of the interface will not synchronise its playlist with other clients
+see above dash a or dash dash asky use asky characters to draw lines this helps on some terminals
+I see if you've got a a cake old terminal something like that that allow it to to work properly
+well funny feeling I had an old versal annex or something I didn't have to use that at one point
+so yeah kind of handy dash i dash dash info prince information about the file currently being played
+dash q dash dash format prince information about the file currently being played using a format string
+replace string sequences with the actual format so you've got the um so if I again I think that's a
+new uh a new uh option I think originally you just did dash i and it just blurted out everything
+but if you wanted a specific piece of information now you can do dash capital q at space I think
+say per say the percent state and then it'll it'll return what state mocks in another words
+as it playing as it paused what's it doing you know or percent file and it returns the the
+file name being played so that that that's quite neat um it's also possible to use variables
+from the format string configuration file option uh dash e or dash dash recursively
+alias of dash a for backward compatibility does that mean dash e was originally what was used
+I'm not quite sure dash a sure dash dash help uh that's kind of obvious prince list of options
+with short descriptions and exits dash capital v or dash dash version lack of j versions
+um uh dash v lower v and you can and then with a number plus or minus and that adjusts the
+mixer volume level that's quite quite handy uh dash j lower ks j our dash dash jump jump to some
+position in the current file uh n is a number of seconds when followed by an s or percentage of
+total file time when followed by percent example dash j ten s comma dash j 50 percent examples
+alright very good so that's yeah that's good files um so you've got files stored in the dot mock
+directory um uh mock directory for the configuration file socket the p i d file and other data
+uh uh that's near home directory dot mock uh for slash config configuration file for mock this
+format is very simple to uh to see how to use it look at the example configuration file config dot
+example distributed with the program the example file fully describes all the configuration
+options and so is a useful reference uh when using the dash o option as this file can specify
+commands which invoke other applications mock will refuse to start if it is not owned by either
+root or the current user or if it is written by anyone other than its owner um home directory dot
+mock for slash themes that's where you store your themes obviously uh slash user slash share
+slash mock decoder plugins default directories for audio decoder plugins um so it must be plugins
+available for our presume uh yeah i think that's probably about it um just see some of the
+um some of the keyboard uh commands i use now the i'm not sure i think i want to change that
+change a little but i didn't go daft with it with the with the changes i did but let's just see if i can
+see the default tim keeping the exact if i can find it so yes so if you're in if you've got mock
+be uh loaded um you can if you hold the shift key down and whether the on my keyboard the
+the question mark until the shift key down so i'll do that i'm got the question mark
+to activate and um there's quite a few commands um
+um i'm not going to go through them all but um uh q that's at lowcase q detach mock from server
+such as closes down the program enter starts playing at the this file or goes to this directory
+uh down and up page up and down home and end or these are kind of obvious uh
+uh oh capital q quits so that presumably quits the back end and the front end and stops playing
+everything uh s stops playing everything uh n play next file b previous file p or space for pause
+um i use that these commands quite a bit uh tap the tap between the two windows as i'm only picking
+the ones that i tend to use i'm not going to go through them all because there's far too many
+um else switch between layout so that's quite handy does i say switch between um file list or play list
+or whatever um i say it might just set up so i've got it as i say before the L switch between
+the file uh list i'm on one side in the playlist on the other or if you have L again it goes to
+full screen playlist or L a third time it goes to full screen um playlist and i did to leave
+it on the playlist as i said um a add a file capital a add a directory recursively um the
+greater than sign and less and sign increases and decreases the volume that's quite handy um
+um by 1% or command dot this by 5% uh left and right uh key seeks forward and back um i think i
+tweaked that a little bit so that i can i've got two levels of seek i've got a slow seek and a fast
+seek but that's probably more detail i need to want to know um what else is uh what else is uh
+well and there's the square brackets opening closed square brackets uh square brackets i
+uh seek forward by five seconds are you actually you can jump faster um if you want uh
+uh
+at the side okay what else do i tend to use um
+you can actually execute commands uh that's going to be quite powerful uh with function keys uh
+i think i did did the what i played about with that wee bit but i can't remember i don't
+use it these days i think i had the odd command that i ran um
+what uh the um the f command i missed that uh f command says toggle toggles reading tag options
+so that's very handy so you you're you're in the in either the playlist or the directory list
+and if you hit f it'll by default it i think it it reads id3 tag you say oh what the exact
+file name so you hit f f key um and it toggles the um uh reading the tag it goes
+and it says it goes to reading the file i think if the f command is going to file view but it's
+no really it's it's switching between reading the tags and not reading the tags of the mp3 file so
+that's very handy just to get you know you're you're playing a track so what's that actually calls
+what's what's the file name just type hit f and that shows you the file hit f again and it goes
+back to the what the actual id3 tag is and that that's that's quite handy um yeah so so uh so uh
+so mockpeats fantastic little audio player i highly recommend it and i i don't actually
+i i i think i i first i used to the um interface quite a lot but actually i run it through um
+through scripts and stuff which i'll cover i may already have covered or cover after this
+when i talk about the project that i uh pulled together um so yes this is completely
+disjointed and all over the place so uh i must apologise anyway i hope you enjoyed this and uh i
+i recommend you give a mokka a go it's it's a as a smashing we uh a command line audio player and um
+a lovely piece of this software really nice um it's my favourite audio player on Linux
+by far it's just a joy to use well it's going to say about it just use it
+okay i hope you enjoyed this didn't find it too boring um if you want to contact me i can be
+contacted contacted at mrx at hpr at googlemail.com that's mrxATHPR the at symbol googlemail.com so until next
+time thank you and good Bye. Listen listen, listen listen to me. Listen to me, listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen careful. Listen careful with this
+In this situation, it is your duty to memorize
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