Episode: 1742
Title: HPR1742: How to Get Yourself On an Open Source Podcast - Presentation for Kansas Linux Fest, 22 March 2015
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1742/hpr1742.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 08:37:39

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This is HBR episode 1,742 entitled How to Get Yourself on an Open Source Podcast
Presentation for Canvas Linux Fest, 22 March 2015, it is hosted by 5150 and is about 30 minutes long.
The summary is, re-recording of a presentation for KLF that went unrecorded.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by an Honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HBR15. That's HBR15.
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Howdy folks, this is 5150 for Hacker Public Radio. What you are about to hear is a presentation titled,
How to Get Yourself on an Open Source Podcast that I first delivered at Canvas Linux Fest on 22 March 2015.
Since it was not recorded, I was told SD card on the camera was full,
there has been interest expressed by my follow-up podcasters. I thought it might be worth re-recording.
I'm afraid Mike Tupont was not satisfied with any of the video from KLF 2015.
This may be the only talk from that event that you get to hear.
However, show notes from the other talks are extensive and can be found at Lanier.com slash 2015 slash KLF15 slash schedule.
All I can tell you is three out of the four audience members that showed up seem to enjoy my presentation.
I shall deliver the rest of this podcast as if you general, general listeners were my live audience, but before I do that,
I have to tell you I did record this the other night and I was kind of in my boozy mode and I'm not sure
I gave the best presentation. I may well wake up in the morning and listen to this and the side
it's not good enough either, but if you're hearing this, I guess I decided it was good enough to
put out on HPR. Before I go ahead, I've decided with the amount of beers stacking up in my refrigerator,
I'm going to do even my serious podcast as a beer review in the Spirit of Sourcecast, the long and
limited and gone sourcecast. So tonight I want to bring you a culto which I could not resist because
on the label you have a skull right out of the day of the dead. And it is described as blue agave
infused with beer blended and aged on tequila's barrel stable steves, steves, a 6.0 alcohol by volume.
So it's kind of got it's very, very watery. It's kind of got a melonish flavor to me. It takes several
sips out of the bottle before it becomes sweet with the agave. Of course, agave is the plant that tequila
is derived from. However, if you're familiar with Spanish food, there are some agave based sweeteners
and I had some agave syrup and tried it and at length I discovered that while I coordinated,
every time I tried the agave in anything that the next day I had a very unsettled stomach so I
am drinking this beer kind of sparingly. But like I said, it would be, it's very watery so it would be
very thirst-quenching on a hot day and if you get about halfway down through the beer, it's got
sort of a sweet flavor. I'm not sure how else to describe it. I'm not a big fan. I wouldn't buy this
again. But that's why I'm here to instruct you folks on what you might or may not like.
Another beer I tried this week was from Red's Apple Ale. It's her mango version and like the
earlier strawberry version, they're not fooling anybody. It's made with apples. Come on.
You can taste that. But there is a sweetness and a tartness that have been added afterwards. I'm
not sure if that's actually from mango juice or if it's from artificial sweeteners. I had this
candy a couple of years ago. It was kind of like gummy bears and various fruit flavors and I
looked at the label and on Green's essentially everything was artificial and it was just
how they balanced out corn syrup versus citric acid in each various flavors. So I guess any kind
of fruit can be simulated by chemicals. But as far as the beer goes, I mean, if you like the
Red's Ale, I think you'll really like the mango version. It goes down smooth and good and it's
tasty and it's sweet. You know, I can't really complain. It just all seems a little artificial.
Okay. Now comes on for a couple that just recently appeared from the Kona Brewing Company
from Hawaii. And the first one is the Big Wave Golden Ale.
I'm not a particular fan of that either. It's, you know, you can tell it's nailed. That's about
all. It doesn't really stand out from for the same price. I could recommend several dozen
beers that I prefer. So, you know, I can't really recommend the Kona Brewing Company's Big Wave.
Now, on the other hand, it's not great, but it's not bad. Kona Brewing Company's the Longboard
Island Logger. And it's a little sweet. You know, it doesn't have a lot of flavor. It's a little sweet,
a little bread-y and what I would say, you know, if you wanted a liquid version of the sweet
King's Rolls from Hawaii, this would be it. So, if you're going to do that, then grab Longboard
from the Kona Brewing Company Island Logger. Okay. Well, that dispenses with nearly a six pack
of beers for this broadcast. So, let us get into the meat of what I wanted to talk about. And
as I said, the rest of this podcast will be presented as if you were my audience at Candice Linux
Fest 2015 because the SD card on the camera that was provided was full. And I'm obviously an idiot
because I had the HPR's Zoom H1 in my pocket and why I did not take it out, started up,
and started recording on the desk in front of me. I do not know. That just only occurred to me this week.
So, I'm afraid you'll have to bear with the recycled rendition that I'm doing here for my desktop.
So, let's start off. Howdy folks. My name is Don Greer. I'm an IT consultant and farmer from South
Central Kansas. I am also a podcaster. You may recognize my voice from such podcasts as Hacker
Public Radio, the Colonel Panicogcast, or the Linux Logcast, where I used the handle 5150.
When fellow Hacker Public Radio host, my two-pont told me KLF would be a reality. I struggled to
find a topic that I knew well enough to talk about. It was almost ingest that I said I could talk
about how to get yourself under an open-source podcast. Actually, since that was as far as my
proposal went, I was shocked and honored to find myself on the same roster with so many other
speakers with impressive credentials and technical topics. This afternoon, I hope not only
to chronicle my personal history with Linux and open-source-related podcasts, but to show you why
I believe podcasting can be as an important part of giving back to the community as contributing code
or documentation or even cash. Linux podcasts bind the community by providing education
both as basic as lunch reality or as specific as the New World Order.
Podcasts announce new innovations and tell us of free and open-source software adoption
as well as opposition by corporations and governments. Podcasts Harold Community Advanced
like this one and provide a little humor at the end of a long day. Some of you may wonder why I'm
using old-school technology to organize my notes at a high-tech conference. At this point,
if 5150 holds up several stapled sheets of paper and large print and weighs them around,
the plain and simple truth is that I can't read my phone or tablet with my classes on.
I'm already using Bifocals. It just seems that every time I get new classes to the
lower lenses work for about two weeks and then I have to take them off to see the phone again.
For this last time, I figured I'd outsmart the system and just order single-focus lenses.
And I was congratulating myself on my thriftiness when I put my new glasses on,
sat down to computer and realized I couldn't read the keyboard.
Before I talk about myself as a podcaster, I think I should tell you my history of Linux.
My first experience with Linux was a box set of Mandrake 7.2 around 2002.
I always maintain at least a second running system in the house in case the primary machine
coughs up a hair ball so I'd be able to access the internet and figure out what's wrong.
I'd always been a geek to alternative OSs and I wanted a tertiary machine on my network that
wouldn't be affected by the propagation of Windows viruses.
Now I installed the Mandrake easily enough but there wasn't much flash to Linux apps in those days.
I recall it was not impressed by whichever browser shipped with Mandrake.
I don't recall why I knew about installing additional applications from repositories
but in any case at that time I was still on dial-up.
The Pentium 1's I installed Mandrake on had both the modem and the Ethernet card.
The installer always asked which one I used to read the internet and would only set up one of the two devices.
This annoyed me as I planned to use some Linux boxes a gateway to see if that would save a few CPU
cycles from the P4 I was using as a Windows gaming machine back then.
I really wouldn't have known where to go on the internet for help and I expect help would not
have been as force coming 13 years ago.
My next experience with Linux came around 2007.
The school I consulted for had several Windows 98 machines not compatible with the software
they wanted to run. Even though the machines were Pentium 4's we determined the cost of XP
plus memory upgrades could be better applied to new machines.
As a result I was able to bring several of the machines home. Over time I boosted their
memory with used sticks for me bay and even the odd faster processor. As a noob I installed
feisty fawn on a system out in the machine shed and spent a lot of that winter hacking on that box
when I should have been overhauling tractors. Just as I was developing into NDIS wrappers
gutsy came along and brought support for my Gigabyte wireless card which combined with the
double fork ice-threading power box gave me reasonable certainty that the box out in the shed
was safe from lightning stores. About six months later I rescued a refugee from a major meteorological
event and set it up in my house running mint. For the first time I didn't have to leave the house
to get my Linux on. Just before I set up that first Linux box we finally got broadband out to
the farm and I discovered podcasts. I figured there must be Linux podcasts go along with the
general tack and computing podcasts I followed as well as a fondly remembered sci-fi weekly review
show that started out as a Sunday afternoon show in Wichita radio which was canceled twice
and then re-emerged as a semi-weekly podcast only to disappear forever a couple months after I
started listening in but not before I downloaded all the episodes that I'd missed.
In my initial search for Linux-related content all I came up with were four drunk scots discussing
minutia of Ruby on rails while I really like to format I lacked the commitment to become a
Ruby programmer just so I could understand the show. A few days after that I came across the techie geek
Russ winner mixed tutorials with reviews of new applications and upcoming events
better yet he introduced me to a world of other Linux podcasts. Through the techie geek I learned
of the irreverent banter of the Linux outlaws the sedubed serious studiousness of what was then called
the bad apples the contained chaos of the Linux cranks the classroom like atmosphere of the Linux
basement during Chad's Drupal tutorial period tech hints and movie reviews delivered at speed
of 75 miles per hour by Dave Yates of Lotta Linux links the auditory dissonance of the Linux
tech show and the constant daily variety of hacker public radio in 2010 I made my first contribution
to hacker public radio. The great thing about HPR is there's no there's no vetting process
we only ask your audio to be intelligible not polished not even good we just have to be able to
understand you and let the topic be of interest to geeks if you consider yourself a geek any topic
that interest you is welcome there's no maximum or minimum one time just to get the show uploaded
on time while topics 10 the concern open source this is daughter requirement I believe by second
HPR concerned how to migrate Windows wireless connection profiles between systems I'd spend a
few hours figuring out one day for a customer and I thought I should consolidate what I'd learn in
one place HPR provides a podcasting platform at no cost to the podcaster it serves as both a
venue for broadcasters without the resources to host their own site or without the time to commit
to a regular schedule it can also serve as an incubator for hosts trying to find their own audience
it's never been easier to become a podcast with HPR I would start with an email introduction as
a courtesy to add bin at hacker public radio dot org next record your audio when you have a file
ready to upload select an open slot in the calendar page and follow the instructions be prepared
to paste in your show notes I also credit HPR forgetting me my first invite to participate in my
first podcast with multiple hosts once a month hacker public radio records a community news podcast
recorded on the first Saturday afternoon after the end of the previous months exact times
in server details will be published in the newsletter all HPR hosts and indeed listeners are
invited to participate it is just asked that you have listened to most of the past months shows
so you can participate in the discussion like many multi-host audio podcasts HPR uses a mumble
record shows including the annual New Year's Eve show which has dozens of participants
there's a mumble tutorial on linuxlubcast.com to help you get started
a few months after recording my first hacker public radio podcast I started to take part in the
community news I did it because I wanted to take a greater part in HPR not because I considered
it in an edition but it is a good way to show other people as you can politely and intelligently
participate in a group discussion actually I still have a tendency to wander off in the tangents
and and unintentionally dominate the topic something I always struggle with
another way to join in around table discussion HPR is participate in the hacker public radio
book club once a month we take an audio book that is freely available on the internet and share
our opinions. Recording schedules and the next book to be reviewed are available in HPR newsletter
I believe taking part in one or more community news with Patrick daily also known as Polky
and influenced him to invite me into the cast of dev random the semi-weekly dev random
record on the saturday's kernel panic didn't we sometimes accidentally talked about tech and open
source but we always saved the most disturbing things we'd see on the internet in the previous
two weeks for discussion on the show the things that honestly could not be discussed on other podcasts
the spite rumors to the contrary dev random is not dead only resting and shall one day rise
again to shock and discuss new discussed new generations of listeners sometimes you just have
to be in the right place at the right time I won't insult the kernel panic odd cast by calling
a sister show to dev random it just happens to be recorded on opposite Saturday's and had some
of the same cast members in common anyway I've been participating in the kpo forum for a while
suggesting topics from false stories I'd come across in social media during the week
I was idling in hash odd cast planet on free node one day when Peter Cross asked for people from
the channel to jump into the show on a day when only a couple of the regular cast members had shown
up since dev random used the same mumble server I used my existing credentials to take Peter up on
his offer and for better or worse I've been a kpo cast member ever since while we're on the topic
having a presence on free node IRC is a great way to get your name or handle known in a podcasting
world many podcasts have their own channel set up so that listeners might participate during
live streaming podcasts saying something helpful or more likely smart allocate during the podcast
might get you mentioned on the show and make your name familiar to the show's audience
I've seen several individuals move from regular forum or chat participants to the hosts of
their own show or contributor stage PR from my own experience after spending several weeks
as silent participants in pod brewers listening to the stream and commenting in the chat
read the war from myself were invited to bring our own beers and join the cast
while many podcasts still have their own IRC channels other than providing a conduit between
the hosts they are most active during live broadcasts between shows many of the podcasters I
listen to gravitate to hang around in free nodes hash augcast planet channel since podcasters
typically have a client open during week and leisure hours you'll usually find them hanging
around in fact at kpo we use hash augcast planet as our primary communications channel during live
streaming I still recall the day monster b in peter 64 asked me about the origin of my handle
given it's similar to their colleague 330 I'd heard both these gentlemen on podcasters I
followed and frankly that evening I felt like I was talking to rock stars now that I'm a podcast
for my own right with my own presence on hash augcast planet I try to make a point to say hello
when I see an unfamiliar handle in the channel I expect to sam spam bots consider me the nicest
guy in IRC as it happens IRC was also responsible for my involvement in the linux lug cast
LLC was conceived after reimagining and final demise of seven gofftons project linux basics
Kevin washer chatter nunkimagoo wanted to do a show along the same lines while incorporating
the spirit of the unrecorded online lug that always preceded linux basics on the mumble server
I was brought along by the simple expediency of never having closed the hash linux basis
channel in my chat client we've been going for a little more than a year and how attracted
to following but frankly we have not found a listener participation we were looking for
this was meant to be a true online lug for people who couldn't travel to a local linux user
group so far it's usually been the same four or five guys talking about what linux projects
has exceeded which have failed and what we're going to try next I've learned a lot in the past
year and I expect the listeners have as well but we're always hoping to get more live participation
rural areas like the midwest are our target audience the details of the mumble connection are
posted at linuxlugcast.com and we always monitor the freeno.org IRC channel hash linux lugcast while
recording and the feedback link as well as the stream is posted on the website thank you for your
time and attention this afternoon especially considering the caliber of talks running in the other
two channels I can be contacted at 5150 at linuxbasement.com are there any questions
you've been listening to hecka public radio at hecka public radio dot org we are a community podcast
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