Hacker Public Radio

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Latest Episodes:

HPR4414: Bellroy Tech Kit Review Jul 03, 2025

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

Having purchased a new cable bag from Bellroy at the start of the year, Kevie shares his thoughts on the Bellroy Travel Kit .

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**HPR4413: KDE custom shortcuts are easy and useful** Jul 02, 2025
This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

If you go to the system settings in the main menu for KDE and scroll down, you can get to shortcuts and under shortcuts, there is a thing called custom shortcuts, and you can do anything you want in here.

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HPR4412: Parkinson Tribly's Story: The Prisoner of Unit 731 Jul 01, 2025

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host.

The program starts with a brief trailer, presenting the story, before starting the full audiodrama...

I hope you have a good show, thanks in advance for listening.

References (some):

LIANG, Jiashuo. A History of Japan’s Unit 731 and Implications for Modern Biological Warfare. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, v. 673. Atlantis Press, 2022.

PBS. The Living Weapon: Shiro Ishii. Link: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/weapon-biography-shiro-ishii. Accessed: January 2025.

RIDER, Dwight R. Japan’s Biological and Chemical Weapons Programs; War Crimes and Atrocities – Who’s Who, What’s What, Where’s Where. 1928 – 1945. 3rd ed., 2018 [“In Process” version].

Credits of audio used — in order of appearance (or “listenance”):

Kulakovka / Pixabay – Lost in Dreams (abstract chill downtempo cinematic future beats).

BBC Sound Effects – Aircraft: Beaufighters - Take off. (Bristol Beaufighter, World War II); Army: Parade Ground Manoeuvres - Platoon strolls single-file on parade ground; Weather: Snow - Blizzard - heard inside house, with banging shutters; Footsteps In Snow - Footsteps in snow, 3 men departing; Water - Filling metal bucket from pond and pouring water on to concrete.

florianreichelt / Freesound ¬– quick woosh.

Thalamus_Lab / Freesound – Vertical Noise_Chinese Folk Duo Decay.

neolein / Freesound – Mystic chinese guzheng.

BBC Sound Effects again – World War 2 - Enemy artillery (World War II actuality) - 1975 (500S); Aircraft: Beaufighters - Exterior, steep climb. (Bristol Beaufighter, World War II).

JamesFarrell_97 / Freesound – Game Theme.

Luke100000 / Freesound – turning old pages.

BBC Sound Effects – Sirens & Gunfire - World War II Air Raid Siren, German, all clear sounded.

Gvidon / Pixabay – Spinning Head.

* If you'd like the script to read (along with a few other things, like the Audacity project), you can obtain the text at the production's page on Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/the-prisioner-of-unit-731-audiodrama-final

* As a post-show extra: you can listen to the producer's motivation for producing this story on ep. 4313.

hpr4313 :: Why I made a 1-episode podcast about a war story: https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps/hpr4313/index.html

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HPR4411: The Pachli project Jun 30, 2025

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

In this episode Dave and Kevie chat with Nik from the Pachli project.

Pachli is a free/open-source Mastodon/Fediverse client for Android.

We talk in depth about Nik's background, Pachli's name and origin, and the motivation for creating another client for the Fediverse. Also discussed is Pachli's association with the Nivenly Foundation , and how users and developers can contribute to the project as a whole.

With thanks to Nik for his time and candor.

Fediverse: @nikclayton@mastodon.social
Fediverse: @pachli@mastodon.social
Email: team@pachli.app
Website: pachli.app
GitHub: pachli-android

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HPR4410: Civilization V Jun 27, 2025

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Civilization V, released in 2010, was a further evolution of the franchise that added interesting new features. We introduce it in this episode.

Links:

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HPR4409: H D R Ridiculous Monitor Jun 26, 2025

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

Never fan of duel monitors

Mother inlaw had a better monitor then me
https://slickdeals.net
4:3, 16:9, 21:9 (Ratio calculator)
Samsung 49" Class Odyssey G95C DQHD 240Hz Curved Gaming Monitor LS49CG95DENXZA
US $646.49
posture / arms out / screen position / mouse shoulder
For car sim and gaming not for DEV
Virtual Monitor for Display Port connections
https://github.com/roshkins/IddSampleDriver
HDR profiles for windows HDR calibration
https://github.com/dylanraga/win11hdr-srgb-to-gamma2.2-icm
avsforum HDR10 test patterns set
https://www.avsforum.com/threads/hdr10-test-patterns-set.2943380/
Set and Forget HDR on Win11. Works for Black Myth Wukong. Sdr Hdr Trick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPUKW3xLTNM
Talk about Gameplay / Lighting /HDR / Bright
High contrast
https://github.com/freeload101/SCRIPTS/blob/6059ce43696e3c8101926da7959bebafbd0ab3b6/AutoHotkey/C0ffee%20Anti%20Idle%20v2.ahk#L130

SUMMARY

The presenter discusses configuring monitor settings for development, emphasizing HDR calibration and multi-monitor productivity.

IDEAS

Calibrating a monitor's HDR settings can significantly improve image quality by adjusting brightness and color.
Using HDR (High Dynamic Range) enhances the visual experience by improving contrast and color accuracy.
Adjusting black levels and brightness helps in achieving optimal visibility for both bright and dark scenes.
The calibration of HDR settings involves fine-tuning various parameters like gamma, whites, and blacks.
Multi-monitor setups can enhance productivity by allowing more efficient workspace organization.
Curved monitors may benefit development tasks by providing a larger visual area without needing multiple displays.
Managing dual monitors requires spatial awareness to efficiently switch focus between screens.
Windows' snapping features help in organizing windows on multi-monitor setups, enhancing workflow efficiency.
The presenter finds the transition from dual monitors to a single large curved monitor advantageous for productivity.
A larger screen real estate reduces the need for physical separation of workspaces, easing multitasking.

QUOTES

"I will be looking at calibrating my monitor's HDR settings."
"Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions in regards to these videos..."
"HDR is an incredible technology that allows us to see better contrast and colors on our screens."
"That way we can achieve a much more dynamic range of colors while playing games and watching media on our TVs, computer monitors, phones, etc."
"It will be a bit different between calibrating a normal monitor with SDR to a HDR-enabled display."
"So if the blacks are too bright then you won't really see the black levels as well."
"The idea is that your brightest whites should be at 100% and your darkest blacks should be around 0%."
"With this being said, I've never had a lot of luck with using my Windows HDR settings before."
"A lot of people say don't buy a curved monitor for production stuff."
"And now I have like basically three monitors."

RECOMMENDATIONS

Calibrate your monitor's HDR settings to enhance color and contrast.
Adjust brightness, gamma, whites, and blacks for optimal visibility in various lighting conditions.
Utilize Windows snapping features for efficient window management on multi-monitor setups.
Consider transitioning to a single curved monitor for improved productivity and workspace real estate.
Familiarize yourself with the tabbing system to ensure input is directed to the correct window.
Experiment with panel sizes in your multi-monitor setup to find a configuration that suits your workflow.
Ensure proper calibration of both SDR and HDR displays to achieve the best visual experience.
Adjust black levels so they are not too bright, maintaining clear visibility of darker scenes.
Set whites to 100% for better representation of bright areas in images and videos.
Explore different monitor configurations to determine what enhances your productivity the most.

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY

The presenter shares insights on optimizing HDR monitor settings and maximizing productivity with multi-monitor setups for development tasks.

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HPR4408: Lynx - Old School Browsing Jun 25, 2025

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

Kevie , from the TuxJam podcast, takes a look at the Lynx command line browser and briefly discusses it's uses and if it still has a place in our modern times.

Some Useful Hot-keys:

g to go to a specific website

m goes to your start page (Main screen is what Lynx calls it)

o for options

h for help

p for print

q to quit program

/ search for text on a page

Navigation

< previous page

> forward page

up and down move between links on the page. Down or left will also cancel a command if pressed accidentally.

Pg Up and Pg Down scroll up or down a whole screen at a time.

ctrl n (down or next) and ctrl p (up or previous) will move the page up and down a couple of lines

a will add the current page to the bookmarks list

v views the list of bookmarks

, open the current page in another browser

G displays the URL and allows editing

ctrl L reloads the current page

Some Basic Config Edits:

Edit the file /etc/lynx/lynx.cfg (You will need to used sudo privileges to edit a system file)

To change the starting page go to Line 111 and add

STARTFILE:YOUR_CHOSEN_PAGE_URL

I used https://duckduckgo.com/lite

Don't forget to comment out the default one at line 105

To change the browser to open a link, go to Line 3141 and add

EXTERNAL:http:BROSWER_LAUNCH_COMMAND %s:TRUE

To use the default browser on modern Linux systems add xdg-open

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HPR4407: A 're-response' Bash script Jun 24, 2025

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host.

Introduction

On 2025-06-19 Ken Fallon did a show, number 4404 , responding to Kevie's show 4398 , which came out on 2025-06-11.

Kevie was using a Bash pipeline to find the latest episode in an RSS feed, and download it. He used grep to parse the XML of the feed.

Ken's response was to suggest the use of xmlstarlet to parse the XML because such a complex structured format as XML cannot reliably be parsed without a program that "understands" the intricacies of the format's structure. The same applies to other complex formats such as HTML, YAML and JSON.

In his show Ken presented a Bash script which dealt with this problem and that of the ordering of episodes in the feed. He asked how others would write such a script, and thus I was motivated to produce this response to his response!

Alternative script

My script is a remodelling of Ken's, not a completely different solution. It contains a few alternative ways of doing what Ken did, and a reordering of the parts of his original. We will examine the changes in this episode.

Script


#!/bin/bash
# Original (c) CC-0 Ken Fallon 2025
# Modified by Dave Morriss, 2025-06-14 (c) CC-0

podcast="https://tuxjam.otherside.network/feed/podcast/"

# [1]
while read -r item
do
    # [2]
    pubDate="${item%;*}"
    # [3]
    pubDate="$( &bsol;date --date="${pubDate}" --universal +%FT%T )"
    # [4]
    url="${item#*;}"
    # [5]
    echo "${pubDate};${url}"
done < <(curl --silent "${podcast}" | &bsol;
    xmlstarlet sel --text --template --match 'rss/channel/item' &bsol;
    --value-of 'concat(pubDate, ";", enclosure/@url)' --nl - ) | &bsol;
sort --numeric-sort --reverse | &bsol;
head -1 | &bsol;
cut -f2 -d';' | wget --quiet --input-file=- # [6]

I have placed some comments in the script in the form of '# [1]' and I'll refer to these as I describe the changes in the following numbered list.

Note: I checked, and the script will run with the comments, though they are only there to make it easier to refer to things.

The format of the pipeline is different. It starts by defining a while loop, but the data which the read command receives comes from a process substitution of the form '<(statements)' (see the process substitution section of "hpr2045 :: Some other Bash tips" ). I have arranged the pipeline in this way because it's bad practice to place a while in a pipeline, as discussed in the show: hpr3985 :: Bash snippet - be careful when feeding data to loops .
(I added -r to the read because shellcheck , which I run in the vim editor, nagged me!)
The lines coming from the process substitution are from running curl to collect the feed, then using xmlstarlet to pick out the pubDate field of the item, and the url attribute of the enclosure field returning them as two strings separated by a semicolon (';' ). This is from Ken's original code. Each line is read into the variable item , and the first element (before the semicolon) is extracted with the Bash expression "${item%;*}" . Parameter manipulation expressions were introduced in HPR show 1648 . See the full notes section Remove matching suffix pattern for this one.
I modified Ken's date command to simplify the generation of the ISO8601 date and time by using the pattern +%FT%T . This just saves typing!
The url value is extracted from the contents of item with the expression "${item#*;} . See the section of show 1648 entitled Remove matching prefix pattern for details.
The echo which generates the list of podcast URLs prefixed with an ISO time stamp uses ';' as the delimiter where Ken used a tab character. I assume this was done for the benefit of either the following sort or the awk script. It's not needed for sort since it sorts the line as-is and doesn't use fields. My version doesn't use awk .
Rather than using awk I use cut to remove the time stamp from the front of each line, returning the second field delimited by the semicolon. The result of this will be the URL for wget to download. In this case wget receives the URL on standard input ( STDIN ), and the --input-file=- option tells it to use that information for the download.

Conclusion

I'm not sure my solution is better in any significant way. I prefer to use Bash functionality to do things where calling awk or sed could be overkill, but that's just a personal preference.

I might have replaced the head and cut with a sed expression, such as the following as the last line:


sed -e '1{s/^.&bsol;+;//;q}' | wget --quiet --input-file=-

Here, the sed expression operates on the first line from the sort , where it removes everything from the start of the line to the semicolon. The expression then causes sed to quit, so that only the edited first line is passed to wget .

Links

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HPR4406: SVG Files: Cyber Threat Hidden in Images Jun 23, 2025

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

Out of nowhere, my Firefox browser on my Mac mini started automatically adding every page I visited to my bookmarks. At first, I thought it was a bug after recent update —maybe a misconfigured setting or similar. But when I searched for a fix, Google suggested something alarming: Scan for malware. And guess what? The source of my trouble turned out to be an 4 SVG files hiding malicious code.

That’s right—those innocent-looking vector graphics files we use every day for logos, icons, and web design? They can secretly carry malware. In my case those were the files, a logos of reputable delivery companies like deliveroo and JustEat which I have downloaded while I was updating a website for my client. Today, we’re breaking down how SVG files are being weaponized, why they’re so effective, and how to protect yourself.

example of svg file


<?xml version="1.0"?>
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="120" height="160" viewBox="0 0 120 160">
  <!-- Animated Bodhi Leaf -->
  <path id="bodhi-leaf" d="M60 10 Q30 40 20 80 Q15 120 60 150     Q105 120 100 80 Q90 40 60 10 Z" stroke="#1E5631" stroke-width="2">
    <animate attributeName="fill" values="white;#FFD700;#2E8B57;#4682B4;#FF0000;#800080;#808080;black;white" dur="8s" repeatCount="indefinite"/>
  </path>
  <!-- Static veins (contrast with leaf) -->
  <path d="M60 10 L60 150" stroke="#1E5631" stroke-width="1.5"/>
  <g stroke="#1E5631" stroke-width="1">
    <path d="M60 30 Q45 35 40 50"/>
    <path d="M60 30 Q75 35 80 50"/>
    <path d="M60 60 Q40 70 35 90"/>
    <path d="M60 60 Q80 70 85 90"/>
    <path d="M60 90 Q50 100 45 120"/>
    <path d="M60 90 Q70 100 75 120"/>
  </g>
</svg>

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HPR4405: What did I do at work today? Jun 20, 2025

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host.

This is about developing Visual Basic classes for a web application. The classes access an SQL Server database via Stored Procedures.

Tests.vb

Private Sub ResourceTypeTests()
    ResourceTypeAddTest()
    ResourceTypeGetTest()
End Sub

Private Sub ResourceTypeAddTest()
    Dim fake As New Fake

    Console.WriteLine("Adding resource type")
    Console.WriteLine()

    Dim objResourceType As New ResourceType With {
        .ResourceTypeID = 0,
        .ResourceTypeName = fake.Noun
    }
    OutputResourceType(objResourceType)
    Dim ResourceTypeID As Integer = objResourceType.Add()
    Console.WriteLine("Added Resource Type ID " & ResourceTypeID)
    Console.WriteLine()

    Console.WriteLine("Modifying resource type with ID " & ResourceTypeID)
    Console.WriteLine()

    fake = New Fake
    With objResourceType
        .ResourceTypeID = ResourceTypeID
        .ResourceTypeName = fake.Noun
    End With
    Console.WriteLine("Modification")
    OutputResourceType(objResourceType)
    Dim newResourceTypeID As Integer = objResourceType.Add()
    Console.WriteLine("Modified ResourceTypeID " & newResourceTypeID)
    Console.WriteLine()
End Sub

Private Sub ResourceTypeGetTest()
    Console.WriteLine("Fetching resource types")
    Console.WriteLine()
    Dim objResourceType As New ResourceType()
    Dim ResourceTypeList As List(Of ResourceType) = objResourceType.GetResourceTypes()
    For Each ResourceType As ResourceType In ResourceTypeList
        OutputResourceType(ResourceType)
    Next
End Sub

Private Sub OutputResourceType(ResourceType As ResourceType)
    Console.WriteLine("Resource Type ID " & ResourceType.ResourceTypeID)
    Console.WriteLine("Resource Type Name " & ResourceType.ResourceTypeName)
    Console.WriteLine()
End Sub

ResourceType.vb

Public Class ResourceType
    Private m_ResourceTypeID As Integer
    Private m_ResourceTypeName As String

    Private ReadOnly dataFields As New List(Of String) From {
        "ResourceTypeID", "ResourceTypeName"
    }

    Private ReadOnly objFields = dataFields

    Dim objGlobals As New Globals
    Dim _ConnectionString As String = objGlobals.getConnectionString()

    Property ResourceTypeID As Integer
        Get
            ResourceTypeID = m_ResourceTypeID
        End Get
        Set(value As Int32)
            m_ResourceTypeID = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Property ResourceTypeName As String
        Get
            ResourceTypeName = m_ResourceTypeName
        End Get
        Set(value As String)
            m_ResourceTypeName = value
        End Set
    End Property

    Public Function Add() As Int32
        Dim ReturnValue As Int32
        Try
            ReturnValue = StoredProcOutInt(
                _ConnectionString, "dbo.ResourceType_Add", Me,
                dataFields, objFields, "NewResourceTypeID"
            )
        Catch ex As Exception
            ErrorRecorder("Resource.Add", ex.Message, ex.Data.ToString)
            ReturnValue = 0
        End Try
        Return ReturnValue
    End Function

    Public Function GetResourceTypes() As List(Of ResourceType)
        Dim ObjResourceTypes As New List(Of ResourceType)
        Try
            StoredProc(Of ResourceType)(
            _ConnectionString, "dbo.ResourceType_Get",
            dataFields, objFields, ObjResourceTypes
        )
        Catch ex As Exception
            ErrorRecorder("ResourceType.GetResourceTypes", ex.Message, ex.Data.ToString)
        End Try
        Return ObjResourceTypes
    End Function
End Class

ResourceType_Add.sql

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ResourceType_Add]
    @ResourceTypeID INT,
    @ResourceTypeName NVARCHAR(100),    
    @NewResourceTypeID INT OUTPUT
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    IF @ResourceTypeID = 0
        BEGIN
            INSERT INTO dbo.ResourceType
                    ( ResourceType_Name                    
                    )
            VALUES  ( @ResourceTypeName
                    )
            SET @NewResourceTypeID = SCOPE_IDENTITY()
        END
    ELSE
        BEGIN
            UPDATE dbo.ResourceType
            SET ResourceType_Name = @ResourceTypeName                
            WHERE ResourceTypeID = @ResourceTypeID
            SET @NewResourceTypeID = @ResourceTypeID
        END    
END
GO

ResourceType_Get.sql

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO


CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ResourceType_Get]
AS
BEGIN
    SET NOCOUNT ON;

    SELECT ResourceTypeID AS ResourceTypeID,
        ResourceType_Name AS ResourceTypeName
    FROM dbo.ResourceType
END
GO

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