Category: 2020

November: Azuracast & AV1 Addendum

Date
7pm, Wednesday, 11 November 2020

Topic 1/2: Azuracast

Speaker: Nick Skarott

Azuracast is an open source Internet radio automation solution deployable via Docker or Ansible. Nick will explain how he has used it to stream his own content over the Internet to enjoy on the run anywhere there is a mobile
data connection.

Topic 2/2: AV1 Part Deux – Developments and VMAF

Speaker: Nick Skarott

Just over one year ago Nick demonstrated at PLUG the beginnings of the next generation open source video codec, AV1. A lot has changed in that time in the AV1 space and it’s fitting to look at the developments, and in
particular, the work NetFlix has done (and then open sourced) with the University of Southern California and the Laboratory for Image and Video Engineering at University of Texas’ Austin campus, called VMAF.

Continue reading “November: Azuracast & AV1 Addendum”

October: A rocky outcrop.

Date: 7pm, Wednesday, 14 October 2020

As the internet grows into every corner of our lives, so too does pervasive surveillance within it. Your activity can be intercepted, analysed, and abused by many interested parties, from credit card thieves to abusive nation-states. The privacy implications of everything being networked in this way are enormous, and in most cases very poorly understood by the general public. Worse, unscrupulous and incompetent vendors take advantage of this confusion, and peddle white-labelled security snake-oil that gives users a false sense of security.

A better option for defending yourself from such surveillance is the use of the Tor network, which routes your internet traffic through multiple computers on the internet in such a way that your privacy is protected. Tom will explain the basics of how Tor works, and list some of the benefits and caveats in using it.

Continue reading “October: A rocky outcrop.”

Networking help for member

Longtime member Palmerston North Linux Users Group John Eyres writes:

Hi, at [last week]’s meeting I asked if anyone could help with UPS and
networking for the guys I work with. They have muscular dystrophy, and can’t move/breathe on their own. The UPS works OK, but the batteries are getting old. Their cabinet is too small. … Please email me if you have any ideas. They do their own scripting, home
automation and development…

John includes some photos below. Please get in touch with him at computerjohney@gmail.com if you can help!

July: Some Git with a Radio

Date
7pm, Wednesday, 08 July 2020

Git

Speaker: Joseph Calkin

Joseph will talk about why Git is useful for version control. How it compares with SVN and how to use it.

Expanding Horizons

The Intersection of Amateur Radio and Computing

Speaker: Giovanni Moretti – ZL2GX and Graeme – ZL2GZ

Amateur radio is a hobby of exploring the limits of radio, electronics and digital technologies. Once licensed, you’re allocated a worldwide-unique callsign and can operate (and build) radio equipment capable of international and space-based communication.

Being an interest centred on electronic communication, there’s naturally a strong overlap with computing, with Arduino and Raspberry Pi and Linux being widely used. There are many facets to the hobby ranging from the seriously technical through to providing communications support for search-and-rescue (SAR), Civil Defence and Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (AREC).

In this talk, we’ll will give an overview, including how you can:

communicate internationally from your backyard (without the Internet or cell phones)
use both voice and digital modes on-air
design and build radio transceivers and antennas
send signals 2000km using just a Raspberry Pi and a micro-transmitter.
use Linux to link into international Internet-linked DMR and DStar (digital mode radio) networks
become involved in the ongoing efforts to build a regional radio-linked TCP mesh network

Should any of these pique your interest, we’ll finish by outlining how you can become licensed.

Continue reading “July: Some Git with a Radio”

Jitsi June: Thursday the 11th Meeting

Hello, Palmy Linux User Group members!

As the world slouches slowly back towards normalcy in the wake of COVID-19, the PLUG is looking forward to resuming in-person meetings at our usual venue, hopefully sometime next month—both the lockdown and renovation work have complicated our access to the Milson Community Centre, so we won’t be able to meet there this month.

However, club President Nick Skarott has set up video conferencing software for our usage, and we are planning on holding a virtual meeting for anyone interested on Thursday the 11th of June, at 7:00pm. We’re unlikely to have a specific agenda, but the software (Jitsi Meet) supports screen sharing, which seems to work well, so if there’s something you’d like to demonstrate for the club, you’d be most welcome to do so—or, just come along to say hello to some familiar faces.

There are a few ways to connect to Jitsi; Nick has produced a helpful PDF. It works from either a mobile phone and a laptop. If you don’t have a working camera and/or microphone, that’s OK; you’re most welcome to come along and observe anyway. There’s also a text chat in the window, if need be.

The URL for the meeting will be: https://jitsi.tunadigital.nz/PLUGJune2020

Either way, the committee is looking forward to seeing you all again, and resuming our meetings in short order—in a hopefully rather more settled world!