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Welcome to The Bootloader, I'm Tod Kurt.

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And I'm Paul Cutler.

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We're happy to be joined today by Andy Piper.

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Andy's a technologist, maker, and open source advocate with a passion for community.

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He's currently head of communications at Mastodon and a longtime supporter of the Fediverse.

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Outside of work, he's a pen plotter, artist, hardware hacker, and co-host of the long running

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weekly tech podcast, Games@Work.biz.

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Andy, welcome to the show.

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Thanks

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very much.

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to meet you both online in a

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podcast recording session.

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I know we've both all been following one another

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for quite a long time.

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And I'm a big fan of both this show

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and the CircuitPython show as well, Paul.

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So I appreciate what you both bring to both the Fediverse

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and also to the makerspace.

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It's a really fun community we have.

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- Oh, thanks for the kind words.

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- Thanks.

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- So the show works like this.

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We've each brought two things to share,

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which we'll chat about for a few minutes,

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but no more than about five.

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Andy, what's the first one you brought us?

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So maybe it's just me and I'm a techie,

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I'm always interested in playing with new stuff,

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but it feels to me right now that a lot of people,

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lot more people are starting to tinker

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with running their own home labs.

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So usually clustered containerized virtual machines

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for hosting web apps on hardware and home networks.

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And I learned Linux back in the day,

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so 20 years plus ago by taking an x86 machine,

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putting Linux on it.

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And over time, I kind of have stopped doing that.

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I migrated stuff to the cloud.

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It's too much effort.

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But right now, I'm back in the game,

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trying to build stuff and play with things again.

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So I'm running something called Proxmox on a mini PC

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to run a number of different containerized apps.

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And these are complemented by a few other bits and pieces.

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I've got some other Raspberry Pis and my NAS at home.

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My pick is not Proxmox specifically,

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But it's a really nice piece of software

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that I came across in the last few weeks

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that you can self-host,

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that lets you quickly create a customized dashboard

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for anything you want, really.

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So the app is called Glance.

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You can find that on GitHub at Glance app.

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And I learned about it because it started showing up

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on Hacker News and Lobsters,

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which are a couple of daily news sites

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I look at on the tech side.

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And it got a load of new attention as a result.

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It usually happens if it shoots to the top

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of one of those sites that's going

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to get a load more visitors.

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So Glance is a pretty simple, nice and clean web app.

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You configure it on the server via a text file, which

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is in the YAML format.

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And it has a number of built-in and also

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community-contributed widgets that

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let you build dashboards, fairly classic layouts,

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either a single page or some sidebars.

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Could be everything from the weather, the news,

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from different sites or RSS feeds, video channels,

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now playing information, system data,

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the status of your favorite Minecraft server,

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and trending links on Mastodon or Blue Sky.

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In fact, after I came across it,

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somebody from the community contributed

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the trending links on Mastodon widget.

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It's fully and easily themable using just regular CSS.

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It works really nicely on mobile, as well as on desktop.

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And I know there are some alternatives around

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and they've been around for a long time

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for building dashboards for home labs.

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But Glance is working really great for me.

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It's been really nice as well to

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watch new contributors discover this project and

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support it and not

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completely try and overwhelm the maintainer.

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They've been really helpful and friendly.

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I just wanted to talk about that.

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>> That's pretty cool. Like you, I started with

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Linux 20 some years ago as well.

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I still know the bare minimum

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of containerized apps using Docker and stuff.

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I've got

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a Synology

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NAS and I've got half a dozen VMs running there,

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but it's not something I play with a lot.

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I came across an app called Heimdall five

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or six

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years ago

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that does something very similar to Glance.

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And after you brought Glance to the table, I actually went back and looked

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and it's still actively developed.

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But I think I'm going to do what you're doing and give Glance a try,

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especially with the Mastodon integration that you mentioned.

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I kind of like that idea.

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Yeah, this is this is like most of the dashboard stuff I've seen

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has been very sort of system administrator focused.

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Like a lot of like, oh, here's the uptime of the server,

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here's the throughput of this network router.

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This one is very focused, it seems to me,

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on like human information, like, you know,

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Reddit feeds, weather, mastodon, whatever, you know?

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And that's pretty cool.

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It's like, I love the idea of having a local version of that.

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You could run it on your local LAN-based computer

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or maybe on some Docker image somewhere in the cloud

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somewhere that you can get to anywhere in the world

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or whatever. So yeah, I think I might play with this. This is a looks pretty,

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it looks pretty clean, pretty easy to configure just a YAML file.

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>> Yeah, it's the kind of thing that I kind of want as my start page in my browser

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as well,

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just to sort

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of like put a bunch of my, you know, regularly visited links and sites and

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tools on the on one of the pages and just have a little dashboard to when I start my browser. So

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yeah, it's a really nice piece of software, I think.

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>> Well, your timing is great too, because I just switched browsers and I'm using Vivaldi now and

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I like it, but I was just thinking I could use a new start page and I think this is gonna be the perfect

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Oh, yeah, so your start page.

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Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and hey, what do you mean?

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You're just to have like a bunch of servers in your house. What am I gonna do with these Raspberry Pi's?

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Intel and Intel NUCs that I have sitting around

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All right, Tod, what did you bring us so this is about sound fonts general MIDI and a $50 mini rompler

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So what's a rompler? So we all know what MIDI is. It's a serial protocol for transmitting musical performance info.

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It's basically digital sheet music.

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But it's kind of worse than sheet music because MIDI doesn't contain anything describing what the notes should sound like.

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It's just like play a G# on channel one. A G# on what? A piano, a guitar, a timbale?

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Not long after MIDI was created, the General MIDI standard,

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like salute the General MIDI, was created and all it is is a

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document that says for program channel 2 you should play an electric piano for program change 33

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play acoustic bass and so it's a list of instrument names and their associated program change numbers

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that you should send over midi to switch to that sound of course that kind of just moves the

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problem down the road of what kind of electric bass or acoustic bass what kind of electric piano

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There's the what the heck is a seashore effect, which is program change 123

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And so there have been many different sense in the world that have implemented general MIDI and they all sound a little different

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Some of the really low-cost ones sound really crappy some of the really expensive ones that have

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huge multi sampled boss and or for pianos sound amazing for their

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Grand piano sound and so it so you can never really guarantee you your performance that you've created and sent out to someone

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That the person will get the same idea of what you're trying to get across

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So a few years after general MIDI came out

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This file format called sound fonts was created and sound fonts is essentially just a zip file of wave files

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It's a bit more complex than that because it actually contains like some synthesizer

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information about like how to structure and how to loop the the sample you have but it's essentially just a

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collection of

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Sounds and they can be tailored to whatever you want

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So you couldn't theory ship both the general MIDI file

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of your performance and the sound font

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to exactly recreate what your intent was.

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And the really cool things is that sound fonts

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have been around for like 30 years, something like that.

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And there've been all these open source sound fonts

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that you can just download.

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Like one of the ones I just learned

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is called the Salamander Grand Piano,

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which is a 1.2 gigabyte multi-sampled Yamaha Grand Piano.

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It's like they sampled every key

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at multiple velocity levels.

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and it's under a Creative Commons license.

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So you can just use it for your own performances.

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And so that's all sort of prologue.

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What I'm really interested in

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is that there's an open source software synthesizer

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called FluidSynth for Linux, Mac OS.

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It's basically just a command line tool

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and it works for sound fonts.

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It's basically a sound font player.

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It's got APIs in C, Python, Ruby,.NET,

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a bunch of other languages.

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And I found this out

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because on the Floyd Steinberg YouTube channel,

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He demoed this little $50 mini rompler.

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Rompler is a sort of term of art in the music space

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for things that play samples but can't sample themselves.

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So like basically a sound font player.

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But this $50 rompler is made from a Raspberry Pi Zero

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and a Pimeroni i2s DAC hat,

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running a little Python script that he wrote

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that takes in MIDI and sends that information to FluidSynth

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and then provides a little UI via the buttons and screen

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that's on the Pimeroni Pirate Audio Hat.

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And so you get this little box,

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it's smaller than a deck of cards,

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has a little screen with buttons,

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and it can play synths or play samples

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that sound better than a lot of these synths

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that cost thousands of dollars.

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Because you can just load up

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the coolest new sound font you found and put it on there.

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Or you could load in the chip tune sound font

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that makes all the general MIDI sounds

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sound like something out of a Nintendo.

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(laughs)

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And so I built one of these a couple days ago,

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and his script is pretty early days.

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It's really small, it's like a 30-line Python script,

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but it works. Here's the piano sound.

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That's one of the just generic sound fonts.

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It's not even a special one, and it sounds great.

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That's one avenue I've been playing with.

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It's like, "Oh, I can use some of

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my almost circuit Python-based Python knowledge

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to do real Python on a Raspberry Pi."

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[LAUGHTER]

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But then also, I found this independently

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because I was playing around with

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this command line tool called SF2 Extract

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that lets you poke into an SF2 file

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and pull out those WAV files as WAV files and use them.

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And since CircuitPython can play WAV files,

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I'm like, ooh, SF2 files provide a rich garden

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of WAV files I can use with CircuitPython.

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(laughs)

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And so that's what I'm gonna be playing with.

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I don't know if we'll ever get

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a CircuitPython sound font player,

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but maybe, you know, in the future.

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- So FluidSynth is pretty interesting.

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It doesn't come with a UI.

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It's just really a back-end.

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>> Yeah, it's totally just a back-end.

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>> I've just found that there's a package called QSynth that

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you

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can install to give a QT UI on top of FluidSynth.

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>> Oh, right on.

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>> Pretty much like a rack mount synth type thing.

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>> It's very interesting. These sound font players,

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they don't really have much UI because

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they're all general MIDI responders.

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You just send it the general MIDI commands

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from your MIDI keyboard or whatever.

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Their UIs are usually pretty minimal,

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which as someone who likes knobs and buttons on a synthesizer,

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I find

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a little not offensive,

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but a little questionable.

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>> I'm just looking at a little.

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I'm looking at a dashboard of knobs and buttons on my screen now

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that would let me do some of those things,

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but I

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don't have the keys

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to press to make the noises.

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>> Yeah,

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00:11:15,180 --> 00:11:15,780
exactly.

253
00:11:17,130 --> 00:11:19,020
>> I recommend checking out the video.

254
00:11:19,140 --> 00:11:21,780
It's about 10 minutes long for the Rompler specifically.

255
00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:22,680
And

256
00:11:22,680 --> 00:11:23,360
it's pretty neat.

257
00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:24,940
And when you actually see it in action

258
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:26,340
with the buttons in the screen

259
00:11:26,380 --> 00:11:28,280
and you see how small it really is,

260
00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:29,520
that was pretty darn cool.

261
00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:30,120
- Yeah,

262
00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:33,620
I've not played much with the Raspberry Pi zeros

263
00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:36,120
because they were always so painfully slow

264
00:11:36,340 --> 00:11:38,080
compared to even just a normal Raspberry Pi.

265
00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:39,980
But this was like the impetus for like,

266
00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:41,420
okay, I'll deal with the slowness of it

267
00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:43,260
because like, ooh, once it's running,

268
00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,059
it doesn't matter how fast the shell response is

269
00:11:47,060 --> 00:11:48,240
because it's just running a program.

270
00:11:49,460 --> 00:11:50,040
- That makes a lot of

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00:11:50,040 --> 00:11:50,300
sense.

272
00:11:51,300 --> 00:11:53,820
- All right, Paul, what's your next one for this week?

273
00:11:54,580 --> 00:11:56,260
- My first item doesn't sound that exciting,

274
00:11:56,340 --> 00:11:57,620
but I thought it was kind of cool.

275
00:11:57,940 --> 00:12:00,620
It's about automatic filament detection for 3D printers.

276
00:12:01,680 --> 00:12:04,080
OpenSpool and SpoolEase are two open source projects

277
00:12:04,140 --> 00:12:04,920
with a similar goal,

278
00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:07,040
to provide automatic filament detection

279
00:12:07,080 --> 00:12:07,980
for your 3D printer.

280
00:12:08,440 --> 00:12:11,440
For example, Bambu Labs Filament includes an NFC tag

281
00:12:11,520 --> 00:12:14,879
that allows Bambu Slicer or Orca Slicer

282
00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:17,100
to get information about the filament that is being loaded,

283
00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:19,560
including the color, the temperature to print it at,

284
00:12:19,950 --> 00:12:22,840
the brand, the type of filament, such as PLA and PETG,

285
00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:24,220
and that kind of a thing.

286
00:12:24,900 --> 00:12:26,480
And with OpenSpool, it goes both ways.

287
00:12:26,660 --> 00:12:28,260
You can read Bambu filament details

288
00:12:28,420 --> 00:12:30,200
for other 3D printers as well.

289
00:12:30,940 --> 00:12:32,040
Both projects are similar,

290
00:12:32,200 --> 00:12:33,400
while you'll need to buy some components,

291
00:12:33,660 --> 00:12:36,040
including an ESP32 for OpenSpool

292
00:12:36,340 --> 00:12:39,240
and an ESP32-S3 for SpoolEase,

293
00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,159
along with an NFC reader and some other miscellaneous parts

294
00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:44,180
and some NFC stickers.

295
00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:47,160
Both projects have a complete bill of materials

296
00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:48,340
for you to build the project.

297
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:50,480
You build the NFC tag reader with those parts,

298
00:12:50,960 --> 00:12:52,160
3D print the case for it.

299
00:12:52,700 --> 00:12:54,500
OpenSpool does sell a kit on Tindy

300
00:12:54,580 --> 00:12:56,160
with everything you need fully assembled

301
00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:57,400
for just over 60 bucks.

302
00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:01,500
Once built, you could either create your own NFC tags

303
00:13:01,500 --> 00:13:03,760
and program each tag with your filament settings

304
00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:08,220
or use RFID-enabled filament from Creality or Bambu,

305
00:13:08,340 --> 00:13:09,020
for example.

306
00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:12,159
Just scan the RFID tag and your filament settings

307
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:14,140
automatically loaded into your slicer.

308
00:13:15,040 --> 00:13:16,860
And this isn't just for Bambu Labs printers.

309
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,260
Open Spools roadmap has future integration planned for Octoprint, Prusa Connect,

310
00:13:21,700 --> 00:13:23,200
Clipper and Moonraker and more.

311
00:13:23,830 --> 00:13:27,120
If you have lots of filament and you want to save a little time on loading new

312
00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,800
filaments in your printer, maybe check out one of these projects and pick up the

313
00:13:30,940 --> 00:13:31,180
parts.

314
00:13:32,240 --> 00:13:36,160
I actually have the Open Spool sitting next to my Bambu X1C.

315
00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:39,580
Having said that, I haven't used it very much yet.

316
00:13:39,580 --> 00:13:44,020
and because of the changes that Bambu have announced around their firmware,

317
00:13:44,540 --> 00:13:47,360
I've not upgraded to the one which is going to lock me out.

318
00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:49,720
I'm waiting on the X1 Expander board that was

319
00:13:49,740 --> 00:13:52,120
a Kickstarter to see where that goes in the future.

320
00:13:52,760 --> 00:13:55,800
When I was debating about what pics to bring to the show,

321
00:13:56,280 --> 00:13:59,000
I was going to talk about the new Bambu printer,

322
00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:04,820
but decided because I've got a love-hate slash tension thing going on with

323
00:14:04,820 --> 00:14:05,100
Bambu,

324
00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:06,020
I really like

325
00:14:06,020 --> 00:14:06,620
my printer,

326
00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:08,280
but I love open source more.

327
00:14:08,580 --> 00:14:11,500
Right. So I'm excited by OpenSpool.

328
00:14:11,600 --> 00:14:13,200
I hadn't come across OpenEase,

329
00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:18,840
and I hope that projects like this can encourage big companies

330
00:14:19,140 --> 00:14:22,100
to consider the community a lot more and what they can actually bring

331
00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:27,660
and help to improve outside of the direct product that you buy.

332
00:14:27,780 --> 00:14:29,900
I think there's a lot of opportunity for the ecosystem

333
00:14:29,900 --> 00:14:30,240
there.

334
00:14:30,900 --> 00:14:33,260
Bambu, when they first announced the firmware changes,

335
00:14:34,100 --> 00:14:38,180
the developer of OpenSpool, I believe, posted a Reddit thread saying,

336
00:14:38,220 --> 00:14:40,360
"Hey, we might be one of the reasons

337
00:14:40,480 --> 00:14:42,320
why they're changing their firmware."

338
00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:45,860
Right, 'cause you're threatening Bambu's filament business

339
00:14:46,060 --> 00:14:46,340
with something

340
00:14:46,340 --> 00:14:47,200
like OpenSpool.

341
00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:51,200
'Cause now you can make your own RFID-enabled filaments.

342
00:14:51,400 --> 00:14:53,520
So interesting, and I'm with you.

343
00:14:53,580 --> 00:14:55,660
I have a love-hate relationship with my Bambu now,

344
00:14:56,100 --> 00:14:58,220
where I was recommending it to everyone

345
00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:00,160
over the last year or two, but with these changes,

346
00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:02,720
I've kind of got a wait-and-see approach.

347
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:05,480
- Yeah, I'm still on a pretty old Prusa,

348
00:15:05,780 --> 00:15:08,200
and I was on the verge of getting the Bambu

349
00:15:08,200 --> 00:15:13,340
this like news came out and I'm like, God dang it, because I have I have totally printed

350
00:15:13,460 --> 00:15:18,580
things with the wrong filament selected in the slicer and I was like, oops, you know,

351
00:15:18,700 --> 00:15:19,600
why is it coming out crap?

352
00:15:19,760 --> 00:15:25,260
And I was looking forward to like, buying the Bambu filament, just just purely for

353
00:15:25,300 --> 00:15:26,840
the auto setting capability.

354
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:28,860
I love that OpenSpool is an alternative.

355
00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:33,120
I might actually hook this up for my printer, even though it's on its last legs, I think.

356
00:15:34,420 --> 00:15:36,260
All right, Andy, what's your next one for us?

357
00:15:37,060 --> 00:15:39,920
I've just said that I'm a big fan of open source and

358
00:15:40,060 --> 00:15:41,560
open source hardware and of

359
00:15:41,600 --> 00:15:43,180
course that's one of the reasons why I love this show.

360
00:15:43,620 --> 00:15:44,740
I'm also really looking forward to

361
00:15:44,740 --> 00:15:46,640
the Open Source Hardware Association summit that's

362
00:15:46,650 --> 00:15:49,040
going to be in Edinburgh in my side of the pond this year.

363
00:15:49,460 --> 00:15:51,120
I know the Open Source Hardware Association are

364
00:15:51,180 --> 00:15:52,800
looking for additional supporters and sponsors.

365
00:15:53,620 --> 00:15:54,740
If you're able to help out,

366
00:15:54,820 --> 00:15:56,080
then go take a look at their website.

367
00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:57,500
That's coming up in May.

368
00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:01,460
I've been finding myself using Linux and

369
00:16:01,520 --> 00:16:03,960
my Framework 13 a lot more as my daily driver.

370
00:16:04,300 --> 00:16:07,400
I have Macs and I occasionally use Windows.

371
00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:09,480
I have had a role in

372
00:16:09,560 --> 00:16:11,660
developer relations up until recently where I've always

373
00:16:11,730 --> 00:16:15,340
needed to switch between platforms to try things out for people.

374
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,880
One company I really want to shout out to though is MNT Research,

375
00:16:21,370 --> 00:16:22,540
and they're out of Germany.

376
00:16:23,340 --> 00:16:27,920
MNT have been making some laptops under this brand called Reform for

377
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,240
a number of years and they are

378
00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:33,300
completely open to the greatest extent they can make them.

379
00:16:33,540 --> 00:16:34,980
And what I mean by that is occasionally

380
00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:37,260
there'll be some kind of proprietary blob,

381
00:16:37,740 --> 00:16:39,240
you know, Wi-Fi driver or something

382
00:16:39,420 --> 00:16:40,200
that you need to load in.

383
00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:44,560
They go as far as possible to find open components.

384
00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:47,600
They have a whole ethos starting from designing

385
00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:50,260
using FreeCAD and KiCAD for the hardware,

386
00:16:51,060 --> 00:16:53,940
pre-installing Debian for as much open source,

387
00:16:53,980 --> 00:16:55,300
non-commercial software as possible.

388
00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:58,480
And they use CrowdSupply,

389
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:02,279
which is kind of an open hardware version of Kickstarter

390
00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:03,600
to crowdfund each model.

391
00:17:03,850 --> 00:17:07,060
The machines are all hand-assembled by real humans

392
00:17:07,089 --> 00:17:10,380
and tested by them in Berlin before they ship them out.

393
00:17:10,910 --> 00:17:13,060
And yesterday, actually, as we record this,

394
00:17:13,540 --> 00:17:15,800
MNT also published a new page on their website

395
00:17:16,400 --> 00:17:18,540
that goes into more detail about their philosophy,

396
00:17:19,160 --> 00:17:21,319
calling out that they build on and share back

397
00:17:21,319 --> 00:17:23,459
to the open source community, which I absolutely love.

398
00:17:23,839 --> 00:17:25,860
And they have an active community on IRC

399
00:17:26,380 --> 00:17:29,020
and in their discourse forum and in the Fediverse.

400
00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:32,020
So top marks from me across the board there.

401
00:17:32,460 --> 00:17:36,600
The actual pick though, is the MNT Pocket Reform laptop,

402
00:17:37,060 --> 00:17:40,260
which I've been loving as kind of a smaller footprint

403
00:17:40,520 --> 00:17:41,320
portable device.

404
00:17:41,380 --> 00:17:43,740
It's about the size of an A5 sheet of paper

405
00:17:43,740 --> 00:17:45,880
or sort of half letter size paper.

406
00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:48,580
It's more chunky than your average laptop.

407
00:17:49,060 --> 00:17:52,600
It's not this super slim, you know, iPad Svelte device.

408
00:17:53,380 --> 00:17:55,400
And the reason for that is that

409
00:17:55,740 --> 00:17:57,180
it's completely user serviceable.

410
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,060
you can unscrew the panels on the top side,

411
00:18:01,060 --> 00:18:01,920
the back of the screen,

412
00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:03,740
and on the bottom side underneath the keyboard,

413
00:18:04,060 --> 00:18:06,200
and actually access all of the parts.

414
00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:09,700
You can pull out and replace the processor board,

415
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:11,480
the memory, the Wi-Fi board.

416
00:18:12,340 --> 00:18:14,680
You can access the batteries underneath the keyboard.

417
00:18:16,140 --> 00:18:17,900
Another really interesting thing here

418
00:18:17,980 --> 00:18:20,300
is that the system controller is an RP2040,

419
00:18:21,260 --> 00:18:22,980
and that means it's possible

420
00:18:22,980 --> 00:18:24,300
to integrate additional sensors.

421
00:18:24,960 --> 00:18:28,360
So one other user has already added a pair of Adafruit

422
00:18:28,580 --> 00:18:31,840
triple-axis accelerometers, one in the lid and one in the base,

423
00:18:32,620 --> 00:18:36,040
to essentially come up with a lid closure detection mechanism.

424
00:18:36,220 --> 00:18:39,620
So when the two are level, it thinks that the lid is closed

425
00:18:39,620 --> 00:18:41,140
and will switch things off, for example.

426
00:18:42,120 --> 00:18:43,800
And that was just using the quick connector.

427
00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:45,800
So it's super easy to do things.

428
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,360
You don't have to sort of go soldering here.

429
00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:50,760
There's another RP2040 for the keyboard controller.

430
00:18:51,780 --> 00:18:53,860
You can choose from the CPU modules.

431
00:18:54,540 --> 00:18:56,640
and the whole thing is modular and upgradable.

432
00:18:57,420 --> 00:18:59,300
The thing I'm very excited about currently

433
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,500
is that some folks have been laser engraving

434
00:19:01,500 --> 00:19:04,720
and sharing designs for their replacement top panels.

435
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:07,020
So I really definitely want to sort of get

436
00:19:07,100 --> 00:19:08,300
some nice cosmetics for mine.

437
00:19:09,220 --> 00:19:12,060
So MNT Research really wants users to buy

438
00:19:12,130 --> 00:19:14,660
into their ethos and philosophy and approach,

439
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:17,060
and you do pay more for that.

440
00:19:17,660 --> 00:19:20,200
But I want to really give a shout out to the company

441
00:19:20,480 --> 00:19:21,520
and also to the community.

442
00:19:22,100 --> 00:19:24,520
I've written a couple of posts about my journey

443
00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,040
with the pocket reform on my blog.

444
00:19:27,620 --> 00:19:28,920
And I recommend others take a look

445
00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:29,880
and see if they could be a fit

446
00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:30,200
for them.

447
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:32,400
- So you've been doing a lot of traveling lately.

448
00:19:32,620 --> 00:19:34,780
Do you find yourself taking the pocket reform with you

449
00:19:34,820 --> 00:19:35,860
as opposed to your framework?

450
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:40,080
- So what happened this year was I went to FOSDEM,

451
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,640
the free and open source conference in Brussels

452
00:19:42,820 --> 00:19:44,280
in the end of January.

453
00:19:44,420 --> 00:19:47,060
And I took, I didn't wanna take my Mac with me,

454
00:19:47,360 --> 00:19:48,800
didn't feel very open source friendly.

455
00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:52,080
So I took my framework and I took my pocket reform.

456
00:19:52,400 --> 00:19:55,060
And the first day I used my Pocket Reform exclusively,

457
00:19:55,940 --> 00:19:57,100
I did have a problem,

458
00:19:57,320 --> 00:19:59,360
and I think it was to do with my power charger,

459
00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:04,400
my UK power charger on EU power and shorts and things happened.

460
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,040
So I had to return it to get it fixed under warranty.

461
00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:10,520
But I do love it as a travel machine.

462
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,620
It really sits in a satchel really easily.

463
00:20:13,840 --> 00:20:17,059
It feels a bit heavy, again, if you compare it to

464
00:20:16,980 --> 00:20:22,080
sort of a super slim iPad type laptops you can get sometimes.

465
00:20:22,860 --> 00:20:23,520
But I do love it.

466
00:20:24,260 --> 00:20:25,420
It's an acquired taste.

467
00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:27,340
It's got a smaller screen,

468
00:20:27,860 --> 00:20:31,820
and that means that it's not super well adapted

469
00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:35,300
to use its screen for heavy GUIs.

470
00:20:35,420 --> 00:20:38,020
So I find myself using a lot more text mode apps on there.

471
00:20:38,620 --> 00:20:40,960
You can, of course, plug it into an external display

472
00:20:41,020 --> 00:20:44,280
and just go full desktop and do whatever you want.

473
00:20:44,980 --> 00:20:46,940
but when I'm using it, I typically am using it

474
00:20:47,060 --> 00:20:49,360
for sort of text editing, coding,

475
00:20:49,860 --> 00:20:51,320
systems management type stuff.

476
00:20:51,800 --> 00:20:52,380
It's really fun.

477
00:20:52,780 --> 00:20:54,080
- As an old GNOME developer,

478
00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:55,700
it warmed my heart a little bit

479
00:20:55,700 --> 00:20:57,320
to see that it's shipped with GNOME by default

480
00:20:57,500 --> 00:20:58,760
and the Debian distribution.

481
00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:00,200
- Yeah, I'm really

482
00:21:00,200 --> 00:21:00,540
interested.

483
00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:02,740
I've, on my electronics workbench here,

484
00:21:03,170 --> 00:21:04,820
I often have my laptop, but I've got,

485
00:21:04,890 --> 00:21:07,160
I like the bigger laptop, the 15 inch laptop,

486
00:21:07,740 --> 00:21:09,160
and it's a little bit ungainly,

487
00:21:09,380 --> 00:21:12,600
and having something as small as the MNT Reform,

488
00:21:13,290 --> 00:21:14,960
it would fit much better on the bench

489
00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:16,780
like because I need to have a terminal window up into

490
00:21:16,940 --> 00:21:19,600
some serial gizmo and do some debugging.

491
00:21:20,980 --> 00:21:23,740
Yes, I think this might be a good bench top little computer.

492
00:21:24,580 --> 00:21:28,880
>> They have a full-size reform and they just announced the reform next,

493
00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:30,680
which is their next generation of that,

494
00:21:31,740 --> 00:21:33,260
which I think they've moved from

495
00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:35,140
a trackball in the first one to

496
00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,840
a trackpad on the second generation of the full-size laptop.

497
00:21:38,520 --> 00:21:39,800
But this one is, again,

498
00:21:39,960 --> 00:21:40,980
it's a small device,

499
00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:42,740
it's I think it's about seven, eight inches.

500
00:21:43,420 --> 00:21:44,540
And yeah, I really love it.

501
00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:45,620
So I wanted to give him a shout

502
00:21:45,620 --> 00:21:45,700
out.

503
00:21:45,780 --> 00:21:48,200
- Yeah, what other laptop can you get nowadays

504
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:48,940
with a trackball?

505
00:21:49,020 --> 00:21:49,480
That's awesome.

506
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:50,360
- Exactly.

507
00:21:50,900 --> 00:21:51,300
(laughing)

508
00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:54,560
- All right, Tod, what's your second one for us?

509
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,780
- I'm gonna talk about the DIYR design lamps

510
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,260
and speakers and fans.

511
00:21:58,940 --> 00:22:02,380
So there's a website called DIYR, D-I-Y-E-R,

512
00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,780
that showcases high design lamps, speakers, and fans

513
00:22:05,920 --> 00:22:08,680
that evoke a trendy minimalism of Scandinavian designs

514
00:22:08,720 --> 00:22:09,580
like Ikea.

515
00:22:10,540 --> 00:22:11,380
But DIYR is different.

516
00:22:11,780 --> 00:22:14,940
It stands for DIYR, stands for Do It Yourself Revolution.

517
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:20,720
Each product they show is actually essentially construction instructions on how to build

518
00:22:20,720 --> 00:22:20,860
it.

519
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:23,540
It's got STL files for the 3D printable parts.

520
00:22:23,910 --> 00:22:28,180
It says which electrical components to buy, what tools you need, how to start it all,

521
00:22:28,360 --> 00:22:29,180
and assemble it together.

522
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:32,320
The instructions are understandable and diagrams are very clear.

523
00:22:32,420 --> 00:22:33,940
They're very IKEA-esque to me.

524
00:22:34,780 --> 00:22:42,680
And the results look like these high design home wear products you'd find at a furniture

525
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:42,980
store.

526
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:50,440
One of the ones, the examples I like is called BTNM or button medium, I think.

527
00:22:50,780 --> 00:22:56,800
It's a USB-C or battery powered desk light that has an embedded capacitive touch switch.

528
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:59,040
So you just like kind of wave your hand near it and it'll turn on and off.

529
00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:07,260
And their designs are all really modular, so the BTNM head can go on their STR HNG structure

530
00:23:07,360 --> 00:23:14,500
hinge, which is their sort of desktop lamp arm, or it can go on their STR WAL structure

531
00:23:14,620 --> 00:23:19,500
wall, which is a wall mount, sort of this graceful arc that you attach to the wall.

532
00:23:19,980 --> 00:23:24,480
And these lamps aren't like these NeoPixel lamps you see on Thingiverse.

533
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:30,340
These lamps use the high power LED modules that output 400 lumens or more with a high

534
00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:34,140
CRI color rendition so you actually look good under them.

535
00:23:34,900 --> 00:23:37,220
They're like real lamps and we can build them ourselves.

536
00:23:37,710 --> 00:23:43,320
And all the designs are Creative Commons CC, sorry, by NC-SA.

537
00:23:43,730 --> 00:23:47,940
So it's a non-commercial, feel free to share and share alike, that allows transformation.

538
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:54,600
So one of the things I was worried about is that some of the smaller lamp heads have a

539
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:57,180
different LED module that I think is not available currently,

540
00:23:57,700 --> 00:23:59,740
but there's a bunch of other LED modules that are out there.

541
00:23:59,770 --> 00:24:02,260
So you can take the STLs and modify them a little bit.

542
00:24:03,020 --> 00:24:05,720
It looks really fun. I want to try building some of these

543
00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:07,600
because it's totally the way I think of it.

544
00:24:07,620 --> 00:24:09,620
It's like, "Oh, let's get the touch sensor module

545
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:11,500
and the battery power module,

546
00:24:11,940 --> 00:24:13,280
the LED module, solder them together,

547
00:24:13,460 --> 00:24:15,560
put them in a 3D printed enclosure," and it just happens to

548
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,180
be a 3D printed enclosure by

549
00:24:18,300 --> 00:24:21,060
a design person who actually knows how things look good.

550
00:24:22,940 --> 00:24:24,040
Yeah, go check it out.

551
00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:31,620
The website's a little bit designy, but once you get into the instructions for the parts, it's actually pretty clear.

552
00:24:32,420 --> 00:24:33,760
And that's diyr.dev.

553
00:24:34,260 --> 00:24:36,160
So what's the first thing that you want to build?

554
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:42,620
I think the lamp, the little desk lamp, which is a combination of the BTNM and the STR HNG.

555
00:24:43,260 --> 00:24:43,460
Okay.

556
00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:46,880
My wife and I,

557
00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:48,080
with our pen plotters,

558
00:24:48,530 --> 00:24:50,820
tend to do a lot of overhead photography,

559
00:24:51,060 --> 00:24:52,900
pointing down at the desk,

560
00:24:53,060 --> 00:24:55,460
and then you want lights and nice setup there.

561
00:24:55,470 --> 00:24:58,160
So we've got a table with some, actually,

562
00:24:58,420 --> 00:25:01,580
IKEA bars for decoration, so for outdoor decoration.

563
00:25:02,090 --> 00:25:04,340
So I guess they want you to put flower garlands

564
00:25:04,350 --> 00:25:06,340
and things around your picnic table and things.

565
00:25:07,320 --> 00:25:11,080
And this deer stuff looks like it would be adaptable,

566
00:25:11,380 --> 00:25:13,600
potentially, for attaching to those kind of bars.

567
00:25:14,020 --> 00:25:16,060
So I'm very excited to have a look through this website.

568
00:25:16,620 --> 00:25:16,980
- Oh, neat.

569
00:25:17,480 --> 00:25:19,440
All right, Paul, what's your last one for this week?

570
00:25:20,100 --> 00:25:21,640
- So you're listening to a podcast right now,

571
00:25:21,680 --> 00:25:23,180
which means you either like podcasts

572
00:25:23,180 --> 00:25:24,340
or you really like Tod,

573
00:25:24,760 --> 00:25:26,820
but you might be familiar with read it later apps

574
00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:27,020
like

575
00:25:27,020 --> 00:25:28,320
Instapaper or Pocket.

576
00:25:28,820 --> 00:25:30,980
These apps allow you to save an article on the web

577
00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:32,500
to their service and read it later

578
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,240
with the ads and extra stuff you find

579
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:35,500
on the website stripped off.

580
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,000
I've been using Pocket for years and love it.

581
00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:40,960
Michael Kennedy, a Python software fellow

582
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,240
and host of the Talk Python to Me podcast

583
00:25:43,240 --> 00:25:45,640
has created a new service called Podcast Later

584
00:25:46,220 --> 00:25:47,300
that does something similar,

585
00:25:47,900 --> 00:25:49,940
except it creates a personal podcast for you

586
00:25:50,010 --> 00:25:51,900
of the articles you save on the web.

587
00:25:52,410 --> 00:25:54,740
You download one of the open source bookmarklets,

588
00:25:55,110 --> 00:25:56,940
and when you come across an article you wanna save,

589
00:25:56,940 --> 00:25:57,860
you just bookmark it.

590
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:00,720
Behind the scenes, it uses a text-to-speech service

591
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,380
and to convert it and have your choice

592
00:26:03,660 --> 00:26:06,580
of a male or female voice to read the article back to you.

593
00:26:07,300 --> 00:26:09,380
The Podcast Later homepage includes two samples

594
00:26:09,380 --> 00:26:11,000
you can listen to, one for each voice

595
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:13,360
check out the voice quality and it sounds really good.

596
00:26:14,300 --> 00:26:17,900
The service creates a private podcast feed just for you that you subscribe to,

597
00:26:18,060 --> 00:26:20,160
meaning that it works in any podcast app.

598
00:26:20,580 --> 00:26:23,600
And if your podcast app supports Apple CarPlay or Android Auto,

599
00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:24,800
you can even listen in the car.

600
00:26:25,780 --> 00:26:28,700
A few months ago, my partner came to me and asked me if a service like this

601
00:26:28,860 --> 00:26:32,800
existed. I didn't know about podcasts later, and I pointed her at Google LM.

602
00:26:33,580 --> 00:26:34,860
She fettered an academic paper,

603
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,660
but she didn't like the experience because Google LM read it back to her,

604
00:26:39,040 --> 00:26:41,300
but with two co-hosts talking about it.

605
00:26:41,490 --> 00:26:42,860
It wasn't just reading the article,

606
00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:44,580
it's these two people talking about it,

607
00:26:44,700 --> 00:26:46,480
which didn't make a lot of sense.

608
00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:48,460
If I had known about this then,

609
00:26:48,530 --> 00:26:50,980
I would have pointed her at it even though it's a paid service.

610
00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:53,780
Plan started six bucks a month for saving

611
00:26:53,900 --> 00:26:57,680
about 100 pages or 25 per article and four hours of playback a month.

612
00:26:58,360 --> 00:27:00,720
I should mention, I am a former student of

613
00:27:00,860 --> 00:27:02,900
Michael Kennedy's TalkPython training courses,

614
00:27:03,580 --> 00:27:05,460
and Michael did help me answer

615
00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:07,820
some questions for me when I first started podcasting.

616
00:27:08,120 --> 00:27:10,360
But Michael didn't alert me to the offering.

617
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:12,280
I came across it on my own.

618
00:27:13,040 --> 00:27:14,680
>> That sounds like a really interesting way

619
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:16,000
of consuming information.

620
00:27:16,140 --> 00:27:19,880
I know I tend to open lots and lots of tabs across lots and

621
00:27:19,900 --> 00:27:22,700
lots of devices and then fail to go back and read things.

622
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,040
If I could just throw them all something like this and then get

623
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,480
a summary or not even a summary but having

624
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:31,960
the articles read to me later on would be really interesting.

625
00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:34,220
>> Yeah, I agree. It would be great for when

626
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:35,880
I'm doing dishes or walking the dog.

627
00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:39,300
like you, I've got a backlog of articles in pocket that I just haven't got to.

628
00:27:39,420 --> 00:27:40,260
So I'm really

629
00:27:40,260 --> 00:27:41,320
tempted to try this out.

630
00:27:42,340 --> 00:27:42,860
Yeah, no doubt.

631
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,040
Like, like sometimes what I'll do is, um, on the Mac, I'm sure this, you can do

632
00:27:46,180 --> 00:27:48,960
similar things on other OSs, but on the Mac, you can kind of select a bunch of

633
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:53,220
text and do right click and say, start speaking and it'll, it'll speak the text.

634
00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,460
And so I've done that sometimes with long articles where I'll just do select

635
00:27:56,560 --> 00:28:00,040
all of the entire webpage and then have it speak, but like webpages are not

636
00:28:00,140 --> 00:28:03,500
really made for, for auto transcription like that.

637
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,360
It takes it's gonna take some sort of like AI system that is that presumably this is using to

638
00:28:08,020 --> 00:28:10,160
Pull out all the things that aren't the actual article

639
00:28:12,420 --> 00:28:18,300
Otherwise I'm sitting through you know, two minutes of it talking about some banner ad right

640
00:28:20,740 --> 00:28:21,520
So this is awesome

641
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:23,440
Well, that's our show a big

642
00:28:23,580 --> 00:28:29,900
Thank you to Andy for joining us for detailed show notes and transcripts check out the bootloader net and until next time

643
00:28:29,900 --> 00:28:30,760
stay positive