Podcasting (part 2)

Introduction

It is 2023, and there are more free and better tools than before. So attempting (again) setting up my own podcast on a local server.

Scope

Local podcasts, hosted locally via python3 http.server, all local links (raw mp3 taking advantage of Pocketcasts' trim silence ability).

Then, RSS feed on the local site should serve the locations of the mp3's, then is only available when computer is on (security by obscurity).

Process

It largely worked! I still need to learn python a bit more, but pip ensured that had the right tooling on my local computer. 

Feedgen worked (was not originally clear that podcast needs to be configured with information first), webpages were served.

Problem

Assuming RSS feed was generated in a way that the apps understood, I had connectivity issues. It seems like the standard way of doing things is to pull from Apple Podcast index (one location of all "curated" and valid podcasts). However, I won't submit my RSS into Apple Podcast because I'm not a podcasting company.

Additionally, it seemed like the apps don't like getting pointed around to local files. Maybe plex is the close second? But Pocketcasts couldn't find my podcast locally, nor could OverCast. And so, moving farther away from original intent to use a nice podcast player (Pocketcasts).

A potential solution could be to host everything on AWS, and then have it served back to me via Apple Podcasts. I'm not very fond of this because then it requires me to learn AWS and/or Azure or some other file storage company's API.

Conclusion

If there's going to be overhead anyways, might as well load into iTunes and manage the raw .mp3 locally. Storage on the phone will be slightly less than doubled because I want to have a local listening speed (1.8x with trim silence) and sharing speed (1.0x for people who haven't heard it before).

It may be a better use of my time to figure out how to use otter.ai more effectively? Seems like 1.8x with trim silence could be a perfect trigger into the transcription service (if it's good enough for human comprehension, good enough for AI).

Ubuntu periodic audio clicking

 This website shows how to resolve the problem, including a test fix:

echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

Then a final fix:

echo 0 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save




Always good to see that test vectors are provided before actually doing some change.

quick configuration (download vimrc from google drive)

This website shows how to break down URL from google, like this vimrc file:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CAPUjT7Ay1YN6wgliDDamQLT62zAqilVDWqkqzLbkhg/export?format=txt

Combining this with wget:

wget -O .vimrc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CAPUjT7Ay1YN6wgliDDamQLT62zAqilVDWqkqzLbkhg/export?format=txt

So that you can use this handy one-liner to update .vimrc! No more copy and pasting

steam on ubuntu 20.04

Introduction

Steam is free software, for many installs just fine. However, a quick google search shows that many (in the hundreds) cannot make it work on their systems, with problems starting in 2014 or earlier.

Progress

Actively struggling with installing. Currently most progress obtained by some combination of installing Nvidia graphics drivers (even though this computer doesn't actually have that).

Installing via package "libglu1-mesa:i386" seems to have the most progress available idea source. Sadly only temporarily provided dependent packages. After attempting to use 32bit drivers from Nvidia, more broken (though some packages are available).

Conclusion

As of 2021-W01, going to just wait for Steam to properly upgrade to 64bit drivers. Though this might never happen, better than messing around with linux too much. Goes to show that gaming should really be done on Windows because current state of libraries not newbie friendly.

Lessons learned:

1. aptitude is great at following through dependencies and downloading everything needed. Was hard to understand that you have to "reject" or not accept the proposed "keep following [not installed]" options presented before it attempts to find replacements or downgrades. Care to not over install

2. starting over in linux is not terrible. There are core software that I always install. Something like: vim, aptitude, hardinfo, chrome, brave. Copying over aliases and vimrc isn't terrible either, but something tedious

podcasting

Introduction

Many people are building their own podcasts at the moment. The intent of this project is not for others to be able to follow my podcast, but to preserve the podcasts that were most influential to me. It would be good to continue to listen to stuff that is currently being released, but have my own local server generate a podcast xml to be able to keep the "cleaned up" versions of audio that I will download.

Audio Processing

Testing out audacity. So far, looks like takes some amount of time to clean up to only the sermon segment of interest. Using copy & paste seems to work very well for picking portions of tracks

After it is clipped, then use the "truncate silence" function. If audio is high enough quality, then can use -50dB. Silence is tricky because it ending consonants can affect algorithm. Using -35dB and 250ms, was too short and caught sentences. Using 500ms was more clean. Guess is that consonants can dip into -35dB, then time-short silence threshold breaks understanding. Would like to do some analysis on how long do most people's words take in ms (eg. ms per syllable, then figure out what is the most efficient).

Note that one can also delete words that are unintended: um, uh, like, etc. but manual editing

Process

This is using the guides from here: dir2cast github   user1

Needed apache2 and php-xml from apt-get.

My final implementation:

 http://default-inspiron-3647/podcasts/dir2cast.php?dir=archive

Conclusion

Only problem is that original theory of hosting on off-internet server would be flouted by podcast app requiring their own curated link (see pca.st links). Thus, motivating me to move away entirely from "free" app that used to be $4.

I listen to podcasts at 1.8x and would like to preserve "trim silence" feature, going to add audacity scripts to "trim silence" before piping into any other podcast app. Thus will be good to process weekly sermons and preserve ones.

Very disappointing that there is no automated tool to generate local URL to pass directly to the app. I could process each file individually and save in google drive, sharing over to podcast app (profile > files)

useful networking locations on the internet

https://forum.level1techs.com/c/networking/78 has some very advanced home projects. Learned much about DNS, networking, from original 10G ethernet in 2015!

Converting Fidelity fund research to Google Sheets

Converts this: 

To this: 

Version 1 of formula:

=mid(A2,1,if(isnumber(find("%",A2)),find("%",A2)-1,""))

Version 2 that filters out blanks better: 

=if(isnumber(find("%",N53)),mid(N53,1,find("%",N53)-1)/100,"")

upgrade to gaming rig

Introduction

When graphics cards become cheaper (and work project ends), then can take pcie 3.0 desktop (HP Pavilion with i7-6700T) to hook up to graphics card. Needs power upgrade

Background

Some work required:

• Need to disassemble old power supply to preserve +12V header, splice/solder into old ATX supply (at least main power connector is in spec)
• Select/purchase affordable GPU. Currently DDR6 shortage causing all graphics cards to be overpriced (2-3x so nothing in budget)
• Procure more memory
• SSD (found old mushkin 240GB drive, but may not be enough)

home fileserver (upgrade 2020-w52)

Introduction

This project is to revamp and reuse a lot of the hardware just laying around in home. Currently storage is not an issue, so enjoying just needing about 1TB storage, but drive is a little old.

Background

Previously using an old laptop z580 from 2012. Not bad, but slowing down significantly when browsers are open. Running 240GB SSD and 2x4GB RAM. Services required:

• smb (fileshare over 1G, was 100M)
• synergy (sharing mouse)
• 20.04 LTS (time to upgrade)

Moving to "new" Dell Inspiron 3647, running on i3-4170. It has a lot of what I want:

• 220W psu
• 3 years newer and desktop (55W TDP)
• 2 SATA
• PCIe2.0 x16 x1

Upgrades:

• add power connector (splice)
• SATA
• currently looking at Sedna adapter that has heavily throttled (400/200 MBps R/W) but convenient at $30 https://www.newegg.com/sedna-model-se-pcie-ssd-sata6g-pci-express-to-sata-card/p/17Z-0001-00054
• iocrest has standard 2 SATA, but needs to add power connector (450/350) at $20 https://www.microcenter.com/product/383009/2-port_SATA_60Gb-s_PCIe_Controller_Card
• fill in x16

Work Performed

• moved 240GB SSD from old server to new, verified that it sits on 6G link
• secondary 1TB drive on 3G link, but HDD so slow
• checked via 'dmesg | grep -i sata | grep 'link up''
• shopping for hardware... and assessing if really necessary to have multiple 1TB drives available (better for reliability, but... so far not burned yet)

sfp+ ethernet

Introduction

This is getting 10GbE working on a relatively old computer

2020-W52-1

Setup

Asus 10G SFP+ NIC (XG-C100F)

Dell Inspiron 3647 (i3-4170) running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

Steps

1. download repository: https://github.com/Aquantia/AQtion
2. follow instructions per README
1. installed dkms per https://community.clearlinux.org/t/how-can-install-asus-10gb-ethernet-driver/4362/4
3. install ethtool
4. read out data

user@user-510-p136:~/AQtion-master$ ethtool enp1s0

Settings for enp1s0:

Supported ports: [ FIBRE ]

Supported link modes:   100baseT/Full 

                        1000baseT/Full 

                        10000baseT/Full 

                        2500baseT/Full 

                        5000baseT/Full 

Supported pause frame use: Symmetric Receive-only

Supports auto-negotiation: Yes

Supported FEC modes: Not reported

Advertised link modes:  100baseT/Full 

                        1000baseT/Full 

                        10000baseT/Full 

                        2500baseT/Full 

                        5000baseT/Full 

Advertised pause frame use: No

Advertised auto-negotiation: Yes

Advertised FEC modes: Not reported

Speed: Unknown!

Duplex: Unknown! (255)

Port: FIBRE

PHYAD: 0

Transceiver: internal

Auto-negotiation: on

Cannot get wake-on-lan settings: Operation not permitted

Current message level: 0x00000005 (5)

       drv link

Link detected: no

        5. update settings per https://phoenixnap.com/kb/ethtool-command-change-speed-duplex-ethernet-card-linux

user@user-510-p136:~$ sudo ethtool -s enp1s0 speed 10000 duplex full autoneg off

Notes:

1. originally instructed to download drivers from Asus website https://www.asus.com/Networking-IoT-Servers/Wired-Networking/All-series/XG-C100F/HelpDesk_Download/

but found that original drivers could never finish due to this error:

~/aquantia/Linux-200/aq_compat.h:101:12: error: ‘struct sk_buff’ has no member named ‘xmit_more’

  101 |  return skb->xmit_more;

2. originally thought that I was missing 10GbaseT, but it was just because I expected it to be in numerical sort, vs alphabetical sort. See highlight

Embedding Videos into Powerpoint

 From this article, we know that .pptx is pretty finicky:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/video-and-audio-file-formats-supported-in-powerpoint-d8b12450-26db-4c7b-a5c1-593d3418fb59

I prefer to keep things simple and not depend on having access to quicktime. Thus, .wmv it is.

This person found a way to trigger ffmpeg to output wmv:

https://walterebert.com/blog/creating-wmv-videos-with-ffmpeg/

>> ffmpeg -i intput.mp4 -b:v 2M -vcodec msmpeg4 -acodec wmav2 output.wmv

(don't know what all the flags do)

Seems to work reliably for what I need

Chromebook VPN

Update 2020-W50-1: haven't connected to PIA for several weeks now. May be dead. Using native client on a more modern platform and it works ok. Would like to have a linux computer that can be maintained off network another time.

Was 2020-W18-3:

On my CB3-131, had a lot of trouble getting PIA working. Hopefully this saves some people some time. This is the configuration I went with:

I pulled the relevant server hostname from : https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/network/
I used my username from the user portal and password from generated from portal.
I pulled the pre-shared key from : https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/windows7-l2tp which is currently mysafety

I could not get the certs to work with openVPN, could not get the certs to work with L2TP/cert. So I had to fill in the strings into the settings page manually.

RaspberryPi B+ in 2020 (Raspbian Wheezy)

Ran into major problems during upgrade. Shell output:

~ $ sudo apt-get update --fix-missingErr http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy Release.gpg  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No                                                       address associated with hostname)Ign http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy ReleaseHit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy Release.gpgIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy Release.gpgHit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy ReleaseErr http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy/rpi armhf Packages  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No                                                       address associated with hostname)Err http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy/rpi Translation-en_GB  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No                                                       address associated with hostname)Err http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy/rpi Translation-en  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No                                                       address associated with hostname)Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main armhf PackagesIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy ReleaseIgn http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-en_GBIgn http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-enErr http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main armhf Packages  404  Not FoundErr http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib armhf Packages  404  Not FoundErr http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free armhf Packages  404  Not FoundErr http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi armhf Packages  404  Not FoundIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-en_GBIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-enIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-en_GBIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-enIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-en_GBIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-enIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-en_GBIgn http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-enW: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/Release.gpg  So                                                      mething wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No addr                                                      ess associated with hostname)
W: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/rpi/binary-armh                                                      f/Packages  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http'                                                       (-5 - No address associated with hostname)
W: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/rpi/i18n/Transl                                                      ation-en_GB  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http                                                      ' (-5 - No address associated with hostname)
W: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/rpi/i18n/Transl                                                      ation-en  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (                                                      -5 - No address associated with hostname)
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/dists/wheezy/main                                                      /binary-armhf/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/dists/wheezy/cont                                                      rib/binary-armhf/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/dists/wheezy/non-                                                      free/binary-armhf/Packages  404  Not Found
W: Failed to fetch http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/dists/wheezy/rpi/                                                      binary-armhf/Packages  404  Not Found
E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used                                                       instead.

Found link on internet: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=262826#p1600295 to modify sources.list

sudo apt-get updateErr http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy Release.gpg  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname)Ign http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy ReleaseHit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy Release.gpgHit http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy Release.gpgHit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy ReleaseHit http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy ReleaseHit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main armhf PackagesHit http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/main armhf PackagesHit http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib armhf PackagesHit http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free armhf PackagesHit http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi armhf PackagesErr http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy/rpi armhf Packages  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname)Err http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy/rpi Translation-en_GB  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname)Err http://raspberrypi.collabora.com wheezy/rpi Translation-en  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname)Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-en_GBIgn http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-enIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-en_GBIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-enIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-en_GBIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-enIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-en_GBIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-enIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-en_GBIgn http://legacy.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-enW: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/Release.gpg  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname) W: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/rpi/binary-armhf/Packages  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname) W: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/rpi/i18n/Translation-en_GB  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname) W: Failed to fetch http://raspberrypi.collabora.com/dists/wheezy/rpi/i18n/Translation-en  Something wicked happened resolving 'raspberrypi.collabora.com:http' (-5 - No address associated with hostname) E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

It's getting better. Still a work in progress