Podcast week : Hacker Public Radio. A geeks Smörgåsbord.
Dec 19
There is no way to summarise Hacker Public Radio in just one word. It isn’t even “one” podcast but an endless slew of individual podcast episodes by many many different hosts on a great variety of topics. All topics (mostly) center about hacking and technology … but sometimes there is just somebody on there who tells you what its like to stay in a mental institution as she suffers from schizophrenia. Not every show has top notch audio quality and some are a little chaotic .. But the awesome thing about HPR is that it is something DIFFERENT ever day. I feel like the proverbial Forrest Gump who points at his box of chocolates and is unable to correctly prophesize the content, texture and flavour of the next piece of chocolate. “You never know what you are gonna get” is exactly what sums up Hacker Public Radio. The only guarantees (except the speed of light) is that it is going to be related to technology and its going to be interesting.. And if not ? Skip a show and listen the next day.
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Free audiobooks and other strange stuff at the Internet Archive.
Nov 22
If there is one place you should check out for some interesting and crazy content , it has to be the internet archive. Now I know that ‘The archive’ is mostly known by many of you in the form of the “way back machine ” , a sort of time machine that stores old versions of websites. You can have a laugh looking at what yahoo.com looked like in 1994 , or even take a peek at Knightwise.com as it looked like 5 or 7 years ago. There is a lot of interesting stuff. Most of the content on the internet archive is stuff that no longer has any ‘intellectual rights’ tied to it. Meaning that the producers of the content are either dead, that the content is so old even their pet hamster is dead (and so there is no one left to state a claim) or that the creator of the content has donated the content to the public domain. (Like for example .. me !) So I know what you think : The internet archive is just filled with a load of old and useless crap ! .. But there you are wrong. Unlike the movie ‘A night at the museum’ , that still has me waking up screaming at night .. this ‘museum’ of content is filled with the strangest of things. We will tick off 5 interesting finds for you to take a peak at.
‘1984, by George Orwell‘. If you are in IT, Social Media, Management or … are a Biped alive in the 21st Century : This book is a must read. Social visionary Orwell describes a world of total control, zero privacy in a run down reality in 1984 ( Sounds like Myspace ! ) Why read if you can listen .. and why pay Audible some big bucks if you can download the audiobook for FREE
‘NYFD Radio communication on 9/11′ A truly chilling listen : The radio communication logs of the New York Fire department on 9/11. Hearing them go into action , hearing the sirens, the noise and the confusion gives you a chilling feeling that you are part of that day in history … A tribute to the heroic firefighters if there ever was one. A must listen.
‘Cosmos , War of the planets’ A terrible B-movie filled with overacting, poor costumes , horrible screenplay and hilariously stupid aliens. Forget “The Avengers” .. Watch THIS
‘Open Security Training” How about a screen recording of an online tutorial on security ? If you are on the Internet archive .. Why not take the time to learn.
‘Nbc Short Stories‘ Nothing more nostalgic then picking up old radioshows that are by now only consumable halfway on the other side of the galaxy. Their radiowaves have long departed , but you can still listen to them HERE.
So enjoy your little trip through the internet archive. Everything is free and there is no farting allowed in the reading room.
(Thanx to listener Lorddrachenblut for the 1984 tip)
