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Cyberpunk Librarian – Episode 56 – The FOSSiL Projects
Cyberpunk Librarian

 
 
00:00 / 37:27
 
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The Cyberpunk Librarian is back and he’s talking about software… His own software! Join Dan for a look at The FOSSiL Projects and discover what he’s been working on for the past couple of months! And hey, maybe there’s something in the Projects that can help make your library life just a little easier!

YouTube

Listen to this episode on YouTube.

Links

  • iAWriter – My writing app of choice on the iPad.
  • The FOSSiL Projects – Free and Open Source Solutions in Libraries. The primary website for information about the projects.
  • FOSSiL Projects on GitLab – The FOSSiL Projects repos on GitLab.
  • CargoCult Demo – Try this thing for yourself!
  • PHP – Write some code, find some frustrations.
  • Python – A better brand of misery.
  • MariaDB – It’s MySQL, without Oracle.
  • Ubuntu MATE – It’s so… green!
  • WordPress – Sure, there are other CMS solutions, but this is the one I like.
  • GitLab – Host your code in an versioning system that’s 100% open source.
  • Download GitLab – Host your code in your own hosted versioning system.
  • GOGS – Simple, easy to use, git style versioning system. Works pretty much everywhere.
  • VirtualBox – Run virtual Linux servers using open source virtualization software. It’s VMware, with Oracle.

Music

Sounds

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A row of stalls in the bathroom.

A rare look inside the data centre for an online advertising network.

I consume a tonne of online content every day.

That shouldn’t surprise anyone. I’m sure many of you reading this do too. Hey, you’re having a look at this post, so I assume you’ve read other things before this and that you’ll click on something afterwards. I seriously appreciate you taking a few minutes to read my drivel and I appreciate others who share their thoughts, creativity, journalism, and work on the web.

But I’m blocking your ads, and I’m sorry.

Continue reading

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Music is, oddly enough, an incredibly important part of the shows, or at least it is for me. I say that it’s odd because, well, these are shows about libraries, technology, cyberpunk, Generation X, and librarians in space. Sure, lots of podcast have music breaks or a musical intro or outro. But for me, the music is just as important as the subject matter. I’ll go through dozens of songs, making notes, trying to find ones for the show I’m working on or a show that I have in the pipeline. All for some twenty to thirty second bumpers between sections and maybe a little something for the episode’s conclusion.

It might be because I’m a musician.

Carl Sagan

This guy changed my life…

I remember becoming fully aware of music as a thing when I was five years old. I was sitting on the floor of my parents house watching PBS. Not because I was a precocious, bright little child who showed an early love of learning. No, I just knew that if I watched PBS long enough, then I would get to see Muppets. That’s it. I had no concept of channel schedules, or that certain shows came on a certain times. PBS showed Muppets on the regular, so I’m watching PBS… can’t miss the Muppets. And one night, another show came on. There were no Muppets, not a single one.

Vangelis

But not as much as this guy changed my life.

But there was space, and spaceships. There were stars. There was a guy who invoked a groove like a scientific Mr. Rogers. And there was music. Fantastic, wonderful music like I’d never heard before. The show was an episode in the award winning documentary series, Cosmos. It was hosted by Carl Sagan and featured the music of Vangelis.

Decades later, I compose, record, and listen to a lot of space music.

I include a lot of it in the show which also features downtempo, chill-out, chiptunes, and the occasional composition by me. A while back a listener wrote in asking if I had my own music available somewhere for listening and downloading, or if I had a catalogue of the music I’ve used on the podcasts. At the time, I didn’t.

But I do now. I’ve compiled a selection of tracks that I’ve recorded over the years, along with all of the albums I’ve recorded. I’m warning you, some of these sound rough, man. Because the earlier stuff involved me trying to figure out how to plug a Yamaha keyboard into a computer and trick both the computer and the keyboard into recording multi-track audio.

And then there’s the list of music that’s appeared on every episode of every podcast. I’ve even alphabetized it because, you know, I’m a librarian or something. Alphabetizing lists is something librarians do.

So sit back, click, listen, and enjoy.

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Cyberpunk Librarian – Episode 55 – At Odds With Odds and Ends
Cyberpunk Librarian

 
 
00:00 / 44:19
 
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Holy crap! Cyberpunk Librarian is back! On this episode, Dan talks about the projects that have been holding up the show and what’s going on in his life. It’s a conversation over coffee with your friendly neighbourhood Cyberpunk Librarian!

YouTube

Listen to the show on YouTube.

Links

Blogging

Facebook Is a Garbage Fire

RSS Readers

  • QuiteRSS — Free, open source RSS reader for Linux, Windows, and macOS
  • Reeder and Unread – Inexpensive RSS readers for iOS
  • Reeder — Inexpensive RSS reader for macOS
  • Flym and Read – RSS readers for Android
  • Brief – A free, open source RSS reader for Firefox – WebExtensions and Firefox 56+ compatible
  • FeedBin and Feedly – RSS readers on the web – Premium, but inexpensive services that sync across devices

Ambient and Space Music

Organisation

  • Kanban – Wikipedia
  • Ōno Taiichi – Creator of kanban
  • Trello – A freemium kanban system for tracking projects.
  • Projects – A public Trello board so you can see what Dan is doing these days

Python Projects

BBS

  • BBS – A fantastic documentary from Jason Scott, the archivist behind textfiles.com
    • Watch the BBS documentary series on YouTube
  • Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It – A fantastic podcast about technology, history, people, and getting out of debt
  • Mystic BBS – A pretty sweet BBS package for macOS, Windows, and Linux
  • SynchroNet – A pretty sweet BBS package for Windows and Linux
  • WWIV – A classic bit of BBS kit that I ran back in my teenage years
  • VirtualBox – Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows and runs virtual machines with ease
  • SyncTerm – An excellent terminal emulator that invokes the old days of dial up
  • Qodem – A clone of the classic Qmodem terminal emulator

Music

Sounds