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Comment #1 posted on 2026-10-02 16:15:38 by Dave Morriss

Understanding IPA

No, not India Pale Ale unfortunately, the International Phonetic Alphabet.

When reading comments for show hpr4724, the question arose of how to pronounce "Märzen". The IPA for this word is [ˈmɛʁt͡sn̩], but if you are like me, this is largely meaningless. However, a few years ago I found a website that can pronounce IPA sequences for you.

I recorded a show about this (and some other stuff), which is at https://hackerpublicradio.org/eps/hpr4002. You don't even have to listen to the audio, the show notes explain how to use the reader, which you can find at https://ipa-reader.com/.

Comment #2 posted on 2026-10-06 05:12:41 by Whiskeyjack

systemd

One of the Community News presenters suggested that a listener make a series on systemd. I concur that this would make for an excellent series, as it is something that I would like to learn more about.

As I have done several series on other topics, I would like to offer a bit of advice on making series as opposed to single episodes. I have already covered this in my series on simple podcasting, but I think I can make a couple of simple points here.

The important things for the person doing this series are:

a) Set a very rough target length for each episode. If you find yourself going over that length by very much, that probably means you need to split it into separate episodes. I would suggest a target of about 15 to 20 minutes per episode.

b) Write down a list of major headings on subjects to be discussed. The Community News presenter gave a very good list that can provide a starting point.

When you have your list of topics, start filling in the details and expanding on each one. When any one topic starts getting too long, then split it up and make two or more topics out of it. I suspect that you could do at least 8 to 10 episodes on this subject even just covering it lightly.

Once you start writing things down, you will begin to feel more confidence about being able to actually do it.

c) We are interested in what you have to say, and the rest of us are all amateurs at podcasting as well.

Comment #3 posted on 2026-10-06 04:40:31 by Whiskeyjack

Dave Morris on fix_tags

I found the email from Dave Morris about ID3 tags which was read out by you to be very fascinating.

Although I did an episode about ID3 tags and Vorbis comments, I suspect that he knows far more about them than I do.

I think it would very fascinating if he were to record an episode on this subject, including about the "fix-tags" program. In fact I suspect it would take several episodes to do the topic justice.

I am looking forward to hearing his series on this topic.

Comment #4 posted on 2026-10-06 04:33:28 by Whiskeyjack

PLCs versus MIcrocontrollers

When commenting on hpr4718 :: Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 2 A brief overview of industrial control systems, one of the Community news presenters mistakenly referred to PLCs as "microcontrollers".

I don't believe that I have ever referred to PLCs as microcontrollers. Microcontrollers are in fact something quite a bit different. They are microprocessors with additional functions, including I/O, built in. They are often referred to these days as an "SOC", or "System On Chip".

PLCs are a complete system built out of many chips, using microprocessors, microcontrollers, and in the early days sometimes included minicomputer chips known as "bit slice processors".

ARM seems to have eaten up most of the microcontroller chip market these days. However, at one time there were a great many different microcontrollers on the market, with Intel being one of the biggest vendors, especially with their 8032 series.

Comment #5 posted on 2026-10-06 04:12:38 by Whiskeyjack

Background noise in HPR4723

One of the comments read out mentioned background noise in a friedcamp interview.

Personally I thought the audio was just fine, given that it was recorded in an open air venue in a crowd. I could make out what was being said quite clearly. As I was myself listening to it in a noisy environment, I didn't see the additional background noise as being a problem.

If the person who commented, "cli", knows how to get better audio under those circumstances, then I think the subject would be of great interest to the rest of us and definitely worth sending in an episode about.

Comment #6 posted on 2026-10-06 06:06:16 by candycanearter07

good episode

i enjoy getting a recap/skim over everything that happened since i often miss/skip a handful of shows.

also i am Not going to touch balatro for a while after some Community Situations so i need to find a new game to maybe make an episode about... i guess i can always pick a random game from my steam lib and try and make one on that lol

Comment #7 posted on 2026-10-07 04:15:42 by candycanearter07

re: Dave Morris on fix_tags

im also interested in hearing about fix_tags! i didnt fully understand the explanation in the episode and having it expanded more would be cool

Comment #8 posted on 2026-10-07 20:21:09 by archer72

Re: 8032 series microcontrollers

Hi WhiskeyJack,

Are you volunteering a series on the 8032 and following? Because that would definitely be of interest to myself and other hackers. ?

Archer72

Comment #9 posted on 2026-10-09 01:47:38 by Whiskeyjack

Reply to archer72 on 8032 microcontrollers

I don't have practical experience programming the Intel 8032 microcontroller and so can't really do a podcast on it. However, I would bet that one of our listeners does and could do an episode for us.

A variant of the 8032 was the 8052AH Basic chip, which had a Basic interpreter burned into ROM right on the chip. This was used in some older PLCs, and I do have first hand experience with those.

If you post a comment requesting it on hpr4748 Programmable Logic Controls - Episode 5, which comes out on the 14th of October, or on any subsequent episode in the series, I will do a follow up episode on 8052AH Basic, including an interesting variant that most people probably don't know about. I mention Basic modules in hpr4748, but I don't go into any detail on them.

The 8052AH Basic chip was also widely used on a number of single board computers (SBCs) used in embedded systems, so it has relevance outside of just PLCs.

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