Hacker Public Radio

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host. A two-part conversation about what it’s really like being a woman in tech for almost three decades. Content Warning: The F word probably makes an appearance multiple times. In this episode, Lee sits down with Elsbeth to talk about her long, winding, sometimes ridiculous, often inspiring journey through the IT industry — starting all the way back in 1997. If you’ve ever worked helpdesk, ever had a customer say “my cup holder broke” (yes, the CD tray)… or ever felt underestimated in a room full of engineers, this one’s for you. Because we throw around some tech terms in the conversation, here are a few friendly definitions so everyone can follow along. Terms We Mentioned (in plain English) QA (Quality Assurance) Think of QA as the people who try to break things on purpose so regular users don’t break them accidentally . They test software, hardware, websites — you name it — to catch bugs before they cause chaos. If it’s glitch-free, a QA person probably saved the day behind the scenes. Content Moderation This is the work of keeping the internet from turning into the Wild West. Moderators review posts, comments, images, and videos to make sure they follow community rules and don’t harm users. It’s a mix of tech tools and human judgment — and yes, it can get intense. Building PCs Where many IT careers start! Building PCs is basically grown-up Lego: picking parts assembling them hoping you don’t zap anything with static electricity praying the cable management gods smile upon you It’s one of the most empowering skills in tech and often the first time someone realizes, “Oh hey… I can actually do this.” Gender Equality & Inequality Gender equality means giving everyone the same chance to succeed — no matter who they are. Gender inequality is what happens when that doesn’t happen. In tech, inequality often looks like: being talked over being paid less being assumed “non-technical” having to prove yourself twice as hard being the only woman in a room… again Elsbeth has seen all of this firsthand since 1997 — and she’s got stories. End-User The end-user is simply the person who actually uses the product. Not the engineer who built it. Not the manager who approved it. Not the QA who tested it. The end-user is the human at the end of the chain who clicks the button, pushes the key, taps the app… and finds entirely new ways to break things no one expected. Understanding them is the secret superpower of tech. Neurodivergence Neurodivergence means brains come in many beautiful varieties — like ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and more. Neurodivergent people often bring incredible strengths to IT, including creativity, pattern spotting, hyperfocus, and out-of-the-box problem solving. They can also face misunderstandings in workplaces that weren’t designed with different brains in mind — something Elsbeth talks about openly and honestly in this episode. Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Below are some links to help you find related software and resources: Beginner-Friendly Distros https://linuxmint.com https://ubuntu.com https://fedoraproject.org https://pop.system76.com Help & Community Linux Questions — https://www.linuxquestions.org Reddit r/linux4noobs — https://www.reddit.com/r/linux4noobs Stack Exchange Unix/Linux — https://unix.stackexchange.com Ask Fedora — https://ask.fedoraproject.org Ubuntu Forums — https://ubuntuforums.org Local & Live Community https://www.linux.org/forums/ https://freegeek.org/ https://mastodon.social https://fosstodon.org Software Alternatives GIMP (image editing) — https://www.gimp.org Krita (digital painting) — https://krita.org Inkscape (vector graphics) — https://inkscape.org Blender (3D modeling & animation) — https://blender.org LibreOffice (office suite) — https://libreoffice.org Ardour (audio workstation) — https://ardour.org LMMS (music production) — https://lmms.io Kdenlive (video editing) — https://kdenlive.org Linux Gaming Steam for Linux — https://store.steampowered.com ProtonDB compatibility reports — https://www.protondb.com Lutris game launcher — https://lutris.net Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Show Notes System Monitoring & Metrics Prometheus Open-source monitoring and alerting toolkit for collecting and storing metrics. Documentation : https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/installation/ Prometheus Node Exporter Hardware and OS metrics exporter for Prometheus. Guide : https://prometheus.io/docs/guides/node-exporter/ Grafana Open-source analytics and visualization platform for monitoring metrics. Docker Installation : https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/installation/docker/ Featured Grafana Dashboards Power Information Dashboard : https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/12542-power-information/ Node Exporter Full : https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards/1860-node-exporter-full/ Power Management & Battery Tools TLP Advanced power management tool for Linux that optimizes battery life. Installation Guide : https://linrunner.de/tlp/installation/index.html Battery Uptime Timer Script Custom script for monitoring battery usage and uptime. GitHub Repository : https://github.com/mralc/Battery-uptime-timer Setting Battery Charge Threshold Limit battery charge to extend battery lifespan: echo 90 | sudo tee /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_stop_threshold Note: Adjust the value (90%) and BAT0 according to your system. Caffeine Prevents your system from going to sleep or activating the screensaver. Project Page : https://launchpad.net/caffeine Backup & File Sharing LocalSend Open-source cross-platform alternative to AirDrop for sharing files locally. Website : https://localsend.org/ Déjà Dup Simple backup tool for GNOME desktop environment. GNOME Apps : https://apps.gnome.org/en-GB/DejaDup/ FOX Clone System backup and cloning tool for Linux. SourceForge : https://sourceforge.net/projects/foxclone/ Terminal Utilities Tmux Terminal multiplexer that allows multiple terminal sessions within a single window. GitHub Wiki : https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. Links Kawai K4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawai_K4 Kawai K4 Battery Replacement (Japanese): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux3y2ClgP1I Neal Beard and his Machines - Kawai Battery Replacement: https://nealbeardahm.blogspot.com/2012/10/kawai-battery-replacement.html Kawai K4r: Rack-mount module version of the K4 Kawai Downloads Page: https://kawaius.com/downloads/ Standard MIDI Files (SMF): https://midi.org/standard-midi-files MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx) Messages Explained: https://blog.landr.com/midi-sysex/ amidi(1): https://linux.die.net/man/1/amidi Syntaur Keyboard Parts & Accessories: https://syntaur.com/ Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 Introduction This episode is the second in an 8 part series on nuclear reactor technology. This episode will cover types of nuclear fuel, recycling of nuclear fuel, uranium and thorium resources, and medical isotopes. 03 Types of Nuclear Fuel 03 Natural Uranium 04 Enriched Uranium 05 Mixed Oxide Fuel, or MOX 06 Thorium Fuel 08 Plutonium in Uranium Cycle Reactors 09 Depleted Uranium 10 Oxide or Ceramic versus Metallic Fuel 12 Recycling Spent Fuel 13 Once Through Fuel Cycles 14 Reprocessing Spent Uranium Fuel into Mixed Oxide or MOX Fuel 16 Reprocessing and Thorium Fuel 17 Direct Reuse of Spent Light Water Fuel in Heavy Water Moderated Reactors 18 DUPIC - Direct Use of Used PWR Fuel in CANDU 20 RepU - Reprocessed Uranium Fuel in CANDU 21 Uranium and Thorium Resources 21 Uranium Mining 22 Uranium in Sea Water 23 Thorium 24 Medical Isotopes 25 Examples of Common Medical Isotopes 26 How Medical Isotopes are Made 27 Producing Isotopes in Research Reactors 29 Producing Isotopes in Power Reactors 31 Summary The basis of nuclear fission is nuclear fuel. There are three main types of nuclear fuel in commercial use today. These are natural uranium, enriched uranium, and mixed oxide or MOX uranium-plutonium mixtures. It is possible to use thorium in a sort of thorium-plutonium or thorium-uranium MOX fuel, but this not currently economically viable at this time when uranium is so cheap and abundant. Spent fuel can be recycled and used in a reactor again. Medical isotopes are an important byproduct of the nuclear industry, and a large share of the world's population has benefited from this at one time or another. 32 Conclusion In the next episode I will describe the basic features and characteristics of reactors together with descriptions of the most widely used commercial reactor types. This concludes the second episode of an 8 part series on nuclear reactor technology. Provide feedback on this episode.