Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[merlot56]

Hi, I'm a poet, writer and podcaster in LA, and I fix and maintain computers part time. I'm new to the forums, but I've been playing around with Puppy since version 2. I liked the Live CDs, but I had to go 'all in' with it right before Xmas when my main PC (PIII running Win 2000) developed motherboard problems. I have an older backup PIII, but it wouldn't boot my HD. Crap!

Luckily, I had Puppy 4 on live disk, so I managed to access the HD files through Puppy. Also kept me online as I performed voodoo on the motherboard. Saved my ass.

So, once the windows box was back up, I went ahead and installed 4.1.2 on a spare hard drive for a rainy day, and sure enough, a few days ago it rained hard enough to wash all my voodoo away.

So now, I'm back on the older PIII, running Puppy, with the Win. HD as a mountable drive on the desktop. I'm going about the current adventure of customizing Puppy and learning Wine so that I can use my Win-based podcasting software to put out my shows. As a backup, I'm also going to try Audacity, just in case...

Ok, my podcasts are "Sundown Lounge" - music, spoken word, etc., with a progressive attitude, and "Banjo Strings" - Erotic Horror / Science Fiction / Neo Southern Gothic dark fable, a novel-in-progress, in audio and written formats. Production is on hiatus until me and Puppy both learn a couple tricks...

[Caneri]

I'll take the erotic..without the horror...reminds me of my younger days waking up in the morning after a night out.

Welcome to the kennels..what's your links to listen?

Eric

[merlot56]

For both podcasts, there is a streaming player on the podpage, or you can check out the feed...


Sundown Lounge:

A laid back (and often explicit, you bet your ass...) weekly podzine of music, spoken word, progressive politics, weird science, and occasional etc.

Podpage, Feed




Banjo Strings:

An epic and graphic tale of antebellum ghosts, supernatural spies, and a den of iniquity amid the Red Maple and Magnolia trees. For mature audiences.

Podpage, Feed

[merlot56]

Ok, I've had time to try out Firefox 3 in Puppy 4.1.2, without, and with, Wine. Without, FF3 is slow and a little clunky on my setup (I preferred using Bon Echo). With Wine, FF3 is fast, smooth, and handles my extensions and add-ons really well.

I'm not casting aspersions on Puppy; I didn't like FF3 at all when it first came out, sticking with my very-customized FF2 until the upgrades were released.

Anyway, I've added much of the same tools here that my FF3 has in Windows, with the execption of the Windows Media Player plug-in, which doesn't work yet, so no streaming video, though I can get streaming audio and YouTube and Shockwave just fine.

One other thing FF3 does is refuse to minimize when you try to shrink the window. I just open it in the second 'desktop' now.

As for SeaMonkey, I primarily use that browser for Puppy-only stuff, like this forum topic. My e-mail is mostly web-based as well.

I don't use Internet Explorer unless I absolutely have to, and only at work.

[Caneri]

Hey merlot56,

I'm just listening to show #170

I like the podcast...I'll keep listening.

To the forum...this is NOT a family channel.

Thanks,
Eric

[merlot56]

Uh, yeah. Let me state clearly:

Sundown Lounge is rated PG-13 and up.

"Banjo Strings" is full of explicit sex, voodoo, and violence, which is pretty apparent by ch. 2.


Hey, glad you like the show, BTW.

[merlot56]

So, I tried to install Audacity directly to Linux, but I couldn't get the OpenSUSE version to work and didn't find a Slackware version, so I went ahead and installed the Windows version, along with Lame, into Wine. It sounds fine running through my old Sound Blaster Live card, and it took me less than five minutes to test edit a vocal sample.

It came out well enough to ease my anxiety about getting my regular apps working. Cool.

[bugman]

[Caneri]

Hey #169...the opening reminds me of Firesign theater.

Oh my..Nick Danger is coming back to me now...ty

Eric

[merlot56]

Thanks bugman. I took your advice and looked up Audacity 1.3.6, found the forum topic and read the whole thread. And what a fun tale it was, of the great time some have had tinkering with the app since its release. Cool.

Audacity on Wine had all the plug-ins working just fine, from the start, on this old box I'm using, which is all I want in a backup. And hey, I'm on a mission here - I have a weekly podcast to put out and I've already missed one week. So, for expediency, this whole week will be spent either tinkering with my regular audio production apps, or eptifying* myself on Audacity. One way or another, I'm going back into production next week.

Once I'm up and running again, I'll investigate the pup versions, because I don't intend on just running Windows apps on Puppy; hell, dumping Windoze entirely is an ultimate goal for me


(* eptify - from 'EPT,' Education for Particular Tasks, term stolen from John Brunner's novel "Stand on Zanzibar")

[merlot56]

Ok, I've managed to get one of my regular apps working from my mounted Windows drive as well as on Wine, but the other app will only open in demo mode on both Wine and Windows; the damn thing won't take its serial number anymore. WTF!!

Since that one's my multi-track app, and is a too-old-to-repurchase version, this is a glitch tinkering won't fix, so, gotta move on.

Anyway, this morning I looked at other multi-track audio recording apps strictly for Puppy, and some I installed to test - Ardour, SLab, ProTux, I'm looking at Traverso right now, and I'm gonna try Jokosher tonight. There are many more apps, some in better shape than others, but one of them might be a good fit.

[merlot56]

Ok, after fooling around with those other Linux apps (that each came with a long list of extras to install and tweak), I either didn't like the sound quality or found the interface too fussy or the damn thing would jam up my ALSA sound driver, so I'm gonna stick with Audacity for now, since it demonstrated the shortest learning curve in 'set up and go.'

So much for having a backup. Oh well, moving on, which in this case means attempting a test production of 'Sundown Lounge.' If it comes out ok, I'll post it here.

[Lobster]

[merlot56]

Ok, I'm taking a short break to note that I've collected the music, rounded up some science news, and I'm writing the show script now for the test production, show 170p, 'The Pod Puppy Acid Test.'

One item I wanted for the test was an audio sample of Barry Kauler. I spent over a day searching online with no luck, so instead I open the show with Linus Torvalds (yes, I know about the 'pawedcast' Lobster does. I even have one of his 'casts from 2005, no. 14 to be exact, but I don't want to be accused of buttering up a moderator).

Anyway, I should have the show ready tomorrow, fingers crossed.

[merlot56]

Ok, the show is up and playing, the podzine pages are updated, and I already have over a dozen hits (that's a surprise; Sunday night is usually very slow, 'net traffic wise...)

My immedate impression of the process is that Audacity will take some getting used to, but it worked ok. The equalizer gave me a little trouble, but not as much as Gxine; the vocal track had some distortion I couldn't work out. Actually, Gxine plays my previous shows a little distorted as well. I'll need to check another MP3 player...

I'm not ready to resume full production yet, but I'm getting there.