Hacker Public Radio

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1985, I started to work at a telecom equipment manufacturer. We
had a main frame computer in our combined office- and lab room. We
were four sitting in the room and it was this one terminal for all
of us and maybe even for someone more.


Downstairs, we at component technology department had our big
climate controlled laboratories. I used an HP 85 computer
having the Basic programming language to automize measurements of
resistors. And there were several more of them for other
measurements of various electronic components. Also more advanced
computers were used in the labs and as I recall also with other
languages than Basic. I remember I learned briefly a bit about one
of those languages but have forgotten which one.


The secretary at the department could send Telex messages around
the world. We handed a hand written manuscript to her and she
typed it into the Telex
system. And she had a Xerox computer with big, at least the
8 inch floppy discs.


Not so many years later my manager got a Personal computer running
DOS and some years later it DOS computers also
to the staff. But also very early we had a Sun Unix station. And
for many years Unix became my daily driver at work.


Before I started to work, in school we had some education in Basic programming.
We were using the at least in Sweden very successful and good Luxor ABC 80
computer. At the end of my school time, my school got the top
notch ABC 800 with colour screen.

At home so I could get a chance to learn somewhat more about
computers and Basic programming in my own pace, I got a Zinclair ZX 80
computer, which I later upgraded to ZX 81.


One summer job when I was a student I was at Televerket,
the Swedish PTT. It meant that I visited numerous of exchange
stations. Many at the country side, some with very few subscribers
so I could hear the relay start when someone was making a call. At
bigger stations it was noise from relays all the time.


As I mentioned, after studies were completed I was working with
telecom equipment in particular for land line telephony. Not at
least I worked with components for the line cards, the card at the
telephone exchange that is facing towards the end user.


The book The_Cuckoo's_Egg is a hacker thriller based on a
true story that happened in the mid-1980's going on for a year. It
was written by the hunter shortly after.


Cliff Stoll describes Unix commands, which are similar to
Linux. He talks about passwords, about encryption and a lot more.
Many technical details he describes by using analogy with more
common non technical life examples.


A security hole in GNU-Emacs
software, a software still around today, plays a central
role in how the hacker could penetrate. To fix and update security
holes are very relevant today as well.


Many things in computers and technology have changed. But at the
same time very much of the problems are valid today although they
are somewhat different. And the way he describes technical details
for the non-technical reader are relevant also today, I believe.


At the same time as the book has many technical details, he also
describes the daily life at home, the left wing culture he
belonged to at the university, his long hair and the dress code he
belonged to. And the music. He also describes his contacts to
numerous authorities and frustration in those contacts. I am very
impressed of his analytical research approach, his persistence,
his skills and inventiveness including inventiveness of his girl
friend and others.


One take away for me is that he kept a detailed log book. It is an
important research tool. The log book together with the print outs
of exactly what the hacker did were core references for analyzing
and make conclusions, retract and change conclusions when new
information lead to that earlier assumptions were wrong.


He also wrote a technical paper about it before he wrote the book.
For those interested, there are several videos with him of later
date on various topics.
Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

Warning, this episode containers some spoilers for movies.

The following movies are in my cybersecurity movie library. The ones marked * are included in review in this episode.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *

AntiTrust (2001)

Blackhat (2015)

Blade Runner (1982)

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

Citizenfour (2015)

CSI: Cyber (2015)

Enemy of the State (1998)

Firewall (2006)

Gattaca (1997) *

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Hackers (1995) *

Heartbreakers (2001)

The Imitation Game (2014)

I, Robot (2004)

Johnny Mnemonic (1995)

Jurassic Park (1993) *

The KGB, the Computer and Me (1990) * - Youtube link

The Lives of Others (2006) *

Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix Reloaded (2003) *

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Minority Report (2002)

Mission: Impossible (1996) *

Mr. Robot (2015)

The Net (1995) *

The Net 2.0 (2006)

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Office Space (1999) *

Person of Interest (2011) *

Revolution OS (2001)

The Social Network (2010)

Sneakers (1992) *

Superman III (1983) *

Surrogates (2009)

Swordfish (2001)

Takedown (2000)

Tron (1982) *

WarGames (1983) *

Slashdot "Best Hacker movie" poll (August 2001):

https://slashdot.org/poll/683/best-hacker-flick

This episode contains short except clips from some of these movies used under free use for demonstration.

Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Explicit by the host.

New hosts

Welcome to our new hosts:

Jim DeVore,
Carmen-Lisandrette.

Last Month's Shows

Id
Day
Date
Title
Host

4544
Thu
2026-01-01
Uncommon Commands, Episode 2
Deltaray

4545
Fri
2026-01-02
YouTube Subscriptions 2025 #12
Ahuka

4546
Mon
2026-01-05
HPR Community News for December 2025
HPR Volunteers

4547
Tue
2026-01-06
Cheap Yellow Display Project Part 6: The speed and timing of Morse
Trey

4548
Wed
2026-01-07
YouTube Subscriptions 2025 #13
Ahuka

4549
Thu
2026-01-08
[deprecated] Pomodoro Task Tool (pomotask.sh)
candycanearter

4550
Fri
2026-01-09
Playing Civilization V, Part 7
Ahuka

4551
Mon
2026-01-12
“Elsbeth in IT: Since ’97” (Part 2)
Elsbeth

4552
Tue
2026-01-13
Printer Conspiracy
MrX

4553
Wed
2026-01-14
Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 4 Less Common Reactor Types
Whiskeyjack

4554
Thu
2026-01-15
How I do todo
Jim DeVore

4555
Fri
2026-01-16
HPR Beer Garden 8 - Belgian Christmas Ales
Kevie

4556
Mon
2026-01-19
Nitro man! RC Cars
operat0r

4557
Tue
2026-01-20
Why I prefer tar to zip
Klaatu

4558
Wed
2026-01-21
YouTube Subscriptions 2025 #14
Ahuka

4559
Thu
2026-01-22
Enkele off line vertaaltools
Ken Fallon

4560
Fri
2026-01-23
Arthur C. Clarke: Other Works, Part 2
Ahuka

4561
Mon
2026-01-26
A bit about Mission:Libre, a new project for 11-14 year olds in free software
Carmen-Lisandrette

4562
Tue
2026-01-27
Software development doesn't end until it's packaged
Klaatu

4563
Wed
2026-01-28
Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 5 Fast Reactors
Whiskeyjack

4564
Thu
2026-01-29
MakeMKV error
Archer72

4565
Fri
2026-01-30
HPR Beer Garden 9 - Barley Wine
Kevie

Comments this month

These are comments which have been made during the past month, either to shows released during the month or to past shows.
There are 20 comments in total.

Past shows

There are 6 comments on
5 previous shows:

hpr4313
(2025-02-12) "Why I made a 1-episode podcast about a war story"
by Antoine.

Comment 3:
Ken Fallon on 2026-01-23:
"Spammer"

hpr4424
(2025-07-17) "How I use Newsboat for Podcasts and Reddit"
by Archer72.

Comment 7:
Ken Fallon on 2026-01-03:
"Some podcast aggregators show ccdn.php as file name #321"

Comment 8:
Archer72 on 2026-01-05:
"Re: download-filename-format for HPR podcasts"

hpr4532
(2025-12-16) "Cheap Yellow Display Project Part 5: Graphical User Interface "
by Trey.

Comment 2:
Ken Fallon on 2026-01-10:
"Possible Graphics Library"

hpr4536
(2025-12-22) "Welcome to the Linux Community"
by Deltaray.

Comment 6:
Archer72 on 2026-01-05:
"Re: Good talk CliMagic"

hpr4543
(2025-12-31) "Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 3 Reactor Basics"
by Whiskeyjack.

Comment 2:
Kevin O'Brien on 2026-01-01:
"Really enjoying this series"

This month's shows

There are 14 comments on 9 of this month's shows:

hpr4546
(2026-01-05) "HPR Community News for December 2025"
by HPR Volunteers.

Comment 1:
Archer72 on 2026-01-06:
"Nuclear Reactor series"
Comment 2:
Henrik Hemrin on 2026-01-07:
"Linux"

hpr4551
(2026-01-12) "“Elsbeth in IT: Since ’97” (Part 2)"
by Elsbeth.

Comment 1:
operat0r on 2026-01-15:
"White Male"

hpr4552
(2026-01-13) "Printer Conspiracy"
by MrX.

Comment 1:
candycanearter07 on 2026-01-24:
"printer issues"

hpr4554
(2026-01-15) "How I do todo"
by Jim DeVore.

Comment 1:
brian-in-ohio on 2026-01-17:
"Welcome"
Comment 2:
candycanearter07 on 2026-01-24:
"good first show!"

hpr4555
(2026-01-16) "HPR Beer Garden 8 - Belgian Christmas Ales"
by Kevie.

Comment 1:
KarldaTech on 2026-01-16:
"Christmas Ale"

hpr4557
(2026-01-20) "Why I prefer tar to zip"
by Klaatu.

Comment 1:
candycanearter07 on 2026-01-20:
"interesting experiment"

hpr4559
(2026-01-22) "Enkele off line vertaaltools "
by Ken Fallon.

Comment 1:
ClaudioM on 2026-01-23:
"Just What I Needed!"
Comment 2:
mnw on 2026-01-26:
"Great Recommendations!"

hpr4561
(2026-01-26) "A bit about Mission:Libre, a new project for 11-14 year olds in free software"
by Carmen-Lisandrette.

Comment 1:
Henrik Hemrin on 2026-01-27:
"Happy to learn about the project"
Comment 2:
candycanearter07 on 2026-01-28:
"cool project"

hpr4563
(2026-01-28) "Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 5 Fast Reactors"
by Whiskeyjack.

Comment 1:
mnw on 2026-01-29:
"Great Series"
Comment 2:
Whiskeyjack on 2026-01-29:
"hpr4563 :: Nuclear Reactor Technology - Ep 5 Fast Reactors"

Mailing List discussions

Policy decisions surrounding HPR are taken by the community as a whole. This
discussion takes place on the Mailing List
which is open to all HPR listeners and contributors. The discussions are open
and available on the HPR server under Mailman.

The threaded discussions this month can be found here:

https://lists.hackerpublicradio.com/pipermail/hpr/2026-January/thread.html

Events Calendar

With the kind permission of LWN.net we are linking to
The LWN.net Community Calendar.

Quoting the site:

This is the LWN.net community event calendar, where we track
events of interest to people using and developing Linux and free software.
Clicking on individual events will take you to the appropriate web
page.
Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

With winter in full swing in the UK, Dave and Kevie continue their look at winter warmer ales with a review of a couple of British Barley Wine ales. Dave samples Ridgeway's
Criminally Bad Elf
whilst Kevie tries out a lmited release from Chiltern Brewery
Roger Bodger's Barley WIne.

Connect with the guys on Untappd:

Dave

Kevie

The intro sounds for the show are used from:

https://freesound.org/people/mixtus/sounds/329806/

https://freesound.org/people/j1987/sounds/123003/

https://freesound.org/people/greatsoundstube/sounds/628437/

Provide feedback on this episode.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host.

I am using MakeMKV version 1.18.2, the most updated version of the program

USB Blu-ray drive BD-MLT UJ240AS reads a DVD or Blu-ray disc correctly

Matshita

SATA Blu-ray drive BDDVDRW CH20L stalls with ad DVD or Blu-ray disc

Hewlett Packard

The disc does not stall with Handbrake

There is enough power, using an adapter that provides 12v

Before:

MakeMKV v1.18.1 linux(x64-release) stuck when launched

How do I download older versions?

MakeMKV old version repo

makemkv-bin-1.17.7.tar.gz 2024-05-15 16:29

makemkv-oss-1.17.7.tar.gz 2024-05-15 16:31

After:

Recorded with:

Zoom H1 Essential Microphone

Monitored with:

soundcore V20i open ear headphones

Provide feedback on this episode.