Tech Talk on ABC Radio - Microsoft sorry about Windows 11

This week on ABC Radio's Nightlife program we discuss a recent post by Microsoft acknowledging a list of things that users complain about. They promise to address these in the year ahead. The complaints about Windows comes at a time when Apple CEO Tim Cook reports that, with the launch of the low cost MacBook Neo, Apple has seen the highest number of new users to macOS in the company's history. 

Continuing a trend in recent months, layoffs in tech firms are being blamed on AI being used to replace workers - but is that really the case or just an excuse to downsize?

Finally there are rumours that Amazon is having another go at a product in the mobile space. Code named "Transformer" it's likely to be an AI driven portable device. Inevitably something will replace the mobile phone but is this it?

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/microsoft-makes-a-slight-apology-for-windows-11/106492726

Tech Talk on ABC Radio - Apple goes low

This week on ABC Nightlife I spoke with Rod Quinn about Apple's new MacBook Neo, a sub-$1000 laptop that competes very well with Windows laptops in that price range. Apple has made some compromises but kept their quality standards up.

We discussed the US AI controversy where Antrhopic, makers of Claude, asked the Department of Defence to not use its products for widespread domestic suveillance or autonomous weapons. DOD would not agree to those limitations and has done a deal with OpenAI, who presumably are ok with that.

Finally, the ban on social media for Australians under 16 introduced in December seems to be spreading with Indonesia announcing they'll introduce it gradually from March. They join Denmark, France, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, the UK and Greece in either announcing or at least considering a ban.

Too early to know how effective it's been in Australia but we do see that VPNs are booming...

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/nightlife-tech-talk-with-peter-marks/106439260

FreeDV Sunday net - Good rollup, four states

The Russian FSK transmissions were very strong this morning which ruled out using 7045 so I parked the net on 7177 and didn't expect too many stations to find me but there was no problem. 

Stations heard: VK2AGU, VK2AWJ, VK2KNC, VK3GTP, VK3KEZ, VK3PCC, VK3PTR, VK3ZD, VK5AG, VK5KVA, VK7DMH, VK5ST, VK3CDH, VK2KO, VK5ST, VK2BLQ and me, VK3TPM.

A warm shout out to Joe VK3SRC who several stations credited with helping them with various aspects of getting FreeDV going nicely. Thanks Joe!

Also a shout out to Dave who's OpenWebRX+ is now decoding FreeDV RADEV1 over at Normanville.

FreeDV Sunday net - conducted with C client

I've been working on my C port of the FreeDV app's main functionality over recent weeks. It's really just a proof of concept but yesterday I got reporting to qso.freedv.org working which made it practical to run today's net. That feature, combined with a minimal implementation of Hamlib, just enough to read transceiver status and turn transmit on and off, has made the app quite usable.

The app worked smoothly and the following stations were seen: VK5RT, VK5LN, VK5LO, VK5KVA, VK5AG, VK5ABE, VK3ZUM, VK3XCI, VK3UBK, VK3PCC, VK3KEZ, VK3GTP, VK3CDH, VK3BAL, VK2KO, VK2DWG, VK2CJB, VK2BLQ, VK2AWY, VK2TTL and me, VK3TPM.

Tech Talk on ABC Radio - Software that kills and AI boom crashes tech stocks

This week on ABC Nightlife, I discuss the final removal of the truly evil UK Post Office Horizon software system that led to 13 suicides among innocent sub postmasters, job offers for the OpenClaw developer, and the latest video creation models that are rocking movie producers - or is it just an evolution of the Computer Generated Images we've had for decades. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/actors-to-be-sacked-for-ai/106382876

FreeDV Sunday net - a new record

A very well attended Sunday FreeDV net on 7045 this morning from 10:30 eastern time. Stations on frequency were: VK2AWJ, VK2BX, VK2UMZ, VK3BAL, VK3CDH, VK3DJB, VK3FC, VK3GTP, VK3ID, VK3KEZ, VK3PCC, VK3PTR, VK3SRC, VK5ABE, VK5AG, VK5KHZ, VK5KVA, VK5MH, VK7DMH, VK2KO, VK2KNC, VK2YW, VK2CJB and me VK3TPM. 24 stations!

 

Generating sideband to transmit on a HackRF

While working on my C port of FreeDV RADE1 I wanted a reliable radio signal to test with. While I have off air recordings from the FreeDV GUI app I thought it would be nice to generate my own files to transmit with the HackRF Portapack Mayhem which can record to C16 files and play them back. There's a TXT file with each recording that specifies the sample rate and output frequency.

I've made a python utility that can read a WAV file recording and produce C16 sideband. Here's how it sounds.

The code is pretty short so I've published it as a gist on GitHub.

The HackRF is a wonderful tool for radio experimentation. I'm using the standalone Mayhem but it works just as well from a computer via USB with hackrf_transfer.