Who are we?
Dr. Chris Zimmermann is a FOSS fanatic, communist (sometimes) and expert on esoteric software aspects how to configure Mail Transfer Agents while not carving in to insanity, troubleshoot computer networks without the use of recreational drugs and the advanced enjoyment of craft beverages. He mostly lives in Frankfurt, Germany. In contrast to Mr. Visser the size of his brain has a reverse correlation to the size of his head.
Martin Visser is a slightly less egocentric (actually far from egocentric) computer scientist and engineer, non-communist from Birmingham, UK. In contrast to Dr. Zimmermann, he has human interaction and social protocols down to a fine art.
Why another FOSS podcast?
For those who use any means of transport on a regular basis it is a great way to stimulate the brain.
Others have come before us, tried and failed to achieve this level.
What's in it for me?
Great entertainment
Invaluable tech tips helping with aspects of everday life including the proper recital of Vogon poetry in that worst-case scenario that Brexit finally shadows the Vogons’ landing and how to take care of the proper biological foundation for recreational drugs
A chance to feedback your comments. Glowing ones will be published, others ignored.
The opportunity to request expert knowledge and discussion on a topic of your choice!
What's in it for the Inlaws?
The impending fame and successful broadcasting careers (Martin’s vision) play a small part in this decision.
Which is of course totally overshadowed by the reason of world domination. Donations are encouraged. Ideally in liquid wheat brew format (of course rye, barley, spelt and other assorted grains go as well).
How to get up and running?
(this is how we do it, your mileage may vary)
- Pick an open source operating system of choice that features a decent package management system (unless you’re really technical and know what you’re doing) and is Posix-compliant. In this instance Ubuntu 19.10 was the preferred candidate
- Don't worry about Mumble. Many have tried, most have failed to use this piece of
software for synchronous podcast recording
- Get some really cool music licensed under CC-BY(-SA) from places like Jamendo
- Install a Synapse server on a publicly accessible server and use Riot-Web as a front-end for this instance
- Get Audacity and tty-clock (if you really want to accurate synchronise your system clock with an NTP server)
- Using Audacity and tty-clock, record your friendly podcast locally using Riot-Web's audio call feature to synchronise the hosts and guests
- For the post-production, simply mix the individual streams together and edit to your
heart's content.
- Stick to mono when producing the final ogg or mp3 file, adding music and other content as appropriate
- Upload the audio file to HPR
- Create associated website using some cool HTML/CSS framework
- Watch it go viral (the important bit!)
The kit?
- One home server running Ubuntu 19.10 with mumble-server and Synapse (a reference implementation) of the federated protocol known as Matrix for comms
- One cheap bit of kit running somewhere in Germany at a snails pace (Martin’s opinion before the D-Wave upgrade - little did he know :-)) => much patience is required attempting to use this
- Two laptops for remote access, running a Murmur client (typically Mumble itself), Audacity and various text editors in addition to riot-web or another Matrix / Synapse client
- One MPow USB headset and one interim Logitech 2 Pro (thank you MPow for the countless hours of debugging x-talk issues - we learned a lot! :-)
The Episodes
All episodes are hosted on the Internet Archive.
The following only represents the last ten episodes, you find the
full backcatalog of all episodes released so far here.
- S01E93: A blatant act of shameless self-promotion
In this episode, Martin and Chris host Shea, a long-time listener and first-time caller :-). In contrast to what you may believe listening to this episode, marketing had NO play whatsoever in bringing Shea on air and any of his opinions about the show, Linux in particular, the world in general - you get the idea - are entirely his and are not sponsored by the Inlaws in any way.
Want to get on the show as well? Simply top Shea's amount of feedback emails (currently clocking in at approximately 25,000) and an episode is yours. But before getting any ideas like letting a bot do all of the hard work of sending these mails: We will spot the difference, so only genuine, hand-written (on a keyboard :-) emails will be considered.
Links:
- S01E92: LATEX without bondage
IN this episode Martin and Chris host Uwe Ziegenhagen, a veteran of the LaTeX community. For our younger hipster audience, LaTeX has been the typesetting system of choice for generations of scientists publishing their work far beyond the realm of computer science (as a matter of fact, Chris' first two books were produced using this software). Plus more on one of Martin's dirty little secrets (hint: it concerns Netflix lesser known sides). Plus a trip down memory lane for Chris. So if you're interested in computer-aided typesetting or want to know more about Martin's secrets or Chris' past, this is your show!
Links:
- S01E91: FLOSS and software testing
In this episode our two ageing heroes discuss the wonderful and mysterious art of software quality with a special focus on testing. Ever wondered why this bleeding piece of code you just wrote doesn't do what it's supposed to or what to do if faced with somebody else's messy code and are tasked to check it out? Then this episode is definitely for you!
Links:
- S01E90: MongoDB (with a slight marketing angle :-)
This episode features Joe Drumgoole, head of developer relations at MongoDB (at the time of the recording). MongoDB of course being one of the document databases in the NoSQL space. So if you're interested in what this NoSQL hype is all about anyway or want to catch up on the latest shenanigans at MongoDB, this is an episode not to be missed. Full disclosure: This episode does contain some marketing angles and a few somewhat biased views on technologies which some of our listeners may find discomforting (or which others may find particularly enjoyable). Anyway, you have been warned :-). Plus: Details on how to cook salmon with fruit juice and liquorice.
Links:
- S01E89: FLOSS and relationships (marriage counselling special)
In this episode, Martin and Chris discuss the relationship between relationships and FLOSS. Given the apparent similarities between these two areas regarding problem solving, escalations, etc. many tried and tested approaches are examined and evaluated in a relationship context. So if you are just after going through a break-up and wondered what the heck went wrong, plan to engage in a romantic liaison or are in the thick of it, this show is definitively for you. Plus: How to save on relationship counselling (by listening to this episode of course :-).
Links:
- S01E88: The Rust Foundation
In this episode Martin and Chris host Rebecca Rumbul, CEO of the Rust Foundation. Rust, as probably many of our three listeners (who haven't been living under rocks, boulders and similar scree for the last couple of years) know has been quite the hot thing for some time now in the industry with major players such as Mozilla Foundation, Microsoft, Meta and Google to name but a few pouring significant investments in this technology (it also made into the Linux kernel but more on that in the show). So if you ever wondered what the fuzz is all about, you don't want to miss this episode.
Links:
- S01E87: Open Source Hardware
In this episode Martin and Chris take a trip down memory lane and explore the origins of reduced instruction set computers, the little buggers that - for example - power most of today's smartphone on the planet. But this is merely an intro to todays's topic, the RISC-V processor architecture purely built on FLOSS principals. So if you're interested in open source hardware and how to participate in this exciting new approach to community-designed and -built hardware, don't miss this episode.
Links:
- S01E86: An episode with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation
In this episode, Martin and Chris are excited to host Taylor Dolezal from the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). The CNCF is home to some tiny, lesser known (:-) projects such as Kubernetes, Prometheus and Containerd to name but a few. So if you're keen to know more about these important projects never mind the CNCF you don't want to miss this episode.
Links:
- S01E85: FLOSS and Offensive Security
Getting more and concerned about the security of your kit (read: infrastructure)? Fret not, as usual the Inlaws got you covered. In this episode, Martin and Chris discuss FLOSS tools for offensive security, i.e. software that you can use to assess the level of vulnerability of your system before the bad guys do the very same. And you make headline news - but not in a good way...
Links:
- S01E84: Thoughts on FLOSS
In this episode, the Inlaws talk to Juliette Reinders-Folmer and Elena Kolevska about FLOSS funding, commercial and contribution models. Never mind diversity, community culture and other topics normally not in the focus of the community on a daily basis.
Links:
All content licensed under 
The DarkSide Tech Support (DSTS)
The DSTS is loosely inspired by the Bastard Operator From Hell,
where a somewhat misguided support specialist tends to break all hell loose on innocent callers who expect help
and guidance on various computer problems. In contrast to this purely fictional prototype, the DSTS deals with
real-world problems such as rewriting history aided by computers, how American presidents tackle virus issues and
how an ancient Egyptian pharaoh tries to remedy the seven plagues inflicted on his empire by talking to God herself.
More episodes in the making - stay tuned!
Similar to other parts of the show, DSTS welcomes listeners' suggestion about topics they would like
to see covered. So if you have a plague you cannot get rid of or need divine intervention otherwise, don't
hesitate to send us a mail.
Contact
Joking aside, we do appreciate feedback. So please email us at feedback@linuxinlaws.eu
Or talk to us at various open source events!
