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 Hacker Public Radio
for now.
The following only represents the last ten episodes, you find the
full backcatalog of all episodes released so far here.
- S01E65: TerminusDB
As part of the effort of turning the planet's premier Rust marketing podcast into a full-blown NoSQL show, in this episode Chris hosts some of the key people behind a NoSQL database called TerminnusDB (Martin couldn't make it as he was firing, um, re-organising the Inlaw's marketing department once again). Luke (the CEO) and Gavin (CTO) of TerminusDB spill the beans on the history of the project, ontologies and why they still matter not only in a mobile-first world and why a website called DB Engines simply doesn't do the trick (putting it very diplomatically). Never mind the road ahead... (including quantum AI and some other fancy stuff - you heard it here first!). And also next week's lotto numbers (perhaps).
Shownotes:
- S01E64: Non-profits in the US: A closer look at 501(c)s
In this episode, Martin and Chris shed more light on the riveting subject of non-profit
and not-for-profit organisations especially in the US with a special focus on the all-
important topic of tax implications. Warning: Due to the fast-paced and gripping never
mind explicit natur of this topic, people with sleeping disabilities or who are easily startled
/ offended by graphic content should consult a member of the medical profession to ensure
that they are capable of handling this episode. You have been warned.
Shownotes:
- S01E63: John Hawley on kernel dot org and other shenanigans
In this episode Martin and Chris host John Hawley of kernel.org fame. The discussion
centers around Python, the royal British family and other FLOSS topics such as some break-away colonies
like the US, version control systems, wireless wikis and containers. Never mind Python. Did I mention Python? :-)
And perhaps VMware. Ever wondered why early versions of git just gobbled up your main memory? You may or may
not find the answer in this episode. Or its outtakes...
Shownotes:
- S01E64: Non-profits in the US: A closer look at 501(c)s
In this episode, Martin and Chris shed more light on the riveting subject of non-profit
and not-for-profit organisations especially in the US with a special focus on the all-
important topic of tax implications. Warning: Due to the fast-paced and gripping never
mind explicit natur of this topic, people with sleeping disabilities or who are easily startled
/ offended by graphic content should consult a member of the medical profession to ensure
that they are capable of handling this episode. You have been warned.
Shownotes:
- S01E63: John Hawley on kernel dot org and other shenanigans
In this episode Martin and Chris host John Hawley of kernel.org fame. The discussion
centers around Python, the royal British family and other FLOSS topics such as some break-away colonies
like the US, version control systems, wireless wikis and containers. Never mind Python. Did I mention Python? :-)
And perhaps VMware. Ever wondered why early versions of git just gobbled up your main memory? You may or may
not find the answer in this episode. Or its outtakes...
Shownotes:
- S01E62: HPRs inner workings
In this episode our two ageing heroes explore the inner workings of a podcast (or podcast hosting platform depending on your perspective) called Hack Public Radio. Yes, the platform that the Inlaws have been using since the very inception of this rapidly growing FLOSS podcast content. Wondering what the heck this episode is all about, why exactly Martin and Chris are talking about this now and the importance of statistics, lies and damned lies? Then just listen to this episode. You may also find out the difference between mere caching and content syndication. Never mind HPR's inner workings.
Shownotes:
- S01E61: 20 years in review
In this episode, Martin and Chris take a closer look at twenty years of Linux Inlaws
history. Why, you may ask, given the fact that this podcast has only been in existence
for roughly over two years, are we reviewing this history? The answer - of course - is
straight forward: by sheer coincidence our two heroes got hold of a future episode
which traveled back in time from the future. If you ever wondered about time-travel,
the paradoxes associated with this and what the next twenty years have in store not
just from a Linux Inlaws perspective, this episode is for you.
Shownotes:
- S01E60: The Job Interview
In this episode, the Linux Inlaws interview a potential new recruit :-) call Kris Jenkins, from Kafka, an Apache project implementing a scalable distributed event streaming platform (don't know what that is? Listen to the show! :-). A cautious warning: This episodecontains strong philosophical / political views, language and insights which may change your views on messaging systems in general and Kafka in particular. Two hints: Chris shares his view on what a database *really* is and Kris Jenkins tries hard to convince our two aging heroes that he's the man for the job (teaser: he decided to stay at his current position as a dev advocate at Confluent after all). Plus: More on love, death and robots. Interested in the details? Then don't miss this show!
Shownotes:
- S01E59: The Show with Red Pandas Mosaic Killers and Metal Corrosion
Shownotes:
In this episode, Martin and Chris interview Eric Rescorla, the CTO of Firefox at Mozilla. After
discussing the weather situation in the Kingdom formerly known as the UK, our two aging heros
go right into browsers, programming languages, the Mozilla ecosystem and internet history and future
alike. This episode again is not for the faint-hearted as none of the gory details are spared: We learn about Chris' t-shirt situation (and how you can kidnap apparel), why Google is so sucessful, data privacy and Internet monetization. Never mind rendering engines. Plus: more Rust marketing (Rebecca Rumbul: Take note :-).
- S01E58: Kubernetes and Friends and Sarah
In this continuation of S01E57 our two chaps discuss how you can take containers from
single instances to production-ready, scalable deployments handling large app stacks
and that new-fangled hipster concept called micro-services. Using the once Google-owned project called Borg which later evolved into something now known as Kubernetes (k8s) as an example,
Martin and Chris discuss typical challenges when using containers as the main infrastructure
to modern workloads. Including such gory topics such as what happens if a container dies and
doesn't go to heaven, contradictions in terms such as ephemeral storage and why many k8s developers
have defected to VMware.
Shownotes:
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!