Ask The Hosts – Episode 34

Our favourite smells, whether we use dark mode, and whether there’s any meaning to life. With Andy from Linux Dev Time, and Shane from Hybrid Cloud Show. Patrons got this this in their feed two weeks ago.          

Discord delays their age-gating rollout but legislators are pushing for operating systems including Linux to verify ages, LLM licence laundering might mean the end of copyleft, and how and why you might want to detect Meta’s spy camera glasses.   News Getting Global Age Assurance Right: What We Got Wrong and What’s Changing US state laws push age checks into the operating system California introduces age verification law for all operating systems, including Linux and SteamOS — user age verified during OS account setup I have actually read the text of California law CA AB1043 and, honestly, I don’t hate it Do you really think that circumventing these things will always be a simple firmware mod or hardware hack? Relicensing with AI-assisted rewrite – Tuan-Anh Tran Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens No right to relicense this project Hide from Meta’s spyglasses with this new Android app Dear Meta Smart Glasses Wearers: You’re Being Watched, Too                   Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com     Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   See our contact page for ways to get in touch. RSS: Subscribe to the RSS feeds here

The importance of having and sticking to correct development processes, what can go wrong when you don’t, and how to fix the problems you might end up with.               Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed

We recently talked about backing up Shane’s homelab, but this time it’s the turn of enterprise backups. Risk management, cloud and hybrid environments, planning for realistic disaster scenarios, convincing the finance people what’s required, and more.         Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes           Subscribe to the RSS feed.

An exciting new cold storage technology seems to be getting closer, Nvidia seemingly wants a slice of the laptop hardware action, why you (and your users) should definitely not use LLMs to “generate” passwords , and whistleblowing when sensitive customer data isn’t being taken seriously.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes ARC and L2ARC Sizing on Proxmox   News/discussion Data stored in glass could last over 10,000 years, Microsoft says Nvidia plans a Windows PC SoC, setting up direct competition with Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD Vibe Password Generation: Predictable by Design   Free consulting We were asked about whistleblowing when sensitive customer data isn’t being taken seriously.                 Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com       See our contact page for ways to get in touch.        

The freedom to install what you want on stock Android ROMs is still in jeopardy, an interesting update on SETI@home, Intel looks to contribute to graphics on Linux, and Mozilla works towards Web standards. Plus making a Wii U gamepad, UPS software, free NASA ebooks, and making cool posters with mapping data in Discoveries.   News/Discussion The FDroid website has a new banner on top to remind visitors that #Google did not change course and Android will be locked-down in under 200 days Keep Android Open Open letter to Google FLX1s Enthusiasts used their home computers to search for ET—scientists are homing in on 100 signals they found Intel Hiring More Linux Developers – Including For GPU Drivers / Linux Gaming Stack Launching Interop 2026   Discoveries Creating a Wii U gamepad Network UPS Tools NASA eBooks MapToPoster maptoposter-docker                   Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com     Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   See our contact page for ways to get in touch. RSS: Subscribe to the RSS feeds here

The end of Windows 10 and the terrible state of Windows 11 are driving more and more people to Linux. How do we help people actually manage the switch and stay with Linux?           Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes         See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Hardware scarcity and price hikes spread to hard drives, the Bcachefs dev thinks his AI is ‘fully conscious’, an agent might have gone after a FOSS maintainer, Jim is disappointed with an Ars author, and ZFS and VMs in the homelab.   Plugs Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes Piss up at The Shipwrights Arms (just next to London Bridge station) on Saturday 27th June from 6pm until late Pool and VDEV Topology for Proxmox Workloads   News/discussion AI blamed again as hard drives are sold out for this year Hard drive pricing in the UK is so high someone flew to the US to buy drives, saving money despite flight and hotel costs Bcachefs creator claims his custom LLM is ‘fully conscious’ An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – More Things Have Happened An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – Forensics and More Fallout An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – The Operator Came Forward Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations Sorry all this is my fault   Free consulting We were asked about ZFS and VMs in the homelab.                     See our contact page for ways to get in touch.  

Discord’s new age gating policy might be a real opportunity for open source but it’s not clear that we have anything that can compete, the complex and bizarre tale of an AI agent writing a blog post attacking a FOSS maintainer, why we lost some trust in a major tech publication, the Firefox AI kill switch arrives, and a quick KDE Korner.   News Piss up at The Shipwrights Arms (just next to London Bridge station) on Saturday 27th June from 6pm until late Discord Launches Teen-by-Default Settings Globally Discord Voluntarily Pushes Mandatory Age Verification Despite Recent Data Breach Hackers Expose Age-Verification Software Powering Surveillance Web I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here’s What I Actually Handed Over. An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – More Things Have Happened An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – Forensics and More Fallout An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me – The Operator Came Forward The obnoxious GitHub OpenClaw AI bot is … a crypto bro Editor’s Note: Retraction of article containing fabricated quotations Sorry all this is my fault Firefox 148 Now Available With The New AI Controls / AI Kill Switches   KDE Korner 4 A quick anti-FUD FAQ to debunk “the KDE is forcing systemd!” hoax KDE endorses the UN’s Open Source Principles Plasma 6.6                   Automox Turnkey Results Endpoint management tailored to your specific environment. Know the plan. Trust the result. Learn more at www.automox.com     Support us on patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   See our contact page for ways to get in touch. RSS: Subscribe to the RSS feeds here

People often like to talk down Electron, but it is really that bad? There may be better ways to use Web technologies to make desktop apps, but isn’t having Linux versions of apps a good thing no matter how they are made?   We mentioned Tauri and Wails.               Support us on Patreon and get an ad-free RSS feed with early episodes sometimes   See our contact page for ways to get in touch. Subscribe to the RSS feed