Skip to main content
LawHub
Sign In
About LawHub Advantage Exploring Law Preparing for the LSAT Applying to Law School Excel in Law School Charting Your Career Podcast - I Am The Law Law School Trends Sign In
Search

Burned by AI

Jan 11, 2026
Listen to this episode

The storage apocalypse has arrived. An old friend drops by to talk survival strategies as prices explode, and we pitch our own unapologetically 90s approach to stretching storage.

Sponsored By:

Support LINUX Unplugged

Links:

Transcript

WEBVTT 00:00:11.309 --> 00:00:15.809 Hello, friends, and welcome back to your weekly Linux talk show. My name is Chris. 00:00:15.969 --> 00:00:16.589 My name is Wes. 00:00:16.889 --> 00:00:17.909 And my name is Brent. 00:00:18.269 --> 00:00:24.489 Hello, gentlemen. Well, coming up on the show today, it does seem to be the storage apocalypse. 00:00:25.029 --> 00:00:28.549 It's here. It's real. And an old friend's going to drop by to talk survival 00:00:28.549 --> 00:00:30.009 strategies as prices explode. 00:00:30.169 --> 00:00:35.509 And then we've got an unapologetically 90s approach to stretching your current storage. 00:00:35.709 --> 00:00:39.509 Sometimes the old way of doing things still makes sense. They're going to round 00:00:39.509 --> 00:00:42.009 it out with some booths, some picks, and a lot more. 00:00:42.169 --> 00:00:46.089 So before we get there, let's say time-appropriate greetings to our virtual 00:00:46.089 --> 00:00:47.289 lug. Hello, Mumble Room! 00:00:48.529 --> 00:00:50.769 Hey, Chris, hey, Wes, and hello, Brent. 00:00:51.349 --> 00:00:55.389 And let's say hello to that old friend from Tux Digital and this week in Linux, 00:00:55.869 --> 00:00:57.189 Michael Tunnellsbeck. Hello, Michael. 00:00:57.629 --> 00:00:58.749 Hello, everybody. 00:00:59.029 --> 00:01:00.109 It's good to see you. 00:01:00.749 --> 00:01:01.749 Yeah, it's been a while. 00:01:01.969 --> 00:01:06.409 Yeah, we didn't get a chance to see you for our predictions episode because 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:08.029 you were under the weather. But you're back? 00:01:08.709 --> 00:01:13.269 Not speak so that was that was a bummer because uh i enjoy being the referee you. 00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:15.989 Know yeah well maybe we'll pick it back up next 00:01:15.989 --> 00:01:19.489 year but it's good to see and i think we should maybe we could chat in just 00:01:19.489 --> 00:01:22.569 a moment on a couple of those predictions i mean we might have them here so 00:01:22.569 --> 00:01:28.049 if we wanted to look at them in a moment we could before we get there i want 00:01:28.049 --> 00:01:32.069 to say good morning to our friends over at defined networking go check out manage 00:01:32.069 --> 00:01:35.609 nebula at define.net slash unplugged Now, 00:01:35.709 --> 00:01:38.429 you want a beautiful mesh VPN network these days. 00:01:38.609 --> 00:01:41.029 Everybody knows that because the benefits are incredible. I mean, 00:01:41.109 --> 00:01:44.909 you can connect data centers across multiple different providers and regions, 00:01:44.929 --> 00:01:47.629 your mobile devices, your workstations, your development machines, 00:01:47.749 --> 00:01:50.349 your production machines, and you can create all kinds of privacy with this 00:01:50.349 --> 00:01:52.829 that is just absolutely unbeatable. I mean, I think people understand that. 00:01:54.268 --> 00:01:57.468 But which one is actually the right one to choose? And I say you have to check 00:01:57.468 --> 00:01:59.828 out Define a .NET slash Unplugged. 00:01:59.908 --> 00:02:03.388 It's a decentralized VPN built on the open source Nebula project. 00:02:03.908 --> 00:02:08.388 It's all open source. Top to bottom, if you want to self-host every single component, 00:02:08.388 --> 00:02:10.688 it will always be that way because that's how they build it. 00:02:10.868 --> 00:02:12.868 You want to know what feature's coming down the road? 00:02:13.108 --> 00:02:15.408 Go watch the development right there out in the open on GitHub. 00:02:16.128 --> 00:02:20.548 And then later on, if you decide, I want to completely take this over myself, 00:02:20.548 --> 00:02:22.868 you absolutely can, including some of the essential services. 00:02:22.868 --> 00:02:27.748 But what I think is great is they offer the managed Nebula product so you can get started. 00:02:27.928 --> 00:02:31.468 They host the tough stuff. They do all of that. Later on, if you want to own 00:02:31.468 --> 00:02:35.068 the authentication and you want to own the discovery and all of that, you absolutely can. 00:02:35.668 --> 00:02:38.908 Nebula's decentralized design means there's no single point of failure. 00:02:39.108 --> 00:02:43.608 There's nothing that can happen like on their back end because you can host everything. 00:02:43.808 --> 00:02:46.608 And when you're building something that you want to last five years, 00:02:46.788 --> 00:02:48.448 10 years, you got to think about that. 00:02:48.788 --> 00:02:52.288 It was also from the get-go designed to manage Slack's global infrastructure. 00:02:52.288 --> 00:02:55.148 So you know it's tight, it's powerful, it's super advanced. 00:02:55.328 --> 00:02:57.948 I could tell you all about it, but I think you should go check it out. 00:02:58.028 --> 00:03:00.868 You can get 100 hosts for free, no credit card required, no lock-in, 00:03:00.948 --> 00:03:03.848 define.net slash unplugged. You start with that, then later on you want to go 00:03:03.848 --> 00:03:05.648 set up your own lighthouses? You absolutely can. 00:03:06.848 --> 00:03:10.508 There's no problem. There's no conflict there where you're like part of a big sales funnel. 00:03:10.608 --> 00:03:14.468 Like it's such a great thing because we have heard from so many people out there 00:03:14.468 --> 00:03:17.048 that have deployed it, and they absolutely have been thrilled. 00:03:18.108 --> 00:03:21.348 And probably going to have a little bit more from my end next week. So check it out. 00:03:21.488 --> 00:03:25.548 Go get started. support the show at defined.net slash unplugged. 00:03:25.608 --> 00:03:29.208 And a big thank you to defined.net for sponsoring the Unplugged program. 00:03:32.925 --> 00:03:39.465 Gentlemen, we are on like Donkey Kong for Planet Nix. Get ready. We're going. 00:03:40.285 --> 00:03:43.545 Phlox is helping make it possible again this year. You know Phlox. 00:03:43.645 --> 00:03:46.505 They're focused on making reproducible dev environments actually usable. 00:03:46.865 --> 00:03:51.465 And they're facilitating our trip and Planet Nix. We will have a meetup. 00:03:51.585 --> 00:03:53.425 I think year two is going to be fantastic. 00:03:53.745 --> 00:03:56.805 The call for papers for Planet Nix ends very soon. 00:03:57.105 --> 00:03:59.865 January 15th. So if you're listening to it when this comes out, 00:03:59.965 --> 00:04:02.165 you got a few days. Jan 15th. 00:04:02.925 --> 00:04:07.205 We'll put a link in the show notes. To attend Planet Nix, you need to register for Scale. 00:04:07.445 --> 00:04:11.425 So we'll put a link in there, too. We have a promo code. The promo code is UNPLUG, 00:04:11.625 --> 00:04:15.725 U-N-P-L-G, UNPLUG, and you'll get 40% off your ticket. 00:04:17.105 --> 00:04:21.485 And the remaining value goes to support one of the best open source conferences out there. 00:04:21.545 --> 00:04:24.145 Yeah, and you get access to both Planet Nix and Scale. 00:04:24.585 --> 00:04:27.965 And the expo hall and all the other talks. There's a lot. 00:04:28.425 --> 00:04:32.965 UNPLUG, U-N-P-L-G. We'll have a link to that. We want to see you there. 00:04:33.505 --> 00:04:35.545 This, you know, I think year one of Planet Nix. 00:04:36.465 --> 00:04:39.285 Is this a thing? Is this possible? Can they pull this off? 00:04:40.525 --> 00:04:43.225 Establish it? Yes. Did people like it? We loved it. 00:04:43.505 --> 00:04:46.045 All right, we're doing it again. Now, this year, I think it's going to be a 00:04:46.045 --> 00:04:49.345 lot about building things, talking to people, like people who don't normally 00:04:49.345 --> 00:04:53.985 sit in the same room together, but also still use the same stuff they create. A lot of that. 00:04:54.565 --> 00:04:58.665 And I think it's also going to just pull them or just lead right in to a great scale. 00:04:59.125 --> 00:05:02.845 So why not make it to both? And then just shortly after that, 00:05:04.085 --> 00:05:09.705 LinuxFest Northwest, April 24th to the 26th, back at the Bellingham Technical 00:05:09.705 --> 00:05:12.245 College in the original large expo room. 00:05:12.365 --> 00:05:12.865 Oh. 00:05:13.305 --> 00:05:17.125 Back in the nice area. It's all fixed up. And the LinuxFest Northwest call for 00:05:17.125 --> 00:05:19.085 papers ends tomorrow. Tomorrow. 00:05:20.037 --> 00:05:24.117 at midnight, Monday, January 12th, at midnight. So get it in. 00:05:24.517 --> 00:05:27.257 No promo code for LinuxFest Northwest because it's free. 00:05:28.177 --> 00:05:31.297 Although you can give them a little donation if you want to help support a great event. 00:05:31.697 --> 00:05:36.157 We'll have links to the LinuxFest Northwest call for papers as well. So there you go. 00:05:36.557 --> 00:05:40.697 Planet Nix and Scale. That's happening in March, March 5th through the 6th in 00:05:40.697 --> 00:05:42.957 Pasadena, California. We'd love to see you there. 00:05:43.257 --> 00:05:47.037 And then a little bit after that, LinuxFest Northwest, April 24th through the 00:05:47.037 --> 00:05:52.137 26th. things are shaping up to be a beautiful spring a warm beautiful spring 00:05:52.137 --> 00:05:56.557 in the pacific northwest and then they're saying a hot summer you know have you seen this no. 00:05:56.557 --> 00:05:57.097 I have not. 00:05:57.097 --> 00:06:02.057 Yeah we got a nino transition it's fading out uh you know of dominance as they 00:06:02.057 --> 00:06:05.997 say uh-huh which means it should be a beautiful linux fest northwest so we'd 00:06:05.997 --> 00:06:07.297 love to see you plenty of time to plan. 00:06:07.297 --> 00:06:08.397 Right come on we're telling you now. 00:06:08.397 --> 00:06:11.417 Yep and all the lazy links are in the show notes, 00:06:13.962 --> 00:06:17.542 Well, I just wanted to say a big welcome back to Michael. It's nice to see you, 00:06:17.662 --> 00:06:19.282 sir. Thank you again for making it. 00:06:19.882 --> 00:06:20.622 Thanks for having me. 00:06:21.682 --> 00:06:25.082 Would you love to go back in time and see how you did? I mean, 00:06:25.122 --> 00:06:27.642 would you just love it? Would you just be thrilled? I would love it. 00:06:27.962 --> 00:06:31.742 Actually, I don't remember most of what I said. I remember one of them, 00:06:31.822 --> 00:06:34.782 and I think I was right. And the other ones, I don't remember at all. 00:06:34.882 --> 00:06:38.882 I mean, I did. I don't remember them specifically. But when we were prepping 00:06:38.882 --> 00:06:41.022 for the episode, I reviewed them. And I think you did OK. 00:06:41.202 --> 00:06:42.962 Yeah, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by yourself. 00:06:42.962 --> 00:06:46.022 So, here was Michael's first prediction for 2025. 00:06:46.822 --> 00:06:51.982 I predict that the Cosmic desktop from System76 will make at least a release 00:06:51.982 --> 00:06:54.802 candidate version available in 2025. 00:06:55.402 --> 00:06:56.622 I mean, they made that. 00:06:56.682 --> 00:06:58.102 I was very right. 00:06:58.442 --> 00:07:00.122 Nice. Not bad. 00:07:00.362 --> 00:07:01.722 I forgot about that one entirely. 00:07:03.182 --> 00:07:04.722 You're too busy playing with Cosmic. 00:07:04.762 --> 00:07:06.122 That only really came later in the year. 00:07:06.702 --> 00:07:13.542 Yeah, it was like three weeks before the end of the year. and then like nice yeah. 00:07:13.542 --> 00:07:17.762 All right here was prediction number two for 2025 i. 00:07:17.762 --> 00:07:23.102 Predict that the linux desktop market share will become five percent some point this year. 00:07:23.102 --> 00:07:25.642 I think that one was right too right like everything we can. 00:07:25.642 --> 00:07:26.322 Measure with. 00:07:26.322 --> 00:07:28.702 Seems like that seems like it hit which is. 00:07:28.702 --> 00:07:32.602 Yeah i was i was super shocked uh because that's the one i remembered i was 00:07:32.602 --> 00:07:36.862 like uh because i remember saying like because it was expected to go to four 00:07:36.862 --> 00:07:39.242 and i was like you know i'll just do five anyway and then that actually happened 00:07:39.242 --> 00:07:42.642 it's like wow how was i right okay awesome well. 00:07:42.642 --> 00:07:45.402 You know what i want to know is do you have a prediction for 2026. 00:07:45.402 --> 00:07:50.722 I should but in terms of market share i think it's going to go up to i'm going 00:07:50.722 --> 00:07:53.082 to go ahead and say an extra two percent and say seven all. 00:07:53.082 --> 00:07:57.342 Right all right i like that that was bold all right are you ready for your third and last prediction. 00:07:57.942 --> 00:07:58.562 Yes here. 00:07:58.562 --> 00:08:05.622 We go i predict that in 2025 kde will release a specific desktop operating system 00:08:05.622 --> 00:08:08.482 of their own, regardless of what it's named, 00:08:08.782 --> 00:08:14.362 KDE Linux or not, and it will be at least at a beta release level. 00:08:15.406 --> 00:08:17.826 Now, I don't know. I don't know if they've actually hit beta, have they? 00:08:17.866 --> 00:08:21.446 No, I think I was wrong on that one. I think they hit alpha, not beta. 00:08:21.706 --> 00:08:22.586 Yeah, right. 00:08:22.986 --> 00:08:24.786 That's a bummer. I almost got perfect. 00:08:25.686 --> 00:08:30.386 Okay, here's just a bonus prediction. Do you think they'll hit a 1.0 in 2026? 00:08:30.746 --> 00:08:35.026 I think towards the end of the year, maybe. Yeah. I don't think it's going to 00:08:35.026 --> 00:08:38.286 be anytime soon, but I think they've made a lot of progress. 00:08:38.286 --> 00:08:42.746 I think they've made a lot of progress, enough where they could get to the the 00:08:42.746 --> 00:08:46.546 like I don't know November December era yeah. 00:08:46.546 --> 00:08:47.806 I hope so. 00:08:47.806 --> 00:08:51.926 Although didn't I see they're like doing some debates about sort of the underpinnings 00:08:51.926 --> 00:08:57.406 and should they stick with their like arch sort of inspired thing or adopt other. 00:08:58.046 --> 00:09:01.806 Yeah I think that there's actually potential where they could you know do a 00:09:01.806 --> 00:09:02.966 combination of things like, 00:09:03.726 --> 00:09:06.626 a lot of the effort in the Universal Blue project is super 00:09:06.626 --> 00:09:09.486 interesting because there's there's some effort to make it 00:09:09.486 --> 00:09:12.606 distro-less and that by that meaning um 00:09:12.606 --> 00:09:15.426 it doesn't matter what it's sitting on top of like the 00:09:15.426 --> 00:09:18.366 you could switch out the underneath you know 00:09:18.366 --> 00:09:21.046 fairly easily like just how you can like image mode you can 00:09:21.046 --> 00:09:26.666 switch the desktops pretty quickly it would be uh possible to switch arch to 00:09:26.666 --> 00:09:31.726 fedora or back and forth rebase the base yeah but also the user could do it 00:09:31.726 --> 00:09:35.626 like not even like it's great all you have to do is set up the image mode to 00:09:35.626 --> 00:09:38.886 have that compatibility and it'd be theoretically possible to do that. 00:09:38.886 --> 00:09:39.486 Swap that layer out, huh? 00:09:39.886 --> 00:09:42.506 Yeah, that could also solve that problem. Who knows? 00:09:43.626 --> 00:09:46.766 Wouldn't that be interesting? I'm just thinking about the way OEMs could use that. 00:09:48.226 --> 00:09:54.506 I think the last 10% of KDE Linux is going to be the toughest. So that... 00:09:55.036 --> 00:10:00.716 It might push a 1.0 out to Q1 of 2027. And I don't think that'd be a shame. 00:10:00.876 --> 00:10:04.416 Honestly, I feel like it might be a 1.0 that's not a 1.0. 00:10:04.736 --> 00:10:05.456 Oh, it could be, yeah. 00:10:05.736 --> 00:10:12.356 Yeah. So, like, for example, Cosmix. Cosmix 1.0 was not really ready. 00:10:12.576 --> 00:10:15.656 Like, it's cool. There's a lot of good stuff. 00:10:15.796 --> 00:10:21.656 But there's still some pretty noticeable bugs that would not really count as a 1.0 in that sense. 00:10:21.656 --> 00:10:24.656 And in our space, there is some value to getting it out there in front of users 00:10:24.656 --> 00:10:26.196 and starting to get that feedback. 00:10:26.596 --> 00:10:30.716 Yeah. I also just feel like the idea of the 1.0 is, you know, 00:10:30.796 --> 00:10:34.716 like the version number mattering is like antiquated and no longer matters. 00:10:35.096 --> 00:10:39.796 Like it's like when people talk about like the next version of Linux, 00:10:40.056 --> 00:10:43.056 you know, like Linux 7 is going to come out sometime soon. 00:10:43.876 --> 00:10:48.056 And they're like, well, why is it going to 7? Well, arbitrary number count. 00:10:48.376 --> 00:10:51.496 Like who cares? like it doesn't it's not like they actually choose it for any 00:10:51.496 --> 00:10:56.276 particular reason it's just because they're tired of being six so like now it's seven they. 00:10:56.276 --> 00:10:58.596 Choose it because west predicted it that's usually how it goes. 00:10:58.596 --> 00:11:00.456 Well that that also helps too yeah. 00:11:00.456 --> 00:11:04.596 You know back in my day a point release was like a sign of perhaps a compatibility 00:11:04.596 --> 00:11:06.896 break or a major new feature set. 00:11:06.896 --> 00:11:07.576 Yeah it's. 00:11:07.576 --> 00:11:09.076 Just sort of lost its meaning in that sense. 00:11:09.076 --> 00:11:14.276 Yeah and the major minor bug thing is gone too like it some people use it but 00:11:14.276 --> 00:11:20.676 it also doesn't matter anymore yeah so like uh ubuntu helped create that to go away with the dates. 00:11:21.276 --> 00:11:24.596 So now we have like the major minor, but it's really just like, 00:11:24.716 --> 00:11:25.576 it's an update. Who cares? 00:11:26.076 --> 00:11:29.656 Yeah, I wonder, one day we'll have Linux 2810. Linux, you know, 00:11:29.776 --> 00:11:31.096 whatever. Whatever we'll have. 00:11:31.796 --> 00:11:35.796 All right, well, we are gathered here today because we, as a world, 00:11:37.976 --> 00:11:43.876 of technology enthusiasts, are faced with the plight of incredibly high storage prices. 00:11:45.116 --> 00:11:48.216 I really missed the boat on this one. I don't know how many of you were feeling 00:11:48.216 --> 00:11:51.616 this way, but I, of course, was, if you guys remember, we were talking about 00:11:51.616 --> 00:11:54.976 low power home labs towards the end of last year, started around October, November. 00:11:56.611 --> 00:12:00.451 Boy, should I have bought then. So I did a little digging before the show, 00:12:00.571 --> 00:12:04.931 guys, and it's real bad out there. So... 00:12:06.460 --> 00:12:13.720 The worst price increases seem to be in like the kind of nicer SSDs and MVMEs 00:12:13.720 --> 00:12:15.700 in the two terabyte and up range. 00:12:15.920 --> 00:12:18.960 I don't see a lot of punishment in the one terabyte. But for example, 00:12:19.060 --> 00:12:27.600 the Western Digital Black SN850X two terabyte drive is up 80 percent since October. Since October. 00:12:27.900 --> 00:12:28.600 Since October. 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:32.800 That's not 10 percent. That's not 20 percent. No. Over 50 percent. 00:12:32.920 --> 00:12:35.420 And because I'm in a moving vehicle, I was looking for solid state. 00:12:35.420 --> 00:12:39.660 So I at first had my eye on an 8-terabyte NVMe, which would be just enough. 00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:41.080 And that thing went from it. 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:42.100 I mean, that sounds expensive already. 00:12:42.340 --> 00:12:47.280 Yeah. But I think it was like $700, $800. And now it's between $14 and $1,600 00:12:47.280 --> 00:12:48.400 depending on the vendor. 00:12:49.540 --> 00:12:49.980 Wow. 00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:51.580 And the other thing is. 00:12:51.880 --> 00:12:53.480 Do I want a laptop or a hard drive? 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:58.600 The number of vendors even supplying to the consumer market is less. 00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:04.600 I did a little comparison shopping on Camel, Camel, Camel of SSD vendors selling 00:13:04.600 --> 00:13:10.900 two terabyte drives back in October, and there were probably 30 of them. And now there's two. 00:13:11.860 --> 00:13:14.860 So it's brutal out there. 00:13:15.140 --> 00:13:18.660 And it's just gone from something that was kind of cheap to just this precious 00:13:18.660 --> 00:13:23.840 commodity, obviously because enterprise data centers, those types of AI jobs, 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:24.900 they're all eating up storage. 00:13:25.060 --> 00:13:28.700 They're buying inventory before they've even been produced. Some of these vendors 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:32.800 are making exclusivity deals with these larger data centers to provide them 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:34.640 with, you know, their storage chips. 00:13:35.400 --> 00:13:40.960 So I think each one of us have probably been thinking about this problem a little bit. 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:44.220 I don't know if anybody – you know, we always are – our storage needs are always growing. 00:13:44.400 --> 00:13:47.580 So I thought we'd go around the horn and kind of talk about if we had any ideas 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:54.760 for sort of stretching out or getting cheap storage for 2026, maybe even into 2027. 00:13:54.760 --> 00:13:59.720 Some of the things I was looking at here suggest we already have back orders 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:05.260 now on the books up to 24 months from the AI data centers. 00:14:06.515 --> 00:14:11.075 And so they are going to be filling the data center inventory for 24 months 00:14:11.075 --> 00:14:12.995 at least, and that's the existing back. 00:14:13.055 --> 00:14:16.535 Now, some of that might get canceled if things decline or whatever, 00:14:16.535 --> 00:14:22.575 but the projection is at least until 2027, we're going to have a massive crunch in storage prices. 00:14:24.095 --> 00:14:28.595 So, Michael, do you have any thoughts on ways to stretch your existing storage 00:14:28.595 --> 00:14:30.575 or cheap storage acquisition strategies? 00:14:30.895 --> 00:14:32.955 Are you going to be shucking USB disks? 00:14:33.115 --> 00:14:34.875 Do you have any hard drives we can have? 00:14:36.695 --> 00:14:39.475 So actually as you were talking about it i was thinking about it 00:14:39.475 --> 00:14:42.235 and uh you got that 00:14:42.235 --> 00:14:45.095 sweet storage i i was actually thinking about 00:14:45.095 --> 00:14:48.355 it as you were mentioning you were describing this problem and i was thinking 00:14:48.355 --> 00:14:53.495 like you know at this point ssds are probably around the same or if not more 00:14:53.495 --> 00:14:59.055 value than gold so so i was thinking like maybe i should sell some of my ssds 00:14:59.055 --> 00:15:03.675 you know and get some like like some like five-year-old ssds are now worth double 00:15:03.675 --> 00:15:04.735 what they were or whatever, 00:15:05.395 --> 00:15:08.235 and uh and but it's actually 00:15:08.235 --> 00:15:11.195 kind of funny because i was you know debating whether or 00:15:11.195 --> 00:15:14.275 not i should upgrade my hard drives for my 00:15:14.275 --> 00:15:17.095 nas because i got i recently got a bigger nas 00:15:17.095 --> 00:15:20.235 so like i had a four bay and now i have an eight bay and then 00:15:20.235 --> 00:15:22.835 i was thinking like okay i need to you know 00:15:22.835 --> 00:15:26.715 figure out a time where i need to get some more drives and 00:15:26.715 --> 00:15:29.435 then i looked at the prices like you know what i can 00:15:29.435 --> 00:15:32.475 wait a little bit i'll come back into it like a couple months and 00:15:32.475 --> 00:15:37.935 then the storage price hit same and yeah it's completely destroyed all plans 00:15:37.935 --> 00:15:43.135 so like i'm now not only am i not i'm not even using that new bay anymore i'm 00:15:43.135 --> 00:15:48.075 using the still using old four bay uh just because it's not worth even bothering 00:15:48.075 --> 00:15:51.915 to move the stuff and now i'm just in the process of like. 00:15:52.768 --> 00:15:55.608 Figuring out like it used to be uh you know storage is 00:15:55.608 --> 00:15:58.748 cheap i'll just get whatever i need and then i'll just keep everything 00:15:58.748 --> 00:16:01.508 now i'm just deciding whether i want to keep the stuff or not 00:16:01.508 --> 00:16:05.168 like some of the stuff i've had for 20 years 00:16:05.168 --> 00:16:08.908 yeah and i've not never looked at it ever because 00:16:08.908 --> 00:16:12.708 i have a i had a rule i don't need more i've already i've already established 00:16:12.708 --> 00:16:17.668 this and i've gone i've i've pulled the trigger on this situation to save my 00:16:17.668 --> 00:16:23.588 storage and uh i used to have a philosophy of everything I create as a creative 00:16:23.588 --> 00:16:26.528 person and graphic design and everything, I keep everything. 00:16:26.868 --> 00:16:28.968 Yeah, totally get that, right? You don't want to have it later, 00:16:29.028 --> 00:16:32.448 you're like, I had that, I made that, I burned hours of my life investing in 00:16:32.448 --> 00:16:36.468 creating that to throw it away when I could have just had that one more FLAC file? Come on. 00:16:36.988 --> 00:16:40.408 Exactly. And also, it goes back to when I was doing graphic design. 00:16:40.508 --> 00:16:44.748 So I have all the PSD files and I have everything. So I have the completed project 00:16:44.748 --> 00:16:46.988 and the source project and everything. 00:16:47.448 --> 00:16:51.548 And I've gotten to the point where now, So some of that stuff I still keep, 00:16:51.628 --> 00:16:54.308 even if it's super old, just because of like, I just want it. 00:16:54.648 --> 00:16:59.368 But when it comes to video, and doing like video on YouTube, 00:16:59.728 --> 00:17:05.708 and you know, the podcasting and stuff, and there's been, there's just so much data that takes up. 00:17:06.367 --> 00:17:10.807 And I was thinking, like, do I have I ever gone back and done a montage of like 00:17:10.807 --> 00:17:13.587 previous episodes or anything? Have I ever used that stuff? 00:17:13.867 --> 00:17:18.387 And no, I have not. So I just basically deleted half of the storage. 00:17:18.747 --> 00:17:21.787 And now I actually have the NAS available to use again. 00:17:21.987 --> 00:17:26.327 Yeah, because I was I was super close to having nothing on the on no storage 00:17:26.327 --> 00:17:28.887 on the NAS. And now I have like half of it back. 00:17:29.087 --> 00:17:34.747 So I'm actually kind of happy I did that because I would have just bought new storage. 00:17:34.747 --> 00:17:37.887 I don't I'm not saying that it's good that this happened 00:17:37.887 --> 00:17:43.607 that forced me to do this but I am happy that uh I'm I've kind of gotten past 00:17:43.607 --> 00:17:48.687 this threshold of like not holding on to everything because I I'm a very minimal 00:17:48.687 --> 00:17:53.887 person in reality but in terms of digital hoarder yep that would I'm very much 00:17:53.887 --> 00:17:56.567 a digital hoarder so I think that's a fair point there is. 00:17:56.567 --> 00:18:01.447 It is really easy to slip into digital hoarding um and and just you save everything 00:18:01.447 --> 00:18:05.387 and and you constantly are adding to it more and more, which is kind of fun, 00:18:05.547 --> 00:18:07.187 but gets very expensive right now. 00:18:08.047 --> 00:18:12.207 Yeah. So I'm kind of not with like project files, but I'm on the other end of 00:18:12.207 --> 00:18:16.267 I spent probably the last five years being I'll just delete it guy. 00:18:17.107 --> 00:18:22.187 And then a couple of months ago, a few months ago, I was starting to plan for 00:18:22.187 --> 00:18:26.487 my daughter's birthday and I wanted to get her that I wanted to show her this 00:18:26.487 --> 00:18:30.027 movie that I had deleted, but I figured what's the big deal? 00:18:30.147 --> 00:18:34.907 I'll just download it again. could not actually find a working way to get it again. 00:18:35.027 --> 00:18:39.567 And so I went and bought the DVD and ripped it and started thinking, 00:18:39.947 --> 00:18:42.027 you know, there's a few things I started going through my library and thinking 00:18:42.027 --> 00:18:44.847 there's a few things that I ripped by hand that I either think are better quality 00:18:44.847 --> 00:18:49.067 or like I can't necessarily find an easy way to find them again online. 00:18:50.427 --> 00:18:54.327 And I started thinking maybe there is some stuff I do want to keep forever. 00:18:55.407 --> 00:19:00.147 And then if that's the case, I got a real problem here because I'm already almost 00:19:00.147 --> 00:19:02.227 out of storage. There is some stuff I absolutely will delete. 00:19:03.820 --> 00:19:05.360 There are some things I want to keep. 00:19:05.520 --> 00:19:08.600 Yeah, no, I'm kind of in the same place. Like I have been trying to keep, 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:12.120 I haven't, not for the last few years, but before that I was moving around a 00:19:12.120 --> 00:19:15.740 lot and it was just like, didn't make sense to have a giant NAS keeping everything. 00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:18.080 So I've kind of been pruning, but you're right. 00:19:18.200 --> 00:19:21.320 We're entering now a digital landscape where I've been thinking about it for, 00:19:21.500 --> 00:19:23.940 like with the, I don't know if you've seen some of the numbers people are passing 00:19:23.940 --> 00:19:25.640 around for like the death of stack overflow. 00:19:25.880 --> 00:19:26.220 Yeah. 00:19:26.520 --> 00:19:29.580 But there's just a lot of stuff on there. Not that it isn't elsewhere, 00:19:29.580 --> 00:19:33.560 but especially even for some things like, like there's like the math overflow part. 00:19:33.560 --> 00:19:37.040 There's some nice write-ups or ways that people express things or taught things, 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:40.240 just things that I've kind of always relied on existing out there in the internet, 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:43.120 whether it be on the media side or just on the information side, 00:19:43.120 --> 00:19:46.660 that we're getting to a new era. 00:19:46.660 --> 00:19:49.020 And it seems like a lot of that stuff, some of it will be kept, 00:19:49.160 --> 00:19:51.920 some of it will hit the internet archive, but a lot of it just won't. 00:19:52.020 --> 00:19:56.500 And if I don't take action and have some dedicated storage for it, 00:19:56.800 --> 00:19:58.640 it might just vanish. Yeah. 00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:01.600 And then I've also digitized more things with paperless and whatnot, 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:03.580 which also brings in backups to this, Brent. 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:07.000 And I don't know if you've thought much about this, but with storage going up, 00:20:07.100 --> 00:20:09.780 it makes strategies like, oh, I'll just buy another hard drive. 00:20:09.960 --> 00:20:13.100 I'll buy this hard drive, copy everything over, then send it off-site. 00:20:13.180 --> 00:20:14.460 Well, maybe not with the expense now. 00:20:15.260 --> 00:20:17.960 Yeah. I mean, that was my strategy up till now. And now I'm thinking, 00:20:18.180 --> 00:20:24.840 holy, I got to get my act in gear because if I all of a sudden decide I have 00:20:24.840 --> 00:20:26.820 to move to used drives, for instance. 00:20:28.120 --> 00:20:31.980 I don't know. You tell me if I'm right or not. But that feels like the risk 00:20:31.980 --> 00:20:35.280 is higher. So maybe I do need extra bays in my NAS. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:38.740 And maybe I do need to have a better RAID system. And maybe I do need, 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:41.740 you know, more offside backups and stuff because hard drives are going to fail. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:46.540 Used drives are getting more expensive, too. I did a little eBay slinking trying to find a cheap. 00:20:46.700 --> 00:20:50.280 And you can, I mean, you'll save money. But like you said, you don't know the quality. 00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:54.360 And yeah, like they're still not as cheap as they used to be. 00:20:54.360 --> 00:20:58.140 And here I thought 2026 was naively going to be the year I finally got a proper 00:20:58.140 --> 00:20:59.620 backup system for my folks going. 00:20:59.900 --> 00:21:02.760 I know. So, yeah, Brian, it's like not even used storage. 00:21:04.669 --> 00:21:06.289 Well, I do have a bunch in my basement 00:21:06.289 --> 00:21:09.909 that I forgot about that I could probably get back out of the ice. 00:21:10.349 --> 00:21:12.249 Slam it all into a scary raid, you know? 00:21:12.409 --> 00:21:15.589 I think the worst part is that now this whole thing has happened. 00:21:15.909 --> 00:21:20.489 And I have just a few sitting over here for like, you know, drives that I've 00:21:20.489 --> 00:21:26.409 done for testing of like distros and stuff that even they're 256 gig or 512 00:21:26.409 --> 00:21:28.809 gig. And they're now looking super appealing. 00:21:29.229 --> 00:21:33.929 Like, oh, wow, I actually have stuff I can use, even though it's super tiny, too. 00:21:33.929 --> 00:21:37.189 I know, I was looking at, like, SATA controllers with, like, eight ports on them. 00:21:37.209 --> 00:21:40.249 I'm like, I could slam one of these in and just attach a bunch of random drives 00:21:40.249 --> 00:21:43.849 and then just smash it all together. And then one of them will eventually pop, but... 00:21:43.849 --> 00:21:48.209 All right, you get a bunch of Raspberry Pis, and then you plug in a bunch of sort of USB expanders. 00:21:48.229 --> 00:21:50.689 And then you put in a bunch of flash drives, and then you put that all into 00:21:50.689 --> 00:21:53.189 a CEPH cluster. And then you just store everything there. 00:21:53.309 --> 00:21:57.129 Well, why not cut out the middleman and get a USB hub and just attach a whole 00:21:57.129 --> 00:21:59.909 bunch of SD card readers all to the USB hub? 00:21:59.969 --> 00:22:00.429 Oh, good point, yeah. 00:22:00.829 --> 00:22:00.969 Yeah. 00:22:01.469 --> 00:22:02.569 Those are so thin, right? 00:22:02.569 --> 00:22:05.629 It like it'll stack well yeah it's essentially solid. 00:22:05.629 --> 00:22:12.929 I would assume this is all you know hard drives and memory and ssd is all being 00:22:12.929 --> 00:22:16.009 consumed by like the you know ai push right the. 00:22:16.009 --> 00:22:16.649 Big machine yeah. 00:22:16.649 --> 00:22:20.149 But i was thinking about this a little bit more this morning and, 00:22:21.290 --> 00:22:26.590 You know, they're going to be pushing their hard drives out of the pipeline at some point, right? 00:22:26.630 --> 00:22:29.590 They're not just going to hoard every single hard drive that they're using. 00:22:30.070 --> 00:22:33.330 I feel like they're going to destroy them, though. Like, they're going to use 00:22:33.330 --> 00:22:37.050 them to a degree. Like, you know, like the crypto miners made the GPUs worthless. 00:22:37.330 --> 00:22:39.810 I feel like they're going to make their drives worthless. 00:22:40.170 --> 00:22:43.410 Yeah. Although, like, some vendors may have an age-out strategy. 00:22:44.070 --> 00:22:47.950 Hmm. You could still see. Like, I could still see, even if not all of them. 00:22:47.950 --> 00:22:53.170 If only like, say, 30% of them made it on the market, in the used market, 00:22:53.430 --> 00:22:54.990 there are outlets that specialize. 00:22:55.250 --> 00:22:57.830 And that's one of the ones I looked into, by the way, is there are outlets that 00:22:57.830 --> 00:23:02.670 specialize in they go buy them from the data centers and guarantee like they 00:23:02.670 --> 00:23:05.630 wipe everything and they have like a whole contract. And then they resell them 00:23:05.630 --> 00:23:07.450 in bundles, like massive bundles. 00:23:08.290 --> 00:23:09.590 So that could be a thing. 00:23:10.090 --> 00:23:14.070 The nice thing, too, with some of this, right, like, unlike GPUs, 00:23:14.270 --> 00:23:18.130 I mean, if it was cheaper, you could also, if it was cheaper but sketchy, 00:23:18.170 --> 00:23:19.630 you could up the redundancy, right? 00:23:19.750 --> 00:23:20.190 Oh, true. 00:23:20.330 --> 00:23:23.030 I'm going to build two arrays. I'm going to have double copies because I don't 00:23:23.030 --> 00:23:25.150 really trust either of them, and I don't want to do a giant. 00:23:25.450 --> 00:23:27.730 So that could be a future thing where use storage comes down, 00:23:27.830 --> 00:23:31.010 but as of right now, it's still pretty expensive, and you're rolling the dice. 00:23:31.090 --> 00:23:32.390 So it's sort of a double whammy. 00:23:32.390 --> 00:23:35.750 There's also something to be said for not every 00:23:35.750 --> 00:23:38.610 single ai company that's buying all this stuff up right 00:23:38.610 --> 00:23:41.810 now because they somehow have free money uh is 00:23:41.810 --> 00:23:47.230 going to survive so we might see like these big splashes of hardware just hitting 00:23:47.230 --> 00:23:50.070 the used market all of a sudden so if you're looking you might be able to find 00:23:50.070 --> 00:23:55.870 that stuff i don't imagine it'll be a constant you know stream of what we want 00:23:55.870 --> 00:23:58.890 to be consuming in terms of hardware but it might happen. 00:24:00.428 --> 00:24:03.528 Yeah, they may not all be consumer end products, but if you're okay dealing 00:24:03.528 --> 00:24:05.188 with SaaS or whatever, it might work. 00:24:06.028 --> 00:24:11.528 But I do think there is something we can do about it because there is an area 00:24:11.528 --> 00:24:15.388 of the market that these data centers are just not gobbling up. 00:24:15.388 --> 00:24:16.688 They have no interest in. 00:24:16.948 --> 00:24:18.928 It still provides a good means of storage. 00:24:19.548 --> 00:24:21.588 You're talking about magnetic tape. 00:24:22.108 --> 00:24:27.108 I looked at that. I did. If anybody knows a place to find a tape drive that's 00:24:27.108 --> 00:24:30.468 reliable for under $500, let me know. but all the ones I saw. 00:24:30.548 --> 00:24:30.648 Floppy disks. 00:24:31.588 --> 00:24:34.468 Floppy disks. Yes. Now here's what I'm thinking. 00:24:35.708 --> 00:24:38.528 The solution comes from the nineties and that's optical media. 00:24:38.768 --> 00:24:44.628 We channel our inner nineties kids and I think we look back at optical media. 00:24:44.628 --> 00:24:46.448 I think it, I think it holds the solution. 00:24:46.848 --> 00:24:50.248 And so gentlemen, I have been inspired and I have an idea. 00:24:53.194 --> 00:24:56.594 Join crowdhealth.com and use the promo code unplugged. 00:24:56.754 --> 00:25:01.054 The health insurance process is confusing. It leaves me feeling like I was taken 00:25:01.054 --> 00:25:05.594 advantage of and it was extremely hard to navigate and even make an economically 00:25:05.594 --> 00:25:09.414 reasonable choice with my wife and I both being self-employed. 00:25:09.494 --> 00:25:11.914 And every year the rates keep going up. 00:25:12.014 --> 00:25:15.534 And the system itself is fundamentally twisted. It's in the States, 00:25:15.694 --> 00:25:19.094 it's attached to employment, which is just really complicated. 00:25:19.254 --> 00:25:24.194 And honestly, some of us, like myself, have just opted out. 00:25:24.354 --> 00:25:27.634 And for over three years, I have been a member of CrowdHealth. 00:25:28.034 --> 00:25:31.234 Making informed decisions, especially about your health, isn't easy. 00:25:31.334 --> 00:25:35.334 And so it took me a bit of time and research before I came to this decision. 00:25:35.514 --> 00:25:38.934 But more than three years in, I'm really glad I did. 00:25:39.514 --> 00:25:43.654 CrowdHealth isn't regular insurance. It's not like that at all. 00:25:43.774 --> 00:25:46.514 It's a community of people funding each other's medical bills directly. 00:25:46.754 --> 00:25:50.194 There's no middleman. There's nobody constantly taking more and more profit. 00:25:50.334 --> 00:25:52.094 There's no networks that you have to be inside. 00:25:52.254 --> 00:25:55.994 There's just no nonsense at all. It's health care for under $100. 00:25:56.454 --> 00:26:00.994 That's CrowdHealth, the health insurance alternative. You get access to a team 00:26:00.994 --> 00:26:04.354 of health bill negotiators, low-cost prescriptions, lab testing tools, 00:26:04.414 --> 00:26:08.434 and a database of low-cost, high-quality doctors that have been vetted by CrowdHealth. 00:26:08.574 --> 00:26:09.274 They've worked with them. 00:26:09.454 --> 00:26:12.854 It's really smooth. They have a fantastic app to navigate it all, 00:26:13.114 --> 00:26:16.954 plus great customer service, people you can chat with on the phone or via text. 00:26:17.574 --> 00:26:22.034 And when something major happens, you pay the first $500 and then the crowd 00:26:22.034 --> 00:26:23.654 steps in and helps fund the rest. 00:26:24.254 --> 00:26:27.994 It's sort of like the options we used to have before it all got messed up and 00:26:27.994 --> 00:26:30.374 seemed to get worse every single year. 00:26:30.794 --> 00:26:34.914 So you'll join the crowd, a group of members just like me, who want to help 00:26:34.914 --> 00:26:36.974 pay for each other's unexpected medical events. 00:26:37.094 --> 00:26:40.054 And people are incentivized to take care of each other in this incentive and 00:26:40.054 --> 00:26:41.154 take care of themselves. 00:26:42.781 --> 00:26:44.981 The system's betting that you're just going to stay stuck, and you're just going 00:26:44.981 --> 00:26:48.121 to keep paying the same more and more overpriced, complicated mess. 00:26:48.761 --> 00:26:51.821 And this year, it's getting even worse because a lot of the subsidies are expiring, 00:26:52.021 --> 00:26:54.161 and so the costs are going to go up even more. 00:26:54.441 --> 00:26:58.261 So far, CrowdHealth members have saved $40 million in health care expenses because 00:26:58.261 --> 00:27:02.201 they refuse to overpay. I, myself, have saved somewhere around $3,200. 00:27:03.441 --> 00:27:06.801 It's really powerful stuff, and it's time to take your power back. 00:27:06.801 --> 00:27:11.681 Join CrowdHealth at joincrowdhealth.com and use our promo code unplugged today 00:27:11.681 --> 00:27:14.361 for your first three months at only $99. 00:27:15.161 --> 00:27:20.001 That's right. Joincrowdhealth.com promo code unplugged. CrowdHealth, it's not insurance. 00:27:20.201 --> 00:27:23.501 It's time to opt out and take your power back. This is how we win. 00:27:23.701 --> 00:27:27.601 It's joincrowdhealth.com and use that promo code unplugged. 00:27:30.205 --> 00:27:33.105 Chris, I'll admit when I first heard you talking about this idea, 00:27:33.365 --> 00:27:37.245 I thought it was pretty crazy because I thought we had left those little spinning 00:27:37.245 --> 00:27:38.785 things of plastic behind. 00:27:39.005 --> 00:27:41.745 Like, I have a drawer full somewhere, though, if you need some. 00:27:42.565 --> 00:27:46.885 But now I, after doing a little research, I kind of see where you're going with this. 00:27:47.005 --> 00:27:50.985 It's, you know, I'm feeling a little nostalgic from their 90s times. 00:27:51.245 --> 00:27:54.985 It is fun. It does have some nostalgia. Physical media, it's back. 00:27:55.185 --> 00:27:57.085 It's still a thing and it's cheap. 00:27:58.425 --> 00:28:03.445 So the seed oil of this idea was after last week's Linux Unplugged, 00:28:03.585 --> 00:28:09.585 Wes and I were checking out the DVD drive that I bought to restore or re-rip 00:28:09.585 --> 00:28:12.525 stuff from the original DVD since I deleted it and then wanted it back. 00:28:13.185 --> 00:28:16.205 And we were checking it out and I needed something to test it with and I wanted 00:28:16.205 --> 00:28:19.665 to see if it worked with Linux and see if the USB bus could power it enough and all this. 00:28:20.185 --> 00:28:25.425 So I'm searching the whole freaking studio and I cannot find any physical media. I'm like, wow. 00:28:25.745 --> 00:28:30.405 In my mind, I can picture where I used to store DVDs. But of course, that was a decade ago. 00:28:31.005 --> 00:28:38.165 So I find an old CDR in a box of old studio stuff and something I burnt a long 00:28:38.165 --> 00:28:39.985 time ago. And it's like data backup on there. 00:28:40.565 --> 00:28:43.545 And I vaguely recall doing this. 00:28:43.665 --> 00:28:47.265 So I bring it in, pop it in the new drive and it mounts and I see it. 00:28:47.405 --> 00:28:54.965 And I start looking at the contents on there. And it's a backup of the Office 2000 installer. 00:28:55.185 --> 00:28:57.085 That's right. Oh, that was so good. 00:28:57.265 --> 00:29:02.865 I burned this CD-R in early 2000, 26 years ago. 00:29:04.229 --> 00:29:06.669 And it was just there, sitting, waiting this whole time. 00:29:06.749 --> 00:29:07.649 Just worked perfectly. 00:29:08.029 --> 00:29:08.729 No way. 00:29:08.949 --> 00:29:13.809 And it struck me as, well, that's about as best case scenario as I can expect. Right? 00:29:14.289 --> 00:29:16.669 Now, admittedly, we didn't try installing Windows. 00:29:16.729 --> 00:29:22.009 No. We didn't check Summit. That's true. We didn't try installing Office 2000. 00:29:22.389 --> 00:29:25.629 But it just got me thinking, like, wow, that really held up. 00:29:25.849 --> 00:29:30.309 And then throughout the week, I realized, well, this DVD drive can burn Blu-rays. 00:29:31.269 --> 00:29:33.729 And then I started thinking, well, let's go take a look at this. 00:29:34.229 --> 00:29:35.509 I'm running out of storage. 00:29:35.729 --> 00:29:40.189 Well, you can buy a 50 gigabyte Blu-ray disc. 00:29:40.349 --> 00:29:49.189 In fact, you can buy a pack of 10 50 gig Blu-ray discs for 18 US dollars. 00:29:50.589 --> 00:29:57.569 You can buy 100 discs at Newegg for under $160. So on the low end. 00:29:58.069 --> 00:30:00.109 They still manufacture them? I don't believe this. 00:30:00.469 --> 00:30:03.529 Wow. So say you get that Newegg deal, right? you're essentially 00:30:03.529 --> 00:30:06.549 buying usable storage about 4.6 terabytes 00:30:06.549 --> 00:30:09.649 of usable storage and so that works out to be about three 00:30:09.649 --> 00:30:12.629 cents a gigabyte you could 00:30:12.629 --> 00:30:15.529 of course get an ssd at a pretty but you know those are pretty expensive so 00:30:15.529 --> 00:30:21.569 you can buy these bundles of blu-ray discs at 50 gigs a pop i mean it's going 00:30:21.569 --> 00:30:26.049 to take a while but this is like an area that the data centers don't don't care 00:30:26.049 --> 00:30:29.769 about they're they're not driving these prices up and then you have something 00:30:29.769 --> 00:30:34.349 that could potentially sit on a shelf for 26 years and if you ever needed it back. 00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:37.329 I mean so I guess you gotta go through the effort of doing the burning. 00:30:37.329 --> 00:30:38.049 Yep and. 00:30:38.049 --> 00:30:39.289 Maybe the restoring or the. 00:30:39.289 --> 00:30:42.369 Validating don't lose it and don't forget what files on what and probably. 00:30:42.369 --> 00:30:44.729 Ideally you wanna make sure you've got it in some sort of storage where it's 00:30:44.729 --> 00:30:46.509 not gonna get scratched and you know whatever, 00:30:48.258 --> 00:30:54.978 But, I mean, I remember the eras, like I remember copying stuff for friends, et cetera. 00:30:55.178 --> 00:30:58.518 Like, I have gone through the motions of burning a fair amount of disks, 00:30:58.638 --> 00:31:02.298 right? So, like, it is doable, and you probably use them in the computer anyway, 00:31:02.378 --> 00:31:04.218 so, like, you kind of just do it while you're doing other things. 00:31:04.798 --> 00:31:08.878 And if you do it right, you know, like in the case of this CDR I backed up in 00:31:08.878 --> 00:31:13.778 the year 2000, if it's just files on a file system, and you don't require some 00:31:13.778 --> 00:31:16.438 specific app to, like, decrypt and restore it, 00:31:17.358 --> 00:31:21.098 then future you can just drag and drop the files when you want to restore it 00:31:21.098 --> 00:31:23.518 when you want them maybe you only want one file or something like that. 00:31:23.518 --> 00:31:27.798 But that does bring up keeping track of like there is that because if you're 00:31:27.798 --> 00:31:31.498 gonna have it like the units are smaller right so you'll have more units and 00:31:31.498 --> 00:31:35.198 so yeah if you don't do a good job labeling or whatever then you're like well 00:31:35.198 --> 00:31:37.338 where's wait i need for the photos from which year. 00:31:38.385 --> 00:31:41.925 We also have much better compression algorithms these days than we used to. 00:31:42.105 --> 00:31:45.905 So I feel like you could fit even more info on those disks than you're comparing. 00:31:46.365 --> 00:31:52.325 That's very true. So I set out to find a tool to help me achieve this job. 00:31:52.605 --> 00:31:56.605 How hard could this be, right? I looked at Borg Backup. 00:31:56.745 --> 00:32:00.165 I looked at Bacula, too, considering maybe I would actually just accomplish 00:32:00.165 --> 00:32:01.665 this with a traditional backup tool. 00:32:01.825 --> 00:32:04.545 Because you bring up a good point, Wes, is like the key thing is, 00:32:04.685 --> 00:32:09.845 say my kids come to me two years from now, and they say, Dad, we want to watch X. 00:32:10.385 --> 00:32:15.745 And, well, how the hell do I know out of these 15 Blu-rays where that one file is? 00:32:15.965 --> 00:32:20.425 And if you're backing up a TV series, it could be larger than 50 gigabytes or something like that. 00:32:20.625 --> 00:32:23.405 It's even worse if it's a bunch of small files. They're like, 00:32:23.485 --> 00:32:26.785 oh, I need the, which, okay, where did I put the taxes for this year? 00:32:27.025 --> 00:32:30.905 Oh, God, yeah. Yeah, because paperless is also another thing in here and all of that. 00:32:31.085 --> 00:32:35.145 So, ladies and gentlemen, I could not find a tool, so I have made a tool, 00:32:35.185 --> 00:32:37.445 and it is called Blue Vault. 00:32:37.705 --> 00:32:46.025 That's right. It's a Rust-based app, a TUI, with sort of an 80s theme for managing Blu-ray archives. 00:32:46.265 --> 00:32:52.725 And the basic idea is you attach a USB Blu-ray burner, which are like $50 these 00:32:52.725 --> 00:32:55.485 days, US dollars. You bring up this TUI. 00:32:56.407 --> 00:32:59.767 And it walks you through archiving individual folders to a Blu-ray disk. 00:32:59.847 --> 00:33:02.527 And it supports 25 gig, 50 gig, and 100 gigabyte disks. 00:33:03.127 --> 00:33:07.087 I just this morning added multi-disk architecture. So that's very new. 00:33:07.307 --> 00:33:10.067 So there's two different releases. Release one is single-disk architecture. 00:33:10.507 --> 00:33:15.487 Release two is multi-disk architecture. It generates a table of contents and 00:33:15.487 --> 00:33:17.767 a SQL database where all of the files are. 00:33:17.927 --> 00:33:22.687 It does a SHA-256 sum and a CRC-325 sum of all of the files. 00:33:22.787 --> 00:33:26.567 So you can verify them later. It offers two different burn methods, 00:33:26.767 --> 00:33:30.267 burns directly to Blu-ray or just create an ISO image. 00:33:30.727 --> 00:33:34.667 And it has an optional QR code generator. So if you wanted to label the disk 00:33:34.667 --> 00:33:36.787 or the jewel case with a QR code, you could. 00:33:36.987 --> 00:33:40.227 It has a verify mode, which is very nice. 00:33:40.327 --> 00:33:42.747 It also will do a dry run if you just want to go through a dry run. 00:33:42.827 --> 00:33:46.347 It's using like R-Sync on the back end and a bunch of standard Linux burning tools. 00:33:46.467 --> 00:33:51.347 So really, I just created the TUI to set on top of this. And the Tui has a phosphorus 00:33:51.347 --> 00:33:54.247 green, high contrast, black on green. 00:33:54.427 --> 00:33:57.367 But it's easy to read. Like the stuff you're supposed to look at is obvious and highlighted. 00:33:58.667 --> 00:34:02.407 Monospace type. It's really nice. Subtle animations. And one of the things I 00:34:02.407 --> 00:34:07.587 worked on, although it's not perfect, is I really tried to constantly give you as much feedback. 00:34:07.987 --> 00:34:12.107 Because there's some processes that are just like when you're generating a shot, 00:34:12.207 --> 00:34:14.027 like it can take a little bit in the background. 00:34:14.167 --> 00:34:17.427 Right. Or if you're if you're moving an MKV file to a Blu-ray, 00:34:17.647 --> 00:34:22.287 it can take a little bit. So I've tried to give the UI as much responsiveness 00:34:22.287 --> 00:34:24.187 and updates as to what it's doing as possible. 00:34:25.027 --> 00:34:28.527 And then the thing I just added this morning, well, technically late last night. 00:34:30.371 --> 00:34:34.131 Is the multi-disc archive. Because obviously you're going to have issues where 00:34:34.131 --> 00:34:37.151 you want to back up something that's larger than 50 gigabytes or something like that. 00:34:37.311 --> 00:34:40.371 And so what I'm trying to do here is preserve the folder integrity. 00:34:40.651 --> 00:34:45.231 So it's not doing like a par split or something like that where it's lumping 00:34:45.231 --> 00:34:46.251 them all up and splitting them. 00:34:46.651 --> 00:34:51.151 It will err on the side of potentially wasting a little space on a Blu-ray in 00:34:51.151 --> 00:34:53.591 order to keep all the files just accessible on the file system. 00:34:53.731 --> 00:34:58.291 And then does sequential folder naming so you know where everything's at. 00:34:58.331 --> 00:35:00.371 And this is disc two, this is disc one. And then, like I said, 00:35:00.411 --> 00:35:04.151 it also has a SQLite database that tracks the multi-disc sets for you, 00:35:04.311 --> 00:35:05.751 which you can then search against later on. 00:35:06.471 --> 00:35:09.091 Wait, okay. So it's not splitting files or anything? 00:35:09.311 --> 00:35:11.431 No, it's just kind of looking at the map and being like, okay, 00:35:11.431 --> 00:35:16.071 I can fit this season on this disk, but a few episodes are going to have to go on this other disk. 00:35:16.151 --> 00:35:18.431 And I'll properly label that in the file system, but you know, 00:35:18.551 --> 00:35:21.111 you're going to probably waste a few gigs on this disk. 00:35:21.231 --> 00:35:24.331 But the idea being that in the future, you could just put that in, 00:35:24.451 --> 00:35:27.351 mount it, and just drag and drop the files. You don't need any particular app to restore it. 00:35:27.351 --> 00:35:30.451 And then is it like thought of differently in the app? 00:35:30.591 --> 00:35:35.411 Is that like the multi-disk thought of as a single unit when you're like listing all of your disks or? 00:35:35.991 --> 00:35:38.851 So then it knows that they're at least connected in the database. 00:35:39.111 --> 00:35:42.451 Yes, exactly. And there's two paths in the app right now. There's the single 00:35:42.451 --> 00:35:43.691 disk route, which is really simple. 00:35:43.791 --> 00:35:46.291 Then there's the multi-disk route. And then if you do the multi-disk route, 00:35:46.411 --> 00:35:49.851 then the database knows, okay, this was a multi-disk entry and just stores it that way. 00:35:50.670 --> 00:35:54.670 It's a Rust app, too, which is fun, and it's the first Rust app I've ever created. 00:35:55.170 --> 00:35:58.430 I've tried to be considerate about 00:35:58.430 --> 00:36:01.870 storage space, too, so when the job is successful, it'll clean itself up. 00:36:02.010 --> 00:36:05.690 And there's also just a menu option in the TUI to just do a cleanup because 00:36:05.690 --> 00:36:09.710 from time to time, it's going to generate temporary files to stage them for 00:36:09.710 --> 00:36:12.750 the Blu-ray because I've experimented with a couple of different ways. 00:36:14.490 --> 00:36:19.410 So I bought myself a 10-pack of Blu-rays thinking I was going to use that 10-pack to back up my data. 00:36:19.650 --> 00:36:24.110 No, no. I used that 10-pack to do test after test after test with this app. 00:36:24.230 --> 00:36:25.910 I blew through an entire 10-pack of Blu-rays. 00:36:26.290 --> 00:36:28.710 So I haven't completely tested the multi-dysfunctionality. 00:36:29.050 --> 00:36:30.570 But it does dry runs, you said. 00:36:30.850 --> 00:36:33.730 Yeah, so we'll do dry runs. But, of course, to fully test, I need to burn. 00:36:35.290 --> 00:36:38.290 Yeah, and it will do some testing to make sure everything's working. 00:36:38.330 --> 00:36:41.530 And if it looks like it won't work, it'll try to warn you. 00:36:41.610 --> 00:36:44.250 And if you have any missing dependencies because of a couple apps you have to 00:36:44.250 --> 00:36:45.730 install, it'll attempt to warn you. 00:36:46.450 --> 00:36:52.850 But, yeah, it was an interesting endeavor. And I think my end goal has been 00:36:52.850 --> 00:36:56.830 accomplished in that I could either plug the drive into my NAS, 00:36:57.370 --> 00:37:02.430 my, you know, my Odroid, or I could plug it into my workstation and I can run this in either space. 00:37:03.530 --> 00:37:06.230 And you just sort of set it and forget it. And when you go to the multi-disc 00:37:06.230 --> 00:37:09.570 mode, it'll just go through the work, and it'll pop the disc out when it's ready 00:37:09.570 --> 00:37:11.850 for the next one, tell you what to label it, you pop the next disc in, 00:37:11.890 --> 00:37:15.170 and it'll start continuing the archive. And I just write it across the disc. 00:37:15.250 --> 00:37:20.990 I got a preview of the single-disc mode, so I've been playing with that one. 00:37:21.430 --> 00:37:24.750 I have not yet tried multi-disc, because you only just put it in last night. 00:37:24.790 --> 00:37:27.670 I have no idea if it would even build on your machine. Yeah, 00:37:28.210 --> 00:37:33.810 because not only that, but there's a lot of UI updates I did too, So it's like, we'll see. 00:37:33.950 --> 00:37:36.650 But I would love some help with it because I think, you know, 00:37:36.670 --> 00:37:40.710 there's a couple of little nagly bugs, but the basic functionality is there. It's GPL2. 00:37:41.690 --> 00:37:44.810 It's really easy to pick up everything, super documented, the architecture, 00:37:45.130 --> 00:37:47.570 the commit, the development, the directory structure. 00:37:47.970 --> 00:37:52.410 Everything is there. So you could just sort of pick up and keep running with it if you would like. 00:37:53.750 --> 00:37:55.590 I saw you submitted a pull request. 00:37:55.690 --> 00:37:59.850 I did, yeah. So it turns out that you mentioned kind of what it looks like, 00:37:59.890 --> 00:38:02.830 but you have added a theming system. 00:38:04.726 --> 00:38:06.986 So I thought I'd add a new theme for you. 00:38:08.106 --> 00:38:11.286 You told me to wait for the show. A hot dog theme. 00:38:11.346 --> 00:38:12.166 Hot dog theme. 00:38:12.446 --> 00:38:12.806 Yes. 00:38:13.746 --> 00:38:16.486 Classic Windows 3.1 hot dog stand. 00:38:16.626 --> 00:38:19.766 I do like the, you know, I kind of like it. I do like it. 00:38:20.066 --> 00:38:23.426 Yeah, well, because I kind of decided to lean into the 80s retro theme, 00:38:23.546 --> 00:38:25.806 but then I thought some people might find that really obnoxious. 00:38:25.906 --> 00:38:28.806 So you can actually override it at runtime, or there's a little config file, 00:38:28.946 --> 00:38:32.166 too, where you can set the theme. That's way more obnoxious than mine. 00:38:32.166 --> 00:38:36.066 And I love it. So, well, it's serious business when you're doing your backups, 00:38:36.226 --> 00:38:39.906 right? So, like, you want it to be bright with warning and emergencies. 00:38:40.086 --> 00:38:41.906 I just got a, last night I got a warning from us. Like, hey, 00:38:41.926 --> 00:38:46.326 I made a PR, but don't look at it or merge it until the show. 00:38:48.566 --> 00:38:53.146 And also, if there is about the 80s, maybe they're, like, really big into Hulkamania. That's perfect. 00:38:53.346 --> 00:38:57.446 Oh, yeah, it does. It is the Hulk colors. You're right. I never really connected those two things. 00:38:57.746 --> 00:39:01.766 Yeah, so Blu-ray is in the 90s, right? But the optical storage is very much a retro thing. 00:39:01.766 --> 00:39:08.386 And I will full-on admit I got a little tinge of delightful nostalgia the first 00:39:08.386 --> 00:39:12.186 time I took the wrapper off the spindle, opened up the spindle, 00:39:12.226 --> 00:39:13.906 pulled the Blu-ray off, and put it in the drive. 00:39:13.906 --> 00:39:16.986 And I held it there in my hand, and I'm like, this is actually fun. 00:39:17.106 --> 00:39:18.966 You just had spindles around all the time. 00:39:19.086 --> 00:39:19.246 Yeah. 00:39:21.041 --> 00:39:23.761 It's ours it's it's kind of like the the idea of like 00:39:23.761 --> 00:39:26.801 you know the the style of these optical 00:39:26.801 --> 00:39:29.881 drives you know it's it seems antiquated but 00:39:29.881 --> 00:39:33.241 at the same time there are still massive uses 00:39:33.241 --> 00:39:36.841 for it like really good uses and if you get like the the mdisc 00:39:36.841 --> 00:39:39.761 type of stuff where they claim to have like a thousand 00:39:39.761 --> 00:39:46.721 years of longevity uh the like it is a legitimate solution for storage of data 00:39:46.721 --> 00:39:52.521 and uh Especially if it's data that you're storing for the sake of like I might 00:39:52.521 --> 00:39:58.201 – like movies or TV shows or that kind of media where you don't need access to it at all times. 00:39:58.421 --> 00:40:04.621 The solution through these kinds of disks is actually like probably even better 00:40:04.621 --> 00:40:08.241 because you're not wasting really quick access stuff. 00:40:08.421 --> 00:40:12.181 And so now I've actually thought about this like a couple years ago, 00:40:12.181 --> 00:40:16.101 and now you've convinced me that I want to actually implement this. 00:40:16.101 --> 00:40:20.001 And you know like a jewel case a little blu-ray jewel case doesn't take up a lot of room i. 00:40:20.001 --> 00:40:22.301 Was gonna ask are you gonna do that are you gonna like. 00:40:22.301 --> 00:40:25.501 Or do like a like a like you could get covers or do they. 00:40:25.501 --> 00:40:28.421 Still make those discs where you could like draw images on the top. 00:40:28.421 --> 00:40:33.081 These ones do that like with the inkjet like template thing which is so cool 00:40:33.081 --> 00:40:39.661 oh man yeah um so blue vault is available at github.com slash chris lass slash 00:40:39.661 --> 00:40:43.161 blue dash vault it is vibe coded warning i. 00:40:43.161 --> 00:40:45.481 Did I don't think you can type R in. 00:40:45.881 --> 00:40:46.701 Yes, I fixed that. 00:40:46.841 --> 00:40:47.181 Oh, great. 00:40:47.301 --> 00:40:52.381 Yeah, yeah. R or, there was like Q. I don't think it was R or Q, 00:40:52.421 --> 00:40:55.121 because they were grabbed by the UI for other. 00:40:55.121 --> 00:40:55.761 I figured it must have. 00:40:55.861 --> 00:40:58.601 Yeah. I was like, oh yeah, right, of course. You know, that's, 00:40:58.741 --> 00:41:01.361 so this has been an interesting experience for me is, 00:41:02.264 --> 00:41:06.244 What I really, and I totally if I'm wrong, Wes, but what I really got away from this, 00:41:06.464 --> 00:41:10.444 what I took away from this experience is I got the core functionality working 00:41:10.444 --> 00:41:15.584 in about 45 minutes and the UI and the edge cases and all the little things 00:41:15.584 --> 00:41:18.964 like you can't type R here is what took me six to seven hours. 00:41:19.344 --> 00:41:23.844 Yep. Which totally checks out. You get the happy path done, right? 00:41:23.924 --> 00:41:26.564 You're like, oh, okay, yes, this was, I connected the core pieces of what I 00:41:26.564 --> 00:41:28.564 needed together, got it to do it. 00:41:28.664 --> 00:41:28.784 Yeah. 00:41:28.784 --> 00:41:31.384 And then you realize that there's a whole bunch of ways that you have to, 00:41:31.384 --> 00:41:35.784 like, micro-adjust to make sure that that actually is smooth and usable by a human. 00:41:36.544 --> 00:41:40.704 I mean, six hours is still pretty fast in considering what this is, you know? 00:41:40.824 --> 00:41:43.764 Yeah, well, you know, a lot of the heavy lifting's been just tools underneath 00:41:43.764 --> 00:41:46.344 that have been around on Linux forever. So I got lucky that way, 00:41:46.404 --> 00:41:47.104 right? I'm just using it. 00:41:47.304 --> 00:41:51.044 You don't have to build something to burn the disk. You just have to make sure you assemble the files. 00:41:51.224 --> 00:41:51.904 Right. Yeah, yeah. 00:41:52.344 --> 00:41:53.824 I have some real-world questions. 00:41:54.264 --> 00:41:54.504 Okay. 00:41:54.604 --> 00:41:59.844 How long does it take you to burn a 50-gig disk? And how long does it take you to retrieve said disk? 00:42:00.484 --> 00:42:04.364 So it's slower than I remember, I'll be honest with you. I expected it to be slow. 00:42:04.544 --> 00:42:08.224 I mean, and this isn't like the fastest drive either. It's a $50 external tiny 00:42:08.224 --> 00:42:10.264 thin USB drive, so they probably have faster ones. 00:42:11.324 --> 00:42:18.144 About 30 minutes, 35 minutes to burn a full disk, but I don't really often burn a full disk. 00:42:18.984 --> 00:42:22.164 So if you're doing about a half a disk, it's about 15 minutes. 00:42:22.164 --> 00:42:27.404 And then restoring, you restore at anywhere between 2 megabytes a second to 00:42:27.404 --> 00:42:29.904 30 megabytes a second, depending on where it is on the disk, 00:42:30.024 --> 00:42:31.004 how long the disk has been reading. 00:42:31.344 --> 00:42:33.384 It's one of those things where it's, I don't know if you guys remember this, 00:42:33.424 --> 00:42:37.124 but it starts faster and then it kind of slows down over time a little bit. 00:42:38.324 --> 00:42:41.424 And that's true, you'll notice with the burn, because I do try to show as best 00:42:41.424 --> 00:42:43.144 as I can your transfer rate in the UI. 00:42:43.404 --> 00:42:46.924 And so you'll see it'll start pretty solid. And then it sort of trickles down. 00:42:48.104 --> 00:42:51.844 I guess maybe as it goes wider and wider out on the disk, perhaps is what it is. 00:42:51.844 --> 00:42:52.744 It's physics, yeah. 00:42:52.964 --> 00:42:57.144 Yeah. But going through this has been an interesting, like reconnecting with 00:42:57.144 --> 00:43:02.204 physical media, thinking about documents and media that maybe I don't even need this year. 00:43:02.544 --> 00:43:04.524 And if I can buy from Newegg. 00:43:05.444 --> 00:43:09.504 You know, at three cents a gigabyte, that's probably better than any storage I can get. 00:43:09.584 --> 00:43:15.484 And then I could take some stuff off my existing network storage and maybe squeak through the year. 00:43:17.644 --> 00:43:18.384 What are you know. 00:43:18.484 --> 00:43:19.304 What are your request? 00:43:19.744 --> 00:43:23.464 OK, yeah. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. 00:43:24.324 --> 00:43:24.664 Yeah. 00:43:24.684 --> 00:43:26.024 Have you tried it yet? Have you tried it? 00:43:26.624 --> 00:43:27.084 I'm not yet. 00:43:27.084 --> 00:43:28.544 I got to get this in your hand so you can break it. 00:43:29.144 --> 00:43:32.844 But I have past experience that makes me imagine that feature request. 00:43:32.844 --> 00:43:36.124 and are you taking audio feature requests at this time? 00:43:36.804 --> 00:43:40.864 Audio? Oh, I mean, you're submitting it via audio instead of a P. Okay, yeah, go ahead. 00:43:43.244 --> 00:43:48.504 I just wondered, since, you know, you just admitted that burning disks takes 00:43:48.504 --> 00:43:51.364 a little longer than transferring to hard drives, but that's okay, 00:43:51.524 --> 00:43:52.904 that's okay. This is long-term media. 00:43:53.204 --> 00:44:03.244 So does Blue Vault have the ability to manage multiple burn devices to do the burning? 00:44:03.744 --> 00:44:05.844 Oh, that's a great idea. 00:44:05.844 --> 00:44:08.544 You could stack up five of these or something and just let them go. 00:44:08.884 --> 00:44:12.684 Maybe like once a month you pick one up for the first three months of the year or something. 00:44:13.004 --> 00:44:13.544 Multiplex it. 00:44:14.304 --> 00:44:18.464 And then after the multi-disc, you have like five of these machines doing the 00:44:18.464 --> 00:44:19.244 burning to the multi-disc. 00:44:19.284 --> 00:44:23.084 So it's technically only to take the whole process of one. 00:44:24.511 --> 00:44:26.411 That is a fascinating idea. 00:44:26.771 --> 00:44:27.351 You're welcome. 00:44:28.731 --> 00:44:32.431 You need some serious USB bus power. Because these things, one of the things 00:44:32.431 --> 00:44:36.991 I've noticed is if you don't have a dedicated powered USB hub, 00:44:37.171 --> 00:44:38.791 your built-in port might not be enough. 00:44:39.031 --> 00:44:42.231 And so the burn will fail in Blue Vault, not because of Blue Vault, 00:44:42.311 --> 00:44:43.891 but because the disk doesn't have enough juice. 00:44:44.271 --> 00:44:47.751 So I had to plug it into an externally powered hub in order to get enough juice. 00:44:47.971 --> 00:44:48.671 So it was a laser. 00:44:49.091 --> 00:44:51.151 Three, four disks when you figured that one out? 00:44:51.171 --> 00:44:56.811 It was two disks. yeah i i ended up like getting real learning real quick some 00:44:56.811 --> 00:44:59.931 of the syntax to like just read if there's a file system at all on the disc 00:44:59.931 --> 00:45:04.311 because if there's a file system at all you can't burn to it in for bdrs at least so. 00:45:04.311 --> 00:45:10.131 So does it burn to the like the data as is or does it have like a way for let's 00:45:10.131 --> 00:45:15.191 say you're burning some kind of movie or tv show if it's like playable in a blu-ray player. 00:45:15.191 --> 00:45:19.991 No no it's only it's only meant for like being able to the the guiding principle 00:45:19.991 --> 00:45:23.171 was you could put it like on another Linux box in 10 years and just drag the files off. 00:45:23.491 --> 00:45:23.811 Gotcha. 00:45:23.891 --> 00:45:26.291 Cause I don't actually, I don't really have anything anymore. 00:45:26.531 --> 00:45:30.591 I, if you wanted to play the movie, you would be doing that and then dragging 00:45:30.591 --> 00:45:31.811 it into jellyfin anyway. 00:45:32.031 --> 00:45:32.151 Yeah. 00:45:32.791 --> 00:45:36.051 Yeah. I feel like, I feel like if you're just trying to see how, 00:45:36.231 --> 00:45:40.071 how far you're going down the optical media path, you know? 00:45:40.291 --> 00:45:42.871 Well, I started thinking of, I'm like, this is, you know, how bad would it be 00:45:42.871 --> 00:45:45.451 to just have one of these on the TV and just put, that's not that bad. 00:45:45.631 --> 00:45:46.631 You know, I started thinking about that. 00:45:47.071 --> 00:45:50.991 I think the other thing that'd be kind of a neat feature for this would be to 00:45:50.991 --> 00:45:54.271 just have it also manage archives to disk. 00:45:54.431 --> 00:45:56.891 Like if you had a bunch of like, you know, old disks sitting around, 00:45:57.011 --> 00:45:59.651 although I don't know if I would trust those as much for long-term storage, 00:45:59.811 --> 00:46:03.591 but maybe to get you through the year, because it's still nice to have it organize 00:46:03.591 --> 00:46:07.071 the file system and track in the database what disk it's on and all of that. 00:46:07.391 --> 00:46:10.691 So that's another thing I was thinking about is like a larger storage or, 00:46:10.851 --> 00:46:13.251 you know, you could go to a network mount or something like that. 00:46:14.712 --> 00:46:15.772 So the multi-disc is new. 00:46:16.652 --> 00:46:21.372 What would be interesting is if it had a way of, like, suppose it would, 00:46:21.552 --> 00:46:23.052 would it win multi-disc mode? 00:46:23.192 --> 00:46:25.852 Could you do recursively for, like, a whole folder path? 00:46:26.072 --> 00:46:26.392 Yeah. 00:46:26.852 --> 00:46:32.192 So you could, like, sort of have it, say, back up a system onto a couple of discs if you needed to. 00:46:32.252 --> 00:46:33.312 You could, yeah. I mean, it just... 00:46:33.312 --> 00:46:36.012 And then just, like, have it run and piecemeal it all back together. 00:46:36.192 --> 00:46:39.152 So when you start it, you know, you tell what mode you want to go in and you 00:46:39.152 --> 00:46:40.072 give yourself some notes. 00:46:40.072 --> 00:46:43.892 And then one of the second to final screens is there is, 00:46:43.892 --> 00:46:46.912 you can manually enter a path or there's 00:46:46.912 --> 00:46:50.192 a file browser you can tab down to and you can browse and whatever 00:46:50.192 --> 00:46:52.952 top level you capture it'll back up everything underneath that 00:46:52.952 --> 00:46:56.432 top level okay so you can do your home directory too or whatever yeah and 00:46:56.432 --> 00:46:59.452 i actually was thinking that is what i'm going to do is i'm going to do one 00:46:59.452 --> 00:47:03.112 for my paperless you know and all that and just put it on a shelf maybe once 00:47:03.112 --> 00:47:06.312 a quarter once a year something like that and if something goes wrong i'll at 00:47:06.312 --> 00:47:10.352 least have that hard copy that i can refer to um and you know if it's in a standard 00:47:10.352 --> 00:47:13.492 file system format then it'd be possible that if I want to recover that, 00:47:13.592 --> 00:47:16.592 say I want some document for some reason, God forbid, 00:47:17.332 --> 00:47:20.352 I don't need to restore all of it into paperless. Maybe I just go get that one file. 00:47:20.492 --> 00:47:20.652 Sure. 00:47:21.452 --> 00:47:25.672 That's why I like having it, even though you will sometimes have a Blu-ray where 00:47:25.672 --> 00:47:29.592 you didn't use all the space, maybe as efficiently, I think it's worth it. 00:47:29.772 --> 00:47:32.892 Yeah, I think this is a really interesting idea, and I also think it's kind 00:47:32.892 --> 00:47:37.852 of hilarious that it's vibe-coded because that means AI caused the problem and solved the problem. 00:47:38.572 --> 00:47:39.572 That's a great point. 00:47:41.332 --> 00:47:41.532 Oh, man. 00:47:45.431 --> 00:47:49.011 There is no sponsor for this segment, but we do have our great members and, 00:47:49.111 --> 00:47:49.791 of course, our boosters. 00:47:49.971 --> 00:47:53.091 So I just want to take a moment and thank them because at the beginning of the 00:47:53.091 --> 00:47:56.111 year, you know, we're sorting out the deals. It can take a little while, 00:47:56.111 --> 00:48:01.531 and there are periods that if we didn't have the support of our members, we wouldn't have a show. 00:48:02.131 --> 00:48:05.571 And so I'm very grateful. And if you haven't signed up yet, I do still have 00:48:05.571 --> 00:48:07.691 the bootleg promo code. That's a fantastic deal. 00:48:07.831 --> 00:48:11.591 It's so good I don't say the price on air. But it gets you access to Linux Unplugged's 00:48:11.591 --> 00:48:16.171 bootleg feed and the no-ads feed you get to pick, as well as the launch bootleg 00:48:16.171 --> 00:48:20.231 feed, which much like this has extra content that just doesn't make it in the main show. 00:48:20.391 --> 00:48:22.411 And there's always a little additional context in there, too. 00:48:22.571 --> 00:48:25.811 So thank you, everybody, who supports us with a boost or with membership, 00:48:25.811 --> 00:48:28.111 because right now you make the show possible. 00:48:28.171 --> 00:48:31.591 We really do appreciate it. Thank you very much. And on with the show, gentlemen. 00:48:35.291 --> 00:48:40.991 I'll see a little bag of boosts here and we're gonna start off with our baller the dude abides, 00:48:45.600 --> 00:48:51.460 Now the Dutabide sent in a row of McDucks here. 22,222 sets. 00:48:55.100 --> 00:48:58.900 Stop suggesting awesome projects. I'm running out of resources. 00:49:00.080 --> 00:49:04.420 Metalurk X seems promising. I have seen it mentioned a couple times out in the 00:49:04.420 --> 00:49:06.680 wild, but didn't bother deploying it. 00:49:06.820 --> 00:49:09.820 And now because of Linux Unplugged, I have to try it. 00:49:10.140 --> 00:49:13.320 All right, the dude. You know, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised. 00:49:13.320 --> 00:49:18.740 you could set it up and let it just run for a week and then come back to it 00:49:18.740 --> 00:49:21.560 and when you got time to tinker with it because let it run and discover. 00:49:22.680 --> 00:49:27.740 I was over the last couple of days realizing that, so I've got these stupid 00:49:27.740 --> 00:49:30.000 mesh APs. It's great, whatever. 00:49:31.340 --> 00:49:37.980 But IoT devices in particular are so dumb and they will really lock into one particular AP. 00:49:38.300 --> 00:49:42.440 The decision in a mesh AP network happens on the client side And if the client 00:49:42.440 --> 00:49:45.920 side isn't willing to move nodes, it won't. 00:49:46.020 --> 00:49:50.840 And so if the stupid IoT device that's way far away from the AP decides to connect 00:49:50.840 --> 00:49:55.000 to that AP, you basically have to take the mesh nodes offline and make things 00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:57.260 forcibly readjust mess. 00:49:57.780 --> 00:50:02.320 So I was dealing with that. And it was really interesting to watch NetAlertX kind of catch up. 00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:06.160 Oh, this has moved over here. Oh, this device has changed over here. Oh, yeah, right. 00:50:06.540 --> 00:50:10.040 Good job, NetAlertX. You nailed it. So it's worth it. And you can just let it 00:50:10.040 --> 00:50:12.620 run for a bit. and then come back around to it. 00:50:14.360 --> 00:50:20.460 Well, Adversary 17 comes in with a Spaceballs boost. That, of course, is 12,345 sats. 00:50:25.624 --> 00:50:29.544 Adversary says, I have a lot of similar ability for monitoring within my Unify 00:50:29.544 --> 00:50:33.164 dream machine, but I still might set this up. Good find, Mr. Fisher. 00:50:33.524 --> 00:50:35.524 Hey, I think what you just said also works for this. 00:50:35.844 --> 00:50:40.764 You know, yeah. I would love to hear more feedback on the Unify stuff if our 00:50:40.764 --> 00:50:42.484 audience likes the Unify stuff. 00:50:42.804 --> 00:50:45.584 I don't know how much it can pull in, but it did seem like they had a plug-in 00:50:45.584 --> 00:50:49.124 that could also, like if you ended up wanting the Unify data in NetAlert. 00:50:49.544 --> 00:50:50.664 Peanut butter and jelly, West Payne. 00:50:50.864 --> 00:50:56.004 Mm-hmm. Ooh, our buddy, our pal Gene Bean comes in with the RoboDucks. 00:50:57.984 --> 00:51:02.784 In response to Olympia Mike and the Nixbook project and the licensing question, 00:51:02.964 --> 00:51:04.784 Gene makes a great point, which we should have mentioned. 00:51:05.264 --> 00:51:09.424 Keep in mind that if you have contributors and don't also use a CLA or contributor 00:51:09.424 --> 00:51:13.784 license agreement from day one, you can't change the license of the existing 00:51:13.784 --> 00:51:16.744 code later without sign-off from all prior contributors. 00:51:17.004 --> 00:51:20.784 Gene Bean saying go for the CLA? Something to think about. He's right. 00:51:20.784 --> 00:51:24.144 And it's also just worthwhile, you know, thinking about the licensing kind of 00:51:24.144 --> 00:51:25.784 early on and up front is worthwhile. 00:51:26.604 --> 00:51:28.484 Yeah, I agree. It is definitely a good point. Thank you, Gene. 00:51:29.044 --> 00:51:31.844 Yeah, and not having a license. And some people don't, like, 00:51:31.864 --> 00:51:36.464 create a project and don't put a license at all. And that just causes massive craziness. 00:51:36.664 --> 00:51:39.344 That's, I think, kind of where he's at. He's getting popular enough now where 00:51:39.344 --> 00:51:42.504 it's like people are asking rather consistently, what's the license here? 00:51:42.784 --> 00:51:43.784 So they know how to proceed. 00:51:44.824 --> 00:51:46.204 So, Mike, let us know what you end up doing. 00:51:46.744 --> 00:51:51.924 Well, Odyssey, Westra boosted in a couple boosts here for a total of 6,000. 206 Satoshis. 00:51:55.044 --> 00:51:57.324 It turns out they all say Happy New Year. 00:51:57.644 --> 00:51:58.644 Happy New Year! 00:51:58.904 --> 00:51:59.424 Happy New Year! 00:51:59.484 --> 00:52:00.124 Happy New Year! 00:52:01.044 --> 00:52:02.424 The year of the Linux desktop. 00:52:02.604 --> 00:52:08.924 Thank you, Odyssey. Nice to hear from you. Pegdots here with 6,666 sats. 00:52:11.687 --> 00:52:14.307 Well, I'm guessing that Brent doesn't work for Nextcloud anymore. 00:52:14.307 --> 00:52:17.487 So what's he doing now? Is he a traveling salesman in his bang bus? 00:52:17.707 --> 00:52:22.227 As a JB member, I'd be interested to know how much financial value added is 00:52:22.227 --> 00:52:25.327 compared to the boost in streaming. Oh, these are – okay. So we've got two questions here, three questions. 00:52:25.467 --> 00:52:28.047 I know that the functions like Bitcoin value fluctuate. 00:52:28.567 --> 00:52:31.727 Difficult to put in numbers but interested in a rough idea. So think of it – 00:52:31.727 --> 00:52:33.227 okay. So I'll answer that one first. 00:52:33.447 --> 00:52:36.827 So this week where we have – And I think what. 00:52:36.827 --> 00:52:40.787 The question was, how does boosting and streaming compare to memberships in 00:52:40.787 --> 00:52:42.587 terms of supporting the show or something like that? 00:52:42.867 --> 00:52:46.107 Yeah, I think on average, there's still we still probably get significantly 00:52:46.107 --> 00:52:48.527 more support through the membership mechanism on average. 00:52:49.007 --> 00:52:52.267 And so the way we can that and the thing about that is that's we look at as, 00:52:52.327 --> 00:52:53.767 OK, that's the revenue we can plan on. 00:52:54.107 --> 00:52:55.227 Kind of a consistent baseline. 00:52:55.607 --> 00:52:59.007 And then the boost is like, OK, that's like when, you know, you get a bonus, 00:52:59.107 --> 00:53:01.907 you did a lot, you did good, you did. And that's like the extra stuff that goes 00:53:01.907 --> 00:53:05.407 directly to all of us because the show through the memberships is, 00:53:05.487 --> 00:53:06.687 you know, it's barely paying the bills. 00:53:07.027 --> 00:53:10.027 And so it's not really equivalent. 00:53:10.227 --> 00:53:12.587 One sort of serves one function and one serves. And we're very, 00:53:12.727 --> 00:53:16.147 very lucky it worked out that way because really since COVID, 00:53:16.527 --> 00:53:17.827 the ad market has just been destroyed. 00:53:17.827 --> 00:53:20.727 But really in the last few years, it's perhaps turning around, 00:53:20.907 --> 00:53:22.007 but it's still very slow. 00:53:22.007 --> 00:53:27.187 And one thing that I think is very true is as the podcast market has grown, 00:53:27.467 --> 00:53:31.527 the sponsors are looking at different types of shows and different demographics 00:53:31.527 --> 00:53:34.367 than they were a few years ago when we were sort of in our heyday of, 00:53:34.447 --> 00:53:35.647 you know, every spot was sold out. 00:53:36.387 --> 00:53:42.547 And it's just how it goes is, you know, a podcast today is just a much different beast. 00:53:42.707 --> 00:53:44.907 Usually has a celebrity name attached to it if it's very successful. 00:53:45.167 --> 00:53:48.227 Yeah. The ecosystem around it has changed. The ecosystem within has changed. 00:53:48.327 --> 00:53:48.427 Yeah. 00:53:48.747 --> 00:53:51.247 Who people and what they're marketing towards has changed. 00:53:51.247 --> 00:53:56.067 Yeah. And so for us, it's like the two things are very symbiotic and used differently. 00:53:56.387 --> 00:53:59.367 We really do appreciate both the support. And I know it's, you know, 00:53:59.447 --> 00:54:03.127 it's the thing is, it's like, it's like I've kind of made the equivalent seat with Linux magazines. 00:54:03.267 --> 00:54:05.467 It's like, it's a very niche thing. There's a core audience that loves it. 00:54:06.688 --> 00:54:11.728 The fundamental economic model might not actually be viable with the direct 00:54:11.728 --> 00:54:14.528 commercial market because the 00:54:14.528 --> 00:54:18.108 scale of advertising on the internet now requires essentially millions. 00:54:18.308 --> 00:54:22.948 And so it's where these kinds of direct audience supported things really make 00:54:22.948 --> 00:54:26.988 a difference because it's then made possible by the very niche that's interested in it. 00:54:27.068 --> 00:54:30.008 And I don't think like the Linux magazines could have survived without something. 00:54:30.088 --> 00:54:31.208 They didn't have anything like that. 00:54:31.488 --> 00:54:34.128 And so, you know, they went the way of the dinosaur for the most part. 00:54:34.408 --> 00:54:38.068 Good question. Oh, and then, Brentley, do you have any comment on the NextCloud stuff? 00:54:39.008 --> 00:54:42.648 Besides being a full-time JBer, I'm sure you do other things as well. 00:54:43.708 --> 00:54:46.588 Yeah, I would say good guess on the NextCloud part. I haven't been a NextClouder 00:54:46.588 --> 00:54:49.928 since about, I don't know, May of last year and have been basically, 00:54:49.928 --> 00:54:52.448 what would you call it, Chris, vagabonding 00:54:52.448 --> 00:54:55.288 since then, doing a bunch of JB projects there for a long time. 00:54:55.348 --> 00:54:58.528 We rescued, I don't know if you heard about it, rescued this crazy van that's 00:54:58.528 --> 00:55:01.348 still giving me projects on a daily basis, it seems. 00:55:01.348 --> 00:55:02.488 Yeah, you're kind of restoring that. 00:55:02.488 --> 00:55:04.308 You know something else we don't talk about with you, Brent, 00:55:04.448 --> 00:55:07.628 too, is you are a very handy guy, Brent. 00:55:08.148 --> 00:55:10.888 Like, if Brent needs to work for a couple of days, you know, 00:55:10.948 --> 00:55:13.688 there's friends and family that have projects where they need somebody who can 00:55:13.688 --> 00:55:15.768 go on site and do a lot of really good work with their hands, 00:55:15.868 --> 00:55:16.568 like good, intricate work. 00:55:17.517 --> 00:55:20.537 masonry type work i don't know is that what it's called what is it called that kind of work. 00:55:20.537 --> 00:55:24.237 Uh like i don't know general construction work i'm kind of a generalist i would 00:55:24.237 --> 00:55:29.117 say but you're a fancy experience and i have high standards that most people 00:55:29.117 --> 00:55:32.017 don't have i guess right yeah i. 00:55:32.017 --> 00:55:33.257 Think that's the word i was looking for. 00:55:33.257 --> 00:55:37.957 Basically just yesterday i was doing that like uh i had an uncle near here who 00:55:37.957 --> 00:55:41.337 was like hey i need some electrical work done but i don't know what i'm doing 00:55:41.337 --> 00:55:44.817 and last time i did it i really screwed it up so can you come over and fix all 00:55:44.817 --> 00:55:47.677 my mistakes that i've done for the last decade, and so we did that. 00:55:47.737 --> 00:55:48.757 And it worked out really well. 00:55:48.757 --> 00:55:50.117 And then that was when you come over to my place. 00:55:50.277 --> 00:55:53.997 The other thing you have to know is Brent has a hard time saying no to those kind of requests. 00:55:54.017 --> 00:55:54.857 That's true, too. Yeah. 00:55:55.137 --> 00:55:56.997 Because he's a kind and generous person. 00:55:57.517 --> 00:56:03.457 Basically, I've been chasing, like, hanging out with people I love and chasing 00:56:03.457 --> 00:56:05.977 happiness instead of financial stuff. 00:56:06.417 --> 00:56:10.537 That leaves, you know, my bank account sad, but my soul quite happy. 00:56:11.097 --> 00:56:15.157 He's saying hanging out with people he loves, but he's on the opposite coast. I don't understand. 00:56:15.157 --> 00:56:17.417 Sharing my time with people I love. 00:56:17.817 --> 00:56:22.537 Message received on that one. All right. All right. Wes, you want to take Mr. Facial Hair? 00:56:22.537 --> 00:56:25.837 Yes. The facial hair comes in with 6,000 sats. 00:56:27.210 --> 00:56:31.030 I wanted to shine some light on an area where open source and Linux are doing 00:56:31.030 --> 00:56:33.790 quite well. And it's tabletop gaming. 00:56:34.110 --> 00:56:34.270 Really? 00:56:34.410 --> 00:56:37.590 For example, the D&D game I run uses Nextcloud for content hosting, 00:56:38.030 --> 00:56:42.630 Foundry VTT for our virtual table, and self-hosted Jitsi for player comms. 00:56:42.890 --> 00:56:46.510 Just wanted to get your thoughts on this and see if you all had any fun D&D stories. 00:56:47.110 --> 00:56:51.630 Facial hair, why do you suppose this is? What has attributed this phenomenon? 00:56:51.890 --> 00:56:53.090 And how can we replicate it? 00:56:53.650 --> 00:56:54.950 Thank you for the report. 00:56:55.070 --> 00:56:55.510 That's great. 00:56:55.510 --> 00:57:00.030 I mean, there's a lot of great tools, and you need to accomplish a certain set 00:57:00.030 --> 00:57:02.730 of things to have a good game going. Why not solve them with open source? 00:57:02.950 --> 00:57:04.030 You ever play any D&D? 00:57:04.170 --> 00:57:07.530 Yeah, I like D&D. It's been a while, but I've played many. 00:57:07.710 --> 00:57:12.350 I mean, never super consistent, but I've had many fun D&D experiences over the years. 00:57:12.450 --> 00:57:13.450 Michael, you ever do any D&D? 00:57:13.730 --> 00:57:15.250 I've never played D&D. No. 00:57:15.750 --> 00:57:16.610 Brent, what about you? 00:57:16.790 --> 00:57:21.210 I have never participated. However, I have watched a lot of famous people play 00:57:21.210 --> 00:57:25.590 in the last couple months. and have been invited several times, 00:57:25.630 --> 00:57:29.930 but I feel unprepared, let's say. Daunted. 00:57:30.490 --> 00:57:33.390 Well, I mean, I hope they're not inviting you to be the DM. 00:57:33.850 --> 00:57:38.790 No, no, no, by far not. However, I still feel a way out of my league. 00:57:39.319 --> 00:57:43.539 I feel like this is an opportunity that we could do a collab of like doing like, 00:57:43.539 --> 00:57:46.539 you know, first timers doing D&D. 00:57:46.839 --> 00:57:50.359 Like pair up first timer with a pro or something. I want to learn enough where 00:57:50.359 --> 00:57:53.059 I could just do like commentary on the streams like, oh, he moves over here 00:57:53.059 --> 00:57:54.639 and does this. You know, I don't know. 00:57:54.779 --> 00:57:57.739 I don't know if it's more golf or if it's more wrestling for D&D, but. 00:57:59.179 --> 00:58:01.239 I think it's more. I think it's more golf, maybe. 00:58:01.919 --> 00:58:02.399 Yeah, I think so. 00:58:02.719 --> 00:58:05.519 They have their own dialogue, so you don't want to interact too much. 00:58:05.519 --> 00:58:10.879 but there's actually a few like i haven't done like play dnd but i've seen like 00:58:10.879 --> 00:58:15.819 random videos of people playing dnd because there's a couple uh shows that are 00:58:15.819 --> 00:58:20.619 on youtube where it's just like a bunch of comedians playing dnd and that's 00:58:20.619 --> 00:58:21.939 that's entertaining stuff yeah for sure. 00:58:21.939 --> 00:58:24.639 What's fun too right is they have like all kinds of different types of 00:58:24.639 --> 00:58:27.639 games at this point so one of the first ones i did was actually a star wars themed 00:58:27.639 --> 00:58:30.439 one that a roommate ran and uh it's kind of a new roommate 00:58:30.439 --> 00:58:35.019 and i i came home and another uh roommate was working at a donut shop and so 00:58:35.019 --> 00:58:38.719 they had all these like you know like end of the day donuts like they'd pushed 00:58:38.719 --> 00:58:42.099 um some of the like taking a table out of a room and pushed it in with the main 00:58:42.099 --> 00:58:47.139 kitchen table and the center was filled with donuts and i was like coming home 00:58:47.139 --> 00:58:48.659 and i was like what is happening. 00:58:48.659 --> 00:58:49.599 That sounds like an awesome. 00:58:49.599 --> 00:58:51.559 Introduction it was a great introduction not bad. 00:58:51.559 --> 00:58:57.959 At all i i would say if we want to do a jb dnd at some point maybe a fun stream 00:58:57.959 --> 00:59:00.779 on the holidays or when we're all feeling like we don't have too much work, 00:59:00.979 --> 00:59:03.779 probably our buddy Jason would host that for us. 00:59:03.839 --> 00:59:04.739 That would be great. 00:59:04.819 --> 00:59:09.639 He is a professional D&D-er, so he would organize that for us if we wanted. 00:59:10.279 --> 00:59:11.079 Why am I not surprised? 00:59:11.079 --> 00:59:12.319 And he's listening right now, so hey, Jason. 00:59:12.679 --> 00:59:15.979 Hello, Jason! Alright, thank you everybody who supported the show, 00:59:16.059 --> 00:59:17.359 the members and the boosters. 00:59:20.219 --> 00:59:23.599 When you look at our SAT streamers, 22 of you stream SATs as you listen, 00:59:23.659 --> 00:59:26.919 you collectively stacked 25,340 SATs. 00:59:27.019 --> 00:59:33.059 When you combine that with our boosters, it's a humble but appreciated 85,267 sats. 00:59:36.887 --> 00:59:42.747 This can be a thing from time to time because the last two episodes, the sun was shining. 00:59:43.287 --> 00:59:44.827 Crazy. We got sunburned. 00:59:45.027 --> 00:59:47.847 Yeah. We still have our skin peeling. 00:59:48.107 --> 00:59:52.007 You guys really blew us away. What does tend to happen is we kind of go into 00:59:52.007 --> 00:59:53.827 famine. We sort of feast and then we have famine for a bit. 00:59:53.827 --> 00:59:54.327 Like a rain shadow. 00:59:54.447 --> 00:59:57.987 Yeah. So if you've been waiting to support the show, now it could be a good 00:59:57.987 --> 00:59:59.827 time during the famine. We really do appreciate it. 01:00:00.047 --> 01:00:02.887 It's really easy to boost to something like Fountain FM. In fact, 01:00:02.947 --> 01:00:03.867 they're making it easier and 01:00:03.867 --> 01:00:06.887 easier, guys. It's getting crazy what they're doing with the new features. 01:00:07.127 --> 01:00:10.507 There's a whole self-hosted platform out there with things like AlbiHub and 01:00:10.507 --> 01:00:13.027 lots of good apps at podcastapps.com. 01:00:13.147 --> 01:00:16.527 Then you get additional features like transcripts. You get the cloud chapters. 01:00:16.707 --> 01:00:19.827 You get notifications within 90 seconds when a new episode is out. 01:00:20.247 --> 01:00:23.567 Additionally, there's all kinds of new things coming all the time like live 01:00:23.567 --> 01:00:27.067 stream support and more. So check it out at podcastapps.com. 01:00:37.927 --> 01:00:42.487 All right, now, the first pick this week, I think, Brenly, you spotted this 01:00:42.487 --> 01:00:44.227 one, and for a good reason, right? 01:00:44.347 --> 01:00:48.187 This was Copia, I think is maybe how you say it, a cross-platform backup tool 01:00:48.187 --> 01:00:52.147 for the various operating systems out there with some really nice features. 01:00:52.467 --> 01:00:56.487 Yeah, I've been diving into Copia. It was mentioned a couple times by some of 01:00:56.487 --> 01:01:02.127 our listeners as a response to our, you know, several scattered backup episodes 01:01:02.127 --> 01:01:03.247 that we've done in the past. 01:01:03.247 --> 01:01:04.827 And you could consider this one of them. 01:01:05.387 --> 01:01:09.267 Yeah. Here's your mini segment for, you know, give us some feedback on what we're doing wrong. 01:01:09.767 --> 01:01:15.447 But I had a friend who ran into a situation where their laptop was stolen out 01:01:15.447 --> 01:01:18.907 of their apartment while they were there sleeping just overnight. 01:01:19.287 --> 01:01:23.667 And it turns out that person also had a thesis that was due in a week. 01:01:23.667 --> 01:01:27.807 And that was their only copy of pretty much all of the stuff they've created 01:01:27.807 --> 01:01:28.927 in the last couple years. 01:01:29.629 --> 01:01:34.129 So somehow as a crazy story, I won't tell here, they got it back like a random 01:01:34.129 --> 01:01:36.489 stranger came and gave the laptop back. 01:01:36.729 --> 01:01:40.509 I don't know really the whole story there. But anyway, so that situation got much better. 01:01:40.649 --> 01:01:46.149 But it got me thinking, well, I think my duty in this world is to help my friends with their backups. 01:01:46.369 --> 01:01:49.909 And I've been trying to do that for more than a decade. 01:01:50.289 --> 01:01:53.689 But it sounds like there's something to do here. 01:01:53.829 --> 01:01:58.229 So I wanted to set up a backup system for her that just kind of ran in the background. 01:01:58.229 --> 01:02:00.969 she never ever ever had to think about and if 01:02:00.969 --> 01:02:03.749 this kind of situation happened i can just kind of step in and 01:02:03.749 --> 01:02:06.609 help out and copia's sort of fit 01:02:06.609 --> 01:02:09.669 the bill on this one because usually i would reach for a linux only tool 01:02:09.669 --> 01:02:12.589 because i only do support for friends who run linux 01:02:12.589 --> 01:02:15.389 but she was because her laptop 01:02:15.389 --> 01:02:18.209 was stolen given a laptop by her parents which is a windows 01:02:18.209 --> 01:02:21.329 laptop and she was like i might just use it as is so i 01:02:21.329 --> 01:02:25.089 figured okay i need something that's you know cross-platform and 01:02:25.089 --> 01:02:28.969 copia seemed to fit the bill there because the interface is just 01:02:28.969 --> 01:02:32.089 the same on a bunch of different platforms the you 01:02:32.089 --> 01:02:35.109 know three ones we care about and it 01:02:35.109 --> 01:02:37.909 also is serverless which means you know it could just kind of 01:02:37.909 --> 01:02:42.229 run on its own on a laptop which is all that this friend in particular and many 01:02:42.229 --> 01:02:47.169 other friends i can think of and family members have so i kind of started diving 01:02:47.169 --> 01:02:53.089 into copia as maybe the next way i can help a bunch of people and if i can just 01:02:53.089 --> 01:02:55.949 suggest one tool for all of them, that would make my life easier. 01:02:56.209 --> 01:03:00.349 So the things I loved about Copia is cross-platform, as I mentioned. 01:03:00.509 --> 01:03:04.469 It seems really quite modern. It's written in Go, which is nice and fast. 01:03:05.069 --> 01:03:08.449 But also there's a lot of people who've been contributing to it. 01:03:08.549 --> 01:03:12.289 I think I saw 170 contributors, which is something I always care about. 01:03:12.769 --> 01:03:15.989 But there's some cool stuff here. So it can back up to, you know, 01:03:16.349 --> 01:03:20.589 Amazon S3 and Backblaze and those kind of things by default. Yeah. 01:03:21.902 --> 01:03:24.802 one thing i thought our little crew here would really love is 01:03:24.802 --> 01:03:27.882 it can also if you have r clone installed it 01:03:27.882 --> 01:03:30.942 can also control our clone as sort 01:03:30.942 --> 01:03:34.582 of an interface to our clone and support a 01:03:34.582 --> 01:03:40.082 lot of what our clone can do as a back end so the options for back ends is plenty 01:03:40.082 --> 01:03:44.182 and i think you'd be hard pressed to find a back end that doesn't work for you 01:03:44.182 --> 01:03:49.222 and it just runs really well the other The thing I liked is the interface is 01:03:49.222 --> 01:03:51.482 super configurable if you want it to be, 01:03:51.682 --> 01:03:53.962 but it can also be fairly straightforward. 01:03:53.982 --> 01:03:57.762 So it's a nice blend for someone who's not that tech savvy who has it running, 01:03:57.942 --> 01:04:00.922 but then I can just pop in and make some adjustments whenever I need to. 01:04:01.282 --> 01:04:05.122 That sounds like a low-key compliment, but this is the QA guy over here, right? 01:04:05.202 --> 01:04:10.562 So that means the interface wasn't riddled with a bunch of obvious bugs or defects or silly things. 01:04:10.702 --> 01:04:12.222 Well, I found one or two, but they weren't critical. 01:04:12.482 --> 01:04:15.962 So we'll get it. Of course. Of course. 01:04:17.202 --> 01:04:21.002 But I would say give it a try. I've been using Borg for myself for the last 01:04:21.002 --> 01:04:24.882 couple of years, and this actually is getting me to start thinking if I should 01:04:24.882 --> 01:04:26.602 switch to it permanently for my own stuff, too. 01:04:27.182 --> 01:04:30.902 So not only does it have support for a lot of the cloud storage providers we've 01:04:30.902 --> 01:04:35.362 all heard of, but then, as you might expect, it also has support for any WebDAV 01:04:35.362 --> 01:04:39.402 or SFTP or like Brent said, our clone support, too, which really opens it up. 01:04:39.402 --> 01:04:45.082 So that's pretty nice because, you know, you could have one person you're helping 01:04:45.082 --> 01:04:48.922 that uses their Dropbox and another person you're helping uses their Google Cloud storage. 01:04:49.062 --> 01:04:51.782 But it's the same interface and options sitting on top of that. 01:04:51.862 --> 01:04:52.982 You don't have to keep learning new tools. 01:04:53.162 --> 01:04:58.302 Yeah. It's Apache 2 is the license on that. And, yes, it does save everything 01:04:58.302 --> 01:04:59.642 encrypted locally. Yeah. 01:05:00.385 --> 01:05:03.585 before it sends them up to the cloud provider. Nice one, Brent. 01:05:03.825 --> 01:05:06.685 Good find. Sorry to hear about that story with the laptop. That's awful. 01:05:07.245 --> 01:05:09.485 Yeah, and it's really a thanks to the audience for suggesting this one. 01:05:09.585 --> 01:05:12.165 I had it noted for future reference, and the future is now. 01:05:12.565 --> 01:05:17.165 Ah, isn't it funny? Later becomes now. Well, since I was talking, 01:05:17.165 --> 01:05:21.385 you know, Blu-rays and whatnot, you could also just go a little simpler with 01:05:21.385 --> 01:05:22.785 something called Power ISO. 01:05:23.105 --> 01:05:25.705 It's not a free software app, but it is available for Linux, 01:05:26.225 --> 01:05:29.825 and you can probably guess what this does. It's an application for burning your 01:05:29.825 --> 01:05:33.245 disks and making your file systems and all of that, creating virtual drives 01:05:33.245 --> 01:05:34.845 or bootable disks or whatever you want. 01:05:35.265 --> 01:05:39.065 I think people even use it somehow to make Windows USB boot disks. 01:05:39.145 --> 01:05:40.065 I couldn't speak to that. 01:05:40.305 --> 01:05:44.145 But it's an application that very much invokes a 90s design. 01:05:44.145 --> 01:05:49.705 In fact, the screenshot is from a Vista era, a Windows desktop. 01:05:49.965 --> 01:05:53.065 So that's how you know it's good, right? Because if you're dealing with something 01:05:53.065 --> 01:05:56.605 that burns disks, you want to have a retro look. That's why I went with an 80s 01:05:56.605 --> 01:06:01.405 Tui, and they have a very 90s or maybe early aughts Vista theme. 01:06:01.465 --> 01:06:05.325 But they just released a new version on October 24th, 2025, so the project is 01:06:05.325 --> 01:06:07.685 still very active and is free. 01:06:09.009 --> 01:06:13.909 and works tried it out so this is you know more akin to like the typical uh 01:06:13.909 --> 01:06:15.989 things you might have back in the day to burn your disk and stuff. 01:06:15.989 --> 01:06:19.929 Well i think i have a pick from the chat room they suggested a project chris 01:06:19.929 --> 01:06:25.149 when you were talking about your blue vault yeah that is this teleco project 01:06:25.149 --> 01:06:30.329 oh teleco yeah it looks like it does a bunch of like well i don't quite know 01:06:30.329 --> 01:06:32.569 does anybody else know it better than i do because i'm just gonna wing it. 01:06:32.569 --> 01:06:36.069 Teleco is a kde project yeah and it's 01:06:36.069 --> 01:06:39.369 uh it's basically like it's more of an inventory system it's 01:06:39.369 --> 01:06:42.389 not really like a day it's not really a database tracking thing 01:06:42.389 --> 01:06:45.569 but and let's it's like a manual inserting of like keeping track 01:06:45.569 --> 01:06:51.229 of basically anything you want some information about uh so you could you know 01:06:51.229 --> 01:06:55.389 use it to track your documents but also in a sense of like labeling everything 01:06:55.389 --> 01:06:59.789 or you know your music could be associated your books could be associated like 01:06:59.789 --> 01:07:03.269 all sorts of stuff it's more of a just a overall, 01:07:03.989 --> 01:07:08.849 collections of anything so like if you have a you know digital comic books or 01:07:08.849 --> 01:07:11.809 something you could use it as a keeping track of that sort of stuff but it's 01:07:11.809 --> 01:07:13.589 more of a manual setup yeah. 01:07:13.589 --> 01:07:17.489 I did seriously consider it i have it like installed on all my machines and 01:07:17.489 --> 01:07:19.709 i was playing really yeah yeah nice. 01:07:20.369 --> 01:07:21.889 So thanks to swami for that one. 01:07:21.889 --> 01:07:23.329 But i i got kind of, 01:07:24.260 --> 01:07:26.600 burned out on the manual part of it so. 01:07:26.600 --> 01:07:30.040 Yeah it's worth checking out though people are interested so i'll toss a link 01:07:30.040 --> 01:07:33.760 to that in the show notes too but wes that wasn't what you had up your sleeve was it. 01:07:33.760 --> 01:07:39.120 It was not no so um okay well you were getting getting the coding done or the 01:07:39.120 --> 01:07:42.600 vibing done whichever it was yeah um i was trying to test it right and so i 01:07:42.600 --> 01:07:45.720 was getting it to build checking it did build on my machine i wanted to try 01:07:45.720 --> 01:07:48.920 it there was a few things we had to fix in particular some tests i'm. 01:07:48.920 --> 01:07:50.540 Betting you probably didn't have a stash of blu-rays. 01:07:51.040 --> 01:07:55.920 No. And I was using this laptop, and it doesn't even have an optical drive. 01:07:56.060 --> 01:07:56.220 No. 01:07:56.940 --> 01:07:59.900 So I go, I finally get it built, and I go and run it, and the first thing it 01:07:59.900 --> 01:08:02.880 does is say, hey, buddy, you don't have an optical drive. I'm not doing anything. 01:08:03.140 --> 01:08:09.540 Yeah. After you had a problem with that, by the way, it inspired me to add drive detection now. 01:08:09.880 --> 01:08:14.320 So it accommodates all kinds of different systems with different drive setups. 01:08:14.440 --> 01:08:14.840 Oh, nice. 01:08:14.880 --> 01:08:16.480 So you did inspire a new feature. 01:08:16.560 --> 01:08:19.560 Okay, good. And so I was like, okay, well, I could always spin up a virtual 01:08:19.560 --> 01:08:22.220 machine. That'd be pretty easy. But I was just curious, like, 01:08:22.300 --> 01:08:24.540 well, how hard is it to just emulate one of these, right? 01:08:24.660 --> 01:08:25.080 Yeah, I should have thought of this. 01:08:25.080 --> 01:08:28.320 And so I found CDEMU. CDEMU. 01:08:28.480 --> 01:08:33.000 Well, and it looks like as recent as of July 8th, 2018, version 3.2 is out. 01:08:33.060 --> 01:08:35.640 Yeah, it has a website that's appropriately old looking, though, 01:08:35.740 --> 01:08:36.700 right? I think you'll see. 01:08:37.040 --> 01:08:38.620 It definitely fits the 90s vibe. 01:08:38.680 --> 01:08:39.040 So it's retro, yeah. 01:08:39.040 --> 01:08:42.960 What is with all these different tools having such a retro thing? 01:08:42.980 --> 01:08:44.600 I don't know. I leaned into it, too. I like it. 01:08:44.600 --> 01:08:48.720 And I mean, it's like a super simple little UI. They have a GUI for it. 01:08:48.720 --> 01:08:51.140 So you run a daemon that does the emulation. 01:08:51.320 --> 01:08:51.920 Right? Is it a TUI? 01:08:52.720 --> 01:08:53.100 No. 01:08:53.500 --> 01:08:53.820 Oh. 01:08:54.140 --> 01:08:56.400 Oh, there is a CLI app that's a client for it. 01:08:56.400 --> 01:08:57.760 The disappointment in your voice. 01:08:57.940 --> 01:08:59.780 But they have, like, a nice little, like... 01:09:01.121 --> 01:09:02.241 Oh, an actual GUI? 01:09:02.321 --> 01:09:02.461 Yeah. 01:09:02.541 --> 01:09:03.201 Like a real GUI? 01:09:03.241 --> 01:09:03.801 Like a real GUI. 01:09:04.061 --> 01:09:09.021 Oh. Wow. That's fancy. That is really fancy. It actually looks GTK, perhaps? 01:09:09.121 --> 01:09:10.921 Yeah. I would suspect so. 01:09:10.961 --> 01:09:11.361 Yeah, okay. 01:09:11.481 --> 01:09:14.181 But what's cool is it's open source. 01:09:14.361 --> 01:09:15.441 Yeah, that is cool. 01:09:16.541 --> 01:09:17.141 Of course. 01:09:17.321 --> 01:09:17.441 Yeah. 01:09:17.941 --> 01:09:18.901 No, but you can... 01:09:18.901 --> 01:09:20.901 And it still works, even though it hasn't had an update in a while, 01:09:21.021 --> 01:09:24.381 right? Obviously. Oh, no, actually, some of this stuff on GitHub has been updated 01:09:24.381 --> 01:09:25.941 a little more recently, at least. 01:09:26.601 --> 01:09:32.401 GPL 2. So it does both sides. So not only can you load in ISOs and it looks 01:09:32.401 --> 01:09:33.981 like you have a CD in there, right? 01:09:34.061 --> 01:09:34.501 Yeah, it's nice. 01:09:34.601 --> 01:09:40.421 And like even it'll just present an empty one, but you can create blanks and it shows up as writable. 01:09:40.761 --> 01:09:45.381 So I was able to test your program end to end without having to drive at all. 01:09:45.461 --> 01:09:47.461 Meanwhile, I'm over here buying 10 packs. 01:09:47.461 --> 01:09:51.461 And then it leaves an ISO file on the file system that I could then mount and 01:09:51.461 --> 01:09:52.661 check that it got all the files. 01:09:52.721 --> 01:09:56.901 You could have told a guy this, I don't know, the other day before I bought 01:09:56.901 --> 01:09:58.421 another pack of Blu-rays for more testing. 01:09:58.421 --> 01:10:03.161 So you should see if you can get the LLM to make us some NixOS integration tests. 01:10:03.401 --> 01:10:03.501 Right? 01:10:03.581 --> 01:10:05.381 Run the full thing and try to burn... 01:10:06.956 --> 01:10:08.876 Because there's a Nix OS service for it. 01:10:09.276 --> 01:10:12.936 You do need to have the full testing for the disks. Yeah. 01:10:13.156 --> 01:10:15.856 So it's like, I mean, it is sort of save a little bit of time, 01:10:15.956 --> 01:10:18.236 but you still need to burn and waste anyway. 01:10:18.656 --> 01:10:21.936 What hurts the most is like when it starts to burn and fails almost immediately, 01:10:21.956 --> 01:10:25.956 and I get like one stripe, and then you can never use the disk again. 01:10:26.576 --> 01:10:30.456 And I've used like 400 kilobytes of 50 gigs, and I'm like, you've got to be kidding. 01:10:30.776 --> 01:10:34.376 Have you looked at the price in terms of like gigabytes to, you know, 01:10:34.456 --> 01:10:37.516 like the disks, or like rewritable Blu-rays? 01:10:37.896 --> 01:10:40.816 Yeah, that's a good idea. I was thinking much like, you know, 01:10:40.876 --> 01:10:43.936 cold storage, but rewritable would be handy, too. 01:10:44.796 --> 01:10:52.196 Well, this is pretty neat. C-D-E-M-U. And it is at cdemu.org, 01:10:52.216 --> 01:10:55.216 or we'll put a link in the show notes. I'm going to look at this, Wes, after the show. 01:10:56.016 --> 01:10:58.956 I wish you would have told me about it earlier, but I'm glad to know about it now. 01:11:00.096 --> 01:11:05.556 I can't believe that. It's so stupid, too. I guess, you know, learn. 01:11:06.156 --> 01:11:08.936 It's what it really comes down to, of course, is there's just a lot of little 01:11:08.936 --> 01:11:10.496 parameters you've got to pass the burn command. 01:11:11.276 --> 01:11:13.796 And as you said, right, it kind of attunes you more to doing, 01:11:13.796 --> 01:11:15.056 like, test-driven development. 01:11:15.536 --> 01:11:19.736 Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was one of the things I was telling Wes is as I started 01:11:19.736 --> 01:11:21.856 doing this, I'm like, well, I better just figure out a way to test this because 01:11:21.856 --> 01:11:25.076 I can't every time I need to run through this thing burn a disk. 01:11:25.176 --> 01:11:27.936 So I had to create a bunch of little unit tests for individual functionality 01:11:27.936 --> 01:11:30.736 so that I could test everything I could before I actually had to burn. 01:11:31.696 --> 01:11:37.876 I feel like this also um perfectly describes your different approaches to solving 01:11:37.876 --> 01:11:43.916 a problem this would always be the west approach and yeah well chris physical media right. 01:11:45.150 --> 01:11:47.870 Well, if anybody wants to take a look at it, you should be able to just pick 01:11:47.870 --> 01:11:49.290 right up and get working with it. 01:11:49.570 --> 01:11:53.330 I'd love somebody to help me with some of the basic features and run through it. 01:11:53.370 --> 01:11:56.330 Or if anybody wants to triage PRs or issues as they come in, 01:11:56.510 --> 01:11:59.890 I'd appreciate any of that. And we'll have it linked in the show notes. 01:12:00.010 --> 01:12:00.950 You know it's going to happen. 01:12:01.410 --> 01:12:02.610 Do you need disc donations? 01:12:04.030 --> 01:12:07.730 Maybe, eventually. Well, I bought another pack, so that'll be good for a little while. 01:12:09.250 --> 01:12:12.550 I haven't actually backed anything up yet. I mean, I haven't testing backed 01:12:12.550 --> 01:12:16.350 things up, but, you know. And every time I wanted to use like unique stuff so 01:12:16.350 --> 01:12:18.050 I could test that the database search was working. 01:12:18.210 --> 01:12:22.110 So it's like a lot of me copying files off the NAS to my local system and waiting 01:12:22.110 --> 01:12:26.030 for all that to copy and then waiting for it to burn. Oh, my goodness. 01:12:27.270 --> 01:12:30.110 Software development is ridiculous. I don't know how anybody does this crap. 01:12:30.950 --> 01:12:34.150 I'll tell you what. All right. Well, that's it for us. We'd love to hear from 01:12:34.150 --> 01:12:37.470 you. Of course, you can send us a boost or go to linuxunplugged.com slash contact. 01:12:37.690 --> 01:12:40.950 You could also make it a Tuesday on a Sunday and join us live. 01:12:41.030 --> 01:12:43.430 The mumble room is kicking right now. We have our live chat. 01:12:43.430 --> 01:12:46.750 Of course, we do this on Sundays at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. 01:12:50.390 --> 01:12:54.930 Wes, you got like a hot power tip for them if they want any extra metadata or 01:12:54.930 --> 01:12:57.750 context around what we talked about things? Do you have any hot tips, Wes? 01:12:57.890 --> 01:13:02.550 Oh, yeah. How about like a magical JSON file that lets you skip around via the 01:13:02.550 --> 01:13:04.590 use of chapters, cloud chapters too, right? 01:13:04.670 --> 01:13:07.710 So it's last decade's hype word built into the chapters. 01:13:07.910 --> 01:13:11.850 What it really means is if we screw up, we can fix it and you get the fix. That's right. 01:13:11.950 --> 01:13:14.790 Yeah, you don't have to download a new MP3. You just get the new fix. 01:13:14.910 --> 01:13:15.710 Which is great for us. 01:13:15.810 --> 01:13:21.010 Yeah. But better than that, we've got transcripts. So you can scrub through the whole thing. 01:13:21.570 --> 01:13:24.290 If you can't hear us and you just want to get a sense of what we said in the 01:13:24.290 --> 01:13:26.630 episode, you want to index it, you want to search it. 01:13:26.670 --> 01:13:29.630 You know what we've never made a call out for? And if anybody's looking for 01:13:29.630 --> 01:13:34.570 a 2026 software project, it'd be really neat to make those searchable. 01:13:34.730 --> 01:13:38.390 Have a front end that sits on top of them. Every transcript is linked in the 01:13:38.390 --> 01:13:41.810 RSS feed sitting out at an endpoint that you could pull in. 01:13:41.890 --> 01:13:45.050 And if anybody wants to make a searchable database out of that so people can 01:13:45.050 --> 01:13:47.290 find keywords what we talked about, that'd be a really helpful tool. 01:13:47.350 --> 01:13:48.410 We'd really appreciate that. 01:13:49.130 --> 01:13:53.050 Links to everything we talked about today. Yep, those are on our website. You know that. 01:13:53.650 --> 01:13:58.470 LinuxUnplugged.com slash 649er. That'll get you the links for what we talked about today. 01:13:58.730 --> 01:14:01.610 Lots of great episodes over there. In fact, you might even say an entire back 01:14:01.610 --> 01:14:07.470 catalog of a whole 648 episodes, if you can believe it. I couldn't believe it. 01:14:07.770 --> 01:14:11.450 Lots of great shows over at, well, at least a few good shows over at jupiterbroadcasting.com. 01:14:11.810 --> 01:14:14.790 We always appreciate if you check those out, too. Thanks so much for joining 01:14:14.790 --> 01:14:18.990 us on this week's episode of Your Unplugged Program. And you're going to see 01:14:18.990 --> 01:14:20.910 us right back here next week.
Previous episode Next episode

Related episodes

Search

Search

Listen on

Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS feed

Tags

Business