Ask The Hosts – Episode 40

0:00And is this the Kyle I think it is? It is the Kyle you think it is, yes. Ask the hosts episode 40. I'm Joe, and it's just me for the intro again. But don't worry, there are other hosts on the way. The idea of the show is very simple. You send any questions to us, show at askthehost.com, and we answer them. The catch is there can be about anything except Linux and Open Source. Before we get going, just a quick thank you to everyone who supports us with PayPal and Patreon. We really do appreciate that. And remember that people who support us on Patreon get these episodes two weeks before everyone else. So as I teased last time, we've got special guest Shane from Linux Lads returning for a third time, although it was just one long recording session. We've got Jim from 2.5 Admin's, Gary from Hybrid Cloud Show and Linux Self-The-Dark, and Faelin from Late Night Linux. The first question then. Jon asks, what's the biggest pop culture phenomenon that you just have no interest in? Film, Sport, Books.

1:01It's an all pop culture here. So you just don't like any pop culture? I like what I like, but anytime someone tries to start a conversation with me about any of those things, I just can't participate in the conversation. It's like my father-in-law asks me about football. And I've now had to add to my Google card on my phone what the latest Eston Villa football match score was just so I can converse with him. I just can't do it. Short form video with most of the normal video playback controls taken away to make the experience more quote unquote immersive. I don't care which platform you talk about. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever. YouTube shorts. It all sucks. Get lost with that crap. I'm willing to watch a video, but A, I would refer it not be like portrait on a phone. What the hell is wrong with you? And B, don't take my damn controls away. If I want to back up a second because I didn't catch something somebody said, that's what the little back button should do. Not take me to a whole different stupid short video.

2:02What? You can skip in shorts. Yeah, you can scroll through them. Yeah, you get the little bow at the bottom. What you can and can't do is different on every platform. And it's always dumb down and missing compared to the real experience. You want to get a proper open source up there, Jim? I don't know if you've heard about open source. You mean that hippie shit? Damn right it is. It's come is and right in the vein. Well, I am very lucky in my answer to this, right? Because believe me, this isn't a recent thing, but I have never had any interest whatsoever in the books, the movies, anything associated with it. I always thought it was dumb. And now I'm totally vindicated by this Harry Potter. Oh. I know people who are like, they feel really betrayed and they're like, they feel really conflicted about it because it was a huge part of them growing up or whatever. But for me, it's just that that's dumb. What I'm no interest in that and proven completely right in the end. Yeah.

3:03Yeah. Massive shrug. I read all of it in the early 2000s, when it was still towards the tail end of the first big wave of hype about Harry Potter. I found it like, all right, fine, let's read it. And I found it to be a reasonably compelling page or the book, the book, the book, the book, the book, I don't really that special. I mean, I don't know, I'm a little sick of the whole like, oh, you know, a bunch of preteen children, like best of the adults and everything and save the world. Even on a global scale, nobody can beat these preteen kids. Like, come on, man, really? I was born in just the right generation to be absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter when I was when I was young. And I read all the books. My parents would buy me all the books as soon as they came out. I actually accidentally stole the last book. That's a story for another day. I was working in a shop and I just accidentally just took it off to shelf and forgot to pay for it. What's the worst thing you've ever stolen?

4:03And sorry, my boss from 20 years ago. Yeah, no, I loved Harry Potter. I was all in on it. I loved it. I read all the books as soon as they came out in a hard back. And then yeah, J.K. Rowling turned into a bit of a cont. So yeah. Harry Potter, I don't care about Harry Potter. It just totally passed me by. I was working in Glasgow at the time. I think when I all came out and I was just going to the pub. It was great. I only recently discovered there is a Quidditch Premier League. Of course there is. This is a thing where adults run with a stick between their legs like it's a broom. This is the saddest shit you've ever seen in your life. I only saw this last, I don't know, last year at some point. And I was just like, what? Is this a made up game from Harry Potter? Like I literally have no clue. Yes. Yeah, so it's a game where they fly around in their magic broom and they throw the ball around. And this is adults running across a hockey pitch

5:04with a fucking stick between their legs. And the ball is AI and it attempts not to be found or hit or kicked or caught. But what's going on? I don't understand. Like I've all these people being involved in American football and had traumatic brain injury. I mean, why are there so many things? What's fucking going on? I have to believe there's probably not actually a lot of crossover between the Quidditch Premier League and American football. Are you sure? I mean, traumatic brain injury, maybe. But I'm just saying I don't think that's how they got it if they went up in the Quidditch Premier League. As long as we're crappin' on Harry Potter, I'm going to go past the kid issue and past rowing, being a terrible waste of skin issue. And I'm going to say those books suck because that damn world does not have a coherent system of magic so it can get bent. My answer is anime. Agree. Yeah, don't get it. I'd love to watch Ghost in the Shell and Akira and stuff because they're here. They're just good films. But like, and my partner's really into studio, Ghibli and stuff,

6:05which is, I don't really consider anime. That's sort of different. But yeah, anime. Just never had any interest in it whatsoever. I just think it's a bit silly. No, disrespect to anyone who likes anime, whatever, raw nerds, we all have our thing. But yeah, just never gave a shit about anime, to be honest. Where else can I watch a beautifully rendered story about a closeted gay teenager whose friend he has a crush on? Disappears in the woods, comes back two weeks later, but it's actually a thing wearing his skin. But the thing wearing his friend's skin is actually nice to him. Whereas the actual friend that he had the crush on was kind of a dick. Like, anime is the only place I get to see that storyline, man. I mean, I respect the animation. Like, the animation is very pleasing. And I get the style of it. Like, it's all very kinetic. And, you know, they broke a lot of ground in terms of animation. But like, all my friends when I was growing up, they were into like, fucking like one piece

7:06and dragon ball Z and stuff like that. And I was like, it's dumb. Yeah, normy shit. They're doing it wrong. I just don't like it. It's like, oh, dragon ball Z, what? They're going to stand around. It just like stand there for like 10 minutes going, oh, I'm powering up. But what are they doing? Where are they? Why are they doing this? Is that the overnight 1,000 one? Yes, that's exactly what that is. I'm not telling you like, oh man, you have to go watch this or that together. But I will say like your only exposure to anime is this mainstream normy shit, like dragon ball Z and Naruto and whatever. There's so much more out there. And yeah, most of that stuff kind of fits that like, just, oh, power level is over 9,000. Like, I mean, that became a trope because they did that all the time. Like the numbers bigger in this episode. And everybody gets excited because, oh, the numbers bigger now. It's like, how fucking shallow and simple are you, man? But if weird shit like I described earlier, like if anybody heard that plot line was like, what the hell is that? The name of that particular one is the summer he caught who died and you can find it on Netflix right now.

8:07I don't include manga in that, by the way. I have actually read a couple of minegas on a recommendation from a good friend of mine and they have actually been like, really cool. It's a bit weird reading them in reverse. You know, the way you start at the back of the book and go backwards, it's weird. So you're telling me they could translate the comic in English but not change your appearance. Exactly. Okay. If you enjoy some manga, there is definitely some anime that you'll enjoy. Mainstream anime is not a good, I mean, you've seen the difference between the manga that you like in mainstream anime and I'm just telling you, there is an anime that's like the manga you like. Okay, fair enough. Probably suckers, I think that I struggle with most. I mean, I get it watching teams but I just, my heart was destroyed in 1990 when the Republic of Ireland qualified for a broke up the first time and we got knocked out by Italy in the quarter finals and that was the beginning and death of soccer in my life and we're still talking about it.

9:08Well, if you watch Moon Boy, that episode where they have the World Cup, that is, I feel like I'm watching the documentary a bit more childhood than that, it is messed up and anybody's not seeing it, it's brilliant. Well, we England didn't qualify for that World Cup in 94 in America. No, that was 90. That was the one after it was 94. Ah, right. Yeah. We qualified for 94 as well and then that was the end of that. Yeah, but England won the World Cup in 1966. Did you know that England won the World Cup in 1966? Did they? I've never heard this. Well, by the time some people are hearing this, England will have won it in 2026. Is what we would be saying if it were true? Yeah. I'll wind up you failing for me. It's all team sports. They all leave me cold playing them can be fun but watching team sports is just not it for me. I enjoy a good MMA fight but once you get basically much more complicated than that, I'm like, this is just a bunch of faffin' about nonsense and I'm just not really having it.

10:09I enjoyed UFC until it became really like MAGA and shit like that. Yeah, I definitely don't enjoy the politicization of it. I haven't actually watched any MMA for a while because of that. Isn't it fixed like wrestling? No. No, I would imagine it's corrupt though, like a lot of sports. Yes, it's fixed like boxing, not like wrestling. Right. Personally, do enjoy sports. I don't follow them religiously or anything but I dip in and out of football. I watch the Six Nations and I like to watch the golf. That's about it. Super heroes. That's another one. Just while I'm thrown out there, that goes without saying they're really. They're terrible. Yeah, I mean, as a kid, I watch Superman and stuff like that but this recent like Marvel and DC extended universe shit like no interest at all. The worst part is it can be done well and Marvel started to with the movies. The first of Ingers movie was fantastic. All of the characters they had sharply defined power sets. Their levels of power were consistent

11:11throughout the entire movie and not plot determined and it was wonderful. But then they get like two or three movies in and it's just right back to, I mean, it might as well be written by AI. Whichever character is more powerful than any other character based on what the plot wants and that five minute time span. And then like a few minutes later, you'll have, you know, Captain America is suddenly stronger than Thor. What the hell? Get away from me with that. Yeah, open to Leventures endgame. I was kind of enjoying it. Like the only real superhero is Batman because he's not got superpowers. You can't be a superhero with superpowers because then you're just doing walking about the place and shit coming out your fucking hands or your ass cheeks or wherever the fuck it is, your super power. Faelin, you've got that exactly about words. Batman is the only actual like realistic superhero. He has the billionaire superpower and it really sucks and it makes you one of the bad guys. Ah, okay, fine. But he chose not to be a dick and try and run for president. He actually decided to do something useful.

12:12Did he? Batman chose not to be a dick. When did that happen? Well, he chose to direct his dickishness at the right targets and Heath Ledger's also the best super villain ever. So that was fucking cool. So true, true. Best film. That was definitely the best film Batman adaptation hands down. Can't argue with you there. Kyle asks, what's the acceptable communication delay for messaging someone back before it's considered rude? What did they message me? Yeah, exactly. If you email me five to seven days, I don't do email. I'm not replying to your email. That's not a thing that gets instant responses. Right, email is kind of work stuff. What about like if I send you a telegram message or a signal or whatever? If you send me a telegram message, I'm much more like you respond than there's some random person that says me a telegram message. Because it's probably about a show we're recording in the next three days. Although I did message you yesterday and you still haven't replied. So there's that. That is true.

13:13But I had more important things to do than answer that question. I had to go and replace a car barretta or a car. What do you want? Yeah, no, it wasn't particularly urgent. It was just a curiosity. I mean, it's all context dependent in it. The rules are different. If it's business or if it's personal, who it is, which medium it came in on, I think the biggest thing to me is like, especially for email, it's like, okay, look, if you emailed me, it isn't urgent. If you have my email and I owe you support for anything, then you also have my cell phone number. And if you needed an immediate response, then you should have texted first, called if you didn't get a quick enough response to the text because unfortunately these days, the phone is constantly like a prop, and it's very easy to miss a notification. So yeah, if it's urgent, text first, and if you don't get a response in the time period that you feel like you should get it, then that means I haven't seen it. So please call me. What you should not do is wait until the problem

14:13has been there for two days, then send an email that you ignore the lack of response to for three, and then wait until six o'clock to call me and say, this has been down for a week, why haven't you fixed it? Ha, ha. Personally, I'm a very quick replyer when it comes to text. Like I get the anxiety when I see the little badge notification on the app, I'm like, I have to reply to that. I have to get back to them. Same. Other people are not like that. I have friends I can text them six months later, I'll get a reply back. And then, or there's, you know, even my family, I'll just send them a text that I just won't reply ever. I just don't get it. I just don't get it. And this sounds like they don't want to talk to me. I remember where I thought it feels rude. Yeah, if I don't reply to your text or your instant message, it's because I didn't see it. I'll give you a K if nothing else, you know, if I saw it. But yeah, if you just get nothing like it, just dropped into the ether, either I really, really dislike

15:17and don't respect you or much more likely, I just didn't see it when it came in. It also depends on the person. You kind of get a six sense of like, how long it takes each person you know to reply it. Like, some people will reply within 24 hours. Some people will reply immediately. Other people, you're like, it's pot-look. Like, they're gonna reply from anywhere from three days to three months. Well, to me, it depends whether they've left me on red or not. Like, have they read it? Do I have the second tick or whatever? If they've read it, then they should be getting back to me fairly quickly. If they've seen it in the notification and swiped it away and not read it, fair enough, then it's kind of on them. And like, sometimes I accidentally read something. I'm like, shit, no, I have to reply to it straight away. That is really rude as far as I'm concerned, leaving someone on red as the kid's so. Well, what if you've read it, but they've sent you a voice note, and that's incredibly annoying because now I've got to carve out five minutes to listen to it. No, just delete that. Yeah, exactly. Especially if it's Joe leaving you a voice note, he knows that is fucking irritating Bob leaves.

16:19I was like, oh, shit, I'm using the wrong headphones. And you need to power up the other fucking Bluetooth ones, which I'll have to delete and re-ad because they're shit. Well, yeah, but like, what if I'm idly in a meeting, listening to the meeting? I can't just fire up and listen to your voice note or respond to it because then I just get, you're on mute, it's like, no, I'm replying to a voice note. I'm not talking to you, meeting. I used to feel the same way about voice notes, but I'm kind of warming up to them a little bit because they're just a bit simpler. And the older I get, I'm just kind of, I don't really give a fuck about standing on ceremony when it comes to texts. So I don't know, it's easier just to talk at the phone, to be honest. Yeah, you, Joe, and my wife, all like, and I am not a fan. You know what I dislike more than receiving a voice note? I dislike having to be in the presence of somebody who's determinedly composing a voice note and wants everybody in the room to shut up so they don't mess it up. Yeah, see, I don't think that I have the speed

17:20of processing capability to send a voice note. I just mess it up and then I have to delete it and record it again. Just a nightmare. The whole process of sending it is a pain. You're definitely not approaching the voice notes in the right way for that to work because the only way that voice notes make sense is if you just don't give a shit. So you just, you just need to embrace the suck. Just be like, yep, I'm just gonna barf out whatever's on my mind into this microphone. However, comes out, Joe's problem now. Yeah, I mean, that's literally what I do for a living. So, you know, only this time you don't get the edited version. You get all the, uh, uh, oh yeah. And then me carrying on shit in it. I just wish Telegram had a way to unread a message because I use that sometimes as a, I see Joe sent me something important. I need to check, but I can't check it now. So I'll check it later. Ah, fuck, I've accidentally, like, I've knocked the fucking chat away, but I know there's a message in there, but I like, I dare not read it. I like, you know, the way you should be able to read the thing

18:22in the summary fully will have unread the thing fully, if you know what I mean. In the desktop client, you can literally right click Mark and Rhett. When? No, you cannot. Can I mean, I'm doing it right now to the message that Joe sent me. I have the same issue with my SMS application fail. I'm like, I really like, um, using the notification from getting an SMS as, okay, I'm out and about, and I can't do anything about this now, but when I get back to the office, I'll look at my notifications on my phone and there's the thing and that's easy. But if I mess up and I tap it, there's no more notification and I can't even make the text seem unread in the SMS. So now it's just faded into the background and I'm like, oh, now we've entered that ugly territory where Jim might forget he needs to do this thing. Yeah, it's really fucking annoying. And Gary, you're liar. There's no option for that. There literally is. I've right click on Joe's name, Mark is unread. It doesn't tell Joe. Ah, that's not great. I don't like that there. It's not great because it doesn't do anything

19:24for the other person. It still shows us red to me. It's telegram. We can't really expect greatness, can we? Yeah, it is better than signal. Because signal, everything is forced into that one little box. So you're on a call and you want to look at the chat and, ah, for fuck's sake, no, it's terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Well, signal has got no web dot, so it's just dead to me on desktop. I literally have to copy paste stuff into telegram. Take that privacy. Well, yeah, exactly. But I mean, if it's just stuff that's going to be public, like, for example, big list of topics that we're going to talk about on air, I'll copy that out of signal, paste it into telegram, then copy it out of that into a dock. I mean, it's all stuff that's going to end up public anyway. So it doesn't matter.