Brent's crazy border crossing story and behind-the-scenes stories from LFNW. Then we will lay out the master rescue plan. Catch the Launch a day early, and with a special guest!
LINKS
📩 BOOST
- 🌊 Grab Sats with River!
- âš¡ Strike Makes it Quick it Grab Sats in 100s of Countries
- 💬 Boost with Fountain
📞 CALL 1-774-462-5667
LINKS
- Jupiter Extras: LinuxFest Northwest 2025 Day 1
- LINUX Unplugged 612: 25 Years of LinuxFest Northwest
- North Cascades Highway - Washington State Route 20 - Wikipedia
- Roadtrek - "The Van that thinks it's a Motor Home"
- Dodge Ram B250 Conversion Van 5.2 V8 TorqueFlite, 3-speed
- This 1987 Dodge Camper Van Is an Amazing 1980s RV Relic - Doug DeMuro - YouTube
- Roadtrek Brochure - 1989-1990 Chassis Model Years.pdf
BFGoodrich Advantage T/A Sport LT - All-Season Tires| BFGoodrich USA - Suspect on the loose in Duluth dodges police, dashes into backyards - YouTube
- Night vision camera captures beaver in Cornwall breaking wind
[00:00:02]
Unknown:
This is The Launch, Episode 20 for April 28th, 2025. 25. Streaming from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast, we greet you all. A good morning, a good evening, or wherever your timeline may fall. Time-appropriate greetings, indeed, to one and all. This is The Launch. My name is Chris. I'm Angela. And my name is Brent. Hello, you two. We have a big show coming up. A couple of things I'd like everyone to know before we get into it. We'd love it if you called us. You can call us live or you can leave us a voicemail. The number is 774-462-5667.
That's 774-462-5667. You can call us or you can join us live. Typically on Tuesdays. We're a little early this week. We always keep the calendar updated to jupiterbroadcasting.com slash calendar. And in your podcasting, 2.0 app of choice. We've got a quiet listening mobile room always going as well, where you can pop in and chat with us. That's running during the live stream. And of course, the call line is open as well. And we'll take some calls after the music. And then you can catch everything we talked about, links, past episodes, all of that, at our website, weeklylaunch.rocks. That's where you'll find everything.
Well, Andrews? We did it? Yes. We LinuxFested. Yes, we did. How are you feeling? Do you get a sense, you know, from more of like the leadership side of LinuxFest Northwest that it went okay? I mean, on the ground, I know it felt like it went okay, but how does the team feel? Well, we're going to do our retrospective in a couple weeks. You mean like not this week, but like in weeks? Yeah. Oh. Give everybody some time to chill. Availability in, yeah. We've been meeting weekly for, I don't know. Gosh, I feel like half a year now. So it has been a lot. But overall, we really nailed some aspects that we haven't in the past.
So we did coffee. We got the pipe and drape, which made the exhibit hall look a lot more professional and allowed for better banner hanging and sponsor representation, both paid and unpaid sponsors. And then optimizing session eyes was like key. People could look up the talks and scroll down and see or or up scroll up and see there's breakfast like community breakfast that they could join or scroll down and see the after events right there with the schedule. duh so um yeah we just we really nailed um some aspects of it and even though a food truck canceled on friday before the fest uh we still managed uh to feed everybody lunch.
So yeah lunch was one of my favorite things so we had a pizza truck there and then my wife adia and emma from system 76 went out and picked up like 100 sandwiches from a local sandwich shop and people just came out in front of jupes and just ate on the grass we just hung out in front of the rv for a bit, and it was nice and chill. The weather was beautiful. Yeah, seriously. No rain. Last year, we got so covered in rain. Soaked. Yeah, I think it helped a lot to have good weather. I think it helped with attendance and the mood. Brent, this is, you've been going for a little while now. You're kind of a Linux Fest pro. What did you think of this year?
I deeply enjoyed this year, I gotta say. I was less stressed than any other year. I don't know why. I think maybe it's the location we had Joops in. You know, it was so beautiful. But also it's just like seeing old friends now. Even the new people we meet, it's like we've known them for a long time. It just like felt really cozy as a fest, I would say. The chaos of like scale and stuff was, we didn't have, this is it. We didn't have to deal with any Airbnbs on this one. I think that's the key. That was nice. Those were a little chaotic sometimes. I felt like there's improvement for the Linux unplugged stuff.
Like maybe we should be doing it Saturday. Yeah. But also, um... we need three hours. Like we need three hours. It was so stressful setting up in 15 minutes and they didn't provide us networking. So we spent the 15 minute setup time creating a LAN and setting up networking. And then we spent 20 minutes into our period, you know, our actual allocated time, then getting everything else worked out. And then we, of course, ran long and there was never a clear delineation between when we started, when Wes has started. So the Fest staff, you know, they want to introduce everybody and stuff like that.
And we couldn't accommodate that because it was all chaos. And by the time it was time to start, we were 35 minutes late. And so we're starting now. And yeah, that was really rough. Whereas the year before, there was nobody after us in that room. And so, and then we had two kind of, two folks leading up to us. We had Olympia, Mike, and Wes himself giving talks that were kind of on theme with Linux Unplugged. So attendance, people were able to just come to the room and then just stay. It's like the warm up act. Yeah, last year.
Yeah, last year. This year, I think it was more sort of spread out. It was on Sunday. We were running behind. The whole thing was. The classroom format was a little less ideal as well compared to last year. So definitely, definitely have some good notes on that. Yes. So, you know, we felt we sort of felt like that was partially on us, too, because, you know, I guess we could have had a network set up ahead of time. Yeah, we could have set up the night before. Yeah, we were we were up. We were up late just getting the audio dialed in the night before we were up to one ish.
But, yeah, there's always more to be done in those types of situations. And then, you know, the other thing is, is when we live stream. You think about this. So we take the RV. Well, so Friday night, we're not really going out and socializing because the RV can't arrive until the staff is cleared out. So we have to wait until at least closing hour, which some of the social stuff has already started by the time it's closing hour at the college. So then we arrive at the college and then it's an hour to two hours to set up depending on what we want to do.
And by the time we're done, it's kind of like social stuff is over. So Friday, we then were like, okay, well, we're just going to work on the audio gear. And then we did. We worked from like 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. on setting up the audio gear. And then Saturday, well, the first thing you got to do when you wake up is, okay, you got to get everything working again. Then we discover the audio gear has all been reset to factory defaults, even though we stayed up till 1 a.m., dialing it all in. So then we got to fix the audio settings. Then we got to make sure the remote audio is working because Brent's going to go out in the fields.
We got to make sure that's going. We got to go schedule some guests because the guests got to come on and talk to us because we're about to be live and all this. So Saturday is burned up by doing day one live stream. And we finish around lunchtime. And then it's break down the gear, take the audio files we recorded, process them, get them posted, get them on extras, get them on the feeds. And by the time we're done with all of the post show stuff, the fest is over that day. And then the next day it's rinse and repeat because it's Linux unplugged. And that it's like we have a little more time in the afternoon, but we're still publishing. I mean, when did we, I mean, we worked, literally Wes was working on the road.
Like even after we were done at Linux Fest, at the end, end, end of the day, Wes got on the road, hotspotted his laptop to his phone, and we continued to get things out during his commute. And then, you know, same with us in the evening. It was just, there was just very little time to actually go to a talk or anything like that. We got to talk to people and do the social stuff. So I think next year, if we just do one day for all the production stuff, do it on Saturday, and Sunday is just a chill day, and the show's already done, and we just go hang out and go to some talks and things like that.
I think that would be better. Definitely. Because we get very little... time to enjoy the fest when we're covering the fest it's it's a really tricky thing. It's interesting that every single fest we learn new things about how we want to do it how we don't want to do it what's better for the audience etc um and then we almost didn't do a saturday stream remember you were asking like hey would people listen i don't know that said i think it went really well it. Did yeah i do think it went well yeah and the episode is out on extras.show we posted day one and I think it's a good I think it's a good chunk of content Wes says that he went to go get some chicken katsu while uploading the final files so he made it work.
Did the interview you did with me Brent did that make it into the extras. It was on day one we put it out on day one because one of the things we wanted to do, and people did say they did some of this we thought well if you're attending the stream and you want to know what the hell is going on you just tune into jblive.fm and we'll recap the talk is going on this hour here's how to fest Yep. It was, I thought it worked. Yeah, we should put that in the show notes. It's extras.show slash 93. Yep. If you'd like to get there. Yeah, I did three sessions. They were all orientation on how to Linux Fest.
And the last two were pretty low. But the first one had about 50 to 60 people. And a majority of them were first-time attendees. That's great. It was crazy. And then I would say about 60% of them were from out of state even. So it was really interesting and hopefully very helpful for people to know what buildings have what and how the fest runs. Yeah, I think it was a good idea. And I was impressed. You mentioned out of state. Yeah, we had people from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Peru. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, yeah. I think there was somebody there from the UK.
One crazy guy came all the way from Canada. Right, I was just going to say. Canada. So it is interesting. team we seem to be pulling more and more folks from out of state and building that base too it was good. I thought it was so fun meeting people from all over. I thought, like, oh, this is our little local fest, right? And that's not true at all, it turns out, when you start chatting with people. It's really, really fun. We don't have any hint of rough numbers. No, because we, so part of the free and open source community is not being tracked. So we didn't do any kind of registration or name tags or anything like that that we'd be able to count.
Yeah, I understand. I do like that vibe of just being able to walk in. Nobody's gatekeeping me. Yeah. On Saturday, though, for those that stayed for the raffle at 4 p.m., which a lot of people have left by then, but everybody that was willing went out to the grass and took a group picture. Nice. And so I'll be able to at least count this how many were there at the end of day one. I missed out on so much good stuff. I also missed out, like, it was the 25th year, and so they had some of the OGs that were still around. I could miss that because we were working on the— Yeah.
Bill and— I'm a little bitter about it. John, the founders. You seem to have some regrets. I do. Some fest regrets. I didn't get to fest much. Right. You know? And in my interview with Brent, he said, are you going to any talks? Are there any talks you're interested? And I'm like, you don't eat at your wedding. Yeah, that's what it feels like. That's what it feels like. Yeah. You don't get to enjoy the festivities. You organize it. Yep. But you don't get to actually participate. All this energy and thought goes into ordering all the food. That's exactly what it is. You get this great buffet or whatever it is for the wedding, and then you don't get to eat a bite of it. That's exactly what it felt like.
It's an extremely generous thing you do, like organize the whole thing, do all the streaming. It's just for everybody else, not for you. You don't do it for you. All right, Andrews, we have a very special question this week. It's a very revealing, probing question. Okay, what do you want people to boost in with? Okay, so I accidentally clicked a bookmark today and it overrode my first tab. And I was like, oh, no. And for whatever reason, when I do that, I can't just hit back. Like I have to go to the, I have to type the URL. And then I thought, how lame is it that I always keep my first tab back?
is Facebook. This seems really lame. And so then I thought, I know. I am judging you now, actually. Yeah. So then I thought, you know, okay, I use three different browsers and Firefox is my primary. And I have at least, you know, 20 tabs open in each of the browsers. But Firefox is my primary and the go-to first tab is Facebook. So I want to know what browser are you using? What is your first tab? Do you have a first tab? Are you pinning your tabs? What does your browser look like? Brentley, do you want to admit what your first tab is? Well, I have questions first, because I don't quite know how to answer that question without having my questions answered.
If you could only have one browser window, so don't count your 30 browser windows. Chris is already like, I know the problems you're having. Oh, all right. You know me so well. Which, you know, tab number one in your mind. What's tab number one out of all those? Oh, man. Mine wouldn't be surprising. Not the one that you go to all the time. But just Like the first. Like you're always, I need this tab to always be here. When I'm doing like sit down at the jobby job work stuff. Bangbust.com? Yeah, that's the one. And I do have, and I even call it like my workspace. So I have a couple of bookmarks and I just open them all and there is an order of those tabs and that's actually been super useful.
So there's always one there. And generally it's like me attempting to organize what I should be doing, like executive function stuff. but aside from that what is the one tab that I always have open on my computer as the very first one oh man I don't even know how to answer that one ah geez this is. A man with a lot of tabs folks. I'll call in at some point report back. Mine is not that surprising it's either email, or it's our show docs hdocs and I pin them I don't know if other people take advantage of the whole pin tab thing, but actually right now on my browser, I've got, A lot of tabs open. Not a lot, but I mean, not in Brent standard, but, you know, almost, almost 10 tabs and they're all pinned.
So this machine always has like these 10 tabs and there's stuff to control the stream and manage chat and, you know, all that kind of stuff. But for me, it's almost always Hedge Docs or Gmail. Yeah. My second one is Gmail. Is it? Yeah. Oh, and then I often very close in that first group is Home Assistant. That makes sense. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah, that one definitely needs to be pinned. Yeah, yeah. I have a confession, I think. All right. Ooh. I hate slash have never used pin tabs. Oh, really? Oh. I've tried for about three minutes one time a couple years ago, and I can't do it. Is it because they're so small?
Yeah. Like, are you looking for a full-size tab? Mm-hmm. Well, okay, so at work, my first tab is a pinned Gmail. Okay. You monsters. You know, if you use it a lot, it's kind of nice not to take up more room. And then it always reopens with the browser. Yes. Have you heard of apps? Oh. All right, let us know. Boost in what is your first tab and your favorite browser. So we imported ourselves a Brentley, and he had quite the border bonanza on his way into Washington State. You drove across the border this time. Not always your route to go, but it gives you some flexibility.
Not in the Bing bus yet. Nope. Nope. That comes up next. But tell me about this border crossing you had. Well... Border crossing has changed, or at least the idea of border crossings, especially from Canada to the U.S., the general societal idea of what that is has changed recently, at least for Canadians. You know, current affairs being what they are and some horror stories coming out about, let's say, people trying to get into the U.S., out of the U.S. So I've always had, for the most part, really, really good experiences. especially recently my experience has been like the one question border guard they're like oh where are you going okay have fun uh so that's been my experience for probably the last year uh likely because i travel so much they know exactly where i am what i'm doing i don't know something like that but it's been really nice experience so there's been such a contrast for me between what my experience has been even recently like going to scale for instance and And some of the stories and worries for even people really close to me were like, oh, you're going to the U.S.?
Like, why are you going to the U.S.? It's like really scary over there now. And like, I have so many friends here and stuff. And it's like, yeah, OK, maybe the border has some slightly heightened risks, but I'm not doing anything that I need to hide. I'm not doing anything. Yeah, exactly. Right. I'm probably bringing trail mix. And that's the thing they need to worry about the most. So I was going to say a little bit more nervous than I have been in an extremely long time. That said, I decided to drive because of the flexibility. Chris, you know, the flexibility, leaving whenever you want and all that stuff.
It's just amazing. And also... Then you have transportation while you're here, too, if you need it. And also, Highway 20 was open. Oh, yeah. Beautiful highway. Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Which closes in the winter for snow. They throw up their hands and say, we're not going to plow that. We can't get our equipment up there. It's too crazy because it's like a highway built in the early 1900s that you would never, ever build today. But it makes for a beautiful drive. So can we take a little aside? Because I want to talk about Highway 20 and why. It's like one of my favorite roads that I've ever been on.
Oh, all right. Right, okay. It's definitely my favorite road in Washington State. It's high praise, yeah. You might even say, controversially, perhaps even better than Tale of the Dragon. Oh, 100% is. Woo, that's fighting words for some folks. I know I said that the other day when we were looking at Tale of the Dragon videos. Yeah. And I firmly believe it. All right. Tale of the Dragon's famous. But I agree. This is because you've got altitude, you've got mountains, you've got waterfalls. I mean, it's just everything. And some of the names are great. So it's called the North Cascades Highway. Great name.
And some of the places you go by is like Diablo Lake. We have some experiences there. Which is a very unique kind of emerald colored lake. There's a little spot called Deception Pass. You know, like what happens there? I don't know. It's gorgeous though. Deception happens there. But I thought like, oh, maybe I should find a link for the show notes just for the audience so they know what the heck we're talking about. And it turns out the Wikipedia page on highway, you know, the state route 20 is very complete. Oh, really?
So I pulled out a couple little historical things here. You want me to share a couple? Yeah, I'd be curious, because this is a highway I'm frequently on. Okay, so this one's very often called the most beautiful mountain highway in the state of Washington. I think that's easily true. Although there are some others that are quite nice. It also follows one of the oldest state roads in Washington and was established in 1896. You said early 1900s. You got to keep going. And was originally a wagon route. I wasn't sure if they quite started in the late 1800s or not. That's interesting. So it was for wagons.
Well, it turns out they started way before that because it was originally a corridor used by the local Native American tribes as a trading route. No kidding. From, I guess, Washington's eastern plateau all the way to the Pacific coast more than 8,000 years ago. Wow. So this is a well-traveled location. Uh-huh. So I didn't realize that when I was driving on it, but now it's just a very important historical route as well. Trip through time. No wonder why you like it so much. It turns out it's also the state's longest highway. Can you believe that one? Well, it does go all the way, right, to Idaho?
Yeah, I just thought north-south would be longer. Me too. Oh, no, no. She's a wide gal. And the thing I love about this route is that it weaves. Yeah, it does. And it goes around like tight turns. Switchbacks that are going up mountainsides. For 436 miles, which is 700K. Yeah. So if you ever get a chance to be on this highway, I would say... And then I love mountains. Occasionally I kiss them. So I counted the number of passes that I took to get here. Get ready for this one. Do you have any guesses, Ang? How many passes between... Mountain passes.
Mountain passes between when Brent gets into Washington when he arrives here. No, no, no, no. When I leave my home. Oh, you're counting Canada too? Yeah. I didn't know Canada had much in the way of mountains. I'll say three. I'll say three. Yeah, fake mountains. Okay. Three? Eight. Ooh. Isn't that something? Eight. Wow. And he's not... I mean, it's like a 10-hour drive. eight mountain passes and a ten hour drive. Yeah five of those are in Washington and the tallest one was in Canada which is 5,800 feet oh please but three or four of them are in the like mid 5,000s too here in Washington so it's just a beautiful route and because it just opened a couple days ago no traffic still snow in the mountains but the roads are totally clear and it's just super lovely so highly recommended thank you for letting me go on that little, aside so I can share my love with the 20.
You might recall, too, on Highway 20 at the Washington Pass Overlook, that's where we hit some swag one time. That's true. It got eaten by a bear or something like that, but I'm sure they enjoyed it. You know, my biggest memory of Highway 20 is it's usually during a road trip, a long enough road trip that I need caffeine. So I drink a lot of caffeine, and there aren't a lot of places to go pee. There are not. I mean, there aren't very many places to get fuel either, like 50 miles. Right. There's just a fuel desert. Nothing, yeah. So, yeah, so plan accordingly if you want to check out Highway 20.
The Diablo Lake or whatever does have restrooms. Thank goodness that is usually where, like, I almost, I don't know. I almost didn't make it there. Yeah, Diablo Lake has a nice little rest stop area with some turlets and some places to, like, picnic and stuff. But otherwise... And beautiful water. Just beautiful. The Washington Overlook Pass does as well, but it's quite a bit further down the road from Diablo Lake. So you get to the border. And you're coming into America. Nervous. Did they give you the old pat down and take you out of the car and say, sir, put your hands on the hood? Like what happened?
That's only happened once before. I decided to take like a really tiny little border crossing in the middle of nowhere. I figured that would be easier. And the chance of my Canadian charm working on this one would probably be higher. It turns out that was a really good decision because I got there and there was nobody around. even you just went right through well the border guard was in their little hut and they made me wait because I don't know they must have been playing a video game or something watching YouTube yeah who knows yeah, and it so it was literally just one person and wow but I was still kind of nervous I like even printed out like the homepage of Linux Fest to prove that look my face is on the homepage this is why I'm going this is where I'm going etc I remember I did that, years ago on my first like time doing a border cross actually to come to linux fest and i was super nervous because i hadn't really done that experience but up these days it's just like they're almost like friends you know across the border so much but i was nervous so you know they started asking questions fair enough it was more than one question which i wasn't used to these days, he said oh you know where you're going and so but he starts to walk around my car as i'm answering Taking a look.
At things going, is this thing going to make it? Well, there is that about my car. It's got some, let's say, personality. So I'm hanging my head out the window trying to answer the question as he's really deeply checking out my license plate, which is kind of, it's kind of bent from the last time I kissed a mountain, but it, anyways. Kind of straightened it out a little bit. And he says, where are you going? And I said, oh, I'm going to LinuxFest Northwest. And that's in, you know, Bellingham, Washington. And it's a tech conference. And he, like, is scrutinizing this license plate quite a lot.
And then he leans over towards my window. He's like, well, where's the penguin? And in that moment, it took me a minute to be like, what is he? Oh. And in that moment, I realized I was fine. This was going to be totally fine. Because he's making a Linux reference. But that you don't look like a groupie because where's your penguin? Yeah, where's your penguin? Fair enough. I mean, I try to be incognito Linux fanboy. You know. But I did realize in that moment, like, okay, there's my connection and you got to grapple onto it. So he asked me a bunch of other questions that he had to for like, you know, making sure I'm, I don't know, not trying to move here or anything.
But then he continues to ask me a bunch of Linux questions. He's like, so, you know, if I want to recommend Linux to my friends, like a Linux desktop, these days, what is the distro you recommend for this kind of stuff? So I was like, well, actually, I think I would recommend if it was your parents. He's like, yeah, my parents. I was like, I think probably Kubuntu. He's like, wait, I've heard about Ubuntu. It was this Kubuntu thing. So I launch into like explaining the difference between those. You should have given him a thumb drive, Brent. There you go. Yeah. Didn't have one within grabbing distance, I guess.
but he did ask some other questions I thought was interesting like how in the world do people make money with a free operating system good question so you know I educated him about how the entire internet was run on Linux etc etc, but then he did ask me one last question any guesses. Hmm he's border guard. Has to ask questions. No, I don't have any. Current affairs. I can't imagine what a border guard would ask. Yeah, no. He said, okay, well, are you bringing any eggs? Of course. Oh, my gosh. Are you serious? That was his last question.
He's where you got a big egg trade going. You're arbing the eggs between Canada and America. Arbing the eggs. Making a profit on the eggs. Hide them under my rear seat there. Sir, can we look in your vehicle? Yeah. So it turned out to be actually a really memorable and great border crossing. You know, he had to ask questions, but he asked also a bunch of really fun ones about Linux. You know, what are the chances of that? Yeah, that's wild. So I have a question for the audience. Do you have a crazy border crossing story? And do you, like me, think that Brent just got totally snowed by this border guard?
This border guard was testing Brent, right? He was testing Brent's Linux knowledge to see what Brent would say, to see if he was lying about Linux. And if Brent had told them that he milked cows for a living, he would have had all kinds of milk questions. It was all a plan to entrap him. And if he would have screwed up, he would have made it across the border. That's my theory. What do you think? Boosten, tell me if you think I'm crazy. well i think i'll just give you all a real quick update here like we said we had a great fest, and we had the final camping destination baked into our now month-long rat escape at linux fest northwest when we set out we were like maybe we'll stay out till linux fest but That's like a month away.
And here we were, Friday night, pulling up to the Bellingham Technical College and getting ourselves a spot. And we spent two nights in the Technical College parking lot, Saturday working all day. And then Sunday was a great spot to go back and work after we were done with Unplugged. And how was your parking lot experience, Brent, sleeping in the old college parking lot? I think we got an upgrade this time. You know, we switched to the other side of the parking lot. That was nice. Which is actually about 15 feet away. Yep. Had a nice big grass field in front of us.
Yeah, you open the door and the stairs led into this beautiful grass field and it was super sunny. So I think we got a better lot this time around. I don't know who navigated that one. I would say that the temperatures were better too. Yeah, that is very true. So we were comfortable at night, which made it easy. Yep. And during the day, we weren't hot. It was kind of a perfect fest, wasn't it? It was just right. Yeah. So we could work in the RV all day and not overheat. Yeah, it was hotter in some of the rooms. Yeah.
Oh, for sure. Than the RV that was literally in the sun. But we were still making like tons of solar or definitely, you know, 700 watts or whatever was the cover. You were worried about that. I was because the forecast app was like, it's going to be below normal UV production for you today. And I'm like, we're running 500 watts of gear. Yeah. With all the extra audio gear, you were like, I hope it's going to be okay. Because if we got to run the generator to give power during the stream, it's going to be a problem. Too noisy. But then the pizza food truck showed up and they were they pulled up right next to the RV for a little bit.
And we weren't sure if that was their intention to stop there because they were there for like 10, 15 minutes. And they bring what's called the 3500 Predator, which is a big 3500 watt gas generator with no muffler. And if you run that thing next to our RV, we would not be able to live stream. And so all three, Brent West and I were looking out. They went, oh, no, are they going to stop there? Oh, no, are they going to stop there? Jeff, get out there and do something. But they went to the other side of the parking lot. It totally worked out. I think they sensed because there were like six pairs of eyes staring at them. What are they doing?
What are they doing? We don't want to park beside these guys. They're crazy. Right, right. I felt like Joops was one of the MVPs of the trip, though, because it was such a great spot to have, not only for us, but for the sandwiches and all that. We had a fridge and we could put the things that perish in the fridge while we got everything handed out. It all worked out. I think, yeah, I got two things to say about that. I think, A, Joops did really well as a mobile studio. I think we did a great time doing the live stream from there. Sure.
But, B, on previous trips, we've had some discomforts about the state of some of Joops', let's say, lady parts, like the slides and stuff. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah. All fully functional. Not in front of the kids. Fully functional. Yeah, but this time around, yeah, we were, I don't know. Joops didn't present any problems at all. It was just smooth sailing. Mission accomplished. Thank you, Joops. And thank you everybody who came out and said hi at LinuxFest Northwest. It was great. All right, it is time to unveil the master plan for Brent's. And we are just days away from jumping on an aeroplane this Thursday and flying down to L.A.
to begin emergency rescue procedures of Brent's van. We're going to start with tires and then just see what breaks from there. That is the plan at the very high level, broad stroke, structural level. But I think you're starting to wrap your noodle around the actual details of the trip. So you've got some tires ordered. What else is going on? Where are we at with the master plan, the master rescue plan? Yeah, there's a couple categories, I think. So I'll let you choose your own adventure. There's the actual travel plan because I was thinking this morning, hashtag share thoughts, that I might have dropped the ball on a couple of things that we got to solve. So maybe when I talk about that.
Travel plan? Or the mechanicals. Oh sure Mechanicals. We also have paperwork And the last one My favorite category The viability. Wow Should that be the first thing Like. Before you go down there That's not how we do it That's not how we do it around here. Oh my god. So which category would you like Angela. I mean I like the viability part. It's very responsible to choose that as the first category. I regret to tell you and the audience that this has consistently been the last category on my list. Is this ridiculous? That's really my question. I don't think we've asked ourselves this. Is this whole van plan just a whole ball of ridiculousness?
I don't think so. I mean, it could be for some people. Okay, all right, all right, okay, okay, all right. But I don't think it is for you. No. No. What about for you because you're joining me? Oh, so are you talking about owning the van at all or this rescue effort? Yeah, yeah. Because the rescue effort, it's a group of intelligent guys. Oh, thanks. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah. You've got to get down. You've got to rescue. What do you got to do? You've got to do it. Once you get there, you're just going to. It doesn't really matter if it's fine. All right. Well, it's got to happen.
I agree. I agree. I agree. But, I mean, is it viable? Well, you know, if you could do it anyway, you'd probably take the RV down there. So we'd have like a place to rest and have tools and stuff like that. Oh, you're not bringing tools? Yeah, Jeff's coming. Perfect. Wait, so does that lead into the mechanical? Well, I don't know. Chris, would you like to choose the next Choose Your Own Adventure category? Oh, sure. Let's do mechanical. All right. Yes, there are some questions about the mechanical part. Now, I think this is the category in which we're doing the best because we got our peepers on this particular van before we even, well, sorry, before I made the decision to purchase it.
But I think you had decided before we even got there. So there's that. We know the tires are bad, but I have good news. The tires are sitting there waiting for us. They're in hand order. They're at the tire shop. They're just waiting for us to arrive. So that's all good. Check. I think that's the most obvious one considering there are fist-sized holes in the back tires on currently They don't hold any wind. No So that's solved. I think that's good. That gets us rolling, which allows us to try a few other things like. Brakes.
Yeah, the things that stop the thing. Wheel bearings. Oh, right. I forgot about those. Yeah. What else comes to mind? Who really knows? I mean, you think about it. You're like, you know, things probably not been lubed in seven, eight years. We know the fluids are good. We know the oil's good. We know the transmission's good. We're not sure about the radiated fluid. I'm a little sus about that because I gave it a sniff and it sniffs a little sour. Oh, really? Yeah. So we could probably have some gunk buildup in there. But the thing also, that engine takes quite a bit to overheat it.
So it might be all right. We'll just have to figure that out as we go. I also think, you know, the rubbers. The rubbers that have been in there for a while. You're saying. You're like line protectors that go around an O-ring. Your radiator hoses. All that kind of stuff ages out. Seals, all that stuff. Seals. They haven't been lubricated basically in six plus years. So I would think seals, definitely. Like, we know this engine in particular does have some seals. Valve covers always leak on these things, yeah. And we know that there are replacements for that. So that's the kind of stuff I'm a little worried about. And that and brakes.
Yeah, the brakes are a good question. I didn't see... I think there was some firmness in the brake pedal. Exactly. So I think... And we didn't see any leakage. Yeah, and we didn't lose pressure. So I think the lines are still sealed, which is really, really good. Yeah. So we might get, actually, I think we're going to get super lucky on that one. Yeah. We'll see when it starts rolling. I did take notes, though. If you remember, the engine oil is overfilled. Yes. So we need to do something about that. The other question is... Do we just want to replace the oil while we're doing that?
I don't think so. Maybe. I mean, it looks brand new. I know. I don't think it's really going to degrade just sitting there. But I do think we should make sure it is not overfilled because that's going to contribute to the oil leakage that we were experiencing. 100%. I was watching videos on overfilling oil and what happens at various levels. Fascinating. You could even hydro lock the engine up. Oof. Fascinating. Yeah. It, like, gets foamy. Yeah. It foams up. Huh. We do have to check the blood stick, I think. Okay. We did that earlier, but we didn't do it in the proper procedure, so we should do that.
The ice cube juice is also a question because we opened it to see if the flow was happening, which it was, but then there was a bit of a leak. Too. It was stinky. Yeah, I know. And we do think there might have been a slight leak. And it's a bit low in the reservoir and stuff like that. And there does, it could have just been the hood light, but there does seem to be a phantom draw that killed a brand new battery. True. Oh, I forgot about that. Something for us to keep in mind. Oh that you and i are like up in the mountains. In northern like california like.
Oregon or something staying in a beautiful spot. And the battery dies that's. What i can totally. Picture well you know what else brent we should add to the list okay it's not necessary before we leave but shortly after we should verify that we can get the generator working i think we probably want to wait till we have better gas we don't want to run that old gas through the generator so it's not something we do before launch but shortly after takeoff i think we want to make sure that generator is working because that could be a way we do like a rescue true situation so that's something to think about.
So i would say in the mechanical category i feel the best i think we spent the most time kind of thinking about that. Yeah and we kind of i think this area we can wrap our head around and. It's a series of somewhat known problems we're going to run into unknown problems, I would imagine, on the road, but the infrastructure for. Yeah, there should be like an O'Reilly's in every town. Yeah, yeah. And there's a bunch of like Vice Crip Garage videos we can refer to if we need to. Just we'll study up on YouTube. Yeah, exactly.
When we have a problem. That's exactly what we'll do. Yeah. So that's it for, I think, the mechanical category. I think, please, listeners, tell me if we're missing something super obvious that we need to know before we get there. That would be really useful. You know, there's another area I think we could use a lot of listener input on. And I mean, seriously, hopefully somebody has been in a similar position that could really help us. Ah, do you want to choose the next category? How about paperwork? Oof. So this is an American rig that needs to be imported into Canada.
It's not currently like, you know, I think we have the title. We will have the title, right? I heard some bad news. What? Apparently, so this was owned by Jeff's grandfather's brother. Who is deceased. Unfortunately. Who took really good care of this thing, so thank you. There was a disconnect between, you know, transferring the title to a family member at some point. So I don't think that part ever got done. So I think it's officially considered abandoned. But that might work in our favor. I'm not sure. Oh, okay.
Okay. So. I think the question is, is like. Do you need to deal with California's government at all? Can you move. To- Jeff would say hopefully not. Yeah, I think that this is something I wonder if the audience has an experience with. Can we move it to Washington and then just deal with the titling and licensing in Washington? Or do we need some sort of blessing from the California government saying this is legit, there's been a legit transaction that's taken place, and then Washington would need that paperwork, in theory, to be able to complete the licensing. And then after that, homeboy's got to move it to Canada.
How do you prove it was abandoned? Do you need the death certificate? But we have photos. Yeah, I almost wondered. You would need a death certificate. Yeah, so that's where I end up in this category with more questions than answers. Yeah, no kidding. Because from our perspective, it's like, yeah, it's all good. But from the legalese, official paperwork perspective, I think there might be actually more work to do here than on the mechanical side of things. And a lot of unknowns. I would definitely go to a California DMV or DOL or whatever. Yeah, Jeff was wonderful and did this. And they didn't have very good answers.
Oh, lame. That's shocking. I guess maybe the AI would know. I mean, we've been asking some questions, but yeah. So there's that. And then the process of exporting a vehicle. Because you can't just, I guess it's a two-stage thing. You've got to export the vehicle from the U.S., and then 10 feet later, you've got to import it into Canada. And they each have their different processes and stuff. And one thing I learned to look out for, that despite this thing being made in Canada, which it is, you know, it's like a pilgrimage home this whole trip, we have slightly different rules in terms of, like, daytime running lights on vehicles.
And so it's possible that it doesn't even mechanically match what needs to happen for importing. So there's, we have got a bit of a process to go through a checklist here. Wow. That's going to be a thing. But there is one last category. Okay. What is it? Well, if you remember, it's the travel. Yes, the travel. All right, the travel for $500. So I think we did really, really well here several weeks ago after scale. You and I, Chris, came up with this crazy plan to go rescue this van, and I think we did pretty good about it. I'm curious what you think. So we booked this trip. We're going to fly out of Payne Field, which is a teeny tiny airport near here, which is, I think, expert mode travel to California.
Teeny tiny airport, really, really no security, really. Super smooth. Yeah, and fancy. When we landed, it was fancy. So I think that's awesome. We also booked it for this coming Thursday instead of what our instinct was, which was, oh, we'll be back from Linux fast. We'll leave on Monday, which I think we did well there in giving us a few days of time just to think things through and. You know, post fast brain process. Yes. So we're leaving on Thursday. Oh, OK. Thanks. It's coming up quick. Let me know Wednesday. And I think that's where things start to maybe crumble slightly because I forgot to book us a place to stay, but I kind of gathered from you, you were thinking we might just stay in the van.
Well, at some point, it depends on how day one goes. Yeah, I know. Really, we're going to probably need something for the first night that we get there. Okay, I can do that. That's probably something we should think about. Yeah. But then the rest is just a mystery, right? Yeah. Because where we're staying, when we're staying, how we're staying is all based on what happens in all the other categories. And it's not like, you know, the other thing is like we don't have room to pack sleeping bags. Oh, I brought one. I brought two. I brought you one. You have a sleep. Where the did you fit a sleeping bag?
Well, you see, I drove. And so I had a car that I could fit things into. But these are like. But we have to go on a flight. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. I almost, I pretty much packed two. flights worth of gear one for linux fest i like what i was gonna wear there because what i'm going to wear to linux is very different than what i'm gonna wear to like get under a rig in la so i have another set of things that i thought would really help us when we got to get on this flight to go to cali so uh a sleeping bag is one of the things i brought for you i'm not saying it's gonna be like five star but.
I uh imagine i'm gonna pack light. Oh so. We have to think about gear because we are We're going to end up doing a show or two on the road. I don't think we'll have a launch while we're on the road. So that probably means next week's. I forgot about the gear. Oh, God. Okay, you do gear. I'll do, quote unquote, hotel. Yeah. And also mechanical tools that we might bring. Okay, yeah. So we'll make enough gear. Well, I'll bring enough gear so we can at least do a Linux unplugged and maybe something else from the road. We'll see. So I don't think we'll have a launch next week because we'll be probably right in the smack middle on Tuesday of the rush back. Hopefully, if we're lucky.
but we will be able to connect into the studio hopefully Wes can be here and live stream it and manage the levels and stuff from you know JB1. Will it be easier or harder than the last time we tried to do that from Jess Place. We'll find out I mean there's always random things that happen day two it's crazy are. You planning to do that Tuesday. No it'd be Sunday oh okay good Sunday LUP got it yeah oh boy overall. I think we're crazy. And also. This is going to be so much fun. It is. And it's been great learning about the van itself. Oh, yeah. So I'm including a bunch of links to this van. If you're curious, it's a Dodge Ram B250, but it's converted.
Yeah. So it's converted by a company called Roadtrek. And our dear Wes found a brochure from 1990 of all of the different chassis configurations you can get for this Roadtrek conversion. I forget now. I think mine's like the B conversion. It's got a shower and like seats in the middle and stuff. That sounds right. But this thing is classy. It is. The road trick. Oh, I have the independent. Yeah, of course you do. Seems fitting. You rogue. Although the two other models, the other one's versatile or popular, and I was kind of bummed out I wasn't those, but I'll take independent.
I think independent, well, versatile is a compliment. Popular, I'm not so sure. Okay. You know, because that's fleeting. All right. Well, let's take a break. Of course, the phone lines will be open if you'd like to call in during the song. We'll come back and do voicemails and boost. We are a little low on boost this week, so if you want to boost right now listening live, you still have a moment. It might just squeak it into the show. We'll be back in just a couple minutes with more show. And the Value for Value track this week is Undone by Laura Price.
Our first voicemail this week, I think, is Magnolia Mayhem. I believe it was. He sent me a special link so we'd have extra, hot-quality audio. But you remember, when you call in, we need your name in town, if you wish to opine. So everyone's been telling their band stories here, and it's not an issue of me not having enough stories. It's an issue of me having to. And I was thinking about not telling enough stories, but then I have one thing come up. I grew up playing. My dad was a preacher. He had a preacher friend together. They played bluegrass together, and I would play guitar with them, mandolin, piano, stuff like that.
I spent a couple of years playing trumpet and baritone in the middle. So that came back to bite me in the butt. I don't know how the rest of the military does it, but Air Force basic training, there's like 95% of people who do marching for their parade stuff. There's that 5% they tell you never volunteer for anything in basic training. But when you get there, they ask you, like, have you ever touched an instrument before? And if you raise your hand, they put you in what's called band flight. So band flight, instead of marching and doing all the parade stuff, you actually play the instruments because I guess they wanted to make it weird.
I'm not exactly sure why. When I got there, I was late. The guy that was ahead of me, like, broke his leg or something. I'm not even sure exactly what happened, but he ended up getting hurt, and I was dropping out, and so I ended up being just stuck wherever they could find me. So I show up three days late to basic training. They stick me in a band flight. I didn't even know it was a band flight until we went for our first practice. They form us up outside, run us to this other building over here, and then suddenly I'm holding different instruments. And we're like, what instrument did you play?
And just out of the top of my head, I was just like, a trumpet. I get stuck with a trumpet, and it turns out I am the only person in this flight that can play a scale on a trumpet. And so I am front and center, the trumpet guy. And so we're graduating. My mom still has this picture. She took a picture because I'm standing in the tension. I'm supposed to be head and eyes straight for us, but I've committed the cardinal sin of turning my eyes. And I finally walked onto my parents, and there's this picture of me, possibly heading out straight forward, except my eyes craned like 90 degrees.
It looks like I'm demon-possessed holding this trumpet on this parade ground. And I don't know how that's relevant, but that is my band story that I guess I'm going to bring to show and tell today. He got drafted, Ange. He got drafted. The trumpet guy. I love the way you said that. Like, I feel like that should be clicked. He is the trumpet guy. The trumpet guy. Our next caller is Graphene Man. Hey crew this is graphene man um a handful of things that i meant to mention i'm doing a faux and i'm recording this while driving uh you guys in linux unplugged were talking about your dream mac machine that was restored and i thought that was kind of cool until you mentioned the name of the town and i realized that's my town that's literally my town and as silly as it is It's oddly exciting to hear...
My podcast network from all the way over there mentioned my town. And if there was some way, any way, I could pick that up and get it to you, just know I absolutely would. Also, feedback on the gaming episode, definitely support it. I think it was fantastic. I understand why some people may not be the biggest fan, but frankly, the variety that Linux Unplugged and the network in general has is, I think, what makes it so special. So I think every once in a while, it's probably perfect. Anyway, thanks for the great shows. Well, thank you.
Awesome. You know, I found this old classic Mac that was like one of my first computers, but somebody's gone through and refurbished it and then upgraded on it. So they've replaced the storage with an actual SSD. They've added USB port to it. They've refurbed on the whole case to make it look original. I mean, it's beautiful, but it's like $1,300. for an old computer. Yeah, but an iPhone's like $2,500 these days. Oh, that's weird. Is it really? Well, no, but if you've got a maxed out one, it gets up there like $1,700. Tariffs.
Wow. Maybe with tariffs. Jasko left us a voicemail. Howdy, Chris and Angela. This is Jasko. Normally, I'm out of Sacramento, California, but currently I'm leaving Seattle, Washington on my way up to Bellingham, for Winix Fest Northwest. I hope y'all are having a good day. This is by far the longest road trip I've ever gone on, at least in a single day. Left Sacramento at 8 o'clock this morning. It's currently 8.30 at night, so that's 12 hours. I think by the time I get there, it'll be about 9.30, according to the GPS. Actually, don't play this one on the show, please I kind of hoped I would get somewhere You got there!
I totally nailed it Too late If you put it at the end of the voicemail. We might not hear that part But, you know, isn't that like a That's a true road. Trip when you're like Oh, I'm getting in like hours after the sunset Yeah. But Seattle makes everybody feel that way When you have to drive through it That's true Except that one time. That's true Nicole left us a voicemail Hey. Y'all It's Nicole. I'm calling you from Quinta, Ecuador. Yeah, halfway around the world. Cool. I've been listening to all of the Jupiter broadcast shows and all the different Linux-y stuff going on. It's been great listening to you over coffee and stuff and learning or running around taking care of business.
I appreciate all y'all do for us and hope you get to stay on the air for as long as possible. Oh, that's great. Yay. Thank you. Getting all warm and fuzzy over here. All right, almost our last voicemail here. it is from sir lurks a lot and he's got some things to say. Hey, Chris and Angie, this is lurks a lot again. I got bullet lists now. My parents did me a big favor when I learned how to drive, and they took me to a parking lot, large ones, and I practiced losing control where it's safe. I practiced in water. I practiced in snow. I practiced in ice. And the whole idea is get used to losing control of your car where it's safe and not scary so that you can survive it when it happens unexpectedly.
It was one of the best things they ever did for me. Learning stick, learn in a parking lot, get comfortable with that, and then go and tackle a small hill where you can learn how to do it when you're coming up the hill and having to stop and when you're going down the hill having to stop. You get those motions under your belt and you'll be fine out there driving a stick. You'll probably like it. It's a lot more fun sometimes, as long as you're not trying to juggle a coffee or something. When I was young, I had to learn how to fix cars because I was poor, and that taught me an awful lot and made me appreciate them, taught me how they work so I could be a lot more thoughtful about how I operated the car because I knew what it was doing to the thing.
So all in all, I'm saying –. If you have to put your own money and your own time into it, you have a greater appreciation for it. You take care of it and you're just more respectful of the whole situation you're in because it is life and death. Also, it makes you more confident about operating your car when you know how it's working and what it's doing. Oh, and last but not least, don't forget your blinker fluid. Have a good day. Guys. Got to keep the blinker fluid topped off. Well, that is great advice and I subscribe to 100% of it. Yeah, me too.
I was just the other day while I was driving, I was like, okay, do you feel that sort of bump that we just felt? That was shifting. That was the car shifting. There's gears. And I was going through the whole explanation to Dylan just because I do think it's helpful to know there's this thing that the engine revs up and then it shifts. And then it revs up and it shifts. And it won't always be the case when you have an EV, but helping them understand that's what's actually happening under the hood right now while you're driving. And then if you start, I think Lurch makes a great point. You start to just build on that knowledge.
Engine side note my 2022 super ascent uh the engine shuttered less than a mile off the dealership parking lot oh yeah right and it continued uh every day every day a mile into the drive you're just you just go. On like a straight speed too right. Yeah yeah when i'm maintaining a speed and it's flat and yeah about a mile it doesn't matter if i heat up the car or like preheat it or run it oh yeah sure because i tried a bunch of different things is it at certain rpms no it It doesn't matter what speed it is. I could be going 20. I could be going 45. It's going to do it. Anyway, they ended up having it for 27 days. 28 days is when you can officially claim lemon loss.
Oh, wow. So they were following that. Oh, my God. They could only replicate it once per day, right? Like it never happened. That's awesome. Was that true for you too? Was it once a day for you when you had it? There was one time I went and saw a theatrical production of Rocky Horror Picture Show called Rocky Horror Show. Good decision. Yeah, right? And it did it twice that day. Yeah. Like leaving that theater. It did it. I don't know why, but it's never done it twice. And it has done it less now, but they tried to gaslight me. It still happens?
Yes. So Dylan just asked me yesterday, does your engine still do that? And I said, yeah, not as often, but it definitely still does it. And he's like, you sure it's not the road? So my own son is trying to gaslight me. Oh my God. Yeah. And the dealership suggested, oh, it's because you live on a hill. Like, dude, I drove it off the lot and it did it. And my first thought was, okay, I'm a crazy woman driver, and I just don't know how to, you know, like, I don't know the feel of this car yet. But, no, it's not. Remember, I looked it up for you at one point, and I saw other people with older Model Xsens reporting the same thing.
Yeah, yeah. But they claim that this one doesn't have that particular thing. Right, right. They claim they fixed it. Yeah. Anyway. Uh-huh. All right. Our last voicemail. This came in just before the show, and the number looked pretty official. So, we'll see. Yeah, this is Colonel Williamson over at NASA, and we heard tell that your show is called The Launch, and it's causing some confusion over here. We kind of need you to change the name of your show. I know that as a good American, you'd be more than happy to do that, and we wouldn't want to have to send anyone your way who would, let's say, facilitate that change.
So why don't you take care of things the right way, and we won't have to apply the pressure. So maybe you could call it The Launch. Or maybe you could call it The Lynch or something. Maybe you could call it The Lynchpin. There you go. That'd be great. Your show is pivotal to whoever the hell listens to it. Anyway, thank you for cooperation, and God bless America. Woo! Maybe we name it Takeoff. We better move on that. So if you've got an idea for a better show name, boost in before we get in trouble. We've got to rename it pretty quick. Send your thoughts in. All right. Speaking of boosts, let's do them.
Thank you, everybody, who did call in. We would love it to have a whole stack of voicemails when we get back. Please do call 774-462-5667. Just add that to your phone book. You know, the launch phone number right there. Put it in your phone, 774-462-5667. Just can't seem to remember it without music. Oh, all right, all right. Call the launch. All right. Our first boost comes from Mr. Turd Ferguson, who comes in with 31,222 sats. Hey, Ange, I'm sorry I didn't get to say hi at Linux Fest this weekend. It was great to meet Brent and Chris, and mostly fine to meet Wes, too. So, wait a second. You met everybody but me? I was all over the fest. How? Did you see me?
Did you just, like... Thank you. I got this all weekend, too. I got to meet Wes and Brent. Sorry I didn't get to bump into you. I didn't see you come into LinuxFest. Well, I was there. I was there. But I was all over it. I was running it. It's not a competition, people. I opened up the old Matrix this morning with the DMs. Hey, man. Sorry I didn't get to say hi. So I got this, too. I tell you what. I tell you what. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you. I do not understand why him and Wes didn't hit it off. But just sometimes it's oil and water. He says, have you guys considered a food-themed episode of The Launch?
No, he said of The Lunch. Oh. Oh. Fail. Oh, my God. Turd's getting it on now. Too. Oh, my goodness. What did you say to him at LinuxFest? We made friends. We could. Well, you know, if you did listen to the recent Linux Unplugged that we did live at LinuxFest, Turd also said I was even handsomer in person. Okay, I was in during the live Linux Unplugged. Did he leave for Wessa's part? I don't think he was at the show. Oh. Yeah, no, he just sent a boost. Which I didn't just. We appreciate the boost. Yes. So could we do a barbecue thing? What would we do for a food theme? Like a summer episode maybe?
Are you saying grilling or barbecue? I'd probably be grilling here. But like maybe we do like a, I don't know, food episode? We should think about it. I'm a summer food episode. I mean, we did the breakfast and then fast food thing. But yeah, we can do, ooh, favorite thing we like to make. Yeah, could do. Go to make foods. I think we should make it, though, and try it and review it on the show. Is it a competition? Well, I'm not a competition. We can give points away. You know what? Let's do it next time Brent's here because it makes sense to do the lunch with his confusion about that A in launch.
Damn it, Brent. Damn it, Brent. Damn it, Brent. I didn't know it called. Oh, it wasn't you? Oh, okay. All right. No, of course not. Devator came in with 9,001 sats. Here's a quart of oil for the van. I love this. May the odds be ever in your favor. I love the idea that we're like, yep, this is Dev's quart. And then someone else buys us spark plugs or something. We write their name on the side of it. Dev, there you go. When we pour the first quart, we will dedicate it to you. Dev, you got to tell us, though, what's your favorite brand of oil. We want to get the right one.
Yeah, we got to make sure we get the good dinosaur juice. Mr. West Payne comes in with a row of ducks, 2,222 sats. Has Brent considered the van scentscape at all? Doesn't seem like a new car smell kind of guy. Do air fresheners come in maple? That's funny. That's a great maple syrup. I'm going to look that up right now. When you said you guys might sleep in it, I'm like, okay, but is it musty or moldy? No, we're going to have to do like a full, we're going to have to like run over to Target or something and get a bunch of cleaning products. Stain cleaner or something?
I don't know, but we're going to go that far. I mean, we are dudes after all. The first question that comes to mind is, will it be mustier before or after we sleep in it? And then the next question is, well, actually, now that I think of it, I did put air fresheners in this thing. I put a new car smell freshener in there. We did put a couple of new car trees. So I planned ahead. New fart trees. New fart trees. So it's going to be a little rough when we get there. Hey, I thought it was a good thing. Oh, man. And so just to let you know, I can verify there are maple syrup air fresheners. You know what? Pine is better.
Oh. Like homage to Highway 20. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. Pine, I'm not sure about, but I do know that- I love pine. Sea salt maple syrup air freshener from Febreze is nice. Sea salt? Is it $9? Yeah, I guess they- I don't know why they put this. Can I get a chocolate made out of that? It sounds delicious. Oh my goodness. A little caramel twist in there. That's a great question, Wes. We're definitely going to have to work on the smellscape, or the scentscape, as he puts it. I'm going to pull up Mogolethan, too, because Mog sent in 1,500 sats for our music artist last week to send some music.
If you send the sats while the song plays, 95%, go to the artist. You know what? It wasn't a baller week, but it was a fun week. We had 12 folks stream, and collectively they stacked 12,991 sats, almost 13,000. When you combine that with our boosters, a very humble, very humble show killing. 56,936. Everybody called instead, which is nice. You, however, can support the show with a boost. Support episode 20 by using something like Fountain FM. They make it really easy to get started, get in there, and send us a boost. There's a lot of great options, but Fountain and Strike are the killer combo.
And we appreciate everybody who supports this with a boost or by becoming a Jupiter Party member and supporting us at the network level. Thank you very much. I thought we could use the vast reach of this show to help solve a crime. Ooh. In Duluth, police have been on a multi-day chase, and the suspect, it's kind of creepy, I mean, imagine picturing this happening to you, the suspect has been hiding in people's backyards for days, moving from backyard to backyard, and the police at one point were very close to capturing the suspect, but they got away. And I think we'll share the information here on the show And perhaps the audience can help crack the case.
New this morning, there is a goat on the loose in Duluth. Police say the hoofed Hyundai was seen yesterday trotting down Peachtree Industrial Boulevard like it just had somewhere to go. When officers tried to capture it near Albion Farm Road, it hopped some fences and just disappeared. Police believe this may be the same goat recently seen in Suwannee when an animal control has been caught. So if you see this galloping goat, please call police or animal control. Somebody lost their source of goat milk. Yeah, and we need that. We need that nowadays. You know, everything is kind of expensive.
So, yeah, that would be quite the sight to see. Yeah, that'd be memorable. Make that call if you happen to see it. Yeah, make that call if you see the goat. And then I want to leave with an educational message. We often don't get to have the opportunity to train and teach, but this is a moment where we have an opportunity to do just that. So, you know, dogs, they mark their territory by peeing on things. Typically, or spraying. Which is kind of gross. Kind of gross. Turns out there's worse, more gross ways to mark your territory. Like cat anal glands in your face in the middle of the night?
That happened to Chris. In this very room. That is bad. That is bad. Might be along the same lines as the beaver. The beaver turns out to be a gassy, windy creature. For very good reason, actually. It's just a little gross. We put camera traps out to try and track the beaver activity. And we got loads of really great stuff. So we got the beavers building their dams. We caught them grooming, feeding, swimming. But one that did stand out and made everyone in the office laugh was the beaver breaking wind. And there is actually a really good reason that we think that they did this. And it's actually...
Beavers have, near their tail, they have glands that can secrete this oil called castorium. And that actually helps them to mark their territory. So we think what the beaver was doing in the video is actually marking its territory and communicating to any other beavers out there that actually this is my patch. It was unexpected beavers arriving here. So the beaver's been extinct in the UK for a long time, and so they are actively, the new ones that have arrived are actively marking their territory by farting all over it. So if you, like me as a kid, I came across beaver dams. I was all over them.
Turns out, probably should have washed my hands afterwards. Didn't know. But now you know, so you can be safe. You can be safe. Did you, were you realized, did you, Brent, know that beavers fart all over their territory to mark it? You know, I don't think it really matters because they tend to live in like swampy, gross areas that just stink anyways. So I've never noticed, but it's only because I was already being bombarded with the stink. I lived on a lake with beavers and it was interesting. I had no idea that was going on. But this is a real scientific breakthrough.
You know, over there in Cornwall, they put up a camera and they caught the flashlights on camera. So history was made. Shout out to Astro Penguin who wrapped us up with a live boost that just says live boost. We appreciate that. Now, you also can send us a boost on our way off to wish us luck to get the van and tune in to the next episode, 21, when we come back. And, of course, check out Linux Unplugged from the Road this coming Sunday. Yeah, you can boost whichever mechanical part you want to take ownership of. We'll write your name on said mechanical part. We need many things.
I think that'd be great. All right. Well, links to what we talked about at weeklylaunch.rocks. join us in two weeks live again on Tuesday at jblive.tv or in your podcasting 2.0 app of choice and of course the show comes out Wednesday mornings assuming the platform publishes it apologies about the snafu last week, from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast thank you for listening and we'll see you right back here next week no two weeks two weeks.
This is The Launch, Episode 20 for April 28th, 2025. 25. Streaming from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast, we greet you all. A good morning, a good evening, or wherever your timeline may fall. Time-appropriate greetings, indeed, to one and all. This is The Launch. My name is Chris. I'm Angela. And my name is Brent. Hello, you two. We have a big show coming up. A couple of things I'd like everyone to know before we get into it. We'd love it if you called us. You can call us live or you can leave us a voicemail. The number is 774-462-5667.
That's 774-462-5667. You can call us or you can join us live. Typically on Tuesdays. We're a little early this week. We always keep the calendar updated to jupiterbroadcasting.com slash calendar. And in your podcasting, 2.0 app of choice. We've got a quiet listening mobile room always going as well, where you can pop in and chat with us. That's running during the live stream. And of course, the call line is open as well. And we'll take some calls after the music. And then you can catch everything we talked about, links, past episodes, all of that, at our website, weeklylaunch.rocks. That's where you'll find everything.
Well, Andrews? We did it? Yes. We LinuxFested. Yes, we did. How are you feeling? Do you get a sense, you know, from more of like the leadership side of LinuxFest Northwest that it went okay? I mean, on the ground, I know it felt like it went okay, but how does the team feel? Well, we're going to do our retrospective in a couple weeks. You mean like not this week, but like in weeks? Yeah. Oh. Give everybody some time to chill. Availability in, yeah. We've been meeting weekly for, I don't know. Gosh, I feel like half a year now. So it has been a lot. But overall, we really nailed some aspects that we haven't in the past.
So we did coffee. We got the pipe and drape, which made the exhibit hall look a lot more professional and allowed for better banner hanging and sponsor representation, both paid and unpaid sponsors. And then optimizing session eyes was like key. People could look up the talks and scroll down and see or or up scroll up and see there's breakfast like community breakfast that they could join or scroll down and see the after events right there with the schedule. duh so um yeah we just we really nailed um some aspects of it and even though a food truck canceled on friday before the fest uh we still managed uh to feed everybody lunch.
So yeah lunch was one of my favorite things so we had a pizza truck there and then my wife adia and emma from system 76 went out and picked up like 100 sandwiches from a local sandwich shop and people just came out in front of jupes and just ate on the grass we just hung out in front of the rv for a bit, and it was nice and chill. The weather was beautiful. Yeah, seriously. No rain. Last year, we got so covered in rain. Soaked. Yeah, I think it helped a lot to have good weather. I think it helped with attendance and the mood. Brent, this is, you've been going for a little while now. You're kind of a Linux Fest pro. What did you think of this year?
I deeply enjoyed this year, I gotta say. I was less stressed than any other year. I don't know why. I think maybe it's the location we had Joops in. You know, it was so beautiful. But also it's just like seeing old friends now. Even the new people we meet, it's like we've known them for a long time. It just like felt really cozy as a fest, I would say. The chaos of like scale and stuff was, we didn't have, this is it. We didn't have to deal with any Airbnbs on this one. I think that's the key. That was nice. Those were a little chaotic sometimes. I felt like there's improvement for the Linux unplugged stuff.
Like maybe we should be doing it Saturday. Yeah. But also, um... we need three hours. Like we need three hours. It was so stressful setting up in 15 minutes and they didn't provide us networking. So we spent the 15 minute setup time creating a LAN and setting up networking. And then we spent 20 minutes into our period, you know, our actual allocated time, then getting everything else worked out. And then we, of course, ran long and there was never a clear delineation between when we started, when Wes has started. So the Fest staff, you know, they want to introduce everybody and stuff like that.
And we couldn't accommodate that because it was all chaos. And by the time it was time to start, we were 35 minutes late. And so we're starting now. And yeah, that was really rough. Whereas the year before, there was nobody after us in that room. And so, and then we had two kind of, two folks leading up to us. We had Olympia, Mike, and Wes himself giving talks that were kind of on theme with Linux Unplugged. So attendance, people were able to just come to the room and then just stay. It's like the warm up act. Yeah, last year.
Yeah, last year. This year, I think it was more sort of spread out. It was on Sunday. We were running behind. The whole thing was. The classroom format was a little less ideal as well compared to last year. So definitely, definitely have some good notes on that. Yes. So, you know, we felt we sort of felt like that was partially on us, too, because, you know, I guess we could have had a network set up ahead of time. Yeah, we could have set up the night before. Yeah, we were we were up. We were up late just getting the audio dialed in the night before we were up to one ish.
But, yeah, there's always more to be done in those types of situations. And then, you know, the other thing is, is when we live stream. You think about this. So we take the RV. Well, so Friday night, we're not really going out and socializing because the RV can't arrive until the staff is cleared out. So we have to wait until at least closing hour, which some of the social stuff has already started by the time it's closing hour at the college. So then we arrive at the college and then it's an hour to two hours to set up depending on what we want to do.
And by the time we're done, it's kind of like social stuff is over. So Friday, we then were like, okay, well, we're just going to work on the audio gear. And then we did. We worked from like 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. on setting up the audio gear. And then Saturday, well, the first thing you got to do when you wake up is, okay, you got to get everything working again. Then we discover the audio gear has all been reset to factory defaults, even though we stayed up till 1 a.m., dialing it all in. So then we got to fix the audio settings. Then we got to make sure the remote audio is working because Brent's going to go out in the fields.
We got to make sure that's going. We got to go schedule some guests because the guests got to come on and talk to us because we're about to be live and all this. So Saturday is burned up by doing day one live stream. And we finish around lunchtime. And then it's break down the gear, take the audio files we recorded, process them, get them posted, get them on extras, get them on the feeds. And by the time we're done with all of the post show stuff, the fest is over that day. And then the next day it's rinse and repeat because it's Linux unplugged. And that it's like we have a little more time in the afternoon, but we're still publishing. I mean, when did we, I mean, we worked, literally Wes was working on the road.
Like even after we were done at Linux Fest, at the end, end, end of the day, Wes got on the road, hotspotted his laptop to his phone, and we continued to get things out during his commute. And then, you know, same with us in the evening. It was just, there was just very little time to actually go to a talk or anything like that. We got to talk to people and do the social stuff. So I think next year, if we just do one day for all the production stuff, do it on Saturday, and Sunday is just a chill day, and the show's already done, and we just go hang out and go to some talks and things like that.
I think that would be better. Definitely. Because we get very little... time to enjoy the fest when we're covering the fest it's it's a really tricky thing. It's interesting that every single fest we learn new things about how we want to do it how we don't want to do it what's better for the audience etc um and then we almost didn't do a saturday stream remember you were asking like hey would people listen i don't know that said i think it went really well it. Did yeah i do think it went well yeah and the episode is out on extras.show we posted day one and I think it's a good I think it's a good chunk of content Wes says that he went to go get some chicken katsu while uploading the final files so he made it work.
Did the interview you did with me Brent did that make it into the extras. It was on day one we put it out on day one because one of the things we wanted to do, and people did say they did some of this we thought well if you're attending the stream and you want to know what the hell is going on you just tune into jblive.fm and we'll recap the talk is going on this hour here's how to fest Yep. It was, I thought it worked. Yeah, we should put that in the show notes. It's extras.show slash 93. Yep. If you'd like to get there. Yeah, I did three sessions. They were all orientation on how to Linux Fest.
And the last two were pretty low. But the first one had about 50 to 60 people. And a majority of them were first-time attendees. That's great. It was crazy. And then I would say about 60% of them were from out of state even. So it was really interesting and hopefully very helpful for people to know what buildings have what and how the fest runs. Yeah, I think it was a good idea. And I was impressed. You mentioned out of state. Yeah, we had people from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Peru. Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, yeah. I think there was somebody there from the UK.
One crazy guy came all the way from Canada. Right, I was just going to say. Canada. So it is interesting. team we seem to be pulling more and more folks from out of state and building that base too it was good. I thought it was so fun meeting people from all over. I thought, like, oh, this is our little local fest, right? And that's not true at all, it turns out, when you start chatting with people. It's really, really fun. We don't have any hint of rough numbers. No, because we, so part of the free and open source community is not being tracked. So we didn't do any kind of registration or name tags or anything like that that we'd be able to count.
Yeah, I understand. I do like that vibe of just being able to walk in. Nobody's gatekeeping me. Yeah. On Saturday, though, for those that stayed for the raffle at 4 p.m., which a lot of people have left by then, but everybody that was willing went out to the grass and took a group picture. Nice. And so I'll be able to at least count this how many were there at the end of day one. I missed out on so much good stuff. I also missed out, like, it was the 25th year, and so they had some of the OGs that were still around. I could miss that because we were working on the— Yeah.
Bill and— I'm a little bitter about it. John, the founders. You seem to have some regrets. I do. Some fest regrets. I didn't get to fest much. Right. You know? And in my interview with Brent, he said, are you going to any talks? Are there any talks you're interested? And I'm like, you don't eat at your wedding. Yeah, that's what it feels like. That's what it feels like. Yeah. You don't get to enjoy the festivities. You organize it. Yep. But you don't get to actually participate. All this energy and thought goes into ordering all the food. That's exactly what it is. You get this great buffet or whatever it is for the wedding, and then you don't get to eat a bite of it. That's exactly what it felt like.
It's an extremely generous thing you do, like organize the whole thing, do all the streaming. It's just for everybody else, not for you. You don't do it for you. All right, Andrews, we have a very special question this week. It's a very revealing, probing question. Okay, what do you want people to boost in with? Okay, so I accidentally clicked a bookmark today and it overrode my first tab. And I was like, oh, no. And for whatever reason, when I do that, I can't just hit back. Like I have to go to the, I have to type the URL. And then I thought, how lame is it that I always keep my first tab back?
is Facebook. This seems really lame. And so then I thought, I know. I am judging you now, actually. Yeah. So then I thought, you know, okay, I use three different browsers and Firefox is my primary. And I have at least, you know, 20 tabs open in each of the browsers. But Firefox is my primary and the go-to first tab is Facebook. So I want to know what browser are you using? What is your first tab? Do you have a first tab? Are you pinning your tabs? What does your browser look like? Brentley, do you want to admit what your first tab is? Well, I have questions first, because I don't quite know how to answer that question without having my questions answered.
If you could only have one browser window, so don't count your 30 browser windows. Chris is already like, I know the problems you're having. Oh, all right. You know me so well. Which, you know, tab number one in your mind. What's tab number one out of all those? Oh, man. Mine wouldn't be surprising. Not the one that you go to all the time. But just Like the first. Like you're always, I need this tab to always be here. When I'm doing like sit down at the jobby job work stuff. Bangbust.com? Yeah, that's the one. And I do have, and I even call it like my workspace. So I have a couple of bookmarks and I just open them all and there is an order of those tabs and that's actually been super useful.
So there's always one there. And generally it's like me attempting to organize what I should be doing, like executive function stuff. but aside from that what is the one tab that I always have open on my computer as the very first one oh man I don't even know how to answer that one ah geez this is. A man with a lot of tabs folks. I'll call in at some point report back. Mine is not that surprising it's either email, or it's our show docs hdocs and I pin them I don't know if other people take advantage of the whole pin tab thing, but actually right now on my browser, I've got, A lot of tabs open. Not a lot, but I mean, not in Brent standard, but, you know, almost, almost 10 tabs and they're all pinned.
So this machine always has like these 10 tabs and there's stuff to control the stream and manage chat and, you know, all that kind of stuff. But for me, it's almost always Hedge Docs or Gmail. Yeah. My second one is Gmail. Is it? Yeah. Oh, and then I often very close in that first group is Home Assistant. That makes sense. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah, that one definitely needs to be pinned. Yeah, yeah. I have a confession, I think. All right. Ooh. I hate slash have never used pin tabs. Oh, really? Oh. I've tried for about three minutes one time a couple years ago, and I can't do it. Is it because they're so small?
Yeah. Like, are you looking for a full-size tab? Mm-hmm. Well, okay, so at work, my first tab is a pinned Gmail. Okay. You monsters. You know, if you use it a lot, it's kind of nice not to take up more room. And then it always reopens with the browser. Yes. Have you heard of apps? Oh. All right, let us know. Boost in what is your first tab and your favorite browser. So we imported ourselves a Brentley, and he had quite the border bonanza on his way into Washington State. You drove across the border this time. Not always your route to go, but it gives you some flexibility.
Not in the Bing bus yet. Nope. Nope. That comes up next. But tell me about this border crossing you had. Well... Border crossing has changed, or at least the idea of border crossings, especially from Canada to the U.S., the general societal idea of what that is has changed recently, at least for Canadians. You know, current affairs being what they are and some horror stories coming out about, let's say, people trying to get into the U.S., out of the U.S. So I've always had, for the most part, really, really good experiences. especially recently my experience has been like the one question border guard they're like oh where are you going okay have fun uh so that's been my experience for probably the last year uh likely because i travel so much they know exactly where i am what i'm doing i don't know something like that but it's been really nice experience so there's been such a contrast for me between what my experience has been even recently like going to scale for instance and And some of the stories and worries for even people really close to me were like, oh, you're going to the U.S.?
Like, why are you going to the U.S.? It's like really scary over there now. And like, I have so many friends here and stuff. And it's like, yeah, OK, maybe the border has some slightly heightened risks, but I'm not doing anything that I need to hide. I'm not doing anything. Yeah, exactly. Right. I'm probably bringing trail mix. And that's the thing they need to worry about the most. So I was going to say a little bit more nervous than I have been in an extremely long time. That said, I decided to drive because of the flexibility. Chris, you know, the flexibility, leaving whenever you want and all that stuff.
It's just amazing. And also... Then you have transportation while you're here, too, if you need it. And also, Highway 20 was open. Oh, yeah. Beautiful highway. Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Which closes in the winter for snow. They throw up their hands and say, we're not going to plow that. We can't get our equipment up there. It's too crazy because it's like a highway built in the early 1900s that you would never, ever build today. But it makes for a beautiful drive. So can we take a little aside? Because I want to talk about Highway 20 and why. It's like one of my favorite roads that I've ever been on.
Oh, all right. Right, okay. It's definitely my favorite road in Washington State. It's high praise, yeah. You might even say, controversially, perhaps even better than Tale of the Dragon. Oh, 100% is. Woo, that's fighting words for some folks. I know I said that the other day when we were looking at Tale of the Dragon videos. Yeah. And I firmly believe it. All right. Tale of the Dragon's famous. But I agree. This is because you've got altitude, you've got mountains, you've got waterfalls. I mean, it's just everything. And some of the names are great. So it's called the North Cascades Highway. Great name.
And some of the places you go by is like Diablo Lake. We have some experiences there. Which is a very unique kind of emerald colored lake. There's a little spot called Deception Pass. You know, like what happens there? I don't know. It's gorgeous though. Deception happens there. But I thought like, oh, maybe I should find a link for the show notes just for the audience so they know what the heck we're talking about. And it turns out the Wikipedia page on highway, you know, the state route 20 is very complete. Oh, really?
So I pulled out a couple little historical things here. You want me to share a couple? Yeah, I'd be curious, because this is a highway I'm frequently on. Okay, so this one's very often called the most beautiful mountain highway in the state of Washington. I think that's easily true. Although there are some others that are quite nice. It also follows one of the oldest state roads in Washington and was established in 1896. You said early 1900s. You got to keep going. And was originally a wagon route. I wasn't sure if they quite started in the late 1800s or not. That's interesting. So it was for wagons.
Well, it turns out they started way before that because it was originally a corridor used by the local Native American tribes as a trading route. No kidding. From, I guess, Washington's eastern plateau all the way to the Pacific coast more than 8,000 years ago. Wow. So this is a well-traveled location. Uh-huh. So I didn't realize that when I was driving on it, but now it's just a very important historical route as well. Trip through time. No wonder why you like it so much. It turns out it's also the state's longest highway. Can you believe that one? Well, it does go all the way, right, to Idaho?
Yeah, I just thought north-south would be longer. Me too. Oh, no, no. She's a wide gal. And the thing I love about this route is that it weaves. Yeah, it does. And it goes around like tight turns. Switchbacks that are going up mountainsides. For 436 miles, which is 700K. Yeah. So if you ever get a chance to be on this highway, I would say... And then I love mountains. Occasionally I kiss them. So I counted the number of passes that I took to get here. Get ready for this one. Do you have any guesses, Ang? How many passes between... Mountain passes.
Mountain passes between when Brent gets into Washington when he arrives here. No, no, no, no. When I leave my home. Oh, you're counting Canada too? Yeah. I didn't know Canada had much in the way of mountains. I'll say three. I'll say three. Yeah, fake mountains. Okay. Three? Eight. Ooh. Isn't that something? Eight. Wow. And he's not... I mean, it's like a 10-hour drive. eight mountain passes and a ten hour drive. Yeah five of those are in Washington and the tallest one was in Canada which is 5,800 feet oh please but three or four of them are in the like mid 5,000s too here in Washington so it's just a beautiful route and because it just opened a couple days ago no traffic still snow in the mountains but the roads are totally clear and it's just super lovely so highly recommended thank you for letting me go on that little, aside so I can share my love with the 20.
You might recall, too, on Highway 20 at the Washington Pass Overlook, that's where we hit some swag one time. That's true. It got eaten by a bear or something like that, but I'm sure they enjoyed it. You know, my biggest memory of Highway 20 is it's usually during a road trip, a long enough road trip that I need caffeine. So I drink a lot of caffeine, and there aren't a lot of places to go pee. There are not. I mean, there aren't very many places to get fuel either, like 50 miles. Right. There's just a fuel desert. Nothing, yeah. So, yeah, so plan accordingly if you want to check out Highway 20.
The Diablo Lake or whatever does have restrooms. Thank goodness that is usually where, like, I almost, I don't know. I almost didn't make it there. Yeah, Diablo Lake has a nice little rest stop area with some turlets and some places to, like, picnic and stuff. But otherwise... And beautiful water. Just beautiful. The Washington Overlook Pass does as well, but it's quite a bit further down the road from Diablo Lake. So you get to the border. And you're coming into America. Nervous. Did they give you the old pat down and take you out of the car and say, sir, put your hands on the hood? Like what happened?
That's only happened once before. I decided to take like a really tiny little border crossing in the middle of nowhere. I figured that would be easier. And the chance of my Canadian charm working on this one would probably be higher. It turns out that was a really good decision because I got there and there was nobody around. even you just went right through well the border guard was in their little hut and they made me wait because I don't know they must have been playing a video game or something watching YouTube yeah who knows yeah, and it so it was literally just one person and wow but I was still kind of nervous I like even printed out like the homepage of Linux Fest to prove that look my face is on the homepage this is why I'm going this is where I'm going etc I remember I did that, years ago on my first like time doing a border cross actually to come to linux fest and i was super nervous because i hadn't really done that experience but up these days it's just like they're almost like friends you know across the border so much but i was nervous so you know they started asking questions fair enough it was more than one question which i wasn't used to these days, he said oh you know where you're going and so but he starts to walk around my car as i'm answering Taking a look.
At things going, is this thing going to make it? Well, there is that about my car. It's got some, let's say, personality. So I'm hanging my head out the window trying to answer the question as he's really deeply checking out my license plate, which is kind of, it's kind of bent from the last time I kissed a mountain, but it, anyways. Kind of straightened it out a little bit. And he says, where are you going? And I said, oh, I'm going to LinuxFest Northwest. And that's in, you know, Bellingham, Washington. And it's a tech conference. And he, like, is scrutinizing this license plate quite a lot.
And then he leans over towards my window. He's like, well, where's the penguin? And in that moment, it took me a minute to be like, what is he? Oh. And in that moment, I realized I was fine. This was going to be totally fine. Because he's making a Linux reference. But that you don't look like a groupie because where's your penguin? Yeah, where's your penguin? Fair enough. I mean, I try to be incognito Linux fanboy. You know. But I did realize in that moment, like, okay, there's my connection and you got to grapple onto it. So he asked me a bunch of other questions that he had to for like, you know, making sure I'm, I don't know, not trying to move here or anything.
But then he continues to ask me a bunch of Linux questions. He's like, so, you know, if I want to recommend Linux to my friends, like a Linux desktop, these days, what is the distro you recommend for this kind of stuff? So I was like, well, actually, I think I would recommend if it was your parents. He's like, yeah, my parents. I was like, I think probably Kubuntu. He's like, wait, I've heard about Ubuntu. It was this Kubuntu thing. So I launch into like explaining the difference between those. You should have given him a thumb drive, Brent. There you go. Yeah. Didn't have one within grabbing distance, I guess.
but he did ask some other questions I thought was interesting like how in the world do people make money with a free operating system good question so you know I educated him about how the entire internet was run on Linux etc etc, but then he did ask me one last question any guesses. Hmm he's border guard. Has to ask questions. No, I don't have any. Current affairs. I can't imagine what a border guard would ask. Yeah, no. He said, okay, well, are you bringing any eggs? Of course. Oh, my gosh. Are you serious? That was his last question.
He's where you got a big egg trade going. You're arbing the eggs between Canada and America. Arbing the eggs. Making a profit on the eggs. Hide them under my rear seat there. Sir, can we look in your vehicle? Yeah. So it turned out to be actually a really memorable and great border crossing. You know, he had to ask questions, but he asked also a bunch of really fun ones about Linux. You know, what are the chances of that? Yeah, that's wild. So I have a question for the audience. Do you have a crazy border crossing story? And do you, like me, think that Brent just got totally snowed by this border guard?
This border guard was testing Brent, right? He was testing Brent's Linux knowledge to see what Brent would say, to see if he was lying about Linux. And if Brent had told them that he milked cows for a living, he would have had all kinds of milk questions. It was all a plan to entrap him. And if he would have screwed up, he would have made it across the border. That's my theory. What do you think? Boosten, tell me if you think I'm crazy. well i think i'll just give you all a real quick update here like we said we had a great fest, and we had the final camping destination baked into our now month-long rat escape at linux fest northwest when we set out we were like maybe we'll stay out till linux fest but That's like a month away.
And here we were, Friday night, pulling up to the Bellingham Technical College and getting ourselves a spot. And we spent two nights in the Technical College parking lot, Saturday working all day. And then Sunday was a great spot to go back and work after we were done with Unplugged. And how was your parking lot experience, Brent, sleeping in the old college parking lot? I think we got an upgrade this time. You know, we switched to the other side of the parking lot. That was nice. Which is actually about 15 feet away. Yep. Had a nice big grass field in front of us.
Yeah, you open the door and the stairs led into this beautiful grass field and it was super sunny. So I think we got a better lot this time around. I don't know who navigated that one. I would say that the temperatures were better too. Yeah, that is very true. So we were comfortable at night, which made it easy. Yep. And during the day, we weren't hot. It was kind of a perfect fest, wasn't it? It was just right. Yeah. So we could work in the RV all day and not overheat. Yeah, it was hotter in some of the rooms. Yeah.
Oh, for sure. Than the RV that was literally in the sun. But we were still making like tons of solar or definitely, you know, 700 watts or whatever was the cover. You were worried about that. I was because the forecast app was like, it's going to be below normal UV production for you today. And I'm like, we're running 500 watts of gear. Yeah. With all the extra audio gear, you were like, I hope it's going to be okay. Because if we got to run the generator to give power during the stream, it's going to be a problem. Too noisy. But then the pizza food truck showed up and they were they pulled up right next to the RV for a little bit.
And we weren't sure if that was their intention to stop there because they were there for like 10, 15 minutes. And they bring what's called the 3500 Predator, which is a big 3500 watt gas generator with no muffler. And if you run that thing next to our RV, we would not be able to live stream. And so all three, Brent West and I were looking out. They went, oh, no, are they going to stop there? Oh, no, are they going to stop there? Jeff, get out there and do something. But they went to the other side of the parking lot. It totally worked out. I think they sensed because there were like six pairs of eyes staring at them. What are they doing?
What are they doing? We don't want to park beside these guys. They're crazy. Right, right. I felt like Joops was one of the MVPs of the trip, though, because it was such a great spot to have, not only for us, but for the sandwiches and all that. We had a fridge and we could put the things that perish in the fridge while we got everything handed out. It all worked out. I think, yeah, I got two things to say about that. I think, A, Joops did really well as a mobile studio. I think we did a great time doing the live stream from there. Sure.
But, B, on previous trips, we've had some discomforts about the state of some of Joops', let's say, lady parts, like the slides and stuff. Whoa. Whoa. Yeah. All fully functional. Not in front of the kids. Fully functional. Yeah, but this time around, yeah, we were, I don't know. Joops didn't present any problems at all. It was just smooth sailing. Mission accomplished. Thank you, Joops. And thank you everybody who came out and said hi at LinuxFest Northwest. It was great. All right, it is time to unveil the master plan for Brent's. And we are just days away from jumping on an aeroplane this Thursday and flying down to L.A.
to begin emergency rescue procedures of Brent's van. We're going to start with tires and then just see what breaks from there. That is the plan at the very high level, broad stroke, structural level. But I think you're starting to wrap your noodle around the actual details of the trip. So you've got some tires ordered. What else is going on? Where are we at with the master plan, the master rescue plan? Yeah, there's a couple categories, I think. So I'll let you choose your own adventure. There's the actual travel plan because I was thinking this morning, hashtag share thoughts, that I might have dropped the ball on a couple of things that we got to solve. So maybe when I talk about that.
Travel plan? Or the mechanicals. Oh sure Mechanicals. We also have paperwork And the last one My favorite category The viability. Wow Should that be the first thing Like. Before you go down there That's not how we do it That's not how we do it around here. Oh my god. So which category would you like Angela. I mean I like the viability part. It's very responsible to choose that as the first category. I regret to tell you and the audience that this has consistently been the last category on my list. Is this ridiculous? That's really my question. I don't think we've asked ourselves this. Is this whole van plan just a whole ball of ridiculousness?
I don't think so. I mean, it could be for some people. Okay, all right, all right, okay, okay, all right. But I don't think it is for you. No. No. What about for you because you're joining me? Oh, so are you talking about owning the van at all or this rescue effort? Yeah, yeah. Because the rescue effort, it's a group of intelligent guys. Oh, thanks. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? Yeah. You've got to get down. You've got to rescue. What do you got to do? You've got to do it. Once you get there, you're just going to. It doesn't really matter if it's fine. All right. Well, it's got to happen.
I agree. I agree. I agree. But, I mean, is it viable? Well, you know, if you could do it anyway, you'd probably take the RV down there. So we'd have like a place to rest and have tools and stuff like that. Oh, you're not bringing tools? Yeah, Jeff's coming. Perfect. Wait, so does that lead into the mechanical? Well, I don't know. Chris, would you like to choose the next Choose Your Own Adventure category? Oh, sure. Let's do mechanical. All right. Yes, there are some questions about the mechanical part. Now, I think this is the category in which we're doing the best because we got our peepers on this particular van before we even, well, sorry, before I made the decision to purchase it.
But I think you had decided before we even got there. So there's that. We know the tires are bad, but I have good news. The tires are sitting there waiting for us. They're in hand order. They're at the tire shop. They're just waiting for us to arrive. So that's all good. Check. I think that's the most obvious one considering there are fist-sized holes in the back tires on currently They don't hold any wind. No So that's solved. I think that's good. That gets us rolling, which allows us to try a few other things like. Brakes.
Yeah, the things that stop the thing. Wheel bearings. Oh, right. I forgot about those. Yeah. What else comes to mind? Who really knows? I mean, you think about it. You're like, you know, things probably not been lubed in seven, eight years. We know the fluids are good. We know the oil's good. We know the transmission's good. We're not sure about the radiated fluid. I'm a little sus about that because I gave it a sniff and it sniffs a little sour. Oh, really? Yeah. So we could probably have some gunk buildup in there. But the thing also, that engine takes quite a bit to overheat it.
So it might be all right. We'll just have to figure that out as we go. I also think, you know, the rubbers. The rubbers that have been in there for a while. You're saying. You're like line protectors that go around an O-ring. Your radiator hoses. All that kind of stuff ages out. Seals, all that stuff. Seals. They haven't been lubricated basically in six plus years. So I would think seals, definitely. Like, we know this engine in particular does have some seals. Valve covers always leak on these things, yeah. And we know that there are replacements for that. So that's the kind of stuff I'm a little worried about. And that and brakes.
Yeah, the brakes are a good question. I didn't see... I think there was some firmness in the brake pedal. Exactly. So I think... And we didn't see any leakage. Yeah, and we didn't lose pressure. So I think the lines are still sealed, which is really, really good. Yeah. So we might get, actually, I think we're going to get super lucky on that one. Yeah. We'll see when it starts rolling. I did take notes, though. If you remember, the engine oil is overfilled. Yes. So we need to do something about that. The other question is... Do we just want to replace the oil while we're doing that?
I don't think so. Maybe. I mean, it looks brand new. I know. I don't think it's really going to degrade just sitting there. But I do think we should make sure it is not overfilled because that's going to contribute to the oil leakage that we were experiencing. 100%. I was watching videos on overfilling oil and what happens at various levels. Fascinating. You could even hydro lock the engine up. Oof. Fascinating. Yeah. It, like, gets foamy. Yeah. It foams up. Huh. We do have to check the blood stick, I think. Okay. We did that earlier, but we didn't do it in the proper procedure, so we should do that.
The ice cube juice is also a question because we opened it to see if the flow was happening, which it was, but then there was a bit of a leak. Too. It was stinky. Yeah, I know. And we do think there might have been a slight leak. And it's a bit low in the reservoir and stuff like that. And there does, it could have just been the hood light, but there does seem to be a phantom draw that killed a brand new battery. True. Oh, I forgot about that. Something for us to keep in mind. Oh that you and i are like up in the mountains. In northern like california like.
Oregon or something staying in a beautiful spot. And the battery dies that's. What i can totally. Picture well you know what else brent we should add to the list okay it's not necessary before we leave but shortly after we should verify that we can get the generator working i think we probably want to wait till we have better gas we don't want to run that old gas through the generator so it's not something we do before launch but shortly after takeoff i think we want to make sure that generator is working because that could be a way we do like a rescue true situation so that's something to think about.
So i would say in the mechanical category i feel the best i think we spent the most time kind of thinking about that. Yeah and we kind of i think this area we can wrap our head around and. It's a series of somewhat known problems we're going to run into unknown problems, I would imagine, on the road, but the infrastructure for. Yeah, there should be like an O'Reilly's in every town. Yeah, yeah. And there's a bunch of like Vice Crip Garage videos we can refer to if we need to. Just we'll study up on YouTube. Yeah, exactly.
When we have a problem. That's exactly what we'll do. Yeah. So that's it for, I think, the mechanical category. I think, please, listeners, tell me if we're missing something super obvious that we need to know before we get there. That would be really useful. You know, there's another area I think we could use a lot of listener input on. And I mean, seriously, hopefully somebody has been in a similar position that could really help us. Ah, do you want to choose the next category? How about paperwork? Oof. So this is an American rig that needs to be imported into Canada.
It's not currently like, you know, I think we have the title. We will have the title, right? I heard some bad news. What? Apparently, so this was owned by Jeff's grandfather's brother. Who is deceased. Unfortunately. Who took really good care of this thing, so thank you. There was a disconnect between, you know, transferring the title to a family member at some point. So I don't think that part ever got done. So I think it's officially considered abandoned. But that might work in our favor. I'm not sure. Oh, okay.
Okay. So. I think the question is, is like. Do you need to deal with California's government at all? Can you move. To- Jeff would say hopefully not. Yeah, I think that this is something I wonder if the audience has an experience with. Can we move it to Washington and then just deal with the titling and licensing in Washington? Or do we need some sort of blessing from the California government saying this is legit, there's been a legit transaction that's taken place, and then Washington would need that paperwork, in theory, to be able to complete the licensing. And then after that, homeboy's got to move it to Canada.
How do you prove it was abandoned? Do you need the death certificate? But we have photos. Yeah, I almost wondered. You would need a death certificate. Yeah, so that's where I end up in this category with more questions than answers. Yeah, no kidding. Because from our perspective, it's like, yeah, it's all good. But from the legalese, official paperwork perspective, I think there might be actually more work to do here than on the mechanical side of things. And a lot of unknowns. I would definitely go to a California DMV or DOL or whatever. Yeah, Jeff was wonderful and did this. And they didn't have very good answers.
Oh, lame. That's shocking. I guess maybe the AI would know. I mean, we've been asking some questions, but yeah. So there's that. And then the process of exporting a vehicle. Because you can't just, I guess it's a two-stage thing. You've got to export the vehicle from the U.S., and then 10 feet later, you've got to import it into Canada. And they each have their different processes and stuff. And one thing I learned to look out for, that despite this thing being made in Canada, which it is, you know, it's like a pilgrimage home this whole trip, we have slightly different rules in terms of, like, daytime running lights on vehicles.
And so it's possible that it doesn't even mechanically match what needs to happen for importing. So there's, we have got a bit of a process to go through a checklist here. Wow. That's going to be a thing. But there is one last category. Okay. What is it? Well, if you remember, it's the travel. Yes, the travel. All right, the travel for $500. So I think we did really, really well here several weeks ago after scale. You and I, Chris, came up with this crazy plan to go rescue this van, and I think we did pretty good about it. I'm curious what you think. So we booked this trip. We're going to fly out of Payne Field, which is a teeny tiny airport near here, which is, I think, expert mode travel to California.
Teeny tiny airport, really, really no security, really. Super smooth. Yeah, and fancy. When we landed, it was fancy. So I think that's awesome. We also booked it for this coming Thursday instead of what our instinct was, which was, oh, we'll be back from Linux fast. We'll leave on Monday, which I think we did well there in giving us a few days of time just to think things through and. You know, post fast brain process. Yes. So we're leaving on Thursday. Oh, OK. Thanks. It's coming up quick. Let me know Wednesday. And I think that's where things start to maybe crumble slightly because I forgot to book us a place to stay, but I kind of gathered from you, you were thinking we might just stay in the van.
Well, at some point, it depends on how day one goes. Yeah, I know. Really, we're going to probably need something for the first night that we get there. Okay, I can do that. That's probably something we should think about. Yeah. But then the rest is just a mystery, right? Yeah. Because where we're staying, when we're staying, how we're staying is all based on what happens in all the other categories. And it's not like, you know, the other thing is like we don't have room to pack sleeping bags. Oh, I brought one. I brought two. I brought you one. You have a sleep. Where the did you fit a sleeping bag?
Well, you see, I drove. And so I had a car that I could fit things into. But these are like. But we have to go on a flight. Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. I almost, I pretty much packed two. flights worth of gear one for linux fest i like what i was gonna wear there because what i'm going to wear to linux is very different than what i'm gonna wear to like get under a rig in la so i have another set of things that i thought would really help us when we got to get on this flight to go to cali so uh a sleeping bag is one of the things i brought for you i'm not saying it's gonna be like five star but.
I uh imagine i'm gonna pack light. Oh so. We have to think about gear because we are We're going to end up doing a show or two on the road. I don't think we'll have a launch while we're on the road. So that probably means next week's. I forgot about the gear. Oh, God. Okay, you do gear. I'll do, quote unquote, hotel. Yeah. And also mechanical tools that we might bring. Okay, yeah. So we'll make enough gear. Well, I'll bring enough gear so we can at least do a Linux unplugged and maybe something else from the road. We'll see. So I don't think we'll have a launch next week because we'll be probably right in the smack middle on Tuesday of the rush back. Hopefully, if we're lucky.
but we will be able to connect into the studio hopefully Wes can be here and live stream it and manage the levels and stuff from you know JB1. Will it be easier or harder than the last time we tried to do that from Jess Place. We'll find out I mean there's always random things that happen day two it's crazy are. You planning to do that Tuesday. No it'd be Sunday oh okay good Sunday LUP got it yeah oh boy overall. I think we're crazy. And also. This is going to be so much fun. It is. And it's been great learning about the van itself. Oh, yeah. So I'm including a bunch of links to this van. If you're curious, it's a Dodge Ram B250, but it's converted.
Yeah. So it's converted by a company called Roadtrek. And our dear Wes found a brochure from 1990 of all of the different chassis configurations you can get for this Roadtrek conversion. I forget now. I think mine's like the B conversion. It's got a shower and like seats in the middle and stuff. That sounds right. But this thing is classy. It is. The road trick. Oh, I have the independent. Yeah, of course you do. Seems fitting. You rogue. Although the two other models, the other one's versatile or popular, and I was kind of bummed out I wasn't those, but I'll take independent.
I think independent, well, versatile is a compliment. Popular, I'm not so sure. Okay. You know, because that's fleeting. All right. Well, let's take a break. Of course, the phone lines will be open if you'd like to call in during the song. We'll come back and do voicemails and boost. We are a little low on boost this week, so if you want to boost right now listening live, you still have a moment. It might just squeak it into the show. We'll be back in just a couple minutes with more show. And the Value for Value track this week is Undone by Laura Price.
Our first voicemail this week, I think, is Magnolia Mayhem. I believe it was. He sent me a special link so we'd have extra, hot-quality audio. But you remember, when you call in, we need your name in town, if you wish to opine. So everyone's been telling their band stories here, and it's not an issue of me not having enough stories. It's an issue of me having to. And I was thinking about not telling enough stories, but then I have one thing come up. I grew up playing. My dad was a preacher. He had a preacher friend together. They played bluegrass together, and I would play guitar with them, mandolin, piano, stuff like that.
I spent a couple of years playing trumpet and baritone in the middle. So that came back to bite me in the butt. I don't know how the rest of the military does it, but Air Force basic training, there's like 95% of people who do marching for their parade stuff. There's that 5% they tell you never volunteer for anything in basic training. But when you get there, they ask you, like, have you ever touched an instrument before? And if you raise your hand, they put you in what's called band flight. So band flight, instead of marching and doing all the parade stuff, you actually play the instruments because I guess they wanted to make it weird.
I'm not exactly sure why. When I got there, I was late. The guy that was ahead of me, like, broke his leg or something. I'm not even sure exactly what happened, but he ended up getting hurt, and I was dropping out, and so I ended up being just stuck wherever they could find me. So I show up three days late to basic training. They stick me in a band flight. I didn't even know it was a band flight until we went for our first practice. They form us up outside, run us to this other building over here, and then suddenly I'm holding different instruments. And we're like, what instrument did you play?
And just out of the top of my head, I was just like, a trumpet. I get stuck with a trumpet, and it turns out I am the only person in this flight that can play a scale on a trumpet. And so I am front and center, the trumpet guy. And so we're graduating. My mom still has this picture. She took a picture because I'm standing in the tension. I'm supposed to be head and eyes straight for us, but I've committed the cardinal sin of turning my eyes. And I finally walked onto my parents, and there's this picture of me, possibly heading out straight forward, except my eyes craned like 90 degrees.
It looks like I'm demon-possessed holding this trumpet on this parade ground. And I don't know how that's relevant, but that is my band story that I guess I'm going to bring to show and tell today. He got drafted, Ange. He got drafted. The trumpet guy. I love the way you said that. Like, I feel like that should be clicked. He is the trumpet guy. The trumpet guy. Our next caller is Graphene Man. Hey crew this is graphene man um a handful of things that i meant to mention i'm doing a faux and i'm recording this while driving uh you guys in linux unplugged were talking about your dream mac machine that was restored and i thought that was kind of cool until you mentioned the name of the town and i realized that's my town that's literally my town and as silly as it is It's oddly exciting to hear...
My podcast network from all the way over there mentioned my town. And if there was some way, any way, I could pick that up and get it to you, just know I absolutely would. Also, feedback on the gaming episode, definitely support it. I think it was fantastic. I understand why some people may not be the biggest fan, but frankly, the variety that Linux Unplugged and the network in general has is, I think, what makes it so special. So I think every once in a while, it's probably perfect. Anyway, thanks for the great shows. Well, thank you.
Awesome. You know, I found this old classic Mac that was like one of my first computers, but somebody's gone through and refurbished it and then upgraded on it. So they've replaced the storage with an actual SSD. They've added USB port to it. They've refurbed on the whole case to make it look original. I mean, it's beautiful, but it's like $1,300. for an old computer. Yeah, but an iPhone's like $2,500 these days. Oh, that's weird. Is it really? Well, no, but if you've got a maxed out one, it gets up there like $1,700. Tariffs.
Wow. Maybe with tariffs. Jasko left us a voicemail. Howdy, Chris and Angela. This is Jasko. Normally, I'm out of Sacramento, California, but currently I'm leaving Seattle, Washington on my way up to Bellingham, for Winix Fest Northwest. I hope y'all are having a good day. This is by far the longest road trip I've ever gone on, at least in a single day. Left Sacramento at 8 o'clock this morning. It's currently 8.30 at night, so that's 12 hours. I think by the time I get there, it'll be about 9.30, according to the GPS. Actually, don't play this one on the show, please I kind of hoped I would get somewhere You got there!
I totally nailed it Too late If you put it at the end of the voicemail. We might not hear that part But, you know, isn't that like a That's a true road. Trip when you're like Oh, I'm getting in like hours after the sunset Yeah. But Seattle makes everybody feel that way When you have to drive through it That's true Except that one time. That's true Nicole left us a voicemail Hey. Y'all It's Nicole. I'm calling you from Quinta, Ecuador. Yeah, halfway around the world. Cool. I've been listening to all of the Jupiter broadcast shows and all the different Linux-y stuff going on. It's been great listening to you over coffee and stuff and learning or running around taking care of business.
I appreciate all y'all do for us and hope you get to stay on the air for as long as possible. Oh, that's great. Yay. Thank you. Getting all warm and fuzzy over here. All right, almost our last voicemail here. it is from sir lurks a lot and he's got some things to say. Hey, Chris and Angie, this is lurks a lot again. I got bullet lists now. My parents did me a big favor when I learned how to drive, and they took me to a parking lot, large ones, and I practiced losing control where it's safe. I practiced in water. I practiced in snow. I practiced in ice. And the whole idea is get used to losing control of your car where it's safe and not scary so that you can survive it when it happens unexpectedly.
It was one of the best things they ever did for me. Learning stick, learn in a parking lot, get comfortable with that, and then go and tackle a small hill where you can learn how to do it when you're coming up the hill and having to stop and when you're going down the hill having to stop. You get those motions under your belt and you'll be fine out there driving a stick. You'll probably like it. It's a lot more fun sometimes, as long as you're not trying to juggle a coffee or something. When I was young, I had to learn how to fix cars because I was poor, and that taught me an awful lot and made me appreciate them, taught me how they work so I could be a lot more thoughtful about how I operated the car because I knew what it was doing to the thing.
So all in all, I'm saying –. If you have to put your own money and your own time into it, you have a greater appreciation for it. You take care of it and you're just more respectful of the whole situation you're in because it is life and death. Also, it makes you more confident about operating your car when you know how it's working and what it's doing. Oh, and last but not least, don't forget your blinker fluid. Have a good day. Guys. Got to keep the blinker fluid topped off. Well, that is great advice and I subscribe to 100% of it. Yeah, me too.
I was just the other day while I was driving, I was like, okay, do you feel that sort of bump that we just felt? That was shifting. That was the car shifting. There's gears. And I was going through the whole explanation to Dylan just because I do think it's helpful to know there's this thing that the engine revs up and then it shifts. And then it revs up and it shifts. And it won't always be the case when you have an EV, but helping them understand that's what's actually happening under the hood right now while you're driving. And then if you start, I think Lurch makes a great point. You start to just build on that knowledge.
Engine side note my 2022 super ascent uh the engine shuttered less than a mile off the dealership parking lot oh yeah right and it continued uh every day every day a mile into the drive you're just you just go. On like a straight speed too right. Yeah yeah when i'm maintaining a speed and it's flat and yeah about a mile it doesn't matter if i heat up the car or like preheat it or run it oh yeah sure because i tried a bunch of different things is it at certain rpms no it It doesn't matter what speed it is. I could be going 20. I could be going 45. It's going to do it. Anyway, they ended up having it for 27 days. 28 days is when you can officially claim lemon loss.
Oh, wow. So they were following that. Oh, my God. They could only replicate it once per day, right? Like it never happened. That's awesome. Was that true for you too? Was it once a day for you when you had it? There was one time I went and saw a theatrical production of Rocky Horror Picture Show called Rocky Horror Show. Good decision. Yeah, right? And it did it twice that day. Yeah. Like leaving that theater. It did it. I don't know why, but it's never done it twice. And it has done it less now, but they tried to gaslight me. It still happens?
Yes. So Dylan just asked me yesterday, does your engine still do that? And I said, yeah, not as often, but it definitely still does it. And he's like, you sure it's not the road? So my own son is trying to gaslight me. Oh my God. Yeah. And the dealership suggested, oh, it's because you live on a hill. Like, dude, I drove it off the lot and it did it. And my first thought was, okay, I'm a crazy woman driver, and I just don't know how to, you know, like, I don't know the feel of this car yet. But, no, it's not. Remember, I looked it up for you at one point, and I saw other people with older Model Xsens reporting the same thing.
Yeah, yeah. But they claim that this one doesn't have that particular thing. Right, right. They claim they fixed it. Yeah. Anyway. Uh-huh. All right. Our last voicemail. This came in just before the show, and the number looked pretty official. So, we'll see. Yeah, this is Colonel Williamson over at NASA, and we heard tell that your show is called The Launch, and it's causing some confusion over here. We kind of need you to change the name of your show. I know that as a good American, you'd be more than happy to do that, and we wouldn't want to have to send anyone your way who would, let's say, facilitate that change.
So why don't you take care of things the right way, and we won't have to apply the pressure. So maybe you could call it The Launch. Or maybe you could call it The Lynch or something. Maybe you could call it The Lynchpin. There you go. That'd be great. Your show is pivotal to whoever the hell listens to it. Anyway, thank you for cooperation, and God bless America. Woo! Maybe we name it Takeoff. We better move on that. So if you've got an idea for a better show name, boost in before we get in trouble. We've got to rename it pretty quick. Send your thoughts in. All right. Speaking of boosts, let's do them.
Thank you, everybody, who did call in. We would love it to have a whole stack of voicemails when we get back. Please do call 774-462-5667. Just add that to your phone book. You know, the launch phone number right there. Put it in your phone, 774-462-5667. Just can't seem to remember it without music. Oh, all right, all right. Call the launch. All right. Our first boost comes from Mr. Turd Ferguson, who comes in with 31,222 sats. Hey, Ange, I'm sorry I didn't get to say hi at Linux Fest this weekend. It was great to meet Brent and Chris, and mostly fine to meet Wes, too. So, wait a second. You met everybody but me? I was all over the fest. How? Did you see me?
Did you just, like... Thank you. I got this all weekend, too. I got to meet Wes and Brent. Sorry I didn't get to bump into you. I didn't see you come into LinuxFest. Well, I was there. I was there. But I was all over it. I was running it. It's not a competition, people. I opened up the old Matrix this morning with the DMs. Hey, man. Sorry I didn't get to say hi. So I got this, too. I tell you what. I tell you what. I'm sorry I didn't get to meet you. I do not understand why him and Wes didn't hit it off. But just sometimes it's oil and water. He says, have you guys considered a food-themed episode of The Launch?
No, he said of The Lunch. Oh. Oh. Fail. Oh, my God. Turd's getting it on now. Too. Oh, my goodness. What did you say to him at LinuxFest? We made friends. We could. Well, you know, if you did listen to the recent Linux Unplugged that we did live at LinuxFest, Turd also said I was even handsomer in person. Okay, I was in during the live Linux Unplugged. Did he leave for Wessa's part? I don't think he was at the show. Oh. Yeah, no, he just sent a boost. Which I didn't just. We appreciate the boost. Yes. So could we do a barbecue thing? What would we do for a food theme? Like a summer episode maybe?
Are you saying grilling or barbecue? I'd probably be grilling here. But like maybe we do like a, I don't know, food episode? We should think about it. I'm a summer food episode. I mean, we did the breakfast and then fast food thing. But yeah, we can do, ooh, favorite thing we like to make. Yeah, could do. Go to make foods. I think we should make it, though, and try it and review it on the show. Is it a competition? Well, I'm not a competition. We can give points away. You know what? Let's do it next time Brent's here because it makes sense to do the lunch with his confusion about that A in launch.
Damn it, Brent. Damn it, Brent. Damn it, Brent. I didn't know it called. Oh, it wasn't you? Oh, okay. All right. No, of course not. Devator came in with 9,001 sats. Here's a quart of oil for the van. I love this. May the odds be ever in your favor. I love the idea that we're like, yep, this is Dev's quart. And then someone else buys us spark plugs or something. We write their name on the side of it. Dev, there you go. When we pour the first quart, we will dedicate it to you. Dev, you got to tell us, though, what's your favorite brand of oil. We want to get the right one.
Yeah, we got to make sure we get the good dinosaur juice. Mr. West Payne comes in with a row of ducks, 2,222 sats. Has Brent considered the van scentscape at all? Doesn't seem like a new car smell kind of guy. Do air fresheners come in maple? That's funny. That's a great maple syrup. I'm going to look that up right now. When you said you guys might sleep in it, I'm like, okay, but is it musty or moldy? No, we're going to have to do like a full, we're going to have to like run over to Target or something and get a bunch of cleaning products. Stain cleaner or something?
I don't know, but we're going to go that far. I mean, we are dudes after all. The first question that comes to mind is, will it be mustier before or after we sleep in it? And then the next question is, well, actually, now that I think of it, I did put air fresheners in this thing. I put a new car smell freshener in there. We did put a couple of new car trees. So I planned ahead. New fart trees. New fart trees. So it's going to be a little rough when we get there. Hey, I thought it was a good thing. Oh, man. And so just to let you know, I can verify there are maple syrup air fresheners. You know what? Pine is better.
Oh. Like homage to Highway 20. Maybe. Yeah. Okay. Pine, I'm not sure about, but I do know that- I love pine. Sea salt maple syrup air freshener from Febreze is nice. Sea salt? Is it $9? Yeah, I guess they- I don't know why they put this. Can I get a chocolate made out of that? It sounds delicious. Oh my goodness. A little caramel twist in there. That's a great question, Wes. We're definitely going to have to work on the smellscape, or the scentscape, as he puts it. I'm going to pull up Mogolethan, too, because Mog sent in 1,500 sats for our music artist last week to send some music.
If you send the sats while the song plays, 95%, go to the artist. You know what? It wasn't a baller week, but it was a fun week. We had 12 folks stream, and collectively they stacked 12,991 sats, almost 13,000. When you combine that with our boosters, a very humble, very humble show killing. 56,936. Everybody called instead, which is nice. You, however, can support the show with a boost. Support episode 20 by using something like Fountain FM. They make it really easy to get started, get in there, and send us a boost. There's a lot of great options, but Fountain and Strike are the killer combo.
And we appreciate everybody who supports this with a boost or by becoming a Jupiter Party member and supporting us at the network level. Thank you very much. I thought we could use the vast reach of this show to help solve a crime. Ooh. In Duluth, police have been on a multi-day chase, and the suspect, it's kind of creepy, I mean, imagine picturing this happening to you, the suspect has been hiding in people's backyards for days, moving from backyard to backyard, and the police at one point were very close to capturing the suspect, but they got away. And I think we'll share the information here on the show And perhaps the audience can help crack the case.
New this morning, there is a goat on the loose in Duluth. Police say the hoofed Hyundai was seen yesterday trotting down Peachtree Industrial Boulevard like it just had somewhere to go. When officers tried to capture it near Albion Farm Road, it hopped some fences and just disappeared. Police believe this may be the same goat recently seen in Suwannee when an animal control has been caught. So if you see this galloping goat, please call police or animal control. Somebody lost their source of goat milk. Yeah, and we need that. We need that nowadays. You know, everything is kind of expensive.
So, yeah, that would be quite the sight to see. Yeah, that'd be memorable. Make that call if you happen to see it. Yeah, make that call if you see the goat. And then I want to leave with an educational message. We often don't get to have the opportunity to train and teach, but this is a moment where we have an opportunity to do just that. So, you know, dogs, they mark their territory by peeing on things. Typically, or spraying. Which is kind of gross. Kind of gross. Turns out there's worse, more gross ways to mark your territory. Like cat anal glands in your face in the middle of the night?
That happened to Chris. In this very room. That is bad. That is bad. Might be along the same lines as the beaver. The beaver turns out to be a gassy, windy creature. For very good reason, actually. It's just a little gross. We put camera traps out to try and track the beaver activity. And we got loads of really great stuff. So we got the beavers building their dams. We caught them grooming, feeding, swimming. But one that did stand out and made everyone in the office laugh was the beaver breaking wind. And there is actually a really good reason that we think that they did this. And it's actually...
Beavers have, near their tail, they have glands that can secrete this oil called castorium. And that actually helps them to mark their territory. So we think what the beaver was doing in the video is actually marking its territory and communicating to any other beavers out there that actually this is my patch. It was unexpected beavers arriving here. So the beaver's been extinct in the UK for a long time, and so they are actively, the new ones that have arrived are actively marking their territory by farting all over it. So if you, like me as a kid, I came across beaver dams. I was all over them.
Turns out, probably should have washed my hands afterwards. Didn't know. But now you know, so you can be safe. You can be safe. Did you, were you realized, did you, Brent, know that beavers fart all over their territory to mark it? You know, I don't think it really matters because they tend to live in like swampy, gross areas that just stink anyways. So I've never noticed, but it's only because I was already being bombarded with the stink. I lived on a lake with beavers and it was interesting. I had no idea that was going on. But this is a real scientific breakthrough.
You know, over there in Cornwall, they put up a camera and they caught the flashlights on camera. So history was made. Shout out to Astro Penguin who wrapped us up with a live boost that just says live boost. We appreciate that. Now, you also can send us a boost on our way off to wish us luck to get the van and tune in to the next episode, 21, when we come back. And, of course, check out Linux Unplugged from the Road this coming Sunday. Yeah, you can boost whichever mechanical part you want to take ownership of. We'll write your name on said mechanical part. We need many things.
I think that'd be great. All right. Well, links to what we talked about at weeklylaunch.rocks. join us in two weeks live again on Tuesday at jblive.tv or in your podcasting 2.0 app of choice and of course the show comes out Wednesday mornings assuming the platform publishes it apologies about the snafu last week, from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast thank you for listening and we'll see you right back here next week no two weeks two weeks.
