Ask Noah Show · Noah J. Chelliah

Ask Noah Show 486

April 7, 2026·55 min·4 clips

Noah recalls his dad assembling a 486 computer and using an Indian percussive method to teach him DOS commands.

1. Ask Noah Show episode 486 is a Linux and open source technology podcast hosted by Noah Cholai and co-host Steve Ovens. 2. Noah Cholai is the primary host; Steve Ovens is described as deeply hands-on with hardware and infrastructure; both work with Altus Technologies and Altaspeed respectively. 3. The episode's organizing theme is the tension between owning and controlling technology versus offloading it to services. 4. Steve notes that Linux kernel developers are removing Intel 486 processor support coincidentally on episode 486. 5. Noah recalls his father carrying a 486 home in a box, assembling it silently, then teaching him and his sister DOS navigation and program execution using strict instruction. 6. Steve frames the history of personal computing as the 'rise of the nerds'—a temporary period where ownership was necessary because services didn't exist—arguing that ordinary people always wanted outcomes, not machines. 7. Noah acknowledges Steve's framing while expressing discomfort with increasing dependency, citing a medical office client whose only requirement was that no servers be physically on site. 8. Listener Tobias from episode 460 follow-up writes about successfully running PostmarketOS with Plasma Mobile on a Chihuahua HI10X1 N150 x86 tablet, achieving better sleep behavior and a working on-screen keyboard compared to Fedora Silverblue. 9. Noah recommends the PineTab2 as his preferred Linux tablet option at $200 including keyboard and SD card, noting Pine64 publishes full schematics and repair documentation. 10. A chat room message notes Pine64 has halted PineTab2 production due to rising RAM prices. 11. Listener Graham asks whether data center waste heat could offset residential heating costs, referencing his experience as a geologist in northern Pennsylvania. 12. Noah explains his local university uses an underground hot-water pipe loop from a central boiler to radiators in individual buildings as the practical model for this concept. 13. The hosts conclude that distance is the critical barrier: hot water cools too much before reaching residential areas far enough from data centers to avoid noise and heat complaints. 14. Steve suggests that generating steam to spin a turbine would be more efficient than piping heat across distance. 15. Listener Dustin asks how to set up a wiki for his church, including maintenance records, IT infrastructure, and uploaded receipts, using Raspberry Pis. 16. Steve recommends WikiJS as his primary choice, noting he maintains his own patched fork with custom navigation, and also flags XWiki as a strong alternative. 17. Noah describes converting a church client from HedgeDoc to WikiJS, where the entire organization now uses it for documentation, task tracking, and daily work logs. 18. Noah's WikiJS setup methodology: start from the front landing page, create navigation links before creating documents to force disciplined path structure, and use WikiJS's own documentation site to copy attractive page source templates. 19. The Linux news segment covers OpenTTD 15.3, GNOME 49.5, Arch Install 4.0, Netrunner 26 codenamed Twilight, and Meta's planned open-source AI model family release. 20. Sam Altman's 2026 white paper proposing OpenAI-guided government AI regulation and a national wealth fund is summarized, with Steve calling Altman 'kind of a shyster' whose public altruism pitches consistently align with OpenAI's commercial interests.

As heard by us

Linux kernel 486 support, infrastructure talk, and a practical listener question keep the episode grounded.

Ask Noah Show 486 opens with Linux kernel support for 486-era machines, then shifts into data-center heat reuse and a listener question about setting up a church wiki for maintenance and IT records.

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Press play for Linux nostalgia that turns into practical advice.

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