The IT Guy Show

Eric Hendricks

Welcome to the ‘IT Guy Show’, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, expert advice, and engaging discussions. Whether you're a seasoned IT professional looking to stay ahead of the curve or a tech enthusiast eager to expand your knowledge, Eric has you covered. With a passion for simplifying complex tech concepts and a knack for making technology accessible to everyone, Eric creates an inclusive and welcoming space where listeners can learn, laugh, and connect. Tune in to 'Office of the IT Guy' and embark on a journey of discovery, empowerment, and endless possibilities in the ever-evolving world of technology. Don't miss out on the chance to join Eric and his special guests as they navigate the digital landscape, one episode at a time. Subscribe now and make the 'Office of the IT Guy' your new favorite tech destination!

  1. 2d ago

    Episode 25: The Homelab SLA

    Most of us treat our homelabs like a junk drawer. Something breaks, we shrug, we fix it whenever we get around to it. Mathias Palmersheim does not operate that way. He's a Solutions Engineer at VictoriaMetrics, where he spends his days helping companies monitor infrastructure at serious scale, and he's brought that same discipline home. He runs his personal homelab against an actual SLA, the kind of uptime commitment most of us only deal with at work. Mathias joins me to talk about VictoriaMetrics itself, the time series database built for high cardinality metrics and logs at scale, and why open source observability tooling matters even outside the enterprise. But the real fun is in how he applies that professional rigor to his own gear at home. We get into what it actually takes to hold yourself to an SLA when there's no boss checking in, what breaks the plan, and whether this level of intensity is something the rest of us should aspire to or just admire from a distance. If you've ever wondered what happens when a monitoring expert points all that expertise at his own home network, this one's for you. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric Connect with Mathias: https://links.shiftsystems.net VictoriaMetrics: https://victoriametrics.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Stream start 00:41 Introductions 04:05 VictoriaMetrics 12:35 ShiftMon 16:09 Mathias' Homelab 37:48 Closing thoughts 39:29 Wrap up Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency Special Guest: Mathias Palmersheim.

  2. Jul 8

    Episode 24: Learn to Play Tabletop Role Playing Games

    At SouthEast Linux Fest, I did something I've never attempted before: a live, hands-on intro to tabletop role playing games for a packed room of Linux nerds. No idea how many people were showing up. No idea how many had ever touched a d6. Somewhere between 10 and 100, they said. Cool. Cool cool cool. We covered the basics of TTRPGs, walked through systems like D&D, Savage Worlds, and Dungeon World, and then built a one-shot together live with the audience. The room gave me a 97 year old Elf Wizard named Ethan on a desperate mission to save his favorite tiki bar from burning down. The villain was named Bob. He stole all the turtles. The tacos were at stake. It went exactly as chaotic as you'd expect. This is the full recording including the slide deck, the worldbuilding exercise, and the one-shot itself. If you've ever been curious about TTRPGs but didn't know where to start, this is the episode for you. What we cover: What a TTRPG actually is and why it's worth your time D&D, Savage Worlds, and Powered by the Apocalypse compared Why I used Dungeon World for a room of total beginners How the 2d6 mechanic works and why it generates better stories than a pass/fail system Live worldbuilding with a room full of Linux people (results may vary) A real one-shot, improvised on the spot, with a 97 year old elf wizard and a villain motivated by tacos Links and resources mentioned: Dungeon World SRD: dungeon-world.com Critical Role: youtube.com/criticalrole Dimension 20: dropout.tv Foundry Virtual Tabletop: foundryvtt.com Roll20: roll20.net The Lazy Dungeon Master by Sly Flourish r/rpg on Reddit Chapters 00:00 Stream start 01:40 Welcome 06:39 What is a TTRPG? 09:40 TTRPG Options 17:56 How to Play 22:36 Building our world 38:58 Live play 59:18 Additional resources

  3. May 28

    Episode 23: Keep It Techie

    Home labs have evolved from hobbyist experiments to essential infrastructure for tech professionals, but knowing when to build one…and how…isn't always clear. Josh from Keep It Techie joins Eric to discuss the practical realities of home lab ownership: the cost-benefit calculations, the apartment constraints, and the decisions that actually matter when you're running real workloads. From colocation trade-offs to gigabit fiber potential, we break down Eric's current setup and explore whether it's time to bring the lab home. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Website: https://keepittechie.com 45 Home Lab: https://45homelab.com/ Cloud Flare: https://www.cloudflare.com/ Chapters: 00:00 Stream start 00:35 Introduction 06:26 Home lab philosophy 18:24 Eric’s homelab 35:25 Getting started 45:06 Wrap up Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency Special Guest: Joshua Lacy.

  4. May 12

    Episode 22: A Human in the Middle

    AI is everywhere, and so is the fear that it's coming for your job. But what if the real story is more interesting than that? Eric sits down with returning guest Karl Abbott, tech leader and podcaster, for a conversation sparked by his recent article "AI Didn't Replace My Work. It Changed How I Work." Karl shares how leaning into AI tools didn't make him feel replaced. It made him feel more focused. The mechanics got faster. The judgment, taste, and narrative instinct? Still 100% human. They dig into what AI actually removes from knowledge work, why being widely read and broadly educated matters more in an AI-saturated world, what "vibe coding" means for engineers, and what higher education needs to do to prepare students for a world where fluency can be generated but wisdom still can't. If you've ever felt uneasy about where AI fits in your work, this one's for you. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric Article: AI Didn’t Replace My Work. It Changed How I Work https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-didnt-replace-my-work-changed-how-i-karl-abbott-eqbbc/ Chapters: 00:00 Stream Start 01:14 Karl Abbott 02:41 AI Didn’t Replace My Work 16:59 AI Replaced SOME Work 30:27 What is Vibe Coding? 41:33 AI in Higher Education 54:20 Closing Thoughts 01:05:59 Wrap up Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency Photo by Luke Jones on Unsplash Special Guest: Karl Abbott.

  5. Apr 28

    Episode 21: Ubuntu Community: Years of "Just Works"

    Teaching a Linux course will humble you fast, especially when your students ask about apt and you realize the last time you logged into an Ubuntu server was when you were still a sysadmin. That embarrassing moment is what sent Eric looking for someone who lives and breathes Ubuntu every single day, and it led him to Nathan, a two-decade Ubuntu community volunteer who has been running booths, moderating Reddit, and serving on the Ubuntu Community Council since the early days of the distro. This episode is less a technical deep dive and more a conversation about what makes Ubuntu different at a human level. Nathan walks through the early days of the community, the real relationship between Debian and Ubuntu, what it looked like to set up a booth with plastic tablecloths from Party City at SCaLe 6x, and why the "distro wars" online are mostly theater compared to the genuine camaraderie between open source contributors behind the scenes. If you have ever wondered whether Ubuntu is still the right distro for someone just getting started or coming back after years on other platforms, this episode will give you the honest answer from someone who has watched the community evolve for more than twenty years. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric Special Guest: Nathan Haines.

  6. Mar 31

    Episode 20: First Boot, First Inference

    In this episode of The IT Guy Show, Eric sits down with Damen Knight, CIQ Sr. Principal Automation Engineer, to talk about something every AI team knows but nobody budgets for: the hidden cost of configuring Linux for GPU workloads. Together they dig into why general-purpose Linux distributions were never really built for AI, what actually happens when you spend 30 to 60 minutes per node doing manual CUDA setup, and why a "pre-installed" stack and a "validated" stack are two very different things. From driver conflicts and framework dependency failures to the CIQ Linux Kernel (CLK) and NVIDIA authorization, this episode covers the infrastructure decisions that determine whether your AI program ships fast or gets stuck in configuration hell. Whether you're an ML engineer tired of fighting CUDA every time a kernel update drops, a sysadmin managing a growing GPU fleet, or a tech leader wondering why production AI is harder than it should be, this one is for you. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric CIQ Press Release: https://ciq.com/blog/rlc-pro-ai-is-here/ RLC Pro AI: https://ciq.com/products/rocky-linux/pro/ai/ NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit Chapters: 00:00 Stream start 00:50 Introduction 02:43 Sponsor: CIQ 04:08 AI at CIQ 06:02 State of AI 19:20 General-purpose limitations 31:37 RLC Pro AI 43:53 What's next in AI? 52:47 Wrap up Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

  7. Feb 17

    Episode 19: The Problem with Subscriptions

    We’re starting 2026 with a reality check: subscriptions are eating our wallets. From streaming services to password managers, cloud storage to to-do apps — the "monthly drip" is everywhere. In this solo episode, Eric breaks down why recurring subscription models have become the default, how they impact both consumers and creators, and what it looks like to take back control through self-hosting and open source alternatives. This episode kicks off a new arc focused on building a personal homelab, reducing reliance on cloud services, and reclaiming your tech stack one app at a time. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric Chapters: 00:00 Stream Start 00:33 What’s the Problem 06:38 Eric’s Setup 14:13 Self Hosting Stack 23:08 Planning 24:15 Upcoming and Closing Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency Photo by Christina Radevich on Unsplash

  8. 11/18/2025

    Episode 18: Wayland and My eX-11 | The IT Guy Show 018

    In this episode of The IT Guy Show, Eric is joined by Linux content creator Brodie Robertson to dive into the display server drama of the decade: the end of X11 and the rise of Wayland. Together they explore the history of X11, its weird quirks, and why it stuck around so long, before unpacking what makes Wayland different, better, and sometimes frustrating. From screen tearing and window managers to PipeWire, gaming, and remote desktops, this episode covers the past, present, and future of the Linux desktop experience. Whether you’re a veteran sysadmin who lived through the xhost + days or a curious distro-hopper wondering why Wayland keeps breaking your screen sharing, this episode has something for you. Welcome to The IT Guy Show, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, skilled advice, and engaging discussions. Connect with me! https://linktr.ee/itguyeric Connect with Brodie: https://brodierobertson.xyz/link_tree X Window System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System Wayland Homepage: https://wayland.freedesktop.org/ Wayland Protocols Table: https://absurdlysuspicious.github.io/wayland-protocols-table Awesome Wayland: https://github.com/rcalixte/awesome-wayland Chapters: 00:00 Stream Start 00:13 Introduction 01:21 Brodie Robertson 04:45 What is X11? 11:56 What did X11 solve? 19:42 What is Wayland? 36:18 Full Wayland mode 44:52 Wrap up Graphics and bumpers by Free Hive Agency Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash Special Guest: Brodie Robertson.

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Trailer

About

Welcome to the ‘IT Guy Show’, your go-to destination for all things tech with Eric, your friendly neighborhood IT guy! Join Eric as he shares his wealth of knowledge, insights, and experiences gained from years of working in the IT industry. From troubleshooting common tech issues to exploring the latest trends and innovations, each episode is packed with practical tips, expert advice, and engaging discussions. Whether you're a seasoned IT professional looking to stay ahead of the curve or a tech enthusiast eager to expand your knowledge, Eric has you covered. With a passion for simplifying complex tech concepts and a knack for making technology accessible to everyone, Eric creates an inclusive and welcoming space where listeners can learn, laugh, and connect. Tune in to 'Office of the IT Guy' and embark on a journey of discovery, empowerment, and endless possibilities in the ever-evolving world of technology. Don't miss out on the chance to join Eric and his special guests as they navigate the digital landscape, one episode at a time. Subscribe now and make the 'Office of the IT Guy' your new favorite tech destination!

Information

  • Creator
    Eric Hendricks
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Eric the IT Guy
  • Show Website
    The IT Guy Show

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