hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2201.txt

Episode: 2201
Title: HPR2201: Matthew "Lord Drachenblut" Williams
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2201/hpr2201.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 15:42:14

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This is HBR Episode 2201 entitled Matthew, Lordrash and Lut Williams.
It is hosted by HBR volunteers and is about 38 minutes long and can remain an explicit flag.
The summary is HBR Community Members Remember the Digital Dragon.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by An Honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HBR15.
That's HBR15.
Better web hosting that's Honest and Fair at An Honesthost.com.
I requested eulogies a couple of weeks ago and I got a couple in, so I'll either read or play them here.
I guess official eulogy myself.
My parting words to Lordrash and Lut post facto are posted on www.geneworldorder.info.
You can read them there. It's a big black box.
I think it probably says everything that I want to say, but I will say another couple of things about them just for Hacker Public Radio specifically.
If you've been listening to HBR for a while, you know Lordrash and Lut because he's posted shows.
He's posted episodes. He's host number 24 and he kind of predates Hacker Public Radio at least in some way.
I don't predate Hacker Public Radio, so I don't actually know.
But he's been a part of the community for a long time and he was kind of around the binary revolution community before HPR.
So he's someone who, while not a, I guess he wasn't like a key figure as far as I know and sort of the daily operation and maintenance of the community.
He was a key figure in the community.
And I first heard about him on the Lotto Linux links podcast.
He was a guest on that own one of the shows. I just got into Linux. I was very new.
And I heard this guy and he was talking about himself. You know, he called himself Lord Dracken Blut.
And he was talking about himself as the digital dragon, you know, sort of in third person.
He just seemed so confident that it was almost and so self assured. It was almost out of place because I didn't really get the impression that he was really responsible for anything.
He was just kind of confident for being him, for being himself.
As the years or months went by, I somehow met him. You know, there was just something about him that just never quite sunk up with everything else.
I kind of identified that about him. You know, I thought this guy's like, he's a geek and he says sort of inappropriate things or he says things that inappropriate times.
Like they might be completely, you know, appropriate, but they're just not at the right time. His timing is off.
And I really admired that about him. And if sure it frustrated me sometimes, but mostly I just really admired it.
And then around 20, I don't know, 13 or 2012 or 2011 or something, he really kind of kicked into gear.
I mean, he was still out of sync. He never lost that. But he sort of kicked into gear and he just decided to do an Indiana Linux fest.
And he made that happen. And he he invited his friends to help out. And we all did. And he gave me the chance to take over a whole track like an entire track to myself on multimedia about on Linux.
You know, and it was just it was like this mind blowing generosity just kind of like he was doing this community conference in a place that many that he saw and many people saw sort of an early spawning ground of open source software.
Indiana and it was and it was a really great experience. And I met a lot of people who I'm still friends with today because of that conference.
And then later on he decided that he was going to do this open fast thing. And he was going to do video training for people on how to use free and open source software.
And he he asked me to help him to coordinate that crowdfunding effort. And then later he was asking me about some dock you wiki stuff.
And he just kept coming back to me and I was so amazed and honored that he kept turning to me for for stuff stuff that maybe a lot of times I don't even I didn't even feel like I was a hundred percent qualified for or maybe not the best person for.
But he kept turning to me and I don't know you know maybe I was just his last choice. But he always made it seem like I was his first choice.
And that was something about Lord Jack and Blue that that I admired then and I admire now and and I see in retrospect how it applied to everything in his life.
How when he was being interviewed by Dave Yates on a lot of Linux links he spoke of himself and whatever he was doing with such confidence and self assuredness that you just kind of you got the message.
And the message was that he's going to push forward no matter what. And when you decided to do a Linux community conference.
People had failed to do a conference before people had tried in Indiana plus and they tried and they failed and he did it anyway so many things and then like in April of 2015 you remember on hacker public radio.
He posted a show about how he wanted to go to scale Southern California Linux expo and he couldn't he couldn't afford it.
But his treatment for cancer had been working he felt he felt healthy enough to travel. He was excited to do that he wanted to go there and he wanted to go there and represent hacker public radio.
So he he asked for funds and you and me and lots of other people in a much wider community than just HPR shipped in through money his way to his indiegogo campaign and we made it happen.
I think he was asking for let's say 1300 he got 1200 and then someone stepped in and donated airline points and I know who that someone is but I'm not going to mention his name because I don't know that I don't know what the agreement was there.
So it happened you know and we know this now because we have you can go look we have interviews from scale we did that and and I think that when he asked for money and said this is what I want to do.
I saw once again this guy absolutely just pushing forward regardless of whatever else was happening.
Cancer or no he wanted to just keep living his life and doing exactly what he loved and he did and I think that when we helped him in whatever way we did whether you gave money or encouragement whatever we we were telling him not really that we wanted to go to scale we didn't actually care if he went to scale I didn't care if he went to scale I mean I wanted to do whatever he wanted but I mean scale was a was a great excuse.
But I really wanted to do when I donated money to that Indiegogo was I wanted to tell Lord Jack and Blut that I wanted him to continue I wanted him to keep going I didn't want Lord Jack and Blut to stop and I guess in a way that's also what I'm saying in this episode in what I'm saying right now.
So I don't really want Lord Jack and Blut to stop he's been a part of my Linux life ever since I got into Linux there's so much I could say about what he has taught me not really in like commands and stuff but just like in the culture and the and and and the community he's taught me so much and I don't really want him to stop because I've I've read on you know I've read on blog posts a long time ago when when a community member dies and it's hard.
And it's heartbreaking but you don't really know that person you know you're just like well I'm really sorry that this person died and I can see that his friends or her friends were really you know loving towards them but but I didn't know that person and some of you are probably thinking that right now you know you're like I don't know who Lord Jack and Blut is but I can see that people seem to to like him that's really nice and I don't want that I want him to be a bigger thing you know I want Lord Jack and Blut to be Lord Jack and Blut forever I want
I want to think about him and talk about him and for people to know who he is and I know that's not possible but in this episode I want to commemorate him and I want Lord Jack and Blut to to be something in HPR history I want people to know that he was a cool guy that he was confident that his enthusiasm was contagious and that he just he never stopped he never stopped
So Lord Jack and Blut now that you're gone don't stop
It's time to debug things in a hardcore fashion so let's go ahead and start
And that's Matt Drackett where Matt Williams also known as Lord Jack and Blut
this is Randy Knowsworthy as many of you probably know Matt performed the ceremony at my wedding at OLF in 2009
And he did probably the most of the hard work heavy lifting on that because I was busy trying to I was working so as my wife and came up with some really cool vows for the forest and you know it was really cool
That was not the first time I met him you know I remember the first time that he and I met I used to drive truck of time you know how I'm an I am a tech
You know does I tech for a company now I've been doing that for almost four years which is kind of nice I never wanted to be a truck
That's a long story that I'm not going to go into but I did it for almost a little over a decade
But any any event I needed to ride from North of Louisville, Kentucky and I think to some place in Ohio they was to pick up another truck
And he came down from Indian and picked me up and gave me the ride and you know he didn't have any money at the time he was in between jobs
So you know I financed the whole trip anyway there's no problem I mean we helped each other out
And that's one of the things that Matt liked to do he liked to help people out because early on you know online with him he was part of the lazy way I guess in ways you could be on Twitter or Identica or you know
And you'd ask a question of who's there he start googling it for you you know giving some answers and just really really up and helping out anyone like that
You know sometimes he gave me a lot more answers than I needed or wanted to know or could even try to digest because you know you've been playing around a lot longer than me
You know that's one of the things that is his spirit is in his DNA to be helpful to other people
There's a project he and I worked on and was a juiced penguin and which I don't know how many episodes we did it that maybe 10 episodes 20 he was supposed to do one one month and I was supposed to do one with his style of music
I did one with mine and basically was trying to promote you know a format open open free formats with some music
And you know caught two provided some music and stuff to which was which was really cool a lot of different types of basically albums I guess you could get from there
Most of the stuff we had was free and open so you could found it anywhere on the online because you know there's no way that you know I could have afforded pay for like royalties and stuff like that
It was fun it was fun that was early of the I guess the golden age podcasting because I don't know that still exists
One of the places where I did like to you know right into him was Wednesday nights which this is a Wednesday night and I'm missing it but I think there's a little bit more important I'm missing the analytics link podcast
But that thing's been going on forever you know if you've not been on that that's that's kind of a hub to kind of meet people IRC
But it's sad to see these gone he was young man in his 30s five year old daughter I never made a phone call that I meant to give to him across my mind and I just got caught up with too many other things
And I sorely regret that that it had a chance to talk to him
I mean I you know probably years since I talked to maybe maybe more but you know it's cancer you know fuck cancer
Hopefully we'll have a cure for that but you know he was a good guy he was trying you know he had a lot of struggles you know and he was a fighter
He was a nice guy and a fighter so that's I don't know what else to say I'm I'm sure there's a lot of the people that will miss him that his presence will be his lack of presence will be noticed
But you know I don't know what happens afterward gone you know other people have their own belief systems and he and I we talked about a couple of times
And I changed my mind and you know about what happens in here after but you know I don't I don't know what it but what goes on it would be nice that there is something but I doubt that seriously
But you know if there is Matt and I hope that uh you know crossing river sticks into some nice hunting grounds you know with your kilt on
Alright I'll talk to you later miss you my friend
This is Claudio I'm remembering my friend Matt Williams who passed away on December 7th 2016
I remember seeing the news that day and feeling my heart just break
And I know that though he was free from all of the suffering that he had gone through with his cancer
I lost my friend that day I lost a piece of myself that day
And I can't help but just think about him each and every day after
I remember meeting him though not in person unfortunately meeting him virtually
Through the podcast that I was involved with at the time the next basement having jumped online to some of the hacker public radio podcast that we're going on during that time
And joining in conversation with him and many others and he was he seemed like a fun guy
And as I got to know him online chatting through IRC and ultimately through hangouts chatting personally about his projects
His many projects that he was involved with and that he would undertake about his daughter about being a dad
I came to develop that relationship with him that I wish I wish I could have just brought it to the next level
To being knowing him in person hanging out with him spending time with him
I was grateful that I had the opportunity to know him, know him even if just virtually
I'm going to miss him very much because he touched my life
And like all dragons this digital dragon lord dragon blue Matthew Williams
He had a fire in his heart that not even this cancer could take away
And that fire left an impression on all of us
And we're going to miss him and we're going to miss you Matt
I hope you're flying high wherever you are right now
Flying high like the dragon that you are
And watching over Ada protecting her
And I pray that Ada knows that she had such a wonderful dad
And Matt I want to thank you for having the impact that you did in my life
Thank you for coming into my life
And leaving that impression that you that I know that you've left on so many others
I love you I'm going to miss you
And I'm always going to keep you in my mind and my memories and in my heart
This is an article that Brian Prophet wrote to lord dragon blue on December 8
Remembering a friend Matthew Williams
One of the things about working in open source software communities is that you are always moving forward
It's hard not to get a sense of momentum and progress when it seems you are constantly striving to improve and build on the work
You and others have done before. But sometimes you have to pause to reflect because sometimes there is loss
Remembering Matthew Williams
It is with heavy hearts that the Fedora Project community learned yesterday of the passing of one of its prominent members
Matthew Williams who lost his three year battle with cancer Wednesday morning
Matthew also known as lord dragon blue was an indiana native and a passionate member of the Fedora community
Matthew's passion to constantly improve the software and hardware with which he worked created a tireless advocate for the Fedora project
And his presence was felt at conferences across the nation scale Ohio Linux Fest and the former Indiana Linux Fest
And Indianapolis based event that he helped found
Matthew also devoted time to interviewing and archiving notable figures in the free and open source software communities
To learn what drove people to work on their projects. He was also very driven to share what he knew, launching the open-foss training site in 2015
To help new Linux users with getting involved with any Linux distribution
While he was active while he was active in the Fedora community, Matthew was also very involved with Ubuntu as well
A great deal of what Matthew did for Fedora centered on getting more people involved and knowledgeable about the project
To that end, he was the owner of the Fedora Google Plus page, a responsibility he took very seriously
Under his management, the page has over 25,000 members and is one of the Fedora project's strongest outreach channels
All of this work and achievement does not really portray what Matthew was like as a person
A kind and thoughtful soul with an unwavering dedication to the things in which he believed
For those who worked with and knew Lord Dragon Blue, it is your personal thoughts we invite you to reflect upon today
For the rest, know that the Fedora project and the open source software community at large is a little more poorer today with the passing of our colleague
The building will continue, but we will miss our friend Matthew
Hi, this is Ahuka or Kevin O'Brien as you may prefer
And I'm just recording a few memories I have of my old friend Lord Dragon Blue
I had heard of him and caught him once or twice on podcasts, but I first met him in person at the Indiana Linux Fest
And he was one of the organizers of that
And I went there well every year that they had it
And in a nice event, it wasn't the biggest one in the world, but it was always worth going to
And had a number of very nice conversations, you know, we got to be friends
And then after that I would start seeing him or around that time, I would start seeing him at Ohio Linux Fest, which I was involved with
And at one point I offered to help pass along some knowledge as they were getting Indiana Linux Fest going from the stuff I was doing at Ohio Linux Fest
And then when I moved on from there, I moved on to working with PenguinCon
And the Indiana Linux Fest had stopped, but I would still see Lord Dragon Blue at Ohio
And we would start to get into conversations that would happen online
We were both on Google Plus, and so I would see things pop up late at night from him
Usually right around the time I was getting ready to go to bed because I have a job and I have to get up in the morning
And he would suddenly want to have a long, aimless conversation about things, but it was always fun
Then he had this idea for the free open source software video series
And I remember we spent a long time talking about how he could put that together
And he asked me to read over some materials and help them with that, which I was happy to do
And then I think the last thing that I remember particularly between the two of us was he wanted to do a presentation for PenguinCon about doing the video recording that he was doing for his series
Unfortunately I think by that point his health had just deteriorated to the point that it really wasn't practical for him to travel and do conference talks anymore
So these are just a few things that come to my mind about my old friend and I'm really sorry that he has passed away and is not going to be around
I kept waiting for him to get better and maybe get the Indiana Linux Fest going again or maybe have him out to give a talk
So it's a lot of potential that they got lost there, but you know cancer really sucks
Having lost my father to cancer I understand that very well
So that's just a few things that I wanted to throw into my own personal memory and remembrance
So this is a hookah signing out
This is a message I got from Joe C Hecht, I don't know if I'm saying your last name correctly, I'm sorry
Matthew was a solid contributor to the computer community and founder of the OpenFoss training, OpenFossTraining.com
Where he produced videos with a tagline together, let's build something fierce
Matthew, Lord Jack and Blut Williams was always helpful, kind to others and he was a fighter too
He never once spoke of giving up his fight, sometimes signing his message to me with an ending note of laughing at cancer
Matthew and I shared of our illness and unlike myself he was brave, fearless and rarely complained
He supported others in their battles and had a heart that was at least a mile wide
I know a few people who tolerate my critiques, but Matthew Williams was one that not only took them, he always came back for more
His Google page contains a wealth of technical information worth of scraping
I highly recommend taking a look at his fine contributions, httpplus.google.com and then a stream of numbers
I'll include the link in the show notes
I am reminded today that we live and we die and few outside of our immediate circles seem to show much care about that fact
Today why not take a moment to show someone you care? Matthew Williams, you will be missed a lot
Thank you for your awesome contributions to the community and most of all, thank you for being a friend, Joe C. Hecht
This is Lost in Bronx, I think like a lot of people who knew Lord D, I had never met him, not in real life
But I internet knew him for several years and going back actually quite a ways, I don't know how many of you remember
But he used to do a podcast called Ten Buck Review and he would find these $10 discs in the bargain bins at the store
I think it was Walmart mostly and they were often terrible but sometimes they were really good too
But the criteria was it had to be $10 or less
Well, he tried something experimental, he let me try something where I took an old movie that was free up on archive.org
And I picked M starring Peter Laurie, that was an old Fritz Lang German silent film
And I did a review for a show and he was extremely gracious and grateful, class act, class act all the way
He was that, he was a podcaster, he was a writer, he was an organizer of events, he was a true pillar, a true pillar of the free and open source software community
And we are diminished with his loss, Lord D, you will be missed
And you know, talking about all kinds of geeky stuff
Pretty soon we started talking about life in general and I was at the time in a pretty challenging phase of my life
Where I had to make the big decision if I was going to venture out into my own
Or if I was going to stay an employee in the company that was looking for
I remember having long talks with Lord Drakablu in the car as I was on my way from Antwerp to Einthoven or from God knows where to God knows where
About all kinds of things, some things were extremely geeky about stuff that he was working on
Like for example, his virtual machine server that he had rolling around and all the project that he was working on
Or the project that I was working on and mostly I would be talking about the project that I was working on
Lord D would Google it up and give me the solution right then and there
That kind of became our relationship, you know, we talked about geeky stuff and he would throw up some suggestions and I would
And then he would Google the subsequent reply and send me the link because he was behind his computer and I was on the road
But he also counseled me in those times when I had to make the call whether or not I was going to venture out on my own
And Matthew gave me the courage to do that along with other friends at the time he was instrumental into convincing me that
Hell yeah, I could do this, you could do this nightwise, you're ready for this
And I think that thanks to the hours that I talked to him and other friends I made that decision
But Lord D was there, that voice on the other end that I never met, that I never saw
Was somebody who was my daily counsel, my daily guy to talk to
I spent quite a few hours in the car and a lot of that time is spent listening to podcasts but also talking to friends
And over the last years I must have spent hours talking to Lord D
The time difference was optimal, I was going to bed as he was getting up and vice versa
So, you know, we would chat during his evenings, my mornings about all kinds of things
And I remember him telling me, man, I have this stomach ache, I'm going to go to the hospital
And then getting the news that, dude, I have cancer
And yet, since, you know, even though he had, you know, was diagnosed with thermal cancer
This guy said like, you know what, I'm going to do kickstarter
I'm going to do kickstarter, I'm going to get equipment together, I'm going to do a show, I want to do something for the open source community
And that is something that, I don't know, as always, will always be in my mind when I think of him
This guy, that despite the odds, despite a very hard divorce, despite the fact that he didn't see his kid enough
We would, he adored the little girl, despite the fact that he had freaking cancer
He said, let's go kickstarter, he had hope and courage right up to the very end
When the original treatment failed, that's okay, we're going to go with the additional treatment
And by the way, I'm getting a C&C laser cutter because I want to start doing that too
And that is something that, in my life, will be something that it will always look up to
When, as entrepreneurs or as people in general, we have to make the tough decisions
Or we have to look at an uncertain future and think, oh my god, what's going to happen next?
We can think about Lord D
You know, we could easily say, you know, we're happy, we're healthy, Lord D wasn't healthy, you know, we should be happy
No, no, no, that's not how we should remember him
We should remember him that, you know, despite the fact that he was dying, he decided to, you know, pick up a challenge, be an entrepreneur
Succeed, produce, share, despite all of that
Some of us might say, you know, I'm Turb Leo, I don't care about computers anymore, I'm going to look at the sunset until I die
Lord D didn't, he said, you know what, I would have been an open source advocate and I will remain an open source advocate until I die
He remained an active part of the fedora community, he was active in Ubuntu, he was active in Hacker Public Radio
He was a guest host on a lot of podcasts, he inspired the Nightwise Outcome podcast in many ways, he inspired my life in many ways
He was one of the bravest people that I know and I say that with sincerity
I have seen people who tell me that they're brave, I've seen people who have told me that they ventured into dangerous territory despite the odds
Well, you know what, that's all fine with them, but Lord D did it
Despite his life and everything that was going on and literally his body failing around him
He continued to be there for his friends, to be a part of the online community, to contribute his knowledge, his expertise to all of us so we could enjoy our computers and the stuff that we do on
But he also taught us that despite the odds, it is never too late to try, it is never too late to fight, it is never too late to win
And there is only one battle that you lose
And that battle, he lost
I talked to him a couple of weeks ago and got, you know what I know what we were talking about
I was wishing him the most erotic dreams that he had since he was sleeping so bad
And he didn't know the difference between being awake and being asleep
So I said, then I hope that you dream of Pornhub, of which we laughed
And you know, that was kind of the last conversation that he had because he was going to bed and I was going to work
I talked to you later, man, yeah, see you tomorrow, I'm not wise
And that was it, then he went to hospital and through the wonders of technology I managed to send in my last boxer message
I don't know if it's ever been played, it will probably remain unread in my boxer for the rest of my life
But I got a chance to tell him what a good friend he was to me and with this eulogy I got a chance to tell you guys what a good friend he was
We'll miss you, Dee, we'll miss you a lot
I will forever smile when I see that even when you were on desk door
Sleeping in palliative care because the doctor said there's nothing more we can do but give you, you know,
Rest and let you sleep until your time comes
Even at that moment, you're if this and that scripts were posting stuff about Fedora in your timeline
And confusing the hell out of cake, out of non-technical people
And I think that the Fedora community should take a shining example at that
I'm going to miss you, Dee, it's going to be quiet in the car without you
I'm going to miss your raspy voice, I'm going to miss your witty remarks
I'm going to miss your AMN, how you doing? I'm going to miss that
I hope that wherever you are right now, soaring on the backs of dragons through clouds of amber and gold and steel-blue skies
That you'll have one hell of a time
Because you will never cease to remind us that is never to late to fight
It is never to late to try, it is never too late to win
And there is only one battle that you can really lose
It's the same hour of my friend, I'm going to miss you
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