Bastard Sons of Dial-Up

Update:

WE HAVE A KAILLERA SERVER! Yaaaay! What is Kaillera? Simply it allows emulators to netplay. What??! Whats an emulator you ask? It lets you play game consoles on a PC (or other consoles, like in my NES segments I used an xbox). Want to play, get a Kaillera enabled emulator, ROM, and a friend, and plug into:

kaillera.lostcarrier.net:27888

We are still working on it, but feel free to use it. This may randomly go down as its worked on. We will let you know when its up and stable. If you need a netplay buddy, pop on IRC and ask. Many of us enjoy a good game on NES, SNES, MAME, Genesis/Megadrive, etc. We have been going bonkers playing Spot (the game, JU) for NES quite a bit.

Click Read More for the drama and stuff...

Hey all, Sythen here. Due to some recent event's, episodes of Bsod will come rather sporadically due to some issues within the meat-space. That dosent mean were pulling a dead horse though, we are working hard in bringing you the current archive of Bsod episode's to every corner of the net, so its easier for you to access Bsod episodes on your favorite platform of choice so you can watch Bsod TV pretty much anywhere. But of course there will be stumbling block's, due to the time restraints on Youtube, a fair amount of editing needs to be done so we can get them up there, its an easy job, but takes up alot of time, and bandwidth. Right now we are pushing all the episodes to http://bsod-tv.blip.tv/, so you can watch them all there once there up. I shall also be pushing them to itunes, so you can download them and push them to your Apple device's effortlessly.

If you feel like you want to help us out, just suggesting new ideas or helping to work out the bugs to get things rolling is a big part of the community. We strongly urge you to pop on the forums, though they are somewhat dead these days, so get on IRC and hang out for a while. Every single one of you is part of the community, regardless of your commitment. Just downloading the show, watching it, and speaking your mind and explaining your concepts not only is what BSoD is about, it helps things progress.

We seem dead to the world, and hate to disappoint. BSoD is just as lively as ever! We still need help with user submissions for segments, as always, but we have been working on a new BSoD v3 release. We have quite a few people helping behind the scenes, so credit served where credit due. Ensifer has offered a new file host, Cookie gave us a file mirror as well, but he has also been donating and helps run the IRC network. Nick from www.TechCentric.org aka Limp_Trizkit, is our deadhead idle server admin and all around go-to guy for server help. He also hosts the www.Lostcarrier.net IRC Network and makes sure its up, running, and stable. Lostcarrier also hosts a private Shoutcast Server in #LostRadio. BSoD has a www.bitlbee.org Server running on our explicit node, which lets you connect to your favorite Instant Messenger networks via IRC. This has been running for quite some time, but not many people use it due to things like Twitter.

If you take a closer look Mustang has uploaded and has been trying to maintain BSoD episodes on his http://vimeo.com/bsod/videos page. We have gotten many requests for streaming episodes. Check the streaming links on the right of the main page, or in the Episodes section. In the meantime Sythen has been working hard on getting BSoD segmented, uploaded, tagged, and published on Youtube. That's a whole lot of work, so make sure you give him a hearty man hug if you ever see him, just make sure he doesnt clobber you with his salt-rock. Once things progress we will also add Youtube to the Streaming links, and perhaps even add them to each episodes individual pages.

We have a new website layout and design in the works and should be rolled out eventually once we all decide what direction the creative process should go in. cSc is helping a great deal with this, and a few select others. LokiChaos has helped embed direct links to every episode about page to the respective mirror. The BSoD main Filedump has be HAMMERED lately, so if you have slow bandwidth off of Filedump.bsodtv.org try out the other mirrors. That was a *LOT* of work, and without him that wouldn't have happened anytime soon.

We are all discussing on IRC new segment ideas, website layouts, streaming episodes, look & feel, possible new features and a lot more! BSoD has always been run by the people, for the people, and although we dont post every little thing to the main site, things on IRC progress really fast. There was some minor talk about doing a Twitter feed, but not a whole lot, since the BSoD Facebook page has barely been maintained. There is an idea of putting together an XLink Kai server together, since we often hop on Xbox and get our gaming on. We might go as far to get some kind of Gamer Lounge going so we can netplay classic consoles via Emulation, but that's still just a vague idea. We are in need of talented coders that are willing to help to tie together the loose ends. As always personal affairs with school, family, and life often get in the way. This is something we all quickly get to understand and respect.

If you feel like you want to help us out, just suggesting new ideas or helping to work out the bugs to get things rolling is a big part of the community. We strongly urge you to pop on the forums, though they are somewhat dead these days, so get on IRC and hang out for a while. Every single one of you is part of the community, regardless of your commitment. Just downloading the show, watching it, and speaking your mind and explaining your concepts not only is what BSoD is about, it helps things progress.

Recently we have had the idea of creating a "BSoD Sandbox" - a compilation web space for contributors and general BSoD'ers. It will be a place where we can work on off-topic projects and hobbies. beyond being a blog it will bring people together by making our personal concepts, projects, opinions, and web-presence part of the BSoD Community as a whole. Since not every concept can be a segment, it doesnt mean the project shouldnt have a place to live on the internet so it can blossom and thrive. You little blinky LED robot might not be a segment, but a writeup on it could inspire someone. BSoD is a good example of what I mean. To me, BSod is my every day hobby life in a tutorial form. Though many of my projects aren't "BSoD Worthy" I am often asked to explain/document my ideas, findings, and general rants. I think a BSoD Sandbox would be a great way to expand ideas that could attract more like minded people, and perhaps even lead to more people making segments.

BSoD is not dead, nor is I the one and only Foxx. Mustang is still kicking, figuratively speaking. Unfortunately my 500GB Hard Drive with my entire lifes work, an unsurpassed amount of projects spanning over 15 years, backups of my local drives, Operating System ISO disc images, and much much much more... died. I know the first thing you are thinking "Foxx you ASSHOLE, you should have used a RAID backup! MORON!". Yes.. I know.. unfortunately I am in the progress of migrating well over 6000GB of data, yes, 6TB of crap, around-across-trough my LAN and devices. Tivos', Xboxs', Tons of PCs, a few embedded gizmos, and even a Western Digital TV now. I had to toss my 1TB external HDD on my WDTV as I migrated all of my media over to that to free up space on a smaller drive to replace it in RAID, or at least duplicate copies of my files.

This is an external drive and used only when needed, unfortunately when I had powered down to migrate it to another computer, as the platters spun down the spindle berrings decided to seize. Using my Electron Stethoscope from an earlier segment, ironically showcasing how to listen to the EMI/EMF signatures of devices, among that some Hard Drives both good and bad, I can safely assume the platters cant move. After opening the drive, yes I know how bad that can be, but I think I know what I am doing, I tried to move the platters and frankly, I hate being right so often. Want to hear the pain and bane of my life? Check this out...

Sound Byte of whats been going on.

We have been working on a new BSoD release, but it will have to wait a little while longer until I can redo all the new BSoD v3 Graphics and animations, find archives of the software I use for producing final episodes and such. I even got a new computer to handle the higher 'quality' of production just for this task, but now don't have an OS to put on it as all my ISOs of them are fouled and begone. Be patient. We are not dead, just having a really shit run of luck lately.

BSoD has held strong for years, we have made many new friends and introduced interesting topics to newcomers. Unfortunately more than too many people have been following BSoD rather helping. The good majority of people that have offered to help out by creating content have either not followed due-process, or have not followed through at all. BSoD is an open community and without people helping with viable content, it wont continue being what it is. Because of this I have decided to cancel the show. I refuse to run BSoD as 'The Foxx Show', and until we start getting reliable people to help make segments, the show will not go on. We all understand that its not easy setting up to record and all of the technical issues and time involved, myself especially, so we arent pointing any fingers to blame anyone. Its a pain in the ass, but without proper help, Mustang and I cant do this alone. We dont have enough time, and our health, family, friends, and personal affairs hold a higher priority, and we wont beg for help.

For all of those that have helped build BSoD to what it is, their help has been very appreciated. We will continue to run the forums and IRC which is always a good place for help, support, organizing events, and generally chatting. Episodes will also remain on the HTTP servers for download, and we might still seed to Usenet and Torrents, granted we still have the ability. Some of us may still continue to produce segments and bring up topics of interest, but we can not promise a deadline of when the next episode will air. If you feel compelled to help out with producing segments feel free to toss up some ideas on the forums, but dont make empty promises you cant follow up on, this is what canceled the show in the first place.

Cheers, beers, and bunny ears to all, and to all a good night.

Foxx and a few other BSoD'ers have been working closely with the hackerspace out in NJ, FUBAR Labs and will be having a tech Expo and LAN party November 21st from 7PM -3AM. Some details here:

http://fubarlabs.com/2009/10/lan-party-and-tech-expo/

Some of the things that will be available

We will be bringing in a bunch of game consoles for the LAN party, and even partake in some NES RAM Hacking, and maybe even fire up the Wii to do some work with the USB Gecko. There will be a bunch of stuff thats already been showcased on BSoD regarding 2.4Ghz scanning. Modded wifi and bluetooth cards, antennas we have designed and built, video scanners, and much more. If weather permits we will be going out to do some field scanning to find out whats out there in the wireless wilderness of New Brunswick.

Besides Gaming, console hacking, and 2.4Ghz we will also have some ham radio topics there as well. If you are interested in Ham Radio in general there will be live demonstrations of the different forms of radio communications, like repeaters, Slow Scan TV, Radio Teletype, and perhaps even Radio BBS. If anyone is interested enough they can even hop on the air and chat with a few random people.

If you are interested in coming and need a ride, hit the BSoD Forums and let us know if you need a lift, or can bring something to the shin-dig.

As life would have it we have to postpone Episode 33. We have been getting involved with some interesting topics and would rather not break the pace of things. Unfortunately we have been getting very little or no feedback from the viewers on which direction to exactly take the show. We will continue to do Ham Radio, PC Overclocking, and Firmware hacking, but they are broad topics that will also need some background material to be covered. Also as things have developed both Foxx and Mustang have been in and out of medical visits. BSoD is a hobby, we can not put the show in front of our health issues. I know many people follow BSoD almost religiously, but you have to understand we are all human after all, and we need to take care of our priorities.

BSoD always appreciates the community behind it. We would appreciate it more if you spoke your mind and helped us out a bit more often so things like this dont happen as much, but it seems many of you like ot sit back and watch the show rather get into the thick of it. Its not hard people. Just voice your ideas, ask questions, make comments, explore your minds. That alone helps because then we know what to do and where to go. Granted we dont know everything, but as a community we can aspire to great new feats, helping one another learn along the way.

on a similar note, apparently BSoD has been on Navi-X ( http://website.navi-x.org/home.html ) which is a kick ass user based content sharing system for XBMC. This is one of the reasons the BSoD servers have been hit so hard. Some people have been seeding BSoD to such sites, which is good! We love the fact you share the show with everyone. But... can you let us know next time? That way we know why the hell we are being hammered, and so we can link to the different syndications.

We are in the process of trying to find out all the places BSoD has been syndicated. Hop on the forums and let us know where you found BSoD so we can fill in the list.

We never get a break! So it seems www.FileDump.BSoDtv.org was hit so hard this release that the PHP script that was running to make the main page look pretty used up so much resources it was killing downloads for everyone. Fortunately the issue has been resolved by removing the glam' completely, so if you dont like the look of a bland file listing, blow it out of your ass. Be happy its working!

This shows that BSoD is really growing, unfortunately we are not seeing as much viewer feedback as we would like. As much as we try to keep reminding you, this is an OPEN SOURCE SHOW. Content in every episode is completely dynamic to the topics that interest the community as a whole, and is also provided by them. Hop on IRC or the forums and speak your mind. The only stupid question is the serious one that was never asked...

Foxx continues a breakdown of serial communications with the the software side of interfacing into some hardware, showcasing how some devices can be controlled from a very simple serial terminal. Mustang pops in and out of satellite lock with some nifty or flat-out must have GPS apps for the G1. The Wireless Warrior Foxx yet again rampages us with some antenna design, cramming the J-Pole in our face. Nixx brings us a well covered firmware hacking segment with the HTC Touch Pro, going deeper into explaining exactly what IPL, SPL, HardPL is, how it effects the device and other information pertaining to firmware hacking HTC (or damn near any) devices. Tommy, a well seasoned ham radio operator meets an untimely and unexpected interview with us and tells us a little bit about what attracted him to the hobby, some insight to the Ham Radio community, and how he quite literally owes his life two-fold to it. Never knew a ham radio could be used as a real life 1-Up!

Episode 32

iPod mp4 and xvid avi formats are available.

(Xvid - Mirror 3)
(iPad - Mirror 3)

(youtube)
Usenet feeds will uploaded to the typical places.

I am letting the cat out of the bag. I don't know how the hell it got in there, but I think it is time for it to come out. One of the faithful BSoD'ers let Metageek know about our 2.4Ghz videos... In return they sent me (Foxx) a refurb' Wispy 2.4x, and Ophidian a brand new unreleased model they are working on. It is really nice to see a small but faithful company paying it forward like this! Their gesture is a real showcase of how things SHOULD be. We didn't ask for one, never intended on even getting anything in return, but they went above and beyond and did something noble for us. Many of you on IRC already know some of the projects I have been cooking up with my WiSpy, now I can't say they will be full featured segments on BSoD, but bet your ass it will definitely make it on the show during the series. Either way its nice to see community support from them. Every little encouragement helps, even getting a thank you from a company that sees we are not promoting things because we are being paid to do it, but because we stand behind them, and in return they stand behind us.

For those of you that dont know, the WiSpy is a USB 2.4GHz Spectrum analyzer. It allows you to physically see how much of the 2.4GHz band is being eaten up by other devices. This was showcased in episode 19. Definitely a must-have tool for any wifi installer, or wireless warrior. They also support homebrew coders, there is a lot of cross platform support and homebrew software that is epic-bad-ass.

http://www.metageek.net/ for more information about their products. GO! NOW!! Or I will put the cat back in the bag and kick it down a flight of stairs...

Normally I dont like to post here about such topics since they belong in Local Meetups on the forums, but seeing how there is a short amount of time to organize I feel this is the best way for an outreach.

I will be in Orlando Florida with family for X-Mas. If anyone is interested in meeting up for some general fun, post here: http://forums.bsodtv.org/index.php?showtopic=478 I plan on bringing some essential toys and gizmos. The hotel I am at has a pool, so I am hoping I can sneak people in for some fun in the pool. If you havent realized by now, I enjoy getting physical as much as I enjoy tech. Every free second I have I wll gaurentee I am in the pool going nuts diving and swimming, something I cant do here often in New York Shitty.

DarkIdent will be in my hometown of NYC. He is making quite a trip to visit. We have been arranging some time to meet up, hang out, and generally cause some trouble. If you are in the NYC/NJ area and want to hang out, let us know by posting here: http://forums.bsodtv.org/NYC-t474.html I am pretty sure at some point Ugster and Mustang will crash at my place, plus there are quite of local misfits. DarkForist, Reaper, KP, plus the NYC2600 group. If you have the chance you should try and squeeze in some fun time of techno-terror with us.

We always we encourage people to meet up and hang out with fellow BSoD'ers and strengthen the community bonds of BSoD. However remember episode 1, use common sense and always take precautions when meeting people from the internet! Mustang nor myself has to host a meetup. Find people in your area and start to arrange a time and place to hang out in the name of BSoD. C'mon people. get off our lazy ass and start getting social! ITS FUN!

I (we) will try to get some footage of the event(s), but to be honest we are there to have fun, not to blog and record our lives, but anyone that has been to a BSoD meetup can tell you... its an adventure. Non-stop hacking and hilarity of such an off key deranged demeanor.