https://famicoman.com/ Recent content on Famicoman.com Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sun, 01 Jan 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2023/01/01/the-best-of-2022/ Sun, 01 Jan 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2023/01/01/the-best-of-2022/ Here is my eighth installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. over the past year. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. As time goes on, certain categories that show up in one year may disappear in another, or a new one might pop up. This is all fairly normal as I explore new things and abandon old ones. See the 2021 post here! https://famicoman.com/2022/04/01/dialup-telnet-bridge/ Fri, 01 Apr 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2022/04/01/dialup-telnet-bridge/ I’ve been playing around with dial-up modems for about a year now and while I found it relatively easy to get software configured to run a dial-up ISP, I had trouble finding documentation to configure things so you can dial into a BBS or a text adventure game. Ultimately, I realized that I wanted something that enabled me to dial into a machine, and have the machine connect my local terminal up to something over telnet without too much user interaction. https://famicoman.com/2022/3/21/call-your-asterisk-pbx-from-a-home-phone-line/ Mon, 21 Mar 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2022/3/21/call-your-asterisk-pbx-from-a-home-phone-line/ For a while now, every Internet package I have subscribed to at home comes with a phone line that I never end up utilizing. Occasionally I’ll hook a modem up to it to test something, but for the most part it sits idle. I am always running an asterisk-based PBX at home however, and since I have this home phone line “for free” I might as well use it as a dial-in for my exchange. https://famicoman.com/2022/01/04/the-best-of-2021/ Tue, 04 Jan 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2022/01/04/the-best-of-2021/ Here is my seventh installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. over the past year. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. As time goes on, certain categories that show up in one year may disappear in another, or a new one might pop up. This is all fairly normal as I explore new things and abandon old ones. See the 2020 post here! https://famicoman.com/2021/06/23/2021-06-23-using-a-cybiko-as-a-serial-terminal/ Wed, 23 Jun 2021 11:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2021/06/23/2021-06-23-using-a-cybiko-as-a-serial-terminal/ Watching LGR’s video on the Cybiko reminded me that I had a few Cybikos around and wanted to see if I could do something useful with one. If you haven’t heard of the Cybiko before (and I don’t blame you), these weird little pocket computers came out 20 years ago and had the killer feature of allowing users to chat with one another wirelessly, without any existing infrastructure. As a mesh-networking enthusiast, I was originally drawn to the Cybiko for its networking abilities, though this would be more of a novelty these days (I still hope to do my own distance testing at some point) as I’m sure I wouldn’t want to build anything running over Cybiko links. https://famicoman.com/2021/06/07/2021-06-07-printing-to-an-esc-pos-receipt-printer-from-linux/ Mon, 07 Jun 2021 11:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2021/06/07/2021-06-07-printing-to-an-esc-pos-receipt-printer-from-linux/ A receipt printer can have many uses besides simply printing… well… receipts. It can be a lot of fun to send different things to it like system logs, POCSAG pager messages, or even zines. I thought it would be fun to use one for live printing out IRC messages so I had to figure out how to hook it up and get text to actually come out of it. I happen to have an EPSON TM-T88III thermal printer that uses the ESC/POS control language, a popular standard for point of sale printers. https://famicoman.com/2021/05/31/2021-05-31-running-a-dedicated-quake-iii-arena-server-for-dreamcast/ Mon, 31 May 2021 11:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2021/05/31/2021-05-31-running-a-dedicated-quake-iii-arena-server-for-dreamcast/ A few years back I built a DreamPi setup so I could play my online-capable Sega Dreamcast games using the standard dial-up adapter which negates the need to track down the expensive broadband adapter. Essentially, you can couple a cheap USB modem (modified to provide line voltage, I may write about this in the future if there is interest) with a Raspberry Pi (or any Linux-running machine, really) to bridge the connection between your dial-up-minded console and the modern Internet! https://famicoman.com/2021/01/09/running-the-rc2014-with-a-soviet-gdr-z80-clone/ Sat, 09 Jan 2021 11:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2021/01/09/running-the-rc2014-with-a-soviet-gdr-z80-clone/ Around the same time that I got my RC2014 (you can read my recent post where I got it working), I purchased an old Z80 clone that appears to have been produced within the former Soviet Union. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get the RC2014 to boot and run with the vintage chip, so now that my RC2014 is working I wanted to make that happen. https://famicoman.com/2021/01/01/the-best-of-2020/ Fri, 01 Jan 2021 13:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2021/01/01/the-best-of-2020/ Here is my sixth installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. over the past year. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. As time goes on, certain categories that show up in one year may disappear in another, or a new one might pop up. This is all fairly normal as I explore new things and abandon old ones. See the 2019 post here! https://famicoman.com/2020/12/20/rc2014-troubleshooting-log/ Sun, 20 Dec 2020 18:30:00 -0500 https://famicoman.com/2020/12/20/rc2014-troubleshooting-log/ I assembled my RC2014 Plus in early 2018 and never got it to boot. Starting in October 2020, I’ll try to get it working again. For the uninitiated, the RC2014 is a hobbyist computer you put together from a kit. While I had my frustrations getting it running, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in vintage computing, anyone learning to solder, or tinkerers in general. While discussing my efforts to get the board to boot with a few online friends, I was asked to keep a log of my progress, so I did. https://famicoman.com/2020/08/22/get-your-vintage-computer-online-with-a-lantronix-uds10/ Sat, 22 Aug 2020 15:25:00 -0500 https://famicoman.com/2020/08/22/get-your-vintage-computer-online-with-a-lantronix-uds10/ I wanted to connect my vintage Wyse terminal to the Internet using a dedicated device, and after looking at the myriad of WiFi232 adapters I wondered if there was something that would behave similarly using a wired ethernet connection as I didn’t need wireless for my use-case. Doing some research online, I discovered the Lantronix UDS series of devices, which looked perfect for what I wanted to do. Built for industrial and commercial purposes like interfacing RS232-based security systems and barcode scanners with modern networks, Lantronix devices like this seem to have been in production since the ’90s and are still being made today. https://famicoman.com/2020/08/14/upgrading-wifi-on-the-thinkpad-x230/ Fri, 14 Aug 2020 15:55:42 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2020/08/14/upgrading-wifi-on-the-thinkpad-x230/ If you have gone ahead and installed coreboot on a ThinkPad X230, you may be aware that one of the features of the new firmware is the removal of the “WiFi whitelist” which only allowed certain wireless cards to be used on the machine. While this probably wasn’t much of an issue when the X230 first came out, wireless networking is much faster these days and the X230 can be upgraded to take advantage of these increased speeds relatively inexpensively. https://famicoman.com/2020/08/03/connect-a-wyse-terminal-to-a-raspberry-pi/ Mon, 03 Aug 2020 23:19:23 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2020/08/03/connect-a-wyse-terminal-to-a-raspberry-pi/ I love old terminals. I love amber and green phosphors. It just sort of feels like doing real computing. Unfortunately these days, you don’t see a lot of terminals in day-to-day life, but they are available for sale on the second-hand market. If you’re lucky to snag an old Wyse terminal, don’t get intimidated! They are fairly easy to connect to modern computers, even Raspberry Pis. Below I will show two ways to connect a terminal to a Raspberry Pi 3: through the UART or via USB adapter. https://famicoman.com/2020/07/30/corebooting-the-thinkpad-x230-with-skulls/ Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:09:45 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2020/07/30/corebooting-the-thinkpad-x230-with-skulls/ I had been looking for an inexpensive-but-capable laptop that I could take to conventions/meetups in place of my much larger (and heavier) Clevo laptop that usually took up way too much space in my bag. I’m not editing videos or gaming at these places (or otherwise anymore, really), and the most I’m probably doing is taking notes, browsing the web, presenting a slideshow, or running some lightweight console-based software. I certainly don’t need a high-end machine. https://famicoman.com/2020/07/28/node-vol-02/ Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:01:07 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2020/07/28/node-vol-02/ A little late to share this news here, but the second issue of the NODE zine is out now for free download and physical order. I once again served as editor and a writer on this volume. From the site: We’ve taken all the feedback we received on Volume 1, and created an 180 page handbook for the future. This issue is packed with hardware projects like the OpenBook, The Reform 2 laptop, Librerouter, as well as staples like the new Mini Server, and Zero Terminal handheld computer. https://famicoman.com/2020/07/28/how-to-join-npstn-a-voip-network-for-telephone-collectors/ Tue, 28 Jul 2020 03:15:20 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2020/07/28/how-to-join-npstn-a-voip-network-for-telephone-collectors/ NOTE: The steps in this post are obsolete and I no longer recommend anyone join NPSTN. This post only continues to exist as a archived piece of ephemera. NPSTN (standing for NoveltyPSTN or NostalgicPSTN, see npstn.us) is a hobbyist VoIP-based phone network for phone collectors and phreaks. While similar to the popular CNET (or Collector’s Network, ckts.info), NPSTN is considered more phreak-friendly than CNET (dig out your blue box, seriously), but also has a handful of other differences like using conventional 7-digit telephone numbers, and offering both payphone trunks and MF trunks. https://famicoman.com/2020/01/03/the-best-of-2019/ Fri, 03 Jan 2020 22:09:39 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2020/01/03/the-best-of-2019/ Here is my fifth installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. over the past year. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. See the 2018 post here! See the 2017 post here! See the 2016 post here! See the 2015 post here! This annual “Best Of” series is inspired by @fogus and his blog, Send More Paramedics. Favorite Blog Posts Read I end up reading a lot of articles over the course of the year, and cannot possibly remember all of them. https://famicoman.com/2019/12/29/belated-news-node-vol-01-and-presenting-at-radical-networks-2019/ Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:42:43 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2019/12/29/belated-news-node-vol-01-and-presenting-at-radical-networks-2019/ I was quite busy in 2019 and worked on two big things that were never shared here. Both were fairly large undertakings for me, and I figured it was good to make note of them here. NODE VOL 01 I served as the editor for the premier issue of the NODE zine, a really cool publication to come out of NODE (which you may likely recognize from its video offering). Production of the first issue took many months, and while I had worked previously writing content for NODE, editing proved to be a new and different animal. https://famicoman.com/2019/06/04/installing-freebsd-12-on-the-atomic-pi/ Tue, 04 Jun 2019 20:56:34 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2019/06/04/installing-freebsd-12-on-the-atomic-pi/ By the end of April, Digital Loggers released the Atomic Pi, an x86-64-based single board computer, for sale on their website. Many speculate that these boards were bought wholesale from another company’s liquidation, and their strange assortment of navigation and audio features may indicate that they were originally built for automotive use. That said, they boast decent specifications for the inexpensive ($35) price especially compared to other x86/x86-64 boards like the Jaguarboard and UDOO: https://famicoman.com/2019/01/02/the-best-of-2018/ Wed, 02 Jan 2019 22:51:31 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2019/01/02/the-best-of-2018/ Here is my fourth installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. over the past year. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. See the 2017 post here! See the 2016 post here! See the 2015 post here! This annual “Best Of” series is inspired by @fogus and his blog, Send More Paramedics. Favorite Blog Posts Read I end up reading a lot of articles over the course of the year, and cannot possibly remember all of them. https://famicoman.com/2018/12/31/the-brain-mutator-for-higher-primates-a-boing-boing-retrospective/ Mon, 31 Dec 2018 14:11:18 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/12/31/the-brain-mutator-for-higher-primates-a-boing-boing-retrospective/ This article was originally written for and published at Neon Dystopia on June 13th, 2018 It has been posted here for safe keeping. In 1988, Mark Frauenfelder and his wife Carla Sinclair started a small zine out of their apartment in Sherman Oaks, California. This wasn’t a full-time job for Frauenfelder, who studied mechanical engineering in school and worked professionally designing hard disk drives during the day. The drudgery of his work got to him, and he desperately needed a creative outlet, and that outlet would become bOING bOING. https://famicoman.com/2018/11/06/building-a-replica-hackers-pager/ Tue, 06 Nov 2018 01:23:20 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/11/06/building-a-replica-hackers-pager/ Ever since I saw Hackers (1995), I always wanted one of the iconic yellow pagers that Cereal Killer sports at various points during the film. I missed out on the whole era of pagers, but I always thought there was just something cool about them that seems a little less amazing now that we are in a text-messaging world. The Motorola Advisor from the film. Many months ago, I became aware of an awesome website called Hackers Curator that attempts to index every prop (among other great things) from the Hackers film, and even make some reproductions. https://famicoman.com/2018/07/29/building-a-pbx-part-4-hooking-up-a-rotary-phone/ Sun, 29 Jul 2018 16:21:21 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/07/29/building-a-pbx-part-4-hooking-up-a-rotary-phone/ This article is one in a series about building a PBX. If you haven’t already, please check out the first in the series, Building A PBX Part 1 — PBX Hardware. So now that we a touch tone phone configured to work with our PBX, let’s focus on getting a rotary phone working. As mentioned briefly in part 3 of this PBX setup, rotary phones rely on pulse dialing, while touch-tone phones rely on tone dialing. https://famicoman.com/2018/07/28/building-a-pbx-part-3-hooking-up-a-touch-tone-phone/ Sat, 28 Jul 2018 20:05:09 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/07/28/building-a-pbx-part-3-hooking-up-a-touch-tone-phone/ This article is one in a series about building a PBX. If you haven’t already, please check out the first in the series, Building A PBX Part 1 — PBX Hardware. So now that we have incoming and outgoing calls configured on the PBX, we can actually hook up a touch-tone phone to make and receive calls! Your standard phone is going to have an RJ-11 jack to interface with telecommunications equipment, but of course our Raspbery Pi setup doesn’t have any sort of dial-up modem card or anything that might make some sort of sense when it comes to wiring everything up. https://famicoman.com/2018/07/28/building-a-pbx-part-2-configuring-incoming-outgoing-calls/ Sat, 28 Jul 2018 00:42:43 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/07/28/building-a-pbx-part-2-configuring-incoming-outgoing-calls/ This article is one in a series about building a PBX. If you haven’t already, please check out the first in the series, Building A PBX Part 1 — PBX Hardware. So now we’re ready to configure our PBX to interact with the global telephone network. This means that anyone in the world can call into our PBX, and we can call out. Much like needing an ISP to connect a home network to the Internet, we will need a VoIP provider to hook into the telephone network. https://famicoman.com/2018/07/18/building-a-pbx-part-1-pbx-hardware/ Wed, 18 Jul 2018 16:17:05 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/07/18/building-a-pbx-part-1-pbx-hardware/ I’ve always had some sort of fascination with the telephone system. There is something that excites me about large systems in general, whether it has to do with computer networking, telephony, power, or even the postal service. Phone phreaking sort of plays into this fascination—we learn how the phone network works by poking and prodding until something interesting is discovered. In 2012 or so, I set up by own PBX (or private branch exchange) using an original 256MB Raspberry Pi model B. https://famicoman.com/2018/06/28/emulating-a-z-os-mainframe-with-hercules/ Thu, 28 Jun 2018 13:46:25 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/06/28/emulating-a-z-os-mainframe-with-hercules/ Note: I started writing this article back in 2015 and hit a few roadblocks that I’ve been able to finally reconcile in the last few months. There are a lot of similar guides out there (which I will reference in my sources), but I found them to be too ambiguous to be completely helpful. While I’ve learned a lot from writing this and troubleshooting the issues from existing guides, I am still far from a mainframe expert. https://famicoman.com/2018/04/25/on-wetware-and-cybersmut-a-future-sex-retrospective/ Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:51:44 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/04/25/on-wetware-and-cybersmut-a-future-sex-retrospective/ This article was originally written for and published at Neon Dystopia on January 9th, 2018 It has been posted here for safe keeping. Of all the cyberpunk magazines I’ve ever come across, Future Sex is definitely the strangest. From the cover of the first issue, you know immediately that you haven’t seen anything quite like this before. A naked brunette with headlines screaming “Electronic Masturbation,” and “3D Digital Orgasms: Virtual Reality Sex,” all imposed over a candy-colored gradient background. https://famicoman.com/2018/01/26/generate-a-vanity-onion-address-for-your-tor-hidden-service-using-scallion/ Fri, 26 Jan 2018 15:03:32 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/01/26/generate-a-vanity-onion-address-for-your-tor-hidden-service-using-scallion/ Ever wonder how Tor sites get those custom vanity .onion addresses such as silkroada7bc3kld.onion? These addresses can be generated by hidden service operators for production use, and are just as secure as the automatically generated (and often more cryptic) addresses. Hidden service .onion addresses are really just the public part of a key pair. Utilizing asymmetric encryption, a hidden service uses the public key (a 16 character string that functions as the actual address prefix) and a private key (a much longer string that is known only to the hidden service) to verify the identity of the service. https://famicoman.com/2018/01/20/generate-a-vanity-onion-address-for-your-tor-hidden-service-using-eschalot/ Sat, 20 Jan 2018 23:56:47 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/01/20/generate-a-vanity-onion-address-for-your-tor-hidden-service-using-eschalot/ Ever wonder how Tor sites get those custom vanity .onion addresses such as silkroada7bc3kld.onion? These addresses can be generated by hidden service operators for production use, and are just as secure as the automatically generated (and often more cryptic) addresses. Hidden service .onion addresses are really just the public part of a key pair. Utilizing asymmetric encryption, a hidden service uses the public key (a 16 character string that functions as the actual address prefix) and a private key (a much longer string that is known only to the hidden service) to verify the identity of the service. https://famicoman.com/2018/01/09/generate-a-vanity-onion-address-for-your-tor-hidden-service-using-shallot/ Tue, 09 Jan 2018 11:05:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/01/09/generate-a-vanity-onion-address-for-your-tor-hidden-service-using-shallot/ Ever wonder how Tor sites get those custom vanity .onion addresses such as silkroada7bc3kld.onion? These addresses can be generated by hidden service operators for production use, and are just as secure as the automatically generated (and often more cryptic) addresses. Hidden service .onion addresses are really just the public part of a key pair. Utilizing asymmetric encryption, a hidden service uses the public key (a 16 character string that functions as the actual address prefix) and a private key (a much longer string that is known only to the hidden service) to verify the identity of the service. https://famicoman.com/2018/01/05/configuring-a-tor-hidden-service/ Fri, 05 Jan 2018 13:49:52 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/01/05/configuring-a-tor-hidden-service/ Tor hidden services allow various types of services (web server, telnet server, chat server, etc) to be operated within the Tor network. This allows both users and service operators to conceal their identities and locations. Just about anything that can be run on the clearnet can be run within the Tor darknet. Setting up a hidden service on Tor is a simple process and depending on the level of detail, an operator can keep their service completely anonymous. https://famicoman.com/2018/01/03/configuring-and-monitoring-a-tor-middle-relay/ Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:51:51 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/01/03/configuring-and-monitoring-a-tor-middle-relay/ The Tor network relies upon individuals and organizations to donate relays for user traffic. The more relays within network, the stronger and faster the network is. Below, we will create a middle relay which receives traffic and sends it off to another relay. Middle relays will never serve as exit points for traffic back out to the clear Internet (a job for an exit relay). Because of this, many see running a middle relay as a safer way of contributing to the Tor network as opposed to running an exit relay which could find an operator at fault if illegal activity or content exits his node. https://famicoman.com/2018/01/02/the-best-of-2017/ Tue, 02 Jan 2018 21:00:19 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2018/01/02/the-best-of-2017/ Here is my third installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. over the past year. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. See the 2016 post here! See the 2015 post here! This annual “Best Of” series is inspired by @fogus and his blog, Send More Paramedics. Favorite Blog Posts Read I end up reading a lot of articles over the course of the year, and cannot possibly remember all of them. https://famicoman.com/2017/12/29/on-music-mondo-mayhem-an-interview-with-r-u-sirius/ Fri, 29 Dec 2017 20:28:45 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/12/29/on-music-mondo-mayhem-an-interview-with-r-u-sirius/ This article was originally written for and published at Neon Dystopia on September 1st, 2017. It has been posted here for safe keeping. I recently wrote an article for Neon Dystopia on Mondo 2000, a cyberculture magazine that helped shape the cyberpunk sub-genre. When thinking of Mondo, the first person that comes to mind for most people is Ken Goffman, better known as R.U. Sirius. While he may be best known for his time at Mondo 2000, Sirius has no shortage of interesting accomplishments. https://famicoman.com/2017/12/29/hallucinations-for-accelerated-mutants-a-mondo-2000-retrospective/ Fri, 29 Dec 2017 20:27:11 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/12/29/hallucinations-for-accelerated-mutants-a-mondo-2000-retrospective/ This article was originally written for and published at Neon Dystopia on August 28th, 2017. It has been posted here for safe keeping. It’s difficult to explain Mondo 2000 to someone who hasn’t experienced it before. That’s really what I would call it at the end of the day: an experience. Like a hallucinogenic trip, or a roller coaster ride, or that tingle that you get after a first kiss — it’s something you just don’t really get by having it described to you. https://famicoman.com/2017/10/14/bypass-your-isps-dns-run-a-private-opennic-server-2600-article/ Sat, 14 Oct 2017 14:12:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/10/14/bypass-your-isps-dns-run-a-private-opennic-server-2600-article/ Now that the article has been printed in 2600 magazine, Volume 34, Issue 3 (2017-10-02), I’m able to republish it on the web. The article below is my submission to 2600 with some slight formatting changes and minor edits. Bypass Your ISP’s DNS & Run A Private OpenNIC Server By Mike Dank Famicoman@gmail.com Introduction With recent U.S. legislation regarding Internet privacy, we see another example of control moving away from consumers and towards service providers. https://famicoman.com/2017/08/27/recollecting-the-future-an-omni-retrospective/ Sun, 27 Aug 2017 21:25:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/08/27/recollecting-the-future-an-omni-retrospective/ This article was originally written for and published at Neon Dystopia on June 28th, 2017. It has been posted here for safe keeping. The first time I read anything out of Omni, I probably had a completely different experience than you did. The original run of Omni, the iconic science and science fiction magazine, ran in print from 1978 to 1995, ending when I was just four years old. https://famicoman.com/2017/08/27/more-than-just-a-game-brainscan-review/ Sun, 27 Aug 2017 21:10:39 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/08/27/more-than-just-a-game-brainscan-review/ This article was originally written for and published at Neon Dystopia on May 22nd, 2017. It has been posted here for safe keeping. In the mid-1990’s, we saw cinema saturated with cyberpunk movies. Some became staples of the genre, while others simply faded into obscurity. Brainscan (1995) combines elements of cyberpunk and horror, to create a unique story about a video game gone wrong. While not a particularly successful film, Brainscan turns out to be an interesting extension to the classic “killer computer” trope. https://famicoman.com/2017/08/27/snoop-unto-them-as-they-snoop-unto-us/ Sun, 27 Aug 2017 20:57:55 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/08/27/snoop-unto-them-as-they-snoop-unto-us/ This article was originally written for and published at Exolymph on May 15th, 2017. It has been posted here for safe keeping. Artwork by Matt Brown. Abruptly returning to a previous topic, here’s a guest dispatch from Famicoman (AKA Mike Dank) on surveillance and privacy. Back to the new focus soon. The letter sat innocently in a pile of mail on the kitchen table. A boring envelope, nondescript at a glance, that would become something of a Schrödinger’s cat before the inevitable unsealing. https://famicoman.com/2017/03/01/running-using-a-finger-daemon/ Wed, 01 Mar 2017 22:08:01 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2017/03/01/running-using-a-finger-daemon/ The finger application was written in the 1970s to allow users on a network to retrieve information about other users. Back before Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms, someone could use the finger command to retrieve public contact information, project notes, GPG keys, status reporting, etc. from a user on a local or remote machine. Finger has mostly faded into obscurity due to many organizations viewing the availability of public contact information as a potential security hole. https://famicoman.com/2016/12/30/the-best-of-2016/ Fri, 30 Dec 2016 01:01:19 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/12/30/the-best-of-2016/ See the 2015 post here! Here is my second installment of the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. This annual “Best Of” series is inspired by @fogus and his blog, Send More Paramedics. Favorite Blog Posts Read OpenSSL Certificate Authority (2013) - Incredible guide to becoming your own certificate authority. I highly recommend it to anyone generating TLS certs. https://famicoman.com/2016/12/22/building-diy-community-mesh-networks-2600-article/ Thu, 22 Dec 2016 00:54:56 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/12/22/building-diy-community-mesh-networks-2600-article/ Now that the article has been printed in [2600 magazine, Volume 33, Issue 3][https://www.amazon.com/2600-Magazine-Hacker-Quarterly-ebook/dp/B01M1NJI3U/2600magazi-20] (2016-10-10), I’m able to republish it on the web. The article below is my submission to 2600 with some slight formatting changes for hyperlinks. Building DIY Community Mesh Networks By Mike Dank Famicoman@gmail.com Today, we are faced with issues regarding our access to the Internet, as well as our freedoms on it. As governmental bodies fight to gain more control and influence over the flow of our information, some choose to look for alternatives to the traditional Internet and build their own networks as they see fit. https://famicoman.com/2016/12/21/siteproject-updates/ Wed, 21 Dec 2016 17:02:05 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/12/21/siteproject-updates/ You may have noticed that some of my sites are now sporting forced https and ipv6 support. Here’s a little rundown of upgrades and updates. famicoman.com - Forced https and ipv6, software updated. Fixed some broken static sites I’ve had available. ChannelEM, Techtat, and other old projects are available through their own subdomains and indexed on this page, https://static.famicoman.com/ noobelodeon.org, elcycle.org - Forced https and ipv6. All subdomains have the same treatment. https://famicoman.com/2016/10/29/im-in-2600-magazine/ Sat, 29 Oct 2016 20:07:35 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/10/29/im-in-2600-magazine/ As of the Autumn 2016 issue, I now have an article appearing in 2600: The Hacker Quarterly! My article is titled “Building DIY Community Mesh Networks,” and covers topics in building and organizing local mesh networks. The issue can be purchased in Barnes & Noble stores, as well as physically or digitally through the 2600 site and Amazon.com. I will shortly be making the article available online as well. https://famicoman.com/2016/10/29/the-evolution-of-digital-nomadics/ Sat, 29 Oct 2016 20:01:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/10/29/the-evolution-of-digital-nomadics/ This article was originally written for and published at N-O-D-E on October 18th, 2016. It has been posted here for safe keeping. THE EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL NOMADICS – In the Autumn of 1983, Steven K. Roberts pedaled off on a recumbent bicycle and pioneered a new revolution in the way people worked. Stuck in the drudgery of suburban Ohio, Steve was bored. He had many possessions, a house, and work as a technology consultant and freelance writer. https://famicoman.com/2016/08/13/update-wanted-language-technology-electric-word-magazine/ Sat, 13 Aug 2016 01:14:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/08/13/update-wanted-language-technology-electric-word-magazine/ A little while ago, I was contacted by a gentleman by the handle of jonur who saw my post and decided to upload some scans of Language Technology / Electric Word magazine that he has done. This is truly awesome, and we now have seven issues to browse through currently! Though this is not the entire collection, it is an awesome start. The issues are: Language Technology Issue 3 (September/October 1987) Language Technology Issue 6 (March/April 1988) Language Technology Issue 9 (September/October 1988) Electric Word Issue 13 (May/June 1989) Electric Word Issue 15 (September/October 1989) Electric Word Issue 16 (November/December 1989) Electric Word Issue 20 (July/August 1990) https://famicoman.com/2016/08/13/the-hermicity-interview-drones-dao-deliverable-soylent/ Sat, 13 Aug 2016 00:33:47 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/08/13/the-hermicity-interview-drones-dao-deliverable-soylent/ This article was originally written for and published at N-O-D-E (since removed) on May 20th, 2016. It has been posted here for safe keeping. THE H E R M I C I T Y INTERVIEW: DRONES, DAO, & DELIVERABLE SOYLENT READING TIME: 10-12 MINUTES I recently spoke with John Dummett, the creator of H E R M I C I T Y, a project aiming to send packages of Soylent by drone to hermits living in remote areas who pay via smart contract through Ethereum. https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/i-wrote-an-app/ Thu, 26 May 2016 21:12:06 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/i-wrote-an-app/ I’ve been putting off this post for a while. Not for any reason in particular, I just like to have things arranged in a certain way before I push them out to people. This is analogous to the mobile app project this post refers to as a whole. In 2013, with the idea of a friend, I created a mobile application that allows a user to send a random insulting text to someone on their contacts list. https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/i2p-101-inside-the-invisible-internet/ Thu, 26 May 2016 20:12:10 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/i2p-101-inside-the-invisible-internet/ This article was originally written for and published at >N-O-D-E on May 1st, 2016. It has been posted here for safe keeping. I2P 101 — INSIDE THE INVISIBLE INTERNET – The Invisible Internet Project (more commonly known as I2P) is an older, traditional darknet built from the ground up with privacy and security in mind. As with all darknets, accessing an I2P site or service is not as simple as firing a request off from your web browser as you would with any site on the traditional Internet (the clearnet). https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/its-warm-like-flesh/ Thu, 26 May 2016 20:11:57 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/its-warm-like-flesh/ This article was originally written for and published at Exolymph on April 28th, 2016. It has been posted here for safe keeping. As technology evolves, the line between science and science fiction starts to blur. At one point, the thought of space travel or even micro-computing was only a dream of the future, yet it became a reality within or before our lifetimes. More and more, we find ourselves questioning if something is real or only exists in thought — a pie-in-the-sky dream of hopefuls or holdouts. https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/hyperboria-101-moving-through-the-mesh/ Thu, 26 May 2016 20:11:43 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/05/26/hyperboria-101-moving-through-the-mesh/ This article was originally written for and published at N-O-D-E on February 14th, 2016. It has been posted here for safe keeping. HYPERBORIA 101 — MOVING THROUGH THE MESH – Hyperboria is a network built as an alternative to the traditional Internet. In simple terms, Hyperboria can be thought of as a darknet, meaning it is running on top of or hidden from the existing Internet (the clearnet). If you have ever used TOR or I2P, it is a similar concept. https://famicoman.com/2016/05/12/irssi-hilighttxt-pl-an-irssi-plugin-that-sms-messages-you-on-hilight/ Thu, 12 May 2016 21:30:50 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/05/12/irssi-hilighttxt-pl-an-irssi-plugin-that-sms-messages-you-on-hilight/ A few months ago after configuring irssi with all the IRC channels I wanted, I ran into the problem of being late to a conversation. Every few days I would check my channels only to see people reaching out to me when I wasn’t around. Sometimes I was able to ping someone to talk, other times the person left and never came back. I had been using the faithful hilightwin.pl plugin to put all my hilights in a separate window I could monitor. https://famicoman.com/2016/04/21/wanted-language-technology-electric-word-magazine/ Thu, 21 Apr 2016 22:43:35 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/04/21/wanted-language-technology-electric-word-magazine/ Language Technology / Electric Word was a technology magazine running from 1987 to 1990, edied by Louis Rossetto who later went on to start Wired Magazine. Unfortunately, I can’t find any issues of these publications, and little is available online beyond the Wikipedia page which states: Electric Word was a bimonthly, English-language magazine published in Amsterdam between 1987 and 1990 that offered eclectic reporting on the translation industry, linguistic technology, and computer culture. https://famicoman.com/2016/03/31/wanted-chromed-pork-radio/ Thu, 31 Mar 2016 17:31:05 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/03/31/wanted-chromed-pork-radio/ Recently, I’ve been on the hunt for cyberpunk podcasts. Between the sci-fi dramas and current news shows, I found a surprising amount of references to Chromed Pork, an interesting podcast by a group of phone phreaks and hackers that ran for 22 episodes from early 2008 to early 2009. Chromed Pork seems to have started out as a group of friends on IRC. They came together (originally or later I don’t know) on Binary Revolution, a hacking website which previously ran the popular Binary Revolution Radio show and published its own zine. https://famicoman.com/2016/03/07/rehacking-a-boxee-box/ Mon, 07 Mar 2016 22:43:45 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/03/07/rehacking-a-boxee-box/ I recently purchased an Amazon Fire TV Stick and love that it allows the ability to sideload applications like Kodi (I still hate that name, long live XBMC!) for media streaming. I mainly use Samba/SMB shares on my network for my media, with most of my content living on an old WDTV Live Hub. The WDTV Hub works great and is still pretty stable after all of these years (except for a few built-in apps like YouTube, I wish they kept going with updates), and the Fire TV will gladly chug away, playing any video over the network. https://famicoman.com/2016/02/29/rtmbot-archivebotjr-a-slack-bot-for-archiving/ Mon, 29 Feb 2016 21:08:36 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2016/02/29/rtmbot-archivebotjr-a-slack-bot-for-archiving/ I’ve been working with the idea of trying to archive more things when I’m on the go. Sometimes I find myself with odd pockets of time like 10 minutes on a train platform or a few minutes leftover at lunch that I tend to spend browsing online. Inevitably, I find something I want to download later and tuck the link away, usually forgetting all about it. Recently, I’ve been using Slack for some team collaboration projects (Slack is sort of like IRC in a nice pretty package, integrating with helpful online services) and was wondering how I could leverage it for some on-the-go archiving needs. https://famicoman.com/2015/12/30/the-best-of-2015/ Wed, 30 Dec 2015 19:43:10 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/12/30/the-best-of-2015/ As a nod to @fogus and his blog, Send More Paramedics, I’ve opted to start the annual tradition of recapping the year with the best things I’ve found, learned, read, etc. These things are listed in no particular order, and may not necessarily be new. Favorite Blog Posts Read Not a lot here that I can recall, but this handful stood out as good reads. Some of them I plan to refer back to in the future. https://famicoman.com/2015/11/27/how-to-run-your-own-independent-dns-with-custom-tlds/ Fri, 27 Nov 2015 17:22:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/11/27/how-to-run-your-own-independent-dns-with-custom-tlds/ This article was originally written for and published at N-O-D-E on September 9th, 2015. It has been posted here for safe keeping. HOW TO RUN YOUR OWN INDEPENDENT DNS WITH CUSTOM TLDS –– BACKGROUND After reading what feels like yet another article about a BitTorrent tracker losing its domain name, I started to think about how trackers could have an easier time keeping a stable domain if they didn’t have to register their domain through conventional methods Among their many roles, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), controls domain names on the Internet and are well known for the work with the Domain Name System (DNS) specifically the operation of root name servers and governance over top level domains (TLDs). https://famicoman.com/2015/10/10/wanted-videostatic-1989/ Sat, 10 Oct 2015 17:10:29 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/10/10/wanted-videostatic-1989/ Through a strange series of links, I have become aware of a 1989 film called Videostatic. Distributed independently for $10/tape, Videostatic looks like some sort of insane hodgepodge of clips and video effects that I am strangely drawn to. Here is a synopsis written around 1998 from Gareth Branwyn’s Street Tech, This is a 60-minute audio-visual journey to the edges of alternative art-making and experimental video. The tape is divided up into four sections: “Poems” (intuitive, non-narrative, alogical), “Paintings” (video equivalent to the conventional canvas), “Stories” (Event-based sequences), and “Messages” (rhetorical stances, public “service” announcements). https://famicoman.com/2015/09/23/the-new-wild-west/ Wed, 23 Sep 2015 19:34:45 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/09/23/the-new-wild-west/ This article was originally written for and published at N-O-D-E on August 3rd, 2015. It has been posted here for safe keeping. THE NEW WILD WEST – A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to work professionally with low energy RF devices under a fairly large corporation. We concerned ourselves with wireless mesh networking and were responsible for tying together smart devices, like light bulbs or door locks installed in your home, into an information-driven digital conglomerate. https://famicoman.com/2015/09/23/automating-site-backups-with-amazon-s3-and-php/ Wed, 23 Sep 2015 18:29:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/09/23/automating-site-backups-with-amazon-s3-and-php/ This article was originally written for and published at TechOats on June 24th, 2015. It has been posted here for safe keeping. I host quite a few websites. Not a lot, but enough that the thought of manually backing them up at any regular interval fills me with dread. If you’re going to do something more than three times, it is worth the effort of scripting it. A while back I got a free trial of Amazon’s Web Services, and decided to give S3 a try. https://famicoman.com/2015/06/08/wanted-how-to-build-a-red-box-vhs/ Mon, 08 Jun 2015 23:28:08 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/06/08/wanted-how-to-build-a-red-box-vhs/ I was looking though old issues of Blacklisted! 411 and found an advertisement in a 1995 issue for a 60 minute VHS tape about how to build a red box using a Radio Shack pocket tone dialer. For those who don’t know, red boxes were popular in the ’90s and used by phreakers, scammers, and those who just wanted free payphone calls. By modifying pocket dialers (or even just recording sounds that coins made as they were dropped into a phone), anyone could make a red box which would mimic the tones produced when coins were inserted into a payphone. https://famicoman.com/2015/05/20/wanted-lets-find-all-the-techtv-vhs-tapes/ Wed, 20 May 2015 11:05:57 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/05/20/wanted-lets-find-all-the-techtv-vhs-tapes/ TechTV, the 24-hour technology-oriented cable channel was a never ending source of inspiration to me when I was growing up. Back then, TechTV was only available in my area on digital cable, a newfangled platform that people didn’t want to pay the extra money for. By the time I had ditched analog cable, TechTV was long gone, absorbed into G4, with any programming carried over reduced to a shell of its former self. https://famicoman.com/2015/04/04/programs-from-high-school/ Sat, 04 Apr 2015 23:16:20 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/04/04/programs-from-high-school/ I’ve taken some time over the past two days to dig through some of my old flash drives for old programs I wrote in high school. I found most of my flash drives, and while a few had been re-purposed over the years, I ended up finding a lot of content I created over the course of my pre-college schooling. I didn’t find everything. When I started taking electives in high school, I first enrolled in a web design class. https://famicoman.com/2015/04/04/channelem-and-techtat-are-now-archived/ Sat, 04 Apr 2015 22:53:43 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2015/04/04/channelem-and-techtat-are-now-archived/ Since both TechTat and ChannelEM are essentially no longer updated, I didn’t want to have to worry about maintaining them on the server. I’ve backed up their installations, and created static html versions of each website which are now up at the URLs below. http://techtat.static.famicoman.com/ http://channelem.static.famicoman.com/ The static sites are not perfect, and may have some missing thumbnails, background images, or pages that were created on-the-fly by applications. Regardless, all the pages and their information should be intact. https://famicoman.com/2014/05/20/philosophy-of-data-organization/ Tue, 20 May 2014 11:41:28 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2014/05/20/philosophy-of-data-organization/ I would be a liar if I said I was an overly organized person. I believe that like things should be grouped together and everything is to have its place, but I follow something of a level of acceptable chaos. Nothing is organized completely, and I don’t really believe it is possible to have complete organization on a large enough scale. Complete organization is likely to cause insanity. When I first started accumulating data, I quickly outgrew my laptop’s 80 gigabyte hard drive. https://famicoman.com/2014/04/08/archiving-radio/ Tue, 08 Apr 2014 14:29:49 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2014/04/08/archiving-radio/ A few months ago, I got involved with my university’s radio station. It happened unexpectedly. I was out with some friends in the city and two of us made our way back to the school campus. My friend, a member of the station, had to run inside to check something out and ended up calling me in because there was some older gear that he wanted me to take a look at. https://famicoman.com/2014/01/28/just-meshing-around/ Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:41:58 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2014/01/28/just-meshing-around/ This article was originally written for and published at Philly Mesh on January 28th, 2014. It has been posted here for safe keeping. The first time I remember hearing about mesh networks was sometime around 2005. Through rigorous searches, I had finally tracked down a complete run of Seattle Wireless TV, a proto-podcast that ran from July of 2003 until June of 2004. This hunt was undergone for my own personal interest. https://famicoman.com/2013/12/23/helping-aaron-a-vintage-computer-adventure/ Mon, 23 Dec 2013 23:03:24 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/12/23/helping-aaron-a-vintage-computer-adventure/ This article was originally written for and published at Philly 2600 on December 23rd, 2013. It has been posted here for safe keeping. It’s rare that I get overwhelmed. I’m not talking about stress or anything like that. It’s rare that my senses get overwhelmed, specifically my sense of sight. This past Saturday, that sense became overloaded. I’ve known Aaron for a little while now. We met online somehow in 2012, and while I don’t remember the exact details, I think he started following me on Twitter and things went on from there after I followed him back and we started replying to each other’s tweets. https://famicoman.com/2013/11/04/hacking-history-a-brief-look-into-phillys-hacking-roots/ Mon, 04 Nov 2013 18:21:34 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/11/04/hacking-history-a-brief-look-into-phillys-hacking-roots/ This article was originally written for and published at Philly2600 on November 4th, 2013. It has been posted here for safe keeping. The tech scene in Philadelphia is booming. We have local startups like Duck Duck Go and TicketLeap, and we have co-working spaces like Indy Hall and Philly Game Forge. We have hackathons like Apps for Philly Transit and Start-up Weekend Health, and we have hackerspaces like Hive 76 and Devnuts. https://famicoman.com/2013/09/11/ghost-in-the-machine-your-digital-afterlife/ Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:59:17 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/09/11/ghost-in-the-machine-your-digital-afterlife/ This article was originally written for and published at The New Tech on July 9th, 2013. It has been posted here for safe keeping. On January 11th, Aaron Swartz passed away. If you’re not familiar with who he was and what he did, take a minute right now and look him up. A lot of focus was put on the circumstances of his death along with what he accomplished in life, and this seems to overshadow something that stood out to me: how to handle his legacy. https://famicoman.com/2013/09/06/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-4-aftermath/ Fri, 06 Sep 2013 13:03:02 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/09/06/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-4-aftermath/ If you have not done so already, please read parts 1, 2 & 3 of this series. As of writing this, I’ve spent one week running my setup with one USB Block Eruptor and one week running my setup with three. In my first week, I received about two payouts of 0.01 bitcoin each while in the second week I received that payout almost daily. The current average Bitcoin rate in USD (as of this writing) is $144. https://famicoman.com/2013/09/05/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-3-mobile-development/ Thu, 05 Sep 2013 17:43:14 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/09/05/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-3-mobile-development/ If you have not done so already, please read parts 1 and 2 in this series. So I have a mining rig that’s successfully rewarding me with bitcoins. Normal people would probably stop at this point. One nice thing about mining in Slush’s Pool is that it has a handy email notification option that tells you when credit is being transferred to your Bitcoin wallet. This is pretty cool, but what if I want more in-depth information? https://famicoman.com/2013/09/04/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-2-the-project/ Wed, 04 Sep 2013 22:30:28 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/09/04/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-2-the-project/ If you have not yet, please read the first article in this series: Mining Bitcoin for Fun and (Basically No) Profit, Part 1: Introduction I have a few Raspberry Pis around my house that I like to play with–four in total. Prior to this idea of a Bitcoin project, I had one running as a media center and another operating as a PBX. Of the remaining two, one was an early model B with 256MB of RAM while the other was the shiny new revision sporting 512MB. https://famicoman.com/2013/09/04/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-1-introduction/ Wed, 04 Sep 2013 13:34:50 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/09/04/mining-bitcoin-for-fun-and-basically-no-profit-part-1-introduction/ Note: This article is the first entry in a series I am writing for Philly2600. If you’re anything like myself, you’ve been keeping loose tabs on Bitcoin over the years. When I first read about the cryptocurrency, I thought it was an awesome concept. Now, I had heard about electronic currencies before. The first mental link I made upon hearing about Bitcoin was that it reminded me of e-gold. Founded in 1996, years before Paypal, e-gold was a gold-backed digital currency created by a few guys in Florida. https://famicoman.com/2013/08/20/the-summer-backlog/ Tue, 20 Aug 2013 18:25:21 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/08/20/the-summer-backlog/ Every Summer I speculate that I’m going to have an unbelievable amount free time. It will always be so fantastic and freeing. I’ll be done school, working a stress-free job, and there will be so much unscheduled time that I’ll just get bored and come up with hundreds of new tasks for myself. This never happens. Well, the having-free-time-thing never happens but I do take on new activities anyway. After enough time, I end up with a bunch of things I’ve been meaning to do, and work on them impulsively at sporadic intervals. https://famicoman.com/2013/07/30/what-administrating-a-bittorrent-site-taught-me-about-project-management/ Tue, 30 Jul 2013 02:15:26 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/07/30/what-administrating-a-bittorrent-site-taught-me-about-project-management/ This article was originally written for and published at Medium on May 18th, 2013. It has been posted here for safe keeping. In my sophomore year of college, I became an administrator of a BitTorrent website. It’s not nearly as shady as it sounds. In fact, it was a small and completely legal operation. Three administrators, one server, and hard drive after hard drive full of Creative Commons-licensed content. Now, I’m lucky enough to attend an undergraduate school with a strong internship tie-in. https://famicoman.com/2013/06/06/films-to-look-forward-too/ Thu, 06 Jun 2013 17:35:54 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/06/06/films-to-look-forward-too/ Just a follow-up to the last article with some new films. It’s been pretty exciting as some of the ones on the last list started rolling out, and hopefully most of these will make it as well. As always, I don’t knows if any of these will be any good, but they’ve captured my attention to the point where I had to make a note of them. Let me know if I missed any. https://famicoman.com/2013/04/30/documentaries-id-like-to-see-before-i-die-or-everyone-forgets/ Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:16:31 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/04/30/documentaries-id-like-to-see-before-i-die-or-everyone-forgets/ I’d like to think that I have something of a second nature when it comes to whether or not there is a documentary made or in production for any of my disjointed hobbies and interests. It’s not one of those skills you showcase in your job interview, but I seem to have this knack for religiously crawling the web in search for films I think I’d enjoy. Surprisingly, and to my great pleasure, a lot of these fringe interests I posses already have films about them. https://famicoman.com/2013/04/23/saving-rev3-update-8-resurrection/ Tue, 23 Apr 2013 01:56:28 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/04/23/saving-rev3-update-8-resurrection/ Yeah, I stole the title from the Halloween series. It seemed fitting. So here we are about a year later. Guess what? Revision3 has killed off a few more shows, started a bunch more, and redesigned their site. A few days ago, Moonlit and I got into an interesting Twitter conversation with Revision3, the results of which can be found here and here. Basically, with their site redesign they lost a bunch of shows which they then regained after we brought it up. https://famicoman.com/2013/03/29/other-peoples-stuff/ Fri, 29 Mar 2013 02:45:39 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/03/29/other-peoples-stuff/ If you collect as many things as I do, you end up with some stuff you’re not supposed to have. In this case, I’m not referring to stuff that is illegal or stuff that is unreleased. I’m talking about other people’s stuff. Personal stuff. In a broad sense, the whole used market is a little bit bizarre when you look at it abstractly. As we live in a disposable culture, anything someone might buy has its own story. https://famicoman.com/2013/02/08/hacker-zines/ Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:10:03 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/02/08/hacker-zines/ I have many projects. Too many, one might argue. Either way, they exist and I enjoy doing them. For a long time, I’ve had something of a collection of magazines that I usually refrain from talking about simply because it doesn’t come up a lot in normal conversation. A few months ago when it was announced that Nintendo Power was halting production, someone told me that the cover of the last issue was a throwback to the very first issue from 1988. https://famicoman.com/2013/01/17/jenny-jenny/ Thu, 17 Jan 2013 01:02:07 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2013/01/17/jenny-jenny/ Every once in a while, I’ll see this conversation: <CMack> whoa whoa WHOA <CMack> there was a project to find Jenny by dialing 867-5309 at every area code in the US <CMack> [http://www.oldskoolphreak.com/tfiles/phreak/jenny07.txt][1] <CMack> That's not the wild bit <CMack> The crazy part is just a bit down <CMack> Area <CMack> Code Findings(scanned by Famicoman) <CMack> ---- ------------------------------ <gameman73> HA <Pat> lol <CMack> O_O <!Moonlit> Famicoman_ is a bit of a dark horse like that <CMack> Did I just win at Six Degrees of Thinstack? https://famicoman.com/2012/12/19/beggars-cant-be-choosers-but-they-can-be-social-engineers/ Wed, 19 Dec 2012 05:12:14 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/12/19/beggars-cant-be-choosers-but-they-can-be-social-engineers/ Two weeks ago, a beggar approached me while I was washing my hands in the bathroom of a train station. He went on to tell me a story about his troubles and how he needed some money. I of course gave him a few dollars and we both went on with our days. The whole situation was eerie. Going to school in the city, I end up dealing with a broad range of people in any given day. https://famicoman.com/2012/11/23/saving-rev3-update-7/ Fri, 23 Nov 2012 05:32:19 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/11/23/saving-rev3-update-7/ It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these. My progress on archiving had been stalled for a little bit. I got about half way through the Revision3 Beta shows, and then had other things that demanded my time. Working through the past week I’m down to just one more show which I am trying to download as I type. Surprise, sometimes downloads don’t go the way you want them to. https://famicoman.com/2012/11/03/rethinking-video-part-three/ Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:59:53 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/11/03/rethinking-video-part-three/ Been a while since I’ve done one of these. You may remember in the last part of this series of articles, I hinted at a documentary I was doing (It’s posted below, but you can check it out here if you don’t want to wait). This was April, seven whole months ago. I got busy. That happens with life and I wish it didn’t. On top of that, my computer couldn’t handle the high definition video that I wanted it to. https://famicoman.com/2012/10/13/films-to-look-forward-to/ Sat, 13 Oct 2012 01:43:08 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/10/13/films-to-look-forward-to/ I often have a hard time finding movies to watch these days. I’m a big fan of documentaries, but even my long list of niche interests doesn’t always help me find something to watch that I have a genuine interest in. Fortunately, we live in a fantastic age when viewed from a media-centric perspective. If you look at the number of independently produced films from ten or even five years ago, you probably will not find as much as you could hope for. https://famicoman.com/2012/09/12/building-a-computer/ Wed, 12 Sep 2012 01:38:37 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/09/12/building-a-computer/ As I mentioned previously, my laptop and HD video were not the best of friends. So apparently pulling myself into the current generation of video with my DSLR camera meant that I had to upgrade everything else I had as well. Not a problem. I decided to spend a large sum of money to build an editing rig from scratch. Difficult? Possibly. Doable? Absolutely. I decided to do my research. If I was going to spend my hard earned money, I wanted to get the best bang for my buck and avoid cutting corners. https://famicoman.com/2012/08/30/anatomy-of-a-hacker-con-media-leak/ Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:54:16 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/08/30/anatomy-of-a-hacker-con-media-leak/ Last week, videos from Black Hat USA 2012 hit the internet. Three days later, videos from Def Con 20 made their electronic debut. Only problem is, these videos were not meant to be distributed online. Black Hat and Def Con conference videos for any given year usually retail about $400 USD for a set of DVDs. The DVD’s are relatively basic and consist of MOV files and a few PDFs to constitute a program. https://famicoman.com/2012/08/06/diy-archiving-a-primer/ Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:23:24 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/08/06/diy-archiving-a-primer/ This article was originally written for and published at The New Tech on July 8th, 2012. It has been posted here for safe keeping. So maybe you want to be an archivist but don’t know where to start. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I have learned a few things going down this path that I can share. Let’s break this up into two main sections: digital media and physical media. https://famicoman.com/2012/08/02/hacking-second-hand-via-hacker-public-radio/ Thu, 02 Aug 2012 00:07:05 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/08/02/hacking-second-hand-via-hacker-public-radio/ Today a show I recorded for Hacker Public Radio (hpr) has gone live on their site. It is officially titled Hacking Second Hand - Obtaining Old Tech and focuses on getting hardware from the used market. One could argue that this was a long time coming as I was asked, probably around six years ago, to record segments for TWAT which was a precursor to Hacker Public Radio. Anyway, check below for a direct link to the posting on their site! https://famicoman.com/2012/07/19/where-is-obsoleet/ Thu, 19 Jul 2012 23:58:34 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/07/19/where-is-obsoleet/ I haven’t made a new episode in a while. I apologize for that. Let’s talk about what has happened in the interim. Episode eight came out in February, and I released a short test video a month after with my new camera. In the month of April, I started working on a short documentary, but here is where the snags started. What it really comes down to is my computer being unable to handle editing high definition video. https://famicoman.com/2012/07/15/get-fit-with-a-fitbit/ Sun, 15 Jul 2012 03:01:43 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/07/15/get-fit-with-a-fitbit/ I’ve had a Fibit Ultra for a bit over a month now, and it’s a pretty cool little gizmo. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, think of it as a smart pedometer. What does that mean? Your traditional pedometer will track your number of steps. The Fitbit, on the other hand, will track your steps, floors climbed, distance traveled, calories burned, activity level, and even sleep patterns. It also has basic clock and stopwatch functionality. https://famicoman.com/2012/07/06/organize-your-data-its-going-to-be-mine-one-day/ Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:26:32 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/07/06/organize-your-data-its-going-to-be-mine-one-day/ This article was originally written for and published at The New Tech on June 8th, 2012. It was a collaboration between Moonlit and myself. Enjoy 🙂 - Famicoman – I think I’ve always been an archivist. A vital ally in the digital world. I’m the guy that saves a file from six years ago and pulls it up when people wonder whatever happened to it. I’m the guy who is going to make sure you can still find The New Tech episodes in 20 years, whether anyone would want to or not. https://famicoman.com/2012/06/25/saving-rev3-going-beta-and-beyond-day-43/ Mon, 25 Jun 2012 03:36:54 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/06/25/saving-rev3-going-beta-and-beyond-day-43/ So we’ve come a long way. All of the archived shows have their episodes up, and some of them have episodes up that weren’t produced by Revision3. This is a pretty big point in the project, so breathe the fresh air while you can. A few shows still need show notes (Did I mention that we have almost all the show notes as well?) but things are coming along nicely, though a bit slower. https://famicoman.com/2012/06/14/invitation-only-a-look-at-online-betas/ Thu, 14 Jun 2012 04:14:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/06/14/invitation-only-a-look-at-online-betas/ Online betas have always been a weird concept to me. Everyone gets hung up on the fact that they’re trying out the cool new thing, but few really think about exactly what they’ve got themselves involved with in the grand scheme of things. I’ve been a member of a few online betas. Traditionally, those ones where you get invited by others who get invited by others, who- you get the idea. https://famicoman.com/2012/06/11/saving-rev3-getting-descriptive-day-30/ Mon, 11 Jun 2012 02:41:40 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/06/11/saving-rev3-getting-descriptive-day-30/ Shorter update today, let’s just cover the main points. For starters, Moonlit and myself did an article for The New Tech about archiving. It’s a cool read if you have the time, and I’ll eventually put it up here. In the past week, Moonlit found a fantastic way of downloading episode descriptions en masse with a cool tool called Outwit Hub. This automates the whole task of getting descriptions. After these are pulled, I check them and add show descriptions before uploading to archive. https://famicoman.com/2012/06/07/a-care-package-from-shinmaryuu/ Thu, 07 Jun 2012 03:17:39 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/06/07/a-care-package-from-shinmaryuu/ Shinmaryuu is one of my oldest internet friends. The concept of “internet friends” was weird for me to wrap my head around at first, but is almost second nature to me now. I met Shinmaryuu online in 2006. It’s scary to think about that when you cut right down to it. Most of the people I talk to every day are those who I’ve met in the last two years, but internet ties are strong for some reason. https://famicoman.com/2012/06/05/saving-rev3-light-at-the-end-of-one-tunnel-day-25/ Tue, 05 Jun 2012 02:32:54 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/06/05/saving-rev3-light-at-the-end-of-one-tunnel-day-25/ Well, things are going pretty smoothly now. If you look at the page, most of the content is up. That is, most of the shows that have been put in the Revision3 “archive” have been downloaded, sorted, inspected, and re-uploaded to archive.org. It’s taken a long time. This is day 25 of me downloading and uploading. All day. Every day. What have I learned? Revision3 cannot take care of their content. https://famicoman.com/2012/05/31/stay-firm/ Thu, 31 May 2012 02:50:11 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/05/31/stay-firm/ Every once in a while, I find out a cool way to add some functionality to a standard piece of tech I have by feeding it some custom firmware. Custom firmware might be one of the most overlooked ways of enhancing your devices. Don’t let the idea of running third party software scare you. Though you do run the risk of bricking your tech, most of the procedures for installing custom firmware are well documented and take a matter of minutes. https://famicoman.com/2012/05/29/saving-rev3-what-were-they-thinking-day-19/ Tue, 29 May 2012 02:40:39 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/05/29/saving-rev3-what-were-they-thinking-day-19/ So here were are with Day 19, and boy has the project come a long way. To the handful of people helping so far, I want to give thanks. From those who download, to those who scavenge, to those who re-tweet: it wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Having said that, it seems that every day, with every new show, problems arise. Allow me to show you just what I mean. Let’s talk first about Web Drifter. https://famicoman.com/2012/05/23/saving-rev3-frustrations-day-14/ Wed, 23 May 2012 00:25:15 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/05/23/saving-rev3-frustrations-day-14/ Fourteen days ago, I started the SaveRev3 project (read why here). If anything, it has been off to a good start. Tons of shows are up in one capacity or another, and it doesn’t seem like it will be long before the entire selection of archived shows is online. Having said that, let’s talk a bit about Revision3. I’d like to describe their setup without using the word “clusterfuck” but that would be pretty difficult. https://famicoman.com/2012/05/15/pogo-unplugged/ Tue, 15 May 2012 02:33:42 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/05/15/pogo-unplugged/ I got a little restless while waiting for my Raspberry Pi to get here so I decided to mess around with a few other SOCs while I wait. I was drawn to the the concept of these “plug” devices that were something of a flash in the pan a few years ago. Do you remember the [SheevaPlug])http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheevaPlug) or the GuruPlug? Anyway, for the absent minded or unacquainted, plug computers are tiny tiny servers that run on very low power. https://famicoman.com/2012/05/08/saving-rev3-call-to-arms-day-0/ Tue, 08 May 2012 23:08:55 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/05/08/saving-rev3-call-to-arms-day-0/ I have been putting off posting this entry and restarting this project for months now, but it seems like a good time to pull it back to the surface. Five days ago, Discovery announced they were entering an agreement to acquire Revision3. The agreement is to be finalized June 1st, 24 days from now. As expected, they say nothing will be changing, but the true meaning of that isn’t exactly known right now. https://famicoman.com/2012/04/08/rethinking-video-part-two/ Sun, 08 Apr 2012 22:54:34 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/04/08/rethinking-video-part-two/ So before I get into talking about my next film, I’d like to do a brief writeup on some of the audio gear I’m now using. Right after I filmed my &#8…Monday’ video, I was already making my plans for the next one I’d do. As soon as I moved past the conceptual ideas, there was the question of what additional hardware I might need, and it came down to a few things I wanted to pick up to handle sound better. https://famicoman.com/2012/04/04/rethinking-video-part-one/ Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:42:19 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/04/04/rethinking-video-part-one/ Last week, I took my first footage with my Canon Rebel T3i camera (You can watch it here if you want before I mention it later). I had been wanting a DSLR camera for around 5-6 years and took the step a few months ago to order one. I did my research beforehand, though. For a few weeks I was looking up reviews on professional sites and web forums, asking friends, and comparing specs. https://famicoman.com/2012/01/15/video-wars-betamax/ Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/01/15/video-wars-betamax/ This article was originally written for and published at TechTat on January 15th, 2012 It has been posted here for safe keeping. There are few technological flops as memorable as Betamax. As notorious as the format was, I didn’t manage to pick up a Beta unit until about two years ago, and it ended up being broken anyway. For some reason, Beta holds a strange but prominent place in my collection of antiquated tech. https://famicoman.com/2012/01/08/analog-anyone/ Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:22:27 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2012/01/08/analog-anyone/ I have a handful of reel-to-reel players. As an extension of this, I also happen to have around fifty or so reels to accompany the players. For the past few years, they haven’t been doing much besides serving as over-sized paper weights. Over the past couple months though, I have been recording things on to them. Music to be specific, all sorts of music. I’ve been recording whole albums onto the reels of quarter inch magnetic tape. https://famicoman.com/2011/12/19/channelem/ Mon, 19 Dec 2011 21:47:15 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/12/19/channelem/ Since starting the IPTV Archive, both Moonlit and I had an idea for a video stream that could play IPTV all day. Similar to an actual television station in theory, and RantTV in practice, we set off to work on it. Initial trials were difficult to say anything. We worked on server side playlists, linking into streaming video sites, having out own flash based platform, transcoding files on the fly to a streaming website, and other methods that never seemed to work. https://famicoman.com/2011/12/13/video-wars-vhs/ Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/12/13/video-wars-vhs/ This article was originally written for and published at TechTat on December 12th, 2011 It has been posted here for safe keeping. Unless you’re relatively young, you probably remember VHS. Even if you are so young to never have used the format, odds are you’ve seen tapes appear in film, or have seen a VCR or two for sale at a thrift store. VHS tapes were the standard for how you saw recorded media. https://famicoman.com/2011/12/10/the-wall/ Sat, 10 Dec 2011 04:28:37 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/12/10/the-wall/ I’m pretty sure I hinted that I like to digitalize old formats. I’m that guy you see digging through bins of VHS tapes at yard sales, looking to find that one piece of gold that I haven’t seen and probably won’t find any other way. You might not know just how into this stuff I am. I didn’t really know I was, but after years of accumulating relevant equipment, it starts to add up. https://famicoman.com/2011/09/21/vidicraft-guard-stabilizer/ Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/09/21/vidicraft-guard-stabilizer/ This article was originally written for and published at TechTat on September 21st, 2011 It has been posted here for safe keeping. If you were a movie fan in the 1980′s you probably had a VCR; whether it was ßetamax or VHS doesn’t matter too much for the purpose of this article. If you happened to live back in those days, you may be able to recall the prices of tapes were incredible. https://famicoman.com/2011/09/04/commodore-1702-monitor/ Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/09/04/commodore-1702-monitor/ This article was originally written for and published at TechTat on September 4th, 2011 It has been posted here for safe keeping. Most people have heard of Commodore. This company was responsible for some of our favorite 1980′s computers such as the C64, VIC-20, and all the members of the Amiga family. Commodore also made it’s own accessories. There were joysticks, floppy drives, tape drives, printers, and even monitors. Now remember, back at this time, personal computers were clumped a bit with game consoles. https://famicoman.com/2011/08/30/techtat-an-online-tech-museum/ Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:58:26 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/08/30/techtat-an-online-tech-museum/ Say you have a few friends. You all share similar hobbies and interests, and want to work together to start a project. Now, say that your project is hardware based, and you want to create some sort of outlet to showcase your hardware. One problem though: you are scattered across several countries. Enter TechTat: tech /tek/ Informal. noun, Technology. tat /tat/ Informal. noun, Rubbish, junk. TechTat is a slice of vintage esoterica. https://famicoman.com/2011/08/26/helix-hx-4635-boombox/ Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/08/26/helix-hx-4635-boombox/ This article was originally written for and published at TechTat on August 26th, 2011, 2011 It has been posted here for safe keeping. Ah, the Helix HX-4635 (Also known as the Conion C-100FL and Clairitone 7980 ). Talk about your classic ghetto blaster! This beast was released to the public in 1984, and holds a spot as one of the most iconic boomboxes of the age. Featuring large speakers, dual cassette decks, and all of your favorite radio bands (it even has shortwave! https://famicoman.com/2011/07/04/google/ Tue, 05 Jul 2011 00:43:01 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/07/04/google/ For anyone living under a rock for the past week, Google has released a new service: Google Plus. I’m no stranger to the new Google services. I got into the betas for Google Voice and the now failed Google Wave, but this new project of theirs trumps both of these combined. Google Plus is Google’s take on a modern social networking site. Now, this isn’t their first time in the social networking scene. https://famicoman.com/2011/06/28/a-rant-on-rantmedia/ Tue, 28 Jun 2011 15:46:10 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/06/28/a-rant-on-rantmedia/ I learned a little bit ago that Obsoleet was added to the RantTV lineup. This got me thinking about RantMedia as a whole, and what it really means to me. RantMedia was founded in 1999 as one of the first SHOUTCast stations. They have three audio streams: Talk, Industrial, and Punk. In 2003, RantTV was created as a video stream after the release of the Nullsoft Streaming Video codec. RantMedia is headed by James O’Brien (Cimmerian) and Sean Kennedy who are not only responsible for being show hosts, but also recording, editing, and releasing the content. https://famicoman.com/2011/06/11/payphones/ Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:52:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/06/11/payphones/ Over the past few months, I’ve been noticing something. Payphones are disappearing. We all know they are “dead” already. For years, we have been fed stories online and otherwise that payphones are phased out, the phone companies are taking them all away because they are too expensive to run, and other similar stories. Honestly, I didn’t see any of this until February. For the longest time, I still saw phones where I’ve always seen them (the exception being public schools, but that’s another topic). https://famicoman.com/2011/02/19/ive-been-tumblrd/ Sat, 19 Feb 2011 14:07:28 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/02/19/ive-been-tumblrd/ I’m not used to anything I put up here being used in some other way, but upon looking up my referrer history, I saw that one of my pictures from my article on vinyl has appeared here. The picture is tinted (or darkened) a bit, and I think it actually looks pretty cool. Also, I am very appreciative for the link-back. I do think, however, that it is a bit odd that someone found that picture interesting enough to share with others. https://famicoman.com/2011/02/16/high-definition/ Wed, 16 Feb 2011 19:56:51 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/02/16/high-definition/ Up until a week ago, I used a standard definition television set for just about everything. I’ve always been what you could call a “late adopter.” I rarely spring for the newest and best. My computers are crumbling, my mp3 player is scratched on every surface, and my is phone brick-like. Yet, all of these will last me well into the future. I figured I would take the dive into the world of high definition. https://famicoman.com/2011/01/09/blog-themes/ Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:06:21 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/01/09/blog-themes/ I have (and do) always hated picking a blog theme. The current theme I am using here is called “Black and White,” and even though it took ages for me to find, I’m still not really very happy with it. Finding a theme is like an adventure to me. I usually end up finding lists of so-called “top themes” through google. One or two might look good, but most of these lists are so old, the theme is either lost to the world or slapped with a price tag. https://famicoman.com/2011/01/01/announcing-iptv-torrents/ Sat, 01 Jan 2011 18:11:59 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2011/01/01/announcing-iptv-torrents/ So I’m sure many of you know my work with the IPTV Archive, and in a similar idea a new site called IPTV Torrents has officially launched today. This project is spearheaded by Corrosion of DeAuthThis, secret52 of Hak.5 torrents, as well as myself. The site is a cross between a public and private torrent site. While you can download torrents without registering, the real fun comes when you become a member. https://famicoman.com/2010/10/25/get-lamp-really-go-get-it/ Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:08:16 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/10/25/get-lamp-really-go-get-it/ A few months ago, I mentioned Get Lamp in a post about Kickstarter involving Jason Scott. For those of you who don’t know, Jason Scott is probably one of my favorite people. Not to sound creepy or anything, but this guy is really awesome. My first brush with the world of Jason Scott came through one of his many websites, textfiles.com. When did I find it? I don’t remember. Why did I find it? https://famicoman.com/2010/09/23/hackers-turns-15/ Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:38:16 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/09/23/hackers-turns-15/ Do you remember hacking The Gibson? How about that place where you put that thing that time? Last week, the film Hackers turned fifteen years old. Now normally, when a film turns fifteen years old (or more often ten years old) it gets some sort of special treatment with a re-release containing no less than three discs in some collectible tin case with little extras wrapped up in the package. With Hackers, this isn’t the case. https://famicoman.com/2010/09/09/the-end-of-vox/ Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:09:21 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/09/09/the-end-of-vox/ At the end of the month, Vox is closing their doors for good. For those who missed it, Vox was a blogging platform. Made public in 2006, Vox took off as something more of a social blogging site. You had friends on the site in the form of “neighbors” who you could connect to and be updated whenever they made a new post. At the time, there weren’t many other outlets in the blogging family. https://famicoman.com/2010/07/28/video-ephemera-and-the-fff/ Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:48:26 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/07/28/video-ephemera-and-the-fff/ Like I stated in my Video Packratism post, I do have a certain knack for accumulating video. Not just any video, however: the hard-to-find, the rarest of rare, and the crappiest of crap. What I’m getting at is video ephemera, a wordy term for video that was not mean to be saved. So think about store training tapes, out-of-print film, amateur audition videos, home movies, store giveaways, instructional videos, safety videos- the list goes on. https://famicoman.com/2010/07/26/pioneer-one/ Mon, 26 Jul 2010 15:40:07 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/07/26/pioneer-one/ About a year ago there was a stir of a new movie on Bittorrent sites. This movie was called The Lionshare and got a lot of attention because it was only released via torrents. That’s right, no DVD release, no theater time, just a torrent download for anyone who wanted it. It was distributed by this interesting company (I guess you could call it a company) called VODO that distributes indie films via torrents. https://famicoman.com/2010/06/25/kickstart-your-project/ Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:25:57 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/06/25/kickstart-your-project/ There is a site that has been drawing attention among a few groups of people called Kickstarter. Kickstarter works using a process called crowdfunding, which means a project is funded by a large group of people. So lets say I have some sort of project. It can be a video project like a movie, an audio project, art, food, an event, technological advancement- the list goes on. Now, I have my project but it requires a certain amount of money to get started. https://famicoman.com/2010/05/12/obsoleet/ Wed, 12 May 2010 14:13:47 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/05/12/obsoleet/ My IPTV show idea has taken shape, and it is called Obsoleet. A bit earlier this month, I filmed a segment and did some graphics for it. That was last weekend and the week before. I didn’t do anymore filming because of a cold I had, but that is only a small speed bump in this whole process. I have the gear for another segment set out and am currently planning more segments. https://famicoman.com/2010/04/05/iptv-show/ Tue, 06 Apr 2010 04:16:45 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/04/05/iptv-show/ I’ve been toying with the idea of making my own internet show. It would be about obsolete technology. What specifically? I’m not too sure. At first I considered just how to use some obscure hardware in the style of a showcase tutorial. However, I think it would be interesting to work new life into old tech. For example, I could talk about using a LaserDisc player, but it might also be interesting to figure out how to rip some titles that never made it to DVD. https://famicoman.com/2010/03/23/flea-market-find-2/ Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:23:52 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/03/23/flea-market-find-2/ I recently purchased a blue lineman’s handset for $12. It is quite an interesting piece of hardware. At first glance, it looks like a standard handset, but upon further review there are characteristics that set it apart. On the back of the handset is a rotary dial used for dialing numbers, a hook to connect it to the belt, and two test leads with alligator clips. The alligator clips have a piercing spike in them to connect to insulated wires. https://famicoman.com/2010/02/13/video-packratism/ Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:19:29 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2010/02/13/video-packratism/ Some people know me as the IPTV guy. That is to say that I have a lot of independent media that has been distributed over the internet, which makes me something of a video packrat. I used to simply collect it. I kept RSS feeds, and downloaded episodes when they came out. I attended IRC release parties, befriended the hosts, and became part of the communities that revolved around these shows. https://famicoman.com/2009/09/11/inumbr-throwaway-telephone-numbers/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:34:54 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/09/11/inumbr-throwaway-telephone-numbers/ I ran accross an interesting little web service called inumbr which gives you a free disposable phone number. At first glance, you get to choose an area code. There are twenty two to choose from, so you’re bound to find one close to your location (if you are in the United States that is). You also get to choose how long the number is active: one hour, one day, or one week. https://famicoman.com/2009/09/03/modern-bittorrent-hydra/ Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:06:10 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/09/03/modern-bittorrent-hydra/ Most people are aware of GGF’s acquisition of The Pirate Bay and the plan to turn it into a legal pay-site. The Pirate Bay, as many know, has served the BitTorrent community as a large public tracker/indexer as well as something of a project team known for relaunching Suprnova, ShareReactor, as well as original sites such as bayimg. Proving to be an old favorite, the acquisition of TPB marks a sad day in BitTorrent history. https://famicoman.com/2009/08/07/google-gives-voice/ Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:33:04 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/08/07/google-gives-voice/ So it is probably common knowledge now that Google has unveiled the Google Voice service which is pretty groovy. I didn’t jump on the boat when most people did. I heard some buzz about it, but didn’t really know what it was and dismissed it as something that was probably related to Google Talk. After I understood the concept of getting a number for all your phones and some interesting features, all for free, I thought I might as well see what it was all about. https://famicoman.com/2009/06/29/flea-market-find-8-track-tape-player/ Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:34:39 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/06/29/flea-market-find-8-track-tape-player/ So for $5, I was able to nab a boxed (though used) Stereo 8 player. Not a common purchase I know, but it is bound to get at least some use as a stereo component. The Box, weighing about 7 pounds while full. Eight-tracks, for those who don’t know, were once the reigning format for portable music, later being replaced by the cassette tape. Like the four-track tape, the eight-track would have multiple programs per tape that could be switched from one to the other using a button on the player. https://famicoman.com/2009/06/17/vinyl-a-new-perspective/ Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:08:57 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/06/17/vinyl-a-new-perspective/ I didn’t grow up with records. Sure, there were a few in the house, but they never would get any play. They were banished to one corner of the basement where they were easily forgotten. The ’90s were a time where a kid was surrounded by cassettes. I look back, and there were maybe a handful of CDs kicking around in the living room. All the cars were outfitted with cassette players, I had a Walkman and a little fisher price pla… tape was king. https://famicoman.com/2009/06/08/piradio/ Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:48:26 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/06/08/piradio/ A month ago, I was in preparation for a charity event, Relay for Life. Whether or not you agree with their practices doesn’t matter. I simply used the event as a vehicle for a new project. The idea of the event is you and a group of people camp out on a football field while doing a 24-hour walkathon. I got the bright idea of creating a portable radio station for this event, so members of the group walking with radios could all get the same music from a central base of operations on the field. https://famicoman.com/2009/06/07/appleslices/ Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:01:16 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/06/07/appleslices/ A few weeks ago I struck up a conversation via twitter with a fellow by the name of ionfarmer. I thanked him for a throwback to me from a blog post he did while I, along with ethan, was still was involved with the Hak5 BBS project. We got to talking and he wrote a nice blog post regarding the ordeal on his website, which I advise everyone to check out. https://famicoman.com/2009/02/17/photosynth-its-3d-kind-of/ Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:17:55 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/02/17/photosynth-its-3d-kind-of/ We’ve all seen panoramic photos. Some of us have even tried out hands at stitching to create our own from a few snapshots. Yeah, I’m late to the show with this, but Microsoft’s Photosynth gives you the ability to create your own stitched photos, giving the illusion of a 3D space. An Example Photosynth Image. To start, one must take pictures, I took around 200 for my first synth. https://famicoman.com/2009/01/23/iptv-archive-mkii/ Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:31:54 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/01/23/iptv-archive-mkii/ So in December, I made a goal for myself to do some iptv archive work on my Winter break. As the time ticked down for December, I realized I did nothing to reach my goal. So in early January I started reuploading to the blip.tv account, paying attention to formats and conversion timeouts. It came to where I reuplaoded everything that was there, and than some. So from there, I began work on a website for this archive, something static. https://famicoman.com/2009/01/16/iptv-archive-update/ Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:41:34 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2009/01/16/iptv-archive-update/ I’ve been working hard to bring back the iptv archive. Expect something cool to look at soon. https://famicoman.com/2008/12/30/the-aspiring-acer-apire-one/ Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:25:46 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/12/30/the-aspiring-acer-apire-one/ Stolen from Wikipedia, A netbook is a light-weight, low-cost, energy-efficient, highly portable laptop suitable for web browsing, email and general purpose applications. This holiday season, I was lucky enough to get my hands on an Aspire One of my very own. This thing comes fully loa… a gigabyte of RAM, 1.6ghz Intel Atom processor, 160GB hard drive, three usb ports, card slots, built in web cam and mic, audio ports, wifi, the list goes on. https://famicoman.com/2008/12/16/binaural-beats/ Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:08:22 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/12/16/binaural-beats/ So recently with doing some audio experimenting, I was introduced to the concept of binaural beats. The idea is that a listener uses a pair of stereo headphones to listen to two differen frequencies, one in each ear. The result is the perception of a beating tone as if it was produced by the brain itself. This causes brainwave synchronization with desired frequencies from outside stimuli. So why would anyone want to do this? https://famicoman.com/2008/12/02/wizzywig-volume-two-2/ Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:45:05 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/12/02/wizzywig-volume-two-2/ Ever since January of this year, I have been waiting for the second book in the Wizzywig series to be ready for distribution. The first volume, subtitled “Phreak” follows a young kid named Kevin Phenicle who goes by the handle Boingthump. Let me say, this isn’t some drab piece of writing you would find in the discount bin at your local book outlet. These are graphic novels, containing anything but a boring story about some kiddie hacker acting out a stereotype. https://famicoman.com/2008/11/25/software-vocoding-with-the-stylophone/ Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:18:26 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/11/25/software-vocoding-with-the-stylophone/ So as I said a few weeks ago, I have a Stylophone which is essentially a pocket synthesizer. What I got the idea to to is use the Stylophone as my synth device in post-processing vocoding. I needed to do it post because I don’t (think I) have any equipment that would make me able to vocode audio on the fly. Oh yeah, almost forgot, a vocoder is a device that takes sound (usually a modulated sound like a voice), reduces the amount of information used to store it, and then turns it back into sound by oscillating it according to frequencies in a carrier sound. https://famicoman.com/2008/11/09/flea-market-find/ Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:57:57 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/11/09/flea-market-find/ So today, I went to a flea market in New Castle, Delaware and snagged this sign for $10. It plugs in, and lights up. Not too sure what I’m gonna do with it, but its pretty cool, and I’d expect hard to find as well. https://famicoman.com/2008/11/09/the-stylophone/ Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:04:28 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/11/09/the-stylophone/ So about two weeks ago, I ordered a Stylophone from Thinkgeek and have been more than satisfied. For those that don’t know, the Stylophone was a popular toy in the late 1960’s. What sets this toy apart is that it is infact a compact synthesizer. What makes it awesome is the fact that it was used by several big names in music, for example David Bowie played a Stylophone on his song, “Space Oddity” and Kraftwerk used it on their track, “Pocket Calculator”. https://famicoman.com/2008/11/04/hacking-around-with-the-n64/ Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:27:56 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/11/04/hacking-around-with-the-n64/ So in my summer time, oh so long ago, I picked up with my N64 shenanigans again for the first time in years. Probably about seven years to be more specific. While the software is a lot more advanced then it was back then, we had another innovation called Windows XP which doesn’t really like the software, and a step back, Windows 2K really doesn’t like it. So I had a bit of success on Windows XP with some loopholes, and actually less success then I was supposed to have one one of my surviving Windows 98 boxes. https://famicoman.com/2008/08/23/ghettoblasters-and-boomboxen-in-the-modern-age/ Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:26:50 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/08/23/ghettoblasters-and-boomboxen-in-the-modern-age/ So for the past year or so, I’ve had increased interest in vintage boomboxes. I believe the appeal comes from the need for a powerful portable audio solution. Previous to having boomboxes, I would take a set of dc-powered computer speakers, chop off the plug, strip down the wires, and hook up a set of 9-volt batteries wired in parallel. The problem with this, however, is that 9-volt batteries are expensive, and most sets of computer speakers run on more then 9 volts of electricity. https://famicoman.com/2008/07/01/debian/ Tue, 01 Jul 2008 08:37:59 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/07/01/debian/ So a few nights ago (I don’t remember how many because my sleep schedule is so messed up) I installed NetBSD on an old box I had lying around. This box is a P2 running at maybe 266mhz with 64mb of RAM–it’s been a while since I’ve seen the specs, but these are roughly them. This was the second computer I have ever purchased, and has gone through so many operating systems, I can’t believe the hard disk still spins up. https://famicoman.com/2008/06/21/dropping-eggs/ Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:58:51 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/06/21/dropping-eggs/ So last night, while doing nothing, I decided to full around with eggdrop irc bots. I specifically used Windrop to run on my desktop for easy testing and whatnot, but one day I hope to toss this thing on a nix shell and get it off a personal pc. The config file was daunting. This wasn’t the first time I made one of these bots, but since I had originally, the config base file has been altered somewhat, and is far more complex. https://famicoman.com/2008/06/19/botnets/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:23:47 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2008/06/19/botnets/ So a little bit ago, must have been last year judging now, I was into what some call “Botnet Hunting”. As in, I would go and search for active malicious botnets, pretend to be a bot, connect, and wait out on the server to see what was going on and what information I could gather. To understand what I was doing, there is first the concept of what a botnet is and consists of. https://famicoman.com/2007/03/31/neptune-it-doesnt-exist/ Sat, 31 Mar 2007 08:24:22 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2007/03/31/neptune-it-doesnt-exist/ I recently ushered in spring break yesterday by installing an operating system that doesn’t exist. The infamous Windows Neptune. Somewhere between Windows 2K and Windows Me, there was this humble little operating system. I got a hold of the 5111 build and I am certainly not disappointed. Despite the tiring install, and a few driver errors in the beginning, its been running solid as a rock. I have no idea what I’m gonna do with it. https://famicoman.com/2007/03/05/hacking-la-fonera/ Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:11:38 +0000 https://famicoman.com/2007/03/05/hacking-la-fonera/ I had heard about the fon early in December I believe. For some reason, I wasn’t smart enough to order a load of free ones to toy with. For those of you who don’t know, the la fon, or fonera as it can be called, is a wireless router designed solely to be set up giving free wireless access to anyone and everyone that happens to connect. It creates 2 wifi networks. https://famicoman.com/homepage/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/homepage/ Hello Hi! I’m Mike Dank from Philadelphia, USA, Earth. I play around with a lot of things including vintage technology/computers, amateur radio, telephony, mesh networking, cyberpunk/hacker history, telecommunications, city network infrastructure, and other weird stuff. Blog · µBlog · BirdSite · Personal Wiki I notably edited and wrote for the NODE Zine. I have also written for or had my writings published in 2600, Neon Dystopia, Exolymph and Lunchmeat. I have hyperlocal organizational involvement in Philly 2600 (a hacker meetup), Philly Mesh (an experimental mesh networking group), Networks of Philly (for those interested in hidden city infrastructure), and PhilTel (a collective installing free-to-use payphones). https://famicoman.com/projects/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://famicoman.com/projects/ Sometimes I work on little projects with or without others. Here are a few below! anarchivism.org - A wiki to keep track of archiving media dealing with hacker/cyberpunk culture. dialup.world - An experimental dial-up ISP. fangl.es - A dictionary of words coined by Ted Nelson. networksofphilly.org - Exploring hidden network infrastructure in Philadelphia. philly2600.net - Philadelphia’s local 2600 chapter. phillymesh.net - Exploratory/experimental mesh networking in Philadelphia. philtel.org - A phreaky phone collective installing free-to-use payphones.