A New Look

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Installed a new theme for the site. The old one was very dingy and dark and we ran into an issue where all the categories weren’t showing up on the top bar.

Hopefully you will all agree (already got one dissenter) that it looks a hell of a lot nicer. If you have a better one, let me know.

Byzantium Linux aka Banananet

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This is pretty much V’s idea for the Banananet. Server provides! Copied from here.

Approved for: GENERAL RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION UNLIMITED

UPDATE: Due to a critical bug in Byzantium Linux v0.1a, a file containing the mesh routing and application software was omitted from the .iso image. The code which makes Byzantium, well, Byzantium isn’t there. To fix this, please re-download the .iso image from one of the mirrors linked below and try again. We humbly apologize for our screwup. QA processes are being put in place to ensure that this never happens again.

We’re sorry.


Project Byzantium, a working group of HacDC (http://hacdc.org/) is proud to announce the release of v0.1 alpha of Byzantium Linux, a live distribution of Linux designed to fulfill a crucial role in the evolution of the Internet. That role is a rapidly deployable ad-hoc wireless mesh network which can augment or replace the current telecommunications infrastructure in the event that it is knocked offline (for example, due to a natural disaster) or rendered untrustworthy (widespread surveillance or disconnection by hostile entities). Unlike other mesh networking projects Byzantium was designed to be run on any x86 computer with at least one 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless interface. Byzantium can be burned to a CD- or DVD-ROM (the .iso image is just over 300 megabytes in size), booted from an external hard drive, or can even be installed in parallel with an existing operating system without risk to the user’s data and software. Byzantium Linux will then act as a node within the mesh and will automatically connect to other mesh nodes and act as an access point for WiFi-enabled mobile devices.

THIS IS AN ALPHA RELEASE! Do NOT expect Byzantium to be perfect. Some features are not ready yet, others need work. Things are going to break in weird ways and we need to know what those ways are so we can fix them. Please, for the love of LOLcats, do not deploy Byzantium in situations where lives are at stake.

FEATURES:

  • Binary compatible with Slackware v13.37, so existing packages can be converted with a single command.
  • Able to act as a gateway to the Internet if a link is available.
  • Linux kernel v2.6.38.8
  • Drivers for dozens of wireless chipsets
  • KDE v3.5
  • LXDE (2010 release of all components)
  • Mplayer
  • GCC v4.5.2
  • Perl v5.12.3
  • Python v2.6.6
  • Firefox v4.0.1
  • X.org v7.4
  • Custom web-based control panel

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (to use)

  • Minimum of 512MB of RAM
  • i586 CPU or better
  • CD- or DVD-ROM drive
  • BIOS must boot removable media
  • At least one (1) 802.11 a/b/g/n interface

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (for persistent changes)

  • The above requirements to use Byzantium
  • 2+GB of free space on thumbdrive or harddrive

WHAT WE NEED:

  • Developers.
  • Developers!
  • DEVELOPERS!
  • No more Bill Ballmer impersonations.
  • People downloading and running Byzantium to find bugs and tell us where the problems are so we can fix them.
  • People filing bug reports on our Github page (https://github.com/Byzantium/Byzantium/issues). We can’t fix what we don’t know about!
  • People submitting patches.
  • People booting Byzantium and setting up small meshes (2-5 clients) to tell us how well it works for you with your hardware. We have a hardware compatibility list on our wiki that needs to be expanded.
  • People who can help us translate the user interface. We especially need people fluent in dialects of Chinese, Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu.
  • People to help us write and translate documentation.

Homepage: http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/Byzantium (website coming soon)

Download sites: http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/Downloading_Byzantium

Get to it people!

Admin Stuff

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I’ve taken the liberty of reorganizing a few things around here.

Most significant change is the numbering scheme we are using. The first lot of episodes were simply numbered sequentially. Then we had the bloody long hiatus followed by several false starts, R4nger5 Radio 2.0, couple versions of season 3 and a couple of odd episodes that didn’t fit anywhere. So I have renamed those latest episodes to fit in with the old numbering scheme so we run from episode 0 to 76 (which was released yesterday (and I need to make a post about that)).

On the backend I have rejiggered the directory listing mechanism to be a bit smoother. Still a work in progress but the latest episodes are now appearing at the top of the list.

I also propose that we move away from using Archive.org. Editing information on there is a complete pain, the uploading is slow and there is no way to correct mistakes with filenames etc. Given that we have proper webspace where we can store the content there is no real need to go with a 3rd party host.

R4nger5 Forums

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Just in case you missed the irc discussions that made it all happen r4nger5 now have there own forums to play in.

 

R4nger5 Forum

Have fun.

R4ngers BOB wrapped up – series complete

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I’ve finished uploading all 12 episodes of R4nger5: Back of Beyond, now and even found the time to add an epilogue episode.

– all the episodes are available now on you tube – there’s even a playlint on the channel page if you want to watch them all in one hit.

hope you enjoy them

V

Episode 10 of Back of Beyond now up!

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Here it is (I’m trying to complete the series before I go off grid)

Back of Beyond episode 9 uploaded!

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I’m on fire this week. Here’s Episode 9 (mostly an overview of the Swedish Trangia and it’s use – Episode 10 is rendering – watch this space!

Banananet anyone?

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And so, banananet is born:

details are on there own page access under banananet or press here

comments please

Episode 7 BOB download link

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Epsiode 7 of R4nger5: Back of Beyond has been uploaded to Archive.org and is now available for download. You can get it HERE

Rgds

V

Updates

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Right,

– Theres lots of cool stuff been uploaded, recently to r4nger5 flickr.
– Avagdu has uploaded a new episode of Storm the wire.

– The first episode of r4nger5 Radio 2.0 is being recorded on Monday night, all being well. We need your ideas for music, show idents, rants, audio submissions and ideas for music and general format contruibutions – get in touch in the next 4 days, and you can help shape the next incarnation of r4nger5 audio!

I will put out the running order link as soon as it is completed, but I wanted to give everyone the chance to put in their 2 cents.

Over to you!

V

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