12 posts tagged “hak5”
Recently the new Hak5 Studio-B has been taken over by the Openalpha.tv overlords. Jenn Cutter, the multi-talented queen of gaming, has been down shooting episodes of Openalpha and is expected to make a guest appearance on the next episode of Hak5. While Cutter was unavailable for comment Darren Kitchen has stated that "We're getting schooled down here; she's like a warrior with the wiimote".
Stay tuned for hacking and gaming goodness.
Well, it happened. I guess that's a good thing to be saying. We just got our Internet access turned on the day before and mostly unpacked. The night before was spent rebuilding the broadcast console with Paul while this morning was a frantic dash to get a rough set together, write a show outline, coordinate with guests, and do a cold boot of Hak5.
As expected it didn't all come together perfectly the first time. Our main VTR practically failed POST. We started streaming at about 3:00, when we were supposed to be live. By 3:30 or so we had figured out the audio issue. The Radeon 7500 AIW we use to capture A/V in VTR-72 was missing an essential dongle that feeds the audio to the sound card. After tearing boxes of cables apart for a few minutes it dawned on me that I did the LAN party thing and stuck the dongle inside the PC case when we moved.
After a quick pre-screen of the callers we were off and boy was it crazy. The script was a tight three blocks with two callers and three mini segments. We had special guests Rob Fuller aka Mubix and Hak5 alumni Jonathan Goldsboro on set two and plenty of good vibes in the room. Thankfully VTR-71 was recording the show to Mini-DV, it must have been the only thing keeping us on track and under an hour. We need a large digital studio timer VERY badly. I think I went on a mini Vista security rant half way through my segment... Maybe I shouldn't have washed those painkillers down with beer right before the show. At least my back pains went away.
All and all it was a blast. I just wish we had a little more time to prepare. At least we're moved into the new place and have this episode behind us. I'll encode & publish it to the feed on Monday. Thanks go to all that tuned in. Hopefully we'll have a dedicated server on GigE for the next one and a lot more time for pre-pro.
The more I visit the house for inspections and come back to this cramped little apartment the more I can't wait to start the move on the 15th.
The photo is of part of the set during deconstruction. What was known as Wess' mod set is actually for former bar. Those little white post-its all over the wall are actually mixed drink recipes. Before the place was a studio it was a well known party place among our friends.
Oh and it's the 6th so obviously we released an episode yesterday. For only being 16 minutes and rushed in production I'm surprised to see the great reaction it's getting. With the holidays, family stuff, and buying the house I wasnt sure we were even going to do an episode this month. I'm glad we got something out the door. I just wish things would settle down sooner but that probably won't be until February 6th.
Oh, and I found a cool little python script to download youtube clips. Nifty.
So far the verdict is major w00tage. My only gripe is the inability to hide the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen, but that's a minor complaint.
Youtube is a no-go at this point. Not sure if it has to due with the javascript support or the flash support, but Google Video seems to be running well. I was able to take this interesting picture of Hak5 being shown on G4TechTV's Torrent on Google Video on the Opera Browser on the Wii... on my television of course. When I put it that way it sounds so simple doesn't it?
The video performance was off and on. With low motion it was smooth. Sometimes it would hiccup. And it wasnt very big on the full-screen. I'll toy with it some more. The hacking potential of the Wii just jumped 10 points. Do I hear wii.hak5.org in the future? Possibly!
Edit: Youtube works. It's still jittery but rebooting helps. I've crashed it twice where the only solution was to kick the power. Thinking a media server in flash on a local webserver might be fun. At the very least turn it into a MP3 jukebox for parties.
PS: We picked up two more wiimotes and I've got to say, four player tennis is crazy fun.
And merry Christmas to everyone out there. I hope you're all able to get together with family and relax.
As seen in the photo, my favorite character "Billy" is back for another commercial. Lets just hope this product helps him pwn noobs.
And speaking of pwnage, we'll be in Toronto on the 4th for the Pure Pwnage episode 12 (season finale) premier at the Bloor St. theatre. That's going to be a blast. Then we're up again the weekend of the 17th doing Call for Help, which we're super excited about as well.
We've received an amazing number of helpful emails regarding the CSS problems we're having with our wiki, so hopefully it will be cross-browser compatible soon.
On a production note, we're excited about what November has in store for the show. We'll be refining our production pipeline with a pro video mixer and camera pedestals. That means producing an episode will be much easier as we'll be shooting "live to disk". We're still working out the logistics but so far it looks good on paper.
Oh, and my car got fixed and I've started physical therapy for my finger. I should be as good as new in a few weeks. I hope.
Other than that, the show is going well. We've got an awesome guest joining us this weekend for a fun code segment. Paul has been working on a really good segment for the last few weeks involving VOIP which should be really fun. And I've got a zero day that'll make the USB Switchblade look like a toy. (though I had to scale it back a bit, not looking for trouble with the man.) Oh, and we've added a setcam.
I've been getting a lot of emails and IMs asking about the finger and the surgery, so I'll try to wrap it all up here. Please forgive me if this doesn't make much sense. I'm on some heavy painkillers right now, and typing is a bit painful.
Tuesday the 12th was surgery. I didn't have a ride to the doctor's office to I rode Jozette (my motorcycle). After waiting in the lobby for what felt like forever while being bombarded with the overhypeness that is fox news I was escorted to a room to change... into a backless loincloth :(. After taking some anti-nausia meds, getting an IV, and meeting with the surgeon I was escorted to the O.R.
There I had the pleasure of being burned on my arm with a scolding hot clamp by an incompetent nurse. I've received a complimentary second degree burn and a "just put some ice on it when you get home". I bandaged it up myself, one handed no less, when I got home and it's not pretty. Whatever, another scar to remind me of my mistake, I digress.
Next up I was put to sleep (but not like cats or dogs). The general anesthesia had me out like a light in no time and I've got to say it was probably the best sleep I've had in a while. When I woke up Paul Tobias (Hak5 camera guy) came to pick me up. My hand was in a huge uncomfortable cast and I was in a lot of pain. The vicodin wasn't (and still isn't) doing much for me. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of seeing friends, receiving baloons, and keeping my hand elevated. Exciting times...
Until that night when my fingers had swolen up and the cast was pinching my pinky. The pain was unbearable so I called the doctors office and had the surgeon paged. After an hour of waiting without a return call I decided to go to the ER as suggested by one of the nurses. The wait to see a doctor would be about 2 hours. I slept for about an hour for the first time all day and the swelling subsided. With an important teleconference in the morning and having had no sleep all day I decided to sleep it off and reevaluate the situation in the morning.
Morning came, the teleconference was successful, and I was still in pain. This time swolen and tingling I wen't to the doctors office. The surgeon was out of town but the nurses got his concent to remove the cast and send me to hand rehab where I would be given a new splint. It took four nurses (vdot style) to remove the cast. Instant relief. Then I was wrapped up in just about the worst bandage I've ever seen. Thankfully the hand rehab place was only 2 blocks away.
This is the part where I thank Alli for driving me around between doctors offices on her birthday so that I could feel better. Thanks Alli, you rock. The physical therapy lady was very nice and took care of my hand, cleaning the wound and molding a custom splint just to fit my pinky. She was even kind enough and knowledgable enough to actually explain to me the do's and don'ts of the splint, something that the nurses over at the plastic surgeon's office didnt.
So anyway, that's my little rant. My incoherent rambling story. I guess I could have just said "ok" whenever asked about the finger but I suppose this will do better. Now if only I could get something to help with the pain. The vicodin seems to help everything *except* my pinky. The percocet was much better.
Next adventure is Thursday, the post-op visit. Wish me luck!
PS: Yes, I will try to get Wess to mod my splint with blue LEDs. :)
D
We just got back from our trip to Toronto, which was a blast. We had a little trouble getting through the border on the way up but aside from that the trip was a huge success. We shot 4 excellent segments on Call for Help and two for Hak5 episode 2x03. Amber's going away party was really fun. We'll miss her on Call for Help for sure. Sean Carruthers took some pics at the studio and at Amber's for the wrap party which can be found on his flickr.
Saturday we went to the Fan Expo and socially engineered some press passes. That was fun. Mad props to our Executive Producer "Mitch Albright" for forgetting to submit the press registration forms. Yeah. Right.
Saturday night was a blast meeting up with the crews from Pure Pwnage, Openalpha.tv, and Snowball's PC. And Sunday we shot an amazing segment for 2x03 with a friend of Pronobozo's which I can't wait to edit.
Oh, and though I ran out of percocet (which I've been taking to ease the pain from my finger) I was able to pick up some codeine from a nice pharmacist in Toronto. You just can't beat $9 for 100 caplets of over the counter Canadian candy. (Winners don't do drugs).
Releasing 2x02 very soon, then cocktail party on the 9th, then surgery on the 12th. Fun week ahead of me for sure. Oh, and I think I'll be buying a new car in the next week or so. My current one is falling apart. :(
Cheers!
Last night i had a little injury while filming Hak5 episode 2x02. Thankfully the crew is the best and immediately drove me to the ER. It turns out that my right pinky is not a fan of the sheet metal set piece, and as a result I've torn a tendon. After some X-rays and consulting the hand specialist I got a few stitches, some antibiotics, and percocet. I go back to see a plastic surgeon Monday and may go to the OR.
My right hand is bandaged up and is pretty much useless right now. We've still got 3 more segments to shoot for 2x02 today and then will be rushed to edit before leaving for Toronto on Wednesday. I'm still really excited about the 4 awesome segments we've got on Friday for Call for Help. I can't wait to see our Tdot friends.
Unfortunately this little accident is going to impact 2x02 but we will get it out on the 5th no matter what. So please bear with me if I seem a little loopy on camera or if the editing isn't up to 2x01 par.
Anyway the show must go on and I really dont think this will detract from the high quality content we've got for this next episode.
Cheers,
Darren
Behind the scenes on the Alli & Evil Server segment from the intro of Hak5 episode 2x01. This was my first attempt at a day for night shot. Some say the final product was too dark but it looked great on all the LCDs and CRTs I tested it on.
Music by Pronobozo
It seems that you really have to let these Vox videos buffer for a while.
