by Brandon Lucia, Andrew Olmstead, and David Balatero
Released April 2014
Welcome to the most unnecessarily complicated netcat album release format yet.
In this repository, you will be able to compile your own kernel module, create a
/dev/netcat device and pipe its output into an audio player.
cat /dev/netcat | ogg123 -
This repository contains the album's track data in source files, that came from .ogg files that were
encoded from .wav files that were created from .mp3 files that were encoded from the mastered
.wav files which were generated from ProTools final mix .wav files that were created from
24-track analog tape.
If complexity isn't your thing, you can go to our webpage and follow the links to a digital download or a cassette tape of our album.
We've only tested this on Ubuntu Linux. Sure, it's real easy to grab another operating system ISO and test it out, but after a day toiling in the bitmines, who has the energy?
First, install some dependencies:
sudo apt-get install build-essential vorbis-tools linux-headers-$(uname -r)
Check out the repo:
git clone https://github.com/usrbinnc/netcat-cpi-kernel-module.git
cd netcat-cpi-kernel-module
Next, build the module by running:
make
Building will take a long time. Hang with it. Building also requires several gigabytes of memory. We're not totally sure why, but we think it is because because the compiler is making lots of copies of several large, static arrays that contain track data.
After you build, run you need to load the module and see if it is working, so you can run:
sudo insmod netcat.ko
dmesg
You should see output like the following from dmesg:
[ 2606.528153] [netcat]: netcat - Cycles Per Instruction - Kernel Module Edition - 2014
[ 2606.528153] [netcat]: netcat is Brandon Lucia, Andrew Olmstead, and David Balatero
[ 2606.528153] [netcat]: Run 'sudo mknod /dev/netcat c 250 0' to setup the device.
[ 2606.528153] [netcat]: 'cat /dev/netcat | ogg123 -' to play.
Your mknod command will be slightly different, as the OS will assign you a different number every time. Run this command:
mknod /dev/netcat c <your number> 0
Finally, put on some headphones, and run:
cat /dev/netcat | ogg123 -
Track information will show up in the output of dmesg:
[ 612.411529] [netcat]: Now playing track 2 - The Internet is an Apt Motherfucker
If you've read this far, god help us all.