Band Releases Album As Linux Kernel Module

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Band Releases Album As Linux Kernel Module

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday April 23, 2014 @02:08PM from the because-we-can dept.

netbuzz (955038) writes "A band called netcat is generating buzz in software circles by releasing its debut album as a Linux kernel module (among other more typical formats.) 'Are you ever listening to an album, and thinking "man, this sounds good, but I wish it crossed from user-space to kernel-space more often!" We got you covered,' the band says on its Facebook page. 'Our album is now fully playable as a loadable Linux kernel module.'"

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Lol wut by dcollins117 · 2014-04-23 14:12 · Score: 4, Funny

Our album is now fully playable as a loadable Linux kernel module.
Yeah, that seems pretty safe. I'd love to load your album into kernel space. Seems legit.
1. Re:Lol wut by cold+fjord · 2014-04-23 15:06 · Score: 2
  
  Music to be pwned by.
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
2. Re:Lol wut by Zero__Kelvin · 2014-04-23 15:10 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  That's what VMs are for ;-)
  
  --
  Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
3. Re:Lol wut by jopsen · 2014-04-23 15:24 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah, that seems pretty safe. I'd love to load your album into kernel space. Seems legit.
  It's DRM'ed media on windows routed through kernel space? Then it must be the superior thing to do :)
4. Re:Lol wut by rrr00bb5454 · 2014-04-23 18:11 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  This! I had to reload my psmouse module half way through the album. Apparently this is not so uncommon on Dell laptops. I read the source code, and it was trivial. But the very large byte array size makes this something that's generally inadvisable, precisely because you could jump somewhere into it where the audio happens to be specific byte code. I also discovered it from tweets coming out of thegrugq, etc.
5. Re:Lol wut by gl4ss · 2014-04-23 19:53 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  we once played some linux .iso's through the soundcard with cat.
  you know what's sad? it sounded ways better than this.
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
6. Re:Lol wut by gl4ss · 2014-04-23 22:45 · Score: 2
  
  if alternative electronic is something that was swapped on bbs's then my favorite alternative electronic artists are 4mat and lizard king(ok purple motion made one good track).
  we too had a show for _this_ kind of music on radio and it was called "space junk" because well, most of the music on it was just ambient noise. much like this bands titular song. so I would categorize this band just as electronic noise band, it really doesn't make it that much better if the noise is generated with light activated harmonicas or whatever. it's still just boring ambient noise.
  point being, nobody would have heard of this without this gimmick, so bravo for them for the gimmick. but let me ask you this, will you seek this song a year from now?
  
  --
  world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
7. Re:Lol wut by kheldan · 2014-04-24 01:52 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  sudo more_cowbell
  
  --
  Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Quality by nemasu · 2014-04-23 14:16 · Score: 5, Informative

They transcoded it a ton, don't expect FLAC or even mp3 v0. Seems more for publicity. "...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."

--
I made an app! Shoutium
1. Re:Quality by hawguy · 2014-04-23 16:14 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  They transcoded it a ton, don't expect FLAC or even mp3 v0. Seems more for publicity.
  "...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."
  Mod this insightful! I was tricked and thought that loadable kernel modules were going to be the music distribution format of the future... it seems so convenient! But it turns out that this was just about the publicity. How dissapointing!
2. Re:Quality by Richy_T · 2014-04-24 02:20 · Score: 2
  
  There go my plans to open a nationwide chain of kernel module stores.
Made it to Slashdot. by Severus+Snape · 2014-04-23 14:18 · Score: 5, Funny

I'd say publicity mission successfully.
Interesting... by corychristison · 2014-04-23 14:19 · Score: 5, Funny

localhost ~ # modprobe dafuq
I'll save you the trouble. by Charliemopps · 2014-04-23 14:34 · Score: 5, Funny

I'll save you all the trouble. Their "music" sounds like one of those sleep CDs you hear them playing at incense shops that sell quartz "power crystals" and/or the soundtrack to Myst.
Here's their picture:
http://www.networkworld.com/gr...
The guy on the left clearly did the kernel bit.
The dude in the middle has a cello and tattoo so he's clearly getting laid and therefor has never heard of Linux.
The guy on the right... well look at his hat and shoes... he's way too busy putting imitation carbon fiber parts on his Mitsubishi Lancer to have time for programming.
Your welcome for the 10min of your life I saved you.
1. Re:I'll save you the trouble. by laddiebuck · 2014-04-24 01:16 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  lol. Stereotypes aside, I went to school with the guy in the middle and I can assure you he graduated with a CS degree (U of Washington), and all the undergrad computer labs ran Linux. Matter of fact I think he took a capstone that was about writing a linux FS driver. It's nice to see him pursuing his passion of music... I would have had no idea if I hadn't clicked through to your pic and spotted his name. :)
Can't wait for this one.... by Raxxon · 2014-04-23 15:07 · Score: 2

I wonder what they'll name the exploit centered around this module....
1. Re:Can't wait for this one.... by viperidaenz · 2014-04-23 16:06 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Earbleed.
GPL? by CoolGopher · 2014-04-23 15:13 · Score: 5, Insightful

Is the module GPL'd, or does it taint the kernel?
On second thought (and without RTFM'ing) I'll go out on a limb and say that an album taints the kernel regardless of license.
1. Re:GPL? by viperidaenz · 2014-04-23 16:23 · Score: 2
  
  None of the files in github mention any license at all.
2. Re:GPL? by dabadab · 2014-04-23 19:35 · Score: 2
  
  I'll go out on a limb and say that an album taints the kernel regardless of license.
  Only if it's by Soft Cell.
  
  --
  Real life is overrated.
Re: wow by epyT-R · 2014-04-23 15:51 · Score: 2

"Hallowed are the children of the ori"
"Hallowed are we, hallowed are the ori"
Showmanship over musicianship by gman003 · 2014-04-23 15:55 · Score: 3, Insightful

"As netcat, Brandon Lucia (drums, Chango, computers), David Balatero (cello, computers), and Andrew Olmstead (synthesizer, computers) explore the intersection between technology, complexity, and free improvisation. netcat's music brings together seasoned performance on conventional instruments -- cello, synthesizers, and drums -- combining it with computer generated sounds and computer instruments, like the Chango, a novel synthesizer that is played with light.
The mixture of these ingredients is textural, long-form structured improvisations. netcat's music is the kind that calls for laying down on the floor with expensive headphones on and enjoying the solipsism. The flow of the round, sinusoidal bass of the Chango and synthesizer carry the listener on an electric current, through a confluence of sweeping, dramatic arcs on the cello and tympanic drumming. Among it all manifests speaking computers attempting, with futility, to master spoken language and a sonic embodiment of the flurry of bits and bytes traversing a computer network."
Translation: "We bought a bunch of really expensive, weird-ass MIDI controllers, and brought out a random string instrument from [middle|high] school so we could get the "explore the intersection of ___ and ___" music groupies ("explore the intersection" is music's "synergy" or "cloud" - meaningless catchphrase). We did so by playing a couple simple intervals really, really slowly, because we never figured out how to play above 30bpm with any of the aforementioned expensive, weird-ass MIDI controllers. We named everything after random linux terms and published as a kernel module in order to get some free publicity, which Slashdot dutifully provided."
I half suspect that if I actually nabbed a copy of their synth programs, I'd find that they just used default voices for it. Sadly I use less obscure programs and fewer weird-ass MIDI controllers, so I cannot tell for sure. Also I never want to waste another minute listening to that droning to compare.
You want some real "explore the intersection between technology and music"? Go listen to Machinae Supremacy - they combine modern hard-rock/heavy-metal with Commodore 64 chiptune, and it actually sounds good (regular personal taste disclaimers apply). Or any of the other dozens of chiptune crossover musicians - I can recommend "The Black Box" by aivi & surasshu for people who want more tranquil music that's still, y'know, music. And chiptune actually requires a good bit of technical knowledge to write, rather than simply using a computer as just a funny-sounding synthesizer.
Wasted opportunity by thegarbz · 2014-04-23 16:08 · Score: 3, Funny

They really wasted the opportunity to do something really geeky, like release the song as a network service that outputs via the loopback interface. Then you could play it by using netcat.
Re:So awesome. by nemasu · 2014-04-23 16:50 · Score: 2

'Greatest' is relative.....but really, an album as a kernel module...how is that not cool?

--
I made an app! Shoutium
Seen that already (unfortunately) by fph+il+quozientatore · 2014-04-23 18:17 · Score: 2

Is it from Sony perchance?

--
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Boycotting this on principal. by VortexCortex · 2014-04-23 18:43 · Score: 4, Informative

The last time someone's music got into my kernel it was Sony with a rootkit. At least these folks are open about nabbing root.
They really screwed the pooch on this deal. Since their name is 'netcat', I'm waiting for the song to be released via telnet server as ANSI music. That way I can netcat the netcat album with my cross platform old school Codepage 437 + PC speaker enabled terminal emulator from GNU, Linux, BSD, OSX, iOS, Android, Windows, MSDOS or even DR-DOS. Maybe I'd buy in if the cover art was a sick scroller.
In all seriousness: Any FLOSS publicity is good publicity. Windows or Mac folks can run Linux in a VM to try out the audio; It's not my cup of tea, but sort of neat.
Re:So awesome. by I'm+New+Around+Here · 2014-04-23 21:26 · Score: 3, Insightful

Don't let them give you shit. If you like the idea, tell the others to get lost.
Plus, it's only April.

--
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Remix by pr0nbot · 2014-04-23 22:17 · Score: 5, Funny

I'm going to wait for Theo de Raadt's Libre remix.
Re:So awesome. by Anonymous Coward · 2014-04-24 01:55 · Score: 3, Informative

You don't really need to compile the kernel module to listen to the songs, song data is just simple c hex arrays
i used this on the tracks folder
cat trk1data.h trk2data.h trk3data.h trk4data.h trk5data.h trk6data.h | xxd -r -p - - | ogg123 -