[MUST KILL THE MASTIFF!!!!]

Let's hope it's not to volatile for his stomach...

[Airport Error on Macbook]

What version of OS X are you running? Are there many other networks in range?

A few years back at my university there was a very large problem where every single mac would experience the same problem you are. We were running 802.1x with PEAP and a bit of research online showed that it seemed to be a pretty common problem at unis and businesses everywhere with similar setups. The real problem was that no one really knew why(even with apple acknowledging the problem) or how to fix it permanently.

After a while a bunch of us from Comp&Comm were thinking it had to do with either collision or frequent AP hopping since we managed to "solve"(i.e. the problem didn't occur) when we setup a single AP in a closed room with just one macbook. Eventually though an update from Apple seemed to fix things, I believe it was around 10.5.2.

To this day I still don't know exactly what the cause was. Maybe it's time to do a little more research and see if the cause was ever discovered.

[What was the best freebie you ever got for fixing or saying a computer is trash?]

i got to drive her mums maserati(mum didn't know of course).

This is by far the best reward posted yet.

[Open Source people give me a headache]

As opposed to how you always win with closed source supporters?

I think for this to have any real discussion value you'll have to elaborate.

[What was the best freebie you ever got for fixing or saying a computer is trash?]

I'll join the list of free food/booze while fixing friend/family computers. I also spent one semester pretty tanked when I setup a sign in the campus bar for free computer help and physics tutoring so long as they kept the draught flowing.

On the more monetary side I once had a really nice and cool business man take me to lunch at a fancy restaurant with him and his wife while few pcs where formatting and installing windows. Best part was he picked up the tab and paid me the same hourly rate for the time we were eating. :D

[What IRC users didn't want to say here]

So arguing about where the show should be headed probably isn't the best first post but whatever. I've been watching since season one and lurking the forums off and on during that time. I'm afraid I agree with what a lot of people have said about missing the good old days. Like others I used to wait for each episode and watch from beginning to end as soon as the download finished. Now I don't even download the episodes, just skip through the flash player.

So what do I think would help the show?

- Hardware hacks like everyone else has said. Darren; that rover sounds like exactly the sort of thing the show has been missing.

- More in-depth and creative segments. Things like the CVS camera hack, iPod/console hacks and the Switchblade.

- Less of the "light" content that's been showing up this season. I'm talking about things like updating blogs and random/short program reviews/previews that have nothing to do with security, hacking, moding or coding. While there isn't anything particularly wrong with these types of segments they aren't what I watch Hak5 for. They feel more like something you'd see on tekzilla or popsiren.

- Lastly is better chemistry on camera. This is probably the hardest thing to explain and will vary based on everyone's tastes and perception. But it feels like the show has gone backwards in this area. I mean sure, in the very early episodes there were stutters and pauses at times but they always felt natural and were usually entertaining in a comedic sort of way. Now it sometimes seems like the cast is reading from a teleprompter that randomly freezes. Of course some of this is understandable with the change in cast and filming schedule.

I've been following since the first season; however I've started to find the content a little dry and somewhat boring. This is purely personal, I find wireless hacking and most things related to it tiresome, so the whole Jasager stuff was lost on me, I found the use of a pineapple quite comical, and Darren’s comments on travelling through airport security hilarious, but for me that was about it.

Everyone wants to take something different from the show; I enjoy watching the projects you guys do. I especially like the content Matt is bringing to the show e.g. the enterprise admin kind of stuff, its stuff I can relate to and its stuff I find useful. I also like the “tip-bits” that are often randomly thrown in “calibrate” was a useful website, didn’t really want to calibrate my monitors, but I went and gave it a go anyway =]

Things I wouldn’t mind seeing;-

1. Product reviews

2. How to (not to sound lame but, stuff like building a pc, start off basic and built it up as you go along “How to run an office pc for free!” e.g. Linux and Open office)

3. Question and Answers (Technical help, could be my pc won’t boot! How do i host a website? Though those questions border on point 2)

4. VM's explained in a little more (it's probally something I could/should go and Google, but sometimes we all want stuff served up on a plate for us)

To the first two suggestions, I respectfully say hell no! Making this show more basic and introductory is the last thing that should be done. The fact that it was more technical and higher level than things like systm, tekzilla or thebroken was what made it my favourite podcast in the first place. I also don't think moving towards more general computing topics vs security/hacking/coding is a good idea. It's just not what (I think) Hak5 should be.

As for Q&A, I think that could be good in the sense that community involvement is a big part of Hak5. But again, I really don't think things like "how do I setup a blog", "how do I install new hardware in my pc" or basic everyday trouble shooting fits the show. I started watching Hak5 because it wasn't the same old basic crap I can do drunk with one hand tied to my ankles.

VMs could make for a great segment or even series. Just make it a little more in-depth and interesting than "this is parallels/VMWare/Virtualbox, this is how you install it, isn't it cool to run one OS inside another!". Spice it up with things like how they can be used for sandboxing and testing potentially(or intentionally) harmful things. Or how about security concerns/shortcomings of VMs and possible hacks? To be truthful I don't know enough about this topic to do a segment on it myself so I feel a little out of place suggesting it. But it's sparked my interest and a few minutes of googling has turned up a bit of interesting info, not least of all this paper.

And again I'll throw in that Jasager is probably the best thing to come out of this season by far.