This is an update that's almost impossible to really appreciate if you haven't been a part of Neuros for a while. After years of teeth gnashing about the read only file system and and lack a package manager fully implemented, a new community member bmc has released software that solves these issues called OSDng.

The LINK has quietly generated more hacks and experimentation than any product in Neuros history. Thankfully, I have managed to do an equally historic job in dropping the ball on promoting these hacks. This strategic ineptitude on my part has saved these noble (but private) hackers the undesirable attention that they otherwise would have gotten, had I been more attentive, they might now be suffering from the blinding glare of the FOSS spotlight.

Regrettably, we can no longer hold back the floodgates of the free software paparazzi. They have uncovered the hack the duck mugs silently perched on the desks of the otherwise anonymous heroes fighting for the freedom of your television set.

Ok, I've beat this joke to death. Bottom line is that I created a wiki Gamma LINK Hacker User Manual that begins to attempt to catalog the results of the hacks that are spread out among the forums, mailing lists, etc into one place that the bring the next Greyback or ChadV up to speed, without having to dig through the entire history on the forums. Really it's for anyone that wants to go a bit deeper in using the LINK, and obviously the device is still evolving too rapidly to put this in a printed manual anyway.

Please make sure your favorite hacks, tips and tricks are there, and remember DON'T PANIC!

User contributions have been enabled on Neuros.TV. This means that you can help us make the dbase more comprehensive by adding your own sources. While the process isn't fully automated, it does draw from the database to help you populate entries. So please try it out and give us your comments.

As I don't have to tell our readers, user contributions have a strong history of creating big comprehensive databases of content. Just look at gracenote and freedb with millions of entries for songs. The challenge of cataloging tv shows is nowhere near as great, so we hope that with a bit of user contributions, we can build a database that is not only comprehensive but international as well (although the first focus, as you'll see is US shows).

Hopefully using the system will be pretty self-explanatory: Search for a show and you'll see the "Contribute" link at the top of the page. Some of the fields will be automatically populated. Basically you have to pick the show and season, and input the URL. The "channel" field is basically the website. Sometimes it will be automatically populated and other times you'll just have to enter a name for the website.

As always, it's evolving, so we're eager to get feedback.

Many of you have forwarded the unfortunate news that Boxee was pressured to remove Hulu from its software . This isn't something that we're happy about at Neuros. Many LINK users have installed Boxee (and XBMC) and we eagerly support that and have been in active discussions with Boxee on continuing collaboration.

User sundevil98 has laid claim to the Netflix bounty by using Mediamall's Playon software. Complete instructions are in the forum thread I'll revise these instructions once we include XBMC in the shipping software, which should be shortly and make the process much simpler (basically you'd just have to install playon on your PC and point XBMC to it.

Obviously this is an intermediate solution to getting Netflix going while we create the native Netflix application, but in the meantime, it at least allows the LINK to put Netflix on your TV, and gives you a good idea what the browsing experience is like. Thanks sundevil!

Just a week ago,we posted about the wiimote working as a remote for the LINK , now longtime Neuros Hacker Bagster has posted a youtube video using the iphone (well actually ipod touch) as a remote. Note that he's using the iphone virtual keyboard to enter text, so it seems a pretty complete replacement for the keymote. Btw, we ship the device for $249.99 with no keymote for those interested in going this route.

If we follow the suggestion of bedge (which I'm personally in favor of) this won't be a hack at all, just install the app on your iphone and away you go. Now this is a neat hack that allows you control your tv, but one of the areas I'm personally interested in is controlling a stereo with the LINK without a tv at all.

Up next, using the link as a stereo component= tunes in Neuros HQ!

As most of you know, the LINK started out life as what we call a "TVPC," namely a disc-less, quiet computer that's configured specifically for bringing Internet video to the tv. From that foundation, it's rapidly evolving to provide a more seamless couch experience. One area that's receiving a lot of attention is the controller.

Recently, we've been spending some time prototyping with motion sensing controllers, including the Nintendo wii controller. The significant thing about this kind of interface is that it allows an easy way to have both standard menu navigation (up down left right) as well as free form mouse control, which is still needed for web browsing. There's even a virtual keyboard
(which we certainly won't use in production). Posted a quick youtube video of it in action. For those of you that want to play along at home, you can follow the instructions below.

If you don't have a LINK, but would like to try out the software (you'll have to apply the mods below manually) you can booting your PC from a flash drive with the software, instructions here No guarantees, it's meant for the LINK, but I have heard reports of some folks getting it working fine on other PCs.

Have a Neuros LINK?

The good news

We are happy to release the Neuros LINK version 1.2 image. This image:
- Improves the speed and stability of the Neuros LINK
- Customizes the browser experience from your couch

The bad news
Unfortunately... we haven't yet perfected the automated download
method, so you will have to download the ~900MB file and reflash to the
USB key that came with your LINK. For those who have customized your
installation, you will also need to redo your customizations after
reflashing.

The instructions
Instructions are here: http://www.neurostechnology.com/upgrade-neuros-link
(And, if you choose the Bittorrent method, please seed the file to help us offset some of the bandwidth costs! Thank you!)

New Neuros LINK owner Ethan Miller posted an interesting blog posting about not just on the LINK, but how have it connected to his TV in his living room has changed his family's physical interaction with "the TV." It's clear to me that where the potential of the internet connected to the TV really comes alive is when you depart from the standard passive TV fare, to a shared interactive experience. It's something of a hybrid between traditional TV watching and using the PC. Jumping around between content and email and such, is enough to drive anyone else out of the room, but you're not getting the full value just using the device to watch a movie either. Its that middle ground where you can get customized stories fed to you on your terms, where you can see those clips that you've heard about, or are referenced on traditional TV, or just get "the rest of the story"

ddubois posted the above statement to the forums, in a long thread . He has a popcorn hour that he's unhappy with and wanted to understand what's different about the LINK relative to the popcorn hour, etc. and I thought it was worth a post here too:

Here's why I, as a user, like the LINK over the popcorn hour and the other DMAs: