https://NetWorkXXIII.de/2026-10-19T19:20:43Z https://NetWorkXXIII.de/transmissions/on-air/2026-10-19T00:00:00Z

NETWORK XXIII has a front door now. What it is, what it links to, and why there is a test card.

<p>NETWORK XXIII has a front door now. This is it.</p> <p>For a couple of months we have been putting services on the open Internet one at a time: webmail for the domains we host, our own browser chat, a Usenet node, a bulletin board system that turned out to have ambitions, two Tor relays. Each of them lived at its own hostname and nowhere else. Now they are <strong>channels</strong> on one network, and this site is the programme guide.</p> <h2>What the metaphor buys us</h2> <p>Calling things channels instead of projects settles a few arguments at once:</p> <ul><li>A channel is <strong>on air</strong> or it is not. No &quot;beta&quot;, no &quot;soon&quot;, no &quot;coming Q3&quot;. The status board reads a <code>status.json</code> that a cron job on Roanoke refreshes every few minutes.</li><li>A channel that is being built <strong>stands by</strong>, with a test card. One flag hides it from the guide entirely.</li><li>A channel between seasons is <strong>off air</strong>. That is where the URL shortener is right now.</li></ul> <h2>Why there is a test card</h2> <p>Because the network is named after the one in <em>Max Headroom</em>, and a network that does not come on air with a test card, static and a logo is not trying hard enough. It plays once, then not again for twenty minutes. There is a skip button. If your browser asks for reduced motion, you will never see it at all.</p> <h2>The rest</h2> <p>Press <code>Ctrl K</code> anywhere on the home page. Type <code>/</code> and see what the Blink drive offers. Do not click the DRDs unless you are prepared for the consequences, which are mild.</p> <p>More entries will follow in the ship&#x27;s log, as kept by the Android.</p>