Chromecast bug enables Rickrolling

Now we think Google's Chromecast streaming dongle is brilliant. So much so that we're never going to give it up, even though a clever hack has demonstrated that it is possible to hijack a Chromecast and using for Rickrolling purposes. According to Wired, hacker Dan Petro has created a handheld device, based on the Raspberry…

Tech Trumpet: Old '80s Computers Rickrolled

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Firstly, an apology to anyone eagerly awaiting a track composed from the “interesting looking audio boxes sitting next to me”. Unfortunately, I’ve not yet got all the wires and other gear required to do them justice.

This week, I’ve dug out what may well be the earliest example of Rickrolling. Take a few defunct ’80s computers (the BBC Model B, to be precise), a discarded dot matrix printer or two, a few industrial monsters, and a handful of sound effects that never quite made it into any successful game, and you have a late-Eighties Rickroll extraordinaire…

Rick Astley cashes in on 'rickrolling' success and launches ad-supported YouTube channel

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He promised not to take advantage of his recent ‘fame’, but Rick Astley has certainly ‘let us down’, by capitalising on the Rickrolling phenomenon and gone and created his own YouTube channel. Ok, he joined in October 2007, but has recently jazzed it up, with revenue-making adverts.

Instead of using the couple hundred versions of his 1987 single ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ on the video-sharing site, users are now encouraged by Astley to help him out financially, and use his uploaded video instead. He’s gaining revenue by advertising his latest album (‘Ultimate Collection’, natch) on iTunes, which I’m sure at least 17 people…