The video series · shot and edited

Eight videos, one path — from nothing to a working call.

The on-ramp is sequential: install to call. Every video keeps its honesty beat — the thing that failed on camera stays in. And the numbers on camera go lower than the hero's: the ladder demo bottoms out at 164 Kbps, 160×120, audio holding, no dropped frames, then climbs back — and the Communicator has held a live call under 150 Kbps, over TCP.

"Not the right way, not the only way — I submit it as a first implementation." — video 2

The next step in the same learning path.

The complete eight-step on-ramp, deep dives and question-based paths remain below. The newest demonstration extends that story: a Windows computer and Android device become network members through shared state, then run the Communicator. Read the demonstrated steps and figures.

For a current region deployment, use the updated workflow and matching build instructions. The broker and recursive-crawl recordings still explain their implemented path; region mode now uses facts, world and a graph.

§01The on-ramp · watch in order

Install to call, in eight steps.

1 · Welcome

Root cause, instrument, prove — and where FrogNet came from.

The habits first, then the origin arc. Memory, not messages; the assembler-to-C argument; a live monitor across four machines. The 850 Kbps call is stated and immediately undercut: it is high, and you will do it at 450 and maybe lower.

2 · What it is

A standalone, autonomous mesh — every FrogNet identical.

A 254-address segment per node, no permanent external control plane, and the sentence that sets the epistemic posture of the whole project: not the right way, not the only way — a first implementation. Then the Guild.

3 · Hardware

What must be hardware, and what only must be software.

Debian. A Pi 4 with 2 GB is enough. An AP-mode router is required, and the one real restriction is stated plainly: we provide DHCP for the projected network.

4 · Installation, part 1

frognet_install, the prompts, and the pond.

Recording scope: Recorded installer and broker setup. Current .run packages update an existing FrogNet node into region mode; use the current operator path for that deployment.

frognet_install, the --preserve flag, the broker prompts, setup_lillypad, reboot.

At the broker prompts: you will need an Internet-hosted machine to use the broker and enable cross-Internet network routing. If you have such a machine already, enter its address or hostname and a random port number (remember it) when requested during the installation process. A broker is always http://<host>:<port> — choose http, and leave the URL path empty. See the broker installation video for instructions on setting up a broker machine.

5 · Installation, part 2

First boot: routes appear, and the node is on the network.

Recording scope: Recorded local/broker-era merge. Region-event application now uses shared facts, world and the graph; runMerge remains for boot/interface work.

run_merge, routes appearing live, a ping to New York, the node back online, and the same sensor record read from two machines.

At the New York ping: the machine we just installed was already WiFi connected to the Seattle5 site, which is a member of the author's personal network. This network already has a broker configured, so machines in New York City are available via Internet tunnel. See the broker installation video for instructions on setting up and configuring a broker.

6 · Broker install

The broker joins two independent FrogNets.

Recording scope: Recorded broker path. Current region membership and relay use the RAM manager and fdf-hub.

The bundle and its build script, frognet-pond create/list/status, and /etc/frognet/tunnel.conf. A rendezvous, not an authority — and a dependency at join time, which is said out loud.

7 · The Monitor · optional, strongly recommended

Watching the pond think.

Each machine writes its own state; the monitor just reads it — the same record from two viewpoints, and a live degraded peer diagnosed on camera. Its provenance is SCCM and OSTC.

This video is not required to get a FrogNet running. It is strongly recommended anyway: it is the best fundamental introduction to working with FrogNet Memory. The Monitor is not a management console bolted on the side — it is an ordinary reader of the same memory every program reads, and watching it is the clearest way to see what the programming surface actually gives you. The Monitor has its own page →

8 · The Communicator

The ladder, on camera.

Recording scope: Recorded earlier Communicator and role machinery. The current desktop/Android implementation and per-viewer media path are described in the current chapters.

Bundles; the media, board-game and database hosts set at each merge; then the ladder demo — 1080 refused, 720 held, 854×480, 640×360, 480×360, 320×240, 160×120, and the climb back. Roughly four seconds down, fifteen up: the asymmetry is deliberate.

§02The deep dives · how it actually works

Watched by choice, after the on-ramp. Not prerequisites.

Where several routes lead into one topic, one is marked start here and the rest go deeper — semantic compression especially. They are not five consecutive prerequisites.

Discovery Deep Dive · start here

How a node finds neighbours and installs routes.

Recording scope: Recorded local recursive discovery. Current region membership derives from published facts and the region session.

Then More Discovery goes deeper: the recursive who-do-you-know expansion, route selection, convergence, and service-host selection.

Note, at the circularity passage: the mechanism described there is from an earlier design. The current code uses a reflect probe carrying the origin IP and a hop counter; a loop requires both an origin match and a non-zero counter, with a separate hop cap of 32. See Croakus §14, "Routes that come back."

Proxy and Daemon · go deeper

The intercept, the permanent socket, the byte accounting.

Live journalctl: a 21-byte SAME and a 31-byte reconstructed DIFF, with the accounting on screen.

Semantic Compression · start here (17 Aug recording)

BLDC-1 and FNWP-1, with live measurements.

The current canonical recording; earlier semantic-compression videos are superseded. It runs the same pipe_workload benchmark as Proxy and Daemon — watch this one first and go to Proxy and Daemon for the plumbing; you need not sit through the benchmark twice.

Semantic Message Handlers

Registering your own wire protocol in two functions.

Goes deeper on the compression path from the application side.

DatabaseHost

Where the moving authority comes from.

Recording scope: Recorded service-host implementation. Current region selection reads capability facts rather than querying the failed application store.

The elected role behind FrogNet Memory. It floats, and it holds no durable state.

Intro to Tuples · start here

Linda, 1985 — addressing memory by three keys.

Then Tuples and REST (part 2) goes deeper: the tables, api.php, the backgammon case. Memory Backing Store opens MySQL and shows where the bytes actually live.

Correction (applies to Intro to Tuples, Tuples and REST 1 & 2, and Memory Backing Store): Linda was developed by David Gelernter and Nicholas Carriero at Yale. FrogNet's three-coordinate tuple addressing is FrogNet's implementation convention, not a requirement of Linda.

Simulator

Attack the mechanics under arbitrary topologies.

The falsification instrument. Bring an oracle.

The Guild

Why this is too big for one person.

The recruiting pitch, in his own voice. The seats →

Security

The surface, named honestly.

One port must answer — here is the host, here is the port. The security page →

Existing Networks

Insertion into a brownfield enterprise.

Below actual egress; unmodified hosts participate. The enterprise page →

Troubleshooting · when something breaks

Not part of the on-ramp — where you look afterward.

Pairs with the Croakus’ “When it goes wrong”, which was written from it.

"C didn't replace assembler. It uses assembler. You lose some of that exquisite control, and you gain so much more. That's what FrogNet Memory does for you."

The Monitor video — the best statement of the thesis in the series

§03Four ways in

Don't choose among twenty-five videos. Choose a question.

I want to see whether it's real

Installation → First Run → the 900 MHz proofs → Communicator degradation → Dan's lamp. The evidence page →

I want to understand how it works

Discovery → Proxy and Daemon → Semantic Compression → DatabaseHost → Memory and Tuples → Communicator.

I want to challenge or build it

Simulator → the Croakus → handler and programming examples → the Guild. The seats →

I already have a network

Existing Networks → Croakus §1b and §22b → Security → contact. You insert it, not migrate to it →