The lonely tech post thread.

[Lazy Llama]

Interesting post on reddit this morning - I hadn't realized (thought about) that hashed passwords are the same length irrespective of the length of the actual password. Someone in a company's IT wanted to know how long peoples' actual passwords are to ensure they weren't insecure. They weren't allowed to ask because knowing that someone's password is for example 8 characters long greatly reduces the number of tries a hacker would need.

A question I've often wondered: watching BBC sports transmissions you can click backwards and forwards to view different bits that have happened. With ITV you can't do that - what you see is what you get. Anyone know how much more transmission bandwidth you'd need to do that with BBC? It feels like you'd need a different stream for everyone watching but that can't be right - presumably they have a single stream and just point to the point in the recording, but that would also seem to need different transmission streams for each viewer.

As well as CDNs which prunus mentions, they use multicast capabilities to reduce bandwidth demand.

There's a reasonable blog post about it on the BBC technology blog: Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over IP Multicast

 

[mauvais]

A question I've often wondered: watching BBC sports transmissions you can click backwards and forwards to view different bits that have happened. With ITV you can't do that - what you see is what you get. Anyone know how much more transmission bandwidth you'd need to do that with BBC? It feels like you'd need a different stream for everyone watching but that can't be right - presumably they have a single stream and just point to the point in the recording, but that would also seem to need different transmission streams for each viewer.

This feature is Live Rewind. What you're talking about is complicated but you've conflated streams with connections. Rewind is the same stream but with the addition of making earlier blocks/chunks available. How people access this data, how they are connected, this varies but a basic assumption should be that they're all individual connections. I don't actually know where we're at with the state of unicast (everyone gets an individual connection) versus multicast (one transmission to multiple parties) but it's kind of distinct from the stream.

 

[prunus]

As well as CDNs which prunus mentions, they use multicast capabilities to reduce bandwidth demand.

There's a reasonable blog post about it on the BBC technology blog: Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over IP Multicast

Thanks, that's interesting, I wasn't aware they were using multicast over the internet (my knowledge is more than somewhat out of date it seems!)

 

[two sheds]

So the programme is a single stream with (presumably) every frame having its own address, and people can request the stream from any address? That adds no overhead to the server and the connection just happens to carry a different part of the stream so there's no increase in bandwidth needed?

I wouldn't have though this is ad-related with ITV by the way - when you stream other programmes that have ads (e.g. on channel 4 I think) they often just make sure you see the ad first time through and don't get shown it subsequent times.

 

[gentlegreen]

Another day and more fun with GiffGaff.
They asked me to swap the SIMs and test it AGAIN.
The SIMS were still swapped from yesterday.
They have details of both my phones.
A new SIM arrived today, but I strongly suspect my old phone is "locked" to GiffGaff in some way - perhaps 7 years is longer than most people keep their phone for and I suspect very few people re-SIM the old one to use for emergencies - EE are certainly unhappy about my behaviour with my old Orange MonteCarlo - but that phone is 14 years old and uses a discontinued tech - 3G...

As requested I put the new SIM back in the old phone and unsurprisingly as was the case the two times I tried it before, it comes up as "no SIM" and does not work - though it claims that I can make emergency calls.SIM xxxx is now in Motorola G4 IMEI xxxx I mentioned the old SIM because it seemed to confirm that this phone is working correctly.In my naivete I assumed you could look at both phones remotely and do something ...The only other phone I have is a 14 year old 3G one locked to EE,

 

[existentialist]

Another day and more fun with GiffGaff.
They asked me to swap the SIMs and test it AGAIN.
The SIMS were still swapped from yesterday.
They have details of both my phones.
A new SIM arrived today, but I strongly suspect my old phone is "locked" to GiffGaff in some way - perhaps 7 years is longer than most people keep their phone for and I suspect very few people re-SIM the old one to use for emergencies - EE are certainly unhappy about my behaviour with my old Orange MonteCarlo - but that phone is 14 years old and uses a discontinued tech - 3G...

It's not usually that hard to get a PUK code and unlock a phone, especially an old one. Last time I did it, it was over mobile broadband in the back of a car, and I managed it then...it's probably a lot easier with a PC browser.

 

[mauvais]

So the programme is a single stream with (presumably) every frame having its own address, and people can request the stream from any address? That adds no overhead to the server and the connection just happens to carry a different part of the stream so there's no increase in bandwidth needed?

I wouldn't have though this is ad-related with ITV by the way - when you stream other programmes that have ads (e.g. on channel 4 I think) they often just make sure you see the ad first time through and don't get shown it subsequent times.

Close enough. On iPlayer it's HLS which are streams broken into downloadable chunks.

HTTP Live Streaming - Wikipedia

Same sort of idea as downloading any static content, including reducing origin bandwidth via caching and CDNs etc, only they have newly appearing chunks on the end.

If you navigate back in time in the stream, then you're fetching earlier chunks instead of the constantly-appearing latest.

More generally, if everyone needing a separate connection to watch the same thing at basically the same time sounds inefficient compared to traditional linear broadcast, that's because it is.

Ads are probably not in the stream and are something introduced by the player software.

 

[two sheds]

That makes sense, ta

and I've learned a new technical term: chunks

 

[Saul Goodman]

I've got the metal bug now, so I'm making some speaker stands, and I'm cleaning rust from some box section using reverse electrolysis. It's a great way to break water down into its constituent elements

 

[gentlegreen]

It's not usually that hard to get a PUK code and unlock a phone, especially an old one. Last time I did it, it was over mobile broadband in the back of a car, and I managed it then...it's probably a lot easier with a PC browser.

The thing is it's not supposed to be locked.
I'm struggling to find a genuine PAYG contact - it seems you always have to hand over £10 - 1p mobile says you need to spend at least £10 every 90 days...
A new GiffGaff person has taken over - I think they want me to transfer my new Sim to a newer one...
They're determined to prove it's my old phone at fault ...
I rather think it will need a factory reset and a SIM from another company and a refund from GiffGaff

 

[UnderOpenSky]

At what point do you give up on a phone that's not worth anything.

If you need one I can send you something rather old, but still far more modern if it helps?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Warm evening for playing games in my small office, especially when both CPU and GPU were in the high 80s

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Sometimes you couldn't make it up. Anyone want to guess which one is correct?

 

[Chz]

Windows policies are always immense fun. In that I'm not a Windows admin (outside of my own machine) and they're someone else's problem.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Windows policies are always immense fun. In that I'm not a Windows admin (outside of my own machine) and they're someone else's problem.

The best bit is I've decided to embrace settings as it's the future, and was scratching my head as to why my policy wasn't working. It was, but it turns out I also needed another for the firewall. But you can see why I might have got stuck at this stage.

 

[gentlegreen]

I may get this to piss off GiffGaff. The "low radiation" bollocks is super-annoying though.
Dual Sim, takes a 32meg SD card .
Not sure if it's small enough to be smuggled into prisons ...

"

• Music Player and Bluetooth Headset: Mobile phone can be used as a Bluetooth music player with clear voice and high Bluetooth connectivity with your MP3 music player for smartphones and tablets; it can be hooked up and used as a Bluetooth headset."

For some reason it seems to come with the rubber parts of a BT earpiece ...

EDIT:-

I think the phone is so small you can hang it on your ear !!
(so definitely "insertable" )

Latest from Giveacrap is they want me to clone the new SIM in the new phone to prove it isn't their SIM.
Unlikely to be the cause , but the old phone is somewhat over-full of crap ... deffo needs a clean up

 

[Saul Goodman]

I may get this to piss off GiffGaff. The "low radiation" bollocks is super-annoying though.
Dual Sim, takes a 32meg SD card .
Not sure if it's small enough to be smuggled into prisons ...

"

• Music Player and Bluetooth Headset: Mobile phone can be used as a Bluetooth music player with clear voice and high Bluetooth connectivity with your MP3 music player for smartphones and tablets; it can be hooked up and used as a Bluetooth headset."

For some reason it seems to come with the rubber parts of a BT earpiece ...

EDIT:-

I think the phone is so small you can hang it on your ear !!
(so definitely "insertable" )

Latest from Giveacrap is they want me to clone the new SIM in the new phone to prove it isn't their SIM.
Unlikely to be the cause , but the old phone is somewhat over-full of crap ... deffo needs a clean up


View attachment 430932

If you bill your time at £0.01/hour, you've probably already spent 10x more on that old phone than it's worth

 

[gentlegreen]

If you bill your time at £0.01/hour, you've probably already spent 10x more on that old phone than it's worth

I just can't throw things away
It's had a wonky touch screen all the time I've owned it and the micro USB socket is a bit iffy - I'm thinking of getting a cheap QI charge adaptor for it since I now have a wireless charger for my Pixel.
It makes a decent music player downstairs off the WIFI with my bluetooth speakers

EE have got incredibly pissy about my 13 year old 3G (now 2G) phone .. I'm hogging a phone number.
I guess I feel affection for these things - the phones took over from first a Creative 1GB player in 2005 and then an 8GB in 2008 - it hurt each time to pay about £100 for those first three devices - especially that teeny 1GB player - I'd completely forgotten that thing had an FM radio you could record from !
When I switched to my first Smartphone I had one or both Creative players in my manbag for emergencies or flat batteries...

At least getting the Pixel (sans earphone jack) has forced me to get a BlueTooth DAC - an amazing thing - the size of my Creative Zen Nano - and once again for just over £100 which in turn is hopefully helping me get motivated to fix my amp and speakers sooner rather than later so I enjoy them before they go into store to await me finding a new home.
I ripped all my CDs to FLAC last year and learned how to make them available over WIFI...

 

[Saul Goodman]

I just can't throw things away

I'm the same
I'll have to gather a load of my old shit together and take some photos, just for turds and chuckles.

Anyway, my Fosi amp arrived, and it's the most impressive thing I've bought in a long time.
Instead of the undoubtedly crappy power supply they supply, I decided to buy a decent 36V/400W Mean Well supply, because I've used their stuff for years and I trust it. Unfortunately, it cost as much as the amp, but you can't test an amp with a power supply of questionable/unknown heritage... or at least that's my excuse.
The amp is tiny, and I'm amazed at the sound from it. It puts my old Arcam amp to shame on definition, and the bass is really tight. It's faultless in most areas, and it's resulted in me finding a new love for music
Now I have to look into either making or sourcing a case for the power supply, or mounting everything in a new case, with a couple of beefy capacitors thrown in for good measure. I'm leaning toward the latter.

 

[gentlegreen]

I was reminded earlier that Sinclair once made a class D amp - but it was crap because all he had was germanium transistors...
I bet Neil Young would throw a wobbly if he knew such things existed ...

Didn't someone once think up a digital loudspeaker with one transducer for each bit ?
Around the time CDs came out I think when speakers were "digital ready" or somesuch bollocks...

 

[gentlegreen]

Your PSU seems to be sitting on something flammable !

 

[Saul Goodman]

Your PSU seems to be sitting on something flammable !

It was a choice between something flammable or something metal, and given that it cost the guts of €100, I opted for the former