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You'd think they could come up with a more efficient way of broadcasting content than just rebroadcasting the same content over and over again hourly. A more i

You'd think they could come up with a more efficient way of broadcasting content than just rebroadcasting the same content over and over again hourly. A more interesting approach would be to use a data carousel with erasure codes. That way you could tune in anytime and be done once you've collected enough blocks to reassemble the wanted files. You could even vary the allocated bitrate for each file, starting with a higher bitrate to get early birds fast access and then lowering the bitrate as more and more people already completed their download, but still allowing stragglers to catch up. Since this is just a curated collection of content, it has very little to do with the Internet, unlike the title suggests. At the very least they should add some level of interactivity, so that users could vote on content to be sent and/or submit content for broadcasting like other similar satellite data casting systems already in use.

djaychela 10y ago
And what would be the channel for that feedback? Surely any such system would risk detection of the user, particularly for a non-technical user who may make a mistake in the (needed) security/privacy software/access needed for such a back channel? As for a more complex data transmission scheme, do all satellite receivers support it?
- bwilliams18 10y ago
  Don't let great be the enemy of good. Create a tor website, and provide a text file with the link in all downlinks. If people don't know how to use tor or can't access the site, that's fine, but if they can access it, they get additional features. Provide a simple feedback form or voting system. It doesn't have to be perfect, these downloads are already hand assembled by someone each day. You aren't obligated to use all suggestions, or even the most popular, but use it as a feedback mechanism to inform your choices.
- amazon_not 10y ago
  > And what would be the channel for that feedback? Surely any such system would risk detection of the user, particularly for a non-technical user who may make a mistake in the (needed) security/privacy software/access needed for such a back channel? How about using that nifty Tor browser they keep rebroadcasting to access a hidden service website to vote and issue requests? Hidden services cannot by definition be accessed without Tor and are thus more secure from prying eyes, even when used by non-technical users. > As for a more complex data transmission scheme, do all satellite receivers support it? The satellite receivers just store the transport stream. The data is extracted by parsing the transport stream with a Windows program. You can implement whatever scheme you like with software.
  - mehdiyahya 10y ago
    For now, there have been regular surveys to get feedback from users. The idea of using Tor to get more detailed feedback is a good one. Thank you.
    - amazon_not 10y ago
      You are welcome. Just do it in a secure way and don't store any information. Make submitting and voting completely anonymous. Don't require logins and don't log anything to protect your users. Use plain HTML and don't use JavaScript. Even if the above makes the voting easy to rig, it's more important to ensure anonymity than perfectly accurate voting results. And even with biased voting data you can figure out what the users are interested in. If nothing else it will help you cull content, as lack of interest is also a good indicator.

djaychela 10y ago

And what would be the channel for that feedback? Surely any such system would risk detection of the user, particularly for a non-technical user who may make a mistake in the (needed) security/privacy software/access needed for such a back channel? As for a more complex data transmission scheme, do all satellite receivers support it?

bwilliams18 10y ago
Don't let great be the enemy of good. Create a tor website, and provide a text file with the link in all downlinks. If people don't know how to use tor or can't access the site, that's fine, but if they can access it, they get additional features. Provide a simple feedback form or voting system. It doesn't have to be perfect, these downloads are already hand assembled by someone each day. You aren't obligated to use all suggestions, or even the most popular, but use it as a feedback mechanism to inform your choices.
amazon_not 10y ago
> And what would be the channel for that feedback? Surely any such system would risk detection of the user, particularly for a non-technical user who may make a mistake in the (needed) security/privacy software/access needed for such a back channel? How about using that nifty Tor browser they keep rebroadcasting to access a hidden service website to vote and issue requests? Hidden services cannot by definition be accessed without Tor and are thus more secure from prying eyes, even when used by non-technical users. > As for a more complex data transmission scheme, do all satellite receivers support it? The satellite receivers just store the transport stream. The data is extracted by parsing the transport stream with a Windows program. You can implement whatever scheme you like with software.
- mehdiyahya 10y ago
  For now, there have been regular surveys to get feedback from users. The idea of using Tor to get more detailed feedback is a good one. Thank you.
  - amazon_not 10y ago
    You are welcome. Just do it in a secure way and don't store any information. Make submitting and voting completely anonymous. Don't require logins and don't log anything to protect your users. Use plain HTML and don't use JavaScript. Even if the above makes the voting easy to rig, it's more important to ensure anonymity than perfectly accurate voting results. And even with biased voting data you can figure out what the users are interested in. If nothing else it will help you cull content, as lack of interest is also a good indicator.