4 ms·

The world cup half-time tea break spike. The load of millions of electric kettles boiling in unison. All the nation's toilets also flush repeatedly at much the

by msquog 6y ago

The world cup half-time tea break spike. The load of millions of electric kettles boiling in unison. All the nation's toilets also flush repeatedly at much the same time, which was a central plot point in the film "Flushed Away". It's an interesting phenomenon, though I'd never considered that dealing with it could prepare us for a malicious attack some day.

andai 6y ago
Looks like the control room has a little TV in it, to help with the timing. https://youtu.be/slDAvewWfrA https://youtu.be/slDAvewWfrA
- jonplackett 6y ago
  Is it still done like this? I feel like there's a lot riding on this one guy clicking his mouse. Surely there's a way to automate this?
  - gmueckl 6y ago
    How would you automate that better/more reliably than having a human interpret the programme?
    - Namidairo 6y ago
      I wonder if SCTE-35 makes it to broadcast mpeg streams on digital television... I know it does (did?) on Twitch, last time I looked.
      - dylan604 6y ago
        there you go ruining my weekend talking about work. next, you'll want to discuss injecting 709 captions into that stream as well.
    - rndgermandude 6y ago
      That would require "AI". E.g. in football/"soccer" the half time break isn't at a predetermined point in time, as the start of the game can be delayed and the referee can and usually does give some extra time to make up for unplanned breaks due to fouls etc. Same after regular time in the second half. And if it's a knockout game, then you may even have real overtime and even a penalty shootout to find a winner. Then you have unplanned/semi-planned breaks like players getting a break to drink when it's hot, or... heavy rain or... the ref getting hit in the head with a bottle. And people will use these breaks to do their "business" and make tea/coffee/use the microwave oven. And after the game, players may stay on the field to celebrate or cry about the loss, which I would guess a computervision "AI" would have trouble distinguishing from the actual game. Just having some people watch the game in the control room (which they probably would do or at least want to do anyway) is still easier and more reliable than trying to train an AI to detect all that, in my humble opinion :D Of course, automation like automatically detecting and scaling the grid by looking at the grid itself would and does help a lot; but that's different from automating watching the telly.
      - gmueckl 6y ago
        I have to admit that I was asking that as a loaded question as my thinking was much like yours, but I didn't feel like typing it out. A human is probably the most reliable "AI" for the job :D.
    - heavenlyblue 6y ago
      How would you make them watch the correct channel?
082349872349872 6y ago
The Intervision Song Contest (Интервидение), a second world alternative to Eurovision[1], ran the voting by telling people to turn off or on their lights, during specific time slots for each candidate. Supposedly they could tell by the electrical load on the grid who got the popular vote. [1] for the yanks, this show gave us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c&t=60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c&t=60
- anonymfus 6y ago
  I thought that it was a joke that became urban legend. Do you have a source on it?
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    Good point. Nothing primary, and I only googled in english. Didn't try russian or yandex. It's plausible to me because Modi's Covid light stunt was distinctly visible on the indian grid, but it would be better if someone who actually watched Intervision (or at least knows how expensive long-distance calls were in the USSR?) could say something here. (In a 1975 movie, Zhenya Lukashin offers to repay Nadya Shevelova for making a long distance call from her apartment, so I gather that, as in the west, non-local rates weren't trivial.) Edit: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/intervidenie-konkurent-evrovidenia/27727510.html https://rus.azattyq.org/a/intervidenie-konkurent-evrovidenia... > "В социалистических странах, где установки телефона надо было ждать годами или давать для ускорения взятку, зрители прибегали к интересной сигнализации о своих предпочтениях. Они включали свет, если песня понравилась, и выключали его, если не нравилась. Итоги присуждения баллов участникам подводились на основании данных об изменении нагрузки в электрической сети." But note that from the logo, this appears to be a "Radio Liberty", i.e. US propaganda, article. Edit1,5: same story from RT. https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2014-08-04/Na-Intervidenii-ne-budet-Konchiti https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2014-08-04/Na-Intervidenii-ne-b... > "Из-за того, что телефонные сети не были достаточно развиты, чтобы обеспечить голосование, зрителей просили голосовать с помощью электричества. Включенный свет – за понравившиеся номера, выключенный – за непонравившиеся; затем отмечали показатели электрических сетей." Still no primary source, but if russian and US state owned media agree, and absent any personal recollections, I'm inclined to accept the story. (Unless our alien lizard overlords are behind the whole thing?) Edit2: interesting, according to a documentary referred to in the google cache of http://www.alla-superstar.ru/component/alla/songs/song/91.html http://www.alla-superstar.ru/component/alla/songs/song/91.ht... it took RUB 25 and a bottle of vodka to get Все Могут Короли past the censors in the mid-70s. (roughly between 1 and 2 benjamins in 2020 USD? From this point of view BTC makes a poor substitute currency, as one can't toast with it...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5nn7KxYUXs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5nn7KxYUXs

by msquog 6y ago

andai 6y ago

Looks like the control room has a little TV in it, to help with the timing. https://youtu.be/slDAvewWfrA https://youtu.be/slDAvewWfrA

jonplackett 6y ago
Is it still done like this? I feel like there's a lot riding on this one guy clicking his mouse. Surely there's a way to automate this?
- gmueckl 6y ago
  How would you automate that better/more reliably than having a human interpret the programme?
  - Namidairo 6y ago
    I wonder if SCTE-35 makes it to broadcast mpeg streams on digital television... I know it does (did?) on Twitch, last time I looked.
    - dylan604 6y ago
      there you go ruining my weekend talking about work. next, you'll want to discuss injecting 709 captions into that stream as well.
  - rndgermandude 6y ago
    That would require "AI". E.g. in football/"soccer" the half time break isn't at a predetermined point in time, as the start of the game can be delayed and the referee can and usually does give some extra time to make up for unplanned breaks due to fouls etc. Same after regular time in the second half. And if it's a knockout game, then you may even have real overtime and even a penalty shootout to find a winner. Then you have unplanned/semi-planned breaks like players getting a break to drink when it's hot, or... heavy rain or... the ref getting hit in the head with a bottle. And people will use these breaks to do their "business" and make tea/coffee/use the microwave oven. And after the game, players may stay on the field to celebrate or cry about the loss, which I would guess a computervision "AI" would have trouble distinguishing from the actual game. Just having some people watch the game in the control room (which they probably would do or at least want to do anyway) is still easier and more reliable than trying to train an AI to detect all that, in my humble opinion :D Of course, automation like automatically detecting and scaling the grid by looking at the grid itself would and does help a lot; but that's different from automating watching the telly.
    - gmueckl 6y ago
      I have to admit that I was asking that as a loaded question as my thinking was much like yours, but I didn't feel like typing it out. A human is probably the most reliable "AI" for the job :D.
  - heavenlyblue 6y ago
    How would you make them watch the correct channel?

082349872349872 6y ago

The Intervision Song Contest (Интервидение), a second world alternative to Eurovision[1], ran the voting by telling people to turn off or on their lights, during specific time slots for each candidate. Supposedly they could tell by the electrical load on the grid who got the popular vote. [1] for the yanks, this show gave us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c&t=60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FsVeMz1F5c&t=60

anonymfus 6y ago
I thought that it was a joke that became urban legend. Do you have a source on it?
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  Good point. Nothing primary, and I only googled in english. Didn't try russian or yandex. It's plausible to me because Modi's Covid light stunt was distinctly visible on the indian grid, but it would be better if someone who actually watched Intervision (or at least knows how expensive long-distance calls were in the USSR?) could say something here. (In a 1975 movie, Zhenya Lukashin offers to repay Nadya Shevelova for making a long distance call from her apartment, so I gather that, as in the west, non-local rates weren't trivial.) Edit: https://rus.azattyq.org/a/intervidenie-konkurent-evrovidenia/27727510.html https://rus.azattyq.org/a/intervidenie-konkurent-evrovidenia... > "В социалистических странах, где установки телефона надо было ждать годами или давать для ускорения взятку, зрители прибегали к интересной сигнализации о своих предпочтениях. Они включали свет, если песня понравилась, и выключали его, если не нравилась. Итоги присуждения баллов участникам подводились на основании данных об изменении нагрузки в электрической сети." But note that from the logo, this appears to be a "Radio Liberty", i.e. US propaganda, article. Edit1,5: same story from RT. https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2014-08-04/Na-Intervidenii-ne-budet-Konchiti https://russian.rt.com/inotv/2014-08-04/Na-Intervidenii-ne-b... > "Из-за того, что телефонные сети не были достаточно развиты, чтобы обеспечить голосование, зрителей просили голосовать с помощью электричества. Включенный свет – за понравившиеся номера, выключенный – за непонравившиеся; затем отмечали показатели электрических сетей." Still no primary source, but if russian and US state owned media agree, and absent any personal recollections, I'm inclined to accept the story. (Unless our alien lizard overlords are behind the whole thing?) Edit2: interesting, according to a documentary referred to in the google cache of http://www.alla-superstar.ru/component/alla/songs/song/91.html http://www.alla-superstar.ru/component/alla/songs/song/91.ht... it took RUB 25 and a bottle of vodka to get Все Могут Короли past the censors in the mid-70s. (roughly between 1 and 2 benjamins in 2020 USD? From this point of view BTC makes a poor substitute currency, as one can't toast with it...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5nn7KxYUXs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5nn7KxYUXs