WebDriver Torso -an attempt at ET contact?

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WebDriver Torso -an attempt at ET contact?

Post by SquidInk » 05-01-2014 02:30 PM



http://www.theguardian.com/technology/s ... iver-torso
For the past seven months, a single YouTube channel has been uploading an average of one video every 20 seconds. Each video is exactly the same: 10 seconds long, they flick through 10 still images of a blue and a red rectangle, accompanied by a series of electronic tones. The position and sizes of the shapes, the title of the video and the pitch of the tones all appear to be completely random, but every single video has the caption "aqua.flv" in the bottom-left corner.



----- Spoiler alert ... Spoiler Below! -----


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But the truth is, as ever, more mundane.

Isaul Vargas, a New York-based software tester, spotted the videos in a post on BoingBoing and recognised them from an automation conference he had been at a year ago. They were being shown by a European firm that made streaming software for set-top boxes, the kit that sits under a TV and connects to services such as Sky or Netflix.

The company needed to be able to quickly and reliably upload digital video, a capability which it tested by uploading short, randomly generated snippets to its YouTube channel and running image-recognition software on it. "Considering the volume of videos and the fact they use YouTube, it tells me that this is a large company testing their video encoding software and measuring how Youtube compresses the videos," says Vargas.

So there's the answer. What looked like an insight into the murky world of espionage, or maybe even something otherworldly, turns out to be a little bit of a quality-control system leaking into the outside world.

Perhaps some puzzles are better left unsolved.
For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

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Post by SquidInk » 05-01-2014 02:34 PM

Of course, this is exactly the kind thing I would say if I were running a secret program to make contact with off-planet intelligence, or if I were running an espionage operation, or a "hidden in plain sight" signalling experiment, or...

I am fairly certain that this type of "testing", described in the article as the true reason for the uploads, would be a gross violation of youtube's terms of service. And really, testing compression for 7 months around the clock? It's weather balloons all over again, people.

It's just as likely to be a classified operation of some kind, with youtubes unconditional approval. Or else.
Last edited by SquidInk on 05-01-2014 02:36 PM, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by SquidInk » 05-01-2014 02:39 PM

From the (article's) comments:
  • | "...turns out to be a little bit of a quality-control system leaking into the outside world."
    |
    | "Or an NSA front. I mean Air America was just a regional airline run by a couple of guys who flew the 'Hump' during the Second World War, right?"
Right. Just a couple "entrepreneurs" helping out the locals.
For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

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Post by SquidInk » 05-01-2014 02:50 PM

For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

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Post by Fan » 05-02-2014 08:01 AM

SquidInk wrote: Of course, this is exactly the kind thing I would say if I were running a secret program to make contact with off-planet intelligence, or if I were running an espionage operation, or a "hidden in plain sight" signalling experiment, or...

I am fairly certain that this type of "testing", described in the article as the true reason for the uploads, would be a gross violation of youtube's terms of service. And really, testing compression for 7 months around the clock? It's weather balloons all over again, people.

It's just as likely to be a classified operation of some kind, with youtubes unconditional approval. Or else.


haha exactly. It makes no sense really. I like the alien angle better than just lazy/dumb engineers.
The heartbreaking necessity of lying about reality and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it.

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Post by Fan » 05-03-2014 12:55 AM

it strikes me as being a way to probe youtube's systems too... they do 3rd party matching for copyright infringement, maybe this is a way to work out how to fool them. Something like learning to solve a captcha.

You know, for stuff like this there is always the possibility of computer "sentience" too. Probing the limits, learning the system.
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