#radBIOS: Shouting a database across the room

My #hopex talk about moving databases about using audio.

Code is at github.com/richo/groundstation

Transcript

1. #radBIOS Yelling a database across the room
2. Richo Healey
3. Richo Healey •Rich - OH!
4. Richo Healey •Computer security guy •Into distributed systems •Pretty keen on ducks •Rich - OH!
5. Flat ducks are best ducks Find me at LobbyCon and ask me more ;)
6. #radBIOS
7. #radBIOS
10. Groundstation •Distributed Graph Database •Content Addressable •Eagerly distributed
11. Groundstation •Originally just scratching an itch •Project Byzantium uses it as a distributed bulletin board
12. Demo Time!
13. Demo Time! (This is very probably going to fail)
14. Let’s talk about DAGs
15. Let’s talk about DAGs
16. Traditional DAG Source of truth is here Root of the graph is here
17. Source of truth is the set of these points
18. Source of truth is the set of these points This sucks for things like code. It’s pretty great when human beings will be processing it.
19. (I am very bad at design)
24. Architecture •protocol driver •object graph •transport driver
25. Protocol Driver •Presentation layer •Examples: •Git •Markdown threads •Marketplace
26. Object Graph RootObject(s) UpdateObject(s) Gref Tips
27. Transport Driver •TCP/UDP Hybrid Homogenousish link layer network
28. Transport Driver •Shriek UDP Broadcast to find new friends Homogenousish link layer network
29. Transport Driver •Then communicate with them Homogenousish link layer network
30. Distributing data •“Give everyone everything” •Nodes aggressively hand over all the data they know about. •The idea is to build up a coherent knowledge graph.
31. Demo Time!
32. Practical Applications •Disaster affected regions •Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes •Office comms (“It’s all git”)
33. Other applications •Message boards •Locality driven marketplaces •Painless sneakernets
34. Transport Drivers •All assume physical proximity •Internet routing was actually an afterthought •Wireless was easy and practical •Needing an 802.11 stack kinda sucks though…
35. So let’s talk about airgaps
37. Quietnet •Amazing project from Katee •Easy enough for a non radio person to understand •Not hugely fault tolerant •Easy to hack on and embed!
38. Let's talk about encoding •need to turn some information into a bitstream •existing schemes like PSK31
39. psk 31
40. Error Correcting Codes 000000 101001 110110 011111
41. Unambiguous Encapsulation •Ossmann and Spill’s work from Shmoocon this year •Defends against packet in packet •Also makes this kind of absurd FSK madness approachable •Cheap way to add fault tolerance
42. Unambiguous ECC 000000 101001 110110 011111
43. Here begins the fail talk.... •Groundstation's TCP driver is full duplex •"I'll just redo it with audio" •Turns out audio is hard
44. Echo - Response •Repeat a tone until your peer repeats •Alternate codes to allow for repeated characters •Better schemes exist •This is easy to debug
45. Audio isn’t binary though! •Missed bits can still be reasoned about •Ternary state for bits: 1, 0 _ •Let hamming soak up bits we miss
46. alltheFSKs •Quietnet has serious limitations •Some guy published a library!
47. Still no dice! •Audio is *still* hard
48. Demo Time!
49. Womp Womp
51. Should I use this? •Groundstation? Yeah maybe •#radBIOS? Probably not •"fuck you I'll do it anyway"? AWESOME
52. Instead: •github.com:kamalmostafa/ minimodem •linux has an ax25 driver in the tree •soundmodem module for linux
53. Thanks! •Dominic Spill + Michael Ossmann •Katee •Mark Jessop
54. More info: •twitter: @rich0H •groundstation: github.com/richo/groundstation •quietnet: github.com/katee/quietnet •alltheFSKs: github.com/darksidelemm/alltheFSKs •byzantium: project-byzantium.org
55. •Questions? •Comments? •Duck Jokes?