Computing desk
< September 13	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 15 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 14

Is steganography cryptography too?

Does the term cryptography includes all hiding of information, including steganography? At least, analyzing the roots of the words, the logical consequence would be that everything written and hidden is cryptography. Is there any other hiding of information that's not cryptographic?--3dcaddy (talk) 02:02, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Our article Steganography makes a distinction between steganography and just cryptography, treating them as separate. But your question is semantic, I don't think it would be wrong to study steganography as part of cryptography discipline. Vespine (talk) 06:57, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It was a semantic question, i.e., a question about the meaning of a word. That doesn't mean there's no right answer. The cryptography article cites RFC 2828, which says that cryptography doesn't include steganography, but cryptology may include both. I think that's consistent with the way professionals use the words. -- BenRG (talk) 17:24, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

For future reference, RFC 4949 (2007) superseded RFC 2828 (2000); (but for these specific terms, both documents are nearly identical). Nimur (talk) 21:08, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

As mentioned above, it is a semantic argument. To nit-pick the semantics, cryptography isn't just about hiding information. It is about hiding it so that it can be revealed by someone who knows how to reveal it. If it is just a matter of hiding it, then writing a note on a sheet of paper and then burning the paper would hide it. There is no known method to get the information back. So, it is not cryptography. 199.15.144.250 (talk) 11:47, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I would recommend watching Murder On The Orient Express... Tevildo (talk) 21:52, 18 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Fiber Optic Cable for Audio other than TOSLINK

2602:304:AB3C:2979:3131:A9BF:551A:572F (talk) 02:31, 14 September 2015 (UTC)I am looking to possibly test some new drivers for a fiber optic cable for a data transfer card attached to a PCIe port. Any suggestions for cables or anything else?[reply]

I can't actually work out what you are asking. You are testing drivers for a fiber optic cable? or testing the card? Does the card already have a connector? That would seem to limit what cable you can use? Then in the heading you say "for audio" but in the question you say for "data transfer"? Have you seen our Optical_fiber_connector article? Does that help? Vespine (talk) 04:22, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

See also S/PDIF if it is audio. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 16:52, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

To me, the main advantage of fiber optics is that the signal degrades less over long distances. So, if you are just talking about speaker wires, the distance there is too little for it to matter. Indeed, the signal degradation from converting the electrical signal to light, then back to electrical at the speakers, is likely to be greater. A possible exception might be something like a building public address system, where the wires do cover long distances. StuRat (talk) 16:58, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Just to be pedantic, in the digital domain, the signal should not degrade at all in conversion from "electrical signal to light". Unless your audio source is analogue, such as a vinyl record or cassette tape in which case it needs to pass through an ADC. In the case of a sound card, the signal source is digital so the conversion from electricity to light is bit accurate. Where you can get degradation is at the DAC which indeed you should optimally only go through ONCE on the way to the speakers. i.e. you wouldn't take the ANALOGUE output of the sound card and convert it back to digital again to transmit it some further distance (if you can help it), far better would be transmitting the digital signal as far as you need to in the 1st place. Vespine (talk) 23:29, 15 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

2602:304:AB3C:2979:68A8:9752:A53E:3524 (talk) 23:57, 16 September 2015 (UTC) Just for Clarity's sake, I am not talking about a sound card. I was just talking about using a fiber optic cable that is currently being used for sound in speakers for very high speed data transfer using a PCI expansion card. However, I don't want to pay royalties to implement the card itself.[reply]

Installing stunnel on DD-WRT

I followed this guide[1] to install DD-WRT on my router. Is there some way to install stunnel in DD-WRT? My other car is a cadr (talk) 13:07, 14 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]