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Crushing Experience

Posted by Hemos on from the odd-web-experiences dept.

sp00 writes "The Tsunamii.Net Crush Server is currently online live from the Millbank Gallery in London! Watch as the webserver counts itself down before it activates the industrial crusher attached to it, bearing 150-tonnes of brute force onto itself and terminating its existence. Check out the details on the Tsunamii.Net website or visit the webserver directly at http://195.195.81.5."

12 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. /. first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    /. will crush it first.

    (-1 redundent to the other 300 posts saying the same thing)

  2. Re:art? Hardly. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sod art, this is jsut cool :) ever dropped a tv out of a second story window for the hell of it? ever destroyed something cause its fun? thats what hes aiming for :)

  3. Wonder what the heck this is all about? by jukal · · Score: 5, Informative
    Browse here:

    * 2 computers - both connected to the Internet
    *One working as a web server and the other as a web client.
    *The client is connected to the server through the Internet.
    *The server is then crushed physically by a machine thus causing the server's data to be lost - the client will continue to search for the (server) site in vain.
    * This action will be performed once and recorded on high-speed video or film. To be played back for the period of the show.

    My personal opinion is that someone has accidentally crushed his own brains instead.

    1. Re:Wonder what the heck this is all about? by stienman · · Score: 5, Informative
      A few pages later the 'art' is explained:

      Ideas and thoughts behind work:
      This work is an archetypal work of tsunamii.net whose work often conjures ridiculous scenarios and challenges about technology.

      CRUSH YOUR SERVER: Although the act of crushing/destroying the computer suggests a Neo-Luddite (2) reaction towards technology, it is only one facet of the work. The act of destroying the server brings up an interesting proposition: the physicality of the 'internet'.

      When the client computer fails to find the data from the server, the browser has an error - "cannot find server - xx", and a list of instructions, and reasons appears to rectify the problem. Interestingly, we know the reason why the server cannot be found but the client computer does not. This brings out another aspect of the internet: the physical relationship between the server and the client. Only when the data/server does not exist or fails to function, then the internet user is reminded of this relationship.

      -Adam
  4. Just because art doesn't speak to you... by fm6 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...doesn't mean it's not art. Most people get more out of Disney than Michaelangelo. Does that mean that Fantasia is greater art than the Pieta?

    That being said, I have to admit that I don't "get" most "post-modern" art either, and suspect that most of it is pretensious crap. But I understand enough to know I'm too ignorant of the ideas involved to really have a useful opinion.

  5. Re:Save Linux! by Hercynium · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What a cool idea for a contest...

    Most *real* old-skool hackers don't have enough funds to buy themselves a decent PC. :) We work just enough to buy ramen and pay for 'net access. *Really* dedicated hackers don't even pay for the net access! :p (Mountain Dew and Pop-Tarts are obtained in bulk from nearby vending machines, usually through non-orthodox means)

    Anyhow, my point, if I did have one in the first place would be that the contest would consist of a nice new box in the crusher and the hacker who gets in and saves it from destruction gets to keep it! It's like the cyber version of a game show!

    Okay well, *I* think it would be cool. :)

    --
    I'm done with sigs. Sigs are lame.
  6. Save the web server! by Tim+Browse · · Score: 5, Funny

    To save the server, just turn off Javascript in your browser - the clock immediately stops! Hurrah!

    Together, we can rebuild^Wsave it!

    Tim

    1. Re:Save the web server! by wirefarm · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not hack in to it and change the web page a bit?
      (First adding some ALT tags to those stupid number images...)
      Then, add in some pleading messages from the web server:

      Please don't let them do this.
      I don't want to die.

      I am being made to do this under duress.
      This is just *wrong* - I could be donated to a school.

      That sort of thing...
      See if you can convince enough people that this is a horrible, horrible thing to do, that they protest it and have it stopped.

      Now *that* would be art. ;-)

      Cheers,
      Jim

      --
      -- My Weblog.
  7. Re:If it were a Windows machine... by dillon_rinker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Right...and every time you buy a CD or go to a movie, you are spending money that school or non-profit could really benefit from. And every time you eat at a restaurant, you are spending money that some hungry person could really benefit from. And every time you take a vacation, you are spending time that could have donated to a local charity. And...

    Entertainment is nonproductive. Deal with it.

  8. SPAM ALERT by Fastolfe · · Score: 5, Informative

    FYI, I received the same "release" as quoted above in multiple pieces of spam this weekend. Keep this in mind when we show our support and interest in this (admittedly amusing) venture.

  9. Somewhat offtopic. by Restil · · Score: 4, Interesting

    An idea I had, prior to 9/11 anyway....

    My house has numerous wired appliances, to be controlled and observed via the internet. Something I thought of doing was to rig up a mock nuclear bomb, movie style, with the keypad and readout on it, something similar to what was used in "Broken Arrow". The idea is, people could set the timer and start the countdown, and anyone watching could abort the timer. If, for any reason, the timer managed to reach 0 while someone was watching, that person would get automatically added to the firewall rules and wouldn't be able to access the site anymore. For all practical purposes, the entire network would "disappear".

    At least, I thought it would be a clever prank that might worry someone for a few minutes anyway. And I'd be sure to put enough casual disclaimers around that it wasn't real. However, after 9/11, even the perceived threat of something like that was likely to result in a lot of "shoot and ask questions later" approaches by your favorite law enforcement agencies, so I just trashed the idea.

    -Restil

    --
    Play with my webcams and lights here
  10. Re:If it were a Windows machine... by electroniceric · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yeah, but entertainment doesn't have to be gratuitously wasteful (key word in bold). It's likewise entertaining to blow up your house, run your car off a cliff, or piss in your toaster to see what color the steam is.

    Amazingly, it's also fun to read a book, write a program, or hell, write a book. Yeah it's a drag to _always_ avoid doing the stupid, wasteful shit that gives you the pleasure of being reckless, but it seems like people have lost the ability to make this a once-in-a-while pleasure rather than an every other day pleasure.