Server In A Fly

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Posted by timothy on Monday March 3, 2003 @10:41PM from the fly-falutin' dept.

Tablespork writes "These guys have implanted the world's smallest webserver-on-a-chip into a dead fly! From the site: "Fly, grants us the ability to virtually possess the body of a dead, preserved fly via web-based technology." There is a webcam monitoring the fly, so you can watch as you blink the LEDs." And don't worry if something goes wrong with it -- "Several pre-programmed and wired flies will be on hand in case of technical malfunction."

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Technically pointless by esanbock · 2003-03-03 22:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

That's nice. Besides the fact that the chip is small, I see no point in sticking it in a dead fly. In fact, that seems quite pointless and the main focus of the article should be on the tiny chip, not the fact that it happens to be inside a dead fly. That's not impressive whatsever.
1. Re:Technically pointless by evilviper · 2003-03-04 00:41 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Clearly you've never seen the movie "The Fifth Element", nor the remote-controlled bug which appears in it.
  
  On the subject, I find it hilarious (as in stupid) that several hundred years in the future, with such advanced technology, nobody thinks to spring for a $5 attenuation control.
  
  --
  Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
2. Re:Technically pointless by Guppy06 · 2003-03-04 01:17 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  "Besides the fact that the chip is small, I see no point in sticking it in a dead fly."
  
  Putting it on a dead fly is a guaranteed way to find out if the server can handle /.ing. Duh!
Re:Not very user friendly by Night0wl · 2003-03-03 22:56 · Score: 2, Insightful

Because I can't stand up ;)

--
Computational Madness in a round package.
Re:funny... by Afrosheen · 2003-03-03 23:02 · Score: 4, Insightful

It's not science, it's a fusion of science and art. You've got to actually read the site prior to the typical /. knee-jerk-reaction-for-funny-karma to actually get it.

That said, from an art standpoint it's interesting. From a science/tech standpoint it's a yawn.
Re:Slashdotted? by VEGx · 2003-03-03 23:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

Doesn't ANYONE read the article?

This must be your first post. Welcome! It looks like you are new to ./ :)
Re:Not very user friendly by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-04 00:16 · Score: 1, Insightful

Tall people can bend down.

What are short people supposed to do if you mount it high?
Re:funny... by VEGx · 2003-03-04 00:29 · Score: 2, Insightful

Oh, so now the trend in ./ is to move away from tech and towards the ART! Has this something to do with the rumour that the editors of /. finally got some Macs?
here: by vena · 2003-03-04 01:11 · Score: 2, Insightful

http://people.howstuffworks.com/art.htm
Actually not too impressive by worst_name_ever · 2003-03-04 01:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

Here, yet again, is another "WORLD'S SMALLEST WEBSERVER!!!1!!11" which is uses a SLIP connection to get to the outside world. Having actually implemented something like this myself, I can tell you that there's really nothing that challenging about such an undertaking anymore these days - the technique is well known and there are even books published on the subject which reveal some of the tricks, such as the use of precomputed TCP headers and the creation of a semi-crippled "stateless" stack which saves you a lot of code space and memory usage. I consider the SLIP connection a giant cheat, since you're leveraging the power of the (presumably) Linux box that's attached to the other end of the SLIP line and offloading onto it the difficulties of the actual "connecting to the Internet" part. The embedded webservers which really impress me are the ones that have a modem or RJ45 connection and can exist as network nodes in their own right; these are much more technically interesting and useful as actual real-world devices.
So, to me, this particular instance of the same thing from 1999 is basically a neat soldering job but nothing technically innovative in terms of embedded connectivity. But as art, it's pretty cool. ;)

--

In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
Re:funny... by brmic · 2003-03-04 01:47 · Score: 2, Insightful

well i actually did read the site before posting, and i still fail to see any scientific or artistic value.
So from my standpoint, the thing is just plain BORING either way. The fact that it's supposed to be artsy doesn't qualify imho.
So please, if you like it, just say so and stop the typical /. bashing-of-opinions-I-disagree-with. ;-)
mm by zorander · 2003-03-04 08:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

This is one of the first "slashdot response" 404 pages I've seen that actually attempts to turn a profit via click-throughs. I wonder if we can slashdot the click-through site too?

Also, this is some pretty sick stuff--killing small animals and inserting web servers into their corpses? uh...Not exactly the fruits of a healthy mind, imho...

Brian
Webcam in a remote control fly? by Zone-MR · 2003-03-04 09:09 · Score: 2, Insightful

These would make good surveillance devices!

All we need is to implant it in a LIVE fly, add some wi-fi, and let it send some neural feedback?
Re:Hehee..... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-04 09:15 · Score: 1, Insightful

God that would rule.. make the chip host a server and 802.11 connectivity and make it small enough to be implanted without killing the fly. A living airborne web server..

$ping fly
fly is alive
$

Or imagine sneaking the baby in to bug someones WiFi - literally..

Power supply might be a problem tho