Slashdot Mirror


Server In A Fly

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."

51 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Waiter! by valentyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Waiter! There's a server in my fly!

    (sorry, couldn't resist)

    --
    my other sig is a 500 page novel
    1. Re:Waiter! by tsa · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a computer program in my bug!

      --

      -- Cheers!

    2. Re:Waiter! by drsquare · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...tumbleweed quietly rolls past...

    3. Re:Waiter! by buzzdecafe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hmmm. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Your fly is down."

  2. Evil by e8johan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ahh... First we kill a fly to embedd a webserver in its corpse, then we put it on slashdot and watch the webserver die... My evil plan has been fulfilled!

  3. Technically pointless by esanbock · · 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 Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 4, Informative

      In fact, that seems quite pointless and the main focus of the article should be on the tiny chip

      That has already been done.

      --
      .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    2. Re:Technically pointless by questamor · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a lot more elegant than my attempts at dead-web-servers. The smallest I've been able to manage before this was a small dog.

      I did have experiments in the mid 90s with webservers inside dead bodies, but they only led to dismal failures

      (RIP Trevor, my flatmate 1992-1995)

  4. woops by Max+von+H. · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Hey Bob, I finally slammed that big fly that's been buzzing on-and-off my sandwich all day!"

    "Why do I get a 404 on the project's page? Bob?"

    --
    -- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
    1. Re:woops by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Funny

      Perhaps someone should send him an email: "Excuse me, your fly is down"? Or should we just be polite and not say anything?

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
    2. Re:woops by TwP · · Score: 4, Funny

      403
      Buzz Off!
      FlyServe 1.01

  5. Seeking cheap karma... by shivianzealot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine a beowulf swarm of those!

    --

    Bored with karma, be a fan/freak

  6. Slashdotted? by krmt · · Score: 3, Funny

    The site linked is up fine right now, but the IP they give at the top as being the actual server on the fly isn't responding. Is it slashdotted? I'm picturing a smoking fly in the middle of the plastic cube. I'm just glad I don't have to smell it.

    Fly Server Admin: Damn you slashdot! Damn you! You killed my baby!

    --

    "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

    1. Re:Slashdotted? by Vendekkai · · Score: 3, Informative

      Doesn't ANYONE read the article? It clearly says at the top
      "Installation Date: June 1 to September 3rd, 2001"
      That means that this art exhibit was displayed between the above dates. It was taken down more than a year ago. So the IP displayed will not respond.

    2. Re:Slashdotted? by Lshmael · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well, their new experiment (involving an earthworm) is a bit more disturbing, but just as interesting. Supposedly, there is a webcam up here, but I only get darkness...

    3. Re:Slashdotted? by VEGx · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Doesn't ANYONE read the article?


      This must be your first post. Welcome! It looks like you are new to ./ :)
  7. Elegant nevertheless by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Funny

    The impressive part is that they killed the fly by catching it in the air with chopsticks.

  8. PETA by phunhippy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Damn.. Peta is'nt gonna be happy about this..

    1. Killing poor flies..
    2. Implanting Chips in dead flies..

    1. Re:PETA by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 3, Funny

      3. Profit?

      --
      It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
    2. Re:PETA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Would you like flies with that?

  9. I suppose by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Funny

    I suppose it gives a new meaning to building pages on the fly...

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
  10. Gotta love art-speak... by Elledan · · Score: 5, Informative

    In short, what the page is trying to make clear is that these guys put a tiny IC, capable of functioning as a webserver, together with a LED in a dead fly (with some more, identical cyberflies as backup).

    The webserver (1K of space) shows a simple page, and the visitor of the page can turn the LED on/off.

    Further, the 'surgery' on the fly had to be carried out within 24 hours after its death, or it would have become too brittle, though the author noted that it's possible to rejoin broken off legs &c. with some glue. Provided you can find the bodypart in question :)

    The reason for this project? It's art, you insensitive clod!

    --
    Site & blog: http://www.mayaposch.com
  11. Wow by archeopterix · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... and I thought that "Adapting applications on the fly" was an article about hot-swappable modules!

  12. Hello? RTFA? by SlashChick · · Score: 4, Informative

    Did anyone (including the person who posted this story) actually read the article?

    If you read the article, the first thing that jumps out is the date: June 1 to September 3, 2001. In fact, if you'll notice, the IP address they refer to (http://139.142.46.159) is long gone.

    Reading further, it is revealed that this was a museum exhibit at the Mendel Art Gallery in Canada in 2001. The link cited shows the proposal they sent to the museum, which is why it reads rather oddly ("This will ideally allow for gallery staff to replace the fly.") The museum accepted the proposal, as can be seen here, at the museum's website.

    Please, editors, do your homework before posting these stories. It's an interesting story, but quite dated.

    1. Re:Hello? RTFA? by Zayin · · Score: 4, Funny

      Did anyone (including the person who posted this story) actually read the article?

      Hi, you must be new here. Hope you find this site interesting.

      --
      "I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy"
  13. damn by bjpirt · · Score: 5, Funny

    some people will casemod anything.

  14. Re:funny... by Afrosheen · · 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.

  15. /. death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did the fly die before or after beind slashdotted?

  16. Shhh! I think I hear it saying something... by slashdot_commentator · · Score: 5, Funny

    help meeeee... heellp meeeee...

    --
    There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
  17. Multitasking on the fly by palindromic · · Score: 3, Funny

    Isn't that what it says during the Windows 98 install? Press any key to continue...

  18. Slashdot... the giant flyswatter by TheMidget · · Score: 3, Funny

    (n/t)

  19. Re:I've got no good jokes for this story... by fucksl4shd0t · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm a pretty funny guy, no I take that back, a REALLY funny guy, but other than the obvious "waiter there's a server in my fly," I just can't think of any good ones.

    Wait'll you find out where Mozilla's Bugzilla is hosted...

    --
    Like what I said? You might like my music
  20. Re:Hmm, an idea... by Diabolical · · Score: 5, Informative

    Just a quote i found somewhere on the web:

    "Spanish Fly (pulverized blister-beetles) contains cantharides, which can cause physical arousal of a sort, by irritating the urinary tract when ingested and excreted. But dig this: it was used in the mid-19th century to treat pleurisy. Applied to the skin, it created blisters 12 by 6 inches in size, which (it was erroneously thought) beneficially drew liquid away from the lungs. You want that *inside* your ureter?

    In Victorian England there were several cases of manslaughter or malicious poisoning by means of Spanish Fly. In one, Regina v. Hennah, 1877, in which the victim didn't die, the defendant was acquitted because no intent to harm was proved.

    In more recent times, and more legitimately, the active ingredient in Spanish Fly was used medicinally to dissolve external warts.

    Sources: (1) P.V.Taberner, "Aphrodisiacs: the science and the myth" (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985). We don't need no stinkin' ISBNumber; look it up in your library catalog or Books in Print. (2) Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., source of last resort, s.vv. "aphrodisiac" and "blister beetle". "

    Hope you didn't drink it as a normal beverage by the way, even if you believe in this shit you better had it mixed with something else otherwise you are one lonely geek... even your left and right hand would have nothing to do... :-)

  21. Hehee..... by carlmenezes · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yeh, and add a little 802.11b to the mix and you have a Wi-Fi-Fly-Fest :)

    --
    Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
  22. But how... by GrouchoMarx · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just how am I supposed to debug this thing when it crashes (into a windshield)?

    --

    --GrouchoMarx
    Card-carrying member of the EFF, FSF, and ACLU. Are you?

    1. Re:But how... by MyHair · · Score: 3, Funny

      Just how am I supposed to debug this thing when it crashes (into a windshield)?

      It depends on the vendor.

      IBM and Sun are starting a new service that will send a tech out to remove and fix the bug and clean your windshield. They are training the urban young for this project I think.

      Microsoft is selling a branded accessory kit with a wet wipe to clean the windshield but you have to buy a new OS which was incompatible with the old fly, anyway, so you have to buy a new fly, too.

      Dell just says "the fly is dead".

      FreeBSD says "Netcraft confirms it...".

      Debian has a HOWTO for how to scrape the guts off the windshield and rebuild the fly with no new parts. But it will be better and faster even though it reuses busted old parts.

      An Apple fly looks good and works no matter where it is or what it looks like, so you can just leave it on the windshield and it will still work fine and your friends will be impressed but still buy Dells.

      HP offers almost all of the above because they can't figure out what direction they're going. They consider buying a car manufacturer, and although Alpha is dead they may revive it to control the fuel injectors; no, wait, they changed their mind. But they hope you buy an HP printer (which by the way will work with any fly, any camera and any car).

  23. So are they saying by popeyethesailor · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's a bug and its a feature ;)

  24. Future IBM Commercial: by Craig+Maloney · · Score: 5, Funny
    The Heist, Part II

    Man hurredly runs with two policemen in tow:
    Man: "I can't believe it, they stole everything!"
    Cop1: Everything?
    Man: "Everything!"

    (Man and cops head into empty server room)

    Man: "They were right here. Ned! The servers! they stole all the servers!"
    Ned: "No, they didn't. I embedded them on a dead fly on the window sill. It'll save us a bundle."

    Announcer: "IBM dead fly servers! It'll save you a bundle"

    Cop2 (hunched over the window sill): Um, I think that carpenter ant is dragging your server away

  25. What happens when ... by cushty · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... a web spider comes along?

  26. You knew this one was coming! by Mark+(ph'x) · · Score: 4, Funny

    IN SOVIET RUSSIA....

    bugs have your webserver!

    --
    those who control the past, control the future. those who control the present, control the past.
  27. Actually not too impressive by worst_name_ever · · 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.
  28. Re:Gotta love art-bullcrap... by AndroidCat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I eat my words! As you can see here there is a package for the chip that supports a SLIP connection with a limited TCP/IP stack. Wow! Impressive! Granted it doesn't do a lot, but for the sort of applications it would be used for, it doesn't need to.

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  29. It uses the ACE1101 by rtos · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Here's some information on the ACE1101 Arithmetic Controller Engine (ACEx) for Low Power Applications:
    Arithmetic Controller The ACE1101 (Arithmetic Controller Engine) family of microcontrollers is a dedicated programmable monolithic inte-grated circuit for applications requiring high performance, low power, and small size. It is a fully static part fabricated using CMOS technology. The ACE1101 product family has an 8-bit microcontroller core, 64 bytes of RAM, 64 bytes of data EEPROM and 1K bytes of code EEPROM. Its on-chip peripherals include a multi-function 16-bit timer, watchdog/idle timer, and programmable under-voltage detection circuitry. On-chip clock and reset functions reduce the number of required external components. The ACE1101 product family is available in 8-pin TSSOP, 8-pin DIP and 14-pin DIP packages.
    --
    -- null
  30. For once... by ndogg · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't actually want to imagine a beowulf of these things.

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
  31. The point? by AppyPappy · · Score: 4, Funny

    The point? What is the point?

    "Look I embedded a server into a fly"
    Boss: "DON'T YOU HAVE WORK TO DO?"

    "Look I embedded a server into a fly"
    Mother: "What's wrong with a date now and then? I'll trade the dead fly for a grandchild"

    "Look I embedded a server into a fly"
    Dad: "Is it a job? A dead fly server is nice but you can't eat with it."

    --

    If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem

  32. hehe by muyuubyou · · Score: 5, Funny

    Talk about serving web pages "on the fly" :-)
    Sorry, couldn't resist

    In Soviet Russia, our bugs have programs

    Sorry again

  33. There was an old woman who swallowed a .. by SolemnDragon · · Score: 5, Funny
    Gods help me, i can't do it.
    Well, i'll give it a try:

    There was an old woman who swallowed a server

    It didn't deserve her, but there went the server

    and i don't know why /she swallowed the fly/
    But we can light up her eyes...

    i think this one has to end with...

    i know an old woman who took windows source

    she's dead, of course! oke, i think it's out of my system now. Apologies for the temporary insanity...

  34. I knew a woman who installed IIS on a horse by Big_Monkey_Bird · · Score: 4, Funny

    It died of course.

  35. I guess we have to update the song... by TheConfusedOne · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was an old geek who swatted a fly.
    He wriggled and jiggled and put a web server inside.

    He posted the fly, a URL for our eye.

    (wait for it...)

    I don't know why, we slashdotted the fly. :-}

    --
    --- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
  36. This just in ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Zombie processes running on several University and DoD computers have initiated a Denial of Service attack against the Fly's webserver. Experts are confused whether using RAID would have prevented this.

  37. Cashdot Effect by nick_davison · · Score: 3, Informative

    I just got the message:

    "Thank You Slashdot!
    (you just made me $0.05 richer)
    RCTOYS.COM
    Close Window
    4423 x $0.05 = my money"


    Rather than bitch about being slashdotted, the guy has style and, put up a banner to a cool geek toy site and let us pay for slashdotting him. That's so much cooler than complaining about it. Kudos.