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."
Waiter! There's a server in my fly!
(sorry, couldn't resist)
my other sig is a 500 page novel
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.
The impressive part is that they killed the fly by catching it in the air with chopsticks.
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
some people will casemod anything.
Did the fly die before or after beind slashdotted?
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
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.
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...
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
... a web spider comes along?
Talk about serving web pages "on the fly" :-)
Sorry, couldn't resist
In Soviet Russia, our bugs have programs
Sorry again
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...
"I'd say 'Have a good time,' but arson is still illegal.
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.