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Around The World In 1 Year (On A Website)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the vacation-on-sealand dept.

chrischoo writes "From the guys who brought you a crushing experience, Tsunamii.Net and Fragnetics are working on taking the Tsunamii.Net website around the world by obtaining webhosting services in 44 countries. Known as alpha 3.8 Translocation, it is commissioned by the Walker Arts Center. The website is now on it's second stop in Malaysia. Our teams need the help of the Slashdot community to plot a traceroute for each server we visit. Traceroutes are plotted onto a world map which is refreshed every time the website stops at a new server in a different geographical location. Our next stops include Thailand and Myanmar. It'll be great if we have more people willing to sponsor a webserver from your country to host one of the Tsunamii stopovers!"

20 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Cool... by inertia187 · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Beowulf cluster - $900
    2. Airline tickets with bulk baggage - $3000
    3. Spending two nights in customs - just your dignity
    4. Getting it all Slashdotted after all that - priceless

    There are some things money can't buy.
    For everything else, there's Mastercard.

    --
    A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
  2. How original! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    Tsunamii.Net and Fragnetics are working on taking the Tsunamii.Net website around the world by obtaining webhosting services in 44 countries.

    You mean... just like your standard warez site?

  3. Uhh... Why? by Jack+William+Bell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Somehow this doesn't excite me too much. I mean really, why would this be cool enough to be worth the effort?

    But then, I never did understand why some people consider Open Source and art form.

    --
    - -
    Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?
    1. Re:Uhh... Why? by Telex4 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Somehow this doesn't excite me too much. I mean really, why would this be cool enough to be worth the effort?


      It's not exactly exciting, but it's an interesting statement, and a lot of art can essentially boil down to little more than that. The web is this worldwide phenomenon, and yet each site is located in one particular place on the globe -- why not turn the system on its head a little and have the web site rove around the world, being hosted all over the place. I say turn the system on its head, when of course in another sense it demonstrates the flexibility of the DNS/IP system. One could go so far as to say that it shows just how insignificant the web has made geography, and national borders, when it comes to information, when not one part of the web site's chain (from the hard drive to you) need be located in one place. It's also interesting to see your traceroute along with other peoples', and I'm sure that in time some interesting, and probably quite aesthetically interesting patterns will emerge.

      Of course, the creators probably have much better explanations, but that's my immediate interpretation. That's the great thing about art - it serves to provoke us into seeing things from a different perspective; it questions the way we see the world, and even though it may not seem as wonderful as a huge canvas painting, this sort of art definitely has its place.
  4. and to be /.'d in every country... by caino59 · · Score: 3, Funny

    that will be great bragging rights

    (depending how you look at it)

  5. Farthest away by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, semi-on-topic, sort of... The e-mail from farthest away I have ever received was from - Antarctica! I got it from a colleague back in 1991 (or was it 1992?) who was on a research vessel visiting Antarctica. I had it printed in my drawer for years, as a collectible, and after few room switches and h/d-crashes all traces are lost... sigh

    1. Re:Farthest away by SN74S181 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just type it all out again from memory with vi or emacs. Nobody will know the difference.

  6. This would be a lot cooler if... by kinnell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They served loads of content which was politically or culturally sensitive in some way. The actual content of the website would change from country to country to reflect governmental regulations, or the sensitivities or responsibility of whoever was hosting the site at the time.

    --
    If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
    1. Re:This would be a lot cooler if... by floydigus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not 'cooler', but 'cool'! i.e. it might have some cache if there was any point to it at all!!!

      What a waste of effort!

      If you ever get this bored, please consider donating time to a voluntary environmental organisation.

      --

      All things in moderation; including moderation

  7. correlating IP addresses to physical locations by jonbrewer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tsunamii's map would be a lot prettier if they'd try to do some intelligent parsing of router dns entries. For example, they treat 24.91.0.46 as located in the "United States" when in fact its name places it in Massachusetts. (bar02-p7-0.ndhmhe1.ma.attbb.net) Given the relatively small number of providers who carry the bulk of international IP traffic, it should be easy for them to decypher the naming conventions used by ATT, Sprint, Verio, Teleglobe, Global Crossing, C&W, etc. to parse out state and city names so that traffic from the US doesn't look like it's all coming from Branson Missouri, and traffic from Canada coming from bumfuck Saskatchewan. (I mean, Saskatchewan is a nice place and all, but there aren't exactly a lot of people there)

    1. Re:correlating IP addresses to physical locations by serial+frame · · Score: 2, Funny

      This is something I was pondering before...It would be interesting to put lat/lon coordinates for various hosts in a domain's TXT records. Seems easy enough, I suppose. I guess it would have its limitations, but hey.

      --

      -
      And the Angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots! The cries of the carrots!"
    2. Re:correlating IP addresses to physical locations by thebigmacd · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you're referring to Canada's geographic centre, that would be Boumfouque, Saskatchewan. Moron.

      How did this get moderated to +1 Informative? For one thing the geographical center of Canada is Brandon, Manitoba. For another, don't be sarcastic when moderating...there's not much evidence for people to see your sarcasm...for I am assuming the moderator was being sarcastic with that moderation of +1 Informative. + FUNNY, yes I can see that.

  8. Slash-Log by Malicious · · Score: 2, Funny
    Their next adventure should be keeping a log of the IP's that helped slashdotted them.

    Then plot that on a map, and see where the bulk of the /.'ing came from.

    --
    01101001001000000110000101101101001000000110001001 10000101110100011011010110000101101110
  9. And the point is? by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No, really. Not trying to troll here, I'm curious what people hope to achieve with this.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  10. The Route by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Is it just me, or might the good folks at the US Department of Homeland Security get more than a little interested by a path (and consequentially the company that facilitates the path) that takes traffic from Canada through the US and on to Cuba?

    It is not that I am getting paranoid these days, I always have been paranoid.

  11. cool idea by gobbligook · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This could be a bit off topic.

    The whole point of this is a STUDY. That doesn't mean it has to have a purpose aside from educational.

    I think this is a good idea. However it could lead to the government deciding that everyone was supposed to have a dedicated ip address. That way a simple traceroute could tell them where you were at any given time anywhere in the world. Much like credit card transactions can be tracked by number and location.

    They are trying to do this with phone numbers. Although there are benefits to keeping the same phone number, it is alternatively an easy way to keep track of someone.

  12. Myanmar? Whoa? by ElGanzoLoco · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Are they serious about going to Myanmar with their website?

    I've lived there for three years, 1993-1996. Myanmar is ruled by a repressive, brutal and notoriously paranoid military junta.
    In a nutshell, "they no like internet".

    Going in the country with a computer is theoretically not permitted. Using a fax machine or the internet to connect abroad is considered a crime. Nationals face jail for this (and strangers too, in theory, but that never happened I think) and, trust me, you positively DON'T WANT TO GO TO JAIL in Myanmar. (death is not the maximal sentence over there: it is only second to death... by torture)

    Besides, I'm not sure you would/could actually be able to host a website there (hint: without the government's permission, it's probably "forget it"). A mere slashdotting could bring the whole country's internet system to its knees. Even the government's websites are hosted in other countries, mostly US and Australia. Only some of them are in Rangoon...

    Well, maybe things have changed over there. But somehow, I doubt it.

    --
    Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
    1. Re:Myanmar? Whoa? by nettdata · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Going in the country with a computer is theoretically not permitted. Using a fax machine or the internet to connect abroad is considered a crime. Nationals face jail for this (and strangers too, in theory, but that never happened I think) and, trust me, you positively DON'T WANT TO GO TO JAIL in Myanmar. (death is not the maximal sentence over there: it is only second to death... by torture)

      Hmmm... this just went from being useless, boring, WTF, non-news to being somewhat interesting. :)

      --



      $0.02 (CDN)
    2. Re:Myanmar? Whoa? by grumpygrodyguy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Myanmar is ruled by a repressive, brutal and notoriously paranoid military junta.
      In a nutshell, "they no like internet".

      Yes it's true. I travelled through Myanmar(aka Burma) for several weeks, and the parent poster is right on.

      One thing that I found really interesting, there were only 2 places in the country where I could use my credit card. The national bank in rangoon, and mandalay. That's right, 2 places in the entire country that accept credit cards in order to withdraw funds. Not exactly the most modern of countries.

      I stayed with a group of buddhist monks for a week, and they were absolutely astounded when I showed them a US dollar. US currency is outlawed there, as the government controls exchange and tourism. Kinda creepy, rough place to live.

      --
      The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -Chomsky
  13. A new milestone by cr@ckwhore · · Score: 2, Funny

    OH MY GOD! We've Slashdotted Luxembourg!

    --
    Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com