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Networking the Redwoods
linuxwrangler writes "SF Gate is reporting that ecology researchers are outfitting a grove of trees with tiny "micromote" sensors to monitor the light, humidity and other conditions as the trees grow. The sensors, running the open-source Tiny OS, form and maintain their own network. This test of the "Smart Dust" concept (mentioned on /. earlier) only uses 50 sensors but scientists hope to be able to deploy the sensors on a large scale to help figure out why California's Redwoods are dying off at an alarming rate."
Yes, but do they run Linux?
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!!
In Soviet Russia, the redwoods network you!
Place smart sensors in the woods!
?????
Profit.
Does that include the $699 SCO license fee?
...if a tree falls in those woods, and no one is around to hear it. Would it still make a sound?
20 mil and I will! Learn Esperanto with 20M others.
... to help figure out why California's Redwoods are dying off at an alarming rate.
Probably has nothing to do with Aaaarnold and the rest of the celebs driving around in diesel guzzling
Hummers.
Maybe they're dying because people keep trying to strap boxes to them, measuring temperature, humidity and who knows what else.
Wouldn't that be ironic.
Scientists have found out that the reason that the redwoods are dying is because of a lot of sensors being fitted to the trees and radio traffic networks between them. This has been confirmed by sensors and radio networks between them.
"I used to have that really cool,funny sig
Maybe they're dying because they're old? Does a tree have a life expectancy if they remain under perfect conditions? Some of the redwoods are hundreds of years old.
I knew nature had to hate SUVs.
Ok, so how many of us followed the link to Tiny OS but didn't go to the actual article? ;-)
How long till one of those tree hugging hacker hippies from Berkeley finds a way to DOS the woods rendering the whole project useless.
The concept is new and untested, but I think we might see surprising results.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
SCO sued all trees for their use of "open-source" software, which is by definition the property of said company.
In a suit paralleling this one, SCO also sued all of humanity for intaking the air that was produced by biological plant-based systems that utilized code in violation of SCO's terms of agreement.
Air pollution kills trees? My SimCity education didn't cover that.
Spanning tree?
Scientist 1: So, all the giant redwoods have died...
Scientist 2: Jawhol, even ze von I vaz keepig for my bar-b-q... terrible, terrible... but vat a lot of excellent vood!
Scientist 1: But, our smart dust worked!
Scientist 2: You hef ze data, zen?
Scientist 1: Five hundred and thiry terrabytes of it!
Scientist 2: That vill take years to process...
Scientist 1: Decades!
Scientist 2: Zank God for ze taxpayer. Zo, ve must be starting a New Project...
Scientist 1: Yes, I've already filled in the Grant Application Form, I just need your co-signature...
Scientist 2: Let me see: "Microsensors for Measuring Domestic Charcoal Consumption". You are meaning ze bar-b-queues?
Scientist 1: We also have a study on the long-term quality of Amazonian beef.
Scientist 2: A match made in heaven!
Scientist 1: And our first shipment of barbeques arrives next week...
Scientist 2: Pity ve didn't get ze beer study as vell.
Scientist 1: Well, I know this guy, see...
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Fortunately, data loggers are more benign than the other kind...
Listening to hypocrites like you sure isn't going to do us any good! If your so righteous, why do you even own a computer? Shouldn't you be living in a hippy commune somewhere wiping you ass with tree bark?