Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mapping the Internet Evolution

Posted by Zonk on from the take-a-left-at-amazon-and-then-a-right-past-fark dept.

Shire writes "Science magazine is running a story on the DIMES project, which has ventured to map the structure and evolution of the Internet (PDF) using open source distributed clients in the style of SETI@Home and such. DIMES has already collected more than 40 Millions measurements which resulted in some nice pictures and several scientific presentations. Those who use traceroute may find it a useful (and colorful) alternative."

117 comments

  1. Rebel... by Adam+Avangelist · · Score: 5, Funny

    Rebel spies have intercepted the plans to the Death Star and posted them on this site.

    http://www.netdimes.org/ipmap.png

    1. Re:Rebel... by gnatware · · Score: 3, Funny

      Empire galactic control has raised shields that block access to the Death Star, as rebels wait for the secret Jedi Google to copy the plans to the rebel "mirror".

    2. Re:Rebel... by carninja · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ladies and Gentlemen, this is an example of a Star Wars analogy gone too far.

      *shakes head*

    3. Re:Rebel... by whathappenedtomonday · · Score: 0, Troll
      this is an example of a Star Wars analogy gone too far.

      that's one thing - but it's currently rated +5 funny, which makes matters a lot worse.

      --
      I hope I didn't brain my damage.
  2. PDF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The internet revolution alright..

  3. mirror by scforth · · Score: 1

    i think we need a mirror already...who would have guessed that? either that or my internet connection is being balls right now. one of the two.

  4. incredible by thisnow1 · · Score: 1

    These are some very interesting PNG images. Beautiful in a way and very messy/cluttered too.

    1. Re:incredible by frankvl · · Score: 1

      Beautiful in a way and very messy/cluttered too.

      Perfectly illustrating the evolution of the Internet.

    2. Re:incredible by DancesWithBlowTorch · · Score: 1

      Actually, I don't think they are very interesting. I haven't read TFA, but it looks like they plotted the inverse size of the pipe radially and physical distances (or whatever) along the polar axis.

      In the current form, the resulting diagram is completely unsurprising: There are a few big backbones and a huge number of small outer pipes. Who would have guessed that?

      In a much higher resolution, the graphs may actually tell some interesting facts. As they are now, they are simply eyecandy.

    3. Re:incredible by mangu · · Score: 1
      In a much higher resolution, the graphs may actually tell some interesting facts


      Not necessarily. A much higher resolution picture of a forest would show an ant climbing a leaf. Scientists and engineers are usually interested in the model, not the details.

  5. Seems.. by taskforce · · Score: 1

    ..there's a spy in our midst. Someone must have warned them of our plans to Slashdot them and pulled the images.

    --
    My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
  6. Slashdotted already.... by jpardey · · Score: 5, Funny

    They obviously don't know that much about internet evolution...

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
    1. Re:Slashdotted already.... by DrEldarion · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't say "evolution"! You'll alert the fundamentalists, and then they'll start trying to get the internet left out of textbooks.

    2. Re:Slashdotted already.... by scribblej · · Score: 1

      Currently, the DIMES agent is available for Windows platforms only.

      Apparently. How can they propose to map the internet when they're only paying attention to a fraction of it?

    3. Re:Slashdotted already.... by lousyd · · Score: 1
      How can they propose to map the internet when they're only paying attention to [...] "Windows platforms only"

      Yeah, those aren't biased results... [ /sarcasm ]

      --
      If aspiration is a virtue, achievement cannot be a vice.
    4. Re:Slashdotted already.... by lkchild · · Score: 1

      Wasnt the internet spontaiously generated by the great god Kibo?

    5. Re:Slashdotted already.... by Stone+Pony · · Score: 1

      I think you'll find it was Al Gore.

  7. svg by MankyD · · Score: 0, Redundant

    slightly off-topic, but those images would have been great (and much more band-width conserving) as svg.

    --
    -dave
    http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
    1. Re:svg by RealityMogul · · Score: 1

      Think about what you just said. We're talking about rendering millions of dots on the screen. Transferring coordinates/size/color info for each dot would easily blow right past the 5MB for those images. Not to mention the CPU power needed to parse and display it. An image format is the correct choice for this.

    2. Re:svg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      being able to zoom into this kind of pictures is worth the parsing.

    3. Re:svg by Anyletter · · Score: 1

      Since we're speaking of Opera 8, I can zoom any image I'd like, not just text. That image blows up real good.

  8. Mirrodot has it by Justin205 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://mirrordot.org/

    All the links mirrored. :-)

    --
    "Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
    1. Re:Mirrodot has it by chrisblore · · Score: 1

      Not the client download, unfortunately :(

    2. Re:Mirrodot has it by Justin205 · · Score: 1

      That's the weakness of Mirrordot... Only mirrors what's linked directly from the ./ main page, as far as I can tell...

      Maybe there's a torrent somewhere?

      --
      "Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you."
    3. Re:Mirrodot has it by chrisblore · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter. http://www.netdimes.org/ is back up :)

  9. Internet Evolution poppycock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Internet is far too complex to have just "Evolved". Things like this don't just spring into being without an Intelligent Designer. We even know exactly who the designer was: Al Gore. And we know exactly why he designed it: to route around nuclear wars. The media needs to stop trying to represent unproven theories as the truth when we already know the truth.

    1. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by FidelCatsro · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think "Requires IE 5.5 or better" is the strongest case we have against inteligent design on the internet

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    2. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by mboverload · · Score: 1

      Dear god I'm laughing my ass off! MOD PARENT UP!

    3. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Damn.

      I think you just proved that Al Gore is God.

      This is not good news.

    4. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      my browser is better than IE 5.5 but for some reason the sites still don't load correctly.

    5. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      I can see it now: a thousand years in the future, after Solar War %&@ (hey, you really think they're still going to be using Roman Numerals then?), when the Net is an intelligent, self-aware consciousness, but all records of its creation were lost in World War VIII centuries before (and the Net itself was so badly damaged that it too forgets), there will be people fighting over how the Net's genesis should be taught in schools.

      It was spontaneous evolution! Given enough time, anything that complicated can come about from chaotic chance. Humans could not have built something that complicated so long ago. Those morons didn't even have anti-gravity!

      It had to have been intelligent design! Nothing that complicated arises out of chaos! And the humans wouldn't have had to know that they were building something that complicated. Surely the Net would have become self-aware within a few years and then could have helped with its own design. I mean, hook up a couple of quantum flux-capacitiers to each other and they become aware after a few minutes.

      And then everyone will go and enjoy a healthy breakfast of rare steak and hot fudge sundaes.

    6. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by Mynorrrr · · Score: 1

      Heathen !!!!
      It doesn't work unless you believe!!!

    7. Re:Internet Evolution poppycock by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      my browser is better than IE 5.5

      well, any browser is.
      apart from IE6 and later, that is.

  10. unfortunatly.... by jpardey · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I don't think any mainstream browser even supports SVG. Correct me if I am wrong. But yes, vector graphics have their place.

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
    1. Re:unfortunatly.... by MankyD · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Adobe does have plugin. Installation instructions for FireFox here.

      --
      -dave
      http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
    2. Re:unfortunatly.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Opera 8 suppports SVG by default, I think

  11. Mirror by TheScorpion420 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Mirrordot Science magazine is running a story on the DIMES project, which has ventured to map the structure and evolution of the Internet (PDF) using open source distributed clients in the style of SETI@Home and such. DIMES has already collected more than 40 Millions measurements which resulted in some nice pictures and several scientific presentations

    --
    If you pay your taxes you support terrorism!
  12. wasn't as bad as it could have been.... by jpardey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Tubgirl's clothed sister is not my idea of fun, though.

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
  13. Images by Mother+Sha+Boo+Boo · · Score: 0, Troll

    Apparently some stoned middle aged hippie met Photoshop.

  14. More information about DIMES... by NOT-2-QUICK · · Score: 2, Informative

    More informational links about DIMES that aren't slashdotted...well, at least not yet:

    - http://dawn.cs.umbc.edu/INFOCOM2005/shavitt-sl.pdf

    - http://dawn.cs.umbc.edu/INFOCOM2005/shavitt-abs.pd f

    --
    Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. -- Benjamin Franklin
  15. How utterly... by The+Jabberwock · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...blasphemous! Everyone knows that the Internet didn't evolve. Al Gore merely snapped his fingers and there it was. And he saw that it was good. And on the second day, he created the environment.

    1. Re:How utterly... by g-san · · Score: 4, Funny

      Blasphemy indeed! Everyone knows the internet is FLAT! Only heretics believe the internet is ROUND! If you send a packet with a large enough TTL, it falls right off the edge!

    2. Re:How utterly... by MarkRose · · Score: 1

      I think that's because the edge of the internet is a giant NAT. You see, with no open ports, the packets just float around, going nowhere.

      --
      Be relentless!
    3. Re:How utterly... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But wasn't Von Stratten who invented the Internet?
      Here's an interview with the man himself plus an internet post about his claim to inventing the internet.

      P.S. in case you didn't get this, this is a reference to the tv show DR WHO.. Von Stratten is a fictional character. The first two sites above are by the BBC...

  16. When my eyesight comes back.... by jpardey · · Score: 2, Funny

    I will have to take another look.

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
  17. Mirrors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mirrordot mirrors of the pictures, karma-whore free: one two

    1. Re:Mirrors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hey, I am that blue dot on the left, next to that big one.

  18. Internet EVOLUTION??? by deft · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cmon now... can't we all agree that this was intelligent design? I mean, look at a router... its so intricate, so... functional.... it must have been put here for this purpose by a higher power.

    --

    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
    1. Re:Internet EVOLUTION??? by vranash · · Score: 1

      Yeah... like CISCO :)

    2. Re:Internet EVOLUTION??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Let me be the first to (Zonk!) map the evolution of (Zonk!) slashdot.

      Every hour, at (Zonk!), someone under the Zonk pseudo posts a (Zonk!) news blurb on the site.

      This (Zonk!) probably helped reduce the cost of running the (Zonk!) site, and reduced the (Zonk!) dups.

      Zonk. For you consomation pleasure, the products have been standardized.

      Zonk. A name for the slashdot collective.

      Zonk. Entirely harmless if used as directed.

      Zonk. You have been easten by a grue.

    3. Re:Internet EVOLUTION??? by Feztaa · · Score: 1

      For once, an Intelligent Design argument that I can agree with ;)

    4. Re:Internet EVOLUTION??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, that router didn't exactly build itself.

  19. whatever happened to.. by Sauron79 · · Score: 1

    ..intelligent design??

    1. Re:whatever happened to.. by RichardX · · Score: 1

      [whatever happened to] ..intelligent design??
      Al Gore.

      --
      Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
  20. They might actually know a bit about the Intarweb. by mfh · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Generally speaking, one is not Slashdotted every day. I've been Slashdotted once before (and I consider myself lucky for it). I can remember feeling a sense of relief/pride when the servers held and my Open Source PHP CMS project didn't crap out into oblivion due to the pressure. There was no outage... just a crapload of pages served.

    Sensible code and good bandwidth are the only way to fly.

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  21. But what does it mean? by Olix · · Score: 1

    Those images are very nice and all, but what does it mean? What are the centeral, red spheres in the middle - servers? I am confused. Someone, please explain.

    1. Re:But what does it mean? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Basically, in the ASMap, nodes are ISPs and corporations who manage their Internet routing (aka ASes) In the middle are the big ones, such as AT&T, MCI, SPRINT etc., in the ipmap, they are just routers (hence the amount...)

    2. Re:But what does it mean? by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

      That's the chewy center!

    3. Re:But what does it mean? by g-san · · Score: 4, Informative

      In a nutshell, it's kinda showing you connectivity and relative size of an ISP. What it's showing with the red spheres is that there are a few Autonomous Systems (AS) that have lots (hundreds or thousands) of inbound and outbound links to other ASes. Think UUNet or Sprint, alot of people are connected to them, as well as some ISPs. Then you have those smaller (tier-2, the orange to blue skittles) ISPs that are connected to UUnet and also connected to tens of other ISPs. All the way at the edge, you have people who are single homed only to their ISP, but they are not a transit network, meaning they don't send traffic from one AS to another. Any traffic on their link is either from their network or to their network. And there are lots and lots of those, they are the little purple skittles on the outside.
      The lines represent the connections between these ASs. All the real connections arent there, the entire background would most likely be completely black if they were.
      So it's showing that there are some really huge ISPs that form the "backbone" of the internet, and lots of smaller ISPs and thousands of even smaller ISPs. When you see a line that does not connect to/from the center, that's a connection between a tier-2 ISP to another tier-2 ISP. Usually this is done as a backup mechanism, sometimes it can also be done to more effectively get traffic to another network. For example, if UUNet charges you per byte, and they can get to anyone, you would think that you could just send all your traffic to UUnet. But you might find that a large percentage of your traffic is going to networks that are directly attached (peered) to Level3's network, and Level3 charges less per byte. It might make sense then to peer with Level3 in addition to UUNet, or completely with Level3. I'm leaving some stuff out here but this is the general idea, and what the picture is showing you.

      Incidentally, there is also a concept in the internet backbone called "hot potato routing". If I am in LA with Sprint and sending traffic to NY to a UUnet customer, Sprint will do everything it can to put the traffic on UUNet's network while in LA. In otherwords, if this traffic is for a UUnet customer, it won't be sent across Sprint's network from LA to NY. Sprint drops it on UUNet's network at the first opportunity. The routing protocol for the backbone, BGP, has more than 10 different metrics it looks at to decide which route to take, and several rules to follow to decide what is the "best" path. Best is not always shortest or fastest once all the metrics are taken into account. So if you thought the internet was a big harmonious cooperative effort, guess again!

    4. Re:But what does it mean? by Olix · · Score: 1

      Thankyou, that was very helpful. I think I understand now.

  22. Openview / Netview can make something close by ReidMaynard · · Score: 1

    we called them 'node-balls'

    They happened by accident, if you hit "auto-arange" with like 500+ nodes on the map. With 5,000 nodes, it turns into a two week project.

    --
    -- www.globaltics.net

    Political discussion for a new world

    1. Re:Openview / Netview can make something close by ReidMaynard · · Score: 1

      two weeks to undo the node-ball that is.

      --
      -- www.globaltics.net

      Political discussion for a new world

  23. Download link? by sH4RD · · Score: 1

    Anyone have a download link? I'm getting 404's here.

    --
    WASTE - The Secure P2P
  24. Re:Intelligent Design by tempest69 · · Score: 1
    Nope, the internet didnt evolve, Al Gore made it. Silly Evolutionists, even with all that information if fron of their faces they still wont believe.

    Storm

    p.s. I hear he's one of those EMACS users.

  25. Linked ~ the evolution of networking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From what I read, it seems similiar to the research Albert-Laszlo Barabasi is doing at Notre Dame. He wrote the book "Linked" ... I think around published around 2003.

  26. I wish... by unts · · Score: 1

    I had the slightest clue what those images meant. (Of course I didn't RTFA!)

    1. Re:I wish... by Tenebrious1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I had the slightest clue what those images meant.

      It's simple. Your ship is the white blip in the center. You have to shoot your way out as the concentric rings rotate around you. I think it's based on Yars Revenge or something.

      --
      -- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
    2. Re:I wish... by Agret · · Score: 1

      Well they seem to be 5mb in total, what a waste of bandwidth this was for me!

      --
      Have you metaroderated recently?
  27. Not the first by drakethegreat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They aren't the first to pursue mapping the internet. If I remember correctly there was a story on slashdot about a month ago that talked about Denial of Service attacks which mentioned that a young guy who is a consultant for thwarting such attacks also has a project that is mapping the internet. So it would seem that its up for debate and research to figure out who started first and is doing a better job.

    1. Re:Not the first by odyrithm · · Score: 1

      That would be www.opte.org, the idea of distributing the mapping was thought up by Barrett Lyon but there has been little / no activity for some time now...

      --
      moo
  28. Skittles by ajkst1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did anyone look at the IP Map and immediately think, "Boy that looks a lot like a Skittles commerical." ?

  29. Both by Chemisor · · Score: 1

    Actually, the picture shows the internet as a disk, which is both ROUND and FLAT simultaneously.

  30. Al Gore actually did help, afaik by jpardey · · Score: 1

    Without his work, the US gov't would not have worked on backbones... or something. He was recently honoured by some internet award thingy. And actually, Al Gore just helped. Vin Diesel did all the real work.

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
  31. which brings us to our next topic... by jpardey · · Score: 2, Funny

    Breasts.

    --
    I have freaks! I did something right...
    1. Re:which brings us to our next topic... by hachete · · Score: 1

      I thought someone mentioned balls earlier on.

      --
      Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
  32. MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    beaten to the punch 10s of comments ago. No need to have the same link provided again and again for karma-whoring purposes.

  33. Does Zonk sleep? by bairy · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Completely OT and I'm more than certain someone will flex their mighty moderating power to say so (and why bother with the good comments that need modding up when you can mod one down that makes no difference to anything) but..

    According to my RSS feed, Zonk has put 16 stories up from 23:27 last night until 20:19 tonight, with the biggest gap being 3.5 hours! Does this guy never sleep? There's dedication and there's dedication....

    --


    Get paid to search..It's geniune and
    1. Re:Does Zonk sleep? by Ralp · · Score: 1

      Pretty sure you mean "There's dedication and there's defecation...."

  34. Where's my real map? by MentalMooMan · · Score: 1

    All these pictures with lovely red and purple and green and blue balls are all fine and dandy, but they don't actually tell me much.
    Sure, they roughly show me some interesting looking stuff, but it's been done before, and isn't very useful at all.
    What I really want to see is a map of the world, with all the internet links put on it so i can see how, for example, england is connected to america or mainland europe. I think i read somewhere that the UK had a 3 terabyte cable link to the rest of europe, and I think it would be a lot more interesting to see those cables shown on a real map.

    --
    43rd Law of Computing:
    Anything that can go wr
    fortune: Segmentation violation -- Core Dumped
    1. Re:Where's my real map? by shireran · · Score: 1

      actually some geographically embedded maps were created. Here's an example...

  35. It's written in Java... by orion88 · · Score: 1

    ...so would it really be that hard to make it cross-platform? I think they're losing a lot of geeks who would run it, if not for the fact that's it's Windows-only.

    -Ben

  36. uh, Opera and Firefox. by koko775 · · Score: 1

    Opera supports it. Firefox supports it (I tried w/ 1.0.3). IE with Adobe supports it. Consider yourself corrected.

    1. Re:uh, Opera and Firefox. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe Opera supports it, I haven't tried. Firefox dosen't support it yet. You've got to use a daily for support, or roll your own. Even with 1.0.4. And most people shouldn't do either of the above.

      Adobe's viewer is a POS hack. It's unbeleivably bad. It sets a new standard for badness. Excruciating-convulsing-projectile-vomit bad. It's so bad that it's gone plaid-bad.

      Consider yourself mostly full of shit.

    2. Re:uh, Opera and Firefox. by whathappenedtomonday · · Score: 1
      Opera supports it.
      (svg)

      Opera 8 exactly, no plugins needed. Just tried my 7x version, won't work without plugin ...
      Browser + plugin don't count, only native support! ;)

      --
      I hope I didn't brain my damage.
  37. I'd install but... by Urger · · Score: 0

    From the website:
    "Currently, the DIMES agent is available for Windows platforms only" -- yes, but I'm running Linux you insensitive clod.

    --
    Ubiquitously - A Ubiquity Developer Community
  38. My little internet mapping project by Isomer · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have my own little internet mapping project ( http://tr.meta.net.nz/ ) which is designed in a similar way (people run traceroute nodes on their machines and information is merged together to provide pretty graphs). I wrote it because people would say "I can't get to this site, can anyone else get to it?" This lets you type in the hostname of a machine and it will take lots of traceroutes from around the Internet and merge them into a graph that you can use to figure out which particular segments of the Internet can/can't access it and where they all get tripped up. Or you can see that you're going via an international route, where as almost everyone else is going across a local exchange point. Also as it has AS# information on it you can determine who's fault it is.

    tr produces a "small" section of the Internet (it doesn't map the entire thing) but it produces it in a way that can be interpreted by anyone savvy in network administration. It's mostly based in NZ (as thats what I care about, and thats where I have contacts where people are happy to run tr nodes) but it does show how the NZ Internet works extremely well, and provides reasonable detail to the rest of the Internet.

    Some interesting examples:
    Microsoft: http://tr.meta.net.nz/output/2005-04-08_20:08_micr osoft.com.png
    Google: http://tr.meta.net.nz/output/2005-05-16_10:14_www. google.com.png
    F root server anycast: http://tr.meta.net.nz/output/2005-05-16_10:16_f.ro ot-servers.net.png

  39. Looks like Saturn by Wooky_linuxer · · Score: 1

    It looks like Saturn's rings. For a moment, I wondered why they didn't include the IP address of each host in the picture... then I realized they're all 127.0.0.1. Duh.

    --
    Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
  40. here are some screenshots of the agent by shireran · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Hi guys, hopefully I'm not shooting my self in the foot here, but here are some screenshots of how traceroutes look from our agent: by ISP, by country and here's another one. You are all welcomed to try our agent out. Linux version will be coming soon.

    1. Re:here are some screenshots of the agent by Avishalom · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's what i'm talking about, these are more meaningful to the little guy than the big balls pictures

      kind of a big "you are here"

      -- (posting from my freenet shell, as my Uni's proxy is banned)
      vish

      --
      -- Avishalom is usually vish
  41. Yes, but... by vhogemann · · Score: 2, Interesting

    does it works on Linux?

    The answer is: it may work, after all is java based. But since it is bundled inside a Windows-only installer we may never know!

    What's the point of writing a Java application, that's supposed to be cross-platform, if you bundle it inside a Windows-only installer!?!?!?

    I looked at the site, to download the darn thing... but couldn't find an more OS agnostic installer, or package! Can anyone point me one?

    --
    ---- You know how some doctors have the Messiah complex - they need to save the world? You've got the "Rubik's" complex
    1. Re:Yes, but... by shireran · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, we're working on a linux version now. The agent is not totally java, since java does not support pinging and tracerouting and other stuff like that, so a small part of it is native. A linux version will be coming soon so check the site back in a couple of weeks.

    2. Re:Yes, but... by Brunellus · · Score: 1

      can we expect eyecandy, or will this be like Folding@home, where linux users are consigned to a command-line client without the pretty graphics?

  42. Oh, MOD PARENT UP by Avishalom · · Score: 1

    orig post.

    --
    -- Avishalom is usually vish
  43. My Contribution by SeventyBang · · Score: 1

    I can claim to have created an apt quote before it became popular:

    "The World's Biggest Secret Club."


    For the most part, the only people who knew what it was were those who were connected. Yes, there was an expectation something like it would come to being at some time, most people still didn't know it existed.

  44. Re:They might actually know a bit about the Intarw by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You bought your /. account on ebay, did you buy your slashdotting, also?

  45. Don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't just measure - help build actual distributed search engine

  46. BlameRoute by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    I've always wanted to watch traceroute light up a path among the actual map of alternative routes. My company tried to sell a prototype to Sprint, called "BlameRoute", for visualization of obviously suboptimal routes. I'd love to finally get one, especially now that my packets have so many options, and still don't always get there on time.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  47. wow by commodoresloat · · Score: 1

    It's amazing how round the internet is.

  48. then you weren't really slashdotted. by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

    A server that survives, just got a lot of traffic.

  49. What about the architect? by baldbobbo · · Score: 1

    I think it was the architect from the Matrix who built it. Ergo, it explains the design of it. Vis-a-vis......

    --
    -Bob
  50. MOD PARENT DOWN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MOD THIS DOWN for being complete gibberish.

  51. Re:My little internet mapping project [OT] by rzebram · · Score: 1

    Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

  52. Been there, done that... by rathehun · · Score: 1
    Seen this before guys?

    http://www.opte.org/

    This is the same guy featured on the DDOS story a while ago. What's interesting is that he is a philosophy graduate, rather than a CS student, and also that he built this map up in a day or two...

    R.

  53. nice, but dim. by CarpetShark · · Score: 1

    Yes, nice pictures. It's just a pity they're completely meaningless :( To me, a simple world map with major links plotted along with attached node counts would be more useful than this. I realise it's not possible to get geographic locations for all IPs, but that doesn't mean we should "throw the baby out with the bathwater" :(

  54. Hey... by It+doesn't+come+easy · · Score: 1

    Look, I can see myself! Hi Mom!

    --
    The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
  55. Hey Look! by Driadan · · Score: 1

    I can see my IP from here!!
    Say "hello world", computer!

    --

    I see connected people! - The seventh sense
  56. Project DIMES? by PhraudulentOne · · Score: 1

    I think these scientists have been hitting a little too much of the wacky tobbaky.

    --
    You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
  57. You clearly don't understand evolution! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, no, no!

    Can't you see! Each of those circuits has simpler predicessor circuits. We can even trace the evolution of them back to the very first transistors (along with those breeds of vacuum tubes which have almost died out by now).

    And we had those nice links on self-assembling machines the other day.

    Clearly, if machines can make other machines, and these circuits are formed from other, simpler circuits, they must have evolved.

    Now, that may not explain quite where the first circuits came from, but our theory is working on that part. We think this planet probably got "seeded" with them at some point from interstellar material. The universe is a HUGE place, so it's not that unlikely...