Slashdot Mirror
P2P Hard Disk System Warns of Tsunamis
An anonymous reader writes to mention an article on NetworkWorld about a free software application that detects Tsunamis by listening for vibrations in the hard drives of computers. The peer-to-peer network uses the technology that allows HDDs to keep read-write heads on track, and passes the information to a network for analysis. From the article: "If an earthquake that could lead to a tsunami is detected, the supernodes inform the other nodes. Computers running the client software and connected to the peer-to-peer network can then warn of such events. The software is able to provide such warnings because the seismic waves produced by earthquakes travel at about 5,000 kilometers per hour, while tsunamis move much slower at 500 to 1,000 kilometers per hour"
I like the science.
I like helping people.
I don't like Windows only java clients which include dll files (they say on the front page its java based, but then on download page you see Mac OS X and Linux version in preparation. I think the DLL is going to pretty much stop all that.
I don't like running random programs accessing none standard data from my harddrive without knowing exactly what its looking at and what happens to my drive if its not got the required capabilities.
There is no technical information about this program or what it actually examines on a harddrive, coupled with the crypto java code buried inside the package (look in bcprov-jdk14.jar\org\bouncycastle\crypto) makes me nervous.
Negating all that it looks cool and if the technical aspects are cleared up I will try it.
I wonder if this functionality could be used to give any standard laptop a similar alarm feature as on the latest macbooks?
liqbase
Whoops, misread TFA!
This should end the need for wasting countless millions on professional seismic research stations. Once again, free software triumphs.
If everybody in China jumped off of a 1 foot step ladder at the same time, would there be a sudden drop in P2P data that might indicate the event?
(of course I didn't RTFA, I'm just trying to avoid work this afternoon by wandering around making incoherent posts)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I don't think all earthquakes cause tsunamis. Seems like there may be a lot more false warnings than real tsunamis.
Wouldn't be very effective in third world areas, though.
I wonder how many simultaneous reports it takes to trigger it.
Execute? [Y/N] _
I like the idea of disaster prevention through reading hard disk vibration and all, but isn't this the sort of thing that professionals should be responsible for?
Helping people avoid natural disasters is a good thing but I cannot see this program taking off too far. Too many people will fear what this progam could possibly be looking at other then just the vibration data. not to mention the possible exploits available to those looking use is maliciously.
I often have trouble remembering which way is out of bed in the morning.
In the name of Science, of course.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
*** DISK ERROR ***
[A]bort, [R]etry, [F]lee to high ground? : _
Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
Seismic waves range between 40 and 200 Hz.
Immediately we have electrical interference at multiples of 50Hz. If this is supposed to be a delocalised system eg, SETI@home running in geeks' houses we're going to have much more interference: kicking your computer, bass speakers, fans..
I tried this out on my Macbook.
http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html
Does a similar thing. Once caveat: you can never touch the mac. So it's useless really but an interesting demo of the motion detectors. They are suprisingly accurate. Footsteps nearby show up for instance.
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
There's an earthquake every 5 minutes in Queens under the 7 train!
rooooar
I'm running this thing right now, after downloading from here. It's kind of neat, but it'd be really nice if it gave some sort of feedback to the user to show it was actually operating. I'd like to be able to, say, kick my computer and watch a little seismometer guage move around, just to let me know the thing is working.
;)
Also, to the commenter who was worrying that things like kicks or shifts to a computer would result in false alarms, that's part of why they're using a P2P network. By aggregating the results from many machines, you can toss out false alarms. Of course, if a bunch of people got together on IRC to coordinate times at which they'd all kick their computers, that could probably trigger it...
Do you know how many false alarms my wife will set off when she's stomping through the house to yell at me? (you never said anything about not letting the kids play with Mr. Chainsaw, dear)
Or how many my coworker will generate as he shakes the freaking floor when he walks around?
Ooh jEeZ. HeRe hE cOmEs aGaIn
--- This
This will work well until a few idiots playing with "MacSaber" make me have to flee town due to the forth coming Tsunami!!
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
In the absense of further knowledge, I'm somewhat skeptical about the hard drives being sensitive enough, but I mean that in the original meaning of "skeptical", as in, updated pending further evidence, not forever committed to not believing in it. Clearly, this guy thinks they are sensitive enough.
But if that hurdle can be cleared, processed correctly the data will be very useful. Most objections Slashdotters are going to raise will be irrelevant. Local aberrations will be cancelled out at the supernode, because the aberrations will only appear at that one node. Simple interference at constant frequencies is also easy to detect and mask out with "Introduction to Signal Processing"-level signal processing.
Merging the data together is a bit more challenging but should be doable.
The only thing I don't see is talking about knowing where the machines are in the real world, which would be very helpful, and that may be coming later. The other thing is that the system probably won't work very well with a simple "IsEarthquake" signal coming out of the clients; the supernodes really ought to examine all the data from its clients and then decide if there's an earthquake. Otherwise, several correctly-timed local abberations could all look like "earthquakes", even with completely different characteristics, if all that is going to the supernode is "IsEarthquake". Of course, the real system may already have both of these things covered and the article merely oversimplified.
Upshot is, signal processing can do some very surprising things with data that seems to consist almost entirely of noise, if you have enough data coming in.
Does a similar thing.
No, not really. That application just shows a graph; this system collects and correlates data from many systems.
Once caveat: you can never touch the mac.
Again, no, not really. The system described (not Seismac) correlates data from many systems, and an earthquake will affect many systems. Your typing, jumping up and down, or even a big truck rumbling by, will not. Nevermind that earthquakes have a very charachteristic vibration, so individual nodes are unlikely to be fooled easily in the first place. The supernodes would look for correlation.
To really dumb it down: if an earthquake happens, PCs will see the same/similar vibration in an expanding circle pattern. Similar systems are used with microphones in some cities for gunshot detection- many of them can, with just a few 'listening stations', pinpoint gunfire to within a dozen feet.
Please help metamoderate.
Sure. Except: The number of households and businesses worldwide with high-speed DSL Internet connections has hit 26 million -- with South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong leading the way..
From the same article "The full top 20 looks like this: 1. SOUTH KOREA 2. TAIWAN 3. HONG KONG 4. Belgium 5. Canada 6. Denmark 7. Germany 8. SINGAPORE 9. JAPAN 10. Sweden.... "
Other data puts NZ, Australia, Japan and S. Korea in the top 20 per head of population.
"It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
Indeed. The problem with this project is that the countries where computers are very common (say, the United States) already have effective tsunami systems. The IOC offers tsunami warnings as well in most of the Pacific, and are extending their coverage. The problem is that the third world governments often have problems with disseminating the information, and it's these very same countries that also don't have a lot of modern computers with motion detectors. The places that have effective end-to-end tsunami warning systems don't need this software, and those that don't won't have the hardware necessary to use it.
There's also the concern about sensitivity, of course, including false alarms by people moving their laptops, bumping desks, walking around... some serious testing would be needed to ascertain both the precision (reliability) and accuracy of this system before believing what it says.
The Freelance Wizard
Just out of curiousity, how is it supposed to correlate IP address to physical location in the world?
I thought that all the attempts to connect IP to physical locations had pretty much died of non-maintenance, and impossibility of getting all the location information from ISP's in anything remotely resembling realtime?
that seems like an awful big hurdle to the operation of this thing to me...
has something changed?
ìì!