[ANN] StarBrowser v4 on SqueakMap

buurtnet buurtnet at cistron.nl
Sat Dec 7 23:21:56 UTC 2002


> David and I were pondering the idea of a space where you can watch the
> system running. Something like a 3D visualization of the message tally,
> with objects as nodes and messages as links. As messages get sent the
> links get hotter and hotter, and they cool off after a while. So that
> the "hot glowing spots" are those that you need to look at. This would
> be one incredible profiling tool.
>
> Cheers,
>   - Andreas

I am dreaming of a 3D visualization of TCP/IP and parts of the unix 
kernal.
Seeing how you machine fits in the local network.
Seeing your network pakkets go from interface to routing to firewall to 
tunnel.
Seening bandwidth filled, see-ing dropped pakkets.
flying over a peer to peer network and seeing the hotspots.
insert your avatar into the path of a pakket, traveling visually 
through the internet and ariving at the pakket destination, ending up 
near or inside another avatar.
debugging: drawing a local network, simulate it by dropping test 
pakkets in a router and viusally see where they end up.

It could evolve into an 3d technology museum exibition introducing kids 
to the innards of operating systems, very similar to the combustion 
engine animations, the ones with pistons moving, showing its 4 states.

Why? Because visual models of complex systems should give spatially 
oriented humans a better insight.
But it would also be a great tool to manipulate all that complexity, to 
get a (spatial) handle on it.
It would be a space that would not have to be build by human designers 
but could be generated by a network (or its spec).

It would be even more fun if Squeak/Croquet got its own native TCP/IP 
stack. Then the visualisation could be really usefull, and automatic.

Just some usefull fun.


Merik




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