Grow a world from network traffic

February 26, 2007 12:41 PM

Packet Gardenobserves how you use the internet, then takes that info and generates a 3d world based on it. [via]
posted by brundlefly (13 comments total)

[runs on OS X/Linux/Win]
posted by brundlefly at 12:43 PM on February 26, 2007

I'm not sure I would want a world populated by 4chan.
posted by Memo at 12:43 PM on February 26, 2007

None of this information is made public or shared in any way

Oh! Whew! That surely set all my fears to rest. Notice that statement doesn't cover anything they themselves might want to do with the info.
posted by gurple at 1:04 PM on February 26, 2007

Oh! Whew! That surely set all my fears to rest. Notice that statement doesn't cover anything they themselves might want to do with the info.

I'm worried about privacy, does Packet Garden tell anyone else about what I do on my computer?

Packet Garden only records a personal log for you to later explore in the form of a 3D garden. As looking at the source-code will confirm, this log doesn't leave your computer. If you're worried about others finding out where you've been on the Internet, don't show them the gardens you grow.

posted by Memo at 1:18 PM on February 26, 2007

This will undoubtably help in my quest to hack the Gibson.
posted by Artw at 1:33 PM on February 26, 2007

Cool but useless; does that make it Web 2.0?
posted by kyleg at 1:39 PM on February 26, 2007

Nope, Cool and Web 2.0 are incompatible.
posted by mkb at 1:47 PM on February 26, 2007

It requires I run an installer? Usually that's the domain of things which access the System folder and or install kernel extensions (at least on OS X).

No thanks.
posted by basicchannel at 1:52 PM on February 26, 2007

Does the big blue hill with the green flags represent the midget donkey pr0n or the nurse fetish?
posted by spacely_sprocket at 2:02 PM on February 26, 2007

It's a packet sniffer. It uses libpcap to read directly from a network device, so yes, it needs root.
posted by mkb at 2:03 PM on February 26, 2007

Aah ok... good point, mkb.
posted by basicchannel at 1:19 PM on February 27, 2007

The L-Dopa site was amusing.
posted by econous at 2:27 PM on February 27, 2007

No luck getting this thing to work on Mac OS X. :(

It pegs the CPU and always forgets whether it's capturing. I give up.

It also needs the installer because it installs Frameworks that become available system-wide instead of including them in the app bundle , for some reason. Python 2.5 is installed, along with libpcap, SDL, and cal3d, looks like.

It also edits the installing users. ~/.profile which I DO NOT LIKE.
posted by mkb at 8:03 PM on March 1, 2007