Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
It's funny. Laugh.

Pictures by Hive Mind 164

Posted by Hemos from the we-are-playboy-of-borg dept.
nofrance writes "A very interesting little experiment where multiple viewers get to select whether to set a single pixel to black or white, to help build a picture. All pictures can also be viewed as animations over time, often showing just how close the picture got to finished before returning to something closer to static."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Pictures by Hive Mind More

Pictures by Hive Mind

Comments Filter:

  • Done! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ten thousand pixels every second. That's why the server is glowing red.

    • Re:Done! (Score:5, Funny)

      by MillionthMonkey ( 240664 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:00PM (#14133815)
      Multiple viewers get to impatiently send multiple HTTP POST requests to the server, to help build a server failure. All server responses can be viewed as timeouts after some time, often showing just how close the server got to finishing before returning something closer to static.

    • Wow (Score:2)

      by TrentL ( 761772 )
      I just started reading "The Wisdom of Crowds" [amazon.com] tonight. One of the first questions in my mind was, "Can a crowd create art? What happens if people get to vote on brush-strokes & color?" Looks like this website is an interesting experiment on that idea.
  • The animations aren't working for me in Safari - it looks like it's showing all the pixels spread out in a single horizontal line, which is then animated.

  • No static here (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Just a blank screen. I don't think I want to see what /. would do to that experiment anyway.

  • I got a picture... (Score:5, Funny)

    by CycleMan ( 638982 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:51PM (#14133736)
    The universal picture of the Slashdot logo: 404.

  • pixelfest (Score:5, Informative)

    by ceejayoz ( 567949 ) <cj@ceejayoz.com> on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:51PM (#14133737) Homepage Journal
    Pixelfest [themaninblue.com] is cooler.

  • Hmm.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Maybe the readers of Slashdot could be allowed to select, say, a "subject" or a "verb" for the opening line of an article? That would be 31337.

  • part of the first wave, woo (Score:5, Funny)

    by spudwiser ( 124577 ) <spudwiserNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:52PM (#14133752) Journal
    i changed a pixel. then it died. sure answers that question(mark).

  • I have one thing to say...and pay attention... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:53PM (#14133754)
    because I'm not repeating it:

                  .

  • People working together... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dada21 ( 163177 ) * <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:53PM (#14133760) Homepage Journal
    ...what percentage of them are trolls?
    We once tried to use about 300 windows in a high rise to display a picture using lights. What a fias o getting people to follow directions.

    This is interesting as the image progresses quickly.

    The human scanner, 1 person per pixel.
    • Sounds interesting.
       
      Who are "we"?
      ---
      (\(\
      (-.-) Give me back my damn feet!
      Generated by SlashdotRndSig [snop.com] via GreaseMonkey [mozdev.org]
      • A long dead group of 3D animators back when 3D Studio ran in DOS. I owned a render farm that put out about 50 frames per day, haha.

        I can't remember the name of the video output board that replaced my single frame recording deck. Something PVR, hmm. Ahh, memories.
        • I can't remember the name of the video output board that replaced my single frame recording deck. Something PVR, hmm.

          Perception PVR, perhaps? We had a bunch of those for generating tapes from stored clips. I eventually redesigned the system to store the clips as DV and used DV-to-analog (PAL, as it happened for that project, but we tested with NTSC too) converters.
          • It doesn't sound right, was there a name before Perception?. I remember the picture on the box was of a VCR monster eating a tape. It came in a huge box that was very thin (maybe an inch and a half) with a cardboard sleeve with that image. The software was terrible and didn't support sound until the Win-version was released.

            Maybe it was DPS, hmm. Memories, either way :) I remember entire weekends blown when the tape deck ate the tape before the PVR.
            • It was the Perception PVR, good memory! It was only 10 years ago that we purchased it, I can't believe how far PC video has come in just a decade. Scary.
              • Yeah, DPS Perception PVR. There was an optional daughter board to capture video. The thing was a huge card, with a built-in SCSI controller for the video drive. We had a couple of dozen for the tape farm, along with 20 modified VCRs with serial controllers. Hosted on P166s with 64M RAM running NT4, we used them from about 1997-8 to 2001-2.

                For what we were doing with it, nowadays I'd probably just use a modest graphics card that had a composite video output. (Actually, nowadays I'd forget tape altogethe
    • ...what percentage of them are trolls?
      Well, the average for slashdot is 1.24% [slashmash.com]
    • We once tried to use about 300 windows in a high rise to display a picture using lights. What a fias o getting people to follow directions.

      I always assumed building maintenance had to run around and turn all the lights onn and off when I see such a design in a MNF city or some other night sport event.

      It definitely can't be the office people. I've seen their restrooms. They can't even flush or aim. I've seen evidence to suggest they can't read, either. No way they could collaborate to draw a light picture.

  • Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)

    by merkhet ( 829234 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:53PM (#14133765)
    The picture turned out to be a picture of the front page of slashdot?

    Oh right... their servers just died...

  • Fear the Slashdot Hive Mind (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:54PM (#14133771)
    > " Pictures by Hive Mind"
    >
    > A very interesting little experiment where multiple viewers get to select whether to set a single pixel to black or white, to help build a picture.

    We are the Slashdotters.
    Purchase more bandwidth and increase your hosting budget.
    We will add your experimental and pixelogical distinctiveness to our own.
    Your images will adapt to resemble that of the Goaste Guy.
    Resistance is futile.

    • > " Pictures by Hive Mind" > > A very interesting little experiment where multiple viewers get to select whether to set a single pixel to black or white, to help build a picture.

      We are the Slashdotters. Purchase more bandwidth and increase your hosting budget. We will add your experimental and pixelogical distinctiveness to our own. Your images will adapt to resemble that of the Goaste Guy. Resistance is futile.

      Correction: Resistance is futile if less than 1 Ohm.

  • obvious (Score:4, Funny)

    by 5n3ak3rp1mp ( 305814 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:54PM (#14133773) Homepage
    A very interesting little experiment where thousands of slashdotters in a massive hive mind get to select whether to allow a single server to exist or not. All servers can also be viewed as coral cached [nyud.net] over time, often showing just how close the server got to consistent 200 return codes before returning something closer to static.

  • Karma whore (Score:2, Informative)

    by Joey Patterson ( 547891 )
    Coral cache link [nyud.net]

  • wow (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:56PM (#14133781)
    internet controlled Christmas lights [engadget.com]on a a budget.

    I still think its a hoax. Like some remote server across the world can have any possible influence on the ability of MY monitor to turn a given pixel on or off. Yeah, right. sheesh. you people will believe anything.

  • 404 Pixels (Score:3, Funny)

    by -Grover ( 105474 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @06:58PM (#14133803)
    Who knew that the collective minds of people using ONLY black and white pixels could make a picture that looks amazing like the /. effect. I mean seriously...What are the odds?
  • by "multiple" we mean "console"
  • Site overloaded. Either this has been linked from somewhere with heavy traffic, or you're experimenting with a clever script to try and mess with the pictures. Come back later, or stop it.

    do these guys know about slashdotting?
  • Site overloaded. Either this has been linked from somewhere with heavy traffic, or you're experimenting with a clever script to try and mess with the pictures. Come back later, or stop it.

    This dude needs to borrow a clue from his logs.

  • A bucket? (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheGuano ( 851573 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:02PM (#14133829)
    After reading about the future and potential of networked minds, it's hilarious to load up this page and see a near-random ASCII grid with the caption "The collective conscious is trying to create 'a bucket'". Now that's putting things in perspective.

  • Collective ass (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GrAfFiT ( 802657 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:02PM (#14133832) Homepage
    "Site overloaded. Either this has been linked from somewhere with heavy traffic, or you're experimenting with a clever script to try and mess with the pictures. Come back later, or stop it."
    Maybe we should stop trampling his server till it melts down, move our asses out of this mess and wait for it to return to a solid state ? Ho wait. Maybe I should submit a request to our server melting overlord.

  • XBM images - black and white pixel master (Score:5, Informative)

    by nmoog ( 701216 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:03PM (#14133836) Homepage Journal
    (Mostly off topic, but, heck.. what is the topic?)

    If you only get black and white pixels, I hope they are rendering them as XBM images [webeisteddfod.com]. XBM is the coolest long-lost, widely supported image format - client side scriptable too!

  • "Slashdot. That would explain things. Hello." (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cl1mh4224rd ( 265427 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:12PM (#14133901)
    Hello! I brought a few friends. I hope you don't mind. *sniff, sniff* Mmm... is that server flambé?

  • Still working sort of (Score:5, Funny)

    by gatzke ( 2977 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:14PM (#14133911) Homepage Journal
    I opened like 50 FF tabs and a couple actually connected and worked.

    I hate to encourage /. to open 50-100 tabs on their site, but if it works....

  • Reminds me of a story of a writing assignment (Score:5, Funny)

    by bill ( 12141 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:15PM (#14133917)
    Rebecca and Gary
    English 44A
    Creative Writing
    Prof Miller

    In-class Assignment for Wednesday

    Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

    * * * * * *

    At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So camomile was out of the question.
    --
    Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.
    --
    He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.
    --
    Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President, in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow 'em out of the sky!"
    --
    This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.
    --
    Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.
    --
    You total $*&.
    --
    Stupid %&#$!.
    • Sorry, this has been debunked. I was going to mod it down, but instead decided to just post the info:

      http://www.snopes.com/college/homework/writing.asp [snopes.com]

      I've been actually quite surprised at the number of IT people that have been propagating this email. You'd think they'd be able to spot a fake a mile away.

      • Re:Reminds me of a story of a writing assignment (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Iamthewalrus ( 688963 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:30PM (#14134008) Homepage
        It's obviously just a joke. Just because it didn't happen doesn't make it unfunny.
      • So it's not real. It remains both quite amusing, and representative of what might happen when two (or more) people make something that relies on others to fill in the blanks, like these pictures.

        Just because it's not real doesn't make it any less valid.

      • Aww (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:47PM (#14134118)
        I hereby donate half my humor to Sheepdot UID 211478 on Slashdot in the hopes that it might make him or her feel better about life and have at least one laugh each day.

        Compliments

        Anonymous Coward
        acting on behalf of the world
        • Like others have said, this fake email fits in, but still, like *I* said, I've been surprised at the number of IT people that have STILL been propagating it. I guess I figured the parent was one of them. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I suspect they were duped as I almost was.

          Hence the need to point out it is fake.

          Just offering some insight, that's all.
      • The format is actually used as one of the games (Cheddar Gorge) on Radio 4 's I'm sorry I haven't a clue [bbc.co.uk], although to make it a bit more challenging the team get alternate words not paragraphs.

        Players must provide one word each in turn which added to the previous submissions makes up a coherent sentence - challenging enough, you might think, but the aim of the game is never to utter a word which might be construed as actually finishing the sentence. They usually produce perfectly plausible constructs, th
    • We had to do assignments like this in highschool. The idea was supposed to be that it forced people to write about things they might not normally have written about, and flex their creative muscle.
      More often than not it devolved into something like this, and after a few fruitless attempts the teacher eventually abanoned the idea.
    • You total $*&. Stupid %&#$!
      Years later, they tied the knot and became just like every other married couple.
    • There are writers who can bring that off.

      There's a famous story about this. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle once accepted an advance for a new book, but hadn't made much progress as the deadline approached. So they moved into a cabin for the duration to finish the job. They took turns writing for 12 hours a day, with story discussions during their overlapping wake periods. The resulting novel was successful, and it's not obvious who wrote which parts.

  • Site overloaded. Oh. Slashdot. That would explain things. Hello.
  • "Site overloaded. Oh. Slashdot. That would explain things. Hello." That's what the link now says. /.ing kills, or at least overloads.
  • If you keep trying, you can access it.

    Pretty neat site too. I haven't found the animations yet, but the pictures work quite well.

  • Collaborative Artwork (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:34PM (#14134033)
    If like collaborative art, also check out the ice.org gallery [ice.org].

  • urban dead (Score:5, Interesting)

    by The OPTiCIAN ( 8190 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:37PM (#14134052)
    The guy who wrote this (kevan.org) has written lots of neat online games. My favourite is urban dead - urbandead.com. It's completely pathetic for the first five minutes and then utterly addictive. I recommend starting as a fireman :)
    • He wrote urban dead too? Nifty. I totally agree with your comment - I didn't see the point at first, but after giving it a few days, it's quite addictive. Even more so if you dig into the wiki and dig into the history and the community that's grown up around it, and play as a human for a while and get into the roleplaying...

      Just be nice to me if you run across me - I'm either Chipok or ZugZugDaboo, depending on if I'nm trying to survive as either a zombie or a human, respectively :)

    • Re:urban dead (Score:3, Interesting)

      by JeremyALogan ( 622913 )
      I play all three of my UrbanDead characters every single day, and because of this I've come to one conclusion. Kevan just isn't a very good coder. It takes him weeks to implement simple game additions and there have some pretty horrible known bugs floating around out there. I mean christ... there was a buffer underflow bug that was happening when zeds would get headshot-ed and his solution was to say "if their AP is over a billion it must be zero". So now instead of adding a little code that'd be something
      • Look - I see what you're saying - but look at it this way. He's just a guy who's doing this stuff in his spare time, and he's shipping! He gets stuff out there, and it's cool! :) He's had so many players through his system that he could probably ask for a lot more than he does and still make cash.

        It is frustrating when something goes wrong but I've got a lot of respect for him, because some parts of his site of the system are so quirky it's pretty obvious he's self-taught, and I respect that. I've made my d

  • Reminds me of iCE's Quilt Project (Score:3)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:39PM (#14134058) Homepage Journal
    See this old /. story [slashdot.org].

  • pfft (Score:2, Funny)

    by jigjigga ( 903943 )
    well, I think that proves that our collective conscience > their server.

  • If its truly from the internet's hive mind... (Score:5, Funny)

    by hedgemage ( 934558 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @07:43PM (#14134083)
    I bet that any pictoral representation of the interenet's collective mind will end up pornographic.
  • Something that's actually useful (mentioned here 'cause it's from the same guy): The Prior-Art-O-Matic [thesurrealist.co.uk]. "It's a series of randomly-generated product ideas! It raises questions about the nature of prior art in patenting issues, has some inspiring ideas, and is occasionally amusing!"

  • Hivemind Vector Drawing? Hivemind CAD? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sanman2 ( 928866 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @08:32PM (#14134328)
    What if this Hivemind approach could be applied to drawing a vector image. Or even CAD, for building a house/car/spaceship? Suppose a webpage could feature a large vector-drawing canvas, sort of like a simplified version of Adobe Illustrate or the Macromedia Flash editor. Perhaps it could be built using AJAX. Start off with a blank canvas, and allow a visitor to lay down a single vectorized stroke. Then see what everyone's strokes all add up to. This 'wisdom of crowds' idea is pretty intriguing. Anyone have any links to other webpages based on this idea? Anyone have any ideas for what might make for a good webpage project based on this idea?
  • Before /. killed it, I'd swear it was a picture of an old MAC! Perhaps that's how my conciousness perceives the perfect computer. Funny, I've never owned a MAC - I've always been a PC man after Commodore died. I'd think the collective (un)conciousness would draw a Windows PC....

     

  • SwarmSketch (Score:3, Interesting)

    by adpowers ( 153922 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @08:40PM (#14134358)
    I'm a fan of SwarmSketch [swarmsketch.com]. Each user can draw so many line segments, and then they can vote to make certain lines lighter or darker. The system averages the darkness from each user to find the darkness of the line. Each month is a new themed picture.
  • Everything in moderation.

    Funny, I just finished The Wisdom of Crowds [amazon.com], a book I picked up on a whim at Costco (not Amazon, but linking is easier). Summary - pretty much; A bunch of people looking out for their own interests, makes the world a better place.

    How this applies to creating a picture on a computer screen, I dunno... what's in it for me?

    Of course, that wise philosopher George Carlin said "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!" So, I do

  • The Slashdot hive mind is creating a troll (Score:3, Funny)

    by lone_marauder ( 642787 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @09:13PM (#14134502)
    Join in by adding a word to this sentence:

    Teh

  • Old? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by MelodicMotives ( 724089 )
    I remember this from a long ass time ago. Anybody else?

  • letters is much cooler (Score:3, Interesting)

    by mike6496 ( 894187 ) on Monday November 28, 2005 @10:41PM (#14134962)
    sorry.. but this is much cooler.. http://web.okaygo.co.uk/apps/letters/flashcom/ [okaygo.co.uk]
    (look in the lower left corner to see how many people are currently dragging letters around)
  • You can tell the Slashdot community is involved now. They had to reclassify it as an adult sight.

  • Hive Mind... Meet Goofus and Gallant (Score:3, Funny)

    by eno2001 ( 527078 ) on Tuesday November 29, 2005 @01:21AM (#14135660) Homepage Journal
    Goofus looks at the hive mind picture and says, "Haw haw!! I'll pick the wrong color so I can screw with the picture".

    Gallant looks at the hive mind picture and says, "Oh. It looks like they're trying to draw a classic Macintosh. I think the pink pixel should be white".

    Goofus gets a message from the hive mind site saying that he has used up all his chances for the day. "Stupid fools. I'll go to the next PC in the lab and get another IP so I can keep screwing with that picture"!

    Gallant gets a visit from the Borg queen and seeing that he is a wuss, she assimilates him. Gallant says, "I am Wusseutis of Borg. Resistance is futile"...

    Goofus gets a visit from Wusseutis. "Hey freakboy what are you up to today"? Wusseutis extends his tendrils and assimilates Gooofus.

    Gallant, "I am Wusseutis of Borg. Resistance is futile. You're own uniqueness will be assimilated into the collective".

    Goofus, "I am Jerkutis of Borg. Resistance is futile. You're own uniqueness will be assimilited into the collective or something"...
  • Somehow this experiment plugs into my long-held views about the inherent flaws of democracy - it really is merely "better than whatever's in second place", and this is an example of why. Everyone gets a vote, given a vague notion of the mutual goal, and the result is chaos.

    Give people a halfway-decent picture of the goal - or metaphorically, give voters a competent and honest media which reports objectively on the issues - and I bet you'll find that far fewer steps are required for a convergence on the pic

Slashdot Top Deals

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it. -- Franklin P. Jones

Close